Banks pledge VND4 trillion for fishing boat building program

Banks pledge VND4 trillion for fishing boat building program

Tran Thu

Fishing vessels anchor in the waters off Phu Yen Province. Commercial banks have agreed to lend a combined VND4 trillion (US$178.5 million) to fishermen to build 365 new fishing boats and upgrade 20 old ones - PHOTO: UYEN VIEN

The SBV said in a statement released on Monday that the loans account for 60-95% of the total needed to build and upgrade fishing vessels.

Lenders have disbursed nearly VND2 trillion more than one year after the Government issued Decree 67/2014/ND-CP backing the development of the fisheries sector, including financing fishermen to buy high-capacity, steel boats for offshore fishing and thus increase incomes.

Under the decree dated July 7, 2014, fishermen can borrow 70-95% of the amount needed to build and upgrade their boats depending on hulk and engine capacity.

The lending term lasts 11 years and interest rates range from 1% to 3% per annum.

At present, 84 new fishing boats and 12 upgraded ones have been put into use. Notably, the number of credit deals signed from June 2015 until now has increased five-fold.

At a review conference on the one-year implementation of Decree 67 held in Quang Ngai Province on Monday, banks and fishermen inked 14 credit agreements worth over VND190 billion to build 14 new fishing boats.

Meanwhile, there remain a number of problems such as value added tax on new vessels, insurance and production-consumption model, heard the conference.

To solve the problems, some delegates suggested close coordination between localities and ministries, especially ministries of agriculture-rural development, planning-investment and finance, to develop key infrastructure for fishing, sea transport and seafood processing and consumption.

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