The central coastal province of Binh Dinh on September 6 held a meeting to discuss ways to implement the Government’s Decree 67/2014/ND-CP, which provides a spate of basic policies supporting the development of modern off-shore fishing methods.

Decree 67, issued on July 7, 2014, provides a full, systematic and synchronous set of basic policies to encourage fishermen building high-capacity and iron-covered ships capable of fishing offshore, a practice that could earn fishermen higher incomes, and at the same time contribute to protecting the country’s territorial waters.

Commercial banks have pledged about 14 trillion VND (658 million USD) in loans for organisations and individuals wishing to build new or upgrade their fishing vessels under the decree.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has decided that as many as 2,079 new off-shore fishing ships and 205 logistics ships will be built under this decree. Of that number, Binh Dinh will build 280 fishing and 25 logistics ships.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Le Huu Loc asked local authorities to survey fishermen’s demand, help them choose the suitable ship model and facilitate their access to bank loans.

With a coastline of more than 134km, Binh Dinh has three major ports, namely Tam Quan, De Gi and Quy Nhon. The province has a fishing fleet of over 7,400 vessels including nearly 3,000 offshore fishing ships with capacity ranging from 90 to over 1,000 CV each.-VNA