16/10/2021
On October 14, at the National Online Conference on the development of inland waterway transport logistics organized by the Ministry of Transport (Transportation), management agencies and transport enterprises focused on discussing proposed solutions to increase water transport capacity, reduce logistics costs to promote advantages, and contribute to accelerating the country's economy in the coming time.
Loading and unloading goods at Tan Cang Cai Cui (Can Tho) (Source: The People Newspaper)
Inland waterway transport plays an increasingly important role for the transportation industry annually, taking on about 20% of the country's freight traffic, which means that for every 5 tons of goods in circulation, 1 ton is transported by inland waterway. Especially, in the Mekong River Delta accounting for nearly 80%, the Red River Delta 45%, the Southeast region 47.5%.
Focus on developing 3 areas
According to Director of Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration Bui Thien Thu, the total length of inland waterways nationwide is being managed and exploited more than 17 thousand km. Currently, 9 waterway transport corridors have been formed, connecting each other and directly connecting to seaports and coastal transport routes by means of river-sea phase transport (VR-SB). The whole country has nearly 300 inland waterway ports, of which nearly 200 cargo ports and 9 passenger ports; nearly 6,900 inland wharfs; more than 235 thousand inland waterway vehicles with a total tonnage of about 19.6 million tons, a total passenger capacity of more than 515 thousand people.
Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The said that in order to develop, it is necessary to build infrastructure and an inland waterway port system on the Red River. If localities do not plan inland waterway ports near urban areas, industrial zones and clusters, the potential of inland waterways cannot be promoted. Although the Mekong Delta - Southeast region has developed strongly in terms of waterways, the potential is quantitatively large. Currently, there are 3 inland waterway routes connecting the west with Ho Chi Minh City. However, to effectively exploit the Cho Gao canal route, it is necessary to promote the remaining 2 routes and continue to research and upgrade the inland waterway port, especially for shipping containers.
Waterway transport is a advantages and economical method (Source: The People Newspaper)
Recently, the Ministry of Transport has developed 5 transport plans including waterway, road, aviation, maritime and railway; In which, waterway transport is identified as one of the national key points, in addition to transshipment of goods from localities to ports, it also creates favorable conditions for the development of seaports. However, the current inland waterway ports are not yet connected to the inland container depots (ICD), there is a phase difference and lack of cohesion in terms of location and road traffic routes.
Mr. Dinh Xuan Khanh, representative of Saigon Newport Corporation, said that according to calculations, shipping containers by water, each barge 36 TEUs can save 18 container trucks on the road. With a large barge size, in the range of 72 -198 TEUs, it will save fuel 3-4 times compared to road. Waterway transport is not as congested as road, saving 15-20% cost compared to road. In the north, the Corporation considers this to be a quite ripe time to develop the method of containerized water transport. Currently, the unit has set up a transport point in Tan Cang Que Vo, connecting import and export goods in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang. In 2020, the shipping unit of 5,000 TEUs, 9 months of this year has reached 15 thousand TEUs, is expected to reach 50-60 thousand TEUs/year in the near future.
Synchronous combination of waterway - maritime
After the waterway planning is approved by the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Transport will assign the responsibility to the Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration to strictly comply with the Law on Planning to focus on issues in the next 5-10 years. The most important issue at present is the need for a synchronous combination of maritime and inland waterways to contribute to reducing the load on roads. The connection of waterways with other modes of transport, especially seaports and roads, is not convenient, many seaports do not have berths for inland waterway vehicles to do cargo, very few inland ports have connections to inland waterways.
Inland ports and wharves have limited scale, outdated loading and unloading equipment, low level of mechanization, and poor maintenance. Inland waterway vehicles are still mainly small, operating on short routes, with low productivity, and very few container cargo vehicles. The waterways still have many bottlenecks and the static bridges are not low such as Duong bridge, old Binh Trieu bridge, Dong Nai bridge, Sa Dec bridge.
Lessons learned in the recent overloaded Tan Cang Cat Lai (Ho Chi Minh City) is that it is necessary to reserve a favorable and commensurate location for the inland waterway located in the seaport. In the development of seaports, it is necessary to consider and supplement the location of inland waterway ports in a harmonious way so that container cargo from localities can be gathered to seaports.
In addition, it is necessary to review and evaluate which areas need to be upgraded inland waterway ports and arrange container handling facilities. Container transport is the world's current advanced transport, it is not possible to transport bulk goods for import and export. Since then, there have been preferential mechanisms and policies on tax exemption and reduction, access to capital, reduction of administrative procedures, fee exemption for seaport infrastructure with watercraft, thereby further developing water transport, reducing the load for seaports and transportation and logistics costs.
Regarding the policy of river-sea combined transport, a representative of Hai Nam Co., Ltd (Quang Ninh) said that the regulation that VR-SB ships can only operate 12 nautical miles from the shore is not appropriate, limiting the development of this method in Vietnam. According to the regulations of the registry, VR-SB ships are only allowed to operate when the wind is below level 5 and the waves are below 2.5 m, but due to the weather in our country, there are less than 50 days of such weather per year because most of the time the ship has to lie down on the shore, waiting for the good weather to sail. After the ship has finished loading the goods, it takes a long time to get the permission of the port authority.
“The management agency needs to divide VR-SB ships into two types, north-south seagoing vessels and lower standard SB ships, which are only allowed to sail no more than 12 nautical miles from shore. The company is very interested in the type of VR-SB container ship, which is considered by water transport enterprises to have great potential and efficiency, but enterprises have to wait for a stable legal corridor for investment", Hai Nam Company proposed the plan.
Hoang Hong Giang, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Maritime Administration, said that the urgent issue now is the development of inland waterway transport systems and coastal routes because seaports are the gateway for international imports and exports. The coastal shipping route can be considered as a great advantage of Vietnam. Maritime has seaports located along the coast. Cargo transport requires a large volume while trucking is uncompetitive and not economical, if appropriate inland waterways are developed, in the immediate future the seaports will have a lot of goods for import and export. Regarding loading and unloading prices at seaports, the Vietnam Maritime Administration is implementing to solve the problem at the root while ensuring national competition and distribution of costs at seaports, adjusting prices reasonably and harmoniously between the parties.
According to The People
