BUSINESS IN BRIEF 8/4 HCM City stops allocating fund for price stabilization Fund for the price stabilization program in HCMC this year will not be sourced from the city’s budget, but from bank soft loans. Five local banks on Saturday signed agreements to provide loans worth VND1.96 trillion to 59 price stabilizers under the arrangement of the city government. The five lenders are Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), Vietnam Export Import Bank (Eximbank), Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank). The banks will grant price stabilizers VND860 billion with a term of 12 months so that they can produce and supply goods to the market throughout this year and the Lunar New Year 2014. The interest rate for such loans is 6% per annum. The remaining VND1.1 trillion will be lent to enterprises for investment in production and farming with an annual lending rate of 10%. The HCMC government and departments will connect enterprises with the banks joining the price stabilization program, ensuring that enterprises can access loans with reasonable interest rates. In previous years, funds for price stabilizers were sourced from the city’s budget with zero interest rate. This year, they will borrow soft loans from banks instead. Le Ngoc Dao, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Industry and Trade, described this as a turning point for the program, marking its in-depth development. Price stabilizers will certainly face problems, but they will be all right with their experience and capability proven through previous programs, said Dao at a conference on the 2013 price stabilization program held last Saturday. The sum of money borrowed by price stabilizers declined in the last two years. Several enterprises participated in the program without taking out loans. Therefore, the HCMC budget fund for the program fell sharply. Last year, the city spent only over VND214 billion on the program. The HCMC price stabilization program for essential food, medicine, dairy products and stationery products begins today and will last until March 31 next year. The program has attracted 64 participants, including 59 producers and five banks, a rise of 16 participants against last year. The number of price stabilizers for each commodity group picks up, leading to an increase in goods types and volumes. For instance, there are 35 price stabilizers for essential food items, including rice, sugar, cooking oil, meat, poultry, egg, processed food, vegetables and seafood. Price-stabilized food items will meet 20-30% of the market demand at normal times and 30-40% during Tet. Thirteen enterprises are responsible for stabilizing prices of notebooks, briefcases-backpacks-bags and school uniforms during the new school year season. Their goods will account for 30-40% of the market demand. Meanwhile, there are two price stabilizers for dairy products and 13 for drugs. Price stabilizers are allowed to raise prices of their products when material prices and production costs surge 5-10%, but they have to reduce prices when the market prices go down 5%. The price-stabilized items will have prices 5-10% lower than the market prices. Prices of dairy products will be kept stable throughout the year. Property transactions seen picking up The property trading situation in HCMC and neighboring provinces is improving slightly, according to a number of brokerage firms and project owners. Danh Khoi A Chau Real Estate Co. in mid-March started offering apartments of the Nhat Lan 3 project in HCMC’s Binh Tan District for sale at VND562-750 million per unit. The project developed by Binh Chanh Construction Investment Co. is set for completion in September. On the day of sale launch, 130 apartments found their owners, which was a surprising result to both the project owner and the broker. It also brings hope to other investors in the context of the frozen property market. Doan Chi Thanh, general director of the real estate brokerage company Hoang Anh Sai Gon, said the number of successful transactions had been rising after the Lunar New Year holiday break. On average, Hoang Anh Sai Gon has found one buyer every day after Tet. The best-selling products, according to Thanh, are budget condos priced at around VND1 billion each and apartments of the completed or near-completion projects with soft loans available for buyers. Phu My Hung Corp. on March 16 offered 163 apartments of the Happy Valley project, and 80% of the apartments priced at VND30 million per square meter were booked after the launch. Nguyen Van Doi, general director of SSG2 Construction and Real Estate Co., said his company had sold some 20 flats of the Thao Dien Pearl project after Tet. He predicted property prices would remain stable at low levels in the second quarter. Homebuyers will certainly survey many projects before making their purchase decisions, while investors will choose apartments with good living conditions and potentials in the future, he said. “The demand stimulus package of the Government and some policies recently introduced by ministries and banks reveal the great determination to rescue the property market, and businesses hope such policies will help them win back the confidence among the people.” “However, rather than relying on supports, enterprises, in order to overcome difficulties, need to have good corporate governance, draw up viable strategies and ensure their responsibility for project development,” said Doi. Nguy Thanh Vi, assistant general director of Phat Hung Real Estate Co., currently acting as broker for four projects in Saigon South, said the market, especially the land lot segment, in this area had prospered in the first quarter. “We have 20 salesmen, and they effected 15 successful transactions last month, up 50% compared to before Tet. The value of each transaction was some VND2-2.1 billion on average,” he said. Hoang Anh Tuan, general director of Tac Dat Tac Vang Co., said his company was acting as broker for the two projects Green River Villas and Price Town in Binh Duong. More customers have visited these projects after Tet, but there has been no sharp increase in the number of transactions, he said. He said homebuyers might be waiting for the market support policies to bring about practical effects. Dang Thi Kim Oanh, general director of Kim Oanh Real Estate Co., said her company’s daily sales had reached about 10 lots in the projects in Binh Duong and Dong Nai since the end of Tet holiday. On some particular days, there are 30 successful transactions, she said. Le Quoc Duy, general director of Hoa Binh House Co., said the three trading floors operated by his company in HCMC had recently conducted some 15 transactions per month. Most of the customers are end-users, who are seeking condos with low prices and preferential payment methods. Fuel price rise pushes up cost of basic necessities    Foods prices in Hanoi are increasing due to higher transport fees following the petrol price hike on March 28. After the ministries of Finance and Industry and Trade raised the fuel price to VND24,580 per litre (USD1.18), vegetable prices in major wholesale markets in Hanoi on April 1 also increased by VND500-3,000 per kg. The prices at retail markets are even higher than at the wholesale markets. Ho Thi Nga, a trader in Dich Vong Market said they had to raise the prices because transport fees increased. Furthermore, bad weather damaged fields in the north. "Some farmers had to harvest fresh vegetable since two or three in the morning, during the rain so they charge a little more." a trader in Hanoi said. Prices of poultry and eggs also increased. Traders at Dich Vong Market increased their poultry prices by VND3,000-10,000 per kg. "How can people get through tough times if prices just keep increasing one after another, we just want stable prices." Nguyen Hai Anh, a resident in Thanh Xuan District said with Vietnamplus. However, the cost of beef, pork and aqua-products remained relatively stable despite the increased transport fees. Traders said consumers had limited their spending to save costs since the start of recession. "We wouldn’t be able to sell anything if we raised prices too much." said Nguyen Thi Van, a trader in Nghia Tan Market, Cau Giay District. South Korea’s ethoxyquin standard worries Vietnamese shrimp exporters Vietnam’s shrimp exporters are concerned by a new South Korean food safety regulations that will test shrimp imports for ethoxyquin for one year. South Korea’s Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency (QIA) said they would impose compulsory testing for Ethoxyquin in Vietnamese shrimp shipments on holding them up to the standard of 0.01 ppm. The testing will last from January 1 through December 31, 2013. Last year, South Korea and Australia were regarded as two most favourable markets for Vietnamese shrimp exports, which rose despite a drop in several other major markets. In 2012, South Korea was Vietnam’s fifth largest shrimp export market, bringing in revenues of USD171.4 million, up 8.8% from the year before. Meanwhile, shrimp exports to other major markets decreased, including those to the EU, which were down 24.5%, as well as the US, down 18.6%. Many shrimp exporters in Vietnam are worried about increasing difficulties this year, as the country has already faced Ethoxyquin testing imposed by Japan. According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the country took in over USD242.2 million from shrimp exports in the first two months of this year, down 6% from the same period last year. The US surpassed Japan to take lead in importing Vietnamese shrimp during this two-month period. However, local exporters are aware that shrimp exports to this country would continue to face difficulties due to US anti-dumping measures. Due to lower demand triggered by economic downturn, the EU fell from third place to become the fourth biggest shrimp importer of Vietnam after China during the period. Apart from difficulties in the export markets, the Vietnamese shrimp industry is expected to face other challenges, such as unstable supplies. This year there was a mass shrimp die-off in several major breeding areas across the country. Vietnam attends ABAC meeting in Singapore Hoang Van Dung, Vice President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is joining 150 other business leaders from Asia - Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies at the 2nd APEC Business Advisory Council Meeting (ABAC 2) in Singapore. During the April 3-6 event, delegates will discuss measures to boost regional economic integration, promote sustainable development, develop micro-small, small and medium-sized businesses, and accelerate financial markets’ integration. They will make recommendations to the upcoming APEC Minister Responsible for Trade meeting due to take place in Indonesia on April 20-21. The third and fourth meetings of the ABAC will be held in Japan in July and Indonesia in October, respectively. Twenty-one APEC member economies are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China), Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam. Vietnamnet