Ha Noi, Viet Nam – Creating new livelihood opportunities for the rural population in Viet Nam was the focus of a conference held today by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD).

FAO Representative in Viet Nam Mr. Jong-Ha Bae and Vice Minister of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development (MARD) Mr. Tran Thanh Nam joined international and national rural development experts as well as representative of provinces to map out the next stage of the New Rural Development Programme (NRD) for 2016-2020.

"Today's conference is an important step towards laying the foundation for new approaches, new solutions and mobilize new partnerships for the new rural development programme in Viet Nam," Mr. Jong-Ha Bae told the conference in Ha Noi.

At the conference, international experts outlined a number of innovative approaches that could be taken to enhance the programme's next phase. FAO and other UN agencies have supported the implementation of the programme, as part of the project "UN Support to the National Target Programme on the New Rural Development (NTP-NRD)", in the past three years with the MARD. To now, more than 780 rural communes nationwide have benefited from the project with improved rural livelihoods. The conference was expected to contribute to the development of a framework for the NRD 2016-2020.

"To develop this programme in the new phase, it is important to learn international experiences, particularly in terms of policy mechanisms and institutional organization models of rural development," said Mr. Jong-Ha Bae.