Visa has partnered with the Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to help Vietnamese farmers and agricultural SMEs digitalize their operations, with a view to transforming agriculture into an economic development driver.

As part of an MOU signed on Wednesday, Visa will help farmers accelerate e-commerce and digital payment adoption, and digitalize their operations, positioning agriculture as a driving force for Vietnam’s economic development, the U.S. payment company said in a press release the same day.

“We are happy to partner with iDEA and MoIT and extend our expertise and solutions to farmers across Vietnam,” Dang Tuyet Dung, country manager of Visa Vietnam and Laos, was quoted as saying.

“Setting foot on the digital highway will empower Vietnamese producers to grow larger and nimbler at the same time and will help modernize and leverage the supply chain of agricultural production in Vietnam.”

COVID-19 has shown that the world is going digital and to succeed sellers must move with the demand.

However, while agriculture is a major pillar of the Vietnamese economy – contributing nearly 14 percent of GDP and 60 percent of employment as reported by Inter-American Development Bank – it remains constrained in its growth prospects by a lack of finance opportunities for smallholder farmers, Visa remarked.

The payment firm will support smallholder farmers and SMEs in the onboarding and setup of digital sales capabilities, in partnership with merchant enablers, future-proofing their businesses with digital payments and merchant solutions.

With the fundaments in place, they will be supplied with the means to grow their businesses with the requisite operations and logistics as well as customer growth solutions.

“Digitalization is truly needed in the Vietnamese agricultural industry,” said Bui Huy Hoang, deputy director of iDEA’s Center for Information and Digital Technology.

“With our new partnership, MoIT, iDEA, and Visa will support farmers and small business owners to take the first and most daunting step toward the digital journey.

“From there, we will be able to reposition agriculture as a driving force for Vietnam’s development.”

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