*2.1. Overview of Vietnam's Logistics*

Vietnam's logistics industry has been heavily affected by the pandemic in all forms of transport: road, sea, rail, and especially air.

Road traffic: According to the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, currently more than 1800 km of expressways are in operation; 16,000 km of roads and nearly 600,000 km of national highways. The system of rural roads has been built, upgraded, and expanded [3]. This helps meet the needs of the freight transport of domestic and foreign enterprises, promoting production and business development and, thereby, improving competitiveness of the economy (proportion of road types shown in Figure 2) [4].

**Figure 2.** Proportion of road types in Vietnam (Vietnam Logistics Report 2020).

In Vietnam, domestic road freight transport still accounts for the highest proportion of all modes of transport (76.8% in 2019) (weight of goods transported by road shown in Figure 3). Meanwhile, the cost of transporting goods by road is still high, because about 70–75% of vehicles carry only one-way goods; the high costs of road use and fuel increase logistics costs dramatically [4].

**Figure 3.** Weight of goods transported by road (Million tons) (Vietnam Logistics Report 2020).

Railway transport: The railway system in Vietnam includes 7 main lines and 12 branch lines with a total length of 3143 km, stretching across 34 provinces and cities. The railway system includes 277 stations, including 3 types of gauges: 1000 mm gauge (85%), 1435 mm gauge (6%), and cage gauges of 1000 mm and 1435 mm (accounting for 9%). The railway density is about 7.9 km/1000 km2. Vietnam's railway system was built a long time ago. The infrastructure is outdated with no modern technology; the trains are loud and of low service quality. Therefore, the proportion of passenger and freight transport by rail is lower than that of other forms of transport (weight of goods transported by railway shown in Figure 4) [4]. The railway industry has not kept up with the development of other modes of transport. The railway industry focuses on exploiting short segments, from 800 km to 1200 km, and places where it has more advantages than sea routes [4].

**Figure 4.** Weight of goods transported by railway (thousand tons) (Vietnam Logistics Report, 2020).

Sea transport: With the advantage of geographical location, Vietnam is located on an important sea route for continents and regions in the world. This favorable condition for domestic and international transportation of goods has led to development of the shipping industry to promote economic development. In 2019, the transport volume reached 49.2 million tons of goods (weight of goods transported by seaway shown in Figure 5); 43,150 ferry boats used seaports and inland waterways and average growth rate of goods reached 204% (from July 2014 to 2019) [4].

Inland waterway transport: In 2019, inland waterway freight transport in Vietnam reached 303.4 million tons with an increase of 5.6%. In the first 9 months of 2020, inland waterway cargo transport reached 238.1 million tons with a decrease of 7.6% over the same period in 2019 (weight of goods transported by inland waterways shown in Figure 6). As of 2020, there are a total of 1786 VR-SB-class vehicles in operation, of which 839 are cargo vehicles with a tonnage of 1,742,834 tons, accounting for 0.5% of inland waterway vehicles [4].

**Figure 5.** Weight of goods transported by seaway (million tons) (Vietnam Logistics Report 2020).

**Figure 6.** Weight of goods transported by inland waterways (million tons) (Vietnam Logistics Report 2020).

Air traffic: As of 2020, there are a total of 22 airports in Vietnam with civil aviation operations, including 11 international airports and 11 domestic airports. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, as of the first quarter of 2020, Vietnam has 235 registered civil aircraft and 32 helicopters [4].

Although air transport only accounts for a small part of the total volume of goods transported in Vietnam (0.23%), it accounts for 25% of the total export value of the country (weight of goods transported by airline shown in Figure 7) [4]. This is a feature that should be taken into account when planning development. It is necessary to orient investment in aviation infrastructure to increase the service capacity of airports and shorten the time for cargo services.

**Figure 7.** Weight of goods transported by airline (thousand tons) (Vietnam Logistics Report 2020).
