Ministry proposes recognition of Vietnam Logistics Day

Ministry proposes recognition of Vietnam Logistics Day

This would serve as a 'soft' policy instrument of national symbolic significance, helping to shape public awareness and disseminate development-oriented messages.

Cargo operations at Cát Lái Port, part of the HCM City seaport system. — VNA/VNS Photo

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has proposed selecting May 6 each year as Vietnam Logistics Day. 

The ministry has proposed that the Prime Minister issue a decision recognising Vietnam Logistics Day and Vietnam Logistics Week. 

This would serve as a 'soft' policy instrument of national symbolic significance, helping to shape public awareness and disseminate development-oriented messages. 

At the same time, it would create a focal point for communication, connectivity, promotion and policy dialogue activities in the logistics sector.

The week containing May 6 each year is proposed as Vietnam Logistics Week, to be organised flexibly depending on actual conditions each year.

According to the MoIT, recognising Vietnam Logistics Day and Vietnam Logistics Week will establish an official time marker to concentrate efforts on disseminating policies and laws, raising social awareness, honouring organisations, enterprises, and workers in the sector, and promoting connectivity between logistics enterprises and manufacturing, trade, e-commerce sectors, as well as international markets.

This will also serve as an integrated framework for organising activities such as policy dialogue forums, conferences, seminars, logistics fairs and exhibitions, human resource training, and trade and investment promotion. 

Through these efforts, it will contribute to improving the effectiveness of State management, strengthening inter-sectoral and inter-regional coordination, and gradually building Việt Nam’s image as an emerging logistics hub in the region.

The ministry has issued an official document, seeking opinions from relevant ministries, sectors, and organisations on the draft submission as a basis for finalising the dossier to be submitted to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision.

The MoIT stated that amid increasingly complex global economic fluctuations, global supply chains were being heavily impacted by strategic competition, geopolitical conflicts, trade fragmentation and the requirements of digital and green transformation. 

In this context, logistics is increasingly asserting its role as a foundational service sector with cross-sectoral, inter-regional and international characteristics.

For Việt Nam, logistics is no longer merely a supporting activity for the circulation of goods. It has become an important component of national competitiveness, closely linked to the development of import–export activities, e-commerce, processing and manufacturing industries, large-scale commodity agriculture and deep integration into global value chains. 

This awareness has been institutionalised in the Vietnam Logistics Services Development Strategy for the 2025–35 period, with a vision to 2050, promulgated under Decision No. 2229/QĐ-TTg approving the strategy.

However, in practice, social awareness of the role and position of logistics remains inadequate. Logistics is still often perceived as a technical activity or an input cost, rather than being fully recognised as a high value-added service industry with strong knowledge intensity and significant spill-over effects across many sectors of the economy. 

This reality underscores the need for appropriate policy tools to raise awareness, build consensus and mobilise the participation of society as a whole in logistics development. 

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