Two of the 11 vessels supported by the government's 'Ocean Fishing Vessel Safety Fund' were built in China.

Rep. Lee Yang-soo says, “The evaluation standards that lead to domestic construction must be effectively implemented.”

(Busan = Yonhap News) Reporter Youngjae Lee = It has been pointed out that some of the ships eligible for support from the 'Ocean Ocean Fishing Vessel Safety Fund', a government project to support the replacement of old ocean fishing vessels, were built at Chinese shipyards.

According to data submitted from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries by People Power Party lawmaker Lee Yang-soo, a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee on the 10th, a total of 11 vessels have been built or are under construction with support from the deep-sea fishing vessel safety fund since 2019.

Among these, two ships selected in 2022 were built in China, and one ship selected this year was confirmed to be under construction in Taiwan. The remaining nine ships were all found to be built domestically.

The two ships built in China received interest-free loans worth 16.68 billion won. One ship being built in Taiwan will receive up to 23.2 billion won in support.

If government-supported deep-sea fishing boats are built abroad, foreign shipbuilders will benefit.

Representative Lee pointed out that this is not unrelated to the criteria for selecting support targets for the deep-sea fishing vessel safety fund.

As of 2022, the past domestic construction performance of shipping companies that applied for deep-sea fishing vessel safety fund support was only evaluated, and it did not consider whether the vessels in question were built domestically.

From the following year, the purpose of considering shared growth with the domestic shipbuilding industry was reflected along with the evaluation standards related to domestic construction, but the proportion of evaluations related to domestic construction was reduced starting this year.

Rep. Lee said, “As the interest burden of shipping companies is alleviated through national taxes, the evaluation standards that encourage domestic shipbuilding must be effective.”