UK helps strengthen public finance governance

Vietnam and the United Kingdom have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen technical cooperation in the area of economic and public finance governance.

Signatories to the MoU in Hanoi on February 27 were Minister of Finance Vuong Dinh Hue and UK ambassador to Vietnam Atony Stokes.

The MoU covers five areas of cooperation, namely public debt management, Public Private Partnership in public management, financial regulations and financial market (securities, insurance and bonds), macro-economic stabilisation, sovereign credit rating.  
Both sides will make study tours of financial officials to exchange experience, organise workshops, and short training courses in either Vietnam or the UK, share economic analysis reports, and exchange information and materials on issues of mutual concern.

They agreed to jointly devise action plans to be approved every year to effectively implement this three-year MoU.  

Minister Hue said the signing ceremony marks a milestone in expanding financial activities between the two countries, and strengthening public finance government capacity of financial staff.

He said the Ministry of Finance will put forward a specific action plan soon to bring the MoU to life.

Ambassador Stokes expressed his hope that the two countries will expand bilateral cooperation in other areas, in addition to financial cooperation.

The UK wants to work with the Ministry of Finance to formulate effective policies to attract investment and boost trade, said the diplomat.

Seafood test procedures need rethink
 
Testing practices of seafood exporters should be modified to meet standards and to improve the quality of products, said Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

The association proposed to socialise testing activities in order to satisfy increasing demand and to maintain food safety, by moving the testing phase forward from the exported consignments to the raw material.

This step was necessary because existing food safety policies on seafood exports have resulted in a loss of time and money for exporters, said VASEP deputy general secretary Nguyen Hoai Nam.

Testing fees for finished-seafood products before export have almost doubled. Exporters must spend seven to 10 days procuring the samples for testing and implementing administrative procedures to control food safety.

Nam said the testing fee is on average between VND5 million (US$238) and VND15 million ($714) for each container of the product. Seafood exporters must pay VND1-4 billion ($47,600-190,400) each year for one testing company's services, even if they run the tests themselves.

Each year, the fisheries sector exports 1.2 million tonnes of seafood products. If 20 per cent of that export volume is tested, the sector must spend a huge sum of money on testing activities, Nam said.

VASEP general secretary Truong Dinh Hoe said the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad) should study the food safety controls for seafood products used by the EU and the US. Not only do they represent key export markets for Vietnamese seafood products, but they also have strict policies that govern the choice of raw material, processing and export procedures and packaging standards, Hoe said.

Ensuring food safety from the early stages would be more efficient than tests on export consignments, which can only screen for certain strains of bacteria, he added.

HCM City targets another 500,00 tourists
 
HCM City has set a target to welcome nearly 4 million international visitors this year, up from 3.5 million last year, with a year-on-year growth of 8 per cent, according to a plan unveiled recently by the city's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Under the plan to develop the city's tourism in the 2011–20 period, the city targets revenue of VND58.8 trillion (US$2.8 billion) from the industry, with a year-on-year growth of 20 per cent.

According to the plan, the city will further enhance the quality of tourism products and services by recognising the best tourism products and services and recommending those to both local and foreign tourists.

In addition to boosting quality of current tourism products, the city will promote new tourism products or programmes that exploit the city's advantages, including shopping tourism, river tourism and cultural and historical tourism.

The tourism industry will also focus on potential markets.

The city will continue to develop tourism promotions, such as "HCM City – 100 interesting things" programme in an effort to build trademarks for the city's tourism industry, as well as other promotions with neighbouring provinces and cities.

In addition, it will also use the local media to publicise information about tourist destinations in the city.

To improve services and attract more tourists, industry officials will participate in tourism activities held by international tourism organisations, especially the Tourism Promotion Organisation for Asia-Pacific Cities.

The focus of this year's tourism industry continues to be river-tourism products, including short routes such as Bach Dang Whalf (District 1) – Artist Villalge (District 2), medium routes such as HCM City – Binh Duong Province – Cu Chi District, HCM City – Dong Nai Province and Bach Dang – Can Gio District; and long routes from HCM City to Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces.

According to the plan, the city will also disseminate information about tourism laws to the departments and people's committees in 24 districts.

It plans to offer training for tourism staff, focusing on professional skills and knowledge.

In 2011, the number of international visitors to the city reached 3,500,000, an increase of 12.9 per cent over 2010.

Total revenue of the city's tourism industry last year reached more than VND49 trillion ($2.3 billion), 19.5 per cent higher than the previous year, meeting the set target.

Tea sector to boost exports

If the tea sector is to meet its target of an annual export value of US$440 million by 2015 – double this year's figure – it must improve the quality of its product, according to industry experts.

Despite the fact that Viet Nam is the sixth biggest tea exporter in the world, the country's exports typically sell for 40 per cent lower than the global market price.

"It is because the tea sector has focused on quantity rather than quality," said Nguyen Thanh Do, deputy director of the Department of Processing and Trade for the Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production sector.

He added that the problem lay with not only tea cultivation but also the processing and trading stages.

At the moment, about 65 per cent of the country's tea cultivation area was under the control of small holders, which was inefficient, due in part to the fact that local farmers had failed to invest in new technology, Do said.

He also said tea enterprises and farmers should work more closely together to boost quality.

Phan Huy Binh, director of Trung Nguyen Export-Import Company, said that foreign buyers were put off by the poor quality of Vietnamese tea.

Meanwhile, Doan Anh Tuan, president of the Viet Nam Tea Association, said standards were inconsistent and that Vietnamese producers needed to better enhance their trademarks.

He also said 50 per cent of the tea exported was unprocessed and sold in bulk. Just a small quantity of tea was exported in its finished form and packaged in a recognisable form, such as Oolong, Pho Nhi and Tan Cuong, he said.

As well as boosting quality and trademark recognition, he said more tea varieties needed to be grown in Viet Nam if the country wanted to achieve its tea-export target.

The focus should be on developing traditional specialty tea varieties, Tuan said.

Deputy General Director of the Viet Nam National Tea Corporation (Vinatea) Nguyen Huu Tai said his firm's products had made successful inroads into six major overseas markets – Russia, Iraq, Germany, Pakistan, Japan and Afghanistan.

He added that his firm was aiming to sell 30 per cent of its tea in its finished form under the company's logo domestically and abroad by 2015.

Industry experts said the expansion of tea-growing areas had to go hand in hand with the development of tea-processing factories.

Tuan, from the Viet Nam Tea Association, said that in some communes there were a dozen of tea-processing factories, but not enough raw materials, "which is wasted investment."

Meanwhile, most of the tea-processing factories could only handle about 10 tonnes of tea leaves a day because they lacked up-to-date technology, he said.

Tuan added that just 15 per cent of processing factories had invested in the latest technology capable of producing quality tea hygienically.

He also said that each processor should be allocated tea from a particular area so that firms would not compete among themselves for raw materials.

In 2011, tea production increased 6.5 per cent over the previous year to 888,600 tonnes, despite a decrease in the cultivation area by 2 per cent to 130,000ha.

Currently, there are 450 tea-processing factories capable of handling more than a tonne of leaves a day in the country.

Vietnamese tea is exported to 110 countries and territories in the world. Last year's export turnover was worth about $200 million.

Car imports increase again

Vietnam imported 2,300 complete built unit (CBU) automobiles worth US$46 million in February, up US$4 million over January, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

On average, each imported CBU car is worth US$20,000, up US$5,000 (25 percent) compared to last month.

In total, 5,100 CBU cars with a total value of US$88 million have been imported in the first two months of 2012.  

The GSO also said Vietnam earned US$8.2 billion from exports in February while it imported US$9 billion in goods, resulting in a trade deficit of US$800 million.

Vietnam obtained an export surplus of US$170 million in January.

Saigon Autotech & Accessories 2012 to be held

The 8th International Saigon Autotech & Accessories Show 2012 will take place at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC) in HCM City from May 31 to June 3.

The event is organized by the Asia Trade Fair and Business Promotion (Holdings) (ATFA) in co-ordination with Chanchao International Co., Ltd.

The event will display automobiles, motorbikes and support industries, said Tao Linh, President of the ATFA, on behalf of the organizing board.

Among famous trade names on show are Subaru, Luxgen, Vinamotor, Veam, Samco, Harley Davidson and Rebel.

In addition, support industries will be showcased at 150 stalls by businesses coming from Thailand and Taiwan (China).

US$1.2 billion invested in Tokyu Binh Duong project

Japan's Tokyu Corporation and Vietnam's Becamex IDC Corp. are scheduled to break ground on Tokyu Binh Duong urban area project in the southern province of Binh Duong on March 2.

The US$1.2 billion project will consist of trade, service, entertainment and housing buildings, covering 714,524 square metres.

Tokyu Corporation is involved in such fields as tramcar service, urban construction, transportation, supermarket retail, hotel industry, culture and education.

Becamex IDC Corp focuses on infrastructure construction for industrial zones and urban areas, banking and finance, real estate, business, telecommunications, information technology, building materials, pharmaceuticals, health care and education.

Domestic firms keen to expand overseas

A number of Vietnamese businesses are currently investing a total of $10.8 billion in 627 projects overseas, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).

Now present in 55 countries and territories worldwide, these Vietnamese businesses have ambitions of expanding their markets even further to increase their profit margins.

Apart from familiar markets such as Laos , Cambodia and Russia , Vietnamese businesses have now also penetrated Africa and Central America .

Of this total overseas investment, $3.4 billion has gone to Laos , mainly into telecommunications, hydroelectricity, transport infrastructure and banking operations.

This also indicates that Vietnam is making an effort to help Laos make the most of its true potential and develop its strengths, so it can improve living standards around the country.

Vietnamese businesses have injected a total of $776 million into small and medium-scaled projects in Russia , mostly focusing on building markets and shopping centres and the processed foods industry.

Other notable projects include a $806 million Ha Se San II hydro power station capable of producing 400 MW, a project to plant rubber trees on 4,000 hectares by the Chu Se Vietnam Rubber JSC in Cambodia and a $408 million telecommunications project in Peru by the military-run telecoms group Viettel.

Viettel is also seen as a leading service provider in Laos and Cambodia .

The MPI said that these projects have all raised sufficient capital and are currently examining local needs and demands as well as the different legal systems in each country.

In recent years the Vietnamese Government has made it much easier for businesses to operate overseas while still managing the flow of investment.

The MPI has been directed to oversee businesses that operate overseas and to adopt measures to ensure the security of foreign currency reserves.

Other promising markets in South Asia, South America, Russia and Southeast Asia are also being scrutinised by the Vietnamese businesses community for possible opportunities in the future.

HCM City firms seek 35,000 new employees

In March HCM City is forecast to require 35,000 additional workers for the textile, leather and footwear, construction, power supply, electronics and telecom, marketing, and services sectors.

According to the HCM City Centre for Human Resources Forecast and Labour Market Information, half of the demand is for unskilled workers and 15 per cent for semi-skilled workers.

Tran Anh Tuan, deputy director of the centre, said in February the demand rose by 45 per cent.

The city's labour market is more stable now than in the same period last year, he said.

Though thousands of unskilled workers were hired in the first two months of the year, the turnover rate was not very high and labour shortages faced by labour-intensive firms were not as bad as last year.

Many enterprises, chastened by their past experiences, have begun to pay greater attention to the wages and social welfare of their employees, ensuring many return to work after the Tet (Lunar New Year) holidays, unlike in previous years.

Around 90 per cent of workers in labour-intensive industries returned to work, not including those that joined other companies in the city after returning, Tuan said.

Thus, the textile and leather and footwear industries have not faced the acute worker shortage of last year.

But the centre forecasts a higher turnover rate in the next three months and an increase in registration for unemployment insurance when many workers will be between jobs.

More farm produce expected to join global supply chain

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will enhance the cooperation with multinational groups under the public-private partnership (PPP) form to introduce more farm products into the global supply chain.

Currently, the ministry is cooperating with 15 multinational groups operating in Vietnam such as Unilever, Metro Cash & Carry, Monsanto, Nestlé and Pepsi to give training to farmers and set up a sustainable production process for domestic consumption and export.

The operation a fish platform of Metro Cash & Carry under the PPP form in Can Tho City has been highly evaluated by agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat. The platform has supplied live and processed fish of the Mekong Delta to 15 Metro wholesale centers nationwide.

Minister Phat also expects products of the platform to be exported to more Metro centers in the world.

Nguyen Huu Dung, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep), told the Daily that the number of local seafood firms selling products to Metro Cash & Carry was still small.

Regarding coffee, Vu Quoc Tuan, head of Nestlé’s marketing department, said that the firm would expand its pilot project of sustainable coffee farming under the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C) from two hectares to 50 hectares in the Central Highlands provinces of Lam Dong, Dak Lak and Dak Nong.

However, the coffee production volume under the cooperation project with the agriculture ministry will be very small compared to 250,000 tons Nestlé buys each year, Tuan said.

The ministry and 12 international enterprises such as Metro Cash & Carry, Nestlé, Unilever, Sygenta, Foods, Pepsi and Yara International in 2020 set up five PPP agricultural groups to farm coffee, tea, vegetables, fish and other plants. Currently, the number of enterprises joining this cooperation program is 15.
 
Hanoi’s GDP per capita to reach US$17,000 by 2030

The target was set in the capital city’s strategy for socio-economic development until 2030 with a vision for 2050, which has been approved by the Prime Minister.

Accordingly, by 2030, Hanoi will take the lead in many fields and become the engine of national economic development. Its GDP per capita will reach US$7,500 by 2020 and up to US$17,000 by 2030.

The city’s electricity and water supply networks, educational system, and medical services will be strikingly modern like those in other countries in the region.

To this end, Hanoi is pushing through administrative reform putting in place its special mechanisms and policies and making the best of both domestic and foreign investments as well as human resources.

Hanoi to host Vietconstech exhibition

An International Exhibition of Construction Technology (Vietconstech) will be held in Hanoi in late June as annual event by the Ministry of Construction.

The event will focus on such fields as construction, consultancy, quality control, production and provision of construction materials, technology equipment, and software, etc.

Under the Ministry’s instruction, the State Authority for Construction Quality Inspection (SACQI) will be responsible for co-ordinating with the Construction Information Center and Construction Newspaper.

Many big domestic and foreign groups and corporations have registered to take part in the event, such as the Russian-Vietnamese oil and gas joint venture Vietsovpetro, Sumitomo (Japan), Bureau Veritas (France), Bauer (Germany), Pure Projects (Australia).

The exhibition is expected to have 200 stalls put up by about 150 businesses. Two seminars will be held to introduce new construction technologies and advanced technical solutions to improve the efficiency of investment in the construction sector.

Fitch lauds nation's measures to cool overheating economy
 
Easing inflation and improvements in the trade balance suggest that Viet Nam's economy is stabilising, but authorities need to double their commitment to the "Resolution 11" policies to maintain this progress, Fitch Ratings has said.

Resolution 11 is a package of measures adopted a year ago to help cool the overheating economy, which cut credit growth and encouraged broad money growth.

The global rating agency said the drop in inflation and strength of external finances indicated that Resolution 11 was gradually paying off. A cooling economy and improved trade position were helping stabilise the exchange rate, and a more stable Vietnamese dong could provide additional help in containing inflation.

There is a strong possibility that the smaller trade deficit means the country's FX reserves remain fairly healthy, lessening the risk of a balance-of-payments crisis. This probable result would also build on the increase in official reserves to US$15.2 billion at the end of September, from $12 billion at the beginning of the year.

"We rate Viet Nam ‘B+' with a Stable Outlook. Due to the risks from inflation, which remain very high relative to GDP growth, and the challenges of cooling an economy that has been overheated since 2008, we will continue to monitor the implementation and results of the Resolution 11 policies closely in our assessment of Viet Nam," Fitch Ratings said on its website.

Viet Nam's trade deficit for January and February totalled $628 million, the General Statistics Office said, down from nearly $1.99 billion in the same period last year. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 16.4 per cent year-on-year in February, down from 17.3 per cent in January.

Vietnam aims for more Japanese investments

Vietnam aims to attract more small-and medium-sized enterprises from Japan to invest in the country, a seminar has heard.

This was highlighted by Director Do Nhat Hoang of the Foreign Investment Agency at the seminar on attracting Japanese firms into local industrial parks held by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in Hanoi on Monday.

There are currently 283 industrial parks in 58 provinces and cities nationwide, Hoang said, but up to 35 percent of the space remains unoccupied.

“We want to get connected to the overseas investment strategy of Japan to fill up these industrial parks,” he said.

Minister Hideo Suzuki at the Japanese embassy in Vietnam said his government had developed a new development strategy, including promoting outbound investment, especially to Asian countries.

To deploy such a strategy, Japan has developed a supporting program for enterprises investing abroad to overcome the current economic stagnation in Japan.

Hideo Ohkubo, chairman of the global promotion committee for small and medium enterprises of the Tokyo Business Association, said the aging situation in Japan had narrowed down the domestic market.

Besides, Japan is coping with stagnant exporting industries due to continuous appreciation of the yen, the sharp decline in international competitiveness of Japan against the rise of other Asian countries and the consequences of the earthquake and tsunami last year.

However, whether Japanese firms will choose to invest in Vietnam in response to their government’s strategy remains a question.

Ohkubo estimated up to 97.3 percent of the 220,000 small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing industry did their businesses at home.

Most of the Japanese investors overseas are large groups and corporations, while small and medium firms haven’t got used to investing abroad, he said.

Japanese businesses consider Vietnam a more attractive destination for production expansion than India and Thailand, and the third appealing destination in terms of consumption market after India and Indonesia.

“Still, most Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises are hesitant to invest in Vietnam,” said Ohkubo.

Yoshifumi Tsujio, an expert at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said Japanese firms would make investment decisions more easily when Vietnamese industrial parks have completed infrastructure.

Besides, Japanese enterprises seek sufficient services, local staffs that comprehend the Japanese language and culture, and Japanese employees who are willing to reside in industrial parks.

Ohkubo said India, Indonesia and Thailand had developed industrial zones that satisfy the working and living demands of Japanese investors.

Even the lately opened Myanmar has accepted Japan’s consultancy to buil Japanese-style industrial parks to attract Japanese investors.

He recommended Vietnam to turn industrial parks to small cities to attract FDI capital of small and medium Japanese enterprises.

Japan is the 4th biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with over 1,600 projects worth US$23.6 billion, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
 
Insiders doubt woodwork industry’s prospect

Insiders say the local woodwork industry will be hard to develop because of numerous setbacks including a lack of supportive policies.

Nguyen Chien Thang, director of Scansia Pacific, a large wood processor in southern Binh Duong Province, said at an industry meeting recently that his company had lost an export order to a Chinese rival.

Thang had received an order of 500,000 sets of tables made of fir from IKEA, a woodwork retailer in Sweden.

However, he failed to seal the deal as the Chinese rival offered the customer the price of US$67 a set, which is $5 cheaper than his price.

“Chinese companies no longer focus on processing raw materials like wood but their competitive capacity is still overwhelming,” Thang admitted.

According to Thang, input material areas in Vietnam are scattered and therefore there is no connectivity between these areas and wood processing mills.

This has pushed up product prices, Thang said.

Vo Truong Thanh, chairman of Truong Thanh Furniture Corp., said the present mechanism had yet to allow forestry growers to be granted land ownership certificates.

Meanwhile, he said, this is one of the 10 criteria required by large wood import markets such as the US and European nations.

The General Office of Forestry said forestry growers and wood processors for export had faced a lot of difficulties in expanding production space as well as hiring forest land.

This has resulted from troublesome administrative procedures and underdeveloped planning of forest land at home.

The instability of material supply, the shortage of connectivity among related sides alongside inappropriate policies and mechanism have discouraged investors so far, according to the office.

Owing to the current massive export of wood sawdust, the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCMC (HAWA) has sent a petition to the Ministry of Finance, asking for taxes to be imposed on this material.

According to HAWA vice chairman Huynh Van Hanh, the proposal is to prevent a large quantity of wood sawdust from being shipped abroad, especially to China.

Hanh said local demand for wood scrap had been on the rise due to the overwhelming presence of plywood manufacturers.

Besides, multiple importers from Europe and South Korea have shown keen interest in products made from wood sawdust.

“These orders bring in high profits while they only need low processing technology. However, the uncontrolled export of input materials has pushed up the price of these materials at home,” Hanh said.

Scansia Pacific director Nguyen Chien Thang earlier suggested the Government to map out planning zones for input wood material areas to utilize wood sawdust and shaving.

He said these raw materials when used to produce plywood products would create value higher than when exported as raw materials.

Meanwhile, forest growers in a meeting held last Friday in HCMC said that they had no choice but to exploit wood earlier than expected to make wood chips or even sawdust for export because of capital shortage.

At present, wood scrap is priced at VND500,000 a ton while the price of one ton of sawn timber is 4 times higher.

The Import - Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said it would review the situation to submit suitable solutions to the Ministry of Finance.

Delta farmers tend paddies in … industrial parks

With the industrial parks’ investors failing to make progress on infrastructure development on the huge areas of paddy land in the Mekong Delta that have been cleared for their numerous establishments, many local farmers are now making use of the deserted sites as paddy fields.

Last December, the National Assembly passed a resolution, stating that the country should preserve the 3.8 million hectares of paddy land by 2020. However, both scientists and local authorities in the Mekong Delta fear that achieving the target will not be easy.

The country’s largest granary, the Mekong Delta accounts for 90 percent of the annual total rice export volumes, but paddy land areas have increasingly decreased over the last few years, with haphazard investments of industrial parks (IP) around the delta.

Local farmers have leased plots of land that have been left abandoned for years inside the IPs to start their crops.

For instance, Nguyen Van Dung, a farmer from Hau Giang Province, said he and many other farmers are now tending dozens of hectares of rice and other crops inside the Song Hau Industrial Park in Chau Thanh District.

The IP completed site clearance in 2007, but no construction has ever begun, leaving most of the 340-ha area covered with grass.

“I have been waiting for so long, but have seen no plants ever be built in the zone,” said Dung.

Although Dung has granted his land plot to the establishment of the IP, and received compensation, he has now returned to the site to start his crops again.

Meanwhile, Ha Van Tuan, another local farmer, said he also wanted to tend his paddy inside the IP.

“But it will require a large sum of money to clear the weeds and grass on the site,” said Tuan.

“In this IP, you can grow as large an area as you wish, as long as you can afford the expense of grass clearing.”

Similarly, local authorities of Soc Trang Province in 2007 also cleared 180-ha of paddy land at Soc Trang city to give place to the An Hiep IP. Despite the considerably developed infrastructure, two thirds of the park area still remains deserted after five years.

Local farmers have thus demanded to lease the plots and restart their agricultural production.

“It was too wasteful leaving such fertile land deserted,” said Nguyen Van Phuoc, a farmer who has been running a 100-ha farm to grow watermelon, rice, and sweet potatoes in An Hiep IP over the last two years.

The largest benefit of growing rice inside the IP is that it can keep local authorities away from the reputation of wasting land, and local farmers whose lands have been reclaimed and cleared can now earn their livelihood by working on his farm, he said.

Around 100 farmers work on his farm, each earning VND100,000 a day.

Many farmers have also converted the purpose of their land through their own initiative, contributing to the rapid decline of paddy land over the last few years.

Ho Quang Cua, deputy head of Soc Trang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said 250,000 hectares of fertile paddy land in the coastal areas in Mekong Delta have been converted into ponds for raising shrimps.

“In the years to come, under the ‘new rural areas’ policy, much land intended for rice crops will also have to give way to the construction of roads, urban areas, and industrial clusters,” said Cua.

In Tien Giang and Dong Thap provinces, farmers have also converted their rice fields into orchards, local authorities said.

Authorities can not prevent or ban farmers from doing so, due to the lack of penalty measures, they said.

Nguyen Van Sanh, head of the Mekong Delta Research and Development Institute, said there is a paradox that any provinces growing rice will be considered a “poor province,” and thus local farmers of that province are also considered poor.

This has lead to the fact that localities have scrambled to industrialize, he said.

“Moreover, rice farmers cannot earn as much of a profitas those cultivating fruits or seafood, so we cannot force them to keep on tending their paddies .”