The 18th meeting of the National Steering Committee on combating IUU fishing

(gialai.gov.vn) - On the evening of October 21, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the 18th meeting of the National Steering Committee on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Also attending the meeting was comrade Tran Hong Ha - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister. The meeting was held directly at the Government headquarters and connected online to 21 bridge points in coastal provinces and cities. Attending the meeting at the Gia Lai province bridge were comrades: Pham Anh Tuan - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Duong Mah Tiep - Provincial Party Committee Member, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee. Also attending were representatives of the provincial departments and branches.

View of the meeting at the Gia Lai province bridge

At the meeting, leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment reported on the implementation of tasks assigned by the Prime Minister since the 17th meeting. Accordingly, in the past week (from October 14 to 21), ministries, sectors and coastal localities across the country have synchronously deployed many measures, achieving positive results in the fight against IUU fishing. The number of unlicensed fishing vessels and unqualified vessels has decreased; 80% of fishing vessels nationwide have updated their owners' citizen identification information to the VNFishbase system...

In Gia Lai, as of October 20, 2025, the whole province had 5,775 registered fishing vessels (a decrease of 02 vessels compared to the previous week), of which 100% were updated to the VNFishbase system. 100% of the verification of fishing vessel data, digitization of fishing vessels and linking between Vnfishbase data and the Population Database (VNeID) have been completed. For 347 fishing vessels including: 08 "3 no" fishing vessels (a decrease of 01 vessel) and 339 fishing vessels not qualified to participate in fishing (a decrease of 28 vessels compared to the previous week), the sea has been banned from going to sea for fishing. Border guards, fisheries surveillance forces, and fishing ports continue to coordinate closely to control and prevent unqualified vessels from leaving port; 100% of fishing vessels 15 meters or longer must have a VMS signal to be allowed to leave port.

The province has implemented many breakthrough solutions to prevent illegal fishing such as: Applying electronic fishing logs for fishing vessels of 12 meters or more; Implementing policies to support the stable life of fishing vessels that are not qualified to participate in fishing (support for 4 months). In particular, Gia Lai is the first province to deploy the Smart Automatic Warning System for Disconnected Fishing Vessels to prevent fishing vessels from violating.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivers concluding remarks

Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized: Combating IUU fishing is a regular and continuous task for sustainable development of the fisheries sector. The Prime Minister requested ministries, branches, localities and functional forces to continue to promote the highest sense of responsibility to implement measures to combat IUU fishing; promptly update, classify and resolutely eliminate unqualified vessels. Continue to strengthen information and communication work on IUU implementation instructions to raise awareness and responsibility for fishermen and the business community. Every week, ministries, branches and localities seriously collect the work implemented during the week on IUU to report according to regulations. The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to develop programs and plans on career transition for fishermen from fishing to aquaculture and strengthen guidance for localities to strictly manage fishing ground activities.

Source: https://gialai.gov.vn/tin-tuc/hoat-dong-cua-lanh-dao/phien-hop-thu-18-ban-chi-dao-quoc-gia-ve-chong-khai-thac-iuu.html