Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the 23rd meeting of the National Steering Committee on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing prevention and control online to provinces and cities. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA
The meeting assessed that with the strong determination to resolutely declare war on IUU fishing and the determination to remove the "yellow card" of the European Commission (EC) in 2025, in the past week, many tasks continued to have positive changes, each week better than the previous week. Many key tasks were completed according to schedule requirements.
Of which, ministries, branches and localities have completed 85/99 tasks, an increase of 30 tasks compared to last week, and are continuing to deploy 14 tasks according to the progress assigned by the Prime Minister . The management of fishing vessels and monitoring of fishing activities continues to make clear progress, with 100% of fishing vessels (79,360 vessels) registered and updated on the national fisheries database Vnfishbase.
The number of fishing vessels that do not meet operating conditions has been controlled by localities, assigned to communes/wards, forces, and management officers with fishing vessel anchorage locations. The VNFishbase database has been connected with the Ministry of National Defense's fishing vessel control software and the Ministry of Public Security 's VNeID.
Notably, during the week, no fishing vessels violating foreign waters were arrested or handled. The situation of handling violations of the law in IUU fishing continued to have positive changes; law enforcement and handling of fishing vessels violating IUU fishing were carried out seriously, especially fishing vessels violating illegal fishing abroad.
Last week alone, 64 outstanding violations of VMS connection loss and exceeding the permitted operating boundary were handled, down from 72 cases to 08 cases; 17/22 localities completed the handling, an increase of 02 localities compared to the previous week.
Concluding the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh acknowledged and highly appreciated the determination and efforts of ministries, branches and localities in combating IUU fishing and achieving much progress, with each week being better than the previous week; many key tasks have been completed according to schedule requirements.
However, the Prime Minister reminded a number of ministries and branches to urgently complete their tasks to complete all 99 tasks against IUU fishing, of which the Ministry of Public Security has 1 task, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has 3 tasks, and localities have 2 tasks; promptly handle the problem of data conflicts between platforms.
There are 5 localities that have not completed handling the backlog of administrative violations of lost connection to the voyage monitoring system (VMS), exceeding the permitted exploitation boundary, with 8 cases including: Khanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City, Ca Mau, An Giang, Tay Ninh. There are also some localities with fishing vessels and fishermen arrested by foreign countries in 2024 and 2025, information on fishing vessel and fisherman registration has been available but has not been processed. 3/22 provinces and cities have not yet issued policies on job conversion and liquidation of fishing vessels that do not need to operate in aquatic exploitation and policies to support fishermen in upgrading and replacing VMS equipment.
The Prime Minister emphasized that it has been more than a month since the Prime Minister issued the Action Plan for the peak month to combat IUU fishing and sustainably develop Vietnam's fisheries industry. According to progress requirements, all tasks set out in the Plan have been completed by the deadline.
Therefore, the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches, and localities, including their heads, to continue to strictly implement the regime of periodically reporting the results of anti-IUU implementation to the Steering Committee; effectively and seriously implement the Resolutions, Conclusions, Telegrams, Directives of the Party, the Government, the Prime Minister, and the inter-sectoral coordination regulations on anti-IUU fishing; and conduct a preliminary review of the implementation of the Peak Month against IUU fishing.
Ministries, branches and localities seriously update complete data to fisheries databases such as: National Fisheries Database (Vnfishbase); handling of administrative violations in the fisheries sector; VMS fishing vessel monitoring system; System for handling administrative violations in the fisheries sector, System for tracing aquatic product origins (eCDT).
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the meeting. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA
Reminding ministries, branches and localities to always be ready to welcome the EC's inspection team and provide information to ensure completeness, consistency and synchronization among ministries, branches and localities, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to preside over and coordinate with coastal ministries, branches and localities to fully and comprehensively assess the results of the implementation of the Action Plan for the peak month against IUU fishing and sustainable development of Vietnam's fisheries sector; coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense to deploy and effectively implement the Inter-sectoral Coordination Regulation on combating IUU fishing; continue to preside over and coordinate with ministries and branches to inspect and guide all coastal localities with fishing vessels to carefully prepare the content of the work with the 5th EC inspection team.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment continues to complete the Negotiation Plan, work with the EC Inspection Team and report on the progress of combating IUU fishing; proactively contact the Directorate General for Marine and Seafood Affairs of the European Commission (DG-Mare) to clarify and provide necessary information for the inspection team; regularly maintain contact, exchange, and provide full information to the EC, report to the Government and the Prime Minister on matters beyond its authority; thoroughly handle the completion of the origin tracing dossier, national fisheries data, and publicize it on the mass media, as directed at the meeting in previous weeks, to be completed before November 30, 2025. In particular, urgently study, absorb, and explain to Government members to complete and submit to the Government for promulgation the Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 37, to be completed on November 30, 2025.
Along with that, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Construction to strictly control aquatic raw materials imported into Vietnam under the PSMA Agreement and by container ships, ensuring the complete prevention of IUU-exploited aquatic raw materials from entering the Vietnamese market.
The Ministry of National Defense effectively implemented the Inter-sectoral Coordination Regulation on combating IUU fishing; continued to conduct peak patrols and controls in the waters bordering Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand; controlled fishing vessels entering and leaving ports, and strictly handled fishing vessels that were not qualified to participate in activities.
The Ministry of Public Security continues to direct competent authorities to speed up the investigation, consolidate files to prosecute and try initiated cases according to regulations; continue to improve the features of the fishing vessel management system on the VNeID software, serving the control of fishing vessels and fishermen entering and leaving ports according to regulations.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs urgently verifies and clarifies information about fishing vessels detained by foreign countries with unknown registration numbers and fishermen's information as requested by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment; continues to collect information and make full statistics of fishermen participating in IUU fishing in foreign waters who have been returned for competent authorities to handle according to regulations.
The Prime Minister directed the People's Committees of coastal provinces and cities with fishing vessels to proactively grasp the situation, focus on leading and directing drastic, comprehensive and effective measures to combat IUU fishing in the area, absolutely not allowing violations and negativity to affect the common efforts to remove the EC's "yellow card" warning; maintain strict control of all fishing vessels entering and leaving ports according to regulations; resolutely not allowing unqualified or unregistered fishing vessels to participate in activities; at the same time, update weekly the list of fishing vessels at high risk of violating IUU fishing according to regulations.
Provinces and cities closely monitor and supervise fishing vessels operating at sea 24/7 via the VMS system; promptly warn and contact ship owners and captains to ensure that no violations of VMS connection or violations of permitted fishing boundaries at sea occur; promptly complete the handling of fishing vessels and fishermen detained by foreign countries in 2024 and 2025, with information on fishing vessel and fisherman registration, to be completed before November 30, 2025; promptly issue policies on job conversion, creating sustainable livelihoods for fishermen, to be completed before November 30, 2025; take responsibility for cases of closing files without imposing administrative penalties for acts of VMS disconnection according to the provisions of law.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism continues to direct press agencies to step up information and communication about Vietnam's anti-IUU fishing activities, especially on foreign language channels; promptly refute false and hostile arguments against the directions of the Party, Government, Prime Minister and Vietnam's anti-IUU fishing efforts.
Associations and enterprises must strictly comply with not purchasing, processing, or exporting aquatic products originating from IUU fishing; proactively and closely coordinate with competent authorities in investigating, verifying, and strictly and thoroughly handling organizations, individuals, and aquatic product enterprises that conduct illegal business, assist, or condone IUU acts.
The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to report and work specifically with the EC on Vietnam's results in combating IUU fishing, as well as to answer questions about the handling of the contents raised by the EC, determined to remove the EC's IUU "yellow card" in 2025, for the prestige of the nation, the country and for the people.
Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/thu-tuong-pham-minh-chinh-kien-quyet-go-the-vang-iuu-trong-nam-2025-20251125194426431.htm
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