New decree for fisheries sector difficult to succeed without realizing fishermen's needs

The goal of the policy is not disbursement

On March 21, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a meeting to discuss the development of a new Decree for the fisheries sector to concretize the Resolutions by the Central Government, specifically the Government's action plans and programs with the goal of towards sustainable marine economic development, including the fisheries and seafood sector.

According to Minister Le Minh Hoan, the issues under Decree No. 67/2014/ND-CP dated 7/7/2014 on fisheries development have shown difficulties in formulating mechanisms and policies. These obstacles are valuable lessons for the development of a new Decree for the fisheries sector.

“One thing we often forget is that in economic and social development, it is necessary to take the people, the beneficiaries as the center to design and develop policies. Any strategy will be difficult to succeed if we do not know what farmers are thinking, lacking and wanting. Our goal is not disbursement, the goal is to make the capital effective. Therefore, the new Decree for the fisheries and fishing industry must also be based on this thorough idea," emphasized Minister Le Minh Hoan.

Minister Le Minh Hoan said that the new Decree for the fisheries sector needs to pay more attention to training and capacity building for farmers. Because so far, we have only trained people in technical stages such as production, cultivation, breeding, etc., without teaching other important issues such as mindsets, how to understand the market, etc.

The Minister emphasized that it is necessary to train the staff of the agricultural sector in the localities. Because so far, they have only followed the Decree without fully understanding the meaning, functions, roles and even risks when they are the backbone of the agricultural sector at the grassroots level. They are people who are daily and hourly close to reality, with policy beneficiaries, so they should be the most knowledgeable.

At the meeting, Minister Le Minh Hoan pointed out three problems that the agricultural sector, including the fisheries sector, is suffering from: fragmentation, smallness and spontaneity. In reality, the fishermen stay at sea for months, but still has to rely heavily on traders.

“The strategy of sustainable agricultural and rural development for the period of 2021 - 2030, with a vision towards 2050, or the restructuring of the agricultural sector, including fisheries, is ultimately a reorganization of production, not the problems of capital, science and technology... If we can't overcome the obstacles in the production organization, we will fall into one problem after another and the traders will entice and drive the fisherman's price" , Minister Le Minh Hoan noted.

Therefore, the Minister once again requested the new Decree for the fisheries sector to reserve a part of capacity for the reorganization of production.

Formulate a new Decree to replace Decree 67

To develop offshore fishing and implement Resolution No. 09NQ/TW dated February 9, 2007 at the 10th Conference of the 4th Central Committee of the Party on "Vietnam's marine strategy towards 2020", the Government has assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and other ministries, branches, localities in formulating and submitting to the Government to promulgate Decree No. 67/2014/ND-CP dated 7/7/2014 on a number of fisheries development policies.

After 7 years of implementation, Decree 67 and fisheries development policies have come to life, meeting the aspirations of many fishermen. The goal of modernizing fishing vessels has been initially achieved, the number of fishing vessels near the shore decreased, the number of fishing vessels fishing offshore has increased. Fishing vessel accidents have been significantly reduced, actively contributing to the protection of national security and sovereignty at sea, many production linkage models at sea have been formed and developed.

In the process of organizing the implementation of Decree 67, most of the difficulties and obstacles have been actively removed by the Government, ministries and branches. However, there are still shortcomings and obstacles in the implementation of policies as well as when putting vessels into production.

In order to remove the current difficulties, limit losses and risks for people and banks, ensure the effectiveness of issued policies, the Directorate of Fisheries has advised the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to make a report to the Government and coordinate with ministries, branches and localities to develop a new draft Decree replacing Decree 67.

Accordingly, the new Decree should continue to prioritize investment capital to build fishery and aquaculture infrastructure. Additionally, it is necessary to amend the policy on converting vessel owners and removing bad loans.

Allow the conversion of vessel owners who are no longer able to continue to carry out a project to build or upgrade vessels or vessel owners who have completed construction or upgraded but are no longer capable of fishing activities. The new vessel owner must also be able to enjoy the support policies when receiving the vessel's handover and the loan from the former owner.

The new Decree also needs to stipulate objective and force majeure causes to implement the policy of debt freezing, debt rescheduling, repayment period restructuring, creating conditions for vessel owners to continue operating, producing, loan repayment.

Furthermore, increase the level of support for hull insurance and support for crew members. Support 100% of the accident insurance for crew members working on fishing vessels and 70% of the cost of insurance for ships with length of 15m or more.

Provide one-time support after the investment for periodic maintenance and repair of steel-hulled fishing vessels instead of the previous payment with many procedures. Supplement subjects, contents of policies on training captains, chief engineers, crew members of fishing vessels, techniques for exploiting and preserving products according to advanced technology on fishing vessels.