The ministry was reporting at meeting, chaired by deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue and attended by leaders of ministries, agencies, associations and representatives of agricultural businesses.
The meeting aimed to get opinions about a new draft circular to supplement and replace some limited items of Decree 210 on encouraging businesses to invest in agriculture and rural development.
The decree has been implemented since February 2014 but as of September last year, the number of agricultural, forestry and fishery businesses accounted for less than 1 percent.
They are most small and medium sized enterprises with the capital of less than VND5 billion (US$220,000). Nearly 50 percent of them are super small scaled with below 10 workers.
According to the draft circular, a slew of policies will be implemented to give agricultural investors financial aids such as rent exemption and reduction, assistances in science and technology application and processing and preservation.
Those investing in hi-tech field will be supported with VND300 million a hectare or a maximum of VND10 billion ($440,000) a project to develop infrastructures.
Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue said that the decree had been carried out inefficiently with only 64 projects having been built for the last three years.
The key matter in encouraging businesses to invest in agriculture was not financial assistances but mechanisms, which difficulties and problems should be solved to facilitate agricultural investment. Administrative procedures are complicated while ministries have pushed responsibility to each other raising difficulties for investors.
Mr. Hue required to review regulations on collaterals to create more advantageous conditions than for businesses before they access to supportive loans.
