According to the General Statistics Office, in the first 6 months of 2021, inland waterway transport reached 167.64 million tons, up 16.7% over the same period in 2020 and the freight trafic reached 39.25 billion tons.km 25.4%. Freight carried by sea reached 42.01 million tons, up 9.5% and freight traffic reached 85.44 billion tons.km, up 5.3% over the same period in 2020. Vietnam has a rich rivers system, so inland waterways are considered as a low-cost, high-volume transport method.

However, inland waterways have not been developed, mainly due to limited connectivity with other modes. Inland waterway activities are mainly dependent on natural creeks, making the connection to seaports inconsistent and there is a big difference in market share between regions. Currently, the Government is urgently investing in developing the waterway network, exploiting the existing waterway infrastructure and calling for the socialization of investment in inland waterway ports.

Although sea transport was heavily affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, over the past time, consumption and trade demand in the world has tended to recover. According to the General Statistics Office, in the first 6 months of 2021, freight transport by sea reached 42.01 million tons, up 9.5% and freight traffic reached 85.44 billion tons.km, up 5.3%. compared to the same period in 2020. Notably, the volume of international shipping import and export goods of the Vietnamese fleet increased by 54%, mainly transporting routes such as China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia...

Up to now, the fleet of Vietnamese national flag ships has 1,576 ships. In particular, the fleet of transport ships is 1,049 ships with a total capacity of about 6.1 million GT and a total tonnage of about 9.3 million DWT. The average ship age is 15.5 years old. The structure of Vietnam's shipping fleet in recent years has significantly improved, the fleet has developed in the direction of specialization, meeting the needs of domestic cargo transportation.

Facing difficulties and challenges brought by the Covid-19 epidemic, in order to quickly restore the development of the industry, the Vietnam Maritime Administration is focusing on building a project to develop shipping. In which, allowing shipping enterprises to access credit loans for ship investment with preferential interest rates; Adjust the income tax rate for shipping enterprises from 20% to 15% within 3 years. At the same time, exempt and reduce taxes and fees (registration registration fee, VAT, ..) when building or buying new ships, specialized ships to encourage ship owners to invest in means of improving exploitation efficiency.

General Sources