Vietnam will expand international cooperation in conducting surveys and managing natural resources in territorial waters. This is one of five tasks the Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands has put forward in its international marine cooperation program until 2020. Since early this year, the administration has sped up modernization of marine surveying work to meet the requirements of the marine-based economy in the first decades of the 21st century. It has updated technology, applied new scientific and technological advances, and increased the quality of surveying, observation and forecasting skills to serve socio-economic development and national defense. The administration is currently working on a project to set up a data bank on the natural resources and environment of seas and islands, which will be used to minimize the effects of climate change and rising sea levels. The agency has signed and implemented bilateral and multilateral memorandums of understanding on marine environment-related issues with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Republic of Korea’s Coast Guard, Russia’s Pacific Research Institute of Fishery and Oceanography, and the RoK Minerals and Geography Institute.
