Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vu Van Tam, said that new policies would help ensure benefits for fishermen.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vu Van Tam
On July 7, the Vietnamese government issued Decree 67 on policies to support the development of the fishing industry with focus on fishermen. The decree was considered so urgent that it was compiled in just 40 days.
Under the new regulation, fishermen would be provided with aid to get preferential interest rate bank loans equivalent to 95% of the total cost for their upgrading their boats or building new ones with a capacity of 400CV or more.
They will be also be provided with funds to cover all insurance fees, purchase fishing equipment and get training in ship operation, ship design and maintenance.
Tam said that they would design a total of 24 models of fishing boats reenforced with metal for owners can choose the most suitable one for their budget and operations at sea.
“We’ll try to issue the design for these boat models before August 25. Fishermen can also decide to hire enterprises to design ships, but the expenses would be higher and they would have to get approval for the design before the construction,” Tam noted.
He admitted, however, that at present many fishermen are hesitant to take part in the programme for fear that they may not earn enough to pay back the loans.
Fishermen may be allowed to use reenforced ship as collateral for loans
“We’ve piloted a model for a tuna production chain in the central provinces of Phu Yen, Binh Dinh and Khanh Hoa. We’ll learn lessons from the model in order to provide guidance in other areas," he said.
In order to ensure efficient implementation of the policies, relevant authorities have worked out some measures to curb the number of boat upgrades and new boats being built in certain localities based on the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)’s planning and estimates of seafood resources.
Fishermen who want to get bank loans for boat upgrades or building must register with the communal government who will inspect to ensure that they are really working at sea before submitting it to the provincial government for approval.
He commented that this type of policy encourages fishermen who own wooden boats with a capacity of less than 90CV to register to build new, bigger and stronger ships for offshore fishing. It will also lead to poverty alleviation, he added.
In addition, Tam said that Decree 67 would stimulate support infrastructure including ports, docks and markets.
"Under the pilot programme for tuna production we held auctions and publicly announced the quality of the tuna. This empowered fishermen to have a say in the evaluation process, something that traders currently shut fishermen out of. We’ll also increase coordination between tuna processing companies and fishermen in order to cut the role of mediators. This will ensure better selling prices and higher profits for fishermen,” he said.
Relevant authorities are gathering opinions and hope to issue a circular to guide the implementation of the decree before August 25, he added.