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BUSINESS IN BRIEF 19/3
Canadian exporters eye Vietnamese beef market
Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agrifood Gerry Ritz
yesterday said the Vietnamese market held great potential for the import of
high-quality, flavourful Canadian beef.
Speaking at a press conference in
Ritz is leading an agricultural trade mission to
Last year,
Asia has become one of its priority markets, with
Jack Hextall, chairman of Canada Beef, which is responsible
for domestic and international beef and veal market development, said that
Rob Meijer, president of Canada Beef, said initially
The Animal Husbandry Association of Viet Nam said the number
of cows raised in
Domestic cow production meets only 75-76 per cent of local
demand.
To satisfy demand, the country had to import a large volume of
beef and cows from other countries, Nguyen Dang Vang, the association's
chairman, said.
Cow and beef imports in recent years have increased strongly,
with more than 250,000 live cows and 26,000 tonnes of beef and buffalo meat
imported last year.
Demand for beef is expected to increase while there will be
few changes in production since the country does not have advantageous
conditions for raising cows on large-scale farms.
The country expects to import a similar volume of live cows
and beef this year to satisfy domestic consumption.
The event was organised by the Canada Beef International
Institute and the Embassy of Canada in
MoT okays sea sand for bridge work
Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Cong gave Civil
Engineering Construction Corporation No 4 the green light to try using sea
sand instead of river sand when building the Tan Vu –
The move came after the company had trouble collecting the
50,000 cubic metres of river sand it needed to build the roadbed of the
bridge's approach before March 30, as scheduled.
Using sea sand from Hai
The project would first need to test the sea sand, to see if
it could be used successfully instead of river sand. If it worked, it could
be used more widely in the construction sector, he said.
However, sea sand gave way easier than river sand when
vehicles drove over it, said Deputy Minister Cong. He told the company to
prepare an alternative, in case its plan failed.
Civil Engineering Construction Corporation No. 4 needed to
send its two detailed plans to authorised agencies by March 28, Cong said.
Tan Vu – Lach Huyen is the country's longest sea bridge.
Construction started last February, with a completion date set for 2017.
The 15.6km sea bridge is a key national project that will
connect eastern areas of the city to
The construction of the bridge is being funded with more than
VND10 trillion (US$466 million) in Official Development Assistance from
Quality awards bestowed on domestic firms
The Ministry of Science and Technology yesterday published a
list of 65 Vietnamese enterprises that have been granted national quality awards.
Of them, 19 firms will receive gold awards, including Can Tho
Sugar Joint Stock Company, Thanh Hoa Medical Materials Equipment Joint Stock
Company, Trafaco Joint Stock Company and Information Technology of the
Central Power Corporation.
The remainder of the firms will receive silver awards.
The award ceremony will take place in Ha Noi on March 22.
Ngo Quy Viet, director general of the ministry's Directorate
for Standards, Metrology and Quality, said the awardees performed excellently
in maintaining and improving quality systems, and in contributing to
provincial and national economy. He also said in difficult conditions,
enterprises needed to care about boosting productivity, technology and the
quality of services and products.
Viet said the national quality awards would partly help the
firms to take a relook at themselves to improve the quality of their services
and products.
Established in 2009, the awards are granted by the Prime
Minister, and are part of a system of the International Asia-Pacific Quality
Awards of the Asia-Pacific Quality Organisation.
The firms are judged on seven criteria of leadership,
strategic planning, customer service and market focus and measurement, as
well as knowledge management, workforce focus and process management and
results.
VNPT to divest $56.4m in first quarter
The Viet Nam Post and Telecom Group (VNPT) will divest VND1.2
trillion (US$56.4 million) from the joint-stock sector in the first quarter
of this year.
Tran Manh Hung, general director of VNPT, said the group would
also divest VND2 trillion from listed companies following a decision Prime
Minister Nguyen Tan Dung signed in June last year to restructure VNPT. So
far, the group has divested VND500 billion ($23.5 million).
The group was carrying out divestments in accordance with the
decision, said Hung.
BIDV funds new Vissai cement factory
The Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) has
approved a loan for the Vissai Cement Group worth VND6.3 trillion ($296
million) to build a cement factory in the central
The factory's total investment capital is estimated at VND10.5
trillion ($493.5 million).
Construction of the factory started in February, and is
expected to take 18 months to complete.
The factory will have an output capacity of 18,000 tonnes of
clinker per day, equivalent to 7.2 million tonnes per year.
MARD to examine rice storage problems
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will
establish an inspection team to deal with difficulties in the Viet Nam Food
Association (VFA)'s rice-stockpiling program, the deputy minister Vu Van Tam
has said to Tuoi Tre (Youth).
According to the VFA, efforts to encourage enterprises to buy
2014-15 winter-spring rice for storage has only managed to find storage for
12 per cent of the programme's target.
To deal with the lag, the VFA asked the central bank to work
with commercial banks in creating favourable policies for enterprises that
buy rice for storage, including attractive loans for buying the rice.
A rice expert complained that the VFA itself was partly
responsible for the slow distribution of loans because of the VFA's
allocation of quotas.
The VFA set rice-storage quotas for a list of large
enterprises based on several factors, factors that might not reflect a
business's current situation, such as how well they stored winter-spring rice
harvests in the past.
In order to get the rice loans, businesses must be in a
healthy financial situation. But, in fact, many businesses on the VFA's quota
list are in poor financial situations and cannot get loans from banks.
Though many banks have started to offer these preferential
loans for rice purchases, they continue to maintain their own minimum
standards for offering loans.
A representative of Eximbank said many enterprises lost money
when buying rice last year or businesses used loans for other purposes,
making this year's loan scrutiny all that much higher.
Le Duc Tho, the general director of Vietinbank, similarly said
the bank would only offer loans if it could be assured it can reclaim the
loans from the enterprise.
The VFA has been faulted for not carefully reviewing the
actual financial situation of enterprises on their quota list.
MARD had been tasked with fixing the current situation.
However, if problems ran deeper than MARD's powers, they would reach out to
the Prime Minister for help, said deputy minister of MARD Tam.
At his meeting with representatives of Vietnamese businesses
and
He made it clear that
Nhan suggested Vietnamese companies holding regular meetings
with
Officials from
As part of his visit to
Fifty firms join Indian pharmaceutical expo
More than 50 pharmaceutical companies from
Jointly organised by the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion
Council of India (Pharmexcil) and Indian Chamber of Commerce (InCham) in
Indian pharmaceutical companies, which began supplying
medicine to the Vietnamese market in the early 1990s, are a critical supplier
of medicine to the country.
Imports of pharmaceutical products from
Last year, import turnover from
Food safety – number one consumer complaint
A report by the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and
Environment made public at a recent consumer rights conference in
Speakers at the conference said that despite the relatively
high public profile of opinions and legislative action on the issue, there is
a startling lack of understanding by shoppers about their rights and
responsibilities.
The results of a sample of 1,200 adults who completed an
online consumer rights questionnaire investigating attitude, knowledge and
critical thinking ability of Vietnamese buyers showed that overall 90% of the
group were not confident they knew enough about their rights and legislation.
The survey did find however, that most people pay attention to
basic information, such as production date, price, trade mark and origin and
that they most often chose products, based on the opinion of their relatives
or friends.
Speakers at the conference said the levels of knowledge leave
adults vulnerable to exploitation in the marketplace but that is not surprising
as consumer education in
Food safety remains the number one issue of consumers as the
country has been gaining a national reputation for businesses selling rotten
meat treated with chemicals to make it appear fresh or using chemicals to
keep fruits and vegetables fresh, they said.
Shoppers also have a high level of concern over inadequate or
the lack of disclosure of the origins of fresh the fruits and vegetables sold
in supermarkets and other retail establishments throughout the country.
Unhealthy food has been flooding the market, but, most
consumers don’t know how to go about filing complaints said Vuong Nghia Dan
from the Hai Ba Trung precinct of
Only 2 to 3% of consumers have filed complaints when their
rights were violated she said adding that even those who understood the
process failed to do so because of concern about the cost and time involved.
Nguyen Manh Hung, vice chairman and general secretary of the
Vietnam Standards and Consumers Association (VINASTAS) in turn said customers
should form alliances with each other to enforce their rights.
In reality, boycotting restaurants or supermarkets selling
poor-quality products has a stronger effect than punishments, Hung said.
He added that around 1,550 complaints were filed last year
with VINASTAS, which is undoubtedly much lower than the actual number of
complaints and that the association has an 80% success rate of resolving
disputes favourably.
Hung suggested that the government educate consumers by better
utilising the existing complaint mechanism to get the word out to consumers
on the specifics of their rights and responsibilities.
Additionally, the administrative procedures involved in
lodging complaints should be streamlined.
Customers are often much too passive in their response to
violations. Consumers should seek out organisations to assist them in
enforcing their rights and resolve consumer violation matters, he added.
To help consumers raise their voice, the Vietnam Competition
Authority (VCA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has set up a free
online consultancy hotline at 1800 6838.
Consumers can get expert support for their complaints about
goods and services.
Other experts have proposed that there should be stricter
fines for individuals and organisations which violate consumers’ rights and
improvements in the Law on Protection of Consumers' Rights should be made.
Although the law was issued in 2011 there has still been no
specific guidance for giving effect to of some parts of the law, said
Trinh Anh Tuan, VCA deputy head.
A number of measures will be undertaken to improve law enforcement
and to promulgate the law to help consumers understand their rights and
duties in coming time, Tuan revealed.
SeaBank receives int’l leadership award
Once again SeaBank has been selected to receive a World
Quality Commitment Award for its dedication to high calibre worldwide
innovation.
“It is a great honour for SeaBank to have been chosen to
receive the prestigious Business Initiative Directions (BID) award for the
fourth consecutive year in a row,” said Ms Le Thu Thuy, vice chairwoman of
the bank’s board of directors.
She added that this year’s award is in recognition of the
bank’s persistent drive to provide its customers with excellence in banking
and financial services.
The award will be presented at a convention to be held in
Paris on October 24th and 25th as part of the annual programme of BID Awards,
designed to recognize the prestige of the outstanding companies,
organizations and people in the business world.
The ceremony will be attended by companies from 74 countries,
together with leaders from different business fields, professionals from the
worlds of economics, the arts and corporate image, quality experts, as well
as academic personalities and representatives from the diplomatic corps.
The event will be covered by reporters, television cameras and
photographers for the media.
Italy’s Lazio businesses explore Vietnamese market
A number of businesses from the Lazio region in Italy, a major
centre of diplomatic and commercial activities, have shown interest in the
young, dynamic Vietnamese market.
Addressing a workshop on March 16, Vietnamese Ambassador to
Italy Nguyen Hoang Long said the consumer demand in his country is increasing
with made-in-Italy products soaring in popularity.
He called on Italian businesses to financially assist Vietnam
in seed selection, technological application, manufacturing activities,
trademark promotion and market penetration.
He said he hopes the active negotiations for the free trade
agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the EU and the separate agreements reached
by Vietnam and Italy will help increase trade between the two countries.
The trade pact is expected to increase Vietnamese exports to
EU countries by 30-40 percent, and EU exports to Vietnam by 20-25 percent, he
noted.
Vietnam and Italy established diplomatic ties in 1973 and
elevated their relationship to a strategic partnership in 2013. Since then,
bilateral cooperation has been raised to a new height in politics, economics,
culture, social affairs and education.
Noticeably, bilateral trade increased 17 percent to 4.1
billion USD in 2014.
Italy is the 15th biggest importer of Vietnamese products and
Vietnam ’s 3 rd largest trade partner in the EU.
It is ranked 28th of 101 nations and territories investing in
Vietnam with 56 valid projects worth over 300 million USD run by big
companies like the Italy national oil and gas company (ENI), Piaggio,
Ariston, and Gattonini.
The two countries held the first session of the joint
committee on economic cooperation in November 2014 and organised a number of
workshops and trade forums in the respective countries to support business
players.
So far, Vietnam has opened three economic offices in Tuscany ,
Emilia-Romagna , and Lombardy in Italy , embracing the economic ties between
the two.
Construction
begins on pharmaceutical plant in Binh Duong
The Medochemie Far East company under the Cypriot Medochemie
Group has broken ground on a new pharmaceutical plant at the
Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park II A (VSIP) in Tan Uyen Town in the
southern province of Binh Duong on March 17.
The 44,700 square-metre plant at a total cost of 16.1 million
USD is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. Once operations
commence at the outset of 2016, its outputs will be used for domestic
consumption and exports.
Earlier, Medochemie invested 14 million USD to construct a
plant across 18,400 square metres in VSIP II.
Binh Duong province is currently home to 25 pharmaceutical
plants certified by the “Good Manufacturing Practices” (GMP), accounting for
22.1 percent of the country’s pharmaceutical production.
Tran Thanh Liem, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s
Committee, said that the local authorities are willing to provide support and
address any difficulties in a timely manner to create favourable conditions
for investors in the locality to implement the project effectively.
European enterprises promote trade in HCM City
A number of trade promoting programmes to elevate business
activities between Ho Chi Minh City and a delegation of European enterprises
opened in the southern city on March 17.
The events were organised by the European Union Business
Avenues Organisation and the HCM City branch of the Vietnam Chamber of
Commerce and Industry.
According to Jan Naplava, representative of the European Union
Delegation to Vietnam, Business Avenues is a programme assisting small- and
medium-sized European enterprises to seek business opportunities in the ASEAN
region.
Under the programme, over 100 European companies have
participated in trade promotion activities with a view to partnering with
counterpart enterprises in Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia.
The participating European delegation operates mainly in
manufacturing ceramics, interior design, and decoration.
The delegation praised Vietnam’s business advantages in
comparison with other nations in the ASEAN region and highlighted its role as
an important partner of the EU.
Looking forward, the EU Business Avenues intends to send
additional delegations to the city.
Prime Minister receives top businesses in Australia
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met with a number of top
Australian enterprises on March 17 during his ongoing visit to the country.
Meeting with representatives from Telstra, Australia’s largest
phone service provider, PM Dung said Vietnam is carrying out equitisation of
several telecoms companies beginning with Mobifone. He welcomed the
conglomerate’s interest in investing in Mobifone’s shares and suggested the
two should examine the idea together.
The Prime Minister also supported the cooperation between the
Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group and Rio Tinto, one of the
world’s leading mining corporations. The pair will collaborate in upgrading
an Aluminium factory and improving the productivity of bauxite exploitation
in Vietnam.
At the reception with Santos, a major company in oil and gas
exploration and production, Prime Minister Dung suggested the company study
demand in Vietnam for liquefied natural gas and prospects for investment in
other fields.
When receiving representatives from the Commonwealth Bank of
Australia, he declared Vietnam consistently provides favourable conditions
for foreign investors in the banking sector and looks to continue working
with international organisations in technical assistance and human resources
training in this field.
At the meeting with the Australia and New Zealand Banking
Group Limited (ANZ), he urged the bank to expand its operations in Vietnam
and expressed his belief in the significant contributions resulting from its
financial services to the country’s socio-economic development and to enhanced
trade between Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.
PM Dung also encouraged Origin Energy, Australia’s leading
integrated energy company, to consider investment in Vietnam.
US bank lauds Vietnamese economic achievements
Chairman of the US Ex-Im Bank Fred Hochberg has lauded Vietnam
for its macroeconomic stability, consistent high growth rate, and proactive
international integration.
Fred Hochberg made the remark during a recent meeting with
Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham QuangVinh at the bank’s headquarters in
Washington D.C.
He said Vietnam and the US have made significant advancements
in economics, trade and investment, highlighting the 36 billion USD in
two-way trade between the two countries in 2014.
He affirmed that the bank will continue encouraging and
supporting American businesses to invest in Vietnam.
For his part, Pham QuangVinh spoke highly of the bank’s
cooperation on the infrastructure development in Vietnam.
He expressed his hope that the bank will continue financing
projects in transportation, renewable energy, water treatment, and medical
services.
Vietnamese processed food soars in popularity
The bustling life in modern Vietnamese cities has resulted in
the rapid growth of the processed food industry, with domestic products
dominating the market.
The strength of the local processed food producers is the
ability to create a variety of products bearing Vietnamese tastes, helping to
promote the cultural values of Vietnamese cuisines, Deputy Minister of
Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa was quoted as saying by the Dien Dan Doanh
Nghiep (Business Forum) newspaper.
The newspaper also cited a survey conducted by the AC Nielsen
market research company in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi which found domestic
brands to be more popular than foreign ones due to particular tastes of
consumers at home.
Meanwhile, the Business Monitor International (BMI) forecasts
that the Vietnamese processed food industry will climb by 24.2 percent in
volume and 48.7 percent in sales annually.
Strolling around the food stalls at supermarkets such as
Co.opmart, Aeon and Big C, consumers are attracted by the diversity and
convenience of processed products.
Chairman of the Saigon Co.op, Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, said stores in
his chain offer more than 100 kinds of Vietnamese processed foods, and their
sales record an annual growth of 20 percent.
Saigon Co.op is promoting investment in modernising its
processed food pavilions and recruiting professional sales staff.
Deputy Director of the Saigon Food, Le Thi Thanh Lam, said its
processed food is favoured by local consumers due to its reasonable prices
and export-quality standards.
Recently Saigon Food invested in building a cold storage and
processing plant in anticipation of rising demand, Lam added.
Despite the positive signs, experts warned that the
multinational groups are eying this fertile market as part of their long-term
strategies. With better established trademarks and more financial backing,
these international companies are expected to provide local producers with
fierce competition in the near future.-
Growing green-label trend in Vietnam
Finding favour with the government, a green tag trend marking
eco-products has recently emerged in Vietnam.
A workshop on labelling systems between experts from Vietnam
and Thailand—an experienced country that established its green label in
1997—was held in Hanoi, on March 16.
Nguyen Thu Ha, a representative from a research group at the
Environmental Administration, said eligible businesses meeting the initial 14
criteria of the system would benefit greatly from the label.
She said approved green products will receive subsidies from
the government and priority on the lists of commodities chosen for public
purchase. Chosen companies will also be exempt from export duty.
Currently, there are only three accredited enterprises in
Vietnam, including Dien Quang Lamp JSC, Jotun Paints (Vietnam) Co. Ltd, and
Fuji Xerox Vietnam Co. Ltd.
According to Sirithan Pairoj-Boroboon, Executive Director of
Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation, criteria for the eco-label
in his country have increased to 97 specifications last year from 14 in 1997,
and are expected to reach 103 this year. Each company is in charge of its
registration procedure to obtain the certification, he said.
The workshop, part of a promotion campaign for a green tag in
Vietnam, was co-hosted by the ASEAN Vinyl Council and the research group from
the Environmental Administration.
Vietnam attends tourism fair in Russia
Vietnam is participating in the 10th International Travel Fair
Intourmarket (ITM) 2015, which officially opened at the Crocus Expo
International Exhibition Centre in Moscow, Russia on March 14.
Deputy Director General of the Vietnam National Administration
of Tourism (VNAT) led the attending Vietnamese delegation.
In ITM 2015, the VNAT is introducing the promotion campaign
“Vietnam- Timeless Charm”, activities of the “Connecting World Heritage”
National Tourism Year 2015, and specific tourism options such as sea and
island tourism; oceanic cultural tourism; m eeting, incentive, convention,
and exhibition (MICE) tourism ; and eco-tourism.
The annual fair, supported by the Ministry of Culture of the
Russian Federation, the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism and the Moscow
City Committee for Tourism and Hotel Industry, aims to create opportunities
for Russian and international tourism businesses to exchange and partner.
In 2014, Russia was one of the top 10 visiting nations to
Vietnam with nearly 365,000 travellers, up 22.4 percent from to 2013.
The ITM 2015 will run through March 17, 2015.
Credit growth reported in first two months
Vietnam recorded a 0.68 percent credit growth during the first
two months of 2015, revealed the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).
The central bank said the credit growth, attributable to
efforts by the banking system, is a promising trend for credit activities in
2015, as the rate has traditionally shrunk during the same period in recent
years.
The sector aims for 13-15 percent credit growth this year,
which SBV Governor Nguyen Van Binh considers reasonable in comparison with
other socio-economic factors and goals.
He pointed to the successful achievement of all credit growth
targets set by the SBV over the past years.
In the first half of 2014, despite the prevailing fear that
its annual credit growth target of 12-14 percent would be unattainable, the
bank did not yield its objective and ultimately achieved 14.16 percent growth
by the end of the year, he noted.
Exchange
rates to remain stable in H1
The State Bank of Viet Nam will not adjust the exchange rate
between the Vietnamese dong and the US dollar during the first half of this
year (H1).
This has been forecast by Vietcombank Securities Co. (VCBS).
In a report on Viet Nam's February macro-economy released this
week, VCBS forecast that the forex market would be continuously stable during
H1, attributing it to the country's low inflation during the first two months
of this year and also forecast that United States's Fed would not raise
interest rate in H1.
It would also help reduce pressure on the devaluation of the
dong, VCBS explained.
According to a report from the General Statistics Office, the
consumer price index (CPI) in February dropped by 0.05 per cent, compared
with January, and 0.25 per cent compared with last December.
VCBS also said that Viet Nam's trade balance had not been
affected by the reduction in crude oil prices in the world market as the
country's crude oil export value was almost equal to the import value of oil
and petrol products.
"Trade deficit, if it does occur in the future, will be
insignificant and will not affect the exchange rate strongly as the main
motivation for the country's growth during the next few months is expected to
come mainly from exporters, especially foreign direct investment firms,"
VCBS said.
Besides, VCBS also expects Viet Nam's foreign currency supply
source to be stable with disbursed FDI capital touching US$1.2 billion in the
first two months of this year, up 7.1 per cent year-on-year.
Viet Nam's remittance is also expected to continue growing
this year. The remittance is currently pegged at more than $35 billion,
equivalent to 12 weeks of imports.
The forex market was continuously stable in February, with the
inter-bank rate maintained at VND21,458 per dollar. Commercial banks in the
month listed the rate at VND21,355 to 21,385.
SBV mandates sale of NPLs
Credit institutions have been forced to sell their
non-performing loans (NPLs) to national debt dealer Viet Nam Asset Management
Company (VAMC) to meet regulated deadlines.
Online newspaper Vneconomy.vn cited a State Bank of Viet Nam's
(SBV's) instruction sent to credit institutions this week, which directs
credit institutions to sell at least 75 per cent of the NPLs they had
registered for sale to VAMC by June 30.
The deadline for selling all NPLs is September 30.
Previously, the sale of NPLs to the VAMC was not compulsory.
According to credit institutions, the move is aimed at
implementing a SBV directive issued earlier this year for handling the NPLs
of credit institutions.
As per the SBV Governor's directive, credit institutions and
VAMC have been given a strict schedule for resolving their bad debts as SBV
wants to ensure that the banking sector is able to meet SBV's target for
bringing down NPLs to below 3 per cent by the end of 2015, from the 4.7 per
cent recorded at the end of the third quarter of last year.
As June 30 approaches, credit institutions will have to
hastily sell their NPLs to VAMC in a bid to meet the deadline.
Resolving bad debts is among the key tasks of the banking
industry this year. The Government is also expected to adopt a plan that will
enable VAMC to trade debts through market mechanisms this year.
It has also asked the company to enhance its financial
capacity and tighten links with credit institutions for recovering and
restructuring debts, and create advantageous conditions for investors in debt
and mortgage transactions.
SBV had recently allowed VAMC to issue special bonds, worth up
to VND80 trillion (US$3.76 billion), to acquire bad loans from credit
institutions this year.
VAMC plans to buy NPLs worth VND100 trillion ($4.76 billion),
or 2.5 per cent of banks' total outstanding loans, this year.
Last year, VAMC had bought NPLs worth about VND96 trillion
($4.57 billion), raising the total bad debts it had purchased from 38 credit
institutions to VND135 trillion ($6.43 billion), or 3.4 per cent of the total
outstanding loans.
CPI to increase in March on back of higher power tariffs
The country's consumer price index (CPI) is expected to
increase 0.26 per cent following the hike in electricity tariffs and
petroleum, said Nguyen Bich Lam, the head of the General Statistics Office.
Electricity prices will increase by 7.5 per cent to an average
of VND1,622.05 per kilowatt (kWh) from March 16, following the Prime
Minister's decision to hike them, while petrol prices rose on March 11 by
VND1,600 a litre.
Lam said the hike would result in the CPI for the whole year
increasing by 0.46 per cent.
The Government said it would ensure that the GDP growth rate
this year is 6.2 per cent and inflation is curbed to 5 per cent.
However, economists are still worried about the impact of
these increases on the economy.
Economist Le Dang Doanh said the rise could result in massive
costs for businesses, thus creating a new increase in goods' prices in the
future.
Doanh added that the fuel hike was acceptable as it followed
similar price surges in the world market. However, the rise in electricity
tariffs had created a monopolistic situation. The Government's requirements
for increasing productivity, reducing staff and stemming losses in
transmission had also not been clearly explained.
He added the 7.5 per cent increase was too high, and would
exert additional burden on enterprises using electricity.
Doanh suggested that the rise should have been 3 per cent
each, and should have been gradually increased and forecast to help
enterprises actively plan their production.
A survey by the Vietnam News Agency showed that price
augmentation would hurt the big power-consuming industries the most.
Truong Quoc Huy, General Director of the Vicem But Son Cement
Joint Stock Company, said his firm used about 100 kWh of electricity to
produce one tonne of cement. Since power prices for manufacturing were higher
than those for households, the power price hike was likely to affect
production costs and selling prices.
According to Chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association, Ho
Nghia Dung, electricity expenses account for about 7 per cent of steel billet
production costs. Between 400 and 600 kWh of power are needed to produce one
tonne of steel billets.
He estimated that the 7.5 per cent hike would raise steel
production expenses by 80,000 to 100,000 VND (US$3.75 to 4.68) per tonne,
adding that it would also act as a burden for steel makers amidst the array
of challenges they are already facing, such as, decreasing prices of steel
billets imported from China and Japan.
Dao Phuong Mai, a teacher in Ha Noi's Hoang Mai District,
expressed her worry about a price hike in the near future, which might force
her to tighten spending.
"Before the Tet holiday, goods and other services' prices
were not reduced despite petroleum selling prices decreasing. The prices have
risen rapidly, even though the salaries have not," Mai noted.
"It feels like I was pick-pocketed while going to the
market."
Businesses asked to encourage ICT use
Management agencies and businesses should work together to
promote the application of information, communication and technology (ICT),
said deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam.
Dam told the representatives of ICT associations and
businesses at the meeting held in Ha Noi on Thursday that the documents
related to ICT development had been largely completed. However, the
government should choose specific works to implement during each period.
The leading ICT enterprises should be active in participating
in designing and implementing overall solutions as well as creating a
foundation for other small-scale companies to join the application.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Minh
Hong said this year that the sector would implement several important
policies for its development to accelerate the application of ICT when
dealing with the global market.
Hong urged businesses to continue making contributions to
building policies for ICT development while enhancing co-operation among
associations and firms in the ICT industry.
Truong Gia Binh, chairman of the Viet Nam Software and IT
Services Association, noted that with support from the government, ICT
companies would make efforts to put proposals into action this year to kick
off a boom in projects, launching a new development period for the country's
ICT industry.
Construction begins on Niwa casting factory
Japan's Niwa Foundry company has begun construction of its
first plant at the city's Hi-Tech Park in Hoa Vang District with total
investment of US$30 million.
The plant, which was built on an area of 3.11ha, will produce
480,000 engine castings a year.
The company's chairman Tatsumi Niwa said the company planned
to increase capacity to 4.5 million products for domestic and export markets
by 2019.
Earlier, Tokyo Keiki Inc. announced it had started
construction of its $40-million plant, producing electro-magnetic and
hydraulic equipment, at the 1,010-ha park.
Shipyard and Dutch Damen Group launch new tug
The Song Thu Shipyard and Dutch Damen Group launched an
Azimuth Stern-Drive Tug (ASD) for export and signed a contract to build
another four on Thursday.
The ASD Tug, which is 24m long and 11m wide, will be shipped
to the Middle East.
In co-operation with Damen Shipyards Group from the
S Korean firm to build medical equipment plant
South Korean enterprise Shin Chang plans to build a medical
equipment plant in the central province's Tam Ky City.
The project, which is scheduled to start later this year with
total investment of VND200 billion ($9.50 million), will be built on 2ha and
will create 250 jobs for local people.
It will be the first medical equipment manufacturing project
in the province.
FPT Software train engineers in Japan
FPT Software company, under the FPT Corporation, sent 43
information fechnology (IT) engineers to train in
The company said the trainees would receive six-month or
one-year courses in
Last year, FPT started work on the first stage of the S$23
million FPT complex in
Source :
VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VIR
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Thứ Năm, 19 tháng 3, 2015
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