Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development held a conference in Hanoi on April 11 to popularise newcontents in regulations on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing prevention and combat prescribed in newly-issued legal documents.

According to the Directorate of Fisheries, the PrimeMinister has recently issued Decree No. 37/2024/NQ-CP amending andsupplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 26/2017/NQ-CP of theGovernment detailing a number of articles and measures to implement theFisheries Law, along with Decree No. 38/2024/ND-CP regulating sanctions on administrative violations in the field of fisheries, and Decree No.38/2024/ND-CP replacing Decree No. 42/2019/ND-CP on penalties foradministrative violations in the fisheries sector.

Director of the directorate Tran Dinh Luan said that major new contents of DecreeNo. 37/2024/NQ-CP include more flexible administrative procedures in case ofnatural disasters or epidemics where it is impossible to organise on-siteinspections and assessments serving the issuance of licences, certificates andapproval of documents, reality assessments and supervision. In those cases, evaluationactivities will be conducted online, along with the procedures for registrationof aquaculture farming, and the announcement of the closure and opening offishing ports, he said.

Regarding fishing boat monitoring, the decree clarifies the responsibility of central and local agencies in managing and use of the vessel monitoringsystem (VMS), as well as the responsibility of VMS suppliers.

The decree has an additional regulation on observers on Vietnamese fishingvessels operating in Vietnam's territorial waters to create a legal framework to maintainand promote Vietnam's seafood exports to the US.

It adjusts and supplements a number of regulations oncontrolling foreign vessels’ activities of exploiting and transporting aquatic products originating from Vietnamese ports, and controlling seafoodand aquatic products imported into Vietnam.

Regarding new regulations prescribed in Decree No. 38/2024/ND-CP,Luan said that the decree increases the prescription for sanctioningadministrative violations in the fisheries sector to two years, along withstricter punishments on repeated violations, and the power of rangers on posingpunishments on violations of regulations on the protection of aquatic resourcesin national parks and conservation areas.

Heads of the Departments of Fisheries, Chairpersons of People's Committeesof provinces, districts and communes, police, border guards, coast guards,customs, market management, fisheries inspection forces, forestry rangers,inspection and agencies assigned to perform specialised inspections are alsopermitted to handle such violations, according to the decree.

Addressing the conference, Deputy Minister of Agricultureand Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that with increasingly effectivelegal tools, all localities should work hard to join hands with centralagencies in seeking the European Commission (EC)’s removal of the “yellow card”against Vietnam’s seafood exports.

The official noted that progress has been seen in IUUfishing prevention and combat, but there is still much work to do.

Localities should continue to focus on supervising theirfleets, trace the origin of seafood products and strictly handle violationsaccording to the new regulations, he underlined./.