At the event.

The construction of the Vinh Phuc ICD Logistics Center, the first super-port project of the ASEAN Smart Logistics Network (ASLN) which cost 3.8 trillion VND (165.56 million USD), began on December 23 in the northern province of Vinh Phuc.

The ground-breaking ceremony of the project saw the attendance of National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

Spanning 83ha in Huong Canh township and Son Loi commune in Binh Xuyen district, the centre has a designed customs clearance capacity of some 530,000 TEUs per year. The investor of the project is the T&Y Superport Vinh Phuc joint stock company, a consortium of the T&T Group and its Singaporean partners – the YCH Group and YCH Holdings Company.

As part of a detailed plan for the development of Vietnam's inland port and logistics centre system to 2020, with a vision to 2030, the centre integrates the functions of a distribution centre (DC) and an inland container depot (ICD). Its first phase is planned to be put into operation in the third quarter of 2022 and Phase 2 in the fourth quarter of 2024.

This will be one of the largest logistics hubs in northern Vietnam, linking industrial zones by road and rail as well as connecting to Hanoi, the Hai Phong International Airport, and China’s Yunnan province, emphasised a representative of T&T Group.

The centre is expected to pave the way for a breakthrough in Vietnam's logistics, towards the goal of cutting logistics cost to about 16 – 20 percent of the GDP and raising the ratio of the sector's contribution to the GDP to 5 – 6 percent by 2025.

According to the World Bank’s 2020 data, logistics cost in Vietnam was about 20.9-25 percent of GDP. Meanwhile, the figures for Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore were 19 percent, 13 percent, and 8 percent, respectively.

Also at the ceremony, the T&T Group presented Vinh Phuc with 100,000 COVID-19 rapid test kits worth 5 billion VND as a donation to the local response to the pandemic./.