HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is developing a draft decree to replace Decree No 51/2014/NĐ-CP (Decree 51) allotting sea areas to organisations and individuals for exploiting marine resources.

According to the ministry, since Decree 51, dated 2014, came into effect in 2015, the ministry had received seven applications for marine resources exploitation and use. The provinces of Quảng Ninh, Quảng Trị, Phú Yên, Bình Thuận and Kiên Giang assigned 12 sea areas to private organisations and individuals for this purpose.

The assignment helped boost the marine economy of these localities as well as encouraged organisations/individuals to invest in projects on sea ports and wind energy. The investment is reportedly worth billions of US dollars.

However, after three years of implementation of Decree 51, its shortcomings are starting to surface, the ministry said at a workshop in Hà Nội on Thursday.

Decree 51 fails to clarify authorised agencies that can grant certificates/permissions or investment licences to organisations and individuals so that they can exploit marine resources in the allotted sea areas.

Moreover, many exploitation activities are not included in the current list of activities regulated in the decree, leading to confusion among relevant agencies in granting permissions.

In addition to this, activities such as oil surveillance and exploitation, aquaculture or those for national defence purposes, are regulated by other specific laws, which pose problems in granting permissions.  

Addressing the workshop, acting head of Việt Nam Sea and Islands General Department Tạ Đình Thi said it was necessary to amend Decree 51 to make it suitable to reality.

The ministry hopes to complete and submit the draft decree to the government in October. — VNS