Vietnam will become a maritime power in 2045 for this reason

DNHN - For Vietnam to become a strong maritime nation, wealthy from the sea as the Party and State have set out, many bold and synchronous solutions are being proposed.

A clear strategy to maximize “maritime strength”

In a book published in 1980, Alfred Thayer Mahan, an American geostrategist and historian, outlined “6 main conditions affecting the maritime strength of nations.” He pioneered a groundbreaking thought by arguing that maritime power, rather than land power, is what helps nations become great powers.

According to researchers, this theory can be explained through 6 conditions for a nation to become a maritime power: Having a favorable geographical location; Having usable coastlines, abundant natural resources, and favorable climate; Having sufficient territory; Having a large enough population for self-defense; Having a society oriented toward the sea and maritime trade; Having a government capable of mastering the sea.

For Vietnam, a coastal nation bordering the East Sea with a marine area of approximately 1 million km2, the Party's consistent and continuous viewpoint is to carry out two parallel tasks: both developing a sustainable maritime economy and ensuring national defense, security, maintaining independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, while opening up “ocean thinking” in the era of open economy and global integration.

However, after 10 years of implementing the Maritime Strategy since 2007, the benefits obtained from Vietnam's maritime economy have not yet matched its potential. This was assessed by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Nhat Quang, former Chairman of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, in the study "The Maritime Strategy of Some Countries Around the World and Policy Suggestions for Vietnam."

To create a stronger boost for Vietnam’s maritime economy, the 8th Central Committee of the 12th Party Congress continued to pass Resolution 36/NQ-TW on the “Strategy for Sustainable Development of Vietnam's Maritime Economy by 2030, with a Vision to 2045.” It sets the overall objective of meeting most criteria for sustainable maritime economic development by 2030; forming a maritime ecological culture; proactively adapting to climate change and rising sea levels... The vision to 2045 is for Vietnam to become a strong, sustainable, prosperous, secure, and safe maritime nation.

In recent times, the implementation of Resolution 36-NQ/TW has achieved certain results, contributing to sustainable maritime economic development. However, there remain many challenges to overcome. To address these bottlenecks, the Party and State have issued many mechanisms and policies to attract businesses to invest and form large projects to develop the maritime economy. Among them, implementing land reclamation projects is an important solution to expand development space for coastal provinces and cities.

Efforts to optimize the exploitation of marine resources

Looking globally, land reclamation has become “a global phenomenon” over the past two decades. China has set goals and stages to move toward the sea, becoming a “maritime power,” focusing on building the maritime economy, with comprehensive plans for marine exploitation, rational use of marine resources, promoting marine industries, and synchronizing planning with marine environmental protection... By 2021, China’s total reclaimed land projects had exceeded 20,000 km2. This area is nearly twice the size of Qatar and roughly the same as Israel's land area.

India has developed a maritime strategy aimed at fully exploiting marine resources; boosting maritime trade, including services, transportation, and tourism. In its national development strategy, Thailand has also proposed a four-point plan on the sea, including: improving the effectiveness of maritime management; restoring and rehabilitating natural resources; enhancing competitiveness in developing natural resources; controlling pollution and ensuring maritime safety based on international standards.

In Vietnam, in 2024, the Decree on Land Reclamation Activities was officially issued to guide the implementation of the 2024 Land Law, creating opportunities to expand, exploit, and effectively develop the national land fund. On October 7, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha signed Decision No. 1117/QD-TTg approving the Master Plan for Sustainable Exploitation and Use of Coastal Resources for the period 2021-2030, with a Vision to 2050. Accordingly, the goal is to build coastal areas into a solid foundation for expanding toward the sea and to create momentum for other regions across the country to develop together. Land reclamation will be carried out in appropriate areas, without degrading natural resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, and the cultural-historical values of the coastal regions, to increase space and land funds for socio-economic development in provinces and centrally-run cities with coastlines...

“These are important legal documents that establish a standard legal framework for land reclamation activities. From there, creating space to promote economic development, creating multi-purpose projects that both protect national defense and security and engage in business activities in areas such as shipping, seafood processing, energy, marine tourism, and marine eco-tourism...” said Dr. Du Van Toan, Institute of Marine and Island Research (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment).

In recent years, about 80 land reclamation projects of various scales have been implemented, with large-scale projects concentrated in Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Da Nang, and Kien Giang... These projects have contributed to promoting socio-economic development, changing the urban and rural landscape in coastal and island areas. While not yet comparable to other countries globally, this nonetheless shows Vietnam’s effort to optimize the exploitation of marine resources.

Many experts believe that removing policy bottlenecks for land reclamation is an open direction for socio-economic development, eco-urban areas, resort tourism, coastal protection, erosion control, and the prevention of storms and rising sea levels... Coastal urban areas will help localities develop tourism, create more jobs for people, and become tourist destinations.

Recent developments on the investment attraction map have shown that localities are eagerly engaging in moving toward the sea. After the Land Reclamation Decree took effect, Ben Tre was one of the first provinces to announce plans to reclaim 50,000 hectares of land to develop the economy, focusing on coastal urban areas, industrial zones, and other marine industries... The HCMC People's Committee has just approved the detailed 1/500 planning task for the Can Gio sea reclamation tourism urban area, covering 2,870 hectares, with a total estimated investment of nearly $9 billion. Meanwhile, Kien Giang Province’s plan also aims for an increase of more than 4,581 hectares of natural land by 2030 due to the implementation of sea reclamation projects.

With a complete legal framework and the determination of localities, coastal and sea reclamation projects in the coming time will help optimize the exploitation of marine resources to promote Vietnam's fast and sustainable development, as outlined in the “Strategy for Sustainable Exploitation and Use of Resources, Marine and Island Environmental Protection until 2030, with a Vision to 2050".

Vu Quy