The Kra Canal is a mega-project that provide a new maritime route that would connect the Gulf of Thailand with the Andaman Sea, linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The idea of building the Kra Canal has widely gained attention from policy-makers, legislators, maritime activities, shipping and seaport operators due to advantages such as big cost savings, higher levels of safety and security, shortened distance and time compared to the voyage through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. This waterway will likely challenge the present maritime business activities in ASEAN region. Therefore, the aim of this article is considering the pros and cons of the Kra Canal project to political, economic, sociological, legal, environmental, maritime security, and safety aspects by using the thematic analysis combined with PESETLM method. It is note that the new Canal will be beneficial for Vietnam in all aspects, especially maritime economy. Therefore, this article is pioneer research to a comprehensive analysis of the trend of the Vietnamese maritime industry awaiting to advantages of the Kra canal. Given the inherent strengths of the geographical features, the novel maritime business strategies are proposed to boost and reshape the Vietnam maritime economy, for instance the best policy to enhance co-operation and trade growth with other countries and regions; a variety of investigations of maritime business in strategy regions; enhancing Cai Mep - Thi Vai ports as hub port of Vietnam; the development of deep-water seaports and logistics services in Hon Khoai Island and long-term planning for main bunker compliance fuel supply or energy source for vessels; policies to enhance management and surveillance, and enforcement of the law, the innovation of administrative procedures in seaports, deep-water seaport electronic services, and electronic customs in the digital era.

The ASEAN charter is a treaty established by ten member countries in the Southeast Asia founded on December 2008. Prior to the establishment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) charter, the Maritime Professional Education and Training Development Program was facing a challenge of disruptions relative to maritime events. Due to the disruptions of maritime events, challenges such as gap in international relations, lack of database integration in the field of maritime education and training, lack of knowledge transfer and no effective and proper framework of future development particularly in the areas of maritime education and training among the ASEAN countries existing. The goal of this paper is to motivate professionals and the relations society to collaborate in the Maritime Professional Education and Training Development: Today and Tomorrow, to be able to fill the gaps presented to this paper. In order to ensure this study can be completed in the right ways and times, the Critical Path Method (CPM) is used. As a finding of this study, all professional maritime members are expected to strengthening the international professional relations in maritime education and training system among the ASEAN region.