Ben Tre (VNA) – The People’s Committee of the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre has directed local agencies and administrations to carry out urgent tasks and solutions to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing until 🏅September.

In an official dispatch, the provincial People’s Committee required relevant agencies, units and localities to strictly implement the Party Central Committee Secretariat’s Directive No. 32-CT/TW dated April 10, 2024 on IUU fishing and related documents, while preparing meticulously contents and working plan for the fifth working round with the inspection delegation from the European Commision. Agencies and local administrations were instructed to arrange sufficient human resources, funding, equipment and vehicles to carry out the task of combating IUU fishing and assign clear responsibilities to agencies and functional forces under their management so as to completely resolve existing shortcomings and problems. The provincial Border Guard Command, police force, and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) should direct relevant forces to increase the frequency of patrolling at sea and fishing ports, and prevent vessels violating anti-IUU regulations from entering and exiting ports as well as operating at sea. Functional forces must strictly handle IUU practices and punish those involved, especially violations in VMS connections and illegal fishing in foreign waters. The DARD should promptly complete the granting of fishing licences, vessel registration and food safety certificates for fishing vessels, fully update fishing vessel data into the national fisheries database (VNFishbase) and report the results by the end of this month. Statistics of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development show that Ben Tre currently has 98.58% of its ships installed with VMS devices. Since the beginning of this year, no local vessel has been arrested or dealt by foreign countries./.