Despite efforts and a specific financial support mechanism applied by the government to speed up the port relocation, the process has not made any considerable progress due to problems in land allocation and transportation system building.

Problems everywhere – from infrastructure to mechanism

Under the Decision No 46 of the Prime Minister, five ports in HCM City must be relocated from the inner city prior to 2010. However, to date, only Saigon Port has finished the relocation while other ports still have not made any moves.

Also under the decision, the money to be used for the relocation would come from the function shifting of the old ports, including the land use right assignments and land use purpose.

In an effort to speed up the port relocation, the government will advance money to port developers who undertake the relocation. After that, the money will be paid back to the government. However, representatives of the ports have said the financial support is not enough to speed up the relocation, because besides financial support, the ports still need many other things.

Thoi Bao Kinh Te Saigon on April 8 quoted Hoang Van Nhuong, Deputy General Director of Saigon Port as saying that the Ministry of Finance has advanced nearly 450 billion dong to the Saigon Port to can be used to build infrastructure items at Hiep Phuoc port where Saigon Port will move.

To date, Saigon Port has spent 800 billion dong to build Hiep Phuoc Port. By June 2011, 200 meters of wharf will be put into operation. However, Nhuong said, the problem is that the road to the wharf still does not satisfy the requirements for carrying goods.

He went on to say that even if Hiep Phuoc Port is put into operation, the Saigon Port relocation process will not be considered as completed until the road to the port is built.

At a recent meeting between the representatives of the Saigon Port and HCM City People’s Committee, the port developer asked for permission to mobilize capital itself to build a 2-kilometer road to the port, while the city’s authorities will refund the money. According to Nhuong, though the road is just two kilometers long, it will take two years to build, because it is necessary to build two bridges on it.

Like the Saigon Port, the Ba Son Shipyard was also advanced of 240 billion dong from the Ministry of Finance to relocate the shipyard to Tan Thanh District in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

However, since the capital sum is not big enough, the shipyard has asked for permission to apply a mechanism which allows to socialize the investment by calling for capital from different sources. The government has allowed the shipyard to use 600 billion dong sourced from investors to relocate. After the relocation finishes, the shipyard will have to pay back the 240 billion dong to the Ministry of Finance.

Relocation deadline extended

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai admitted at the meeting reviewing the relocation process in late March 2011 that the process has been going very slowly. To date, the land plot where the Saigon Port will move, located in the Hiep Phuoc Industrial Zone, still has nine households who have not left the site. Therefore, it is still unclear when the port relocation process will be completed.

As for Ba Son Shipyard, to date, only the work of leveling 3.2 hectares of land to serve the relocation of the dry dock No 68 for the ship repair has been done. Therefore, the government has allowed an extension the deadline of the shipyard relocation until 2015.

Meanwhile, Tan Thuan Dong Port has no allocated land and the Vegetable and Fruit Port has approval from the city’s authorities to delay the relocation until after 2020.

As planned, the current location for Ba Son shipyard will be converted into the Saigon – Ba Son Complex – a finance, office, hotel center. Meanwhile, the current Saigon Port near the Nha Rong Station, will turn into a tourism port.

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