The government will tweak policies and offer better subsidies to the fishing industry to help it with its difficulties, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.
Ma made the statement while attending the National Fisheries Conference in Taipei to hear fishermen explain the economic difficulties they are facing.
More than 200 industry representatives and experts, including fishermen, academics and business leaders, attended the conference.
“Taiwan’s fishing industry has always been strong, especially in open ocean fishing, with Taiwan listed by the UN as one of the six top countries,” Ma said.
The nation’s fishing industry contributes NT$100 billion (US$3.2 billion) to GDP. However, the energy crisis and depletion of fish stocks are hitting it hard, Ma said.
“The government is determined to keep our fisheries strong. As such, various policy amendments and subsidies will be used to help fishermen,” Ma said.
The Executive Yuan has ordered that subsidies for fuel for fishing boats and electricity for fish farms be increased, Ma said.
Restrictions on Chinese fishermen working in Taiwan will also be loosened so they can help their employers with a wider array of tasks, Ma said.
Ma said the government would also offer subsidies to fishing boats that agree to stay in the harbor to conserve fuel.
The conference also looked at issues such as postponing payments on loans that some fishing boats pay, transforming low-traffic fishing ports for other usage, such as tourist wharfs, and improving sanitary conditions at fishing markets.
The loans discussed were incurred by fishing boats because of the shrinking industry. After the government asked 160 of the nation’s 600 fishing boats to retire, owners of the retired boats were compensated for their losses.
Half of the compensation was paid by the government and half by the remaining 440 boats. The compensation paid by the active boats totaled NT$2.7 billion. Boat owners were forced to take out mortgages to cover the costs.
The conference discussed the possibility of postponing repayment of the loans by three years.
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