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BUSINESS IN BRIEF 20/3
Vietnam, Indonesia explore trade,
tourism potential
At a joint business forum in
Indonesian businesses can also invest in rubber
production for support industry in
He cited tourism industry as another promising sector
as more than 74,000 Indonesian visitors came to
Indonesian Ambassador Mayerfas said many Indonesian
businesses have penetrated the Vietnamese market over the past two years.
By the end of last year, PT Semen bought 70 percent of
shares from
Last April PT Nikko Securities spent US$10 million
buying a major of share equal to 20 percent of Hoa Binh Construction &
Real Estate Corporation’s chartered capital.
On June 13, PT Telin signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) on strategic cooperation with CMC, one of the leading
technology groups in
Le Phuoc Vu, Director General of Hoa Sen Group, said at
its recent annual general meeting the group decided to invest in a project in
The Hoa Binh Corporation is arranging for 20 engineers
to work under some construction contracts in
A representative from Indonesian authority said most of
food items imported into the country are tax-free.
According to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA)
Vietnam has seven mineral exploration, oil and gas, and communications
projects operating in Indonesia with a registered capitalisation of US$106.7
million.
Deputy Head of the Department for Planning and
Investment Dang Xuan Quang said by May 2013,
Indonesian investment focuses on the processing,
manufacturing, food and drinks services, healthcare, and social support
industries.
Last year,
In the first four months of this year,
The two countries were committed to raising bilateral
trade exchanges to US$5 billion in 2015, but, this target is almost within
reach.
LED technology lures foreign investment
Foreign investors have shown their interest in
production of lighting systems using light-emitting diode (LED) technology
which are 30-90 percent more efficient than incandescent light bulbs.
At the recent Environment and Energy Technology
(ENTECH) Hanoi 2013 Exhibition,
The company has applied for an investment certificate,
which is expected to be granted in the next one or two months. It will start
operation next September, with over 200 types of LED lights and devices used
in the electronics industry.
The Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST)
said Hua Bo is one of numerous LED projects to be implemented in
The adoption of LED technology in
At present, there are only a few foreign companies
investing in manufacturing LEDs in
One of these companies is Green Power Kim Dinh (Fawoo
Kidi), a joint venture between
It has been successfully installing LED lighting
systems at numerous large works such as Thuan Phuoc bridge in Danang city,
Hoa Lac hi-tech park in
Nguyen Thi Bac Kinh, an expert from VAST, said the
performances of several world-class companies in LED technology such as
Philips, LG, Osram and Nitria in
According to an Osram representative, the company’s
revenue in
Osram is only involved with high-class projects, since
the price of LED lighting is still higher than normal products, he added.
Kinh said the high price of LED lights is limiting
their appearance in households and public works.
To ensure the effectiveness and sustainable development
of
Accordingly, the State should list lighting
manufacturing using LED technology in the high technology field, upgrade the
two quality check laboratories from national to international standards, and
build a national quality standard for LED light sets.
More importantly, there must be incentive and support
policies for enterprises and research institutes to approach and develop high
efficiency lighting technology in general and LED technology in particular,
Kinh added.
Investors viewing
About 41% of the respondents said they feel
The financial distress in Europe and weakening of the
US dollar are the main factors for private equity activities continuing to
rise in Asia, especially
Hence the number of respondents who decided to increase
their portfolio in
Healthcare and pharmaceutical industries have been the
most favoured investment areas in the last three surveys.
High growth rates, demand for expertise as well as
favourable demographics have created a significant opportunity for investors
to invest in
Education remains the second most attractive sector for
survey participants with the same proportion as last year survey (39%). It
has been in the top rung for more than three years in succession.
The Government’s approval for foreign investors to
establish 100% foreign-invested companies has made this sector highly
attractive to investors.
The fourth most attractive sector, according to the
survey, is real estate, which got 37% of the respondents’ votes.
Merger and Acquisition (M&A) deals in the real
estate sector were forecast to increase in 2013. Many real estate developers
facing financial difficulties were forced to transfer their projects,
creating investment opportunities for buyers with long-term strategies.
The largest investment in the sector last year was by
On investment obstacles, 82% of the respondents
considered corruption and government red tape as problems when investing in
Current economic difficulties and challenges mean PE
investors are becoming more prudent in their investment strategy and focusing
on long term growth opportunities, the survey found.
Transparency in business activities emerged as the
second most important factor in making investment decisions. This factor has
always been in the list of the top three most important factors to consider
when investing in
The third most important factor was cash flow, the life
blood of every business.
Other factors included corporate governance and the
skill as well as experience of existing management.
A big challenge for livestock
industry
he domestic livestock industry is likely to lose out to
regional rivals in the coming years unless a proper development strategy is
drawn up to increase its competitiveness.
This means that similar products from
Pham Duc Binh, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Animal Feed
Association, said the Vietnamese livestock industry falls behind regional
rivals in terms of scale, productivity, prices and quality.
Once the subsidy policy is removed, it will put farmers
and businesses at a distinct disadvantage, he said.
In addition, they have advantages, such as access to
low interest loans and no value added tax (VAT) on livestock feed, that help
keep their prices at least 15-20 percent lower than those of Vietnamese
breeders.
Suffering from long term losses, many foreign
businesses are reducing the number of chickens they breed in
Nguyen Dang Vang, Chairman of the Vietnam Animal
Breeding Association, said in 2011 CP, Emivest and Japfa raised more than 120
million chickens, but a year later they cut that number to only 70 million.
Nearly half of the poultry farms in
Aside from AFTA competition,
Over the past three or four years, hundreds of
thousands tonnes of meat at considerably cheaper prices have been imported
into the country annually.
In the first four months of 2013, about 5,000-7,000
tonnes of chickens were shipped into
To save costs, many businesses even use frozen pork
from the
Restructuring better solution for
Vinalines, Vinashin: Deputy PM
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that
Vinashin and Vinalines are still taking huge losses, but it is better to restructure
them than allow them go into bankruptcy.
Speaking at the 13th National Assembly’s Q&A
session on June 14, the deputy prime minister said after being the
restructure, Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin) has operated
better.
Under the government’s restructuring plan, the group
will retain eight businesses with around 8,000 employees. The remaining
stakes in the other 216 businesses must be sold.
About 170 vessels have been built and sold over the
past three years, among them 66 vessels worth USD1.215 billion have been
exported.
“If the Vinashin restructure is successful,
Answering National Asembly deputies’ questions about
the reasons the government decided to restructure Vinashin instead of
allowing it to fail, the deputy PM said Vinashin is a wholly stated-owned
enterprise, and, if it allowed to go bankrupt, the government would be left with
the debts and thousands of workers and their families would be affected. He
added that there was a hope that the company would have better operations
when the global economy improved.
According to the deputy PM, Vinalines has withdrawn its
investment capital from 16 enterprises and completed privatisation of four
businesses. It has also finished debt restructuring.
More than 30 ton gold injected into
market
In 31 gold auctions, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)
has pumped 787,300 taels of gold, or 30.2 tons of gold, into the market.
On June 14, SBV sold 25,700 taels of gold out of a
total 26,000 taels offered to 11 bidders with highest bid at VND40.44 million
a tael, and lowest at VND40.37 million.
With the Central Bank continuously injecting gold into
the market, the final settlement of credit institutions has been met.
However, the amount of gold for this purpose has lessened and is expected to
be added fully before June 30.
Forecasts said that gold demand in the market will
drastically drop after the end of this month, reducing gap between domestic
and global gold price. The current gap was at about VND5.4 million a tael.
The price of SJC-brand gold sank to the lowest level in
the past two months yesterday. Particularly, at 9.30 am, in Ho Chi Minh City,
Saigon Jewelry Company bought gold at VND40.22 million a tael and sold at
VND40.52 million.
At the same time, in
By 4.30 pm, the buying rate of SJC-brand gold rose to
VND40.25 million but selling rate slid to VND40.46 million, the lowest since
April 16.
Government helps farmers by buying 1
million tons of rice for stockpile
The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) in cooperation with
food companies in the Mekong Delta on Saturday began buying one million ton
of rice for stockpile under a Government direction.
Rice buying campaign will last until the end of July
when farmers in the delta completely harvest the summer- autumn rice crop.
The campaign is planned to help farmers protect profit
after rice prices have currently decreased because of rice export slowdown.
Food companies have been provided loan with low
interest.
Although the campaign has been deployed, rice prices
are still under the costs.
Heavy rains for several days have affected rice harvest
and made farmers feel sitting on the fire. Agricultural officials in the
delta said that if the heavy rains continued for couple days rice quality
would be low.
Rice exporters said that 70 percent of stockpiled rice
harvested in the winter- spring rice crop had still not sold yet and they
have suffered from the heavy losses.
In order to reduce rice inventory and purchase rice for
farmers, VFA has cut down rice export prices by US$ 5/ton.
Chinese potatoes selling as Da Lat
home-grown potatoes
Authorities on June 15 destroyed 26 tons of low quality
potatoes brought in from
The huge volume of potatoes was discovered in a
warehouse belonging to Nguyen Thi Nguyet in Da Lat City.
Nguyet said he had bought 52 tons of Chinese potatoes
in all, 26 tons from Anh Quan Company in
However, two samples of potatoes were found exceeding
permissible limits of Chlopyrifos pesticide.
As per receipts presented by the trader, Chinese
potatoes fetch VND3,344 per kilogram while Da Lat potatoes are sold at
VND15,000-20,000 a kilogram. As consumers prefer Da Lat potatoes, Chinese
potatoes are sold as Da Lat grown potatoes at an exorbitant profit margin.
This practice has been going on for years but
authorities found it confusing to handle as crooked sellers wrap Chinese
potatoes with red soil to show as Da Lat potatoes.
At the end of 2012, a company in
Due to increasing energy demand,
Dr. Ngo Duc Lam, an energy expert, said
The country’s basic energy demand is forecast to reach
250 million tonnes of oil equivalent by 2030, a five-fold increase compared
to the figure of 2009.
All major hydropower sources would be put into
operation in the next few years and fossil-fuelled energy sources are
declining, forcing the country to import coal for power production since
2011, instead of in 2015 as earlier forecast.
In order to increase domestic power supply, the country
has imported electricity from
“
According to him, nuclear power costs USD3,000 per kWh
to produce, compared to USD2,000 per kWh of wind power.
“Nuclear incidents like in
Even though the further development of coal-fired power
sources would mean that country wpuld be more dependent on imported coal
sources in the future and produce increased greenhouse emissions,
The country is trying to set up renewable energy
sources. Renewable energy sources currently account for only 3.5% of the
country’s total power capacity and the rate is expected to increase to from
6%-6.5% by 2020.
Despite great potential for renewable energy in
“Among renewable energy sources in
Lam said that
“
Even though the country has passed the Law on Energy
Saving and Efficiency, the enforcement has been inefficient due the lack of
proper attention to raising people’s awareness of the issue, he commented.
Vu Chi Thanh, Director of the Hanoi-based FPT
Polytechnic, said
“We should pursue sustainable development that meets
the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs,” he added.
Pham Ngoc Thang, head of iSave project, who won the
first prize for Green Initiative in 2009, said, “After a period of time
working in the field of communication on energy saving I see that people
still lacks awareness on the issue. It’s not easy to change common people’s
mind and behaviour but it’s even more difficult to persuade the better-off
groups to save energy as electricity bills are just a minor part of their
monthly expenses.”
Rescue package to help a property
market all at sea
The government’s credit and policy support will
have a positive impact on part of the real estate market, but it is still a
long way to go for the market to recover from the current stagnancy. Bich
Ngoc reports from the seminar “Revitalising Vietnam’s Property Market”
co-held by VIR and Cushman & Wakefield last week in
According the latest report from the Ministry of
Construction total value of unsold houses and apartments was been estimated
at around VND125 trillion ($6 billion) till March 2013, and there were about
34,000 apartments, 15,300 houses, and 9.8 million square meters of land
unsold in 55 provinces and cities.
On January 7, 2013, the government promulgated
Resolution 02/NQ-CP including a group of measures which aimed at easing
difficulties for enterprises and encouraging local consumption in many
sectors, including property market.
Some of the measures have been implemented so far. Just
one month ago, the Ministry of Construction issued the Circular
07/2013/TT-BXD detailing who will receive financial support from the
government for buying and developing social housing.
The State Bank has also issued the Circular
11/2013/TT-NHNN specifically regulating government’s subsidiary for
homebuyers purchasing social-housing. The interest rate subsidiary will last
within 10 years, and the annual interest rate will be 6 per cent this year
and then below. According to the State Bank, the subsidiary package is worth
VND30 trillion ($1.4 billion) which has been disbursed from June 1, 2013 for
three years.
Right now, the National Assembly is also discussing to
approve the amendment to Law on Corporate Income Tax, value-added tax and
other measures to reach socio-economic development targets in 2013, that will
also include some incentives for property developers.
But whether these policies would help recover the
property market remains an open question that was hotly discussed at the
seminar “Revitalising Vietnam’s Property Market” held in
Dang Huy Dong, Deputy Minister of Planning and
Investment, said the world’s economy remained shaky with innumerable latent
risks in 2013. Domestically, alongside some achievements multiple hardships
persisted, having negative impacts on the real estate market.
“Relevant ministries, state agencies and local
governments have proven proactive in handling Resolution 02 over the past
months. However, the property market has yet to get out of the woods and
difficulties still exist which were shown in imbalanced supply and demand,
high inventory and unpaid capital amounts casting bad impacts on the
economy,” Dong said.
Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of Natural
Resources and Environment, turned down the idea that Resolution 02 was for
rescuing the property market and property investors.
“It is wrong to say so. We should see that this is the
State’s necessary interference into the market, in which a great part of the
policy is focused on helping low-income labourers have houses. The resolution
is centred not only on supporting enterprises, but also helping solve
difficulties for the whole economy,” Vo said.
Whilst many experts argued that the $1.4 billion credit
package would not help reduce the huge stockpile of apartments and houses,
others such as Tran Le Khanh, chairman of the Kien A Corp, believed the
package would be surely to have a good impact to the real estate market in
the coming time.
“Even though this package focuses only on the low and
mid-range product but it still has contagion influences in the whole market.
This is because the real estate market has different segments but they have
been closely connected each others,” Khanh said.
Nguyen Viet Manh, head of the State Bank’s Credit
Department, stressed that the package had an active impact to the market,
especially existing loans.
“Due to the decrease of interest from banks, developers
now can adjust their price to be more affordable and their products become
more attractive to customers,” Manh said.
“This package is not a rescue boat for the market, but
it is a fundamental basement for the mid-range segment first, then expanded
to other segments,” Manh said.
He said the package was a drastic measure that helped
prop up the low-cost housing segment. “There was high demand for housing
among low-income earners, especially those in urban areas, but low supplies.
The revived low-cost housing segment was expected to lead a spillover affect
on other property segments,” he added.
Nguyen Tran
Owing to the government’s support in social housing
developers, an increasing number of developers are venturing into this
segment, leading to a boom in construction of low-cost housing.
However, Chris Brown, country manager of Cushman &
Wakefield, said there would be no quick fix or “silver bullet” to recover the
market. Recent measures could prolong the agony and average recovery period
should be six years.
“Sentiment is key to recovery. With the recent measures
bring back confidence quick enough to stimulate market recovery, market needs
to deleverage as soon as possible,” Brown said.
He said the market would not recover until
non-performing loans (NPLs) were recycled at a price low enough to create
widespread confidence.
Participants at the seminar also mentioned to the
establishment of the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) which will be
effective from July 9, 2013. With the chartered capital of VND500 billion
($25 million) the company will be operated under the direct control of the
State Bank.
Manh said the establishment of VAMC would be supportive
to the market. “Bankers can not solve bad debts by themselves and this
problem must be co-addressed by different sectors, including the State,
banks, developers and even buyers as well,” Manh said.
Brown said that the establishment of VAMC was a
positive move, however, its budget was still limited. “Banks are not required
to disclose their NPLs. Poorly managed banks will take advantage to transfer
their NPLs to VAMC instead of deleveraging. NPLs are not attractive to
investors at book value when reality is they have decreased by from 30 to 40
per cent,” Brown said.
M&As top of the pops
The latest Stoxplus report showed that in 2013’s first
quarter, the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market size reached $675.6
million, with 14 deals recorded, including 10 foreign-backed and four
domestic M&A deals.
Some typical M&A cases in the first quarter
included American-based KKR investment fund increasing its ownership in Masan
Consumer from 10 per cent to 18 per cent, with additional value of $200
million, Mekong Capital withdrawing 6.7 per cent equity at Mobile World Joint
Stock Company for a financial investor with $110 million and Vingroup
transferring Vincom Center A Commercial Hotel Complex in Ho Chi Minh City to
VIPD worth $470 million.
“From this time until the year end and next year, the
market will be busier because of the trend to shift from direct investment to
indirect investment via M&As,” said Nguyen Quang Thuan, general director
of Stoxplus.
He said local businesses offered attractive prices for
foreigners because of
According to Stoxplus, M&As in the banking sector
would be more vibrant due to its restructuring roadmap, as the number of
commercial banks would be reduced from 39 to 13-15 by 2017.
Recently, the government considered raising the foreign
ownership limitation to above 30 per cent, with Saigon Commercial Joint Stock
Bank (SCB) as a pioneer. Among the 39 current joint stock commercial banks,
15 have strategic partners in the same sector, three banks stay in special
supervision or have less demand for merging or transferring.
Consumer finance M&As are also predicted to be busy
after the government allows domestic and foreign financial institutions to
merge or equitise with retail bank, with the merger of PVFC and Western Bank
a typical case.
Robert Tran, a senior executive of Robeny Group - a
Canadian consultancy firm, said he expected M&A deals to occur in the
food and beverage sectors, pharmaceuticals, breeding food and education.
“Currently, we receive requirements from U.S and Canadian companies seeking
pharmaceutical factories to process commodities in
Currently, Japanese firms remain at the top of
foreign-backed M&A in equity investments into
To reflect the trend and contribute to enhancing the
efficiency of M&A activities in
The
Since 2009, the forum has become the biggest annual
event on M&A and strategic investment in
Corporate bonds look good-in
comparison
Good times are on the way for
“With the anticipation of ticked up credit growth as
well as the plunge of lending rates in coming months, we expect the corporate
bond market would turn to vibrant mode in the coming time, especially
infrastructure sector,” said Vietcombank Securities’ Monthly Fixed Income
Report released last week.
A management fund representative said his fund was
considering slashing investment in government bonds and raising capital for
corporate bonds, due to government bond yields quickly dropping in recent
months.
Currently, the government bond yields for two- and
three-year terms stayed at 6.55-6.75 per cent per annum, compared with the
expected inflation rate of 6 per cent for 2013. Meanwhile, the corporate bond
yield remained high at 12-14 per cent per year, for some asset backed
issuance.
A monthly report by BIDV’s Treasury Department also
forecasted that the corporate bond would be more buoyant in June. “A stable
exchange rate, curbed inflation and a liquidity surplus, especially downtrend
of interest rate are important factors to support enterprises to issue
long-term fixed income debt instruments,” said the report.
At some banks’ treasury departments, bond traders said
demands for safe corporate bond deals had increased amid the sharp decrease
in government bond yields. Recently, a number of enterprises have announced
plans to raise capital via corporate bonds issuances, however, detailed
information has not been revealed.
Giants in the real estate sector plans to offer VND950
billion ($45.6 million) of three-year corporate bonds while one big name in
the consumption sector is seeking for capitals through bond issuance, with
worth of VND2 trillion ($96.1 million) this year and the yield applied for
the first payment of 11.5 per cent.
A large state-run bank also plans to issue VND2
trillion ($96.1 million) in corporate bonds with terms of 10 years.
In the first quarter of this year, many big deals had
been completed such as Ho Chi Minh City Infrastructure Investment (CII) with
VND1 trillion ($48 million) worth of six-year corporate bond issuance that
Vietcombank bought wholly with a fixed coupon rate of 13.2 per cent per annum
and the country’s largest mining firm Vinacomin with VND2.5 trillion ($119.6
million) worth of five-year bonds with the yield applied for the first year
of 14.5 per cent.
However, the corporate bond market stayed quiet with no
successful corporate bond issuances recorded in May.
Amata maps out $2bn Quang Ninh
complex
Nguyen Van Doc, chairman of Quang Ninh People’s
Committee, said the provincial committee had agreed to allow Amata
Corporation Public Company and its domestic partner, Tuan Chau Au Lac
Limited, to implement feasibility study of this project on a 500ha site in
Quang Yen district.
“We consider Amata as a long-term investor and we also
want Amata to consider Quang Ninh as a strategic investment destination.
Thus, we will support them [Amata and Tuan Chau] to develop this project,”
said Doc.
According to Amata’s proposal, the hi-tech park and
township complex comprises a green industrial park, residential urban area,
sport facilities, convention centre, schools and university and entertainment
facilities.
Bordering Lang Son, Bac Giang,
The government sees Quang Ninh as part of the pivotal
economic development triangle of Hanoi-Hai Phong-Quang Ninh in the north of
If Amata’s project was built in Quang Ninh, it would
help attract more foreign investment to the province, Doc said.
This project also shows Amata’s ambition to expand its
investment in
Penetrating
The Thai developer last year announced a plan to
develop a giant
In a bid to expand in
“Amata
The plant’s construction began in 2011 and is the
biggest undertaking to manufacture tyres in
It is built on an area of over 10 hectares in Lien
Chieu Industrial Park, Da Nang city, and was funded by a Vinachem
affiliate-Da Nang Rubber Joint Stock Company-with capital totalling 2.95
trillion VND (141,000 million USD).
Radial tyre consumption makes up a mere 10 percent of
the nation’s vehicle tyre consumption. Once operational, the plant is
expected to satisfy domestic and foreign partners’ radial truck tyre demand,
and help the country keep up with the trend of modernisation and
industrialisation in the world.
Another Vinachem affiliate, the Southern Rubber
Industry Joint Stock Company (or Casumina), is accelerating the construction
of an other radial tyre factory with annual capacity of about one million
tyres.
Domestic coffee “wakes up” to
Starbucks
Following the appearance of Starbucks in
Recognising that boosting domestic consumption is one
way to raise their products’ added values, domestic coffee makers have tried
to outdo one another by introducing their own new products.
In late April, G7-X2, the latest product from Trung
Nguyen coffee made its debut.
Also in April, the Passio Coffee chain opened another
shop in
Even retailer Saigon Co.op has released a new
three-in-one instant coffee under the Co.op Mart brand. Co.op Mart Deputy
General Director Nguyen Thanh Nhan said the demand for instant coffee is
increasing and Co.op Mart had a chance to cooperate with the supplier to launch
its own brand.
Experts predict that domestic coffee consumption will
increase sharply, contributing to gradually reducing raw material export and
promoting coffee processing, therefore raising the value of domestic coffee.
Statistics from the International Coffee Organisation
(ICO) show that
The increase is the result of European-styled coffee
brands’ marketing strategies and users’ positive response.
However, according to ICO,
Mekong Delta fruit prices drop as
harvest peaks, supplies skyrocket
With the Mekong Delta reaching the peak fruit harvest
season and supply skyrocketing, the prices of many fruits have declined.
Cat Chu mango, a speciality of Dong Thap Province, is
sold at the orchard for VND2,000-4,000 a kilogramme, down by around VND10,000
(US$0.4) since the beginning of this year.
Huynh Van Tan of Cao Lanh, Dong Thap's capital, said:
"The price of Cat Chu mango is too low and many orchard owners have
stopped harvesting their ripened mangoes."
Traders blamed the price decline also on competition
from fruits arriving from the south-eastern region and Thailand.
In markets around the delta, fruits like mango, dragon
fruit, rambutan, watermelon, and Nam Roi grapefruit are being sold cheap.
In Vinh Long Province and neighbouring Can Tho city,
rambutan retails at VND5,000-7,000 per kilogramme compared to
VND15,000-20,000 ($0.7-0.9)at the beginning of last month.
Dragon fruit is sold on roadsides in Can Tho at
VND3,000-4,000.
In Tra Vinh and Soc Trang provinces, the price of
mangosteen has plunged from VND30,000 ($1.4) a month ago to VND22,000-25,000.
The list goes on and on.
Bui Thanh Liem, head of the Cho Lach District
Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau in Ben Tre, said many farmers have
used ripening techniques so that they can harvest their fruits during the
Doan Ngo Festival, one of the country's most popular traditional festivals,
which fell onJune 12, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
This has caused a glut, he said.
In HCM City, unusually large quantities of fruits like
king orange, guava, sour sop, mangosteen, mango, and rambutan from the delta
are being sold.
More than 1,500 tonnes of various kinds of fruits are
transported daily to the Tam Binh Wholesale Agriculture Market in the city's
Thu Duc District, according to the market management board.
But even amid the glut, the prices of some fruits
remain stubbornly high, according to traders.
Green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruits grown in Ben Tre
Province are now being bought by traders at VND60,000 ($2.8), VND26,000
($1.2) higher than a year ago.
The supply of the grapefruit cannot meet demand since
output has declined because of diseases, according to traders.
The Ben Tre-based Huong Mien Tay Company, a fruit distributor,
can only buy 10 tonnes of the grapefruit daily compared to 30-40 tonnes early
this year.
The company sells 90 per cent of its purchases to the
north and 10 per cent to HCM City.
It said it has had to reject orders from Germany and
Canada because the supply cannot even meet domestic demand.
Hi-tech crime fighters handed award
Payments technology company Visa has recognised the
efforts of Viet Nam's hi-tech crime fighting department under the Ministry of
Public Security of Viet Nam.
The department was presented with a Visa Law
Enforcement Award at the company's APCEMEA (Asia Pacific, Central Europe,
Middle East, Africa) 2013 Security Summit held in Bangkok last week.
The department won the award for its "outstanding
efforts" in the apprehension of criminals involved in card fraud during
2012 and significant contributions to the fight against card payment crimes.
The Ministry of Public Security has demonstrated a
clear commitment to keeping payments safe for consumers, according Lorijon
Bacchi, Country Manager, Viet Nam, Cambodia & Laos, Visa.
Ministry raises sugar import duties
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has decided to raise
sugar import duty to 15 per cent from July 22, 2013.
In a newly released circular, they have also revealed
that import tariffs of maple sugar and maple-oriented syrup will increase
from 3 per cent to 10 per cent.
Taxes in glucose and glucose syrup will rise from 10 to
15 per cent.
Pure fructose will be subject to a 15 per cent tariff,
a large jump from the current rate of 3 per cent.
Meanwhile, export duty of man-made honey will be
adjusted from 10 per cent to 15 per cent.
MoF also raised import tariffs of flavored sugar from 5
per cent to 15 per cent.
Source:
VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VIR
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Thứ Tư, 19 tháng 6, 2013
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