With a favorable geographical position and well-invested infrastructure, professional exploitation and operation, Nam Hai - Dinh Vu Port has developed sharply. (Photo: An Dang/VNA)
Logistics is gradually becoming a key service sector of many countries around the world.
Catching this trend, Hai Phong focused on exploiting available advantages of the City with 5 types of traffic to soon become a major center for maritime and shipping service of the country.
The key for growth
Director of Hai Phong Department of Planning and Investment Mr. Nguyen Hoang Long shared that the City has a large coastal area, sea and islands, located in the maritime strategic position of the country with 126km of coastline and more than 4,000km2 of sea surface, Hai Phong is the largest port city in the North, the important traffic hub and the main sea gateway of Northern provinces, converging all favorable conditions to become a logistics service center.
Hai Phong's logistics infrastructure system has high connectivity among modes of transport by road, railway, inland waterway, seaway and airway, which makes the City very convenient to connect multimodal transports.
Regarding seaport infrastructure, Hai Phong focuses on upgrading and investing in new construction of seaport infrastructure in a synchronous and modern direction, in line with the development trend of regional and international shipping. The City has completed and put into operation the Terminal No.1 and No.2 of Hai Phong International Gateway Port.
The Prime Minister has also approved the investment policy of projects on building Terminal No.3, No.4, No.5 and No.6 in the Lach Huyen Port area. Currently, the city's seaport system includes 5 terminals with 98 wharves and 8 main navigational sections, basically meeting the reception of large ships.
Road traffic system basically meets the connection of seaports with industrial parks, service zones, inland port systems, linking with many Northern provinces and cities as well as two corridors, one belt of Vietnam- China.
In particular, in the past 5 years, many large projects located along national highways and main urban routes have been invested and effectively served cargo transport through ports in Dinh Vu and Lach Huyen areas such as: Ha Noi-Hai Phong highway, Tan Vu-Lach Huyen road and bridge, Hai Phong-Ha Long highway…
At the same time, Hai Phong focuses on investing in external transport infrastructure systems connecting Quang Ninh, Hai Duong and Thai Binh.
Along with that, Cat Bi International Airport was invested to build and upgrade to 4E level of international airport, ensuring the operation of B747 aircraft, the parking lot of 10 (ten) A321 aircraft positions at peak times, and the station with capacity of 4-5 million passengers per year.
The system of warehouses and yards for logistic services in the city area is distributed centrally along the Cam River area (the areas of Hoang Dieu Port, Chua Ve Port, Dinh Vu Port clusters...).
The total area of warehouses and yards reaches more than 700ha with more than 60 main warehouses including warehouse systems at seaports; bonded warehouses; warehouse systems at retail collection points, centralized inspection locations and other common and cold storage systems.
Logistics infrastructure investment resources were paid attention by Hai Phong City with total investment capital in the period of 2016-2020 reaching 562,309 billion VND, nearly 3 times higher than the period of 2011-2015 (188.356 billion VND); in which, the investment capital in transport and warehouse reached 133,550 billion VND, accounting for 23.75% of total realized investment capital of whole city, with average growth rate of 20.03% per year.
Up to this time, the City has 28 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the field of transport services, warehouses, logistics with total registered capital of 116.1 million USD, in which, there are some large projects such as: C.Steinweg Hai Phong Company Limited (40 million USD), Sembcorp Hai Phong Infrastructure Services Company Limited (20.7 million USD), SITC Dinh Vu Logistics Company Limited (20 million USD), SLP Park Hai Phong 2 project (17.26 million USD)...
Having some bottlenecks
Although Hai Phong is considered to have a lot of potential for the development of the logistic service sector, in fact, logistic activities have not developed commensurate with potentials and still have many shortcomings.
According to Hai Phong Port Authority, for Hai Phong seaport area, there has been remarkable development in both quality and quantity over the past time, meeting the requirements of socio-economic development, international and regional economic integration; establishing an important position and connection in global maritime routes.
However, the system of ports and terminals is mostly scattered on the banks of Cam and Bach Dang Rivers.
In addition to Dinh Vu and Lach Huyen Port areas (2 terminals in Hai Phong International Gateway Port (HICT port) with large and modern scales), there are still many small-scale, fragmented, inadequate wharves mixed residential areas without reasonable functional subdivisions.
The traffic connection system is limited, not centralized and synchronous, causing waste of land resources, generating traffic jams behind ports and congestion of goods at peak times, causing traffic disorder in the area...
From the perspective of businesses, Mr. Le Van Tien, Chairman of Hai Phong Transport Association said that the transport system connecting inland waterway ports with roads (national roads, provincial roads) and railways is still inadequate, lacking of synchronization in road and bridge loading capacity. Many provincial roads only meet small transport vehicles, so large vehicles such as container trucks cannot participate in transportation and there must be trucks for dividing goods many times.
This makes the organization of goods transportation from ports to national highways facing many difficulties, incurring many costs, making the price of waterway transport still higher than the price of road transport and unattractive to customers. At the same time, it caused limitations for development of inland waterway transports and logistic services...
Dinh Vu-Cat Hai cross-sea Bridge is the longest cross-sea bridge in Vietnam with a width of 29.5m and 4 lanes (2 lanes for motorized vehicles and 2 lanes for rudimentary vehicles). (Photo: An Dang/VNA)
According to statistics, the volume of goods transported by roads in 2020 accounted for 78.7% of total volume of goods transported in the city area (constantly increasing over the years: accounted for 69.9% in 2015, 74% in 2018 and 78.7% in 2020).
Along with the inadequacy of connection infrastructure, many overlapping policies on taxes, fees and charges arising for transportation enterprises lead to increase input costs in the transport sector, and the price of transport is still higher than other countries in the region.
Keeping up with the trend
On October 21, 2021, Hai Phong City People's Committee issued Plan No.238/KH-UBND on implementing Resolution No. 02-NQ/TU dated August 2, 2021 of Standing Committee of Hai Phong City Party Committee on developing service activities for seaport operations, logistic services to 2025, 2030 and vision to 2045; Decision No. 221/QD-TTg dated February 22, 2021 of Prime Minister on amending and supplementing Decision No. 200/QD-TTg dated February 14, 2017 on approving Action Plan on improving competitiveness and developing logistic services in Vietnam to 2025.
This plan has given 6 main groups of solutions consisting of: improving the efficiency of state management; developing seaport infrastructure and connection traffic infrastructure; developing seaport services and logistic services; creating investment capital, enhancing the competitiveness of Hai Phong seaport; training and developing human resource and as well as modern marine science and technology.
Hai Phong City People's Committee requested that works must be conducted on schedule, conformity to actual situation and feasibility; ensured quality and effectiveness on the basis of maximizing resources and following the development goals of Resolution; defined and clearly assigned responsibilities of relevant agencies and units as a basis for inspecting, supervising and supplementing the implementation process.
Resolution No.02-NQ/TU dated August 2, 2021 of Standing Committee of the City Party Committee also stated that Hai Phong must develop services for seaport operations and logistic services commensurate with its potentials, advantages to become an international transshipment hub and a modern logistic service center of Southeast Asia; create breakthrough mechanisms and policies, an attractive business investment environment to effectively mobilize domestic and international investment resources.
Striving for goals in 2025, Hai Phong will become a key marine economy of the country, a national logistic service center with cargo through ports estimated at 300 million tons, and the average growth in the period of 2019-2025 is 15.1%/year.
By 2030, the City will be a modern international logistic service center by seaway, airway, highway, and high-speed railway. Cargo through ports is estimated at 600 million tons.
By 2045, it will continue to increase the portion of seaport services and logistic services to GRDP, contributing to making Hai Phong to be the City with a high development level in the group of leading cities in Asia and the world.
According to Mr. Dao Trong Khoa, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Logistic Business Association (VLA), in order to attract investment and develop the logistics service industry, Hai Phong City needs to submit recommendations to Central Government for allowing a flexible mechanism in investment incentives, especially in term of infrastructure (land lease term, site clearance, taxes, preferential loans, Government guarantees...). At the same time, it is also necessary to reform administrative procedures, especially customs procedures, as well as procedures for entry and exit of ships and goods in seaports./.
Doan Minh Hue (VNA/Vietnam+)