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BUSINESS
IN BRIEF 15/5
Small banks
look to make bigger waves
Small banks are
weighing up whether to hike their chartered capital to foster strength.
But, whether their
plans are feasible in the current context of market vulnerabilities remains
an open question.
The plan to hike
its chartered capital from current VND3 trillion ($143 million) to VND3.7
trillion ($176 million) was once again submitted at NamA Bank’s recent
general shareholder meeting after failing to turn into reality in the
previous two years.
The bank’s
management argued the move was important to scale-up NamA Bank’s financial
competitiveness.
NamA Bank shares,
traded on the over the counter market, have often fallen below the face value
VND10,000 per unit.
One shareholder
suggested completing the plan through resorting to support from strategic
foreign partners.
Similarly, Southern
Bank’s management sourced shareholders’ approval to hike capital from VND4
trillion ($190 million) to VND4.5 trillion ($214 million) this year at the
bank’s general shareholder meeting in April through share issuances.
In fact, it took a
long time for the bank to wrap up its capital hike to VND4 trillion.
Lately, VietA
Bank’s general shareholder meeting passed a plan to hike its capital from
minimum level VND3 trillion ($143 million) to VND3.5 trillion ($166 million)
in 2013 to scale up strength. The bank’s capital supplemental plan, however,
had delayed for two years.
This year, some
banking sector big players also mulled enriching capital sources. For
instance, Sacombank envisions hiking an additional 53 per cent, with 20 per
cent sold to foreign partners, or Eximbank by 10 per cent.
So, how banks will
use their additional capital?
Of the VND500
billion ($24 million) stated above, Southern Bank will use VND390 billion
($18.5 million) for lending and the remainder for purchases of fixed assets
and equipment, according to a bank source.
In the face of
banking sector’s poor credit growth so far the year, it would be hard for the
bank to ensure efficient capital usage.
Besides, this year
Southern Bank was allocated a 5 per cent credit growth target only against 15
per cent last year.
VietA Bank is
mulling using additional capital amount to expand market share and
operational areas through network expansion.
Accordingly, the
bank is contemplating opening five new transaction offices, adding the
capital source for fixed asset purchases and feeding the bank’s business shake-up
plan.
National Financial
Monetary Policy Advisory Council member Tran Hoang Ngan assumed banks’ hiking
capital sources would be quite challenging in current context as there are
still no signs for stock market’s marked improvement while small banks’
mergers and acquisitions are forecast to surge in the months ahead.
VietJetAir’s
big
Low-cost carrier
VietJetAir is promoting its new Hanoi-Bangkok air route with tickets going
for little more than $10.
“We are celebrating
the upcoming launch of our second international route connecting
The promotional
price is valid for flights from June 1 to June 30, 2013 and the booking
period will end on May 31.
VietJetAir’s daily
round trip between
“We are delighted
to launch our second international service to
VietJetAir has
become known as the fun, friendly airline of choice for holidaymakers
travelling to some of the country’s most famous beach and holiday
destinations including Nha Trang, Danang and
Binh Duong
holds dialogue with Japanese businesses
The Customs
Department of southern Binh Duong province coordinated with the Vietnam
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) to organise a dialogue with nearly
100 Japanese businesses operating in the locality on May 10.
At the event, the
businesses mentioned issues relating to customs procedures, tariff policies
and certificates of origin. Most of their queries were cleared up by
officials from the Customs Department and VCCI during the dialogue.
According to
Yamamoto, a Japanese business representative, it is good that such a large
number of Japanese businesses are involved in the dialogue. In the future,
there will be more businesses from
Vietnamese
entrepreneurs in
As many as 30
prominent entrepreneurs representing the Vietnamese business community across
The conference,
organised by the Vietnam Business Association in Russia (VBA) on May 10,
aimed to help VBA review its operations in 2012 and work out new plans for
2013.
Addressing the
event, VBA President Tran Dang Chung emphasised that the association always
pays due attention to trade promotion assistance as well as ties with
relative departments and sectors in both
It also organised
tours to Russian localities for Vietnamese businesses in order to help them
gain access into the Russian market and seek investment opportunities, he
added.
Participants at the
event pointed out a number of challenges posed by the global economic
recession, Russian participation into the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and
local authorities’ policy changes.
These
above-mentioned challenges require all VBA members to intensify their
linkage, and information and experience exchanges in order to take full
advantage of their available strengths and potentials.
The VBA also needs
to work closely to further strengthen the Vietnamese community in
On the sidelines of
the conference, Vietnamese entrepreneurs met with business representatives
from the
Vietsovpetro
to complete Tho Trang 01 oil rig sooner
Vietsovpetro, a
joint Vietnamese-Russian enterprise for oil and gas exploration, has set out
its goal to complete the installation work of Tho Trang 01 (White Rabbit 01)
oil rig 15 days ahead of schedule in July.
The Trade Union of
the Vietsovpetro joint venture on May 11 launched a contest in central Ba Ria
– Vung Tau province for an earlier operation of the platform which was
previously scheduled on July 15.
Located 7.5km away
from the Bach Ho (White Tiger) oil field to the northeast in lot 09-1, the
3,200-tonne platform is expected to yield 700,000 tonnes of oil per day. The
output would help the joint venture fulfill its plan to tap 5.4 million
tonnes of oil this year.
Tho Trang 01 is the
newest among the fourth generation of its kind totally designed and installed
by Vietsovpetro.
From 2006 until
2012, Vietsovpetro has successfully put into operation eight new generation
oil rigs.
Central
bank cuts key interest rates
The State Bank of
Under the decision,
the refinancing and discount rates will be lowered to 7 percent and 5
percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the
overnight rate in the inter-banking electronic payment will be reduced to 8
percent from the current 9 percent.
The maximum rate on
short-term Vietnamese dong loans for agriculture, rural development, exports,
supporting industries, small- and medium-sized enterprises and hi-tech
businesses will be brought down to 11 percent per year instead of the current
12 percent.
Earlier on March
25, the central bank also cuts benchmark rates by 1 percent to support
businesses. Accordingly, the refinancing and rediscount rates were lowered to
8 percent and 6 percent from 9 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the overnight inter-bank rate was cut down to 9 percent.
The move was made
after the General Statistics Office had reported that March’s consumer price
index decreased by 0.19 percent against the previous month.
Slow growth
to put pressure on Budget
State budget collection
will likely be difficult this year and the Government needs to outline
effective measures to ease difficulties in production and recover economic
growth.
This opinion was
shared by economists at a seminar held on May 10 in
According to Nguyen
Minh Tan, deputy director of the National Assembly Office’s Department of
Finance and Budget, the amount collected for the budget in the first four
months was far lower than that collected in previous years.
Tan attributed the
decline to the slow recovery of the economy and State measures on tax
reduction and tax deferral.
Sanjay Kalra,
resident representative of the International Monetary Fund in
Nguyen Hong Son,
Rector of the
Lich noted that
reducing the corporate income tax to 20 percent would further decrease the
State budget, but said that this was a "necessary measure to spur
economic development in the mid-term period", adding that he
"persistently insisted on reducing it to 20 percent instead of the
current 23 percent".
In addition, the
economist said, the State also needed to ensure that taxes were collected
from other business sectors such as import and export as well as individuals.
The National
Assembly’s Resolution on the State Budget targets an increase of 10 percent
for the total State budget revenue in 2013 and estimates that State budget
spending will increase 8 percent over the estimated spending in 2012.
Exhibition backs
support industries
They include the
Reed Tradex-hosted Viet Nam Manufacturing Expo 2013, the fifth Viet Nam-Japan
Exhibition on Support Industries co-organised by Jetro and Vietrade, and the
Japanese Monozukuri Technology Exhibition.
The managing
director of Reed Tradex, Chainarong Limpkittisin, said that many foreign
investors believed that the development of support industries helped to
foster a nation's manufacturing sector and the whole economy.
Continued foreign
direct investment (FDI) in
Saigontourist
receives award
The HCM City-based
Saigontourist Holding Company has received the Labour Hero title from the
Government.
The award, made in
recognition of its outstanding achievements from 2002 to 2012, was presented
at a ceremony held in
A leading firm in
the country's tourism industry, the 38-year-old company specialises in
hotels, resorts, restaurants, travel services, entertainment and training.
With 87
subsidiaries, Saigontourist annually provides services to 2 million
travellers, earning sales turnover of over VND13 trillion (US$620 million) a
year.
Software
firm wins $1 million Laos contract to develop network centre
FPT IS, a
subsidiary of software giant FPT, has announced it has won a US$1 million
software contract from Lao Telecommunications Company to develop a network
operation centre in Laos.
To win the
contract, FPT IS had to overcome bids by leading telecommunications providers
from
The centre is a
software application developed by FPT that will open up opportunities to
deploy the overall operating systems for all telecoms companies in the region.
The centre is
expected to be finished within five months. The new software application will
help
Talent
quest focus: information technology with a green theme
The ninth annual
Vietnamese Talent award competition this year will focus on the theme of
environmental awareness, organisers said in
Up to VND180
million (US$8,400) in cash prizes will be given to the first-, second- and
third-place winners.
This year, the
competition will honour successful IT products, IT products with high
potential, and IT applications for mobile devices.
For the last eight
years, the Vietnamese Talent contest has honoured thousands of talented
people in IT, natural sciences, healthcare, education, transport, post and
telecommunications, construction and business management.
The deadline for
this year's prize is August 31, and the awards ceremony will be aired on VTV
on November 20.
All-touch
BlackBerry available in two colours: black and white
The new all-touch
BlackBerry Z10 smartphone is powered by a re-designed, re-engineered and
re-invented platform that creates a new mobile computing experience.
Available in two
colours, black and white, and with Vietnamese UI and input support, the
smartphone is the fastest and most advanced yet.
It features a 1.5
GHz dual core processor with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and an
expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32GB cards.
The smartphone
includes the latest enhancements in high-density pixel and screen technology
to display clear, sharp and vivid images.
The suggested
retail price is VND15.5 million (US$730).
Anti-virus
centre releases new version of software
The Bach Khoa
Anti-virus Centre (BKAV) has launched its 2013 version of anti-virus software
with a series of new technologies that can fully protect computers for users.
More than 1 million
BKAV customers have been upgraded to the new version.
The new software is
based on the BKAV Community – base protection online system, real-time
rootkit detection, virtual keyboard, safe run, USB protection and a host-
intrusion prevention system.
The software is
priced at VND299.000 ($14) per year.
Bank merger
talks continue
A possible merger
between HCM City Development Bank and DaiABank revealed two weeks ago was
ignored at DaiABank's annual shareholder meeting yesterday.
Only 52 per cent of
shareholders attended the function in southern
According to Quach
Van Duc, DaiABank's chairman, the important news was not announced because
negotiations are still underway.
Meanwhile, on April
25, Le Thi Bang Tam, chairwoman of HDBank, told media the two banks were set
to wrap up the legal formalities for the merger, which has been approved by
the State Bank.
Tam said her bank
hired an unidentified consulting company to advise on the merger and find a
foreign partner for the merged entity.
Dai A Commercial
Joint Stock Bank, based in southern Dong Nai Province since 1993, has capital
of VND3.1 trillion (US$147.6 million) while the HDBank, set up in HCM City
three years earlier, has capital of VND5 trillion ($380.9 million).
According to SBV
Governor Nguyen Van Binh, mergers are expected to make smaller banks
financially stronger.
The merger of
Western Bank and PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) was announced in March. Three
smaller banks also merged into the Saigon Commercial Bank last year.
In 2011, a merger
also took place between First Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Vietnam Tin Nghia
Commercial Joint Stock Bank, and Sai Gon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB).
Two banking giants, Eximbank and Sacombank, also plan to merge in the next
three to five years.
Top shrimp
exporter to delist
Shrimp processor
and exporter Minh Phu (MPC),
"Listing is
meant to raise funds, but for us it's like being caged," Minh Phu
chairman Le Van Quang told the Saigon Economic Times.
The shrimp
industry's troubles began in 2011, when the shrimp price increased
constantly. In early 2012, when disease destroyed shrimp in
However, in June,
as the European debt crisis hit,
"Big partners
did not offer letters of credit, while some importers declared bankruptcy so
they would not have to implement the signed contracts," Quang said.
Minh Phu lost
nearly VND100 billion (US$4.7 million) last year due to dead shrimp. Other
activities helped cover the loss, but net profits reached a mere VND16
billion ($761,000) compared to VND284 billion ($13.5 million) in 2011.
"When the
customers asked for a reduction in price as they were also having a tough
time, we could not make it harder for them," Quang said.
The company's
exports in the Japanese and South Korean market continued to rise last year,
but profits were lower.
The company's
short-term loans last year increased to nearly VND3.45 trillion ($164.2
million), adding to its long-term debt of VND828 billion ($39.4 million).
Despite its efforts to cut corporate management costs, borrowing costs hit
VND413 billion ($19.6 million), eating most of the company's profits.
Minh Phu wanted to
sell 30 million shares to foreign partners. Although Thailand's investor CP
Foods agreed to buy them at VND50,000 ($2.38) per share, the deal failed, as
MPC shares on the HCM City Stock Exchange were traded around VND25,000-30,000
($1.19-1.40) and Minh Phu could not legally issue the shares for more than 5
per cent higher than the market value.
If the company sold
30 million shares to CP Foods at VND30,000, it would get only VND900 billion
($42.8 million). Meanwhile, if it delisted and sold them at the negotiated
price, it would receive VND1.5 trillion ($71.4 million).
"Our company
will list shares again if necessary, but right now we need to mobilise
capital," Quang said.
As the leading
shrimp exporter in
If Minh Phu's
planned delisting is approved, the exporter will be able to offer private
placement to foreign investors by next year.
Hard times
put accountants out of work
The growing number
of bankrupt enterprises has led to many chief accountants being thrown out of
their jobs in
Some facing
financial difficulties have even lowered their salary level to try and get
work.
Nguyen Kieu Linh
told VnExpress online that she worked for a trade and service company in
Recently the
company told staff about its financial difficulties, so many began seeking
new positions. Linh, who has been unemployed for three months, said she has
sent dozens of job applications to companies in the city offering to cut her
salary by 30 per cent. To date, she has received no feedback.
The National
Financial Supervisory Commission recently produced an economic report showing
that as many as 16,600 enterprises had stopped operations because business
had come to a standstill in the first four months of the year.
The number was 16.9
per cent higher than for the same period last year.
Accounting was
considered a "hot" job only a few years ago. Figures from the HCM
City Centre for Human Resources Forecasting and Labour Market Information
reveal that the number of accountants and auditors seeking jobs was the
highest of any profession.
At present, more
than 4,200 are seeking work but there are only 1,700 positions.
Nguyen Hong, former
chief accountant for a shipping company once earned VND30 million a month,
but he has not found work since leaving the company in March. He is doing
accounts for several companies to pay the bills. "It's really difficult
to find a company which pays as highly as my old company", he said.
The City Centre's
deputy director, Tran Anh Tuan, suggested that it would be easy for chief
accountants to find jobs if they sought positions at lower paying small and
medium enterprises.
Cashew
industry faces crunch
Cashew processors
and exporters are facing problems like short supply, high raw material
prices, and falling export prices, Thoi bao kinh doanh newspaper reported.
This year's cashew
harvest was completed last month, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development saying output was down 20-50 per cent from a year ago due to
unseasonable rains at the end of last year.
Besides, cashew
farmers have been switching to other crops because of declining yields,
volatile prices, and low or no profits.
As a result, after
Tet domestic raw cashew nut prices were up by 10-15 per cent year-on-year.
But export prices
dropped 14.6 per cent to US$6,036 per tonne.
The Viet Nam Cashew
Association (Vinacas) said they paid VND27 million (US$1,280) for a tonne of
local raw cashew. Consequently, processors suffer a loss of $330 per tonne.
But importing
cashew yields them a profit of $150-180 per tonne, and it is encouraging its
members to import, it said.
"If any cashew
processing enterprise or exporter has not purchased and stocked raw materials
by May, it will just close down," it said.
Though
But it could reduce
this year since, according to Nguyen Duc Thanh, chairman of Vinacas, African
countries are planning to invest in processing and stop export of raw cashew
nuts.
Dang Hoang Giang,
general secretary of Vinacas, said the shortage of funds to buy raw materials
has been resolved with support from ACB and VietinBank.
ACB has earmarked
$100 million for cashew businesses and exporters in the first half-year at an
interest rate of 5.6 per cent.
Giang said the
cashew industry needs around VND7.5 trillion ($360.5 million) and $300
million in this year to buy raw materials and for processing costs
respectively.
The Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development said cashew exports in the first four
months topped 61,000 tonnes, an increase of 9.7 per cent year-on-year. But
revenues were down 1.8 per cent to $374 million.
The Japanese
Government has pledged to invest in six key industrial sectors in
The money will go
towards household electricity, food processing, shipbuilding, agricultural
machinery, environment and energy saving and the automobile and spare part production
industry.
Nguyen Thi Tue Anh,
head of the Central Institute for Economic Management's Business Environment
and Competitive Capacity Department, said the selected sectors fell under
Accordingly, a
range of support industries serving for the six key sectors would also be
considered for financial assistance.
Anh told the
Vietnam Investment Review that each sector will choose two or three sub-areas
where the support is most needed. An action plan for each will then be
designed.
She said the food
processing, agricultural machinery and shipbuilding industries have been
unproductive and uncompetitive despite their potential.
In comparison, the
household electricity and automobile sectors have seen rapid growth,
contributing to exports and attracting many Japanese investors.
However, these
sectors have focused mainly on the assembly phase due to a lack of support in
other areas of operation. Meanwhile, the environment and energy industry has
displayed huge potential for producing energy saving products.
Anh said that the
expansion of the sectors should be closely linked with rising value, and
supervised by the Government through industrial policies.
The selected
industries were targeted so that they would be in a position to adapt to
competition when the tariff barrier in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) is
lifted by 2018. The six sectors were chosen from a group of 39, all with
long-term growth potential.
Hirohoko Sekiya,
chief consultant of the Japan Economics Research Institute, said Japanese
businesses have paid a great deal of attention to four sub-units including
seafood, rice, coffee and vegetable processing.
He told the
newspaper that if
Slow growth
to put pressure on Budget
State budget
collection will likely be difficult this year and the Government needs to
outline effective measures to ease difficulties in production and recover
economic growth.
This opinion was
shared by economists at a seminar held yesterday in Ha Noi by the National
Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee.
According to Nguyen
Minh Tan, deputy director of the National Assembly Office's Department of
Finance and Budget, the amount collected for the budget in the first four
months was far lower than that collected in previous years.
Tan attributed the
decline to the slow recovery of the economy and State measures on tax
reduction and tax deferral.
Sanjay Kalra,
resident representative of the International Monetary Fund in
Nguyen Hong Son,
Rector of the
Lich noted that
reducing the corporate income tax to 20 per cent would further decrease the
State budget, but said that this was a "necessary measure to spur
economic development in the mid-term period", adding that he "persistently
insisted on reducing it to 20 per cent instead of the current 23 per
cent".
In addition, the
economist said, the State also needed to ensure that taxes were collected
from other business sectors such as import and export as well as individuals.
The National
Assembly's Resolution on the State Budget targets an increase of 10 per cent
for the total State budget revenue in 2013 and estimates that State budget
spending will increase 8 per cent over the estimated spending in 2012.
Delta eyes
development progress
Chung said that all
Vietnamese enterprises had to adhere to laws and regulations in their partner
countries, ensuring the harmonisation of economic growth and the improvement
of local livelihoods, poverty alleviation and sustainable development.
He was speaking at
the second Mekong Resource Forum held in the
According to the
ministry,
The country has 335
projects with registered capital of $7 billion in the Mekong sub-region,
mostly in
Vietnamese
enterprises usually invest in sectors which heavily rely on natural resources
including rubber, sugarcane, bio-fertiliser, hydro-power and mining.
The ministry warned
of the challenges Vietnamese foreign investors faced to minimise negative
impacts on natural resources and the environment.
Chung said the
Projects involving
hydro-power plants, irrigation, aquaculture and waterway transportation on
the upper part of the river could have severe impacts on the country,
including water shortages and large scale salt water intrusion, according to
People and Nature Reconcilitation (PanNature).
"
Dr Cao Van Ban from
the
Additionally, most
partner provinces in the development triangle are mountainous or highland
areas, which made transportation and trade difficult.
The president of
the Viet Nam Assoiation of Foreign-invested Enterprises, Nguyen Mai, said
that to some extent, trade was short-term and investment was long-term, and
investment was crucial to global development.
"As we are
targeting to develop a low-carbon and green economy, investors need to ensure
benefits not only for their business, but also the nations we are investing
in," he said.
Chung said that
cooperation among countries in the region was needed to build mutual
programmes and action plans attracting supports and investments from
international institutions and using the capital efficiently.
He added for
sustainable foreign investment,
During the forum,
participants exchanged views on environmental and social impacts of
investment activities that include
Co-organised by
The first Mekong
Resource forum was held in Ha Noi in 2011.
Bau Bang
bids for industrial development
Land has been
cleared for investment projects in Bau Bang, a new residential and industrial
zone in the southern
"The zone was
built in the northern part of the province with the main aim of reducing
pressure at industrial zones in the southern part," said Nguyen Van
Hung, chairman and CEO of Becamex IDC.
"All of the
land in the zone has been cleared and we are ready for investors," Hung
told Viet Nam News.
Covering an area of
more than 2,000ha, the investor used half of the zone's square for industrial
development and the other 1,000 ha for services and urban residential development.
Hung said the zone
was built with outstanding advantages that were based on experiences obtained
from the establishment of the Viet Nam-Singapore Industrial Park and the My
Phuoc Industrial Park.
He said that
investors' top concerns were human resource, infrastructure inside and
outside the zone, and that administrative procedures were now less important
to them.
Thus, his company
would focus on developing civil infrastructure to attract more investors and
assist local residents.
To date, the zone has
attracted 40 foreign-direct-investment (FDI) projects, worth a total of
US$240 million.
On Friday, a new
South Korean company, KyungBang Viet Nam Ltd, opened in the zone with a
$140-million plant, considered to be the biggest textile plant in the region.
According to Lee
Kap Soo, general director of the KyungBang Viet Nam Ltd, the plant will be
built in three phases. The first phase has been completed and put into
operation.
"The second
and the third phases will be carried out soon. Construction of the second may
start in September or October," he said.
Lee said that the
plant's first phase has an investment of $40 million and a capacity of 550
tonnes per month.
The second phase
would be the same as the first, and the third phase would see a doubling of capacity
and investment.
"About 90 per
cent of the plant's products will be sold to Vietnamese garment companies.
Others will be exported to markets such as
The plant operates
with many advanced technologies, and its raw materials are imported from
EU drops
ban on VN fruit & veg
The European Union
will lift a 12-month ban on the export of five types of fresh fruit and
vegetables from
One year ago,
Nguyen Van Nga,
director of the Plant Protection Department's Regional Plant Quarantine
Sub-department II under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
said on the sidelines of the Congress of the Vietnamese Fruit and Vegetables
Association in
However, EU
agencies have already warned that more violations of hygiene and safety
regulations will result in a ban on all fruit and vegetables from
Sugar
surplus deals bitter blow to traders
The local sugar
inventory has snowballed to a record high of over 600,000 tonnes, according
to Chairman of Viet Nam Sugar and Sugarcane Association (VSSA) Nguyen Thanh
Long.
VSSA said for the
sugarcane crop year 2012-13, the country's sugarcane output reached around
1.5 million tonnes, while national demand stood at 1.1 million tonnes and the
amount of sugar exported from the beginning of the year reached just 25,000
tonnes.
By May 3, sugar
refineries' inventories had reportedly reached 579,818 tonnes. Adding the
inventories of trade companies which are members of the sugar association,
estimated at 28,000 tonnes, the total inventory exceeded 600,000 tonnes.
VSSA admitted it
will be hard to clear the stock before the new crop is ready at the end of
August.
Furthermore, with a
global inventory of 5.86-6.18 million tonnes, world sugar prices have also
been on the decrease.
On May 1, white
sugar was being traded at US$501.2 per tonne, but the price fell rapidly to
$496 per tonne on May 3 and continued down to a nadir of $487.2 per tonne on
May 9.
With high
inventories, the price cut is easy to understand. However, retail sugar
prices remain unchanged despite the drop in wholesale.
According to the Ha
Noi Supermarket Association, white sugar retail prices in the capital still
stood at VND21,000-22,000 ($1.005-1.053) per kilo despite wholesale prices at
factories falling to VND15,600-16,600 ($0.75-0.8) per kilo.
In some markets and
retail shops, the prices even reached VND24,000 per kilo. So, prices for
consumers were VND4,000-5,000 ($0.19-0.24) higher than wholesale, even
VND7,000 ($0.33) per kilo in some instances.
This price behavior
is due to the fact that the factories have no formal distribution networks
and prices are controlled by middle men traders, said representative of VSSA
in Ha Noi, Ha Huu Phai.
To ease this
situation, VSSA and the Department of Agro-forestry Processing and Salt
Industry under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will this
year establish a joint decree on sugar and sugarcane management that will
clearly stipulate sugarcane growth planning and policies to protect the profits
of both farmers and producers, he said.
On the other hand,
the Government needs to develop measures to fight sugar smuggling which is
damaging the domestic sugar industry.
Sugar should be
added to the list of commodities not allowed for temporary import for
re-export to combat trade fraud, he recommended.
US$404
million to be spent on stimulating industrial production
The Ministry of
Industry and Trade has proposed a State investment of VND8.5 trillion
(US$404.7 million) to develop the industrial sector during the 2013-2020
period.
The State funds set
aside for the development of both the large and small-scale industrial
sectors is 10 times as much as invested during the 2007-2012 period.
Of the sum, VND5
trillion ($238 million) will be allocated to the ministry to manage and
implement programmes aimed at stimulating industrial production. The rest
will be used to build national and local industry promotion centres.
The new National
Industry Production Stimulation Plan until 2020 will see a change in that the
ministry also proposes the funds to be used to encourage enterprises to apply
clean production technology to protect the environment.
Polluting
enterprises will be given financial support to move to industrial zones and
complexes.
The plan targets to
create 300,000 jobs at rural industry establishments, and construct waste
water treatment systems for 215 industrial complexes.
Oyster
deaths leave farmers with losses
Aquaculture farmers
in the central province of Thanh Hoa have seen large numbers of their oysters
die since the beginning of last month, leaving them tens of billions of dong
out of pocket.
The deaths wiped
out 60-80 per cent of oysters raised across hundreds of hectares of aqua
farms at coastal communes in Quang Xuong, Hau Loc, Nga Son and Hoang Hoa
districts.
Tran Thi Hien, a
farmer in Quang Xuong District's Quang Nham Commune, said the oysters died
due to polluted water being discharged into Quang Nham's waterways and
fishing areas.
In addition,
workers harvesting jelly fish have seen the animals die after drifting into
tidal areas. Polluted water filled with dead jelly fish also exacerbated the
oyster deaths, she said.
More than 30
households raised oysters in Quang Nham Commune. Each household has 1-3ha of
oysters. For each hectare, local farmers invest VND450-500 million
(US$21,400-23,800) to buy baby oysters and run their business.
Le Van Thuan, a
farmer in Hau Loc District's Hai Loc Commune, blamed polluted water
discharged in the Kenh De River for the oyster deaths. A number of livestock
and poultry farms have been set up along the river.
Thuan said he has
7ha of oysters but dozens of tonnes of them died and he suffered a loss of
VND700 million ($33,300).
Cao Thanh Tho, head
of the Thanh Hoa Department of Agriculture and Rural Development's Aquatic
Product Breeding Division, said samples of water, soil and dead oysters were
sent to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Department of
Animal Health for tests.
No parasite causing
diseases were discovered on the oysters.
However, the amount
of ammonia in the water and soil exceeded regulated levels by ten times.
Tho said oysters
were selling slowly this year so oyster farmers had large stocks in their
ponds.
The density of oysters
in aqua farms was more than 300 per square metres, while the regulated
density is only 150-200 per square metre. The high density resulted in a lack
of food for the oysters, which may also have led to the deaths.
An additional
factor was that oysters were currently in their reproductive season, a time
when their immunity is weak. Meanwhile, the weather in the province has been
erratic, said Tho.
Do Quoc Canh, chief
of the provincial People's Committee secretariat, said that the committee had
received reports and proposals on support for farmers in Hau Loc and Hoang
Hoa districts.
Source: VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VIR
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Thứ Ba, 14 tháng 5, 2013
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