50 luxury flats to be sold in Hanoi

The first 50 flats of the Vista - a high-end apartment project in district 2, HCM City will be put up for sale in Hanoi on January 8, according to Knight Frank Vietnam.

Customers in the Hanoi market will have the chance to buy luxury flats with 2-3 bedrooms and penthouses. Especially, each storey of the apartment has six flats.

Covering a total area of 23,000 square metres, the apartment has a total of 750 luxury flats, offices for rent and a trade centre and provides additional services to meet Vista consumers’ demand. 

The apartment was built by CapitaLand (Vietnam) Holdings Pte.Ltd, Thien Duc Trading and Construction Company and Phu Gia Investment Joint Stock Company.

Deputy general director of CapitalLand Vietnam says that compared to other high-end apartments, the Vista project was specially designed with entertainment facilities, surrounded by beautiful landscapes.

There is high hope that the first opening session will attract a lot of real estate investors and customers.

Cement firm to build green power plant

Swiss cement maker Holcim Vietnam will build a clean power plant that will use heat generated by machinery during production at its factory in the southern province of Kien Giang.

It will cost $18 million and Standard Chartered Bank Vietnam will provide the amount under a five-year loan deal the two have signed.

China’s Sinoma Energy Conservation Company will build the plant and supply $9 million worth machinery and equipment.

The power plant is expected to go on stream in August 2012.

The new technology will not only help reduce energy costs but also cut greenhouse gas emission from the factory.

The power plant is expected to produce 44 million KWh a year, enough to run the cement factory for 88 days.

Worldwide, cement manufacturing is estimated to account for 7-8 percent of CO2 emissions..

Vietnam Airlines told to focus on core business 

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has advised the government not to allow Vietnam Airlines to start an on-demand airline service, saying that it should not stray away from its core business.

Local media on Friday cited the aviation authority as saying the establishment of the new business could lead to national carrier Vietnam Airlines’ resources being spread thin.

The carrier, instead, should focus on reorganizing Vasco, one of its subsidiaries.

Vasco offers short-haul flights and services for business passengers. The government has approved a plan to reorganize it as VietAir, a new general-purpose carrier.

Vietnam Airlines in November sought permission from the Ministry of Transport to establish VNJet, an on-demand business airline.

According to the proposal, VNJet would have a registered capital of VND50 billion (US$2.5 million), mainly leasing jets to businesspersons.

Individual investors to drive Vietnam stock market 

Most of the cash flow into the stock market this year will come from individual investors, as long as they see some stability in the economy, experts said.

Economist Le Dat Chi, a senior professor at the Ho Chi Minh City Economics University, said when individual investors see bright economic future, they may choose stocks instead of other investment channels like gold, foreign currencies and real estate.

Otherwise, it may not be easy to convince them to invest in the stock market, he said.

While the economy expanded 6.78 percent in 2010, up from 5.32 percent in 2009, the benchmark stock index fell around 2 percent during the year.

Chi said the market stands a good chance of growing in the first few months. Besides, the US stock market

is likely to rally in the first half of the year, which can help lift the sentiments of local investors.

He said like previous years, local stocks may rise in March, April and December.

Nguyen Huu Tri, deputy general director of Viet Dragon Securities, said investors may want to invest in telecommunications and logistics stocks this year because these sectors would not be heavily influenced by economic instability.

On the other hand, the export sector will be affected by higher material prices and fluctuations in foreign currencies, he said.

Economist Pham Do Chi also believed stabilizing forex rates will be the key to growth. He predicted sluggish growth of the stock market in 2011 since Vietnam is struggling with its balance of payments and declining confidence among foreign investors.

Finance ministry looks into Vinamilk’s price hike 

Vinamilk increased prices of various products last week by at least 6 percent.

Vietnam's Finance Ministry is verifying whether leading dairy firm Vinamilk was justified in hiking prices last week, news website VnExpress reported Monday.

Vinamilk, which holds a one-third share of Vietnam’s dairy market, increased prices of various products by at least 6 percent.

According to a statement from Vinamilk, the hikes were necessary as material costs continued to surge and the company needed to offer higher prices to dairy farmers.

Vinamilk has submitted its reasons to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, where the company is required to register its product prices.

But VnExpress cited a Finance Ministry official as saying that based on customs data, prices of most imported materials have been stable.

“If other companies also imported the same materials and could keep their prices stable, it’s not reasonable for Vinamilk to hike its prices,” the unnamed official said.

Vietnam aims to control consumer prices this year, after inflation hit 11.75 percent in 2010. Many companies, including major dairy firms, have been ordered to register their prices to the authorities.

Vietnam targets 10 pct rise in exports 

Vietnam has set a target of US$78.8 billion for its exports this year, up 10 percent from 2010.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, shipments of various products will increase this year.

Garment and textile will continue to be the biggest export items, earning $12.5 billion, up 13 percent from 2010, the ministry forecast.

The ministry said although seafood exports will face difficulties due to technical barriers, the value could rise 5 percent to $5.2 billion.

Vietnam will try to boost exports and control imports this year, especially the import of luxury products. Imports are expected to surge to around $93 billion in 2011.

Exports rose 25.5 percent to $71.6 billion while imports were up 20.1 percent to $84 billion in 2010 from the previous year, according to the General Statistics Office.

Ha Noi talks about patent protection

A meeting of European and Asian organisations was held in Ha Noi this morning to promote the use of patents and intellectual property rights throughout South East Asia.

The European Property Office (EPO) and ASEAN intellectual property (IP) offices met for the sixth time to promote co-operation ranging from technical support to strategic relations.

Known as the Heads of IP Offices Conference (HIPOC), it was told by the minister of Science and Technology, Hoang Van Phong, that in recent years, EPO and Viet Nam had exchanged information on patents, the management of inventions, training staff in the field and increasing awareness of intellectual property.

"The signing of a new memorandum to upgrade co-operation will resolve issues emerging from both regions and the world," Phong said.

EPO president Benoit Battistelli said Viet Nam was a typical example of dynamic development in the ASEAN region, which was helping drive global economic growth.

"Patents are an efficient tool for encouraging innovation and enhancing economic development," he said.

The meeting was attended by leaders and representatives from ASEAN IPOs, EPO and the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO).

EPO and ASEAN began co-operation in 1990 with the implementation of the first ECAP project.

G-bond disbursement improves

Viet Nam has disbursed VND47.3 trillion (US$2.25 billion) of capital raised via Government bond sales as of early December, completing 78 per cent of the disbursement plan of the year, the State Treasury's statistics show.

The capital source was designed to finance several sectors, including transportation, urgent irrigation works, health care service projects, education and training in poor areas and flood regions, and other projects to be finalised in 2011 and 2012.

The ministries of finance, and planning and investment, and the National Assembly's Economic Committee saw the VND47.3 trillion volume the highest figure ever achieved.

Disbursement had been targeted at VND56 trillion ($2.67 billion), of which VND20.2 trillion ($961.9 million) would be disbursed at the central level and another VND35.8 trillion ($1.7 billion) local and municipal bonds.

"In order to meet the year's target, about VND11.2 trillion ($533.3 million) worth of bonds would have to have been disbursed in the single month of December 2010, equal to about 20 per cent of the target for the whole year. That wouldn't be easy to do," said National Assembly Finance and Budget Committee chairman Phung Quoc Hien.

Do Ngoc Quynh, general secretary of the Viet Nam Bond Market Association, said: "Missing the target in Government bond fund disbursement is a serious problem for Viet Nam. However, what the National Assembly is thinking about now is the quality and effectiveness of disbursement."

The National Assembly Finance and Budget Committee earlier this month reported that some provinces had disbursed Government bond proceeds to the wrong projects, the wrong sectors, or to unapproved projects.

The National Assembly Standing Committee and the Finance and Budget Committee refused the Government's proposal to add 40 projects to the Government-bond funded project list.

Hien's committee has found that initial capital plans for Government-bond funded projects during 2003-10 were just VND246.5 trillion ($11.7 billion), but the actual figure has soared 226 per cent to nearly VND558.7 trillion ($26.6 billion) during the period.

"Total investment has increased too sharply against the State's capacity to balance the budget, badly affecting the nation's capacity to borrow and to service debt," said Hien.

In 2010, Viet Nam raised about VND70 trillion ($3.3 billion) in Government bond sales, according to the Viet Nam Bond Market Association.

To lower the nation's public debt burden, which rose to 57 per cent of gross domestic product this past year, the National Assembly has already approved a Government plan to raise only VND45 trillion ($2.14 billion) this year, with top priority for bond proceeds to be given to transportation and water resource projects.

The Standing Committee late last week also urged strong measures to eliminate ineffective projects and improve the effectiveness of public investment.

Tax collections expected to double

The General Department of Taxation has targeted increasing total tax collections from Vietnamese households and businesses for the 2011-15 period to at least 1.9 times the amount received in the 2006-10 period.

Taxes from both foreign and domestic business activities, excluding crude oil and land, are targeted to rise 2.2 times from the previous period.

Minister of Finance Vu Van Ninh said the economic outlook was positive and that reaching the targets was highly feasible.

He asked localities to create favourable conditions for businesses so that investment and production could be hastened.

This would lead to higher contributions to the State budget, he added.

Based on the impressive results of last year, the department expects to complete its targets for the 2011-15 period.

Figures from the department show that last year's total domestic tax collection was VND400 trillion (US$2 billion), an increase of 21.4 per cent over the same period in 2009.

Nguyen Van Nam, deputy head of the Taxation General Department, said that natural resources sectors, including crude oil and land, contributed lower amounts than the previous period.

The total tax collection was VND23 trillion ($1.15 billion) higher than in 2009, with taxes from business and production accounting for 72 per cent of the total domestic collection.

The contribution to the State budget from households, which was 37.5 per cent of the total, showed the highest growth rate of all sectors.

The household component saw an impressive rise, from 13 per cent for the 2001-05 period to 18 per cent for the 2006-10 period, with an annual growth rate of 31 per cent.

Nam said during the 2006-10 period a total of VND1,551 trillion ($77.5 billion) was collected, 2.5 times higher than the 2001-05 period.

The department said foreign direct investment accounted for 18 per cent of the State budget collection, with an annual growth rate of 26 per cent.

The proportion from the State economic sector fell from 35.5 to 30.8 per cent.

Phung Quoc Hien, chairman of the National Assembly's Finance Committee, said that higher tax collections had created opportunities to reduce spending.

He said the country should try to lower spending to less than 5 per cent of GDP in the next two or three years.

Q1 deposit, lending rates likely to stay up

Banks are unlikely to cut either deposit or lending rate in the first quarter, analysts have said.

With prices usually running up sharply during Tet (the Lunar New Year), inflation was likely to touch double digits, making it hard to effect a cut in either rate, Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper said in an analysis.

While the need to keep lending interest rates high in an inflation scenario is obvious, deposit rates will also remain high because otherwise real interest rates will plunge. The real interest rate is the difference between the nominal rate offered by banks and the inflation rate.

Besides, the global economy may be on the recovery track but remains unstable, which will have some repercussions for Viet Nam.

With the efficiency of public investment – as measured by the Incremental Capital Output Ratio that assesses the minimal amount of capital needed to generate the next unit of production – slumping to 6.2, the Government has been forced to pump in more and more capital to achieve growth.

To achieve a targeted 7.75 per cent GDP growth this year, it plans to issue VND45 trillion (US$2.3 billion) worth of bonds.

But unless the real interest rate is attractive, it will be unable to sell the bonds, another reason for interest rates to remain high.

But possibly the biggest spoiler is the skewed nature of deposits and loans at banks. While short-term deposits account for more than 70 per cent of banks' mobilisation, medium- and long-term loans account for 70 per cent of outstanding loans.

With most depositors willing to pull out their deposits in a blink if they get higher rates elsewhere, liquidity is a major worry for banks.

As a result, they have to continue paying high interest rates.

Moscow Tower breaks ground in HCM City

Sai Gon Property Services Ltd Co and Minh Nguyen Long Co on Tuesday broke ground on the Moscow Tower skyscraper in HCM City's District 12.

The US$15.2 million project will have 600 apartments and cover an area of 16,339sq.m. It is expected to be finished in the third quarter of 2012.

Tien Giang looks for further investment

Tien Giang Province is striving to attract 50 more projects with a total investment capital of between VND12-15 trillion (US$571-$714 million), of which foreign invested projects will account for $150 million, according to Le Van Huong, director of the provincial Planning and Investment Department.

The province has also created favourable conditions for enterprises to invest in the projects. In 2010, it granted investment licences to 39 projects, with a total registered capital of VND8.3 trillion.

Construction starts on Da Lat trade centre

Len Nguyen JSC has broken ground on the Da Lat trade centre in the Central Highland province of Lam Dong.

The ultra-modern project is financed with VND900 billion (US$42.9 million), occupying an area of 5,032sq.m. The skyscraper will include a traditional market with 560 stalls, a 76-room hotel and 49 luxury apartments.

Japan experts urge VN to use new transformers

Japanese experts have called on Viet Nam to use high-efficiency amorphous transformers to reduce electricity loss during transmission.

At a conference held yesterday in HCM City, they introduced the new transformers made of very thin alloys that help reduce loss by 60 per cent during no-load stand-by operation compared to traditional transformers.

The conference, held by the HCM City Energy Conservation Centre and Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Company (MUMSS), follows a survey by Japanese and Vietnamese experts.

The survey, sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, sought to boost co-operation between the two countries in cutting carbon-dioxide emissions.

Last October the two nations agreed to co-operate and discuss issues related to energy-saving to creating a structure for bilateral co-operation.

Japan has so far funded five in energy-saving projects in Viet Nam.

Nguyen Dinh Hiep, chief of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Office, hailed the new transformers and technological co-operation between the two countries.

Atsushi Taketani, director of the Japanese Ministry's Environmental Affairs and Recycling Office, said he is happy to see strong support from Viet Nam in energy saving which benefits both countries in sustainable development.

Huynh Kim Tuoc, head of the HCM City Energy Conservation Centre, and experts who have tested the new transformer said using the high-efficiency amorphous transformers would enable Viet Nam to save more than 1.5 million KWh every year and cut CO2 emissions by more than 900 tonnes.

PV