Chairman of Binh Dinh People’s Committee Ho Quoc Dung meeting with New Zealand Minister for Food Safety

Chairman of Binh Dinh People’s Committee Ho Quoc Dung (right) gave a gift to Ms. Jo Goodhew,New Zealand Minister for Food Safety.

At the meeting, Chairman of Binh Dinh People’s Committee Ho Quoc Dung welcomed and received the delegation to Binh Dinh Province as well as expressed his thanks and highly appreciated such great support and assistance from New Zealand for Binh Dinh Province in the past few years in such fields as healthcare, education, agriculture, New Zealand volunteers, English Training for Binh Dinh staff, etc… Particularly, since 2009 till now, the New Zealand Government has assisted Binh Dinh Province to implement “Binh Dinh Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Project”, including Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP) Certified Safe Vegetables, increasing income from coconut trees, and profitable farming systems. Up to now, all components have ensured the set requirements, bringing socio-economic benefits, creating sustainable rural livelihoods and connecting farmers to markets as well as improving food safety for consumers. The project has created stable jobs for nearly 1,300 rural workers, helping farmers increase by 30% up to 100% the value of products. In addition, the project has also created job opportunities for rural workers through participating in the components of vegetables, coconut, farming; creating jobs for rural laborers.

Chairman Ho Quoc Dung hoped that New Zealand Government to continue the interest and support for Binh Dinh Province to implement phrase 2 (a new project on safe vegetables) in order to widen production processes, reducing the cost of final product and widely spreading the agricultural products throughout the world.

Ms. Jo Goodhew, New Zealand Minister for Food Safety, came to Binh Dinh Province on the occasion of the 40^th Anniversary of Viet Nam – New Zealand Diplomatic Relation (1975-2015), on behalf of Binh Dinh leaders, Chairman Ho Quoc Dung expressed his gratitude to New Zealand Government as well as New Zealanders for their invaluable and practical supports towards Viet Nam in general and Binh Dinh in particular. The Chairman hoped to continue receiving further support and assistance from New Zealand Government and wished Ms. Jo Goodhew’s visit to Binh Dinh every success.

Ms. Jo Goodhew, New Zealand Minister for Food Safety, expressed her thanks for warm and hospitable welcome from Binh Dinh leaders; at the same time, felt very happy when she knew about positive results of the project “Sustainable Rural Livelihoods – Connecting Farmers to Markets” towards farmers in Binh Dinh Province. Ms. Jo Goodhew also said that New Zealand Government would continue to assist the province to implement phase 2 of safe vegetables project with the aim of improving livelihoods of poor farmers as well as enhancing the competitiveness of the farming sector. Besides, New Zealand will continue to support the engineering and management experience, product advertising, connecting with consuming markets in the country, etc.

In the afternoon, the delegation led by Ms. Jo Goodhew, New Zealand Minister for Food Safety, had a field visit to VietGAP Certified Safe Vegetable Model of the project “Sustainable Rural Livelihoods – Connecting Farmers to Markets”, funded by the New Zealand Government, in Phuoc Hiep Commune, Tuy Phuoc District.

By Nguyen Han (source: baobinhdinh.com.vn)