However, agriculture and minerals are normally considered two essential sectors giving a strong competitive edge as they are created by the nature and can produce inexhaustible and high added value. Fortunately, Vietnam boasts the two sectors with abundant resources In addition, it has great potential for developing a marine-based economy, along with modern economic sectors such as oil and gas industry, navigation and seafood processing.

These essential elements will help Vietnam become an agricultural power in the near future. In fact, the country has become a world’s leading farm-product exporter of staple items such as pepper, rice, coffee and rubber. However, material quality and losses in processing are among Vietnam’s weaknesses which need to be addressed. Therefore Vietnam should devise an agro-fishery development strategy and mobilise all resources to implement it effectively.

Vietnam ranks seventh among 15 mineral-rich countries in the world as it has a good supply of five industrial minerals: gold, coal, oil, ruby and underground water. It also possesses numerous large ore mines of bauxite, titanium and iron with huge mineral content.

Regrettably, the management and extraction methods used in these ore mines are ineffective and wasteful, without looking towards the long-term benefits of the nation and future generations.

Vietnam still has to export raw minerals such as crude oil, coal and iron ore. Its annual crude oil export turnover is about US$8.5 billion, accounting for 25 percent of the country’s total exports. However, uncontrolled exploitation of these crude minerals remains a serious problem that needs to be resolved.

While the global prices of raw materials are on the rise, Vietnamese ores are only sold at lower prices than those of the world market despite having high mineral contents. This begs the question of whether companies and localities responsible for controlling mineral exploitation and export are intentionally bartering away the nation’s resources?

Many kinds of minerals are essential to key industries. In recent years, many countries import minerals for reserves and production while their mineral exploitation is planned rationally. It is reported that small and medium-sized Chinese enterprises currently, hold reserves of around 24-25 million tonnes of high-content iron ores, which were imported from regional countries, mainly from Vietnam. The Chinese Government allows private companies to build crude oil reserve facilities.

In a nutshell, Vietnam needs to work out an exploitation, processing and export strategy for its national mineral resources.