Proposal to open ‘green lane’ for waterway transport to consume rice

Open “green lane” for water transport

To be specific, in Official Letter No. 4922/BCT-XNLK signed by Minister Nguyen Hong Dien on August 14th, 2021, reporting to the Prime Minister on the situation of rice and commodity consumption in the southern provinces/cities in the context of Covid-19, stating: To ensure timely consumption of rice and commodity rice for farmers, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has reported to the Prime Minister to consider and assign relevant ministries, branches and localities to deploy several groups of solutions. In which, the group of crucial solutions is to urgently research and open “green lane” for waterway transport.

On that basis, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes to the Prime Minister to consider and assign the Ministry of Transport to be leader, coordinate with the Ministry of Health and relevant ministries, branches and localities to soon develop and report on the "green lane" options for waterway transport, guarantee the requirements of Covid-19 epidemic prevention and control and at the same time relieve the current congestion.

People's Committees of provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta need to quickly direct all levels to create the most favorable conditions possible for merchants operating in the field of rice in general and traders in particular, to travel and purchase directly at the fields; discuss and come to an agreement with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Transport to consider and apply flexibly 2 options:

Option 1: Accept quick tests at the hamlets and communes and register basic information, travel schedule with the state management agency. (The same applies to the workforce loading and unloading rice at the boat).

Option 2: In case the trader agrees to support the provision of quick test kits for checkpoints on the river, when merchant’s boats and barges move through, it is recommended that the staff responsible for the checkpoint conducts the quick tests and stamp the passports for means of transport to save time and move forward.

Other groups of solutions

The Ministry of Industry and Trade also proposed the Prime Minister assign the State Bank of Vietnam to review and direct commercial banks so that they will provide certain support on interest rates for businesses and create conditions for businesses to get mortgage loans with the products they will purchase.

The Ministry of Transport is assigned to be in charge, and coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to work with Saigon Newport Corporation to re-open all troughs as soon as possible to ease the congestion of rice export containers and consider the surcharge fees to facilitate exports in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic because this is one of the main wharves specializing in packing rice by container.

The Ministry of Transport, in coordination with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, will continue to monitor, work and require shipping lines and logistics businesses to be open and transparent about container shipping rates as well as have adjustments on freight rates to a reasonable level to facilitate enterprises’ import and export activities in the current context of the Covid-19 epidemic.

The Ministry of Health is assigned to assume prime responsibility, coordinate with relevant ministries, branches and localities to investigate and come to an agreement on the application of Covid-19 testing measures, then allocate traders to create plans to self-manage the workforce and take responsibility before the law.