The Ministry of Transport estimated an investment capital required for inland waterway projects in the next 10 years of VND157 trillion (US$6.9 billion).

Vietnam would focus on improving inland waterway infrastructure in the next 10 years. Photo: The Hanoi Times.

Minister of Transport (MoT) Nguyen Van The revealed the figure on November 10 during the launch of the detailed master plan for the inland waterway infrastructure development in the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050.

He said the master plan includes projects addressing traffic bottlenecks and increasing the air draft of bridges at main waterway routes such as Duong Bridge in the Quang Ninh – Haiphong – Viet Tri section in the north; World Bank-funded Day-Ninh Co canal channel in the north; Cho Gao channel upgrade phase 2 in the Mekong Delta.

In addition, the Government would push for the development of the southern waterway logistics corridor, investment in inland ports and logistics centers.

During the 2026-2030 period, Vietnam would start investing in the upgrade of main inland waterway routes nationwide; raising air draft of railway bridges crossing national inland waterways, and further developing inland waterway ports.

The minister noted that the state budget would allocate VND29 trillion ($1.27 billion) for constructing inland waterway routes and mobilize another VND128.6 trillion ($5.64 billion) from private sources for ports investment.

The goal is to ensure inland waterway corridors meet growing transportation demand, estimated at 715 million tons of goods and 397 million passengers by 2030.

“The Ministry of Transport would provide incentive policies to form large-scale inland transport companies to further tap in the potential of Vietnam’s inland waterway transport sector,” Van The said.

The minister added the North-South coastal corridor is one of the country’s key freight transport routes. In the coming time, the MoT would propose plans for the North-South express railway as the main passenger transport means, and freight transport from the North to the South would run through the existing railway networks and the North-South coastal corridors.