2. Proposal to supplement the planning of more inland waterway wharves

​In order to serve the needs of economic and social development in the coming time, many localities have proposed to add to the planning of new inland waterway wharves. The proposed additional inland waterway wharves are mainly aimed at serving tourism development and transporting construction materials.

Passenger transport activities at Tram wharf, Buu Long Ward, Bien Hoa City

Finalize the planning

According to the Department of Transport, the province has a network of rivers and canals with a length of more than 2,500 km with about 200 km can be exploited for water transport. In 2019, the Provincial People's Committee approved the plan for the development of inland waterway transport structures in the province for the period to 2025 with orientation to 2035.

 Mr. Duong Manh Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Transport says that, following the decision of the Provincial People's Committee, through the review and arrangement, there are currently 90 ports, inland waterway wharves, passenger wharves across and along the river on the national inland waterways and local inland waterways in the province licensed to operate.

In fact, after more than 3 years of approving the planning for the development of inland waterway transport structures in the province, in order to serve socio-economic development, many localities have had additional needs for adding inland waterway wharves.

According to the People's Committee of Nhon Trach district, the district currently has 4 clusters of inland waterway wharves with 15 operating ports. According to the plan on development of inland waterway transport structures in the province in the period up to 2025 with orientation to 2035 approved in 2019, after reviewing, there are 3 inland waterway wharves serving the transportation service of construction materials at Dai Phuoc commune that are not in the planning, so they have to stop operation. However, in fact, the demand for transporting construction materials in the district is very large. Therefore, Nhon Trach district also proposes the Provincial People's Committee to consider adding these 3 inland waterway wharves to the planning.

For Dinh Quan district, this locality also needs to supplement the planning of inland waterway wharves to serve tourism development in the near future. Specifically, in the land use plan for the period 2025-2030, Dinh Quan district has planned to develop and exploit Dong Nai riverside mining in the areas of 2 communes of La Nga and Phu Ngoc. The goal is to develop an eco-tourism model, so the locality also needs to add inland waterway wharves.​

Meanwhile, because the inland wharf was previously planned to be built at Ta Lai commune to serve the needs of passenger transport, therefore, Tan Phu district has also proposed to change the purpose of this inland wharf to tourism purpose. The reason is that Ta Lai bridge was built, so the need to transport passengers of this wharf is no longer urgent in this area.

 Improve the efficiency of the wharves for tourism

 According to Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thi Hoang, the province approved the planning plan for inland waterway wharves in 2019. However, the needs of localities have also changed up to now, so it is necessary to supplement the planning.

Assessing that inland waterway wharves, passenger wharves, and tourist wharves play an important role in the socio-economic development of localities, therefore, Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thi Hoang asked localities to must carefully review and report to consider and supplement the planning. "The Department of Transport is then responsible for synthesizing the needs of the localities as well as the opinions of the functional agencies to report to the Provincial People's Committee as a basis for integration into the general planning of the province" - Vice Chairwoman of the People's Committee Nguyen Thi Hoang requested.

Along with that, the Provincial People's Committee also asked the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to review tourist wharves, vertical and horizontal wharves that can be developed to serve public purposes to put them in the public investment list and assigned to localities for management. Especially, it is necessary to review for tourist wharves to implement public investment to exploit more effectively, limiting the assignment to an investment and business unit.​​

In order to improve the using efficiency of tourist wharves, Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thi Hoang suggested that the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism must review the tourism wharves need additional planning in the tourism development project. From there, consider implementing public investment for these wharves. Accordingly, relevant agencies should make public investment plans for wharves serving public purposes, not assigning them to an investment and business unit. After public investment, they would be assigned to localities for management and using on the basis of serving the needs of units wishing to use for tourism development.