BUSINESS IN BRIEF 28/9 IPs near Hanoi looking popular   Industrial parks nearby Hanoi have attracted scores of foreign invested businesses this year. Three South Korean investors recently put down the deposit to lease a 70,000-square metre space at Dong Van 4 Industrial Park (IP) in the northern province of Ha Nam.  The IP developer is Viglacera, the largest state-owned construction materials producer who received the investment certificate to invest in Ha Nam province less than a month ago.  It is significant to note that Viglacera will only commence construction of the IP later this month or early next month, meaning that the Korean investors’ decision to lease the vast land area in the prospective IP shows great trust.  “The three Korean investors leasing land to build production plants at the unfinished Dong Van 4 IP has surpassed our expectations. The investors’ trust has inspired us to soon finalise the investment and construction to hand over cleared land to our investors,” said Tran Ngoc Anh, director of Viglacera Land.  The director also unveiled that two of the three Korean investors produce electronic components for use in cars, fridges, washing machines, and ovens, and are reliable partners of global brands like Samsung, LG, Rinnai, Hyundai, Kia, Ford or Toshiba.  According to developer Viglacera, with the favourable location and attractive rental charges, the IP is expected to attract tens of businesses by the end of this year.  Since early this year, businesses leasing land at IPs adjoining Hanoi are mostly electronics and apparel producers.  Besides the advantage in low-cost workforce, the investors’ renown for professionalism in IP development is a significant factor helping to lure foreign investors to these IPs.  For instance, Yen Phong IP expansion project in the northern province of Bac Ninh kicked off construction this March over a 314-hectare area. Now, two kilometres of internal road has been completed, together with sufficient power and water supply systems, plus a 20 ha cleared land area ready to serve investors.  When the first cleared plot at the expanded Yen Phong IP became available, it was quickly snatched up by a Korean electronics firm who is a first-tier Samsung supplier.  Yen Phong IP expanded project aims to attract $2.6 billion investment into a range of sectors, such as agricultural items and food processing, light industries, as well as mechanical and electronic industries.  Yen Phong IP, after more than 10 years in existence, has become the stopping-point of a number of big South Korean electronic firms, such as Samsung, Orion, Flexcom, Dongsin, and Hansol, helping the province to score $8 billion in total committed FDI.  This contributed to generating the province about $28 billion in the total export revenue last year. Vietnam, UK seek ways to boost coffee trade Vietnamese and British coffee enterprises are keen on promoting doing business together, Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (VICOFA) Chairman Luong Van Tu told a Vietnam News Agency correspondent at a roundtable discussion about coffee business in London. The seminar, jointly held by the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (VICOFA), British Coffee Association and the Embassy of Vietnam in the UK, aims to boost coffee trade between the two countries. Participants discussed measures to develop and promote coffee production standards in line with the principles of sustainable development. They also talked about the qualities of coffees, on how export supply chains are organised in producing countries such as Vietnam. At the seminar, Vietnamese Ambassador to the UK Nguyen Van Thao pledged his strong support to facilitate Vietnam market access to UK enterprises. While Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh said Vietnam encouraged foreign investors to pour capital into agriculture including coffee processing technology.  Vietnam is the biggest coffee producer in Asia and the world's second largest one after Brazil.  Every year, Vietnam exports around 90 percent of its production with the volume of around 1.3 million tonnes, earning over 3 billion USD. In recent years, Vietnam has been increasing exporting processed coffee: roasted, ground, and 3 in 1. The Vietnamese coffee industry is focusing more on processing instant coffee, which generates higher profits for the national coffee sector. The domestic consumption is also increasing rapidly. In 2015, Vietnam had 17,300 coffee shops nationwide. There are coffee shop chains such as Highland Coffee, Trung Nguyen, Me Trang and Vinacafe. The Starbuck chain develops very fast in Vietnam. In 2015, the bilateral trade turnover between the UK and Vietnam reached 5.4 billion USD, an increase of 25 percent against the previous year. The UK investment in Vietnam valued 4.7 billion USD, ranking at second among EU investors. Vietnam export turnover to the UK has been increasing average of 20 percent every year. The main export products include seafood, vegetable, fruits, cashew, coffee, tea, pepper, rubber, garment and textile, shoes. In term of coffee, the UK is always in the top ten biggest coffee importing market of Vietnam. In 2015, the UK imported about 32,000 tonnes worth of 65 million USD. Thaco makes big investment in bus project Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco) plans to inject more than 2.1 trillion VND (94.5 million USD) into a project to produce buses with European emission standards for both domestic use and export to other markets in ASEAN. The project, to be carried out with cooperation from the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Hyundai Group, will have a design capacity of about 20,000 buses annually, including 12,000 mini buses and 8,000 coaches. Also under the project, Thaco has been licensed by Hyundai to produce components and spare parts for H350 mini-buses at its factories in Chu Lai Open Economic Zone, the central province of Quang Nam. Currently, Hyundai’s H350 minibuses are only produced in Turkey from mid-2015 for export to the European market. According to the provincial People’s Committee, the project will help the auto industry and other support industries develop under the automobile sector’s development planning and strategy until 2025 with a vision towards 2030. Thaco has been engaged in research and production of passenger vehicles since 2006 after putting into operation a bus assembling and manufacturing line at its Chu Lai – Truong Hai factory. To meet increasing demand, Thaco launched a 600 billion VND (27 million USD) Thaco Bus factory in June 2011 at Chu Lai–Truong Hai automotive mechanical industrial park. Covering an area of 15 hectares, the factory was capable of producing 3,000 buses a year in the first phase. The corporation’s Research and Development Centre at the Chu Lai – Truong Hai complex was also successful in designing and producing bus models branded “Viet-THACO” with 40-46 percent of components locally produced. Thaco bus sales reached 1,908 units in 2015, which increased to 2,033 units in the first eight months of 2016. Thaco’s goal in cooperating with Hyundai is to expand its operation to other countries, a company official unveiled.- Project to provide electricity for Ca Mau The Southern Power Corporation (EVN SPC) launched a project to provide electricity to rural households in the southernmost province of Ca Mau on September 21. The project will build more than 857 km of middle voltage lines, 1,847 km of low voltage lines and 1,207 transformer stations with a total capacity of 80,633kVA. The first phase of the project will be carried out from now to the end of the year at a cost of 40.8 billion VND (1.77 million USD). The first phase aims to provide electricity to more than 1,388 households in 10 communes in U Minh and Thoi Binh districts. Once completed, the rate of rural households in Ca Mau with access to electricity will be 98.6 percent. The EVN SPC will also launch a project to supply electricity for 1,800 households in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang on September 22. Agribank receives Operational Excellence Award Vietnam’s Agribank has received the 2015 Operational Excellence Award from Wells Fargo, the third-largest wholesale bank in the US, for improving its payment services. Speaking at an award ceremony held in Hanoi recently, David Walker Smith, Regional Head Southeast Asia-Global Financial Institution, lauded cooperation between the two banks in recent times. Since 2012, Agribank has received several awards in international payment quality from the US bank, which is also the world’s 14 th largest bank, including best international payment quality award in 2014, 2015. The bank has received awards from Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of New York Mellon in 2015.  Agribank is among the biggest bank in Viet Nam in terms of fund resources, assets, staff, operating network and customer base.  As of 31 December 2015, Agribank's assets totalled 833 trillion VND (37.5 billion USD) and its total outstanding loans were worth nearly 615 trillion VND (27.7 billion USD). The bank has a staff of 40,000 people across 2,300 branches and transaction offices and 1,000 correspondent banks in 100 countries and territories.- VN targets 95m tonnes of cement by 2020 Cement consumption in Viet Nam will this year reach 60 million tonnes, while 15.5-17 million tonnes of cement and clinker will be exported. This was revealed by Viet Nam Cement Association Chairman Nguyen Quang Cung at INTERCEM Asia 2016 held in Ha Noi on September 19-21. INTERCEM Asia 2016 is the global leader in events devoted to market developments, production, trading, transportation and handling of cement, clinker and related products. Cement producers and businesses from all over Asia gathered for the event, which connects businesses and helps boost the development of the cement industry, including production, consumption and exports. Cung said Viet Nam's total productivity was estimated to reach 95 million tonnes by 2020, of which domestic consumption would increase by 5-5.5 million tonnes annually, reaching 80 million tonnes. The remaining volume of 15 million tonnes would be be shipped overseas. "Viet Nam will be able to meet the increasing demands of production and export of cement and clinker by that time," Cung added. Anirban Lahiri, senior manager of Viet Capital Securities JSC's Research Division, said the effects of urbanisation and modernisation on infrastructure development in Viet Nam would motivate the growth of the cement industry. In a market that has seen an increasing number of large suppliers, the competition would not only be in terms of price and quality, but also in logistics service, an important factor for producers who wanted to sell cement in the country and export effectively, Anirban said. Being a private business with an annual production capacity of more than 10 million tonnes in Viet Nam, Nguyen Tien Dat, deputy general director of Vissai Group, said several domestic businesses were dealing with fierce competition from regional nations such as Thailand and China. Dat said Vissai would begin construction on the first phase of the Song Lam Cement Factory in October this year. The factory was designed to have a capacity of one million tonnes, bringing the group's total capacity to 12 million tones. "With such a high production capacity, it won't be less pressure on the group in the current competitive situation," Dat said. "We have decided that we will focus on investment in the cement distribution system. In the 2016-18 period, our key strategy is to raise consumption through the logistics system, which will also create more favourable conditions for exports and for sustainable development," he added.  Gov't supervision urged to ensure sustainable growth At a time when sustainable economic development is more important than ever in Viet Nam, experts urged that supervision be tightened to ensure the economy grows on the right track. The coastal pollution disaster caused by the Taiwan-owned steel factory Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation rang alarm bells for the lower middle income country regarding its development options. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has repeatedly emphasised that Viet Nam will not trade off environmental integrity for economic growth. But challenges remain for the developing nation to harmonise economic growth and environmental protection successfully.  The country's growth model, institutional reforms and transparency are even bigger challenges which still remain. Viet Nam is still in the process of industrialisation. The gross domestic product per capita was only equivalent to 30 per cent of the world average, while environmental pollution already caused significant concern, experts said at a VnEconomy conference on Tuesday. The market mechanism was good, said economic expert Vo Tri Thanh, but it was not sufficient to resolve problems related to the environment and sustainable development. Economic growth and environmental production must be linked together, Thanh said. "It is not the story for today only but for the future." The Director of the Viet Nam Institute for Economics, Tran Dinh Thien, said it was essential to transform the growth model and that attracting foreign investment should not merely rely on the provision of incentives. "The growth model of the past five years hardly improved confidence in the sustainable development of the Vietnamese economy," Thien said. "Lessons learned from Formosa are opportunities for Viet Nam to push reform," said Nguyen The Chinh, Director of the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment. Reform would need joint efforts, Chinh said, adding that the effort of just a single ministry alone would not work. Experts agreed that the steel industry was essential for Viet Nam to achieve its industrialisation goals. After the Formosa pollution episode, the question of whether or not the country should continue to develop the steel industry was hotly debated. "Yes, for the country to move towards industrialisation," said Ho Nghia Dung, president of the Viet Nam Steel Association. Dung cited statistics showing that the steel consumption of Viet Nam averages 200 kilogrammes per head per year – lower than the world's average of 240 kilogrammes. Meanwhile each industrialised country had an average steel consumption of 500-600 kilogrammes per head per year. To meet its needs, Viet Nam imports steel worth billions of dollars each year, an expense for which the developing nation must budget. The country must also continue to improve the supervision of steel production to control its impact on the environment, yet another expensive undertaking. According to Thanh, steel appeared to be an appropriate choice for Viet Nam, considering the country's economic development level and advantages.  Standard Chartered Viet Nam honoured for digital initiative Standard Chartered Viet Nam has been awarded the "Digital Banking Initiative of the Year in Viet Nam 2016" by the Asian Banking & Finance magazine. The award acknowledges the bank's efforts to bring digital convenience to its local clients. The bank said in a press release on Wednesday that almost 97 per cent of all non-cash transactions are conducted digitally and 100 per cent of its new clients register for online banking and short message service banking from day one. The bank recently launched the digital platform WorldMiles credit card, which enables cardholders to access more than 800 airport lounges worldwide. Another platform, location-based mobile app "The Good Life", offers cardholders discounts of up to 50 per cent at more than 700 merchants in Việt Nam and some 3,500 outlets in ASEAN nations across the categories of dining, fashion, hospitality, travel and wellness. "Digital is an emerging frontier in banking with traditional concepts of brick and mortar branches quickly fading away. Customers want easy and everywhere access to their banking," Amit Malhotra, director of retail banking at Standard Chartered Viet Nam, said. "Viet Nam is demographically a young population with high literacy rate, per capita internet and smart phone penetration, which makes it a very attractive market for innovation," Nirukt Sapru, the bank's chief executive officer, said.  Chinese fertilizer plagues Vietnamese market Vietnam imported 350,000 tons of fertilizer valued at US$82.6 million in August, bringing the total fertilizer imports to 2.6 million tons worth US$736 million for eight months, the General Department of Vietnam Customs reports. China remained Vietnam’s largest supplier of fertilizer with 1.2 million tons or US$305 million, accounting for 50% of the Southeast Asian nation’s total imports. Experts underlined the need to take safeguard measures against fertilizer imports like those applied for steel ingots and seasoning powder to limit imports of low-cost products, which cause great damage to the national economy. The 4th annual Vietnam Real Estate Market Symposium set for launching AusCham is scheduled to host the 4th Annual Vietnam Real Estate Market Symposium on September 22 at New World Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1. According to the organisers, the event will create a platform bringing together all the key real estate players from inside and outside Vietnam to gain insights and updates on the most recent changes on policy and laws regarding real estate investments in Vietnam. The symposium will be opened by Vice Minister of Construction Do Duc Duy, who will provide an update on policies and plans for Vietnam’s real estate market in the next 12 months. Specifically, the symposium will feature three panel discussions. The first panel discussion will be on the sustainability of affordable housing, to be moderated by CBRE Vietnam managing director Marc Townsend, with panelists coming from Sapphire, Dat Xanh Group, NHO and EZ Land. The second discussion will cover hospitality trends and recent transactions – sustainability/appetites, to be moderated by ZICO law managing partner David Lim, with representatives from the Gaw Capital, Accor and Melia hotels and JLL consultants. The third panel discussions will center on real estate financing, structuring, and lending appetites, to be moderated by KPMG partner Ninh Van Hien, with panelists coming from HSBC and Hong Leong Bank Vietnam. There will also be speakers on urban planning and development in Ho Chi Minh City over the next five years, the hottest issues faced by real estate investors in Vietnam, the opportunities presented by the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and other free trade agreements as well as legal, tax and market updates. The symposium will conclude with a two hour networking opportunity for delegates to speak with key decision makers in the real estate industry. For further information, please visit AusCham’s website. For registrations, please email to events@auschamvn.org.  Vietnam's steel industry makes a case for more production amid distrust Producers insist that the economy needs more steel after the Formosa scandal cast a dark cloud over future projects. Steel producers in Vietnam, facing a growing tide of criticism after a devastating pollution scandal, are pushing for an increase in output to meet the demand of the fast-growing economy. The economy, which has expanded by an average of 5 percent a year since 1999, needs more steel, said Ho Nghia Dung, chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA). The current per capita consumption of 200kg is far below the world average of 240kg, the former transport minister said at a workshop on Tuesday. Taking China, India and the Republic of Korea as examples, Dung said steel production and economic development go together. “For an industrialized economy, the per capita consumption must range from 500kg to 600kg. That means Vietnam’s steel consumption remains low compared to the both global and regional average,” he said. Vietnam must increase its annual steel output as the country is investing heavily in infrastructure to drive economic growth and catch up with the fast pace of urbanization. Vietnam imported 9.6 million tons of steel products in the first half of this year, up 48 percent year-on-year, with imports from China accounting for 60 percent, according to industry data. Last year the country was the biggest importer of steel products in Southeast Asia and ranked seventh among the largest steel importers in the world with 18.7 million tons. Vietnam is still grappling with what Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called “the worst environment disaster,” which has been linked to a multi-billion dollar steel complex. The Vietnam unit of Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group was blamed for the toxic spill that severely affected four central coastal provinces -- Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue. The pollution caused mass fish deaths, ravaged local fisheries, disrupted people’s lives and hit the region's tourism industry. Truong Thanh Hoai, head of the Heavy Industry Department under the Trade Ministry, has played down concerns for a similar disaster. He also pointed out the case of Tokyo as a place where, according to him, steel mills and fishing communities can thrive together. Dung, the steel association's chairman, is also aware of possible environmental impacts linked to steel production. He has assured that steelmakers in Vietnam are now being required to upgrade and adopt advanced technology. “What matters is how the government and the public monitor steel projects,” he said. After the Formosa scandal, there is a strong consensus that if Vietnam continues to pursue industrialization and breakneck growth at all costs, it may soon pay heavy environmental prices. The government has warned Taiwanese steel maker Formosa not to ever again discharge toxic waste into the sea.  Otherwise, the plant shutdown would be inevitable, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at a cabinet meeting. Vinacomin profits plunge Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) has faced a sharp decline in profits, while the group spends VND12 billion (USD571,420) a day on interest rates payments alone. According to Vinacomin's financial statement in the first half of 2016, the group made post-tax profits of USD473 billion (USD22.5 million), down from VND2.6 trillion in 2012; VND2.1 trillion in 2014. In the first six months of this year, the group's post-tax profits were estimated at just VND197 billion, down from the same period of 2015. Vinacomin earlier set an ambitious target to make a total post-tax profit of VND1 trillion this year. By the end of June this year, Vinacomin's total debts grew by VND3.7 trillion to VND104 trillion, including up to VND41.05 trillion in short-term loans. The firm's financial statement also said that Vinacomin had to spend VND2.2 trillion on interest rates payment during the first half of this year, or VND12 billion per day on this. Grand Ho Tram lead investor pledges support for Vietnam tourism Principal investor of The Grand Ho Tram Philip Falcone has reaffirmed strong commitment to help fuel growth in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province where the integrated resort project is located, and Vietnam obtain tourism objectives. Falcone made the promise at a recent meeting with Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung during the latter’s visit to the U.S. Falcone briefed the minister on the steps to expand The Grand Ho Tram and increase investment in the region, saying that over US$1 billion in deployed and pledged capital has been added to the multi-billion-dollar project. At the meeting, Dung advised on how The Grand Ho Tram can build upon its success to date and attract greater domestic and international tourists to the province. The Grand Ho Tram in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province is the largest foreign-invested tourism development in Vietnam, and the largest U.S. private equity investment in the country. Falcone confirmed his commitment to completing an additional 559-room tower dubbed The Beach Club, which will also be accompanied by expansive entertainment amenities, and the development of a 1,000-key beachside condotel. Falcone said he is in talks with Vietnamese partners over development of an airport for chartered flights, around 15 kilometers from the resort, to further enhance access and draw more visitors to the southern province. The Grand Ho Tram has set up strategic relations with major local partners, such as construction firm Coteccons and airline Vietjet, and many domestic suppliers. With 541 five-star rooms, residential villas, and numerous leisure facilities including a golf course, water parks and high-tech audio-visual entertainment, The Grand Ho Tram has contributed to efforts to elevate Vietnam’s status as a leading destination for tourism in the region, and the world. The Grand Ho Tram also serves as an active supporter of U.S.-Vietnam business relations. Being a leading sponsor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham), The Grand Ho Tram hosted a networking weekend last week for AmCham member businesses and representatives of the U.S. embassy. FPT enters advertisement industry FPT Adtrue advertisement JSC (FPT AdTrue) officially launched its advertisement company (FPT AdTrue) today (Sept 26) in Ha Noi. FPT AdTrue is the latest business project based on a modern technology platform invested by the FPT Corporation. FPT AdTru was established on August 1, 2016,with experts who have more than 20 years of experiences in the field of online advertising. By working with FPT AdTrue, editorial and media agencies' advertising revenue will be optimised in the form of intelligent ads by automatically approaching the right customers, through the monopoly pricing model and by selling premium impressions to potential clients through auctions. The way of approaching potential customers will be made easier thanks to the upgraded technology provided by FPT AdTrue. In 2015, the global ad industry reached revenue of US$513 billion, of which $148 billion came from the online ad industry. Programmatic advertising accounted for two-thirds of online advertising's revenue. In Viet Nam, the cost of online advertising is some $45 million. Audit needs to respond more quickly to change, new report finds Investors prefer ‘binary' audit reports in which the auditor must either commit to a ‘clean' opinion or qualify the accounts, according to a report drawn up using feedback from several conferences held by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and Grant Thornton in seven countries. However, the Future of Audit found in general that users also want more contextual information to explain the process whereby the auditors reached their opinion and the challenges they faced and overcame along the way. Although audit reports are changing, there is frustration that it is not changing further and quicker, it said. Users want more disclosure from companies, particularly of non-financial information, such as on sustainability, and forward-looking information, it said. Users also want assurance that this information is being disclosed fairly and accurately, it said. Andrew Gambler, head of audit, ACCA UK, told a seminar yesterday in HCM City that the traditional audit process is not delivering enough and investors want insights into how a company could have addressed risks better or where they could have maximised profits. "Investors want early warning signals and managers want auditors to share valuable insights." Although enhanced auditor reporting has gone down well in the UK, and is now being rolled out elsewhere, there is a belief that the audit should evolve to enable auditors to provide more valuable insights about a wider range of measures, he said. "While the traditional approach might reassure regulators and company bosses, its usefulness to investors is shrinking all the time, prompting questions over its future. "Business leaders expect information in real time, so why do we expect investors to wait months for the audit reports? "Auditors need to look at how they can use technology to deliver a high-quality audit in a more efficient and timely manner." The roundtables organised for feedback showed that while there are advantages to developing global rules, standard setters should be sensitive to the fact that countries are evolving at different speeds. Tran Khanh Lam, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Certified Public Accountants, spoke about another survey done last year by his association, the ACCA and other international associations on business models for small and medium partners with 531 respondents from countries like Viet Nam, Singapore, Malaysia, Iran, the UK, and others. The survey highlighted challenges to access to business, talent, partners, and finance. It also found that the fastest growing services in emerging markets are statutory/voluntary audits, bookkeeping and tax returns and other compliance paperwork.  FDI attraction hits over 16 bln USD in nine months Vietnam attracted 16.43 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) as of September 20, equivalent to 95.8 percent of the amount reported in the same period last year, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA). Of the total, 11.17 billion USD came from 1,820 new projects, and the remaining 5.26 billion USD from investment added to 851 existing projects. In the period, FDI disbursement surged 12.4 percent year on year to an estimated 11.02 billion USD, the agency said. Foreign investors poured money into 19 sectors, with manufacturing and processing industries topping the lead with 12.15 billion USD, accounting for 73.9 percent of the total registered FDI. It was followed by the real estate and sci-tech sectors, with 1 billion USD and 649 million USD, or 6.1 percent and 3.9 percent of the total FDI, respectively. As many as 65 countries and territories invested in Vietnam in the reviewed period. The Republic of Korea (RoK) remained the leading investor, with 5.58 billion USD, making up 34 percent of the FDI poured into the country. Singapore was the runner-up, with 1.84 billion USD, or 11.2 percent. Japan ranked third with 1.7 billion USD, or 10.3 percent. Hai Phong and Hanoi cities in the north and the southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong were the most attractive destinations for foreign investors, respectively luring 2.74 billion USD, 1.97 billion USD, 1.89 billion USD and 1.49 billion USD. Major projects in the period included a 1.5-billion-USD OLED display factory project and a LG Innotek plant worth 550 million USD invested by RoK firms LG Display and LG Innotek Co., Ltd in Hai Phong, Amata city complex worth 309.3 million USD by Thai investors in Dong Nai, and a 300-million-USD mobile research and development centre project by Samsung Electronics Vietnam Co., Ltd in Hanoi. Credit organisations lower deposit interest rate Some big credit organisations, including State-owned commercial banks, lowered their interest rates for short-term deposits as from September 26, according to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).  The new interest rates applied to non-term or below-one-month deposits are at 0.3 percent-0.5 percent a year, while the rates for one-to-below-three-month deposits at 4.2 percent-4.3 percent per year. The interest rate of 4.8 percent a year is applied to deposits of three to less than five months.  For deposits of five to below six months, the interest rate is 5 percent per year, while the rates of 5.3 percent and 5.5 percent per year are applied to deposits of six to less than nine months and those of nine to less than 12 months, respectively.  According to the SBV, the move is a positive and timely solution to implement the government’s direction on running the macro-economy that was materialised by the SBV Governor for the banking sector at Instruction No. 04/CT-NHNN on May 27, 2016 on cutting costs to reduce lending interest rates to prop up business and production activities and the economy.  From the beginning of this year, the SBV has followed closely the market and flexibly run the monetary policy, support liquidation, keep inter-bank interest rate stable at a low level in order to stablise mobilisng interest rates and ease pressure on lending interest rates as well as ensure to stablise exchange rate and increase foreign currency reserves. Ca Mau embarks on sustainable forestry development The southernmost province of Ca Mau is embarking on a sustainable forestry development project for 2016-2020 with a total cost of 684 billion VND (31 million USD) sourced from the public and State budget.  According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province will plant 18,000ha of forest and 15 million dispersed trees, replant 100ha of forest per year, and protect 51,000ha of protective and special-purpose forest.  Under the project, Ca Mau will also protect and develop U Minh Ha and Mui Ca Mau national parks for 2016-2020, invest in forests and gardens for breeding, and build a high-quality centre for forestry breeding.  Ca Mau is currently home to more than 100,000ha of forest. Vietnam’s biggest fish powder mill inaugurated Vietnam’s largest fish powder factory was officially put into operation in the southernmost province of Ca Mau on September 26. Covering an area of over 10,000 sq.m in Song Doc town, Tran Van Thoi district, the plant has a designed capacity of 30,000 tonnes of fish powder a year with modern technology line imported from Europe. According to Director of the factory Phan Hoa Hiep, abundant resources with thousands of fishing vessels in the area can supply 400 tonnes of fish for the plant daily.  The 3 million USD factory is a joint venture between Hung Vuong Group (HVG) with 51 percent and Minh Thang Ca Mau Joint Stock Company. Agro-forestry-fisheries export hits 23.3 bln USD in nine months Vietnam’s agro-forestry-fisheries export in September is estimated at 2.5 billion USD, bringing the total nine-month figure to 23.3 billion USD, up 6 percent year on year.  According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the country exported 396,000 tonnes of rice worth 176 million USD during the month. On the January-September calculation, the volume of exported rice hit 3.76 million tonnes, valued at 1.69 billion USD, down 16.4 percent in volume and 12.5 percent in value, respectively.  China remains the largest importer of Vietnamese rice with a 35.5 percent market share, followed by Ghana and Indonesia with respective market shares of 11 percent and 9.4 percent.  Meanwhile, coffee recorded a 22 percent export growth - the strongest among industrial plants from the same period of last year. As many as 113,000 tonnes worth 221 million USD were shipped overseas during the month, driving the total volume and value for nine months to 1.39 million tonnes and 2.48 billion USD.  Exporters of cashew nuts and pepper raked in 2.01 billion USD and 1.19 billion USD, respectively, from selling 255,000 tonnes and 146,000 tonnes during the nine months.  Suffering a downtrend for a period, tea and rubber bounced back, enjoying positive growth of 0.2 percent and 1 percent, earning 152 million USD and 1.1 billion USD, respectively.  Shipment of aquatic products is estimated to hit 4.9 billion USD in the nine-month period, rising by 4.3 percent from the same time last year.  Forestry export was valued at 5.1 billion USD, equivalent to the same period of last year. Binh Duong attracts 1.5 billion USD in FDI in nine months Some 1.5 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) has been poured into southern Binh Duong province over the last nine months, mainly in the processing and manufacturing industries. According to the provincial Department of Planning and Investment, local authorities licensed 188 new FDI projects worth 999.8 million USD, while 531.9 million USD was added to 93 operational projects during the period As much as 86.2 percent of the FDI was invested into local industrial parks (IPs) in the period. The processing and manufacturing industries drew the most FDI in the period, absorbing about 1.4 billion USD, 92.8 percent of total investment. The service sector attracted more than 108 million USD, 7 percent of the total, while only 1.5 million USD or 0.1 percent of the total FDI was invested in agriculture. Singapore was the largest investor with 360.6 million USD, accounting for 23.6 percent of the FDI total, followed by the Republic of Korea and Japan with 201.4 million USD and 116.3 million USD, respectively. Binh Duong has attracted 2,775 foreign-invested projects with total capital of over 25 billion USD, including over 16.6 billion USD in IPs. It is one of five localities nationwide with FDI above 25 billion USD. According to Nguyen Thanh Truc, Director of the department, the locality has worked hard to improve its investment climate. The province has constructed 28 IPs covering over 9,000 hectares. In the next five years, the number of IPs is expected to increase to 34 on 14,790 hectares. Binh Duong, one of the major industrial hubs in the south, is prioritising high technology FDI projects located in IPs to ensure environmental protection. Long An export value nears $2.9 billion Export value approximated US$2,898 billion in the Mekong Delta province of Long An by the end of September this year, reported the provincial Department of Industry and Trade.  The number accounts for 68 percent of plan and increases 7.8 percent over the same period last year. Of these, foreign direct investment (FDI) sector reached $1,837 million, up 5.8 percent and domestic sector hit $1,062 million, up 11.6 percent. Major export commodities include footwear, garment and textile, battery of accumulators, steel, farm produce and food. Especially, dragon fruit is listed among the key export items of the province and exported to 15 nations. Worldtrans promotes Japan train service in Vietnam Worldtrans travel and transport services company, in collaboration with the Japan’s tourism authority, is promoting train service in Japan for Vietnamese tourists, saying it will help them travel in the Northeast Asian country at a reasonable cost. Nhan Phuong, representative of the Japanese tourism authority in Vietnam, said the service is operated by Japan Rail, which manages 20,000 kilometers of rail track in Japan. Tourists need to buy Japan Rail Pass to travel on most of the rail routes operated by Japan Rail. Kids under six years old are exempt from the fee while children aged six to 12 pay half price. He noted a seven-day Japan Rail Pass costing 29,110 yen (over US$288) each allow tourists to travel unlimitedly in Japan during the period of ticket validity. For the routes to Fuji Mountain, holders of the Japan Rail Pass can freely travel on buses operated by Japan Rail. The Japan Rail Pass is only sold in foreign countries, so tourists should buy a coupon at the authorized agents of the company and exchange it for a ticket for using the service of Japan Rail in Japan. In Vietnam, tourists can buy the Japan Rail Pass at WorldTrans, the official representative of Japan Rail. Phuong said around 1,000 people buy the Japan Rail Pass a month and sales have grown strongly since the service was introduced in Vietnam early last year. Data released at a Vietnam-Japan tourism promotion seminar held early this month showed the number of Vietnamese visitors to Japan is on the rise. Last year, 185,000 Vietnamese traveled to the Northeast Asian country, up 49% compared to 2014. The number neared 122,840 in the first six months of this year and is forecast to reach 250,000 in all of this year. Publicizing mortgaged properties still big question How to make known real estate projects which have been used as collateral for bank loans is still a big question for relevant agencies and investors in HCMC, heard a conference held in the city last week. In July, the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment posted a list of 77 mortgaged real estate projects in the city on its website. At that time, Pham Ngoc Lien, head of the department’s land registration division, said the department would seek permission from the city government to announce information about individuals and enterprises that have mortgaged their properties every two or three months. But the list has not been updated since then. Speaking at the conference, Lien said the department had had difficulty updating the list. The department is requested to publicize the purposes of mortgages as many firms that have used their property projects as collateral to seek lenders’ guarantees for completion of these projects in the future rather than taking bank loans, or have mortgaged their own properties which have no effect on homebuyers. Yet the department does not have enough experience and authority to classify the purposes of mortgages and make the information known to the public, Lien said. “Banks should do the classification job as they are certain about the purposes of mortgages and the money they have lent to customers,” he said, adding that relevant agencies have not come up with general standards for publicizing mortgaged real estate projects and what information. Each locality should build a database of mortgaged properties for relevant agencies to send their data, and people only need to access that database to get information, Lien suggested. Nguyen Khanh Hung, CEO of Dat Xanh Group, said there is no agency that has all necessary information related to mortgaged properties. It is the banks that provide loans and the investors who mortgage their real estate projects that have responsibility to inform homebuyers of the mortgaged assets, as well as the time and purpose of mortgages, said Hung. As Dat Xanh is a listed company, it has to publicize details about its mortgages while other companies do not, which he said is unfair. Hung said the natural sources-environment department should not be assigned to make announcements of mortgaged properties but banks and investors. “Lenders have to publicize information on mortgaged properties to protect the banking system in case one property is mortgaged at more than one bank,” he said. Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the HCMC Real Estate Association (HoREA), agreed with Hung, saying enterprises have to publicize information about their projects, whether they are mortgaged or not, in line with the current regulations. Chau added only listed firms publicize the information while others only do that when requested. The HCMC departments of construction and justice should join the natural resources-environment department to publicize information on mortgaged properties as many mortgaged projects have no construction licenses. Nguyen Xuan Bac from the State Bank of Vietnam’s Credit Department said a joint circular issued by the ministries of justice and natural resources-environment, which took effect on August 8, requires the natural resources-environment departments in each locality to announce information on mortgaged real estate projects on their websites. However, the two ministries should complete a legal framework for the announcement of mortgaged properties, in coordination with relevant agencies, he said. Banks cut short-term deposit rates Some major commercial banks lowered interest rates for deposits in dong with terms of less than a year, by 0.3-0.5 percentage points, on September 26. State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) sources told the press that these included State controlling banks such as Vietcombank, VietinBank, Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV), and Agribank. The banks now list rates of 0.3-0.5 per cent per year for deposits with no terms, or terms of less than a month. The rates are 4.2-4.3 per cent per year for terms ranging from a month to less than three months. Terms of three months to less than five months are subject to a rate of 4.8 per cent per year, and an annual rate of 5 per cent is applied for terms of five months to less than six months. Six-month to less-than-nine-month deposits have a rate of 5.3 per cent per year, and the annual rate is 5.5 per cent for nine-month to less-than-twelve-month terms. SBV sources said the commercial banks' moves to lower rates were in line with Government directives for macro-economic operations. The rate reduction followed Directive No 04/CT-NHNN, which the central bank issued in late May asking commercial banks to save costs to cut lending rates, thereby support production and business activities and the economy. Viet Nam News reported earlier this month that several commercial banks, such as Ban Viet Bank, VPBank and Eximbank had raised their deposit rates in an attempt to satisfy new SBV regulations that are due to take effect next year. The central bank's Circular No 06/2016/TT-NHNN, taking effect on July 1, 2016, stated that commercial banks will have to lower the ratio of short-term funds used for medium to long-term loans from 60 per cent to 50 per cent in 2017. Due to the deposit rate hikes, there was concern in the market recently that a lending interest hike was imminent. However, the SBV affirmed that it would act to keep lending rates stable over the remaining months of the year. The SBV has been implementing flexible monetary policies this year to match market developments, and support systematic liquidity and maintain stability of interest rates. It also aims at stabilising exchange rates and increasing national foreign reserves. VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VET/VIR