MOSCOW, March 19 (RIA Novosti) -- Russia's President Vladimir Putin will sign a decree to set up a United Shipbuilding Corporation, which will be headed by Alexander Burutin, presidential aide for the defense sector.

The United Shipbuilding Corporation is a government-sponsored project to combine all state financial assets in the shipbuilding sector.

Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who has been put in charge of the project and already heads the United Aircraft Building Corporation, said Russian docks were overloaded with military orders, with the main problem being "insufficient equipment and capacity for civilian shipbuilding."

In December, Ivanov said Russia would have three shipbuilding holdings this year. "We will have several major shipbuilding holdings, including a separate Far Eastern holding because it is important for us to retain positions in Pacific shipbuilding," Ivanov said at the time, adding that Russia's civilian shipbuilding was in dire straights, unlike the military sector.

He said Russia built very few civilian ships despite the volume of foreign trade through its ports being higher than Soviet-time records, and added that the United Shipbuilding Corporation would make use of military shipbuilding facilities for civilian purposes.

"Russia has largely integrated in the global economy, much of its exports are transported by sea but in foreign rather than Russian ships," Ivanov said, calling for putting more effort into civilian shipbuilding.

The first deputy prime minister, then deputy prime minister, also said late last year that Russian civilian ships could not compete with foreign rivals in terms of price because of high VAT rates and substantial import custom duties on ship components.