04 July 2024

Mr. Ngo Khac Le, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Logistics Business Association, said: If the criteria to "green" the logistics industry are not quickly implemented, businesses will face many difficulties in the future and will gradually be eliminated from business operations, trade and import-export domestically and globally.

Dinh Vu Port - Hai Phong

With consumers favoring environmentally friendly products and the trend of transitioning to a greener economy taking place globally, green logistics is increasingly being paid attention to and invested in professionally.

Analysis from trade experts, green logistics is a model that aims to create sustainable value for businesses, simutaneously, balancing the economic efficiency with environmental protection. Specifically, green logistics in the supply chain incorporates environmentally friendly elements into the management and use of equipment to minimize air pollution, noise, and waste.

In addition, green logistics applications in the supply chain help optimize costs and increase transportation efficiency. Accordingly, businesses can deploy green transportation by combining orders in one trip, choosing reasonable traffic routes so that the truck is full of goods in both directions of transportation. Thus, helping to reduce the number of empty or half-loaded trucks on the road, saving fuel and transportation costs and reducing traffic congestion and pollution from the traffic.

Looking at this issue, Mr. Tran Thanh Hai - Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that with the continuous growth of Vietnam's goods export rate and being the leading exporting country in terms of rice, coffee, textiles, footwear, phones and components... have impacted the growth of the logistics industry. Thereby, the demand for international transportation services, domestic transportation and distribution services increases. In particular, Vietnam belongs to the group of countries with strong economic growth expectations but the level of market efficiency is not high, this is a potential characteristic for the development of logistics services in the direction of cost optimization.

However, due to the unbalanced and unsustainable structure of transport services, the proportion of road transport is higher than that of railway, inland waterway, sea and air. Greenhouse gas emissions from Road transport are 21.95 times higher than air transport, 19.94 times higher than sea transport and 245.49 times higher than rail transport.

According to the World Bank (WB), on average each year, transportation activities in Vietnam emit more than 50 million tons of CO2; Of which, road transport accounts for 85% of emissions. This amount of emissions is forecasted to increase by an average of 6-7% per year. At the same time, Vietnam's greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to be much higher than those of developed and developing countries in the world. It is forecasted that CO2 emissions of the transportation industry will reach 60 million tons of CO2 in 2024 and 90 million tons of CO2 in 2030.

Mr. Tran Thanh Hai also pointed out: Green logistics is not only a trend but also a mandatory requirement in the future, so during the implementation process, businesses must face many barriers in terms of awareness as well as motivation to transform. On the contrary, there are businesses that have good awareness but are small in scale and have limited finances, so they cannot invest properly. Furthermore, despite high requirements for environmental friendliness, customers are not willing to spend much on sustainable logistics services.

Similarly, Mr. Luong Hoang Thai - Director of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said: In many developing economies; especially Vietnam, Green logistics is a relatively new concept that is not yet fully and accurately understood. Therefore, clearly understanding the nature and application of green logistics will help businesses improve competitiveness, enhance brand image, towards sustainable and comprehensive development.

In the context of green transformation being a trend and mandatory requirement for businesses, Mr. Ngo Khac Le said that businesses need to change their perception, promote communication and maintain regular companionship with the Government and management agencies, especially specific policies towards tax... In addition, businesses need to exploit well and effectively inland waterway traffic and coastal roads... Thereby, increasing the volume of transporting goods traffic, while also reducing emissions from vehicles. On the other hand, promote innovation, creativity, and digital transformation; Strongly deploy green logistics, smart logistics and logistics to effectively serve the import and export of goods.

As a business in the transportation sector, Mr. Le Thanh Ha, Deputy Director of Vang Freight Forwarding Joint Stock Company, shared that in the current context, if a business does not implement environmental and green logistics criteria, in the future, they will be gradually eliminated from the business and commercial orbit. This is not only a requirement of Vietnam but of the whole world as a common trend.

In particular, Vietnamese businesses are facing great competition from a number of emerging markets and need to pay careful attention to this issue. For example, the textile and garment and footwear sectors lost many orders because businesses in Bangladesh and some European countries used green production technology, requiring waste reduction and high environmental quality.

Mr. Le Son Hieu, Director of Viet An Express International Shipping Company, said that promoting green logistics for comprehensive and sustainable growth is not only a requirement of Vietnam but a general trend of the whole world.Therefore, if businesses really want to exploit the potential of green logistics, businesses need to make strategic investments to both improve their competitiveness and develop a more beautiful and prestigious image and brand. At the same time, optimize routes and manage warehouses by using transportation management software - TMS or software solutions to analyze and optimize routes, helping to reduce unnecessary kilometers.

Emphasizing Vietnam's green action plan until 2030, Mr. Tran Thanh Hai recommended: Businesses need to complete relevant standards, regulations and norms to reduce emissions from transportation and develop logistics. green. On the other hand, promote the transition to transportation and warehouses that use clean, environmentally friendly energy.

At the same time, complete and synchronously deploy fuel quality management solutions and emission standards systems; Transportation infrastructure towards increasing connectivity and multi-modality. Furthermore, businesses need to optimize transportation and warehousing activities, reduce useless traffic; Promote digital government in transportation and build a logistics database. At the same time, synchronously develop the electronic toll collection system without stopping; Install smart traffic management system... for sustainable development of the logistics industry.

Source: TTXVN