BÌNH ĐỊNH — Bình Định Province People’s Committee has urged sectors and localities to work together to tackle low-quality steel-hulled fishing vessels and to direct fishermen to use quality shipbuilding facilities.

Deputy Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Trần Châu on July 11 asked Nam Triệu and Đại Nguyên Dương shipbuilding companies to urgently identify failures in machines, equipment and the ship’s hulls once inspections are finished.

The two companies were also asked to agree a contract witnessed by the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to commit to repairing damages as soon as possible to minimise economic losses and quickly resume fishing.

The provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development was directed to moblise a team of specialists to instruct and supervise the repairs.

The two companies were ordered to replace all non-synchronous main engines on the vessels and replace Chinese steel shells with South Korean ones at standardised level A. They also must repaint the ships following maintenance procedures and repair or renew the electricity system.

Phan Trọng Hổ, director of Bình Định Province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the repairs require supervision from technical specialists and the use of shipping register documents.

The department will also invite an independent monitoring unit to check the replaced equipment. The agricultural sector is to instruct fishermen to select monitoring units in suitable for each vessel, he said.

The shipbuilding units have submitted repair measures, however, they have not met the requirements of the local People’s Committee.

Bình Định Province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development submitted a report to Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and proposed to Ministry of Public Security to investigate and prosecute cheating shipbuilders for criminal liability.

The committee also proposed the State Bank of Việt Nam order commercial banks to extend loan repayment deadlines for owners of broken ships.

Under Decree 67 (dated July 7, 2014), ship-owners who are building steel or new-material ships with total main engine capacity between 400CV and 800CV can borrow from commercial banks a sum of money which does not exceed 90 per cent of total costs.

The preferential interest rate is 7 per cent per year, of which ship-owners are required to pay only 2 per cent per year while the State budget pays the remaining 5 per cent.

Earlier in May this year, fishermen in Bình Định Province reported that 18 ships built under Decree 67 had become degraded. An inspection conducted on these steel-hulled ships showed that the ships failed to follow requirements as committed in the contract in terms of ship’s shell quality. - VNS