Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province: Uninterrupted Traffic System in the Southeast (

Under the seaport programming group No. 5, Ba Ria-Vung Tau will have 41 ports with a total length of 20,000 metres. Particularly, the Cai Mep-Thi Vai area in Tan Thanh district will have 13 ports with 8,000 metres in length, of those, five were moved from Ho Chi Minh City. In the near term, when implementing the programming, the province will attract a large number of ships and cargo to its seaports. Vung Tau city and Long Son commune are considered two localities with great potential of seaport development. The Tan Thanh district’s People’s Committee said that the locality is home to Thi Vai-Cai Mep port system that comprises 32 ports with a total area of 1,630 hectares, of which nine ports are operational, including Phu My fertilizer plant’s port, Holcim grinding plant’s, Interflour plant’s, LPG port, Baria Serece port, power plant’s, Southern steel plant’s, Tan port, SP-PSA port, and Saigon port. These ports are estimated to transfer 9 million tonnes of cargos this year. In the district, 11 ports are under construction, including Vung Tau-Petro, Petec warehouse and port, Posco port, Saigon-Macrsk Denmark, SITV, Ba Son, Saigon SSA, Cai Mep Gemadept Terminal, general petrol-fertilizer service port, container Cai Mep, Thị Vai general port. Meanwhile, 12 other ports are still under preparation. In addition, the Tan Thanh district has many tourism and logistic service projects including goods store system, bonded warehouse, seagoing ship repair services, transportation, and material loading, which has created a tight association as well as cooperation opportunities between seaport managing units and port service enterprises.

 

During his recent working visit to Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, Mr. Ngo Thinh Duc, Deputy Minister of Transport said if construction paces are on schedule, a lot of ports will be operational in 2010 including ports invested by joint ventures with the U.S., SP-SPA and Denmark in the Tan Thanh district. He emphasized the importance of speedy investment and construction of infrastructure surrounding the ports like traffic system to ensure smooth cargo transfer among ports. The Vietnamese Prime Minister has assigned authorities in Ba Ria-Vung Tau to be investor of an inter-port road costing VND2 trillion from the government bonds to serve development of modern Cai Mep-Thi Vai deepwater seaport. The government has also approved a project to build Bien Hoa-Vung Tau expressway worth VND15 trillion to be kicked off in late 2011. Authorities have completed compiling the project to build the VND5-trillion railway ranging from Thi Vai area to Cai Mep area in Dong Nai province and are inviting investors to invest in the project. Corridors along the expressway and corridors of the railway have been designed. An additional route stemming from Ben Luc in Long An province to southern Saigon to serve Thi Vai-Cai Mep area as well as the south-eastern region will be also built as there is no port stemming from Binh Thuan province that is capable of receiving ships with a tonnage of 80,000 tonnes but Ba Ria-Vung Tau port can and the water line No. 17 can receive ships with tonnage of 120,000 tonnes and all from Ninh Thuan province and from the southward.

 

Mr. Duc also said that work on the expanded national highway No. 51 with six lanes for motorized vehicles and two lanes for non-motorized vehicles will start in August this year at a total investment of over VND2 trillion. The project is expected to be completed after an 18-month construction period. This means that in 2010 when the highway is operational together with Thi Vai-Cai Mep port area an uninterrupted road for waterway and inland cargo transportation in the south-eastern region will be created.

 

Economists said that projects to build roads linking ports, expressways and railways in Ba Ria-Vung Tau are feasible, which has been proven by the fact that a large number of investors have come to study and invest in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province recently. Some potential investors from the U.S., Denmark and Singapore decided to invest in seaports in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

 

“Ba Ria-Vung Tau should be brave to re-assess its ability to supply seaport services to the entire eastern, western and southern parts of the central region based on initial study and programming. The Ministry of Transport will collaborate with local authorities to map out plans to closely supervise port construction and operation units as well as tighten control over port operations via port offices,” Mr. Duc emphasized.
Xuan Long