The southern central coastal province of Phu Yen on February 13 declared the first 19 fishing ship building projects, which belong to fishermen in Tuy Hoa city and Dong Hoa district, to be eligible for loans from the Government.

The province, the country’s mainstay of oceanic tuna fishing, said that this first batch of ships met conditions under decree No 67/2014/ND-CP issued on July 7, 2014 concerning polices on fishery development.

Among those ships, 15 will be built with wooden or composite shells and equipped with engines of 500-800 horsepower. The remaining four are upgraded.

The work is estimated to cost 126 billion VND (5.9 million USD), in which 95 billion VND (4.45 million USD) is sourced from commercial banks and the rest comes from ship owners.

According to the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, since the implementation of decree No 67/2014/ND-CP, the fishermen have set up projects aiming to build 104 new ships, which need 1.01 trillion VND (47.328 million USD).

Government Decree No. 67 provides a full, systematic and synchronous set of basic policies to encourage fishermen building high-capacity and iron-covered ships capable of fishing offshore.-VNA