Road freight holds a natural advantage in Vietnam’s USD 3 billion dollar logistics industry. With almost no air freight, limited rail freight, humble maritime freight, road freight represents about 75% of freight volume in Vietnam. Solidiance shares insights on the future of the logistics industry and market potential in Vietnam.

With mounting pressure from the increase in foreign worker levies, more firms in the construction industry are looking forward to the S0 million (US8.4 million) Construction Productivity and Capability Fund (CPCF), which was officially launched recently. The Building & Construction Authority (BCA) said that there have been more than 300 enquiries on the various schemes under the CPCF within a few weeks.

Furthermore, BCA will be setting up a Centre for Construction IT at the BCA Academy this year. The Centre will test-bed advanced IT solutions for the construction industry, conduct outreach programmes and support companies in their quest to tap on IT to enhance productivity. BCA will also introduce a new Value-Added Productivity banding scheme to recognise builders with high value-added productivity levels as well as those who display great improvements in their value-added productivity.

The building and construction industry received a major shot in the arm from the state budget, with more than A.6 billion (US.2 billion) allocated for the construction of major infrastructure in Western Australia. The state government committed A.6 billion (US.4 billion) for the construction of general infrastructure projects, with over A billion (US0 million) allocated to construction works at schools.

In total, A0 million (US3 million) of the state’s infrastructure spending will be allocated to landmark projects in the metropolitan area. The Perth Waterfront redevelopment was allocated A.5 million (US million) over four years for detailed planning and design, with construction of the mixed-use portion of the development due to commence in 2012.