Ca Mau aims to tap marine economy

The southernmost province of Ca Mau is seeking to fully exploit the riches provided by its long coastline.

Its 254-kilometer-long coast accounts for 7.8% of the country’s total. It also has fishing grounds of more than 80,000 square kilometers that can yield around 250,000 tonnes of seafood annually.

To utilise all this, authorities have drawn up an action programme.

The programme sets a target of more than doubling the marine economy each year until 2020. The sector’s contribution to the province’s economy should be raised to 55-60% by 2010 from now.

To achieve these targets, the province is developing marine-related industrial parks like An Khanh, Hoa Trung , Nam Can and Song Doc, and coastal urban areas like Nam Can and Song Doc.

Sustainable development of marine and ecological tourism while protecting the environment are also an important part of the action programme.

The tourism industry hopes to receive around 15,000 foreign tourists every year by 2010, rising to 100,000 by 2020.

The province hopes to cooperate with neighbouring provinces like Kien Giang, An Giang and Can Tho, and with Ho Chi Minh City to develop regional tourism to turn tourism into one of its key sectors, providing jobs to many people.

Duong Viet Thang, an official of the Ca Mau Party Committee, said to ensure that the action programme was carried out efficiently, the province was amending regulations and policies and improving systems.

The province had been trying to carry out administrative reform with focus on simplifying procedures, developing e-governance, modernising, and standardising regulations to create an open and comfortable environment for both foreign and domestic investors, he added.

The province has asked ministries and other central agencies to help build a database on its natural resources, the marine environment, and climatic conditions, and draft comprehensive marine industrial development plans.

It has also asked the Government to support fishermen wishing to shift to offshore fishing, and help build coastal infrastructure.

The province wants the Government to encourage investment in the maritime economy, particularly in industrial production, tourism, fisheries, and navigation. (VNA)