Focus all efforts on preventing and ending IUU fishing

The meeting was held directly at the Government Headquarters, online with 21 coastal provinces and cities. Also attending were comrade Tran Hong Ha - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister; leaders of ministries, branches, central agencies, members of the IUU Steering Committee; leaders of coastal provinces and cities.

Comrades: Le Hong Vinh - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Nguyen Van De - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee co-chaired at the Nghe An Provincial People's Committee bridge. Also attending were leaders of relevant departments and branches.

Nghe An completes 100% of the work of classifying, registering and inspecting fishing vessels.

At the meeting, ministries, branches and functional forces reported on the implementation results after the 19th meeting of the Steering Committee (October 28), focusing on controlling fishing vessels and fishermen who violate regulations and proposing measures to achieve better results in the coming period.

This shows that, over the past week, ministries, branches and localities across the country continued to resolutely implement tasks and solutions to prevent and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

As of October 31, 2025, the country had 79,941 fishing vessels, of which 99.8% (79,800 vessels) were registered and updated on the national fisheries database (VNFishbase). During the week, 370 fishing vessels were deregistered due to being dismantled, sunk or missing.

Localities have reviewed and compiled a list of ships that are not qualified to operate, assigned local authorities and functional forces to strictly manage anchorage locations, and only allowed them to set sail when they fully meet safety and legal requirements.

In Nghe An alone, the province has completed 100% of the work of classifying, registering and inspecting fishing vessels; granting/renewing licenses for 100% of fishing vessels that are eligible to operate. All fishing vessel data is updated on VNFishbase and the monitoring system, and at the same time, compared with the national population database VNeID to ensure accuracy.

The province has also completed 100% of the installation of journey monitoring equipment, increased inspection and strictly punished cases of intentional device disconnection, contributing to affirming the determination to "remove the EC yellow card" for the Vietnamese seafood industry.

Absolutely do not let the "3 no" ship set sail

In his concluding remarks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that the fight against illegal fishing (IUU) is not only a requirement of economic management but also “the honor and prestige of the nation in the international arena”, therefore, “it cannot be left undone and must be completed soon”.

The Prime Minister highly appreciated the efforts of ministries, branches and localities in recent times, but requested that all continue to take stronger and more substantial actions, in the spirit of "6 clarifications": Clear people, clear work, clear time, clear responsibility, clear products and clear authority.

Regarding the origin tracing dossier, the Prime Minister pointed out that this is a "weak link" and assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to be responsible for handling it thoroughly; at the same time, he criticized localities that were slow in licensing fishing vessels and requested that it be completed within the next week, not allowing the backlog to persist.

Regarding violations of foreign waters, the Prime Minister requested the remaining localities to urgently transfer files to prosecution agencies for investigation and strict handling according to regulations.

The Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Public Security to complete the application for managing fishing vessels and fishermen. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will coordinate to provide complete data, guide localities in handling violations, speed up investigations and criminally handle repeat offenders. The Border Guard and Navy forces are required to organize peak inspections in key areas, increase patrols and sweeps, and ensure that there are no more "3 no" ships operating.

The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to preside over negotiations and sign agreements on fisheries cooperation with Malaysia and related countries, and to regularly work with EC Ambassadors in Hanoi and Europe to update and provide transparent information on Vietnam's efforts. "We must have a report every week, proactively providing it to the other side, not waiting for them to ask," the Prime Minister requested.

The Government leaders requested coastal provinces and cities to concentrate all their efforts to prevent and end IUU fishing. First of all, it is necessary to strictly control fishing vessels entering and leaving ports; absolutely do not allow unregistered vessels, unqualified vessels, and vessels without Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) to go to sea. The list of vessels at risk of violating must be updated regularly.

At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the spirit of decisive, synchronous and unified action, creating a fundamental and substantive breakthrough in combating IUU fishing.

The overarching goal is to strictly control the fleet, prevent violations, develop sustainable fisheries, and soon remove the EC “yellow card” warning in 2025.