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Vinalines announces heavy investment plan

Vinalines announces heavy investment plan

Hanoi: The director of Viet Nam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines), Mai Van Phuc, has announced plans to invest about $3bn in a variety of company infrastructural development through 2010, reports the Viet Nam News. Phuc has stated that the money will be used for building and development of the company's flotilla, the upgrade of seaport infrastructure and the development of transport services.

Vinalines is currently building new ships and buying second-hand vessels from foreign partners to increase its total ship capacity from 2.1m tonnes by the end of 2007 to 2.8m tonnes by the end of 2008, and up to 5m tonnes by 2010. Additionally, current ships, such as those with a capacity of 25,000-30,000 tonnes will gradually be replaced with more modern vessels of 50,000-70,000 tonne capacity.

Phuc said that Vinalines would have 11 projects related to seaport infrastructure development in 2008, including Hai Phong's Lach Huyen International Seaport, HCM City's Hiep Phuoc Seaport and the second phase of the Tien Sa seaport project in Da Nang.

Phuc also confirmed that Vinalines' biggest seaport infrastructure project in 2008 - the construction of the Van Phong International Ship Container Terminal - would be launched this June. The project, initially slated to begin construction in late January, was delayed to allow South Korea's Posco to build a $5bn steel ml in the vicinity.

Vinalines will also upgrade the Nha Rong and Khanh Hoi ports in HCM City and the Song Han port in Da Nang to tourism seaports with developed cargo storage systems and logistical services. In the long term, Vinalines hopes to build three logistical service centres in the north, centre and south of the country.

The company also plans to tackle the manpower shortage by co-operating with the University of Maritime for human resource training, and plans to establish a maritime human resource training centre in the central province of Nghe An.

The corporation is also in the process of opening representative offices in key Vietnamese export markets such as Japan, the EU and the US.  [11/04/08]