Despite
enjoying great development potential, the Mekong Delta is facing multiple
difficulties and challenges.
Head of Can Tho University’s Mekong Delta
Research Development Institute Nguyen Van Sanh told VIR the delta could not evolve
in a sustainable manner during international integration unless the state
adopted proper policies to release the region’s immense growth potential.
Would
you shed some light on the region’s huge development potential?
Geographically, the Mekong Delta is home to
crucial air routes and shipping lines to international destinations. Besides,
the delta is proud of over 700 kilometre coastline with around 360,000 square
kilometre special economic zone. It is also contiguous to the East Sea and the
gulf of Thailand, very beneficial for development of marine economy and
shipping operations.
Stretching over 3.96 million hectares (12 per
cent of the country’s total area) and accommodating the country’s 22 per cent
population the delta contributes 27 per cent of Vietnam’s gross domestic
product (GDP).
Annually, the region churns out over 50 per
cent of the country’s total food and more than 90 per cent of total rice export
volume, reaping more than $3 billion in export earnings. Seafood production
accounts for more than 60 per cent of total output and contributes 80 per cent
of the country’s total seafood export volume, gaining over $3 billion from
exports.
Notwithstanding, the region is grappling with
big challenges associated with poor economic infrastructure and limited human
resources.
In fact, the delta’s poverty and backward
development is attributed to local farmers’ minuscule production patterns and
lack of innovative technologies. Local farmers are highly susceptible to climate
change impacts.
Despite being a region abounding with ample
growth potential in rice, vegetables, fruits and seafood production its
products are generally of low quality and costly, undermining their comparative
advantages.
What
are the region's planning efforts?
The region is still wasteful in investment
allocations for planning activities. Investment projects and programmes are in
fact overlapping, inconsistent and not interconnected, entailing low efficiency
and losses in social resources. Ineffective planning has led to wastes of
resources.
This, in turn, has hampered science and
technology development. These challenges made it extremely difficult for the
region to evolve in a sustainable manner as the country is deepening its
international integration process.
How
can the region’s huge potential be unlocked?
Primarily, it is important to foster
socio-economic infrastructure development with priority given to the
development of transport infrastructure and quality human resources to meet the
delta’s development needs.
In addition, the government must adopt
specific mechanisms to prop up the delta’s development. The proposal for
promoting regional integrity and cooperation between the state, scientists,
businesses and farmers was heartily welcomed by provinces and municipalities in
the region with the goals of bolstering the production of rice, fruit trees,
seafood to help raise farmer incomes through heightening comparative advantages
of local crops and livestock.
If the government shortly approved and
effectively handled the plan for promoting regional integrity it would help
raise people’s subsistence conditions significantly, paving the way for the
delta’s further economic upswing.
Huu Phuc | vir.com.vn
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