The fishery equipment industry has great growth potential due to increasing demand for mechanized, automated, and unmanned operations with a changing fishery business environment such as an aging and declining fishery population and rising labor costs, and it is a critical industry that improves productivity and efficiency in fishery operations.

While the fishery equipment industry is estimated to be worth 50 trillion won around the world and 4 trillion won in Korea, there is a limitation to promote the industry as its status is not even identified accurately due to the lack of an institutional foundation.

In this regard, this Act aims to prepare the policy and institutional foundation to facilitate R&D, dissemination, and export for fishery equipment and systematically promote the fishery equipment industry through the manufacture and use of safe fishery equipment.

Details

A. Require the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to establish and implement a fishery equipment industry promotion master plan every 5 years to efficiently promote the fishery equipment industry, and place the Fishery Equipment Industry Promotion Review Committee under the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to review matters regarding the promotion of the fishery equipment industry (Articles 4 and 5)

B. Require the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to efficiently promote the fishery equipment industry by promoting new technology development for fishery equipment, new fishery equipment dissemination programs, fishery equipment trade systems, and fishery equipment rental (Articles 7 through 10)

C. Require fishery equipment manufacturers and importers to receive inspections by the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries regarding the performance and safety of manufactured or imported fishery equipment, and allow the Fishery Equipment Industry Agency to perform such inspections in whole or in part on the Minister’s behalf (Article 14)

D. Allow the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to establish the Fishery Equipment Industry Agency to promote the fishery equipment industry and provide government funding in the budget to pay the costs of the Agency’s projects and operations (Articles 17 through 20)

Require fishery equipment manufacturers and importers to receive inspections by the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries regarding the performance and safety of manufactured or imported fishery equipment (Article 14)