Japanese naval destroyers making a port call, untold numbers of containers waiting to be unloaded -- and tourists piling out of their cruise ships in the middle of it all.

With Ho Chi Minh City port, gateway to booming Vietnam, rapidly becoming overwhelmed, ambitious expansion plans cannot be realised soon enough.

Last year, Vietnam witnessed a leap in maritime

cargo of more than 17 percent. Container traffic alone shot up by 30 percent, according to official figures.

It's a symptom of one of the world's fastest growing economies, with 8.5 percent GDP expansion last year aided by soaring foreign investment and recent entry into the World Trade Organisation.

Such growth translates into a sharp increase in demand for transport, of all types, explains John Cooney, the Asian Development Bank's (ADB)

Southeast Asia infrastructure director.

With eight-nine percent GDP growth, "demand for transport of whatever mode will grow at 15-16 percent," says Cooney.

"That effectively means that you have to provide double tire transport capacity within something like four to five years."

For the ports alone, an estimated five billion dollars in investment will be needed up to 2015.

"We are not well prepared," admits Ho Kim Lan, secretary general of the Vietnam seaports association.

"After accession to the WTO the situation is changing very rapidly. Cargo volumes increase very quickly.

"Although we have a masterplan for port development, the development of infrastructure in the country is far behind the demand."

Vietnamese ports handled 181 million tonnes of merchandise last year, a figure

estimated to rise to up to 250 million in 2010 and to 550-600 million by 2020, according to maritime authorities.

To absorb this traffic, officials are targeting several development zones, such as around this southern economic hub, near tourist hotspot Nha Trang and at Haiphong in the northern reaches of Vietnam’s 3,260-kilomctrc (2,225 miles) coastline.

The strategy is to build deep-water ports to accommodate larger vessels which

currently have to drop off Vietnam-bound goods in Hong Kong or Singapore.

Saigon port, which retains Ho Chi Minh City’s former name, will be moved from its present centra) location and developed outside the city, quadrupling capacity’ to more than 50 million tonnes a year.

The aim is not only to cope with the explosion in traffic, but also to save time and money for foreign investors w ho favour Vietnam for its low production costs.