The Viet Nam Seaports Association (VPA) on Thursday held its annual conference at Furama Resort Da Nang, and the event was attended by nearly 500 delegates from 79 member ports nationwide.

Da Nang People’s Committee Vice Chairman Le Quang Nam delivers his remarks at the event. Photo: VAN HOANG

In his remarks at the event, Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Le Quang Nam said that Da Nang has been chosen and oriented towards a maritime economic centre at the national and regional levels as the city holds an important position in terms of economy, politics and national security. The Da Nang Party Committee has issued a resolution which sets out the city’s 2030 vision for developing Da Nang into a major centre of social and economic activities and an ecological, modern, smart and livable city. Da Nang is among leading localities in Viet Nam for the highest quality of life, and is also named among Viet Nam’s happinest, friendliest and most creative localities while national defence and security and the country’s sovereignty over its sea and islands are ensured.

Da Nang boasts great potential for marine economic development. In addition, Da Nang becomes the capital of tourism in Central Viet Nam, and Viet Nam as a whole, as it is a young and dynamic city and is blessed with many beautiful sights. In its efforts to develop marine tourism, the city has focused on infrastructure investment, giving high priority to developing high-quality resorts,  developing the Tien Sa Port into a cruise port in an effort to brand Da Nang as an international-standard maritime destination for tourists.

Besides, the city also aims to form a logistics service supply chain in Central Viet Nam as well as turn Da Nang into a logistics center in the central region with the development of the city’s port system consisting of Tien Sa and Lien Chieu ports in addition to forming logistics centres in Lien Chieu and Hoa Vang ports.

Da Nang People's Committee Le Quang Nam remarked that green growth is the key to sustainable development of Da Nang’s marine economy. Therefore, he stressed the need for the city to make sure that economic and environmental performance must go hand in hand while ensuring the sustainable exploitation of the ocean's resources and the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity and ecosystems.

Mr Nam also asked for more support from VPA to help connect Da Nang's seaports with others in the region and around the world in order to achieve the city's marine economic development goals.

In the coming time, Da Nang will focus on creating a transport corridor involving a sea-road-rail-air link for the facilitation of logistics, thereby, driving the development of logistics services and seaport system in Central Viet Nam and attract domestic and foreign investments for the city’s strategic goal of marine economic development.

Cargo throughput through Viet Nam’s seaports in 2021 decreased by nearly 1% compared to the previous year but total container throughput increased by about 8%. It is expected that total cargo and container throughput through the country’s ports in 2022 will go up by 6-8% from 2021.

Da Nang and Quy Nhon ports ranked first in the Central region for the highest cargo and container throughput in 2021 with more than 10 million tons of cargo in total. The Da Nang Port took the lead in Central Viet Nam for the highest container throughput with more than 668,000 TEUs and it ranked 8^th among 20 leading ports in Viet Nam for the highest cargo and container throughput in 2021.

Reporting by VAN HOANG – Translating by H.L