Gia Lai (VNA) – The central province of Gia Lai has launched the digitisation of the local fishing fleet as part of efforts to strengthen the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and support Vietnam’s push to have the European Commission’s "yellow card" warning lifted.
Under Directive No. 16/CT-UBND, recently issued by the provincial People's Committee, combating IUU fishing has been identified as an urgent political priority requiring concentrated resources to address shortcomings in fishing fleet management, while holding agency heads and local leaders accountable for the results achieved.
Provincial departments and localities have been instructed to manage all fishing vessels that do not meet operating requirements, vessels that have been sold or transferred but remain unregistered under new owners, and vessels that no longer exist but have yet to be removed from the registry or have their changes updated.
Each vessel subject to special management must have an individual file detailing its owner or manager, mooring location, legal status, operational condition and proposed handling measures.
Local authorities are also required to conduct a comprehensive inventory and classification of all fishing vessels, updating information on vessel owners, registration, inspection certificates, fishing licences, vessel monitoring systems, fishing gear and operational status in the National Fisheries Database. The data must be accurate, complete, up to date, consistent and shared across agencies.
Authorities have been instructed to ensure that vessels failing to meet legal requirements are not allowed to leave ports or engage in fishing activities under any circumstances. If vessels under special management are found operating illegally or violating anti-IUU fishing regulations, chairpersons of commune- and ward-level People's Committees and heads of relevant agencies will be held accountable before the provincial People's Committee.
According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment, Gia Lai currently has 5,767 registered fishing vessels measuring six metres or longer.
All have been uploaded to the VNFishbase system, with vessel data digitised and synchronised with both the national fisheries database and the national population database (VNeID). All active fishing vessels have also been issued fishing licences.
Inspections and monitoring at fishing ports have been carried out in line with Vietnamese regulations and European Commission recommendations.
The province is also restructuring its fishing fleet in line with marine resource capacity and long-term fisheries development plans, gradually reducing vessel numbers under the Gia Lai Sustainable Fisheries Development Plan for 2026–2030, with a vision to 2050, while promoting the application of modern technologies to improve productivity and efficiency.
At the same time, Gia Lai is removing vessels from the management system that fail to meet operating conditions to improve the transparency of fleet data and strengthen fisheries management./.
VNA
