Cooperation in seaport development: new but promising

In response to Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai’s affirmation that “Vietnam needs cooperation and experience sharing from maritime powers in the world” at the Conference on “Port of Rotterdam Model – Ground for Potential Cooperation with Vietnamese Seaports”, Mr Henk Bleker, Minister for Agriculture and Foreign Trade of the Netherlands, said that the Netherlands is ready to provide support and cooperation with Vietnam to develop seaports and improve managerial capability in this field. Model – Ground for Potential Cooperation with Vietnamese Seaports”, Mr

It is obvious that Vietnam has potential and strengths for developing sea-based economy and seaports. Thanks to its efforts to promote these characteristic advantages in the past time, the Vietnamese sea-based economy is playing an increasingly important role in the Vietnamese economy and becoming a spearhead of the national economy with an annual growth rate of 25 percent. Particularly, port services and traffics serve an important role in the Vietnamese maritime economic development strategy.

However, in recent years, the Vietnamese seaport system has seriously lagged behind because it is lack of vision, weak at planning and short of infrastructure. Besides, given its low economic starting point, Vietnam is facing numerous challenges in improving maritime infrastructures as well as the quality and effect of managing and operating maritime infrastructure. Meanwhile, the demand for building and developing seaports in Vietnam is huge because of economic development requirements and infrastructure overloading. Especially, in the context that the world economy is changing, the international trade system also has important changes, Vietnam is required to implement seaport management models and to build seaport systems.

Knowing that importance, the Government of Vietnam approved a seaport system development plan for the period from now till 2020 and vision towards 2030 to comprehensively develop seaport system and quickly integrate with countries with developed seaport systems to gradually make the sea-based economy a key leader in marine fields.

To achieve this goal, Vietnam actually needs cooperation and shared experience from maritime powers in the world, particularly the Netherlands, and leading seaport cities in the world like Rotterdam. The Netherlands is a world-leading country in developing ports and related logistics services. The Port of Rotterdam is not only the largest port in the Netherlands but also the largest and most modern port in Europe and the second largest in the world.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai, with a modern seaport system, the Port of Rotterdam has many advantages and favourable conditions to develop investments and cooperate with potential markets like Vietnam. Vietnam and the Netherlands will find common grounds to forge a suitable cooperation model for the Port of Rotterdam and major ports in Vietnam.

Mr Henk Bleker emphasised that to achieve economic development targets, especially in investment and export fields, Vietnam needs to promote its seaport development. For that reason, together with building a new port system, Vietnam should also reorganise its seaport system to boost efficiency. Port with poor performances, backward technology and fragmented investment can be used for other purposes. Vietnamese authorities should soon improve infrastructure and build up capacity of seaports to attract and facilitate foreign investors. Besides, to develop seaports and bring their potentials into full play, Vietnam also needs to quickly establish seaport service providers and operators, set up seaport development and maintenance funds, and issue antitrust regulations on port operations. For its part, the Netherlands is ready to assist Vietnam to develop seaports and improve management capacity, and create favourable conditions for Vietnam to survey and learn from successful countries.

To start up the seaport development cooperation programme between Vietnam and the Netherlands, on March 30, Ho Chi Minh City and the Port of Rotterdam signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in sea-heading water resource development planning in Ho Chi Minh City to adapt to change climate. According to the memorandum, the Netherlands will support about 1.1 million euro for the city to build up that programme. Besides, the city will have its own funds for support the programme.

With an area of over 104 km2, the Dutch Port of Rotterdam is really a major trade point in Europe. After the navigation canal was completed in 1350, the Port of Rotterdam became a major transit point that connected the vast delta with the north of the Netherlands. Lying on the branch of the Meuse and Rhine Rivers and adjoining the North Sea, this is the ideal port to link up England with Germany. The Port of Rotterdam handles 80 percent of cargo shipped to the Netherlands and neighbouring markets. Remarkably, in 2010, the cargo throughput here set a new record. The volume of containerised goods increased 14 percent to 11.1 million TEUs from 9.8 million TEUs in 2009, surpassing the record 10.8 million TEUs in 2008. The cargo throughput rose 11.1 percent to 430 million metric tonnes from 387 million metric tonnes a year earlier, breaking the record of 421 million tonnes in 2008. Also this year, the Port of Rotterdam expanded its market share on Asia – Europe trade routes when shipping firms could dock their large ships at the Port of Rotterdam more easily than other port competitors. – VCCI

Tags: Vietnam seaports