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Most importantly, seaport development planning must be based on the evaluation of the connectivity of seaports throughout the country, with seaports in other countries, with other transport infrastructure (road, railway, airport and in-land waterway system), with urban areas, economic zones, tourism zones, industrial zones and logistics centre.

Currently there are more than 4,000 transport and logistics companies operating in Vietnam, providing diverse and comprehensive services from the process of transporting goods to taxation or payment; in which 88% are domestic enterprises, 10% are joint-venture enterprises and 2% are foreign enterprises, concentrated mainly in two big cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Decision No.22/2017/QD-UBND dated April 18, 2017, construction must take place at least 30m from the river bank, but several projects have failed to adhere to it. Those at fault include Saigon Riverside joint venture’s Riverside project, which has 13 structures located a mere 7.5m from the river, and Van Minh Co., Ltd., which has buildings 10m from the bank.

That is the response from the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) to a Bloomberg report claiming container shipping may need to grow at almost twice the pace of the last decade, which was reported at 10-12 per cent annually, to keep up with new, surging demand.

The current seaport system in the delta has yet to meet ever-increasing import-export demand of localities in the region as most ports are located deep in the mainland, which means the channels leading to the ports are often silted up, making them difficult for large vessels to access.

Speeding up the construction of the new Liên Chiểu Cargo Port would help promote Đà Nẵng as a key international logistics centre, and allow the existing Tiên Sa Port to be reserved for cruise ships only.

Leader of Xiamen Port Group, Zhiping Chen, said Xiamen is a coastal city in Fujian Province in China. Xiamen Port is among the top seven largest ports in China and the 16th largest container port in the world. The port is a deep-water one that can accommodate up to 100,000-ton ships. It has routes to Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Mediterranean.

After two plans (in 1999 and 2009) and one adjustment (in 2014), to date, Viet Nam has 45 seaports with total capacity of more than 550 million tonnes per year. Major ports are concentrated in northern Hai Phong City, Da Nang and Quy Nhon in the central region and HCM City in the south.