In the afternoon of the sixth day of Dinh Hoi Tet, the Vice Minister Ho Xuan Hung and leaders of MARD paid a visit, gave best wishes on the occasion of Dinh Hoi Tet festival to the Institute.

The Vice Minister Ho Xuan Hung and leaders of Departments of Planning and Projection, Science and Technology of MARD paid a visit, gave best wishes on the occasion of Dinh Hoi Tet festival to officials and staff of Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) and raised a number of critical and long term tasks to be implemented by the Institute for the cause of Vietnam rural development.

According to the Vice Minister, under the intensive integration process, rural people are having less advantages than those who live in other regions of the country, the poverty alleviation program though recording a number of important results, continues to be less sustainable due to a high rate of people who become poor again and a slow progress of transforming economic structure. This is a big challenge that needs to be overcome in order to promote the construction and development of new rural regions. To provide a new orientation for Vietnam, the Vice Minister cited a lesson learnt from China where 35 million people fell into the state of unemployment within 5 years since this country officially integrated into world economy and became a member of WTO.

The leader of MARD’s Planning and Projection Department, Mr. Trang Huu Dung highly appreciated the strong effort of the Institute in 2006 in fulfilling the scheme under which the Institute has officially moved to the autonomous mechanism following the Decree 115 ND/CP of the government. Under this mechanism, in 2007, the Institute will continue to be provided with state budget. However, it has to participate in bidding on studies and researches in competitive manner and attract orders of MARD on carrying out policy researches… To successfully implement these tasks, the Institute must quickly and timely grasp needs and priorities as set forth by MARD.

For years to come, leaders of MARD encourage the Institute to further strengthen its organizational structure, extend the number of its staff and promote its cooperation with other departments under MARD in drafting laws and policies on rural and agricultural development especially policies on long-term development. To support these activities, the Vice Minister recommended that leaders of the Institute should very soon establish research groups specializing in studying the Vietnam rural comprising with high qualified and experience researchers who understand well the situation of rural regions and can recognize and reflect problems encountered by the people in order to develop suitable policies to satisfy their demands.

On behalf of the Institute’s leaders and staff, the Director of the Institute, Dr. Dang Kim Son confirmed the Institute’s resolution on building up strong groups of researchers specializing in studying commodities and rural development to meet the long term research requirements regardless any potential risks that the Institute may face in order to make the Institute to become a reliable advisory body of MARD.