Over recent years, Da Nang has been well on its way to boost sustainable maritime economic development associated with fully tapping its available marine economy potentials, with a view to projecting itself as a major fishing centre in Central Viet Nam.

The Tho Quang Fishing Wharf upgrading project is underway

Da Nang now has a combined total of more than 1,250 boats, not including nearly 430 motor coracles, with a total capacity of more than 402,150 CV. The output of exploited seafood goes up by 2.3% year after year.

As part of Da Nang’s plan to upgrade fishery infrastructure, a 1.6ha seafood wholesale market and a 58h seafood service industrial zone were already built in Son Tra District’s Tho Quang Ward.

The Tho Quang seafood industrial park now houses over 23 seafood processing enterprises which together earn around 200 million USD from exports every year.

In recent years, Da Nang government has provided financial assistance for local offshore fishing vessels so that they can be fully equipped with sufficient modern machines in order to increase sea catch output, reduce post-catch losses and save human power.

Also, active support has been given to fishermen to help them promote the application of scientific and technological innovations in fishing activities.

Most recently, the Agro-Forestry-Fishery Promotion Centre under the Da Nang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has helped local fishermen install such advanced fishing equipment as fish finders, navigation systems, integrated vessel identification and monitoring systems, signal buoys, led lights and solar batteries for their fishing boats.

A total of 566 offshore fishing vessels across the city Da Nang measuring 15 meters in length and above have already voyage monitoring devices completely installed.

The monitoring device installation is an effective measure against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing amongst ship owners and fishermen as requested by the European Commission for “yellow card” removal on Viet Nam fishing industry.

Of special note, numerous fishing vessels operating in Da Nang have been equipped with modern refrigeration systems to lengthen their products’ freshness, thereby enhancing the value of seafood products, as well as long-range communication devices such as ICOM 710, ICOM 718 and VX-170.

Besides, the Da Nang authorities have accelerated a project on upgrading the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf into a driving force fishing port of the Da Nang Major Fishing Centre.

Developed by the Management Board of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Projects, the upgrade project is expected to be implemented over the 2017 - 2021 period at a total cost of 217.5 billion VND. Of this, about 120 billion VND is funded by Viet Nam's national government, nearly 66 billion VND comes from Da Nang budget, and the remainder are from other financial sources.

Under the project, a 150m-long and 9.5m-wide pier will be constructed for over 600CV fishing vessels to anchor.

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

Another 82m-long and 10m-wide pier will be built in order to help over 600CV fishing vessels to increase the capacity of unloading seafood, and shorten waiting time.

By HOANG HIEP - Translated by M.D