Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is pledging to create more favorable working conditions for more than 1 million fishermen who he said play a part in protecting the country’s sovereignty in the disputed South China Sea.
In a speech this week, Dung asked relevant ministries to put forward concrete credit policies such as easier access to loans for building better equipped fishing ships.
His remarks come days after a Vietnamese ship was allegedly attacked by an unidentified Chinese ship near the disputed Paracel islands in the South China Sea. Hanoi and Beijing have not officially commented on the incident, which was widely reported in the Vietnamese media.
Vo Van Trac, vice chairman of the Vietnam Fisheries Society, welcomed Dung’s remarks. He told VOA that one crucial, urgent issue was providing enough capital for fishing operations.