Fishing boats in Hà Tiên City in Kiên Giang Province. – VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Đạt

KIÊN GIANG – The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Kiên Giang invested more than VNĐ645 billion (US$28.2 million) in fishing infrastructure in 2020, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

It included building storm shelters for boats and upgrading fishing ports.  

It is building a storm shelter in Phú Quốc District’s Thổ Chu Island and upgrading an existing port in the vicinity. It costs VNĐ154.2 billion ($6.7 million), with VNĐ32 billion spent in 2016-20 and the rest to be invested in the next five years.

Three storm shelters were built this year in Kiên Hải District’s Hòn Tre Island, Hòn Đất District’s Lình Huỳnh Commune and at the mouth of the Cái Lớn – Cái Bé River in Châu Thành and An Biên districts.

It upgraded and reopened Tắc Cậu Fishing Port in Châu Thành District and An Thới Fishing Port in Phú Quốc District in October 2020, and they can now accommodate ships with a capacity of 600CV. 

They can respectively handle 150,000 tonnes and 7,000 tonnes of seafood a year.

Quảng Trọng Thao, deputy director of the department, said technical infrastructure and logistics services basically meet the fisheries sector’s demand.

The province would speed up construction of many ongoing technical infrastructure works, he said.

Nearly 3,700 of the 3,992 local fishing boats with a length of at least 15 metres have installed black boxes as regulated.

The installation has been slow since many have stopped going fishing due to financial difficulties or lack of crew, meaning many boat owners do not have the money to install the black boxes, according to the department.

The province’s seafood catch in 2020 is estimated at more than 572,000 tonnes, 15 per cent higher than the target but down 5 per cent from the previous year. – VNS