Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will oversee a strategy for exploiting and utilizing natural resources and protecting the marine environment to 2020 and vision to 2030.

Strict supervision

Authorities will conduct programs and plans for waste management and control environmental pollution from land and marine activities under Decision No. 2295/QD-TTg dated December 17, 2014 from the Prime Minster and strengthen inspections and examinations over activities that present the risk of or cause severe pollution of the marine environment, especially urban areas, industrial zones, processing zones, aquaculture and processing, commercial activities, and tourism services along the coast and on islands.

Authorities are also to plan for sanctions to be imposed on those that contaminate the marine environment and arrange for the observation and supervision of natural resources and the environment in Vietnam’s marine zones under the law on natural resources, marine and island environment.

Statistics and a list of harmful resource exploitation that affects marine and island environments will be compiled, management solutions implemented, strategic environmental assessments carried out according to regulations, schemes, and development plans, regulations implemented strictly on assessing the environmental impact of socioeconomic development projects in coastal areas, seas and islands, and supervision and certification issued confirming environmental requirements have been met before projects are allowed to be put into operation.

Fighting salinity

Forecasting and warnings are to be improved to mitigate natural disasters, while the impact of climate change, rising sea levels, and saltwater intrusion are to be considered in socioeconomic development planning in coastal areas and islands.

Authorities will build, upgrade, or supplement marine hydrometeorology observation stations and marine resources and environmental observation stations.

Marine resources and environmental observation stations in the Mekong River Delta are prioritized, together with assessing the impacts of climate change, especially saltwater intrusion.

In addition, authorities must implement measures to conserve landscapes and marine biodiversity, strengthen the resilience of marine ecosystems in the face of climate change, and integrated management institutions are to be completed for marine and island resources and the environment.