As reported by Lao Dong Newspaper, although Ha Long Bay has a huge revenue from tourism, with an average of over VND1,000 billion per year.
However, it can be said that "as small as a nail" is dredging the channel in front of the bay so that tourist boats can enter and exit conveniently, creating a clean and beautiful green environment, but the Ha Long Bay Management Board (now under the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board) cannot do it with the unbelievable reason of not having money.
In fact, the Ha Long Bay Management Board is truly "no money". Because according to Resolution 88/2017 of the People's Council of Quang Ninh province, this unit is only allowed to retain 11% of revenue from sightseeing tickets to pay salaries to more than 350 employees and perform professional tasks. The remaining amount - 89% - must be paid to the provincial budget.
This creates a vicious cycle: Ha Long Bay Management Board recommends that the province support funding to dredge water areas to serve activities in and out of tourist attractions. However, the consulting agencies replied that "there is no basis" because this is the responsibility of the Bay Management Board, the Bay Management Board affirmed that they do not have enough funding...
This vicious cycle reveals many problems, first of all, the unreasonable allocation of resources, causing the agency directly managing it to not be able to proactively resolve the work that needs to be done regularly.
In many localities with heritage exploiting tourism such as Hue or Hoi An (Da Nang), revenue from sightseeing tickets is not only used for regular expenses but is also kept to invest in conservation, maintenance and improving tourist experience.
On the contrary, in Ha Long, revenue is divided unreasonably, causing activities directly serving tourists - such as dredging waterways, to be impossible without going through the process of asking - giving a lot of money.
Quang Ninh province cannot continue to let the situation continue, every time a tourist ship runs aground, the Ha Long Bay Management Board has to go ask for funding, then wait for the authorities to handle it in a state of shirking responsibility, not knowing when it will be finished like now.
Ha Long Bay needs a more modern heritage management model, in which responsibility is associated with the right to use resources, allowing the Management Board to retain a large enough budget to proactively carry out tasks such as dredging, maintenance, and environmental protection of the bay. At the same time, there is a transparent monitoring mechanism to avoid loss and waste.
Because the ships in Ha Long Bay are not only "stuck" because the canals have not been dredged, but are also being blocked by bottlenecks in thinking and mechanisms for managing resources.
