On December 25, Mr. Tran Van Lau - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Soc Trang province - chaired a meeting with departments, branches and consulting units related to the draft report on proposed research mechanisms, preferential policies, investment support and exploitation of Tran De Port.
To attract investors to Tran De Port, a representative of the consulting unit under the Ministry of Transport has proposed that Soc Trang province submit a plan to the Central Government to establish the Tran De Free Trade Zone associated with this seaport.
The proposed commercial zone has an estimated scale of about 40,000 hectares, including a production area, logistics center, trade - service area and other types of functional areas as prescribed by law; established to pilot mechanisms and policies aimed at attracting investment, finance, trade, tourism and high-quality services.
In discussions with the consulting unit and departments, Chairman of the People's Committee of Soc Trang province Tran Van Lau said that the proposal to establish the Tran De Free Trade Zone with an area of 40,000 hectares is too small and needs to be further studied and expanded because it could become overloaded and become a bottleneck in the future.
According to the leader of the People's Committee of Soc Trang province, implementing research to propose specific policies and mechanisms to encourage and support investment and exploitation of Tran De Port is one of the important tasks to attract investors as well as ensure effective exploitation of the port, contributing to the completion of the set goals.
Therefore, the consulting unit needs to redefine the roadmap, process and receive comments from relevant departments, branches and sectors before finalizing the project because this is an important legal basis for the province to propose to competent authorities for consideration.
According to the Master Plan for the development of Vietnam's seaport system for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050 approved by the Prime Minister, Soc Trang seaport is classified as a type III seaport, belonging to group 5 seaports, with the potential to become a special seaport when forming a gateway port for the Mekong Delta region at Tran De.
The consulting unit proposed a total preliminary investment of nearly VND154,000 billion for the port's completion with the option of sand being exploited at the mine and VND186,345 billion for the option of sand being purchased at market prices. The port has the capacity to receive general cargo ships, container ships with a capacity of 100,000 DWT or larger, bulk cargo ships of 160,000 DWT, etc.
