Some Logistics Development Solutions at Vietnamese Enterprises

 Invest in and build a reasonable and effective warehouse system for the enterprise.

b/ Infrastructure development

Developing infrastructure to develop logistics activities is a prerequisite and immediate direction that freight forwarding enterprises must do. Specifically, enterprises must focus on investing in upgrading seaports, developing the fleet and perfecting maritime services to ensure that by 2010, the Vietnamese fleet will be able to transport 25% of import and export goods by sea and can increase to 35% by 2020. At the same time, seaports must also meet the need to pass through 300 million tons of goods, with deep-water ports and transit ports in 2020. [22]. As for maritime services, enterprises must improve professionalism and service quality, apply information technology, and expand markets to the region and the world.

c/ Human resource development

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For any service business, human resources are the deciding factor for the success of that business in the market. In Vietnam, due to rapid development, the human resources for the logistics market are currently in serious shortage. The staff are mostly non-professionals, who have to improve their skills and expertise during their work. As for the young staff, with university degrees, enthusiasm, and ambition, their international business experience and skills are still low. With the current human resources, businesses cannot meet the conditions to promote the development of logistics activities. Therefore, the plan that businesses must aim for is to establish a training program to improve the skills of all staff, workers, including direct workers (warehouse stevedores, truck drivers, etc.) at three levels: at official training facilities; training according to the association's program; training within the business. From here, a team of staff with specialized knowledge, understanding and experience will be created.

business experience in the international market. At the same time, it is also a factor that creates professionalism for the logistics operating environment to develop and be competitive.

III/ SOME SOLUTIONS FOR LOGISTICS DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAMESE ENTREPRENEURS

Developing logistics activities is inevitable for the freight forwarding service business. To develop and enhance the competitiveness of this service in the integration process, enterprises themselves must make efforts to promote their internal strength. In a fierce environment without state protection, to stand firm, there is no other way but to "be self-reliant". Each enterprise will build for itself a development strategy suitable to its goals and specific conditions, there cannot be a general business plan for all. Within the framework of this thesis, the author would like to propose some solutions that Vietnamese freight forwarding enterprises need to implement to develop their activities and become professional logistics service providers in the near future.

1/ Develop customer service

1.1. Improve customer service quality

The long-term goal for Vietnamese freight forwarding businesses is to become professional logistics service providers to provide customers with an integrated logistics chain. To do that, businesses must first start by perfecting the types of services they are providing to customers - considered a preliminary step of the integrated logistics chain. These are freight forwarding services, domestic transportation and warehousing business...

The common solution to improve service quality is: investing in upgrading and modernizing equipment, expanding existing infrastructure, conducting market research to understand customer needs, orienting target customers to build better service strategies...

Currently, only a few Vietnamese enterprises have initially implemented business and issued multimodal transport bills of lading. Issuing multimodal transport bills of lading is a core condition to become a real logistics service provider. Therefore, the requirement is that enterprises need to accelerate the development of multimodal transport services to become real MTOs, not just doing sporadic transport services as at present. In the entire transport process, MTOs must create links that coordinate smoothly the stages of delivery and transport of goods, and organize well the transfer points to clear the flow of goods. To achieve that requirement, enterprises must rely on comparative standards of freight rates, time, and advantages of each type of vehicle to design routes suitable to the nature of goods and transport terrain.

Businesses also need to invest in containerized freight transport, quickly renovate and upgrade warehouse systems, rent or build new warehouses at convenient locations to collect goods, invest in modern equipment to classify, pack, and preserve goods.

1.2. Diversify service types to comprehensively develop the logistics model.

Carry out packaging, marking, labeling, classifying goods, and additional steps such as fumigation, damage treatment... for specific types of goods.

Providing services of counting and distributing goods to the correct receiving location. To attract customers to use this service, freight forwarding enterprises must implement the following specific solutions: apply competitive storage fees, no additional fees for large volume goods and long storage time; have preferential policies for regular customers; strive to build reputation and trust with customers in terms of ensuring the safety of goods; apply

Applying information technology in warehouse management ensures scientific, fast and timely results.

2/ Building infrastructure, investing in modern equipment

Invest in building and modernizing the warehouse system in the direction of: diversifying warehouse types suitable for each type of goods, equipping shelf systems to optimize usage area, loading and unloading goods using pallet systems.

Establish distribution centers and logistics centers at key locations, convenient for performing value-added services for goods and helping to transport goods to the receiving point quickly and conveniently. Develop a diverse warehouse model to serve the supermarket system and retail stores.

Invest in machinery for container handling such as forklifts, cranes and modern vehicles for transporting goods.

3/ Application of e-commerce and modern management methods

Nowadays, the application of information technology is a popular trend in most industries and fields. In the operation of logistics systems, the application of management software allows businesses to closely control the circulation of goods, communicate with related parties quickly and accurately, promptly handle incidents, support customers in tracking the route of goods (Track and Trace) ... The advanced logistics technology methods today are supply chain management SCM, delivery of goods at the right time JIT. To reduce costs, improve efficiency and labor productivity, businesses need to invest in applying modern warehouse management methods (Cargo and container management system - CCMS), customer information system (Customer information system - CIS), transport management system (Transport Management System - TMS), warehouse management system (Wareeouse Management System - WMS) ...

4/ Continuously improve management system, actively train employees

Currently, in state-owned transport and logistics enterprises, apart from a few equitized enterprises, the management apparatus is generally quite cumbersome, which is a major obstacle to production and business. The general trend of logistics companies today in improving the management apparatus is to streamline, only retain key leadership positions but increase their connectivity and observation ability. Therefore, in the coming time, to create conditions for effective development and management of logistics, Vietnamese transport and logistics enterprises need to study to streamline the leadership structure, simplify the management apparatus and equip the leadership team with new knowledge and management methods.

Regarding improving the qualifications of professional staff, it is necessary to closely coordinate with associations (especially VIFFAS) to send people to attend short training courses organized by the association, or directly propose training needs. 5/ Solutions on capital mobilization

Lack of capital is the biggest difficulty for freight forwarding businesses in developing logistics services because this service requires relatively expensive facilities: investing in means of transport, building warehouse systems, purchasing equipment to provide value-added services for goods. Meanwhile, most of Vietnam's freight forwarding businesses are currently small and medium-sized, with capital of only a few billion VND. To solve the problem of capital, freight forwarding businesses can implement the following options:

- Joint ventures and cooperation with foreign logistics and transportation companies to both mobilize large amounts of capital to meet service development needs and learn management experience and professional knowledge.

- Merge many businesses in the same industry to increase scale and competitiveness or form joint ventures with businesses in other industries such as banking, insurance, telecommunications, etc. to increase capital capacity.

- Actively equitize enterprises, issue shares to the public to raise capital, may not pay cash dividends but pay shares to raise more capital.

IV/ SOME RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE STATE TO SUPPORT LOGISTICS DEVELOPMENT.

Logistics is still a relatively new field in Vietnam and the logistics service market is still in its infancy with many shortcomings. Vietnamese freight forwarding enterprises themselves participate in logistics services but are not real LSPs, but only provide one or several stages in the value-added chain and cannot compete with foreign companies with more experience and stronger financial resources that have quickly dominated the market. In order to develop logistics activities in Vietnam, in which freight forwarding enterprises are the main participants, it is necessary to have the support of many organizations and units from the Government to other sectors of society with synchronous and feasible solutions. Below are some recommendations for the State to create the most favorable conditions for freight forwarding enterprises to develop logistics activities.

1/ Clearly define the logistics integration roadmap and build an overall logistics development strategy.

1.1. Clearly define the roadmap for logistics integration with the region and the world

The integration trend is inevitable and opening up, including logistics services, is inevitable. Opening up also means allowing foreign investors to freely enter the market to provide logistics services, which of course creates direct competitive pressure for Vietnamese enterprises. Most of the enterprises in this industry are still too small in scale, lacking market experience... if there is no

support will find it difficult to survive and develop. Therefore, macro-level state management agencies need to clearly define the roadmap for opening this service so as to both meet the commitment to integrate with the WTO and create conditions for businesses participating in logistics services in Vietnam to develop and prepare well for integration into the regional and world logistics market.

1.2. Building an overall logistics development strategy

In addition to determining a reasonable integration roadmap, the State also needs to soon plan a comprehensive strategy with clear goals and implementation measures to encourage business development. Looking at some countries with developed logistics industries today, we see that the State plays a very important role. In addition to the dynamism of businesses, the reason for the success of logistics in these countries is that the State has paid great attention to development and included logistics development strategies in socio-economic development strategies. Without a proper development strategy, it will lead to spontaneity and fragmentation, causing waste of resources, investment and not bringing about the desired results.

2/ Investing in infrastructure and technical means to support logistics development

2.1. Investment in transport infrastructure

The transport system is an important infrastructure in logistics development. However, investment in construction and upgrading of this infrastructure is beyond the capacity of enterprises, so the attention and support of the State is very necessary to develop infrastructure to create conditions for logistics activities to develop effectively. The general requirement of the transport infrastructure development strategy is synchronous development: synchronization between infrastructure and means of transport, synchronization of stages in the transport process, reduction of logistics service costs, enhancement of competitiveness of Vietnamese goods and services.

a/ Seaport development : Seaports are an important system in the transport infrastructure in Vietnam, mainly meeting the demand for international cargo transportation. In developing the transport system to serve logistics, it is necessary to build and develop seaports on a long-term basis, ensuring compliance with the master plan for port development approved by the Government, avoiding scattered, fragmented and unsynchronized investment. Seaport development includes: developing a system of wharves, warehouses, inland customs clearance ports (ICDs), investing in loading and unloading equipment, means of transporting goods in the port as well as means of transporting from ICDs to ports and vice versa on the basis of applying information technology, combining specialized ports with diversified ports. Seaport development needs to focus on investing in developing container ports and transit ports to serve the demand for domestic and regional container transportation, creating favorable conditions for the development of logistics activities. Currently, the capacity of container ports in Vietnam is very limited, so it is necessary to upgrade in the direction of modernization and expansion, renovate and invest in new ports to be able to receive new world container ships in line with the development trend of world maritime. In parallel with comprehensive investment in the seaport system, it is necessary to innovate the information system and research and arrange to further improve the efficiency of business operations and port exploitation.

Regarding means of transport, it is necessary to increase investment in building and developing the fleet of ships to ensure sufficient quantity and quality for transporting goods by sea. The State supports capital investment to develop the fleet (guaranteeing businesses to borrow capital from banks at preferential interest rates, directly lending capital to businesses, allocating budget to invest in the national fleet of ships), reducing import tax on ships; investing in the shipbuilding industry...

b/ Planning main river transport routes, investing in building river ports, organizing appropriate means of transport : building river routes must be connected with other transport systems, organizing well the transfer points to form a unified multimodal transport system.

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