Vietnam enhances awareness and direction step by step in building "Green Logistics"

On December 25 and 26, the Vietnam Logistics Forum (VLF) 2022, organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in coordination with the People's Committee of Hai Phong City, will be held in Hai Phong City with the theme "Green Logistics." Comrade Tran Tuan Anh, Head of the Central Economic Committee, will attend and direct the forum.

The program includes two main topics: Cost optimization with logistics centers and circular economy (Topic 1) and Vietnam Logistics proactively adapting to new contexts (Topic 2). Mr. Nguyen Duy Minh, Chairman cum General Director of InterLOG Company, General Secretary of the Vietnam Logistics Business Association (VLA), has the honor of representing VLA to coordinate Topic 2.

At the forum, Head of the Central Economic Committee Tran Tuan Anh emphasized: Logistics is a service industry that plays an important role in Vietnam's economic development. In recent years, along with the strong industrialization, modernization, and deep international integration, the logistics industry in Vietnam as a whole and the operational capacity of logistics service businesses in Vietnam in particular have been invested in and improved. Accordingly, the growth of Vietnam's economy, especially in exports and imports in recent years, has brought great potential while also posing challenges for the logistics industry in Vietnam.

According to the Agility 2022 ranking, the Vietnam logistics market is ranked 11th among the top 50 emerging logistics markets globally. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the period 2022-2027 of the Vietnam logistics market is forecasted to reach 5.5%, accompanied by the strong recovery of the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vietnam is currently the leading country in ASEAN in terms of the number of logistics service businesses licensed by the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC).

The quantity and quality of logistics services are being improved, thereby helping exports of goods and services to account for an increasingly high proportion of GDP, rising from 72.9% in 2015 to 93.3% in 2021. The volume of goods transportation in Vietnam has continuously increased at a high rate during the period from 2015 to now, averaging about 17% per year, from 1.15 billion tons in 2015 to 1.64 billion tons in 2021. The volume of goods circulated has increased by over 30%, from 230 billion ton-kilometers in 2015 to 303 billion ton-kilometers in 2021. The direct contribution of the logistics sector to GDP annually is around 4 - 5%.

However, Mr. Tran Tuan Anh also candidly points out that alongside the achievements, the development of the logistics sector in Vietnam still faces several limitations: Vietnam's logistics costs remain high; promoting connections between logistics enterprises, as well as between logistics companies and manufacturing/exporting enterprises, is weak, with a lack of a network of large-scale Vietnamese logistics companies with market-leading capabilities driving the logistics sector forward; Development of multimodal transport to minimize the environmental impact is slow; the application of technology is lagging behind the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution; infrastructure is lacking in coherence and modernity...

Furthermore, the environmental pollution situation, especially the increasing emissions of greenhouse gases in the transportation sector and some other logistics activities, is limiting the development of green logistics in Vietnam.

The aforementioned context and current situation pose challenges to the logistics industry, necessitating solutions to ensure the role of logistics in maintaining supply chains for goods and services, while also requiring innovative thinking, vision, and distinctive solutions to keep pace with the world, demonstrating a leading role in environmental protection and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This presents a challenge for the Vietnamese logistics industry in greening the operations of supply chains, actively promoting process improvements, investing in technology to enhance supply chain efficiency alongside improving the environment and sustainable development...

As an active member of the Vietnam Logistics Service Association and a reputable logistics company in Vietnam, InterLOG is gradually "greening" its services and solutions, especially by orienting towards building and operating under the ESG sustainable development model (E-Environmental; S-Social; G-Governance), contributing to the establishment of a "Green Logistics" framework that is increasingly demanded and seen as an inevitable trend in Vietnam and the world in general.

InterLOG: Compiled and Edited according to Business Forum.