The twelve-member council of the Korea-Vietnam Incubator Park (KVIP), made its official debut on September 23 in the southern city of Can Tho to prepare for the park’s official operations in June 2015.

During the inauguration ceremony, Truong Quang Hoai Nam, Vice Chairman of Can Tho City’s People’s Committee, said the incubator park project, which will increase the Mekong Delta region’s competitiveness, was currently 40 percent completed.

Between now and the first quarter of 2015, a number of actions will be taken, including training courses for staff, and the installation of state-of-the-art machinery and environmentally-friendly equipment, which will boost research and manufacturing of high value added agricultural and aquatic products, he added.

According to KVIP General Director Kim Hee Sup, the project will develop three industrial clusters, specialising in rice, aquacultural products and agricultural mechanics. The rice cluster will improve regional rice competitiveness on the global market, attract more investments in rice processing and develop highly competitive aquatic export products for foreign markets.

Moreover, the KVIP project will produce Made-in-Vietnam agricultural machinery, with the objective of achieving a 95 percent localisation rate over the next ten years and supporting producers of machinery to expand their domestic and international operations. In addition, the project also provides high-tech equipment to produce rice in line with international standards.

In the aquaculture cluster, KVIP will help increase the value of shrimp and fish farms and standardise breeding and rearing methods by improving water quality and using green fodder.

According to Can Tho City’s Department of Industry and Trade, the KVIP project started in November 2013 at the Tra Noc Industrial Zone at a cost of 21 million USD, with 17.7 million USD provided by the Government of the Republic of Korea and the remainder coming from the Vietnamese Government.-VNA