Logistics consists of operation chains, transportation, storage, warehousing, customs clearance, customer consulting, packaging, and goods marking...Binh Duong is located in the southern key economic zone, generating more than 42% of the GDP, nearly 40% of exports and nearly 60% of which contributed to the State budget. Thus, over time Binh Duong logistics industry thrives as one of the promising economic sectors bring higher added value in the future.Diversified servicesLogistics services in Binh Duong are quite diversified, ranging from transportation of goods by road, river, rail freight ... and warehousing and demurrage. For freight services, road transportation plays an important role and has the fastest growth rate. The most dynamic service of logistics is transportation of imported goods from the port or from company and vice versa In the 2007-2011 period, road freight increased on average 46% a year. Particularly in 2011, the volume of road freight reached 72.6 million tons of goods, accounting for 98.7% of the total volume of freight across the province. Up to this point, the province has 41 enterprises (companies), transport cooperatives performing freight by road.In addition, freight services are also thriving on rivers. Numerous river ports have been planned to serve the unloading and loading and domestic customs clearance. Binh Duong Province, now has 3 river ports, including Ba Lua Port on the Saigon River in Chanh Nghia Ward, TDM City, Binh Duong Harbour on the Dong Nai River in Binh Thang Ward, Di An Town, and Thanh Phuoc Port on Dong Nai River located in Phuoc Thanh commune, Tan Uyen district.In addition to the above three river ports, Binh Duong has 64 inland terminals, serving the loading and unloading of goods.In addition to roads and rivers, Binh Duong also has a part north - south railroad. The railway section passing through Binh Duong in Di An Town covers 8.6 km long, with Son Than Station which eyes unloading, loading and transporting of more than 1 million tons of cargo.Along with transportation services, in recent years warehousing services, cargo warehousing thrive in Binh Duong.The province currently has 2 units that perform this service called ICD including ICD Song Than 2, and ICD TBS Tan Van. Those bases are of complete infrastructure, providing 4 services including loading and unloading, storage, container storage, container shipping and customs.In addition to 2 servicing units above, the province also has 10 large warehouses in industrial parks and many other small stocking houses of private services to collect, transport and deliver goods on demand . Customs services include bonded house and customs agent with 17 and 17 bonded houses in the Industrial Park and 17 customs agents.Building a new logistics centerTo develop logistics services in 2011-2015 with orientation to 2020, Provincial People’s Committee has recently planed up schemes for hub of Tan Van ports built into the center of logistics, covering 2 wards of Thang Binh and Binh An in Di An Town.The overall objective of the project is to build the place into a logistics center of the southern provinces – the joint of transmission to, international ports in HCMC and Ba Ria - Vung Tau; the linkage of river ports in Binh Duong Proivnce to provide comprehensive services in the supplying chain of logistics and freight forwarding.Commenting on this scheme, Director of Binh Duong Urban Development Institution, Mr. Huynh Van Minh, said the planning of Tan Van Logistics Hub as proposed by Binh Duong Trade and Tourism JSC, had the good position, with convenient water transportation system, complete, synchronous and accessible system of technical infrastructure, where less people are residing on major industrial land.The report also proposes orientation to planning of urban corridor services along Dong Nai River and Tan Van hub of ports, including functional areas such as logistics, ports, commercial and service areas, and traffic ...Tan Van Logistics Hub, if built, will create a new look of Binh Duong logistics industry, in a bid to develop a chain of supplying services and freight forwarding for the whole region while paving the way to accelerate the process of production in industrial zones in the province in particular and the region in general, and contributing to socio-economic development in the South.Solutions to developmentAccording to the roadmap to 2014, the logistics industry will be wide open. Accordingly, the FDI enterprises will provide logistics services with 100% foreign investment. Therefore, accelerating the development of logistics services in the province during this period is necessary, or else domestic firms will face great difficulty competing with foreign firms as the roadmap matures.Accordingly, Binh Duong Provincial People’s Committee has set a target to promote all kinds of logistics services in the areas of development, including investment promotion, infrastructure development services, modern logistics, ensuring to satisfy production development, business and foreign companies in the roadmap to World Trade Organization (WTO) integration.The next goal is to diversify the products of logistics services and promote the application of information technology and human resource training for the sector.To achieve this, the Provincial People’s Committee is committed to encourage and support enterprises of all economic sectors to invest into logistics projects in the industrial zones including river ports, investment, complete and efficient services of logistics. In particular, the state supports investments in infrastructure, roads and waterway dredging...Reported by Phuong An - Translated by Bao Vi