Lawmakers suggest civilizing Truong Sa Archipelago

National Assembly delegate Dang Ngoc Tung has suggested organizing tours to Truong Sa Archipelago (internationally known as Spratly Islands), offering logistics services for fishermen in this area and extending the runway on the Truong Sa Lon Island.

Truong Sa Lon Island, part of Truong Sa Archipelago of Vietnam.

Speaking at the National Assembly session on Tuesday morning, Tung, who is Chairman of the Vietnam Labor Confederation, proposed to boost marine economics.

"We need to civilize the entire Truong Sa Archipelago. We need to build shelters for our fishermen in the big islands such as Song Tu Tay and Da Nam and supply them with logistics services on the spot so they will not need to go to the mainland,” Tung said.

The deputy also suggested holding tours to Truong Sa by air and seaway and build hotels on islands in Truong Sa; taking fishermen to islands to raise fish; and extending the runway on Truong Sa Lon island to facilitate economic development and travel.

Tung said that Vietnam is facing many big opportunities and also great challenges. "We need to seize the opportunity to develop the economy and to escape from the middle income trap and to not depend on any country, any economy," he added.

Regarding solutions, Tung mentioned the improvement of labor productivity as the priority. In October the Ministry of Planning and Investment presented a report which said that if Vietnam keeps maintaining its current average labor productivity, it will catch up with the Philippines in 2038 and Thailand in 2069.

Tung said labor productivity does not depend entirely on the worker, but technology and machinery, economic institutions, laws, management and the proportion of agriculture in the economy.

“If we keep abuse of cheap labor and importing outdated technology we will be unable to improve productivity. I propose that the government not import outdated technology into Vietnam,” Tung emphasized.

Vietnamnet/P. Loan