Expanding space for restructuring fishery sector

"If we only think of difficulties we will lose our will and strength to overcome obstacles. The fisheries sector is not lack of raw materials. Capital investment, policies and other resources have been mobilized. The problem is how to organize the production, how to divide labor, capital and how to transport in the rest of the year," Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said spoke at the Conference on fisheries to adapt to Covid-19 in the fourth quarter of 2021.

According to Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien, the seafood industry reaches approximately 3 million of captured seafood. Although the total export value of the industry decreased opportunities abound for the development in the last months of the year.

In recent years, fishing vessel fleets have been under strict control as the number of vessels has decreased from 120,000 to 94,000. The violations relating to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) have reduced over years. Traceability in the seafood industry has posted significant change.

"I 've been on numerous field trips, inspecting the surveillance of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities. I even saw every page of the fishing diary. I went to Thanh Hoa Iast month and I saw an obvious change," said Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien.

The fishery sector is working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to develop infrastructure system. Ten projects and programs including a number of key projects of the fishery sector are drastically carried out. Many of them are funded by the World Bank and are due to be implemented by the MARD by early November 2021.

From the point of view "positive, proactive and sensitive", Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien said the fishery sector needs to make full use of financial assistant packages of the Government. He also asked for the involvement of Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) to ensure the goal of 8.6 million of seafood and export value of US$8.8 billion in 2021.

"We 've already prepared all resources essential for fishing, cultivating and conserving fish from legal document to projects and plans. If everything happens as planned the fishery sector will have a great strategy on expanding space for restructuring," the Deputy Minister said.

Based on this "space for restructuring" Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien asked the Southern Coastal provinces to focus on capital construction investment, in particular investing in fishing monitoring tools, strengthening capacity and progress of fisheries projects with capital grant in order to solve existing problems and to add values to the sector.

Besides, the Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien urged the fisheries sector to take effective measures to deal with the problems relating to off-season shrimp farming and fisheries exploitation  

"The fishery sector must not only meet the food needs but also ensure the national defence-security because each fisherman is considered as a milestone on the sea."In danger lies opportunity" we need to clearly identify the situation. It's important to know our strengths and weaknesses so that we can develop a right strategy for the phase from now until the year-end," said Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien.