The Mekong Delta province of An Giang has issued a range of incentives to stimulate investment in agriculture and rural areas.

The incentives focus on 18 main activities, including forest planting and protection, large-scale rice field, large-scale husbandry and aquaculture, breeding of plant and animal, biotechnology application, fodder production and processing and preservation of agro-forestry-fishery products, among others.

Projects in designated “Rural areas” and “Agricultural activities subject to special preferential treatment” will be exempted from land use fee, land rent and water surface rent if they lease State-owned land in the first five years of operation. Those which lease land or water surface from households will receive subsidies for 20 percent of the rent for five years.

Investors in these two categories also receive support in the form of 50 percent of advertisement cost, 50 percent of costs to attend domestic fairs and exhibitions and 70 percent of research cost for new technology.

Projects in “agricultural activities subject to preferential treatment” will be entitled to a 70 percent reduction in land use fee and the lowest land and water surface rent during the first 15 years of operation.

Meanwhile, in the category of “agricultural activities where investment is encouraged,” investors will be given a 50 percent reduction in land use fee together with the lowest land and water surface rent for the first 11 years of operation.

The province also provide projects using 4 ha of land or more with financial support for land clearance and building waste water treatment system.

All the support and incentives come with the condition that the investment project should use local workers for at least 30 percent of its staff and source 60 percent of materials such as rice, maize and seafood from An Giang province.-VNA