Viet Nam is a large maritime country in the South-East Asia, possessing marine waters of 03 time more than its land, has a long coast Iine of over 3,260 km and coastal wetlands of more than 03 million ha with valuable resources and biodiversity. Marine resources play an ever-increasing important role in the country's industrialization and modernization process, and the people Iivelihoods depends upon the seas and its coasts. Many key econorriic sectors are closely associated with marine resources such as oil and gas industry, fisheries and aquaculture, marine transportation, tourism and other marine services,... The paper presents the role of marine resources and challenges to Vietnam economic development, especially the coastal environmental issues based on analysis of the country's marine natural conditions and economic development status of sectors: fisheries and aquaculture economics, marine transportation economics, shipbuilding industry, oil and gas exploitation, salt production and tourism.