Vietnam’s entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2007 has boosted the development of the country’s fisheries sector but also presented big challenges for its integration into the world market.

The remark was made by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam at a seminar on the fisheries sector’s capacity and WTO impacts held in Tam Dao, the northern province of Vinh Phuc, on Aug. 20. The seminar is part of a project to design a national plan of action to sustainably develop the fisheries sector in the 2010-2012 period.

Tam pointed out a number of challenges, including the implementation of WTO commitments and the adjustment of policies to conform to international practices, laws and standards.

The representative for Vietnam from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Andrew Speedy, shared the idea, saying the sector has to cope with challenges such as product quality and origin control.

The project to build a 2010-2012 national plan of action for the fisheries sector was carried out from February 2008 to August 2009 with 250,000 USD in aid granted by the FAO.

The project aims to concretise the agriculture and rural development sector’s plan of action to develop fisheries, and introduce steps to maintain the positive impacts of Vietnam ’s WTO entry on the development of markets for Vietnamese aquatic products, as well as to contribute to poverty reduction for coastal residents.

In its development master plan for 2010 through 2020, the fisheries sector also came up with a number of synchronous solutions in order to obtain sustainable development targets.

They focus on reducing the number of ships and boats in operation, improving the capacity of State management, controlling aquatic product quality, increasing investment in fishing facilities, facilitating sea-based aquaculture and applying advanced technologies.

In 2007, the first year of Vietnam ’s WTO integration, the country’s aquaculture output reached 2.1 million tonnes, surpassing the exploitation output for the first time.

In the following year, Vietnam netted 4.6 million tonnes of aquatic products, including 2.5 million tonnes from aquaculture and 2.1 million tonnes from fishing, jumping to third place in aquaculture output and 13th in fishing output in the world.

Also in 2008, Vietnam fetched up 4.5 billion USD from exporting aquatic products, ranking sixth in terms of export value./.