Da Nang (VNA) - TheEuropean Commission (EC) has acknowledged Vietnam's recent efforts in enhancing the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, aswell as its openness to the EC's recommendations, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on February 3.
At a conference in the central city of Da Nang to make known the outcome of the recent working session with an EC inspection team, the ministry’s VietnamDirectorate of Fisheries said the team described Vietnam’s legal framework as comprehensive and in line withinternational standards, but the enforcement remains limited and uneven.
In a fact-finding trip to the southcentral coastalprovince of Khanh Hoa, the EC lauded the close coordination among relevant agenciesin IUU combat. It also pointed out problems related to traceability and controlof imported seafood in containers, as well as the fact that several Vietnamese vessels were arrestedin the territorial waters of neighboring countries.
To fix them, the directorate set the goal of keeping a close watchon fleets of vessels and their legal enforcement, and origin tracing of seafoodin line with regulations.
Ministries, agencies and localities were asked to followthe Prime Minister’s directions and build an action plan to fight IUU afterbeing approved by the PM.
At present, 86.7% of the fishing vessels have been licensed, up20% from last September. Meanwhile, fishing vessels with over 15m in lengthequipped with vessel monitoring system (VMS) has amounted to 96.35%./.