The workshop was attended by experts in economics, geography, biology, seafood industry, agriculture and climate change; representatives of research institutes, VNU’s centers, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; non-governmental organizations together with staff and lectures of the Faculty.
The workshop was aimed to provide participants with an overview of studies on anticipating impacts of climate change on coastal economy in general and seafood industry in particular in the world and Vietnam. Participants were also provided with methods of anticipating the impacts, thereby creating a forum to exchange and discuss about the cooperation in researching relevant issues.
From that end, reports presented at the workshop all focused on the main theme which are research methods of: (1) Measurement: measuring the impacts of climate change, economic and environmental damage due to disasters and incidents as well as (2) Assessment: assessing risks, impacts of climate change, economic assessment of adaptation activities to climate change.

 The speech on “Measuring impacts of climate change on fishing industry” delivered by Dr. Nguyen Viet Thanh raised several new issues since studying the impacts of climate change on fishing industry is a quite new field, on which there have been few researches, and Vietnam has never had similar study before. The speech presented general analyses of impacts of climate change on the oceans, anticipating international fishing industry, recommending ways to measuring impacts of climate change on fishing industry in Northern provinces of Vietnam. The speech especially pointed out that changing productivity may be used to measure impacts of climate change on fishing industry.
The speech “Measuring impacts of climate change on Ca Mau Province’s agriculture” by Dr. Ngo Tho Hung also gained much audience’s attention by introducing a systematization method to analyze the vulnerability of agriculture and the possibility to apply this method in other provinces or other industries in Vietnam.
Other speeches presented experience in doing case studies, providing information for policy-makers and assessing solutions to adapt to climate change. On the other hand, speeches at the workshop affirmed that damage measuring is an interdisciplinary activity which requires close cooperation of relevant sectors, as well as a more effective data collection.
Discussing about experts’ speeches, all participants thought that they were all of high quality and worth acknowledgement. The speeches contributed to the information update, raised the understanding and aroused approaches to measuring impacts caused by climate change to Vietnam’s coastal economy and seafood industry, providing participants with an overview of research methods applied. What is necessary to do now is to standardize the toolbox, establishing coefficient and disseminate across areas, but it requires good methodology, data and tools. Besides, according to Asoc.Prof. Dr. Pham Van Cu - Director of VNU International Center for Advanced Research on Global Change : “it is necessary to combine researching on the impacts of climate change with specific macroeconomic situation of Vietnam”.

Some participants commented on localizing international methodologies such as: methods to assess the vulnerability and risks, approaches to co-management, coastal area planning…
After a half day of progressive and serious working, the workshop  closed with a lot of useful information and experience of measuring the impacts of climate change on coastal economy and seafood industry. The workshop also reached the consensus on research contents and potential research agreements among relevant parties towards measuring impacts of CC on Vietnam’s coastal economy and seafood industry, contributing to develop the cooperation between the Faculty of Development Economics in particular and VNU-UEB in general.
Concluding the workshop, on behalf of UEB Management Board and Organizing Committee, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh thanked to experts and participants for having speeches and discussions on the practical topic. He hoped that the workshop would bridge a long-term and more efficient cooperation between the VNU-UEB and research institutes; as well as progressing to make a roadmap for bidding and implementation of common projects on this topic.

Workshop is expected to bridge a long-lasting and efficient cooperation among the UEB, research institutes and experts