Workshop on ICM and signing of Letter of Cooperation with PEMSEA

The Vietnamese-German technical cooperation project, “Management of Natural Resources in the Coastal Zone of Soc Trang Province”, together with its partners, the Provincial People’s Committee and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, organized a Workshop on Integrated Coastal Management “From Vision to Action”, in Ho Chi Minh City on April 16th 2013. This workshop built upon the results of the previous “System Conceptualisation and Futures Thinking”- Workshop in 2012 and aimed at identifying the way forward and next steps for ICM implementation in Soc Trang Province.

Furthermore it aimed at establishing close collaboration with PEMSEA (Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia) to promote Soc Trang as ICM priority site and identify future activities and collaboration. Therefore a Letter of Cooperation was signed between Mr Jochem Lange on behalf of GIZ Vietnam, Mrs Nancy Bermas-Atrigenio on behalf of PEMSEA and Mr Le Thanh Tri, Vice-chairman of the Soc Trang  Provincial People’s Committee.

During the morning session presentations summarized the process of ICM development in Soc Trang so far, including a presentation by Prof Bill Carter from the University of the Sunshine Coast, who facilitated the first phase of “System Conceptualiation and Futures Thinking”, and by Mr Trần Hoàng Dũng, a member of the Interdisciplinary Planning Team, who presented an example of spatial planning for the topic of education, which had been identified as key issue in the previous workshops. Afterwards some presentations outlined the requirements for the way forward, presented by Mrs. Bermas (PEMSEA) and Mr. Nguyễn Văn Thưởng (Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands, VASI). Under the four strategies of “inform/educate”, “sustain/preserve”, “protect” and “develop”, working groups with different stakeholders from various departments in Soc Trang developed in the afternoon concrete ideas for action plans for the development of a Coastal Strategy for Soc Trang province.

Source: CZM

Soc Trang ICAM Report