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VN to benefit from marine potential
Viet Nam will try to tap its sea-based resources to the utmost and develop its coastal economic zones vigorously, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has said.
Speaking at a recent meeting on the 2010 socio-economic tasks, Hung said that the Government had also highlighted the task of safeguarding the country's sovereignty in the seas and islands.
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's Department for Seas and Islands Deputy Director Nguyen Chu Hoi noted Viet Nam had a coastline of 3,260km and that coastal areas made up about 17 percent of the country's total area. He said that for 23 percent of the population, the coastal fringe was an important part of their lives.
Senior researcher Truong Dinh Hien said the sea-based economy was a large field including commercial exchange, technology and economic investment,establishment of big industry, economic zones, urban chains, a coastal port system, services, tourism, infrastructure, national defence and security, sea-based constructions, mineral and oil exploitation, fishing and fish processing.
"The establishment of a sea-based economy would lead to the bigger change of the society," Hien said.
Fisheries was a special sector of the sea-based economy contributing more than US$4.2 billion to aquaculture export turnover last year, creating jobs for more than 1.5 million people.
However, the industry's development was out of balance, according to Viet Nam Union of Science and Technology Associations Deputy Chairman Le Duc Toan.
"The shipbuilding sector, for example, can only do assembling and processing works and is losing profit on outside expense,"Toan said.
The maritime sector, meanwhile, had not planned its investment, causing a waste of money and human resources, while fisheries was working at only 30-40 per cent of its potential.
Offshore fishing lacked big vessels and was capable of only low-capacity and inshore fishermen were destroying the environment with explosives, he said.
Added to that, Viet Nam had carried out minimal studies of sea-bed resources.
Toan said a study of the socio-economic effect of the sea-based economy strategy was needed.
"Viet Nam should invest in five wholesale ports to handle 80-90 percent of the nation's fish products while other ports should work as their agents, instead of investing in too many ports without efficiency."
Toan also urged more investment in the navy and good co-operation with other countries to safeguard the country's sovereignty in the East Sea.
Sea tourism had great potential, with increasing investment, but the industry still lacked the services to compete, he said.
Department of Sea and Islands deputy director Hoi said exploitation of the sea and islands had brought about initial social and economic benefits but the use of the natural resources was not efficient and sustainable.
"Viet Nam is a coastal country, but we still do not take the full advantage of the seas," Hoi said.
Meanwhile, leading officials of Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelago in the central Khanh Hoa Province were planning to tap its potential, said District Deputy Chairman Nguyen Viet Thuan.
"We are carrying out a shipbuilding project on Song Tu Tay Island and in some big islands to boost the economy in the region," Thuan said.
Thuan said the industry not only needed to work out an offshore fishing programme with good facilities, but also to provide poor fishermen from the central region to the south a shelter from storms.
He added that a project was running on Da Tay Island to raise white pomfrets, which were much better than those raised in inshore areas or on the mainland.
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