Since the 10th Party Central Committee adopted a resolution on Vietnam Maritime Strategy until 2020 in 2007, the fisheries sector has seen fundamental changes toward increasing output. However, it has also been dealing with an array of difficulties, particularly the recent yellow card given by the European Commission due to illegal fishing.
During the past 10 years, numerous incentives have been introduced, including those on investment, credit, insurance and tax.
Others toward fishermen such as training and fuel provision, or those with countries sharing fishing grounds, have been proving effective.
Worthy of note is the issuance of the Law on Fisheries in 2017.
Changes in policies have boosted the sector’s development, especially with offshore fishing and aquaculture.
Indeed, offshore fishing and aquaculture output has increased by 50 percent, from over 2 million tonnes in 2007 to nearly 3.2 million tonnes in 2017.
The export growth rate during the time, however, is still humble, with value reaching 7.05 billion USD in 2016 from 6.3 billion USD in 2010.
According to experts, export value has yet to reach full potential of the sector despite incentive policies for offshore fishing.
Specifically, thousands of fishing vessels are equipped with movimar device, which allows authorities to carry out remote surveillance to promptly discover violations and support fishermen in case of accidents. Its effectiveness is undeniable. However, because of its high price, there are now only 3,000 of 109,000 vessels with movimar installed.
Given the fisheries sector’s struggle to have the yellow card by European Commission removed, installing tracking devices in fishing vessels is expected to help Vietnam in meeting the EC’s requirements.-VNA
