US rolls out agricultural partnership competition
THE US government, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has rolled out a competition for agricultural partnerships that focuses on major challenges in the Kingdom’s agricultural sector such as cold chains, storage capacity and logistics, according to the US embassy in Phnom Penh.
The private sector lauded the USAID initiative as a targeted tactic to improve efficiency in the Cambodian agricultural value chain, spotlighting vegetables as an example of an export segment that racks up losses every year due to supply-chain inefficiencies.
Launched on February 24, the competition “will make $3.5 million available in grant funding to private companies”, the embassy said in a February 28 press statement.
“It will also require companies to provide a one-to-one funding match and is designed to work with the private sector to respond to the most pressing needs for agricultural cold chain, storage and logistics.
“The competition aims to help Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries achieve the strategic priorities of its Agriculture Sector Development Plan 2019-2023 with market-driven solutions,” it added.
Ambassador Patrick Murphy said in the statement that the US “is a long-standing partner to Cambodia and its agriculture sector.
“This competition is designed to challenge local and international companies to come up with innovative solutions to advance Cambodia’s economic competitiveness by expanding market access, improving infrastructure and logistics, and promoting private sector engagement and investment across the agriculture value chain,” he said.
Kan Panharith, production manager at local agribusiness Davane Plc, which specialises in agricultural value chains and markets for food safety, told The Post that his business fully supports the focus of USAID’s move and the “clear targets” on which the competition’s funding awards are directed to.
He noted that the competition’s overall aim is in line with his business’ philosophy. “In fact, it is one of the four pillars of our grand plan – to develop a market system for local agricultural products.”
According to him, Davane has made significant headway in bringing safe highquality products to the market and is working out a holistic model from production to post-harvest as well as a distribution and market system for local wares.
“We believe this funding support is spot on in its focus and comes at the right time. We trust that the scheme will be a significant contributor to development of the agricultural sector that helps build a foundation for a sustainable market system,” Panharith said.
Yourng Pakk, CEO of AgriBee (Cambodia) Plc, a value chain management platform that serves stakeholders in the agricultural sector, told The Post that the funding will do its part in improving the country’s agricultural value chain.
“USAID’s initiative is a brilliant one . . . their matched funding arrangements with the private sector aim to ramp up the agricultural sector,” he said, adding that the programme will focus on vegetables, which account for hundreds of millions of dollars in Cambodian imports every year.
“The agricultural sector requires storage and cooling facilities, and the funds will help set up more . . . in six vegetable-growing provinces,” Pakk said.
The embassy said the competition will close on April 16 and invited interested parties to visit mspgrants.com/cambodia/ to learn more.
The total area for vegetable cultivation in the Kingdom reached 57,208ha at the end of 2019, which yielded 681,099 tonnes that year, according to Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon.
Last year, vegetable production climbed to 716,113 tonnes, which Sakhon said was equivalent to 68 per cent of total domestic demand.
However, he pointed out that the Kingdom still needed to import 329,612 tonnes of vegetables.
THE government is going to prepare a roadmap soon for Bangladesh’s smooth transition from a least developed country (LDC) to a developing one in the next five years.
It is also set to sign preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with Sri Lanka and Nepal to reap the trade benefits available during the transition period, say finance ministry officials.
The national taskforce working to ensure Bangladesh’s smooth transition to a developing nation will sit soon to draw up the roadmap, a senior official at the ministry told The Daily Star on February 28.
Secretaries of all the ministries concerned are members of the taskforce headed by the principal coordinator (SDG affairs) of the Prime Minister’s Office. They will discuss the roadmap and strategies to implement the measures recommended by the UN Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP), said the official, seeking anonymity.
A team from the UNCDP is scheduled to visit Bangladesh next month to assist in the preparations of the roadmap and strategies.
The UNCDP is arguing for adoption of a host of international support measures in favour of the graduating LDCs.
The team will monitor the measures taken by the government and also give technical support for preparing the roadmap and strategies, mentioned the official.
The official also said they will take up some time-bound action plans and send progress reports to the UNCDP every year so that it can monitor and evaluate the country’s steps during the transition period.
The government has already submitted the country report regarding the transition to the UNCDP, outlining its plans for the transition period.
In the report, the government said it is going to sign PTAs with Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Bangladesh has also been negotiating with Indonesia to sign Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to boost bilateral trade and also tap into export potential in the Southeast Asian region, the official pointed out.
The Economic Relations Division (ERD) has taken up a project titled Support to Sustainable Graduation Project to carry out the activities of the national taskforce and also provide it with secretarial support. The roadmap and strategies will be formulated under the project.
On February 26, the UNCDP, based on assessment, recommended Bangladesh’s graduation to a developing country from a least developed one.
Taking into consideration the Covid-19 fallout, the UNCDP for the first time extended the transition period for Bangladesh to five years from three years.
The UNCDP will evaluate the country again in 2024 mainly to observe whether there is any setback in the economy or the graduation.
At a virtual discussion on the country’s LDC graduation on February 28, Debapriya Bhattacharya, a member of the UNCDP, said the committee has suggested that Bangladesh should prioritise areas in policy formulation to support its development during the transition period and beyond.
In a presentation, he also highlighted the major policies in which the UNCDP suggested collection of more tax, measures to increase private and foreign direct investment (FDI), creation of jobs, and improvement of healthcare and the quality of education.
The UNCDP also suggested product diversification as the country is relying too much on garment items, said Bhattacharya, also a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue.