The overall purpose of this paper is to conduct research on alternatives for strengthening the competitiveness of a state-run shipping company, Vinalines Corporation, the largest shipping and maritime enterprise in Vietnam. The first section of the introduction gives a panoramic overview of the current development situation of the Vietnam maritime industry and Vinalines. After summarizing a literature review in section 2, some alternatives are proposed in sections 3 and 4 to overcome the current difficulties of Vinalines and to improve the corporation’s competitiveness for sustainable development by utilizing linear optimization and financial analysis. The final section presents a summary and recommendation for future study. It is concluded that privatization is the key solution for every problem faced by the corporation at present. Furthermore, modification of laws, restructuring of enterprise governance, financial situation, and fleet are also extremely necessary.

• Thanh-Van LE(Graduate school of Mokpo National Maritime University)
• Sung-June Kim(Assistant Professor of Mokpo National Maritime University) Corresponding author