Logistical costs in Vietnam have been running triple that of the Republic of Korea (RoK) said Khuat Viet Hung, Vice Chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee on November 13 at a seminar in Hanoi discussing measures to reduce them.  

The most recent official statistics show that transport costs on a per capita basis as a percentage of income in Vietnam and the RoK stood at 0.012% and 0.04% respectively, which has a negative impact on economic growth, Hung added.

Hung pointed out the contradiction that although the price of input fuel has decreased significantly in recent times, transport units have not yet made the proper downward adjustments in the prices charged to consumers.

Hung said transport costs have remained high and unchanged in spite of the fact that petro prices have experienced a continual decline over recent times. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance has requested the Ministry of Transport to strictly co-ordinate to urge local businesses to re-calculate these costs properly.

A  study by the World Bank (WB) in turn reflects that Vietnam’s total transport costs comprised 11.8% of GDP while the figure in the US, Singapore, EU and Japan was significantly lower at 4.5%, 4.8%, 5.8% and 6% respectively. A reduction in the transport costs would make a great contribution to reducing production costs and stimulating economic growth, Hung said, adding it would also have a positive impact on improving people’s living conditions.

A representative from the Vietnam Airlines Group said the group has to compete with more than 30 airlines in the world for market share and the costs of fuel should be allowed to fluctuate as determined by the market.

For the local market, the airline group has adopted a policy to diversify the price of tickets with 7 to 8 price levels for economy class tickets as part of an effort to keep ticket prices more affordable for its customers.

VOV/VNN