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BUSINESS
IN BRIEF 2/10
India
imports more tra fish from Vietnam
Over the past three
years,
In 2012,
In the first eight
months of this year, the figure reached US$7.67 million, compared to US$5.903
million in the same period last year.
According to the
Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP),
Vietnam-Singapore
trade turnover picks up
By the end of
August, two-way trade turnover between
According to the
Singapore Department of Statistics,
Three groups of
high-value earners included phones and spare parts (up 14% to SGD405
million), machinery, equipment, and tools (up 47% to SGD383.7 million), and
crude oil (up 43% to SGD127 million). Glass and glassed products saw a
sharply decrease of 18.3%, followed by printers, faxes, photocopy machines
and spare parts with 9%.
Since April 2013,
By the end of
September,
Two
localities promote investment in the RoK
Despite the impact
of global economic downturn,
Ambassador to the
Toan appreciated
the two provinces’ initiative to organise the conference in the context of
growing cooperation between the two countries, especially since Korean
President Park Geun-hye’s visit to
He analyzed
The ambassador
spoke highly of the two provinces’ potential, such as abundant labour and
good infrastructure in terms of electricity, water supply and transport. He
expressed his hope that the two provinces will become attractive destinations
for Korean investors in the near future.
At the opening
ceremony Park Young Man, Managing Director of the Korean Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (KCCI), reviewed the positive results of bilateral economic
cooperation. He affirmed the conference provided a good chance for Korean
businesses to seek investment opportunities in
Leaders from the
two provinces briefed participants on their development plans and the local
investment environment and pledged to improve administration procedures,
infrastructure facilities and labour forces to create an equal, stable,
transparent and open business environment for Korean businesses.
At the conference,
Korean businesses, who have been operating effectively in Ha Tinh and Ha
Chairman of the Ha
Tinh provincial People’s Committee Vo Kim Cu took part in signing cooperative
agreements between the province and the Korea Federation of Small and Medium
Business, and the Association of People loving
In addition, the
managing board of Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh signed investment schemes
with Chunil Cargo Transportation, Han Engineering Company, Tae-Lim Vina
Company to carry out transport, steel, and engineering projects and build
villas, restaurants and hotels in the zone.
Halong-Fangchenggang
cruise route back in service
The
The
Halong-Fangchenggang route is jointly operated by local and Chinese travel
firms, said Doan Manh Linh at
This sea tourism
service was suspended as ships failed to meet travel service quality
requirements.
Guangxi is
considered a major potential source of tourists for
Quang Ninh now has
another sea cruise service connected to Beihai with two trips per day and a
lot of international ships bringing tourists to
According to Linh,
from this October until next April, Halong will welcome over 200 ships
carrying international tourists, up 18% year-on-year. Many of these ships
make scheduled visits.
Siemens
solution helps Medic ease workload
Medic on Thursday
turned on Siemens’ next generation Aptio Automation equipment, which provides
a comprehensive solution for the medical center in HCMC to address increasing
workload and offer better healthcare services to patients.
Siemens described
its Aptio Automation as an adaptable solution that transforms laboratory
operations by combining Siemens’ workflow expertise with peak performance and
technology. This helps Medic meet its high workload and at the same time
achieve turnaround time goals for all samples in an optimized workflow.
“We chose Aptio
Automation because it not only handles increasing daily workloads in the
laboratory but also enables us to improve the turnaround time. Further, the
system footprint is small which helps to save the operation costs.” Nguyen
Thanh Tong, vice director of Medic said in a statement on Thursday.
Siemens’ next
generation Aptio Automation platform at Medic is the first installation in
the ASEAN region.
SHB,
Viglacera strike deal
Saigon-Hanoi
Commercial Bank (SHB) has clinched a deal with Viglacera Corporation to
assist the latter in capital and banking services.
SHB said in a statement
on Thursday that it would provide short, medium and long-term loans to help
meet financing needs of Viglacera and its members as well as associated
units.
The bank will also
fund projects of Viglacera or act as an arranger of domestic and foreign
financing for the corporation and help it access preferential loans from
other countries, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, among others.
SHB will provide
Viglacera and its units with banking services such as international or
domestic payment, guarantees, cash management, deposit and corporate
financial services.
In the next two
quarters, SHB will fund distribution agents and showrooms of Viglacera.
Slackened
demand hits State firms in city
With subsidiaries
suffering losses due to slackened demand and falling export prices, seven out
of 17 corporations and parent companies under the management of the HCMC
government have incurred a sharp fall in revenue in January-September, heard
a meeting between the city’s leaders and involved companies on Thursday.
Huynh Huu Loi,
chairman of Saigon Agriculture Incorporation, ascribed a contraction of 23%
in the nine-month revenue of his firm to a sharp fall in pig, chicken and
farm produce prices.
The company in the
nine-month period had no other choice but to export a total of 25,000 tons of
rice at lower-than-expected prices to retain customers. Meanwhile, export
rubber prices have dropped considerably, which were over VND70 million a ton
at the end of 2012 but now slip to some VND41 million a ton only, Loi said.
Similarly, the
January-September revenue of Saigon Jewelry Holding Company (SJC) has
declined nearly 66% over the same period in 2012. According to an executive
of SJC, the sharp fall in its revenue has resulted from the weakened local
demand besides the fact that the enterprise no longer makes gold bars and
only specializes in processing gold while its revenue from gold assessment
services has tumbled.
Speaking at the
meeting, Tran Viet Trung, deputy general director of Saigon Pharmaceutical
Company (Sapharco), reported a huge volume of unsold products and materials
in stock at his firm. Trung’s company is still unable to sell imported syrup
products worth up to VND4.5 billion. As these products will expire in the
middle of next year, the firm is compelled to lower the selling prices to cut
the mounting inventories.
City’s
budget loss to double next year on tax incentives
Revenues for the
State budget in HCMC next year will suffer a loss of some VND8.34 trillion,
or US$400 million, more than twice the loss of this year due to tax
incentives introduced to revive the economy, the city’s taxman said.
Le Xuan Duong,
deputy director of the city’s Tax Department, told a review meeting on the
city’s economy in the January-September period that the shortfall results
from tax reductions, reschedules of tax payments and lower tax rates.
This year, the
shortfall is estimated at VND3.6 trillion, he said.
Much of the
shortfall is ascribed to the reductions of land rents, value-added tax rates
for budget homes, corporate income tax, and personal income tax.
The amount of tax
sums owed by enterprises this year has increased by 25% year-on-year as the
city’s economy remains mired in difficulties, especially in areas of
property, construction, and building materials among others.
Despite such
problems, the city’s economy is rising, with the growth rate accelerating
after each quarter, said Thai Van Re, director of the HCMC Department of
Planning and Investment.
The city’s gross
domestic product (GDP) grew 7.6% in the first quarter, 8.1% in the second
quarter, and 8.7% in the third quarter. “It is expected that the city’s GDP
will grow 10.7% in the fourth quarter, which shows that the economy is on the
path of recovery,” Re said.
However, foreign
trade in the city has slowed down.
In
January-September, export revenues of the city totaled US$19.7 billion,
contracting 4.5% year-on-year, while import spending rose 12% to US$18.7
billion.
A point of concern
on Thursday’s review meeting was the sluggish property market, but the Construction
Department reported some signals of development.
Tran Trong Tuan,
director of the department, said as many as 4,437 apartments found buyers in
the year to date, accounting for 37.6% of the total number of housing units
in stockpile.
Ministry to
impose price controls at airports
Prices of goods and
services at the country’s airports will be decided by the Ministry of
Transport in the wake of harsh criticisms of exorbitant prices there.
Luu Thanh Binh,
deputy director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, said the ministry
had not controlled prices at the airports before. However, as the Pricing Law
took effect this year, ministries and other government agencies will get more
involved in price management and stabilization, he added.
According to Binh,
the aviation authority has included prices of non-aviation services in the
draft amendments to the Law on Civil Aviation.
The airports will
have to negotiate prices with suppliers and then report to the transport
ministry and other authorities for approval.
“If any wrongdoing
is detected, suppliers will be fined to protect the interests of consumers,”
he said.
In recent times,
passengers have complained much about sky-high prices of goods and services
whose quality remains questionable. Therefore, the transport ministry has
added price controls to the amended Law on Civil Aviation.
PM asks
ministries to control milk price
The Prime Minister
has asked several ministries to add milk products to a list of certified
products for children under the age of six, and also to control prices of
such products.
The Ministries of
Health, Finance, and Industry and Trade and other related agencies have been
asked to draw up a list of certified milk products before October 5.
According to
existing regulations, the price of nutritional products is not controlled by
any State office.
Hence, several baby
formula producers are selling their milk products under nutritional food
labels in order to avoid reporting any price hike to authorities.
The price of milk
is not controlled by the Government, resulting in prices of dairy products
increasing frequently.
The World Health
Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund have warned of ambiguity
that could badly affect the health of Vietnamese children.
Global
bodies warn that milk substitutes put babies at risk
WHO and UNICEF have
warned that Vietnamese children’s health could be at risk because of
inappropriate labelling and marketing of breast milk substitutes on sale.
Incorrectly
renaming breast milk substitutes as “complementary food” or “nutrition
products”, makes them fall outside the regulatory authority of the Ministry
of Finance, they said.
Also, the price of
breast milk substitutes on sale in
At the same time,
the labelling issue affects the implementation of the Law on Advertisements
which came into force in January. This law bans advertisements for breast
milk substitutes for children up to two years.
The use of these
terms is said to be confusing for consumers, distracting buyers from the
global evidence that provide clear recommendations for feeding infants and
young children.
WHO and UNICEF said
that infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life
to achieve optimal growth, development and health. From the age of six
months, breast milk remains the most appropriate liquid part of a diet for
most children up to two years of age, once complementary feeding has begun.
WHO warns that
specially formulated milks or so called “follow-up-milks” are not necessary,
and even unsuitable when used as a breast-milk replacement.
Current
formulations lead to higher protein intake and lower intake of essential
fatty acids, iron, zinc and B vitamins than those recommended by WHO for
adequate growth and development of infants and young children.
In
Complementary feeding
refers to the period when breast milk alone is no longer sufficient to meet
the nutritional requirements of infants and young children, and other foods
are needed, along with breast milk.
Simply because a
product is fed during the complementary feeding period between eight and 24
months as in the case of “follow-up” formula, does not mean it is a
complementary food.
Nguyen Thanh Lan,
mother of an 18-year-month boy in Hai Ba Trung district, said she did not pay
attention to the labelling of formula milk as complementary foods or baby
formula when choosing milk powder products.
“I do not clearly
understand the differences between quality of milk products labelled as
supplementary foods and baby formula.”
Early this year, a
scandal involving Danlait milk product raised concern about milk quality.
Danlait, a goat milk product from
To safeguard the
health and development of Vietnamese children, WHO and UNICEF strongly
recommend that the Ministries of Health and Finance classify “follow-up”
formulas correctly as milk products. This would ensure that they will subject
to price control and covered by marketing restrictions as contained in the
International Code on Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.
A forum on
Vietnam-Italy economic cooperation took place in
The event was
organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Embassy of
Vietnam in
At the forum,
participants reviewed the development of cooperative relations between
Vietnamese Deputy
Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa expressed her belief that the
joint commission on economic cooperation will create favourable conditions
for the two sides to consult, exchange and complete the legal framework and
plans for closer business cooperation and investment, particularly in the
context of promising bilateral economic cooperaiton.
She noted that
Thoa introduced
Italian businesses to the current situation and investment environment in
After the forum,
the participants had a round-table discussion on topics related to the
cooperation potential in the fields of energy and retail distribution,
development and investment promotion plans in the industrial sector and
first-hand experience of Italian investors in
During their
meeting, Vietnamese and Italian representatives agreed to launch “Vietnam
Days in
Government mulls lifting foreign cap for private business ownership
The Government will
consider increasing the foreign ownership cap for non-State-owned
enterprises, said Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Vu Duc Dam.
At a press
conference on September 29, the minister said the administration of foreign
owned corporations needed to be clear, transparent and in line with
international standards.
He said the
Government would soon devise a foreign-ownership ceiling for private
businesses across each sector. In the banking system, big banks including
Vietinbank, Vietcombank and BIDV have all equitised.
The Government
currently enforces a maximum foreign-ownership quota of 30%, but is set to
lift the quota in favour of private sector development.
The Government
would also act to protect the legal rights of ownership to guarantee
certainty and stability for investors, said Dam.
The move follows a
ten year campaign to re-arrange and equitise state-owned enterprises, cutting
back on non-core businesses from 12,000 to 1,300.
"We have
followed a scheduled road map and we will continue to carry out equitisation
of these enterprises," said Dam.
In an interview
with Bloomberg in
There are also
plans to sell shares in companies such as Vietnam Airlines Corp, Vietnam
Posts&Telecommunications Group, and Vietnam Oil&Gas Group.
Forum
connects Vietnam-UK businesses
The Vietnam Chamber
of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has coordinated with the British Embassy in
The forum took
place in
Speaking at the
forum, Vice Standing Chairman of the VCCI Hoang Van Dung valued British firms’
cooperation in such areas as education, finance and banking in
The
The UK Prime
Minister’s Trade Envoy for
From a poor,
war-torn country with limited natural resources, the RoK is now considered
the 11th biggest economy in the world, and the success lies in choosing key
industries for development of an export-driven economy.
Hwang Inseong, Vice
Chairman of the Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI)’s Global Research
Department, said the RoK has gradually undergone different periods of the
industrial era, from light to heavy, chemical and knowledge-based industry.
Development
Strategy Institute (DSI) Director Duong Dinh Giang said
To do this, he
suggested restructuring what he called ‘the industrial space’ in
The core zone will
develop market-based industries while the buffer zone will focus on support
industries, Giang said.
New
investment capital up 35%
As of September 20,
It also approved
340 operational projects registering for a combined additional capital of
US$5.7 billion, up 37.9%.
Overall, the
country attracted US$15 billion worth of newly licensed and increased
capital, a year-on-year rise of 36%, according to the Foreign Investment
Agency, under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Processing and
manufacturing topped the list of investment areas with 400 newly licensed
projects, capitalized at nearly US$13 billion or 86.4% of the country’s
total.
It was followed by
the real estate sector (US$588.11 million) and the science and technology
sector (US$380.59 million).
Among 48 foreign
investors pouring capital into
In the nine-month
period, US$8.62 billion worth of foreign investment was disbursed, up 6.4%
against the same period in 2012.
Foreign businesses
earned US$63.949 billion from exports (including crude oil), showing a
year-on-year increase of 22.4% and occupying 66.29% of the country’s total
export value.
The Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) sector gained an export surplus of US$9.45 billion while the
country ran a trade deficit of US$124 million.
Local
businesses seek opportunities in Algeria
Eighteen Vietnamese
businesses will make a fact-finding tour of Alger City, Algeria, from October
18-24, according to the Africa,
During their stay
in the country, they will conduct market research, meet with potential
partners and promote their products to boost exports to this African nation.
They will focus on
products, such as rice, coffee, pepper, coconut rice, frozen seafood, civil
electronics, computers and components, agricultural machines, chemicals,
steel, automobile spare parts, motorbikes, and construction materials.
Bilateral trade
between
To boost exports to
the market, the Africa,
The Hanoi
Department of Finance tightened its market management as part of its efforts
to stabilise prices, curb inflation and ensure the supply of essential goods
until the end of the year and the up-coming Lunar New Year in early 2014.
Accordingly, the
Department is monitoring price movement for essential commodities and
services such as food, foodstuff, sugar, medicine, oil and gas, fertilizer,
cattle-feed and transport service.
Based on its
investigation, the Department will propose the municipal People’s Committee
for taking necessary measures to stabilise the market, while increasing
commodity storage to meet consumption demands.
The city also gave
s uitable assistance to enterprises, by providing zero-interest loans up to
318 billion VND (roughly 15 million USD) for them to stabilise prices of
essential goods between July 2013 and April 2014.
Enterprises which
join the price stabilisation programme must sell goods at prices as committed
and can only increase prices if approved by the Department of Finance with
adjustments within 10 percent of the market price.
This year’s
programme aims to give priority to industrial parks, low-income residential
and remote areas with the focus on providing clean and high-quality food for
consumers.
The city
authorities also plan to organise about 38 trade fairs at 16 suburban
districts and other 400 mobile goods outlets to provide subsidised goods to
local consumers.
Ha Tinh, Ha
Ha Tinh and Ha
Addressing the
opening ceremony, Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(KCCI) Park Young-man said this is a good chance for RoK investors to study
investment opportunities in
Vietnamese
Ambassador to RoK Tran Trong Toan said the investment-trade promotion conference
took place at a good time when Vietnam-RoK cooperation ties are growing in
both width and depth, especially after RoK President Park Geun-hye’s
The ambassador
highlighted the peaceful environment and socio-political stability in
He said the two
provinces, Ha
During the
workshop, officials from the provinces pledged to continue improving
administrative procedures, infrastructure and the quality of human resources
in order to create a fair, stable, transparent and convenient business
environment for RoK investors.
Several RoK firms
operating effectively in Ha Tinh and Ha
Two-way trade
turnover between
The Singapore
Department of Statistics (DOS) said on October 1 that imports from
Telephones,
accessories, machineries, equipment and crude oil imported from
Meanwhile,
In the first nine
months of this year,
As of September, the
country ranked second among 100 countries and territories investing in
Aviation
sector profits soar across-the-board
All six companies
in the aviation sector reported profits, said Lai Xuan Thanh, head of the
Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV).
Vietnam Airlines
Corporation, Vietnam Air Navigation Services Corporation and Airports
Corporation of
Vietnam's budget
private carrier, VietJetAir, also reported 120 billion VND (5.7 million USD)
pre-tax profits for the first seven months of the year while Jetstar Pacific
and Vietnam Air Service Company (VASCO) announced profits for the first time.
VietJetAir's Executive
Director Luu Duc Khanh said that making a profit was beyond the company's
expectations after only two years of operation. They initially set a modest
goal of breaking even within three years.
A representative
from VASCO said that the company had a balance of 23 billion VND in the
eight-month period and had effectively exploited the domestic routes.
The information
surprised experts, given that airline companies faced many difficulties in
the past three years with several firms closing.
In February, Air
Mekong temporarily ceased operation to restructure; Jetstar also experienced
financial difficulties.
Luu Thanh Binh,
Deputy Head of CAAV, expressed optimism about the market, saying that Asia in
general and
He predicted that
the domestic aviation market would have a growth rate of 15 percent in terms
of passenger transport.
Luu Thanh Binh
attributed the strong showing to increasing interest in air travel as well as
He said air crew
restructuring helped Jetstar Pacific become profitable, while changing from
the Boeing 737-400 to A320 model helped the company save 17 percent of control
costs over the same period last year.
However, both
experts warned that the increasing popularity of budget carriers posed a
significant threat to both economy and high-class market segments that could
show an effect by the end of the year.-
German
group pledges to fund wind power project in Soc Trang
The German Enercon
Industries Corporation has pledged to arrange funding and supply equipment
for a wind power project in the Mekong Delta
The project,
projected to cost 1 billion EUR and have a design capacity of 2,600MW, is
part of the province’s wind power development plan.
The group made the
commitment after making a fact-finding tour to the province to assess local
wind power potential.
Experts of the
German group said Soc Trang has favourable conditions to develop wind power,
particularly the coastal area.
The province has
outlined a master plan on wind power development until 2020 with a vision to
2030, under which the coastal Cu Lao Dung and Tran De districts and Vinh Chau
commune are zoned for the purpose.
Total investment
for projects under this plan is estimated at nearly 8,300 billion VND (390
million USD).
Chairman of the
provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Trung Hieu said he will create all
favourable conditions for investors to carry out their work.
SSC deepens
links to international markets
The State
Securities Commission (SSC) has recently announced that it signed on to
Appendix A of the International Organisation of Securities Commission's
Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (IOSCO MMoU) on September 18 in
"This is an
important milestone, a new stage of deep integration with the international
capital market to attract investment into
The memorandum sets
an international benchmark for cross-border cooperation critical to combating
violations of securities and derivatives laws. In 2011,
Following two years
of compliance with Appendix B,
"It proves
that the global market has recognised the development of the Vietnamese stock
market," said a statement from the SSC.
The memorandum was
developed in 2002, aiming to strengthen market surveillance and information
exchange between member countries.
Countries not
eligible for Appendix A were considered to have inconsistent and
non-transparent legal frameworks, the SSC said.
It noted that
Financial Stability Committee would rate a market based on its membership
with the IOSCO MMoU.
"Countries not
party to the memorandum face disadvantages in attracting foreign
investors."
The SSC stated that
being party to level A of the memorandum would earn domestic capital markets
credibility and a better reputation with foreign investors.
The SSC added that
it would be able to gain from the experience of other countries in
cross-border trading to mitigate the risks of cross-border transactions to
the financial market.
Firms urged
to take advantage of trade pacts
Import-export and
logistics firms should take advantage of free trade agreements and Incoterms,
a set of international trade regulations, experts have said.
Do Xuan Quang,
chairman of the Vietnam Logistics Business Association (VLA) and also
chairman of the ASEAN Federation of Forwarders Association, told a workshop
in
Incoterms are a set
of standard international regulations last updated in 2010 and used for
commercial transactions and procurement and to communicate the costs and
risks associated with goods delivery.
Companies who
conform to Intercoms provisions would be able to control cost and time while
providing transport and logistics services, he said, adding that it would
also help
Six other FTAs are
under negotiations, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement that is
set to be signed by year end and the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership to be signed in 2015.
If
Le Duy Hiep, deputy
chairman of VLA, said most of import-export firms do exactly the opposite
despite warnings about financial losses and job losses in sectors like
maritime transport and insurance.
The Government
should work out policies to enable firms to buy under FOB mode and sell under
CIF mode for better logistics management and reducing risks, he added.-
Animal feed
import reduction necessary for VN
Though the country
is agricultural, most inputs like maize, soybean, and fish powder are
imported.
Le Ba Lich,
chairman of the Viet Nam Feed Association, said the country spent more than
US$2.5 billion to import eight million tonnes of raw materials for animal
feed last year.
Lich said this is a
consequence of the country not paying adequate attention to developing crops
required for making animal feed in the last few years.
With its high
population density,
Before 2000 the
cultivation of rice to ensure food security was a top priority, but now the
country should gradually move to other crops, they said.
The reliance on
imports has been causing a great deal of volatility in animal feed prices in
recent years, causing difficulties for farmers.
Tran Thi Minh Diep,
owner of a pig farm in the Mekong Delta's
There are 194 firms
in the feed industry, of which only 15 are foreign-invested or joint
ventures, but they account for 65 per cent of market share and basically
determine prices.
According to
analysts, producers will break even at VND8,000 per kilogramme of feed, but
most products in the market are sold at more than VND11,000.
Lich said to grow
the crops required for the feed industry, the agricultural sector must have
long-term plans.
"Viet Nam
currently has more than one million hectares under maize with an average
yield of four tonnes each.
"We must
strive to increase the area to 1.7 million hectares and use new seeds to
raise productivity to seven tonnes per hectare, the norm in other
countries," he added.
The sector must
also invest more in harvesting and processing technologies to improve maize
quality, and the Government should offer incentives to encourage investment
in processing, he added.
Pham Dong Quang,
deputy head of the Crop Production Department, said his department has
envisaged increasing the area under maize from 1.1 million hectares to 1.5
million hectares under the development plan for the sector for the period
through 2020.
It is also planned to
use new strains of the grain and technologies to improve productivity, he
said.
Farmers would
switch from rice to maize in low-yield areas in the northern, central, Cuu
Long (Mekong) Delta, and south-eastern regions, he said.
As for green feed
for cattle, he said localities must expand grass cultivation in mountainous
areas and on infertile and forest lands.
The Government
should reduce import taxes on the inputs needed for animal feed and provide
businesses with low-interest loans for buying and processing agricultural
produce to make animal feed, experts said.
They also suggested
that the animal feed sector should maximise use of local materials, including
straw and sugarcane waste to produce cattle feed and low-quality rice to
produce other kinds of animal feed.
Climate
change threatens agricultural development
Climate change is
one of the key factors having great impact on production activities and
socio-economic development in Viet Nam.
According to Pham
Quang Dong, deputy director of the Plant Production Department, the Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), agriculture production suffers
the most. As a result, main crop production is likely to be reduced by 10 per
cent and the total plant production yield will be reduced from 1-5 per cent a
year.
It is projected
that in the near future, production in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta is likely
to lose at least 7.6 million tonnes per year, an equivalent of about 40 per
cent of the total rice output of the entire country.
In addition, the
sea level rise will push salt water infiltration deeper into the inner fields
and about 2.4 million hectares of rice fields will be affected. At present,
salt water infiltration is already recorded to be four parts per thousand in
areas of the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta that are located at about 30-40km from
the sea. Additionally, in the northern Song Hong (Red River) Delta some
1,300ha are reported to be also be affected by sea water infiltration.
For the mountainous
regions in the north and Central Highlands, farmers are facing serious
drought due to extreme weather. In the last Winter-Spring season, the coastal
areas suffered from severe drought. It is forecast that the upcoming
Autumn-Winter crop will also severely be affected by drought.
That's not all,
climate change is also the root cause for the increasing use of pesticides in
the fields. In the past three years, the rice yields in the Cuu Long (Mekong)
Delta were heavily reduced due to destruction by pests.
Quang also said
that CO2 emission from agriculture production in Viet Nam accounts for about
43 per cent of the nation's total emissions, of which 58 per cent is
generated from wet rice cultivation, 22 per cent by agriculture land use
activities and 12 per cent by the livestock production.
"To cope with
such a situation, in the 2008-12 period, Viet Nam introduced many measures to
cut down CO2 emissions and to promote a green and sustainable agriculture
industry," Quang said.
To cope with the
negative effects of climate change, MARD on September 5, 2008 issued the
Action Plan Framework for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Agriculture and
Rural Development Sector for 2008-20.
Since then Viet Nam
has executed many national programmes, including a plan to have 3.8 million
hectares for rice cultivation, of which 3.2 million are reserved for two
crops per year in order to ensure food reserves for the nation.
Additionally, MARD
has given instructions to localities nation-wide to implement several groups
of measures to ensure sufficient water for irrigation during the dry seasons
and to prevent land erosion in wetlands as well as introducing better systems
of crop plants adaptive to climate change.
In addition, MARD
has also promoted the work of agriculture extension activities for farmers to
cope with climate change. Viet Nam set a target to cut down CO2 emission from
agricultural activities by 20 per cent in 2020.
Viet Nam is one of
the countries that are frequently hit by natural calamities, including
tropical storms, floods, drought and desertisation and others.
It is reported in
the last 15 years, natural calamities have claimed 11,000 lives and an asset
loss valued at about 1.5 per cent of the GDP per year.
According to Nguyen
Van Tinh, deputy director of the Irrigation Department, in the 2006-12
period, the government invested more than VND3trillion (US$142 million) to
upgrade the river dikes nationwide and some VND6trillion ($284 million) to
build sea dikes.
Source: VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VIR
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Thứ Ba, 1 tháng 10, 2013
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