A World Bank research report showed that logistics costs accounted for 10-15 percent of annual GDP in developed countries and 25-27 percent of GDP in developing countries. 

The figures were 7.7 percent in the US and 10 percent in the EU. In Asia, Singaporean businesses spend 8 percent of GDP on logistics services, Japanese 11 percent and Chinese 18 percent.

The cost Vietnamese businesses have to pay on logistics services is above the average level in the world, at 25 percent of GDP.

Vietnam’s LPI (logistics performance index) ranked 48th among 160 countries surveyed by WB in 2014.

Despite the high growth rate of 20 percent and the great efforts to improve logistics services, Vietnam is still ranked low in service quality.

Vietnam has seen considerable improvement in infrastructure index which helped it jump from the 82nd position in 2012 to the 44th position in 2014, and improvement in logistics quality and capability, which helped it climb from the 82nd position to the 49th.

However, the index on the time needed to fulfill services fell from 36th to 56th, while the customs index fell from 37th in 2007 to the 63rd in 2012, and went up a little to 61st in 2014.

Ho Thi Thu Hoa from the HCM City Transport University commented that the lower ranking of some indexes showed that the logistics service quality in general has not improved.

This poses a big challenge for Vietnamese logistics firms in the context of global integration.

Mai Huu Tin, chair of U&I, a freight & forwarding company, noted that the logistics cost in Vietnam was high because of many reasons, including poor infrastructure, unreasonable legal framework and unreasonable customs procedures.

Tran Huy Hien, secretary general of the Vietnam Freight Forwarder Association, said cutting logistics costs would be difficult to solve because of the connection to many different fields.

The transport cost in Vietnam, for example, is high because of the poor infrastructure system. Meanwhile, the sea and air transport sectors, important links in the logistics chain, are dominated by foreign enterprises.

“It will be impossible to cut the logistics costs if there are no good means of transport and infrastructure system,” he commented.

Logistics cost are also high because of complicated customs procedures.

Though customs agencies have put the e-customs clearance system into operation, the number of hours spent on customs procedures has not fallen to the expected level. 

Tri Thuc Tre