Economists are troubled about the Ho Chi Minh City Port Authority's recent plan to relocate the Saigon Commercial Port away from the city.

The Viet Nam Sea Port Association (VPA) plans to give priority to 30 sea ports to renovate and upgrade wharves narrow passages, warehouses, and unloading equipment until 2010.

The Region 2 Search and Rescue Centre in Danang City received the newly built SAR-274 ship on October 13, 2004. The vessel was built by the Haiphong -based Song Cam Shipyard under a coperation programme between the Vietnamese and Dutch governments.

3.6 billion dollars will be poured into the southern coastal province of Khanh Hoa to turn Van Phong Bay into a major international transit port by 2020, local authorities announced Friday.

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is expected to present the Prime Minister with a petition urging the government not to sanction the design and layout of a new seaport complex in southern Vietnam.

The Ministry of Communications and Transport has sent the Prime Minister a document about a detailed plan for ports in the southern key economic zone, saying that HCM City's ports will be move closer to the sea in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province after 2010. The zone comprises HCM City, and Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces.

Ho Chi Minh City aims to complete its plan of relocating its sea port system by 2020 now that the overloaded ports have been blaimed as the main cause of traffic congestion in the city.

All staffs and the transportation facilities operators of Saigon Port must seriously execute the collection of road fees when traveling through the toll collection stations located on Nguyen Tat Thanh - Huynh Tan Phat street.

The Bong Sen (Lotus) joint venture company has sent a petition to Ho CHi Minh City authorities demanding that the collection of tolls on Huynh Tan Phat Street be stopped. They also asked that the roof of toll-gate No 2 be torn down so that it will not impede tall vehicles passing under it.

Million of dollars have been invested by the country's transport industry in upgrading the infrastructure of seaports, but a lack of foresight in certain cases has led to inadequate improvements and thus a waste of investment.