Logistics accounts for 17% of cost, HCMC sets up rapid response team to handle

(Dan Tri) - Logistics costs account for up to 17% of the cost price, causing businesses to gradually lose competitiveness. Ho Chi Minh City needs a "logistics task force" to remove bottlenecks, opening up breakthrough opportunities for the new city after the merger.

On September 11, the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City coordinated with Tuoi Tre newspaper to organize a seminar on “Developing trade and logistics in Ho Chi Minh City”. Many experts and businesses unanimously agreed that logistics costs, which currently account for 17% of product costs, are “too high” and have become a major barrier to competition.

How can businesses bear logistics costs of up to 17%?

Mr. Nguyen Nguyen Phuong - Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City - said that it is time to focus on solving this problem at its root. "Logistics costs of 17% are unacceptable. For many years, businesses have had to bear the burden, and now they are exhausted. If we do not solve this problem, we cannot expect a breakthrough," said Mr. Phuong.

Logistics costs of up to 17% of the cost price are a burden for businesses in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Tran Manh).

Mr. Phuong likened Ho Chi Minh City to a machine with a large capacity but the engine only meets half of the demand. After the merger, the capacity doubled but the belt is still old and cannot pull. If the organization does not change, the efficiency will remain low. "That shows that logistics is both a bottleneck and an opportunity for the new Ho Chi Minh City. The important thing is that we identify it correctly and act promptly," he shared.

According to him, to quickly and thoroughly solve the problem of logistics bottlenecks, it must come from businesses and people themselves. Ho Chi Minh City needs to establish a task force, a logistics working group with the participation of experts, associations, businesses and departments. This group will review bottlenecks, listen to opinions from businesses to propose priorities and recommend breakthrough solutions to the city's leaders to solve soon in the near future.

Planning the logistics network of Ho Chi Minh City by function

Mr. Cao Hong Phong - Deputy General Director of Gemalink - commented that the advantage of the new space of Ho Chi Minh City is indisputable. In fact, the three localities of Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Ba Ria - Vung Tau have different starting points and orientations, which is the advantage for the new Ho Chi Minh City after the merger, and is an opportunity to plan and redistribute new functional zones, including logistics issues.

Specifically, according to Mr. Phong, logistics can be divided into two areas: domestic and export. In which, the old Ho Chi Minh City focuses on developing domestic trade and services. That is, solving the problem of policies, investing in equipment, connecting infrastructure for production, business and domestic trade and retail. Binh Duong focuses on producing goods. Meanwhile, the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area, especially the Cai Mep - Thi Vai port area, will focus on export logistics activities.

Guests discuss at the seminar "Developing trade and logistics in Ho Chi Minh City" (Photo: Tran Manh).

In addition to logistics planning suitable for the post-merger context, Mr. Phong also believes that the way of managing export activities also needs to change accordingly. Accordingly, all activities serving export should be centralized, including customs, goods inspection, quality analysis, etc. to avoid wasting time and costs for businesses.

“It is not effective and cost-effective if businesses do procedures at Cai Mep but still have to bring samples or documents to the center of Ho Chi Minh City for processing, which takes 2-3 days as before. Ho Chi Minh City should only have one border gate name for all import and export gates at the ports to save logistics costs and operating costs for businesses," Mr. Phong stated.

Mr. Phong also believes that the government's planning as well as the development orientation of enterprises must shift to a cooperative mindset, with each unit doing a specialized job and focusing on its own advantages, thereby reducing overall costs instead of one unit investing in all stages.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa - Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association - commented that Ho Chi Minh City is strong in trade and services and partly in high-tech manufacturing. Now, merging with Binh Duong, the "capital" of mass industry, and Ba Ria - Vung Tau, the center of seaports, oil and gas, and logistics, will create a comprehensive advantage for exports. Currently, many factories and projects are located in Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau, but businesses are in Ho Chi Minh City, so there needs to be a synchronous mechanism and policy to promote the potential.

Mr. Hoa said Resolution 98 was a "boost" when it allowed Ho Chi Minh City to expand stimulus loan programs to Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau (old), supporting many fields such as mechanics, electricity - electronics, green transformation, digital transformation, and logistics.

The city has established specialized working groups and has so far reviewed 18 projects with a total capital of more than 1,500 billion VND, including 3 projects from Binh Duong, notably the waste-to-energy incineration project.

Developing waterway transport to reduce costs

Mr. Le Van Danh, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City, also said that the logistics cost of up to 17% of the cost price that businesses reported was very high, a bottleneck in the development of Ho Chi Minh City.

"As soon as I took on the new assignment in Ho Chi Minh City, I established a "trade and logistics team" to listen to businesses and experts propose policies to solve this difficulty, from which I made policy recommendations to higher levels," Mr. Danh shared at the discussion.

The Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City is also working with other units to calculate the use of waterways to transport goods from Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong (old) to Cai Mep port. This will take advantage of the river area and reduce the logistical load on the road system.

Meanwhile, domestic logistics need centers attached to retail distribution points to reduce time and costs.

Photo: Tran Manh

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/logistics-chiem-17-gia-thanh-tphcm-lap-doi-phan-ung-nhanh-de-xu-ly-20250912081957512.htm