There were 1,502 ships under the Vietnamese flag as of December last year. (Photo: VNA) In theproject to develop Vietnam's international shipping fleet by the Vietnam MaritimeAdministration (Ministry of Transport), the administration said that thecountry's seaport system in recent years has developed relatively synchronouslyand modernly and is able to welcome some of the world's largest ships.
However,containers of goods imported and exported to/from Vietnam are mainlyhandled by foreign shipping lines, especially on long-distance sea routesfrom/to developed countries such as Europe and the US.
The domesticfleet currently mainly undertakes domestic transportation and shortinternational routes in Asia. The international shipping market share of Vietnam'sshipping fleet has been on a downward trend in recent years.
The fleetstructure is not as good as it could be with mainly small tonnage shipscarrying dry and bulk cargo. There is a lack of container ships and largetonnage ships operating on international routes.
There were1,502 ships under the Vietnamese flag (excluding data of ships underconstruction) as of December last year, with a total tonnage of about 7.15million GT and 11.7 million DWT.
The numberof ships ranged from 1,000 to over 1,200 ships in the 2016-2020 period.
The numberof ships has decreased by over 200 last year compared to 2016, equivalent to adecrease of 17.2 percent.
Comparedwith the 2010-15 period, Vietnam's transport fleet has decreased by over 400ships. However, the total tonnage of the transport fleet grew by over 6 percent.
On the basisof the situation of the international transport market and the growth trend ofgoods through Vietnam's seaports over the years, the maritimeadministration shows that there is a huge potential for developing aninternational shipping fleet.
However,Vietnamese shipping enterprises’ development and operation have not been commensuratewith the role and position of the country.
The VietnamMaritime Administration proposed many solutions to develop Vietnam's shippingin the 2021-2026 period, with a vision for 2030.
Accordingly,the first is to renovate mechanisms and reform administrative procedures,creating a stable and favourable legal corridor to support businesses tooperate effectively.
Regardingthe financial solution, ship owners should be allowed to not pay VAT whenimporting ships to transport goods for Vietnamese goods owners until the end of2026; exempt import tax and reduce 50 percent of tonnage fees when ship ownersbuy and operate container ships of 1,500 TEUs or more or ships powered by cleanenergy and LNG carriers.
The StateBank of Vietnam has a policy that allows Vietnamese ship owners who have shipsoperating on international routes with foreign currency revenue to be allowedto borrow foreign currency to invest in buying ships.
Anotherimportant solution is to improve the quality of crew members. The Vietnam MaritimeAdministration recommends calling for private investment in human resourcetraining, including domestic and foreign training.
There arepolicies and special incentives for employees of the shipping industry in orderto encourage workers to stick with the work for a long time.
Speaking ata seminar on developing the Vietnamese international shipping fleet last week,Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Xuan Sang said that the ministry had beencompleting a project to develop the Vietnamese international shipping fleetwith many synchronous solutions and a specific roadmap to submit to theGovernment to facilitate the development of not only the international shippingfleet but also the domestic fleet.
The deputyminister affirmed that he would continue to gather suggestions and opinionsfrom businesses and associations to complete this important project indetail./.
VNA
