The Mekong Delta Economic Cooperation-Ca Mau 2011 Forum was launched in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday, aiming to further enhance the development of the delta region that includes Ca Mau Province.
The program, shortly called MDEC-Ca Mau 2011, is designed to bring together business people, economists, scientists, administrators and organisations to figure out ways to effectively support the whole region’s sustainable development, said provincial People’s Committee Chairman Pham Thanh Tuoi.
Mr. Tuoi, chief of the program organizing panel, was speaking at a press conference launching MDEC-Ca Mau 2011.
It is themed "The Mekong Delta – Links for Sustainable Development", he said.
The program is expected to promote the strength of the whole region and each of the 13 individual provinces.
Regional cooperation includes all fields, such as transportation, trade, tourism, investment, agriculture, fisheries and forestry, according to the chief of the organizing panel.
Mr. Nguyen Cam Tu, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, general secretary of the National Committee on International Economic Cooperation, mentioned the significance of the Mekong Delta Economic Cooperation, or MDEC, which Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung finalized on in March 2010 to support the delta’s development.
Mr. Tu spoke of the significance as deputy chief of the Steering Committee for MDEC.
He said the Steering Committee includes senior officials of the Steering Committee for the Southwestern Region, National Committee on International Economic Cooperation, and various ministries
The delta region contributes over half of the country’s rice output, 90 per cent of rice export, 65 per cent of fisheries production and 70 per cent of fruit, according to the program organizers.
Mr. Tu said MDEC-Ca Mau 2011 included a series of events and workshops in Ho Chi Minh City and Ca Mau Province.
A cooperation conference between HCMC and the delta will take in the city on July 25, followed by another on agricultural investment promotion the next day also in the metropolitan.
A workshop on policies for regional links will be held in Ca Mau in October, followed by a MDEC-Ca Mau CEO Conference also that month in the province.
October will also see a conference on promoting the delta’s development and an International Economic Cooperation for the Mekong Delta, both in Ca Mau.
In addition, the province will host the Leaders Conference on MDEC Ca Mau 2011 in the same month.
The province is home to the Ca Mau gas-power-fertilizer industrial zone, a key growth driver for provincial and delta development.
Ca Mau leads the country in fisheries exports with an annual export turnover of over US$800 million. It reports food production of more than 450,000 tons of different kinds annually.
