Khanh Hoa has established the Steering Board for the Construction of Van Phong International Entrepot, a key project which was shelved almost two years ago.

The board’s chief is Khanh Hoa’s vice chairman Nguyen Chien Thang and the two vice chiefs are Nguyen Trong Hoa, chief of the management board of the Van Phong Economic Zone, and Duong Chi Dung, chairman and general director of the Vietnam Shipping Lines Corporation (Vinalines), the investor of this project.

Vinalines’ deputy head Le Trieu Thanh said that the preparations for the construction of this entrepot have been completed. The ground-breaking ceremony is scheduled for late October, with the participation of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

This huge project will kick off with the construction of two deep-water ports in Dam Mon which will be able to host container ships with tonnage of 9000 TEU (TEU is a volume the size of a standard twenty-foot shipping container) and handle 0.5 million TEU per year. The investment capital for these works is over 1 trillion dong. The two ports have been designed by Nippon Koei and Port Coast.

In Vietnam’s seaport system development plan to 2020, Van Phong bay is the only site chosen for an international entrepot.

The ports in Dam Mon were approved by the Ministry of Transportation under a plan ratified by the Prime Minister in 2005. The projects ought to have been kicked off in January 2008.

However, Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai asked for the projects to be halted temporarily. The reason being that South Korea’s Posco Steel Group, with the support of Khanh Hoa province, since late 2007 had wanted to build a steel-thermo-power complex in Dam Mon.

Posco’s project was protested by many ministries, agencies and the public because of concerns that this project would pollute the environment, disrupt the planning of the Van Phong Economic Zone and take away the site of the deep-water port of the Van Phong International Entrepot.

On November 11 2008, PM Nguyen Tan Dung officially rejected Posco’s steel project proposal and told the group to seek another place.

According to top economists of Vietnam and foreign experts, thanks to the favourable geographic position and natural characteristics of Van Phong Bay, the construction of an international entrepot there will spur the development of Vietnam’s economy.

Lan Trang