Hanoi (VNA) ♐– To successfully carry out the strategy for sustainable development of Vietnam’s maritime economy, due attention is needed to science - technology, overhaul of relevant laws and policies, and enhancement of international cooperation, according to experts.

Professor and Doctor Dang Nguyen Anh, Vice President of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, said the strategy until 2030, with a vision to 2045, opens up prospects for a new stage of development of the maritime economy. To successfully implement this strategy, science and technology has an important role to play and must go ahead in identifying issues and seeking solutions, he noted. Associate Professor and Doctor Vu Thanh Ca from the Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment held that to carry out the strategy and achieve the “twin targets” of curbing COVID-19 and boosting socio-economic development, Vietnam should keep overhauling relevant legal rules, mechanisms, and policies in a way that ensures their feasibility, consistency, and accordance with international law and treaties to which the country is a party. In particular, it is necessary to set up a comprehensive and uniform database on marine and insular resources and environment so as to serve socio-economic development, national sovereignty safeguarding, and defence - security ensuring, he added. Meanwhile, Nguyen Van Sy, Deputy Director of the management board for the Sustainable Rural Development for the Poor programme under the Quang Binh provincial People’s Committee, recommended that Vietnam continue expanding and promoting international maritime cooperation. It should reinforce ties with strategic and comprehensive partners, countries with traditional relations, those with sea-related strengths, and the ones sharing common interests on the basis of respect for each other’s independence and sovereignty, equality, mutual benefits, and conformity with international law. Vietnam also needs to maintain its active participation in international and regional forums, especially maritime cooperation activities within the ASEAN framework, Sy said./.