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BUSINESS
IN BRIEF 20/10
DLG teams
up with German group for power supply
Duc Long Gia Lai
Group (DLG) and German group Merica inked a comprehensive cooperation deal on
Wednesday to supply power on
The agreement
signing was witnessed by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung as part of
Dung’s visit to
Both sides will
cooperate in investment, production and supply of power on Con Dao and in
mainland
The project is
expected to meet power demand for local enterprises and households, generate
more jobs for residents and fuel economic growth on the island.
This is part of
DLG’s strategy to focus on agriculture, energy and infrastructure. Earlier,
the group announced a plan to invest VND11 trillion in cow farming and
cultivation.
Merica provides
economic solutions for energy, agriculture, forestry sectors, and is present
in
Vicofa
urges coffee retention
The Vietnam Coffee
and Cocoa Association (Vicofa) said it will seek the Government’s approval to
temporarily stock up on 200,000 tons of coffee from this 2014-2015 crop to
shore up prices.
Chairman of Vicofa
Luong Van Tu told the Daily that it takes around two months to harvest coffee
of each crop, and that farmers tend to sell their beans right after harvest
to cover the costs spent on fertilizer and others, causing the prices to
fall. Therefore, the retention scheme will help keep prices from falling.
This is not the
first time Vicofa asks for permission for a temporary storage of coffee but
in recent years, the association has failed to get the Government’s nod.
According to the
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development,
The average coffee
export price of
Coffee prices in the
Central Highlands ranged around VND41,000-41,200 per kilo on October 16,
rising VND200 per kilo against the previous day.
Gov’t backs
rice branding project
The Government has
thrown its support behind a project to build a rice brand for
Deputy Prime
Minister Hoang Trung Hai said the rice brand development project is necessary
as it requires synchronous solutions in production, processing and export of
Vietnamese rice, which will help improve the image of the country’s rice
products on the global market.
The move will also
help raise the product value, expand the rice export market and boost the
restructuring process of the paddy sector towards higher efficiency and
sustainability, the Government office said in an announcement referring to
Hai’s opinions.
Hai asked the
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with relevant
ministries, the Vietnam Food Association, rice growing localities and rice
exporters to keep studying and completing the project.
The initial stage
of the project will be carried out in the Mekong Delta, the country’s largest
rice basket.
The project should
be developed in line with the market demand and the country’s production
capacity and potential to enter deeper into the world rice market in the
coming time.
In addition, there
should be policies to encourage and support localities and enterprises to
join hands in the project, said the deputy prime minister.
The agriculture
ministry is ordered to finish the project and report to the Government this
December.
BIDV inks
deals with Japanese banks
The Bank for
Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) has struck memoranda of
understanding (MOU) with Minato Bank and Bank of Yokohama (BOY) to support
Japanese customers’ plans to expand their
These agreements
enable the two foreign banks to help their clients gain easy access to
information about the investment environment, regulations and tariffs among
others when they look for business opportunities in this Southeast Asian
market.
Minato Bank and BOY
will join forces with BIDV to offer a wide range of services related to
payment, foreign exchange, trade, credit and merger and acquisition (M&A)
for Japanese customers.
Previously, BIDV
opened two offices called Japan Desk in
BIDV has clinched
cooperation agreements with 17 Japanese financial institutions, including
SuMi TRUST Bank, Chiba Bank and Shinkin Bank to serve Japanese clients
operating in
The HCMC government
has proposed the Government grant a special mechanism for the city to
mobilize funds its metro developments as sufficient capital has not been
found for several metro lines.
At a meeting with
National Assembly (NA) deputies of HCMC on October 16, HCMC vice chairman Hua
Ngoc Thuan said the city is looking for the Government’s assistance in
official development assistance (ODA) loans and other investment sources for
metro projects.
Thuan did not
elaborate on a specific mechanism for HCMC but said the city is finding
finances for metro lines No. 3a, No. 3b, No. 4 and No. 6.
According to Thuan,
Metro Line No. 1 stretching 18.1 kilometers long from Ben Thanh Market to
The implementation
of Metro Line No. 2 is slower than initial schedule as its design has to be
adjusted. Under the initial plan, this track will be completed in 2017 and
officially used in late 2018, but the HCMC government now expects this
project will get off the ground next year and be put into operation in 2019.
In August 2010,
work started on some components of Metro Line No. 2 like ground leveling,
fence erection and technical maintenance center. The nearly-20-kilometer
track is divided into two sections, with the first one being 11.3 kilometers
long and going through districts 1, 3, 10, 12, Tan Binh and Tan Phu. The
entire line worth over US$1.3 billion consists of 11 underground and elevated
stations.
Agri-aqua-forestry
exports could reach US$30 bil.
To realize the
target, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat said the
ministry and enterprises in the sector are striving to enhance product
quality and meet standards required by major export markets.
Phat told a
conference in
However, the
minister pointed out a number of challenges for private firms to improve
their competitiveness and that contribution of agricultural enterprises in
general to the nation’s economy is still lower than expected.
Currently, private
companies make up only 7.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the
agri-aqua-forestry sector and 12% of the country’s GDP.
Figures of the
General Statistics Office showed there were less than 3,520
agri-aqua-forestry startups nationwide as of the end of 2012, accounting for
a mere 1.6% of the total number in the country.
Last year, some
1,020 agri-aqua-forestry firms were established, down 1.4% against the
previous year. However, as many as 1,332 enterprises in the sector were
dissolved or suspended operations in the same year.
At the meeting, the
minister told agencies to do what they can to remove difficulties related to
policies to support operations of agricultural enterprises.
“What we do is to
help enterprises sustain growth and support the development of the economy in
general and the sector in particular,” Phat said.
‘Buy
Vietnamese’ drive pays off
The campaign to
promote Vietnamese goods at home has brought about robust results, as over 90%
of consumers in
Findings from a
survey conducted by the Information and Education Commission of the HCMC
Party Committee show that 96% of respondents said they are interested in the
“Buy Vietnamese” campaign.
The findings were
released at a meeting held in HCMC on October 16 to review five years of the
campaign.
A similar survey
conducted by the Party Central Committee’s Information and Education
Commission made public in Hanoi last week also show that 92% of respondents
are interested in the campaign.
The seminar here on
October 16 also gave an insight into local consumers’ shopping behaviors.
Up to 73.43% of
respondents in HCMC said that “when shopping, home-made goods take the top
priority in their lists.”
Up to 62.8% of
respondents said they also advise relatives and friends to buy Vietnamese
goods, while 28.15% said they have relinquished the previous habits of buying
imported products when local goods of same categories are available.
Up to 85.8% of the
polled consumers said they purchased home-made household appliances compared
to the rate of just over 50% in 2009.
More favorite local
items, according to the survey, are farm produce (76.46%), apparel products
(74.58%), foods (74.08%), milk (47.17%), toys and learning tools for children
(43.4%).
The HCMC Department
of Industry and Trade in a report given at the meeting said that Vietnamese
commodities accounted for 80% at traditional wet markets as of August this
year, while that rate rose to 90%-95% at supermarkets and convenience stores.
The consumers’
awareness about the campaign and their priority for domestic goods in HCMC
are better than in
The survey
conducted in July by the Party Central Committee’s Information and Education
Commission shows that 92% of respondents said they are interested in the
campaign. Some 63% said they prioritized local goods, while 54% advised
relatives and friends to do so.
Le Dang Doanh, an
economist formerly serving as head of the Central Institute for Economic
Management, said data from the surveys are very encouraging.
However, he warned
of complacency, and said there should be a closer look at the people surveyed
to see whether they are widely representative as well as their purchasing
power.
“There could be
cases of a moneyed consumer buying an (imported) item worth hundreds of times
larger than items purchased by the poor,” Doanh said.
In addition, the
surveys were only carried out in the two biggest cities, while the landscape
in the countryside may be different.
Pham Xuan Hong,
chairman of the HCMC Textile-Garment Association, agreed that maybe up to
74.58% of consumers loved locally made goods as surveyed, but perhaps “it’s
not correct that such a high number of people purchased local goods.”
Consumers care most
about prices before considering the quality, Hong said, adding that most of
low-priced footwear and apparel products on the market now are imported items
while local manufacturers are still grappling with difficulties.
“Many manufacturers
in the footwear and apparel sectors are seeing their sale volumes dwindle.
Surveys in these sectors show that many have had to scale down business and
reduce the number of their outlets,” he said.
Tax
exemptions mulled for agri-coops
The Ministry of
Agricultural and Rural Development is drafting a decree consisting of
supportive measures for agricultural cooperatives, including the exemption of
corporate income tax (CIT) and value added tax for them.
Appropriate
policies and changes to agricultural production is one of the core parts of a
scheme to restructure the nation’s agriculture sector to make it perform
effectively, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat told
a conference held in
Phat admitted the
capacity of cooperatives are still limited and many are able to provide
certain input services for agricultural production and fail to help find
outlets for their members.
Statistics of the
ministry showed that there are almost 10,340 agricultural cooperatives
nationwide and the number of service and agricultural cooperatives makes up
92%.
However, a mere 10%
of the total number is well-performing, the minister said and added that
there are still many ineffective cooperatives across the country.
Phat said Prime
Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has permitted the ministry to collect comments from
relevant agencies to complete the draft decree and send it to the Government
for consideration and approval soon.
Under the draft
decree, the Government could request the National Assembly to consider
exempting value added tax (VAT) for the transactions conducted among
cooperatives to support their development. Corporate income tax break is also
mulled.
The Government
plans to earmark a significant proportion of the national annual trade
promotion fund to aid agricultural cooperatives in promoting their
agri-aqua-forestry products. They could even take out loans worth up to VND1
billion without collateral.
Firms want
special consumption tax hike plans delayed
Companies and
business associations have proposed delaying planned applications of and
increases in special consumption taxes on certain products.
Representatives of
enterprises and business groups made the proposal at a meeting with HCMC’s
National Assembly (NA) deputies on Wednesday.
According to the
draft law on special consumption tax to be presented at the NA’s eighth
session starting next week, the tax rate on tobacco products will rise from
65% to 70% between July 1, 2015 and December 31, 2017 and to 75% from 2018.
Vu Xuan Hung at the
Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said the planned road map for
the tax hikes should be put on hold until 2017 and 2020 respectively.
Hung explained the
delay is to make the tax rises synchronized with the policy of the
Government.
Decree
67/2013/ND-CP on tobacco development orientations states that an enterprise
has to change its business areas or be merged into others if its annual
production volume is less than 100 million packs. Therefore, according to
Hung, if the tax increase is not delayed, it could make it hard for
enterprises to follow the decree.
Vu Van Cuong,
chairman of the Vietnam Tobacco Association (VTA), said higher special
consumption tax rates as outlined in the draft law would lead to increased
tobacco smuggling and therefore cutting the use of tobacco would turn out to
be a hard nut to crack as aimed for the tax increases.
According to VTA,
21.9 billion cigarettes were smuggled into
Cuong called for
the Government to step up anti-smuggling activities before raising the
special consumption tax as a measure to reduce the domestic use of tobacco.
Hung of VCCI said
the planned special consumption tax increases for other products such as beer
and online games should be made in line with the master zoning planning for
these industries.
Nguyen Duc Tho,
chief inspector of the HCMC Department of Information and Communications,
said in support of Hung that special consumption tax should not be slapped on
online game as online games are produced by foreign producers and distributed
by local companies currently subject to many types of taxes and fees,
including VAT, foreign contractor tax, corporate income tax and royalties.
Tho suggested that
there should be a road map for tax adjustments to assist domestic enterprises
in producing digital content products and software to replace foreign ones.
Phan Thi Hoai Thu
at VNG Corporation calculated that if special consumption tax is applied to
online games, the State budget could collect an additional VND800 billion per
year. But, VND626-1,043 billion will be lost as revenues of digital contents
decline if a special consumption tax rate of 10% is applied.
At the meeting,
participants also proposed not imposing the special consumption tax on
battery-powered vehicles as they are being used mainly for tourism purposes
or on air conditioners as these are essential products.
Experts said
special consumption tax is to influence consumer behaviors by taxing a
product the Government does not encourage or restrict people from using while
collecting more for the State budget.
NCB
introduces two more board members
National Citizen
Bank, or NCB, announced two new members of the board of directors during its
extraordinary general meeting in
Dang Thi Xuan Hong,
who served as chairwoman of Saigon Commercial Bank from 2010 to 2012, and
Tran Hai Anh, general director of NCB, were elected board members of the
lender in the 2010-2015 term, according to Vietnamplus. The bank’s board of
directors now has five members.
Speaking at the
meeting, Nguyen Thi Mai Suong, director of the central bank’s
Its restructuring
plan won approval from the central bank in June last year.
NCB chairman Vu
Hong
The bank has
recently shifted its focus to retail banking services for individuals and
families, financial solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises and
credits for selected large businesses.
Ending the third
quarter, NCB obtained over VND34.5 trillion in total assets, up 40%
year-on-year, while its mobilization was over VND30.2 trillion and total
outstanding loans were over VND16.8 trillion.
Customs
procedures to be cut to ten hours
The General
Department of Customs has set an ambitious target to reduce the time needed
for customs procedures to 10-11 hours from the current 21 days, a customs
official told the Daily on the sidelines of a conference in
Au Anh Tuan, deputy
head of customs control and supervision division at the General Department of
Customs, said the World Bank estimated that it takes a shipment 21 days to be
transported to ports and cleared, and the department will strive to check
documents within two hours and goods within eight hours.
To realize the
target, the department has requested the Ministry of Transport to simplify
goods delivery procedures at ports.
Tuan said with
e-customs applied from April this year, the customs authorities can receive
declaration forms from enterprises and send feedback within a couple of
seconds. Normal goods shipments can be tested in eight hours while new
scanners can check a container in 10 minutes.
According to Tuan,
the department will improve coordination with the State Treasury and banks so
that customs offices can clear goods for enterprises right after being
informed of their fulfillment of tax obligations. In addition, the use of
barcodes will soon be piloted in
Network
providers launch new services for businesses
To serve the mobile
office demand of enterprises, domestic network providers have offered the
mobile switchboards operated via mobile network applications.
With the recent
launch of MobiFone’s OneContact and VinaPhone’s MEG, corporate customers
registering for the services will be provided with a hotline number used to
handle all contacts relating to them, including phone calls and text
messages.
In addition to
operating as an internal switchboard, the services enable users to make
multipoint conference calls. Normal phone calls can facilitate only two
subscribers, but with the new mobile services, up to 256 numbers can be
included in a group call so that a number of mobile phone users can talk and
exchange information at the same time like a conference call.
Nguyen Dinh Chien,
deputy general director of MobiFone, said OneContact has been launched with
an aim to catch up with a shift from landline to mobile phone. Employees of
enterprises often work outside their offices and MobiFone’s new service will
be very useful for their mobile working trend.
To use the
OneContact service, corporate customers have to pay a registration fee of
VND300,000 and VND50,000 for each hotline number they sign up for. In
addition to the registration fee, users have to pay VND300,000 a month and
every hotline number is charged VND30,000 monthly, not to mention phone call
charges.
The monthly fee and
the registration fee of MEG are VND299,000 each. Unlike MobiFone, hotline
numbers do not have to pay the registration fee but pay a monthly charge of
VND15,000.
Vinaliving
introduces The Point villas in Danang
VinaLiving, the
real estate brand of VinaCapital, will officially put up for sale its The
Point in the central coast city of
The Point is the
latest premier golf villa estate at the international award winning Danang
Beach Resort. Inspired by the design of The Dune Residences which have now
sold out, The Point consists of 40 villas, 20 of which will comprise the
first phase release which will be offered for sale from VND4.9 billion a
villa including VAT.
The Point lies
adjacent to the 14th fairway of the Greg Norman-designed Dunes golf course
providing clear views of the clean and lush surrounding environment.
All villas include
three bedrooms with modern amenities on land plots ranging from 273 to 280
square meters. Homes range in size from 286 to 289 square meters.
Each home,
according to the developer, has its own private swimming pool together with
full access to back-up power. An extensive range of facilities and amenities
have already been developed for the project.
Located mid-way
between Danang and Hoi An, The Point targets buyers including both golf
players and real estate investors, the company said.
The first ten
buyers of the villas there will enjoy exemption of three years management
fee, according to the company.
Ministry
urged to report Long Thanh airport project to Politburo
Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung has assigned the Party head at the Ministry of Transport to
act on behalf of the Party chief of the Government to report the Long Thanh
airport project to the Politburo.
Earlier the Prime
Minister passed an investment report on the multi-billion-dollar project as
requested by the Party committee at the Ministry of Transport, the Government
portal chinhphu.vn reports.
However, the
National Assembly Standing Committee at its meeting in
NA vice chairwoman
Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan told the meeting that the Long Thanh airport project
would require a huge amount of investment while the economic slump is not yet
over.
Ngan asked the
Ministry of Transport to help the Government find capital sources for site
clearance and the development of the project, and carefully prepare reports
for the project if the Government wants to win NA approval. She noted that
the NA Standing Committee has agreed the project can go before the NA’s
upcoming session later this month, but not giving official approval for the
project.
Despite the huge
amount of investment, the HCMC government has thrown its weight behind an
early development of the Long Thanh international airport as the expansion of
Tan Son Nhat International Airport will require a staggering US$9.2 billion
if it is carried out by Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) to ease a
future overload at the biggest international airport in Vietnam.
In a recent
document sent to the National Assembly Economic Committee, the HCMC
government said 641 hectares north of the airport in Tan Binh District would
have to be cleared and 140,000 households would be displaced to make room for
site clearance if the airport is expanded.
The city said Tan
Son Nhat covers 1,500 hectares including 590 hectares used for civil aviation
activities and is located in an area of high population density. The annual
number of 20 million passengers going through the airport often leads to
traffic overloads on the streets leading to the airport.
Besides the
relocation of 140,000 households as planned, the expansion will make traffic
around the airport go from bad to worse even though metro lines No. 2, 4 and
5 as well as monorail and overpass projects are completed.
HCMC said expanding
the airport will put a dent in urban development as zoning and airspace
management of the Ministry of Defense would be impacted in addition to noise
pollution and exhaust emissions that would exceed allowable levels.
For the aforesaid
reasons, the city assumed the expansion plan would not be cost-effective.
Therefore, the city government supports an early construction of Long Thanh
international airport in neighboring Dong Nai.
Earlier, ACV
unveiled a plan to expand Tan Son Nhat to enable it to serve 26 million
passengers a year when Long Thanh airport is not ready.
ACV said Tan Son
Nhat could handle a maximum of 25 million passengers a year and forecast it
to be overloaded in 2016-2017 while the first phase of Long Thanh airport
with an annual capacity of 17 million passengers would not be completed
before 2020.
The first phase of
the project is estimated to cost over US$7.8 billion and is projected to
handle 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of goods a year by 2025 in
an effort to ease the overload at Tan Son Nhat. Its capacity will be
increased to 100 million passengers and five million tons of goods a year by
2030.
Big stores
look for specialty suppliers
Many big
supermarkets are looking for suppliers of special agricultural and food
products from localities nationwide, according to the HCMC Investment and
Trade Promotion Center (ITPC).
ITPC said in a
statement that the center is executing a program to build a strong bridge
between retailers, distributors and potential suppliers who are businesses,
co-operatives and household producers.
Representatives of
major domestic and foreign retailers such as BigC, Metro, Aeon, Lotte and
Fairprice
The retailers are
expected to participate in the supply-demand connectivity program held by
ITPC at the upcoming exhibition Hi-Tech Agro 2014 set to take place at Le Van
Tam Park in HCMC’s District 1 from October 22 to 26.
On Tuesday, some 50
manufacturing enterprises, associations, distributors, retailers, trading and
logistics companies joined a connectivity event for supply and demand for
domestic consumption and export. The participants included BigC and Uy Tin
Trading and Services Co. Ltd., which owns online market Golmart.
Le Thanh Trung of
BigC said the company is focusing on developing local special products in
different parts of
Housing
oversupply
The southern
There are as many
as 112 projects to develop residential quarters and apartment buildings with
a combined area of over 6,350 hectares, according to data from the provincial
government.
However, only 28
projects, or less than a quarter, have been basically complete, while 38
projects see developments limited to technical infrastructure construction,
and 46 others have merely started the very initial steps of compensation and
site clearance.
However, data from
The Construction
Department said that out of 220 projects, up to 94 are still stuck in
compensation and site clearance, and 75 others have remained stalled.
An expert estimated
over 90% of property projects in the province are divided by investors into
land lots for sale to secondary investors, while there are few projects to
develop complete housing units.
Much of the land
zoned for residential development is left unattended to as buyers, who for
the most part are speculators, do not build houses given the frozen real
estate market.
Ngo Huu Bang, a
resident in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District, recalls he bought a land lot
measuring 300 square meters in Binh Duong Province’s Ben Cat District back in
2007 at a price of VND500 million. Ever since, the property bubbles there
have burst, and early this year, Bang sought to sell it, offering a half
price at only VND250 million, but he could not find a buyer.
In a different
situation, Ngo Thi Hien Thuc from HCMC’s Go Vap District purchased two land
lots of 125 square meters each at a total cost of VND400 million, but after
six years, the primary investor still has not handed over the land ownership
certificates to her. Now Thuc cannot build houses on the land lots, nor sell
back the land due to the lack of such certificates.
Several brokers in
Binh Duong told the Daily that the locality witnessed overheated investment
in the property sector during 2007-2008.
Many speculators,
with the majority coming from HCMC, rushed to buy land there due to much
lower prices compared to that in HCMC. And now, given the dreary real estate
market, such secondary investors are seeking to stop losses by offloading
their stocks, but there are few buyers.
Even primary
investors also find it tough to pursue their projects in Binh Duong.
The new urban
project Binh Nguyen in Di An Town, for instance, is a case in point. The
project comprises of 140 land lots for villas of 300 square meters each and
500 land lots of 100 square meters each for street-front houses.
Private company
Thao Nguyen as the project owner has managed to sell almost all smaller land
lots, but it could not offload land lots for villas. The company is now
seeking approval from local authorities to split such land lots into smaller
ones to make them sellable.
This project,
however, has almost been deserted with just a few houses going up, while most
of the land has become gazing ground.
The picture is even
more somber.
However, there are
also several promising projects in Binh Duong.
Dang Thi Kim Oanh,
general director of Kim Oanh Real Estate Company, admitted that the property
market in Binh Duong had experienced tough times due to overheated, rampant
development. However, land in prime sites are still attracting homebuyers,
she said.
Within just one
month, her company’s The Mall City project in Di An Town has had up to 400
land lots out of the total 450 ones find buyers, she said, adding those
projects in close proximity to main axis routes and populated areas with good
infrastructure are still attractive to buyers.
Regarding the
apartment segment, Oanh said the prospect is not so bright, especially for
high-quality condo buildings. However, budget apartments can still sell
fairly well in the province, and many investors are still pouring money into
such projects. She cited for example the First Home Premium project in Thuan
An Town with nearly 600 apartments.
Marc Townsend,
managing director of the property market research company CBRE, noted that
Binh Duong as a major industrial manufacturing base is still attracting
property investors as the population is rising rapidly, partly owing to
surging migration.
Thuan An Town close
to HCMC, for example, is still a good land for investors, he said.
The provincial
government said its population is forecasted to surpass two million next year
compared to some 1.75 million in 2013, and the number is expected at 2.5 million
by 2020.
Anticipating the
rapid population increase, the provincial government has mulled a scheme to
develop 123 additional property projects with the total area of 13,540
hectares. This scheme, if realized, may aggravate the housing woes in Binh
Duong due to oversupply.
Nippon Paint has
inaugurated a US$14-million plant in the
The facility
covering 60,000 square meters at Ba Thien 2 Industrial Zone has an annual
production capacity of 15,000 tons and generates 500 jobs for locals.
Fujita Tetsuro,
senior corporate officer at Nippon Paint Co. Ltd., said in a statement that
the opening of the Vinh Phuc plant is a major milestone in the history of
Nippon Paint in
“With automobile
and motorcycle manufacturing developing strongly in recent years, especially
in
To support the
domestic automobile and motorcycle manufacturing industry, the company plans
to increase the production capacity of the new plant to encompass coil,
general industrial-use and heavy-duty coating products among others. Also in
the plan will be water-resistant and architectural paints and resin
production.
Nippon Paint opened
its first facility, Nippon Paint
VinaCapital’s
infrastructure fund to be open-end
VinaCapital
announced a plan to change one of its investment funds, Vietnam
Infrastructure Ltd. (VNI), into an open-end fund on October 16.
According to
VinaCapital Managing Director Andy Ho, the fund will be split into two parts,
one for infrastructure development projects and the other for a portfolio of
listed shares.
The decision was
prompted by the ongoing national trend to convert closed-end funds into
open-end ones that allow capital investors to the fund to withdraw from the
Vietnamese market more easily.
However,
VinaCapital is not considering changing any other subsidiaries, such as the
Vietnam Opportunity Fund Limited (VOF), as they are not suitable to the
open-end model.
VNI was formerly a
closed-end fund with net assets worth more than 231 million USD at the end of
September. It mainly focused on projects in telecommunications, petroleum,
industrial parks and urban area development.
VinaCapital is an
asset management firm in
The firm also
co-manages the DFJ VinaCapital LP technology venture capital fund with Draper
Fisher Jurvetson, an international technology group.
Its net asset value
now totals nearly 1.5 billion USD.
G-bond
sales forecast to hit new highs
Government bond
sales by the State Treasury would reach new highs this year thanks to strong
market demand, the Saigon Times Daily reported.
As of on October
15, the State Treasury had sold around 220 trillion VND worth of G-bonds,
meeting over 92 percent of the year’s target set by the Ministry of Finance.
The figure was around 60 percent higher than the same period last year.
Vietnam Development
Bank and Vietnam Bank for Social Policies have also reported positive bond
sales this year.
According to the
Finance Ministry, the State Treasury mobilised 12 trillion VND worth of
G-bonds in September, down over 23 percent over the previous month but 26
percent higher than the same period last year.
The G-bond market
saw many advantages in January-September thanks to the more active
participation of investors, the ministry said.
Last month, each
session attracted 10-14 investors to bid for every tenor. Investors bid for
32 trillion VND versus 12 trillion VND put up for sale.
In the coming time,
the ministry will focus on issuing long-term bonds from five to 15 years to
ease debt payment pressure in the next one or two years. It will also
strengthen government debt restructuring solutions amid the unfavorable
market.
In fact, long-term
bonds have sold well in recent times. Last month, the State Treasury halted
issuing bonds with tenors of three years or shorter while focusing on tenors
of five, 10 and 15 years.
The ratio of three-year
bonds of the total volume mobilised has declined sharply against 2013.
On October 13, the
Hanoi Stock Exchange sold over 4.24 trillion VND worth of State Treasury’s
bonds. Of which, there was 345 billion VND worth of five-year bonds at the
winning rate of 4.8 percent per annum, 3 trillion VND of 10-year bonds at
6.19 percent per annum and 900 billion VND of 15-year bonds at 7.05 percent
per annum.
The Vietnamese
economy, facing a lot of difficulties though, managed to secure a relatively
stable growth driven by industrial exports, the Vietnam Business Forum
Magazine (VBF) reported.
The nine-month
export earnings fulfilled 75.4 percent of the target of 145.4 billion USD set
for the whole year. The foreign direct investment (FDI) sector continued to
lead other economic sectors in export revenue and its percentage is getting
higher and higher.
The FDI sector
accounted for 61.3 percent of
Export growth
outpaced import growth in the January-September period. If the export growth
is 10 percent as expected for this year, the import spending will reach 145.4
billion USD. The country already fetched 109.6 billion USD in the first nine
months.
In recent years,
The growth rates of
the country’s key exports such as apparels and textiles, leather and
footwear, and woodworks were higher than the overall export growth.
Chemicals, handbags, suitcases, hats, umbrellas, toys and sports equipment
saw over 30 percent growths.
As the demand for
these commodities has incrementally increased in new markets,
The growth rates of
agricultural, forest and aquatic products were also higher than the average
overall export growth, particularly seafood, vegetables, pepper, cashew nuts
and coffee. Vegetable and fruit export expanded 42.7 percent over a year
earlier.
In the nine-month
period, price drops took away nearly 280 million USD from export of
agricultural products meanwhile fuel and mineral products increased export
earnings by 59 million USD. In combination,
Exports to new
markets and niche markets soared in the first nine months of 2014. Free trade
agreements (FTAs) also helped boost export growth.
Shipments to
Latin America, the
Caribbean and Africa did not contribute much to
Exports to European
markets grew more than 10 percent. Remarkably, the EU,
Oceania, which
contributed 3 percent to
In the coming time,
the Ministry of Industry and Trade will seek solutions to remove difficulties
and boost production and export. The ministry will also seek to expand and
diversify export markets by grasping opportunities generated by international
commitments, particularly FTAs.
Teikoku Databank, a
company specialising in collecting business information on companies in
Japanese firms have
a keen interest in such areas as interior decoration, garments and textiles,
information and technology in
The survey,
released on October 16, shows Vietnam ranked fourth in the list of the safe
markets in which Japanese business enterprises have attached the most
importance to, trailing China, the US and Thailand.
President of the
Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Vu Tien Loc was quoted as
saying that this is good news. The most important thing for
Recently, the Japan
External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in
According to a
JETRO report in February,
Up to 70 Japanese
firms in
An Giang
attracts 164 million USD in FDI
The southern
province of An Giang have so far this year granted licences to 13 foreign
direct investment (FDI) projects, with a total registered capital of 163.8
million USD.
The figures
represented year-on-year rises of 9 and 156.4 million USD in number and
value, respectively, according to Deputy Director of the provincial
Department of Planning and Investment Pham Thanh Nhon.
The value surge was
attributed to a 100 million USD garment-textile project from Taiwanese
investors and a 15 million USD footwear one from the
The province now
boasts 33 FDI valid FDI projects worth over 213 million USD, nearly 52
million USD of which has been disbursed.
Local authorities
are taking numerous measures to improve policies, mechanisms and information
technology system in an effort to lure more foreign investment.
Source: VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VIR
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Chủ Nhật, 19 tháng 10, 2014
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