No widespread preferential loans for building offshore fishing vessels

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh stated that preferential loans should not be given indiscriminately, but only supported those with effective fishing activities, financial capacity and specific production plans; in addition, these subjects must be confirmed and introduced by local authorities to borrow capital.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh chaired the meeting. Photo: VGP/Thanh Chung

On August 12, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh chaired a working session with relevant ministries and branches on the progress of drafting documents guiding Decree No. 67. Circulars guiding the implementation of Decree 67/2014/ND-CP on a number of fisheries development policies will be completed before this Decree takes effect (August 25, 2014) to ensure that the policy is immediately implemented.

This Decree is considered a strong driving force for the development of the fisheries industry, focusing on developing offshore fishing fleets, along with new production and fishing methods to improve fishermen's lives, contributing to affirming the country's sovereignty over seas and islands.

Leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) all affirmed that they have urgently implemented the plan to complete it before Decree 67 takes effect.

Up to this point, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has issued Decision No. 3228 to establish a Technical Appraisal Advisory Council on fishing vessel models, technical requirements for shipbuilding facilities, economic and technical norms for periodic maintenance and repair of steel-hulled fishing vessels.

The Ministry is also developing Circulars regulating technical requirements for fishing vessel designs; facilities for building and upgrading fishing vessels; and technical standards for periodic maintenance and repair of steel-hulled vessels. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Vu Van Tam, said that these three Circulars have basically been completed and are seeking comments from ministries, branches and localities.

The Ministry of Finance is developing Circulars on insurance policies; interest rate compensation due to credit policy implementation and guidance on a number of other policies of Decree 67.

In its mission, the State Bank has drafted a Circular guiding the implementation of credit policy according to Decree 67. Previously, this agency also proactively organized a conference in Quang Ngai to listen to the opinions of individuals and organizations contributing to the implementation of credit policy.

According to Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Dong Tien, the Circular that the State Bank of Vietnam is drafting stipulates that all commercial banks must participate in lending to implement the policy, detailing more details on overdue interest rates, loan terms and the State's interest rate support period, and the maximum term for working capital loans.

In addition, this Circular also stipulates collateral for loans, including the content that for ship owners participating in chain production linkages, commercial banks will consider lending without collateral based on controlling the cash flow of the chain linkage.

At the working session, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh highly appreciated the progress of the ministries, and at the same time highlighted the spirit of building the guiding document to "encourage offshore fishing, discourage nearshore fishing and put economic efficiency above all else".

Regarding policy beneficiaries, the Deputy Prime Minister stated that preferential loans should not be given indiscriminately, but only supported those with effective fishing activities, financial capacity and specific production plans; in addition, these beneficiaries must be confirmed and introduced by local authorities to borrow capital.

The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the need to persistently implement loans to the right subjects as stated in the Decree, and at the same time let localities pilot the construction and upgrading of fishing boats and logistics service boats, after which the local authorities will decide to expand to the entire province.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh noted that the State Bank should strengthen the dissemination and transparency of preferential loan policies to the grassroots level, to avoid the situation where fishermen do not fully understand the policies and are taken advantage of by "brokers" to get "compliments".

The Deputy Prime Minister also agreed with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development that the Ministry is guiding provinces to build new offshore fishing vessels. However, there should be a solution to involve fishermen in designing their own vessels, to avoid the situation where officials sit in the office and the design is not close to reality.

When implementing fishing vessel insurance and crew insurance policies, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh suggested that the Ministry of Finance develop a policy in which the State will support direct payments to insurance companies instead of offshore fishermen having to spend time and go through procedures to pay for insurance themselves as is currently the case.

The Deputy Prime Minister noted that relevant ministries and branches should develop plans and increase investment capital to build fishing infrastructure for the following years to support offshore fishing activities, including choosing to complete a number of important fishing ports.

According toChinhphu.vn