Vietnamese, Japanese localities boost links in clean agriculture

Soc Trang (VNA) – Representatives from the People’s Committee of the Mekong delta province of Soc Trang and those from Japan’s Hiroshima prefecture have agreed to enhance cooperation in many fields, especially in clean agriculture and the environment, which began in 2014.

At their working session in Soc Trang on March 14, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Le Van Hieu said Soc Trang wishes to expand link and sign cooperation with Hiroshima in high-tech agriculture, the manufacturing industry, and preserving and processing technologies for aquatic products. 

He suggested Hiroshima further cooperate with and support Soc Trang in treating wastewater produced by shrimp breeding as the locality has high demand for products and technologies for the work in order to prevent the discharge of wastewater into the environment. 

According to Hieu, Soc Trang boasts over 45,000 ha of shrimp farming area, and the many breeders are still discharging untreated wastewater into the environment. 

Soc Trang has about 200-300 ha for agricultural development, Hieu said, adding that the local authorities want to cooperate with Hiroshima’s businesses to build a model producing high-quality rice, towards making it easier for local farmers to sell their products. 

Participants expressed the hope that the two sides will maintain effective cooperation to bring development to enterprises and people of the two localities.

Yoshio Sato from the Hiroshima Department of Foreign Business took the occasion to invite officials of Soc Trang to visit a number of Japanese enterprises, which specialise in the environment, in Hiroshima in this June.

He said he hopes Hiroshima will continue coordinating with Soc Trang, Can Tho city and the Steering Committee for the Southwest region to organise a seminar to promote trade connections between the two sides’ enterprises in this September.

Soc Trang and Hiroshima established cooperative ties in 2014, focusing on the fields of environment and clean agriculture.