Logistics and development problems
(Baonghean) - Currently, logistics is generally perceived as a part of the supply chain that includes all the work related to goods including packaging, transportation, storage, preservation... until the goods are delivered to the final consumer. Of course, to develop the logistics economy, first of all, there needs to be a synchronous infrastructure, both "hard" and "soft" infrastructure.
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| Ship docks at Nghi Thiet port. Photo: Nguyen Nguyen |
The problem is not just infrastructure.
For Nghe An, the essential transportation and infrastructure system includes: roads, railways, airways, seaports, inland waterways and warehouse systems, transportation services that meet the requirements. In Nghe An, there are 16 national highways passing through the area with a length of 1,768 km and 32 provincial roads with a total length of 662.1 km. In addition to 1 Nam Can international border gate, Nghe An also has 1 main border gate, 3 secondary border gates and 4 openings on the border area with Laos. In particular, Nghe An has Vinh Airport which has been invested in and upgraded to an international airport and a seaport system that has been invested in, with increasingly improved capacity.Currently, Nghe An has 7 operating seaports, many enterprises invest in port services such as: Cua Lo Port (currently has 4 wharves, 3 warehouses and a 9-hectare storage yard); Dong Hoi Port (investors such as Thanh Thanh Dat Company, Vietnam National Coal - Minerals Group, and Korea Possco have selected locations to build specialized ports); The VISSAI Port (3 inland port wharfs for ships of 3,000 - 10,000 DWT and 2 wharfs for large ships up to 70,000 DWT); Ben Thuy Port (loading, unloading and delivery of goods, allowing ships with a tonnage of less than 1,000 tons to enter and exit conveniently).
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| Loading and unloading goods at Cua Lo Port. Photo: Thu Huyen |
In addition, there are Nghi Huong Port: A specialized port for importing petroleum products, allowing 10,000-ton ships to enter and exit the port conveniently; Hung Hoa Port: Receiving petroleum ships, announcing permission to dock 1,200-ton ships; Cua Hoi Port: The main purpose is to serve fishing boats. There are 6 estuaries in the province: currently the main task is for fishing boats to anchor and avoid storms and general goods to enter and exit the estuary.
According to the detailed planning of Cua Lo seaport area, Nghe An province for the period up to 2020, with orientations towards 2030 and after 2030, announced at the end of March 2018, Cua Lo port will be 5,125 hectares wide, of which the land planning area is about 782.3 hectares; the water planning area is about 4,342.7 hectares. The specialized port area has a general and container port for ships with a capacity of 30,000 - 50,000 tons (in the future, it will receive general and container ships with a capacity of up to 100,000 tons and international passenger ships with a capacity of 3,000 - 5,000 seats when conditions permit)...
According to Mr. Vuong Binh Minh - Director of Nghe An Maritime Port Authority: "The planning and construction of Cua Lo port area is of great significance for the socio-economic development of the province and neighboring provinces. The seaport will help to circulate goods for the entire Southeast Economic Zone of over 21,000 hectares, thereby creating conditions for businesses to increasingly develop, contributing to promoting socio-economic development in the area, including logistics".
Thus, with the existing capacity, it can be assessed that Nghe An's transport infrastructure system is relatively synchronous, ready to meet the movement needs of logistics. |
| Vinh International Airport currently has 7 flight routes. Photo: Document |
First of all, for Nghe An to become a logistics center in the North Central region, it is impossible to separate it from Vietnam logistics. Vietnam needs to make a breakthrough in the State management mechanism, including policies to support the development of logistics services, laws regulating the industry, and the management apparatus to ensure the supporting role, create a free and fair business environment, in line with integration commitments, develop logistics infrastructure, build logistics centers and leading logistics service enterprises, modern, professional, competitive enough in the domestic and international markets in terms of quantity, scale, technology, human resources and service quality, associated with the development of goods production, import, export and domestic trade, transport infrastructure and information technology; and manage the supply chain well.
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| Graphics by Huu Quan. |
Ministries, sectors and Nghe An province need to proactively review and ensure that plans on traffic and transportation develop synchronously, in line with strategies and plans on industrial production, agriculture, import and export, and socio-economic development strategies of localities. Link planning on logistics centers, dry ports, bonded warehouses and industrial and agricultural production plans into a unified whole; encourage economic sectors to participate in investing in the logistics service sector, develop logistics infrastructure, logistics trading floors associated with e-commerce in localities.
In addition, promote the dissemination and propaganda of the market and Vietnam's international commitments related to logistics services; Build a Trade Information Portal to support businesses in looking up tax rates and import and export procedures related to each item; Build policies to support the development of effective local logistics services, suitable to the socio-economic characteristics of each locality... to bring the logistics service industry - a high value-added service industry to a new step of modernization and expansion...
Thus, to develop logistics in Nghe An in particular and Vietnam in general, social infrastructure must also be developed synchronously. In Vietnam today, goods must go through many intermediaries, thus increasing transaction costs and selling prices. On the other hand, businesses in Nghe An are not used to outsourcing services but mainly do it themselves. When performing logistics activities themselves, it will cost a lot of investment capital and will not achieve high quality.
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| Containers are loaded and unloaded at Cua Lo Port. Photo: Thu Huyen |
According to Dr. Chu Quang Thu, Chairman of the Vietnam Seafarers Association, breakthroughs in the field of artificial intelligence, integrating artificial intelligence with the Internet of Things (IoT) and modernized tools, have begun to change the entire landscape of warehousing and distribution services worldwide, with an estimated 5.5 million new devices being connected every day.
For the logistics sector, this revolution will increasingly expand the connection of non-traditional equipment such as pallets, cranes, and even cargo trailers to the internet. Within the next 3 years, IoT will become popular in the logistics sector. Logistics companies around the world are rapidly improving technology to catch up with this trend and improve profit margins in the coming time by equipping modern, automated tools.
Failure to grasp the trend will cause local logistics businesses to lose at home. Of course, this issue requires support and perfect service provision from the State as a “creator”.
