Stronger partnership between Viet Nam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) in logistics, along with measures to encourage the transfer of technologies between the two sides, will help improve Viet Nam's capacity in the field and contribute to turning Viet Nam into an industrialised and modernised country, said Director of the Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) Vu Ba Phu.
Addressing a policy dialogue on logistics held by Vietrade and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in Ha Noi on Thursday, which was part of the 31st Viet Nam Expo, Phu said that Viet Nam currently has 69 logistics centres of different scales, mostly in industrial parks.
A number of localities such as An Giang, Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Bac Ninh, Cao Bang, Da Nang and Quang Ninh are calling for investment in their logistics sector, he noted.
With the Fourth Industrial Revolution, traditional logistics centres have been switched into new-generation centres using high technologies, he said, adding that an action plan to enhance the competitiveness and development of Vietnamese logistics sector until 2025 has been implemented with an aim to cut logistics costs and improve the efficiency of the sector.
Along with developing infrastructure and improving human resources, administrative procedures in the sector have been reformed.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), in 2021, the operational capacity of Viet Nam's logistics sector was marked 3.34 points compared to 3.27 points in 2018. Viet Nam also entered the top 10 countries having the highest growth of the logistics sector at 14-16 per cent each year.
The RoK is currently the largest investor in Viet Nam with more than 9,200 underway projects worth US$74.7 billion as of 2021, including many in the logistics sector.
At the event, Kim Sammo, general director of Kukdong Logistics and president of the Korea Logistics Association, said the number of Vietnamese logistics firms rose from 37,000 in 2017 to 41,000 in 2020 and is continuing to rise. The Vietnamese logistics sector is forecast to increase over 13 per cent per year until the end of 2022 and in the future thanks to stronger foreign investment and the application of modern technologies as well as e-commerce activities.
He held that in order for Vietnamese and Korean firms to grasp cooperation opportunities, it is necessary to form an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system and standardise logistics infrastructure services with standard prices to win consumers’ confidence.
Dinh HuuThanh, CEO of Bee Logistics Corporation, underlined the need for managing agencies to give detailed directions in administrative procedures to facilitate cooperation in the field, while speeding up administrative reform in e-commerce.
According to Tran Thanh Hai, deputy director of the MoIT’s Import-Export Department, amid high rises in logistics cost, Viet Nam has cut down environmental protection tax on petrol to support economic sectors, including logistics.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Cong Bang, deputy director of Transport Department under the Ministry of Transport, said that the ministry has formed a working group to evaluate impacts of petrol prices on the sector and develop solutions. — VNS