February 21, 2006

Vietnamese fisheries ministry plans to net billions

The Fisheries Ministry has adopted an ambitious plan aiming at harvesting between 3.5 million and 4 million tonnes of aqua-products by the year 2010.

It is expected that this will result in export turnover earnings of US$4 billion, with an average increase of 3.8 per cent annually in terms of output.

The ministry's master plan of development for 2006-2010 and orientation for 2020, approved by the Prime Minister early this year, stated clearly that the sector would aim at turning itself into an important competitive industry offering diverse products of high quality.

The sector also nurtured the ambition to remain a major hard currency earner maintaining a high growth rate in the overall gross domestic product (GDP), as measured against the agriculture and forestry industries, in the five years until 2010.

To reach these targets, the sector must achieve an annual increase of about 10.63 per cent in its export turnover.

It was expected that about 4.7 million people will be employed in the sector by 2010.

Rapid and sustainable development, the development master plan said, should be based on the rational use of available land, water surface and labour force resources. Another factor, which was of no less importance, was the application of high technology in developing aquaculture and processing of products.