Aspirations for the Northwest’s agricultural processing center

Son La - the "golden location” in each transformation of agriculture, not only in the North but also in the whole country. What does this mountainous province have to offer to create such wonders? Humans, brains and brawn, science and technology, of course. And there are other “launchpads” which will be explained below through the early-spring conversation between Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper with Member of the Party Central Committee - Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Huu Dong.

Sir, it can be seen that in the last term Son La province has achieved many achievements, especially in economy. There are many opinions stating that the core value of Son La's achievements comes from the innovation of mindset. May I ask, how has the story of changing mindset in Son La happened?

Having the characteristic of a mountainous agricultural province, we determined that our policies must be close to reality and able to come into life in order to make them a success. We must further promote our strengths in land and climate.

Some of the decisions have been responded to and recognized by the people: plant fruit trees on sloping land; support the development of crops, livestock, fishery products; process and consume safe agricultural products and food; aid the renovation of mixed gardens; and improve traffic in line with new rural construction.

Developing agroproduction associated with applying high technology as well as scientific and technical advances must be in line with changes in mindset and production methods.

To be more specific, Son La focuses on product branding and production along the value chain (marketing, product introduction to provinces, supermarkets, and exporters); encouraging and developing agricultural cooperatives and unions; creating favorable conditions for enterprises to associate in agro-product processing and consumption; building safe food supply chains.

Thanks to the policy and the synchronous participation from the government, people and businesses, many agro-products of the province have been well received by meticulous markets such as Australia, France, the USA, and Japan.

Son La has also formed its own charm. Many businesses choose Son La as a place to pour investment capital particularly in agricultural product processing, such as TH Group, Vingroup, FLC Group, Que Lam Group, Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk).

Innovations in mindset always come with policies. According to you, which policies are the core to this “phenomenon” called Son La?

Son La has changed from the policy of "The State and the people work together" to the policy of "The people works - the State supports" with solutions to restructure the economic sector and develop the productive forces: promulgate 18 documents on mechanisms and policies to support investment in agriculture, thereby aiding over 1,000 enterprises and cooperatives as well as over 50,000 households and individuals ỉmproving their economy through agricultural practices.

The policies concentrate on renewing relations in production organization, forwardly shifting from small individual economy with low efficiency to collective economy. The main focus is to develop cooperatives that grow fruit and vegetables, livestock and aquaculture, apply good agroproduction procedures and high technology, follow safe agricultural product supply chains in regions with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions as well as border areas.

What is your point of view and the leader of Son La regarding investment attraction? Especially, how will investment in agriculture match the province’s development strategy?

Son La’s priority sectors for development have been clearly outlined: clean agriculture, organic agriculture, high-tech applied agriculture, tourism, processing industry, manufacturing industry and clean energy.

Son La's investment attraction strategy uses non-budget capital as the main driving force, creating a leap in development in each industry and field, gradually improving the capability of provincial businesses and investors. Son La encourages companies that have invested to expand in depth and prioritizes attracting reputable and financially capable corporations and enterprises.

Son La currently has 50 establishments and factories processing agro-products for export - an increase of 8 large-scale agro-processing factories for export compared to 2015. The whole province strives to become a center of agro-product processing, a center of milk, fruit, medicinal plants and tourism of the Northwest region.

As Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee in a province of the Northwest region - one of the most difficult economic regions in the country, what are the concerns for Son La nowadays? Can you share with us your determination and aspiration for Son La?

As a mountainous province, the economic scale of Son La is still small and developing unsustainably. The competitiveness of industries, fields, economic sectors, and transport infrastructure holds certain limitations.

The level of awareness and cultivation professionalism of a part of people is lacking. The transformation of crop structure, the application of science and technology to agroproduction in disadvantaged areas is not high.

The entirety of Son La Party Committee and I always ponder about the current matter of agro-product output in the province and how to avoid the situation of “good harvest - bad price” and vice versa.

We always have this determination and aspiration to promote innovation and creativity, focusing on overcoming limitations and difficulties. Our goal is to make Son La a province of quick and stable development, also to become the Northwest’s high-tech agricultural development center.

Son La has successfully gathered the attention of Central to invest in highways Hoa Binh - Moc Chau, Son La - Dien Bien, and Na San airport. This will serve as an important “infrastructure launchpad” to promote green - clean - renewable high technology and develop tourism.

Son La always has this one impression of taking cooperatives as the driving force for development. What do you think are the pros and cons of the current cooperative model in Son La?

Cooperatives have clearly contributed to economic restructuring and promoted the production of raw materials to meet the standards of agro-product establishments and processing factories in the province.

Some cooperatives are chosen to pilot applying new scientific and technological advances, which help reconstruct the economy towards value enhancement and sustainable development.

I notice that many cooperatives have raised themselves up to become an input supply point for production, a place to consume agro-products for their members. They promote a change in people's perception concerning centralized, large-scale, standardized commodity production that meets market demands.

But the fact remains as there are aspects that are yet complete, which need to be improved soon: the role of production - consumption connection, investment resources, and the establishment of a team of experts, or the input capacity of agroproduction.

At the 13th National Party Congress, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong affirmed that "Bring prosperity and happiness to the people is the one true success of the Congress". With the economic conditions of a province full of difficulties, the residence of many ethnic minorities, an area still suffering low living standards. May I ask, during this term, how will Son La define policies and strategies to improve the situation?

For the 2020-2025 term, Son La defines policies and strategies in socio-economic development in order to stabilize people's lives, especially those in ethnic minorities, areas with special conditions, and borderlands.

Son La must focus on leading, directing and mobilizing resources to effectively implement projects, resolutions, and conclusions of Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and Resolution of the 15th Provincial Party Congress in the 2020 - 2025 term. This requires special attention especially when Son La has been selected by the Vietnam Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs as a socio-economic development point for ethnic minorities and mountainous areas.

Additional actions include: making full use of potentials and advantages for sustainable development of ethnic minority areas; preserving and promoting cultural identity of ethnic groups; effectively solving pressing matters in ethnic minority areas; making progress in social improvement and equality, all to achieve the goal of "leaving no one behind".

The whole province considers production development and improvement of people's livelihood as the core goal. Promoting the role of the community and the people themselves as well as ethnic minorities’ will to strive forward is the central solution.

Son La's goal by 2025 is to have Moc Chau recognized as a national tourist area and become one of the leading tourist areas of the Northern midlands and mountainous areas. The province has made initial planning to turn the Son La hydropower reservoir into a national tourist area.

In the future, eight hi-tech agricultural zones will be built and thoroughly formed. Son La will attract more businesses to invest in the field of agro-products processing, strive to become the Northwest’s center of agro-product processing, milk, fruit, medicinal plants, and tourism; and study the roadmap to build the National Center for Research and Application of High Technology in Agriculture in Moc Chau district.

Thank you, sir!