April 01, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1428

HANOI, March 31: Vietnam's prime minister on Saturday ordered contractors to speed up construction of the country's first oil refinery to achieve operation by early 2009.

“There have been some work delays recently so we need to step up efforts to make sure we meet the original schedule to put the plant into production by early 2009,” Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told delegates at the National Assembly in a live television broadcast.

State oil monopoly Petrovietnam began building the Dung Quat refinery in 2005 in the central province of Quang Ngai at an estimated cost of $2.5 billion after years of delays caused by fund shortages and design changes.—Reuters