Previously, receiving the guidance of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Directorate of Fisheries has cooperated with the Vietnam Sea-culture Association to develop Vietnam marine aquaculture development strategy to 2030, vision to year 2045. The strategy is being submitted to the Prime Minister for approval.
To prepare for the implementation of the marine aquaculture development strategy and promote sustainable development of industrial marine aquaculture (according to the orientation of Resolution 36-NQ/TW on Vietnam's sustainable marine economic development strategy till 2030, vision to 2045), the Directorate of Fisheries (D-Fish) has cooperated with the Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands (VASI) and the Vietnam Sea-culture Association (VSA) to hold the national workshop on sustainable development of Vietnamese industrial marine aquaculture with the purpose of exchanging practical experiences of agencies, businesses, research institutes and international organizations to gather ideas and recommendations for the sustainable development policy of industrial marine aquaculture in Vietnam.
Attending the seminar were the representative leaders of D-Fish, VASI and VSA. In addition, there were leaders of Vietnam Institute of Fisheries Economics and Planning, Research Institute for Aquaculture No.1, Research Institute for Marine Fisheries, Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development. Also attended were Vietnamese seafood enterprises and foreign organizations/individuals such as Marine Aquaculture Technology Joint Stock Company, Eco Aquaculture Vietnam, VCCI, IDH, Reecotech, Soy-fed fish, Maritec, Steinsvik.
At the seminar, nearly 20 presentation papers were presented briefly and concisely. Various issues seen from many sides were presented by agencies, organizations / individuals who are enthusiastic about the fisheries sector. There were many issues discussed frankly by the delegates towards sustainable development of Vietnam's industrial marine aquaculture. In particular, for the industrial marine aquaculture model, a representative of the United States presented "Global marine aquaculture development trends, thinking and recommendations for the future". In addition, there were also papers related to issues such as innovating oyster farming technology, improving seaweed cultivation methods to increase productivity towards offshore farming, technology for offshore marine aquaculture.
Delegates have identified, for sustainable development of industrial marine aquaculture, in addition to the above mentioned issues, Vietnam needs to focus on policy and institutional development; assessing the capacity of the marine environment; marine aquaculture planning at provincial and inter-provincial levels; parental management and conservation of marine animal gene pool; improving the quality of seafood breeds for marine aquaculture; automation in fisheries; producing food for shrimp and fish larvae; application of RAS technology for marine fish seed production; environmental monitoring of oceanography and cages in marine aquaculture; organizing vocational training for industrial marine aquaculture and there are warning and security management solutions.
At the workshop, delegates highly appreciated the marine aquaculture potential of Vietnam; at the same time, recognize the challenges of marine aquaculture such as a lack of national marine aquaculture development plan; a lack of priority policies and investment incentives for marine aquaculture; most farms are small; backward technology; poor security warning and control system; high risk of environmental pollution; weak linking of value chains; market development and product promotion activities also depend on small intermediaries. However, not avoiding and facing the main challenges is a way for Vietnam fisheries sector to overcome difficulties for efficient marine aquaculture.
For the Vietnam marine aquaculture development strategy to 2030 with a vision to 2045, the conference agreed "enterprises" must be "subjects" to develop marine aquaculture. In the field of technology, advanced technologies will be applied. In addition, for sustainable development of industrial marine aquaculture, Vietnam needs to implement multidisciplinary integration so that industries can interact and support each other, including Marine aquaculture - Oil and gas - Tourism - Shipbuilding - Energy - Defense Security.
The Vietnam marine aquaculture development strategy to 2030, vision to 2045 has been submitted to the Prime Minister for approval. The targets of the strategy are that marine aquaculture production reaches 1.6 million tons with an export value of 1 billion USD in 2020 and 1.75 million tons with the value of seafood exports reaching 4-6 billion USD in 2030. In order to achieve these targets, in the short term, the Fisheries sector needs to organize surveys of Vietnam's marine aquaculture status; developing and implementing the program of training marine aquaculture human resources; building value chains for key marine aquaculture products; market development and building Vietnam seafood brand.
At the workshop, a number of participants asked questions of leaders of the Department of Aquaculture after listening to the main contents of the Vietnam marine aquaculture development strategy to 2030, vision to 2045. All participants' questions received satisfactory answers.
The national workshop emphasized that in marine aquaculture activities, the following issues must be paid attention to: The application of advanced science and technology, high-quality human resource training, construction of value chain in which "enterprises" as the core; special attention must be paid to environmental protection, towards the ecologically friendly aquaculture.
Ngọc Thúy – FICen