MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Ministry of Industry and Energy said Tuesday that a government commission had set the equity capital of the emerging United Shipbuilding Corporation at 1.098 billion rubles ($42.9 million).

The level is based on a valuation of the shares of open joint-stock companies that will be transferred to the state corporation's charter capital.

The commission established to integrate shipbuilding enterprises has approved the draft articles of association for the corporation and its subsidiaries.

In March 2007 President Vladimir Putin signed an array of resolutions to set up the 100% state-owned shipbuilding corporation. The conglomerate will be registered in St. Petersburg with the Nevskoye Design Bureau as an anchor company, and unite shipbuilding, repair and maintenance subsidiaries in western and northern Russia, and in the country's Far East, to streamline civilian shipbuilding using military facilities.

The corporation's contract portfolio will total $12 billion.