The WB9 Project (Integrated Climate Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods in the Mekong Delta) is a project involving many ministries, agencies and provinces in the Mekong Delta, aiming to comprehensively transform the Mekong Delta towards sustainable development, enhancing tools to support local people to be more resilient to climate change.

The Construction Investment Management Board is currently implementing 4 sub-projects under the WB9 Project, including: Investing in upgrading and completing the surface water monitoring and monitoring system in the Mekong Delta; Upgrading and building a network of underground water monitoring in the Mekong Delta in the context of climate change; Building a monitoring system for riverbank and coastal changes in the Mekong Delta by remote sensing technology; Investing in building a Mekong Delta Data Center that integrates regional environmental and resource data for analysis, assessment and decision support on sustainable development in the context of climate change.

The Subproject 4 (Investment in the Construction of a Mekong Delta Data Center that Integrates the Region's Environmental and Natural Resources for Analysis, Evaluation and Development Decision Support Sustainable under the Changing Climate) is implemented from 2017 to 2022.

The project is implemented with the following objectives: Collecting, standardizing, integrating, storing and managing multidisciplinary data in the Mekong Delta region to ensure that the data is standardized, synchronous in time, space, with high reliability, and gradually overcome lack of data, data lacks consistency and synchronization; Analyzing, statistics, synthesizing and modeling multi-sectoral data to ensure synchronous data and statistics according to current regulations Ensure regular and timely provision of information on multidisciplinary databases; Making specialized periodic reports, general reports serving integrated climate adaptation and sustainable livelihoods in the Mekong Delta; Conducting research to support the planning of policies, strategies, master plans and plans for sustainable development in the Mekong Delta in the context of climate change.

The Mekong Delta Data Center was built in Can Tho city, on a green, environmentally friendly architectural space. The center is equipped with modern information technology technical infrastructure. Integrated multidisciplinary and specialized database on natural resources and environment and other related disciplines integrated, standardized and stored for general climate adaptation programs, projects and activities and sustainable livelihoods in the Mekong Delta.

Regarding the progress of the project, Mr. Nguyen Duc Phu, Director of the Project Management Board said that, up to now, for the construction design activities, on June 4, 2021, the Management Board has submitted a report to the Operational Management Department - Ministry of Construction on submitting for appraisal dossiers of adjustment of work construction basic designs. At the same time, the explanation documents for the feasibility study report on adjustment/basic design and cost estimate were consulted and sent to the Department of Information Technology and Natural Resources Data for comments.

In the coming time, the Project Management Board will continue to coordinate with the Consultants to submit the revised Feasibility Study Report for approval; Submitting for appraisal and approval of construction design documents and construction cost estimate drawings; Submitting to the World Bank for comments on the Bidding Plan for the construction item. At the same time, makeing commitments to protect the environment; Appraisal of materials and equipment prices as a basis for verifying and appraising construction drawing design documents and selecting a unit to construct temporary fences, clear mines...

At the meeting, representatives of relevant units such as Department of Financial Planning, Department of Information Technology and Natural Resources and Environment Data gave suggestions to solve difficulties, problems, as well as related issues to accelerate the progress of the project in the near future.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister Tran Quy Kien emphasized that building the Mekong Delta database is a very important task of the project "Integrated Climate Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods in the Mekong Delta", contributing to the successful implementation of Resolution 120/NQ-CP on sustainable development of the Mekong Delta in response to climate change.

Therefore, the Project Management Board needs to accelerate the completion of site clearance for construction investment. In addition, the Project Management Board continues to coordinate with units under the Ministry and the World Bank to select technical consultants suitable to the requirements and have practical capacity to build a database of the Mekong Delta region. They should complete and submit the plan to select contractors, total project investment and speed up the progress of other work items.

In particular, the Deputy Minister suggested that priority should be given to the construction of a database in the Mekong Delta region that integrates resource and environmental data to ensure that the database is comprehensively built, meets the regulations and standards and is interconnected between ministries, branches, localities and people. The Mekong Delta database will contribute to analysis, assessment and decision-making on sustainable development in the context of climate change. This is a pilot project and a model that can be replicated in other areas.