Southeast Asia Information Port News (www.dnyxxg.com) – On May 13th, Merel van der Ven, First Secretary for Water and Climate Affairs at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Vietnam, led a working delegation to hold a working meeting with the People's Committee of Vinh Long Province, Vietnam. The meeting focused on in-depth discussions regarding sustainable marine sand mining and related cooperation, reaching several consensuses.
Merel van der Ven stated at the meeting that the Netherlands will prioritize deepening cooperation with Vietnam in three main areas: sustainable groundwater management, delta flood risk management, and sustainable marine sand mining. Marine sand mining is positioned as a crucial alternative to increasingly scarce river sand resources, meeting Vietnam's building material needs while effectively reducing the ecological impact on the Mekong Delta region. The Netherlands specifically proposed promoting the "Mekong Delta Offshore Marine Sand Strategic Reserve and Supply Chain Management Center" project, aiming to provide stable building material support for regional infrastructure construction and sustainable economic development by establishing a strategic offshore sand resource reserve and supply chain system. Tran Tri Quang, Chairman of the People's Committee of Vinh Long Province, introduced that the province has listed sea sand as a core strategic resource for infrastructure development: Six offshore mining areas are planned for the 2026-2030 period, with estimated sea sand reserves exceeding 10 billion cubic meters; after 2030, offshore sea sand reserves are expected to reach 15 billion cubic meters. Currently, Vinh Long Province is accelerating the formulation of a "2026-2030 Clean Sand Management, Reserve and Allocation Plan" and studying the investment and construction of a sea sand processing plant with an annual capacity of 12 million cubic meters. This transformation from extensive mining to deep processing will both serve key engineering projects and achieve ecological environmental protection.
Tran Tri Quang emphasized that the Netherlands possesses world-leading technology and experience in sand resource management and marine economic development. Vinh Long Province is willing to deepen cooperation with relevant Dutch organizations and experts, as well as the Vietnam Department of Geology and Mineral Resources, focusing on sharing resource survey experience, introducing offshore mining technology, especially sea sand washing technology, promoting the production of high-end building materials, and increasing the added value of sea sand resource utilization. Vinh Long Provincial Party Secretary Tran Van Lou highly praised the Dutch-proposed strategic reserve center project, believing it would not only solve the region's building materials shortage problem but also provide crucial support for the Mekong Delta's efforts to address climate change and achieve sustainable development. He stated that the Netherlands' advanced experience in sustainable sand resource exploration, management, and mining is vital for the standardized development of Vinh Long's marine sand industry.
The Vinh Long provincial leadership explicitly pledged to provide comprehensive support to their Dutch partners, creating favorable conditions in areas such as administrative procedures and optimizing the cooperation environment to ensure the early implementation and effectiveness of the cooperative project, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results.
