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Tien River and Vam Nao, with a very long waterway of about 260 km. Although there
are alternative shorter waterways between HCMC and Can Tho area (e.g. Mang Thit

canal/river and Cho Lach canal, 185 km). However, these alternative routes only allow
to receive small vessels with low cargo tonnage due to limitations on depth, width,
curvature of the channel as well as limitations on static height/width such as bridges,
irrigation works... Additionally, there are too many small ships on the canal system,
leading to traffic congestion problems. Large tonnage ships face many difficulties with
inland waterways due to shallow estuaries and sedimentation. Quan Chanh Bo canal is
built off channel, however, this channel has a limited width and only allows one-way
traffic, seriously affecting the capacity of the channel. On the other hand, inland

waterway ports are mostly small in size and located in densely populated areas, so
expansion may be complicated or impossible (for example in Can Tho). Moreover,
technology and techniques for loading and unloading goods are still outdated, leading
to low capacity and high costs (accounting for about 25% of total logistics costs) that
can only be improved when the goods are accumulated with the large scale. Finally,
although the market share of inland waterway transport is high (approximately 60%),

the main transport items are bulk, low value (construction materials, fertilizers, animal
feed, rice, etc.). The IWT has not been deeply involved in the container transport chain
in the region.
3.2. The inland waterway logistics service of The Mekong Delta region
Nguyen Thi Van Ha and Bui Quy Thuan (2023) indicate that the modes of
transport that businesses use to provide logistics services in the Mekong Delta are
divided into 6 groups: (1) Road transport; (2) Inland waterway transport; (3) Sea

transportation; (4) Air freight; (5) Rail transport; (6) Multimodal transport. In the group
of enterprises providing logistics services, the proportion of contribution to revenue of
the group of road transport enterprises is the largest (94%), followed by multimodal
freight transport (64%), inland waterway and sea transport (44%) and air transport
(33%). Thus, the survey results show that the freight transport system from the Mekong
Delta to places outside the region is mainly road transport. Assuming that, if this rate is

kept constant and road traffic is not invested quickly, it will be a bottleneck for freight
and community movement.
Figure 3. Transport methods used by enterprises to provide logistics services in the
Mekong Delta

Source: Nguyen Thi Van Ha and Bui Quy Thuan, 2023

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