Phu Quy has suffcient potentiality for marine economic development however, it needs an adequate support from the higher governmental authority to fully expand its economy.
Sea food exploitation has been a significant advantage for a long time and at the present, tourism also s a great opportunity for Phu Quy to access outsides as well as integrate to the provincial economy.
The rebounding power of marine economy
Marine economy is ascertained as the local economic priority. Particularly in 2009, sea food productivity of Phu Quy was 21,100 tons, which was worth 114.02% of the annual plan. The number of high-powered boats (90CV and above) increased for 16, which raised the total current number of boats to over 1,352, that 72CV/boat in average. Specially, the proportion of exploiting boats is extremely high with 1,216, while the remaining is used for supplementary services and purchasing. Mr. Dang Van Tanh, who has been a fisherman in Tam Thanh Commune for a long time, shared his experience that: “the weather of this year is convenient for offshore fishing of large boats in longer time, and makes it easy for small-scale boats in exploiting sea product”.
Apart from exploitation, another advantage of Phu Quy District is raising sea product. It is believed that Phu Quy is the first locality actively investing in raising sea product by cages. There are totally over 100 units planting sea product, and 93 of them use cages in production with 1,197 blocks with the total water surface area of more than 4,000 m2, while other 10 units invest in forming separate planting partitions with 4,064 m2 water surface. Beside the advantage of marine potential, Phu Quy is gradually assuring the persistence of agricultural production. Planting methods are varied deping on weather. For example, at the moment, Phu Quy is in the havesting season of mango, water melon and several kinds of veges. However, according to many farmers in Ngu Phung Commune, goods are circulated inside the island and can not be conveyed to the territory due to the significant difficulty of transportation. Total planting area in the first three months of 2010 was 64 hectares, which could be seen as a great effort of the local agriculture. The agricultural section of this district indicates that, cattle breeding is slightly declining, owing to the growth of cattle food cost, and simultaneously, the decreasing price of meat in the market. Therefore, farmers are not really interested in raising pig and cow any more.
Nevertheless, the urban appearance of Phu Quy district has been changed positively. The average life of local residents is improved remarkably, especially the number of poor families decreased to 51 according to the new economic standard. The local authority has some priorities for the poor, so that they can ask for loans to purchase modern equipment and repair fishing boats.
Tourism needs a way
In recent years, Phu Quy has become an attractive place for tourism investors. It is due to the convenient location of this island, which satisfies the essential requirement for local tourism development. Besides, Phu Quy is a present of the Mother Nature with magnificent scenery and blue sea in four seasons. In addition, Phu Quy also attracts local visitors owing to the historic and cultural architecture of many places such as some pagodas in Tam Thanh, Long Hai and Ngu Phung communes. Mr. Nguyen Van Tri, Deputy-Chairman of the People Committee of Phu Quy District, asserted that, the district is looking for tourism projects from outside investors. A lot of investors have been coming to Phu Quy for investments, but their projects have not been implemented yet. The local authority released an indication that, if these investors still delay the progress of their schemes, they will be soonly replaced by other projects. Basing on that policy, the district authority always supports the tourism investment.
In fact, with the natural scenery and hospitality of local people, Phu Quy is able to attract more tourists rather than domestic visitors. However, the most significant difficulty is sea transportation. At first, there are only four passenger conveying ships for the whole island. Moreover, the district is 56 sea miles far from the territory, which means that it takes 6 hours for transporting time (in fine weather). Nevertheless, the aforementioned convenience only lasts 2 to 3 months. Therefore, this advantage is quite small compared with the location of Phu Quy, and tourism has not been developed strongly for a long time. Thus, its tourism potential needs appropriate measures for a significant breakthrough. Besides, environmental protection should also be taken into account to keep tourism develop in sustainable way.