“Vietnam Earns $4.5 Billion Annually from Rice Exports, but Spends $12 Billion on Animal Feed Imports.”

The 10th Local Dialogue session, held on the afternoon of August 23, was part of the Local Dialogue Round of the Vietnam Private Sector Forum 2025 (VPSF 2025). The event was chaired by the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association and hosted by the newly-established Tay Ninh Young Entrepreneurs Association.

Speaking at the dialogue, Mr. Dang Hong Anh, Member of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, Vice President of the Vietnam Youth Union, and Chairman of the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association, shared that Tay Ninh and the vast Southern region are presented with unprecedented development opportunities. From border gate economics to high-tech agriculture, renewable energy, tourism, and logistics services, the potential is immense.

However, according to Mr. Hong Anh, to turn this potential into tangible assets and seize these opportunities, we need a truly transparent business environment, an administrative system that is proactive and upright, and a stable and predictable legal framework so that every policy issued unlocks resources rather than creating barriers.

Mr. Nguyen Tan Thu, Chairman of the Young Entrepreneurs Association of Vinh Long Province, shared that while Tay Ninh has done a good job with industrialization, some areas still hold on to the traditional agricultural economic mindset and struggle with questions like “What else can we raise? What else can we plant?”. Some enterprises have shown interest in exploring exports, but most neglect the domestic market of over 100 million people, which is currently dominated by corporations from Thailand, the Netherlands, the US, and other European countries.

“The animal feed market is currently dominated by foreign companies, with 80-90% of revenue coming from countries like Thailand, the US, and China. Meanwhile, domestic enterprises are at a significant disadvantage. We are the world’s largest rice exporter, with annual exports of about 4.5 billion USD, but we spend 12 billion USD on buying corn, soybeans, and other inputs for animal feed production,” said Mr. Thu.

He also pointed out the challenges in land-use conversion. For instance, if a business wants to engage in production and business activities, the land must be zoned for those purposes. Only then can they proceed with the necessary procedures related to the environment, fire protection, etc., to meet the production requirements. However, land-use conversion currently requires meetings of the Provincial People’s Council and involves planning issues, which prolongs the process and causes difficulties.

In addition, many industrial parks are not yet up to par for domestic enterprises and mainly offer incentives to FDI companies. For example, the rent for industrial land is approximately 100 USD (2.6 million VND) per square meter for a 50-year lease. But large industrial parks often require a minimum lease of 50,000 square meters, which translates to a cost of over 100 billion VND. This is a substantial amount.

“If a business spends 100 billion VND on land rent, where will they get the money to build factories, comply with fire protection regulations, and invest in production and business activities? We should have industrial parks for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises with areas ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 square meters,” suggested Mr. Thu.

Mr. Dang Khanh Duy, Vice Chairman of the Tay Ninh Young Entrepreneurs Association and General Director of Tan Nhien Joint Stock Company, emphasized the need to develop high-tech agriculture using AI and precision technology to increase productivity over traditional methods, reduce labor costs, and meet international export standards such as Global GAP and FSSC 22000.

Mr. Duy believes that the OCOP program, if effectively implemented, can serve as a bridge to bring high-quality products to consumers by building brands, ensuring traceability, and expanding markets. This combination will not only modernize agriculture but also promote sustainable rural economic development and elevate Vietnamese products in the global market.

He suggested providing financial and technical support for enterprises to apply AI and Big Data in agricultural production, offering free training programs on digital transformation for businesses, establishing preferential credit funds for small and medium-sized enterprises (with a focus on startups and innovative OCOP enterprises), and encouraging new capital mobilization channels like venture capital funds.

Additionally, he emphasized the importance of developing logistics infrastructure by investing significantly in transportation infrastructure, especially connecting provinces and cities to reduce logistics costs, and establishing modern logistics centers to facilitate exports.