On August 1, Party Central Committee member, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired a National Steering Committee Conference on the situation and results of combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, connecting online with connection points in coastal provinces and cities.
Concluding the conference, the Deputy Prime Minister affirmed that the implementation of measures to combat IUU fishing is not only to remove the EC's "yellow card", but more importantly, to ensure the sustainable development of Vietnam's fisheries sector, protect aquatic resources and long-term livelihoods of fishermen.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the legal system on fisheries, environmental protection, and marine conservation is available, the problem lies in the organization of implementation that is still formal, problematic and lacks substance.
The Government leader requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to review and complete legal documents, especially amending 3 Decrees on policies to support offshore exploitation and sanction administrative violations. The law and decree must be strong, clear, and thoroughly decentralize to localities in managing ships, inspecting ports, and handling violations.
It is necessary to expand the subjects of legal responsibility, including processing and trading enterprises. Referees need to be transparent, timely, clearly decentralize, and avoid shirking responsibility.
The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that the urgent requirement is to quantitize and measure the implementation of IUU anti-IUU targets: No ships violating foreign waters, have a complete journey monitoring system, fisheries protection and livelihoods...
Ministries and branches review all processes, establish responsibilities, authority and post-inspection mechanisms, "must have clear, correct management orders, strictly comply with by the forces", avoid the situation of "no one can handle who is doing wrong", change the thinking of "issuing many documents means completing the task".
The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the Ministry of Public Security will coordinate to promptly develop regulations requiring the installation of journey cameras for fishing vessels, especially for offshore transportation and exploitation activities. All activities of fishing vessels must be monitored from the time they leave the port, their journey, output, to when they dock.
The Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of National Defense to combine national defense tasks with the task of supervising seafood exploitation assigned in border waters where fishing vessels frequently violate IUU regulations.
The Coast Guard, Border Guard, and Fisheries Control forces must coordinate with local authorities, unify units and take specific responsibility, and end the "violation but it is not clear who handles it" with a clear command and coordination mechanism.
Government leaders suggested that localities develop specific projects on career conversion and livelihoods for fishermen. This is not only an economic responsibility but also a matter of social security and stability.
In August, the Deputy Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to complete the tasks assigned at the conference such as: Law making, organizing the apparatus, applying technology, career conversion roadmap, and livelihoods for fishermen.
