Decision No. 112/2004/QĐ-TTg Approves the Program for Developing Aquatic Seed to 2010

Pursuant to …;

Regarding the approval of the Program for Developing Aquatic Seed to 2010

__________________________

PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to Decree No. 43/2003/NĐ-CP dated May 2, 2003 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Fisheries;

Considering the proposal of the Minister of Fisheries.

DECISION:

Article 1. Approve the Program for Developing Aquatic Seed to 2010 with the following main contents:

I. OBJECTIVES:

- Enhance research capacity, strive to gradually master seed production technology to form a diverse aquatic seed group with economic value and for export, serving the development of aquaculture in freshwater, brackish water, and saltwater ecosystems.

- Improve and gradually modernize the system of commercial aquatic seed production to proactively ensure sufficient good seeds at the right time, diverse species of farmed aquatic animals, serving the development of aquaculture and effective and sustainable restructuring of the economy.

Target indicators to strive for by 2010:

- Brackish water and saltwater farmed aquatic seed: 35 billion shrimp seedlings, over 500 million seedlings of other crustaceans, over 11 billion mollusk seedlings, approximately 400 million marine fish seedlings, over 6,000 tons of seaweed seedlings.

- Freshwater farmed aquatic seed: over 3.5 billion green tiger shrimp seedlings, over 700 million soft-scaled fish seedlings, over 500 million male monosex tilapia seedlings, over 12 billion seedlings of other fish.

II. CONTENTS OF THE PROGRAM:

1. Upgrade and complete the infrastructure and equipment of Aquatic Seed Centers

a. Invest in building and completing the National Aquatic Seed Center system:

- The National Freshwater Aquatic Seed Center in the Northern Region (at Phú Tảo - Hải Dương).

- The National Freshwater Aquatic Seed Center in the Central Region (at Đắk Nông).

- The National Freshwater Aquatic Seed Center in the Southern Region (at Cái Bè - Tiền Giang).

- The National Marine Aquatic Seed Center in the Northern Region (at Xuân Đán - Cát Bà - Hải Phòng).

- The National Marine Aquatic Seed Center in the Central Region (at Vạn Ninh - Khánh Hòa).

- The National Marine Aquatic Seed Center in the Southern Region (at Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu).

b. Build 16 Level I Aquatic Seed Centers, including: 5 Marine Aquatic Seed Centers and 11 Freshwater Aquatic Seed Centers:

- Level I Marine Aquatic Seed Centers: to be built in five coastal provinces: Da Nang (Hoà Hải), Ninh Thuận (Ninh Phước), Cà Mau (Hòn Khoai, Tân Ân), Bạc Liêu (Hợp Thành, Thị xã Bạc Liêu), Kiên Giang (Phú Quốc).

- Level I Freshwater Aquatic Seed Centers: to be built in clusters of provinces or regions, located in eleven provinces with large areas of freshwater farming and distinctive natural aquatic systems, including:

+ For the Northern Mountainous Region: Level I Freshwater Aquatic Seed Centers in four provinces: Sơn La (at Mai Sơn District) serving Lai Châu, Sơn La, Hòa Bình; Bắc Giang (at Lạng Giang District) serving Lạng Sơn, Bắc Giang; Hà Giang (at Vị Xuyên District) serving Hà Giang, Tuyên Quang, Cao Bằng; Yên Bái (at Văn Chấn District) serving Yên Bái, Thái Nguyên, Bắc Kạn, Lào Cai.

+ For the Central Region: Level I Freshwater Aquatic Seed Centers in three provinces: Nghệ An (Yên Lý, Diễn Châu) serving Thanh Hoá, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh; Thừa Thiên Huế (Cư Chánh) serving Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Thừa Thiên Huế; Bình Định (Phù Mỹ) serving Đà Nẵng, Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Bình Định, Phú Yên, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, Bình Thuận, and part of the Central Highlands.

+ For the Southern Region: Level I Freshwater Aquatic Seed Centers in four provinces: Hồ Chí Minh City (An Hội - Củ Chi) serving Đồng Nai, Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu, Bình Dương, Bình Phước, Tây Ninh; Cần Thơ (Ô Môn) serving Hậu Giang, Sóc Trăng, Bạc Liêu, Cà Mau, part of Kiên Giang, Trà Vinh, Vĩnh Long, part of Bến Tre; An Giang (Bình Thành - Châu Thành) serving An Giang, part of Kiên Giang; Đồng Tháp (Tân Nhuận Đông - Châu Thành) serving Đồng Tháp, part of Long An, part of Vĩnh Long, part of Tiền Giang.

c. Upgrade and build Aquatic Seed Centers in provinces: upgrade existing seed farms to ensure that each province has an Aquatic Seed Center by 2010 to receive and nurture new seeds, receive original seeds, receive and apply new technologies, and transfer technology to commercial seed production facilities and participate in commercial seed production.

2. Enhance the capacity of the research and production workforce

- Strengthen the scientific and technical workforce for Institutes and Research Centers, National Aquatic Seed Centers to have sufficient human resources to fulfill the function of developing aquatic seeds, including: prioritizing training for scientific staff both domestically and internationally for Research Institutes, Research Centers, National Aquatic Seed Centers, and specialized schools in aquaculture.

- Promote various forms of training on management and seed production techniques, improve the seed production skills and feed production for seedling rearing stages for the technical and worker teams of production facilities; train and transfer technology to fishermen and farmers producing aquatic seeds. Encourage economic sectors to send people for training and instruction to have experts and skilled technical teams in seed production.

3. Form and gradually modernize the system of commercial seed production facilities

Develop the system of commercial seed production facilities according to industry and local planning, encourage the participation of economic sectors in areas with advantages in seed production and key farming areas where conditions allow seed production to meet the needs of farming for export and restructuring in agriculture.

a. Facilities for producing brackish water and saltwater farmed aquatic seed:

In the northern coastal region: develop some shrimp seedling farms, tending to natural distribution of brackish water species in the area to solve part of the local seed problem, while these farms also serve as places to receive shrimp larvae from the central region or larvae of other species to grow into larger seedlings. Specifically in the Quảng Ninh and Hải Phòng sea areas, encourage the development of artificial breeding farms for marine fish, and facilities for hatching fertilized eggs into fish seedlings to serve farming areas.

The coastal area from Da Nang to Binh Thuan in Central Vietnam: develop commercial aquatic seed production to supply breeding areas nationwide. The main production targets in Central Vietnam are black tiger shrimp and many brackish water and saltwater species such as red snapper, red drum, threadfin bream, crab, and lobster (Da Nang, Quang Nam), spiny lobster (Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa), snakehead fish, and conch (Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan).

The southern coastal area: develop seed production for black tiger shrimp and green tiger prawn to meet part of the local demand for seeds. Some provinces with river delta areas such as Tien Giang and Ben Tre should develop artificial seed production facilities for mollusks to meet local demand and reduce the exploitation of natural seeds.

b. Aquatic seed production facilities for freshwater farming:

Northern provinces: improve the quality of existing seed stocks and introduce new strains that have been tested into the breeding structure; prioritize transferring sex-reversed technology for Nile tilapia GIFT strain to large-scale seed production farms of various economic sectors to ensure local production and supply to nursery facilities.

Central provinces: develop seed nurseries or build seed production farms suitable for the service range to maintain operations.

Southern provinces: develop seed production in all localities. Initially, prioritize investment in researching seed production technologies for striped catfish, all-male giant freshwater prawn, single-sex male Nile tilapia GIFT strain, rare and valuable native species that can be exported, and various freshwater fish to quickly transfer these technologies to mass production, ensuring sufficient seeds for export farming and domestic consumption.

For mountainous regions and the Central Highlands: through fisheries promotion activities, develop small-scale seed production points and seed nurseries in remote areas to solve local seed issues and revive reservoir fishing.

c. Establish some concentrated aquatic seed production zones following industrial models:

Concentrated seed production zones will be built in areas with favorable conditions and at key farming sites. Each zone may consist of 200 to 500 seed farms, each farm having a capacity of 10 million shrimp seeds per year to produce a large quantity of aquatic seeds and implement quarantine regulations, labeling, and quality certification before shipment. During off-seasons for shrimp seed production, farms can also produce mollusk seeds, rear marine fish, and other crustaceans.

In the short term, from 2004 to 2006, support investment in building several concentrated brackish water and saltwater seed production zones:

- Cam Lap - Cam Ranh concentrated seed production zone - Khanh Hoa.

- Ninh Hai concentrated seed production zone - Ninh Thuan.

- Ngoc Hien concentrated seed production zone - Ca Mau.

- Phu Quoc concentrated seed production zone - Kien Giang.

- Hiep Thanh concentrated seed production zone - Bac Lieu.

- Quang Nam concentrated seed production zone.

4. Strengthen management of aquatic seeds

- Continue to complete and enhance the capacity of the management system, control the quality of seeds and diseases throughout all stages from production, circulation, quality inspection of seeds, recognition of original strain standards, parent stock standards, implementation of labeling regulations to ensure high-quality seeds, high productivity in farming, and minimize disease outbreaks.

- Develop and promulgate industry standards for seed production farms, production conditions, and seed quality.

- Provide purebred parent aquatic stocks for seed production farms.

- Implement plans for concentrated seed production zones on a large scale and local seed farm development plans and apply quality recognition regulations.

- Organize disease environment warnings for producers.

5. Implement projects and programs to develop aquatic seeds.

- Project "Developing mature black tiger shrimp parent breeding technology and producing high-quality seeds"

Objective: to perfect the technology for producing high-quality black tiger shrimp broodstock.

- Project "Developing diversity in brackish water shrimp species."

Objective: to develop breeding technology for several brackish water shrimp species to diversify breeding groups and maximize land use. Priority species for breeding development include whiteleg shrimp (M.ensis), giant freshwater prawn (P.merguiensis), oriental river prawn (P.onetalis), Pacific white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei), brownspot shrimp (P.semisulcatus), Japanese tiger prawn (P.raponicus), Indian tiger prawn (Penaeus indicus).

- Project "Developing breeding technology for several economically valuable marine fish species (threadfin bream, bigeye snapper, red snapper, mackerel, Spanish mackerel, pomfret...)."

Objective: to complete the technological regulations for breeding several economically valuable marine fish species; to establish a broodstock reserve to ensure fertilized eggs and fry supply for future years.

- Project "Developing breeding technology for several mollusk species (oyster, blood cockle, clam, abalone, scallop, conch, sea cucumber...)"

Objective: to create breeding technology to proactively supply mollusk seedlings for cultivation in estuarine areas, tidal flats, and coastal zones.

- Project "Developing breeding technology for several special crustacean species belonging to the crab, lobster, and spiny lobster families."

Objective: to perfect the breeding technology for several special crustacean species belonging to the crab, lobster, and spiny lobster families.

- Project "Developing breeding technology for several economically valuable seaweed species (golden needle seaweed, winged kelp...)"

Objective: to select pure strains of several seaweed species with high agar, carrageenan, and gel strength content. To develop industrial-scale breeding technology for seaweed to proactively supply seedlings for production.

- Project "Developing breeding technology for striped catfish"

Objective: to perfect the breeding technology for striped catfish to meet the demand for seedlings for export aquaculture.

Objective: to develop breeding technology for green mud crab and all-male green mud crab to socialize the production of their seedlings.

Objective: to develop breeding technology to社会化养殖绿色凡纳滨对虾和全雄绿色凡纳滨对虾的种苗。由于原文直接翻译可能不够准确，我将按照指示进行调整，但保持原意不变：

- Project "Developing breeding technology for rainbow trout."

Objective: to ensure sufficient broodstock and transfer breeding technology to economic entities to produce fast-growing rainbow trout seedlings for freshwater, brackish, and saline water regions.

- Project "Developing breeding technology and conserving several economically valuable or endangered indigenous fish species (silver pomfret, blue pomfret, snakehead, giant gourami, giant snakehead, silver carp, Chinese perch, tilapia, mandarin fish, yellow catfish, spotted snakehead, golden carp, grass carp)."

Objective: to develop breeding technology for several economically valuable indigenous fish species to provide seedlings for aquaculture and restocking in natural environments.

- Project "Improving the quality of seedlings for several major freshwater fish species."

Objective: to improve the quality of seedlings for traditional freshwater fish species that have been selected (Indian major carp, grass carp, silver carp, bighead carp, common carp, Mozambique tilapia) to enhance productivity and economic efficiency in aquaculture.

- Project "Developing ornamental aquatic animal seedlings."

Objective: to develop breeding technology and produce sufficient seedlings to meet domestic market and export demands.

- Project "Training human resources specialized in aquatic animal breeding."

Objective: to form a team of science and technology professionals with sufficient management capabilities to research scientific issues related to seed and breed producers who possess scientific knowledge, specialized expertise, and high skill levels.

III. SOME KEY SUPPORT SOLUTIONS

1. Regarding policy

- Continue implementing Decision No. 224/1999/QD-TTg dated December 8, 1999 of the Prime Minister approving the Program for Developing Aquaculture Seed during the period 1999-2010 and Decision No. 103/2000/QD-TTg dated August 25, 2000 of the Prime Minister on certain policies to encourage the development of aquaculture seed.

- During the implementation of the Program, continue researching and proposing to the Prime Minister for issuance of timely supplementary policies appropriate to reality to encourage social resources to participate in developing seed, applying advanced breeding technologies, and proactively producing commercial seed to meet market demands.

- Localities shall base on specific conditions to continue having mechanisms and policies to support and encourage organizations and individuals to participate in developing seed and producing aquaculture seed to meet local needs for development.

2. Regarding investment and credit

a. State budget capital:

- Central state budget capital supports investment in the following contents:

+ Construction of infrastructure for National Aquatic Seed Centers, supporting construction of Level I Aquatic Seed Centers, partially supporting construction of aquatic seed centers in mountainous provinces with difficult economies and low revenue (provinces in plains may use annual program funds for livestock and crop seeds), supporting construction of essential infrastructure for concentrated seed production areas (roads, water supply systems for seed production and wastewater treatment, quality inspection equipment).

+ Researching science and technology to implement projects and programs for developing aquatic seed already determined in the program content and basic scientific research activities on seed development (genetics, selection, hybridization, domestication of aquatic species) and other scientific activities related to seed.

+ Modernizing some laboratories at Institutes and Research Centers, National Aquatic Seed Centers.

+ Promoting fishery activities related to aquatic seed of the National Fisheries Promotion Center.

+ Training specialized human resources on aquatic seed of Institutes and Research Centers, National Aquatic Seed Centers, and developing scientific and technological information services for seed research and production.

- Local state budget: together with national state budget support, local budgets invest in completing Level I Aquatic Seed Centers (according to planning) or constructing provincial aquatic seed centers; supporting scientific research and technology activities on seed; financially supporting the production of original seed and parent stocks; training human resources in the field of aquatic seed at the local level.

b. Other sources of capital:

- Commercial credit to adequately meet the borrowing needs of economic sectors implementing approved seed development and seed production and business projects under current mechanisms.

- Capital mobilized from economic sectors: encouraging economic sectors to invest, joint ventures, and linkages to rapidly develop commercial seed production.

- Foreign direct investment: through foreign direct investment projects in seed production, ODA projects, and projects of AIT, DANIDA, NORAD, consulting technical assistance, training, importing new technologies, and technology transfer.... 21 ||| 3. Regarding international cooperation

3. Regarding international cooperation

Encouraging joint ventures with foreign investors in the conservation and development of original seed and rare aquatic seed; introducing new seed and advanced seed science and technology from abroad for application domestically.

Strengthening international relations and cooperation in scientific research, genetics, seed selection, technology transfer, sex change, and seeking financial support from countries and international organizations to train and enhance the capacity of staff.

4. Regarding science and technology

In the coming years, perfecting good seed production processes and disease-free seed for several high-demand species where technology is well mastered; urgently perfecting artificial seed production technology processes for promising species; focusing on researching common diseases in aquaculture and methods to prevent and control diseases.

Emphasizing and prioritizing the training of leading personnel with deep expertise in the general field of aquaculture and specifically in aquatic seed.

Concentrating on building to soon promulgate industry standards on seed production technology processes, seed farms, and concentrated seed production areas; regulatory documents managing seed production activities and seed quality.

5. Regarding fisheries promotion work

Quickly transferring successful domestic seed production technologies such as marine fish seed rearing techniques, male-only rainbow trout seed production, mollusk and crustacean seed production, establishing demonstration models for mountainous area fish seed rearing, etc., to be widely applied in large-scale seed production.

Continuing to research and seek to import high-value seed production technologies and new seed types to improve economic efficiency and contribute to enriching the group of cultivated species.

Enhancing training on seed production techniques, environmental protection, and disease prevention; publishing promotional materials to widely disseminate experiences among farmers.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION

1. The Ministry of Fisheries is the lead agency responsible for coordinating with relevant agencies and localities to organize the implementation of the Program; directing research institutions to build the national seed system and implement seed development projects; guiding localities to plan and develop seed systems according to plans; coordinating with relevant ministries and sectors in planning, constructing, and managing marine conservation areas, original seed conservation, and parent stock development; annually summarizing and reporting results to the Prime Minister.

2. The Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Science and Technology shall balance and allocate the State budget annually and other sources of funds to implement the Program effectively.

3. The State Bank of Vietnam shall direct commercial banks to provide guidance and create favorable conditions for enterprises of various economic sectors to access development loan capital.

4. Provincial People's Committees under the central government shall be responsible for building and implementing detailed planning, organizing and directing the implementation of the Aquatic Seed Development Program within their jurisdiction, prioritizing investment in constructing and upgrading seed production facilities, and encouraging local aquatic seed production.

5. Professional associations and mass organizations such as the Vietnam Fisheries Association, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, the Vietnam Farmers' Union, other professional associations, and political-social mass organizations shall, within their respective functions, promote, guide, and mobilize members and farmers to implement the Aquatic Seed Development Program in accordance with the orientation and objectives set forth.

Article 2. This Decision takes effect fifteen days from the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

The Ministry of Fisheries shall be responsible for guiding the implementation of this Decision.

Article 3. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of governmental agencies, and Chairpersons of provincial People's Committees under the central government shall be responsible for enforcing this Decision./.