Container transport by river - Sea hybrid vessel in the North of Vietnam

THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 557 Container transport by river - sea hybrid vessel in the North of Vietnam Duong Van Bao Vietnam Maritime University, baodv@vimaru.edu.vn Abstract The volume of goods transported by containers through the ports of Vietnam is increasing rapidly. Along with the merchandise export and import, the increase in container quantity in inland transportation is causing the high pressure on the road system in the country. This research proposes solutions to transport inland container by the river-sea hybride vessels for the provinces in the North of Vietnam in order to reduce the overload situation for the road transport system and to promote the advantages of inland waterway transportation system available in Vietnam, in general, and in the North, in particular. Keywolds: River-sea hybride transport, inland waterway transport, river-sea hybrid vessel, container, inland container depot, container terminal. 1. Introduction Since 2010, the amount of commodity through the ports of Vietnam, in general, and port of Haiphong, in particular, has increased by nearly 19% annually. Cargo volume through the port of Haiphong was estimated at nearly 80 million tons in 2015, in which goods transported by containers accounted for over 55% [7]. While cargo volume continued to increase, the systems of roads, especially roads, railways, almost were unchanged. The inevitable consequence of this situation is that traffic congestion occurs frequently. Furthermore, the road system is not only downgraded but also often overloaded. Therefore, traffic accidents occur continuously, which cause significant damage to both people and property. Recently, Haiphong - Hanoi highway has been officially put in use, but too high fee can hardly attract traffic participants, especially container transportation [5]. With the deterioration of the road network and increasing fees, containerized shipping costs tend to go up gradually which are restricting the competitiveness not only of goods transportation, but also of the service of Vietnam logistics compared to other countries in the region. In order to reduce transport costs for containerized cargo inland and improve the sector's competitiveness of logistics, the transport system has to make significant progress or needs to coordinate among maritime transportation, inland water transportation and other modes as well as have a connection between Haiphong port and the local industrial zones in the North. Thereby, pressure on road transport can decrease, which makes a contribution to reduce transportation costs and improve the competitiveness of the logistics in the region. 2. Content 2.1. Modes of transport Theoretically, there are five modes of merchandise transportation. Each mode with its own advantages and drawbacks can be only used in some certain conditions [3]. Transport by road is the most common mode in transporting goods and passengers. Its outstanding advantage is the flexibility, which represents the transporting capability with any volume of products, and any destination. However, its main drawback is relatively high costs, especially the costs of long distance - goods transportation. Due to the limitation of road infrastructure system, the transport by road has been influenced by the characteristics of different areas such as mountainous areas and wetlands [1]. Air transport has recently developed rapidly. The amount of goods transported by air has increased by an annual average of nearly 10% and mainly in the region of Europe and THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 558 North America [2]. Its notable advantage is high speed of delivery goods to different continents, where road transport is not available, for example from Asia to America, Australia, or New Zealand. Nonetheless, air transport also has its own disadvantage, which is its investment cost. It makes the cost of transportation by airways be the highest among the modes of transport. Air transport can be used efficiently when it is coordinated with other modes of transport like road transports and rail transport [3]. Railway transport is popular in the large countries and regions. According to a number of studies, railway transport’s efficiency has been indicated clearly in long distances transportation (the minimum distance is over 200 km). This mode has been used for the huge amount of goods, but its transportation cost is very high compared with road transport. It could be explained due to the construction cost of railway systems. Moreover, the flexibility of railways has been limited. Hence, the coordination of railways and roadways supporting the consolidation for airways or seaways will bring highly economical efficiency for the whole transportation systems in each country [3]. Waterways include seaways and inland waterways. Regarding to seaways transport, its outstanding advantage is transporting variety of goods, especially oversized, and overweight products. Additionally, the investment cost is not high, mainly paid for harbour construction and vessels. Fairway system and basic routes are created based on the natural conditions, so the cost of sea transports is relatively low. However, sea transport still has some drawbacks, such as low-speed transportation and natural effect. Therefore, it should be combined with other modes of transport to take its advantages of delivering products by vessels. Along with the development of sea transport, inland waterway transport is related to how to delivery goods on rivers, lakes, canals or costal areas, which are located on the main ways. As well as sea transport, inland waterways transport has major advantages in utilizing natural conditions. The volume of goods transported in this mode is huge and various with bulky size. Although the transportation cost by inland waterways is not high, this mode depends on natural conditions, weather, flows and other artificial conditions. Transport by pipeline is only used for liquid in short distances, so its applicability is not popular, as its cost is quite high due to the pipe construction, and pumping equipment. However, in comparison with road and railway transport, the cost of this mode is much lower. In order to overcome the weaknesses, and take advantage of each mode of transport, the modes should be combined synchronously under a contract and the uniform responsibility, which is called as multi-modal transport [8]. This mode is currently used widely not only in Vietnam but also in many countries all over the world. As a result, the quality of door-to-door transportation services has been increasing significantly to satisfy the demands of customers. Table 1. Advantages and disadvantages of modes of transport No. Mode of transport Initial investment cost Types of transportation goods Transportation cost 1 Roadways Relatively high Small volume High 2 Railways High Medium Volume Medium 3 Airways Very high Small volume, high value The highest 4 Waterways Low Large volume, bulky size The lowest 5 Pipeline Medium Liquid Medium Source: Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers [8] THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 559 Thus, most of land areas, international and inland water areas are utilized to transport goods from place to another place inside and outside the country. However, transporting goods from one point of inland to other regions has not taken advantages of the combination between the costal waters and rivers and lakes systems. Therefore, in order to solve the problem above, river-sea hybrid vessels are mentioned as one type of vessels that operate on the ocean, and go into inland through estuaries. River-sea hybrid transport is a new mode, especially in coordination with other modes to transport containers. The river-sea hybrid transport takes advantage of not only sea transport such as: large volume, bulky size, low cost; but also inland waterways transport such as going deeply into mainland, and to consolidation places like river ports connected with dry ports. Dry ports, and inland ports are areas to collect, pack goods in containers before transporting by river-sea hybrid vessels to costal areas, and international hubs. 2.2. The current situation of container transport in the North The northern area includes the provinces from Thanh Hoa to North pole of Vietnam, basing on three fundamental axis that is Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh - Ha Noi. The volume of cargoes through the port of Hai Phong increases rapidly with an average speed of 18.9 % per year [4]. Figure 1. Cargo throughput the port of Hai Phong (2011 - 2015) With nearly 80 million tons of cargoes through the port of Haiphong in 2015 [7], in which about 55% are containers with approximately 3.0 million TEUs/year. Among them, there are nearly 65% containers are transported by road to and from port of Haiphong, the rest is delivered by other forms [6]. Notably, containers transported by inland waterways account for over 15% mainly on Quang Ninh - Hai Phong route; while containers transported on other routes are still limited even if those routes have advantages of transport by inland waterway [5]. Most of cargoes are transported by road, causing the result that the density freight car on the highway connecting to the provinces is on increase. Currently, there are about 17 to 18 thousands vehicles per day circulating on Highway No 5, in which, container trucks account for 13.5%, causing pressure on the road system which is being degraded. Besides, the congestion THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 560 and traffic accidents, and environmental pollution are urgent matter to the society. Moreover, fees, other charges are also burdens on shippers while services quality tends to decrease. Figure 2. The proportion of container transported by modes of transports Highway No 5B has just been completed and come into use, but due to relatively high toll fee charged on a 40 - feet container truck from Hai Phong - Ha Noi about 760.000 VND/one turn, pushing up freight rates so that it has not attracted to the transporting companies [4]. Thus, it could be seen that the container transport by road in Vietnam, in general, and in the North, in particular is dominated with high proportion. Although the quantity of cargoes transported by road is relatively low, but the freight is the highest, in comparison with other countries in the region. The inland waterway transport has the potential and the advantages, however, it has not been invested appropriately. That leads to the proportion of cargoes transported by inland waterway, especially containerized cargo, is relatively low, which could not help lessening the burden on the road. 2.3. Reasons The underlying causes leading to the imbalance between inland waterway transport and road transport in The North as follows: 1. Although potential of inland waterway transport is very high, it has not been taken full advantages and most containers are still transported by road. Firstly, the reasons are the habit of cargo owners and their small - scale of volumes, which not promotes the waterway transport. More over, the transport system has not been developed so that the connection between the industrial areas and the river ports has been fairly limited, leading to the result that enterprises have no choice other than road transport. 2. The second reason is that the water transport system in the North is still limited. Most of the rivers are shallow, and channels are not deep enough to serve large vessels, especially in dry season. Currently, there are few of river estueries having suitable channel depth for vessels. The significant characteristics of main routes have been shown in the below table 2. 3. The river port system includes over 40 ports in the North, but most of them were built over 30 years ago, and are in degradation. The channel depth into ports reaches only 1m; causing difficulties to many vessels, especially river - sea hybrid container vessels. In addition, to the restriction of channel condition, river ports have not been equipped for handling containers, or equipped with low productivity and unsafe facilities. Most river ports, which were built earlier, are not suitable and comprehensive with the development planning of industrial zones in locals nowadays. Although, there are solutions to consolidate dry ports for industrial zones but the connection between inland port systems and river ports is limited. THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 561 It restricts the advantages of the inland waterway transport system through the connection with the river ports and in land container depots (ICD) [4]. Table 2. Some features of channel of the northern river ports No River-sea hybrid transport rout Current Status Draught (m) Vessel size (DWT) 1 Van Gia 0,8 400 Shallow 2 Chanh River 2,8 1500 - 3 Nam Trieu 1,0 1500 Shallow 4 Tra Ly 1,6 1000 - 5 Lach Giang 1,0 600 Shallow 6 Day 3,8 3000 - Source: Water transport planning for the Northern economic zone, Ministry of Transport [5] 4. Means of transport for containers are fairly limited. The means of transport on inland waterways are now mostly self-propelled vessels with low tonnage (from 150 to 500 tons) and most of them are old, in a state of degradation, and liquidation waiting list [4]. Recently, some river - sea hybrid vessels with the tonnage up to 3000 DWT has been used to transport for connecting the coastal provinces from the North to the South. The initial results have shown that that form of transport has promoted its advantages. In particular, the freight of Haiphong - Thanhhoa route is only about 30% compared to the road one; however, the former delivery time is 12 hours longer than the latter. Since equipment for handling cargo at the port has not been upgraded, the time for handling is extended [5]. Consequently, total transport time is lengthened. 2.4. Solutions In order to promote the advantages of inland waterway and lessen the pressure on road transport system, inland waterway and sea - river transport development in the Northern region is based on the following recommendations: a. Establishing high - speed sea - river fleets for the route Quangninh, Bacninh, Bacgiang, Hanoi, Haiphong, Thaibinh, Namdinh, Ninhbinh, Thanhhoa. Ministry of Transport needs to form the detailed plan and well implement the master plan to create main high - speed transport route with sea - river vessels from 60 to 250 TEUs, or 500 to 2500 DWT equivalent, in order to establish the container transport that connects industrial zones to international gateway port of Hai Phong [2]. The planned routes need synchronizing with water transport facilities, irrigation construction and fishery resources in these routes. Stable shipping schedules in the routes are necessary to offer high quality and customer-attracted transport services. b. Channel system On the basis of the planned transport routes, channel system is required to invest to upgrade accordingly in order to assure safe movement of vessels. Because of quick sedimentation in Viet Nam river system in general, and the river system in the North, as well as limited upstream water flow (hydroelectric power plants), in and out channels at the river mouths are restricted. The channel depth (table 2) is only suitable for 400 to 1000 DWT vessels to move in the high tide. Regarding to promoting the inland waterway transport, channel systems need dredging and maintaining for at least 1500 DWT vessels in order to achieve efficiency. The river mouths that need dredging are Cua Day [4] (connects to Ninh THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 562 Phuc port - a major port for Ninh Binh and north Thanh Hoa area), Lach Giang (connects to Tan De port – central area of three provinces Thai Binh, Nam Dinh and Ha Nam). Figure 3. The major sea - river transport routes in the North of Vietnam The river mouths Van Uc, Bach Dang and Song Chanh are currently in good condition, however in order to assure sea-river vessels’ access to Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh industrial zones, the river parts in Chi Linh, Kinh Mon, Dap Cau areas have dredged to maintain the depth from 2,8 to 3,5 meters [5]. In that case, container transport by sea-river vessels to the ports could reach economic efficiency. c. River port development and upgrade Although river port system plan was enforced by Ministry of Transport, the plan mostly mentioned the general cargo terminal, coal terminal and several other cargoes. Plan for container terminal was not available. Of course, there are no container-specialized river ports, it is essential to have the ports that are able to deploy container handling equipment. The river ports need constructing on the basis of closed connection and synchronization with industrial zones and inland clearance depots (ICD), inland consolidation centers. Therefore, ports, industrial zones and ICD could be connected via the road transport system [5]. The new constructed ports should be designed to have 3000 DWT vessels access capability and container-specialized handling equipment. In short - term, the ports that have not yet served container vessels, need back-up plan of terminal structure, space requirement. In the case that having sufficient conditions and container cargoes, the expansion and upgrade would be eased and facilitated. Therefore, long-term development of the port system is secured [6]. d. Fund raising and spending In order to develop sea - river fleets, channel system and ports system supporting container transport in North region synchronously, necessary investment is tremendous. It is impossible to fund this investment by only government budget. Therefore, government is required to create the proper mechanism for promoting all possible social resources. Three sources that may help to raise fund for the North area to be generalized for the whole nation, as the following: The first: fund can be raised from the investors and firms through privatization and equitization. The sectors that raise the fund from private investors are the ones that do not require large investment, but flexible and efficient investment management, such as fleets, terminals. Equitization of inland waterway transport companies is essential and should implement as soon as possible. The government should withdraw 100% or just keep a low percentage but not dominant level. The investors have all rights to manage the investment to develop the fleets according to the approved plan. Moreover, investment from private investors could also be attracted via privatization or equitization of river ports in the THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 563 government’s approved plan. The second, the fund from the government’s budget, the special budget for the area to develop economies of difficult areas in Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh provinces could be spent to dredge Cua Day and Lach Giang channel. This is the area that does not require much effort to dredge but the container transport is high. In addition, container transport in this route is more economic than others, vessels’ capacity is relatively big (36 to 120 TEUs), while road transport from those locations to international gateway Lach Huyen port is quite limited. The third, ODA is the fund raising channel for infrastructure development that is committed by Japan, China, the Netherland, and Belgium for Vietnam. The mentioned governments are experienced and developed at inland waterway development as well as container transport by coastal line vessels. On principle, ODA funding is combined with the partners to join the dredging, may collaborate with Private - Public Partnership model (PPP) or be operated under socialization mechanism BOT. As this method, the government open the bid of river parts that need dredging, part of investment is funded by the contractors and ODA. The soil and sand that is dredged from the river, belongs to the contractors and they could sell it and collect fee from the vessels move through the dredged river. 3. Conclusion Transportation is a service industry which plays a role in determining the economic growth of each country. Each type of transport has its own advantages and disadvantages but the waterway transport is more and more popularly used to carry cargos, including container transportation. The North Economic Zones has rather quick growth rate and also causes pressure on the road transport system, which is downgraded and overloaded; therefore it greatly impacts on the national economic development. River-Sea hybrid transport, which is new mode of transport not only in Vietnam but also in the world, is applying and developing in Vietnam and The North Economic Zones. Proposing the River - Sea hybrid transport by container in the North contributes to diminishing for the road system. Therefore, the development of River-Sea hybrid transport fleet for container transport is the right way and brings many economic benefits to carriers and goods owners. In order to develop the container transport fleet, the government should have policies and plans for synchronically developing between industrial areas, inland waterway port system, inland container depots and traffic network that both impulses transport activities and contributes to reduce transport prices, thereby it can encourage the economic development in the North of our country. References [1]. TS. Dương Văn Bạo (2013). Giao nhận vận tải quốc tế. NXB Hàng hải, Hải Phòng; [2]. PGS.TS Dương Văn Bạo (2016). Nghiên cứu phát triển đội tàu sông pha biển vận tải container ven biển Việt Nam. Đại học Hàng hải Việt Nam. [3]. PGS.TS Phạm Văn Cương (2010). Quản lý khai thác tàu. NXB Kỹ thuật, Hà Nội; [4]. Báo cáo tổng kết năm 2015 của cục Đường thủy. Bộ Giao thông vận tải. [5]. /asset_publisher/Q3vNsTWHXMFb/content/cach-nao-tang-gap-oi-van-tai-uong-song- pha-bien- [6]. tai-duong-thuy-noi-dia.html. [7]. [8]. Institue of Chartered Shipbroker (2012), Logisitics and Multimodal Transport, London. THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 564 What does Vietnam gain and lose from Trans - Pacific Partnership? Do Thi Mai Thom Vietnam Maritime University, domaithom@gmail.com Abstract This paper analyzes what Vietnam gains and loses from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The most benefit that Vietnam achieves is rapid economy boost from exports since Vietnam is an exporting country. In contrast, Vietnam encounters with tough competition with other 11 countries, intellectual property issue and reorganization to adapt with TPP. By taking part in TPP, Vietnam has a comparative advantage of labor intensive industries such as garment and assembly industries; however, agriculture and seafood industries have difficulties in competition in the short term. In the long term, workers’ wages will be increased significantly. Keywords: TPP, benefits, market, industry, competitiveness, GDP, export. Before going into a depth analysis of the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s influence on Vietnam’s economy, we need to clearly understand what the Trans-Pacific Partnership means. According to Bloomberg, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, referred to as TPP, is the biggest trade agreement that eliminates estimated 18,000 tariffs among 12 Pacific Rim countries including the United States. Even though this trade agreement has been negotiated for 5 years and signed on February 4th 2016, it has not been ratified yet because some signatory countries’ governmental officials, such as the United States, still do not approve TPP. After reading about the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, I am having a big question: How a small country, such as Vietnam, becomes one of the biggest winners from TPP according to Bloomberg? This paper focuses on analyzing how Vietnam, a small developing country, is affected by TPP. In order to analyze its impact, I will firstly demonstrate the pros and cons of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The biggest advantage of the agreement is to create a trade bloc. It encourages free trade between the United States and countries around the Pacific Ocean by eliminating a large number of tariffs. In addition, consumers in those 12 countries are taking a huge advantage from TPP of buying a variety of high-quality products at a cheaper price. TPP also increases protections for patents, trademarks and copyrights, which cause a barrier for the export of Vietnam’s products, especially intellectual property since Vietnam’s government has no responsibility for the piracy control. On the other hand, TPP causes an income equality since the large, developed countries only produce high-value products while small developing countries mainly make cheaper goods. Last but not least, the governments of all 12 countries have to make changes in their financial regulations and economic policies, which is not easy to do in a short period of time Benefits of Vietnam from the Trans-Pacific Partnership According to the observatory of economic complexity (OEC), Vietnam exported $165 billion dollars in 2014, becoming the 28th largest exporter in the world. Over the last 5 years, the exporting rate of Vietnam has been increasing at an annualized rate of 21.1% (Simoes 1). As reported by the World Bank, the gross domestic product (the GDP of Vietnam) was $186.2 billion in 2014. By a comparison between the value of exports and GDP of Vietnam in 2014, exports contribute more than 89% of the national GDP. As we can see, Vietnam’s economy is export - oriented. That’s why Vietnam is one of the countries that gains the most benefits from TPP. According to the WTO Trade Profiles 2012, Vietnam’s trade - to - GDP ratio from 2009 to 2011 was 158%, ranked the third position among TPP countries (Williams, THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 565 pg.25). Garment and seafood industries will get the most benefits from TPP because Vietnam becomes the 3rd largest seafood and the 8th largest garment exporter (based on 2015 data from Statista). With a coastline of more than 3000 kilometers, it is not surprised that Vietnam has a comparative advantage of fishing. The value of seafood exports has continuously increased from $5.8 Million in 1997 to $5.8 Billion in 2015 collected by Wordatlas.com. Besides that, the United States and Japan, which are also members of TPP, become the two largest fish importers of Vietnam. This creates a big opportunity to promote the seafood production as well as strengthen cooperation and development between Vietnam and developed countries. Because of an extensive number of low-skilled labors, the garment industry is significantly growing. As stated in the World Bank data, in 2014, the population of Vietnam is close to 91 million people, and the GDP per capita was 2,052.3 US dollars, ranked the 20th in a group of ASEAN countries (The World Bank, 1). It shows that Vietnam has abundance of cheap and low - skilled labors, which is compatible for the industries, specifically the garment industry, seeking for a high demand of cheap labors. According to the factor price equalization theorem, the labor wages in Vietnam will increase, which benefits Vietnamese workers in the long run. Stated by 2014 data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), Vietnam exported $26.4 billion in textile and approximately $15 billion in footwear and headwear (Simoes 1). These numbers are impressive for a small country like Vietnam. It proves that Vietnam textile industry has potentials to develop and attract attention from investors. In accordance with Xinhua News, foreign investment in Vietnam’s textile and garment sector is increasing rapidly as international firms from China, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States, and Japan seek to take advantage of benefits the country will potentially derive when the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement comes into being (Yang 1). Analysts expect that after the post-TPP period, with a large demand of textile plus zero-value tariffs, the value of textile exports from Vietnam will fast grow. For example, the United States current tariffs on garment and textile products is 17%. As TPP is approved, the tariffs on Vietnamese products will come down to zero. This leads to an increase in Vietnamese garment exports to America. As predicted, the garment exports to US could grow from $8.6 billion in 2013 to $20 billion in 2020. Further more, Vietnam’s economy will significantly boost from foreign investment flows into Vietnam because the involvement of free trade with the United States and other 10 Pacific Rim countries is very attractive to the investors. After the Trans-Pacific Partnership is ratified, there are more new factories built and foreign manufacturing companies moved to Vietnam because of tariff elimination towards other TPP countries and cheap labor cost. In fact, many well-known manufacturing and technology companies, such as Samsung, LG, and recently Microsoft have closed their factories and facilities in China and moved production line to Vietnam. According to Nikkei Asian Review, Vietnam is becoming a device production hub: Samsung Electronics of South Korea spends $4 billion to boost the production capacity of its plant by the end of 2015, and LG group opened a new $1.5 billion factory in Vietnam (Tomiyama 1). Expanding production line in Vietnam not only boosts Vietnam’s national gross domestic product, increase exports but also creates more jobs for Vietnamese workers. In the long run, Vietnamese workers will gain benefits from TPP as the minimum wage will increase. On the other hand, it also causes negative influences on the development of Vietnam domestic manufacturing industry because of intense competition. It can’t be denied that with low-skilled labors, lack of investments, and poor technology, Vietnam cannot compete with the United States, Japan, and China about manufacturing industries as automobiles, aircrafts, and so on. It is true to say that Vietnam does have brand names, but they’re typically in the Vietnamese language, which is difficult for Americans and others to read and remember. THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 566 Besides that, products made by Vietnam is unable to reach to global market because of complicated product safety requirements. In other words, Vietnamese workers are better at assembling goods rather than inventing them. Before TPP is executed, Vietnam manufacturing industry need to change and pay more attention to the quality of products in order to compete in global market as well as stand strong before the invasion of cheaper foreign goods into Vietnam market, espcially cellphones and automobiles. Not only the manufacturing industry but also the agriculture industry is expected to struggle. As I mentioned above, Vietnam is abundant in labors, which is not compatible with agriculture industry because it requires less labor but more land. In addition, Vietnam is only 127,244 square miles that is even smaller than California. After TPP is approved, there will be an increase in agricultural products imported from the US to Vietnam since the United States has a comparative advantage of producing cheaper agricultural products. What is more, outdated technology, poor quality of products, as well as bad management in quality control, production, and resources are primary reasons that Vietnam is impossible to win this competition. There is no surprise that Vietnamese agricultural products always meet difficulties in exporting to the United States because only a small number of products are met standard requirements of USDA. Besides that, outdated technology causes limitation in productivity while management in production is disorganized. In the short run, Vietnam’s agriculture industry will be negatively affected because of tough competition, low-quality products, and excess supply. On the other hand, this industry might be improved in the long run because the developed countries, such as the US and Japan, could transfer advanced technology to Vietnam as well as help resolve outstanding problems of enviroment and product quality. Since Vietnam’s comparative advantage in manufacturing, Vietnam should have a small agricultural sector because it can import cheap agricultural products from land- abundance countries. Last but not least, the intellectual property is truly a huge problem when Vietnam takes part in TPP. In Vietnam, intellectual property is estimated to be undervalued while the government does not seriously pay attention to this issue. As stated in a report of a well- known Veitnamese economy website, there were only 5 patents registered in the United States from 2006 to 2010. This figure is extremely small when compares with other asian countries like Japanwith 46,139 patents, Korea with 12,262 patents, and China with 3,174 patents (VietNamNet Bridge, pg.1) Why this happened? The main reasons come from lack of the government support, experience, and the weakness in publicity of scientific researches. As a result, most of Vietnamese intellectual products have no patent or are illegally copied from other patents. After joinging WTO, Vietnam has made some rules and laws of intellactual property registration and protection, but those laws are not enough efficient because they are just general policies, not strategic and detailed ones. There is no denying that enforcement of intellectual property plays a very significant role in the growth of Vietnam economy. Therefore, Vietnamese policymakers need to look at this issue seriously unless they will face with consequences of undervaluing intellectual property after the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement becomes effective. Taking everything into consideration, Vietnam gains more than losses from the Trans- Pacific Partnership. The most benefit that Vietnam achieves is rapid economy boost from exports, development of seafood and garment industries, as well as integration to global economy. In contrast, Vietnam encounters with tough competition with other 11 countries, intellectual property issue and reorganization to adapt with TPP. It is time for the governmental officials to support vital sectors by adjusting domestic legal system in line with TPP and improving supporting industries to gain maximum benefits from TPP. In my opinion, it is a good opportunity for Vietnam to promote its current sluggish economy. Do you think Vietnam’s economy achieve a big change from TPP? THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2016 HỘI NGHỊ QUỐC TẾ KHOA HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀNG HẢI 2016 567 References [1]. Boudreau, John. The Biggest Winner from TPP Trade Deal May Be Vietnam. Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 8 Oct. 2015. Web. 19 May 2016. [2]. Leading 15 Textile Exporters Worldwide in 2014, by Country | Statistic. Statista. Web. 19 May 2016. [3]. Over 9,000 Professors, Why Does Vietnam Not Have Patents?. News Vietnam Net. 15 July 2012. Web. 19 May 2016. [4]. The Challenges of Vietnam Agriculture. News Vietnam Net. 13 Oct. 2015. Web. 19 May 2016. [5]. TOMIYAMA, ATSUSHI. Cheap Labor: Vietnam Becoming Device Production [7]. Hub- Nikkei Asian Review. Nikkei Asian Review. 16 July 2015. Web. 19 May 2016. [6]. Vietnam. OEC. Web. 19 May 2016. [7]. Vietnam Home. The World Bank. Web. 19 May 2016. [8]. Williams, Brock R. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Countries: Comparative Trade and Economic Analysis. Rep. no. 42344. Congressional Research Service, 10 June 2013. 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