New opportunities for Cam Ranh
Vietnam Review, No 534 - June 2003
By Nguyen Thang-Trung Kien-Thanh Dat
The fact that the Government has allowed the use of part of the military airport and north of Cam Ranh archipelago for economic development since August 2002 has become the biggest opportunity for Cam Ranh since its foundation.
We arrived at Cam Ranh right at the time of the sugarcane harvest. Looking at the lorries loaded with sugarcane, we knew without any difficulty that the local farmers had a good sugarcane crop. Sugarcane growing is a hard job. It takes almost 11 months of hard work from growing to harvesting the sugarcanes. One tonne of sugarcane is sold at only VND 225,000. A family that grows 3 ha of sugarcane can earn about VND 15 million, including payments for some extra expenses. “The best thing we earn from sugarcane farming is that we have a stable market, i,e. our products are purchased by the sugarcane mill. And the local farmers just want to enjoy this favour,” said Truong Sau, Chief of the Office of Cam Ranh Town People’s Committee. He added that since Cam Ranh Sugarcane Mill, with a capacity of 6,000 tonnes/day was built, the farmers had to work hard to grow enough sugarcane to supply it. The total area for sugarcane growing is 6,150 ha, more than half of the town’s total cultivated area, and 5 out of 19 villages have their main income from sugarcane growing. “At present, sugarcane processing and sea product raising are the two economic spearheads of Cam Ranh,” Truong Sau confirmed.
Formerly, people in Cam Ranh earned their livings mostly by fishing. With little money and rudimentary tools, they used to fish close to the shore, hence the output was low and the profit was inconsiderable. In recent few years, the farmers have raised shrimps and fish in cages. Seeing that this business brought great profit, more and more farmers have engaged in this undertaking. The output value of the sea product sector has increased sharply, making up nearly 50% of the town’s total product turnover (VND 346.515 billion in 2002). At present, the total area for shrimp and fish rearing is 1,980 ha. A series of big projects from now to the year 2005 are focused on aquatic and sea product rearing.
We boarded the motor canoe of the Border Station 384 to visit Cam Binh island village. The boat was drifting and bobbing on the water of the bay. We saw flat white rocks, dunes of soft sand and majestic green all around us. It was 8 nautical miles to the village. Our boat had to steer its way amid many boats and ships and shrimp-rearing cages to land. In this village, all villagers earn their living by rearing sea products in 3,100 cages, mostly lobsters. We saw some farmers tending their cages. When they saw us preparing to take photos, they pulled up a cage. Opening it, Van Sang, owner of the cage, showed a large lobster, about 1.5 kg in weight, which can be sold for VND 700,000. In his cage, there were about 200 such lobsters.
There are not only sugarcanes and lobsters in Cam Ranh. Our stay in Cam Ranh for a few days was just enough to help us realize “the biggest opportunity for Cam Ranh since its foundation has arrived” as said by Truong Sau. It was that since August 2002, the Government has allowed the use of part of the military airport and north of Cam Ranh archipelago for economic development. Surveys were carried out; visits to the archipelago were made, and application forms for projects for investment were presented. A master plan for socio-economic development for Cam Ranh to the year 2010 was established, under which Cam Ranh will appear with a new face. A new road running along the beach from Nha Trang to Cam Ranh Airport, 37 km long, will be built, and it will help shorten by nearly half the present Nha Trang-Cam Ranh distance. Cam Ranh Airport and Ba Ngoi Port will be upgraded and that will make Cam Ranh more attractive for further development.
We had an opportunity to bath at Long Beach, which is so far not yet imprinted with the tourists’ footsteps. The water is clean and clear; the sand is soft, and the atmosphere is so quiet. Long Beach will be a tourist target in the near future not only for Cam Ranh, but also for the entire Khanh Hoa Province. The special local sea products, including lobsters, oysters, and many others, can satisfy the most fastidious diners. There are 13 businesses who want to invest in building tourist infrastructure on this site, and certainly only those who have big registered capital and are highly feasible will be chosen. So far this is enough for Cam Ranh while it waits to become an international commercial port. The hard working local people in this prospective land had to wait for a long time for changes to come. Today Cam Ranh is no longer a military port, but is changing to become a zone with strong economic development.
Cam Ranh Bay (in Khanh Hoa Province) has an important strategic position. Located at the junction of international maritime routes to Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai (China) and Yokohama (Japan), the Bay is 8-10 km wide and 12-13 km long, and shielded by mountains. On average, it is 18-20 m deep (the deepest spot is 30 m). Thanks to these advantages, ships of 100,000 DWT can come in and out at any time. In addition, it takes only one hour for ships leaving the Bay to reach the international navigation line.
Cam Ranh Habour is one of the three best natural habours in the world, together with Sydney (Australia) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Cam Ranh archipelago has an area of 10,000 ha with special natural superiorities. Although the sea borders its two sides, this archipelago has a fresh water reservoir with a regular reserve of hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of water. Cam Ranh was known as a military base of important significance. But today, it is developing to become a prosperous economic zone.
