Masterplan for Sea port waiting for data

By Saigon Times Online - 19/06/2008

- The preparation of Vietnam Seaports System Master Plan till year 2020 and orientation to year 2030 must pay due attention on key ports, especially specialized deepwater ones. Could amendments on the masterplan catch up with the reality of 22 coming years?

Sai Gon times online had an interview with Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Project Director of Portcoast, the consulting firm in charge of this masterplan as entrusted by the Government, on this matter.

Sai Gon times online: With the current overloaded conditions at the sea ports in Ho Chi Minh city, many opinions said that the reason of excessive import is just temporary, but the main reason is the fact that we have used up capacity of masterplan for the sea ports till 2020. Do you think it is correct?

- I assert that we have not used up the masterplan. Our previous masterplan was to year 2010 and orientation to year 2020. That masterplan was prepared in 1999, determining key sea port areas, deepwater ports etc. If the masterplan had executed accurately, holdup would have not happened.

However, the masterplan has been approved since 1999 but implemented since 2005. It takes five (5) years from the approval to the implementation. The masterplan for approval was prepared under such a circumstance that it was impossible to consider the joining of Vietnam to WTO, issuance of new Marine Law and Revised Law on Investment 2005 creating the favorable foundation for marine trading.

And then in the period from 2005 to 2007, the investors, who have been officially approved, were in the investment preparation phase and they started their investment only in 2007 and 2008. It is allowable for them to exploit their ports in 2010. Such delays make the holdup unavoidable.

However the holdup situation happens locally is it explainable for the shortcoming of the forecast view?

- When the masterplan for the sea ports till 2020 was prepared, we introduced two scenarios for port group 5 (in territories of Ho Chi Minh city – Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province), accordingly, the throughputs of high and low scenarios were forecasted at 150 and 100,5 million tons of goods in 2010 respectively.

The low scenario was selected for reliability reason; however, in year 2006, actual throughput volume exceeded 150 million tons. If the masterplan was implemented timely and port system in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province was put into operation, such holdup condition would not happen.

There are opinions that the Vietnam Seaports System Master Plan till year 2020 and orientation to year 2030 should follow the popular trend of containers, how can you solve this matter in your next masterplan?

- According to the static’s made by Portcoast, there are 160 port nationwide, but only several ones are large and capable of accommodating more than 30,000 DWT vessels, the remaining ones are small and specialized (for some specific goods). The trend of international fleet is to make use of containers.

Vietnam’s government should organize key ports to receive such fleets. The plan shall divide separately the key ports, satellite ports and collection and transit ports. The old ports shall continue exploiting and then be relocated. However, their facilities shall be utilized for people’s welfare before terminating its operation in the future.

In some reports, experts judged that Vietnam’s government invested too much in deepwater ports in the Central Region. What do you think of those judgments?

It is truly difficult for the port investors in the Central Region to pay back for many reasons. Throughput volume via the ports in the Central Region just accounts for 4 percentages of nation and 72 and 24 percentages of Ho Chi Minh city and Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province respectively.

The sea port investments in the Central region must accompany with the development of economic zones and industrial parks. Otherwise, the investors could not suffer the loss for 15 to 20 years waiting for conditions for port development. However, Government and many investors have implemented Van Phong International Transshipment Port (Khanh Hoa Province) and Vung Ang Port (Ha Tinh Province) due to the current projects.

Investors said that it is not too difficult to raise capital for construction of large port since its benefit is very high, but they have not found any clear masterplan which includes plans for ports and plans for the developments of industrial parks and economic zones as well as infrastructures. Can the consultant in charge of preparing this masterplan show such difficulties and introduce a comprehensive settlement to the Government?

- It is true that investors consider carefully and check all plans for post-port before making decisions. The investment of post-port facilities is really complicated. Since the port investor could not decide such projects. They may belong to category of either State. ODA, BOT or others funded projects.

For example: The construction of access road to Cai Mep port, there are seven joint-ventures are listed but only three of those namely Sai Gon International Terminal Vietnam (a Joint-Venture Huchison and SJCC); SP-PSA International Terminal (Joint-Venture of Sai Gon Port - - PSA Singapore) and Cai Mep International Terminal (CMIT) (Joint Venture of Sai Gon Port and Maersk Group (Denmark) began their construction.

In this area, National highway 51, which was invested by Sai Gon Petro for 5.5km of 7m in width, has been transferred to Ba Ria Province. The road of about 3km from the National highway to the port group could not start its construction, since it relies on ODA source of Japan.

The concern of the investors in four (04) remaining joint ventures was solved by Ministry of Transport; accordingly, Project Management Unit 85 was forced to complete the project within 24 months in stead of 36 months as planned. It is expected to carry out the bidding for that road in July. The role of that port group make us can not help stopping it.

(Translated by Portcoast)