Hanoi (VNA) – ൩Vietnam’s seaports handled in excess of 537.7 milliontonnes of goods in the first nine months of the year, posting a year-on-yearrise of 3 percent, according to the Vietnam Maritime Administration.

Despite thenegative impacts of COVID-19 on some major ports in the southern region, thetotal volume of container cargo going through seaports maintained a double-digitgrowth rate of 15 percent compared to the same period last year to near 18.6million TEUs. Of thefigure, the volume of exports was estimated to hit over 6 million TEUs, surging13 percent, that of imports over 6.1 million TEUs, up 18 percent, and that ofdomestic goods 6.3 million TEUs, up 13 percent. Althoughsome seaport areas were put under strict social distancing measures in aneffort to curb the spread of COVID-19, the volume of goods that went throughthose in Ho Chi Minh City expanded more than 7 percent, in Ba Ria-Vung Tau 5percent, and in Hai Phong nearly 11.7 percent year on year. Under a freshlyapproved master plan on developing domestic seaport network over the next 10years, with a vision towards 2050, Vietnam aims to develop a uniform system ofmodern seaports that provide high-quality services, meet needs forsocio-economic development, and ensure national security and defence, maritimesafety and environmental protection, and improving the economy’scompetitiveness. It is expected to help the country fulfill its goal ofbecoming an upper-middle-income developing country with modern industry by2030. The planclassifies Vietnamese seaports into five groups based on their geographicallocations. About 313 trillion VND (13.74 billion USD) mobilised outside theState budget will be needed for its implementation./.