Minister of Transport Nguyễn Văn Thể speaking at the event in Hà Nội on Wednesday. Photo baogiaothong.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Transport has released plans to overhaul waterway transport links across the country by 2030, to attract business and investment into transport infrastructure.  

Speaking at the event in Hà Nội on Wednesday, Minister Nguyễn Văn Thể said: “The Ministry will develop an incentive mechanism for large enterprises operating in the waterway transport sector to effectively exploit the existing potentials," he said.

He added that the planning of waterway, road and railway has been approved by the Prime Minister. The plans are an important part of comprehensive transport development.

The process of developing the plan was an opportunity to evaluate and review the development potentials in these fields, especially inland waterways.

The minister directed the Việt Nam Inland Waterway Administration and associated units to learn from the experiences of waterway development in the southern provinces and apply these learnings to the northern region.

The plans aim to better connect waterway systems, roads and seaports, especially for the North-South coastal transport corridor and the four northern transport corridors, according to the minister.

“The North-South coastal transport corridor is an important cargo transport corridor of the country,” he said.

“In the near future, the ministry will submit a North-South high-speed railway investment project to transport passengers, while North-South cargo transportation will be based on the existing railway route and the North-South coastal transport route."

The minister asked the local authorities on the Quảng Ninh - Kiên Giang coastal shipping route to continue investing in this transport corridor, by creating favourable conditions for enterprises.

Bùi Thiên Thu, Director of the Việt Nam Inland Waterway Administration, said that the Prime Minister-approved master plan on inland waterway infrastructure for the period 2021-2030 with a vision to 2050, targeting a cargo volume of 715 million tonnes and 397 million turns of visitors.

According to the master plan, there are 55 main waterway transport routes along 140 rivers and canals, with a total length of about 7,300 km.

Of this, the north has 18 main routes on 49 rivers and canals (about 3,028 km), the central region has 11 main routes on 28 rivers and canals (1,229 km) and the south has 26 main routes on 63 rivers and canals (3,043 km).

The master plan also maps out the development of 54 complexes of cargo ports and 39 complexes of passenger ports across the country, with a total capacity of 361 million tonnes and 53.4 million passengers. VNS