Vietnamplus

Vietnam needs a long-term strategy to increase the quality of its rice exports to create sustainable growth in the future, experts say.

The northern midland province of Vinh Phuc has given the green light for Vinh Tuong district to implement its 264-billion-VND (11.35 million USD) project on building the Rung lake cultural-eco tourism site.

Rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta are becoming alarming, said Prof. David Dapice, Senior Economist, Vietnam and Myanmar Programme, Harvard Kennedy School, at a meeting with leaders of Can Tho city on October 8.

A workshop was held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on October 7 to seek improvement of policies and legislation in response to climate change in Vietnam.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung inspected a coastal dyke in Tan Thanh commune, Go Cong Dong district, one of the landslide hotspots in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, on September 27.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Green Annamites Project has recently equipped the central province of Thua Thien-Hue with a forest management system.

Environmental experts gathered at a conference held in Hanoi on September 11, discussing the important roles of stakeholders in outlining hydropower master plan and protecting water resources in the Mekong River basin.

Thousands of people in Indonesia prayed for rain in haze-hit towns throughout Sumatra and Borneo islands as forest fires raged at the height of the dry season, Antara news agency reported on September 11.

Immediate measures and long-term plans should be implemented quickly to help provinces in the Mekong Delta cope with drought and saline intrusion, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh has said.

No less than 2,510 hotspots, indicating the presence of forest fires, were spotted by satellites throughout the ASEAN region from September 4-7.

The Mekong Delta, the country’s rice granary, will see summer – autumn rice output increase by 150,000 tonnes this year, the Plant Cultivation Department has estimated.

An international workshop, titled ‘Climate Change and Agriculture: Status, Impact, Adaptation, Insurance in Vietnam and Taiwan’ has been held in Hanoi.

The Thai Cabinet on August 27 approved a 15.8 billion baht budget to resolve drought and flooding issues in 76 provinces, government spokesperson Narumon Pinyosinwat announced.

The defence and security committees of the parliaments of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (CLV) have agreed to enhance cooperation to build the shared borders of peace and friendship.

Although locals in the central city of Da Nang are now having water supply in a rotary fashion, they still face the risk of a relapse of water shortage as the salinity in input water for Cau Do waterwork – one of the major water plants of the city – has increased sharply.

This summer-autumn crop, the Mekong Delta – Vietnam’s biggest rice granary – expects to harvest 150,000 tonnes of paddy more than last year, according to an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The prolonged severe drought has dried up thousands of hectares of protection forest in the south central province of Phu Yen, causing many forest fires.

The price of sticky rice in Thailand has almost doubled from last year’s and could go up further over scared supply.

The Mekong Delta region is in an urgent need for an inter-sectoral and comprehensive solution in water reserving, especially in years with drought, stated Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh on August 22.

Three to four storms are forecast to directly affect Vietnam’s mainland, mostly in the central and southern regions, from now to the end of this year, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Metrological Forecasting.