On Monday afternoon, Secretary of the Da Nang Party Committee Nguyen Van Quang and some of the city’s officials had a working session with Westport Malaysia, one of the leading port operators in the region, owning a deep-water wharf system and modern infrastructure, connecting with 359 ports worldwide.

Secretary of the Da Nang Party Committee Nguyen Van Quang (right) and Mr. Vijaya Kumar Puspowanam, CEO of Westport. Photo: working delegation

The city leader emphasised the great potential for cooperation between the two sides, especially in the field of seaport and logistics development.

He added Da Nang has been striving to build Lien Chieu Port into an international transit port following the direction of a green and smart port, so the city hoped to attract strategic investors to invest in the project.

Mr. Quang also pointed out some outstanding competitive advantages of Lien Chieu Port compared to other ports in the region, especially in multimodal transport connections. In particular, the Lien Chieu Port is located right on the international shipping route. The distance from the port to the international shipping route is 7.3km. Also, the distance by road between the port and the national transport system is 4km. The distance by rail from the port to the national railway system is 1.5km.

The city has already completed the shared infrastructure system connecting to the port gate and is developing infrastructure connecting between the port and functional subdivisions of the free trade zone.

Secretary of the Da Nang Party Committee Nguyen Van Quang (right) and Mr. Chen Soo Chee, a member of the Board of Directors of Westport Port. Photo: working delegation

Mr. Quang took the opportunity to ask Westport to share its experience in selecting strategic investors, managing and exploiting seaports, applying technology in port management and exploitation, attracting international transit cargo to the port, and connecting international shipping routes to Lien Chieu Port.

Westport CEO Vijaya Kumar Puspowanam said that Westport, located in Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia, is one of the most important seaports in the country. It provides freight, logistics and relationship services with many major shipping lines in the world.

After 30 years of development, the port has earned a place in the top 10 largest ports in the world and is responsible for transporting 75% of the total volume of goods through Malaysia. The port’s current operating capacity is 11 million TEU/year. The volume of domestic and international transit goods increases sharply every year.

A new port is under construction and is expected to be put into use by 2028. Once completed, the new port will contributing to increasing the total operating capacity at Westport to 14 million TEU/year. The port has applied digital technology in operating management, and continued to invest in technology to reduce the processing time to 5 seconds for 1 vehicle travelling through the port instead of 45 seconds as at present.

On behalf of the city delegation, Secretary Quang thanked Westport leaders for sharing their experience in applying digital technology and automation in operations, and controlling environmental pollution. He noted that the working session opened up many opportunities for his city to attract investment, develop logistics and raise the position of Lien Chieu Port on the international maritime map.

Reporting by Working delegation - Translating by M.DUNG