KUALA LUMPUR: The Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry will formulate a new fisheries policy to improve the living standard of the local fishing community.
Its minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub said the ministry would need three months to work on the policy.
“We cannot do things halfway, by simply banning trawls or revoking licences, and so on. We must look at all aspects,” he told reporters in Parliament today.
Earlier in the morning, more than 300 fishermen staged a protest outside the Parliament building over abuse of fishing licences by locals who rent them to third parties who, in turn, pass them to foreign fishermen.
Salahuddin and his deputy Sim Tze Tzin, along with Fisheries Department director-general Datuk Munir Mohd Nawi spent some 30 minutes with 10 representatives of the group which handed over a memorandum to appeal to the federal government to revoke foreigners' licences.
Meanwhile, on claims over the abuse of fishing licences, Salahuddin said the government would not compromise on the matter.
He added stern action would be taken against the culprits.