World Bank: Let private sector help Vietnam’s transport and logistics

11 January 2016 – Vietnam’s evolving economy needs new strategies to maintain strong growth, and a World Bank report calls for the government to work with private sector importers, exporters and transport companies to improve freight logistics. Titled Engaging the Private Sector in Transport and Logistics Planning and Policy Making: Options for Vietnam, the report says systematic engagement with freight stakeholders by government agencies responsible for planning and policy making can boost trade competitiveness.

International experience has shown that private sector stakeholders — the end-users of transport infrastructure and key intended beneficiaries of public policies aimed at facilitating trade and reducing logistics costs — are well-positioned to inform public sector decisionmaking on matching supply and demand in transport and logistics, according to the report.

In Vietnam, however, private sector stakeholders remain relatively untapped as a source of insight into transport and logistics policy making and planning, the report says. “By more explicitly, transparently, and predictably engaging with private sector stakeholders all across the import-export and domestic supply chain, national agencies like the Ministry of Transport and subnational ones like Provincial Departments of Transport can better equip Vietnam with the logistics system it needs as it enters its next phase of logistics competitiveness as a middle-income country,” said Luis C. Blancas, a World Bank Senior Transport Specialist and author of the report.

Malaysia, Thailand, the United States and the United Kingdom — among the world’s top-performing countries in transport and logistics according to the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index benchmark — have considerable experience in engaging private sector stakeholders in planning and policy making to help public sector agencies support strong logistics outcomes. Such experience elsewhere provides lessons learned and pitfalls to avoid for Vietnam. In the past, private sector freight stakeholders in Vietnam have worked with government agencies on efforts to facilitate trade, rather than longer-term aspects like infrastructure planning and crafting policies to promote desirable sector-wide outcomes such as better service delivery, healthier market competition and cutting greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.