Our country has more than 2,770 big and small coastal islands, with a total area of about 1,720 square kilometres. Those islands are scattered across our country’s seas, but most of them are located in the Gulf of Tonkin. There are some big coastal islands, such as Cai Bau, Phu Quoc, Con Dao, Phu Quy, Cat Ba, and Ly Son. The system of coastal islands holds a position of paramount importance to creating our nation’s living space and providing a legal basis for asserting our national territorial sovereignty. Moreover, coastal islands act as “outposts,” fixed “key positions,” and “defensive walls” for managing, controlling, and protecting our traffic routes, economic activities, and important seas near the coast as well as for deploying forces to firmly protect the Homeland from the sea.

The system of coastal islands plays a crucial role in exploiting marine natural resources, protecting marine environment, and defending and developing Vietnam’s typical marine ecosystems. Besides, it lays a foundation for socio-economic development of coastal areas and seas, while serving as a gateway for economic and cultural exchange with other countries to enable Vietnam to reach out to the world.

Natural resources of the system of Vietnam’s coastal islands are very rich and diverse, including natural minerals, land, flora, and fauna together with great potential for tourism.

+ Natural minerals on our coastal islands are divided into 5 main groups, namely flammable mineral, metallic mineral, non-metallic placer mineral, construction mineral, and gemstone.

+ Land on our coastal islands is divided into 11 categories for agricultural, forestry, and specialised purposes. Land on our coastal islands, even on uninhabited ones are mainly used for agriculture.

+ Flora and fauna on our coastal islands are also very diverse and valuable in economic terms. Flora has a wider divergence in comparison with mainland. Flowering plants play a decisive role in forming components of flora within island ecosystem. Fauna are also diverse and typical of tropical coastal nature, with 64 animal species under 24 animal families and 8 animal orders, 194 bird species under 50 families and 20 orders, 72 reptile species under 17 families and 3 orders, and 15 frog species under 4 families and 1 order.

+ With special landscape and tropical climate and ecosystem, the system of Vietnam’s coastal islands has great potential for tourism development. Those islands are regularly grouped under our country’s marine tourism regions, such as Northern, North Central, South Central, and Southern marine tourism regions. Our seas in which Co To, Cat Ba, Bach Long Vi, Hon Me, Phu Quy, Con Dao, Phu Quoc, and Nam Du are located act as our important fishing grounds; some of those islands are favourable for constructing fisheries logistics service centres. It is worth noting that Phu Quoc, Con Dao, and Van Don are outpost islands associated with our heroic history of national construction and protection.

To conclude, Vietnam’s system of coastal islands has great potential and plays a role of importance to our country’s socio-economic development, defence, security, and diplomacy. Therefore, sectors and localities, particularly coastal localities should carry out detailed researches and evaluations to make proper plans for socio-economic development within coastal areas and seas in line with defence-security consolidation so as to contribute to firmly protecting sacred national sovereignty over seas and islands.

TRAN TOAN