Satisficing Strategy in Development of a Port System: Viet Nam Case Study

The role of Viet Nam port system increases in simultaneously with its economic development. Although it has had attention and investment from the government since 1990s, it has been still facing with some problems such as congestion in ports and unbalance among ports, and meeting limitations such as geographic conditions, budgets and technologies. Actually, development of a national economy in generally and that of port system in particularly are influenced by many factors and affected mutually. Obviously, the transportation and port systems significantly affect on economy, so they should be paid much attention. Consequently, an overview of ASEAN, Indochina and particular Viet Nam economies is presented, which shows why Viet Nam should be focused on developing its port system. Recently, Viet Nam as well as ASEAN trade has been grown up so remarkably. As a result, Viet Nam transportation demands have been and will be increased, particularly on the maritime transport. Due to Viet Nam geography, port system has been considered as a vital aspect of national transport infrastructure in generally and most important one of maritime transport in particularly. Consequently, a classification of Viet Nam ports would give a deep look on inside aspect and container ports would be mentioned as one of the key project in the future. Actually, port system is a dynamic subject and government policies for development have been updated continuously. A strategic master plan to develop Viet Nam port system until 2010 and targets to 2040, which was issued in 1999, and then up-to-dated master plan issued in 2009 would be reviewed. It would show changes of Viet Nam port system on many aspects such as demands, capacities, and policies. Correspondingly, the transportation planning process would be introduced, which incorporates analysis of business and input from the business community. Consequently, the satisficing strategy for port development would be defined and the reasons why it should be applied for Viet Nam port development would be presented. Sequent theories of interested strategies would be reviewed, which have been applied in many successful port systems in the world. They promise to bring much contribution when making a plan for development of Viet Nam port system. Obviously, many gravitational forces have impacts on Viet Nam port system, which force Viet Nam ports have to change, evolve or die. Responsively, the master plan has been modified to meet up-to-dated requirements. City ports especially in Ho Chi Minh City should be relocated outside to suitable location(s). In addition, strategies to enhance them should be studied and implemented, in which container ports should be paid much attention. Development of Dry Port system, transshipment ports and/or logistics activity zones such as ZALs, Distriparks and/or FTZz is considered as efficient and effective alternatives. Furthermore, other successful and interested strategies applying in developing port systems in the world should be studied and implemented for Viet Nam port system. And also Viet Nam should cooperate with other partners or countries such as the Republic of Korea, which have developed port systems, to get experience, technology, management system, and budget from them. This research would propose some alternatives in development of Viet Nam ports as a satisficing strategy. Obviously, it could not mention all aspects of Vietnamese ports, but it hopes giving useful ideas or alternatives to enhance and develop an effective, efficient and competitive not only for Viet Nam case but also for other developing countries.CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Roles of transportation and particular port systems in economy 1 1.2 An overview of Viet Nam economy and port systems 4 1.3 Review of strategies to develop port systems 11 1.4 Research Aims and Objectives 13 1.5 Scale and scope 14 1.6 Outlines of the dissertation 14 CHAPTER 2. PROSPECT OF VIET NAM PORT SYSTEM 15 2.1 Viet Nam and ASEAN trade 15 2.2 Classification of Viet Nam ports 25 2.3 Container port system 29 2.4 Strategic master plan 33 2.5 Analysis 38 2.6 Conclusion 41 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGIES 42 3.1 Satisficing strategy 43 3.2 Quick evaluation of port systems 50 3.3 Containerization and transshipment ports 60 3.4 Dry port system 65 3.5 ZALs, Distriparks, FTZs and FAZs. 70 3.6 Other strategies 77 3.7 Conclusions 82 CHAPTER 4. SATISFICING STRATEGY IN DEVELOPMENT OF VIET NAM ... 84 4.1 Impacts of economic development on port system and the ... 84 4.2 Enhancement of container ports 99 4.3 Dry port system 109 4.4 ZALs, Distriparks, and FTZs 120 4.5 Consideration of other strategies 129 4.6 Co-operation strategy in maritime industry: Viet Nam &#8211Korea ... 136 4.7 Conclusions 147 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 148 5.1 Conclusions 148 5.2 Suggestions 149 5.3 Future research 150 REFERENCES 15