Quang Yen: Sustainable development of marine economy

Identifying marine economy as a key economic development direction, contributing to protecting the marine environment and creating sustainable livelihoods for local people, in recent times, Quang Yen Town has implemented many practical solutions to develop a sustainable marine economy.

Quang Yen Town authorities determine the field boundaries, measure, and extract the marine farming diagram.

Quang Yen town has 6,468 hectares of land and water surface for aquaculture. Due to the favorable terrain and estuary and sea water, the town is identified as a key aquaculture area. Previously, the town's sea area was not integrated into the province's marine aquaculture planning, which made it very difficult to manage, allocate sea areas and license aquaculture at sea; the need to solve the livelihood of the people was very large.

In that context, the town has approved the Project on developing marine aquaculture to 2030, with a vision to 2045, with a total area of 865.38 hectares and the Plan to allocate marine areas to aquaculture organizations and individuals. In which, it is clearly stipulated that the assigned subjects are organizations and individuals engaged in aquaculture with addresses and permanent residence in the town, with special priority given to aquaculture households whose land and water surface have been recovered to implement investment projects and who no longer have other occupations. The limit allocated to an organization is no more than 15 hectares, and to an individual is no more than 0.8 hectares. The purpose of the project is to create a stable marine aquaculture area, ensuring environmental standards, creating jobs, and increasing income for fishermen.

By the end of June 2024, 714 households had registered to be eligible for sea area allocation for aquaculture in the town. The authorities have determined the boundaries in the field, measured, and extracted sea farming diagrams for more than 500 households. In the first phase, 11 households received decisions. This July, it is expected that about 100 households will receive decisions. Mr. Dang Van Minh (Hoang Tan commune, Quang Yen town) said: The town has specific requirements for households allocated sea area for aquaculture regarding the time and progress of converting from styrofoam buoys to HDPE floating materials and will have inspections and re-inspections. If any household fails to ensure that the sea allocation decision will be withdrawn. Therefore, people strictly comply with the regulations.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Bac, Vice Chairman of Quang Yen Town People's Committee, in the coming time, the town will continue to speed up the procedures for allocating sea areas in accordance with regulations to households that meet the requirements. Currently, there are about 50 cooperatives and enterprises that need to register. The town People's Committee has assigned specialized agencies to review the field, guide units to complete the project description, environmental impact assessment report to send to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to carry out licensing procedures, collect opinions from relevant agencies, as a basis for the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to submit to the Provincial People's Committee to decide on allocating sea areas for aquaculture in accordance with the law.

Oyster farming brings high income to people in Quang Yen town.

Currently, Quang Yen town has nearly 2,400 fishing vessels. In recent years, the town has focused on promoting fishermen to build new vessels, exploit offshore fisheries, and gradually reduce exploitation in coastal areas. In the period 2017-2020, 56 organizations, individuals, and fishermen were supported with interest rates to upgrade and build new offshore fishing vessels with a capacity of 90CV or more. Many households have converted and upgraded their vessels, creating jobs and stable incomes, and escaping poverty.

With the participation of the entire political system, Quang Yen aims to rearrange about 20,000 oyster and mussel rafts by 2025 and have about 66 households raising marine fish with a total of about 4,560 cages. The total output of mollusks is about 70,000 tons, marine fish is about 1,200 tons. The production value from mollusk farming in the town is over 800 billion VND and from marine fish farming is about 200 billion VND/year; creating jobs and stable income for about 1,000 local workers. By 2030 and vision to 2045, the production value will reach about 1,500 billion VND/year.

In the context of erratic weather, specialized agencies regularly monitor the results of environmental monitoring and warnings, and diseases in aquaculture, in order to minimize risks to marine farming households. Through that, it helps people in marine farming feel secure in sticking to the sea, creating sustainable livelihoods, contributing to improving their lives. The town also focuses on perfecting the infrastructure system serving production and environmental protection, striving for 100% of aquaculture rafts to be assigned farming area codes and fully applying the prescribed standards and regulations; 100% of waste from aquaculture activities is collected and treated...

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