A bridge in the Mekong Delta region helps local residents transport goods (Photo: VNA) TheMekong Delta has a lot of development potential, especially for agriculturaland seafood exports.
However,exports face many difficulties due to scattered transport infrastructureand a lack of links in the transport system, causing high transport costsand affecting competitiveness.
NguyenThanh Binh, Chairman of the An Giang Provincial People's Committee, was quotedby the Vietnam News Agency as saying that: "The three bottlenecks of theMekong Delta region and also the country are in terms of mechanisms, humanresources and traffic. Of which, transport is an extremely importantfactor."
"Todevelop rice and aquatic production, it is necessary to link the Mekong Deltawith other regions through the transport network," Binh said.
Accordingto the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)'s Can Tho Branch, theMekong Delta's import and export turnover growth in recent years has slowed.
Theexports of the region grew on average 11.8 percent each yearin 2010-2018, significantly lower than the national average of 16.4 percent.Provinces depending on export farming products such as An Giang, Ca Mau,Kien Giang, Tra Vinh and Vinh Long have seen decreased exportturnover due to limitations in the agricultural processing industry.
Meanwhile,increased export turnover in other localities has mainly depended on theprocessing industry such as in Long An and Tien Giang, orforeign-invested enterprises in some labour-intensive industries liketextiles and footwear.
NguyenDinh Tung, General Director of Vina T&T Import and Export Company, said thetransport infrastructure in the region had significantly improvedrecently. This had allowed companies to purchase farming and fruitproducts directly instead of buying through traders.
However,inter-provincial roads still aren't connected well enough, provincial roadswere mostly narrow and the highways connecting the provinces and cities withcommercial and logistics service centres in Ho Chi Minh City were just in theirfirst phase of development, he said.
Accordingto Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of SeafoodExporters and Producers (VASEP), the biggest limitation of the Mekong Delta isa lack of a deep water port to ship export goods, as the region is thelargest producer and exporter of seafood, fruit and rice nationwide.
Atpresent, all export goods must be taken to transit ports inHCM City and Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.
Transportingcargo to many transit places has added indirect costs, reducing thecompetitiveness of Vietnam's seafood products compared to other exportingcountries.
Emptycontainers must be transported from HCM City to the Mekong Delta to pack exportgoods, and then those goods containers must return to ports in HCM City.
Accordingto Hoe, the Government, ministries and sectors have offered solutions andprojects to develop transport infrastructure in the region, but the transportinfrastructure network has not kept up with the speed of economic development.
Accordingto Tung, the region has many shallow seaports to be transit places fordeep water seaports, but these shallow ports have not operated as well asexpected.
Enterpriseswant seaports in the region to be renovated for more efficient operation. If adeep seaport can be built to receive large ships transporting export cargo, itwill significantly shorten transportation time and costs.
Thedevelopment of the transport infrastructure in the MekongDelta will not only aid exports but also facilitate goods circulationand transport connections between the region and HCM City to attract moreinvestment to Mekong Delta provinces.
Key transport projects
Accordingto the Ministry of Transport, transport infrastructure in the Mekong Delta in2021-2025 needs about 57 trillion VND (2.5 billion USD) to invest in keyprojects.
Meanwhile,many key infrastructure projects in the region have been completed to form anew traffic route from Cao Lanh, Dong Thap province to Kien Giang province, includingthe Cao Lanh bridge, Vam Cong bridge and roads connecting the centre of theMekong Delta to other regions.
Chairmanof Sovico Group Nguyen Thanh Hung has proposed developing the Can Thoaviation logistics centre project in Binh Thuy district, including facilitiesfor logistics services, freight station, distribution centre and aviationsupport service centre.
Atthe same time, Can Tho International Airport needs a cargo warehouse toexport agricultural products, seafood products and fruits by air, connectingwith other logistics warehouses to gather export goods of the region.
Expertssay that to solve the problem of transport infrastructure, the Stateshould focus on projects not only in the Mekong Delta but also in HCM City tohelp remove bottlenecks in the domestic logistics system.
TheVCCI has recommended that specific solutions in regionalco-operation, urban planning and infrastructure development should be put in aunified strategy.
Atthe same time, the State should prioritise consolidating the regionaltransport system, especially roads on the North-South and East-West routes,including the HCM City - Can Tho - Ca Mau route and the Soc Trang - Can Tho -Chau Doc route.
Ministerof Transport Nguyen Van The said by the end of 2021, the Trung Luong - My Thuanexpressway would be put into operation and the My Thuan 2 bridge would be completedin 2023. Meanwhile, the My Thuan - Can Tho expressway would be completed in2022. Thus, the route from HCM City to Can Tho would be a factor to boost thedevelopment of the region.
Inaddition, there are a number of projects, such as the construction of the CaMau - Can Tho expressway and the Chau Doc - Long Xuyen - Can Tho expressway.Especially, the project of building the road from Soc Trang to the Tran De Portis under the process of getting approval on investment policy and it isexpected to complete the first phase of the project in 2025./.
VNA
