The Government will prioritise funding for the Mekong Delta region to improve its traffic infrastructure and combat climate change, according to the Ministry of Investment and Planning. (Photo: VNA) At a meeting in Can Tho late last week, Minister of Investment and PlanningNguyen Chi Dung said the region needs over 198 trillion VND (8.6 billion USD)for traffic infrastructure.
The major expressways with a total of over 1,000 km including Can Tho - CaMau Expressway, Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang Expressway, and Ha Tien - RachGia - Bac Lieu Expressway will cost 150 trillion VND (6.49 billion USD),expected to improve connectivity in the region.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has instructed the Ministry of Transport toprioritise the Can Tho - Ca Mau Expressway in 2021-25 and solicit privateinvestment for the HCM City - Trung Luong - My Thuan - Can Tho - Ca Mauhighway.
The Trung Luong – My Thuan Expressway should be completed this year and open totraffic, he said.
“Public investment plans for the next five years need to include projectsand programmes important to national development like the North-SouthExpressway, coastal roads and digitising the economy.”
Work to allow large ships to enter the Hau River, a tributary of the Mekong,and developing logistics and waterways across southern Vietnam are alsopriorities, he added.
Besides, the Government will also consider other projects to boostinter-provincial connectivity, with each province being supported on asignificant project that will improve linkages with others.
The government is keen on providing funding for climate change mitigationworks, including sea dykes.
The delta region faces existential problems such as rising sea levels, coastaland riverine erosion, pollution, ecological imbalance, land subsidence, andflooding in urban areas.
Experts have called for an emergency response to climate change in theintegrated regional plan warning that rising seas, coastal erosion andsubsidence could occur earlier than previously assumed.
A comprehensive scientific assessment of all the factors that could affect thedevelopment of the region is also imperative, they said.
Studies show 40 percent of the delta could be underwater by 2100 and half ofits population could be affected, they said.
Some areas along the coast are already eroding at a rate of more than 30metres a year.
The regional plan for 2025 should aim to reduce the negative impacts caused byupstream activities and take strong measures to end the overexploitation ofsand and groundwater, the experts said.
An integrated regional plan for improving infrastructure to attractinvestment and tackle climate change holds the key to achieving“inclusive growth and sustainable development”, they said.
Large-scale concentrated agricultural areas have been created for key itemslike shrimp, pangasius, rice, and fruits. Processing technologies have alsobeen improved, helping create value chains for agricultural products.
Rice, including world-famous varieties such as ST24 -- crowned the best varietyin the world at the 2019 Rice Trader World Rice Conference in the Philippines –is grown on 4.19 million hectares in the delta or 54.3 percent of the country’stotal.
The region has more than 335,400 hectares of orchards (36.3 percent), with themajor fruits being mango, orange, pomelo, rambutan, longan, durian, pineapple,and dragon fruit./.
VNA
