Quang Binh delays in supporting connection loss handling

Mr. Truong Quang An, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Duc Trach commune (Bo Trach district, Quang Binh), said that nearly 6 months have passed since the incident of losing connection to the cruise monitoring equipment of fishermen's fishing vessels when setting sail. However, the province's functional agencies still delay in supporting people to prove their trip is safe and complies with legal regulations.

"That's why people have repeatedly come to the agencies to ask for solutions. The local government has encouraged and persuaded people to try to wait, not to be impatient and not to have unrestrained behavior," said Mr. An.

Hundreds of petitions sent to functional agencies

VNPT Quang Binh Business Center (VNPT Quang Binh) is a representative unit for the Vietnam Telecom Services Company (VinaPhone) to provide fishing vessel cruise monitoring services through the Thuraya 3 (T3) satellite system in Quang Binh province. 

According to VNPT Quang Binh, the incident occurring on April 15, 2024, has caused the connection loss of all fishing vessels (including offshore and onshore vessels). The restoration process is still not 100% complete. As of August 2024, there were 4,352 fishing times losing connection for more than 6 hours.

Mr. Nguyen Van Chuong, Director of VNPT Quang Binh, acknowledged that this incident caused difficulties and damage to Quang Binh fishermen. Loss of VMS connection makes the fishing vessel unable to send emergency signals and get coordinates for the rescue department when the ship encounters an incident at sea, endangering the lives and property of fishermen. On the other hand, fishermen cannot leave or do not dare to leave the wharf due to not ensuring regulations on cruise monitoring as required by management agencies.

The cruise monitoring equipment lost connection for more than 5 months caused many difficulties for fishermen when completing procedures to prove that the trip was not in violation with the functional agency and implementing regime subsidy procedures.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Quy, representing some fishermen in Duc Trach commune (Bo Trach district), said: "After each sea trip, people must make a report to the commune for confirmation; go to VNPT Quang Binh for cruise data confirmation; and go to the Sub-Department of Fisheries to submit documents for procedures. However, no level is responsible for supporting procedures for people. Some ships took three sea trips but still cannot be confirmed. People cannot anchor their ships on the shore to wait, while going to the sea is like sitting on burning coals."

According to VNPT Quang Binh, since April 15, 2024, this unit has contacted nearly 10 fisherman groups (each group of 25–30 people) who came to the headquarters to ask about the implementation of policies to support fishermen and ensure conditions of not handling administrative violations.

Fishermen in Bao Ninh commune (Dong Hoi city), Duc Trach commune (Bo Trach district), Canh Duong commune (Quang Trach district), etc., have sent hundreds of petitions to functional agencies to ask for consideration and procedural support. However, people can only wait without any agency promising answers to reassure them.

How long do fishermen wait...

According to VNPT Quang Binh, the incident of losing connection to cruise monitoring equipment is divided into two stages. The first stage is from April 15 to April 27. This time is considered force majeure because there is no data on the service provider's server system. The second stage, from April 28, 2024, until now, only has data supported by other devices on fishing vessels and ships that do not have data.

In order to have a basis for Quang Binh province's functional agencies to determine that fishing vessels are eligible for policy support and not consider administrative sanctions, the Quang Binh Sub-Department of Fisheries has requested to obtain data information at the Directorate of Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development).

Mr. Le Ngoc Linh, Director of the Quang Binh Sub-Department of Fisheries, acknowledged: "Confirmation of VNPT Quang Binh cannot be used as a basis because, according to regulations, data must be provided from the information portal of the Directorate of Fisheries."

To support fishermen, VNPT Quang Binh has proposed to agree to synchronize cruise monitoring data of fishing vessels that have lost connection due to the Thuraya 3 satellite incident from April 15, 2024, to present.

VNPT Quang Binh has requested to send a list of fishing vessels that lost connection due to Thuraya 3 satellite error to the fishing vessel monitoring system of the Directorate of Fisheries.

"For ships that have not had updated Thuraya 3 but had a sea trip during the time of the satellite incident, it is proposed that the Directorate of Fisheries accept VNPT's confirmation of the satellite incident as a basis for implementing verification, handling, and support policies for fishing vessels," said Mr. Nguyen Van Chuong.

In the most recent dialogue between relevant parties such as representatives of the Directorate of Fisheries, Quang Binh  Sub-Department of Fisheries, VNPT Quang Binh, commune governments, and representatives of fishermen, many opinions were raised in order to have the earliest solution to support fishermen who are "stuck" in the connection loss incident. At the working session, the leader of the Quang Binh Sub-Department of Fisheries also shared with fishermen that the time had been prolonged. "When we have data, we will do our best to get the fastest results for people," said Mr. Le Ngoc Linh.

Talking at the working session, the representative of the Directorate of Fisheries also said that the VinaPhone service provider needs to quickly have specific documents and directly work with the Directorate to agree on data handling and support fishermen in considering the legality and illegality of their sea trips. Thereby, creating a database for the Quang Binh Sub-Department of Fisheries to receive and process documents for fishermen.

Faced with this information, Mr. Hoang Quang, a fisherman in Duc Trach commune, expressed that there was still no satisfactory answer to reassure fishermen.

"But anyway, those are good signs for fishermen. We just hope that the service provider and the state management agency will soon have a fruitful working session to deploy it soon for people," Mr. Quang expressed his wish.