Cash to help agriculture firms advertise
Cash to help agriculture firms advertise
Agricultural enterprises would receive allowances of up to VND100 million (US$4,760) per year for three years for use in promoting their products, including advertising in the media, under a plan being drafted by the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The proposal is part of a draft decree on preferential policies for enterprises and co-operatives investing in the agricultural and rural sector. The ministry is currently collecting ideas for the decree, which is being drafted to replace Decree No 61 issued in 2010.
Under the current draft, enterprises producing meat and vegetables would receive a promotion allowance of VND200,000 per tonne of products.
Among other preferential policies included in the draft, enterprises breeding over 1,000 pigs would receive an additional allowance of VND3 billion ($142,800) for electrical and water infrastructure needed to ensure hygienic breeding conditions. Enterprises breeding over 400 cattle would receive VND2 billion ($95,230) for such purposes, while dairy farms with over 500 cows would receive VND5 billion ($238,095).
The deputy director of the ministry's legislation department, Vu Thi Chau Quynh, said that the State already had a number of preferential policies in place for investors in agricultural and rural projects, including tax and land fee remission, but the policies had been ineffective in promoting investment in these sectors.
The number of breeding enterprises was down by 16.9 per cent nationwide as much as 30 per cent in some provinces in the Hong (Red) River Delta, Quynh said.
"If the number continues to decrease, we will face a shortage of meat supplies for our daily food requirements," said Quynh.
However, the director of a HCM City-based enterprise who asked to have his name withheld, said that, despite the preferential policies, his company did not want to invest in agricultural projects.
"The agricultural sector depends to much on weather," he said. "If there is storm or flooding, enterprises can suffer great losses."
Procedures to receive allowances were also too complicated and time-consuming, he added.
"The State should simplify procedures for the allowances, and stabilise electricity and water sources in order to remove obstacles to enterprises that invest in the agricultural sector," he said.
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