The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) today (November 15) announced that the department has completed processing of all applications for local fishing vessel registration, Provisional Approval of Registration (PAR) and the Certificate of Eligibility for Registration (CER) under the Fisheries Protection (Amendment) Ordinance 2020.

     "The Ordinance came into effect on November 6, 2020. It empowers the Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation to exercise discretion in considering applications for local fishing vessel registration, PAR and the CER of the vessels that did not possess a valid operating licence on June 15, 2012, but were used or intended to be used for fishing up to June 14, 2012. The application period of the above closed on May 5, 2021, and all applications concerned have been processed," an AFCD spokesman said.

     He also noted that while making the legislative amendment and processing the applications concerned, the AFCD suspended enforcement against the vessels for which registration was not accepted previously owing to their failure to fulfil the operation licence requirement. Since the AFCD has completed all the relevant procedures, enforcement against those unregistered local fishing vessels will resume tomorrow.

Ends/Monday, November 15, 2021
Issued at HKT 15:45

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