Kien Giang (VNA) – The MekongDelta province of Kien Giang is focusing on fisheries exploitation on the backof its favourable natural conditions.

Quang Trong Thao, Vice Director of the provincialDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development, said Kien Giang currentlyoffers fisheries logistics services and builds high-capacity fishing vesselsfor offshore fishing, particularly those with engines of more than 400 horsepower.

The province’s fisheries output rose from311,000 tonnes in 2006 to 520,000 tonnes in 2016 and 268,000 tonnes in thefirst half this year, or half of the yearly target.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’sCommittee Mai Anh Nhin said before 1990, the province issued regulations on themanagement of fisheries resources exploitation and protection. In compliancewith the Fisheries Law and the Vietnam Marine Strategy until 2020, the provincehas amended and supplemented such regulations many times.

At present, the province has embarked on aproject to rearrange fisheries exploitation and production, a programme onfisheries protection and development until 2020, and built a major fisheriescentre.

Kien Giang has approved the building andupgrade of 75 fishing vessels worth more than 671 billion VND (29.1 millionUSD), 21 of them have been put into operation.

Nhin said the province has partnered withCambodia and Thailand to manage and tap fisheries resources, particularly migratoryspecies with the support of the Swedish International Development CooperationAgency and the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre.

With the support of Japan, Kien Giang isdeveloping high-tech fishing vessel fleets, fishing port, modern fishingmarkets and several infrastructure.

In order to fully develop marine-basedeconomy, the locality plans to step up offshore fishing, fishing logisticsservices and infrastructure in combination with ensuring nationaldefence-security.

Between now and 2020, further attentionwill be paid to increasing high-capacity fishing vessels and scaling down low-capacityones used for inshore fishing.

At the same time, Kien Giang revised andsupplemented planning for disaster-proof wharves until 2020 with orientationsto 2030. As scheduled, 23 fishing ports and wharves will be put into operationin Chau Thanh, Phu Quoc, Kien Hai, Kien Luong, Hon Dat, An Minh, An Bien and HaTien township.

According to Nhin, the province will extendexternal work to attract more investment in the field, and suggest the Stateprovide support for infrastructure construction on populated islands as well assearch and rescue and patrol equipment.-VNA