An online meeting to review the country’s performance over the first 6 months of this year took place from 30 June to 1 July under the chairmanship of the Vietnamese Prime Minister, Mr Nguyen Tan Dung.  In Da Nang were the Chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, Mr Van Huu Chien, and the Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Council and Head of the city’s National Assembly members’ group, Mr Huynh Nghia.

In his opening speech, Prime Minister Dung remarked that the meeting takes place in the context of China’s illegal action of positioning the HD-981 drilling rig in Viet Nam’s territorial waters since 2 May.  He added that China’s illegal actions have seriously violated Viet Nam’s sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction, as well as adversely affected the Viet Nam-China relationships, and they posed a threat to peace, stability and security in the region.  Hence, Prime Minster Dung noted that effective measures should be taken to safeguard Viet Nam’s sovereignty over its territorial waters in line with international laws, as well as to foster the country’s socio-economic development.  He stressed the need therefore to reach this year’s targets at all costs.

Local authority representatives participating in the online meeting

Addressing the event, Chairman Chien said that over the first 6 months of the year Da Nang had fulfilled its socio-economic tasks well.  Between January and June, Da Nang’s gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have increased by 9.2% year-on-year to over 20 trillion VND.  The city has also launched its “Year for Business 2014” programme and given more support to local businesses.  Also, special attention was paid to reaching the target of no starving households, no illiterate people, no itinerant beggars, no drug addicts in the community, and no murders for property in the city.  In addition, local authorities had attached importance to ensuring that all local residents have their own houses, stable jobs, and a cultural lifestyle.  Also, the living conditions of local people have improved remarkably and numerous sporting and cultural events have been held across the city.  The city also saw a significant decrease in the number of traffic accidents, deaths and injuries.

Chairman Chien also took the opportunity to ask the government to issue fisheries development policies as soon as possible to facilitate Vietnamese fishermen continuing to fish in Viet Nam’s waters.  This will help them to earn a living as well as protect the country’s sacred sovereignty over its sea and islands.  In addition, he suggested that the government should give priority to allocating funds to the city’s budget to implement its fisheries development projects.  In particular, special attention should be paid to deploying a project to boost the city’s fisheries development towards 2020 with a vision to 2030, with a focus on the key fishing grounds in the East Sea including the Hoang Sa waters.  In addition, projects for upgrading Son Tra District’s Tho Quang fishing wharf into a first-class one, as well as expanding storm shelters for over 600 horsepower fishing boats at the wharf will be implemented in the near future.