On the afternoon of May 21, the People's Council (HĐND) of An Giang province held the 2nd session (specialized session) to approve many important draft resolutions.
In which, the Provincial People's Council unanimously approved a resolution stipulating policies to support combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in An Giang province.
Accordingly, the province will support 50% of the cost of upgrading vessel monitoring equipment but not exceeding 5 million VND/vessel; Support 50% of the cost of replacing vessel monitoring equipment but not exceeding 11 million VND/vessel.
Conditions for support include having full legal documents still valid according to regulations, including: Fishing vessel registration certificate; Seafood exploitation license; Fishing vessel technical safety certificate. Not violating IUU; not fishing beyond the sea boundary; not maintaining or intentionally neutralizing journey monitoring equipment (except for force majeure cases); not yet enjoying similar support policies in other localities.
Each fishing vessel is only supported once for upgrading or replacing the tracking device. The supported tracking device must fully meet technical standards and be stably connected to the fishing vessel monitoring system as prescribed. Have invoices and documents related to upgrading and replacing the fishing vessel tracking device. The tracking device of fishing vessels after being upgraded or replaced must meet the requirements in Clause 2, Article 26 of Decree No. 41/2026/ND-CP.
The support period is from the date the Resolution takes effect to the end of December 31, 2026. The funding for implementing the support policy is allocated from the An Giang provincial budget and other legal funding sources according to the provisions of law.
According to the resolution, support must be public, targeted to the right people, not duplicated, with inspection, supervision and strict handling of violations, avoiding group interests, aiming to both not miss organizations and individuals in need of support, and prevent policy profiteering, waste of resources, ensuring efficiency and fairness.
In case the same support content is specified in many different documents, the beneficiary can only choose the most beneficial support policy.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nhan, Chairman of the People's Council of An Giang province, said: the policy of supporting the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing - a very urgent task that the Central Government is focusing on drastically directing; at the same time, it is also a matter of vital importance to the fisheries industry, livelihoods of fishermen and the competitiveness of Vietnamese seafood in the international arena.
The timely promulgation of this policy not only aims to strengthen state management responsibility, raise awareness of law compliance in seafood exploitation, but also demonstrates the province's political determination to work with the whole country to soon remove the European Commission (EC)'s yellow card warning.
