Nghe An will limit the rental and purchase of fishing boats over 10 years old.

Comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the Conference. Also attending were representatives of departments, branches and People's Committees of coastal districts and towns.

The draft "Regulations on specific criteria and procedures for reviewing dossiers for building, converting, leasing, and purchasing fishing vessels at sea in Nghe An" consists of 3 chapters and 12 articles, clearly stipulating specific criteria and procedures for reviewing dossiers requesting approval documents for building, converting, leasing, and purchasing fishing vessels in Nghe An.

Comrade Nguyen Van De - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development summarized the process of giving opinions on the draft "Regulations on specific criteria and procedures for reviewing dossiers for building, converting, renting, and purchasing fishing vessels at sea in Nghe An province". Photo: Nguyen Hai

Previously, to implement the Fisheries Law, the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to draft a draft. The criteria for approving the construction, conversion, leasing and purchase of fishing vessels are now very necessary because the Fisheries Law and Decree No. 26/2019/ND-CP provide detailed instructions for implementation, many regulations on fishing vessel management, quantity quotas and management requirements for fishing activities in sea areas have changed a lot.

In Nghe An's current fishing fleet, the fleet under 6 m and from 6 m to 12 m still accounts for a large proportion and most of them are old and dilapidated. Photo: Nguyen Hai

In addition, recently the number of newly built, converted, rented and purchased fishing boats by fishermen has increased and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has regulated the quota of the number of fishing boats for some provinces in the direction of limiting the number of coastal fishing boats.

Giving opinions on the draft, the districts suggested not only regulating the approval of new construction and conversion, but also adding cases where fishing vessels are not accepted for registration to follow the roadmap of reducing the number of small, environmentally unfriendly coastal fishing vessels, and issuing criteria for facilities building and converting fishing vessels...

Opinions at the meeting stated that the criteria for approving the construction, conversion, leasing and purchase of fishing vessels stated in the draft are strict, however, it is necessary to consider the time for construction, conversion and purchase to not exceed 10 years.

Comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee concluded some comments on the new Regulation on reviewing and approving fishing vessel registration. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Concluding some contents, Comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee highly appreciated the significance of issuing regulations to limit the leasing, purchasing, and conversion of old and dilapidated ships in the area; to encourage fishermen to convert and build new ships to go offshore, so it is necessary to propagate to fishermen.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee basically agreed with the comments and suggested that the amendments must be reviewed to be consistent with the provisions of the Law and local reality, creating favorable conditions for the people; agreed to limit ships used for more than 10 years from outside the province to be rented or purchased in Nghe An, and review the priority order of licensing when the quota is exhausted. Assign the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to synthesize, edit and submit to the Provincial People's Committee for signing and promulgation this June.

By May 2020, Nghe An had 4,616 ships of all kinds, of which 897 were ships under 6m in length; 1,930 were ships from 6m to under 12m operating inshore (of which 796 were registered and 1,134 were seasonal ships not registered under Decision No. 10/2006/QD of the Ministry of Fisheries); 537 were ships from 12m to under 15m operating in offshore areas; 1,252 were ships from 15m and above operating in offshore and international waters.