The Government has promulgated a series of additional preferential policies to encourage businesses to invest in agriculture and rural development, reports the Vietnam Government Portal.

Under newly-approved Decree 210/ND-CP, investors shall be exempted from land use fee for carrying out agricultural projects eligible for special preferential treatment.

For projects eligible for preferential treatment, the land use fee shall be reduced to 70 percent.

It shall be cut by half in case of encouraged investment projects.

Investors of large-scale livestock farms will receive 3 billion VND (around 140,000 USD) per project.

Especially, those on production of high yielding dairy cows will get 5 billion VND (235,000 USD) each. The preferential policy aims to help investors build sewage treatment, electricity and water systems, pastures, and battery cages.

According to the decree which will take effect from February 10 next year, the preferential policy is also applicable to centralised aquaculture projects at sea.

Vietnam’s agriculture sector holds strong growth opportunities to speed up its growth in terms of production, exports and retail sales, especially for the country’s traditional products such as rice, coffee, livestock, and dairy sectors, according to the Business Monitor International (BMI).

However, Vietnam is facing growing competition in its key markets, and the fulfillment of its promising potential will only be achieved if the country steps up its competitiveness and improves both products quality and supply chain efficiency.

The results of public-private partnership (PPP) programmes in the cultivation, breeding and seafood sectors has reinforce BMI’s forecasts of Vietnam's agriculture sector in the coming years.

The country's fertile soil and its increasing agricultural productivity will support robust growth in various sectors by more than 10 percent between 2012 and 2017.

To maintain growth, Vietnam should improve the quality of products and agricultural productivity by applying new technology in cultivation and breeding to ensure strict food hygiene and safety regulations and promote brand names.-VNA