Fishermen shy away from insurance

HA NOI — Few fishermen in the central coastal provinces have shown interest in buying insurance for their lives or their vessels, largely due to the lack of a completed payment system.

Department of Aquatic Resources Protection deputy director Phung Dinh Toan told Viet Nam News that only 20 per cent of fishing boat owners in central Quang Ngai Province – one of five localities with the highest number of fishing vessels – have purchased insurance so far this year.

Complicated procedures to receive compensation from insurance agencies when fishermen were in distress at sea have been blamed for their lack of interest, said Toan.

"Normally, fishermen don’t buy insurance unless they are forced to do so," said Toan.

It is estimated that the province now has 5,600 fishing vessels, one-third of which are for offshore fishing.

The Government to committed to subsidise gasoline for fishermen if they bought insurance, which had a small effect, but even in 2008, the year with the highest reported number of fishermen to buy insurance, only 20,000 fishermen and 40 per cent of vessels were guaranteed.

Despite this move, the numbers have continued to decline steadily for the past two years, with only 5,000 fishermen and 600 vessels buying insurance last year.

The same situation has also occurred in central Da Nang City.

It costs a maximum of VND10 million (US$487) to buy insurance for a fishing vessel and VND80,000 ($4) to buy life insurance for a fisherman each year.

If accidents occur, insurance agencies will pay 50 per cent of value of the vessels and at least VND10 million ($487) for each fishermen.

Though local fishermen acknowledged that buying insurance would secure them from suffering serious losses at sea, they find it problematic to receive compensation.

"The fishermen normally have to wait for a long time before insurance agencies confirm accidents’ locations, and so payment is always late," said director of the Da Nang City Department of Aquatic Resources Protection Nguyen Do Tam.

Ho Van Tinh, a local fisherman of Son Tra District said the insurance agency promised to pay him next year because they could not confirm the exact location where he recently got in an accident catching cuttlefish near Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelago.

General Secretary of the Viet Nam Insurance Association Phung Dac Loc said not only do fishermen shy away from buying insurance but insurance agencies also fear paying insurance relating to fishermen.

Insurance agencies fail to manage the fishing vessels that buy insurance from them, and they don’t know the quality of the vessels or how much they are worth, Loc said.

In addition, insurance agencies find it difficult to confirm places where fishing vessels were in distress at sea because the fishermen catch fish in large areas, he said.

To effectively solve this problem, it is necessary for authorities at the local level to participate, he said.

A detailed programme for offshore fishing vessels needs to be set up and fishermen are expected to catch fish in groups for insurance agencies to easily manage them in the future, Loc said.

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Agriculture/213153/Fishermen-shy-away-from-insurance.html