Hádegisverðarfundur með forsætisráðherra Vietnam.

20. september 2002.

Address by Minister of Fisheries, Árni M. Mathiesen,
to visiting dignitaries from Viet Nam

Your Excellency Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and other distinguished guests from Viet Nam:

I would like to begin by welcoming you all very warmly to this luncheon meeting, and to express my pleasure at having the opportunity to meet you. From the very earliest times, fisheries has played a major role in our economic activities and culture here on this northern island. In fact, there is a saying in Iceland that the sea is half our homeland. Even today, fisheries are highly important for us: they are by far the most important export sector in the country, accounting for 40% of our total external currency earnings.

I know that fisheries are also an important aspect of the Vietnamese economy, as the locations of both of our countries enable us to have easy access to rich fishing banks. Furthermore, you have pursued aquaculture fairly extensively for a long time. In this area we are, however, not yet as far advanced. Our emphasis in Iceland has until now been primarily on capture fisheries, in the waters surrounding our island and, to some extent, in distant waters as well. We have highly developed fishing technology and to avoid the serious consequences of over-fishing we have adopted a fishing management system both to maximising the long-term profitability of our fisheries and ensuring sustainable utilisation of the fishing stocks. To increase still further the contribution of fisheries to the national economy, we have now in the ministry a priority project on added-value for marine catch and by increasing aquaculture.

I had a very pleasant meeting with your Minister of Fisheries, Ta Quang Ngoc, at the FAO conference Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem, which was held in Reykjavík October 1st-4th of last year. At our meeting we discussed many things, including the importance of placing the so-called ecosystem approach at the forefront where utilisation of fishing resources is concerned. This involves not only considering the sustainable utilisation of individual fish stocks, but rather taking into account the balance of the ecosystem as a whole. This means, for example, not protecting some of the species living in the world's oceans at the cost of others which are utilised. This point was clearly emphasised in the Reykjavík Declaration, which was subsequently one of the documents which formed the basis for discussion at the recent world summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

We discussed other questions as well, including how the expertise of Icelandic enterprises could be utilised by the Vietnamese. Here I am referring especially to broad expertise concerning the design and construction of equipment for fishing and fish processing. Co-operation in this area has already commenced – I can point out, for instance, that our high-tech company Marel and Carnitech has set up a branch office in Ho Chi Minh City. Some interesting projects within the fisheries in Vietnam have been identified and Icelandic companies have already formed connection with VASEP (Vietnam Association for Seafood Exporters and Producers) for further exploration.

I have high expectations for our meeting here today for future co-operation between us, not least with regard to trade and co-operation between both large and small enterprises.

I hereby declare this meeting officially open and invite you, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai to take the floor.

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