Vietnam is determined to prevent illegal fishing

Mr. Tran Dinh Luan - said that since the EC warned of "yellow card" for Vietnam's captured seafood products in October 2017, the value of seafood exports Vietnam's entry into the European market has an average decrease of 6-10%/year (depending on each year).

This has greatly affected the reputation, position and diplomatic relations of Vietnam in the international arena. It also causes social and economic damage to coastal fishing communities and businesses.

The EU used to be the second largest market for Vietnam's seafood exports (accounting for 17-20% of the total seafood export value). After Vietnam was warned by the EC "yellow card", the EU has dropped from 2nd position to 5th position among the import markets of marine products from Vietnam (after Japan, the US, South Korea and ASEAN).

Therefore, Mr. Tran Dinh Luan said that: Preventing and eventually eliminating illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing is a mandatory task to remove the warning of yellow card by the EC, responsible fisheries development and international integration. This is a clear policy of the Party and the state, this has been institutionalized through the Fisheries Law.

In order to achieve the above goal, the Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries said that it is necessary to unify the perception and action of the entire political system, “must consider this as an urgent priority, concentrating resources for declaration ”.

On that basis, the Directorate of Fisheries has directed specialized agencies to lead and advise the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to advise and propose the Central to direct the entire political system to implement solutions.

The Secretariat, the Government, the Prime Minister, the National Steering Committee on IUU have issued a series of legal documents, directives, official letters and decisions to direct ministries, branches and People's Committees 28 coastal provinces and cities have drastically implemented measures to combat illegal fishing.

The Directorate of Fisheries has advised the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to issue 14 decisions, 40 documents directing localities to implement tasks and solutions to overcome shortcomings in fishing; especially regularly advising the leaders of the Ministry to organize the inspection teams at localities to correct the defects ...

Some of the results against IUU fishing are highly appreciated by the EC

Mr. Tran Dinh Luan said that after a period of effort, we have had very positive results, highly appreciated by the EC.

First, it is Vietnam's determination to make political efforts in resolving the EC's recommendations. We are also very open and transparent during the inspection and control of seafood products exported to the EU.

Second, Vietnam has developed and completed a legal framework including the Fisheries Law 2017, 2 Government decrees, 1 Prime Minister's decision and 1 circular, which is the basis for implementation. missions against illegal fishing.

Third, Vietnam has acceded to and implemented the Agreement on Port State Measures to prevent and combat illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing and not in accordance with the FAO and the Straddling Fish Stocks Agreement of United Nations.

In addition, the EC also highly appreciates Vietnam's efforts in the installation of cruise monitoring equipment (VMS). By 2020, we have 26,066 ships/30,900 ships fitted with cruise monitoring equipment. This is a huge, very costly effort that we have made in such a short time.

We have also strictly followed the EC's requirements on diversifying routes, what size of ships to operate in which area and which operation method is suitable. Mr. Tran Dinh Luan said that at present, over 90% of fishing boats (out of a total of more than 90,600 ships) have been marked with 3 different colors to distinguish the fishing scope, including: coastal areas, open areas and offshore areas. This move to avoid a situation like in the past time, some inefficient offshore fishing boats have brought big ships to coastal fishing, damaging the environment and great resources.

"The EC also highly appreciates us in strengthening the management of fishing capacity through Vietnam's announcement of quotas on the number of ships, and now there is only a reduction in fishing vessels, not an increase", Mr. Luan emphasized that this is one of our efforts to reduce fishing in accordance with our investigated resource reserves.

However, according to the Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries, besides the achievements, there are still many shortcomings in the fight against illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing, related to blue boats, enforcement of sanctions, lack of resources, infrastructure, equipment ...

Mr. Tran Dinh Luan emphasized: The spirit is that we must be determined to remove the "yellow card" warning as soon as possible.