Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s southern economic hub, will construct its first logistics center among the planned seven next year, the city's department of industry and trade director Bui Ta Hoang Vu said Thursday.
Vu was answering a question about the city’s logistics development plans at a People's Council meeting.
He added that the process for a planned logistics center in HCMC’s Saigon Hi-Tech Park was at the eighth stage of the 12 steps needed. He did not give further details about these steps, or the center’s scale and location.
According to logistics facility developers, building a standardized logistics center requires huge investment and a large site, up to dozens of hectares. Such a hub needs goods transportation and distribution services, and areas for customs, tax and inspection procedures to provide fully integrated services.
Legal steps are another challenge. The entire process must go through 12 time-consuming steps, including working out a detailed project plan (detail ratio: 1/500), having it appraised and approved, completing land-related legal procedures, and conducting a pre-feasibility study and a feasibility study.
In Long An province bordering HCMC, Singapore-based integrated logistics and supply chain developer YCH Group and Vietnam’s T&T Group will jointly build Phuoc Vinh Dong Logistics Area Project in Can Giuoc district. The duo signed a memorandum of understanding to carry out the project in February but have not yet broken ground.
The 71.2-hectare project site is in the proximity of Long An International Port and HCMC’s Hiep Phuoc Port.
YCH said Phuoc Vinh Dong would support the duo’s integrated logistics hub Vietnam SuperPort they are constructing in Vinh Phuc province near Hanoi in the north. It will cost $200 million or more to build.
Vietnam Airlines, Vietnam Railways Corp., and Vietnam Maritimes Corp. have signed MoUs with the duo’s joint venture T&Y SuperPort Vinh Phuc for air, railroad and maritime connectivity with the Vinh Phuc logistics hub.