MYANMAR Rice Federation held its Annual Meeting and General Assembly yesterday.

Union Minister for Commerce Dr Than Myint delivered a video message to the event.

In his video message, the Union Minister said that Myanmar is an agricultural nation, and rice was a major crop cultivated for staple food of the country and exporting if exceeded locally, stressing the importance of grasping opportunities for sustainable development of the agriculture sector despite COVID-19 pandemic challenges.

He also highlighted the need to develope the crop production rate, to reduce the production costs, to provide the logistics system and production processes in order to produce competitive or quality products.

The Union Minister also said the government is making efforts to cooperate with the international countries, to achieve technical aids and foreign investment for the development of the country’s economy. He also stressed the new market for farming products and crops in addition to rice via online platforms while rice is set as a priority sector in National Export Strategy (NES) 2020-2025.

The Union Minister said 43 Myanmar companies and 79 rice mills received rice export licenses from General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) in 2020.

The government donated 200 tonnes of rice to Wuhan of China at the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak and planned to donate another 200 tonnes to Bamko Hurricane victims of the Philippines. The Union Minister appreciated the efforts of the Myanmar Rice Federation to help the government in purchasing reserved rice to ease food security concerns and in selling the reserved rice at low prices amid COVID-19 pandemic.

He then urge the federation to conduct research and developing programmes including educating activities for rice sector and to carry out closely with the farmers for the sustainable development. Union Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Dr Aung Thu and UMFCCI President U Zaw Min Win also sent the video messages to the event. The Patrons and Central Executive Members of the federation, rice experts, the representatives of Myanmar Rice Traders Association and Myanmar Rice Millers Association and other officials joined the event online.

MNA

PHOTO: MNA

(Translated by Khine Thazin Han)

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