Quang Ninh province to facilitate mariculture investors

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Quang Ninh province organized the "Sustainable Mariculture Development Conference - Insights from Quang Ninh" on April 1. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan and Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council of Quang Ninh Nguyen Xuan Ky co-chaired the conference.

In his opening speech, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ky stated: "Quang Ninh is one of the three economic spearheads of the Red River Delta region with a comprehensive socio-economic infrastructure, and a leading synchronized and interconnected transportation infrastructure in Northern Vietnam. In addition, Quang Ninh possesses various world-class and global tourist sites such as Ha Long Bay, Bai Tu Long Bay, Yen Tu scenic complex, among others; rich and diverse mineral resources with the largest coal reserves in Southeast Asia; a long-standing cultural foundation. These features allow Quang Ninh to build itself into an industrial and service province with a focus on modernity, an international tourist center, a logistics hub, a multimodal transportation gateway, and a marine economic center.

With continuous innovation in the fast, human-centric and sustainable development mindset based on the economic - social - environmental - security pillars, for nine consecutive years between 2015 and 2023, Quang Ninh maintained a GRDP growth rate of at least 10%, reaching over 11% in 2023. Consequently, the province is currently leading the Red River Delta region in terms of GRDP growth rate, and ranking third in terms of economic scale in Northern Vietnam. Quang Ninh also maintains its leading position in the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), and administrative reform indexes for four years. The province has been established as a safe, convenient, transparent, and attractive investment destination.

Quang Ninh is rising to become a pioneering province in innovation, and a growth pole in Northern Vietnam as evaluated by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. The province has seen remarkable success in the transformation from brown to green, leading the implementation of the green growth strategy nationwide. Quang Ninh is the first region in Vietnam to issue local standards for the use of floating materials in saline and brackish aquaculture. By the end of 2023, the province successfully converted 10 million foam floats to environmentally friendly HDPE plastic floats; maintained a forest cover rate of over 55%; maintained the largest mangrove area in Northern Vietnam.

"Quang Ninh province is motivated by the development of blue economy, sustainable use of marine and ocean resources for economic growth, improving livelihoods and employment opportunities for local residents, ensuring the health of marine and ocean ecosystems, and refusing to trade off environmental resources for marine economy growth at all costs", Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ky emphasized.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ky, Quang Ninh aims to become a leading marine economic center in Southeast Asia. Accordingly, the province expects to integrate internationally in a comprehensive manner through the restructuring of maritime economic development space, on the basis of logical and scientific zoning, with regards to the ecosystems, the coordinated utilization of marine, island and coastal areas, conflict resolution, and sustainable development.

With an emphasis on the role of mariculture in contributing to the overall maritime economy, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ky affirmed that mariculture stands to be the province's spearhead economic sector in the immediate future.

With a coastline stretching over 250 kilometers, more than 40,000 hectares of tidal flats, 19,000 hectares of mangrove forests, 20,000 hectares of straits and bays, a vast fishing ground of over 6,100 square kilometers, 3 marine conservation areas, among others, Quang Ninh aims to become the mariculture center of Northern Vietnam by 2030. The province has planned over 45,000 hectares of coastal areas for mariculture development with a comprehensive approach towards modernity, high technology, environmental friendliness, value enhancement, and sustainable conservation of aquatic resources in combination with tourism, service industry, industrial development, and safeguarding maritime and island sovereignty.

The province's key strategies include innovating seed and product structures to match the strength of each region, enhancing productivity and quality of aquatic products, developing concentrated mariculture areas, effectively applying modern scientific and technological advancements to production, and adopting modern production organization. Additionally, the province will focus on developing seafood businesses and cooperative models, transitioning from individual-based, small-scale commodity production to a multi-stakeholder value chain model, establishing a linkage between production, deep processing and product consumption.

Quang Ninh's mariculture strategy revolves around specialized farmers as the backbone and aims at value added as the goal towards multiple values. The province will fully utilze the annual tourism market of over 20 million visitors for consumption and exportation; combine offshore mariculture with high-tech, efficient, and sustainable exploitaition in association with reinforcing national defense and security; protect aquatic resources and adjust mariculture density within the three-nautical-mile range to expand mariculture areas in accordance with environmental planning and capacity.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ky hopes to receive advisory opinions from experts, entrepreneurs, cooperatives, and investors at the conference to achieve breakthrough and sustainable development in the province's mariculture and the maritime economy as a whole. Quang Ninh is ready to welcome and accompany all economic entities investing in local mariculture, with regards to the Party's guidelines, laws and policies.

"Quang Ninh is committed to enabling domestic and international investors in terms of administrative procedures, land, human resource needs, security, safety, and a transparent, convenient, and business-friendly investment environment. Consequently, stakeholders will help develop mariculture in Quang Ninh in the long term, and a sustainable manner," concluded Secretary of the Quang Ninh Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Xuan Ky.