FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ECONOMICS & INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS -*** - GRADUATION THESIS Major: International Business Economics TRANSPORT AND TRADE FACILITATION IN MALAYSIA AND LESSONS FOR VIETNAM Full name : Le Quang Minh Student’s ID : 1111150138 Class : A27 – High Quality Program Intake : 50 Supervisor : Assoc.Prof Trinh Thi Thu Huong Hanoi, May 2015 i TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vi INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: GENERAL THEORY OF TRANSPORT AND TRADE FACILITATION 1.1 Overview of trade facilitation 1.1.1 Definition of trade facilitation 1.1.2 Benefits of trade facilitation 1.1.3 Issues of trade facilitation 1.2 Regional and international policies on trade facilitation 13 1.2.1 Policy framework 13 1.2.2 Regional and international organizations working on trade facilitation 14 1.2.3 International policies and strategies related to trade facilitation 20 1.3 Key performance indicators of trade facilitations 22 1.3.1 Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 22 1.3.2 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) 24 1.3.3 Enabling Trade Index (ETI) 25 1.3.4 Global Connectedness Index (GCI – DHL) 25 1.3.5 Other indicators 26 CHAPTER 2: CURRENT STATUS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT TO FACILITATE TRADE IN MALAYSIA IN THE PERIOD 2005 - 2014 27 2.1 Overview of Malaysia’s economy 27 2.1.1 Geographic location and political situation of Malaysia 27 2.1.2 Economic situation of Malaysia 29 2.1.3 Foreign trade of Malaysia 30 2.1.4 Malaysia’s inward foreign direct investment 33 2.2 Overview of Malaysia government’s operation of transport and trade facilitation 34 ii 2.2.1 Management of trade sector 34 2.2.2 Customs and other border agencies 35 2.2.3 Management of transport sector 35 2.2.4 Malaysia’s plans on investing in transport and logistics 36 2.2.5 Malaysia’s participation in international transport conventions and agreements 37 2.3 Malaysia’s indicators of trade facilitation 38 2.4 Transport infrastructure in Malaysia 40 2.4.1 Road infrastructure and network 40 2.4.2 Railway infrastructure and network 41 2.4.3 Maritime and ports infrastructure and network 42 2.4.4 Airport infrastructure and network 43 2.4.5 Inland waterway infrastructure and network 45 2.5 Transport corridors and international supply chains in Malaysia 45 2.5.1 Priority transport corridors 45 2.5.2 International supply chains integration 46 2.6 Transport and logistics services in Malaysia 46 2.6.1 Road freight transport services 46 2.6.2 Railway freight transport services 47 2.6.3 Maritime transport and port services 47 2.6.4 Air freight transport services 48 2.6.5 Inland waterway freight services 49 2.6.6 Freight forwarding and warehousing services 50 2.6.7 Express freight and postal services 50 2.7 Lessons learnt from transport and trade facilitation in Malaysia 51 CHAPTER 3: SUGGESTIONS TO DEVELOP TRANSPORT TO FACILITATE TRADE IN VIETNAM FROM 2015 TO 2020 BASED ON EXPERIENCES OF MALAYSIA 54 3.1 Vietnam’s practice of transport operation to facilitate trade in the period 2005 – 2014 54 3.1.1 Overview of Vietnam’s economic situation 54 iii 3.1.2 Indicators of trade facilitation in Vietnam 58 3.1.3 Transport infrastructure in Vietnam 62 3.1.4 Transport corridors in Vietnam 68 3.1.5 Provision of logistics services in Vietnam 70 3.2 Government’s perspectives of transport and trade facilitation from 2015 to 2020 71 3.2.1 National dimensions 71 3.2.2 Organizational framework 72 3.2.3 Sectoral strategies 73 3.3 Recommendations to develop transport for trade facilitation in Vietnam based on experiences of Malaysia 74 3.3.1 Recommendation for transport infrastructure 75 3.3.2 Recommendation for transport corridors and international supply chains 76 3.3.3 Recommendation for mechanism of managing trade facilitation activities 77 3.3.4 Recommendation for transport and logistics services 78 CONCLUSION 80 LIST OF REFERENCES 82 APPENDIXES 88 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation APEC ASEAN ASEM ETI EU FDI GATT GCI GSO HCMC ITC IWT KL KLIA KTMB LPI LRT MITI MOIT MOT OECD PPP RM TEU UN COMTRADE UNCTAD UNECE USD VNR VNRA WB WEF WTO Meaning Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Asia – European Meeting Enabling Trade Index European Union Foreign direct investment General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Global Competitiveness Index General Statistics Office of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City International Trade Center Inland waterway transport Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur International Airport Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad Logistic Performance Index Light rail transit Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Malaysia Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam Ministry of Transport, Vietnam Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Public – Private Partnership Malaysia Ringgit Twenty-foot equivalent unit United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database United Nations Conference on Trade and Development United Nations Economic Commission for Europe United State Dollar Vietnam Railway Vietnam National Railway Administration World Bank World Economic Forum World Trade Organization v LIST OF TABLES Table No Title organization’s Page Table 1.1 Some Asia facilitation achievements in trade Table 1.2 Detailed issues of transportation and logistics services policies / strategies 22 Table 2.1 Top exported products of Malaysia in 2012 - 2013 32 Table 2.2 Top imported products of Malaysia in 2012 - 2013 32 Table 2.3 FDI inflows of some ASEAN nations (2008 - 2013) 34 Table 2.4 LPI score and rank of some ASEAN nations (2007 - 2014) 38 Table 2.5 ETI score and rank of some ASEAN nations (2010 - 2014) 40 Table 2.6 Recent and upcoming PPP projects in Malaysia (2011 2015) 53 Table 3.1 Top 10 highest value exporting products of Vietnam (2008 - 2013) 57 Table 3.2 ETI and some of its components of Vietnam (2009 - 2014) 61 Table 3.3 Transport infrastructure score and ranking of Vietnam and Malaysia 61 Table 3.4 Proportion of freight volume by type of transport in Vietnam from 2005 to 2013 62 Table 3.5 Vietnam main seaport characteristics, 2010 65 20 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure No Title Page Figure 1.1 Three Pillars of Trade Logistics and Facilitation 10 Figure 1.2 Structure of policy framework for trade facilitation 13 Figure 1.3 Six key dimensions of LPI 24 Figure 2.1 Malaysia’s GDP growth from 1995 to 2014 (%) 29 Figure 2.2 Malaysia's foreign trade value and trade balance (2005 2014) 31 Figure 2.3 LPI dimensions of Malaysia and some other ASEAN nations (2014) 39 Figure 2.4 LPI overperformers and underperformers 39 Figure 3.1 Vietnam’s GDP growth from 1995 to 2015 (%) 55 Figure 3.2 Vietnam’s foreign trade value and trade balance (2003 2013) 56 Figure 3.3 Vietnam’s Major Exports and Imports, by Country of Origin/Destination, 2013 58 Figure 3.4 LPI and its dimensions score of Vietnam (2007 - 2014) 59 Figure 3.5 LPI and its dimensions rank of Vietnam (2007 - 2014) 60 INTRODUCTION Study background Recently, joining more and more regional and international organizations, expanding diplomatic relations and making bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements with various countries and territories have brought a plenty of opportunities for countries, especially for the developing ones The biggest advantage coming along with trade liberalization is that domestic firms are more likely to expand their business to international market, which means growth in exporting volume However, the domestic firms may hardly take all advantages from international trade liberalization if their countries fail to facilitate trade sector In Vietnam, despite the fact that trade activities recently have been positively contributing to the economic growth with focus on exporting goods that we have comparative advantages in producing, the limitations in trade facilitation have still acted as burden for the development Some milestones had significantly great effects to export situation of Vietnam, such as: Vietnam became a member of ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1996; the bilateral trade between the U.S and Vietnam has developed rapidly after the signing of the U.S – Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) in 2001; Vietnam became a member of WTO in 2007 and upcoming are various potential agreements such as ASEAN - Japan Free Trade Agreement, Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP), Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement and most importantly, ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) These events brought promising future to our trade liberalization and force the exporting volume to rise What trade liberation has brought to the world economy is remarkable, but it will be exploited soon Consequently, Vietnam’s competitiveness in exporting could not be maintained strong and may not inactively respond in time to the changes in international market if we only based on the advantages of those affairs There has been extreme reduce in tariffs, with some kinds of goods the tariff is a mere of just over 0% In addition, the quota for many products has been eliminated It is evident that trade facilitation will help to boost our competitiveness, to launch fresh initiatives in new sectors and to take advantage of all chances given by trade liberation Hence, the policy makers of Vietnam need to solve the questions: to facilitate trade, we should start from where and by which way? Despite locating in the South East Asia region, and having various geographic, political and social characteristics as our nation, Malaysia is at higher level of economic development Mastering in creating a set of solutions to facilitate trade, Malaysia would definitely show valuable experiences and be a typical model for Vietnam in terms of building up and developing a country comprehensively Regarding the mentioned background, in order to improve our competitiveness in exporting and take advantage of opportunities offered by trade liberation, the issue of creating facilitation as a stable factor of development in trade should be paid appropriate attention The issue requires policy maker of Vietnam have a clear and comprehensive view on every related issues, and learn from other countries that have been successful on making economic environment convenient, especially Malaysia Realizing the essence, urgency of the topic and also possible positive outcome that might be produced during developing the transportation system with purpose of facilitating trade as the Malaysian has done, the topic “Transport and Trade facilitation in Malaysia and lessons for Vietnam” has been chosen for my graduation thesis at Hanoi Foreign Trade University Literature review As analyzed above, due to the fact that trade liberation has provided us with a lot of opportunities, there have been many academic researches aiming at investigating its impacts to the economic situation, as well as producing recommendation to find the best way to improve Vietnam’s ability to expand our exporting market Meanwhile, the topic of trade facilitation has appeared lately and remained quite new It inarguably deserves more serious concerns from scientists During the time this thesis is written, there have been a few academic materials assessing either transportation situation or trade facilitation in Malaysia and Vietnam Needless to say, they are quite informative and worth for reference Report of World Bank (WB) in 2013 named “Trade Facilitation, Value Creation, and Competitiveness: Policy Implications for Vietnam’s Economic Growth” highlighted the key dimensions of trade facilitation with focus on physical characteristics of trade flows Another report of WB that went into details of many aspects in creating trade facilitation named “Facilitating Trade through Competitive, Low Carbon Transport: The Case for Vietnam’s Inland and Coastal Waterways” wrote about the intervention of inland and coastal waterways infrastructure together with relevant policies, theirs benefits and prospect in the future “Trade facilitation: Malaysia's experience” by WTO is not less informative than the papers before as it pointed out what Malaysian did to facilitate trade mainly depending on adjusting customs and procedures However, it seemed hard to find anyone with deep investigation in Malaysia transportation and trade facilitation As Malaysia and Vietnam are both in South East Asia region and share several similarities, it could be better if there was paper considering this issue of Malaysia and have a connection/comparison with Vietnam Purpose of the thesis The thesis details actual practices of developing transportation system to facilitate trade in Malaysia in the recent 10 years then analyze the problem in Vietnam within the same period of time Depending Malaysian’s experience, possible coordination among sectors and ministries would be considered so as to recommend feasible suggestions for Vietnam to build up, adjust and maintain the transport infrastructure to facilitate trade better Research methodologies In order to investigating in trade facilitation, the theoretical systems of reputable international organizations, especially the theory and regulations of WTO, have been used as basis of the thesis Moreover, the readers will find various sets of data to be quoted and combined in the content; those may come from the statistical data or reports of organizations like UN COMTRADE, WB Using that data helps to make critical comparison, draw logical conclusion and get lessons learned from Malaysia Additionally, other methods such as inductive method, qualitative method and theoretical method will also be used The subject and scope of the thesis The subject of the thesis is trade facilitation in Malaysia, focusing on the changes in the effects of transport infrastructure and logistics services Combining 80 CONCLUSION Through a dedicated study on practice of transport and trade facilitation in Malaysia in the recent decade, it could be concluded that the country has enjoyed favorable conditions for transport infrastructure and logistics services With regard of geographical position, Malaysia is situated in the center of ASEAN region, easily connects with other ASEAN members and other regions Its transport systems has been received appropriate consideration from Malaysia’s government and maintained properly A number of types of transport have been developed with a long term view to supplement each other Several PPP projects in transport infrastructure have been reported positively The country desires to be one of biggest logistics centers and manage key routes of transport within the South East Asia However, Malaysia still has to cope with some main challenges Firstly, the growth of public transport is rapid but cannot meet the demand of increased citizens Secondly, logistics service providers in Malaysia are usually small or medium enterprises with limited capital and insufficient expertise so they are having difficulties in competing with international corporations By examining Malaysia’s experiences, Vietnam’s government may get valuable lessons on actively guiding national strategies of transport, diversifying investment portfolio and regularly assessing budget spent on transport and trade facilitation The following recommendations should be considered are: Firstly, Vietnam needs a dedicated governmental body for trade facilitation which will be fully responsible for researching, planning, implementing and assessing strategies and policies for trade facilitation Secondly, the form of investment which combined resources from both state and private companies – PPP – should be deployed more in the future to increase the engagement between government and citizens, as well as lessen pressures on public expense During the time researching on this topic, there have been some main challenges First and foremost, the most updated data related to transport infrastructure and logistics services in both Vietnam and Malaysia are not always available, so sometimes the thesis cannot approach data of the most recent year(s) Secondly, due to the limited length of a bachelor graduation thesis, it is impossible 81 to analyze into details each type of transport or logistics services, or the cooperation of pillars of trade competitiveness (transport and logistics services; supply chain organization; regulatory procedures) It leaves some opportunities for later researches to be conducted 82 LIST OF REFERENCES A Vietnamese materials General department of Vietnam Customs, 2012 Analysis Report on the Findings of the Customs Staff Survey Hanoi: Statistical Publishing House General department of Vietnam Customs, 2013 Evaluation of Customs Services: Findings from Customs Clients Survey Hanoi: Statistical Publishing House Le My Huong, 2014 Research on transport development to facilitate trade in Thailand and experiences for Vietnam BA Hanoi Foreign Trade University Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development, 2011 "Vietnam Food Security and Rice Value Chain - Beyond the ‘Rice Bowl’: Building on Past Gains to Enhance the Quality, Sustainability, and Equity of Growth in the Mekong Delta", Collaborative Research Program, Policy Note No International Support Group Hanoi: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development – Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development, 2012 Proposal on restructuring the Agricultural sector towards greater added value and sustainable development, 2nd draft, pp 22-23 Hanoi: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development – Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Commerce, 2010 Report on Competitiveness Assessment in 10 sectors Hanoi: Ministry of Industry and Commerce Ministry of Transport, 2006 Vietnam - Multimodal Transport Regulatory Review Hanoi: Ministry of Transport – Vietnam Ministry of Transport (2012), Vietnam: Logistic Development, Trade Facilitation and the Impact on Poverty Reduction Hanoi: Ministry of Transport – Vietnam National committee for International economic cooperation (NCIEC) Office, 2012 Institutional Analysis on Trade Facilitation Hanoi: National committee for international economic cooperation 10 Nguyen Anh Duong, 2013 Vietnam’s economic situation after years joining WTO Hanoi: Central institute for economic management 83 11 Vu Thi Thu Giang, 2012 Practice of logistics development in Thailand and lessons for Vietnam Hanoi: Hanoi Foreign Trade University B English materials 12 Ab Saman Abd Kader and Mohd Zamani Bin Ahmad, 2014 Utilisation of Inland Water Transport System in South East Asian Region – An Overview of the Prospect Johor: Publisher of University of Technology Malaysia 13 Abe, K and Wilson, J., 2009 Weathering the Storm – Investing in Port Infrastructure to Lower Trade Cost in East Asia Washington, D.C: World Bank 14 Alberto Portugal-Perez and John S Wilson, 2010 Export performance and trade facilitation reform – Hard and soft infrastructure United Kingdom: World Bank 15 Asian Development Bank, 2013 Country operations business plan: Malaysia 2013 – 2014 Asian Development Bank 16 Evdokia Moïse and Florian Le Bris, 2013 Trade cost: What have we learned? OECD Trade Policy Papers, No 50 OECD Publishing 17 Federal Department of Town and Country Planning, 2010 National physical plan Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Housing and Local Government – Malaysia 18 Helble Catherine & Wilson John S., 2012 "Aid for trade facilitation" Policy Research Working Paper Series 5064 Washington D.C: World Bank 19 International Trade Center, 2013 WTO Trade facilitation agreement – Business guide for developing countries Geneva: International Trade Center 20 Jean-Francois Arvis, Monica Alina Mustra, Lauri Ojala, John Panzer, and Tapio Naula, 2014 Connecting to Compete 2007: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy Washington D.C: World Bank 21 Malaysian economic planning unit, 2010 Tenth Malaysian plan 2011 – 2015 Putrajaya: Malaysian economic planning unit, Prime Minister’s department 22 Mazrina Mohamed Ibramsah, 2014 Reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens in Malaysia logistics industry Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia Productivity Corporation 84 23 Moïsé, E., T Orliac and P Minor, 2011 Trade Facilitation Indicators: The Impact on Trade Costs OECD Trade Policy Papers, No 118 OECD Publishing 24 Naidu, G., 2008 Infrastructure Development in Malaysia., in Kumar, N (ed.), International Infrastructure Development in East Asia – Towards Balanced Regional Development and Integration, ERIA Research Project Report 2007-2 Chiba: IDE-JETRO 25 Nazery Khalid, 2009 Adopting total supply chain management towards enhancing Malaysia’s competitive edge as a trading nation Kuala Lumpur: Maritime institute of Malaysia 26 R M Zuraini, M H Yusoff and N Yahya, 2008 Foreign direct investment in Malaysia: findings of the quarterly survey of international investment and services Department of Statistics Malaysia 27 Robert Z.Lawrence, Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz and Sean Doherty, 2012 Global Enabling Trade Report 2012 Geneva: World Economic Forum 28 Robert Z Lawrence, Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz and Sean Doherty, 2014 Global Enabling Trade Report 2014 Geneva: World Economic Forum 29 Robert Z Lawrence, Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, and Sean Doherty, 2010 Global Enabling Trade Report 2010: Reducing Supply Chain Barriers Geneva: World Economic Forum 30 Sunil Chopra and Peter Meindl, 2012 Supply chain management: Strategy, Planning and Operation 5th ed Illinois: Publisher of North University 31 The ASEAN Secretariat, 2012 ASEAN Connectivity: Project information sheets Jarkarta: The ASEAN Secretariat 32 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2014 Going beyond efficiency – Economy profile 2015: Malaysia Washington D.C: World Bank 33 UNCTAD, 2014 World investment report 2014 – Investing in the SDGs: an action plan New York: United Nations 34 United Nations Development Programme, 2013 Malaysia inland waterway system Kuala Lumpur: United Nations Development Programme 85 35 World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, 2012 Doing business in a more transparent world Washington D.C: World Bank 36 World Bank, 2013 Facilitating trade through competitive, low-carbon transport: the case for Vietnam's inland and coastal waterways Hanoi: World Bank 37 World Bank, 2013 Trade facilitation, value creation, and competitiveness: policy implications for Vietnam’s economic growth Washington D.C: World Bank 38 World Economic Forum, 2014 The global competitiveness report 2014 – 2015 Geneva: World Economic Forum 39 World Trade Organization, 2005 Trade Facilitation: Malaysia's experience Kuala Lumpur: World Trade Organization 40 Z A Mahani and R Rasiah, 2009 The Global Financial Crisis and the Malaysia Economy: Impact and Responses Kuala Lumpur: United Nations Development Programme C Websites and online materials 41 Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2015 Economic indicators [online] Available at: [Accessed 02 April 2015] 42 General Statistics office of Vietnam, 2014A Consumer price index [online] Available at: [Accessed 12 April 2015] 43 General Statistics office of Vietnam, 2014B Import-Export turnover [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 April 2015] 44 General Statistics Office of Vietnam, 2014C Transport, Postal Services and Telecommunications [online] Available at: [Accessed 16 April 2015] 86 45 International Trade Center, 2015 Trade map [online] Available at: [Accessed 07 April 2015] 46 Mohd Hafizzuddin Md Damiri, 2014 Issues and challenges of logistics in Malaysia: a perspective Kuala Lumpur: Publisher of University of Malaya and Public Service Department [online] Available at < http://www.academia.edu/1360843/Issues_and_Challenges_of_Logistics_in_M alaysia_A_Perspective> [Accessed 03 April 2015] 47 OECD, 2005 About the OECD [online] Available at: [Accessed 12 March 2015] 48 UNCOMTRADE, 2014 Bilateral trade between Malaysia and the world [online] Available at: [Accessed 11 April 2015] 49 UNCOMTRADE, 2014 Bilateral trade between Vietnam and the world [online] Available at: [Accessed 19 April 2015] 50 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2012 Trade facilitation principles and benefits [online] Available at: [Accessed 09 March 2015] 51 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2012 Trade facilitation organizations [online] Available at: [Accessed 21 March 2015] 52 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2012 Trade facilitation convention [online] Available at: [Accessed 15 March 2015] 53 World Bank, 2014 LPI Global Rankings 2014 [online] Available at: [Accessed 16 March 2015] 54 World Bank, 2015A Malaysia overview [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 March 2015] 87 55 World Bank, 2015B Vietnam overview [online] Available at: [Accessed 12 April 2015] 56 World Trade Organization, 2003 Trade Facilitation [online] Available at: [Accessed 02 March 2015] 57 World Trade Organization, 1994 The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 March 2015] 88 APPENDIXES Appendix 1: Definition of “trade facilitation” by international organizations Organization Definition of “trade facilitation” “simplification and standardization of procedures and associated OECD information flow required to move goods internationally from sellers to buyers and to pass payments I the other direction” (OECD, TD/TC/WP(2001), John Raven) “comprehensive and integrated approach to reducing the complexity and cost of the trad transactions process, and UN/ECE ensuring that all these activities can take place in an efficient transparent, and predictable manner, based on internationally accepted norms, standards and best practices.” (UN/ECE, Trade facilitation: from concept to implementation) “trade facilitation generally refers to the simplification and APEC harmonization, use of new technologies and other measures to address procedural and administrative impediments to trade.” (APEC Principles on Trade Facilitation, 2002) “trade facilitation is the use of technologies and techniques APEC which will help members t build up expertise, reduce costs and lead to better movement of goods and services.”(APE Committee, 1999) ICC “improving the efficiency of processes associated with trading in goods across national borders” (ICC, ICC Policy Statement) Source: compiled by author 89 Appendix 2: Impact of Improvements in Transport Infrastructure and Logistics Services (Note: P: Primary improvement S: Secondary improvement) Reduction in Initiatives Time Increase competition in transport service Introduce performance standards for specific logistics services Cost Uncertainty S S Establish centers for collection / consolidation / distribution P S Increase variety of service quality in terms of C/T/R P P P Use ITC for contracting services, coordinating movements, tracking cargo P S P Simplify transport regulation P S Simplify transit agreements P S Reduce taxation on logistics services S Improve quality transport infrastructure P S P Increase capacity of transport network S P P Increase coverage of transport network S P Source: WB, Trade Facilitation, Value Creation, and Competitiveness: Policy Implications for Vietnam’s Economic Growth, 2013, p.7 90 Appendix 3: GDP growth of selected ASEAN nations in period 1991 - 2001, 2001 - 2011, 2011 - 2015 Thailand Vietnam Malaysia Indonesia Philippines Annual GDP growth (%) 7.7 7.3 6.1 3.5 5.6 6.3 6.3 5.2 5.1 4.1 4.7 2001 - 2011 Period 2011 - 2015 3.2 1991 - 2001 Source: Author (based on database of WB, Country at a glance, 2015) Appendix demonstrates the average GDP growth of nations in South East Asia region in periods It is easily seen that the lines of Vietnam and Malaysia have the same pattern The growth of GDP in countries cannot be as high as it was more than a decade ago Another comment is that Vietnam has always develops at a better level than Malaysia 91 Appendix 4a: Transport system in Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia Source: Ministry of Transport, Malaysia, 2013 92 Appendix 4b: Transport system in Peninsular, Malaysia Source: Ministry of Transport, Malaysia, 2013 93 Appendix 5: Development clusters, corridors and trade flows, Vietnam Source: WB, Trade Facilitation, Value Creation, and Competitiveness: Policy Implications for Vietnam’s Economic Growth, 2013, p.43 94 Appendix 6: Transport flows of the six commodities in Vietnam Source: WB, Trade Facilitation, Value Creation, and Competitiveness: Policy Implications for Vietnam’s Economic Growth, 2013, p.51