Vietnam’s marine economy: an overview (Part One)

Vietnam's sea, with its long coastline and abundant natural resources, shows enormous development potential. Having a long-standing strategic mindset and vision, Vietnam is determined to pursue its development plan of marine economy to turn the country into a strong maritime nation.

Conditions for Vietnam’s marine economic development

In Vietnam, the economy of the sea and coastal provinces and cities accounts for around 47-48% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), in which the GDP of the marine economy alone is already about 20-22%. The main marine economic sectors in Vietnam include marine renewable energy, oil and gas, seafood, tourism, shipping, environment, biodiversity, and ecological services. The numbers are not too surprising, as Vietnam is gifted with abundant resources and other favorable conditions to develop its marine economy.

Geographical features

As a coastal country, Vietnam has a coastline of over 3,260 km, an area of ​​territorial waters under sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction of over 1 million km2, and more than 3,000 islands and archipelagos. More than 50% of the country’s population lives in 28 coastal provinces and cities with rapid urbanization rates, creating the positive momentum needed to develop Vietnam’s marine economy. This resulted in the diversification of service industries, particularly high-value industries like export and import services, tourism, oil and gas services, transportation, and so on.

Vietnam possesses 114 estuaries, around 52 deep-water bays along the central coast (pools, bays, and lagoons account for 60% of the coastline), and more than 100 locations where large seaports can be built. Vietnam's sea is located in an area with high economic development and is a bridge between many economic and political powers in the world. This presents favorable conditions for Vietnam to develop its maritime industry, shipbuilding industry, and logistics. The country also has favorable conditions for the development of many economic zones, thanks to its convenient location for traffic and its closed bays and bays of great depth.

Diverse resources

Surveys show that there are 35 different types of minerals found in Vietnam’s waters, consisting of petroleum, metals, construction materials, precious and semi-precious stones, and liquid minerals. In addition, Vietnam has a huge potential for marine resources, with a variety of marine energies such as burning ice, tidal energy, wave energy, nuclear energy, and heavy water. 

Vietnam's waters have a plethora of seafood resources. More than 2,000 different species of marine fish have been discovered, with about 100 of them having economic value. The annual fish catch is estimated to be around 2.3 million tons. Aquaculture is another strength of Vietnam's marine economy, providing significant benefits to tens of millions of coastal residents while also offering significant potential for marine economic development.

The most important resources in Vietnam's marine economy remain oil and gas, with an estimated reserve of 3-4.5 billion m3, primarily gas (accounting for more than 50%) and concentrated on the continental shelf. The discovered oil and gas resource reserves are approximately 1.365 billion m3, accounting for 30-35% of Vietnam's total current oil and gas reserves and forecast potential, with natural gas accounting for more than half.

Future plan for the development of Vietnam’s marine economy

There is no denying the value that Vietnam’s current marine economic development strategies bring. But along with that are many problems, such as signs of overheating and inefficient and unsustainable development. Although Vietnam is a maritime nation, so far it still cannot be considered as a strong maritime nation.

Understanding the urgency of the problem, the Government of Vietnam has made it very clear about its future plan for the country’s marine economic development. “Sustainable development” and “Blue economy” have become the keywords for Vietnam's long-term strategy. A Sustainable blue ocean economy depends on realizing the full economic potential of the oceans through integrated management, protecting and conserving ocean resources for future generations. Climate change adaptation requires effective leadership and integrated efforts involving all stakeholders.

In 2020, the Government issued Resolution No. 26/NQ-CP on promulgating the 5-year plan to implement Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW of the eighth plenum of the Party Central Committee, the XIIth Congress, on the Strategy on sustainable development of Vietnam’s marine economy through 2030, with a vision toward 2045.

The overall goal is to "turn Vietnam into a strong maritime nation; meet the criteria for sustainable development of the marine economy; form a  marine ecological culture; proactively adapt to climate change and sea level rise; reverse the trend of pollution, degradation of the marine environment, coastal erosion, and sea erosion; and restore and conserve important marine ecosystems. New, advanced, and modern scientific achievements will become direct factors in promoting sustainable development of the marine economy.”

Tourism and marine services are prioritized for development, followed by maritime economy, oil and gas extraction, and other marine mineral resources, aquaculture and fishing, coastal industry, renewable energy, and new marine economic sectors.  It can be seen that economic sectors that consume a lot of resources are losing ground to industries that use natural resources more efficiently, such as tourism and shipping.

In 2021, the Vietnamese Prime Minister issued Directive 31/CT-TTg on innovating and enhancing the implementation of the Strategy on the sustainable development of Vietnam’s marine economy through 2030, with a vision toward 2045. According to the Directive, the Government and related bodies in Vietnam must work together to enhance the application of information technology and rapidly implement the digital transformation of marine economic sectors.

Coastal localities need to both promote the spirit of self-reliance (using internal force), while taking advantage of "external forces'' for development; and encourage the formation and development of large economic groups investing in marine economic sectors/fields, especially the six marine economic sectors identified in Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW. These are key economic sectors with the potential, advantages, and room to serve as a driving force for socioeconomic development.

In May 2022, at the International Conference on Sustainable Ocean Economy and Climate Change Adaptation held in Hanoi, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Minh Ngan reaffirmed the five following commitments from the Vietnamese Government:

• Create an international regulatory and policy environment that promotes a sustainable and climate-resilient marine economy.
• Establish a comprehensive database system managed by the UN on the multidimensional impacts of climate change, sea level rise, and plastic waste to aid in the development of global response policies.
• Address climate-related security challenges and risks by promoting and constructing practical and effective regional and global security cooperation mechanisms that take economic, social, psychological, and gender factors into account, among other things.
• Strengthen the resilience of sustainable marine economic development following Covid-19, as well as the adaptability of vulnerable countries, communities, and stakeholders, in order to build and develop customs economic sectors such as marine transportation, aquaculture and fishing, marine/coastal tourism, and renewable energy sources.
• Encourage investment in marine technology research, development, and transfer, shift to new blue sea renewable energy sources, and monitor the management of sustainable marine resource use, raise awareness, and broad stakeholder participation in decision-making and policy on sustainable marine economy.