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BUSINESS
IN BRIEF 30/9
Mobile
phone exports target US$20 billion
Mobile phone and
spare parts are likely to top the list of Vietnamese export items for the
first time, with their export earnings expected to hit US$20 billion in 2013.
Statistics show the
export value of mobile phones and spare parts increased 21.45 times from 2009
to 2012, or 177.8% year on year on average.
In 2009, these
products ranked 9th among the country’s top 10 export items behind garments,
footwear, crude oil, seafood, electronics, computers and spare parts, wood
and wood products, rice and rubber. One year later, they climbed to fourth
place after garments, crude oil and footwear.
They were placed
second behind garments in 2011 and 2012, but jumped to top in the first nine
months of 2013.
Worthy of note is
that foreign-invested businesses accounted for 99.2% of the total export
value of mobile phones and spare parts.
The high export
growth was attributed to the operation of phone handset manufacturing
projects in Bac Ninh province, making Bac Ninh the country’s second largest
hard currency earner (US$15.5 billion) after HCM City (US$20 billion) between
January-September 2013.
The European Union
was the largest importer of Vietnamese mobile phones and spare parts,
consuming US$5.4 billion in the past nine months, a year-on-year increase of
71%. It was followed by the
MoF
examines ways to restructure tax debt
The Ministry of
Finance (MoF) has proposed rescheduling tax debt repayment terms for ailing
businesses which would be able to commit to paying tax in the future.
The proposal was
made against a backdrop of skyrocketing tax debts as enterprises have toiled
in the face of an economic downturn.
The ministry's
report showed that by the end of this year's second quarter, tax debt
collection had faced significant obstacles.
Over 25,000 firms
were found to have a total tax debt of VND4.4 trillion (US$209.5 million).
Meanwhile, only 32% of last year's tax debts were collected by December 2012.
In addition, a
large number of companies trying to avoid paying tax debts was making
collection extremely difficult, according to the report.
Vu Vinh Phu, former
director of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, said enterprises had
been asked to report reasons for their tax slow repayment to authorities.
Phu said real
estate firms accounted for a large portion of the tax debt list and
authorities should carefully check whether the debts were due to frozen
property market or simple negligence.
He added that
businesses would have to explain reasons for slow tax payments or they would
face bankruptcy to avoid becoming antecedent for others.
Sharing these
thoughts, lawyer Bui Dinh Ung said State management agencies should carry out
check-ups at businesses to impose penalties on tax cheats.
Another lawyer Tran
Dinh Trien added that enterprises would be allowed to restructure production
to facilitate their tax obligations.
Finance Minister
Dinh Tien Dung said the ministry had asked its Taxation Department to
restructure tax debt for certain cases.
Head of the
department Bui Van Nam said authorities had calculated and researched plans
to clear unrecoverable tax debts and tax penalties due to late payment would
be wiped clean.
Debts incurred
after the beginning of July this year would incur a late payment charge of
0.05% per day for the outstanding tax from the payment deadline up to 90 days
over. From day 91 onwards, a 0.07% rate would be applied each day thereafter,
he revealed.
Ta Minh Quang ,
Head of the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, said since
At the General
Assembly session, Quang introduced two WIPO projects
In the first
project, WIPO supports several developing and underdeveloped countries in
drawing up a branding strategy to promote local specialities and boost their
exports.
In
In the second
project, WIPO helps the countries establish Technology and Innovation Support
Centres (TISC) with access to locally based, high quality technology
information and related services, in order to create, protect, and manage
their intellectual property rights.
Under an agreement
signed with the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, WIPO has
pledged to support
It has run a number
of workshops providing the Office’s staff with basic skills to access online
patent and non-patent (scientific and technical) resources and industrial
property-related publications.
Businesses
seek to penetrate UAE
Businesses in Can
Tho city will greatly benefit if they are able to penetrate the
Vietnamese
businesses and those in the Mekong Delta in particular, however, are facing
tremendous difficulties as a result of the global economic recession and
technical barriers when entering choosy markets like the US, EU and Japan,
said Deputy Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Dao Anh Dung.
In addition, they
have yet to fully penetrate such affluent and stable markets as the Middle
East, North Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) grouping
The workshop,
therefore, is a rare opportunity for local business players to explore ways to
pierce these emerging markets.
Director of the LP
Vietnam Academy of Entrepreneurs Nguyen Lien Phuong cited rice, seafood,
processed farm produce, construction materials and green bonsai as the export
strengths of Can Tho city and Mekong Delta provinces, while the
aforementioned markets are assessed as those with strong purchasing power.
Lord
Puttnam’s visit to promote UK business in Vietnam
The
He will take part
in a GREAT Week initiated by the UK Trade and Investment to give UK-based
businesses the opportunity to join government-led trade missions to meet
major buyers, potential partners and influential opinion formers in market.
GREAT WEEK
activities, taking place in
Lord Puttnam’s role
is to promote trade for
Lord Puttnam is an
award-winning producer of films including The Mission, The Killing Fields,
Local Hero, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone and Memphis
Belle. His films have won ten Oscars, 25 Baftas and the Palme D'Or at
He retired from
film production in 1998 to focus on his work in public policy in education,
the environment, and the 'creative and communications' industries.
He is a member of
the advisory panel to the UK-ASEAN Business Council.
Two hundred booths
and display stalls representing 150 domestic and foreign enterprises joined
Vietnam Association
of Functional Foods (VAFF) President Tran Dang expects the event will attract
more than 80,000 visitors over its three days.
Dang told press the
festival is anofficial forum offering diatery supplement producers the chance
to connect with a diverse range of consumers.
The Vietnamese
availability of nutritional supplementshas boomed during the last 10 years,
fuelled by both renowned foreign brands and domestic producers.
By last December,
approximately 1,600 businesses were distributing more than 5,500 kinds of
supplements to local customers.
Around six million
people report using supplements regularly, 43 percent of whom reside in urban
areas.
The festival
promotes milk, grains, tea, sports drinks, and health food products tailored
to strengthening the immune system. It also includes an award presentation
ceremony and seminars on the Vietnamese food supplement industry’s strategy
for development.
Coffee
exports hit US$2.21 billion in 9 months
The Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has predicted that September’s
coffee exports are expected to reach 61,000 tonnes, a year-on-year decrease
of 27 percent.
Coffee exports to
Average export
prices of US$2,145 per tonne saw a slight 1.19 percent improvement on 2012.
But in Dak Lak
province, coffee prices fell VND600 to VND36,100 per kilo due to falling
prices in the global market.
The
A September 27 report
in the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai has declared
Between 70–80
Japanese information technology companies are currently invested in
An additional 20
have indicated plans to join their compatriots, doubling 2012’s new
investment figure.
It now employs220
programmers and expects to hire 80 more in the near future.
Around 200,000
Vietnamese workers have completed courses run by information technology
training centres.
Japanese language
students in
But Japan External
Trade Organisation Investment Consultant Yoshitaka Kurihara is confident
He says Vietnamese
employees are also typically very fast learners.
IT businesses are
currently taxed at 25 percent, scheduled to drop to 22 percent from 2014.
Businesses are granted tax exemptions for their first four years and at 50
percent of the full rate for the five years following. Renting Vietnamese workshop
and office space is also comparatively cheap.
Strengthening
macroeconomic stability through monetary and fiscal policies and speeding up
the economic restructuring topped the agenda of the ongoing 2013 Autumn
Economic Forum in the central
The September 26-27
forum, themed “Vietnam Economy 2013 – Prospects for 2014: Striving to
Implement Three Strategic Breakthroughs”, focuses on seeking major measures,
especially middle-term solutions for the Vietnamese economy.
The State and
Government should have flexible policies to deal with bad debts, such as
settling debts for enterprises or making breakthroughs in some stages, said
Ass. Prof. Dr. Tran DinhThien, Director of the Vietnam Institute of
Economics.
Sharing this view,
Dr. Tran Du Lich from the NA Economic Committee said
He stressed that
maintaining macroeconomic stability, accelerating economic structuring and
building market confidence remain the leading goal in the time ahead.
At the forum,
delegates suggested a harmony between goals on economic growth and stability,
and inflation prevention.
It is necessary to
maintain total social investment capital at an appropriate rate to help
businesses develop, they said, adding that if not, enterprises will fall into
capital exhaustion, resulting in unemployment and loss of budget revenue.
They agreed that in
2013, the Vietnamese economy has become stable with lower rate of inflation,
low trade deficit and high surplus. However, it is forecast to continue
growing slowly in short and medium terms due to high inventories and bad
debts in the real estate market and investors’ falling confidence.
The forum is
jointly organised by the National Assembly Economic Committee, the Vietnam
Academy of Social Sciences, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(VCCI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in
Foreign
funds for weak banks hard to find: SCB
Standard Chartered
Bank (SCB) in a recent report deems it difficult for weak banks to lure
foreign capital investment even though the Government is going to unveil many
regulations to help weak banks sell their stakes to foreign investors and two
banks have already found the stake buyers.
As per the report,
there are still concerns over a big debt ratio announced by the local banking
system which is still struggling with the lack of recapitalization plans.
Small and weak banks might have higher bad debt ratios than the average rate
and are not ready for lending due to higher deposit rate payments while
larger lenders have obtained strong credit growth in line with the
Government’s target of 12% set for 2013.
According to the
report, as the Government highly appreciates the participation of foreign
investors in buying bad debts or stakes in local banks, it is now considering
raising the maximum stake for foreign investors at a credit institution to
more than 30% on a case-by-case basis.
SCB noted a
disparity between bad debt ratios recorded by local banks and the State Bank
of Vietnam (SBV). While most big banks reported their bad debts ratios at
less than 3% out of the total loan balances in this year’s first six months,
the bad debt ratio of the whole system reported to the SBV was 4.46% and the
figure estimated by the SBV as of June 30 was higher, at up to 6.6%.
SCB said that it
and Fitch supposed the ratio might be several times higher than the aforesaid
figures.
Furthermore,
deploying strict instructions on bad debt classification and extracting risk
provisions are put on hold until June, 2014, SCB said.
SCB expressed its
optimism about the relative stability of the
The bank ascribed
the stability to the inconsiderable gap between foreign exchange rates in the
official markets and in the unofficial ones for a long time and U.S. dollar
deposit rates offered by banks lower than dong deposit rates discouraging
foreign currency holdings. Besides, a sharp fall in U.S. dollar demand in the
official economic areas has also helped stabilize exchange rates in recent
months.
Given the factors,
SCB expected
SBV in a recent
report informed that only one weak lender among nine lenders subject to the
restructuring plan since 2011 is now awaiting the Prime Minister’s
instruction on self-consolidation using capital of foreign credit
institutions.
In related news, an
SBV official told the Daily that Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank merged
from Vietnam Tin Nghia, De Nhat and the former Saigon Commercial Joint Stock
Bank was consulting a foreign partner intending to restructure the lender and
purchase its stakes.
Macroeconomic indicators
in the year through September have changed for the better but whether the
economy has improved remains questionable, according to the Ministry of
Planning and Investment.
The ministry in a
report presented at a meeting on Tuesday showed that the January-September
Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is up 5.4% year-on-year. Meanwhile,
according to the report, power and gas consumption marked up 8.3%, with power
volume consumed by the manufacturing and construction industries surging
nearly 8.6% year-on-year.
At the meeting, Bui
Ha, director of the Department for National Economic Issues under the
ministry, said: “This year’s power consumption being higher than that in the
same period in 2012 indicates manufacturing and construction and agriculture
and fishery industries are recovering.”
As per the report,
the country’s GDP has grown an estimated 5.14% in the first nine months, with
services posting the highest growth, at 6.25%, followed by manufacturing and
construction with 5.02%, and agriculture and seafood with 2.39%.
According to Ha,
the nine-month export value was estimated at US$96.5 billion, increasing
15.7% year-on-year, while the nation’s import spending totaled some US$96.6
billion in the same period, soaring 15.5% year-on-year. In particular, the
foreign direct investment (FDI) sector posted a trade surplus of roughly US$4
billion exclusive of crude oil exports, he said.
The report
demonstrates that outstanding loans in the banking system have picked up over
6% as of this month, which is expected to continue to rise an extra 4-6%
towards the year’s end. There are 872 FDI projects having been licensed in
January-September with total registered capital of US$9.3 billion, leaping
35% year-on-year, while only 58,000 new companies have been established, says
the report.
Still, Deputy
Minister of Planning and Investment Dao Quang Thu expressed his caution
towards the positive results. “There are still contradictory evaluations on
the economic situation. Many say that the economy has recovered from the
bottom given important indicators growing steadily month-on-month while
others argue that the situation has yet to improve as the steady economic
growth over the months is as normal as has been seen in previous years,” he
said.
Thu posed a
question to representatives of provinces at the meeting: “Is the economy
improving or is it still struggling?”
A delegate from
HCMC responded that the city’s government had boosted the connectivity among
local commercial banks and enterprises in 24 districts citywide but only 415
companies and 600 production households took out credits totaling around
VND8.7 trillion from the special program. The delegate ascribed the poor
result to the fact that local firms see no need to borrow money from banks to
expand production as they are sitting on a mountain of inventories.
This year’s
economic growth target is 5.5% but the planning ministry has recently
predicted the actual figure might be 5.3% at best.
Policy
predictability vital for auto industry
Vietnam should
quickly determine a tax policy for the local auto industry that should be
more predictable, otherwise local manufacturers will be at a loss when import
tariffs are all brought down to zero in 2018, said an automaker.
Jesus Metelo Arias,
general director of Ford
He noted that the
policy and orientation for the auto industry on the part of the Vietnamese
Government have not been well-established.
VAMA has had
several seminars and dialogues with the Government to look for solutions to
enhance the local auto industry’s competitiveness as the deadline of 2018 is
drawing near when auto import tariffs will be slashed to 0% under
There have been two
scenarios discussed, one on maintaining the high rates until 2018 and the
other on gradually bringing down the tariffs to zero upon the deadline. However,
the Government has not given its final say on the matter.
Arias commented
that the local auto industry has experienced a rocky path of development due
to unpredictable tax policy changes, which have given concerns to those local
automakers who want to make in-depth investments here.
Arias argued that
higher taxes did not mean higher revenue for State coffers, citing a study by
the Ministry of Industry and Trade to conclude that a lower tax regime would
do better.
The Ministry of
Industry and Trade in a draft estimates that if the special consumption tax
on autos is halved, the auto industry will contribute an additional tax
revenue equivalent to some 1% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“As such, revenue for the State budget will increase if taxes are cut,” he
said.
Arias stressed
VAMA’s viewpoint that the Government maintain a consistent tax policy towards
the auto industry.
“The key point that
VAMA wants to recommend to the Government is the predictability and
stability,” he said, adding the Government needs to take a long-term vision,
not just with AFTA but also other trade agreements like the one with the EU,
the future Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, and other WTO conventions.
The Government
should have a long-term, overall viewpoint, creating a concrete roadmap so
that automakers can prepare themselves and make their own plans for
development to sharpen their competitiveness, he said.
Rice yield
restriction may not help raise farmers’ income
Local experts on
Tuesday cast doubt on a plan by the agriculture ministry to raise farmers’
income by cutting the area under rice cultivation to prevent an oversupply,
saying the market volatility cannot be explained so plainly.
At a conference
reviewing this year’s rice production held in the Mekong Delta
Le Thanh Tung of
the Cultivation Department under the ministry informed that the winter-spring
crop 2012-2013 in the country’s south was expanded by over 20,800 hectares
against last year, with its total yield expected to rise 650,000 tons
year-on-year. Meanwhile, rice exports are still struggling, leading to
volatile incomes for rice farmers in the region, he said.
Truong Thanh Phong,
chairman of the Vietnam Food Association, told the conference that the rice
trade was depressed due to a global oversupply, with the stockpiles in
However, many
experts told the Daily on the sidelines of the conference that the growing
area reduction was not a decisive factor to raise rice farming incomes.
“Personally, I
think that incomes of farmers are not decided by rice farming area
adjustments but the market’s diverse supply-demand factors,” said Le Van
Banh, director of the Mekong Delta Rice Research Institute.
In the long term,
Banh said, rice exporters need to comprehend the real demand of every
importing country in terms of rice types and volumes, then cooperate with
local farmers and scientists to prepare the farm produce accordingly, he
noted.
The low profit
margin for rice farmers is also attributed to many intermediary stages in the
production process, which push up production cost and cut into farmers’
profits.
Phong of the
Vietnam Food Association noted that high-quality rice was still selling well
but for lower-grade rice,
Even
Phong said that
imports from Africa account for nearly one quarter of
Jasmine rice
exports recorded as of September 12 doubled the year-ago period’s volume,
representing up to 14% of the nation’s total rice exports in the period,
Phong added.
He noted that “it
is very difficult to realize the rice export target of 7.5 million tons set
for this year,” and his association has pulled the estimate down to 7.2
million tons.
“Obtaining the
target of exporting 2.5 million tons in this year’s fourth quarter is really
a tough job as domestic exporters now are facing tough competition from Thai
and Indian sellers,” Phong explained.
IDG opens
training institute
International Data
Group (IDG) has just opened an institute for training chief security and
information officers in
The institute is an
initiative of IDG and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
introduced in
ACCA aims to
increase the information technology capacity of the governmental sector and
its target learners are chief information officers (CIO) and chief security
officers (CSO) in
Training courses
will focus on helping learners seize opportunities and overcome challenges in
the era of information and knowledge-based economy and provide them with
knowledge and skills needed in the development process of information
technology.
The schedule of
training courses will be announced soon, said IDG.
Sales up to
50 pct during
About 500
businesses in
The highlight of
the month will be the two “golden days” on November 16 and 17 when products
at special discounts will be available at 25 special sites around the city,
announced a conference for participating businesses held by the municipal
Department of Industry and Trade on September 26.
The businesses
operate in the fields of food, beverage, essential goods, fashion, garments
and textiles, footwear, household devices, interior decoration, arts and
handicrafts, automobile, motorbike, hotel and restaurant service.
The capital city
plans to spend 3 billion VND (143,000 USD), including about 1.2 billion VND
from the city budget, on the promotional activities.
The Industry and
Trade Department will also strengthen the inspection of participating
businesses to ensure the transparency and fairness during the promotion
month, thus raising consumers’ confidence.
Moreover, this
year, the event’s organising board coordinates with the Vietnam National
Administration of Tourism to encourage travel agencies to join the month and
reduce the price of tours and services.
On this occasion,
Macroeconomic
stability, economic restructuring spotlighted
Strengthening
macroeconomic stability through monetary and fiscal policies and speeding up
the economic restructuring topped the agenda of the ongoing 2013 Autumn
Economic Forum in the central
The September 26-27
forum, themed “Vietnam Economy 2013 – Prospects for 2014: Striving to
Implement Three Strategic Breakthroughs”, focuses on seeking major measures,
especially middle-term solutions, for the Vietnamese economy.
The State and
Government should have flexible policies to deal with bad debts, such as
settling debts for enterprises or making breakthroughs in some stages, said
Ass. Prof. Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, Director of the Vietnam Institute of
Economics.
Sharing this view,
Dr. Tran Du Lich from the NA Economic Committee said
He stressed that
maintaining macroeconomic stability, accelerating economic structuring and
building market confidence remain the leading goal in the time ahead.
At the forum,
delegates suggested a harmony between goals on economic growth and stability,
and inflation prevention.
It is necessary to
maintain total social investment capital at an appropriate rate to help
businesses develop, they said, adding that if not, enterprises will fall into
capital exhaustion, resulting in unemployment and loss of budget revenue.
They agreed that in
2013,
The forum is jointly
organised by the National Assembly Economic Committee, the Vietnam Academy of
Social Sciences, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( VCCI ) and
the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP ) in
VietJet Air
receives first Airbus aircraft
The Vietjet
Aviation Joint Stock Company (VietJet Air) on September 26 received an A320
Sharklet in
The hand-over
ceremony saw the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on the occasion
of his official visit to
VietJet Air’s
executive director Luu Duc Khanh said the airline has signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with Airbus to buy 92 aircrafts and rent 8 others.
He said VietJet Air
is the first airline in
An Airbus’
representative said the establishment of VietJet Air, a private budget
airline which operates both domestic and foreign flight routes, reflects the
dynamic development in
The A320 Sharklet
model reportedly helps save 4 percent of fuel and reduce more than 1,000
tonnes of CO2 emission every year.-
Addressing a
September 26 meeting of the HCM City People’s Committee on socio-economic
development in the fourth quarter, Chairman of the committee Le Hoang Quan
noted that the local economy has showed signs of recovery with more than
4,700 businesses resuming their operations and nearly 1,800 new ones
established.
This shows that
businesses have initially overcome their difficulties so the city should
create more favourable conditions for them, he said.
The chairman
instructed agencies and local administrations to keep a close watch of
production and business activities in order to provide timely assistance,
particularly in improving credit access for businesses ahead of the peak
consuming season of the year before the New Year festival.
The Department of
Planning and Investment reported that in the first ninth months of this year,
HCM City maintained a quarter-to-quarter GDP growth, with the Q3 figure
reaching 10.3 percent, 0.7 percent higher than that of the same period last
year. The city’s index of industrial production (IIP) was estimated to
increase by 6 percent year-on-year.
However, the
southern hub still faces high inventories and bad debts.
To deal with these
problems, the municipal People’s Committee has set out measures such as
providing credit support and increasing trade promotion, investment and
service.-
Nhon Trach
2 power plant churns out 10 billion kWh
The Nhon Trach 2
thermal power plant in the southern
The plant has so
far this year generated 3.6 billion kWh, fulfilling 87 percent of its yearly
plan.
With the current
capacity, the plant is estimated to contribute about 5 percent of electricity
to the national grid annually.
According to Hoang
Xuan Quoc, General Director of the PetroVietnam Nhon Trach 2 Power JSC, the
company is likely to exceed its yearly plan of 4.2 billion kWh this year.
The Nhon Trach 2
thermal power plant began commercial operation in late 2011 after a
fast-track construction period of only 28.5 months, 1.5 months earlier than
the contracted schedule.
A s a national key
project in the provincial PetroVietnam Nhon Trach Power Centre, the power
plant has a total capacity of 750 MW and is fueled by natural gas which has
been registered under the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism as main
fuel.
The plant received
the gold award in the Fast-Track Power Plant of the Year category at the
Asian Power Awards 2012.
Rice
husk-fuelled thermal power plant to be built
A number of
contracts were signed on September 25 in the Mekong Delta province of Hau
Giang in preparation for the construction of the Hau Giang rice husk-fired
thermal power plant.
The 32 million USD
project, funded by the Exim Bank of Malaysia and the Vietnam Development
Bank, is expected to kick-start in late December this year, as part of
activities to mark the 10 th re-establishment of the anniversary of the
province.
Covering an area of
9 hectares in the provincial town of Long My , the 10-MW plant will be
operational in two years.
Once completed, the
plant will not only provide clean energy resources but also contribute to
environmental protection in the region where rice husks are abundant in the
post-harvest time, said Deputy Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee
Nguyen Thanh Nhon.
The project is part
of the plan to build 20 rice husk thermo-electric plants across the country,
including five in An Giang, Kien Giang, Hau Giang, Dong Thap, and Can Tho
city in the granary-labelled Mekong Delta, said Pham Trong Thuc, Director of
the Renewable Energy Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Cashew
exporters expect busy coming months
The recent rise in
cashew prices has signalled a race to export cashews in the remaining months
of the year.
According to
Chairman of the Cashew Association of the southern province of Dong Nai
(Donacas) Nguyen Thai Hoc, prices of exported cashew nuts averaged less than
6,300 USD per tonne in the first two quarters of 2013 but rose to 7,600 USD
per tonne in early August.
From October to the
pre-harvest period in March next year, cashew export should perform well.
Prices will be higher than those in the second and third quarters but surges
are unlikely to happen, Hoc predicted.
Vietnam exported
168,000 tonnes of cashew nuts worth 1.07 billion USD in the first eight
months of this year, rising by 18 percent in volume and over 10 percent in
value year-on-year.
Statistics from
Donacas show that its member manufacturers need around 130,000 – 150,000
tonnes of raw cashew each year. However, domestic sources are capable of
supplying only half of that amount, the remainder is imported.
At present,
domestic supplies are not abundant and the amount of imported raw cashew is
only about 70 percent that of last year, since importers are encountering
difficulties in borrowing capital. As such, Donacas has urged its members to
make good material preparation for the pre-harvest period.
Sales up to
50 pct during Hanoi’s promotion month
About 500
businesses in Hanoi, including big supermarkets and trade centres, have
registered to participate in the city’s special promotion month in November,
offering discounts of up to 50 percent for many of their products.
The highlight of
the month will be the two “golden days” on November 16 and 17 when products
at special discounts will be available at 25 special sites around the city,
announced a conference for participating businesses held by the municipal
Department of Industry and Trade on September 26.
The businesses
operate in the fields of food, beverage, essential goods, fashion, garments
and textiles, footwear, household devices, interior decoration, arts and
handicrafts, automobile, motorbike, hotel and restaurant service.
The capital city
plans to spend 3 billion VND (143,000 USD), including about 1.2 billion VND
from the city budget, on the promotional activities.
The Industry and
Trade Department will also strengthen the inspection of participating
businesses to ensure the transparency and fairness during the promotion
month, thus raising consumers’ confidence.
Moreover, this
year, the event’s organising board coordinates with the Vietnam National
Administration of Tourism to encourage travel agencies to join the month and
reduce the price of tours and services.
On this occasion,
Hanoi will host the 28th Asian Advertising Congress slated for November 11-14.
Central
Highlands coffee sector targets sustainable development
Developing the
coffee industry in a sustainable manner is a mutual concern of the
government, ministries, sectors, businesses and coffee growers in the Central
Highlands provinces.
With an annual
average output of over 1.5 million tonnes, developing coffee has been
underscored as key to Vietnam’s agricultural growth, said Director of the
Central Highlands Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute Le Ngoc Bau.
He highlighted the
advantageous climate and fertile soil as well as the unique and creative
farming techniques used in the area as the reasons that local producers can
still sell their products despite the unstable coffee prices in the market.
The director,
however, warned that an increasing number of local coffee growers persist in
harvesting green beans, which may result in their products being of lower
quality.
Added to this,
erratic weather and security issues also responsible for the unstable coffee
quality, Bau said.
He suggested
Vietnamese businesses in the field come up with solutions to enhance the
quality of their products mainly via improving the harvesting process.
Local authorities
must also intensify security during the harvest to ease workers’ worries of
their coffee beans being stolen, Bau said.
Furthermore, the
State should encourage farmers and enterprises to focus on deep processing,
as one kilogram of soluble coffee has far greater value than the same amount
of raw processing coffee.
Scientists have
also been tasked with conducting more research on technological scientific
solutions to increase replanting efficiency, which will spur the sustainable
growth of local coffee.
State bank
regulates debt grouping
State Bank of
Vietnam Governor Nguyen Van Binh this week issued a directive on
classification of restructured debts to ensure that credit institutions
perform safely and more effectively.
Under the
directive, the Governor requires credit institutions to restructure loan
repayment periods and keep loan groups on the basis of assessing the
conditions for production, business and service supply, as well as the
ability to repay debts; and to inspect and strictly control restructured
debts to ensure that borrowers can repay the debts in accordance with
restructured repayment period.
Credit institutions
will not restructure the repayment period and maintain loan groups for
customers that use funds for improper purposes or violate provisions of the
credit agreements and related regulations.
The lenders can
actively decide to restructure the repayment period on the basis of
monitoring and assessing customers' business conditions and financial
strength.
Additionally, they
can simultaneously reconsider interest rates in line with the financial conditions
of borrowers, of credit institutions and the actual monetary market to
support customers in overcoming difficulties in production and business.
They can also only
restructure the repayment period and keep loan groups for clients unable to
repay the principal or interest within the terms of the loan or when due, if
they have new feasible business plans, and is determined that they have a
better ability to repay the debts once the debt repayment period is adjusted.
At the same time,
the institutions will have to promulgate internal regulations for
restructuring debts to ensure unity in implementation; have internal control
mechanisms to ensure control strictly and safely to prevent violations.
Besides reporting
internal regulations and internal control mechanisms to the central bank, the
institutions must also build and report their deployment plans and
implementation commitments.
Under the
directive, the Governor also requires the supervising agencies of the central
bank and its branches nationwide to better monitor credit institutions to
ensure they obey regulations and provide timely solutions to remove the
barriers faced by lenders and borrowers.
Quang Ninh
moves to lure more Japanese investors
The northern
province of Quang Ninh makes every effort to build an attractive environment
for Japanese investors, aiming to lure more investment from country.
As of this time,
the province attracted only 9 projects from Japan with a total capital of
61.3 million USD. The result does not match the province’s potential and
advantages.
Quang Ninh is now
one of Vietnam’s localities that are the apex of the Vietnam-China economic
cooperation project - “Two corridors-One economic belt”, which is an
important part of the ASEAN China Free Trade Area.
The locality has huge
strength and potential for development of marine-based economy. It has many
advantages positions for developing deepwater sea port system for receiving
heavy load ships and road and railway systems, which are advantages to goods
exchange and tourism development.
In order to
effectively exploit its strengths and advantages as well as attract more
investment projects from Japan, the province attaches importance to improving
investment environment, upgrading transport infrastructure while reforming
administrative procedures and enhancing quality of workforce through
training.
In its effort to
improve investment environment, in 2011 the province established the
Department of Investment Promotion and Support to foster investment promotion
in the locality. The department enlists the help of provincial departments
and sectors to support investment and increase coordination among relevant
agencies and investors.
Recently, the
province People’s Council also paid more attention to further improve
technical and social infrastructure in industrial parks (IPs) with the aim of
luring investment from Japan.
Along with
completing the master plan for socio- economic development in the locality,
Quang Ninh will also spend its budget to perfect its technical
infrastructure, systems of electricity supply, waste water drainage and
supporting facilities for several IPs in order to meet investors’ demands.
Besides, the
province also gives priority to projects on environment protection, while
accelerating site clearance and ensuring the one-stop shop mechanism to deal
with administrative procedures publicly, transparently, and quickly.
Quang Ninh province
issued Decision No. 677/QD-UBND on March 12, 2013 which approved a list of 32
projects to call for investment in the locality in the 2013-2015 period,
focusing on fields such as transport, industry, urban infrastructure and
tourism.
The province has
sent its many delegations to Japan to inquire experience in building economic
and industrial zones, hi-tech areas and tourism development, while
maintaining ties with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the
Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO)in order to promote its potential to
Japanese partners.
The provincial
People’s Committee organised a seminar to promote tourism development and
cooperation between the locality and Japan in the framework of the Cherry
Blossom Festival in the province in April this year.
The province is now
active in completing its set of investment promotion documents in Japanese
language to facilitate introduction of its potential to investors. It has
also signed cooperation agreements with JETRO for activities of trade and
investment promotion in 2013.
With its efforts,
the province hopes to lure more investors from the country of cherry blossoms
in the coming time.
Source: VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VIR
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Chủ Nhật, 29 tháng 9, 2013
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