Kien Giang experiences significant changes thanks to marine economy

Kien Giang is one of the 28 cities with a sea, a diverse coastal mangrove ecosystem, and abundant resources such as land, hills, minerals, primeval forests, sea, and islands. Kien Giang's sea is large, covering an area of approximately 63,290 km2, and its coastline is approximately 200 km long, with more than 140 large and small islands. There are 40 inhabited islands, the largest of which is Phu Quoc. Located in the Gulf of Thailand, Kien Giang also has favorable trade conditions with Southeast Asian countries.

Phu Quoc island in Kien Giang province. (Photo: Nguyen Huu Dinh)

Create competitive advantages and encourage marine economic growth

After more than ten years of implementing Resolution No. 09-NQ/TW of the 10th Party Central Committee on “Viet Nam's maritime strategy to 2020” and two years of implementing Resolution No. 36 -NQ/TW of the 12th Party Central Committee on “Strategy for sustainable development of Viet Nam's marine economy up to 2030, vision to 2045,” the marine economy of Kien Giang has improved. Currently, the value structure of marine economic sectors accounts for 73.82 percent of the province's GRDP, contributing significantly to the province's socioeconomic development.

According to Prime Minister's Decision 492/QD-TTg dated April 16, 2009, Kien Giang has been classified as one of four provinces located in the Mekong River Delta's key economic zone.

Kien Giang has been running offshore fishing projects to boost catches while safeguarding the environment and coastal aquatic resources to support marine economic growth. By the end of the second quarter of 2021, the province will have a total of 9,890 fishing vessels with a length of 6 meters or more and a capacity of 2,820,242 CV, including 3,987 offshore fishing vessels. The total annual exploitation output is 500,000 tons on average.

In addition to harvesting seafood in the vast sea, the province designs and constructs aquaculture projects aimed at marine farming, particularly industrial mariculture, while also researching ship and construction structures. Kien Giang develops strategies to restructure the fishing sector, such as the Project on sustainable development of marine aquaculture in Kien Giang to 2030 and the project on investigation of fisheries in the coastal seas and the coastal area of Kien Giang.

The planning of the seaport system is comprehensively carried out to achieve maximum efficiency. The province has focused on exploiting deep-water ports in Phu Quoc, Hon Chong, and Nam Du, while also continuing to build the fleet, meeting the country's largest passenger transport demand and contributing significantly to the province's socio-economic development.

Sea transport services are gradually evolving, with technology applied in management, and the quality is improving. A number of large-scale and ground-breaking essential traffic works, including the Ho Chi Minh road (part Lo Te - Rach Soi), the sea dike road through Rach Gia city, and the international port of Phu Quoc.

The province has also constructed and is progressively completing industrial parks and coastal urban districts. To date, the Provincial People's Committee has decided to create 3/5 industrial parks, including Thanh Loc, Thuan Yen, and Xeo Ro, with 2/5 industrial parks now functioning. The provincial government has stepped up its efforts to call on and recruit investors to industrial parks. In industrial parks, many new projects using advanced and environmentally friendly technologies are being implemented.

The province also works on creating and adjusting coastal urban centers and their neighboring areas' planning. The focus is on smart connectivity based on the green growth model and parameters connected with long-term tourism development.

Kien Giang aims to make the marine economy account for 80% of the province's GRDP by 2030, with per capita income 1.5 times greater than the province's average; non-agricultural economic structure accounts for over 80% of the total GRDP. In the years 2021-2030, tourism will expand by 30-50 percent compared to 2020, and seafood exports will increase by an average of 10% every year.

Kien Giang's vision is to become a province with a strong marine economy in the Mekong Delta region by 2045, contributing significantly to the national economy in terms of sustainability, security, safety, and marine economy.

In the years 2021-2030, Kien Giang's seafood exports will increase by an average of 10% every year.

Benefits of sea and island tourism

Kien Giang is highly favorable in growing commercial contacts with nations in the region because it is located in the Gulf of Thailand and is quite close to ASEAN countries. Kien Giang is the only province in Viet Nam having two airports: Rach Gia domestic airport and Phu Quoc international airport, as well as Ha Tien international border gate and Giang Thanh national border gate, both of which are located on the Cambodian side of the border.

With the benefit of potential resources, many types of tourism, particularly marine and island eco-tourism, can be developed. Based on this advantage, Kien Giang is investing in and exploiting the major forms of tourism, such as sea and island eco-tourism, tourist resorts, tourism to historical, cultural, and scenic places, tour discovery, entertainment tourism, and shopping... In Phu Quoc, there is a strong emphasis on marine and island tourism, as well as local cultural tourism and high-quality eco-tourism. Simultaneously, the People's Committee of Kien Giang province has recognized three local tourist areas: the Nam Du archipelago tourist area (Kien Hai), the Lai Son tourist area (Kien Hai), and the Hai Tac archipelago tourist area (Ha Tien) as island resorts.

Many tourist sites have been planned, and many new tourism projects have been financed in recent years due to the province's interest in exploiting the tourism sector. Aside from several existing excellent amusement parks, numerous 4-5 star quality hotels have been built, including Vinpearl, JW. Mariott, Sol Beach, Muong Thanh, Intercon, Novotel..., totaling about 5,000 rooms, increasing Kien Giang's total number of rooms to 28,000.

Phu Quoc, in particular, is now constructing an international harbor that will be able to receive international passenger ships with a capacity of 5,000-6,000 passengers. Many key road, aviation, and electrical projects have been completed in Phu Quoc; airline services continue to expand connections with many domestic and international destinations; and sea transportation has been well-invested, making travel easier for people and investors.

A view of the “sleepless entertainment city” Grand World Phu Quoc. (Photo: Tran Trung Hung)

Bringing Kien Giang's image to the world

In recent years, Kien Giang's collaboration and foreign affairs in the sphere of tourism have been active. Kien Giang has offered tourism product information to provinces and towns in countries such as Cambodia and Thailand to build tours along the southern coastal corridor route (route R10) and has proposed a number of ideas. The focus of cooperation is on a few large markets with strong tourist growth potentials, such as Korea, France, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and China. Kien Giang has implemented cooperation initiatives with provinces and cities in Cambodia and Thailand, as well as organized trips to promote the province in India and Russia.

In particular, the Provincial People's Committee organized a business trip to promote tourism and trade in the Indian market in December 2018, led by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee. During the trip, the province collaborated with the Vietnamese Embassy in India to organize a tourism promotion program to introduce Phu Quoc island district – “Viet Nam's Pearl Island paradise.”

As a result of the business trip, Phu Quoc was chosen as the venue for a 4-day luxurious wedding party of the Indian couple, Rushang Shah and Kaabia Grewal. The wedding took place at JW Mariott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay Resort in March 2019, providing a chance to promote the image of Vietnam tourism to Indians and other countries' people.

Foreign affairs and international cooperation in tourism have attracted an increasing number of foreign investors interested in investment and cooperation in the province's tourism development. The number of international visitors to Kien Giang has increased rapidly in recent years. Kien Giang focuses on promoting the province's potentials and strengths, introducing the province's cultural beauty, people, and images to domestic and foreign friends; expanding exchanges, cooperation, and integration, and promoting the locality's socio-economic development; and strengthening the expansion of solidarity, friendship, and international cooperation, as well as improving people's lives

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