The second Vietnam Rice Festival will be held in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang from November 8 to 11.

It will honour and promote Vietnamese rice, especially Soc Trang's, the province People's Committee said.

Deputy chairman of the committee, Quach Viet Tung, said on Oct. 24 the biennial festival – with the theme" Vietnamese rice in integration period" this year – is an important economic, political, cultural, social, and tourism event.

"The festival is expected to not only honour Vietnamese rice but also Vietnamese labourers, scientists, managers, and enterprises who contribute to creating rice – an essential commodity for both domestic and overseas markets," he said.

The national-level event will feature exhibitions, fairs, seminars, and cultural and sports activities native to Soc Trang, and will seek to promote investment, trade, and business relations among domestic and foreign partners.

The four-day event will have nearly 1,000 stalls put up by hundreds of domestic companies and those from more than 20 countries including Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Russia, Thailand and the US.

The foreign firms will mainly take part in food pavilions, exhibitions, cultural activities, and workshops.

There will be three main workshops at the festival focusing on Vietnam's development of high-quality rice, building brand names for Vietnamese rice, and the way for Vietnamese rice to enter foreign markets.

Among four contests to be held at the festival will be a photo contest on "Vietnamese rice plants confronting global climate change" and the "Rural Beauties" beauty pageant to honour Vietnamese rice farmers.

The event will also feature a demonstration of carriages decorated with flowers, a lantern and lion-dance festival, and a photo exhibition.

The festival, which will coincide with the Khmer people's Oc Om Boc festival, will feature an iconic boat race contested by Khmer teams.

The festival will be organised by the ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Industry and Trade, Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Information and Communications, the Soc Trang People's Committee and Vietnam Food Association./.