A forum aiming to fortify Vietnam ’s marine economy took place in the central coastal city of Quang Ngai on March 19.

The second forum on marine economy entitled “From deep-water ports to marine economic zones” was jointly held by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Investment and Planning and the Quang Ngai provincial People’s Committee.

The forum was expected to help create foundations for Vietnam ’s marine economy to develop in a sustainable and effective way with authentic brand names, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Van Duc told participants in his opening speech.

Awareness of marine products originating from Vietnam should be increased and concretised by measures to build the brand names of domestic producers, stressed Duc.

Addressing the forum, Nguyen Xuan Hue, Chairman of Quang Ngai provincial People’s Committee lauded the coastal Dung Quat Economic Zone in his province and confirmed that the zone has contributed greatly to the provincial socio-economic development.

In the 2006-2009 period alone, the zone’s contributions accounted for nearly 50 percent of the local budget revenue and managed to join “the club of businesses with 1,000 billion VND in revenues” in 2006 and “the club of businesses with 4,000 billion in revenues” in 2009.

Over 20 speeches were made at the forum, including feasible solutions and initiatives to increase brand awareness of Vietnamese marine products and develop coastal economic zones and build deep-water ports.

Deep-water ports and coastal economic zones play an important role as driving forces boosting the development of the country’s marine economy and helping protect the nation’s sovereignty over its sea and islands, the participants agreed in a statement released at the end of the meeting.

To develop a system of deep-water ports and coastal economic zones, they concluded that it is vital to research and design a long-term development plan that takes into account issues of climate change and rising sea-water levels.

Also, the state should soon issue policies encouraging investment in the country’s marine economy and mobilising foreign resources for the projects, especially from world conglomerates, they added./.