A demand to improve management of natural resources to stop itsdepletion and degradation was made at a seminar on boosting transparencyin natural resources management in Hanoi on July 15.

Dr. TranDinh Thien, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, pointed tothe fact that the exploitation of natural resources had been held toppriority for the country, while failing to pay due attention tomodernising the processing industry.

Therefore, the country's export-based economic growth was in fact a model relying on exporting raw natural resources, he said.

Statisticsin a government report in August 2012 showed that from 2005 to 2008,the extractive industry ranked fifth among 18 industries and sectors interms of total investment, but stood at the eighth position in terms ofeconomic efficiency.

The mining industry also ranked only 11thin terms of job creation. These figures reflected the low economicefficiency of the sector as the consequence of a lack of investment inprocessing technology.

Participants at the seminar also agreedon the necessity to fight corruption and strengthen the transparency inmanaging natural resources.

Researcher Dang Hung Vo said that transparency was a factor that contradicted the corruption issue.

Strictenforcement of laws on transparency in natural resources management wasalways an index reflecting the determination of local authorities tofight corruption, he said.

Vo said that Vietnam's participationin the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - an internationalorganisation that has developed a standard that assesses the levels oftransparency around oil, gas and mineral resources of nations - was inline with the country's short-term and long-term policies.

Theseminar was organised by the People and Nature Reconciliation, aVietnamese not-for-profit organisation which was established in 2004with an aim to protect and conserve diversity of life and improve humanwell-being in Vietnam.-VNA