While chairing a plenary session of the Conference on Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Development of the Mekong Delta in Can Tho city on September 27, Phuc said the Government is committed to creating an optimal mechanism, mobilizing the participation of people, businesses and international organizations, and materializing actions, initiatives, tasks and solutions raised at the conference to turn challenges into opportunities and develop the region sustainably.
He underscored the need to devise new policies on regional development, along with identifying the delta’s major challenges posed by both climate change and other factors.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc (C) at the Conference on Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Development of the Mekong Delta
Apart from transforming the development model, the delta needs to roll out solutions as well as priority programs and projects in the future, the PM said.
He highlighted the engagement of the private sector and international partners, calling for stronger cooperation in the Mekong Sub-region in the process, which, he said, should be integrated with implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
It is necessary to take advantage of the digital and fourth industrial revolutions to transform the development model of the Mekong Delta, PM Phuc said.
Recalling his visit to the Netherlands in July 2017 and his field trip to the Mekong Delta on September 26, the leader stressed the importance of climate change response planning.
Encompassing one city and 12 provinces with a total area of 3.94 million ha and a population of 17.5 million, the Mekong Delta plays an important role in Vietnam’s economy.
As one of the deltas with the largest agricultural output in Southeast Asia and the largest agricultural production area in Vietnam, it contributes 54 percent of the country’s rice output, 70 percent of aquaculture yield and 36.5 percent of fruit. Up to 90 percent of rice and 65 percent of Vietnam’s seafood exports come from the delta.
However, the Mekong Delta is one of the four deltas worldwide most affected by climate change and sea level rise.
Given this, the Government held the conference to set forth a vision for sustainable and prosperous development of the Mekong Delta in connection with the country’s key economic regions and the Greater Mekong Sub-region.
Source: VNA