VietNamNet Bridge - Agriculture was never found on the list of the most attractive investment channels for those who have idle money. But things are changing as the government has committed to reserve VND50-60 trillion worth of preferential capital and promised a series of preferential policies for agricultural production.


{keywords}



Nguyen Van Ngai from the HCMC Agriculture and Forestry University said startups in agriculture can have a lot of advantages. 

Vietnam has capacity in agricultural production, while the demand for safe farm produce is high from the domestic and foreign markets. And the state encourages startups of this kind. 

Meanwhile, it will be not easy to start businesses in other fields where competition is stiff.

He commented that one can begin with medium-scale agricultural production projects which provide safe products to the market before scaling up to projects with high-technology production.

“With VND1 billion, it would be easier to start with a safe vegetable garden or orchid,” Ngai said, adding that one kilo of safe vegetables can be sold at the price which is 4-5 times higher than normal vegetables. “The profit is undeniable,” he said.

Agriculture was never found on the list of the most attractive investment channels for those who have idle money. But things are changing as the government has committed to reserve VND50-60 trillion worth of preferential capital and promised a series of preferential policies for agricultural production.

Bui Chi Buu, former director of the Southern Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, noted that the number of agricultural businesses just accounts for 2 percent of total 600,000 businesses in the country because investors fear that it takes them a long time to recover investment capital while they have to face weather risks.

This is also because in Vietnam, science & technology makes up only 30 percent of the value of farm produce, much lower than the average level in the world of 80-90 percent.

Buu said that it would be better for young people to cooperate with experienced farmers to re-organize production while applying high technology to make high-quality safe farm produce. 

The production mechanism will bring high benefits as it can both take full advantage of the experience gained from generations of Vietnamese and modern production models.

Regarding other investment channels in 2016, analysts found that securities brought higher profits than gold and bank deposits.

The VN Index had increased by 15.75 percent by the end of 2016, an encouraging result if noting that the figures were just 7.7 percent and 6.1 percent the two years before.

Nguyen Ngan Tuyen from Maybank Kim Eng Securities Company said that the real profit securities investors could expect in 2016 would be even higher, about 18-20 percent, if counting the dividends paid by listed companies to shareholders. 

related news

Xuan Mai