East Flanders’ agri-tech plans expanded

Geert Versnick Vice Governor of East Flanders

Geert Versnick, East Flanders’ Vice Governor - in charge of economy, spatial planning, and European and international co-operation - told VIR that East Flanders wants to further its new co-operation with Vietnam in many sectors such as logistics, education, transportation, and especially agriculture.

“We want to apply our state-of-the-art agricultural production techniques and help build a smart agricultural sector for Vietnam,” said Versnick, who is also Chairman of the Provincial Development Agency. “For example, our fishery projects can help raise profits by 25 times [compared to similar projects employing ordinary technologies], while our tomato production projects can help increase profits by four times.”

In its co-operation with Vietnam, which dates from 2003, East Flanders has brought strengths in agricultural production, industrial development, logistics, transportation, seaports, and education.

Last week, Versnick led a delegation of eight East Flanders enterprises to Vietnam to seek investment and business opportunities in the livestock production sector. The enterprises worked with Vietnamese authorities and local enterprises.

Versnick said that in this year’s second half, another delegation of enterprises will also come to Vietnam with the same purposes. In April 2017, Belgium’s minister of foreign affairs will come to Vietnam for a visit, which will help decide the co-operation sectors of this delegation.

Last year, a delegation of 50 enterprises from East Flanders came to Vietnam, eight of which sought opportunities in the agricultural sector. The rest embarked upon co-operations with local partners in various sectors, such as logistics, transportation, seaports, and education.

In 2011, East Flanders began its agricultural co-operation with Vietnam, with several projects focused in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. In late 2016, East Flanders inked a memorandum of understanding with Ho Chi Minh City on co-operating in projects on crop production, horticulture, and livestock production. At present, the first projects and their capital investments have been approved.

East Flanders is also supporting Vietnam in developing smart fishery production, in the context of rising saltwater inundation in the Mekong Delta region.

In addition to agricultural co-operation, East Flanders is also working with Vietnam on a plan about developing smart logistics technologies in Vietnam, Versnick said.

Smart logistics utilises cutting-edge technologies in a secure, online environment to realise efficiencies and reduce costs for both shippers and carriers alike. The benefits for shippers include improved shipping options and a reduced level of effort in managing freight operations.