On May 24, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh had a meeting with Mr. Raul Pollak - Ambassador of Uruguay in Hanoi. Mr. Raul Pollak shared that in the first six months of receiving the mission in Vietnam, the complicated situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic caused many obstacles. This year, the Uruguay side will restart activities to strengthen cooperation between the two countries especially in the agricultural sector on the basis of the meeting of the Joint Committee on Economic, Trade and Investment Cooperation taking place in October last year.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh expressed his gratitude toward the Uruguay side for its support in international organizations and forums, affirmed the good diplomatic relations between the two countries, and hoped that Uruguay would always accompany and support Vietnam in promoting trade as well as developing new technology.

Agriculture is an important part of Vietnam's economy. In addition to ensuring food security for nearly 100 million people, Vietnam is also a strong exporter of agricultural products. In the new period, Vietnam aims to develop agriculture at a rapid pace and in a sustainable manner, not only in terms of economic benefits but also in terms of environment and society.

At the COP26 Conference held in Glasglow (UK) last year, Vietnam made a strong commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture in Vietnam plays an extremely important role as it contributes to the implementation of the country's common commitments. In order to successfully develop cooperation strategies, Vietnam is making efforts to expand international relations and gain support from other countries. Vietnam and Uruguay thus need to have stronger promotion activities to deepen their bilateral cooperation relationship.

Despite being a small country with a population of approximately 3 million, Uruguay has the capability to produce food for 30 million people. Mr. Raul Pollak said that Uruguay had many advanced technologies in a number of agricultural fields ready to share with Vietnam. “And to my knowledge, Vietnam is also superior in many agricultural fields compared to Uruguay, so this can serve as a premise to strengthen our bilateral technology trade.”

Mr. Raul Pollak added that the Uruguay side was in the process of signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the National Food Institute of Uruguay and Vietnam’s National Institute of Food Control and the Mekong Delta Rice Research Institute.

“We already have a Bilateral Technical Cooperation Framework Agreement, so it is possible to continue signing separate and more specific cooperation agreements. I hope that we can study and review the outstanding cooperation areas as soon as possible, and at the same time, both sides should quickly promote and complete cooperation proposals, and concretize potential cooperation activities in the future."

The Deputy Minister agreed with the opinion of the Ambassador of Uruguay to Vietnam and shared that Vietnam wished to consult and receive support from Uruguay on new and advanced techniques in agriculture with the goal of agricultural products quality improvement, environmental protection and greenhouse gas emission reduction - issues that are receiving much attention and priority in Vietnam.

Referring to the export dossiers of Uruguayan agricultural products to Vietnam, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said that units of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had received the dossiers and were reviewing them to ensure compliance with Vietnam's regulations. Competent departments (Department of Animal Health, Department of Plant Protection) would actively support this process. The representative of Vietnam’s agricultural sector hoped that the Uruguay side would continue to pay close attention to Vietnam's agriculture, encourage businesses to further invest and create conditions for Vietnamese agricultural products to enter the market of Uruguay as well as South American countries.

Mr. Raul Pollak said that the Uruguay side had had a meeting with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and would soon hold an online meeting to promote cooperation between the two countries in terms of economic development as well foreign investment.

“The online meeting will serve as a first step so that perhaps we can organize visits and exchanges between businesses of the two sides next year. The Uruguay market is particularly interested and in demand for Vietnamese fruit products, and I believe that Uruguay also has potential agricultural products that can meet the demand of the Vietnam market."

Translated by Samuel Pham