In a report presented at the conference, in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, MARD Deputy Minister Bui Ba Bong said the State invested as much as VND2.600 billion in agricultural research with a year-on-year increase of 15 percent over the past five years.
More than 4.300 research projects and experimental projects were implemented while various plant varieties and animal breeds were created, he said, adding that the application of advanced technologies contributed greatly to agricultural production in rural areas.
However, Bong said, there were still shortcomings in science and technology research which resulted in the low efficiency of some projects as they were not realistic.
In order to remedy the shortcomings, Deputy PM Nhan proposed innovating the management mechanisms for scientific and technological research. He agreed that the government will allocate capital resources for medium and long terms instead of annual allocations.
He also expressed his support for the ministry’s proposal that the private sector take part in scientific and technological research activities and said the State will assist businesses by reducing their income tax.
The Deputy PM asked the MARD to consider other issues related to intellectual property, cadre training, payments for researcher, and investment in national research centres.
Participants in the conference said it is crucial to improve the quality of research activities as well as the application of science and technology in production in order to achieve the MARD’s goal of to modernizing the agriculture sector and producing highly competitive products by 2020.
(VOV)
