Vietnam, Thailand join hands in fighting illegal fishing

Vietnam and Thailand have agreed to complete their domestic procedures at an early date, in order to reach an agreement on setting up a hotline for their fishing activities in the first quarter of this year.

The consensus was reached during talks between Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam and Deputy Permanent Secretary of Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Sakchai Sriboonsue in Bangkok.

The meeting took place as part of Tam’s working visit to Thailand from January 10-14 in order to realise the Government’s guidelines on forming a Vietnam-Thailand Joint Working Group to reduce and fight illegal fishing activities.

A fishing boat is being repaired in Quang Ngai province.

The visit also aims to actualise the two countries’ cooperation agreements in agriculture and fisheries.

During the talks, the Thai side promised to promptly inform Vietnam about their components and structure in the working group.

Thailand also called for all-level cooperation with Vietnam to manage the fisheries sector in a sustainable manner.

Meanwhile, Vietnam called on Thailand to coordinate with the country to clarify and provide the public with adequate, objective and truthful information about Thailand’s shooting of Vietnamese fishermen on September 11, 2015.

The two sides consented to continue their collaboration in preventing diseases in aquaculture and husbandry and managing the quality of farm produce exports while fine-tuning procedures in order to boost trading of litchi, longan, mangosteen and mango.

They agreed to ask the two ministers for permission to make necessary adjustments to the memorandum of understanding on agriculture cooperation which was signed in 2003 but is no longer suitable with the present situation, especially following the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community at the end of last year.

They will also join hands in organising a meeting of the Vietnam-Thailand Working Group on Agriculture in June in Thailand’s Phuket province, and a high-level meeting on husbandry in Hanoi in July.

While in Thailand, Tam visited the Command Centre for Combating Illegal Fishing, and a number of livestock facilities in Chachoengsao and Nakhon Ratchasima provinces to learn from the localities’ experience in establishing disease-safety zones, and poultry processing for export.