HONOI: Vietnam has started building a major $3.6 billion international container port in central Khanh Hoa province to boost regional economic development, state media said today.

Once completed in 2020, the Van Phong port will have 42 wharves and be capable of handling up to 200 million tonnes of cargo a year, said an online report on the overnment’s website.

The report quoted Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at a launching ceremony

yesterday as saying that the port “will be at the regional level and will be very competitive in

the future.”

The construction of the port will be divided into four phases, with the first phase due to finish in 2015.

Previous reports had said that communist Vietnam expected to handle up to 250 million tonnes of cargo in 2010, which is expected to rise to 550 to 600 million tonnes by 2020.