Da Nang (VNA) – As a coastal city withconsiderable sea-related advantages, Da Nang is carrying out an action programmeto boost development of blue economy, targeting to turn itself into sea-basedeconomic hub in the future.

The move is part of the city’s efforts to concretise the national sustainablemaritime economic development strategy towards 2030 with vision until 2045,which was adopted at the 8th meeting of the 12th CentralCommittee of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Under its action programme, Da Nang is targeting a 10 percent contribution bythe sea-based economic sectors to the city’s gross regional domestic product(GRDP) by 2025, and 15 percent by 2030. The sectors must develop sustainably inline with international standards, and have good control of natural resourceexploitation.

According to the municipal Party Committee, developing the sea-based economy ina sustainable manner is the right and responsibility of all organisations,businesses and local residents. It must be made based on green growth,effective and sustainable exploitation of marine resources, and preservation ofbio-diversity.

Besides, the sustainable maritime economic development also means protectinghistorical values and traditions, as well as ensuring local residents’participation, benefits and responsibilities on the basis of equality andcompliance with the country’s constitution and laws.

The city has considered advanced technologies and sciences, and high-qualityhuman resources as breakthrough elements to protect the sea environment andmarine ecosystem, and respond to climate change.

It has focused investment on human resources training and research andinvestigation activities in the field, while due attention has been paid to internationalcooperation to develop the sea-based economy based on equality, mutual benefitsand respects of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of relatedparties.

Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Truong Quang Nghia said the city’sdevelopment progress has been made in tandem with the maritime strategy.

Accordingly, as a sea-based economic hub in the nation, Da Nang city will havea well-developed maritime economy, work to ensure social security andsustainable development, prevent degradation of the sea environment, andrestore and preserve important marine ecosystems.

Da Nang city is home to90-kilometre-long coastline, a fishing ground of 15,000sq.km, and aquaticreserves of about 1.14 million tonnes, and fishing has become atraditional industry in the locality for a long time.

With a goal to become a fishery centre in the central region, the city has madecomprehensive investment in fishing port and seafood logistics services. Particularly,Tho Quang port has been upgraded, enabling it to welcome 24,600 boats andhandle over 112,300 tonnes of seafood each year.

Aside from the Government’s support,Da Nang has issued its own “breakthrough” policies to support local fishermenover the past few years, including those on managing inshore fishingactivities, developing offshore fishing fleets, and protecting and developingaquatic resources.

These policies have encouraged fishermen toupgrade and build boats for offshore fishing, thus helping to improve thequality and value of local seafood.

Da Nang city is also developing vesselssupplying fishery logistic services so as to raise the number of logisticvehicles to 15 by 2020 and 50 by 2030.

It looks to increase the caught seafood volumeto 38,000 tonnes by 2020 and 45,000 tonnes by 2030, the official said.

Besides supporting local fishermen with safe fishing, competent authorities haveworked to raise public awareness of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)fishing, particularly measures have been taken to prevent the fishermen fromillegally fishing in foreign waters.

Earlier in 2017, the city approved aplan on developing its sea-based economy towards 2025, with a vision to 2030.Accordingly, it has set a target for the tourist number growth rate at about 13percent between 2016 and 2030, and the volume of cargo handled at localseaports at 12-13 percent by 2025. It also looks to have the output ofprocessed seafood for export rising by 12-13 percent by 2025 and 8-10 percent by2030.

Concrete activities are being carried out tocreate new tourism products relating to marine sports and the yacht industry,to perfect coastal tourism infrastructure, and to enhance knowledge amongsttour guides on marine sovereignty.

Meanwhile, the city is also working to turn DaNang Port into an international gateway with the Tien Sa and Lien Chieuterminals. Tien Sa terminal will specialise in serving passenger ships andcruises, while Lien Chieu terminal will serve cargo transportation.

Resources are being spent on raising thecapacity of the local fishery surveillance force, improving the informationsystem for the management of fisheries, and promoting contact with fishingboats to ensure safety for vehicles and workers at sea.

Seafood processing companies have also beenencouraged to apply cleaner production technologies to reduce waste, savematerials and energy, and effectively treat sources of pollution.

Total capital needed for developing sea-basedeconomy was estimated at over 19 trillion VND (815.9 million USD) for2017-2020, 13 trillion VND (558.3 million USD) for 2021-2025, and 17 trillionVND (730.1 million USD) for 2026-2030.–VNA