Dong Nai has a well-developed river port system, which has been approved by the Ministry of Traffic and Transportation for planning, among seaports Group 5 of Southeast region. But the port development is quite fragmented, which has yet to meet the requirements.
Logistics experts assess that water transport plays a very important role, helping to significantly reduce transportation costs compared to road transport. Localities with good port systems will have more competitive advantages.
"Impatient" with the port
According to the planning map, Bien Hoa City and Long Thanh, Nhon Trach districts has their own river systems convenient for port development. All three localities are attracting the most dynamic industries in the province, which requires ports cargo shipment. But now the development is quite slow, investment is still scattered. Some projects have been approved by the provincial People's Committee since 2002 and after 15 years they have not yet been implemented; for example, COMECO petroleum port of the Petroleum Materials Joint Stock Company which covers an area of 20 hectares in Phu Dong and Phuoc Khanh communes (Nhon Trach district).
The province currently has 44 port planning projects in the river: Dong Nai (9 projects), Nha Be (9 projects), Long Tau (18 projects) and Thi Vai (8 projects). In particular, there are 21 projects in operation, less than half of the planned projects and most of which are minor ones. Slow investment in port projects also negatively affect the economic development of the province.
Not only is investment slow but the scale is also very small, the number of ports with scale of over 40 hectares only accounts for a really small portion, while there are many ports with only a few hectares. Representatives of Dong Nai Logictics Association (Dong Nai Young Entrepreneurs Association) said that the port construction would require large areas and professional planning. Otherwise, shortly after the amount of cargo increases, the operation will be tangled and ineffective.
Mr. Huynh Thanh Binh, director of the Department of Finance, said that foreign investors have been looking for venues to build a port of 100 hectares or more but such areas are not available. These are enterprises specializing in port investment, with lots of experience and high potential. "Dong Nai has the strength of industry, but investment in constructing ports for export and import has not caught much attention, while the number of minor ports is high. This will lead to difficulty in management and security when the number of ships increases as well as failure to exploit the available potential "- Mr. Binh shared.
Long-term vision
According to the leader of the Department of Transportation, many investors are weak due to their limited capacity, so the process of port construction is slow, especially in the work of land clearance. In addition, most investors do not comply with the regulations of the provincial People's Committee on reporting progress of the project implementation, so the coordination is facing much difficulty.
Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Tran Van Vinh was very anxious to learn that the actual status of port investment of the business is quite sluggish. "The demand on export and import of goods in the Long Thanh and Nhon Trach Industrial Parks has been a major market for the ports. This is a great potential, but for a long time there has been no breakthrough in port investment, not to mention that some projects were started years ago but no progress has been made" - Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Tran Van Vinh emphasized.
The leader of the PPC also requested the specialized agencies to review the port planning and make necessary adjustments in accordance with the current situation. Besides, the Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee also suggest re-evaluating the capacity of the investors who let the delay in project implementation occur, especially the enterprises which do not have professional experience but still apply for port investment; particularly considering the petroleum projects and preparing data for analysis according to actual needs, especially the planning of constructing petroleum depot for supply to the Long Thanh Airport in the future. "Now if we do not have plans to make land available, it will be impossible to construct petroleum depot serving the airport in the future; whereas only small enterprises make their investment, the government needs to have long-term vision in management" - Mr. Tran Van Vinh noted.
Investment in petroleum port for Long Thanh Airport will be necessary in the future. It is most convenient to construct a petroleum port in Long Thanh, Nhon Trach, because of the short distance from the port to the airport and the possibility to apply pipeline system. Regarding investment in this type of specialized petroleum port, there are only a few capable enterprises.
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