The motivation for Quynh Lap fishermen to buy big boats and go out to sea

(Baonghean) -Quynh Lap - the former headland of Quynh Luu district and today's Hoang Mai town, is a "remote" commune but its economy is comprehensively developed, especially the marine economy.

Quynh Lap commune fishing wharf. Photo: Ngo Kien

The term “head commune” and “head land” has been around for a long time, and there are many possible explanations. In my opinion, it is mainly due to two reasons. Firstly, due to its natural geographical location, Quynh Lap commune borders Hai Ha commune, Tinh Gia district (Thanh Hoa) to the north, and the sea to the east with a coastline of about 12 km. Therefore, this is the farthest commune, or can be considered the first commune in the northeast of Nghe An. Secondly, during the resistance war, Quynh Lap commune was also one of the front lines against the sweeps and attacks of the French and American imperialists.

From July 4, 1948, this place defeated the plot to organize the first sweep by canoe landing from the sea. Then, in 1951 and 1953, the enemy's sweep landings were defeated one after another. Located on the key traffic route of Nam Thanh - Bac Nghe, with a major traffic hub being the Hoang Mai River - Lach Con - sea route, during the resistance war against the US, this place had many artillery positions that burned enemy warships, shot down many enemy planes and captured pilots, and transported tens of thousands of tons of goods to the South; it was a fire coordinate with 2,860 bombs of all kinds, tens of thousands of rockets, cluster bombs, artillery shells of all kinds, and magnetic bombs.

During the resistance war, 676 houses were burned down by bombs, 262 people were killed, 512 were injured. A class of elementary students was hit by a bomb, killing 23 children (at Cay Bua field, Quyet Tam hamlet). That is why it is called “the headland”, it also has the meaning of a rampart, a fortress, an outpost. And today, this place is also at the forefront of a number of economic development movements.

When many places began to pay attention to the marine economy, Quynh Lap had already taken proactive steps and made remarkable developments. Quynh Lap commune has the advantage of having a tradition of fishing, 12 km of coastline and especially Lach Con (Lach Con estuary is located between Quynh Lap and Quynh Phuong communes). All 13 hamlets of the commune have fishermen working in fishing and seafood exploitation. In recent years, Quynh Lap's fishing industry has undergone a strong transformation with fishermen promoting offshore fishing.

In the past, small boats only developed fishing grounds from Quang Ninh to Ha Tinh. Since 2009, Quynh Lap fishermen have started building large boats and expanding fishing grounds, fishing as far as Phan Thiet, fishing in the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa areas. There was a time when the whole country had 33 boats registered to fish in the Hoang Sa fishing grounds, of which Quynh Lap commune had 22 boats. In 2017, Quynh Lap increased the list of fishing in the Hoang Sa fishing grounds to 68 boats.

Along with the seafaring profession, in the last 5 years in Quynh Lap, the fishing logistics profession has developed strongly. The first sector is providing necessities and fuel for seagoing vessels. Currently, the commune has 12 petrol and oil dealers, 13 ice production facilities, 5 mechanical workshops repairing marine machinery... The second sector is purchasing and processing aquatic and seafood products. In the area, there are currently 2 fishmeal milling factories including the Viet Trung Xuri Milling Factory and the Milling Factory of the Doan Ket Cooperative.

The whole commune has 6 fish and squid steaming facilities, each facility employs an average of 30 workers, of which the largest steaming facility belongs to the households: Le Hoi Hung, Le Hong Hoang, Le Minh Chau, investing in a steaming and grinding fish meal facility worth 20 billion VND, with an average steaming output of 35 tons/day and grinding output of 200 tons/day. The third area is shipbuilding, currently Quynh Lap has 2 large shipbuilding facilities owned by Mr. Tran Dinh Anh and Mr. Tran Dinh Tho. These are 2 facilities that convert, build, and repair boats, with the capacity to build new boats of 90CV or more for fishermen in the commune, in the region, Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh provinces, and many other provinces.

Building large capacity ships at Mr. Tran Dinh Tho's facility in Quynh Lap commune (Quynh Luu). Photo: Ngo Kien

Quynh Lap has strong trade connections with major economic centers, with bustling arrivals and departures throughout the day; although it is a remote coastal commune, land on the main roads of the hamlets is priced from 8 - 10 million VND/m2, which is not unusual!

Over the years, the Quynh Lap Commune Party Committee has regularly paid attention to and accompanied to identify problems and shortcomings such as: The investment policy mechanism for fisheries is not much, the capital source to support investment in job conversion models and building new vehicles is still limited. The awareness of a part of the people is still slow to change in economic thinking, the mentality of eating quickly, ineffective exploitation, selling at low prices, falling into the burden of having to pay bank debts, black credit interest... From the thoughts and aspirations of people working in the sea and marine logistics, the Commune Party Committee has concretized many effective policies and guidelines to soon "untie" the marine economy.

Quynh Lap Commune has many ship engine repair facilities, serving not only the 156 fishing boats in the commune but also in the entire region. Photo: Ngo Kien

Most recently, on November 2, 2016, the Quynh Lap Commune Party Committee issued Project No. 02 on developing offshore fishing vessels and improving the quality of fishing products. Implementing Project 02, each cadre and party member of Quynh Lap Commune has made great efforts to propagate and orientate the development of the marine economy to a new level. Notably, fishermen are encouraged to gradually reduce the number of vessels with a capacity of less than 20 CV operating on the shore, focusing on developing and building new vessels with large capacity for offshore fishing; applying new technology, focusing on exploiting export products and products with high economic value.

The innovation of working style of Quynh Lap commune officials focuses on creating the most favorable conditions for people to rent land, change land use purposes, borrow capital to develop the marine industry and develop fishing logistics services; create all favorable conditions, encourage fishermen to build new vehicles according to Decree 67/2014/ND-CP of the Government; coordinate with banks to create conditions to attract investment capital for fishermen.

Up to now, Quynh Lap has exceeded the shipbuilding plan according to Decree 67, by April 2017, 17 ships according to Decree 67 were launched. The whole commune currently has 156 fishing boats, with an average capacity of 400 CV/boat; some boats have up to 1,020 horsepower. Previously, Quynh Lap fishermen only caught fish in the Southern fishing season (from March to July) with the main products being mackerel and squid. Now, they have expanded their fishing grounds and added the Northern fishing season (from August this year to February next year), with the main product being anchovies, which have high economic value. Quynh Lap fishermen now go to sea all year round.

In 2016, the total output of seafood exploitation is estimated at 35,500 tons, an increase of 7,000 tons compared to 2015. The average income of fishing workers is 58,000,000 VND/year (in 2010 it was 35,000,000 VND).

The improvement of the efficiency of the marine economy has been creating a great driving force, along with other economic sectors, making Quynh Lap develop comprehensively. Up to now, the commune has achieved 15/19 criteria for building new rural areas, with 4 criteria on the way to completion and promising to reach the finish line early in 2017. In the coming time, the Party Committee, government and people of Quynh Lap commune are determined to maintain the leading achievements in developing the marine economy, contributing to building a prosperous homeland, while contributing to firmly protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands of the Fatherland.

Ngo Kien