MSC Oliver, one of the world’s largest container ships, docks at the Cai Mep International Terminal (CMIT) in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province in December last year. (Photo: VNA) Theprovincial People's Committee told the local transport department and otherdepartments, sectors and localities in a working session on March 1 toreview all port and logistics projects.
Theprovince has 69 seaport projects planned with a total area of 2,528 haincluding 48 in operation with an operating capacity of 141.5 milliontonnes per year.
Theprovincial transport department revealed that 42 projects were fully operating,four others were temporarily operating and the other two projects havecompleted phase 1 of construction but phase 2 construction is yet to becompleted.
Inaddition, two projects have completed their phase 1 construction, eightare only in the planning stage and 10 are behind schedule.
Accordingto the provincial department of Planning and Investment, the slowimplementation of the above projects was mainly related to land procedures,site clearance and investors' lack of capacity.
LuongAnh Tuan, deputy director of the transport department, said: “The province hascreated favourable conditions and removed difficulties for investors toimplement local seaport projects. The above projects have been allowed to delaytheir implementation schedule but the investors are still not willing toimplement.”
“The10 unimplemented projects occupy a very large land fund of up to 640ha in theprovince," Tuan added.
Forprojects delayed due to land disputes with households, Tuan asked theprovincial People's Committee to direct the Department of Natural Resources andEnvironment and the People's Committee of Phu My Town to propose solutions forland acquisition and site clearance compensation to aid businesses.
Forprojects allowed to delay their implementation, the transport departmentasked the province to give a time limit for the delay so that if they continuedto delay the department would advise the committee to revoke the projects.
Atthe meeting, the province was urged to direct departments and agencies toreview projects to determine investor responsibilities for unimplementedprojects according to regulations, the Law on Investment, the Land Law andother decrees.
Departmentsin the meeting suggested the province not continue to extend the schedule butcompletely withdraw the above projects to create conditions forcapable investors to carry out the projects.
Thetransport department said though a logistics service area was not yetincluded in the process of planning the investment of Cai Mep-Thi Vaideep-water gateway port complex, the province has directed an additionaldevelopment for a logistics centre including a deep-water seaport system andthe port-blocking service area.
Theprovince also allowed the conversion of the functions of a number ofspecialised ports such as Vinalines Shipyard, An Phu Shipyard and the base ofOil and Gas Service into general ports or container ports to improveefficiency.
Inaddition, the province has allowed the development of areas adjacent to theport system and land areas along rivers and canals for storage and inlandwaterway ports to support the port system.
Forthe logistics centre, the transport department proposed the People's Committeearrange a meeting to approve the process, framework criteria and method ofproject investor selection and other work to choose suitable investors.
Alongwith the logistics centre, the transport department will review all theport and warehouse projects to put the projects into operation.
Inthe long term, the department suggested the province convert some of the landmanaged by the army in the Lam Son area to support the development of theseaport system.
Asthe southern gateway of the country, Ba Ria-Vung Tau’s ports play an importantrole, so developing the port network and logistic centres remains a toppriority for the province.
Earlierin June 2020, provincial authorities planned to spend 20 trillion VND (850million USD) through 2025 on infrastructure to achieve their goal ofcomprehensive development.
Currently,Cai Mep - Thi Vai Port in Phu My Town is one of only 21 ports in the world thatcan handle ships of up to 200,000 tonnes.
Lastyear, the total volume of goods handled through provincial seaports reach 107.6million tonnes. The volume of cargo handled by seaports reached 76 milliontonnes, up 4 percent. Container cargo handled by ships reached 32.2 milliontonnes, up 10 percent./.
VNA
