Over the past few years, many FAO-funded pilot projects on agriculture and rural development, targeting the management of land and forests, adaption to climate change, food security and nutrition have been carried out effectively in Vietnam to help the country realize the goal of developing new rural areas.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat, said the key national programme for new rural development in the 2011-2015 period set targets for raising the rural population’s incomes in 2015 by 150 percent compared to 2010 and then 250 percent in 2020. He said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) estimated the number of poor households will fall to less than 8 percent by 2015 and 3 percent by 2020 under the national poor standards in 2007.

The program aims to reach between 3.5-4 percent in growth of agro-forestry and aquatic products, 30 percent of rural workers and more than 50 percent of trained rural workers, Mr Phat said.

To reach that goal, the Vietnamese Government is focusing on rural planning, restructuring the rural economy, developing rural infrastructure and giving huge investments in disadvantaged areas.

The delegates proposed a framework of cooperation and international support for Vietnam’s key national programme on new rural development, coordination and cooperation mechanisms between the MARD and One-UN organisation to implement the programme.

The annual ISG conference is a policy dialogue forum between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and various ministries and sectors, donors, international and non-governmental organisations and researchers as well as domestic and foreign investors.