Vocational training is the 'key' to developing sustainable industrial marine farming

Mr. Tran Dinh Luan, Director of the Department of Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), said that Vietnam has had a project on marine aquaculture development until 2030, with a vision to 2045, approved by the Prime Minister at Decision No. 1664/QD-TTg dated October 4, 2021. The project's desire is to develop potential and advantages from the sea because the area of on-farm aquaculture in recent years has remained stable.

Director Tran Dinh Luan shared about the incident of fish cages from China being swept away by storm No. 3 (Typhoon Yagi) into Vietnamese waters. Thanks to positioning technology, these fish cages were returned to China. This shows that countries around Vietnam have developed marine farming and focused on technology.

Director Tran Dinh Luan hopes that the potential and advantages will be exploited to develop marine farming to reduce pressure on exploitation, especially coastal exploitation. However, the concern is how to develop sustainable marine farming, especially in the context of damage from storm No. 3, which has raised the question of how to respond to similar natural disasters in the future.

In terms of state management, Director Tran Dinh Luan said that there needs to be orientations on seeds, food, techniques, building regulations and standards, etc. Besides, the Director of the Department of Fisheries also expressed the hope that insurance agencies will get involved. "However, people must start by changing their perception that participating in insurance is risk prevention," he said.

In addition, Director Tran Dinh Luan emphasized the importance of vocational training and skills equipping, especially in the context of transforming from traditional marine farming to industrial scale. This is an issue that marine farmers are currently lacking.

Representative of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in Ho Chi Minh City said that VCCI is cooperating with the Vietnam Seaculture Association (VSA) and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises (NHO), along with leading experts in vocational education, to develop a short-term training program on industrial marine farming.

The training subjects are traditional marine farming fishermen who want to convert to industrial marine farming; skilled technical workers (team leaders, technicians); and industrial marine farming supervisors.

The content of this training program includes four modules, including: Module 1 is establishing an industrial marine fish farming facility. Module 2 is the technique of operating a fish farming facility at sea. Module 3 is techniques for raising and harvesting fish at sea. Module 4 is maintaining and evaluating industrial marine fish farming facilities.

VCCI expressed its hope that universities and colleges with fisheries training will receive this program for teaching in the coming time.

Representatives of universities and colleges also proposed that lecturers first need to be well-trained to clearly understand the program and update knowledge and experience from practice and be granted vocational training certificates for teachers.

Ms. Dang Phuong Lien, Senior Advisor to the Chamber of Commerce of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Hanoi, emphasized that with more than 40 years of experience in salmon farming, Norway is ready to share experiences of success and failure of the Norwegian salmon industry with Vietnam.

The Norwegian Embassy, especially the Norwegian Ambassador, wishes to accompany Vietnam in developing sustainable marine farming and would like to hear about Vietnam's needs, especially from localities about issues related to training in marine farming skills.