A view of Quế Võ New Port ICD. The ministry would call for private investment in developing inland container depots. — Photo saigonnewport.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam would need VNĐ15.9 – 18.7 trillion (US$676 -796 million) to develop the system of inland container depots (ICDs) by 2030, according to the Ministry of Transport.

The ministry has recently submitted the draft plan on IDC system development in the 2021-30 period to the Prime Minister for consideration.

Under the draft plan, priority would be given to developing ICDs which were located on the corridors to the major seaports and border gates, including Hải Phòng Port, in the North and HCM City and Cái Mép – Thị Vải in the South.

According to the Vietnam Maritime Administration, the operation of ICDs lacked efficiency while the linkage between ICDs and logistics centres had not been established in some localities.

To date, there were 10 ICDs in operation, nine of which were in the north and one in the south, together with six other inland ports which were operated in the locations which were designated to build ICDs but had not been converted into ICDs.

The number of ICDs which had been put into consideration accounted for just 10 per cent of the plan and they altogether handled just around 10 per cent of the total cargo volume.

Currently, 25 ICDs were under construction or under preparation for construction and 26 others had not been implemented because many of them were not attractive to investors, especially those in the central region.

The Vietnam Maritime Administration said that with the advantages of inland waterway transport, ICDs in HCM City provided good support to seaports in the transhipment of import and export goods and helped reduce congestion at seaports and urban traffic in the South.

However, the connectivity of ICDs in the North with seaports remained weak. The North also had a smaller container transport market share, only around 30 per cent of the South’s, but most in-operation ICDs were in the North.

Statistics showed that the total cargo handled through ICDs was estimated at around 4.2 million TEU per year. Of the figure, ICDs in the North handled 0.45 million TEU and the South 3.65 million.

The planning was expected to give a push to the development of ICDs, according to the ministry.

The draft plan targeted that by 2025, the ICDs system would be capable of handling 20-30 per cent of the container transport demand for import and export with a total capacity of 6-8.7 million TEU per year by 2025 and 25-35 per cent by 2030.

The ministry estimated that Việt Nam would need VNĐ15.9 – 18.7 trillion (US$676 -796 million) to develop the system of inland container deports (ICDs) by 2030.

The ministry said that the ministry would call for private investment in ICDs and create favourable conditions for enterprises to participate in investing in constructing and operating inland ports.

The ministry would consider public – private – partnership (PPP) model for large-scale inland ports. — VNS