The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development refused requests from seafood companies for low-interest loans for the importation of old fishing ships.
The Duc Khai Corporation and Tri Viet Seafood Company have been asking for permission to use the preferential loan policy for fishermen, designed to help fishermen continue their offshore expeditions, to import hundreds of second-hand fishing boats.
According to the request sent by Tri Viet, they intend to import 72 ships from the US, Japan, South Korea and Australia to provinces in the Mekong Delta this year. The proposal confirmed that these ships were less than 15 years old, but the paperwork indicated they were older.
Old ship Tri Viet intended to import
Similarly, the Duc Khai Corporation wanted to take out loans at an interest rate of 1% to import 100 30-year-old ships. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development pointed out that the proposal did not meet the requirements. Regulations state that, in order to get preferential loans, investors can only import ships 8 years old or less.
Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam also pointed out that, despite the ambitious proposal, the Duc Khai Corporation had not made any plans for investment, or seafood exploitation.
Tam said they needed a proper monitoring mechanism to avoid such situations. “Investors should have to register their plans with communal authorities. The communal authorities should inspect and review all the information before submitting the plan to provincial authorities.”
Several experts have also said that enterprises should invest in seafood processing and distribution instead of the importation of more ships.
Đăng ký: VietNam News
