Covering about 4 ha of land and 58 ha of water surface, the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf of the Da Nang Major Fishing Centre in Son Tra District features a storm shelter for fishing vessels, a fishing port, and the Tho Quang seafood wholesale market.

The Tho Quang Fishing Wharf full of fishing boats

Tho Quang is the nearest wharf to the Hoang Sa fishing ground where many offshore fishing boats from localities nationwide usually conduct fishing activities. Nestled inside the Son Tra Mountain, the wharf boasts good infrastructure and offers good seafood trading and fishery logistics services. Thanks to these advantages, this venue welcomes a large number of offshore fishing boats, especially high-capacity vessels, from the city and other central coastal localities.

After nearly 15 years of operation, the venue is facing an overload of fishing boats, vehicles and people, resulting in severe pollution of air and water.

In particular, in 2017, the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf received a total of 24,608 fishing boat arrivals, and a total of 101,871 tons of seafood were unloaded from fishing vessels anchored there.

In a bid to deal with the overload problem and meet the increasing demand for using services at the wharf, seeking safe shelter from the storm, and boosting the socio-economic development of Da Nang, and the central region as whole, the city authorities have developed a plan for upgrading the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf into a driving force fishing port of the Da Nang Major Fishing Centre.

The city’s upgrade plan was approved by Prime Minister through Decision No 1976/QD-TT on 12 November 2015.

Last year, the municipal Investment Promotion and Support Board made appeals for investment into 5 hi-tech agricultural projects, including a project on upgrading and expanding the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf. The over 1,000 billion VND project will be implemented under the public-private partnership (PPP) format.

The project is divided into 7 sub-projects funded by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the municipal People’s Committee.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will be the investor of sub-projects on upgrading the existing Tho Quang Fishing Wharf at the cost of 350 billion VND, on expanding storm shelter at the wharf at the cost of 80 billion VND, and upgrading and expanding the Tho Quang seafood wholesale market to the northern side of the city at the cost of 100 billion VND. All the 3 sub-projects are expected to be deployed during the 2018-2020 period.

Meanwhile, the municipal People’s Committee will be charge of being investor of a 200 billion VND sub-project on expanding general fishing port at during the 2018-2022 period, a 600 billion VND one on building an international fishing port on the northern side of the Man Quang Bridge between 2020 and 2025, and a 400 billion VND one on refurbishing the Man Quang Bridge from 2025 - 2030.

The remaining sub-project on technical assistance at a cost of between 2 and 3 million USD is being developed by the Viet Nam General Department of Fisheries during the 2017 - 2020 period.

Some of the wharf’s downgraded infrastructure

At discussion sessions as part of the 8^th Da Nang Urban Development Forum in July, experts from Japan’s Yokohama City enthusiastically presented their constructive idea for developing Tho Quang fishing wharf in a modern, ecological, and environmentally friendly manner, in combination with making it be one of the city’s popular tourist attractions.

In addition to Yokohama City’s experts, some domestic and foreign units have shown their keen interest in developing the Da Nang major fishing centre in such manner, including the Japan branch of the French Development Agency (AFD), Quang Ninh Province’s Au Lac Company, and Ha Noi’s Tuan Chau Company.

The intention is to fully tap fish catch potential, to promote natural disaster mitigation, and environmental sanitation management through the application of modern equipment and techniques.

According to a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, whilst making appeals for investments into the sub-projects, the Ministry has decided to implement the upgrade sub-project for the existing Tho Quang Fishing Wharf which covers 1.5 ha of land.

Under the sub-project, the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf will be 150m long and 9.5m wide, and cover a premise area of 3,696m². Therefore, it will be able to receive over 600CV fishing vessels, helping to increase cargo handling capacity, and shorten waiting time.

In addition, ice and production tool storage areas, a medical station, a canteen, warehouses, and food stores will be built.