Island fishermen reap profits from decree on fishing development

Fishermen from the Phu Quy island district in the central coastal province of Binh Thuan are making profit from their vessels built under the Government’s Decree No 67/2014/ND-CP on off-shore fishing development policies.

Decree 67, which took effect in August 2014, stipulates policies in investment, credit, insurance and tax incentives in support of fishermen and ship owners, who wish to build new fishing boats, upgrade their existing boats and buy fishing and marine equipment, among others. The decree is a practice that could earn fishermen higher incomes.

The new fishing vessel constructed under the Decree 67 has allowed Nguyen Hung from Tam Thanh commune in Phu Quy district to launch five trips to the traditional fishing grounds in the country’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago.

Fishing boats in Phu Quy island

The fishing trips within three months earned him nearly 600 million VND (over 26,000 USD).

Another fisherman, Chau Cuong, who also had a new fishing boat with Decree 67 loans, pocketed up to 300 million VND (13,000 USD) just after two offshore trips.

As of February this year, Binh Thuan enabled 130 fishermen to borrow money to build 107 new fishing boats, including 16 steel-covered ships, 83 wooden boats, and 8 composite vessels, and upgrade 23 ships.

The Binh Thuan branch of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has so far pledged about 171 billion VND (over 7.3 million USD) in loans for fishermen wishing to build new or upgrade their fishing vessels under Decree 67. To date, 123 billion VND (5.3 million USD) has been disbursed and 17 ships have been launched.

This year, Binh Thuan targets to double the disbursement and the ships built under the decree.

The province is also implementing the Government Decree 89, valid from November 25, 2015, which looks to address roadblocks in fishermen’s ship building ​ process regulated in Decree 67.