US$24 billion required for seaports in ten years

Vietnam will need around VND360-440 trillion, or some US$20-24 billion, for developing seaports in the next ten years to quadruple the total annual throughput to 1.1 billion tons by 2020, according to a master plan just approved by the Government.

Under the master plan for seaport development until 2020 with a vision to 2030, the country will have to invest around VND1,000 trillion, or some US$55.5 billion, to build new seaports and upgrade existing ones in 20 years’ time.

The master plan, approved by the Prime Minister last week, is aimed to increase the national port system’s cargo handling capacity to 500-600 million tons per year by 2015, 900-1,100 million tons by 2020 and 2.1 billion tons by 2030. The current throughput is 250 million tons.

According to the Transport Ministry, which prepared the plan, Vietnam would give priority in developing international-standard deepwater seaports to receive large vessels. Some key deepwater ports are Van Phong International Transshipment Port in the southern central province of Khanh Hoa, Lach Huyen Port in the northern port city of Haiphong and Nghi Son Port in the northern central province of Thanh Hoa.

The Prime Minister stressed the requirement to mobilize all resources for the plan.

The State budget would cover public infrastructure facilities related to seaports such as roads and dykes. Meanwhile, local and international investors are encouraged to take part in seaport projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) form.

Of the VND360-440 trillion required for the next decade, between VND70 and VND100 trillion will be used for public infrastructure facilities, and the rest for ports themselves.

Thai Van Vinh, a lecturer on ports and shipping at the Australian maritime school of Tasmania, estimated the amount of containerized goods through Vietnam’s seaports would reach 6.33 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEU) in 2010. This amount will double in 2015 and quadruple in 2020, he said, adding over two-thirds of the amount would go through southern ports.

Vietnam has 150 ports in operation, but only 49 of them are seaports.

In October, the Prime Minister approved the maritime transport development master plan to 2020. The plan, with an orientation to 2030, aims to modernize shipping by increasing quality, security and energy conservation.
The plan also aims for the domestic shipbuilding industry to build 300,000DWT ships

Tags: Vietnam Infrastructure