The Vietnam Maritime Administration (VMA) has initiated a program of assessing the safety environments in the country's ports and identifying possible solutions in overcoming the limitations posed by existing port infrastructure.
The initiative is being conducted to address any issues affecting the country's ports, particularly issues that could affect visits by large commercial vessels arriving from overseas.
The VMA said cargo vessels operating on Asia-Europe and Asia-North America routes now also include significantly larger ships, which require deeper navigation channels and more stringent infrastructure and safety standards.
Under instructions from the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport, the VMA will now start reviewing safety protocols at local terminals with a focus on those terminals that have been handling vessels that are nominally larger than what their facilities were originally designed to accommodate.
The VMA has been instructed to ensure that any existing shortcomings at the terminals have been rectified before the terminals can be cleared to handle larger vessels.
The initiative will also lead to the drafting of a roadmap for future port upgrades as well as improvements in safety protocols and their implementation.