On November 9, 2022, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 21/2022/QD-TTg (“Decision 21”) on mechanisms and policies to encourage the development of inland waterway transportation, replacing Decision No. 47/2015/QD-TTg on the same content (“Decision 47”).
Previously, Decision 47 provided various encouragement mechanisms and policies for businesses and consumers in the inland waterway transportation industry (such as: preferential loans for investment in building new inland waterway transports; subsidies for inland waterway public passenger transportation; fare exemption for children under 6 years old, etc.). In Decision 21, incentive policies only focuse on the development of inland waterway infrastructure. Specifically:
1. Investment in development of inland waterway transport
- Access to ODA and foreign concessional loans of the Government for the investment of inland waterway infrastructure, in order to connect smoothly and efficiently with other modes of transport, especially with seaport system.
- Prioritize allocating the investment capital to develop inland waterway infrastructure to renovate and upgrade inland waterway channels on main transport routes according to the Planning.
- In case of using the local budget to invest in new passenger terminals: planning river-crossing passenger terminals in areas having difficult socio-economic conditions, not appropriate for other forms of transport, into the local planning, in order to ensure that such investment is consistent with the national development strategy and relevant planning.
2. Management and maintenance of inland waterway infrastructure:
Allocate economic non-business capital for the maintenance of inland waterway infrastructure according to the plan approved by the competent authority and the ability to mobilize resources, ensuring the annual increase, with the goal to fully meet the capital needs according to the plan approved by the competent state management agency by 2030.
3. Application of information and technology:
- Prioritize allocating fund from the state budget to the implementation of information and technology application projects serving activities in the industry of inland waterways;
- Use fund from the state budget for regular expenditures to manage, operate and maintain the information and technology system serving post-investment inland waterway activities, including: databases, software, hardware.
Decision 21 takes effect from December 25, 2022.
Comment: