Kon Tum focuses on agricultural development

CENTRAL HIGHLANDS — The Central Highlands Province of Kon Tum's People’s Committee has instructed district authorities and relevant agencies to promote agriculture and sell their farm produce in the domestic and global markets.

A Ngọc Linh ginseng farm in Tu Mơ Rông District, Kon Tum Province. — Photo baochinhphu

Of the province’s 968,961ha of land, 88 per cent is agricultural land, with conditions being suitable for hi-tech farming, animal husbandry, forestry, and aquaculture.

It has areas specialising in hi-tech agricultural production, where vegetables, flowers and fruits are grown.

Conditions are suitable for growing medicinal herbs in Măng Đen in Kon Plông District, Ngọc Linh ginseng in Đắk Glei and Tu Mơ Rông districts, coffee in Đắk Hà District, and raising livestock in the newly created district of H’Drai.

In 2016 the province's People’s Council ratified a project to link hi-tech agriculture with the processing industry.

It has urged relevant agencies to draft plans to build a hi-tech agricultural park.

At a conference on the development of Ngọc Linh ginseng and other plants and crops in Kon Tum City in September 2018, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc approved a project to build an industrial park for the production and processing of medicinal herbs.

The province has given 108 projects the green light to solicit investment, most of them being hi-tech projects for the cultivation and processing of medicinal herbs, agricultural parks and zones and hi-tech animal breeding farms.

By the end of last year Kon Tum had 27 hi-tech agricultural projects with a total investment of nearly VNĐ7 trillion.

They included a project for hi-tech farming and eco-tourism developed by Kon Plong Agri – Tourism and Australia’s 4Ways Pty Ltd, a world–class organic farm by Biopap Co Ltd and the Măng Đen Hi-tech Park by 4Ways Pty Ltd.

According to Nguyễn Văn Hoà, chairman of the province People’s Committee, over VNĐ1,115 billion (over US$48 billion) has been invested in infrastructure for hi-tech agriculture in the last three years.

The committee has established a team to promote the production, processing and sale of Ngọc Linh ginseng and other farm produce.

With its agricultural potential, Kon Tum has attracted the attention of international investors, province authorities said.