At the Vietnam Fisheries Surveillance Conference on 10 years of accompanying fishermen, enforcing laws and protecting aquatic resources, combating IUU fishing for a green and sustainable fisheries industry, Mr. Chau Cong Bang - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ca Mau province made recommendations revolving around the issue of resource allocation from the central to local levels, most notably the payment policy for fisheries surveillance forces.
In response to Ca Mau's recommendations, Mr. Nguyen Quang Hung - Director of the Fisheries Surveillance Department admitted: "Fisheries surveillance activities at sea are very hard but the policies and regimes are still low, both central and local fisheries surveillance. If compared to the marine force, with the current salary payment, it is very difficult to recruit people."
Mr. Nguyen Quang Hung - Director of the Department of Fisheries Surveillance.
According to Mr. Hung, the fisheries surveillance force has received attention from the Party, the Government, especially the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in recent years, but there are still many difficulties and problems that need attention. Regarding the organization of the staff, the central fisheries surveillance force as well as the local fisheries surveillance force face many difficulties in arranging enough civil servants, public employees and workers to deploy forces on fisheries surveillance vessels.
Regarding policies, the Director of the Fisheries Surveillance Department said: “Fisheries Surveillance is a force that regularly operates at sea, in very difficult conditions, but the policies are still limited. We hope that in the near future there will be appropriate policies for the central and local fisheries surveillance forces.”
In addition, Mr. Hung emphasized that investments in equipment, vehicles, and headquarters for the operations of central and local fisheries control forces need to be invested and upgraded to confidently carry out assigned tasks.
“When performing missions at sea, in addition to equipment and means, modern technology is needed to ensure smooth command operations at sea, satellite phone technology, and satellite monitoring technology to ensure smooth monitoring from central to local levels when operating at sea,” said Mr. Hung.
Regarding the monitoring equipment, the Director of the Fisheries Control Department shared that the National Assembly Standing Committee has agreed to allow 6 types of equipment to be used for filming and taking photos during sea patrols, which are important evidence in the process of cold punishment as well as detecting and promptly handling violations at sea.
In addition, Mr. Hung said that currently, local fisheries control forces are facing difficulties in their authority to handle administrative violations. The reason is that when the Law on Handling Administrative Violations was issued in 2020, there was no local fisheries control force, so the authority was not specified in the law.
To solve this problem, first of all, the law must be amended, and second, the National Assembly must pass a resolution to delegate authority to local fisheries inspectors, especially local fisheries inspectors and heads of local fisheries inspectorate inspection teams when patrolling at sea. This ensures that violations are handled as quickly and as briefly as possible.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien frankly admitted that despite its very important role, the Fisheries Surveillance Department still faces legal limitations.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien frankly admitted that despite its very important role, the Fisheries Surveillance Department still faces legal limitations.
Also related to the difficulties and obstacles in the locality, Deputy Minister Tien shared: “After 10 years of having a fisheries control force, the apparatus, staff, facilities and equipment are still limited. Therefore, when the Prime Minister approves the project of the fisheries control force, and at the same time the national planning on protecting and exploiting aquatic resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will develop projects to strengthen the facilities, apparatus, staff and equipment…”.
At the same time, propose infrastructure projects for the recovery and development of aquatic resources. This is a very important pillar for the development of sustainable fisheries.
In the fight against IUU fishing, there have been positive changes in fisheries exploitation but they have not yet met the requirements for the EC to remove the yellow card. We have prepared a very complete system of documents from Laws to Circulars,... however, to have a profound and fundamental change, we need the participation of the entire political system, in which the fisheries control force, border guards, navy, and coast guard are the core forces.
Every year, Vietnam's seafood output is over 3.8 million tons. In addition to accompanying fishermen in guiding the implementation of the 2017 Fisheries Law, decrees and circulars to have a sustainable, green and extensive seafood industry, the fisheries control force ...
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