Fishing vessels of Ninh Thuan province (Photo: VNA) Luan said that the EC suggested the organisation of online working sessions with Vietnamese authorities in May, June and October before sending theteam to Vietnam.
In late May, a MARD delegation will have in-person working sessions with EC representatives to update themon Vietnam’s achievements in IUU fishing prevention and control with the hope of narrowing the EC’s recommendations to Vietnam.
Since the EC’s inspection in last October, Vietnam has worked hard to implementfour groups of the EC’s recommendations on IUU fishing prevention and control,including those on legal framework; fishing vessel monitoring and control, and fleetmanagement; seafood output verification and origin traceability; and law enforcement.
The MARD has also set up working groups to inspect the situation in coastallocalities and instruct them in rolling out measures against IUU fishing andimplementing the EC's recommendations.
Meanwhile, ministries and central agencies as well aslocalities have focused on realising their tasks of IUU fishing combat, preventing andsettling ships violating foreign waters and IUU fishing activities.
Luan urged ministries, sectors and localities to work harder to fix existingproblems, step up communications on regulations against IUU fishing, andprepare to receive the EC inspection team, thus persuading the EC to remove the“yellow card” against Vietnamese seafood exports.
According to the Directorate of Fisheries, as of April 30, up to 28,797 out of 29,489fishing vessels nationwide had installed the vessel monitoring systema (VMS).The majority of the remaining vessels have been out of service and kept ashore./.
VNA
