Saigon Port has been selected to participate in an APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) project that aims to encourage collaborative eCommerce initiatives within the port community. A recent study by APEC’s Transportation Working Group (TPT-WG) found that the lack of suitable forums for port stakeholders to communicate their views and discuss common problems with each other was a key factor inhibiting the development of eCommerce in many port communities. This project aims to bring together the whole port community with Saigon Port Authority as the coordinator. A Saigon Port Community website and online forum has also been set up at http://saigon.portcommunity.info/vi/.

The objective of this project is to establish an Intra-port Discussion Group at Saigon Port in order to improve information exchange and facilitate collaborative eCommerce initiatives between key port stakeholders. It is expected that this group will evolve into a working committee dedicated to the ongoing improvement of freight processes at Saigon Port. A workshop has been organised for March 1st and 2nd, 2004 at Saigon Port where key issues faced by the Saigon Port Community will be discussed and participants will be encouraged to develop possible solutions collaboratively. Port community members are encouraged to participate in this workshop by contacting:
Mr Ho Kim Lan of Saigon Port on +84 4 9401030.

With the widespread growth of the Internet, eCommerce has now become much more affordable and accessible, creating a great opportunity for the freight industry to streamline the exchange information. One aspect of this opportunity is the replacement of numerous paper documents with electronic documents resulting in benefits such as costs savings, reduced paperwork, better utilisation of staff and warehouses, better quality data, faster consignment clearance, more reliable track and trace facilities, better transparency, more effective customs authority functions and overall improvement in the flow of goods and services through the freight chain.

Tranzteknik Pty Ltd, an Australian consultancy specialising in freight eCommerce and training is managing this project on behalf of APEC. Managing Director, Mr Arnold Miranda said that in many ports, supply chain participants tended to work within silos (confinements) without understanding how their activities affected other stakeholders. eCommerce solutions developed in this environment will only have limited benefit for the individual stakeholder and usually no benefit whatsoever for the rest of the community.

Stakeholders at Saigon Port have adopted an attitude of continuous improvement with their sights set on becoming one of the leading ports in the region. To achieve this goal, it is important to acknowledge the interdependencies between stakeholders and understand how eCommerce and information sharing can benefits all parties involved. Solutions that take into account the big picture and the interests of the whole community are likely to produce more significant improvement in efficiency and effectiveness than isolated systems. This has been demonstrated at ports that developed Cargo Community Systems collaboratively.
Examples include Port Klang (Malaysia), Port of Valparaiso (Chile) and the Finnish Port System (Finland).

All community members are encouraged to visit the Saigon Port Community website and register their company in the online port directory. They may also participate in online discussions with other stakeholder or contact Saigon Port for further information. Mr Miranda congratulated Saigon Port for taking on a leadership role in this project. He encouraged other organisations to support the Discussion Group through active participation. ‘The project is really for the community and all community members are encouraged to contribute to the future of the port’.

Contact:
Arnold Miranda
Tel: +61 2 9587 2736
Mob: +61 403 823638
Email: arnold@tranzteknik.com
Web: www.tranzteknik.com

Saigon Port is the central port serving the economic development of Ho Chi Minh City and the Southern part of Vietnam. With its long history and continued development, Saigon Port has had outstanding achievements in port operations through decades of servicing the large community of port users and stakeholders.

Under the Government policy, Saigon Port should maintain its role as a leading port by developing new facilities and promoting agility to meet the demand of the fast growing local market in tandem with the world economic integration. With the mission to develop and operate deep water ports as main shipping gateways for the Southern part of the country, it is expected that the community of the Port would be wider and more demanding where all stakeholders would strive for more competitiveness. The collaborative approach in addressing and clearing common difficulties and bottlenecks in business operations and cooperatively solving problems faced by community members would undoubtedly promote harmony and sustainable development for all parties involved.

In order to stay competitive and responsive to diversified demand of the new business environment, including the multi modal transport and the more demanding e-logistics environment, Saigon Port is seeking the cooperation of all stakeholders in the community to collaboratively tackle and resolve issues of common interest relating to port services.

With the effective support of Tranztenik Pty Ltd. under the APEC project, the Saigon Port Community Discussion Group has been initiated to specifically respond to the above requirements following APEC policy and standards and with the full support of the Ministry of Transport of Vietnam. In the interest of all the parties in the community, Saigon Port is proud to host the forum with the expectation to actively serve the community better and to promote the port community systems of Vietnam to world standard in the shortest time possible.

With such commitment and aspiration we hereby invite all port users and community stakeholders to public their activities and services on the Saigon Port Community website at http://saigon.portcommunity.info/vi/ and/or http://saigon.portcommunity.info/en/ and be an active member in the Saigon Port Discussion Group.

For more information please contact:
Ho Kim Lan
Tel: 848 9401030
Fax: 848 8263092
E-mail: vpa@hcm.vnn.vn
Website: www.csg.com.vn