Vietnam Warned of Migration in Mekong Delta

More people living in Mekong delta provinces in Vietnam have moved to other regions, especially to the southeast which is home to the country’s most dynamic economic hub – Ho Chi Minh City. Statistics by the Southern Institute of Social Sciences showed that there were 544,909 people in the Mekong delta move to other localities between 2009 and 2014, compared to 92,893 in the 1984-1989 period. Head of the institute Le Thanh Sang said that half of them went to Ho Chi Minh City and the remaining number going to the southeastern provinces of Binh Duong and Dong Nai which hundreds of industrial parks are located in. He said that the migration rate becomes higher and the migrants are young. They move to find jobs with better income instead of doing farming in the context that the Mekong delta is badly affected by climate change as droughts lengthen and salinization worsens. As a result, the Mekong delta has suffered falling economic growth over the past years. The region recorded an annual economic growth rate of 10% in the 2001-2010 period, but the number fell to 8.8% in the 2011-2014 period and 8% in 2015, according to Nguyen Van Sanh, director of the Mekong Delta Research Development Institute. The economic growth rate is much lower than that recorded by Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Dong Nai. It is part of reasons causing massive migration in the Mekong delta, Mr. Sanh said. (Nld.com.vn Oct 30, Dantri.com.vn Oct 30)