The “Development of Waterways and Logistics Corridors in the South” project, with total investment of more than VND3.9 trillion ($169.8 million), will be funded by World Bank (WB) loans and upgrade rivers and canals in eight cities and provinces. It will improve 197 km of the East-West corridor and 82 km of the North-South corridor.
The Duong River upgrade project in Vietnam’s north is to begin this year and be completed in 2025 with total investment of nearly VND1.8 trillion ($79.4 million), removing a long-standing “bottleneck” along the Waterway Transportation Corridor No.1.
Vietnam has 42,000 km of rivers and canals capable of exploiting water transport, including 45 key waterways with a total length of more than 7,000 km. It is necessary to take advantage of inland waterway transport to transport goods and agricultural products and avoid disruptions to supply chains.
Investment capital from the State budget to develop inland waterway infrastructure has remained quite low over the last five years, at just 1.5-2.5 per cent of the total for the endeavor.
