According to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, after more than 6 years of being warned of the "yellow card", there have been significant changes in the management of fishing activities and the fight against IUU fishing.

After the third inspection, the European Commission (EC) continued to acknowledge and appreciate Vietnam's efforts in combating IUU fishing. Some issues have been addressed and timely updated and discussed. However, there are still many shortcomings and limitations that have been slowly overcome in practice at the local level.

Conference scene.

To remove the "Yellow Card" warning, the EC side proposed to handle it thoroughly and apply strict sanctions.

The conference was held in the context that in just over a month, Vietnam will welcome the 4th European Commission (EC) delegation to inspect and examine the fight against IUU fishing in Vietnam.

In recent times, Vietnam has focused on implementing four groups of recommendations from the EC to combat IUU fishing and remove the "yellow card" warning, including: Completing the legal framework; monitoring, inspecting, and controlling fishing vessel activities, managing the fleet; certifying output and tracing the origin of exploited aquatic products and enforcing the law.

At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that there have been many positive changes in legal documents, fleet supervision and management, traceability and handling of administrative violations; but there are still many shortcomings and implementation is not strict in localities.

"We must see that violations of foreign waters still occur. This is a mistake that the EC considers very serious. They have affirmed that as long as ships violate foreign waters, the yellow card cannot be removed. Regarding the traceability of aquatic products, we have tried our best but have only been able to control 50% of the number of ships entering designated fishing ports for traceability. Regarding handling administrative violations, although we have handled more than 4,000 cases, 110 billion VND. However, if we review carefully, these 3 contents have not been strictly implemented in localities" - the Deputy Minister emphasized.

Recently, the Government has directed the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Public Security, National Defense and the People's Committees of coastal provinces and centrally run cities to urgently investigate, verify, strictly and thoroughly handle suspected cases of smuggling and legalization of products from IUU fishing; conduct a "comprehensive general inspection" in 28 coastal provinces and cities to screen, classify and handle according to the law "3 no" fishing vessels; investigate, verify and thoroughly handle the situation of brokers and collusion to bring fishing vessels and fishermen to illegally exploit in foreign waters.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang speaks.

Concluding the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang assessed that in recent times, the results of the implementation of the task of combating IUU violations have had many positive changes, however, there are still many shortcomings and limitations. For localities, the determination is not uniform, there are localities that have managed fishing vessels entering and leaving ports well and increased the rate of traceability of exploited seafood, but there are also localities that have not been determined in handling the recommendations of the EC inspection team.

The Deputy Prime Minister suggested that in the coming time, ministries, branches and localities need to be more resolute and responsible in combating IUU violations, and must have comprehensive and synchronous solutions for the goal of removing the EC's yellow card.

The Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to develop a plan that clearly states the tasks that need to be focused on from now until the EC inspection team arrives; to prepare carefully to welcome the EC inspection team to achieve the best results, and soon remove the EC's "yellow card" warning.

The Ministry of National Defense shall preside over and coordinate with coastal provinces and centrally run cities and relevant ministries and branches to focus on implementing measures to prevent fishing vessels from illegally exploiting seafood in foreign waters.

The Ministry of Public Security urgently consolidates records and prosecutes cases of brokerage and collusion to bring Vietnamese fishing boats and fishermen to illegally exploit seafood in foreign waters to ensure the strictness of the law.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through diplomatic channels, conveyed the message demonstrating Vietnam's determination in its efforts to combat IUU fishing; seeking active support from relevant parties for Vietnam's determination to remove the "yellow card" warning.

News and photos: VNA

*Please visit the Economics section to see related news and articles.