VietNamNet Bridge – Though Vietnam has tremendous potential to develop its sea-borne economy, its exploitation of the sea has just been equal to 1/7 of that of the Republic of Korea, 1/20 of China, 1/94 of Japan and 1/260 of the world, according to Nguyen Chu Hoi, Head of the Fishery Economics and Planning Institute under the Ministry of Fisheries.
Vietnam’s water territories and coastal areas are rich in natural resources, which can be big sources of income. Fishing in coastal areas now accounts for 80% of the total fishing productivity of the nation, while brackish aquaculture carried out in coastal areas accounts for 90% of the total aquatic harvested output, meeting 40% of the total demand for protein of the nation.
Moreover, according to Prof Nguyen Tac An, Chairman of the IOC Vietnam (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Committee), if Vietnam can develop its big area of mangrove forest effectively, the forest can bring the income of $100,000/ha per year.
Mr An said that the material value Vietnamese people had been getting from the sea proved to be very small compared to the actual value the sea could bring. In other countries, a sq m of sea can bring $100,000 in revenue, while the figure is just $20,000 in Vietnam.
Sea has been overexploited
What Vietnam has been doing is exploiting the sea’s available resources as much as possible, which is described by experts as the action of overexploiting and exhausting the sea. With such a way of sea exploitation, the sea environment will be spoiled while natural resources will be exhausted.
The diversification of the sea’s natural resources is the premise for multi-sectoral management, but in fact, the sea-based economy in Vietnam has been put under sectoral management. The problem lies in the fact that management agencies do not have a master plan on the development of the sea-borne economy.
There has been conflict in terms of benefits between branches which are exploiting sea resources. While the department of tourism calls for sea eco-tourism, the department of planning and investment licences shipbuilding projects, causing pollution in coastal areas.
Mr Hoi has said that if state management authorities could not join hands in inter-ministerial cooperation, the target of keeping the sea-borne economy sustainably developing would fail to be reached.
Vietnam has 3,260 km of coastline, 112 river mouths, 4,000 big islands and 1mil sq m of territorial waters. In addition to the value in landscape, the islands also form important ecosystems for aquatic sources, fishing development and sea eco-tourism. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s islands have been developing in a natural, unplanned way, "everyone for himself". Local authorities all exploit the sea spontaneously, unsystematically, and development plans are not based on scientific forecasts.
What solutions?
Vietnam cannot go to the open sea in canoes, it must use a fleet of big and modern vessels. It is the time to think of developing the sea with big investment and a comprehensive strategy, and to create a modern sea-borne economy.
The Resolution of the 4th Conference of the 10th Party Central Committee has set the task of developing the sea-borne economy.
Minister of Fisheries Ta Quang Ngoc said that the priority task now was to set up a state management system in charge of sea-related issues. There must be a governing body which has enough power to manage the sea’s development.
Mr An from IOC has suggested the establishment of the Ministry of Sea-borne Economy, or a committee in charge of sea development.
“Why not set up a body to assume management over the vital matter of the country,” he said. According to him, such a ministry is very necessary for a country where the territorial waters are three times larger than the mainland, 28 of 64 provinces and cities border the sea and 30% of the total population lives in coastal areas.
(Source: SGTT)
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