Focusing on economic factors in agricultural planning projects

On August 23rd, Minister Le Minh Hoan and Deputy Ministers Phung Duc Tien, Le Quoc Doanh and Nguyen Hoang Hiep had a working session with specialized units under the Ministry to build 4 national sector plans, in the form of direct online coordination.

Specifically, these 4 plans include the Forestry Plan chaired by the General Department of Forestry; The Natural Disaster Prevention and Irrigation Plan chaired by the General Department of Water Resources in coordination with the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control; The Fishery resources Protection and Exploitation plan, the System of fishing ports and storm shelters for fishing vessels plan is chaired by the General Department of Fisheries.

In which, the first 3 plans are scheduled for approval in 2021, while the system of fishing ports and storm shelters for fishing vessels plan will be submitted for approval in the second quarter of 2022.

According to the report by the Department of Planning (MARD), the Natural Disaster Prevention and  Irrigation Plan is being implemented on schedule with complete documents and is in the process of  finalizing Draft 1 by the National Assembly for consultation.

Meanwhile, the Forestry Plan has completed documents but has not yet completed the National Assembly's Draft 1 for consultation.

In the fisheries sector, in addition to the System of fishing port and storm shelter for fishing vessels Plan, which is expected to be submitted in the second quarter of 2022, the plan is still in the process of finalizing the document on opinions, orientation.

After informing on the progress of the plannings, Director of the Planning Department Nguyen Van Viet requested relevant units to urgently implement the plan. In the immediate future, the General Department of Fisheries will complete the document on opinions, goals and orientations to submit to the National Planning Council before September 10th, 2021.

Regarding the process of appraising and approving 3 projects in 2021, Mr. Nguyen Van Viet proposed that the Plan should be completed on the basis of explanations, amendments and corrections according to the comments by the Appraisal Council and submit to authorities for approval before December 15th, 2021.

It is expected that in 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will start construction of many anchorages and fishing ports projects. Therefore, the Director of Planning requested the General Deparment of Fisheries to study and negotiate with the consulting unit to accelerate the progress of approval for theSystem of fishing ports and storm shelters for fishing vessels Plan in the first quarter of 2022. This will ensure uniformity and solid legal basis when implementing the Ministry's public investment plan.

After listening to the report on the progress and proposals by the Planning Department and related units, Minister Le Minh Hoan agreed with the comments and gave additional instructions.

Firstly, the Minister suggested that planning units must clearly define resources and costs. “Besides technical consulting units and experts, economists should also participate in the planning development. We have to do it so that the the most benefit can be achieved with the same budget," emphasized Mr. Le Minh Hoan.

In addition, the Minister also noted to identify implementing subjects, whether units under the Ministry or the locality, according to him, must be clear. From there, develop a personnel plan for operation along with maintenance costs for the project.

The Minister emphasized the identification of impacts when developing a plan because there are both positive impacts and negative impacts: "It is recommended that all plannings include this calculation."

With plannings related to conservation, Minister Le Minh Hoan said that it is necessary to clearly define between conservation and development. However, it is still possible to combine economic development with conservation, for example, building marine life sites like in the UAE.

With fishing ports, anchorages and storm shelters, the Minister said that the most important goal is to reduce the loss of aquatic products at the port and ensure the safety of ships. But he also suggested combining tourism and sightseeing projects to develop the local economy and jobs.