The Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology has secured a contract from the Vietnamese Government to develop a national space centre at a cost of about $600m with support from Japanese designers and technicians.

The centre will be located in a nine-hectare site in Hoa Lac High-Tech Park in Hanoi.

It will be a hub for research and installation of small satellites for weather forecasting, geodesy, exploration, radio and television broadcast, and rescue, research and disaster management.

Vietnam expects to reduce damage caused by natural disasters by 10% and design and produce small satellites to observe the Earth.

The space centre is expected to be completed by 2018.