Hi-tech agri-park boost

The hi-tech park has helped Ho Chi Minh City double the national agricultural growth rate

Nguyen Duc Trung, deputy director of the city’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the department would co-ordinate with the Hi-Tech Agriculture Parks Management Authority to push forward investment procedures for the parks under the municipal people’s committee policy.

The city will set aside some 300 hectares to establish more hi-tech agricultural parks in Cu Chi district.

According to Trung, all available space in the Hi-Tech Agriculture Park – the only of its kind – has been taken by investors, with an additional substantial waiting list.

“New regulations have allowed foreign investors to inject capital in this field so the city will see more investors looking for opportunities in the coming time,” he said, adding that Ho Chi Minh City would continue to accelerate the implementation of programmes and policies to stimulate the shift of the agricultural structure towards urban agriculture between 2011 and 2015.

According to Le Thanh Liem, Deputy Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, the Hi-Tech Agriculture Park researches, applies, experiments and showcases hi-tech agricultural production models to farmers and businesses. The park also supplies fruit and vegetable varieties and animals to farmers in the city and some neighbouring provinces.

“The park has driven agriculture growth in the city to double the national average,” said Liem.

According to Nguyen Tan Hinh, deputy director of the Science, Technology and Environment Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, hi-tech agro-parks transfer their technologies to boost hi-tech application in agricultural products.

“Of parks of its kind in Vietnam, the Agricultural Hi-tech Park of Ho Chi Minh City is the most efficient,” said Hinh. The 88.17ha park was built in 2004 with a VND152 billion ($7.2 million) investment. It is 44 kilometres from the centre of Ho Chi Minh City.