Towards Strong Marine Economy

With advantages of deepwater seaports and port systems, Ba Ria - Vung Tau is a gateway port as well as an international transit point. At present, there are 27 ports in operation with capacity of 90 million tonnes per year that help store vessels up to 160,000 DWT. Thi Vai- Cai Mep terminal has length of over 20 kilometres and exports from the ports in this region go directly to the United States, Europe, Japan and several countries and territories around the world. The deep-water seaport system creates advantages for the province to develop commercial services, industry and facilitation of import-export activities of goods. In the process of exploiting the marine economy, Ba Ria - Vung Tau has got approval of the government for 14 industrial parks with a total area of approximately 8,400 hectares. Most of the industrial parks that are located near Thi Vai- Cai Mep are ready for international trade activities; technical infrastructure has been gradually improved and welcomed for new investors.

 

Besides, Ba Ria - Vung Tau takes an advantage of rich natural resources. The seashore waters of Ba Ria - Vung Tau has oil reserves of over 1.5 billion tonnes, approximately 1,000 billion m3 of gas so Ba Ria - Vung Tau soon becomes a centre of Vietnam oil and gas industry as well as a centre of the gas industries such as electricity, liquefied petroleum gas, fertilizer, steel and construction materials. Currently, the province has eight power plants with total capacity of over 4,000 MW, accounting for about 20 percent of national electricity production.

 

After the highway of Ho Chi Minh City- Long Thanh- Dau Giay has been operated, the travel time from Ho Chi Minh City to Ba Ria - Vung Tau has been shortened to one hour.Also, the transportation of Ba Ria - Vung Tau has been connected with highway systems of Ho Chi Minh City and other regions. Besides the Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Long Thanh International Airport will come into operation by 2020. This is an international airport located 30 kilometres from Cai Mep- Thi Vai and 50 kilometres from the administrative centre of Ba Ria - Vung Tau. This helps promote advantages of the province.

 

In addition, other potentials include a coastline of about 100 kilometres with 72 kilometres used for development of tourism projects and many historical monuments, diverse natural scenery and mild climate potential for tourism activities. Especially, the province has plentiful and diverse sources of fisheries to develop seafood industry. Annually, the mining of seafood account for 250,000 tonnes on average.

 

To strengthen the maritime economy, the development of economic services such as marine logistics services is prioritised by Ba Ria - Vung Tau. According to Mr Nguyen Van Trinh, Chairman of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial People’s Committee (PPC), to develop the port system in the area of international transit port, the province has set up the scheme with many proposed solutions; the Ministry of Transport and the PPC have coordinated to deploy multiple solutions to improve the capacity of the system port of the group 5, including Cai Mep.

 

Besides the construction and operation of seaports as planned, the construction of logistics centres is being promptly planned and implemented in the coming years.

Also, the province issued Decision 1360 / QD-Committee, dated July 02, 2014, to develop a Master plan of logistics industry of the province by 2020 and further to 2030 with the goal of developing logistics of Ba Ria - Vung Tau to promote infrastructure and tourism of the province as well as contribute to GDP growth while supporting the industry, commerce and other services of the province.

 

According to Mr Trinh, to go global, the province is striving to become an industrial province with strength in marine economy, services, tourism, and seafood as well as draw outsources in the near future. To improve the efficiency of investment and mobilize external resources for development, the province focuses on developing infrastructure system of industrial zones, logistics, supporting industry, agriculture and health, enhancing reform on investment and improving the investment and business climate, attracting investment, and selecting investors with good financial capacity, management and operation capacity.

 

Especially, to promote the capacity and improve the efficiency of port systems of Thi Vai - Cai Mep port as a national international gateway, Mr Trinh expressed his expectations of having support from the government to build infrastructure systems including Bien Hoa- Vung Tau Highway, Bien Hoa- Vung Tau Railway, Phuoc Hoa- Cai Mep Highway with length of 3,566 metres and 991B Highway projects with length of 9,730 metres.