PHU QUOC EXPRESS AND THE PORTRAIT OF A PIONEER WITH THE DREAM OF CARRYING THE NATIONAL FLAG ACROSS VIETNAM'S SEAS AND ISLANDS

Mr. Vu Van Khuong - the pioneer founder of Phu Quoc Express - Coming from a family with a tradition in the maritime industry, being an ocean captain himself, always cherished the desire to bring safe and modern sea routes to serve people across the country, proudly carrying the national flag across the homeland's islands.

Having visited many countries, Mr. Vu Van Khuong realized that the lives of people on islands in many countries are always rich, while in Vietnam, the islands are still very poor because of the isolation from the mainland, because transportation is not yet developed. Therefore, Mr. Khuong always cherished the idea and hoped that one day, the remote islands would be connected to the mainland by high-speed boats.

He called it the dream of “Connecting Vietnam’s rivers and mountains” and that dream has come true.

Pull the island closer to the mainland

Originally from Hai Phong, after graduating from university with a degree in maritime, Mr. Vu Van Khuong became a captain. After a while, he transferred to work at the Ba Ria - Vung Tau Port Authority and was assigned to reside permanently in Con Dao. After many years of traveling between Con Dao and Vung Tau, he understood very well this sea route as well as the people's need for travel and transportation of goods.

Mr. Khuong said: “Every time from Con Dao to the province, that is, to Vung Tau city, it was a difficult time. The popular means of transport for people at that time were old technology ships, the fastest took 12 hours. If the sea was rough, they had to wait on shore, sometimes for a month. And if they took a plane, they had to take a detour, go to Ho Chi Minh City and then take a bus to Vung Tau, so it was quite complicated and the cost increased many times, so many people did not dare to choose this way of traveling.”

When establishing the shipping company, Mr. Vu Van Khuong immediately thought of building a ship for the Vung Tau - Con Dao route and expanding to ships suitable for Vietnam's sea and islands. Mr. Khuong said:“Choosing a ship that can sail in the middle of the stormy East Sea, ensuring the safety of passengers and also withstand frequent waves up to level 5, level 6 is a difficult problem. We have researched many types of passenger ships in the world but most of them are not suitable. Until we found a type of catamaran, a type of ship using new technology with high speed, increased stability on waves, which has been produced by many countries to carry passengers or cruise ships. This is exactly the ship we need for our journeys at sea.”

Luckily for Mr. Khuong, there is also someone in Vietnam who is passionate about catamarans. That is engineer Tran Song Hai, who used to work for Rolls-Royce MTU (Germany) and then became a distributor of products for this company in the Vietnamese market. Mr. Hai is also cherishing the project of building catamarans to transport passengers by sea in Vietnam. Great minds meet, both of them joined forces to find a way to bring catamaran construction technology to Vietnam. After a period of research and study, both of them found a company in Vietnam with enough capacity and experience to build a ship according to the order. However, due to the geographical characteristics of Vietnam's sea being tropical monsoon, to ensure effective use, the engineers had to redesign the ship according to their own standards but still ensure quality and safety according to European standards but the price is only half that of buying a ship from abroad. Therefore, although these ships meet 5-star service standards, the ticket prices of these ships are quite cheap, only slightly higher than the ticket prices of regular ships and only 1/3 of the price of airfares on the same route.

Highway on the East Sea

From the first 300-passenger catamarans to run the short route Rach Gia - Phu Quoc, Phu Quoc Express has gradually ordered new ships with a capacity of up to 600 passengers, capable of crossing the sea to Con Dao. Using 2-hull technology, the ship can cut waves, eliminate level 5 waves and gusts of wind up to level 7, and can reach speeds of over 30 nautical miles/hour but still be smooth. Because it shortens the time from Con Dao to the mainland to 1/3 compared to previous types of ships, Phu Quoc Express ships are considered "high-speed trains on the East Sea". Phu Quoc Express also opened the Soc Trang - Con Dao route and vice versa, helping the Mekong Delta get closer to Con Dao; at the same time, it opened the Rach Gia - Nam Du route, the Ca Mau - Nam Du route, helping people in the wild lands become new destinations to attract tourists.

The catamarans of Phu Quoc Express put into use have become a phenomenon of Vietnam's maritime transport when proving to be highly efficient, receiving very good reviews from tourists and achieving many Vietnamese records such as: Vietnam's largest catamaran high-speed passenger ship, the most modern high-speed ship designed by Vietnam... But the dream of former captain Vu Van Khuong does not stop there. He and his colleagues are continuing with the plan to build a larger catamaran that can carry up to 1,000 passengers to build high-speed transport routes, connecting islands across the country.

In particular, a passenger transport route from the mainland to Truong Sa is planned and expected to be put into operation soon so that tourists have the opportunity to visit the sacred island region of the Fatherland. “We are preparing for survey trips to Truong Sa by high-speed boat. From the mainland to Truong Sa by transport boat as it is now, it takes 1 day and 1 night to reach the nearest island, but by our high-speed boat it takes about 8 hours, meaning that if you leave in the morning, you will arrive at the island by late afternoon.”- Mr. Khuong said.

“If the land passenger transport route to Truong Sa is opened, it will be an opportunity for the development of the marine economy here and strengthen the affirmation and preservation of sovereignty and protection of the Fatherland’s borders. The red color on our ships is the color of the national flag that we want to bring to all the sea and island areas of the country.”– Mr. Khuong added. Mr. Nguyen Hong Linh – Former Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province said: “The introduction of the Vung Tau-Con Dao high-speed boat has really brought great social significance to the people of Con Dao in particular and the people of Ba Ria-Vung Tau in general. Since the high-speed boat was put into use, the distance between Con Dao and Ba Ria-Vung Tau has been shortened, making it much more convenient for people to travel and solve work. The people of Con Dao have more opportunities to develop thanks to this convenience.”

According to Trong Thinh - Tien Phong Newspaper

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