Farmers harvest seaweed in the sea area off the coast of Thuan Nam district, Ninh Thuan province (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Sea-based economic sectors contribute10 percent of Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Ministryof Natural Resources and Environment.
The ministry held a meeting in Hanoi on March 26to review a master plan on surveying and managing marine resources andenvironment.
Minister Tran Hong Ha said the 28 coastalprovinces and cities make up 65 – 70 percent of the country’s GDP. Their humandevelopment index is higher than Vietnam’s average figure, while per capitaincome in coastal regions is at least 1.2 times higher than the nationalaverage.
Ta Dinh Thi, General Director of the ministry’sVietnam Administration of Seas and Islands, said by the end of 2018, thecountry had drawn a map of about 53 percent of its sea area at the scale of1/200,000. It had also completed surveying seabed terrain for 24.5 percent ofthe total sea area at the scale of between 1/500,000 and 1/50,000.
Vietnam has also mastered offshore oil and gasexploration technologies, he noted.
The ministry aims to survey marine resources andenvironment in 50 percent of Vietnam’s sea area at the scale of 1/500,000 andat a bigger scale in some key areas in the time ahead. A pollution risk map forinshore zones at the minimum scale of 1/500,000 will also be charted.
Vietnam boasts a 3,260km-long coastline, nearly3,000 inshore islands, and Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagosin the centre of the East Sea. It has a sea area of about 1 million sq.km inthe East Sea.-VNA
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