Vietnamese state-run shipbuilder has targeted US$1 billion in production value this year and aims to double it by 2010 through expansion, a top corporate official said. To achieve the target, the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (Vinashin) would focus on upgrading its subsidiaries infrastructure to boost production. The corporation plans to expand its nationwide shipyards in a bid to build up three shipbuilding clusters in the northern, central and southern region.

The northern cluster would focus on building container ships and oil tankers of approximately 70,000 DWT; ships of between 250,000-300,000 DWT in the central area; and ships of 30,000 DWT in the southern cluster. The corporation is planning to purchase designs of ships and shipbuilding technology from advanced global shipbuilding companies in Japan, Poland and the republic of korea. Vinashin will strive this year to achieve targets set by the Government of raising the rate of its domestically made products to 60 percent by 2010. Last year, the corporation won more than 10 contracts to build cargo and container ships with Japan, Germany, Britain and Poland. Vinashin posted a production value last year of VND11 trillion ($690 million) and a revenue of VND7.8 trillion ($490 million), up 46 percent and 41 percent over the previous year, respectively.