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BUSINESS IN BRIEF 24/5
Revealing
real estate tricks of the trade
In what is a
difficult time for the property market and real estate agents, some in the
sector are still thriving, but what is their secret to success? While experts
argue over what is the decisive factor for a successful transaction -
position, price or construction speed, we reveal some of the tricks of the
trade.
Hong Quynh Phuong,
director of apartment sales at the real estate service provider Savills, said
the stagnant market had made customers believe the sector was in crisis.
Customers are
puzzled over whether they should buy property now or wait for prices to fall
further, she said in a seminar recently. She went on further to say that some
customers who had been determined to make purchases changed their minds after
hearing the news that property prices had not fallen to the absolute bottom.
"Since
customers hesitate to purchase we are not in a hurry to urge them to make any
decision," Phuong said.
"Instead we
help them understand more about the market and send them our quarterly report
and analysis."
Phuong also
revealed that she tried to learn about customers' need and the difficulties
they face.
"If they have
a limited budget we help them approach preferential bank loans," she added.
She also said that
despite many preferential loan packages advertised it was not easy for
customers to secure loans themselves.
While admitting
that customers are smart buyers, Phuong said she could only persuade
customers by ensuring them product quality and investors' written commitment
of construction speed and services rather than merely using spin and
beautiful words.
Regarding
advertising banners which are hung on trees and lamp posts around the city to
promote the sector, Phuong said this strategy not effective as advertisers
had used it overwhelmingly.
Meanwhile Vu Cuong
Quyet, general director of Dat Xanh Property Joint Stock Company shared the
view that customers are the ones who have the real need for accommodation not
the dealers as was the case a few years ago.
So his company
choose to distribute apartments for prestigious investors and often focused
on residents of the area where the project was located when hoping to promote
sales.
For instance, Dat
Xanh company is putting up for sale the Dang Xa project with prices of
VND15-17million per square metre, so his targeted customers are middle income
residents in Gia Lam District.
"People tend
to buy houses near their work so traveling is convenient," he said.
"By targeting
certain groups of customers it's easier to sell."
However, Phan Ngoc
Anh, a marketing officer at the Newland Company, said her firm still applies
traditional marketing measures such as TV, radio and newspaper advertisements
and these methods still work.
"I think
advertising can only be useful when your advertising content matches people's
needs," Ngoc Anh said.
"There are
always customers with real demand so it's more important that you offer them
suitable products at reasonable prices. In other words, you sell property of
real value not bubble value," she added.
She said NewLand
had projects in the nearby city of
Anh said that
prices of property in Ha Noi has spiraled over the past years and the
discount rate that some property companies are offering has properties
approaching their real value.
Experienced
property consultant Dang Hung Vo, who is also former Deputy Minister of
Natural Resources and Environment, meanwhile said property prices must fall
further to warm up the market.
He told VTC news
that more apartments between VND7-11 million per square metre will bring the sector
back to its heyday.
Measures to
help businesses through crunch time
Businesses regard
value added tax (VAT) reductions as a practical measure to help them through
a difficult time.
Despite the
Government’s stimulus packages in 2012, many are not yet back on track in the
wake of the global economic downturn. So they require further assistance from
the Government’s incentive policies.
Phu Giang Packaging
Company General Director Nguyen Nhan Phuong says his firm plans to upgrade
technical facilities and is asking all businesses to improve the design and
quality of their products in line with world market trends.
As
Phuong says
Dr. Luu Bich Ho, a
former Director of the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Development
Strategy Institute, says as a developing country
Chamber of Commerce
and Industry Chairman Vu Tien Loc says most businesses expect the Government
to help ensure macroeconomic stability and gradually control inflation. They
hope to receive more incentive loans with lower interest rates as soon as
possible, he adds.
Loc calls for
intensive efforts to push through institutional reform and create a healthy
business climate for all economic sectors.
“Helping
businesspeople in need is a virtue of necessity,” Loc says, adding that
lowering VAT rates will assist many businesses to reduce their production
costs, clear excess stock, and meet increasing customer demand.
A Spanish-funded
project on sustainable tourism development in
The project,
sponsored by the Spanish Government’s Agency for International Development
Cooperation (AECID), was implemented in Central Highland and northwestern
mountain provinces, including Dien Bien, Ha Giang, and Lao Cai from November
2011 to February 2013.
Ha Van Sieu, head
of the Institute for Tourism Development Research (ITDR), reported that
despite the moderate EUR400,000 budget, the project has successfully
fulfilled all of its targets.
A website on
community tourism in northwestern provinces was launched, serving as a forum
for localities to exchange experiences in developing and promoting the
tourism sector’s image.
Domestic and
foreign experts worked together to release a bio-tourism and marine tourism
guidebook for managers and visitors as well as a separate green tourism
publication advising shops, restaurants, and tourist destinations.
Spanish Ambassador
Alfonso Tena said
Vietnam National
Administration of Tourism (VNAT) Head Nguyen Van Tuan noted tourism
cooperation between
Malaysia
Airlines provides attractive tours to Vietnam
Malaysia Airlines
is providing package tours of three days and two nights from
Each tour covers a
two-way economy class, airport tax and transfer, accommodation at Equatorial
Hotel and daily breakfast.
It operates three
flights a day to
Economy class and
business class tickets for its flights from
Passengers can book
their package tours on line at website www.malaysiaairlines.com, or by phone
(Number 1300883000), to agents of Malaysia Airlines.
The President of
the French Institute of Research for Development (IRD) Michel Laurent began a
three-day working visit to
Laurent will chair
a signing ceremony of a framework agreement on collaborative research
activities, mainly the study of
He will also
witness the signing of another cooperation agreement in the fields of
science-information technology-communication between the Hanoi University of
Science and Technology, the Information Technology under the Vietnam Academy
of Science and Technology and La Rochel University of France.
The IRD president
is also scheduled to meet leaders of the Vietnam Academy of Science and
Technology, the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and the Vietnam Academy of
Agricultural Science to discuss joint research programmes.
Improvement
marked for labour export firms
There have been
drastic changes in the implementation of the Code of Conduct (CoC-VN) for
Vietnamese enterprises sending workers for employment overseas, shows a
survey of 20 target businesses.
The survey results
were announced at a meeting to review the first year of CoC-VN implementation
in
The survey shows
that the 20 selected enterprises all comply with regulations on orientation
training for future guest workers in terms of duration and curriculum.
Participating
workers showed their satisfaction with the quality of training provided by
the enterprises. They got a better understanding of the traditional culture
and customs of target countries.
Apart from
individual participating firms, the survey’s outcomes were partially based on
the assessment of Departments of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in
provinces and cities where many labour export enterprises are based, such as
the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Phu Tho, and central Thanh Hoa, Nghe
An, Ha Tinh and Quang Ngai provinces.
The departments
agreed that enterprises in their localities have conformed to rules in
recruiting and maintaining information channels with local authorities to
provide timely protection for workers in need of help when working abroad.
The association
will install the CoC-VN into 30 more enterprises and sign cooperation
agreements with eight other provincial departments on information supplying
mechanisms relating to labour export enterprises.
Training
150,000 rural labourers in 2013
The Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) disbursed VND93 billion for 36 out
of 63 provincial departments to train 91,000 rural labourers in 2012.
Many provinces
claimed to have finished training courses on scheduled but others could
fulfill 24–25 percent of their plans.
Vocational training
certificate project was first conducted in Thanh Hoa and Ben Tre provinces,
and then expanded to other localities.
In 2012, ThanhHoa
had 80 courses held for 2,790 labourers, raising the total of trainees to
4,750. The focus of training was on sugar cane cultivation, food safety in
fruit and vegetable cultivation, cattle, poultry and field crab husbandry,
irrigation management, and environmental sanitation.
Ben Tre had 4,230
labourers trained in planting, husbandry, and fishery. Seventy percent of
them have been employed. The rate of employment in some fields like
fisheries, pork husbandry, and coconut planting was much higher up to 90
percent.
In 2012, the MARD
spent VND10 billion on training workers for tea, rubber, fruit, and vegetable
corporations, the southern food corporation, the northern food corporation,
the husbandry corporation, and the fisheries corporation.
The National
Agricultural Encouragement Centre worked with localities to arrange for 132
training courses for nearly 4,000 labourers involved in ten fields of
production. Seventy two of them have been conducted to meet 55 percent of the
plan.
Both authorities
and rural workers are very pleased with the training project to raise local
production capacity.
However, there are
some snags to overcome such as low funding, lack of animals and plants for
practice during the training courses, not to mention inappropriate subjects
and complicated certificate granting procedures.
The local
Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development plan to train
150,000–160,000 labourers in 2013 and the Ministry of Finance and the
Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs have agreed to provide
VND920 billion for them to carry out the program in three years until 2015.
MARD Deputy
Minister Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu emphasised that those training centres failing
to meet quality standards will be removed from the list of funding
priorities. Both quality and efficiency are priorities. Vocational training
must be based on the needs of local agricultural production plans, she added.
Foreign
brands set bar high
Domestic retail
businesses should increase connections with producers and distributors to
provide professional services as they prepare to face fierce competition from
foreign brand names.
Statistics from the
Foreign Investment Agency show that in the first four months of the year,
wholesale, retail and repair work were third in the list of foreign direct
investments (FDI) in
There were a total
of 49 projects worth a total of US$127.62 million, an increase of 1.6 per
cent over the same period last year.
By the end of last
month,
There were another
951 projects in wholesale, retail and repairing sectors involving capital of
more than $3 billion.
Another report from
the General Statistics Office said that total turnover in the retail sector
last year increased 16 per cent over 2011, despite economic difficulties.
In the first four
months of the year, total turnover of retail and social services reached
VND850 trillion ($40.5 billion), representing an 11.8 per cent increase over
the same period last year.
Dinh Thi My Loan,
general secretary of the Viet Nam Retailers Association, said the retail
market had seen fierce competition as both domestic and foreign brand names
had striven to search for expansion.
Loan said
In addition, modern
retail channels, including hypermarkets, supermarkets or small self-service
stores, accounted for only 20 per cent of the market, leaving big
opportunities for businesses.
Many famous foreign
brand names now have a presence in the country such as Big C, Metro and
Lotte.
Last week,
Singapore NTUC Fair Price Co-operative Limited (FairPrice), which accounts
for 57 per cent of the Singapore retail market, announced a joint venture
with Sai Gon Co.op to create a new chain of hypermarkets named Co.opXtraplus
with total investment of VND200 billion. It plans to expand nationwide.
Nguyen Thi Hanh, general
director of Sai Gon Co.op told Vietnam Investment Review the current trend in
In many countries,
hypermarkets accounted for a big proportion. For example, the model accounted
for more than a half of modern retail channels in
Savills Viet
It forecast that
retail demand would increase as several F&B brand names prepared to jump
into
The government's
report on May 20 has shown that it will be very difficult to achieve a 5.5%
GDP growth rate in 2013 amid the current challenges.
The issue was
discussed at the 5th session of the 18th National Assembly.
In 2012,
GDP growth during
the first quarter of 2013 reached 4.89%, higher than the rate of 4.75% last
year thanks to the services sector. The construction industry showed some
improvements after major efforts by the government.
However, consumer
spending power will not be able to improve since incomes and job
opportunities have dwindled.
As of late 2012,
69% firms reported losses. In
Credit growth will
also remain low if the problem of bad debt is not resolved. Banks have been
asked to develop solutions to classify suitable borrowers instead of
tightening lending activities in general which have had an adverse effect on
the economy.
To deal with the
problems, the government set plans to reduce the gap between deposits and
lending rates, and domestic and world gold prices and ensured the value of
VND.
The government will
focus on preventing tax debts, a growing budget deficit, and intends to speed
up the disbursement of FDI capital.
Banks
warned about risks of lending to large-scale enterprises
While banks often
hunt for or prioritise large-scale businesses for lending, one expert said
they should be more careful to prevent possible risks.
Pham Thi Thu Hang,
General Secretary of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said
at a seminar on the issue on May 20 that the rates of equity on loans at many
enterprises were rather high.
According to her,
while the standard rate is a half of equity on a half of loans, equity often
accounted for just a third of the value of loans for over the past decade.
This figure underlies the heavy dependence on bank loans among some
enterprises.
“Larger enterprises
tend to more heavily depend on bank loans as they have more chance to get
access to funding. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) find it harder
to borrow from banks, so they have tried to mange by themselves,” she noted.
Dang Bao Khanh,
General Director of SeABank, agreed, saying that several big enterprises have
loans that are 10 times higher than their equity as they borrow from
different banks.
Hang said that the
rates of bad debts among such big enterprises was also higher.
“More attention
should be paid to business size during the restructuring process. While
business sizes have been becoming smaller, the scale of capital seems to have
increased, which could be an uneven development trend,” she said.
She added that
banks should pay more attention to SMEs for safe and sustainable operations.
Fruit,
vegetable exports strive to increase turnover
The global economic
crisis has greatly influenced export turnover of some of
Turnover of some
export items such as rice, cashew and seafoods was US$1 billion five years
ago, when this situation began improving in 2007.
According to the
Fruit and Vegetable Association (Vinafruit), exporters touched $305 million
in revenues in 2007 and this figure is spiraling every year. The figures are
$407 million, $628 million, $829 million in 2008, 2011 and 2012,
respectively.
Vinafruit said
fruit and vegetable exports this year are expected to increase to $1 billion.
This can totally be
achieved as turnover of fruits and vegetables export in first four months
increased by 17 percent against the same period last year.
The Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development said the Plant Protection Department is
working with countries to clear quarantine barriers of blue dragons,
rambutans and longan into the US, Japan, and Australian markets. From June
30, fresh fruits and vegetables will be export to EU countries.
The Ministry has
said the figure of $1 billion is within reach if the country can grasp the
opportunity to focus on key export items and meet GlobalGAP standards when
the rising global demand for farm produce is benefiting
Professor Nguyen
Quoc Vong, who used to work in the Ministry of Agriculture in New South Wales
in Australia is currently working in Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
in Vietnam, said the country has been listed as one of the world’s five
biggest farm produce exporters with revenues of around $10 billion a year.
Other farm produce
like tea, cashew and pepper also yield $3 billion annually, while vegetables
bring in $103 billion a year. Vietnamese fruits and vegetables export is much
dependent on the Chinese market--an unstable and risky potential market.
The country has 1.4
hectares under fruit and vegetable cultivation, according to the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development. The area is seven million hectares less
that paddy.
In addition, fruits
and vegetables are planted in a smaller scale resulting in unstable quality
and are consumed within the country only. In the future, farmers should
cooperate with each other to create bigger farms for better production.
Seafood
exports show signs of recovery
According to the
Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, seafood exports have
shown signs of recovery after a long period of slow down.
In April, seafood
export turnover reached US$520 million, an increase of 11 percent over the
same period last year. Exports of frozen shrimps, pangasius fish and tuna
fish are on the rise.
The association
said that importers have highly appreciated the quality of several seafood
products from
Authorized organs
from Europe, the
Seventy three
percent of 415 seafood processing plants in
Firms
expect to hire more staff
VietnamWorks released
its latest online employment report just last week which revealed that labor
demand at its corporate clients was on the rise, especially in a number of
specific industries.
A key finding in
the first Online Employment Report for 2013 of the largest online recruitment
provider in
VietnamWorks did
not clarify the number of companies participating in the survey for the first
quarter but its chief executive officer Carlton Pringle said the website was
the preferred partner of over 10,000 employers in
“When our team
looked at our data, we saw very strong correlations between our numbers and
those of government, economic and financial institutions. In many ways this
is logical - when companies are investing and launching new projects, they
need the team to make that happen,” Pringle said.
VietnamWorks
reported stability in the total number of job postings that it experienced
when compared to the first quarter to that of last year. “While this
stability in total jobs may sound a little unexciting, we regard it as a
great base for the rest of the year,” Pringle said.
“2012 kicked off in
a period of high inflation and general growth, and high wage inflation
resulted in more people changing jobs and so on, so our quarter one numbers
reflected that. 2013 commenced with the hangover of late-2012, and general
economic malaise, so to return an almost identical quarter YOY is quite a
solid foundation for a strong 2013,” Pringle said.
The company’s
online employment demand index rose significantly in January this year but
declined in February when Lunar New Year took place before rebounding in
March. The index reached 172 points in March, a year-on-year (YOY) increase
of 9%.
“Further - and most
encouragingly - we saw our best week in our history at the end of February
2013, followed by a strong month in March with YOY 9% growth in terms of job
postings,” Pringle said.
Other important
findings from the company’s research were the best industries for job
seekers. The first quarter of this year saw electronics up 28% compared to
the same period last year, consulting up 32%, textile and footwear up 38%,
pharmaceuticals and bio-tech up 66%, and retail and wholesale up 105%.
On the contrary,
various administrative/clerical sectors, marketing, and architecture/interior
design, oil and gas and personnel management did not fare as well, reporting
falls of 38%, 31%, 23%, 22% and 19% respectively year on year.
Pringle noted the
legal profession, medical and healthcare industries and agriculture were all
reporting skills shortages. “Employers have to work very hard to offer
compelling packages and work environments to attract the best talent in those
fields,” he said.
The research
revealed
However, the
research indicated the online labor demand in
PVFC,
Western Bank merger plan approved
Shareholders of
PetroVietnam Finance Corporation (PVFC) at its annual general meeting last
Saturday approved plans to transform the firm into a commercial joint stock
bank and merge with Western Bank.
The would-be bank
will have a chartered capital of VND9 trillion and total assets of VND100
trillion.
The capital
consolidation is based on capital and assets of PVFC and Western Bank. Each
PVFC share and Western Bank share will be swapped for one share of the
to-be-merged bank and shareholders’ all assets, rights, obligations and legal
interest will be transferred to the new bank.
In a draft merger
contract, PVFC and Western Bank pledged to maintain normal operations,
organization, business opportunities, relationships and protect interests of
customers, staff, partners and related parties from now to the contract
signing date. After that, the new bank will take over all debts, rights and
obligations of both PVFC and Western Bank.
According to PVFC,
the merger deal will bring about opportunities for the new bank to carry out
all banking services. The merged bank will also be able to reach out to big
clients and key projects.
In 2012, PVFC
obtained nearly VND7.4 trillion in revenues, or 32% higher than last year’s
target, and VND54 billion in profits after deductions for reserve funds. The
enterprise’s total outstanding loans stood at VND43.3 trillion while its
total assets reached VND87.7 trillion.
Demand for
government bonds to fall
Demand for
government bonds will be on the downtrend as credit growth is changing for
the better, while the annual coupon of this debt paper is no longer as
lucrative as before, Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC) forecasts.
“We suppose that
demand for investment in government bonds will fall gradually as credit
activities have been improved and interest rates might be lowered further in
the near future. Besides, in the current context, coupons of government bonds
are no longer so attractive that commercial banks and credit institutions
should pour money into the channel,” according to a report of BVSC.
“As of now,
investors have considerably ventured in government bonds, so we believe that
the preliminary market will continue to move flat and show no considerable
changes in the near future,” says the report.
Similarly, credit
institutions also predict the moves in the bond market will change if lending
activities show improvement in the coming time. The latest data announced by
the State Bank of
Liquidity of the
banking industry has still remained abundant, while credit demand has yet to
rise strongly and capital mobilization is still seen as positive. The low
base rate in the inter-bank market has created an attractive gap for bond
investors.
In the meantime,
the foreign exchange market stays stable while the consumer price index posts
low growth and shows no signs of a strong rise in the months to come. These
elements have prompted local banks to predict government bond rates to tumble
by an additional 5-10 basis points this week.
VAMC to
come online in Q2
The decree and
project on establishment of the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) will
be adopted quickly to ensure the enterprise starts operating in this quarter.
According to the
State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), while VAMC is handling bad debts and mortgaged
assets bought from banks, investors are allowed to join this process through
auctions following market rules. If the plan goes smoothly, a debt trading
market will be created.
VAMC, the 100%
State-owned firm established by the Government to handle bad debts of credit
institutions in
To tackle bad
debts, VAMC will issue bonds to buy debts of banks and the lenders will use
these special bonds to take out refinancing loans from the central bank.
VAMC will provide
solutions to support enterprises whose bad debts have been sold to it. The
enterprise will reschedule these loans, give overdue interest rate exemptions
or reductions and provide financial assistance to help the enterprises
overcome their hardship.
Notably, these
enterprises will be eligible to continue taking out loans from credit
institutions following current regulations.
Besides, VAMC with
its specific operations and cooperation with other relevant agencies will
help enterprises solve difficulties in legal procedures and tax policies.
VAMC will speed up handling of mortgaged assets and bad debts and investors
are able to join this process through auctions.
SBV said that
establishment of VAMC will speed up the bad debt handling process, improve
credit supply capability for the economy and help boost State-owned
enterprise (SOE) restructuring. VAMC will also help SOEs divest capital from
credit institutions.
Saigon
Co.op, FairPrice open first hypermarket in Thu Duc
The venture between
Co.opXtra Plus Thu
Duc, which requires an estimated cost of some VND200 billion and occupies
15,000 square meters on a total area of 2.1 hectares, features some 50,000
items.
Besides essential
items such as foodstuff, cosmetics and textile, the mega-supermarket also
sells electronic products, computers, sport equipment, stationery items and
vehicles. The hypermarket is expected to meet diversified demand from both
individuals and entities like companies, factories, schools, restaurants and
hotels. Corporate customers will be subject to special sale policies offered
by the shopping facility.
Besides the
mega-supermarket, the venture Saigon Co.op-FairPrice also plans to open the
hypermarket Co.opXtra targeting end-users. This is the model to be jointly
developed by Saigon Co.op and NTUC Fair Price, two leading retail enterprises
in
According to the
venture, incentives for loyal customers deployed at Co.opMart and Co.op Food
are also offered at Co.opXtra and Co.opXtra Plus, while promotional programs
at Co.opMart and Co.op Food also apply periodically at the new facilities.
Nguyen Ngoc Hoa,
chairman of Saigon Co.op, said he expected the venture to open one to two
hypermarkets bearing this brand in big cities annually.
To mark its
inauguration, Co.opXtra Plus launches five big promotional programs, with
discounts of up to 50% on thousands of products there.
PPI seeks
partners for projects in Thu Duc
Pacific Property
and Infrastructure Development Joint Stock Company (PPI) is calling for
investments into its two property projects in HCMC’s Thu Duc District.
The two projects
are the riverside complex Water Garden covering over two hectares and the
2,400-square-meter apartment project PPI Tower which was planned to have 80
apartments and 8,000 square meters for office space.
Pham Duc Tan,
chairman of PPI, said the two projects have had land sites cleared and
investment procedures finished. However, due to difficulties of the property
market and difficult access to capital sources, the firm is incapable of
carrying out those projects on its own.
Therefore, PPI has
called for investors who have financial capabilities and want to cooperate
with PPI to develop the projects. Partners can choose suitable cooperation
models, but the prior solution is to set up a joint venture, Tan said.
PPI has also
registered to adjust the average area of apartments to 50-75 square meters
with an average price of less than VND15 million per square meter so that the
project can be more commercially viable.
Investor
found for pedestrian bridge to Thu Thiem
HCMC authorities
have approved Dai Quang Minh Real Estate Investment Joint Stock Company as
the project owner of the pedestrian bridge project connecting District 1 with
Thu Thiem new urban area under the build-transfer (BT) format.
Trang Bao Son,
deputy head of Thu Thiem Investment and Construction Authority (Thu Thiem
ICA), told the Daily on Sunday that the pedestrian bridge found the investor
after it had been separated from a mammoth project that also included the
central square and the riverbank park schemes in Thu Thiem.
The bridge as a
component of the huge project had been separated since it was difficult to
find a financially-capable investor for developing such facilities, he
explained.
Some investors
earlier had presented to the city’s government designs of the bridge across
the
Tran Ba Duong,
general director of Dai Quang Minh, said his firm is seeking ideas for the
bridge’s design through a contest, adding detailed information on the
estimated capital and scale of the work is not yet available now.
According to Son,
the bridge will run from
Under progress in
Thu Thiem urban area now are four main routes and a number of low-storey
residential areas, with Dai Quang Minh active as the developer of some.
Russian
investors eye resort projects in Khanh Hoa
Some Russian
enterprises are seeking to invest in tourist facilities in the coastal
Truong Dang Tuyen,
director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said
“The two
enterprises are performing investment procedures. Focus Travel will build a
resort consisting of over 200 rooms while the other resort will have some 400
rooms, mainly to cater to Russian tourists. Other investors are exploring
investment opportunities here,” Tuyen told the Daily last week on the
sidelines of the meeting introducing Nha Trang Sea Festival 2013 held in
HCMC.
The number of
Russian tourists has increased strongly in recent years.
Currently, in
addition to charter flights taking Russian tourists to the province, Vietnam
Airlines has opened the direct Cam Ranh-Moscow air service with a frequency
of a weekly flight which will be increased to two flights from October.
Tuyen said that
Russian tourists account for one-fifth of the total number of international
tourists to Khanh Hoa, and hence the province has made investments to offer
better services. The province has coordinated with the Ministry of Culture,
Sports and Tourism to offer trainings on the Russian language for tourism
staff as well as prepare cultural programs for Russian tourists.
Another
steel item faces dumping accusation
After welded
carbon-quality steel pipe and steel hanger, now stainless steel pipe from
Three
According to the
data provided in the petition,
This has been the
third lawsuit against steel products imported from
Welded
carbon-quality steel pipe and steel hanger faced dual lawsuits (both
anti-dumping and anti-subsidy) brought by the
It requires double
time, effort and money to deal with such cases, according to the Trade
Remedies Council (TRC). For an industry inexperienced in anti-dumping and
anti-subsidy cases like the steel industry, it is extremely difficult to cope
with consecutive lawsuits in a short time.
Early this year,
Tran Tuan Nghiep, general director of Huu Lien Asia (HLAC), a voluntary
respondent in the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into
carbon-quality steel pipes, said the
The price
competition in the steel market is quite fierce, so an extra duty deals a
really hard blow to steelmakers. If imposed high tariffs, local steel firms
could no longer export their products to the
As per the
Cash-strapped
furniture makers cut wood imports
Many companies in
the local woodwork industry have halved the volumes of imported wood
materials to minimize their inventories and ease pressure of bank loans.
Speaking with the
Daily on Monday, Huynh Quang Thanh, general director of Hiep Long Woodwork
Company, said due to economic woes, woodwork processors are importing input
materials every quarter or small batches in line with each order instead of
importing huge volumes enough for the whole year’s production.
Multiple
enterprises have failed to take out bank loans while others successfully
gaining access to the loans are charged with high lending rates. This means
members in the industry have had to scale down imports of input materials to
avoid paying huge interest sums in the current tough business conditions,
said Thanh, who is also chairman of the Binh Duong Wood Processing
Association.
Thanh noticed
numerous members in the association in the year to date have slashed input
material import by over 50% against the same period last year.
According to the
director of a woodwork exporting company in HCMC, interest sums for bank
loans alone make up more than 30% of total production costs at his firm.
“Our firm has
calculated demand and volumes of necessary input materials and as of now only
imported enough materials for production in the first quarter,” the director
said. With the new material import method, his company has removed the
pressure of high lending rates and enjoyed a fast capital rotation in
production as well.
In fact, owing to
difficult business, input material imports of the whole industry have slumped
in recent years as processors seek to buy more materials locally, the Vietnam
Timber and Forest Product Association (Vietforest) reports. For instance,
imported processed materials for the woodwork industry from 2005 to 2010
accounted for up to 80-90% of the total, which fell to only 66% in 2012.
Latest data of the
Ministry of Industry and Trade in the first three months of the year shows
that
Export of woodwork
and forestry products brought home US$4.67 billion last year, up 15.3%
year-on-year and up to nearly 200% from 2007, and is among the industries
with high trade surplus compared to the whole country.
Woodwork export is
forecast to grow around 10% to an estimated US$5.5 billion this year.
Credit flow
to remain poor despite VAMC: official
Credit flow will
remain stagnant because the upcoming Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC)
will not be able to quickly resolve the problem of bad debt, said Chairman Vu
Viet Ngoan of the National Financial Supervisory Commission.
Talking to the
media on the sidelines of a seminar on financial supervision held in
In the draft scheme
for VAMC establishment, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) admits bad debt is
blocking the cash flow in the economy, and hopes VAMC will handle some VND100
trillion worth of bad debt. VAMC is scheduled for establishment this month.
Ngoan said:
“Although VAMC is expected to handle approximately VND100 trillion, it will
only partially address the problem. Bad debt settlement will take a couple of
years.”
A report by SBV
published in late February informed the bad debt ratio of the banking system
had fallen to 6% from 8% in mid-2012 because many banks had made risk
provisions.
The National
Financial Supervisory Commission estimated banks had set aside about VND60
trillion as risk provisions.
Such an amount does
not meet the scale of bad debt, Ngoan remarked. Several banks make little
provision even though bad debt is surging, he explained.
In this regard,
economist Le Dang Doanh also has deep concerns. “I know a bank which gives
most of its loans to just one client, who spends the fund on only one
property project,” he said, declining to reveal the name of the bank.
“That indicates how
terrible the risks to the banking system are,” he stressed.
Credit growth in
the first months of 2013 was significantly lower than the capital needs of
the economy, says a report that the financial supervisory commission sent to
the Government earlier this month.
In the first
quarter, credits should have risen 1.5% over the end of 2012, equivalent to
an increase of around VND50 trillion, to meet the target for total
investment. However, as of mid-April, credit growth had only been 1.44%.
The poor credit
growth is also mentioned in a report that the Government submitted to the
Standing Committee of the National Assembly (NA). As per the report, total
deposits had increased 5.04% against end-2012 as of April 18, while credits
had inched up a mere 1.44%.
Meanwhile, the
latest data of the central bank released last Wednesday show that credits
after falling in January have rebounded since February and grown 2.11%
against late last year by the end of April.
Outstanding loans
in dong had risen 4.15% and deposits had picked up 5.2% compared to end-2012
as of late April.
Limited access to
bank loans is exhausting enterprises, reflected in the surging number of
inactive and bankrupt firms. In the first four months, some 16,600 businesses
disbanded or suspended operations, up 17% year-on-year.
Source: VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VIR
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Thứ Năm, 23 tháng 5, 2013
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