finance & business news · India to conclude AD investigation into Vietnam spandex yarn 17 Joint...

13 March 2017

finance & business news

FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Banks report satisfactory profits, increased bad debts 1Central forex rate at record high 2Banking senior personnel becomes hot again 3Is bad debt issue not worrying? 4Bank regain abundant liquidity 4Bank bosses strongly collect shares 5Banks of Vietnam face risk of downgrade for having modest

brand value 6Maritime Bank's share auction cancelled as no investor registered 7Vietcombank plans to raise capital in 2017 7Reference exchange rate drops 1 VND 8Court sends OceanBank case back to investigators 8Industrial growth slow, labour productivity low: Party official 8Vietnam's economic growth to see little change in 2017 9Production improves but trade out of balance 10New US tax plan seen impacting Vietnam exports 11Trump's immigration rules threaten remittances to Vietnam 12Car imports jump following tax adjustment 12Trade with Egypt lags behind potential 13Vietnam suspends US poultry import to contain bird flu 13PM urges investment in Central Highlands 13VN agricultural sector urged to modernise technology 15Vietnam revives biofuel plan, sets national switch in 2018 16HCM City to impose strong sanctions on land-use violations 17India to conclude AD investigation into Vietnam spandex yarn 17Joint action needed to boost VN competitiveness 17HCM City, Belgian locality look for closer ties 18Formation of Bac Van Phong special administrative-economic

zone debated 19Finance Ministry hailed as administrative reform pioneer 19USTDA wants to help HCM City in smart city building efforts 20Conference promotes Vietnam-Singapore trade partnership 21Bac Lieu salt prices rise sharply 21Deal expected to revive Vietnam's coffee industry 22City property firms aim for cooperation, stability 23HCM City sees sharp increase in condo projects 24Clean rice processing cuts costs, emissions 25Dairy firms optimistic about growth 26

Experts urge firms to enter supply chains 27Local contractors need global strategies 27

BIZ NEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Stocks to fall further as US interest rate hike looms 28VN Index slips under 715 points 29Petroleum stocks sink VN Index 30VN Index falls for 2nd day on banks 31HNX nets $4.3 million in auctions in February 31VN Index closes flat on blue chips, energy stocks 32Why investors massively buy shares of Vietnamese enterprises? 32Funds earn huge profits from pre-listed firms 33Jetstar Pacific in A320 parts deal 34Viettel brand 2nd most valuable telecom in Southeast Asia 34February auto sales jump 50pct 34Hoa Phat holds annual shareholder meeting for 2017 35GPP Ca Mau to launch operations 36Vinalines, Vinacomin join hands in goods shipping 36Quang Ninh: Tonkin Gulf fishery logistics centre to be launched 37Soc Trang to build high-quality shrimp farm 37Ha Nam develops smart agriculture 38Companies to invest $3.3 billion in solar projects in

Vietnam's Dak Lak province 38Vietnamese start-ups receive a $250 million boost last year 39Business unsatisfied with online public services 39Vietnam PM yet to draw conclusion on two controversial projects 40Foreign suppliers eye local packaging industry 41Vietnam fruits welcomed overseas, less favoured in home market 41Hospitality segment on the rise in Da Nang 42Korea-Vietnam Incubator Park faces impediments 42Vincom suits Platinum Cineplex 43New appointments at PVN and VNPT announced 44Changes at the top at FLC 44Grab to be temporarily banned from Da Nang 44Footwear, leather promotion conference scheduled next week 46New progammes support tourism startups in Mekong region 46International agriculture festival underway in Mekong Delta 47Hanoi, Japan beef up trade, tourism ties 47

FINANCE
FINANCEBanks report satisfactory profits, increased bad debts
13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | VIETNAMNET

Banks' finance reports in 2016 show good news and bad news. Most of them had profits higher than the year before, but the number of non-performing loans increased.The bank business performance in 2016 has become clearer as more banks have released their financial reports.Ten banks, including, BIDV, Vietinbank, Vietcombank, SHB, MBB, Sacombank, ACB,

Intellasia No. 21, lane 173/63/17, Ngoc Ha Ward, Ba Dinh Dist, Hanoi © All Rights Reserved

Tel: +844 2213 2244Fax: +844 3759 2034

Email: [email protected]: www.Intellasia.Net www.TriTueAChau.com

FIN

AN

CE

Vietnam finance & business 13 March 2017

VIB, NCB and Eximbank, reported the total net interest margin in 2016 reaching VND95.538 trillion, an increase of 14.7 percent compared to 2015.However, the ratio of net interest margin on total income of the banks decreased from 80.47 percent to 79.46 percent. Nine out of 10 surveyed banks showed the decrease in net interest margin. This means that bank income has eased reliance on lending.With the net interest margin in 2016 just accounting for 82.5 percent of total income in-stead of 89 percent as seen in the same period of the year before, Eximbank is one of the banks that had big changes in income structure.The bank received VND3.082 trillion from net interest margin, down by 9.3 percent compared with 2015. Meanwhile, the net income from forex activities increased from VND62.7 billion to VND260 billion and the stock investments brought profit of VND25 billion while it took a loss of VND34 billion the year before.Sacombank also sees the proportion of income from credit decreasing from 78.16 per-cent in 2015 to 72.59 percent (VND5.119 trillion) in 2016.Bad debt on the riseSix out of 10 banks, including VietinBank, BIDV, Eximbank, SHB, VIB and Sacombank, saw the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio increasing.Sacombank has the highest NPL ratio - 5.35 percent of total outstanding loans, a sharp increase from the 1.86 percent in early 2016. Of this, sub-prime loans increased by 6.6 times to VND1.525 trillion from VND231 billion in late 2015.Eximbank ranks second in terms of NPL with the ratio soaring from 1.86 percent in 2015 to 2.95 percent, while VIB ranks third.This has forced banks to make high provisions against risks. The 10 surveyed banks made provisions of VND27.751 trillion in 2016, an increase of 13.93 percent compared to 2015.Though the provisioning has eaten into profits, its impact on the banks vary depend-ing on their health.Excluding BIDV and Sacombank, other surveyed banks all had profit growing by tens of percent. Eximbank, for example, reported profit of VND390 billion, an increase of 542 percent compared to 2015. The two big banks Vietcombank and VietinBank main-tained high growth rates of 24.75 percent and 16.1 percent, respectively.http://english.vov.vn/trade/banks-report-satisfactory-profits-increased-bad-debts-345280.vov

Central forex rate at record high

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | THE SAIGON TIMES

The central foreign exchange rate quoted by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) over the past four days has soared to an all-time high of VND22,258 per US dollar.With this rate, the greenback can be traded at between VND21,590 and VND22,926. The informal market rate was VND22,910 on March 9, the highest since the beginning of the year.Wednesday saw interbank forex trading turning hectic. At the start of the day, the rate opened at VND22,803-22,805 but quickly fell to VND22,785-22,789.At the close of the session, the exchange rate regained ground and ended at VND22,805. Banks said foreign currency flows from enterprises are steady and foreign currency liquidity remains good.The dollar on the informal market on the evening of March 8 increased by VND20 for the bid rate and VND5 for the offer rate, trading at VND22,850-22,855.Interest rates for dong on the interbank market continued to rise by 0.05-0.17 percent-age point for all tenors. The rate was 4.6 percent a year for terms ranging overnight to one week.On March 8, the central bank offered VND2 trillion in seven-day bonds with a coupon of 5 percent. Credit institutions bought around VND1.14 trillion worth of bonds. That day saw VND601 billion in bonds falling due on the mortgage channel, sending the volume of debt in circulation rising to VND4.93 trillion. No bills were issued while VND5,000 billion worth of bills fell due. Therefore, the central bank net injected over VND5.53 trillion into the system via open market operations.

Intellasia 13 March 2017 2 / 47

FIN

AN

CE


The US exchange market left some impact on the Vietnam money market. The dollar has strengthened against other major currencies as the Federal Reserve (Fed) is highly expected to hike US interest rates soon.Investors have priced in possible interest rate hikes this month since Janet Yellen, chair of the Fed, said a rate spike would be forthcoming if employment and inflation contin-ue to improve.Meanwhile, the gold price continued to fall sharply as the dollar recovered strongly. The spot price of the yellow metal closed down to $1,209 an ounce on Wednesday, down 0.58 percent. Domestic gold continued to dip by VND100,000 per tael at VND36.36 million for buying and VND36.61 million for selling. At the moment, do-mestic gold is VND3 million per tael higher than on global markets. A tael equals to 1.2 troy ounces.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52800/Central-forex-rate-at-record-high.html

Banking senior personnel becomes hot again

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | TRI THUC TRE

As planned, at Annual general Meeting (AGM) this year, many banks will conduct their election of members of the Board of directors (BOD) to consolidate their govern-ance and management, and approve issues which are under the authority of the Com-mittee of Shareholders.Vietcombank (VCB) plans to hold its 2017 AGM on April 28th. In particular, the bank will submit to the shareholders the dismissal and additional election of BOD members for the 2013-2018 term.On the same day, Sacombank also plans to hold its AGM. One of the contents of the meeting is the approval of membership of the BOD and the Supervisory Board for the 2017-2012 term.Earlier, on February 24th 2017, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued a decision to terminate the management role of Tram Be and Tram Khai Hoa at Sacombank. Tram Be and his related persons still have the responsibility to solve the remaining issues at Sacombank in accordance with current laws.This termination is in accordance with the proposal of restructuring the bank which was approved by the prime minister along with the Scheme on restructuring and set-tlement of bad debts in the period of 2011-2015 and the Scheme on restructuring Sa-combank in the post-merger period approved by the government.SBV will also instruct Sacombank to expeditiously hold the AGM in April 2017, which is to consolidate their governance, management, discuss and approve issues which are under the authority of the Shareholders Committee, continue the implementation of restructuring to ensure benefit of depositors, stabilise organisational structure and promote the bank's operation while ensuring the safety of the financial system.On April 22nd, BIDV plans to hold the AGM. In September 2016, Tran Bac Ha retired from the position of Chair of BIDV's BOD and ceased to represent the state proportion of 40 percent. Tran Anh Tuan - BIDV's Board Member is currently in charge of the BOD after Ha retired.ACB and MB hold the AGM on April 10th and on April 26th respectively while both Eximbank and PGBank choose April 21st for their AGM.For Eximbank, the AGM will discuss some contents which were planned to be submit-ted in the bank's 2016 extraordinary shareholders meeting, the contents under the au-thority of the 2017 AGM, the additional election of BOD members for the 6th term (2015 - 2020) and some other contents under the authority of the AGM.Specifically, in order to comply with the current regulations and for departments to have more time to prepare reports for the AGM, the BOD agreed to combine contents to be submitted to the 2016 extraordinary shareholders meeting with the contents for the 2017 AGM.Eximbank also continues to submit to shareholders the nomination of up to three em-ployees to be added to the BOD of the 6th term (2015 - 2020). The specific number of members is to be decided by the Shareholders Committee.Recently, TPBank has announced its receipt of application and nomination for the


FIN

AN

CE


BOD and Supervisory Board membership for the 2013-2018 term. The reason is that in mid-January, Ha Hong Sik - member of the BOD and Kento Tokimori - member of the Supervisory Board submitted their resignation which was then approved by the BOD.TPBank is collecting shareholders' opinions and receiving application for these two va-cant positions to ensure the number of eight members of the BOD and three members of the Supervisory Board. Expectedly, in the upcoming AGM, TPBank will submit the proposal for shareholders to approve.

Is bad debt issue not worrying?

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | VIETNAMFINANCE

In the recent submission of a draft decree of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to the government, SBV released a number of notable statistics on the amount and value of bad debts and secured assets of the debts located at the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) by the end of February 14th 2017.According to SBV's submitted document, there were 21,029 debt items with total prin-cipal value of 278.912 trillion dong were recorded at VAMC. That included 20,558 debt items having principal value of less than 100 billion dong, accounting for a total amount of 119.168 trillion dong; 432 debt items having principal value from 100 billion dong to less than 500 billion dong, accounting for a total amount of 117.290 trillion dong; 30 debt items having principal value from 500 billion dong to less than one tril-lion dong, accounting for a total amount of 28.223 trillion dong; and nine debt items having principal value from one trillion dong and more, accounting for 14.231 trillion dong.Along with the statistics on debt items, SBV also included statistics on the number and value of the secured assets at VAMC by the end of February 14th 2017. Specifically, VAMC had 52,237 secured assets with value of less than 100 billion dong, 554 secured assets with value from 100 billion dong to less than 500 billion dong, 137 assets with value from 500 billion dong to less than one trillion dong, and 125 assets with value from one trillion dong and more.Although SBV's statistics on secured assets lacked of a very important part compared those on bad debts, which is the specific value of each group of secured assets. How-ever, there is a very noteworthy point on the total value of secured assets at VAMC. If assuming that all the secured assets were listed by SBV at the minimum value, which means that each secured asset in the group with value of less than 100 billion dong was valued at only one billion dong, each asset in the group with value from 100 billion dong to less than 500 was valued at 100 billion dong, each asset in the group with value from 500 billion dong to less than one trillion dong was valued at only 500 billion dong, and each asset in the group with value from one trillion dong and more was valued at only one trillion dong, the total value of all secured assets at VAMC would be 301.137 trillion dong, larger than the total value of the debt principal at VAMC which was stat-ed at 278.912 trillion dong. It should be noted that the 301.137 trillion dong is only a minimal number and the actual amount in fact can be much greater.So does it mean that the bad debts at VAMC is not concerning? The answer is not re-ally, because numerous bad debts may have been guaranteed by the assets that have much larger value than the value of the debts. Moreover, the value of secured assets as of February 14th 2017 was not the current market value, it was based on the latest val-uation report.However, the higher value of the secured assets at VAMC compared to the debt prin-cipal value still reflects a fact that VAMC and credit institutions (CIs) are facing vari-ous difficulties in dealing with secured assets. Otherwise, the amount of bad debt should have dropped significantly, and would not be a worrying issue.This reflection also partly explains why the draft Law to boost restructuring and bad debt settlement of CIs focuses so much on the content about handling secured assets, including a proposal for giving privileges to VAMC and CIs in handing secured assets.


FIN

AN

CE


Bank regain abundant liquidity

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | INFOMONEY

In the March 2017 macro-economic report by MarketIntello, Dinh Tuan Minh said that after the Lunar New Year, liquidity in the banking sector has again become excessive.After increasing sharply during Tet holiday due to high demand of withdrawal, the in-terbank offered rates fell suddenly by almost percentage points during mid-February. Specifically, as of February 12th, the overnight rate fell from 5.31 percent per annum at the end of January to 1.55 percent per annum. Right after, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had to issue bills (the last time was in December 2016) and withdrew fund from the open market to re-stabilise the interbank rates before the start of the ordinary downtrend in late February.It is said that liquidity is the factor that helps stabilise banking rate. However, Minh believed that the increase in interest rates for the first 2 months was only the case in some banks and did not show the systematic feature.According to MarketIntello, while interest rates were relatively stable, the US dollar/dong exchange rate currently seems to increase in line with the appreciation of the US dollar. Specifically, SBV's central rate and the buying rate of Vietcombank increased respectively by 0.14 percent and 0.8 percent in February 2017. Besides being affected by the US dollar increase in the world market, the exchange rate in February was also influenced by decreasing interbank rates and the sharp rise of import demand in Feb-ruary after the Tet holiday.Inflation rate is expected to be about 4.3 - 4.5 percent this year. Minh said that the monetary policy will play a decisive role in keeping inflation rate within the target of percent.With this inflation rate, interest rates in 2017 may be kept at the same level as in 2016. However, under the pressure of US dollar interest rate rise, SBV may have to increase dong interest rates at some times to protect the exchange rate."The exchange rate is expected to increase by 1.5 - 2 percent. The prospect of a fast-growing US economy under the governance of a new president and the increase of in-terest rate for three times a year by Fed will make the US dollar more expensive against most of currencies around the world, including the dong. However, the dong will not depreciate much thanks to the balance of trade, the surplus of the balance of capital ac-count and the abundant foreign exchange reserves", MarketIntello forecasted.Many experts of this company also noted that the fluctuation of USD/VND exchange rate in 2017 would be very complicated, depending significantly on the economic pol-icies of the Donald Trump's government, especially if the Border Adjustment Tax of the US is implemented in 2017.

Bank bosses strongly collect shares


At Sacombank, Kieu Huu Dung, Chair of BOD - who did not held any STB shares since his on-boarding of the highest position- has recently spent 3.27 billion dong to own 300,000 shares of the bank,. The transaction was completed on March 3rd. On this day, his buying order helped STB share price increase to 10,900 dong per share. Nguyen Van Cuu, a member of Sacombank's BOD, also expected to spend no less than five billion dong to buy 500,000 STB shares. The transaction is expected to be done from March 3rd to April 1st. Prior to this purchasing plan, Cuu did not hold any bank shares.Sacombank will be strongly restructured this year with the support from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV). Since the merger with Southern Bank in late 2015, the devel-opment of the merged bank has slowed down due to the fact that it has spent much on provision to handle the outstanding backlogs. However, according to the bank's senior managers and SBV, Sacombank is doing well and growing steadily.Recently, Tram Be and his son Tran Khai Hoa were no longer involved in the admin-istration and management at Sacombank. Earlier in 2015, Tram Be irrevocably author-ised all his and his associates' shareholder rights at Sacombank, Southern Bank and merged bank to SBV.With the current situation of Sacombank, many investors including domestic and for-


FIN

AN

CE


eign investors want to invest into the bank. According to the bank's chair, investors are willing to pay much higher than the market price, in which, some even offer 15,000 dong per share, one and half times higher than the current market price.At VIB, which has joined UPCoM earlier this year, the bank's foreign manager Loic Michel Marc Faussier, deputy CEO has just registered to buy 1.1 million shares of VIB to increase his ownership. The transaction is expected to take place from March 2nd to March 24th 2017.According to the current market price of VIB's shares which is 17.000 VND, Loic Michel Marc Faussier will spend approximately 19 billion dong to hold the desired amount of shares.Prior to this buy, Loic Michel Marc Faussier was owning 1,285,905 shares of VIB, equivalent to 0.23 percent of VIB's voting shares in circulation.Also at VIB, in late February, the wife of Ho Van Long - deputy CEO, Ngo Minh Hien also announced to buy 400.000 VIB shares from February 22nd to March 21st. The amount that Hien planned to spend reached nearly 7 million VND. Currently, Hien owns nearly 12,000 VIB shares.Saigon Hanoi Insurance Corporation (BSHC) has recently registered to buy 16 million shares of Saigon - Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB). The transaction is ex-pected to take place from March 2nd to March 31st 2017 under agreement and order matching methods. With the price of SHB shares of around 5,000 VND, BSHC expects to spend around 80 billion dong to invest in SHB shares. Notably, Chair of SHB Do Quang Hien, is also the Chair of BSHC.Compared to other sectors, banking stocks from the beginning of the year still have the most prosperous changes with many waves. Experts said that there are many reasons for this stock to be so concerned.These include the messages to foreign investors by the head of government in mid- January or the delay of the Basel II standards application with Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 8 percent to 2020. Having a brilliant business season in 2016 and an optimistic outlook for 2017 with more aggressive restructuring plans of the SBV for a healthier and more transparent banking environment is also a solid foundation for investors to hold shares. In addition, another important reason is that banking stocks are now at a quite attractive level to domestic and foreign investors.

Banks of Vietnam face risk of downgrade for having modest brand value

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | INFOMONEY

With total assets from 800 to 1,000 trillion dong, three state-owned commercial banks including the Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Investment and Development of Viet-nam (BIDV), Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcom-bank), and Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade of Vietnam (VietinBank) are in the group of banks having the strongest brands in Vietnam. How-ever, their brands are still moderate compared to other regional banks. This has made Vietnamese banks to face disadvantages when competing in the integration context in order to achieve the goal of becoming a regional bank.Talking to reporter of Bao Dau tu, Samir Dixit, Asia Pacific director of Brand Finance said that the more valuable a brand is, the greater the contribution to banks' assets. In Vietnam, this contribution is currently recorded at four percent in Vietcombank, 10 percent in VietinBank, and 11 percent in BIDV. In countries around the world, this number is 25 percent, and in Asean region, it is ranging from 16-18 percent. This shows that the brand value of Vietnamese banks remains limited.For example, among banks in Vietnam, Vietcombank has the largest market capitali-sation, but most of that is reflected in the bank's total assets, while the invisible part - brand value - is almost negligible.The growth of Vietnamese banks' brand value is also not high. Specifically, in 2016, BIDV, Vietcombank and VietinBank respectively recorded 17 percent, six percent, and one percent in the brand value growth. Meanwhile, regional banks are racing to accel-erate their brand value with 25 percent growth in 2016. In particular, the brand value growth reached 60 percent in Philippine banks, 43 percent in Indonesian banks, 20 per-


FIN

AN

CE


cent in Thai banks, and 24 percent in Malaysian banks.Representative of Brand Finance Samir gave warning that Vietnamese banks may be vulnerable to competition if their brand value is not strengthened, because more inter-national banks, especially regional banks have set foot in Vietnam in the recent time (the latest is CIMB Bank Berhad of Malaysia). He added that a Malaysian bank can op-erate well in Vietnam but a Vietnamese bank may be difficult to survive in Malaysia.The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is orienting some major banks of Vietnam to become regional banks. However, according to Lai Tien Manh, Managing director of Mibrand Vietnam, the banking brands of Vietnam are ranked at low level even in the Asean.Brand experts believed that the cause of this situation is the lack of attention to invest-ing in brands of Vietnamese banks, even large banks. For years, these banks have been developing thanks to dominant market shares and other relationships. If this situation lasts for long, banks of Vietnam may be degraded from the Top 500 banks having the most powerful brands in the world. Brand Finance's Asia Pacific director Samir alerted that local banks are being trapped in the domestic market, they are only competing with each other but do not know how to invest in brand development in order to ex-pand the market, increase influence and find new opportunities.According to Samir, Indonesian banks a few years ago were in the same situation as Vietnamese banks at the present time as their strategies focused fully on domestic mar-ket. Nevertheless, when foreign banks massively entered the country, they were weak-ened and had to reorient the strategy towards developing international banking brands, thereby improving competiveness.Many international experts said that large-scaled banks in Vietnam currently look like "the old men" while many banks in the region are refreshing themselves with dynamic images, adapting to the fourth technology revolution.For example, most banks of Vietnam are concentrating on older customers (aged from 40 to 50) because these customers are having income accumulation. However, this tra-ditional view may cause banks to age along with customers, while the group of young customers - who are considered the future of banks and very fond of digital technol-ogy - are less appreciated. This also makes banks to lag behind in technology.

Maritime Bank's share auction cancelled as no investor registered


Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) has announced the cancellation of the auction of shares of Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Maritime Bank) owned by Viet-nam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) on March 10th 2017.According to the plan, HNX would hold an auction to sell shares of Maritime Bank owned by VNPT on March 10th 2017.However, by the end of the registration and deposit period (at 15:30 March 3rd 2017), no investor registered to participate in the auction.According to Article 14 of the Regulation on auction of shares of Maritime Bank owned by VNPT and Decision 92/Q-SGDHN dated February 9th 2017 of HNX, the auction is not eligible to be held.Previously, on February 8th 2017, HNX announced that VNPT will sell its sharehold-ings at Maritime Bank. The amount is 71.577.141 shares with starting price of 11,900VND per share. The auction was scheduled in the morning of March 10th 2017.

Vietcombank plans to raise capital in 2017


The Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank, stock code: VCB) will hold the 2017 annual general meet (AGM) on April 28th (the same day with the AGM of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank)).The date to finalise shareholders' rights is scheduled on March 15th. The ex-rights date is announced by the Hochiminh city Stock Exchange (HOSE).Regarding content, the AGM of Vietcombank this year will include a capital increasing plan. In addition, there will be report on the business plan in 2017, profit distribution and fund allocation for year 2016, a letter of dismissal and additional election for mem-bers of the Board of directors term 2013-2018. However, specific contents have not yet


FIN

AN

CE


been released.Closing the year 2016, Vietcombank recorded a pre-tax profit of 8.517 trillion dong, up by 24 percent, and an after-tax profit of 6.845 trillion dong. The bank's Earning per Share (EPS) increased by 16 percent to 1,897 dong per share in 2016.As of December 31st 2016, the total assets of Vietcombank reached 788 trillion dong, up by 17 percent compared to early 2016. The bank's charter capital rose by 35 percent to 35.9 trillion dong; while deposits of customers were valued at 590 trillion dong, up by 17.7 percent, and lending to customers was 460 trillion dong, up by 18.8 percent.The total bad debts of Vietcombank by the end of 2016 were 6.835 trillion dong, ac-counting for 1.48 percent of the total outstanding credit, down compared to the begin-ning of 2016 (1.84 percent).

Reference exchange rate drops 1 VND

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | VNA

The daily reference exchange rate for VND/USD was set at 22,262 VND on March 13, down 1 VND from the end of last week.With the current trading band of +/-3 percent, the ceiling rate is 22,930 VND and the floor rate 21,594 VND per USD.The opening hour rates at commercial banks saw slight fluctuations.Vietcombank listed its buying rate at 22,770 VND and the selling rate at 22,840 VND per USD, both up 5 VND from March 10.Meanwhile, both the rates at BIDV decreased by 5 VND to 22,760 VND (buying) and 22,830 VND (selling).Techcombank raised its selling rate by 10 VND to 22,860 VND but kept the buying rate unchanged from March 10 at 22,776 VND per USD.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/reference-exchange-rate-drops-1-vnd/108564.vnp

Court sends OceanBank case back to investigators


The Hanoi People's Court has decided to send the OceanBank corruption case back to investigators after a two-week hearing for further investigation due to a lot of unan-swered questions.Presiding judge Tran Nam Ha said after 10 days of hearing the case, the court wanted to make clear a slew of issues which arose from what key defendants said at court, and that it was improper to charge former OceanBank CEO Nguyen Xuan Son with break-ing State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences.Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) held a 20 percent stake worth VND800 billion in the OceanBank but all this sum was lost after the central bank bought this troubled bank for zero dong. The presiding judge said the responsibility of Son for this huge loss should be clarified through further investigation.The judge said Son showed signs of abusing his position and power. He was not only the bank's CEO but represented PVN as a stakeholder. After he was transferred to PVN, he still interfered in the bank's operations by promoting Nguyen Minh Thu to the post of CEO of the bank.The then chair of the bank, Ha Van Tham, approved a policy that allowed the bank to pay extra interest under the counter for big depositors, mostly PVN and its subsidiar-ies. At the time, the central bank capped the interest rate for deposits at 14 percent a year.Thu in her capacity as CEO, her deputy Le Thi Thu Thuy, and some of their associates carried out the extra interest payment policy, leading to losses of VND1.6 trillion for the bank.There are 43 others involved in this case.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52799/Court-sends-OceanBank-case-back-to-investi-gators.html


FIN

AN

CE


Industrial growth slow, labour productivity low: Party official

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | VNS

Vietnam's industry is developing too slowly and is still reliant on many foreign-invest-ed enterprises, says Nguyen Van Binh, head of the Party Central Committee's Com-mission of Economic Affairs.He was speaking at a conference held in Hanoi late last week on national industrial de-velopment policies until 2025 with a vision to 2035.Between 2006 and 2015, the country's total industrial production value rose 3.42 times, while the industrial portion of the GDP remained stable at 31-32 per cent.While this has created jobs and contributed to socio-economic development, "industri-al production growth has been weak and unsustainable; and industrial labour produc-tivity, especially in the processing and manufacturing industries, has been low," Binh said.But the growth of average labour productivity in the industrial sector, especially in manufacturing, has been at a low level of 2.4 per cent a year, lower than that of the eco-nomic growth rate of 3.9 per cent in the 2006-15 period, he noted.In comparison with other countries in the region, Vietnam's industrial productivity lags behind, Malaysia's and Thailand's is 6.4 times greater, and that of the Philippines is 3.4 times higher.Binh stressed the need to develop a comprehensive industrial policy framework to promote and improve the quality of national industrialisation and modernisation dur-ing the 2016-25 period.Nguyen Duc Kien, vice chair of the National Assembly's Economic Committee, agreed. "It time to change the thinking and create a favourable investment environ-ment for all economic sectors to develop industries," Kien said.Deputy minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said Vietnam should continue to update its mechanisms and policies to create a favourable environment for attract-ing investment."Furthermore, the country must clearly define the role of economic components in in-dustrial development to appropriately orient development policies, promote the ap-plication of new technologies, facilitate labour restructuring, improve the quality of industrial human resources and diversify financial resources for industrial develop-ment," Hai added.Experts also discussed experiences in developing industrial policies in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Thailand, as well as identifying opportunities and challeng-es for industrial development.Participants proposed several orientations for industrial development policy, includ-ing adjusting the investment structure, selecting key sectors to set investment priori-ties, facilitating supporting industry development and protecting domestic production with technical barriers.http://bizhub.vn/news/industrial-growth-slow-labour-productivity-low-party-official_284732.html

Vietnam's economic growth to see little change in 2017


Vietnam has been seeing slight GDP growth in recent years. The growth rate was 6.2 percent in 2016 and is forecast to be 6.3 percent this year.Standard Chartered has predicted a 6.6 GDP growth rate for Vietnam in 2017, a sign that economic growth would be back to the normal track. It believes that FDI flow would slow down, but still hover around $10 billion.Meanwhile, Vietnam will not bear big negative impact from the TPP failure.Some Vietnamese experts think that the inflation rate in 2017 will be 4.3 percent, while the interest rate policy will remain unchanged and the dong will depreciate slightly.However, there are too many uncertainties in the world market. Vietnam prepared well for TPP, but the US has withdrawn. Meanwhile, the policies pursued by the US and UK have triggered protectionism in many other countries.Therefore, WB and ADB both predict a lower GDP growth rate - 6.3 percent - for the Vietnam economy in 2017. The economic growth will continue to be backed by agri-


FIN

AN

CE


culture as it was in 2016.Nguyen Xuan Thanh from FETP commented that Vietnam will still be able to obtain the 6.7 percent growth rate if it carries out economic reform more effectively, FDI cap-ital continues flowing to Vietnam, the US prime interest rate does not increase sharply and there was no pressure from the sharp devaluation of the Chinese yuan.Consumption is believed to be the fulcrum for Vietnam's GDP growth in upcoming years since it makes up 65 percent of GDP. The young population, improved income and the increase of middle-class income earners are expected to help stimulate con-sumption.Nevertheless, the final consumption growth is on the decrease: the figure was 5.3 per-cent only in 2016, a decrease from 10.1 percent in 2015.The total retail turnover in the first two months of 2017 increased by only 5.6 percent, lower than the 7.6 percent increase in 2016.Vietnam puts high hopes on investment as another fulcrum for GDP growth. Howev-er, investments from private economic sector have been hindered by bank bad debts, while investments from the state hurt by high public debts.Meanwhile, exports have been growing more slowly with a predicted growth rate of 8 percent in 2017 instead of 9 percent in 2016 because of the negative impact of TPP fail-ure and protectionism in the US and other countries.There is pressure on inflation as the government plans to raise the fees of essential services, while the crude oil price is expected to increase by 19 percent in 2017 and 3-4 percent in 2018.http://english.C.vn/fms/business/174151/vietnam-s-economic-growth-to-see-little-change-in-2017.html

Production improves but trade out of balance

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | VNECONOMIC TIMES

MoIT report for first two months shows export and import value up 15.4 percent and 19.6 percentAccording to a report from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), production and business results improved in the first two months of the year but trade remained out of balance due to strong growth in auto and mobile phone imports.Exports and imports grew 15.4 per cent and 19.6 per cent in value, to $27.3 billion and $27.4 billion, respectively.State-owned enterprises contributed $7.6 billion to exports, up 12.2 per cent year-on-year, while foreign-invested enterprises contributed $19.7 billion, up 16.8 per cent.The processing industry saw year-on-year growth of 15.5 per cent in export value, to $22 billion, accounting for 80.6 per cent of the total. Agriculture, forestry and fishery export value reached $3.2 billion, 9.9 per cent higher year-on-year and accounting for 11.4 per cent of the total.The ministry noted that high export value growth in the first two months of the year is particularly significant given the relatively low 2.0 per cent growth during the same period last year and the failure to reach double-digit growth in 2016 as a whole. Aver-age export prices increased sharply during the first two months, including for cashew nuts (by 20.3 per cent), coffee (31.9 per cent), crude oil (61.9 per cent), rubber (81 per cent) and coal (115.5 per cent). Export prices of agriculture, forestry and fishery prod-ucts, meanwhile, fell.Total export value rose $736 million, thanks to the increase in prices. Exports of textiles and garments in the first two months also rose, by 12.2 per cent year-on-year to $3.66 billion. Le Tien Truong, general director of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), was quoted by local media as saying that many its businesses have secured stable long-term orders for the second quarter and beyond.Total export value of textile and garments this year is expected to increase 6.5-7 per cent to $30 billion, he said, with the US and Japan being major markets.The report also revealed that imports of certain products experienced strong growth during the first two months.


FIN

AN

CE


Import growth of products such as motor vehicles of less-than-nine-seats, mobile phones, and fruit and vegetables may impact the trade balance.$153 million was spent on importing 9,500 complete-built-unit motor vehicles of less-than-nine-seats, a year-on-year increase of 139.6 per cent, while value surged 129 per cent for mobile phones and 129.8 per cent for fruit and vegetables.These imports partly contributed to a 20 per cent increase in total import value in the first two months, reaching $27.4 billion.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/production-improves-but-trade-out-of-balance

New US tax plan seen impacting Vietnam exports


Vietnam's exports to the United States might be impacted at least in the short term if America implements its border adjustment tax (BAT) as part of President Donald Trump's plan to revise tax policy, a macroeconomic report said.The BAT, if implemented, would cause significant disadvantages for countries export-ing goods to the US, including Vietnam, said the report, which was prepared and dis-tributed by MarketIntello and the Development and Policies Research centre (DEPOCEN).The March report was released after Trump's first address to Congress last week. He once again mentioned his plan to adjust tax policy in order to increase revenues from imports and encourage firms to invest and produce domestically. The BAT is part of this tax adjustment package.America is Vietnam's biggest market, the report said. It quoted figures of Vietnam's general Department of Customs as saying that shipments to America made up nearly 22 percent of Vietnam's total exports last year, the highest in more than 10 years.Statistics of the department showed Vietnam's export revenue amounted to $176.63 billion last year, up 9 percent over 2015, and enjoyed a trade surplus of over $2.52 bil-lion. Vietnam got $38.46 billion from export sales to America, leaping 14.9 percent year-on-year; followed by the European Union (EU) with $33.97 billion.The report pointed out effects of the BAT on Vietnamese exports would rely on a number of factors. It said given declining domestic demand, Vietnam's economic growth this year should depend heavily on international trade.Meanwhile, rising prices of raw materials at the beginning of the year could make in-roads into corporate profits as companies are unable to shift the burden of rising prices to domestic consumers if the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) tightens monetary policy to curb a recurrence of high inflation.The report said that with a share of about 42 percent, apparel and footwear were the most important goods Vietnam exported stateside, followed by mobile phones and ac-cessories with a share of 11 percent and wooden products with 7 percent."These products are inputs for industries that are most affected by a BAT by strongly relying on imports. generally, it will strongly depend on the substitutability of import-ed and US domestic products as well as how US consumers will react to increasing prices of imported goods," the report said.The report noted for Vietnam's top export earners, products such as garments and elec-tronic products could hardly be substituted by US home products. "As a consequence, it can be expected that importing companies such as retail giant Walmart will pass on increasing prices to consumers and, thereby, rising inflation. Consumer reaction then will determine the change to import demand and, hence, Vietnamese exports in the short-run," the report said.To deal with the BAT, exporting countries are expected to use monetary policy to weaken their currencies against the US dollar to maintain the competitiveness of their exports as a counter-measure to the 20 percent border tax.However, the report said the SBV is unlikely to devalue the dong currency much since it could pile pressure on inflation. "As a consequence, Vietnamese products should lose their competitiveness on international markets. An actual implementation of a BAT, thus, will raise pressure on the SBV to take action to tame inflation and make


FIN

AN

CE


room for a quicker depreciation of the dong."With the appreciating greenback and a possible rate hike made by the US Federal Re-serve (Fed), the dong-dollar exchange rate could be revised upwards by VND200, ac-cording to the report. In addition, as Vietnam's economic performance in February was within expectation, it is projected that the country's economy would expand 6.3 per-cent with a bigger contribution by the recovering agricultural sector and inflation would grow 4.3-4.5 percent.Interest rates throughout 2017 could be maintained at their 2016 levels, helped by ef-forts of the SBV and the government. Nevertheless, given the pressure from US inter-est rate hikes, the SBV may make dong rate hikes to stabilise the exchange rate.The dong is projected to fall 1.5-2 percent against the dollar owing to Vietnam's stable trade balance, positive capital account and higher foreign exchange reserves. Howev-er, the report said it is difficult to predict the movement of the dong/dollar exchange rate in 2017 now since it is heavily dependent on US economic policies during Trump's presidency.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52798/New-US-tax-plan-seen-impacting-Vietnam-exports.html

Trump's immigration rules threaten remittances to Vietnam

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | VNEXPRESS

Vietnam's remittances from the US made up 4 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2016.Overseas remittances to Vietnam witnessed a fall in the past year, and the trend could continue due to tighter US immigration policies, according to a recent report issued by Credit Suisse.Remittances inflows to Vietnam have grown consistently since 2010 and hit a record of $13.2 billion in 2015 before falling by about 33 percent last year.The decline in remittances mainly resulted from Vietnam cutting interest on foreign currency savings to around 0 percent from the beginning of the year. Lower yields of-fer less incentive for sending money back, economist Nguyen Minh Phong told AP.Half of overseas Vietnamese reside in the US, according to official data. As such, around 60 percent of Vietnam's remittances come from the US, a contribution that rep-resents 4 percent of the country's GDP in 2016.Tighter border controls imposed by the Trump Administration could literally deci-mate remittances, Credit Suisse warned in a new report.Vietnam is not the only one affected by such changes, the Philippines and India stand to suffer as well."We [Credit Suisse] see this risk particularly pronounced in the Philippines and Viet-nam - the former could see its current account surplus disappear," Credit Suisse said in the report.In 2015, the Philippines and Vietnam were the top destinations for US remittances bound for the East Asia and Pacific region, but the future looks bleak for both coun-tries.http://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/data-speaks/trump-s-immigration-rules-threat-en-remittances-to-vietnam-3554066.html

Car imports jump following tax adjustment


The drop in import tax on cars from Asean countries has led a hike in car imports to Vietnam in the first two months of this year, especially from Thailand.The tax was reduced from 40 per cent to 30 per cent under the Asean Free Trade Agree-ment (FTA) early this year. It will be zero per cent by 2018.According to statistics from Vietnam Customs, the country imported 8,027 completely built-up units worth $158.4 million in February, increasing by 627 units but reducing by $5.3 million in value.Of the figure, nearly 3,160 cars came from Thailand, or 43.2 per cent of the country's total imports, 21 per cent higher than the previous month.It was followed by the Republic of Korea with 1,444 units and Indonesia with 1,285 units.


FIN

AN

CE


India, which was for many months the leader in exporting cars to Vietnam, however, witnessed a decline in February with 718 units. Cars from the South Asian country had the lowest value with an average price of $4,255 each.http://bizhub.vn/wheels/car-imports-jump-following-tax-adjustment_284710.html

Trade with Egypt lags behind potential


Egypt's political unrest and currency depreciation have affected Vietnamese goods in the market, Cuong told a trade promotion workshop on Thursday.However, Cuong noted, the northeast African country was accelerating economic re-forms, which could be a good sign for bilateral trade in the future.During the forum, which took place in Mansoura City, Dakahlia Province, the coun-sellor also briefed officials on Vietnam's business climate and policies for investment attraction, and fielded questions on trade affairs between the two countries.During his speech, Ambassador Do Hoang Long said Vietnam was committed to cre-ating favourable conditions for foreign investors, including those from Egypt.The Vietnamese Embassy was willing to support Egyptian businesses in seeking Viet-namese partners and then studying each other's markets, he said, calling for the two business communities to boost relations, particularly in agro-forestry-fishery and tour-ism.He also encouraged the two nations' firms to take the initiative by participating in trade fairs and business conferences held in their respective countries to seek new co-operation opportunities.Meanwhile, Ahmed Roab, chair of the Dakahlia Business Chamber, described the workshop as an opportunity for Egyptian enterprises to learn about the Vietnamese market, thus facilitating trade-investment ties between localities of the two countries. Participants at the event proposed Vietnam send business delegations to trade fairs in Egypt. They said they expected the embassy's support would help Dakahlia enterpris-es boost exports, particularly fruit, to Vietnam.Egypt has a population of 92 million, with import demand estimated at more than $80 billion per year.Two-way trade between Vietnam and Egypt topped some $314 million last year, of which Vietnamese exports to Egypt made up $294 million.http://bizhub.vn/news/trade-with-egypt-lags-behind-potential_284706.html

Vietnam suspends US poultry import to contain bird flu


Vietnam has suspended the imports of poultry and poultry products from the US states of Wisconsin and Tennessee which have been affected by a strain of low patho-genic H5N2 and the high-pathogenic H7 avian influenza virus.The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) issued a decision to tem-porarily halt the imports on March 10, asking the Veterinary Department to tighten control over the poultry batches imported from these states which have not yet been heat treated before March 10.The department was requested to send an official notice of the decision to the US's au-thorised agencies.It will also be responsible for verifying whether the US can control the avian influenza viruses in line with regulations of the World Health Organization, and then reporting this to the MARD.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-suspends-us-poultry-import-to-contain-bird-flu/108536.vnpVietnam suspends US poultry import to contain bird flu

PM urges investment in Central Highlands


Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has urged the Central Highlands region to unleash its potential to attract investment, especially in the fields of high-tech agriculture, tour-ism, forestry and renewable energy.The PM spoke at the fourth conference on investment promotion held Saturday in the


FIN

AN

CE


Central Highlands province of Dak Lak.He said the Central Highlands region plays a vital role in the country's socio-economic development, and in national defence and security.However, the region "has failed to tap its potential to attract investment", Phuc said.Although the country is one of the world's leading coffee and pepper exporters, most of the products are unprocessed with low added value, he said.The region needs to establish large-scale farming areas, pursue organic agriculture and expand the value chain of products from industrial trees, he said.Localities in the region should also strengthen coordination with southeastern and central coastal regions to improve regional transport connectivity, he added.On land and forest issues, the region needs to speed up forest planting and follow the government's directions on forest management and protection as well as sustainable forest recovery, he said."Protecting forests means protecting the environment, water resources, livelihoods of people and heritage space of our ancestors. Any activities of destroying forests and ex-ploiting forest products illegally are a crime," he said.Phuc also urged the region to review the operation of hydropower plants in the region, particularly those that have a negative impact on the environment, forest and water re-sources.In addition, the region was asked to develop qualified human resources and skilled management, and encourage technological innovation and transfer.Regarding tourism potential, he said the region boasts a range of natural landscapes with climate suitable for tourism.Phuc said the government is determined to turn the Central Highlands epics into world intangible cultural heritage, and asked the region to conserve local cultural identities, especially the gong culture.Minister of Public Security To Lam, who is also head of the Central Highlands Steering Committee, said the committee would carry out specific action plans in accordance with the prime minister's direction.Officials from the Central Highlands provinces signed agreements and delivered in-vestment certificates for investors worth VND80 trillion (US$3.5 billion), of which so-lar power projects accounted for $2 billion.Commercial banks have committed to providing loans for the projects in the region worth VND29 trillion ($1.27 billion).PotentialThe Central Highlands region covers an area of 5.46 million ha, accounting for 16.8 per cent of the nation's total area. The region has a population of more than 5.6 million.Of the 5.46 million ha of natural land, two million ha are used for agricultural produc-tion and 3.2 million ha are forestland.The region has 74.25 per cent of the country's red basalt soil at almost 2.1 million ha, making the region an ideal place to grow cash crops such as coffee, rubber and cashew nuts, among others.Coffee is grown on 582,000ha, accounting for 90 per cent of coffee plantations nation-wide, with an annual yield of about 1.37 million tonnes of beans, which is also over 90 per cent of the country's total.National productivity of robusta coffee is three times that of the world (2.5 tonnes against 0.8 tonnes a hectare).The region grows more than 82 per cent of the nation's pepper on 70,000ha.Coffee, rubber and pepper are the agricultural mainstays of the region. Meanwhile, tea, particularly oolong tea, plays an important position in Lam Dong Province.The GRDP (Gross Regional Domestic Product) in the 2011-15 period was about 10.45 per cent per annum.In 2016, the GRDP per capita was VND39.56 million ($1,700) - an increase of 8.57 per cent over the previous year.In the 2011-15 period, the region attracted investments of VND265.7 trillion ($11.7 bil-lion) - double that of the previous five years. As a result, average annual growth rate


FIN

AN

CE


in the period was 11.33 per cent.To date, the region has 140 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects worth $772.5 mil-lion.In 2016-20, the region is expected to attract more than VND230 trillion ($10 billion) worth of investment.The conference was attended by more than 500 leaders of the provinces of Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak Lak, Dak Nong and Lam Dong, and representatives of commercial banks, local enterprises and investors.The conference, organised by the Central Highlands Steering Committee, Ministry of Planning and Investment, and Dak Lak Province's People's Committee, is part of the sixth Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival that ended today.http://bizhub.vn/news/pm-urges-investment-in-central-highlands_284740.html

VN agricultural sector urged to modernise technology


The Ministry of Science and Technology has urged farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta to embrace technology to develop smart agriculture.Speaking at a seminar in Can Tho city on Thursday on using science and technology to improve agricultural productivity and quality, deputy minister Tran Van Tung said the Mekong Delta plays an important role in the country's agricultural production, contributing 55 per cent of the country's rice output, 69 per cent of seafood and 70 per cent of fruits.It also accounts for more than 90 per cent of rice exports and 60 per cent of seafood ex-ports.But much of it is sold as raw products at low value.Inconsistent quality is a problem that plagues the region.Climate change and global integration have also adversely impacted the delta's agri-cultural production, Tung said.Droughts, floods and saltwater intrusion, often an impact of climate change, have greatly affected productivity and quality.In this context, besides finding measures to mitigate the impacts of climate change and mapping out programmes and policies to speed up restructure of the sector, quickly ramping up the use of technology is imperative to develop smart agriculture in the re-gion, he said.Using advanced technologies for growing crops, harvesting, processing and post-har-vest preservation would improve productivity and quality, reduce costs, improve competitiveness, and contribute to making agriculture sustainable, he said.Talking about solutions for boosting agricultural development in the delta, Prof Nguy-en Bao Ve, a former head of Can Tho University's agriculture faculty, said communi-cation is the main requirement in changing the mindsets of farmers.The concept of choosing farming as a job when not knowing what to do is no longer viable since farmers these days need to master the use of agricultural machinery and know how to use technology, he said.Farmers need to actively improve their understanding by constantly learning about technology and science, he said.Buhler Group executive Manuel Murenhoff said farmers do not pay due attention to post-harvest preservation, instead using rudimentary vehicles to transport their pro-duce, resulting in large volumes of spoilage.Besides, preserving fruits and vegetables at unsuitable temperatures makes them vul-nerable to bacterial infections, he said.That is why the quality of Vietnamese farm produce usually deteriorates when they are transported long distances and for long periods, he said.The current 8 per cent rate of post-harvest losses is too high and should be reduced to less than 6 per cent by using technology, including harvesting with machinery, trans-porting farm produce by specialised means and storage in standardised warehouses, he said.Investing in modern machinery is difficult for individual households, but not so when


FIN

AN

CE


farmers join hands through cooperatives or clubs, he said.He pointed out that there is another possible solution, businesses investing in facilities and leasing them out to farmers.He also introduced a "Smart Farm Data" model in which farmers use electronic equip-ment to monitor their crops instead of going to the field.Building brandsThe seminar also discussed brand building.Nguyen Phu Cuong, general director of Dona Biotechnology Development JSC (Dona-Techno), said consumers are willing to pay high prices for branded products.To build brands, people in the agricultural sector must always be aware of clean agri-cultural production by applying technology, strictly following good agricultural prac-tices and enabling traceability of their products, he said.They also need to invest in improving their packaging, he said.Delegates called for cooperation with research institutes and schools to get high-qual-ity and -yielding seeds.Farmers should join hands to create large-scale farms to make it easier to use machines all the way from the sowing to harvesting stages and avoid being exploited by traders or price drops following a bumper harvest and vice versa, they said.Agricultural festivalThe seminar was part of the International Agriculture Festival and Fair of the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta being held in Can Tho from March 9 to 13.It features over 300 booths set up by nearly 150 local and international exhibitors op-erating in the agricultural and related sectors.Held by the Ministries of Science and Technology and Agriculture and Rural Develop-ment and other organisation, the event aims to support agricultural development in the delta through research and use of technology and building brands.It also features an exhibition of farm produce and technologies, a programme to con-nect suppliers and buyers of agricultural technologies and equipment, a cooking con-test, and other events.http://bizhub.vn/news/vn-agricultural-sector-urged-to-modernise-technology_284717.html

Vietnam revives biofuel plan, sets national switch in 2018


After years failing to promote ethanol blended fuel, the government makes a big move to give greener products a better chance.After more than two years failing to promote a locally-produced biofuel product in major cities, Vietnam has announced an even more ambitious plan: a national switch.The trade ministry said in a new report that it will make sure the 92-octane gasoline A92, currently the most popular grade in Vietnam, is phased out and replaced by the greener E5 in 2018, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported.The ministry has reportedly ordered top fuel companies PV Oil and Petrolimex, both state-owned, to promote the use of E5. Five percent of the product is ethanol synthe-sized from cassava, hence the name.Studies conducted by the Hanoi University of Technology found that E5 is good for engines while producing fewer emissions.Vietnam had planned to make Hanoi, HCM City and some large cities switch to the fuel by the end of 2014. But somehow the product never caught on.Industry insiders said a national switch could be "impossible."A member of PV Oil said the domestic supply of ethanol is 150,000 tonnes a year, which is enough to produce around three million tonnes of E5, while the demand would be more than 7.5 million tonnes.Government sources said two ethanol plants in the southern province of Binh Phuoc and the central province of Quang Ngai will resume operations soon.Fuel companies also said a complete switch to E5 also means they will have to invest in blending facilities specifically for the fuel, which could cost a lot of money and time.E5 is now less than 2 percent cheaper than A92. Retailers said the government should


FIN

AN

CE


offer more tax incentives to widen that margin and make E5 more attractive.The more expensive 92-octane grade, A95, is favoured by owners of newer vehicle models. It is more environmentally friendly than A92.http://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/vietnam-revives-biofuel-plan-sets-national-switch-in-2018-3553817.html

HCM City to impose strong sanctions on land-use violations


HCM City authorities have announced to carry out inspections and impose strong sanctions against violations of land use and management in the city from now to 2020.According to a plan issued on March 7 by the city government, law enforcement agen-cies will inspect land management at district and ward levels this year.In 2018, authorities will inspect land use and management at industrial zones and eco-nomic zones, especially those showing signs of violation.In 2019, the city will inspect land use and management outside industrial zones and economic zones, particularly land allocation, land lease, land transfer, change of land-use purposes, and land rights and obligations.In 2020, the city will concentrate on inspecting land used for growing rice.Statistics show the city currently has more than 10,000 establishments inconsistent with urban planning. HCM City authorities have just planned to relocate them for fears that they impact on the environment and people's lives.Many of the establishments outside industrial zones and economic zones are of small scale and have low investment capital, limited space and outdated waste treatment technology.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52816/HCM City-to-impose-strong-sanctions-on-land-use-violations.html

India to conclude AD investigation into Vietnam spandex yarn

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | VOV

The India directorate general of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) has pub-lished a report before making final conclusion on the anti-dumping investigation into Elastomeric Filament yarn (spandex) imported from China, the Republic of Korea, Tai-wan and Vietnam.The Vietnam Competition Authority under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said on March 9 that the DGAD will base itself on facts available basis to impose anti-dumping duties of 1-10 percent on Vietnamese exporters who are cooperative and answer all DGAD questions while the duties levied on others will be 35-45 percent.Meanwhile dumping margins will be 5-55 percent for exporters from China, 0-40 per-cent for those from the RoK and 55-65 percent for Taiwan.DGAD said the spandex yarn imported from those countries at dumped prices caused significant injury to the domestic industry.Relevant agencies can send their comments on the report to DGAD on March 16 at the latest.The DGAD initiated the AD investigations on imports of spandex yarn from four mar-kets on January 27, 2016 according to a complaint of the plaintiff - Indorama Industries Ltdhttp://english.vov.vn/market/india-to-conclude-ad-investigation-into-vietnam-span-dex-yarn-345167.vov

Joint action needed to boost VN competitiveness


A concerted effort by all stakeholders, from policymakers to entrepreneurs, is needed to make Vietnam more competitive, deputy prime minister Vu Duc Dam said on Fri-day.At a conference held in the capital city to discuss ways to improve the nation's compet-itiveness and its business environment, he said all ministries, departments and local authorities must strive to carry out Resolution 19 together with private businesses."I hope to be side by side with every single businessperson in Vietnam to take on this task. Each individual business should think of not only its own favourable condition,


FIN

AN

CE


but also of the growth of the nation as a whole; they should have patience and faith in the development of national business environment," Dam said."Meanwhile, ministries should work hard on improving poor regulations and solve problems with circulars that lessen troubles for businesses," he added.The deputy PM stressed again that the guiding principle of the Party's Resolution 19, which focuses on improving Vietnam's business performance and environment, re-quires the combined efforts from policymakers and the entrepreneur community.However, the speed at which Resolution 19 is being applied today is still limited, and the country is yet to catch up with other nations in the region in terms of removing ob-stacles and creating a nourishing atmosphere for businesses, said deputy minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong."The traditional way of implementing regulations, step by step without active partici-pation of the entrepreneur community and creative ideas from administrative agen-cies in accordance with the spirit of a constructive government... will make it hard to achieve our proposed objectives...," he said.Resolution 19 envisages Vietnam achieving the same ease of doing business as the Asean 4 (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines) by the end of 2017.Dong said this involves meeting several criteria including improving regulations; con-trolling export and import of goods and services according to global standards; short-ening procedures and waiting time for filing and paying taxes, insurance, and building a support system for a stable liberated environment for business.Nguyen Dinh Cung, director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), pointed out several shortcomings in administrative management, which he said lacked creativity and flexibility.He also pointed out that many documents listed in Regulation 19 have not been amended as required.Nonetheless, Cung said, there have been many changes of great importance to help improve the overall business environment in Vietnam."For example, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has amended their circular on textile products to help businesses save costs, and has freed them from filling in thousands of forms for excessive quality control. In the end, for Resolution 19 to fully integrate into daily life, there must be simultaneous action and close collaboration between business and policymakers, under the guidance of the prime minister and the deputy prime minister," he said.The CIEM has also recorded continuous improvement in Vietnam's global business environment ranking, such as jump of 9 places from 91 to 87 in 2016, the most signifi-cant advance since 2008."Legal and customs procedures are still lengthy and complex, which cost us much time and money. We businesspeople ask the government to issue supporting frameworks and mechanisms to help businesses meet the required standards for our products," said Le Tien Truong, general director Vietnam Textile and Garment Group.Conference participants noted that the current Resolution 19-2017/NQ-CP was an im-provement of previous versions, with more detailed criteria to measure the level of de-velopment of Vietnam's business environment and national competitiveness, especially in comparison with other nations.http://bizhub.vn/news/joint-action-needed-to-boost-vn-competitiveness_284716.html

HCM City, Belgian locality look for closer ties


Authority of HCM City is always willing to create favourable conditions for Belgian firms in general, and those from East Flanders in particular, to invest into the city, es-pecially in high-tech agriculture and biotechnology, a municipal official has said.Chair of the municipal People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong made the statement at a meeting with visiting Governor of Belgium's East Flanders province January Briers on March 10.While briefing the guest on the city's recent development, Phong affirmed the ex-change of visits of the two localities' officials has contributed to strengthening the Vi-


FIN

AN

CE


etnam-Belgium relationship and links between HCM City and East Flanders in particular. He suggested East Flanders officials facilitate HCM City firms' operation in the Belgian locality, helping them connect with more local enterprises in the near fu-ture.He said he looks forward to stronger cooperation between East Flanders and other Bel-gian localities with the Vietnamese locality, thus increasing two-way trade value as well as the number of investment projects in HCM City.For his part, January Briers said East Flanders's authority always maintains close rela-tions with HCM City, adding that the win-win cooperation between the two localities is positive.He affirmed that his visit to HCM City demonstrates East Flanders's confirmation to promote cooperation programmes between the two localities, bringing interests to both sides.He expressed his hope that the two sides will work to jointly organise trade and invest-ment promotion activities, aiming to bolstering links across fields.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/hcm-city-belgian-locality-look-for-closer-ties/108535.vnp

Formation of Bac Van Phong special administrative-economic zone debated


Officials of the government and the southern central province of Khanh Hoa looked into a plan on building the Special Administrative-Economic Zone (SAEZ) of Bac Van Phong (Northern Van Phong) on March 11.The working session in Nha Trang city also discussed the making of draft laws on spe-cial administrative-economic units. It was an activity to carry out the government's Resolution No. 103/NQ-CP, dated December 5, 2016, on the formation of the special administrative-economic units of Van Don (northern Quang Ninh province), Phu Quoc (southern Kien Giang province), and Bac Van Phong (Khanh Hoa).Accordingly, the Bac Van Phong SAEZ will be located in the north of the Van Phong Economic Zone and have an expected area of around 66,000ha.The People's Committees of Quang Ninh, Kien Giang, and Khanh Hoa were ordered to work with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and relevant agencies to com-plete the SAEZ plans. They also have to propose specific mechanisms and policies for the respective zones to authorised agencies so as to make a draft law for each zone.At the session, deputy prime minister Truong Hoa Binh stressed that the SAEZs will be established by the National Assembly and directly subordinate to the government. He asked Khanh Hoa's authorities to clarify the scale and organisation of an adminis-tration needed for the Bac Van Phong SAEZ so that it will suit the zone's development orientations.The province also needs to continue fine-tuning mechanisms and policies necessary for optimising the Bac Van Phong SAEZ's particular advantages, he added.Chair of the Khanh Hoa People's Committee Le Duc Vinh said the Bac Van Phong SAEZ should become an international centre of seaport, financial, tourism, medical and educational services that meet global standards.He suggested a common law be designed for the three SAEZs of Van Don, Phu Quoc, and Bac Van Phong and also include specific mechanisms for each zone as recom-mended by the Ministry of Planning and Investment.He said the draft law should be part of the lawmaking plan for 2017 and submitted to the National Assembly for approval in 2018.The Van Phong Economic Zone covers an area of 150,000ha, including 70,000ha of land and 80,000ha of water surface, in Van Ninh district and Ninh Hoa township. It is a mul-ti-sectoral economic zone with a designed focus on container and petroleum transit services, oil refining, and petrochemistry.It has attracted 145 investment projects with a total registered capital of 1.47 billion USD. Seventy-nine projects with an implemented capital of 600 million USD have been operational.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/formation-of-bac-van-phong-special-administrativeeco-nomic-zone-debated/108531.vnp


FIN

AN

CE


Finance Ministry hailed as administrative reform pioneer


The Ministry of Finance has been a pioneer in administrative procedure reform, par-ticularly in tax and customs, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) President Vu Tien Loc said.Loc made the point at a seminar held by the Ministry of Finance, VCCI and the World Bank (WB) in Hanoi on Tuesday to announce an assessment report on tax reform and business satisfaction, according to the government's news website (chinhphu.vn).Considering businesses as a key driver for the country's growth, the government has issued Resolution 19 on improvement of the country's business environment and com-petitiveness on a yearly basis since 2014 and Resolution 35 on supporting business growth. Loc said since the issuance of Resolution 19, the ministry has always taken a lead in administrative reform, focusing on tax and customs procedures. Assessment reports conducted by independent research organisations on business satisfaction with tax reform showed the ministry and the general Department of Taxation had been open to constructive comments and willing to make changes for the benefit of busi-nesses.The business community hailed the ministry's effort to streamline tax procedures as this has made tax policies transparent and consistent with international practices, re-sulting in a higher level of satisfaction among firms and people.Nguyen Van Thoi, chair of the business association in Thai Nguyen Province, said the association with more than 5,500 member firms had a positive view on tax procedure reform.Dau Anh Tuan, head of the legal department at VCCI, said six financial and four tax regulations were among the 30 best business regulations just nominated by VCCI. This is a clear indication of real reform.Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung said the ministry had been executing an action plan for the financial sector, particularly for tax and customs. The ministry has revised and simplified administrative procedures to cut the time required for preparing, filing and paying taxes by 420 hours to 117 hours a year.Last year, the ministry eliminated 32 tax procedures, and tax agencies applied infor-mation technology to tax collection and payment to help taxpayers save time and cre-ate favourable conditions for firms to complete relevant procedures. As a result, more than 99 percent of firms have filed taxes only, over 96 percent have registered to pay taxes online, and nearly 94 percent have registered for Internet banking service. More than two million tax payment transactions totalling over VND404 trillion have been done successfully.However, up to 64 percent of firms said the tax data transmission system was usually jammed and 41 percent claimed tax procedures remained burdensome and tax refunds were still time-consuming.Dung said the assessment report on business satisfaction and tax procedure reform gave the ministry an overview of what has been achieved and what needs to be im-proved for tax management to meet the expectations of taxpayers.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52807/Finance-Ministry-hailed-as-administrative-re-form-pioneer.html

USTDA wants to help HCM City in smart city building efforts


The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is willing to assist HCM City in be-coming a smart city, USTDA Country manager David Ross told vice Chair of the mu-nicipal People's Committee Tran Vinh Tuyen on March 10.He said the USTDA has assisted the building of many smart cities around the world and gained certain successes. It is ready to send US experts to HCM City to assess, de-sign or improve the smart city building plan.US businesses want to cooperate with and help the southern economic hub of Vietnam in smart city building, he said, asking HCM City to detail plans on the fields that need assistance from the USTDA so that the two sides can work on them as soon as possible.At the meeting, Tuyen appreciated the agency's assistance to his city, asking it to com-


FIN

AN

CE


ment on the local master plan on smart city building or participate in the plan imple-mentation.Municipal authorities will provide favourable conditions for the USTDA to conduct surveys and seek cooperation opportunities, he added.Valuing the USTDA's idea of an emergency communication system, Tuyen asked the agency to work with local authorised sides to carry out this project, thus addressing shortcomings of the existing system which uses many telephone numbers.Ross said the USTDA wants to introduce experienced businesses to provide solutions for building the communication systemhttp://en.vietnamplus.vn/ustda-wants-to-help-hcm-city-in-smart-city-building-ef-forts/108512.vnp

Conference promotes Vietnam-Singapore trade partnership


Up to 110 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Vietnam attended a confer-ence in Singapore on March 10 to seek trade and investment partnership.The businesses' participation benefited from an initiative jointly made by the Vietnam-Singapore Friendship Association, the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore and the Vi-etnamese Entrepreneurs' Club under the Vietnamese Association of Small- and Medi-um-sized Enterprises.In his speech at the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore Nguyen Tien Minh highlighted the significance the conference and the presence of Vietnam's SMEs at the event, saying this shows the businesses' dynamism to look for business and invest-ment opportunities in foreign markets.Through Singapore, Vietnamese firms can make inroads into other markets in the re-gion and the world, especially Europe - the important trade partner of both Vietnam and Singapore, he noted.Thian Tai Chew from the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) said many of the SBF's 24,000 members, mostly SMEs, are interested in Vietnam's food, retail, e-commerce, supply chain, and infrastructure and urban development.These sectors are Singaporean SMEs' strengths and they want to share experience with Vietnamese partners, he said, reporting the SBF's latest survey that says Vietnam ranks third among Asean member nations that Singaporean firms want to pour their invest-ment into.The Vietnam-Singapore relations have recorded strong developments in recent years across such fields as economy, defence, education-training, and people-to-people ex-change.Singapore is Vietnam's third largest foreign investor, with a total investment of over 38 billion USD poured into 1,600 projects in terms of processing, technology, produc-tion, real estate, construction, transport and logistics.The country is also the 12th biggest trade partner of Vietnam, with two-way trade dou-bling in the last decade, hitting nearly 16 billion USD in 2016.Recent high-ranking visits of the two countries' leaders helped lift the bilateral ties, promising to open many new opportunities for the two sides' enterprises to foster trade and investment links.The upcoming visit to Vietnam by Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong in late March is expected to promote all-around ties between the two countries, especially in people-to-people exchange.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/conference-promotes-vietnamsingapore-trade-partnership/108525.vnp

Bac Lieu salt prices rise sharply


The salt price in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Bac Lieu has increased two to three times compared to last year, according to local farmers.Nguyen Hoang Thua, deputy chair of the Doanh Dien Hamlet Salt Cooperative in Dong Hai district's Dien Hai commune, said the price of low-quality salt had risen to more than 1,000 VND (0.05 USD) per kilo from 500 VND (0.02 USD) per kilo at the end


FIN

AN

CE


of last year's salt season.The price for high-quality salt has risen to more than 1,500 VND (0.07 USD) per kilo, he said.The province's salt farmers have begun harvesting the 2016-17 salt crop. Because of un-seasonable rains, this year's salt season occurred two months later than usual.Vo Hoang Nghiep, director of the Doanh Dien Hamlet Salt Cooperative, said that be-cause of the higher prices, all of the 70 hectares of the cooperative's salt fields would be used to produce salt this year.However, despite the high prices, the province has been encouraging salt farmers to cultivate high-value crops and animals on inefficient salt-production areas.Nguyen Quoc Hung, head of the Dong Hai district's Agriculture and Rural Develop-ment Bureau, said the district would continue to transfer a part of the inefficient salt production areas to aquaculture and Artemia (brine shrimp) farming.Brine shrimp farming has developed in the district for several years, bringing more benefits than salt production.But the shift has been slow because farmers lack proficient techniques. Inadequate in-vestment in proper facilities and slow technology transfer have also contributed to the sluggish pace.Dong Hai district is the province's largest salt production area.Bac Lieu will shift about 500ha of salt to Artemia farming from now to 2020, according to the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.The province plans to encourage farmers to switch from producing low-quality salt to high-quality salt, and increase mechanisation and use of advanced technology.It will also promote the establishment of cooperatives and cooperative teams to help salt farmers produce and sell salt.In addition, favourable conditions for individuals and organisations will be created to access loans for investment in new technology for salt production.Bac Lieu, which is one of the country's largest salt producers, has about 2,300 hectares of salt fields.In the 2015-16 salt season, the province produced more than 165,000 tonnes.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/bac-lieu-salt-prices-rise-sharply/108548.vnp

Deal expected to revive Vietnam's coffee industry


A strategic agreement to develop the Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand is expected to revive the country's coffee industry, which needs to replace thousands of old, unproductive trees on farms in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak.The agreement between Binh Dien Fertiliser Joint-Stock Company and Vinacafe Bien Hoa Joint-Stock Company, a member of the Masan Group Corp, was signed in the province in the run-up to the 6th Coffee Festival that will kick off in Buon Ma Thuot city this weekend.It is expected to help local authorities create a high-quality, productive coffee-growing area in the province's Ea Tu commune.Under the programme, cutting-edge technologies will be used in pilot production models, while small farming households will be consolidated into a centralised farm-ing area to improve coffee productivity in six villages and six hamlets in Ea Tu com-mune.Huynh Quoc Thich, deputy director of the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that coffee trees had been cultivated in Dak Lak province for the last 100 years.Most of the trees are more than 20 years old and produce low yields. The average life span for coffee trees is between 20 and 30 years.Between 140,000ha and 160,000ha of trees need to be replaced in the next five to 10 years, a big challenge for the industry, Thich said.The industry is also facing other problems, including small-scale production, poor quality control, and outdated processing technologies.Ten years ago, coffee brought a prosperous life to millions of farmers in the province,


FIN

AN

CE


but in recent years the productivity and quality of coffee beans have declined.Y Dran Bya, 51, of Ko Tam hamlet in Ea Tu commune, who owns 0.9ha of coffee trees, said that most of his coffee trees were planted in 1972.The yields have dropped to only 1.3-1.5 tonnes a year, compared to five to seven tonnes a year a decade ago, he said.Coffee trees more than 20 years old account for 23 percent of the area, and trees 15-20 years old for nearly 35 percent, according to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.More than 92 percent of the coffee trees have not adapted well to disease or to climate changes.In addition, intensive farming and improper use of fertilisers as well as pesticides have seriously affected soil quality in the province. Many farmers often water trees exces-sively, washing away nutrients needed for the plants.The two companies that signed the agreement said they planned to work with the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Agriculture Exten-sion Centre.The two firms have been cooperating with the Central Highlands' Agro-Forestry Sci-entific and Technical Institute to create linkages among farmers, scientists, businesses and the state in an aim to improve the Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand.Pham Quang Vu, chair of the board of directors of Vinacafe BH JSC, said, "This pro-gramme will improve the value of Buon Ma Thuot coffee beans, known as the "pearl of Ban Me".The deputy general director of Binh Dien Fertiliser JSC, Vo Van Phu, said the compa-nies were committed to placing "farmer benefits" as their top priority."We're willing to work with farmers on the challenging path ahead," he added.Over the past 10 years, the country has exported an annual 1.2-1.5 million tonnes of coffee.Vietnam ranks second in the world for coffee exports, following Brazil.The Vinacafe Bien Hoa Joint-Stock Company manufactures and distributes a range of beverage products, including instant coffee, instant cereal and bottled beverages.The signing ceremony was part of a press conference to announce the 6th Coffee Fes-tival in Buon Ma Thuot city in the province this weekend.The biennial festival, with theme "Quintessence Convergence - Identity Promotion - Connecting for Development", hopes to attract record attendance and showcase the ar-ea's economic potential.This year, the event will host more activities, including a gong festival and conference on investment promotion for the Central Highlands region.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/deal-expected-to-revive-vietnams-coffee-industry/108494.vnp

City property firms aim for cooperation, stability


HCM City needs better cooperation among the State, developers, builders, material suppliers and banks to improve the local property market, the HCM City Real Estate Association has said.In a document sent to city authorities on developing the property market from now to 2020 with a vision toward 2025, the association's chair Le Hoang Chau said that such cooperation would help the sector develop in a more transparent and stable manner. He said that State agencies along with enterprises should improve administrative pro-cedures, develop a one-stop policy, and reduce the number of procedures as well as set up a database of the city's real estate market.Such cooperation among all parties would result in better material prices, Chau said.Citing the shortage of city funds, the association also suggested using the financing methods of build-transfer (BT) or public-private partnerships (PPP).It also said the city should strictly manage and ensure the quality of construction, and develop social and commercial housing at affordable prices.Low-cost housing is especially needed, the association said, because nearly 3 million


FIN

AN

CE


of the 13 million people in the city are migrants, or 23 per cent of the total population.Of the total, there are about 400,000 students, with 50,000 people marrying annually.The association also cited a Department of Construction report which said that 500,000 families in the city do not own housing.During the 2016-20 period, 81,000 households needed social housing, the report said.Developing social housing and inexpensive commercial housing as well as housing leased at low prices are the key responsibilities of the city, it said.In the last 10 years, HCM City's real estate market has developed strongly, with two bubble periods, one in 2007 and the other in 2010.The market was frozen, however, from 2008 to 2009 and from 2011 to 2013.The market began to recover in late 2013, but stagnant signs appeared in mid-2016 as there was an imbalance between demand and supply.While supply has primarily focused on the luxury segment with condotels and luxury apartments, the demand was for apartments and houses with affordable prices of around VND1 billion.Over the last 10 years, new housing was built in all districts, beginning in the central part of the city and then moving to the southern area.In the last four years, activity has moved to the city's eastern area, whose key part is the new Thu Thiem urban area.Currently, about 1,200 housing projects are registered in the city. Of those, 500 have been suspended because of land clearance problems.http://bizhub.vn/property/city-property-firms-aim-for-cooperation-stability_284720.html

HCM City sees sharp increase in condo projects


Many developers in HCM City have launched condo projects with various offers since the beginning of the year.Most of them are located in the western and southern areas of the city. Earlier this month, many new projects were brought to the market in these areas.For instance, the Dream House Investment Joint-Stock Company began construction of the 20-storey D-Vela project with 168 condos in District 7.Also in District 7, the Phu My Hung Development Corporation held its first sales event for a new project called Phu My Hung Midtown.A new selling phase for Saigon South Residences in Nha Be District is also expected to begin soon.Dat Xanh Company, meanwhile, launched a new project called Luxgarden on Nguyen Van Quy Street in District 7, with two 26-storey buildings containing a total of 500 apartments.In addition, Hung Loc Phat will kick off sales for its luxury project, The Golden Star, on Nguyen Thi Thap Street in District 7.Kien A Company has announced that it will begin construction on the second phase of its Lvaila project with 257 villas in southern HCM City.In the western area of the city, MoonLight Boulevard in Binh Tan District, developed by Hung Thinh Real Estate Company, will be brought to the market this year.Meanwhile, Gotec Land continues to sell units in its Summer Square on Tan Hoa Dong Street, and with 1,000 condos, Phu Son Thuan Company will sell its Orient Plaza project in Tan Phu District.Prices vary depending on the area of the city.In District 2, developers are focusing on projects with the price range of VND30 million (US$1,300) to VND80 million ($3,500).In Thu Duc District and District 9, however, the price is VND18-30 million ($790-1,300) per square metre.Pham Van Lam, general director of Danh Khoi A Chau Real Estate Company, said that developers were becoming more professional by focusing on commitment and pres-tige.They have developed projects with many facilities and amenities, he said.


BU

SIN

ES

SVietnam finance & business 13 March 2017

Le Chi Hung Viet, deputy director of the Dream House Investment Joint-Stock Com-pany, attributed the market's liquidity to demand from investors who buy condos for leasing purposes.This is a new choice for investors, he said, adding that condos with a good location, flexible installment plans, and modern decor will attract more investors.In coming months, developers will continue to bring to the market many new prod-ucts.Hung Thinh Company plans to open 5,500 apartments and 1,000 land slots this year, while Him Lam Land is set to develop 3,000 units this year.Ngo Quang Phuc, the company's deputy director, said that 80 per cent of these units will have prices ranging from VND1.5 billion to VND2 billion. The remaining 20 per cent will have prices of more than VND2 billion.The company also targets developing a luxury project in District 1 this year.http://bizhub.vn/property/hcm-city-sees-sharp-increase-in-condo-projects_284722.html

Clean rice processing cuts costs, emissions


The Song Hau Food Company, a rice exporter, has reduced its energy consumption by 983,764 kWh in the past four years, saving $62,615.An official of its parent company, Vinafood 2, said reduced energy costs helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enables cleaner rice production.The result was achieved under a project applying efficient, cleaner production meth-ods, said Pham Van To, deputy manager of Vinafood 2's Technical and Construction Department.He said that in rice processing, electricity costs usually account for 20 to 35 per cent of total production costs.Energy is usually one of the highest costs a company faces. If it can reduce energy con-sumption by just a few per cent, it can make a significant savings along with contrib-uting to greenhouse gas reduction, he said.In 2013, the corporation had approached the Resource Efficient and Cleaner Produc-tion Programme (RECP), a UNIDO-UNEP joint programme financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and implemented by Sofies (a consultan-cy in Switzerland) and the Vietnam Cleaner Production Centre Co Ltd (VNCPC).A pilot project was implemented in two member enterprises, Song Hau Food Compa-ny and An Giang Food and Foodstuff Company in 2013, and expanded to six other member companies in March last year.Tran Van Nhan, director of VNCPC, said the rice industry's export achievements of the past years came at the cost of adverse impacts on the environment during production and processing.From the entire rice value chain, the project chose to pilot the processing phase, since this has the largest impact on the environment, he said."We realise that there is a great potential to turn waste resulting from rice milling into biomass energy, which significantly contributes to reducing climate change."In addition, with energy costs accounting for 35-40 per cent of rice production costs, "if we can save a part of the largest expenditure, it will significantly help businesses re-duce production costs and increase profits and competitiveness," he said.Through many activities - including cleaner production audits at participating compa-nies, supporting companies in identifying cleaner production technologies and appli-cation strategies and training - the project has helped firms improve their energy efficiency.It has also suggested measures to turn waste into biomass energy.Dr Martin Fritsch of Sofies said Vietnam was a leading rice exporter, focusing on large volumes. It was facing quality challenges that weakened its competitiveness.The sector needs to effect changes to meet an increase in demand for higher quality rice by creating incentives for rice farmers and millers to adopt sustainable production practices, he said.


BU

SIN

ES


This would also help to avoid continuous degradation of natural resources, such as soil and water, he said.The project aims to promote efficient use of natural resources, including materials, wa-ter and energy and minimise waste and emissions, including those discharged into the water, air and land.Delegates at a recent conference titled "Towards a Sustainable Agro-Industrial Ecosys-tem in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam-Focus on the Rice Value Chain," said the project will enter its "mainstreaming phase" this year.A broader collaboration between all stakeholders was necessary to align interests along the value chain and to achieve a "sustainable mainstreaming effect for the Viet-namese rice sector," they added.http://bizhub.vn/news/clean-rice-processing-cuts-costs-emissions_284697.html

Dairy firms optimistic about growth


Vietnam's dairy market is predicted to double in size by 2020, reaching $8.2 billion as the population is expected to increase by five million and dairy consumption to rise by a compounded annual growth rate of 7 per cent.The dairy industry targets producing 2.6 billion litres of milk by 2020, said Tong Xuan Chinh, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Depart-ment of Livestock Production.Domestic raw milk production is projected to reach one billion litres to serve 38 per cent of total demand by 2020, Chinh said at a Beef and Dairy Livestock Asia conference that wrapped up yesterday in HCM City.Dairy consumption per capita is projected to rise from 20 litres to 27 litres of milk per person per year by 2020.The targets are achievable due to improved income, rapid urbanisation and higher at-tention to nutrition of the children and the elderly, Chinh said.Domestic dairy companies have expanded their production capacity of both raw milk and dairy products, while high technologies have been adopted in the raising of dairy cows and processing of milk.Chinh said that national systems for breeding and quality control for raw milk and dairy products should be established.There is also a need to improve processing technologies at household and farm levels as well as processing of forage and agro-industry byproducts for cattle feed.Industrial concentrated dairy farming using high-tech methods should be developed to lay a foundation for the dairy processing industry, Chinh said.From 2011 to 2016, the dairy industry grew at an annual rate of 16.6 per cent.In 2015, the dairy market was valued at $4.1 billion, with powdered milk and liquid milk the bestselling products, accounting for 66 per cent of value share.Domestic raw milk production, however, has been able to fulfill only 30 per cent of consumption demand.Foreign producers provide 60-65 per cent of powdered milk demand in Vietnam, while 50 per cent of the sale value of powdered milk is from imported products.Foreign companies are the major supplier of cheese, accounting for 70-90 per cent of the volume consumed in Vietnam.Last year, the number of milk cows reached a total of 283,000, with milk production totalling 800,000 tonnes. The number of meat cows was estimated at 5.2 million heads.Southeast Asian markets for beef and live cattle are growing and maturing, said Al-lister Lugsdin, a representative of Meat & Livestock Australia.Vietnam remains a major market for Australian beef exports as well as technology ex-change in livestock production.Australia plans to continue to supply healthy beef, as well as breeding and feeder and slaughter cattle to Southeast Asia, the representative said.More than 40 domestic and Australian companies took part in the two-day conference and exhibition, which showcased modern technologies in livestock management, traceability and control of abattoirs, feedlots and breeding.


BU

SIN

ES


The event was organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's De-partment of Livestock Production in coordination with Meat & Livestock Australia.http://bizhub.vn/news/dairy-firms-optimistic-about-growth_284691.html

Experts urge firms to enter supply chains


Companies that want to enter the global supply chain should show initiative and make concerted steps to enhance their capacity and growth, Dr Shantanaru Bhattacharya of Singapore Management University said at a forum held in HCM City on March 10."They should not passively wait for the government to help their growth," he said.Bhattacharya spoke at a seminar on the global supply chain held by the Business As-sociation of High-Quality Vietnam Product Companies."Vietnam is perfectly positioned to be the next manufacturing hub in Asia," he said, adding that the country has a huge advantage in location and cost as well as human capital.However, the training level of the workforce remains at a basic level, and employees lack the skills to quickly adapt to work, he added.Both Vietnamese and foreign employers have had to spend more capital to retrain their employees, he said.Small- and medium-size enterprises, which account for large proportion of businesses in Vietnam, have also faced difficulties accessing domestic and foreign finance.He said the Vietnamese government should create stable policies to develop the man-ufacturing economy.Zulkifli Bin Baharudin, executive chair at Indo Trans Logistics Corp in HCM City, said that many Vietnamese were not good at teamwork.However, team skills help companies improve, which, in turn, makes it easier to enter the global supply chain.Many Vietnamese enterprises represent only a small part of the global supply chain, according to a representative of Vietnam Supply Chain.For example, in the garment sector, local companies' contracts are primarily for sewing and cutting designs for their partners, she said.If employees have higher skills, companies can more easily move up the global supply chain, she added.At the forum, the Business Association of High Quality Vietnam Products Companies signed a memorandum of understanding with the Singapore Management University to provide a general non-binding framework of collaboration between the parties.Cooperation will include management practice in Vietnam and the Mekong Delta re-gion, and assistance in research and exchange of academic publications and informa-tion.The partners will also engage in joint research projects and academic activities.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/experts-urge-firms-to-enter-supply-chains/108542.vnp

Local contractors need global strategies


Vietnam's construction contractors require the execution of suitable strategies to attain success in foreign markets, experts have said.In recent years, the domestic construction industry has made significant strides in management skills and construction techniques, and therefore have been successful in replacing foreign contractors on large projects with high technical requirements in the domestic market, vietnamplus.vn reported.Le Viet Hai, deputy chair of the Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors and chair of Hoa Binh Construction and Real Estate Trading Company, said local construc-tion contractors have been able to provide high-quality construction services at cheap cost, only behind India.Vietnam's construction contractors have shown competitive ability in terms of work-ers, building material, design consultancy services and construction supervision, as well as project management and other services.In addition, the country has three times more construction engineers and experts than


BU

SIN

ES


the global average - a significant advantage - Hai said. Vietnam has an average 9,000 construction engineers and experts per one million people against a world average of 3,000 construction engineers and experts per one million people.More over, many countries were witnessing development in the construction market and there was high demand for construction contractors.Hai said that the state should carry out suitable strategies for local construction con-tractors to do business abroad and associations of the construction industry should share tasks of construction management with state offices, including ability assess-ment, ranking of contractors, granting of certificate and organisation of awards, to gain efficiency in doing business in the global construction market.Notably, the connection between state agencies at home and Vietnam's representative offices abroad was important for accurate and timely information about foreign con-struction markets. Based on this information, local construction contractors would have opportunities to seek investment and cooperation abroad. So far, local construc-tion contractors had not received much support on information to do business abroad.Le Van Tuan, general director of Vietnam Machinery Installation Corporation (Lila-ma), said there were many enterprise delegations from foreign countries visiting Viet-nam and ambassadors of those countries had directly connected their enterprises to some Vietnamese partners to enable cooperation.This was a particularly important factor because it would help local enterprises follow the correct route and find appropriate partners, besides ensuring time was not wasted and efficiency was high, he said.At present, Vietnam's representative offices in foreign countries have certain condi-tions to research foreign markets to determine the potential of these markets, and then provide information and support to local construction contractors.Therefore, Vietnamese construction contractors expected to have the support of these offices when entering foreign markets and to promote international integration pro-grammes efficiently.Hai said during negotiations of international agreements in the future, the state should pay attention to the negotiations to ensure equality in doing business between local and Vietnamese construction contractors in foreign markets.Additionally, the local construction contractors will enjoy exemption or reduction of import tax for labour, material and construction vehicles to the foreign countries.When doing business in foreign countries, Vietnam's construction enterprises need support in administrative procedures, guarantee, exit and money transfer procedures. In particular, they need to ensure double taxation avoidance agreements are applied if Vietnam and the foreign country have that agreement.Meanwhile, local construction enterprises must actively promote internationally-qual-ified vocational training and certification programmes for construction labour that want to work overseas, including workers, engineers and experts, according to the as-sociation.Further, the state should have suitable policies in place to encourage Vietnam's con-struction enterprises specialising in one kind of construction product, including spe-cialisation in housing, hospitals, schools, industrial and infrastructure construction.This would enable them to focus all their resources in the right place and ensure spe-cialisation to improve competitive ability in the global construction market.http://bizhub.vn/news/local-contractors-need-global-strategies_284719.html

BIZ NEWS

Stocks to fall further as US interest rate hike looms


The stock market will likely continue its losing streak this week as investors stay cau-tious ahead of the US Federal Reserve's meeting. The sharp drop in oil prices during the last three sessions will also be a dampener, analysts say.The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 0.5 percent to finish at 712.21 points on March 10. The index recorded a total fall of 0.6 percent after the last

BUSINESS


BU

SIN

ES


two trading days.The two-day losing streak also erased all gains the VN Index had made in the previous four-day period. It closed down slightly below the previous trading week's ending lev-el of 712.62 points.On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index rose 0.5 percent on March 10 to close the last trading session at 88.13 points. The northern market index rallied total 1.8 percent in four days and gained 1.7 percent week on week.Last week's daily average trading volume fell 3.1 percent to nearly 236.7 million shares, while daily average trading value increased by 8.8 percent to 4.18 trillion VND (186 million USD).Foreign investors recorded a net sell value of 131.26 billion VND in Vietnam's stock market, which was a big reverse compared to a net buy value of 349.2 billion VND made in the previous trading week.The fact that the VN Index fell through the level of 715 points showed investors' senti-ment was low as they tried to offload parts of their investment portfolios to avoid up-coming negative effects, analysts at BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) noted.These effects would be caused by international macroeconomic factors, including the volatility of crude prices and the expectations for a US interest rate increase, BSC add-ed."The stock market's conditions will remain negative this week. The VN Index may re-cover slightly in the first one or two days, but its general direction is downward."Investors will highly pay attention to the US Fed's meeting this week, in which US of-ficials are expected to raise interest rates for the first time this year."As the US employment rate in February was robust on March 10's report, the Fed will undoubtedly increase the interest rates in the coming decision," said Nguyen Ngoc Lan, head of brokerage division at the Agribank Securities Company.There are two scenarios for Vietnam's stock market in the case the US central bank de-cides to raise the rates, Lan said.If the US interest rates are lifted by 0.25 percentage point, the most expected develop-ment, the impact on Vietnamese stocks will be low as investors have all prepared for the decision, she said.But if they go up by 0.5 percentage point, Vietnam will see negative impacts on its se-curities market with foreign investment moving out of the local market, Lan said.Nguyen Hong Khanh, head of the market analysis division at Sacombank Securities Company, said that the incoming interest rate hike is a certainty and the US Fed is ex-pected to lift its rates two more times this year."Increased interest rates will make foreign investors to switch their capital from emerg-ing markets to the US to benefit from higher deposit rates, thus emerging currencies will have to bear a lot of depreciation pressure," Khanh said.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/stocks-to-fall-further-as-us-interest-rate-hike-looms/108568.vnp

VN Index slips under 715 points


HSX and HNX repeat yesterday, falling and rising, respectively, on March 10.As happened yesterday, main indexes on HSX fell while those on HNX closed higher on March 10.On HSX, the VN Index lost 3.59 points (0.5 per cent) and the VN30-Index 0.81 points (0.12 per cent). The VNMid-Index gained 1.09 points (0.12 per cent) and the VNSml-Index fell 2.76 points (0.34 per cent).On HNX, the HNX-Index increased 0.42 points (0.48 per cent), the HNX30-Index 0.59 points (0.37 per cent) and the UPCoM-Index 0.43 points (0.76 per cent). The VNALL-Index lost 0.08 points (0.01 per cent).HSX saw a 104 point increase followed by a 153 point decrease while HNX saw a 128 point increase followed by a 151 point decrease.Liquidity on HSX reached VND3.2 trillion ($140.4 million), 6 per cent lower than yes-terday, and on HNX was VND515 billion ($22.6 million), 44 per cent higher.


BU

SIN

ES


The VN Index opened at 715.9 points and hit its peak of the day of 716.8 points early on before falling to 714.9 points mid-session and recovering to close the morning at 715.9 points. In the afternoon it fell sharply at opening, to 712.6 points, then recovered slightly before falling again to close the day at 712.21 points.KDC was the only food and beverage share to increase, by 2.2 per cent. MSN and SBT closed at their opening price while SAB and BHN lost 2.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent, re-spectively.EIB was the only banking share to increase, by 0.9 per cent, as STB closed at its opening price and BID lost 1.5 per cent, CTG 1.1 per cent, MBB 1 per cent, and VCB 0.8 per cent.All large caps in energy fell: PGD by 2.4 per cent, GAS 1.8 per cent, and CNG 1.3 per cent.In real estate, VIC, NVL and KBC closed at their opening price as FLC rose 3.9 per cent, DXG 1.1 per cent, and KDH 2.2 per cent.Among other large caps on HSX, ROS, VJC and HPG increased 1.3 per cent, 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively, while BVH and MWG closed at their opening price.ROS was the highest traded share on HSX, with VND641 billion ($28.1 million) chang-ing hands. FLC followed, with VND336 billion ($14.7 million), then HPG with VND255 billion ($11.2 million). The largest cap, VNM, saw trade of VND55 billion ($2.4 million).On HNX, VCS increased 1.9 per cent, ACB 1.3 per cent, and PVS and PHP 0.6 per cent. SHB closed at its opening price while NTP and PVI lost 1 per cent and 0.4 per cent, re-spectively.Foreign investors net sold on HSX by VND36 billion ($1.6 million) and net bought on HNX by VND22 billion ($964,920).http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/vn-index-slips-under-715-points

Petroleum stocks sink VN Index


The local stock market lost ground after four consecutive winning sessions on March 9 as petroleum stocks and some large caps declined, pulling the VN Index down by 0.8 point, or 0.11 percent, to 715.8.In the morning phase, banking stocks kept driving the main index up while oil and gas firms like GAS, PVD, PVS, PVC and PVB tumbled reportedly owing to a 5 percent fall of global oil price overnight. Trading was sluggish in the afternoon as bank stocks and large caps such as VNM, GAS, VIC and SAB slowed down, pushing the market down to under the reference line.Turnover on the HCM City exchange remained high with around 195 million shares worth nearly VND3.7 trillion changing hands, including 9.53 million shares worth VND300 billion made in put-through transactions. Banking stocks still attracted cash flow with most reporting volumes from one million shares each.BID was the most actively traded stock in the banking group with 4.6 million shares traded. However, except for MBB closing at a nice rise, VCB, BID and CTG reduced their gains while STB closed in the red.GAS encountered strong selling pressure, closing at the intraday low at VND56,900 per share while PVD lost 2.3 percent versus Wednesday, becoming the biggest drag to the VN Index.Meanwhile, ROS staged a nice rebound after one losing session. Thanks to strong de-mand, ROS closed at the intraday high of VND169,000 per share, up nearly 1.2 percent from the previous day on matching volume of over four million shares. FLC, on the other hand, dropped to the intraday low of over VND7,600 each, plunging 6.5 percent against Wednesday with more than 32.6 million shares exchanged.Notably, small stocks such as KSA, KSH, TTF and OGC hit the ceiling prices, in which OGC reported matching volume of seven million shares. Other stocks like ITA, HQC, HAG and HAI also ended the day with gains.The Hanoi market increased despite pressure from the oil and gas sector, with the HNX-Index adding 0.18 point, or 0.21 percent, at 87.72. There were 34.9 million shares


BU

SIN

ES


worth VND420.9 billion changing hands at the end of the day, including VND18 bil-lion worth of bloc deals.Most oil and gas stocks closed at their lowest levels, with PVC losing 2.4 percent, PVS down 1.68 percent, PVB down 5.3 percent and PLC down 2.4 percent. Meanwhile, many securities stocks advanced between 1 percent and 2.4 percent while MBS shot up to the ceiling price.KLF took the lead for liquidity with 3.56 million shares but it lost 3.3 percent at VND2,900 per share. ACB gained a slight 0.43 percent at VND23,400 on matching vol-ume of nearly 2.5 million shareshttp://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52817/Petroleum-stocks-sink-VN Index.html

VN Index falls for 2nd day on banks


Vietnam's benchmark VN Index extended losses for a second session on Friday as in-vestors offloaded their stakes to avoid negative effects of macroeconomic factors.The HCM Stock Exchange index fell 0.5 per cent to finish the week at 712.21 points, having fallen 0.6 per cent after a four-day increase of 1.3 per cent.The last two declining sessions also erased all gains the VN Index made in the previous four days. It finished the week slightly lower than last week's closing level of 712.62 points."The VN Index has broken the support level of 715 points with poor investor sentiment as investors tried to avoid incoming negative effects, which caused by international macroeconomic factors such as the volatile crude prices and the chance of a US interest rate increase," BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) said in its report.The fall of Vietnam's benchmark index yesterday was closely attached to the decline of the banking sector, the Hanoi-based brokerage company said.In the banking sector, Vietcombank (VCB), MBBank (MBB), Vietinbank (CTG) and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) were decliners with losses ranging between 0.8 per cent and 1.5 per cent.Yesterday's decline was worsened by other leading stocks such as the southern brewer Sabeco (SAB), PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS), DHG Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG) and dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), BSC added.Property and other large-cap stocks such as Faros Construction Corp (ROS), Vingroup (VIC), Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and FPT Corporation (FPT) increased to help the market avoid falling deeper.BSC added that liquidity has remained high in the last five trading days, showing that investors were trying to sell their assets.Yesterday, market trading volume increased one per cent from Thursday's number with more than 197.4 million shares being exchanged, however, trading value dropped 3.8 per cent to VND3.55 trillion (US$158 million).On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index gained 0.5 per cent to end at 88.13 points. The northern market index has rallied a total 1.8 per cent in the last four ses-sions, which helped the index gain 1.7 per cent week on week.More than 48.8 million shares were traded on the northern bourse worth VND580 bil-lion, increases in trading volume and value from Thursday.http://bizhub.vn/markets/vn-index-falls-for-2nd-day-on-banks_284715.html

HNX nets $4.3 million in auctions in February


Four auctions held on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) in February raised VND99.2 billion (US$4.3 million), a 2.5 times higher than the value collected in January.A total of 6.5 million shares were put up for sale, of which 6.4 million shares, or 98 per cent of the total amount, were sold.Investors registered to buy around 17.2 million shares, which is 264 per cent higher than the volume of shares offered.Four auctions included the initial public offering (IPO) of Bac Ninh Water Supply and Sewerage Co Ltd, and three auctions held to divest capital of Pha Lai Thermal Power JSC from North Power Service JSC, the Dien Bien People's Committee from Dien Bien


BU

SIN

ES


Traffic Works JSC and Thai Binh Province from Thai Binh Export-Import JSC.Shares in three of the four auctions were sold out.In March, the HNX will hold six auctions, of Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Maritime Bank), Dong Thap Telecommunication Construction Investment JSC, PetroVietnam Construction JSC, Tuyen Quang Cement JSC, Hanoi Railway Tour-ist Service JSC and the Forest Products Export JSC of Quang Nam, offering up to 81.7 million shares.http://bizhub.vn/markets/hnx-nets-43 million-in-auctions-in-february_284707.html

VN Index closes flat on blue chips, energy stocks


Vietnam's benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange remained volatile on Fri-day morning, driven by blue chips and energy stocks.The southern market index ended nearly flat at 715.94 points compared with Thurs-day's closing level of 715.8 points. Thursday's fall was also its first decline following a four-day increase.Market trading liquidity was low, with more than 111.7 million shares traded, worth VND2 trillion (US$89.7 million).Blue chips, such as dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) and HCM City-based brewer Sabeco (SAB), continued to weigh down the market, falling 0.2 per cent and 0.9 per cent, re-spectively.The energy sector, led by PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corp (PVD), extended losses following the steep fall in crude prices in overnight trading on Thursday.Financial-banking and property stocks, on the other hand, provided strong support to the market.Among banks, Eximbank (EIB) and Sacombank (STB) were the strongest gainers, while the property and construction industries were pushed up by Vingroup (VIC) and Faros Construction Corp (ROS).On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index added 0.5 per cent to end at 88.11 points. The northern market index rallied 1.4 per cent in total in the previous three days.Market trading liquidity on the northern bourse was high, with nearly 29.7 million shares being exchanged, worth VND378.94 billion.http://bizhub.vn/markets/vn-index-closes-flat-on-blue-chips-energy-stocks_284700.html

Why investors massively buy shares of Vietnamese enterprises?

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | VNECONOMY

New figures released by the Foreign Investment Agency (Ministry of Planning and In-vestment) said that the number of capital contribution and share purchase of foreign investors in the first two months of 2017 reached 654 times with a total value of 619 mil-lion USD, four times higher than the same period of 2016.In which, foreign investors mainly contributed capital and purchased shares of manu-facturing and processing field with 220 times of capital contributions with a total value of 292 million USD, followed by the fields of wholesale, retail, repair of cars and mo-torbikes with 197 times of capital contributions with a total value of 124 million USD. Real estate business took the third place with 14 times of contributions which were val-ued at nearly 60 million USD.HCM City attracted the most foreign investors with 322 contributions, valued at 313 million USD, followed by Hanoi, Binh Duong, Nghe An and Quang Binh, etc.In fact, the investment in Vietnam through the form of capital contribution and share purchase has appeared for a long time, but it has become more active since 2015. The tendency of mergers and acquisitions will also be an opportunity for Vietnamese en-terprises to cooperate globally.Specifically, from July 1st 2015 to July 20th 2016, more than 3.000 enterprises and eco-nomic organisations received capital contribution and share purchase from foreign in-vestors with a total value of 2.9 billion USD.In 2016 alone, 2.547 enterprises and economic organisations sold shares to foreign in-


BU

SIN

ES


vestors with capital contribution percentage of over 50 percent of charter capital or in conditional investment areas. The total investment capital was 3.425 billion USD.This was also the time when the 2014 Investment Law officially came into force. Ac-cording to the new regulations, foreign investors do not need to apply for investment registration certificates when making capital contribution and share purchase. They only need to make the registration procedures with state management agencies, de-pending on each case of capital contribution and share purchase in Vietnamese enter-prises having activities in business investment sectors in which there are conditions applied to foreign investors or not.According to investors, the simple and convenient procedures have enabled more for-eign investors to invest in Vietnam in the form of capital contribution and share pur-chase. It is considered a simple yet effective investment solution.However, according to economic expert Nguyen Tri Hieu, we should not be overly op-timistic about the above figures because that does not guarantee a massive influx of capital inflows in the entire year. In fact, the world's economic situation is complicated and unpredictable while the economic policies of the US government - the world lead-er, is not clear. If it is not favourable for investors, they will withdraw money from emerging markets, including Vietnam, and return to the traditional market.According to Hieu, the Investment Law of 2014 took effect and creates favourable con-ditions for investors to buy shares but the procedure is not the main reason for invest-ment to increase or decrease. Foreign investors are still looking at the prospects of Vietnam's economy to see whether the growth is steady or the inflows of money are safe or not.Therefore, economic expert Hieu said that to encourage foreign investors to pour mon-ey into Vietnam, Vietnam needs to raise its national credit rating.At present, according to the three leading credit rating companies in the world includ-ing Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch, Vietnam remains risky and not encouraged for investment, and still has speculative issues.

Funds earn huge profits from pre-listed firms


Funds under the management of Dragon Capital and VinaCapital earned significant profits from their investments in Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company and Novaland Investment Group before their listings.Net asset value of Dragon Capital's Vietnam Enterprise Investment Limited (VEIL) in-creased by $95 million to touch $1.07 billion as of March 6, a rise of 10 per cent com-pared with the end of 2016 and higher than the 7.7-per-cent growth of the benchmark VN Index during the same period.VEIL sold parts of its earlier investments in large companies such as Vinamilk, Hoa Phat Group, Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation and Hau Giang Phar-maceutical JSC, and shifted focus on pre-listed businesses such as Vietjet (VJC) and Novaland (NVL).These investments brought in remarkable profits for the fund in a short time.VEIL spent some VND800 billion ($35 million), equivalent to VND84,600 per share, to acquire 9.5 million shares of Vietjet during its offering to institutional investors in Jan-uary 2017.Price of Vietjet reached a peak of VND137,400 ($6.03) per share on March 6, a jump of 53 per cent over its debut price on the HCM Stock Exchange on February 28. At this price, VEIL earned some VND450 billion from its investment in Vietjet in just two months.VJC shares were trading at some VND131,000 per share on Friday due to high profit-taking pressure.In 2015, the HCM City-based fund invested $15 million to buy Novaland's shares and later increased its holding after the real estate company listed on HCM City's exchange on February 10.With current holding of 17 million shares, or 4.82 per cent of Novaland's capital, this investment has brought the fund a profit of some VND400 billion when its price


BU

SIN

ES


climbed nearly 55 per cent over the purchase price to some VND68,000 apiece.Earlier, VEIL also reaped large profits from an investment in Aviation Corporation of Vietnam's IPO in December 2015. Shares of the aviation company are trading 3.6 times higher than the purchase price on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM).Meanwhile, net asset value of VinaCapital's Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF) in-creased to $889.7 million ending March 3, up $6 million over December 31, 2016. The fund has not disclosed its detailed portfolio but is reportedly also earning profits of hundreds of billions of dong from its investments in Vietjet and Novaland.http://bizhub.vn/markets/funds-earn-huge-profits-from-pre-listed-firms_284709.html

Jetstar Pacific in A320 parts deal


Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) on Wednes-day inked a long-term deal to provide the Airbus A320 aircraft fleet of Vietnam's low-cost carrier Jetstar Pacific Airlines with parts support and services.AFI KLM E&M will provide Jetstar Pacific with access to a parts inventory during its aircraft maintenance and repair process, said Nguyen Quoc Phuong, general director of Jetstar Pacific at the signing ceremony.He added the cooperation would help the budget airline make significant improve-ments in maintenance and on-time performance. Support services will start later this month.The airline, whose major shareholders are Vietnam Airlines and Australia's Qantas Airways, has a fleet of 14 Airbus A320 jetliners, which is expected to grow to 30 by 2021.Jetstar Pacific launched a new route connecting Hanoi and Buon Ma Thuot City in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak on March 9, with three weekly flights on Tues-days, Thursdays and Saturdays.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52802/Jetstar-Pacific-in-A320-parts-deal.html

Viettel brand 2nd most valuable telecom in Southeast Asia


Viettel Group has significantly improved its position in Brand Finance's leading tele-com companies in Southeast Asia this year to second from seventh last year.According to a report from the UK-based brand valuation company, Viettel is listed 49th among the top 500 telecom companies around the world with a brand value of nearly $2.7 billion.In the region, Indonesia's Telkom tops at 40th with a brand value of $4.34 billion. Vi-ettel is followed by Singtel (Singapore), Axiata (Malaysia), PLDT (the Philippines), Maxis (Malaysia).VinaPhone ranks 10th in Southeast Asia and 89th in the world with a brand value of over $1 billion while MobiFone is 17th and 139th and valued at $391 million.Viettel has more than 60 million subscribers in Vit Nam and is preparing to launch 4G services next month. It has 16,000 base transceiver stations for 4G services and the number will rise to 25,000 by the end of April.Brand Finance considered three key factors that impact brand value: brand strength, business performance and external aspects.Brand strength is the most critical because that is what the organisation has most con-trol over and that is where all the marketing money is spent.Business factors are somewhat controlled by the organisation, but are more driven by market forces. External factors are not at all controllable.Brands provide the ability to demand a premium for products and services. As strong-er brands drive higher revenues, investors would also be willing to pay a premium for the company.The increasing brand values are a strong reflection of the preparedness of local telecom operators in the face of threats from foreign entrants.http://bizhub.vn/tech/viettel-brand-2nd-most-valuable-telecom-in-southeast-asia_284723.html


BU

SIN

ES


February auto sales jump 50pct


February auto sales dipped against the previous month but soared strongly versus the same period last year, said a report by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Asso-ciation (VAMA).The report, issued on Wednesday, showed 17,621 autos found buyers last month, a 13 percent month-on-month decrease but a year-on-year rise of a whopping 50 percent. Of the volume, there were 10,044 passenger cars, down 32 percent against January, 6,344 commercial vehicles, up 24 percent, and 1,233 special-purpose autos, up 220 per-cent.Automakers delivered 14,560 domestically-assembled cars to customers last month, down a mere 6 percent over the previous month but only 3,061 imported completely-built-up (CBU) autos were sold, down a hefty 35 percent compared with the previous month.Auto sales usually slow during the first months of year, especially the month after the Lunar New Year holiday (Tet), since people tend to purchase cars for travel during Tet holiday.February auto sales were lower than in January but sharply leapt against the year-ago period.Industry watchers said month-on-month comparisons would not reflect the true pic-ture of the industry. Year-on-year comparisons would help, they said, adding auto sales reply on seasons.By comparing with the same period last year, the auto market has changed for the bet-ter. For instance, Truong Hai Auto Joint Stock Company (Thaco) took the lead with 7,720 units sold last month, accounting for 45 percent of the market's total and rising a whopping 85 percent against the same month last year.Similarly, Toyota Vietnam came second with nearly 3,580 units sold, up 51 percent year-on-year, followed by Ford Vietnam with over 1,800 autos finding buyers, up 23 percent year-on-year.Other automakers such as general Motors Vietnam, Mitsubishi Motors Vietnam, Mer-cedes-Benz Vietnam, and Honda Vietnam also enjoyed respective year-on-year sales growth of 80 percent, 69 percent, 65 percent and 15 percent.Overall, over 37,800 autos have been sold in the year to date, up 8 percent year-on-year. In particular, nearly 24,800 passenger cars were sold, up 21 percent, 11,400 com-mercial vehicles, down 11 percent and some 1,600 special-use vehicles, up 5 percent.Especially, domestically-assembled cars rose by 13 percent to over 30,000 units while CBU autos dropped by 5 percent, totalling nearly 7,790 units.VAMA predicted auto sales would grow around 10 percent this year compared to 2016 sales of over 304,000 units.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52810/February-auto-sales-jump-50.html

Hoa Phat holds annual shareholder meeting for 2017


Hoa Phat Group (HPG) plans to issue an additional 250 million shares to raise capital for its strategic Hoa Phat Dung Quat iron and steel production complex project this year.The minimum price of each share is VND10,000, the group's chair Tran Dinh Long an-nounced at its 2017 annual shareholders' meeting on Friday in Hanoi.The shares would be offered at the ratio of 5:1 (shareholders owning every five shares are able to buy a new one). The company expects to earn at least VND4 trillion through the issue.The group received an investment licence for the construction of this project on Febru-ary 6. It will be valid for 50 years and be part of a master plan on steel manufacturing and distribution until 2020, as approved by the minister of Industry and Trade.The project is devided into two stages with fixed capital requirement of VND40 tril-lion. In the first phase, it will produce one million tonnes of construction steel and one million tonnes of high-quality rolled steel, which will mobilise enough capital. The sec-ond phase is designed to produce two million tonnes of hot-rolled steel flat bar for ma-


BU

SIN

ES


chinery manufacturing. The company's equity by the end of 2016 was nearly VND20 trillion, deducting VND 10 trillion for counterpart fund and VND10 trillion lending from Vietinbank.Long also explained that the reason for issuing shares is because of business opportu-nities. He proposed to start the second stage of the project six months later after finish-ing two million tonnes of steel, instead of 18 months as mentioned in the licence. Then, by 2020, HPG can put into place a plan to increase revenue by 2.5 times.To clarify about not sharing dividends in cash, director general of the company Tran Tuan Duong said that enterprises want to reinvest in major projects instead of splitting cash as per the shareholders' desire."If you are looking at short-term goals, pay cash dividends, but if you want long-term, you have to reinvest in order to move forward. On the other hand, the group needs to increase its charter capital up to VND15 trillion," Duong said. It is certain that HPG will pay cash dividends in 2017 and 2018.The chair also reported results of operations in 2016 with the group's revenue at VND33.9 trillion, and VND6.6 trillion after-tax profit. The plan for 2017 is to raise rev-enues from VND5 trillion to VND6 trillion based on the careful calculations and the potential result of the year's beginning. Of this, the after-tax profit in the first two months of 2017 is VND1.2 trillion and it is confirmed to be no less than VND1.8 trillion by the end of the first quarter.http://bizhub.vn/markets/hoa-phat-holds-annual-shareholder-meeting-for-2017_284718.html

GPP Ca Mau to launch operations


PV Gas Ca Mau will receive the first gas flow from the Gas Processing Plant Ca Mau (GPP Ca Mau) this Sunday.GPP Ca Mau is located near the Ca Mau Gas-Power-Fertiliser Complex in the Khanh An Commune, U Minh District with 100 per cent of investment from PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (PV Gas).The plant is a part of the development strategy for the country's oil and gas industry vision to 2025.The project consists of a gas processing plant with a capacity of 6.2 million cubic metres of gas per day, with a storage system capacity of 8,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), 3,000 cubic metres of condensate and a port system for exporting liquefied products at the Khanh An Industrial Zone in Khanh An Commune, U Minh District.The soon-be-operational project will help PV Gas achieve its strategic objectives of be-ing a pillar in the gas industry nationwide and developing toward the international market.The project will also enhance the added value of natural gas from the PM3 mining ar-ea, address the shortage of LPG in Vietnam, reduce annual imports of LPG and con-tribute to local budgets.http://bizhub.vn/news/gpp-ca-mau-to-launch-operations_284711.html

Vinalines, Vinacomin join hands in goods shipping


The Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) and the Vietnam National Coal - Mineral Industries Holding Corporation (Vinacomin) on Thursday signed a strategic cooperation agreement.Under the agreement, Vinalines will provide services of container shipping, barges and bulk carriers as requested by Vinacomin to transport goods to local and interna-tional destinations.The group will also supply logistics services, such as warehouse and customs clear-ance, for Vinacomin's shipments."The agreement signed with Vinacomin is expected to help Vinalines gradually in-crease its market share in domestic and international maritime transport," Nguyen Canh Tinh, acting general director of Vinalines, said.The agreement would start a new chapter for cooperation between the two corpora-


BU

SIN

ES


tions, Tinh added, saying that Vinalines has pledged to become a trustworthy partner and contribute to the success of Vinacomin.Vinacomin general director Dang Thanh Hai said each year, the corporation needs to transport 35 million tonnes of goods on the waterway and seaway. The figure is fore-cast to increase to 40 million tonnes by 2020, thus the partnership with Vietnam's larg-est maritime shipping group would bring more benefits to Vinacomin.Deputy minister of Transport Nguyen Hong Truong said the agreement would create favourable conditions for the two sides to closely monitor the progress of goods trans-portation and control costs.The deputy minister said he hoped Vinalines would find ways to avoid losses and waste during operation, which would help reduce transport costs for customers.http://bizhub.vn/news/vinalines-vinacomin-join-hands-in-goods-shipping_284694.html

Quang Ninh: Tonkin Gulf fishery logistics centre to be launched


The construction of the Tonkin Gulf fishery logistics centre in Co To island district, northern Quang Ninh province, is expected to be put into operation in March, said Sec-retary of the district Party's Committee Hoang Ba Nam.The project, started in 2009, has a total investment of over 460 billion VND (20.17 mil-lion USD).Once operating, the centre will provide a shelter place as well as essential commodities for around 2,000 offshore fishing vessels in Quang Ninh and other provinces and cities to maintain their long-term operations in the Tokin Gulf.Covering 11 hectares, the centre also includes support facilities, such as roads, a sew-age system, waste water treatment facilities, water supply stations, and a power net-work, among others.Hoang Van Tan and Hoang Van Lai, fishermen from Tien Toi commune, Hai Ha dis-trict, said they are happy with the centre as it will help them save travel costs and time to sell their catches and get necessary fuel for new trips.Nam, who is also Chair of the district People's Committee, pledged that the district will offer incentives to encourage investors get involved in providing logistics services at the centre.The centre is expected to fully explore the maritime economic potential of the district, thus making it the hub of fishery logistics services in the Tonkin Gulf.It will also handle a large amount of cargo, laying the foundation for the fishery processing industry, creating jobs for local labourers, and contributing to the socio-economic development of the district, Nam added.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/quang-ninh-tonkin-gulf-fishery-logistics-centre-to-be-launched/108490.vnp

Soc Trang to build high-quality shrimp farm


The People's Committee of the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang met representa-tives of the Viet-Uc Seafood Joint Stock Company on March 9 to discuss building the first high quality shrimp farm in the locality.The 40 billion VND (about 1.75 million USD) project will sprawl 23 hectares in Huynh Ky Hamlet, Vinh Hai Commune, Vinh Chau District. Once operational, it will produce 3 - 4 billion juvenile shrimps.The project aims to provide shrimp to producers nationwide, said Tony Dang Quoc Tuan, vice President of director Board of the Viet - Uc Seafood Joint Stock Company, adding that it is also hoped to help build a Vietnam shrimp brand.Construction of the farm is set to start in April this year, helping Vinh Chau become a centre for supplying shrimp products and high-quality young shrimps in the Mekong Delta.The farm is expected to boost development of the local aquaculture sector while con-tributing 30 - 50 billion VND a year to the local budget.Agencies in Vinh Chau District have been asked to carry out land clearance and sup-


BU

SIN

ES


port the investor in completing documents to carry out the project, said Le Thanh Tri, vice Chair of the provincial People's Committee.As the biggest young shrimp producer in Vietnam, the Viet - Uc Seafood Company has seven shrimp farms from Nghe An to Ca Mau and one super-intensive indoor shrimp farming system in Bac Lieu.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/soc-trang-to-build-highquality-shrimp-farm/108480.vnp

Ha Nam develops smart agriculture

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | VOV5

A model encouraging farmers to contribute land to help businesses expand produc-tion has proven a success in attracting investment in smart agriculture. Ha Nam, an ag-ricultural province in the northern delta, has taken the lead in this field.Ha Nam has master-planned about 300 hectares of Binh Luc and Ly Nhan district into 4 high-tech agriculture zones, attracting some major groups including VinGroup and the Vietnam National Seed Joint Stock Company.The establishment of qualified farm produce and fruit production zones has gradually changed the traditional farming habits and increased income for farmers.When farmers contribute their land for production, they are paid $45 per 360 square meters annually. Ha Nam plans to exempt from training fees for farmers who want to work for businesses receiving their land.Le Van Son, a farmer in Nhan Binh commune, Ly Nhan district, said "At first we didn't believe in the success of the policy. Now we have seen the effectiveness of the pro-gramme and growing income thanks to the involvement of businesses. We have land but lack modern technologies to turn out high-value products."Ha Nam's high-tech agriculture zone combines the farm land of 300 households under a 20-year land lease.Investors hope that it will become the largest melon growing area in the north and will meet domestic demand as well as the requirements of demanding export markets like Japan, the EU, and the US.Tran Kim Lien, Chairwoman and CEO of the National Seeds Company (Vinaseed), said "In 2017, we will build 21 hectares of greenhouses using advanced cultivation technologies to improve efficiency. The most important thing is that the technology must be spread so that farmers can join the chain. The company will then become a training and technology transfer centre. In May we will have the first crop of qualified melons."High-tech is the key to food security, farm produce quality, and agriculture restructur-ing. Ha Nam has made businesses the "nucleus" and driving force of a large-scale com-modity agriculture model.Trieu Quoc Dat, director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Devel-opment, said Ha Nam has adopted a policy that supports businesses with infrastruc-ture, electricity, and transportation in high-tech agriculture zones. It will continue to ask enterprises to invest in building factories that use closed processing technologies."We advise the provincial People's Committee to combine farm land into large-scale fields to attract enterprise investment. In large-scale fields, mechanisation and modern technologies can be applied to grow qualified produce that will change the face of the province," said Dat.During a recent visit to Ha Nam's high-tech agriculture zone, prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc praised the model which has resulted in an initial success in investment at-traction and called for model's expansion. Phuc reiterated the government's intention to develop an organic, safe, and smart agriculture.http://english.vov.vn/economy/ha-nam-develops-smart-agriculture-345285.vov

Companies to invest $3.3 billion in solar projects in Vietnam's Dak Lak province

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | TUOITRE NEWS

Vietnam's Dak Lak province on Saturday granted licences and signed memorandums of understanding for the development of several solar power projects worth a com-bined $3.3 billion.Vietnam has been mostly reliant on coal-fired and hydro power plants to accommo-


BU

SIN

ES


date its annual electricity demand growth of around 11 percent, but wants to boost its renewable energy output amid rising resources scarcity and environmental issues.US group AES Corporation signed an memorandum of understanding with the prov-ince to invest $750 million in a solar plant with expected capacity of 300-500 mega-watts.Vietnamese private firm Xuan Thien Dak Lak on Saturday received a provincial gov-ernment licence to invest $2.2 billion in a 2,000-megawatt solar power project in Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands.South Korea's Solar Park Global also received a certificate to invest $45 million in a so-lar power project and Vietnamese Long Thanh Infrastructure Development and In-vestment Company will invest $308 million in a 250-megawatt solar plant.Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are seeking to secure sources of solar energy and have introduced targets to fire up green energy generation as global agreements to curb pollution take effect.http://tuoitrenews.vn/business/39949/companies-to-invest-33 billion-in-solar-projects-in-vietnam-s-daklak-province

Vietnamese start-ups receive a $250 million boost last year


Fledging startups are concerned most over a lack of funding to get their idea off the ground.Total venture capital investments into Vietnamese start-ups soared 78 percent to about $240 million last year, an official from start-up accelerator programme Topica Founder Institute said Friday.The Southeast Asian country has an ambitious plan to transform itself from an offshore manufacturing hub for foreign companies into a major player in the global digital economy.The government has started adjusting business policies to pivot around small and me-dium-sized companies and encouraged a start-up bloom.Vietnam launched a project last year to support fledging local companies, under which the government will help fund about 2,000 start-ups by 2025.Topica Founder Institute statistics showed that as many as 60 percent of investment deals that Vietnamese start-ups managed to seal last year came from venture capital-ists.Meanwhile mergers and acquisitions accounted for 30 percent of start-ups' funding and the remaining were financed by private equity firms.Just six years ago, Vietnam recorded only 10 start-up investments. The number of suc-cessful deals increased seven-fold to 67 deals in 2015, according to Topica Founder In-stitute.Among the most notable investments was South Korea's UTC Investment's $38 million acquisition of a controlling stake in VNPT EPay, marking the biggest deal last year, the programme said.Momo, a local payments and online wallet company, has raised an unprecedented $28 million from Standard Chartered and Goldman Sachs.A lack of funding to help start-ups get their idea off the ground is their most concern, startup experts have said.Some argued that institutions like the stock market or commercial banks are either not designed to financially support idea-stage companies or have insufficient resources to do so.Although there are banks that focus on small and medium-sized companies, they re-ally are not able to offer financing to early-stage companies which often don't have a track record of reliable annual revenues or a history of good credit.Hence start-ups are more likely to seek funds from other resources like venture capital investors and private equity firms.http://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/vietnamese-start-ups-receive-a-250 million-boost-last-year-3553317.html


BU

SIN

ES


Business unsatisfied with online public services


Import-export firms have complained that they still have to come to customs offices to get multiple procedures done, instead of handling them online. The general Depart-ment of Customs said online services for 41 procedures have been made available since early March.Speaking to the Daily, a manager of a customs services firm in HCM City said just half of the procedures are still handled offline. Enterprises are required to fill in the form and scan it for online submission. After that, they have to print it out and ask for ap-proval.For South Korea-issued certificate of origin (C/O), the customs should go online to view it but enterprises are still told to print it out and send the paper to the customs.A leader of a customs department in southern Vietnam said that for some procedures, electronic documents could be submitted online but are never processed by the cus-toms.Enterprises thought customs officers lack a sense of responsibility while customs offic-ers said relevant ministries and agencies did not coordinate well with the customs, ren-dering online customs services helpless.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52814/Business-unsatisfied-with-online-public-serv-ices.html

Vietnam PM yet to draw conclusion on two controversial projects

13/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA | TUOITRE NEWS

A massive steelmaking project in south-central Vietnam and a multimillion-dollar un-derwater tunnel in the central region, both under controversy over their necessity, have yet to receive approval or rejection from prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.Rather than giving a verdict on the future of the projects, the Vietnamese premier has instead requested that developers continue doing the necessary research to ensure that neither project will negatively impact the economy or the environment, according to a government Office statement on Thursday.In August 2016, Hoa Sen Group, a local corrugated iron sheet maker, announced plans to establish an enormous $10.6 billion steelmaking complex in the south-central prov-ince of Ninh Thuan, one of Vietnam's most drought-prone areas.The project received support from the Ninh Thuan administration and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, though it is still awaiting feedback from the prime minister on whether or not it should be given the green-light.In the meantime, authorities in the central city of Da Nang have proposed building a VND4.08 trillion (US$182.14 million) underwater tunnel beneath the iconic Han River in a bid to reduce traffic pressure.Not enough groundsOn Thursday, minister Mai Tien Dung, chair of the government Office, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that PM Phuc believes there is not enough information to offer a conclusion on the future of the Ca Na project."The trade ministry's report on the project fails to provide enough information that can be used as grounds to decide the fate of the project," Dung said.PM Phuc has tasked other ministries and agencies with continuing assessing the project, especially on such issues as its environmental impact, wastewater treatment plan, potential for air pollution, and funding."It cannot be denied that [Ninh Thuan] needs such a project to boost its development, but we should remain cautious," minister Dung said."The premier's view is that we should not trade the environment for overambitious goals."As for the Da Nang underwater tunnel, PM Phuc also met with Da Nang authorities for a briefing on the project, eventually deciding that he could not yet determine whether or not to give it the go-ahead, according to deputy prime minister Trinh Dinh Dung."The prime minister has requested that more research and studies on the project be car-ried out, focusing on its necessity, efficiency, funding plans, and designs," the deputy


BU

SIN

ES


premier told Tuoi Tre on Thursday."Only if the new report is more convincing will the prime minister agree to add the tunnel to Da Nang's planning," he underlined.http://tuoitrenews.vn/business/39933/vietnam-pm-yet-to-draw-conclusion-on-two-controversial-projects

Foreign suppliers eye local packaging industry


Vietnam's packaging industry, with average annual growth of 15-20 percent, has grown attractive to foreign suppliers of machinery and equipment, heard at a press conference on ProPak Vietnam 2017 in HCM City on March 9.The international exhibition will take place from March 21 to 23 at the Saigon Exhibi-tion and Convention centre in the city, featuring around 380 exhibitors from 28 coun-tries and territories such as India, Taiwan, Denmark, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China, and Italy.BT Tee of Singapore Exhibition Services in Vietnam, one of the two organisers of the exhibition, said Vietnam has a strong appeal to overseas manufacturers because of the market's advantages and human resources. Meanwhile, domestic producers are im-proving production efficiency and investing in the packaging sector to enhance their competitiveness.Moreover, the increasing demand for food, beverages and pharmaceuticals has led to a pickup in packaging demand. International firms said the nation's packaging indus-try has been sluggish while domestic goods production for local and overseas markets is expected to grow sharply, resulting in huge packaging demand.Many machinery, equipment and technology suppliers have seen the potential of the domestic market through their participation in fairs and exhibitions. They have launched Vietnam-based offices in order to respond manufacturers' needs promptly.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52801/Foreign-suppliers-eye-local-packaging-indus-try.html

Vietnam fruits welcomed overseas, less favoured in home market


While Vietnam's fruits are popular among choosy consumers in the US, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, the products have to struggle to cement their positions in the domestic market.In January 2017, Vietnam imported $110 million worth of fruit, a sharp increase of 55 percent over the last year's same period.In 2016, Vietnamese spent $700 million on imported fruits which came mostly from Chile, New Zealand and Australia.Vietnam also imported fruit from neighbouring countries. Thailand has surpassed China to become the biggest fruit supplier. It exported $218.8 million worth of fruit to Vietnam in the first eight months of the year, while China exported $125.2 million.Imported fruits, mostly grapes, oranges and apples, flood traditional markets and dominate the shelves at supermarkets, though they are nearly VND100,000 per kilo more expensive than domestically grown products.Thu Duc, a large wholesale farm produce traditional market in HCM City, is one of the biggest distribution centers of foreign fruits. About 10 types of fruits there are carried to retail markets.South Korean Fuji apple priced at VND133,000 per kilo, French kiwi VNDVND75,000, and South African grapes VND165,000 per kilo sell very well despite high prices.When asked why they accept to pay for imports, Ngoc Thu, a housewife in Tan Phu district in HCM City, said foreign products have longer shelf life, and there is no need to worry about unsafe plant protection chemicals, because foreign farmers have to fol-low strict regulations during farming and preservation.Hoa, an office worker in Go Vap district, said she understands that Vietnam's fruits are always fresher than imports because they are brought directly from orchids and fields to markets, while it takes months to ship fruits from other countries to Vietnam.However, she still chooses imported fruits because she believes the fruits are safer.


BU

SIN

ES


"Imported fruits have to undergo strict examination by the state management agencies in their countries. Meanwhile, the quality of Vietnam's products cannot be controlled," she said, adding that imports are 20-60 percent more expensive than domestic prod-ucts.Vietnam still imports fruits from China in large quantities. However, in Vietnam, they are introduced as Vietnam's fruits because Vietnamese consumers boycott Chinese fruits.A GDC report showed Vietnam exported $2.4 billion worth of fruits and vegetables in 2016, an increase of 30 percent over 2015, while the figure is expected to rise to $3 bil-lion this year.According to the Vietnam Fruits & Vegetables Association, Vietnam's products can en-ter 60 markets, but they still find it difficult to penetrate distribution networks in these countries.Nguyen Dinh Tung, general director of Vina T&T, said Vietnam needs VND500 billion for projects on developing the technologies for fruit preservation.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/174225/vietnam-fruits-welcomed-over-seas--less-favoured-in-home-market.html

Hospitality segment on the rise in Da Nang


Central city's hospitality segment holds major potential according to Savills report.Da Nang holds substantial potential for real estate investment with major opportuni-ties available in the hospitality segment, according to the latest report from real estate consultants Savills.Hotel supply in the fourth quarter of 2016 was approximately 9,030 rooms following the entry of four three- to four-star hotels, an increase of 5 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 19 per cent year-on-year.Room tariffs in all segments increased, by 18 per cent year-on-year, and average reve-nue rose 26 per cent.Nine four- to five-star hotels supplying approximately 2,200 rooms will come this year.Condotel stock in the fourth quarter of 2016, meanwhile, was approximately 3,910 units from ten projects, of which 1,325 were primary supply. Son Tra district had the most, with 50 per cent, followed by Ngu Hanh Son district with 44 per cent.Total apartment stock was 3,495 units from 15 projects, of which 520 are primary sup-ply. Ngu Hanh Son district had the most, with 30 per cent, followed by Son Tra, Hai Chau and Thanh Khe districts.Savills said that guaranteed returns are offered in many condotel projects' pre-sales programmes. Apec 2017, being held later in the year in the central city, will likely in-crease condotel performance and spur a rash of investments.The report also noted that Da Nang continues to establish itself as a competitive coastal location for both domestic and international tourists.It welcomed 5.51 million visitors last year, up 18 per cent year-on-year, according to the Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. International arrivals were 1.66 million, an increase of 31.6 per cent, with 3.84 million domestic tourists also visit-ing the city, up 12.5 per cent. Total tourism revenue was estimated at VND16 trillion ($727.2 million), up 24.7 per cent.Da Nang aims to make tourism a leading economy sector from 2016 to 2020, Tran Chi Cuong, deputy director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism told the "2016 Da Nang Spring Tourism Forum".It has set a target of welcoming 8 million tourists annually by 2020, including 2 million foreign visitors, and earning VND27.4 trillion ($1.23 billion) in revenue.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/property/hospitality-segment-on-the-rise-in-da-nang

Korea-Vietnam Incubator Park faces impediments


The Korea-Vietnam Incubator Park (KVIP) has been facing a lot of difficulties, leading deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue to order relevant ministries and agencies to


BU

SIN

ES


swiftly find ways to prop up the park in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.Hue, speaking at a meeting in Hanoi on Tuesday, told the Ministry of Industry and Trade to negotiate with Korea over financial support to purchase necessary equipment and bring Korean experts to the park to boost technology transfer and incubation.The Ministry of Finance will be responsible for proposing preferential import-export and corporate income taxes for KVIP. The Ministry of Science and Technology will have to provide consultants for the park to support business incubation and innova-tion startups.Hue proposed KVIP look for scientists and experts at the city's universities and pro-mote the image of the park to attract domestic and international investors.As part of a multi-faceted cooperation programme between the two countries to fuel the delta's socio-economic development, KVIP requires a total investment of $21 mil-lion, with nearly $17.7 million of it coming from a Korean grant and the remainder from the Can Tho government.The park was put into operation in Can Tho City in the third quarter of 2015. The Ko-rean side has given equipment for research and development activities in three major sectors: farm produce, seafood processing and mechanical engineering.Korea has yet to send Korean experts to the park to help with operation and provide finances for buying indispensable equipment. Therefore, activities of KVIP remain limited.The park has attracted only three incubation projects which occupy a mere 200 square meters out of a total of more than 13,000 square meters, and cost a total of VND17 bil-lion.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/52803/Korea-Vietnam-Incubator-Park-faces-impedi-ments.html

Vincom suits Platinum Cineplex


Vincom Retail Joint Stock Company (VCR) has filed a lawsuit against the M.V.P Group, owner of Platinum Cineplex, after the Indonesian entertainment conglomerate claimed that the closure of its cinemas at three Vincom trading centres early March is illegal.Earlier, on March 8, the M.V.P Group held a press conference to address issued related to the closure of Platinum Cineplex, the biggest cinema operator by screen in Hanoi, at three Vincom malls.The three cinemas include Platinum Royal City in Thanh Xuan District, Platinum Times City in Hai Ba Trung District and Platinum Long Bien in Gia Lam District.At the press conference, an M.V.P representative said that VCR's unilateral termina-tion of the contract signed with M.V.P Group ahead of expiration date was illegal, as the group had not breached the contract.Platinum has no outstanding debts at any of the three Vincom malls, the representative said, dismissing claims made by Vincom Retail in local media.He said that the information supplied by VCR had serious impact on the group's pres-tige.In response to claims by the M.V.P Group, VCR general director Tran Mai Hoa said VCR had many times asked the M.V.P to voluntarily move its assets away from VCR premises as regulated in contract clause of termination. However, M.V.P has deliber-ately delayed moving.Specically, on October 15, 2016, M.V.P agreed to move their assets but later asked for extension to February 4, 2017. On December 19, 2016, the group once again asked for an extension of 10 to 12 months. On December 20, 2016, it requested an extension and permission to operate over the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.VCR agreed to an extension to February 24, but M.V.P has still not moved its assets. Therefore, on March 1, VCR was forced to seal the premises, in accordance with the contract. It notified M.V.P of its plans, and even agreed for M.V.P to send a represent-ative to the premises to check its assets."Sealing the premises is a legal measure to recover our premises appropriated by the


BU

SIN

ES


M.V.P when the leasing contract ended," Hoa said. It was done and witnessed by M.V.P managers and representatives from authorities at each location.Related to the outstanding debts, Hoa said that VCR and M.V.P had a working session to calculate the outstanding debts, and on October 14, 2016, head of the M.V.P financial department confirmed the figure.The contract was terminated in accordance with the rights of the two parties negotiat-ed and clearly specified in the contract, the VCR representative said.She noted that the case is a disagreement between the two independent business part-ners and should therefore be resolved on the basis of law and the trade and civil agree-ment between the parties.http://bizhub.vn/news/vincom-suits-platinum-cineplex_284721.html

New appointments at PVN and VNPT announced


Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Thursday signed a decision to re-move Nguyen Quoc Khanh as chair of the board of directors of PetroVietnam to enable his transfer to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.The minister of Industry and Trade will assign specific tasks for Khanh.The prime minister also agreed to appoint Nguyen Vu Truong Son, member of the board of directors-cum-general director of PetroVietnam, to temporarily perform the duties of chair of the board of directors until a new appointment is announced.Meanwhile, the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) announced its decision to appoint Huynh Quang Liem to the group's deputy general director for five years beginning March 1.At the ceremony, deputy minister of Information and Communications Phan Tam said, with his experience and capacity, Liem would help develop VNPT in the future and realise the goal of making the company to the top of the country's IT and commu-nications market.http://bizhub.vn/news/new-appointments-at-pvn-and-vnpt-announced_284705.html

Changes at the top at FLC


Leadership changes made as group grows.Huong Tran Kieu Dung has been appointed deputy Chairwoman of the Board of Man-agement of the FLC Group, replacing Le Thanh Vinh, who becomes CEO.The change is part of plans to perfect the Group's senior leadership as it continues to grow in terms of assets and operational scope.At a ceremony held recently to mark the appointment, Chair Trinh Van Quyet said the group is in a period of rapid growth with a series of high-end resorts, golf and enter-tainment projects in train throughout the country with total investment in the billions of dollars. "This requires senior leaders be highly adaptable and willing to support each other," he explained."After the group's strong development in recent years, the Board has a lot to do in the time to come," Dung told the ceremony.Born in 1978, Dung has a PhD in Construction and Planning Law from France's Mon-tesquieu Bordeaux IV University. She also has more than 15 years of experience in con-sulting and managing businesses, property project construction, investment, and M&A in Vietnam. Le Thanh Vinh, meanwhile, is well-trained in business administration and law and has many years of senior management experience. He holds a Masters of International Business and a Masters in International Trade Law from Deakin University, Australia, and a Law Doctorate from Monash University in Australia.As part of the senior leadership restructuring, on March 1 the group also appointed Vu Dang Hai Yen as deputy general director.FLC targets recording total real estate revenue of VND13 trillion ($591 million) this year, double the figure in 2016. It also plans to launch more than 2,500 condotel units, 1,400 ocean villas, 3,500 hotel rooms, and four 18-hole golf courses.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/changes-at-the-top-at-flc


BU

SIN

ES


Grab to be temporarily banned from Da Nang


GrabTaxi will only be allowed to continue its passenger transport business in the cen-tral city if there is coordinated management by the Department of Transport.The Ministry of Transport has given the green light to Da Nang temporarily banning GrabTaxi from continuing its trial operations, via a document sent to the city's People Committee and the car hailing company on March 10.The ministry said it believes Grab provides convenience and continues the trend of ap-plying science and technology in transport, but its operations require further coopera-tion between the Da Nang People Committee and the ministry so that suitable planning is conducted over vehicle numbers and traffic organisation.Grab will therefore only be allowed to continue operations in Da Nang if there is coor-dinated management by the city's Department of Transport.In regard to Grab's pilot car hailing project, Da Nang does not prevent or ban any en-terprise from freely doing business but Grab has continued to call for investors, bring-ing in more vehicles to the city and affecting traffic safety, and wrongly influencing public opinion while the city was waiting for further direction, the Department of Transport said in a press release on March 8.According to the Department, the People Committee sent two documents to the trans-port ministry from November to February suspending Grab's trial operations due to the growing number of vehicles and the city's lack of infrastructure."But while the city was waiting for further directives from the transport ministry and other authorities to adjust some of the inadequate policies regarding the trial operation of Grab in Da Nang, Grab continued its advertising, calling for more investors and bringing more vehicles from other provinces into Da Nang, causing congestion and wrongly influencing public opinion," the Department wrote in the press release.Accordingly, the city's Traffic Safety Committee asked the department to have internet providers block access to Uber and Grab apps and also asked police to investigate and punish any individual or organisation found to be offering transport services illegally in the city.The Department views Grab's services as being similar to a taxi business and its pres-ence in the city would cause a sharp rise in the number of private cars and taxis, wors-ening congestion. Meanwhile, there has been no regulation from the government and the transport ministry for the city to closely oversee this type of business. As a result, it has affected traffic safety, which is something that has always been kept under con-trol in Da Nang.According to the Department, the transport ministry sent documents in November last year reporting the results of the nine-month pilot on the application of science and technology in supporting the management of passenger transport.Grab previously gained approval from the transport ministry to operate on a trial basis in five cities and provinces: Hanoi, HCM City, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa and Quang Ninh, from January 1, 2016 to January 1, 2018.The trial, however, has caused problems in these areas, including a sharp rise in the number of newly-registered vehicles of less-than-nine-seats. "Hanoi and HCM City, for example, licensed more than 7,000 and 20,000 new vehicles, respectively, during the period," the Department said.A huge number of private motor cars from nearby provinces have also arrived in Ha-noi and HCM City, whose owners have signed working contracts with Cooperatives' transportation businesses while at the same time using the Grab app. Most of these do not pay taxes, causing losses to the State budget.Hanoi and HCM City have implemented a range of solutions to resolve traffic jams in urban areas, but congestion has actually gotten worse. Moreover, the fact that Grab's drivers do not have to declare information and publicly list their fares, while also not attaching Grab's logos to their vehicles, have also made supervision difficult.Overall, the mechanism for managing the type of transportation business Grab oper-ates under has been inadequate and inappropriate. Tax policies and guidelines for the transport model lack specifics and have failed to ensure a fair playing field. Da Nang


BU

SIN

ES


has also been conducting research to identify solutions in limiting the number private vehicles on its streets, to deal with congestion.Grab, meanwhile, was not available for comment at the time of writing. GrabTaxi is the only foreign-run transport service allowed to operate in five cities in Vietnam us-ing registered private vehicles between 2016 and 2018. Uber, meanwhile, has been pro-viding ride-hailing services without legal permission.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/grab-to-be-temporarily-banned-from-da-nang

Footwear, leather promotion conference scheduled next week


A footwear and leather export promotion conference, themed "Increasing business and export capacity for Vietnamese footwear and leather enterprises," will be organ-ised on March 15 in HCM City.The information was released on Friday by the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Hand-bag Association (Lefaso), which said this would be an opportunity for the Vietnamese footwear sector in general and Lefaso in particular to promote images and improve prestige and positions in the Asian region and the world.The conference will also give an opportunity for local businesses to meet and share ex-periences with local partners, approach foreign importers and investors and seek co-operation agreements.Some 300 firms manufacturing footwear and materials for the industry inside and out-side Vietnam are expected to participate in the conference, which will focus on issues such as footwear planning and related policies, investment environment, impact of free trade deal on the sector, labour relationship management in the labour-intensive sector, and supply chain optimisation to boost competition and sustainable develop-ment.They will also discuss the state of the industry in Vietnam in the context of integration, market demand and technical requirements for the industry to benefit from free trade deals.Vietnam's leather and footwear industry expects to reach a total export value of $18 bil-lion this year, up 10 per cent from last year, the association said.In 2016, the sector earned an export revenue of $16.2 billion, representing an year-on-year increase of 8.8 per cent. Of which, $13 billion came from footwear and the remain-ing was from handbags and leather items, marking respective annual rises of 8.2 per cent and 11.1 per cent.

New progammes support tourism startups in Mekong region


The Mekong Innovative Startup Tourism (MIST) on Thursday announced two incuba-tion programmes to support innovative tourism firms in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.The tourism startup incubator programme will accept business ideas in tourism tech-nology forms as well as traditional models of startup businesses in the first stage.Representatives of selected startup projects will attend a camp where they can develop their business ideas. The best projects from each country will receive MIST awards worth $7,000-$10,000.Meanwhile, the market access incubator programme is a chance for larger travel firms, which are in need of support, to access the regional market. Selected project owners will join a fact-finding tour to Mekong River countries to study the market, while being introduced to service providing networks of relevant agencies.Last year, Vietnam welcomed more than 10 million foreign visitors. However, Huynh Kim Tuoc, executive director of the Saigon Innovation Hub, noted that Vietnam's tour-ism products remain poor, and hence should be reformed and diversified to attract more tourists.He also underlined the significance of regional connectivity in boosting tourism growth, while suggesting the promotion of Vietnamese tourism and the preservation of the sector's unique characteristics.


BU

SIN

ES


According to the organising board, the two programmes will receive applications until March 27, 2017. The project owners will have a chance to present their ideas in front of investors, incubators and tourism leaders at the Mekong Tourism Forum in June 2017 in Laos and the Apec Economic Leaders' Meeting in November in Vietnam.The MIST is a joint initiative of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office and the Me-kong Business Initiative.http://bizhub.vn/news/new-progammes-support-tourism-startups-in-mekong-region_284704.html

International agriculture festival underway in Mekong Delta


The International Agriculture Festival and Fair of Mekong Delta region, which opened in Can Tho City on Wednesday, has 150 domestic and international exhibitors show-casing agro-based products and technologies.The five-day fair has 300 booths.Speaking at the opening ceremony, deputy minister of Science and Technology Tran Van Tung said the festival aims to create opportunities for scientists, inventors, enter-prises, cooperatives and farmers who are seeking funds to branch out and promoting agriculture in Mekong Delta.Fifty outstanding businesses in the Delta were awarded Creative Agricultural Science medals at the ceremony. The award honours enterprises and individuals who have made remarkable achievements in the field of high-tech agricultural equipment.The festival is also hosting 14 seminars on using technology to improve productivity and quality, and a programme to connect suppliers and buyers of agricultural technol-ogies and equipment.The event will see cultural and entertainment activities as well, such as a cooking con-test and an Ao ba ba (Vietnamese silk ensemble) contest.The Mekong Delta, which comprises one city and 12 provinces, plays an important role in the country's agrarian economy, accounting for 80 per cent of Vietnam's rice ex-ports and nearly 60 per cent of the seafood shipments.

Hanoi, Japan beef up trade, tourism ties


A forum on trade - tourism promotion between Hanoi and Japan took place in the capital city on March 10, with a range of cooperation pacts signed.Chair of the municipal People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung said Hanoi welcomes Japanese investment in high-tech agriculture, urban railway projects, human resourc-es training, tourism and health care.He pledged to create favourable conditions for Japanese investors.Nagai Katsuro, who oversees economics affairs at the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam, said Japan has strongly invested in Vietnam for years and intends to increase capital in the northern region, including Hanoi, to make use of the competent workforce and potential market.The Japanese government is considering raising official development assistance for Vi-etnam with a particular interest in major infrastructure projects in Hanoi, he noted.He also highlighted the appeal Vietnam has for Japanese tourists.Participating Vietnamese and Japanese firms discussed cooperation in tourism, health, culture, and transport.As part of the forum, Hanoi authorities and Japanese investors signed memorandums of understanding on various joint projects in the city, including the building of a shop-ping mall, the transfer of automatic flower cultivation technology, and the provision of flower seeds. Other projects mentioned were on developing an international-stand-ard medicine distribution system and training operators for the Hanoi Metropolitan Metro Railway project.Japan is now the top investor in Hanoi, with more than 800 projects worth about 5.2 billion USD. End


finance & business news · India to conclude AD investigation into Vietnam spandex yarn 17 Joint...

Documents

Transcript of finance & business news · India to conclude AD investigation into Vietnam spandex yarn 17 Joint...