Forestry sector on track to meet market demand

Hanoi (VNA) - The forestry sector has been shifting towards a market economy over the recent five years, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said at a conference reviewing the five-year plan on forest protection and development on December 9.

According to the Deputy PM, forestry products have gradually met market demand and the wood processing industry for export has seen leaping growth.

The forest coverage rose from 39.7 percent in 2011 to 40.43 percent in 2014 and is expected to reach 40.73 percent this year, contributing to socio-economic development, environment protection, climate change response and natural calamity mitigation, Hai said.

He noted that while targets on forest planting have not been met, remarkable changes are seen in social awareness about forest protection.

The Deputy PM called on enterprises to involve in the development of the sector.

The sector has seen an annual average growth of 5.95 percent in production value over the past five years, nearly doubling the rate in 2006-2010 at 3.1 percent.

The export of furniture and forest products has also seen a surge of approximate 150 percent over the past five years, estimated at 6.8-7 billion USD in 2015.

In the next five years, the sector aims to improve productivity and the value of forest-plantation areas for a 7 percent growth annually in production value and 9.5 billion USD of export earnings by 2020.

Forest protection and sustainable development will be strengthened to expand forest coverage to roughly 14.87 million hectares, accounting for 42-43 percent of the nation’s land by 2020.-VNA