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BUSINESS IN BRIEF 17/6
VAMC splits
banks’ positions
Banks are coming
out of the closet to reveal different Vietnam Asset Management Company
feelings.
The Vietnam Asset
Management Company (VAMC) could radically attack banks’ bad debts (NPLs).
However, a number of banks are sitting on the fence as when selling bad debts
to VAMC to get special bonds in return, each year they need to make provision
at least equal to 20 per cent of the bond value.
Banks argued that
under current regulations they must make provisions only when bad debts
appear on their balance sheets. But, if banks sell bad debts to VAMC, these
debts will be removed from the balance sheets and why do they need to make
provisions?
Mekong Bank chief
executive officer Tay Han Chong assumed banks selling bad debts to VAMC was
only a way to extend debt payment. After five years, if the VAMC failed to
settle these bad debts, banks must repurchase these debts using special bonds
and incur main responsibility for the bad debts.
A Ho Chi Minh
City-based bank director said bad debts would no longer be ‘an epidemic’
after the VAMC came into operation and brought forth effects. The VAMC would
be an active supporter to credit organisations in settling bad debts.
The director,
however, admitted the regulated 20 per cent, per year provision rate would
make banks carefully about selling debts to VAMC.
“Banks must deduct
their profits for making provisions. Therefore, selling bad debts to VAMC
could not help them much,” said the director.
Sacombank’s deputy
chairman Nguyen Gia Dinh said banks needed to ramp up efforts to combat bad
debts as the VAMC would only help banks through extended payments, not
radically settle bad debts.
National Financial
and Monetary Policy Council member Cao Sy Kiem assumed the birth of VAMC
helped ensure banks and businesses’ benefits, while not creating a precedent
for using state budget capital to rescue firms.
“At least this
measure helps extend debt payment by five more years instead of clearing bad
debts at once, albeit banks would not be happy with the 20 per cent provision
rate requirement. To weather hardships, banks and firms need to collaborate,
but not overestimate VAMC performance,” Kiem said.
NPLs
continue to climb north
Overall, until the
end of April 2013, banking system non performing loans (NPLs) reached
VND137.1 trillion, up by 15.8 per cent compared to the end of 2012.
However, NPLs grew
on average 3.94 per cent a month in the first four months of 2013, down
significantly from roughly 9 per cent during the same period of last year.
Many experts noted
that although the growth of bad debts had been curbed, the NPL ratio had
increased continuously due to slow credit growth. The veracity of debt
statistics are a source of frequent debate, with some private institutions
saying the NPL rate is much higher than state bank estimates.
By the end of April
2013, the bad debt ratio was 4.67 per cent, higher than the ratio of 4.08 per
cent in late 2012 and 3.07 per cent in late 2011.
Meanwhile,
according to the State Bank, the bad debt ratio as of December 31 2012 stood
at 7.8 per cent, down from nearly 9 per cent in September 30, 2012.
Seafood
group to help exporters
The Viet Nam
Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has promised its
members that it will help them increase export volume for the rest of the
year.
Speaking at a VASEP
meeting in
Technical barriers
set by importing countries have also created problems for exporters, he told
the meeting that was organised concurrently with the 15th anniversary of the
association's founding.
Nguyen Hai Trieu,
director of Gio Moi Company, noted that shrimp exporters a few years ago
"faced raw material shortages for two to three months, but in recent
years, that has increased to five months or more."
Shrimp demand in
the
"Input costs
also keep increasing, reducing the competitiveness of Vietnamese seafood
products," he said.
Hoe said VASEP
would conduct research on the status of raw materials in an effort to develop
more sources in a reasonable way, and maintain a balance between supply and
demand.
It will also
co-operate with agencies and institutes to deal with diseases that affect
shrimp rearing, he said.
In addition, the
association has mapped out programmes to promote brand-building for the
industry, he said.
Vu Van Tam, Deputy
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that Vietnamese seafood
quality was high, meeting the requirements of choosy markets like
To enhance quality
management of input, he said the ministry would issue official documents to
manage brood-stock quality and the use of several substances in aquaculture.
Tam suggested that
seafood firms should focus more on producing items with high added value, and
build their brands as well.
He urged seafood
processors to link up with farmers to make high-quality products that meet
both local and international standards.
The ministry plans
to work closely with VASEP to solve difficulties related to trade barriers
set by importing countries and to help businesses expand their export
markets.
Tam praised VASEP's
efforts in the past years, saying that it had greatly contributed to the
development of the country's seafood industry.
VASEP, which was
founded n 1998, has received yesterday the Second-Class Labour Medal from the
State President for its contribution to the socio-economic development.
Dao Thien Hai,
VASEP chairman, said
In recent years,
the seafood industry has increased its exports by an average of 13 per cent a
year, with products now available in 150 countries and territories, he said.
In the late 90s, it exported to only 50 countries.
The seafood
industry earned US$6.1 billion from exports last year, and is hopeful of
achieving the export target of $6.5 billion this year. Seafood exports
reached $2.28 billion in the first five months of the year, down 2.6 per cent
over the same period last year.
NPL problem
on back burner
The State Bank is
sticking to its guns despite foreign investors’ frustration over a year-long
delay of the application of new debt classification regulations.
According to the
State Bank’s Circular 12/2013/TT-NHNN dated May 27, the Circular 02/2013/TT-NHNN
dated January 21 regulating debt classification and bad debt provisioning by
credit institutions will take effect from June 1, 2014, instead of June 1,
2013 as previously ordered.
Speaking at the
Midterm Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) last week, State Bank deputy governor Le
Minh Hung said the delay was designed to support enterprises to access
credit, boost lending and reduce lending interest rates amid economic
hardships.
“The State Bank
expected to release an instruction requiring credit institutions to implement
Decision 780/QD-NHNN dated April 23, 2013 on debt classification as well as
set up a road map for Circular 02 and other solutions to address bad debts
and raise credit quality,” said Hung.
At the forum, the
foreign business community showed disappointment about the delay of Circular
02.
VBF co-chairman
Alain Cany said investors felt frustrated after the State Bank decided to
postpone the application of new debt classification regulations by one year.
According to a
report by the working group,
“The delay of
Circular 02 may setback transparency, an essential factor in solving problems
in the banking sector quickly,” the report said.
Brett Krause,
representative of VBF’s Banking Working Group, said Circular 02 would ensure
that banks produce more realistic reports on provisioning and would increase
investors’ confidence in the transparency of the banking system.
“Therefore, we
encourage banks voluntarily abide Circular 02 as soon as possible and begin
to address their shortcomings indicated by the Circular,” said Krause.
Addressing bad debt
is considered an urgent task for Vietnamese government when it saw the
non-performing loans (NPLs) at 7.8 per cent of the total loans in late 2012.
By the end of March 2013, the NPLs rate reduced to 4.51 per cent, according
to the latest government’s report sent to the National Assembly. The accuracy
of that figure, however, is widely questioned.
Moreover, many
experts said if Circular 02 was applied, the NPLs rate at some commercial
banks would raise from the current level of 3-4 per cent up to 10-20 per
cent, even much higher. This means that these banks would have to make higher
provisions, tighten lending conditions which would make it hard for
enterprises to access bank’s capital and impact on the economy’s credit
growth.
D1’s The
One to connect with metro station
There will be a
tunnel linking the 55-storey twin tower project ‘The One’ with Ben Thanh
central metro station of HCMC, said Le Hong Ha, deputy head of the HCMC
Management Authority for Urban Railways.
This is the second
commercial building in the city to obtain a license to build the tunnel. The
first tunnel of this kind will link the Vincom Center A with the Opera House
station.
Bitexco Group broke
ground for The One building in April, 2012 with invested capital of nearly
US$500 million. The project is expected to be completed in 2015, having two
towers of 55 and 48 stories overlooking the landmark Ben Thanh Market and
surrounded by Calmette, Le Thi Hong Gam, Pho Duc Chinh and Pham Ngu Lao
streets.
Ha told the Daily
that work on the Ben Thanh central station is expected to begin in 2015 and
will be connected to The One after completion. The Opera House station will
be built in 2014, while tunnel construction of the Vincom Center A has been
completed.
The metro line No.
1 running from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Suoi Tien in outlying
District 9 would be completed in 2017. The route will serve 186,000
passengers by 2017, 620,000 passengers by 2040 and over one million by 2040.
Ha said the railway
authorities will give support to commercial building investors who wish to
connect their projects with the metro line so that citizens will enjoy
advantages in reaching both the metro route and commercial centers.
The Ben Thanh metro
station will be built 40 meters underground, including a station surrounded
by a shopping area.
Hydropower
project owners must plant forests
Those wanting to
cut down forest trees to make room for their hydropower or mining projects
will have to replant a corresponding area when Circular 24 of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development takes effect on July 1.
The prevailing
Government Decree 13/2006/ND-CP on forest protection requires those chopping
plantations of farmers to compensate them with new plantations. Those cutting
down natural forests, however, do not have to replant.
However, quite a
few forests have been converted into other purposes, causing the natural
forest area to dwindle. Therefore, Circular 24 is aimed at forcing project
owners to develop new forests in exchange for the areas they chop, said
Nguyen Quang Duong, head of the planning and finance department, formerly the
department of forest development, at the agriculture ministry.
It costs VND15-20
million to plant a hectare of forest. Whether the time for trees to fully
grow is long or short depends on each species, but on average it takes four
years, he told the Daily on the phone.
The fact that
owners of hydropower projects cut down forests without replanting was put on
the discussing table at the National Assembly (NA) meeting late last year.
Back then, the
Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed hydropower projects without land for
afforestation should not be allowed to get going. Circular 24 is made in
response to this proposal and it will come into force on July 1.
If project owners
cannot replant forests for some reason, they will have to pay for the central
Forest Projection and Development Fund to do the job on their behalf, said
Duong.
As for the
hydropower and mining projects converting forest land prior to the effective
date of Circular 24, their owners must complete schemes for afforestation no
later than 2014, he noted.
By the end of 2012,
about 20,000 hectares of forest had been converted mainly to serve hydropower
developments. Some areas of forest were submerged in reservoirs while others
were cleared for road construction.
Some 1,100
hydropower projects are under preparation with a combined capacity of nearly
26,000 MW, according to the General Department of Energy under the Ministry
of Industry and Trade.
Thai firms
set up shoe distribution channels in Vietnam
Many
leather-footwear enterprises from
Vietnamese
leather-footwear makers mainly sell their products to foreign brands and
importers. Meanwhile, Thai producers not only sell their products to foreign
markets, but also set up their distribution channels in such markets, said
Kiet.
He was talking to
the media on the sidelines of a meeting between Vietnamese and Thai footwear
firms in HCMC last Thursday. The event was held by the Vietnam Chamber of
Commerce and Industry in collaboration with the Association of Thai Footwear
Industrial Promotion.
On this occasion,
about 30 Thai leather-footwear producers met local firms to look for buyers
or distributors. Besides, some Thai businesses sought to buy leather-shoe
products from Vietnamese companies.
Nguyen Van Khanh,
general secretary of the HCMC Shoes and Leather Association, said Thai
leather-footwear producers in the future would buy products from Vietnamese
firms.
“They will not make
shoes anymore because the industry requires too many workers,” he said,
adding that this is a chance for Vietnamese enterprises.
Aside from the
advantages offered by the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, local
footwear companies will face challenges. Many shoe products from TPP members
will be sold to Vietnamese market and thus local producers will go into a
fiercer competition, said Kiet.
Another
coal price hike in sight
The ministries of
industry-trade and finance are considering another increase in the price of
coal sold to power plants to match the coal production cost in 2013, said
Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang
The Prime Minister
earlier told relevant ministries and Vietnam National Coal and Mineral
Industries Group (Vinacomin) to adjust prices of coal sold to power
producers, said Hoang in a report sent to the National Assembly (NA) last
weekend. Thus, prices of coal sold to the power sector were increased on
April 20.
The new price is
able to cover the cost of producing coal in 2011. Prior to the price hike,
the price of coal sold to power plants stood at 71-73% of the production cost
in 2011.
However, the new
coal price is still equal to only 85-87% of the production cost in 2013. If
coal prices were not raised further, revenue from coal sales to the power
sector would be some VND6 trillion lower than the total production cost in
2013, said Nguyen Van Bien, deputy general director of Vinacomin.
Previously, the
amount of coal sold to power producers accounted for only 10-15% of the total
output. However, it has surged in the last two years.
In 2012, coal sold
to the power sector made up 30% of the total output. In the first quarter of
2013, over 50% of coal output was sold to power plants.
The situation now
is not as favorable as in 2011 or before that, when coal exports generated
large revenue, offsetting the losses at home, Bien noted. Due to the global
economic downturn, coal prices have dropped 30% against late 2011.
In the report to
the NA, the trade ministry said it and the finance ministry would consider an
appropriate time for a coal price hike. The rise in coal prices will be
carefully calculated to avoid pushing up the power production cost, said the
trade ministry.
The trade ministry is
collecting opinions on its draft regulations on power price management and
adjustment. The draft says EVN can raise power prices if input costs pick up
2-5%.
Lack of
security rules exposes local entities to cybercrimes
According to the
Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT), the highest rate of
information security regulations belonged to ministries and equivalent
agencies with 57.9%. Meanwhile, the respective figures of State enterprises,
private enterprises, local authorities were 57.1%, 46.2% and 35%.
It is notable that
the rates have not changed much in the past three years.
Regarding
infrastructure, nearly 70% of agencies and enterprises used firewall, but
most of them were not equipped with equipment which can detect and prevent
illegal infiltration. Besides, 100% of State agencies used antivirus software
while some still used software having no copyright or downloaded free from
the Internet such as Bkav Home and Symantec.
Vu Quoc Khanh,
director of VNCERT, said that ensuring information security for State
agencies and local authorities were facing many difficulties.
One of the
difficulties is information technology (IT) staff’s limited abilities such as
lacking IT system management skills and a good command of IT, he added.
To increase
information security at governmental agencies and enterprises, the Ministry
of Information and Communications is collecting opinions about the draft
information security law last month.
An important point
of this draft law is that State agencies are required to build a process of
ensuring information security with compulsory security standards.
DongA Bank
lends VND10 billion to fishermen
DongA Bank
inaugurated a new office of Chu Lai transaction office in
The lending program
aims to create conditions for local fishing households to invest in
facilities, repair boats, homes and cover fuel costs. The lender will apply
an interest rate of 10% per annum for all tenors.
Nguyen Thanh Vinh,
director of DongA Bank’s Quang
DongA Bank launched
the loan program for fishermen in 2011 with the initial loan value of VND20
billion. The program is co-organized by the lender, the High-quality
Vietnamese Product Business Association, Leading Business Club and the
Education Development Foundation.
Gov’t to
issue 15-year bonds
he State Treasury
will issue VND1.5 trillion worth of 15-year government bonds on June 30
through an underwriter, the first issuance of this type of bond since 2006.
This is also the
first time the Government will have its bond issuance underwritten this year
and the third time since May, 2012, when the Ministry of Finance’s Circular
No. 17 providing guidelines on issuance of government bonds in the domestic
market took effect.
The State Treasury
on Monday signed an agreement in principle with Bao Viet Securities Joint
Stock Company to underwrite this bond sale.
A representative of
the firm said it had had to guarantee this 15-year bond issuance with a total
value of VND1.5 trillion.
The bond coupon has
yet to be decided because the underwriter needs time to learn about an
average interest rate expected by investors. The State Treasury and the
company will negotiate to reach an agreement on the bond coupon in the final
week of this month.
Nissan
assembly plant opened in Danang
Nissan and its
partner Tan Chong Motor (TCM) on Tuesday opened an assembly plant in
The plant, the
first of this kind in Danang, has an investment of US$40 million and a
capacity of 6,500 cars per year.
Nissan Sunny has
three versions with four colors-brown, white, silver and black. Its selling
price will be announced in
The new plant is
the first facility owned and run by TCIE Vietnam, a unit of TCM in
“The plant will
first focus on assembling Sunny sedans for domestic sale, and 2,000 Sunny
sedans will be assembled in the first year of operation,” said Takayuki
Kimura, Nissan’s regional vice president.
Tan Chong Motor has
been the official distributor of Nissan for over 50 years in
Some 800,000 Nissan
Sunny sedans have been sold worldwide since December 2010 when it was launched.
Yacht tourism needs better care
Although there are
more and more small tourist boats with capacities of 100-200 visitors and
yachts wanting to arrive at new ports in Vietnam, infrastructure and services
still fail to meet the demand.
Vu Duy Vu, deputy general
director of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, said that yacht tourism, a
segment of cruise tourism, was promising, but
Tourists from the
Yacht owners
normally have crewmembers sail their yachts to
Journeys of such
tourists are not fixed, and they often select destinations after arriving in
“We have received
many requests from owners of luxury yachts, but the number of yachts arriving
here is still low due to
According to Vu, a
shortage of tourist ports and complicated procedures at ports are among
reasons for the low number of yachts arriving in
Yacht tourists
prefer docking at new ports such as Cam Ranh and Van Phong in
Sharing the same
opinion with Vu, experts in Singaporean cruise tourism in a report mentioned
that despite huge potential of this tourism model,
Currently,
In related news, a
working team for cruise tourism which has the participation of customs
officers, border guards and travel firms will be established to handle issues
related to cruise tourism, according to the Vietnam National Administration
of Tourism at the seminar on cruise tourism held in
Seafood
firms suffer high costs of safety testing
An optimal solution
to reduce the volume of seafood exports being returned home has yet to be
found, while short-term measures are costing local exporting enterprises
dearly.
Ca Mau Province has
the advantage of processing and exporting seafood products with big
enterprises like Minh Phu Corp, Phu Cuong Group and Ca Mau Seafood Processing
and Service Corp. Seafood products accounted for up to 99% of the province’s
total exports in the first five months with over US$304 million, but its
seafood exporting activities still carry many potential risks.
According to statistics
of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, there was 159 tons of
seafood products worth over US$500,000 of five exporters returned by
importers in May, raising the total volume of returned seafood exports in the
five-month period to 536 tons worth US$3.65 million.
Returned shipments
are mainly frozen processed shrimp which are violating food safety and
hygiene requirements as they contain antibiotics exceeding the permitted
levels of importing countries.
The National
Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad) also reported
three more exporting firms having export shipments which were warned to
contain high Ethoxyquin and Trifluralin residues by
It is noteworthy
that after the warning from importers in the January-February period, the
situation has improved.
Nguyen Nhu Tiep,
head of Nafiqad, said that
“However,
To avoid food
hygiene violations, several measures have been taken such as controlling
residue of antibiotics, preservatives and especially input materials and
tightly inspecting every shipment before exporting.
In fact such
measures have been implemented for many years and cost enterprises money,
time as well as human resources. However, the risks of having shipments
returned are still there.
Speaking at a
workshop held recently by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development,
Phan Thanh Chien, general director of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province-based Hai Viet
Corp., said that the cost to reduce shipment returns amounted to dozens of
billion of Vietnam dong per year. The firm paid VND3 billion per year to
Nafiqad’s testing activities last year while its antibiotic testing cost was
VND6 billion.
“Despite such
costs, we still fail to eliminate all risks such as antibiotics and residue
used in farming which are contained in materials provided by farmers. That we
cannot control,” Chien said.
According to Tran
Van Linh, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and
Producers (Vasep), measures Nafiqad and firms are employing are only short
term. The agricultural industry should focus on monitoring farming areas,
especially those of shrimp, instead of only paying attention to processing
and production stages which have already met strict requirements of
importers.
Ha Noi
promotes trade in bid to boost exports
The capital city
plans to promote trade activities to boost exports this year and beyond, said
an official from the Ha Noi Industry and Trade Department.
Phan Tien Binh,
deputy director of the Ha Noi Industry and Trade Department, said trade
promotion programmes for new export markets would be bigger and better in
coming years.
Trade promotion
programmes were scheduled to focus on markets in South America, Central
America, Europe and
The greatest focus
would be on
Additionally, Ha
Noi would continue expanding the export of goods and services to the Middle
Eastern and African countries.
The city would also
better ensure the quality of enterprises that join trade fairs abroad and
promote advertising of products at the fairs to improve quality of the trade
promotion programmes, he said.
The department
would enhance co-ordination between local enterprises and foreign partners in
Ha Noi. The city would give priority to foreign importers and foreign
enterprises that import goods from villages, while also helping to develop
supporting industrial facilities and consulting enterprises.
It also planned to
increase investment capital in trade promotion programmes for export
products.
The city expected
to increase the export of processed farming products, interior decoration
products, packaging, software and logistics products.
Binh said the plans
would help Ha Noi increase exports, especially at a time when the global
economy was recovering.
The department
reported Ha Noi gained a slight rise of 0.2 per cent in export value to
US$4.17 billion for the first five months this year compared with the same
period of last year.
Key staples
included textiles, garments, handcraft articles, coal and farming products.
The major export markets were ASEAN,
Small hydro
plant plans scrapped
About 42 small
hydro-electric projects planned for the Central Highlands
The provincial
People's Committee is also checking the feasibility of six other small
projects and two big hydro projects in the area, Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A.
Meanwhile, the
province plans to go ahead with 79 other small hydro projects with a total of
600MW capacity on the Da Dang, Da Nhim, Krong No, Da Huoai, La Nga, Dong Nai,
Luy and Quao rivers. Nearly 40 have been funded.
Vietnamese
products seek foothold in world market
Policymakers,
experts, economists and local authorities have discussed measures to promote
Vietnamese trademarks in the world market at the Vietnamese Trademark Forum
in
The forum is part
of the 2013 National Trademark Programme co-organised by the Trade Promotion
Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the programme’s Secretariat
and the Vietnam News Agency’s Tin Tuc newspaper.
Over the past time,
Vietnamese businesses have made progresses in building and developing their
trademarks and raising the competitiveness of their products, especially
those operating in garments and textiles, leather and footwear, and farming
products, said Do Thang Hai, Head of the Trade Promotion Agency.
However, Hai and
other delegates at the event cited the lack of experience and limited
capacity of domestic businesses as factors lowering their products’
competitiveness.
According to Hai,
apart from product quality, businesses should pay attention to the
distribution system.
At the event,
Pham Quang My,
deputy head of the Office of the Vietnam Administration of Sea and
Marine trademark
also makes it easier for localities to access the external world in the context
of integration, he added, noting it is expected to contribute to fulfilling
targets set in the Vietnam Marine Strategy by 2020.
The delegates
suggested localities put forth long-term strategy in building their
trademarks, citing
Nguyen Duc Loi,
General Director of the Vietnam News Agency, called on localities, businesses
and entrepreneurs to conduct practical activities in order to preserve the
quality, prestige and competitive edge of Vietnamese services and products.
Local leaders,
managers, experts and businesses also engaged in discussions focusing on
relations between regional, national and marine trademarks.
Production
stimulus moves take effect
A string of
measures to resolve difficulties to boost production and spur growth have
proved effective, according to a Government’s report at an interpellation
session of the 13th National Assembly’s on-going fifth session.
The Government
conducted tax breaks and exemption; continued to reduce lending interest rate
by around 3-4% against December, 2012; provided preferential credits for
agriculture, rural areas, small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),
auxiliary industry, export production and high-tech applications.
A series of solutions
were introduced by the Government to accelerate production of key industries
such as steel, mechanics, garments and textiles and mining, and consumption
of their products.
Meanwhile
ministries, agencies and localities launched trade promotion activities;
speed up the “Buy Vietnamese goods” campaign and bring goods to rural and
remote areas.
The Government has
also implemented the 2013 National Trade Promotion Program to seek more
export markets. In the January-May period, exports stayed at around US$50
billion, up 15.1% against the same period last year while imports were on the
rise.
Plus, the
Government gave priority to social housing development. So far, 58 projects
were proposed to construct 33,000 social apartments destined for low-income
earners.
Especially, the
preferential credit package worth VND30,000 billion (US$1.5 billion) was
disbursed, bringing initial positive effects on the domestic estate
market.
So far, nine
badly-performing commercial banks were handled properly so that their payment
capacity was considerably improved and depositors’ rights were guaranteed.
The equitization
process of commercial banks was fundamentally finalized, expecting to help
raise charter capital for them.
As of April, 2013,
the rate of non-performing loans stood at 4.67%, lower than 7.8% of late
2012.
VinGroup
sets high business target
Property developer
VinGroup (VIC) said it was commited to delivering 8,000 apartments in the
At the company's
annual meeting of shareholders on Saturday, VinGroup chairman Pham Nhat Vuong
said VinGroup would not reduce the prices of their apartments as had other
companies, but would keep the old prices to protect the interests of the
customers who had purchased their apartments.
"There are
many ways to raise capital given difficult conditions, so slashing apartment
prices when the market is in a downturn can affect other clients'
interests," Vuong said.
The
VinGroup also plans
to launch its two major shopping malls in Ha Noi this year,
"There will be
many opportunities for investors with cash in the current context,"
Vuong said.
Last year, VIC's
net revenue was over VND7.9 trillion (US$376.2 million), an increase of 242
per cent over the previous year. Its after-tax profit also jumped 72 per cent
over 2011, totalling nearly VND1.85 trillion ($88.1 million).
In the financial
sector, VinGroup successfully issued international convertible bonds worth
$300 million while attracting another $200 million from the global private
equity fund Warburg Pincus into Vincom Retail.
This year, VIC
projects planned to earn a pre-tax profit of around VND10 trillion ($476.2
million) and to have net revenue of VND12.2 trillion ($581 million). The
group has also approved a plan for debuting shares overseas through an
initial public offering on an international stock exchange in the future.
Two foreigners were
elected to VIC's board of directors during this meeting. They were Joseph
Raymond Gagnon, managing director at Warburg Pincus, and Marc Villers
Townsend, managing director at CBRE Vietnam, an independent board member.
VIC shares rose
slightly yesterday, closing at VND70,000 ($3.33) a share.
Food
seminar highlights role safety plays in brand-building
A seminar on safe
food production and the role it can play in making food trademarks more
commercially viable was held yesterday in Ha Noi.
Deputy Minister of
Industry and Trade (MoIT) Ho Thi Kim Thoa acknowledged the food sector's two
decades of success in manufacturing a wide variety of highly competitive
products meeting both domestic and export demands.
The sector now
contributes nearly 20 per cent of the country's GDP.
According to Deputy
Head of MoIT's Viet Nam Competitive Authority (VCA) Nguyen Phuong
However, due to the
high competitiveness in this sector, many enterprises engage in unhealthy
actions to cut costs – compromising food safety.
Nguyen Van Viet,
chairman of the Viet Nam Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Association (VBA), said that
food safety is always the leading concern of consumers, so it plays a key
role in the success of any food trademark.
To help the
industry shore up sustainable development domestically and expand into global
markets, MoIT is supporting businesses in promoting, registering, and
protecting their trademarks, training human resources, updating themselves on
the latest economic, environmental and legal information and applying
cutting-edge technological advancements.
The seminar was co-organized
by Cong Thuong Newspaper and the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Department
of Light Industry and Department of Science and Technology.
Viet Nam
earns tidy profit from trade surge with Spain
Two-way trade
between
In the reviewed
period,
ARINC to provide
The US-based ARINC
Incorporated announced that it was awarded a contract to provide systems
integration for the new terminal at Ha Noi's
ARINC was selected
as the subcontractor for this project by the Taisei-Vinaconex Joint Venture
(TVJV), the company overseeing the construction of the new terminal.
ARINC will be
deploying its industry-leading CUPPS compliant vMUSETM workstations at
Terminal 2, together with SelfServTM Common Use Self Service kiosks, VeriPax
Passenger Reconciliation Services and Flight Information Displays.-
The Mekong Delta
has additional 20,000 hectares of specialty fruit trees than they did three
years ago, according to the Southern Horticultural Research Institute.
Areas under
speciality fruit trees in the provinces of Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Dong Thap, Vinh
Long, Hau Giang and Can Tho have increased to 83,000ha, accounting for 29 per
cent of the total fruit tree area.
The increase
indicates the growing demand for safe, high-quality fruit, which is now being
produced on a large scale to meet demand and improve export competitiveness.
SBV
restructures huge bad debts
Non-performing
loans (NPLs) of commercial banks were estimated at VND137.1 trillion (US$6.53
billion) by the end of April, accounting for 4.67 per cent of total loans,
according to data from the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV).
The NPLs in late
2012 and 2011 were respectively 4.08 per cent and 3.07 per cent of total
loans.
However, SBV said
if debts had not been dealt with and restructured in accordance with Decision
780/QD-NHNN on classification of rescheduled loans, NPLs may have reached
VND362.8 trillion ($17.2 billion), or 11.5 per cent of total loans.
SBV said that by
the end of April this year, a total VND284.4 trillion debts had been
restructured in accordance with the decision.
About VND76.7 trillion
of bad debts were tackled through loan loss provisions last year and the
January-April period this year. Provisions for loan losses increased to
VND73.6 trillion ($3.5 billion) as of April 30, up 14.6 per cent from last
December.
SBV Governor Nguyen
Van Binh expected Viet Nam Asset Management Company (VAMC), which was due to
officially go into operation next month, would help resolve roughly VND40-70
trillion of NPLs this year.
According to a
newly issued decree on NPLs, banks with NPL ratios of 3 per cent or more
would have to sell the loans to the VAMC.
Banks that failed
to comply with the regulation would be inspected by the central bank or they
would have to hire an auditing company or independent evaluation firm to
assess the quality and value of their assets, equity and charter capital at
their own expense.
Based on the
auditing results, banks would have to sell their NPLs to the VAMC to ensure
NPL ratios stayed at a safe level, while also restructuring under plans
approved by the central bank, the decree stated.
Forum
promotes brand VN
The development of
national brands was critical for the country's economic development during
the international integration process, experts said at a forum held yesterday
in Ha Noi.
The Viet Nam Value
Forum, held jointly by the Viet Nam Trade Promotion Agency, Vietnam News
Agency and Hoa Sen Group, saw participants discuss measures to push up the
national branding programme in line the Government's economic goals.
According to Le
Phuoc Vu, chairman of Hoa Sen Group, better branding was crucial in enhancing
the competitiveness of Vietnamese products and services at a time when the
country was integrating more deeply into the world economy, especially the
Asian Economic Community to be established in 2015.
Despite its
importance, developing national brands received little attention from both
Government agencies and enterprises, he said.
Vu said he was
worried about the domination of foreign-invested companies in the country's
export sector, as capital for national branding development was limited.
"This rings an
alarm bell," he said, adding that Viet Nam would be at risk of falling
too far behind other countries and failing to grasp the opportunities that
integration would bring unless competitiveness was improved, he said.
Nguyen Thi Tuyet
Mai from the National Economic University said a survey by a US professor
found that products from Viet Nam were poorly rated by young US consumers,
reflecting that national branding needed to be improved.
According to Duong
Quoc Xuan, deputy head of the South West Steering Committee, the Cuu Long
(Mekong) Delta did not have strongly-recognisable brands for many of its
leading products such as rice, fisheries and fruit.
The region was in
urgent need of a strategy for brand development, he said, stressing that the
regional link would play an important role.
Experts at the
forum said the lack of protection measures for existing products that were
tied to specific areas with geographical indicators meant some of these
brands were at risk of disappearing or having their market share taken by
foreign companies who were more savvy in marketing their brands.
Tran Le Hong,
director of the Information Department at the National Office of Intellectual
Property, said poor management of Vietnamese brands linked to specific parts
of the country was partly to blame, along with concerns over quality of
products and services.
According to the
director of the Trade Promotion Agency, Do Thang Hai, co-ordination between
ministries, local authorities, enterprises and the media should be enhanced
to make the national branding programme more effective.
Also at the forum,
Pham Quang My from the Viet Nam Administrations of Seas and Islands, stressed
the importance of the marine sector, which would help boost sea economic
development.
My said Viet Nam
had great sea potential with more than 3,260kms of coastline, 1 million
square metres of sea water and 3,000 islands.
Under the Viet
Nam's Sea Strategy to 2020, the coastal and sea-born economy would make up
from 53-55 per cent of the gross domestic product, partly thanks to
breakthroughs in sea-related economic sectors such as oil drilling, seafood
processing and tourism.
The National
Branding Programme was approved in 2003, and it focuses on improving quality,
innovation, creativeness and leadership.
Source: VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VIR
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Chủ Nhật, 16 tháng 6, 2013
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