Vietnam ’s fisheries sector will increase its fish farms to 1.2 million hectares, producing as much as 4.5 million tonnes a year and reaching an annual average growth rate of 5.2 percent by 2020.

The plan was announced at a conference on development plans for aquaculture for 2020, with a vision to 2030”, held by the General Department of Fisheries, in Hanoi on May 18.

The sector also set a target of earning an annual export revenue of between 7 to 7.5 billion USD, a rise of almost 7.5 percent annually, and will employ about 3.5 million workers.

Nguyen Thanh Tung, Head of Vietnam’s Institute of Fisheries Economics and Planning, said that besides the approved projects, another additional 12 projects with a total investment of 54 trillion VND will be put in place to reach the set targets.

He said that it is necessary to look at other ways of using land and water, and examine policies on tax, credit and investment for the sector, while stepping up training programmes and improving the sectors infrastructure and technology. He added that applying Vietnam ’s Good Agricultural Practices Standard was also necessary.

Although Vietnam ’s fisheries sector has a high growth rate, the sector is not efficient enough and there remains a lot of shortcomings and risks, as sits infrastructure and technology lacks investment.-VNA