Forum eyes ways to boost dairy sector

The raising of dairy cattle in the last few years has played an important role in livestock production, and helped raise farmers' incomes, but the industry needs improvements to develop in a sustainable manner.

Speaking at an industry forum in HCM City's Cu Chi District last week, Dr Doan Duc Vu from the Institute of Agricultural Science for Southern Viet Nam said during the last 10 years, the dairy cattle population had rapidly increased, from 41,000 heads in 2001 to 128,538 heads last year.

Total domestic milk production in the period had achieved an annual growth rate of more than 30 per cent to over 306,000 tonnes in 2010 from 64,000 tonnes in 2001.

But domestic consumption and demand have increased even faster. Milk output this year has reached an estimated 329,000 tonnes, meeting only 22 per cent of demand.

As a result, the country imports a large amount of milk and dairy products each year.

As living standards increase, consumers increasing demand for milk and dairy products, offering a good opportunity for businesses and farmers to expand their breeding.

Despite ample opportunities, the dairy-cow breeding industry is facing challenges, including inexperienced farmers, a lack of dairy-cow breeds, insufficient land for cattle-raising and forage production, and ineffective animal-health services, according to Vu.

With small scale breeding, farmers say it is difficult to apply modern technology, which results in lower productivity and quality as well as high production costs.

In addition, the country has to import most ingredients used in producing cattle feed, pushing up production costs and making the sector less competitive.

The dairy production sector was still young and had far less experience than other agricultural sectors, Vu said, noting that farmers still bred mainly Holstein-Friesian crossbreeds with low productivity.

Ho Mong Hai, an expert from the Viet Nam Animal Husbandry Department, said the Government, under its Dairy Development Plan until 2020, set a target to meet 38 per cent of domestic milk consumption by 2020.

To achieve these goals, Hai said the sector must adopt measures to raise productivity and reduce production costs, including dispensing with cows with low reproduction capacity or productivity, continuing to import quality dairy-cow gene sources and encouraging development of large-scale breeding farms.

He also called on the sector to develop measures to reduce industrial feed expenses by expanding cultivation of soybean and maize and intensive production of grass.

Training farmers in the basic principles of dairy cattle raising and disease prevention, as well as health hygiene, milk preservation and some common disease treatments, was also very important, he said.

Nguyen Phuoc Trung, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, urged farmers to use advanced milking and harvesting equipment to ensure hygiene and food safety and improve milk quality.

He also recommended that farmers build temperature-controlled breeding facilities, choose high-yield breeding cows, and research and add interferon to cattle feed.

Trung said the city had encouraged businesses to research and produce equipment for mechanisation of cattle breeding, as well as to build TMR (Total Mixed Ratio) plants, which offers the advantage of providing a balance of all the nutrients an animal needs in each period. Vu said small breeding households would be replaced with industrial breeding farms in the coming years to meet an increasing requirement for milk from local consumers.

In Viet Nam, dairy cows are mainly raised in the southeastern region, with dairy cow herds in HCM City accounting for 62 per cent of the country's total.

Delegates at the forum also discussed issues related to dairy cow breeds, breeding techniques, disease-prevention measures,nurturing techniques and waste-treatment methods, as well as the latest technology in the processing, preservation and supply of cattle feed.

The forum, co-organised by the National Agricultural Extension Centre and the HCM City Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, was attended by more than 400 delegates, including scientists, provincial agricultural officials, businesses, and breeders of milch cows from 10 provinces and cities in the south.

VBF’s positive spin on dizzying times

The business community is doing its best to put a positive spin on the country’s prospects despite a range of challenging factors in the mix.

Business representatives attending the annual Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) in Hanoi last week raised the usual concerns over macroeconomic challenges and administrative burdens, but also expressed confidence in a brighter outlook in 2012 and beyond.

“While the gloomy image of macroeconomic instability, 20 per cent inflation and a weak currency in Vietnam is temporary, the medium to long-term outlook remains positive,” said Christopher Twomey, chairman of American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam and chief executive officer of ACE Insurance Company in Vietnam.

A survey on business sentiment conducted by the VBF Secretariat during September-October this year among 240 firms found that business morale had fallen to a three-year low in 2011 and much lower than the levels recorded in 2010.

The survey, with 80 per cent of participants being domestic firms and the remaining 20 per cent having foreign investment, gave an average score of 2.04 on the ease of doing business in Vietnam for 2011 compared to 2.52 in 2010 and nearly 1.9 in 2008 when the global financial crisis first struck.

Under its definition, four meant very good, three signified good, two was acceptable and one poor.

However, the ratings for the favourableness and ease of doing business in Vietnam for 2012 and 2013 were rated at 2.45 and 2.88, respectively, by the respondents.

This indicates growing confidence among business community for the next two years and could be a result of faith in the government’s efforts to restructure the economy and implement a raft of measures to recover macroeconomic stability.

“Most respondents believe that sticking to this resolution, painful and difficult as it may be, is right and necessary to ensure the survival of the economy,” the survey report said.

The Vietnamese government would keep on pursuing tightened fiscal and monetary policy, Minister and Chairman of Government Office Vu Duc Dam affirmed in a governmental press conference last week.

Dam said the government would continue to create favourable conditions and remove barriers for private enterprises to develop next year. He added that he expected the private sector would be the key driver of economic growth targeted at 6 per cent.

“We are restructuring investment by reducing public investment. So if we don’t have policies to encourage private investment, our economic growth will not reach 6 per cent next year,” said Dam.

Meanwhile, the government would adopt specific plans to restructure the financial system and state-owned enterprises next month, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Twomey said if the government’s plans were strictly implemented, the business environment was bound to improve.

The VBF Secretariat survey revealed that 69 per cent of enterprises said they would be expanding their business in the next three years. The key reasons for the expansion were perceptions of local and regional market growth, better prospects of the local economy, and market opening and reform following Vietnam’s increased integration into the world economy.

Property projects grind to a halt

Fewer property projects are expected to be on the market in the near future as work on many projects has been either halted or interrupted, according to industry experts.

Lack of capital and the market's weak liquidity have contributed to the slowdown.

In Tan Phu District, for example, construction on many real-estate projects has started, but nothing has happened since the ground-breaking ceremonies were held. Only the foundation of buildings have been built.

The Phu Nhuan Economics Development Joint-Stock Company has not been able to fulfil its commitment to prospective buyers in its Hiep Tan residential housing project in the district, even though customers made deposits for apartment units in March this year. The company had committed to sign sales contracts in May.

The Kenten Residence Project invested by Tai Nguyen Company is one of the biggest residential housing projects in rural Nha Be District, with more than 1,600 high-grade apartments.

Although rough construction of buildings in this residential project has almost finished, work stopped several months ago.

Some major real-estate projects scheduled to be built this year remain on paper, with no work done at all, according to Dau Tu (Vietnam Investment Review) newspaper.

Malaysia-based Berjaya Land Berhad is the owner of a US$930 million project to build the Viet Nam Finance Centre on an area of 6.8 ha in District 10. They would have five 39 – and 48-storey towers. However, the project has not started.

Market analysts attribute the slow development of real estate projects to the market's weak liquidity and financial pressure.

If these problems continue, fewer property projects will be built in the future, they have said.

The Viet Nam Land Investment Corporation (VNI) is due to start construction of a high-end apartment project, Vinaland Tower, in District 7 early next year.

However, the plan may be delayed because the market remains quiet, according to VNI chairman Tran Minh Hoang.

Nguyen Van Duc, deputy director of the Dat Lanh Real Estate Company, said that, given the sluggish market, only property projects that had sold units to customers would have an opportunity to continue construction work.

"In the coming years, there will be very few new real-estate projects and fewer land plots will be bought. This means that the number of housing units could run out," Duc told Dau Tu newspaper.

Puny service charges leaves port short

Low service charges are hurting port investors in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province’s Cai Mep-Thi Vai area.

After three years’ construction, Cai Mep international terminal (CMIT) was pressed into service in early December 2011, grabbling particular attention from investor community.

CMIT, 50 kilometres southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, is the largest international gateway port in Cai Mep-Thi Vai area in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province and is Vietnam’s first container port directly accessible by big ships. CMIT is also the only port in Vietnam equipped with state-of-the art super post-Paramax gantry cranes.

However, there were concerns over Cai Mep-Thi Vai port group’s capacity issue, especially after CMIT came online since apart from CMIT, the area is home to several other big ports run by Tan Cang Saigon, SP-PSA (Singapore) and SITV (US) which were put into operation during 2010-2011.

According to the Ministry of Transport (MoT), 4.2 million 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers called on Cai Mep-Thi Vai port group in 2010, witnessing an average growth rate of 13.2 per cent per year in the past five years.

“Without timely preparations, we could fall behind actual development demands, meanwhile [Cai Mep-Thi Vai] area has great potential to woo international transit goods in the region,” said MoT Minister Dinh La Thang.

Reality shows that due to global economic recession, cargo volumes are below ports’ capacities, driving ports into an unhealthy price cutting competition. Container loading charges at ports currently average $32 per container, much lower than the set floor level of $40 per container.

Industry experts then assumed modern ports like CMIT would incur losses unless efforts were made to stamp out unhealthy pricing competition.

The MoT reportedly urged port businesses to make declarations of container loading and relevant charges and the MoT will work with ministries of Finance, Industry and Trade to introduce suitable remedies.

“If necessary, the MoT will report to the prime minister asking for a specific mechanism relevant to setting the container loading service floor price, primarily to Cai Mep-Thi Vai area,” according to the MoT.

Round Table Pizza says will open 20 restaurants in Vietnam

Round Table Pizza, an American pizza restaurant icon known for gourmet quality and fresh innovation, has announced the signing of an exclusive agreement with Vietnam’s Mesa Group to develop 20 restaurants in the Asian country.  

The American firm has granted the Mesa Group exclusive rights to open Round Table Pizza restaurants throughout Vietnam, the brand said in an announcement from Hanoi Saturday.

The first Round Table restaurant will open in Ho Chi Minh City in March 2012, according to the statement.

Mesa Group has operated a range of businesses in Vietnam, including distribution, food and beverage, media and real estate development. It also is the exclusive developer of Carl’s Jr. in Vietnam, another California icon.

The announcement brings the total number of international Round Table Pizza restaurants operating or slated for development to 37, according to the brand.

“We are eager to work with partners, like Mesa Group, who can bring our core values of dedication to families and serving a superb pizza to a larger global audience,” Round Table Pizza President Rob McCourt said in the announcement.

Ms. Luu Tuyet Mai, CEO of Mesa Group, said, “We are excited to bring the great taste of Round Table Pizza to Vietnam. Round Table Pizza is known for its quality ingredients and superior tasting pizza, which make it a great match for Vietnamese consumers.”

Mesa Group has two Carl’s Jr. Hamburger restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s economic hub. One is located in District 1 and the other in the new township of Phu My Hung in District 7.

Carlsberg buys out popular Hue brewer

Thua Thien-Hue Province has sold its 50 per cent stake in the Hue Brewery Company to Carlsberg, making the Danish beer giant the 100 per cent owner.

The deal is valued a total of VND1.875 trillion (US$93 million), which includes more than VND700 million ($34,720) for its two breweries and the remainder for the Huda Hue brand name.

The provincial government decided to sell its stake because it did not have the money to invest to boost production and increase the company's market share.

Hue Brewery was established in 1990 and became a joint venture with Carlsberg Group four years later with the two sides' stakes valued at $9 million each.

The company, with an annual output of 200 million litres, has an 8 per cent market share of the Viet Nam beer market, and is one of the top four brewers in the country along with Sabeco, Habeco and Viet Nam Beer.

It hoped to expand its market share to 15 per cent by 2015 and the deal, its general director Nguyen Mau Chi explained, was to help the company fulfil its strategy since the provincial government could not find the required financial resources.

An additional investment of VND2.5 trillion ($119 million) would be needed, he said.

The chairman of the People's Committee, Nguyen Van Cao, said Carlsberg had committed to increase the company's capacity to 350 million litres a year by 2015.

Hue Brewery has been the biggest source of revenue for the provincial government budget, providing a third or even half of total collections.

Last year it contributed VND850 billion ($40.5 million) and that is expected to rise to VND900 billion this year.

The sales notwithstanding, Cao said the deal would help strengthen the Huda Hue brand.

Weak logistics sector retards development
 
The country's logistics sector faces many challenges in improving its low competitiveness with businesses in the sector being held back by their small size, poor infrastructure and a lack of modern equipment, according to a recent seminar.

The sector must overcome a raft of challenges if it is to help improve freight forwarding and shipping to Vietnamese exporters, who already pay high fees for what many complain to be a low-quality service.

At the seminar on raising the logistic sector's competitive edge, held in HCM City on Wednesday, participants said that though the country was expected to fetch a significant export and import turnover of US$200 billion next year, exporters were facing many challenges to fulfil the target with some of the difficulties stemming from the weak domestic logistics industry.

Meanwhile, links among businesses, ministries and authorities in provinces and cities needed to be strengthened.

At the seminar, most participants complained about the unfavourable factors adversely affecting export-import activities while reducing the export sector's competitive edge.

These factors include continually rising shipping fees, high interest rates, fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate between the domestic currency and US dollar, complicated export-import and customs clearance procedures, tax policies and the issuance of Certificates of Origin (C/O).

A representative from the Viet Nam Pepper Association said the poor quality of transportation, a lack of equipment and warehouses, high shipping fees and low service quality were considered the major problems for the logistics industry.

He said these problems had resulted in the domestic shipping sector only being able to secure 20 per cent of the market share in the domestic market.

As foreign shipping fleets had secured 80 per cent of market share, they could charge high prices for freight forwarding and shipping services, he added.

Meanwhile, VIFFAS's Chairman Do Xuan Quang said the local logistics sector had had many opportunities to develop as the national economy was still experiencing rapid growth.

Participants agreed that the local logistic sector should continue to invest in modern equipment, warehouse and adequate means of transportation in order to sharpen its competitiveness and increase service quality.

VIFFAS's Deputy Chairman Le Duy Hiep said infrastructure for the local logistics industry should receive more investment to meet the nation's export and import demands while improving links between logistics and export-import companies.

Do Ha Nam, general director of the Viet Nam Intimex Joint Stock Corporation, said domestic shipping fleets needed to improve their capacity and slash shipping times in order to meet freight forwarding and shipping demands from the export and import sector.

Nam also said customs clearance procedures should be streamlined to create favourable conditions for businesses involved in export -import activities, adding that the country should also focus on building new warehouses, thereby cutting shipping cost for Vietnamese goods set for export.

The seminar, which was held by the Industry and Trade newspaper, VIFFAS and Viet Nam Logistics Review, attracted over 200 businesses, associations and producers involved in the export-import sector and logistics industry.

Delta needs to rethink its exports

Provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta should adapt their export mechanisms to further increase turnover, said Deputy Director of Soc Trang Province's Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Van Ngung.

At present, most regional exports consisted of uncompetitive raw-products, he said.

Local producers should focus on upgrading technology and improving design to meet international consumer demand and cut costs, he suggested.

In agreement, Director of the Hau Giang Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Hung said that Cuu Long Delta provinces had benefited little from exports unstably focused on rice, fruit and seafood.

Exporters had been struggling to meet market demand, despite positive achievements, he added, saying that the value of 2011 exports had increased over the same period last year.

By the end of October, export turnover had reached more than US$6 billion, a year-on-year rise of 27.9 per cent.

The total value this year is estimated to hit $8.07 billion.

Serviced apartment market looks bright

Investors should pay heed to the potential for serviced apartments in Viet Nam because demand for this segment was forecast to increase and current supply was limited, Marc Townsend, managing director of CBRE, said at a conference on Thursday.

Co-organised by Thailand-based Irving Seminar&Training Co and its local partner Lean Media, the conference attracted the attendance of many property investors, developers, operators and consultants.

Townsend said more and more expatriates were frequently travelling or coming to live and work in Viet Nam and this would drive demand in the serviced apartment market.

According to Trends in Managing Mobility survey 2010 by ECA International, Viet Nam will be the 11th most common destination of companies sending staff on international assignments up to 2013. This is likely to ensure that the demand for accommodation from companies sending staff into Viet Nam is likely to remain strong in the next three years.

However, the supply is too small and has not yet met the demand. The South Korean community alone has 70,000 families, indicating that demand from expats is high.

HCM City has 3,595 units, mainly in District 1 (47.3 per cent), District 7 (13.5 per cent), District 3 (12.4 per cent), District 2 (10.5 per cent) and Binh Thanh District (9.2 per cent).

Ha Noi has 2,367 units, focused in the districts of Tay Ho (31 per cent), Ba Dinh (25 per cent) and Cau Giay (20 per cent).

Da Nang has 146 units from four projects.

The serviced apartment market will see new projects come into the market by the end of this year.

HCM City has four new projects – Hotel Nikko Sai Gon (53 units), Sai Gon Mansion (20 units), the Vista (100 units) and An Phu superior Villa Compound (68 units) – that are set to open soon.

In Ha Noi, the Keangnam Landmark 72 (378 units) is also expected to be on the market soon.

Jean Francois Chevance, director of Design Archetype Group, said serviced apartments were generally business-oriented with smaller units, fewer bedrooms (1-2 bedrooms) preferred.

Andrew Langdon, senior vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, advised Vietnamese property owners to seek international companies to manage their serviced apartments.

This would bring benefits including a global profile, brand awareness, professional marketing, and structured and standardised operating procedures, he said.

Property owners and hotel operators should maintain equity in relationship and balance the sharing either of success or of challenges that require greater efforts, Langdon added.

Marc Townsend said the next wave of development within the hospitality sector would be in terms of an increased supply of serviced apartments. Hence, industry players including international ones were ready with expansion plans to explore its potential and opportunities.

Despite ample opportunities, there were several challenges that inhibited growth of this segment in Viet Nam. The biggest challenge lied in land prices and land sources, he said.

Many projects were also being suspended because of a capital shortage, he added.

Singaporean developer targets VN real estate

Singaporean real estate developers were seeking more opportunities in real estate in Viet Nam, said Raymond Lui, director of the International Enterprise Singapore Centre, in Ha Noi yesterday.

Talking at a three-day Viet Nam business forum which concluded yesterday, Lui said Singaporean investors sought local partners for merger and acquisition projects in the real estate sector.

Lui highlighted potential for bilateral co-operation, saying Singaporean and Vietnamese companies could co-operate in such fields as urban solutions and infrastructure, trade and services.

Two Singaporean real estate developers, Keppel Land and CapitalLand Holdings, were gearing up to exploit chances in the housing segment.

CapitalLand Holdings said it would increase its investment from US$400 million to nearly $2 billion in the next three or five years. It now had five housing projects with a total of 5,500 high-quality apartments.

Kepel Land was investing in 17 projects with 22,000 residential units in Viet Nam. It had not yet worked with domestic investors to build low-price housing, said Linson Lim, president of Keppel Land in Viet Nam.

General secretary of the Viet Nam Real Estate Association Phan Thanh Mai affirmed that real estate would be the sector that continued to attract attention from Singaporean investors.

Mai said not only Singaporean businesses sought to invest in Viet Nam but also Vietnamese businesses sought to invest in Singapore. Now, real estate development projects in Viet Nam facing a lack of capital would be an opportunity for Singaporean firms to help the domestic investor seek finance sources and experience from Singaporean partners all over the world.

Also at the seminar, economists and real estate specialists said the trend of mergers and acquisitions in real estate sector was getting stronger. As a result, it would generate more chances for Singaporean investors who wanted to invest in the sector.

Economist Tran Dinh Thien noted the domestic real estate market would be adversely influenced by Viet Nam's economy next year. All key indicators like electricity, food price and inflation were likely to rise.

Nguyen Manh Ha, head of the Department for Housing and Real Estate of the Ministry of Construction, said difficulties would affect the domestic real estate market and finance sector as well.

Ha said the country's real estate faced hard times, both in Ha Noi and HCM City, and house and land prices were likely to go down. Real estate exposed many shortcomings due to fluctuations in the market. Between 2009-2010, many luxury housing projects faced a downturn in sales.

Ha predicted that in the middle to long term, real estate remained a core investment of both local and foreign investors. Under the Goverment's master plan to develop housing until 2020 and its vision to 2030, to be approved by the Prime Minister, demand for housing would be greater with an average demand of 100 million square metres annually.

By 2015, urbanisation was estimated to reach 38 per cent and 45 per cent by 2020 to accommodate about 45 million residents in urban areas, an increase of nearly 20 million.

Parkson opens store in Ha Noi

The Parkson Landmark 72, Viet Nam's biggest department store, officially opened yesterday in 72-storey Keangnam Ha Noi Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Viet Nam.

Malaysian-based Parkson is also the biggest and most luxurious department store in Viet Nam with a total gross retail area of 35,600sq.m. The opening marks a further development of Parkson in the northern Viet Nam market while increasing the number of Parkson department stores to eight. The department store, with an investment of up to US$10 million, will be under the professional management team of Parkson Viet Nam and is expected to become the most sophisticated high-end shopping and entertainment centre in Ha Noi, satisfying the demands for close to 100,000 people residing in West Ha Noi.

VMware to hold technology day

VMware Inc, the US-based company specialising in virtualisation and cloud infrastructure, will hold its annual vStart Technology Day in HCM City to promote the use of cloud computing technology in Viet Nam.

At the full-day event, VMware experts will share their insights on the state of virtualisation and cloud computing in Viet Nam and how cloud computing can be a competitive advantage. VMware held the vStart Technology Day event in Ha Noi on Thursday.

New Big C supershop in Hai Duong

Viet Nam Big C supermarket and HoaNa, a trading investment and real estate company, officially opened a hypermarket at Ngoc Chau commercial centre in Highway 5, Nhi Chau Ward, on Wednesday.

Hai Duong Big C is the 16th of the Viet Nam Big C system with 4,230sq.m and nearly 40,000 items stocked of which 95 per cent is from Viet Nam, including dried food, fresh food, electronics, groceries and textiles.

Metal structure yard halfway there

The Petroleum Equipment Assembly and Metal Structure Joint Stock Company (PVC-MS) finished the first phase of its "petroleum equipment and metal structure manufacture yard" project on Thursday in the base of Sao Mai-Ben Dinh maritime services, the southern province of Ba Ria-Bung Tau.

The VND1.3 trillion (US$62 million) project covers an area of 23ha with a total investment for the first phase of VND697 billion ($33.2 million). During the one-year construction period, the yard will be built with cement piles using Japanese technology with a payload of 35 tonnes per square metre. The second phase of the project will be invested after 2015.

Motorola reveals new smartphone

Motorola Mobility Inc launched on Thursday the new Motorola RAZRTM, its second smartphone in Viet Nam, with several new features.

The company saw Viet Nam as a high growth market for mobile phones and the consumer appetite for smartphones was growing constantly, said Spiros Nikolakopoulos, vice president and general manager of International Distribution Markets, Motorola Mobility.

VAFI calls for tax, fee exemptions

The Viet Nam Association of Financial Investors (VAFI) has proposed the exemption of taxes and fees related to construction costs alongside soft loans to reduce the price of small apartments for low-income earners.

Taxes and fees include value-added tax of 10 per cent for low-income earners buying houses, a tax for transferring land-use rights from property firms to buyers, registration fees for house buyers and corporate tax for property firms building low-income houses.

Vingroup sells offices to local bank

The Viet Nam Investment Group (Vingroup) has announced the sale of 15 floors of the Vincom Ha Noi B office tower to the Viet Nam Technological and Commercial Joint-stock Bank (Techcombank).

Vingroup will move to Vincom Village following the sale of their current office space, which Techcombank plans to turn into its Ha Noi headquarters.

State to act tough on lazy development

The State plans to reclaim land on which projects have failed to develop within the past 12 months.

The new measure forms part of a fresh Government decree based on the management of urban investment and development, compiled by the Ministry of Construction.

Under the new draft, People's Committees will create land funds for urban development projects and manage the implementation of compensation, support and resettlement after site clearance.

City adds streets to its basic priced land list

The People's Committee of HCM City has proposed the addition of 176 streets to a list of basic priced land for 2012.

The new list will remain largely unchanged as to price, the highest of which will hit VND81 million (US$3,900) per square metre.

Basic prices will be used in calculating taxes related to land use, trading and compensation.

Eco property event to open in capital city

The first seminar on the development of "green cities" will be organised in the capital on December 10.

The seminar will attract experts from the real estate sector as well as investors.

The event is organised by the Viet Nam Urban Planning and Development Association, the Ha Noi Communication Association, the Megalink JSC and the NTH Communication Company.

ASEAN exchanges urged to unite

Each of the ASEAN stock exchanges was small, but if joined together, they could be influential to the world's investment communities, said the chief executive officer of Thailand's Stock Exchange, Charamporn Jotikasthira, as he ended the 15th CEO meeting of the ASEAN Exchanges.

"We all need to attract foreign money; local investors alone are not enough. So by joining the ASEAN exchanges, we have more visibility," he said.

According to Charamporn, Viet Nam should join the ASEAN exchanges as completely as possible because it would be more beneficial than starting with just three or four exchanges. He welcomed Viet Nam's stock exchanges to grow together and capture the opportunities after the Eurozone and US storms passed.

Viet Nam had the advantages of learning from other members' experience in managing regulations as well as technology, he added. "By joining the ASEAN exchanges, we will automatically be able to join a similar platform in any other region."

Meanwhile, Ha Noi Stock Exchange general director Tran Van Dung said: "We will more easily learn from them as ASEAN nations have set up long-standing economic ties."

The seven-member ASEAN exchange group concluded its meeting yesterday with a detailed schedule to launch the ASEAN Trading Link in June next year. However, the group denied to unveil the specific solutions. The CEOs of the exchanges only said the main theme of next year's marketing strategy was to reinforce the position of the ASEAN exchange in the world's investment community.

The trading link would kick off with the Singapore Exchange and Bursa Malaysia, while Viet Nam and some other members will follow later. Viet Nam's two exchanges – the Ha Noi Stock Exchange and HCMC Stock Exchange – would announce their roadmap after getting approval from security watchdogs, Dung said.

"The collaboration will create two-way benefits for Vietnamese and ASEAN investors to buy good shares from each country, forming a more excellent capital exchange between the nations," he said, adding that it would also encourage investment outside the region.

The co-operation in the capital market was crucial to commercial relationships and mutual understanding of boosting direct investment, he noted.

However, there are also challenges for Viet Nam in terms of integration: understanding foreign investors and the serious preparation for regulating cross-border trading. "Vietnamese authorities should be aware of legal sanctions to control unusual cross-border trading," Dung said.