Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development works with Nghe An on combating IUU fishing

Comrade Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, was Head of the working delegation.

Chairing and working with the delegation from Nghe An province was comrade Nguyen Van De - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee. Also attending were representatives of relevant departments, branches and People's Committees of coastal districts and towns.

Overview of the working session of the delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with the People's Committee of Nghe An province on the fields of agriculture, rural development and management of fisheries exploitation activities. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien reviewed some of the outstanding results of Vietnam's agricultural sector in 2023, the export proportion of the sector has contributed to improving the country's position. However, there are still some shortcomings in the field of management and combating IUU fishing, which caused the EC to not remove the yellow card after the inspection in October 2023 but extend it. In the coming time, the Government and the National IUU Steering Committee will have more drastic measures and actions to remove the yellow card. Therefore, localities must enhance their responsibility to share with the Central Government and have a specific action plan.

Representatives of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An province reported a summary of the results of work in 2023 and expected key tasks on exploitation management and combating IUU fishing in 2024. Photo: Nguyen Hai

For Nghe An, the whole province currently has 3,413 fishing boats, of which 2,516 boats with a length of 6 m or more must be registered, of which 2,458 have been registered, reaching 97.69% and 100% updated to the Vnfishbase database system...

Implementing the EC's recommendations on combating IUU fishing , in 2023, the province issued many directive documents and organized meetings to evaluate and conduct field inspections in localities.

Through propaganda, cooperative groups were organized to commit to not exploiting IUU violations and 100% of boat owners signed a commitment not to violate foreign waters. During the year, 139 cases were fined with a total amount of 761.3 million VND; records were created to monitor vessels that had not installed VMS monitoring equipment, and vessels that lost VMS connection for a long time while fishing were verified and handled...

Fisheries control forces of Nghe An interdisciplinary inspection team approach fishing boats to propagate and check fishing boat licenses. Photo: Nguyen Hai

On behalf of the provincial leaders, Mr. Nguyen Van De - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee reported to the working delegation some highlights in the agricultural sector of the province; at the same time, based on the assessment of the achieved results and limitations in the field of exploitation management, the province committed to have more synchronous and drastic directions and implementation plans to contribute to the whole country in removing the yellow card in the coming time.

Representative of the Provincial Border Guard Command reported the results of handling fishing vessels that illegally exploited foreign waters and lost VMS monitoring signals. Photo: Nguyen Hai

At the meeting, representatives of a number of departments, sectors, coastal districts and towns pointed out the shortcomings in the capacity of fishing vessel infrastructure and seaports, making it difficult to inspect vessels entering and leaving ports and anchoring; the province has developed plans to convert occupations after reducing the number of fishing vessels, but they have not been effective.

Representatives of the Fisheries Surveillance Department of the working group suggested some solutions for Nghe An to monitor fishing vessels and strictly handle fishing vessels violating IUU. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Next, based on the actual inspection at Nghe An fishing ports, members of the working delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development presented a number of solutions to manage output at fishing ports; investment plans to upgrade type III ports and infrastructure of aquaculture areas.

Comrade Nguyen Van De - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee delivered a report to the delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and agreed with a number of recommendations and proposals raised by the Nghe An Department of Agriculture. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Based on the synthesis and acceptance of opinions from localities, Nghe An Provincial People's Committee recommends that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the process of reviewing and amending Decree 42/2019/ND-CP on handling administrative violations of fishing vessels, should supplement regulations on sanctions, requiring fishermen to deregister fishing vessels when they are sold, burned, sunk, or dismantled; stipulate sanctions for inspection facilities that do not fully update data to the Vnfishbase system; and soon have policies to support fishermen in changing their fishing profession...

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien delivered a concluding speech at the meeting. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Concluding the conference, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien acknowledged the province's efforts in the agricultural sector last year. However, based on the results of the field inspection at the ports in the morning, the Deputy Minister also frankly pointed out the shortcomings in the management of the province's fisheries exploitation activities, which are the low rate of monitoring fish output through the port; the rate of penalties by functional forces on the number of cases and fishing vessels recorded is still low. From now until April 2024, the province needs to have more drastic and determined action plans in combating IUU fishing violations. In addition, the province also needs to study support mechanisms to develop a job conversion plan for fishermen./.

Source: https://baonghean.vn/bo-nong-nghiep-va-phat-trien-nong-thon-lam-viec-voi-nghe-an-ve-chong-khai-thac-iuu-post283155.html