Unloaded goods at Hai Phong city's port (Photo: VNA) The comment was made by Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Nguyen Sinh NhatTan at a seminar on “Enhancing competitiveness for logistics businesses”, heldin Hanoi on April 28.
Delivering a speech at the seminar, Tan said the Government has identifiedlogistics as an important service industry in the economy. The industry isplaying a role in supporting, connecting and boosting socio-economicdevelopment, contributing to improving the competitiveness of the economy.
At the seminar, Truong Tan Loc, Marketing Director of Saigon NewportCorporation, said that in April this year the World Bank forecasted thecountry’s GDP growth to be around 5.3 percent in 2022 and then stabilise around6.5 percent next year.
Loc said the country’s signed free trade agreements (FTAs) needed to be moreproactively implemented for strong growth in domestic industries, especially inelectronics, machinery and equipment, furniture, plastic, textiles and seafood.This was an opportunity to develop port and logistics services to serve theneeds of connecting goods with major markets in the world.
Sharing the view of Loc, Pham Thi Lan Huong, general director of Vinafco JSC,said Vietnam’s logistics industry has a lot of potential but it is fragmented.She noted the number of small and medium-sized businesses accounted for amajority with 90 percent of them having capital of less than 10 billion VND (434,000USD).
Currently, the number of businesses providing 3PL (third-party logistics) and4PL services (fourth-party logistics) remains modest. They account foronly 16 percent of the entire logistics industry. Huong said it needed todevelop more 3PL and 4PL businesses to push the domestic logistics industry.
Another participant suggested that it was necessary to promote technologyapplication in the domestic logistics industry to improve efficiency andoptimise productivity, to save costs for logistics businesses. In addition, aclose connection between logistics businesses was also a need to improveoperational efficiency involving production, logistics and transport.
At the seminar, representatives of the authorities also pointed out theshortcomings in import and export activities in 2021, and logistics activitiesin Vietnam.
The Import and Export Report 2021 points out significant problems such as thecontinued high level of trade deficit or surplus for some markets, which islikely to affect sustainable import and export activities.
The export growth of some commodities is mainly based on the increase inquantity and price due to the scarce supply in the market. Exported goods stillface congestion at border gates and seaports, especially from the end of 2021.
In logistics services, although there has been a strong development recorded,the logistics industry still has many limitations. One of them is thatlogistics enterprises have not yet developed up to the potential of theindustry.
According to data from the Vietnam Logistics Business Association, currently,90 percent of logistics enterprises operating are Vietnamese enterprises.However, they only account for about 30 percent of the market share. The restbelongs to foreign enterprises.
There are many enterprises, but mostly small ones, with limited scale in thecapital, human resources and experience.
In the framework of the seminar, the Vietnam Import and Export Report2021 compiled by the Ministry of Trade and Industry was also announced,highlighting the positive points in international trade activities. Despitemany difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's import and exportstill reached a record number with a total turnover of 668.55 billion USD.While, exports reached more than 336.3 billion USD, up 19 percent compared to2020; imports reached 332.2 billion USD, up 26.5 percent; trade surplus of morethan 4 billion USD.
With this result, Vietnam has entered the top 20 economies in terms ofinternational trade. The export structure has changed positively, and the areaof export products is diversified.
The group of processed products continues to be the driving force for theoverall growth of exports. Vietnam has also made efforts to diversify exportand import markets to meet the needs of domestic production and consumption.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tan passed comments on the resultsachieved in import and export activities in 202 and international tradeactivities of Vietnam.
Total import and export turnover of goods from 2010 up to now has increased4.25 times up from 157.1 billion USD in 2010 to 668.5 billion USD in 2021. Hesaid that the positive result was thanks to the contribution of the logisticsservice.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, despite many difficulties, Vietnamese logisticsenterprises have adapted and maintained their supply chains. They havesupported other enterprises in finding solutions to optimise logisticsactivities, saving costs and time.
They propose the State's strategic issues, contributing to maintaining andstabilising the supply chain and improving the competitiveness of Vietnamesegoods and businesses. Businesses also make efforts to modernise technology toimprove service quality and diversify services to overcome difficulties,"said the Deputy Minister./.
VNA
