Followingthe proposal, development will be concentrated on the country'sinternational gateway ports in the northern city of Hai Phong and thesouthern province of Ba Ria - Vung Tau.
The VanPhong Port in the central region, which officials anticipate will be anentry port, will also become a national general port.
"Such deep-sea ports have been established throughout the country,such as SP-PSA, CMIT, SP-SSA in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, which allowaccess to 100,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT) ships," chief of the VietnamMaritime Administration Nguyen Nhat told Giao Thong (Transport)newspaper.
"Many large shipping companies throughoutthe world, including Denmark's Maersk A/S, Hong Kong's HutchisonWhampoa Limited, and UAE's DP World, have taken an interest in Vietnam'sseaports. We have established many direct routes for maritime transportto Europe and America, which help reduce the cost of goods and increasetheir intensity of competition in global markets."
Headded that the country's seaport system still had many shortcomings,such as a lack of comprehensive development and management ofinfrastructure of seaports, ineffective development and utilisation ofthe potential of seaports.
To tackle theshortcomings, the Ministry of Transport has reviewed the plan to developthe country's seaport system by 2020, with orientation toward 2030 tosubmit for the Prime Minister's approval.
Accordingto the Portcoast Consultant Corporation under the Ministry ofTransport, which is in charge of the review, total fund for investmentin the development of Vietnam's seaport system by 2020 is estimated toreach 200 trillion to 280 trillion VND (9.5 billion - 13 billion USD).
The amount of capital needed for investment in publicinfrastructure of seaports will account for 45 per cent of the total,worth about 90 - 120 trillion VND (4.2 billion - 5.7 billion USD). Theremaining money will be spent on the development of wharf infrastructurefacilities.
"The Government should lay emphasis onapplying public-private partnership (PPP) to developing large-scaleports and wharf areas. Organisations and enterprises from all economicsectors should create favourable conditions for investment in thecountry's seaport system," a representative of the corporation told thenewspaper.
It is estimated that cargo transportedthrough the country's seaport systems will reach 400 - 410 milliontonnes in 2015, and increase to 640-680 million tonnes by 2020,according to the corporation.-VNA