Domestic logistics firm looking to increase competitiveness

Domestic logistics providers, such as TBS Logistics, Transimex Saigon, Gemadept, Sotrans, and SNP Logistics, and hundreds of others, gathered on April 14 in Ho Chi Minh City to find ways to cooperate and increase their competitiveness.

According to Le Duy Hiep, chairman of Vietnam Logistics Association (VLA), increasing their competitiveness and finding more efficient cooperation methods among logistics providers is a must in recent times.

”The government has assigned VLA to implement the National Action Plan to improve the logistics sector by 2025 and many solutions were mapped out,” Hiep said.

In February this year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved the action plan aiming to increase the contribution of the logistics sector to the country’s GDP to 8-10 per cent from the current three, with annual growth of 15-20 per cent by 2025.

The plan also targets to make Vietnam one of the world’s 50 leading logistics service providers.

”The aim is to have logistics companies that can be competitive both in the domestic and the international markets and enhance Vietnam’s connectivity with neighbouring countries and develop a regional and international logistics hub,” Hiep said.

The plan will also set up level 1 logistics hubs (the highest level) in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and level 2 logistic centres in Lang Son, Lao Cai, Haiphong, Danang, Quy Nhon, and Can Tho.

The Vietnamese logistics sector has been budding since the 1990s. According to the World Bank’s 2014 Logistics Performance Index, Vietnam stood at the 48th out of the total of 153 ranked countries.

The country now has more than 3,000 firms in the sector. More than 70 per cent of these businesses are small and medium-sized.

“Vietnamese logistics firms must utilise their advantages, such as the knowledge about the domestic market, owning infrastructure facilities, such as ports, storage warehouses, customs declaration, and many others. The action plan would provide short- and mid-term solutions to improve the logistics sector in the next seven or eight years,” Hiep added.

By Bich Ngoc / VIR