Vietnam’s Mekong Delta Region Facing 4 Major Challenges: Report

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region is facing four key challenges in history, state media reported from the annual economic report on the Mekong Delta region released by the Fullbright and VCCI experts. According to the report, four major challenges include:

(i) The rising sea levels and sanitization due to climate change. The sea level in the region rose about 3-4 millimeters per year on averagely;
(ii) The deterioration in both volume and quality of water is caused by the network of more than 140 large hydroelectric dams in the upstream area. The Mekong Delta region is also facing with drought in the dry season while the situation of land loss and coastal erosion due to overexploited has become more serious;
Water pollution is also one of the most difficult troubles in the region due to the overuse of fertilizers and pesticides;
(iii) The economy lagged far behind the development of the whole country because the region mostly depended on agricultural and fishery industries;
(iv) The region lacked new sciences and technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) or Big Data.

Besides, experts said that the quality of human resources is one concerning issue. The rate of trained workers in the Mekong Delta region is only 13.6% per year while the average of the country is 23.1%, they said. Experts stressed that the Mekong Delta region needs to build not only a new model of economic growth but more also a new model of development. (Vietnam Finance, Vietnam Finance)