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Quang Tri: the dream of ports remains far away
Located in the East-West Economic Corridor, having advantageous geographical position, the central province of Quang Tri is dreaming of having deep water seaports. Will the dream come true?
National seaport collects VND15mil in fees in eight months
Cua Viet port is located in a very good position at the end of Highway No 9, just 90 km from Lao Bao international border gate. The distance from the northeast of Thailand to Cua Viet port is just 300 km.
On July 25, 2007, Cua Viet port was handed over to the Vietnam Shipping Industry Group to be upgraded into a big seaport. The group announced it would inject VND3tril in this job. Of this amount, VND600bil would be spent so that the port could receive 10,000 tonnes by 2010. Meanwhile, VND1,600bil would be spent to build a 70,000 DWT shipyard. The remaining sum of money would be invested in Cua Viet tourism complex.
With such a big investment, Cua Viet seaport was believed would make big leaps in its development. However, since the strong storm in October 2007, the seaport can only receive ships with the tonnage of less than 500 tonnes.
In the period of 2002-2006, only some 200 ships went through the port, while the figure was 226 in 2007, when the seaport was put under Vinashin’s management. Meanwhile, only 90 ships went through the port in the first eight months of this year.
Do Hung Duc, Director of Quang Tri Port Authorities, said that as the number of ships was small, the maritime fees collected were also modest – just VND15mil for the first eight months of the year. Meanwhile, it takes over VND2bil to dredge the port’s passage.
Statistics show that in 2005, only 45,000 tonnes of goods went through the port, while the figures were 60,000 tonnes in 2006 and 83,000 tonnes in 2007, too low compared to the designed capacity of 200,000 tonnes a year.
According to the Quang Tri Industry and Trade Department, the project on the 70,000DWT shipyard by Vinashin to date remains under implementation.
The dream of 40,000-tonne port
As the Cua Viet port project remains problematic, Quang Tri authorities are dreaming of another seaport.
On August 25, 2008, Quang Tri authorities organised a workshop to discuss the My Thuy sea economic zone project in the southeast, initiated by Quang Tri Industry and Trade Department, and Duyen Hai Development Company.
The My Thuy sea economic zone will include an urban tourism area, industrial zone, high-tech zone and a port with the depth of 13-15 m, capable of receiving 40,000 tonne ships.
My Thuy port also has geographical advantages. Instead of docking at Chan May port (Thua Thien-Hue) and other ports in Da Nang city, ships can dock at My Thuy port, which shortens the East West Economic Corridor by 150 km.
However, questions have been raised about where money can be raised from, estimated at thousands of billions of VND, to build the port. Meanwhile, the report about the socio-economic development of the province in 2006-2010 showed that the total budget collection of the province is just a little over VND500bil.
For the poor province, the dream of the deep water My Thuy port proves to faint.
Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue in the central region all have dreams of having big seaports which could spur the development of local economies. However, it seems that the ports still cannot bring high economic efficiency. The ports are still waiting for commodities as local industries are not developing quickly and the import-export markets remain quiet.
VNN
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