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. The province has one among 21 ports in the world that can handle ships of up to 200,000 tonnes. — Photo courtesy of CMIT

The provincial People's Committee told the local transport department and other departments, sectors and localities in a working session on Monday to review all port and logistics projects.

The province has 69 seaport projects planned with a total area of ​​2,528ha including 48 in operation with an operating capacity of 141.5 million tonnes per year.

The provincial transport department revealed that 42 projects were fully operating, four others were temporarily operating and the other two projects have completed phase 1 of construction but phase 2 construction is yet to be completed.

In addition, two projects have completed their phase 1 construction, eight are only in the planning stage and 10 are behind schedule.

According to the provincial department of Planning and Investment, the slow implementation of the above projects was mainly related to land procedures, site clearance and investors' lack of capacity.

Luong Anh Tuan, deputy director of the transport department, said: “The province has created favourable conditions and removed difficulties for investors to implement local seaport projects. The above projects have been allowed to delay their implementation schedule but the investors are still not willing to implement.”

“The 10 unimplemented projects occupy a very large land fund of up to 640ha in the province," Tuan added.

For projects delayed due to land disputes with households, Tuan asked the provincial People's Committee to direct the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the People's Committee of Phu My Town to propose solutions for land acquisition and site clearance compensation to aid businesses.

For projects allowed to delay their implementation, Tuan’s department asked the province to give a time limit for the delay so that if they continued to delay the department would advise the committee to revoke the projects.

At the meeting, the province was urged to direct departments and agencies to review projects to determine investor responsibilities for unimplemented projects according to regulations, the Law on Investment, the Land Law and other decrees.

Departments in the meeting suggested the province not continue to extend the schedule but completely withdraw the above projects to create conditions for capable investors to carry out the projects.

The transport department said though a logistics service area was not yet included in the process of planning the investment of Cai Mep-Thi Vai deep-water gateway port complex, the province has directed an additional development for a logistics centre including a deep-water seaport system and the port-blocking service area.

The province also allowed the conversion of the functions of a number of specialised ports such as Vinalines Shipyard, An Phu Shipyard and the base of Oil and Gas Service into general ports or container ports to improve efficiency.

In addition, the province has allowed the development of areas adjacent to the port system and land areas along rivers and canals for storage and inland waterway ports to support the port system.

For the logistics centre, the transport department proposed the People's Committee arrange a meeting to approve the process, framework criteria and method of project investor selection and other work to choose suitable investors.

Along with the logistics centre, the transport department will review all the port and warehouse projects to put the projects into operation.

In the long term, the department suggested the province convert some of the land managed by the army in the Lam Son area to support the development of the seaport system.

As the southern gateway of the country, Ba Ria - Vung Tau’s ports play an important role, so developing the port network and logistic centres remains a top priority for the province.

Earlier in June 2020, provincial authorities planned to spend VND20 trillion ($850 million) through 2025 on infrastructure to achieve their goal of comprehensive development.

Currently, Cai Mep - Thi Vai Port in Phu My Town is one of only 21 ports in the world that can handle ships of up to 200,000 tonnes.

Last year, the total volume of goods handled through provincial seaports reach 107.6 million tonnes. The volume of cargo handled by seaports reached 76 million tonnes, up 4 per cent. Container cargo handled by ships reached 32.2 million tonnes, up 10 per cent. — VNS