Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has signed a resolution to sustainably develop the Mekong Delta as part of efforts to cope with climate change.

The resolution points out that the Mekong Delta accounts for 12 percent of the national area and 19 percent of population, contributes 50 percent of the rice crop, 65 percent of aquaculture, 70 percent of fruit, 95 percent of exported rice and 60 percent of exported fish.

In the context of globalisation and international integration, the Mekong Delta has a great opportunity for development but also faces a great challenge because it is vulnerable to natural changes.

The resolution sets a vision by 2100, the Mekong Delta will sustainably, safely and prosperously develop on the foundation of high-quality agriculture in combination with services, ecological tourism, and industry, especially processing industry, which will help to increase the value and competitiveness of agricultural products.

The infrastructure system of the delta will be carefully planned.

To reach the goal, by 2050, the Mekong Delta will become a region which has moderately good development and a modern social organisation level. At that time, income per capita of the delta will be higher than the national average; the proportion of ecological agriculture and high-quality applied agriculture will reach 80 percent.

“It is very important to create sustainable and prosperous development for the Mekong Delta on the foundation of actively adapting, mobilising its strength and potential, transforming challenges into opportunities for development, ensuring prosperity for local residents as well as preserving traditional and special cultural values, paying attention to land, water protection, and especially local people,” the resolution says.

The resolution also provides numerous comprehensive solutions, such as establishing ecological sub-regions for agriculture as economic development and infrastructure construction, and setting up a master plan for sustainable development in the Mekong Delta while adapting to climate change.

In the new master plan, the resolution notes that the definition of “living with floods” should be expanded as “living with floods, brackish and sea water.”

In particular, breakthrough mechanisms and policies should be implemented to attract non-budget capital, especially money from the private sector and the most favourable business environment should be created to encourage the private sector.

Encouraging mechanisms for resource mobilisation and individual enterprises investing into infrastructure and tourism, including capital lending, bond issuance and public-private-partnership investment, should be issued.

Inter-regional, inter-provincial and multiple target projects should get priority in providing loans.

The resolution instructs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote the Mekong River exploitation co-operation, to ensure sustainable and fair usage of the river resources, especially for water resource among six Mekong river basin countries.

The ministry will persuade countries and international organisations which are Mekong river development partners to increase their support for activities of the Mekong River Commission, and will convince upper countries, which are not members of the commission, to join soon.

Particularly, the resolution instructs the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee to build a co-operation programme with the Mekong Delta provinces in order to promote connectivity among the Mekong Delta, HCM City and Southeast region.

The resolution asks the National Assembly to consider, adjust, add and arrange the State budget to implement missions, projects and programmes which are mentioned in the resolution. 

Mekong Delta provinces ensure schedule of climate change projects

The Mekong Delta provinces of Tra Vinh and Ben Tre have worked to ensure the implementation of a project on climate change adaption.

Country Director of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Vietnam Thomas Rath expressed his pleasure at the positive outcomes of the project at a meeting with local authorities in Tra Vinh on November 17.

He said the the two provinces should speed up the project by focusing on improving community-based adaptation capacity in the long run and increasing quality of agricultural and aquaculture practices.

Tra Vinh and Ben Tre should enhance experience exchanges to expand effective models while strengthening coordination with specialised institutions such as the provincial Department of Science and Technology, Department of Industry and Trade, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the private economic sector, to implement livelihood models.

Cornels Hubrencht Blok, a delegate from the IFAD, said that during the implementation of the project, the two provinces have integrated climate change adaptation and natural disaster risk management into socio-economic development plans. However, the solutions are just applied in the short run, he said, advising the pair to build future scenarios.

Vice Chairman of the Ben Tre People’s Committee Nguyen Huu Lap and his counterpart from Tra Vinh Kim Ngoc Thai, pledged to create the best conditions and arrange capital to support the project.

Sponsored by the IFAD, the project is being carried out from 2014 to 2020 in 30 communes of eight districts in Ben Tre and 30 communes of seven districts in Tra Vinh.

The project worth more than 1 trillion VND (44 million USD) aims to support sustainable livelihoods for the rural poor and to strengthen the adaptive capacity of target communities and institutions to better contend with climate change.

VNA