08 December 2020, Asia: the 2020 International Support Group (ISG) Plenary Meeting was held in Hanoi with the theme “Vietnam Agriculture and Rural Development in the context of COVID-19: Oppotunities and challenges”. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh chaired the Conference.
The ISG Plenary Meeting is a high-level policy dialogue forum held annually between MARD and international donor communities, business groups and partners to exchange and share policy orientation and priorities of the two sides in order to promote international cooperation, strengthen coordination of resources to promote Vietnam’s agricultural development towards sustainability.
At the ISG 2020 Plenary Meeting, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and international partners adopted the Joint Declaration on “Cooperation for Vietnam’s agriculture and rural development in the context of the Covid 19”.
In a joint statement at the meeting, ISG strengthens its cooperation with the Government of Vietnam on measures to increase agricultural resilience in the context of COVID-19.
Priority should be given to issues of smallholder livelihoods and social welfare policy recommendations, food security policy, the overall capacity of the agricultural sector and the value chain of agricultural products. ISG committed to assisting Vietnam in building a roadmap for agricultural and rural development in the context of COVID-19.
ISG also affirmed to support the agricultural sector to improve its capacity to comply with standards and quality of stakeholders in the value chain to access and diversify the global market; develop the electronic agriculture application, including digital technology in production, trade, agricultural extension and traceability.
