The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee approved the adjustment and addition of an eco-tourism development plan for Con Dao National Park. The pillars are two cable-car lines totaling 5.5 km in length and the addition to the plan of a marine buffer zone of about 100 ha as an investment-attraction zone for advanced-technology marine aquaculture. The city's vice-chair signed the decision document dated September 7, 2026, and local media reported it in succession on September 9–10. The main focus is tourism, but placing a 100 ha aquaculture quota in the island's surrounding waters relates to the future supply map for Japanese trading companies and food buyers handling Vietnamese seafood. At a stage where the fish species, operators and investment amount are all still unpublished, we separate what has been decided from what remains undecided.
What was approved in Con Dao is the tourism plan and a 100 ha marine-aquaculture investment-attraction quota
What moved this time is the approval of an "adjustment and addition" to the existing eco-tourism development plan. It is not a brand-new plan from scratch but a form of layering tourism infrastructure and marine use within the framework of the protected area that is Con Dao National Park. The approving body is the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. Nguyen Khac Pho, director of the Con Dao National Park Management Board, explains that going forward it will publish investment conditions for this quota and solicit investors. The board does not itself build and operate the aquaculture.
Two cable-car lines and the marine-aquaculture quota—the substance of what was added
The elements explicitly added are three: (1) two cable-car lines totaling 5.5 km in length, (2) an investment-attraction quota for advanced-technology marine aquaculture in a marine buffer zone of about 100 ha, and (3) 20 sites planned for tourism facilities. The marine-aquaculture quota is described only as "advanced technology," and the species of fish or shellfish targeted is not written in any reporting that could be confirmed. The assumed production volume and operator names are likewise unpublished.
Signed September 7, reported September 9–10
The signing of the approval decision was September 7, 2026. Agriculture-and-environment-affiliated and economic media turned it into articles on September 9–10, and the party gazette covered it around the same time. The framework figures—5.5 km of cable car, 100 ha investment-attraction quota, 20 planned sites—are reported with the same content across media. However, the primary source, the decision document itself, has not been confirmed, and no reporting touching on the total project cost could be found.
Why does Ho Chi Minh City hold Con Dao?
Con Dao is an island group off Vietnam's south coast that formerly belonged to Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. As a result of the 2025 local-administration reorganization that merged Ba Ria-Vung Tau into Ho Chi Minh City, Con Dao came under the city's jurisdiction and is positioned as the city's only "special zone (dac khu)." Behind the fact that the approving body this time is the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is this merger. From the Japanese side, it is a structure in which island seafood and tourism development hang directly from the administration of a vast southern economic zone.
The development zone overlaps with the national park
Because the planned sites overlap with the national park, the reporting repeatedly shows, as conditions, compliance with forest-environment conservation standards and consistency with sustainable forest management. However, these are mainly principles concerning tourism and forest use, and the individual permits and environmental procedures needed for marine aquaculture are matters to confirm after the decision document and operators are published. In any case, 100 ha is a "quota" to attract investment and is far from a commercialization in which cages go into the sea.
The figures that could be verified, and the figures still unknown
This material clearly splits into a confirmed framework and undecided blanks. To keep buyers from misjudging, we set out both separately. Note that the area of 905.92 ha is the planned site for the whole tourism facility, a separate quota from the aquaculture's 100 ha. The 100 ha is an investment-attraction zone placed in the sea area and is not to be added to the land tourism-development area.
| Item | Details | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Cable car | 2 lines, 5.5 km total length | Same content across media |
| Marine-aquaculture quota | Marine buffer zone about 100 ha, advanced technology, investment attraction | Same content across media |
| Planned tourism-facility sites | 20 sites, about 905.92 ha total (885.92 ha forest + 20 ha sea area) | Same content across media |
| Tourist target | 80,000–100,000 people a year by 2030, of which foreigners 30–35% | Same content across media |
| Approval/signing | Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee / signed September 7, 2026 | Same content across media |
| Location of the zone | Island group off the south coast of Vietnam, a special zone of Ho Chi Minh City | Same content across media |
| Aquaculture fish species and production volume | — | Unpublished |
| Operators and investment amount | — | Unpublished |
| Next items to confirm | Decision document, investment conditions, operators, fish species, export-to-Japan requirements | — |
Fish species, operators and start timing all unpublished; sourcing to Japan awaits disclosure
From here we enter consideration from a Japanese sourcing viewpoint. First to grasp is that this 100 ha entered the plan not as a "seafood promotion measure" but as an "investment-attraction quota of a tourism development plan." As long as the target fish species is unpublished, which item will come out for Japan cannot be determined. Whether there will be linkage with tourist facilities is also unpublished, so it is premature to expect commercial flow or brand use at this stage. Even so, the very fact that a 100 ha quota touting "advanced technology" was put into the plan off the southern coast puts a new dot on the map of sourcing candidates. Overlaid with the gap that Vietnamese pangasius opens in Japan's food-service sourcing amid a global white-fish shortage, which organized the move in which Vietnamese pangasius is filling the world's white-fish shortage, it becomes easier to position where a new marine-aquaculture quota fits in a sourcing environment moving from volume to quality.
What Japanese buyers should check now
What to confirm at the current stage is, first, follow-up reports on the target fish species. Whether it is high-value-added fish such as grouper, or shellfish, or a combination, completely changes the point of contact with the Japanese market. Second, the disclosure of operators and investment amount, since the supply timing cannot be read until it emerges who invests in the sea and when production starts. Third, the status of clearing permits specific to marine aquaculture, since the protected-area conditions may govern the upper limit of production scale. Until these are filled in, it is realistic to keep it warm as a "candidate" and move on production-area inquiries and sample overtures once confirmed information emerges.
Con Dao's positioning within Vietnamese marine aquaculture
Vietnam is advancing the sophistication of marine aquaculture along its coasts, and moves are also emerging to redirect exports to Asia and Japan in response to the slump in shrimp to the US. That flow also overlaps with Godaco heads to Asia amid the slump in shrimp to the US, opening negotiating room for Japan's sourcing, which tracked companies' moves to widen negotiating room with Japan to thin out US dependence. However, it is premature to position Con Dao's 100 ha as the recipient of this export diversification from now. Fish species, operators and production volume are all undecided, and comparison with existing production areas is not yet possible. The approval is a quota-setting to solicit investment, not operation, and the pace of tourism-infrastructure development and the start-up of aquaculture do not necessarily sync. Actual product will ride Japan's supply chain only after the fish species and operators are published.
Summary: what to confirm are the decision document, investment conditions, operators, fish species and export-to-Japan requirements
What was approved is the adjustment of Con Dao National Park's tourism development plan, including two cable-car lines of 5.5 km, a marine buffer zone of about 100 ha as a marine-aquaculture investment-attraction quota, and planned tourism-facility sites of about 906 ha across 20 locations. The framework figures were reported with the same content across media, but the aquaculture's fish species, production volume, operators and investment amount are all unpublished, and individual permits remain for commercialization. The concrete move Japanese seafood buyers can take now is to set as monitoring targets the five points of (1) the decision document, (2) investment conditions, (3) operators, (4) fish species and production plan, and (5) export-to-Japan requirements, and to prepare to move on production-area inquiries and sample overtures the moment (2) and (3) emerge. Gauging now whether it overlaps with the items your company handles lets you get ahead in the initial response once confirmed information emerges.
Sources
- Nong nghiep Moi truong, "Con Dao se co hai tuyen cap treo, khu nuoi bien 100 ha" (September 10, 2026)
- Nguoi Quan Sat, "Viet Nam quy hoach 2 tuyen cap treo dai 5,5km tai hon dao hoang so" (September 9, 2026)
- Bao Nhan Dan, "Phe duyet dieu chinh, bo sung de an du lich tai Vuon quoc gia Con Dao" (September 8, 2026)
- Bao Tuyen Quang, "Phe duyet dieu chinh, bo sung de an du lich tai Vuon quoc gia Con Dao" (September 2026)
