ĐÀ NẴNG — The central city of Đà Nẵng in co-operation with experts from the Japan Port Consultants company and the Overseas Coastal Area Development Institute of Japan have begun a pre-feasibility study to make Liên Chiểu Port a cargo port.

Vice chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, Nguyễn Ngọc Tuấn, said the study will run until February with the support from Japan and Yokohama City.

He said Đà Nẵng has been seeking funds of US$200 million from the official development fund for the project and plans to redevelop the port on a public-private partnership model.

Liên Chiểu port will be designed as a deep sea cargo port in the ASEAN region, serving Thailand, Myanmar and Laos in the East-West Economic Corridor No 2. Liên Chiểu port, which currently can handle 50,000 deadweight tonnage container ships, will be able to handlle 100,000-tonne ships and cargo ships with a loading capacity of 8,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs) from 2025.

According to the ministry of transport, Đà Nẵng will handle 29 million tonnes of cargo by 2030.   

Việt Nam’s seaport system development plan to 2020 designates Đà Nẵng Port as a major commercial port and one of the key gateways to the East Sea from the sub-Mekong region.

In March, Đà Nẵng and Japan’s Yokohama agreed on an extension of the Memorandum of Understanding on technical co-operation in urban development to 2016-19, boosting co-operation between the two cities in investment promotion, urban management, eco-city development, sustainable urban development. — VNS