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Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Kien Giang (VNA) – The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang aims to mobilise nearly 12.7 trillion VND (551 million USD) to develop marine aquaculture during the 2021-2030 period.

Of the amount, the central budget will provide 0.16 percent and the local budget 0.85 percent, with the remainder coming from different economic sectors.

The province will invest 11.93 trillion VND in fish cages at sea and mollusc breeding efforts.

Investment sourced from State and local budgets, which totals 128 billion VND, will be used in building infrastructure, improving capacity in the sector, and supporting scientific-technological research on marine aquaculture.

With investment from different economic sectors, Kien Giang will also upgrade its transport and electricity infrastructure.

The province will seek and coordinate with foreign credit sources such as the Netherlands’ Aqua-Spark fund and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Its 2021-2030 marine aquaculture plan matches the country’s sustainable maritime economic development strategy to 2030 and vision towards 2045.

Kien Giang has transformed small-scale, outdated marine aquaculture models into large-scale models, using cutting-edge technologies to move towards sustainability.

By 2025, it is expected to have 7,500 farming cages, including 4,700 fish cages using traditional breeding methods and 1,900 using high technologies. By 2030, the figures are to be 14,000, 5,300, and 6,600, respectively.

More than 47,680 workers are expected to be employed in the sector.

To that end, apart from concerted land and water surface measures and policies and mechanisms in support of the sector, the province has also adopted solutions in human resources, product consumption, and logistics./.

The Hanoitimes – The purchase confirms that Russia is the biggest arms supplier of Vietnam.

Vietnam signed a US$350 million deal in 2019 to buy a dozen of combat training aircraft from Russia, the Vedomosti business daily reported on January 28.

The purchase deal covers at least 12 Yak-130 combat training jets, Vedomosti cited two unnamed Russian defense industry executives as saying, giving no details about the delivery time.

A Vietnamese Kilo-class submarine bought from Russia. Photo: AFP

Yak-130 jet is designed for training pilots of advanced fighter aircraft. It can also be equipped with air-to-surface weapons including guided missiles and bombs.

According to Vedomosti, Vietnam would be the sixth country to import the Yak-130, following Algeria, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, and Belarus.

The contract paves the way for the purchase of more advanced jets from Russia, including the Su-30SM and the Su-35, military expert and Arms Exports magazine editor-in-chief Andrei Frolov was cited as saying.

Russia is the biggest arms supplier to Vietnam and Southeast Asia. In 2018, Vietnam ordered a fleet of Russian-made fighter jets, surface ships, and submarines worth more than US$1 billion, according to the state-run TASS news agency.

Earlier, Vietnam bought six Kilo-class submarines worth more than US$2 billion.

Vietnam has been one of the world’s most active arms importers in recent years, according to Reuters.

Hanoi stepped up its imports amid China’s increasingly aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea, where the neighbors have long-standing rival claims.

Vietnam is ranked 23th out of 137 countries and second in Southeast Asia after Indonesia in the military strength ranking 2019 of US-based Global Firepower.

The rating is based on 55 parameters, including military resources, diversity of weapon systems, natural resources, geographical features, finances and available manpower.

The military strength is formed by three main sectors namely airpower, land strength and naval strength.