Vietnam Shipbuilding Set to Grow

Vietnam's shipbuilding strategy Vinashin set goals to rapidly develop the industry and make a strong statement on the international arena. From now to 2010, apart from building ships to meet a domestic demand, the industry will attempt to produce US $1 billion worth of ship exports per year, according to Vinashin’s shipbuilding strategy. As a latecomer to this industry, Vietnam has the advantage of learning modern shipbuilding technology from developed nations.

To succeed in building modern ships, the strategy is to develop the infrastructure and human resources. It has been acknowledged that the local management pool is not very strong and a number of steps have been taken to improve this situation. An annual roster of about 400 executives and workers is maintained in Japanese shipyards under a two-year labour cooperation agreement. In addition, a number of management personnel from Vinashin member companies have been sent to participate in short-term training courses at Polish, Danish, and German shipyards to learn management skills and improve their design abilities.

On the infrastructure front, Vinashin plans to set up a number of ancillary industries which will supply various materials to the local shipbuilding industry in order to improve the local content. This program also supports negotiations with foreign manufacturers, who currently supply products to Vietnam, in order to encourage investments in local manufacturing facilities. Vinashin intends to invest in an industrial park infrastructure and is inviting foreign partners to participate in this development program. According to Vinashin, a number of joint venture agreements with foreign partners have already been signed.