The interdisciplinary team, chaired by the Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board, has just inspected a series of newly built cruise ships before these ships are allowed to operate in Ha Long Bay.
Accordingly, departments, branches and units, based on their functions and tasks, review records on criteria, technical safety conditions, fire prevention and fighting, environmental protection, aesthetics, utilities, service quality and other contents related to the operation of tourist boats according to regulations.
Informing Lao Dong Newspaper, a representative of a business with a ship subject to inspection said that they were surprised to receive information that the ship must be inspected by the industry before being put into operation.
There are 2 reasons: first, in 2024, the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province abolished the Tourist Boat Appraisal Council chaired by the old Ha Long City People's Committee, so we think there will be no more inspections, apart from the inspection by the interdisciplinary team chaired by the Department of Construction. Second, all ships have full documents related to inspection, fire prevention, fire fighting, environmental protection, etc., so when registering for operations, they only need to submit the above documents, he said.
According to Mr. Tran Van Hong - Head of the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association - as soon as receiving an official dispatch to inspect a series of tourist boats, the association also had opinions with a number of related units, so there would be overlaps in inspections of tourist boats as before 2024.
Before 2024, according to Decision No. 4088/2015/QD-UBND dated December 21, 2015 of the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province, there will be at least 2 inspections per year for tourist ships in Ha Long Bay, with the same inspection components and content.
One of which was chaired by the Department of Transport (now the Department of Construction); the other was chaired by the old Ha Long City People's Committee.
This has been done since 2015 and ship owners have reacted because it is not in accordance with regulations, overlapping, causing waste, wasting time...
In December 2023, the People's Committee of the old Ha Long City temporarily suspended the Council for the appraisal of quality and classification of operating cruise ships every year, as well as newly built cruise ships before coming into operation in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay, while waiting for the People's Committee of Quang Ninh Province to make a new decision to replace Decision No. 4088/2015/QD-UBND.
By October 2024, the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province issued Decision 43/2024/QD-UBND dated October 8, 2024, replacing Decision 4088, in which there is no longer a Tourist Boat Appraisal Council.
However, the Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board has established an interdisciplinary team to carry out work that is no different from the task of the Tourist Boat Appraisal Council previously chaired by the People's Committee of Ha Long City.
According to cruise ship owners, this is no different from an "old" license.
The Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board believes that this inspection is based on Decision 43/2024/QD-UBND of the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province. Accordingly, this unit is allowed to organize inspections and supervision of the activities of vehicles serving tourists, promptly detect, handle or propose to the authorities to handle according to regulations for violations related to the activities of vehicles serving tourists.
The representative of the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association said that if this is the basis, tourist boats will still be inspected at least twice a year, because the two groups are different but share the same content.
