There is still plenty of room to reduce logistics costs.

On the morning of June 8, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang continued his question-and-answer session before the National Assembly with a group of issues related to the transport sector. Before the end of the question-and-answer session on the afternoon of June 7, 5 delegates asked questions to Minister Thang and 3 other delegates debated with the Minister.

During the question and answer session on the afternoon of June 7, participating in the debate, delegate Nguyen Lan Hieu (Binh Dinh delegation) mentioned that logistics costs are currently very high, although the Minister said they have decreased. According to Mr. Hieu, to reduce this burden, each step must be taken decisively.

“Even the smallest problems, if paid attention to, can be improved, reducing costs and improving efficiency. For example, the number of takeoffs and landings at Tan Son Nhat airport after repair is less than before. Before repair, there were an average of 44-46 takeoffs and landings per hour, now it has decreased to only 40-42,” said Mr. Hieu.

Delegates said that spending thousands of billions to upgrade airport runways is a waste, so the Minister needs to pay attention to reducing logistics costs in Vietnam.

Dialogue - Minister of Transport: There is still much room to reduce logistics costs — Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang answers questions (Photo: Quochoi.vn).

Responding, Minister Nguyen Van Thang said that currently, according to international practice, logistics costs are compared with GDP.

In 2022, our country's logistics costs will be 16.8% of GDP, still high compared to the general average. However, this target is also close to the minimum target set by the Government in Vietnam's logistics development strategy (by 2025, logistics costs will account for 16-20%). Vietnam also ranked 43rd out of 139 countries participating in the ranking of this index.

“These are initial results to strive for and there is still a lot of room to reduce logistics costs,” said Mr. Thang.

The Commander of the Transport Industry pledged to continue to make efforts and coordinate with relevant ministries and sectors to focus on a number of solutions to reduce these costs, such as developing synchronous transport infrastructure, investing in developing dry ports and logistics centers.

Regarding the problem related to the lower landing frequency of Tay Son Nhat airport after the upgrade that the delegate brought up, the Minister of Transport admitted that this information was correct.

Mr. Thang emphasized that when Tan Son Nhat's runway is degraded, it is necessary to upgrade its transportation capacity to ensure safe landing and take-off goals. However, the Minister said that the operating standards after the runway is upgraded are higher than before. If the frequency of 44-46 landings and take-offs per hour is increased, Tan Son Nhat's passenger terminal will not meet the requirements, and even the connecting roads will not meet the requirements, so it must be reduced to reduce congestion.

Taking note of the delegates' opinions, the Minister said that when terminal T3 is completed, the operating frequency will be increased.

Dialogue - Minister of Transport: There is still much room to reduce logistics costs (Figure 2). — National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue added more answers about logistics costs (Photo: Quochoi.vn).

In further response to this question, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue also stated that the responsibility for State management of logistics belongs to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Transport is responsible for investing in and organizing multimodal transport.

“In reality, the contribution of logistics costs to GDP is low, but logistics costs in price are high. This is a paradox,” said the National Assembly Chairman.

Discussing further about reducing logistics costs , delegate Nguyen Anh Tri (Hanoi delegation) said that it is necessary to complete and upgrade Vietnam's modern railway system to create a core, pillar, backbone and cross-country transportation system. From there, it connects domestic and foreign markets.

"This is a very big and difficult problem, but it should be done and must be done," the delegate said, sending his opinion to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister.

In response, Minister Nguyen Van Thang respectfully thanked and accepted the delegates' opinions, and said that the Ministry of Transport will continue to make efforts to best implement infrastructure investment and pay attention to connecting the transport network.

The Minister said that the Prime Minister has just signed and issued the Airport Planning, we have enough legal basis to mobilize investment resources to develop synchronous infrastructure and reduce logistics costs .

Source