Côte d’Ivoire’s National Assembly President visits Vietnam National University of Agriculture

On the afternoon of August 24, in Gia Lam Commune, Hanoi, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi and a high-level delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire visited and held a working session with Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA).

President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi and the high-level delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire during their visit and working session at VNUA. Photo: Dac Truong

In her welcoming remarks, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, VNUA’s President, expressed her sincere appreciation to President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi and the high-level delegation for taking the time to visit and work with VNUA. She emphasized that the visit presented an opportunity to translate the friendship and mutual trust between the two countries into concrete, long-term cooperation in agriculture, science and technology, innovation, and human resource development.

President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi visits and works with VNUA. Photo: Dac Truong

According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, despite the geographical distance, Vietnam and Côte d’Ivoire share many similarities, including a commitment to peace, aspirations for development, and a strong focus on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas.

VNUA’s President, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thị Lan, delivers her remarks. Photo: Dac Truong

VNUA’s President proposed that the practical development needs and priorities of Côte d’Ivoire should serve as the starting point for cooperation. Based on this approach, the two sides could focus on three key areas: food and sustainable agriculture; agro-processing and value addition; and human resource development, expert exchange, and joint research. These three pillars could be summarized as “Food – Value – People”. In the area of food, cooperation would aim to improve productivity, efficiency, and sustainability; in terms of value, the focus would not only be on producing more but also on improving processing and generating greater value from agricultural products in which Côte d’Ivoire had comparative advantages; while in terms of people, priority would be given to training, the exchange of experts, lecturers, and students, as well as joint research.

VNUA’s President also emphasized the principle of avoiding a scattered approach by selecting a limited number of genuinely high-priority areas, implementing them at an appropriate scale, evaluating their outcomes, and expanding them only after their effectiveness had been demonstrated. Vietnam’s experience, crop varieties, and technologies should be jointly studied and adapted by the Ivorian side to suit local conditions.

President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi delivers remarks at the meeting. Photo: Dac Truong

VNUA proposed that the two sides should promptly designate focal points to continue discussions and identify several areas for early implementation, following the principle of jointly identifying needs, jointly developing solutions, jointly piloting initiatives, jointly evaluating outcomes, and jointly scaling up what would truly work.

Former Deputy Head of the Central Economic Commission Cao Duc Phat delivers remarks. Photo: Dac Truong

Highly appreciating the achievements Vietnam had made, Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi said that Vietnam’s experience had inspired Côte d’Ivoire, particularly in improving agricultural productivity, livestock production, deep processing, market organization, and the development of agricultural exports.

Former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong delivers remarks. Photo: Dac Truong

President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi noted that Vietnam’s annual rice production had increased from approximately 5 million tonnes in the 1975–1980 period to 15 million tonnes in 1990 and now reached around 45 million tonnes. Meanwhile, Côte d’Ivoire currently produced approximately 2 million tonnes of rice a year. Given that the two countries had relatively similar land areas, the significant difference in production highlighted the considerable potential for growth in Côte d’Ivoire’s rice sector. Côte d’Ivoire was also interested in Vietnam’s experience in developing the cashew, coffee, fisheries, and livestock sectors, as well as making effective use of water resources.

Particularly, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire highly appreciated Vietnam’s achievements in poverty reduction, especially in rural areas, which had contributed to improving productivity, employment, and incomes for local people.

Members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire exchange views at the meeting. Photo: Dac Truong

President of the National Assembly of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi said that all members of the delegation were from agricultural production areas. Each locality had its own strengths, but productivity and production efficiency remained below their potential. Meanwhile, the President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire had set important goals for the next 10 years and the Government was implementing policies to achieve them. Therefore, Côte d’Ivoire wished to learn from Vietnam’s experience in human resource training, market organization, cooperatives, processing, investment, and improving productivity and economic efficiency.

President of the National Assembly of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi and the high-level delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire visit the Traditional Hall of VNUA. Photo: Dac Truong

President of the National Assembly of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi expressed his support for the proposal to explore and implement several pilot policies and projects, with Vietnam providing support in selected localities and specific areas. Through these initiatives, the two sides would conduct a substantive assessment of their effectiveness and identify suitable models for wider replication in the years to come.

As part of the visit, President of the National Assembly of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi and the high-level delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire visited VNUA’s Traditional Hall, the Center of Excellence Research and Creative Innovation, the Institute of Biology and Agricultural Technology, and the Institute of Fruit and Vegetable Research, where they directly learned about VNUA’s modern agricultural research and biotechnology models.