"Scientific and technological market solutions in agriculture and rural areas to promote the upgrading of OCOP products" Conference

With the goal of linking theory with practice, applying scientific and technological market solutions in agriculture and rural areas to promote the upgrading of OCOP products, on November 13, 2021, Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA) organized the conference entitled "Scientific and technological market solutions in agriculture and rural areas to promote the upgrading of OCOP products". Attending the seminar, from VNUA, there were Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Bao Duong, VNUA’s Vice President; Dr. Vu Ngoc Huyen, VNUA’s Vice President; and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Do Quang Giam - Dean of the Faculty of Accounting and Business Management. In addition, the conference attracted the participants from other state agencies, including Mr. Le Van Thang - Director of the Office of Rural Development, Hung Yen Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development; Mr. Vu Tien Giap - Head of the Office of Technology and Technological Market Management, Hung Yen Provincial Department of Science and Technology. The conference also attracted the participation of more than 50 guests, 6 speakers who were researchers, scientists, lecturers and practitioners/students. The conference was organized on the Microsoft Teams platform.

Conference attendees are connected online on the Microsoft Teams platform

Speaking at the opening session of the Conference, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Bao Duong, VNUA’s Vice President, warmly welcomed delegates representing different research institutes, universities, scientists and related agencies attending the conference. He affirmed the great contribution of the One Commune One Product (OCOP) program to the overall success of the agriculture and rural sectors over the past years. After nearly 3 years of implementation, the program had aroused the potential and strengths of localities in specialty products, rural industries associated with advantages in production conditions, raw material areas and traditional culture to increase the value of OCOP products. Up to now, 59 provinces had organized product evaluation and classification, in which, 57 provinces had officially decided to recognize the results with 4,469/6,210 products participating in the Program being recognized with 3 stars or more (corresponding to 72% and exceeding 1.86 times the target for the period 2018-2020). At the same time, Assoc. Prof. Dr.  Pham Bao Duong also affirmed that developing the scientific and technological market was considered one of the important solutions to further promote the upgrading of OCOP products.

 Assoc.Prof.Dr. Pham Bao Duong, VNUA’s Vice President, gave a welcome speech at the Conference

The conference has received special attention from researchers, scientists, lecturers, etc. with a large number of conference papers. All submissions were sent to two independent reviewers to evaluate the quality as well as improved by responding to all of the review comments. After the independent review stage, the Editorial Board selected 17 articles to be printed in the conference proceedings. To ensure a large amount of time for the follow-up discussion, the Conference Committee selected six papers to be presented during the conference. Each paper was given a presentation time of about 15 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of face-to-face discussion. All of the presentations were followed by heated discussion from the conference participants.

The cover page of the conference proceedings

In the closing session of the conference, Assoc.Prof. Dr. Do Quang Giam - Head of the Faculty of Accounting and Business Management, leader of the strong research group "Agricultural and food institutions, policies and businesses" affirmed that science and technology could promote their role in the implementation of the OCOP program effectively. The conference provided important information for policy makers to issue macro policies and mechanisms as well as to make the right decisions; helping businesses and OCOP stakeholders obtain useful information, select effective business strategies, find out the right direction as well as feasible solutions.

Some photos of the conference

Dr. Bui Thi Lam presents her research paper

Mr. Le Van Thang shares his ideas

 Dr. Le Thi Kim Oanh presents her research paper 

 Discussion about OCOP product upgrading matrix