Vietnam\'s agriculture sector grows 2.67% in 2013

Vietnam's agricultural sector grew by 2.67 percent in 2013, closely matching the 2.68 percent rise seen in 2012, according to Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The figure was released at a conference held in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Tuesday to set farming tasks for 2014. Addressing the conference, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said greater efforts are needed to accelerate agriculture restructuring towards creating products of higher added value, achieving sustainable development, and building a new rural model, reported Vietnam's state-run radio Voice of Vietnam. Dung suggested the sector step up the application of scientific and technological advances, especially biological technology. All mechanisms and policies should be conducive to rural investment, particularly in cultivation, industry and services, while more attention should be paid to agricultural processing and labor- intensive fields so as to generate jobs for rural workers, he added. Vietnam's agriculture sector set a target to achieve a 2.6 to three percent growth in 2014, and a 3.1 to 3.5 percent rise in production value. Agro-forestry-fishery exports are expected to hit 28.5 billion U.S. dollars while the rate of forest coverage to reach 41.5 percent, said Cao Duc Phat, Vietnamese minister of agriculture and rural development. In 2013, Vietnamese farming sector earned over 27.4 billion U.S. dollars from exports, an increase of 0.7 percent year-on-year, said the ministry.