Phu Yen plants the seeds for hi-tech agri-park

Phu Yen’s hi-tech agriculture park is intended to stimulate researchPhoto: Le Toan

The decision puts control of the 460 hectare park, in its first phase, in the hands of the provincial people’s committee. It is the second hi-tech agricultural park approved by the Vietnamese government after the first in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang.

The park will utilise hi-tech innovations in equipment and technology to develop agriculture for the central southern coastal region, particularly in key areas such as cultivation, animal breeding, forestry, aquaculture, preservation and processing of farm produce, organic produce and animal feed.

The park will conduct research, experiments and field tests of hi-tech agricultural production models that serve the development of agricultural production in the region. It will also aim to produce new hi-tech products, as well as train human resources in hi-tech farming production.

The park targets both foreign and domestic investments and will seek a workforce that can implement the technologies both in the park and throughout the region.

Nguyen Chi Hien, director of the Phu Yen Provincial Department of Planning and Investment said “We are calling on foreign and domestic investors to help us first with the infrastructure of the park and on businesses interested in researching and applying high technologies there. The park is expected to boost agricultural development throughout the region,” he added.

The park is required to set aside 60 per cent of its total area for facilities that will test, apply, and use hi-tech agricultural project models, produce hi-tech agricultural products, provide hi-tech services, and train hi-tech human resources.

The park is required to prioritise land for businesses investing in centres and factories developing or producing high technologies that serve agriculture or apply technology in producing agriculture.

According to Nguyen Tan Hinh, deputy director of the Science, Technology, and Environment Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the ministry is planning to establish 12-15 hi-tech agriculture parks across the country by 2020. From now to 2015, the plan is to build three to five nationwide.

“Hi-tech parks make and transfer technologies, creating a driving force to push agriculture businesses toward hi-tech production,” said Hinh.

In June last year, the Vietnamese government approved the Hau Giang hi-tech agriculture park, the first of its kind in Vietnam.