Prime Minister chairs conference on Logistics: “Watch out for small expenses”
(Baonghean.vn) - Quoting Benjamin Franklin, a politician and one of the most famous founding fathers of the United States, when he said: "Beware of small expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship", Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed the great role of Logistics in the Vietnamese economy, an attractive business sector but still has many limitations.
The Prime Minister also said that all ministries, branches and localities must be more fully aware and perform better, because this is a bottleneck. If resolved well, costs will be saved, product prices will increase, and national competitiveness will increase.
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| Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attends the Logistics Conference. Photo: chinhphu.vn |
On the morning of April 16, the Government held a national online conference on Logistics, cost solutions, and effective connection of transport infrastructure systems. Comrade Nguyen Xuan Phuc - Politburo member, Prime Minister chaired the conference.
At Nghe An bridge, comrade Le Ngoc Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired with the participation of sectors and enterprises participating in logistics activities in the province.
According to the report of the Ministry of Transport, Vietnam's logistics services began to develop on the basis of freight forwarding services since 1986. According to the assessment of the World Bank (WB), Vietnam's logistics performance index (LPI) in 2016 ranked 64/160 countries. The average annual growth rate of Vietnam's logistics industry is about 14-16%, making it one of the service industries with steady and stable growth in Vietnam in recent times.
However, the most pressing issue is that Vietnam's logistics costs are still high; according to a study by the World Bank, Vietnam's logistics costs are equivalent to 20.9% of GDP, nearly the highest in the world, of which transportation costs account for about 59%. Therefore, reducing logistics costs in general and transportation costs in particular is an urgent task today and is of great significance in improving competitiveness and economic development.
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| Comrade Le Ngoc Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the Nghe An bridge; also attending were sectors and enterprises participating in logistics activities in the province. Photo: Tran Chau |
In Vietnam as well as other countries in the world, transportation costs always account for the highest proportion of total logistics costs, specifically this proportion in the following countries: Vietnam is about 59%, the US is about 63.6%, Thailand is about 53.5%.
In addition to some limitations in infrastructure, businesses, the transportation market in Vietnam is still not transparent, lacks information, has high freight rates, low operating efficiency, and high empty rate.
In Nghe An, there is Cua Lo International Port Cluster including Cua Lo Port, Cua Lo Deepwater Port, The Vissai Specialized Port, DKC Petroleum Port, Dong Hoi Port; the total cargo throughput each year reaches 6.3 million tons. Logistics costs in Nghe An are also very high, especially road and water transport costs. Nghe An is also looking for solutions to reduce logistics costs.
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| Chart of Container transportation costs from Nghe An to Hai Phong compared to other localities. Graphics: Huu Quan |
At the conference, the Ministry of Transport also proposed solutions to reduce logistics costs and effectively connect infrastructure systems in the transport sector: Completing the system of legal documents, policy mechanisms; Strengthening connections, reasonably developing transport modes, multimodal transport and logistics services; Developing inland waterway transport and coastal transport; Strengthening cooperation with foreign partners to expand logistics infrastructure connections; Improving the efficiency of management and use of investment capital in infrastructure construction; Encouraging and attracting non-budgetary investment to build and develop transport infrastructure; Promoting the application of science and technology in transport management and exploitation; Promoting the application of science and technology in transport management and exploitation.
Nghe An Newspaper continues to report on this issue.
As of December 2017, the total number of ports in the Vietnamese seaport system was 251, with about 88 km of wharf length and 18 anchorage and transshipment areas; the total designed capacity was about 543.7 million tons of cargo/year. Compared to the first years of implementing the planning (2000), the length of the Vietnamese seaport system has increased 4.4 times (in 2000 it was about 20,000 m, now it is 87,550 m).
Nghe An is listed among the 12 first-class seaports of Vietnam.
