August 19, 2011

Vietnam's Soc Trang eyes scientific seafood production boost

The People's Committee of the southern Vietnamese province of Soc Trang has approved a VND17.2-billion (US$828,000) project that aims to intensify the application of scientific and technological advances to promote aquaculture production.

The project, which is due to be implemented from now to 2015 with a vision to 2020, is based on the province's marine economic development plan. Its main objective is to regulate scientific research in ways that will help the locality catalyse its growth in line with the province's overall economic development strategy.

Over the next five years, at least 20 technical advances will be applied in local sea and coastal areas. These include those relating to selecting and crossbreeding to create new hybrid strains of high quality and those that promote integrated agro-aquaculture and salt-aquaculture rotation models.

The province will also intensify the use of post-harvest processing and conservation technologies for products that it specialises in, like purple onions, Artemia and several seafood items.

The other goal of the project is to compile basic data on natural resources and environment in local coastal areas.

The data will be the premise for formulating long-term development policies and making base maps of local seas to serve planning and management works for each coastal district.

Another important goal of the project is to identify measures to make local seafood products as well as other products in the province's coastal areas more competitive.

To implement the project, the provincial People's Committee plans to use nearly VND15 billion (US$720,720) from the local budget and mobilise the remaining amount from other sources.

Officials said Soc Trang will cooperate with scientific institutes, universities and colleges as well as companies within and outside the province to ensure that the project is effective and provides the targeted benefits.