Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh: Resolutely pursue the dual goals of combating illegal fishing and developing sustainable fisheries.

On the evening of December 9th, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the 25th session of the National Steering Committee on combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Attending the session were Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha; leaders of ministries, sectors, and central agencies. Attending the session via video link from the province were Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Minh Lam and leaders of provincial departments and agencies.

A view of the meeting at the Tay Ninh province location.

According to the Steering Committee, last week, members of the Steering Committee and ministries and agencies continued to organize inter-agency working groups to inspect and combat IUU fishing in localities; the entire database system for managing fishing vessel operations has been digitized, interconnected, integrated, multi-purpose, and meets the criteria of being "accurate, complete, clean, and alive".

The databases for managing fishing vessel information; monitoring and controlling fishing vessel activities at sea through voyage monitoring devices (VMS) have regulations for exploiting, using and operating data; relevant agencies, organizations and individuals are only granted user accounts according to regulations.

The authorities strictly control fishing vessels entering and leaving ports; ensure that fishing vessels that do not meet the requirements are not allowed to participate in activities; implement the Regulation on coordination between the authorities to inspect and control fishing vessel activities; monitor the output of aquatic products unloaded through ports according to regulations; continue to issue policies on job conversion, dismantling and liquidating fishing vessels.

In the past week, the tasks were basically completed with positive results. The management of fishing vessels and monitoring of fishing activities continued to be strictly maintained, especially for fishing vessels that were not qualified to operate. 100% of fishing vessels (79,360 fishing vessels) were registered and updated on the national fisheries database Vnfishbase.

During the week, no fishing vessels violating foreign waters were arrested or processed. The situation of handling violations of the law in IUU fishing continued to have positive changes. Up to now, the handling of violations of VMS connection loss and exceeding the permitted fishing boundary has been basically completed. Information and communication work on efforts to combat IUU fishing has been especially promoted.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh gave a directive speech

Concluding the meeting on combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the need for all ministries, sectors, and localities to uphold a high sense of responsibility, strong determination, great effort, decisive action, and effective work in each assigned task. The Prime Minister affirmed the need to achieve a dual objective: completely ending IUU fishing to promptly lift the EC's "yellow card"; and simultaneously restructuring and developing the fisheries sector in a legal, sustainable, and legitimate direction, focusing on reorganizing the fishing fleet and workforce, promoting aquaculture and seafood processing, and improving the material and spiritual lives of fishermen.

The Prime Minister requested that ministries, sectors, and localities focus maximum resources on fully implementing the directives of the Party Central Committee and the Government; and at the same time, review all the contents of the EC's warnings and recommendations, ensuring substantive and effective remediation and updating accurate, complete, and consistent data to serve the work with the EC. The Prime Minister emphasized that this is an important political task, directly related to the prestige, honor, and national interests, as well as the interests of the people, therefore localities must mobilize the entire political system to participate, especially in the work of controlling the origin of goods.

The Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of National Defence to continue patrolling and controlling the border sea areas; strictly handle fishing vessels that do not meet operating requirements and guide fishermen to fully complete the procedures on VNeID. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was requested to work with relevant countries to unify information and definitively handle cases of fishing vessels and fishermen detained by foreign countries. The Ministry of Public Security must investigate and handle networks organizing the illegal export of fishing vessels and fishermen abroad, as well as cases related to violations of seafood export regulations. He also requested the authorities of coastal provinces and cities to strictly control the activities of fishing vessels from registration and licensing to port entry and exit; to synchronously deploy the eCDT system and electronic fishing logbook; to promptly handle cases of vessels losing VMS connection, exceeding permitted boundaries, and resolutely prevent violations from occurring in foreign waters. Local authorities must fully update information into specialized database systems, ensuring that the data is "accurate, complete, clean, and up-to-date" .

 

 

Source: https://www.tayninh.gov.vn/thoi-su-chinh-polit/thu-tuong-pham-minh-chinh-quyet-liet-thuc-hien-muc-tieu-kep-chong-khai-thac-hai-san-bat-hop-phap-1034090