BUSINESS IN BRIEF 17/6
Vietnam attends tyre exposition in India
Vietnamese-based Da Nang Rubber Company (DRC) is
showcasing its made-in-Vietnam products at the Tyrexpo India 2016, which is
being held in New Delhi between June 14 and 16.
The fair gathers together nearly 100 businesses from
India, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, Thailand, Indonesia, China and
Vietnam.
DRC is the only company in Vietnam to have acquired an
ISI certification mark for industrial products that conform to the Indian
Standard. Only ISI products are allowed to enter the Indian market.
Products by DRC are available across 63 provinces and
cities in Vietnam and 35 countries worldwide.
Vietnam hopes to expand economic ties with RoK: Deputy
PM
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has affirmed
Vietnam’s wish to further elevate its comprehensive economic partnership with
the Republic of Korea (RoK), during a roundtable on business cooperation
between the two countries in Hanoi on June 15.
He called on RoK businesses to invest more in areas
like the manufacturing industry, electronics, automobiles, finance
&banking, high quality services, creative products development and
infrastructure, as well as startup projects.
The Deputy PM expressed his hope that giant RoK
corporations’ investment will encourage small and medium-sized enterprises,
as well as high technology firms from the country to do more businesses in
Vietnam .
Deputy PM Hue noted that the two countries are
experiencing a peak development in their relationship in all fields, with the
RoK being the second largest ODA provider of Vietnam .
Since 2014, the RoK has always been the largest foreign
investor in Vietnam with a total investment of over 49 billion USD in 5,300
projects, he said.
In the first five months of this year, the RoK was also
the largest investor at 3.4 billion USD in 420 projects.
This shows the confidence of the RoK’s business in
Vietnam’s economic prospects, he commented.
At the same time, the RoK is the third largest trade
partner of Vietnam, with two-way trade reaching 36.5 billion USD last year,
he added.
Deputy PM Hue also pointed out that the Vietnam-RoK
free trade agreement and the ASEAN-RoK free trade deal have laid the
foundation for bilateral trade and investment ties in a win-win spirit.
Deputy PM Hue said he believes that two-way trade will
reach 70 billion USD in 2020 in a balanced direction. Vietnam wants to export
more seafood, fruit, consumer goods, electronic products and accessories to
the RoK, he said.
Together with efforts to complete its legal system, the
Vietnamese Government is working hard to stabilise the macroeconomy and
restructure the economy with the focus on State-owned enterprises and banking
reform, alongside settling bad debts and public debts; thus creating a new
status for the country to integrate into the world community and join
regional and global production chains, stated the Deputy PM.
The RoK’s Ambassador to Vietnam Lee Hyuk held that specific
efforts should be made to seek ways to further boost bilateral ties,
suggesting that a cooperation axis should be created across politics,
diplomacy and security to match the sound bilateral economic ties.
He proposed that the two countries focus on
partnerships in the manufacturing industry, infrastructure and information
and telecommunication technology, health care, and science and technology.
Meanwhile, Kang Seong Cheon, a representative from the
RoK’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said that it is necessary to
expand investment affiliation activities to fully tap the advantages from
free trade agreements, while continuing to create favourable business
investment opportunities for enterprises from both countries.
Seminar discusses development of private sector
Business players and experts discussed ways to develop
the private sector towards realising the country’s goal of becoming a modern
industrialized country by 2035 during a seminar held in the central city of
Da Nang on June 15.
To achieve the goal, the Vietnamese government and the
World Bank drafted the Vietnam Report 2035 last July, which recommended six
key transformations that Vietnam should make to reach upper-middle income
status, including enabling economic modernisation with a productive and
globally competitive private sector.
Economist Pham Chi Lan, in her speech, urged for a
favourable environment to enhance the private sector’s competitiveness and
productivity, comprehensive reform of State-owned enterprises, market-oriented
agricultural reform, tapping external trade opportunities, and joining global
value chains.
General Secretary of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (VCCI) Pham Thi Thu Hang pointed out low productivity and the
weakness of the private sector as hindrances to Vietnam’s economic growth.
She said the weakness partly has its root in limited institutions, which once
improved will create more development space for businesses, particularly
those in the private sector.
Tran Thi Lan Huong from the World Bank suggested laying
a legal framework for the people to exercise their basic rights and create
mechanisms to ensure state agencies’ transparency and accountability to the
public.
The seminar was co-hosted by the VCCI and the WB.
Int’l fairs to connect support industry firms
An agreement to hold international fairs and business
connectivity programmes for Vietnam’s support industry was signed in Ho Chi
Minh City on June 15.
Signatories were the Ho Chi Minh City Investment and
Trade Promotion Centre, the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) and the
Reed Tradex company of Thailand.
Isara Burintramart, Reed Tradex Executive Director,
said Vietnam is a destination attractive to foreign investors with more than
16,300 valid foreign-invested projects worth 238 billion USD.
JETRO Chief Representative in Ho Chi Minh City Hirokata
Yasuzumi called for raising domestic supply, adding that JETRO will give
priority to new exhibitors who are yet to join any support industry’s
business alliance fairs, not only those from Ho Chi Minh City but also
adjacent provinces.
Apart from firms in Vietnam, those from ASEAN and Japan
are expected to join fairs as buyers, including the International Machine
Tools & Metalworking Solution Show (Metalex Vietnam), the Business
Alliance for Supporting Industry exhibition, Vietnam’s Only Exhibition on
SMT, (Testing Technologies, Equipment, and Supporting Industries for
Electronics Manufacturing) – Nepcon Vietnam, Industrial Components and
Subcontracting Vietnam (ICSV) slated for October 6-8 at the Saigon Exhibition
& Convention Centre.
The exhibitions and fairs are also expected to boost
ties between the ten ASEAN member states and China, India, Japan, the
Republic of Korea, New Zealand and Australia.
Romania looks to invest in transport infrastructure in
HCM City
Romanian businesses want to invest in Ho Chi Minh City,
particularly in transport infrastructure and urban development, said Vlad
Vasiliu, Romanian State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Business Environment.
He made the statement when leading a senior delegation
to meet with Tran Vinh Tuyen, Vice Chairman of the HCM City People’s
Committee, in the southern city on June 15.
The State Secretary said he highly values the role that
the southern hub plays in the relations between Vietnam and Romania.
He noted that the two countries’ traditional
relationship is progressing, laying the foundations for bilateral trade
partnerships.
Room for further engagement remains extensive in the
future, he said.
For his part, Tuyen welcomed the visiting Romanian
delegates, who are in Vietnam to attend a session of the Vietnam-Romania
intergovernmental committee.
He said the delegation gathers representatives from
ministries and leading companies in trade, agriculture, telecommunication and
energy, which also are sectors within which HCM City is calling for
investment.
He said cooperation between Romania and HCM City still
falls short of its potential, adding that the city is willing to create
favourable conditions for Romanian investors.
More Vietnamese catfish exporters qualify for US market
Another 12 Vietnamese catfish exporters are now
eligible to ship their products to the US, pushing the total number of
eligible firms to 57.
The National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance
Department said there are four more firms on the waiting list, and the agency
would work with the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection
Service to speed up the verification process.
The US is the biggest import market for Vietnamese Tra
fish with a stable demand and good prices.
As of May 15, Vietnam shipped 130 million USD worth of
Tra fish to the US, up 7.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
The export volume is expected to see a year-on-year
increase of between 10 and 15 percent in the next quarter.-
ADB to provide more trade finance support in Vietnam
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Orient
Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) on June 15 signed an agreement under which
the ODB will join the ADB’s Trade Finance Programme (TFP).
Accordingly, the TFP will provide guarantees of up to
20 million USD a year to support trade in Vietnam.
The participation of the OCB means the TFP now has 12
bank partner in Vietnam.
Under this agreement, ADB and OCB will support
exporting and importing companies, including small- and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs), said Steven Beck, Head of Trade Finance at ADB.
In the past few years, Vietnam has consistently been
one of the top five most active among the 20 developing markets where the TFP
operates.
To date, the programme has conducted 4,479
transactions, supporting over 6.9 billion USD in trade in Vietnam. Of these,
roughly 75 percent were for trade financing for SMEs.
Along with providing loans and guarantees in Vietnam, the
TFP will conduct workshops and seminars to increase knowledge and expertise
on trade finance which should result in more support to exporting and
importing companies.
Since 2009, the TFP has supported more than 8,000 SMEs
across the region, with about 11,500 transactions valued at over 23.2 billion
USD, in sectors ranging from commodities and capital goods, to medical
supplies and consumer goods.
Vietjet welcomes 40th aircraft
Vietjet’s brand-new A320 aircraft, coded VN-A675
arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport on June 15 after flying from
Toulouse, France.
This is Vietjet’s 18th aircraft under an agreement
signed between the low cost carrier and the European aircraft maker Airbus on
acquiring and leasing 100 aircrafts.
Previously, Vietjet received a new A320 aircraft coded
VN-A676 from Toulouse and an A321 aircraft coded VN-A673 from Hamburg,
Germany.
With this addition to its fleet, Vietjet now operates a
fleet of 40 A320s and A321s to meet the increasing travel demands of
passengers and has expanded its network domestically and internationally.
To welcome this event, Vietjet announced a three-day
promotion providing 1 million super-saving tickets from only US$0. The
promotion is available to online passengers who book tickets via
www.vietjetair.com from 12:00 to 2:00 pm from June 14 to 16.
It applies to all domestic flights departing between
August 10, 2016 and December 31, 2016 except national holidays.
Currently, Vietjet boasts a fleet of 40 aircraft,
comprising A320s and A321s, and operates 250 flights each day. It has already
opened 50 routes in Vietnam and across the region to international
destinations. The airline has carried about 25 million passengers to date.
Successful integration needs stable economy, good
social welfares
Fruitful economic stabilisation and restructuring along
with ensured social welfares are the prerequisites for successful
international economic integration, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has
said.
At a seminar in Hanoi on June 15, he noted that international
integration, which focuses on international economic integration, is a
consistent and long-term policy of the Vietnamese Party and State.
With the ASEAN Economic Community already formed and 13
FTAs signed, Vietnam has free trade relations with 55 countries, including
all G7 nations and 15 of the G20 countries.
Those FTAs, especially the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) agreement and the EU-Vietnam FTA (EVFTA), are considered the agreements
of the 21st century. They have opened up huge opportunities for Vietnam,
particularly in trade and investment, Hue noted.
The Vietnamese Government will submit the TPP to the
National Assembly for ratification in the next few months. It has reviewed
the legal system and will overhaul existing regulations or issue new ones to
realise integrational commitments and create the right conditions for
successful integration.
The Deputy PM quoted Resolutions No. 19 and 35 as
examples of the Cabinet’s efforts. While Resolution No. 19 aims to improve
the business climate and national competitiveness, the Government has asked
ministries and localities to robustly implement Resolution No. 35 on
supporting Vietnamese businesses.
Vietnam hopes to have at least 1 million enterprises by
2020, almost doubling the current figure, he noted.
At the seminar, World Bank Regional Vice President for
East Asia and the Pacific Victoria Kwakwa said integration into the region
and the world has played a crucial role in Vietnam’s economic transition. The
country has become an FDI magnet and a growing export economy.
Vietnam will remain attractive to foreign investment
and continue to attain good growth rate thanks to strong exports. It now has
a great chance to capitalise on benefits generated by the FTAs like the TPP
and the EVFTA.
She added that the World Bank Group pledges to help
Vietnam optimise the new-generation FTAs to achieve a high growth rate,
create and share prosperity, and sustainably provide high-quality jobs for
its young population.
At the event, participants discussed such issues as
grasping opportunities and minimising risks from the TPP and the EVFTA, the
road map for reforming trade-related laws, and the FTAs’ significance to
local agriculture.
Hung Yen’s enterprises get updates on FTAs
Top officials and enterprises in northern Hung Yen
province were provided with relevant information on the free trade agreements
(FTAs) Vietnam has joined, in a conference on June 14.
The conference was organised by the Ministry of
Industry and Trade and local authority. It also gave attendees an overview of
Vietnam’s global economic integration as well as opportunities and challenges
for Vietnam as a member of the Vietnam-EU FTA and the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP).
The trade deals will allow Vietnam to boost its Gross
Domestic Products (GDP) by 23 billion USD in 2020 and over 33 billion USD in
2025 while the country also expects to add approximately 70 billion USD into
its export revenue.
Vietnam is likely to be the biggest winner of the TPP
as the reduced custom duties will trigger more exports of Vietnamese
products, particularly garment & textile, footwear, seafood, farming and
forestry products.
The pact is also pressuring the country to make
institutional reforms, restructure its economy and draw more investment into
knowledge-based industries.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Industry and
Trade Tran Quoc Khanh said an increasingly integrated global economy presents
many challenges for Vietnam.
He urged localities across the country to be more aware
of the impacts of TPP and be prepared with economic restructuring plans in
order to be more adaptive to the changes in business climate.
Local authorities need to provide information about TPP
to more businesses while enterprises should also actively learn about the
trade deal, especially in terms of tariffs, code of conduct and technical
barriers to trade, Khanh added.
Hung Yen lies in the northern key economic region which
encompasses the economic triangle Hanoi – Hai Phong – Quang Ninh, an
advantage for the province to attract more investors.
Better access to information about the FTAs will
motivate enterprises in the province to shift towards hi-tech sectors so that
they can utilise the benefits of the pacts and reduce the negative impacts of
global integration, he noted.
Supporting industries need Gov't
Government incentives and support measures as well as
promotions are necessary for the development of the supporting industry,
according to the chief representative of the Japan External Trade
Organistion's (JETRO) HCM City office.
Speaking at a signing ceremony to co-organise four
exhibitions related to the supporting industries in HCM City yesterday,
Hirotaka Yasusumi said, "The Vietnamese Government's ‘policy for
supporting industries' does not seem so effective."
A decision issued at the end of last year related to
the development of supporting industries does not seem to be working well, he
said.
Most Vietnamese companies in supporting industries are
small- or medium-sized and many lack funds to invest in modern technologies
or human resource training, he said.
Since they do not know much about the policy or how to
use it, it is not effective, he said.
According to a 2015 JETRO survey, the local sourcing
ratio for Japanese companies in Viet Nam is 32 per cent, much lower compared
to China, or Thailand, he said.
JETRO has organised many business-matching events,
exhibitions and others to boost co-operation between Vietnamese and Japanese
firms in supporting industries for more than 10 years, he said.
Four expos planned
Yesterday JETRO, the Investment and Trade Promotion
Centre of HCM City (ITPC) and Reed Tradex Co, Ltd signed a contract to
jointly organise four international supporting industry exhibitions, Metalex
Vietnam, Industrial Components and Subcontracting Vietnam, Nepcon Vietnam and
the Business Alliance for Support Industry in HCM City in early October.
Isara Burintramart, managing director of Thailand's
Reed Tradex Co, Ltd, said: "With more than 16,300 active FDI projects
accounting for a total of US$238 billion, Viet Nam is the destination of
choice for foreign investors."
Reed Tradex Co will organise machine tools and
metalworking solutions exhibition Metalex Vietnam, Industrial Components and
Subcontracting Vietnam, and measurement and testing technologies for
electronics manufacturing exhibition Nepcon Vietnam.
JETRO and ITPC will organise "the Business
Alliance for Supporting Industry in HCM City expo", where Japanese
manufactures will display parts, equipment and supporting services and
Vietnamese suppliers will display their components and equipment.
The simultaneous organisation of the four expos would
enable transfer of new technologies and expansion of business networks that
are vital to sharpening the competiveness edges of supporting industry,
Burintramart said.
Nguyen Tuan, deputy director of ITPC, said supporting
industries are in the early stage of development in HCM City and Viet Nam.
Demand for supporting industries' products is high and
the potential for development these industries is huge, he said.
The city is drafting development policies for
supporting industries, especially in high-tech industries, he added.
Successful integration needs stable economy
Hue told a workshop on "Viet Nam's participation
in TPP and EVFTA: Seizing the Opportunities of New-Generation Free Trade
Agreements" that international integration, which focusses on
international economic integration, has been a consistent and long-term
policy of the Vietnamese Party and State.
With the ASEAN Economic Community already formed and 13
FTAs signed, Viet Nam has free trade relations with 55 countries, including
all G7 nations and 15 of the G20 countries.
Those FTAs, especially the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) agreement and the EU- Viet Nam FTA (EVFTA), are considered the
agreements of the 21st century. They have opened up huge opportunities for
Viet Nam, particularly in trade and investment, he noted.
The Vietnamese government will submit the TPP to the
National Assembly for ratification in the next few months. It has reviewed
the legal system and will overhaul existing regulations or issue new ones to
realise integrational commitments and create the right conditions for
successful integration.
The Deputy PM quoted Resolutions No 19 and 35 as
examples of the Cabinet's efforts. While Resolution No 19 aims to improve the
business climate and national competitiveness, the Government has asked
ministries and localities to robustly implement Resolution No 35 on
supporting Vietnamese businesses.
Viet Nam hopes to have at least 1 million enterprises
by 2020, almost doubling the current figure, he added.
He said the Vietnamese Government is determined to
build a transparent and clean government, maintain macro-economic stability
and accelerate economic restructuring in order to better serve enterprises
and the people. In return, businesses also have to pro-actively move ahead on
the basis of renovation and creation.
World Bank Regional Vice President for East Asia and
the Pacific Victoria Kwakwa said that integration into the region and the
world has played a crucial role in Viet Nam's economic transition. The
country has become an FDI magnet and a growing export economy.
Viet Nam would remain attractive to foreign investment
and continue to achieve a good growth rate thanks to strong exports. It now
has a great chance to capitalise on benefits generated by the FTAs like the
TPP and the EVFTA.
Not only containing traditional market access issues in
regards to goods, trade services and investment, the two trade pacts also
cover new areas, either not covered by or go much deeper than those signed on
the framework of the World Trade Organisation, such as e-commerce, labour,
environment, small- and medium-sized enterprises, State-owned enterprises and
regulatory coherence, Kwakwa said.
She said these new-generation agreements are expected
to generate considerable benefits for Viet Nam in terms of trade, investment,
growth and job creation, but they are also accompanied by a number of big
challenges and, without careful implementation of commitments, many of the
benefits might pass the country by.
She added that the World Bank Group has pledged to help
Viet Nam optimise the new-generation FTAs to achieve a high growth rate,
create and share prosperity, and sustainably provide high-quality jobs for
its young population.
At the workshop, Deputy Minister of Industry and
Trade Tran Quoc Khanh gave a briefing on the situation of Viet Nam's TPP and
EVFTA ratification as well as its plan to enforce the two agreements.
The participants discussed issues such as grasping
opportunities and minimising risks from the TPP and the EVFTA, the road map
for reforming trade-related laws, and the FTAs' significance in local
agriculture.
Footwear exports reach nearly 5 billion USD
The leather and footwear sector’s exports reached
nearly 5 billion USD in the first five months of this year, up 6 percent
against the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Industry and
Trade.
In May only, exports of leather and footwear products
were valued at 1.15 billion USD, a year-on-year decrease of 0.6 percent.
The production of leather footwear products in May saw
an 6.2 percent decline to 19.3 million pairs.
In the January-May period, the sector produced 93.8
million pairs, down 2.9 percent compared to the same period last year.
This year, the sector sets a goal of 17 billion USD in
export value, of which 13-13.5 billion USD are from exports of footwear.
Last year, Vietnam gained a high growth rate in export
value from the leather and footwear industry at 15 billion USD, an increase
of 16 percent year-on-year, according to the Vietnam Leather and Footwear
Association (Lefaso). Of the value, 12 billion USD were from footwear.
Vietnam welcomes Canadian businesses
The Vietnamese Government always tries to create the
most possible favourable conditions for foreign businesses and investors to
operate in Vietnam, including those from Canada, affirmed Deputy Prime
Minister Vuong Dinh Hue on June 15.
Receiving a group of Canadian businesses who are on a
visit to Vietnam to seek investment opportunities, Hue said the Vietnamese
Government has taken measures to increase macro-economic stability and
restructure key sectors such as finance and banking, State-owned businesses,
industrial production, agriculture and public investment, along with drastic
efforts to improve the business and investment environment to improve
national competitiveness.
He encouraged Canadian businesses to invest in the
fields of consultancy, finance and credit to support small- and medium-sized
businesses, and called for foreign private risk investment funds to assist
start-up activities in Vietnam.
President and CEO of Northstar Financial Group Scott
Shepherd said Northstar was active in providing finance for small- and medium-sized
businesses and wished to cooperate and share experience with Vietnam as the
two countries are implementing new free trade agreements.
He expressed willingness to help Vietnam in importing
spare parts and machine products from developed countries.
The group plans to set up an export credit agency to
support Vietnamese businesses in their export activities, he said.-
ADB trade finance programme increases Việt Nam presence
The trade finance programme (TFP) of the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) will provide guarantees worth up to US$20 million a
year to support trade in Viet Nam.
The ADB said in a news release on Wednesday that it had
signed an agreement on support with the Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank
(OCB), which means the TFP now has 12 bank partnerships in Viet Nam.
"Under this agreement, ADB and OCB will support
exporting and importing companies, including small- and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs)," Steven Beck, the head of trade finance at ADB,
said. "This agreement will help create economic growth and jobs."
ADB said Viet Nam has consistently been one of the top
five most active among 20 developing markets where the TFP operates.
The programme has conducted nearly 4,500 transactions,
supporting over $6.9 billion in trade in Viet Nam. Of these, roughly 75 per
cent were for trade financing for SMEs.
Viet Nam's economic growth has been increasing since
2012, with the gross domestic product (GDP) expanding 6.7 per cent in 2015 –
its strongest in seven years. The growth has been propelled by a surge in
foreign direct investment and export-oriented manufacturing.
However, at least 70 per cent of the country's GDP is
generated in cities and serious development challenges remain to make growth
more inclusive, according to ADB.
For instant, SMEs' access to trade finance remains
limited with Việt Nam's banking sector not yet as developed as in other
regional markets such as Malaysia, the Philippines or Thailand. As such,
international banks either have limited or no appetite to take risks on
Vietnamese banks.
Backed by ADB's AAA credit rating, the TFP provides
guarantees and loans to over 200 partner banks to support trade, enabling
more companies throughout Asia to engage in import and export activities.
Since 2009, the TFP has supported more than 8,000 SMEs
across the region, with about 11,500 transactions valued at over $23.2
billion, in sectors ranging from commodities to capital goods, to medical
supplies and consumer goods.
Cover warrant rules due to be published shortly
The State Securities Commission (SSC) will soon
complete and issue guidelines for trading covered warrants and the new
product will be available next year, Nguyen Son, director of the SSC's Market
Development Development Division, said at a meeting on Tuesday.
Covered warrants allow holders to buy or sell a
specific amount of equities, currency or other financial instruments, usually
from or to a bank or a similar financial institution, at a specific price and
time.
The development of covered warrants is the first step
to prepare investors and derivatives market for more complicated products,
including options, he said, adding that securities companies have improved
their finance and risk management during the past few years to provide
customers with high-value and reliable products and services.
Vietnamese investors are afraid of making big
investments, so covered warrants would be suitable for investors who are not
adventurous and have modest incomes, thus attracting more investors, Son
said.
There are now two types of covered warrants, he added.
The US covered warrant allows holders to trade before and during the due
date, while Europe's covered warrant only allows holders to trade during the
due date.
If Viet Nam satisfies the requirements of the trading
systems, those two types of covered warrant may be traded, but the
Europe-style product is still preferred to the US-style, he said.
The trading of covered warrants will boost trading
liquidity on the stock market as holders can trade a specific amount of
underlying assets, including equity, with securities firms at a specific
price on or before a specific date, said Tran Thi Anh Dao, Vice Director
General of HCM Stock Exchange (HOSE).
HOSE has developed a guideline for the market and
investors, and the southern agency has also developed a training programme
for securities firms, she said.
The SSC should remove the regulation requiring
securities firms to report and publish warrant trading activities within 24
hours that could have big impact on shareholders' rights, because those
activities should be announced by public companies, Sai Gon Securities Inc's
representative said.
If public companies do not bring their trading
activities to the public, securities firms will not publish the information
about the trades as it could violate the code of information security, and
securities firms will also not publish information already announced by
public companies, he said.
Covered warrants should be traded within the trading
day to increase the market's trading liquidity and draw more investors,
suggested Trinh Hoai Giang, vice director general of HCM City Securities
Corp.
The price margin of the warrant could be much higher
than that of other underlying assets, and the price step should be smaller
than that in the trading of shares and ETF notes as the face value of
warrants is smaller than that of shares, he said.
Fruit export surges in first five months
Fruit export brought home US$967 million in the first
five months of this year, a 147% surge against the same period last year,
according to the agricultural sector.
During the period, the country shipped 3,400 tonnes of
fruits to major markets, including 2,500 tonnes of dragonfruit to the United
States, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK), 230 tonnes of mango to Japan
and the RoK, 160 tonnes of rambutan and 500 tonnes of longan to the US.
Exports of dragonfruit, rambutan, longan and lychee
into the US increased three-fold against the 2015 figure to 2,000 tonnes.
Mango and starfruit will enter the market in June.
According to Nguyen Trung Kien from the Institute of
Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, of agriproducts
for export, vegetables and fruits will grow at the fastest pace.
Besides the US and Japan, there is a lot of room for
Vietnam to export vegetables and fruit to Australia, New Zealand, the RoK,
the EU, India and Chile.
Quarantine is an important step to overcome technical barriers
in many markets, besides restructuring production process to produce fruit of
consistent quality, said Hoang Trung, Head of the Department of Plant
Protection.
Fruit export is expected to hit more than US$2 billion
this year, up 11% compared to 2015, according to the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development.
Vietnam is currently exporting fruits to more than 40
countries and territories worldwide.
Vinapharm IPO announced to June 22
Vietnam’s largest pharmaceutical, Vietnam
Pharmaceutical Corporation (Vinapharm), will launch its initial pubic
offering (IPO) on the Hanoi Stock Exchange on June 22, offering 42.5 million
shares equalling 18% of the corporation’s chartered capital.
Vinapharm’s shares will be traded at the initial price
of VND10,000 (US$0.45) apiece. After the sale, Vinapharm expects to acquire
VND2.37 trillion (US$106 million).
The Ministry of Health (MoH) will retain the remaining
154 million shares, equalling 65% of Vinapharm’s chartered capital.
After the IPO, the corporation will invest VND3
trillion (US$133.7 million) to develop nine projects, including
pharmaceutical production and processing plants, warehouses and logistics
systems, a pharmaceutical cultivation area, and a research and development
centre, in the next ten years.
Vinapharm was established in 1971 and was transformed
into a single member joint stock company in 2010.
The corporation specialises in trading pharmaceutical
products, functional foods, and medical equipment. In addition, the
corporation invested in four subsidiaries and 11 joint-venture companies,
with a total capital of VND1.547 trillion (US$68.9 million).
As of the end of 2015, the corporation had a total
asset value of VND6.785 trillion (US$302.5 million). In 2015, its revenue
reached VND7.281 trillion (US$324.6 million) with a net profit of VND350
billion (US$15.6 million). The revenue is expected to increase by an average
of 70% per year during the 2016-2020 period.
Vinapharm is currently the owner of prime real estates
in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with 3,280 square metres on Lang Ha street and
2,670sq.m on Nguyen Huy Tuong street. It also has a sizeable land on Dien
Bien Phu street in Ho Chi Minh City.
Mounting debts spell doom for Bisuco
Hundreds of employees at Binh Dinh Sugar JSC could be
losing their jobs as the company is proving increasingly unable to deal with
its towering debts and falling short of cash to renovate its production
equipment.
Binh Dinh Sugar JSC’s (Bisuco) trade union has been
sending documents to competent authorities reporting that the company has
been falling behind with payments to its employees and subsequently pushing
these workers to the point where they could lose their jobs permanently as
their have not received their wages due.
The document noted that Bisuco has no work for their
staff in the time to come and its accounts are running too dry to repair the
factory’s equipment. Bisuco is known to be indebted to their employees,
including VND1.5 billion ($68,807) in wages, over VND2 billion ($91,324) in
employees’ social insurance, and some VND1 billion ($45,662) in purchases of
sugarcane from farmers.
According to Tran Chau, Deputy Chairman of the Binh
Dinh District People’s Committee, after several meetings, Bisuco has agreed
to pay for sugarcane worth some VND16 billion ($730,593) purchased from local
farmers. On top of the unpaid wages and social insurance, the company, however,
has yet to pay sugarcane farmers in the Central Highlands’ province of Gia
Rai province, as well as fall behind schedule to pay for a number of its
basic construction sites.
In 2006, over 90 per cent of Bisuco’s stakes were
acquired by Indian-owned NIVL JSC. During the past three years, Bisuco has
constantly been in debt to its sugarcane farmers who supplied the raw
ingredient to the sugar factory.
Bisuco leaders once explained that its arrears in terms
of wages, social insurance, and sugarcane purchases were a result of the
company’s losses derived from the heavy investment in its large-scale plant
in Cambodia. In addition, the dropping price of sugar products and refused
loans from banks also contributed to the company’s mounting detbs.
In 2014, Binh Dinh sent a formal request to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with the Embassy and the Consulate
General of India in Ho Chi Minh City to resolve the liability of NIVL JSC and
help the sugarcane farmers in Binh Dinh. The debt issue, however, has not
been completely resolved up until now.
Due to economic difficulties, the sugar factory has in
fact offered to pay farmers in the Central Highlands regions with refined
sugar, in exchange for the sugarcane supplied.
NIVL JSC, meanwhile, is also indebted some VND56
billion ($2.56 million) to sugarcane farmers and merchants in Long An
province, VND16 billion ($733,944) of which is due for the 2016 season, while
the remainder was accumulated over the previous seasons. However, an
anonymous source disclosed that the arrears could be as high as VND95 billion
($4.35 million), with a number of households being owed some VND3-4 billion
($137,600-183,480). According to this source, the unpaid amount adds up to
VND9 billion ($412,844) for a number of households.
In 2014, NIVL was besieged by local farmers to perform
on unsettled and overdue bills altogether worth VND150 billion ($6.88
million). NIVL subsequently managed to repay the furious farmers in
instalments, yet its debts continued building up over the harvests until the
current crop.
On April 27 and 28, various employees of the NIVL
factory went on strike to demand the full payment of overdue wages. A NIVL
representative then met up with the workers to discuss their demands,
promising to look into their complaints on the company’s remuneration and
medical insurance policy, as well as unfulfilled bonuses. To date, no
specific steps have been taken by the sugar factory.
In the same month, NIVL was fined by the Long An
Provincial People’s Committee for discharging untreated toxic wastewater into
the Vam Co Dong River. The fine imposed was VND350 million ($17,500), the
highest ever inflicted on an environmental violator in Vietnam, according to
the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Vietnam Environment Administration
Department.
VinaCapital and DEG enter into wood industry
VinaCapital’s Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF) and DEG, a
subsidiary of Germany’s KfW Group, have announced a $30 million investment in
the An Cuong Wood Working Joint Stock Company, one of Vietnam’s leading
wood-working and decorative materials companies.
VOF will contribute 70 per cent of the investment
capital and DEG 30 per cent with two phases involved. Disbursement of $18
million in the first phase will be implemented immediately, with disbursement
in the second phase to be made according to the business plans of An Cuong.
An Cuong has committed to revenue growth and to meeting
European and especially German environmental standards.
“We are delighted to welcome VinaCapital and DEG as strategic
shareholders,” said Mr. Le Duc Nghia, CEO of An Cuong. “One of the reasons we
have entered into this transaction is because these two organizations bring
not only capital but also expertise and a track record of working with
investees.”
Mr. Don Lam, CEO of VinaCapital, said that An Cuong has
been on its radar for some time. “We are pleased to be partnering with DEG to
help An Cuong further build on its leading position in the industry and enter
a new phase of growth,” he said.
VinaCapital is a leading investment and asset
management firm headquartered in Vietnam, with a diversified portfolio of
$1.4 billion in assets under management.
DEG finances investments in private companies in
developing and transitional countries. It promotes private business
structures to contribute to sustainable economic growth and improved living
conditions. DEG’s current portfolio in Asia amounts to $2.9 billion.
The An Cuong Wood Working Joint Stock Company has been
a leading player in wood-working and decorative materials in Vietnam since
1994 with a range of well-known brands from the US, Germany, Italy, Spain and
Australia in wood and plastic-based panels widely used in the interior
decoration of houses, apartment buildings, schools, supermarkets, and
offices.
According to a report from the Vietnam Timber and
Forest Product Association (Viforest) in coordination with Forest Trends
Organizations, Vietnam imported 4.79 million cubic meters of timber worth
$1.66 billion in 2015, to cater to the wood processing industry.
The importation of raw wood plays an important role in
Vietnam’s wood processing industry meeting growing demand in domestic and
foreign markets.
In 2015, wood and wood product exports earned $6.9
billion in revenue, an increase of 10.71 per cent year-on-year, according to
Vietnam Customs. Exports of wood and wood products are expected to earn $7.2
billion to $7.3 billion this year, for growth of 8 to 10 per cent.
Vietnam’s wood and wooden products are found in 37
countries around the world. The US was the largest export market in 2015,
with turnover $2.6 billion, followed by Japan with $1 billion and China
$982.6 million.
Citi launches voice biometrics authentication
For Citi’s consumer banking customers in Asia Pacific,
remembering multiple PIN numbers and responding to a series of questions to
verify their identity when they call into the bank will soon be a thing of
the past.
Voice biometrics authentication has now been
implemented in Singapore, with Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan to follow in
the coming weeks. It will be rolled out throughout the region in 2016 and
2017 to cover all 12 of Citi’s consumer banking markets in Asia Pacific,
including Vietnam, which represent more than half of the bank’s 19 consumer
markets globally.
Citi will be the first financial services firm to
deploy voice biometrics authentication across Asia Pacific as the bank builds
further on its successful innovation in retail banking in the region.
Citi has around 15 million consumer banking customers
in the region and the bank expects to have at least 1 million customers
actively using voice biometrics authentication in the next 12 months. Within
three years it expects the number of users to grow to 3 million.
Once available, customers who call into the bank’s
contact centers will have their identity automatically verified within 15
seconds or less as they explain their reason for calling. This is a reduction
from an average time of around 45 seconds currently.
The voice biometrics authentication capability
identifies customers through their voice print, which, similar to a
fingerprint, is unique to each person. Citi clients can opt to enroll by
recording their voices, which the bank will use to generate and store their
voice prints for matching subsequent calls to Citibank. Each voice print will
be uniquely tagged and cannot be reverse engineered once stored.
“The voice biometrics authentication capability
underscores Citi’s focus on technology to better serve our customers,” said
Ms. Anand Selva, Asia Pacific Head for Consumer Banking at Citi. “We know
that remembering different PINs and answering multiple questions can make the
process frustrating. With this new capability, we offer our customers a
faster and more secure authentication for a better customer experience.”
“Biometrics will play a critical part in the future of
banking and we are excited to be paving the way for Citi globally,” said Ms.
Natasha Ansell, Citi Country Officer for Vietnam. “Today, our call centers
receive increasing numbers of calls annually, of which a large portion are
manually verified. With voice biometrics authentication we will make the
verification process easier, faster, and more secure for clients.”
Asia is an important region for innovation at Citi. Six
years ago the bank launched its new branch design - called Smart Banking - in
Asia for the first time. The Smart Banking concept involves using technology,
architecture and design and new retail channels to connect customers to their
money and provide them with a better way of banking. Over 200 such branches
have since been rolled out globally since the Asian launch.
UNDP partners with HATCH!VENTURES
The UN Development Programme (UNDP) announced a
partnership with the startup incubator HATCH! VENTURES to facilitate youth
innovative action for social good in Vietnam by signing an MoU in Hanoi on
June 14.
The collaboration will focus on three game changing
areas of common interest: innovation for development, mobilization of young
people into innovative action towards achieving the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), and partnerships with the private sector.
“Young people are the most important stakeholder to
drive the sustainable development agenda forward,” Dr. Pratibha Mehta, UNDP
Resident Representative in Vietnam, said at the signing ceremony. “Through
this partnership we shall bring innovative technology and the development
agenda closer and encourage new ideas, prototypes and creative solutions that
increase access, reduce costs, and enable citizen participation and
feedback.”
The agreement builds on the initial partnership in 2015
around the Hackathon for Social Good, which mobilized more than 100 young
people into action towards delivering sustainable development goals. The
competition resulted in two innovative ideas promoting citizen voices, namely
“For People” (the 4P) app on mobile phones to collect citizen feedback on
public services, and “GT-101”, an educational tool to encourage citizens to
report any misconduct by traffic police.
In 2016, UNDP will collaborate with HATCH! VENTURES in
the Social Innovation Camp and the Social Innovation Summit to identify and
scale up innovation for development solutions.
UNDP will challenge campers to come up with innovative
solutions to tackle issues under five of the 17 SDGs, namely SDG12 -
Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG13 - Climate Action, SDG14 - Life
Below Water, SDG15 - Life on Land, and SDG16 - Peace and Justice.
“How the 2016 Social Innovation Camp differs from the
previous competition is that it will stimulate sustainable innovative
solutions for social issues that can be scaled up to make a difference around
the country,” said Mr. Pham Quoc Dat, Director of HATCH! VENTURES. The Camp
will take place in August in three cities - Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh
City - to facilitate participation nationwide.
Dr. Pratibha hopes it will yield more innovative ideas
and galvanize thousands of young people into creativity to speed up
information sharing and promote citizens’ participation and transparency for
SDG implementation.
Five month import-export turnover reaches over US$133
billion
Vietnam’s total import-export turnover is estimated at
US$133.246 billion in the first five months of the year, with two import
groups of commodities and one export group reaching US$10 billion.
Of the total, Vietnam reported US$67.444 billion in
export revenue, a year-on-year increase of 6.2%, and US$65.8.5 billion in
import revenue, down 1.7% over the same period last year.
Thirteen groups of commodities posted an export value
of over US$1 billion each, with telephones recording the highest export
revenue of US$14.254 billion, up 19.1% over the same period in 2015).
Garments and textiles stood second with export revenue of
US$8.613 billion, followed by computers, electronic products and components
at US$6.376 billion and footwear with US$5.049 billion.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises accounted
for US$47.133 billion, representing nearly 70% of the total national export
revenue, a year-on-year increase of 9.4%.
The group of machines, equipment and parts posted the
highest import revenue at US$10.59 billion, followed by computers, electronic
products and components with US$10.441 billion.
The import revenue of the FDI sector was US$38.796
billion, accounting for nearly 59% of the country’s total figure.
As of May, Vietnam posted a trade surplus of US$1.639
billion.
VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VET/VIR
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Thứ Sáu, 17 tháng 6, 2016
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