Nghe An fishermen face difficulties in buying insurance for ship 67
(Baonghean) - Quynh Luu district and Hoang Mai town (Nghe An) are the leading localities in building new offshore fishing vessels. However, one of the issues that fishermen are concerned about is that insurance companies have temporarily stopped selling hull insurance to fishermen building vessels according to Decree 67/CP.
Implementing Decree 67/CP of the Government (2014) on supporting loans for building offshore fishing vessels, in addition to the policy of supporting loan interest rates according to regulations, at the time of implementation, fishermen were supported with 90% of the cost of purchasing hull insurance (fishermen and ship owners only contributed 10%); at the same time, the state supported the purchase of insurance for crew members and some fishing gear.
To implement the above regulation, after the newly built ship 67 is completed and the procedures for fishing are completed, fishermen all buy hull insurance.
In the beginning (3 years ago), the introduction of ship 67 into fishing was quite effective, fishermen also enjoyed many support policies so they felt secure going to sea. At that time, almost 100% of offshore fishing vessels under Decree 67/CP were supported to buy insurance. However, in 2018 and 2019, the fishing situation became more difficult and at the same time, the government's support policies were also tightened, so many problems arose.
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| Offshore fishing boats anchor at Cua Hoi. Photo: Phuong Ha |
Specifically, in addition to the situation of fishermen being slow to repay bank loans, the state's support policy for fishermen has also changed, only supporting 50% of the cost of purchasing hull insurance and not supporting insurance for equipment and fishing gear on board, making it more difficult for fishermen.
Mr. Nguyen Thang Loi in Phu Lien village, Quynh Long commune, Quynh Luu district said: His fishing boat was newly built according to Decree 67/CP, the value of the boat when built was over 10 billion VND. Fishing boat insurance is purchased annually, but expired in September 2019. When he went to the insurance company in the district to buy it, he was told that it had not been sold because he was waiting for instructions from the Ministry of Finance.
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| Fishermen prepare fishing gear for offshore fishing and according to new regulations, fishermen's fishing gear will not be supported by the State to buy insurance. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
Sharing the same situation with Mr. Loi is Mr. Hoang Duc Men in Tien Thuy commune, Quynh Luu district. To build a 12 billion VND boat, Mr. Men had to mobilize loans from relatives and mortgage his house to build an offshore boat. Now the boat's insurance has expired, he wants to buy it back to go fishing at sea with peace of mind but he can't.
In Nghe An province, there are currently over 10 ships with hull insurance expired and there will be more ships like that in the future.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thu - Director of the State Bank of Vietnam, Nghe An Branch, said: The above situation has been recommended and reported by banks to the State Bank. In fact, if fishing boat 67 is not reinsured and the fishermen are unfortunately involved in a collision or accident, the damage will be huge, and the risk of losing capital for the bank is very high.
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| Ship 67 is not reinsured and if fishermen are unfortunately involved in a collision or accident, the damage will be huge and the risk of losing the bank's capital is very high. Photo: Phuong Ha |
Currently, the State Bank of Vietnam, Nghe An Branch has sent many documents requesting the Provincial Steering Committee 67/CP, the State Bank, the Provincial People's Committee and the insurance company directly implementing this policy to give instructions and solutions.
However, the unit directly selling boat insurance under the direction of the Government said that the reason for the temporary suspension of selling hull insurance for fishermen 67 was due to the Law on Fisheries recently issued, effective from July 1, 2019, along with the Decree of the Government and Circular 22 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which has regulations on changes for fishing boat crews and fishery service vessels, which have changed the scope of operations, safety regulations, crew qualifications... from the convention of horse power (CV) to calculating by length.
These regulations have not been updated in the fishing vessel insurance rules according to Decree 67/CP issued by the Ministry of Finance, causing many difficulties in the implementation of insurance sales and compensation settlement.
Faced with the above reality, local fishermen, especially the owners of 67 boats, have made many recommendations to relevant authorities and units directly selling fishing boat insurance to quickly coordinate and resolve the issue./.
