Green Transportation Chain in The North of Vietnam

Saigon Newport Corporation  (SNP)  held    a Webinar namely  “Green transportation Chain in the North of Vietnam”. The conference was  held online through Zoom platform, with the participation of importers/ exporters, foreign and domestic forwarders &  logistic companies,  representatives from associations, Industrial parks’s administration, Customs Department, Northern Inland waterways administration, related agency and representatives from SNP’s subsidiaries… Mr Bui Thien Thu, Director of Viet Nam Inland waterways Department  joined  and had presentation  in the webinar. 

From the analysis and assessments  from the experts, the Webinar has updated the information about inland waterways system and projects in the North,  bringing practical perspectives on green logistics trends;potentials and advantages of waterways transportation;  solutions  for inland waterways connecting import and export goods from the port to localities in the North,; cost reduction and convenience when trading is now nearby the factory, ability to rapidly carry large amount of containers. Especially, barging helps much in substantially reducing CO2 emission when a barge can transport a volume equivalent of 50-80  container trucks depending on the size of barge  and container type. Currently in the Northern areas, more than 90% of goods are transported by trucking. 

During the  complicated  Covid-19 situation, the local authorities had to take on plenty of strict vehicle control measures in all the routes, those regulations have created obstacles for road transportation which made Northern consignees/shippers be  unable to ensure smooth and timely cargo flow, fees climb up as all drivers are required to be tested regularly. This case has required all manufacturers, forwarders, and exporter-importer to look for a new suitable way of transportation in order to guarantee the continuous supply chain as well as trading plan for peak  season at the end of the year when the market demand rises. 

With the advantages of being defaulted as Green lane in the pandemic, the ability to carry large amount of cargo in line with the low discharge of carbon. In addition, the waterway system in the North also meets the connection requirements to  the port systems, barging appear to meet all the needs of enterprises,   especially when the Covid-19 is seeing no near end in the future. In the field of attracting FDI, together with commitments to combat climate change and reduce carbon emissions, foreign investors often give priority to localities with multimodal transport  connections, especially the Green trasport such as waterways and railways to show responsibility for environmental protection to the community.

Seeing the obvious potentialities and importance of waterways transport, in September 2020, Government approved Directive No. 37/CT-TTg on promoting the development of inland waterway transport and coastal transport by inland waterway transport. This is a milestone that will create even more powerful developments for this mode of transportation in the future. 

Being the top port operator and logistics service provider in Viet Nam, SNP has been pioneering building Green Port, Green Logistics and applying digitized forwarding procedures and paperless documents (Eport, eDO). Tan Cang - Cat Lai Terminal and Tan Cang Cai Mep International Container Terminal along with SNP port system have been awarded Green Port award from The APEC Port Services Network. Tan Cang Waterway Transport Company has provided plenty of services connecting Southern Industrial zones with Mekong Delta, between Cai Mep  Port/HCM city port/  Can Tho and Cambodia  in close strong  support  from the  other SNP’s subsidiaries. In order to apply the model effectively in the North, SNP has devised Multimodal transporting solution (water-road combination) to ensure smooth cargo circulation between Bac Ninh and Hai Phong so as to satisfy business plans. This solution is synchronously initiated by Tan Cang Waterways transport, in association with road transporting units through a transit point which is ICD Tan Cang - Que Vo (Bac Ninh) – the ICD has received the dry port  announcement from the Ministry of Transport on August 19th, 2021 and Tan Cang - 128, Deepwater Terminal Tan cang -HICT in Lach Huyen along with other Hai Phong terminals. Hopefully, this solution will offer shippers/consignees  more options to facilitate their activities. 

Van Luong (Vietnam Business Forum)