October 15, 2010

Vietnam develops strategy for seafood sector until 2020

A strategy implementation meeting for the Vietnamese seafood sector until 2020 was held by the General Fisheries Office in Hanoi on October 14.

The strategy ratified by the Prime Minister last month, calls for the Ministry to receive VND57.4 trillion (US$2.94 billion) from the state budget, businesses, farmers, official development assistance (ODA), foreign direct investment (FDI), and other capital sources.

It will support specific projects like raising anabas, aquaculture management, creating a fishing co-operative union, building fishing villages in coastal areas and islands.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Van Tam stressed the importance of the strategy as a guideline for making seafood an export industry with a prestigious brand name and high competitiveness in the world market. However, Nguyen said the ministry should work out appropriate steps for turning the strategy into actual economic results.

The seafood industry is expected to contribute about 30-35% of the total GDP of agricultural-forestry-fishery products, with an annual growth rate of 8-10% by 2020, when the sector will export 6.5 million tonnes of seafood to earn US$8-9 billion.

Deputy Head of the General Fisheries Office Chu Tien Vinh said that to achieve these goals, the seafood sector will focus on restructuring its production. The sector will concentrate on sea exploration, breeding shrimps in brackish water, and raising tra and basa fish.

The sector will attract investment, develop models of economic cooperation and continue to implement trade promotion campaigns to maintain and expand its important traditional markets in the EU, Japan, and the US, while simultaneously penetrating new markets such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East, China, and Korea.