The five centres are located in coastalprovinces of Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria Vung Tau, Kien Giang in the South, DaNang in the Centre and Hai Phong city in the North.
Therecommendation was made at an online conference between Deputy PrimeMinister Vu Van Ninh and concerned localities to discuss GovernmentDecision 67, which set goals for the development of Vietnam's fishingindustry from 2015-2020.
MARD Deputy Minister Vo Van Tam said 22cities and 28 provinces directly under the umbrella of Decision 67 hadfinished compiling their lists of eligible recipients for financialsupport to upgrade their fishing boats.
Commercial bankscommitted 243 billion VND (11.5 million USD) to upgrade 28 of thefishing boats with mortgage term of 11 years and disbursement rate from60 to 95 percent.
Fishermen from 21 of the 28 coastal communes inVietnam bought insurance policies for their boats, equipment andpersonal accidents with total amount up to 2,700 billion VND (127.4million USD).
The country's effort to build a full fleet ofsteel-hulled fishing boats is on the right track with more than 50percent of the planned fishing boats getting steel-hulls and 60 percentwith more than 800hp.
However, a MARD report indicated that there were limitations to the programme and issues with the current policy.
Anumber of localities and fishermen experienced difficulty with theadministrative procedures required to secure the upgrade funds for theirboats.
There have been complaints by fishermen that there wereso many legal documents that it made it almost impossibly difficult tofollow them all.
Some localities are blamed for failing tocoordinate efforts and implement supporting policies to boost thedevelopment of local fishing industries. Others said they were simplywaiting to learn more about what to do before taking steps bythemselves.
Issues with current credit policies also arose. Somecredit policies offered interest rates at 7 percent to fishermen butinvolved too many administrative procedures that it discouraged manyfrom taking advantage of the deal.
Other fishermen weren'teligible for a loan unless they agreed to upgrade their boat engineseven if they only wanted the loan to purchase or upgrade fishingequipment.
The MARD made several recommendations to improve theeffectiveness of policies aimed at boosting the fishing industry, likegranting loans without the engine-upgrade requirement if the boatalready has at least 400hp, and designing a variety of boat models morecompatible with traditional fishing practices.-VNA