Vietnam News Service reported that near bankrupt shipbuilder Vinashin has gradually bounced back after four months of restructuring.
A report made by the Steering Committee for Restructuring the Viet Nam Shipbuilding Industry Group said that all of its businesses, including shipbuilding, sea transport and subsidiary industries, had been back on their right track.
Head of the committee, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Mr Nguyen Sinh Hung said workers had got back to their jobs with a stable income and some of Vinashin's member enterprises had started to develop again.
He said that the transfer of some Vinashin's former projects and businesses to Petro Vietnam and Vinalines had been completed and these projects had resumed production.
All workers at Dung Quat shipbuilding factory were back to work. Soai Rap Industrial Zone in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, which is 285 hectares in area, had been turned into a fully occupied oil and gas industry and services complex.
Song Hau and Ca Mau industrial zones and Hau Giang and Ca Mau shipbuilding factories had also shifted from building new ships to repairing them.
The state owned Vinashin, established in 1996 to develop the country's shipbuilding industry, had accumulated debts totaling VND 86 trillion as of June 2010, leading to an investigation and large scale restructuring efforts.
When the restructure is completed in 2013, Vinashin would be an economic group including one big state owned corporation, 19 member companies, one joint venture and 22 subsidiary companies.
It would own properties worth almost VND 68,250 billion and have a debt of more than VND 53,000 billion. Another 216 businesses of Vinashin would be sold, equitised, merged, dissolved or declared bankrupt to pay debts.
Vinashin is expected to reach a turnover of nearly VND 21,150 billion. That includes a total export value of USD 352 million, up by 127% against last year.
Mr Hung said that but there are a lot of things to be done to make the goals. He added that "Although the restructuring efforts have initially showed encouraging results, the road ahead remains challenging."
He said that to achieve the goal of turning Vinashin into the leading group of Viet Nam's shipbuilding industry and turning the country into a marine economy power by 2020, a master plan for the whole industry must be completed by the end of March 2011.
An investigation of the Vinashin debacle is expected to be made public early this year. The group's near bankruptcy last year made almost 5,000 workers redundant and left the rest of its 70,000 employees unpaid in 2010.
(Sourced from Vietnam News Service)
