Friday rally halts last week's downturn

Thanks to Friday's rally, the VN-Index closed the week up by 0.14 per cent over the previous week's close, reaching 433.09 points. Meanwhile, the daily value of trades on the HCM City Stock Exchange during the past week averaged VND1.1 trillion (US$52.2 million), a decline of 36 per cent from the prior week.

The VN-Index shrank for the first four days of the week, only to post impressive gains on the final trading day thanks to recovering US stocks.

Late last week, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also said the domestic economy had overcome its most difficult period. In the first half of the year, economic growth was estimated at 4.3 per cent, while the number of enterprises falling into insolvency in May fell by 10 per cent compared to the average of the first four months of the year. Inventories have also been trending downward each month between March and May.

National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung reaffirmed, "The National Assembly has targeted 6-per-cent growth and inflation below 8 per cent, so all necessary measures will be implemented to achieve this goal."

The economy would recover in the second half of this year, predicted FPT Securities Co analyst Nguyen Van Quy, noting the Government's determination to restructure and reduce bad debt levels within the banking system.

During Friday's session, foreign investors also increased both sell and buy orders, although they were net sellers by a margin of 10 million shares.Their trades focuse on Sacombank (STB), Refrigeration Electric Engineering Corp (REE) and PetroVietnam General Services Corporation (PET) – activity believed to be related to changes in the shares used to calculate the FTSE Viet Nam Index.

The VN30 Index, tracking the city's leading stocks by capitalisation and liquidiy, declined somewhat during the course of the week, closing on Friday at 507.94 points.

However, foreign investors continue to buy in other blue chip shares. "If they continue to sell only within a few codes, it's a good sign," said PetroVietnam Securities Co analyst Ngo Hong Duc.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index retreated by nearly 1.3 per cent from the prior week's close to 74.84 points. Trading was sluggish, with an average daily volume of 46.3 million shares, worth an average of VND483.6 billion ($23 million) per session.

Viet Nam Investment Securities Co analysts warned in their weekly report, "Investors should be patient in observing market movements and should not rush to buy this week." They predicted that HNX-Index would see a horizontal trendline between 70-80 points before giving clear signs of a new trend.

"Positive technical signals will appear only when the VN-Index exceeds 440 points and the HNX-Index moves beyond 76 points, accompanied by a strong improvement in liquidity," said Duc.

Tunnel project to link Phu Yen with Khanh Hoa

More than VND15.6 trillion ($750 million) will be spent to build a tunnel through the Ca and Co Ma mountains to link up the two central provinces of Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa.

The ceremony to sign the contracts for the BOT (build-operate-transfer) and BT (build-transfer) project took place in Hanoi on June 14.

In total the tunnel will be 13.4 kilometres long, with the section underneath Ca pass 3.9 kilometres in length.

The project will be carried out by the Hanoi Construction Corporation, the Nam Trung Bo and Tay Nguyen Joint-Stock Companies under the Mai Linh Group, the Hai Thach Investment Joint-Stock Company and the Asia Joint-Stock Company. Construction is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2012 and be completed by the second quarter of 2016.

Once being completed, the tunnel will reduce traffic accidents on National Highway 1A and help develop the central region’s economy.

Thua Thien-Hue’s biggest hydropower plant in operation

In Hong Ha commune, A Luoi district, Thua Thien-Hue province, the A Luoi Hydropower plant, the biggest one in Hue city, officially generated electricity on June 14th, after five years of construction.

The A Luoi plant, costing VND3.2 trillion, started the construction in June, 2007, by the Central Electricity Joint Stock Company. With capacity of 170MW, it is the largest hydro-electric plant built in the province.

After fully operational, the plant will add around 650 million kWh a year to the national grid, making contribution to the province’s electricity need in dry season. The power is transmitted to the 220kV Hue-Dong Ha Transformer Station.

Besides, the plant also provides more water to the Bo river for irrigation and aquatic culture as well as creates a beautiful eco-landscape for A Luoi District.

Vietmindo’s BCC bad energy

An Indonesia-backed mining business cooperation contract is showing signs of violating contract terms with potential threat to national energy security.

Licenced in 1991 with 30-year life-span, Vietmindo is a business cooperation contract (BCC) between Vinacomin’s Vietnamese party Uong Bi Coal Company and Indonesia’s P.T. Vietmindo Energitama Company.

The company’s legal capital is $27 million offset by the foreign partner, while the Vietnamese party’s contribution is in the form of anthracite coal reserves, exploration and mining and some relevant investments.

Vietmindo’s mining activities started in 1997 with extraction output of 38,600 tonnes in this first year. In 2009, pursuant to the Mineral Law the Vietnamese party got a new licence to allow Vietmindo to extract 500,000 tonnes of commercial coal, equivalent to 650,000 tonnes of raw coal per year maximally in a duration of 12.5 years until 2021 when the BCC expires with a total mining volume of 6.25 million tonnes.
Uong Bi Coal Company would benefit from 10 per cent annual commercial coal volume produced by Vietmindo.

However, the company’s mining output often exceeds regulated volume. For instance, its raw coal extraction output came to 857,300 tonnes and 1,212,000 tonnes in 2010 and 2011 respectively, resulted in respective commercial coal output of 742,000 tonnes and 863,000 tonnes, far exceeding permissible level.

Besides, Vietmindo often hired sub contractors without getting approval from Uong Bi Coal Company which was against contract terms.

In addition, Vietmindo often fails to submit production plans to Uong Bi Coal in a timely manner, causing difficulties to the Vietnamese party in governance and environmental protection activities.

The company twice incurred penalties as its operations hurt the environment, with fines of VND5 million ($240) in 2006, soaring to around VND230 million ($10,900) in 2010.

The company was also blamed for wasting natural resources with coal loss amounting to 10 per cent of extraction volumes against regulated 5 per cent and lower commercial coal/raw coal recovery rate of 70 per cent against regulated 80 per cent.

After Vinacomin rendered a full report about Vietmindo to the prime minister in late May, the ministries of Industry and Trade, Finance, Natural Resources and Environment pledged to assess the BCC’s implementation.

The relevant bodies said Vietmindo must not extract exceeding regulated capacity as repeated excessive mining capacity occurrences could create bad precedents which will hurt Vietnam’s national energy security policy.

Vietmindo’s excessive export volume in 2010 and 2011 of 524,396 tonnes would be gradually deducted from its exploitation output in 2012 and ensuing years or incurs fines as per Vietnam’s current laws regulating mining activities.

Up to 2010 the Uong Bi Coal Company reaped total accrued after-tax profit of VND325.4 billion ($15.4 million) from its BCC contract with Vietmindo. The sum was put into its investment development fund. Of this, Uong Bi Coal pumped VND213 billion ($101 million) into its five mining projects, used VND68 billion ($3.2 million) to supplement its chartered capital and the remainder was put into two other projects for capacity expansion in 2011.

The company envisages gaining VND235 billion ($11 million) from the BCC with Vietmindo during 2011-2015.

State bank governor approves Habubank and SHB merge    

Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Nguyen Van Binh, has given approval in principle to the merger of Hanoi Building Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Habubank) and Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB).
 
The two banks were asked to complete procedures on the merger for submission to the governor for approval.

The new bank will be named as Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Company, with a charter capital of nearly VND9 trillion (USD428.57 million) and total assests of over VND100 trillion (USD4.76 billion). It will have around 500,000 customers and 5,000 staff. After the merger, one share of Habubank will be equal to 0.75 an SHB share.

Governor Binh said recently that SBV will complete plans to restructure nine badly performing banks this month.

At the end of 2011, the First Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Ficombank), Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and Viet Nam Tin Nghia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TinNghiaBank) merged into one bank, marking the beginning of the bank merger plan in Vietnam.

Northern IPs lure over 3,000 investment projects

Industrial and economic parks in northern provinces have so far attracted more than 3,000 domestic and foreign invested projects with total capitalisation of over $40 billion.

They make up nearly 40 per cent of the total number of projects invested in industrial and economic parks across the country, according to a conference of management boards of these parks held in Haiphong city on June 15.

Major parks that have operated efficiently include Dinh Vu-Cat Hai (Haiphong city), Nghi Son (Thanh Hoa province), Van Don (Quang Ninh province) and Chan May-Lang Co (Thua Thien-Hue province).

Delegates made an in-depth analysis of the existing policies and mechanisms barring land clearance, compensation, and investment attraction that reduce the attractiveness of these parks.

They proposed preferential policies for housing projects for employees, investment promotions, and development of industrial parks in disadvantaged areas.

Siemens, Vinamotor enter hybrid-drive bus partnership

Siemens Vietnam and Vietnam Motors Industry Corporation (Vinamotor) struck a cooperation agreement in Hanoi on Wednesday on applying the Siemens ELFA hybrid drive technology for city buses in Vietnam.

Siemens said in a statement obtained by the Daily that a prototype of the ELFA would be built in 2012. Under the partnership, Siemens will provide all key ELFA components and technical support for Vinamotor while the corporation will prepare the platform and manufacture remaining parts of the bus.

Siemens said the ELFA hybrid drive technology helped city buses save operating cost significantly and minimize the impact of these vehicles on the environment through lower exhaust emission, as it contributed to fuel consumption reduction up to 50%.

Siemens Vietnam explained that ELFA was a diesel-electric hybrid concept which combines mobile power supply modules such as diesel generator sets and high performance energy storage devices, allowing the energy that is released during braking to be stored.

Siemens said braking energy of conventional city buses was usually converted into heat and lost but with the ELFA hybrid technology, the braking energy was turned into electrical energy by the regenerative operation of the traction motor and is fed into an energy storage device – in high-performance capacitors or batteries. The stored energy is reused during start and acceleration.

Depending on the storage capacity of the system the bus can also be driven electrically and with emission-free, particularly in inner city areas and at bus stops. Therefore, the operator of such buses can benefit from dramatic fuel cost savings and impact less on the environment through lower exhaust emission.

On top of that, passengers can experience quieter operation as well as smooth start and acceleration when they are on board these buses.

Vinamotor chairman Do Nga Viet said in the statement that the quality of buses using Siemens’ technology would enable customers to have a wider selection of a suitable vehicle and help the corporation develop buses which are safe, environment friendly, energy saving and cleaner-fuel-driven.

Erdal Elver, president and CEO of Siemens Vietnam, said Siemens had a portfolio of technologies for major urban centers and was committed to providing support to addressing the challenges that big cities in Vietnam faced, especially in transportation systems.

“Our partnership with Vinamotor in this hybrid bus project is a strong evidence of our commitment and we do believe the success of this project would help bring a greener future to Vietnam where air pollution and traffic jam are eased and more Vietnamese people are willing to take city buses as their preferred daily means of transport,” Elver said.

Siemens established its representative offices in Vietnam in 1993 and has since taken part in different infrastructure projects in this country, especially in such key areas as energy, industry, healthcare and transportation.

Credit outstanding in 2012 to reach 12-13 percent

Vietnam is aiming for monthly credit outstanding growth of 2 percent in the second half of this year to reach an average annual rate of 12-13 percent.

This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in a speech at the National Assembly on June 15.

Phuc said that the economic growth rate in the first six months of 2012 was estimated at 4.31 percent, while the inflation rate remained stable, with the consumer price index (CPI) dropping to 3 percent – the lowest level in the past three years.

However, he said, the national economy is still confronted with numerous difficulties and challenges. So the Government is taking drastic measures to keep inflation at 7-8 percent and achieve an annual GDP growth rate of 6 percent by the end of this year.

According to the Deputy PM, to help local businesses iron out snags, the Government has asked ministries and functional agencies to evaluate the operational efficiency of businesses and support them in boosting production. It is necessary to increase the effectiveness of public investment and speed up the disbursement of capital sourced coming from Government bonds and foreign investors.

Phuc also stressed the need to lower interest rates in line with market fluctuations, accelerate the bank restructuring process and deal with bad debts owed by businesses.

He also revealed that about VND21 trillion from the State budget will be injected into the national economy every month from now to the end of this year in order to improve business operations, increase the purchasing power and reduce inventory.

The Government will continue implementing middle and long-term solutions to ensure sustainable economic development, promote social investment, develop human resources and step up the equitization of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) to sharpen their competitive edge for the benefit of integration into the global economy, he added.

Resort earns second Agoda award

The five-star Furama Resort Da Nang was awarded the Agoda Gold Circle Award on Monday. It's the second time in a row that the resort has won the award, which was introduced in 2009 by the worldwide travel bookings company Agoda.

The Da Nang-based luxury resort was among 381 hotels worldwide to receive the award.

Foreign protectionism threatens exports

Vietnam will face many obstacles in exporting its goods, especially steel products, machinery, equipment, organic chemicals, meat and plastics, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has warned.

Global-scale trade protectionism is now seen as a political response to the economic difficulties facing many countries.

In 2011, importing countries introduced 339 new trade restrictions, 53 percent more than the previous year, including strong ones that can drastically change patterns of trade.

The new regulations aimed at limiting imports are the most likely to affect Vietnam.

A Ministry of Industry and Trade expert said this trend is predicted to continue rising in 2012 and 2013.

In the face of barriers in traditional markets, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has adopted 236 national projects to promote trade at a proposed total cost of VND316 billion.

Many of these projects are related to partners such as China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, and other ASEAN members.

As of 2013, investment for trade promotion will make up 0.01-0.05 percent of the country’s total export revenue, excluding crude oil exports.

Price stabilisation program receives a boost

The government and ministries will continue to create the best possible conditions for localities to go ahead with their price stabilisation program to assist local people, especially farmers and the poor.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai made the assurance at an online conference on June 16 linked to 36 provinces and cities across the countries.

He quoted statistics saying the program has achieved practical efficiency, with the number of businesses and the volume of commodities involving in the program increasing considerably.

To date, 36 provinces and cities have taken part in the program, and approximately 6,400 kiosks have been set up across the country, mostly in rural areas.

The program has particularly paid off in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the two big economic centres, receiving strong response from local people.

Notably, the program has been undertaken along with the campaign “Vietnamese buy Vietnamese goods” and domestic trade promotions, helping driving up the purchasing power for locally-made products.

Price stabilisation has been applied to other essential staples besides foods and foodstuffs, including student textbooks, pharmaceuticals and dairy products, and the deadline has been extended till the end of the year.

At these kiosks, the prices are often offered at between 5-10 percent lower than those of similar products in the market. For the past two consecutive years, the price consumer index in Hanoi and HCM City are lower than the national average level, contributing to curb price hikes, particularly during long festivals and holidays.    

Deputy PM Hai asked localities to develop their retail systems and price stabilisation kiosks to support the government’s efforts to contain inflation, stabilise the macroeconomy, and maintain social security.

He asked them to better disseminate information about the program and introduce preferential policies to encourage more businesses to take part in the program.

Businesses should be aware that their interests are part of community interests, and therefore price stabilisation is a regular activity showing their social responsibility toward the community, said Hai.

Japan, Vietnam inaugurate rare earth technology centre

A centre for rare earth research and technology transfer opened in Dan Phuong district, Hanoi, on June 16, based on an agreement signed by the Japanese and Vietnamese prime ministers in 2011.

The joint project is of special significance because Vietnam has great potential for exploiting rare earth mines but the industry is in its infancy.

The centre is the first facility in Vietnam applying Japanese technology to separate rare earths from ore before they are shipped to Japan.

“We aim to develop the centre into a world leading research establishment,” said Takahara Ichiro, a senior official from the Japan Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

The Japanese ambassador to Vietnam, Suzuki Hideo, said he was pleased with the centre's inauguration and considers it a symbol of Vietnam-Japan cooperation.

“The centre will contribute to further improving Vietnam’s industrial infrastructure,” he said.

Rural industrial products on display

As many as 465 enterprises are showcasing their products at an exhibition which opened in the central coastal province of Phu Yen on June 15.

The event, co-organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Phu Yen provincial People’s Committee, aims to introduce the achievements of local industries in rural areas.

In addition to 15 businesses from the central and central highland regions, the fair has attracted enterprises from 17 northern, southeastern and Mekong Delta regions seeking to advertise their trade names, expand their markets, search for investment opportunities and develop trade.

At the opening ceremony, the organizing board honoured 50 products selected from 103 typical industrial products for rural areas. The businesses that produced those products will be given assistance in developing their production, renewing technology, promoting trade and training workers.

A conference on industrial promotion, a seminar on e-commerce and job counseling services will also be held during the expo.  

The exhibition will end on June 20.

Ministry to re-impose gas import tax

The Ministry of Finance plans to reimpose an import tax on gas as prices for the fuel have been falling on the global market.

In March, the Government scrapped the 5 per cent import tax on gas to help businesses and the public cope with fuel price hikes.

The 5 per cent tariff will be reimposed in a bid to help balance the State budget, according to a report from the ministry.

Since April, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices have been falling, a trend expected to continue this month.

In early April, gas prices were at VND405,000-416,000 (US$19.29-19.81) per 12kg canister, with the retail price at local markets having now fallen by 18.26 per cent to about VND340,000 per canister.

The ministry also reported that it would adjust import taxes on construction materials and coconuts.

Coconut prices have fallen sharply recently, with many growers and processors in the southern province of Ben Tre suffering as a result.

Based on a petition from the provincial People's Committee, the Ministry of Finance is collecting opinions from relevant individuals, institutions, ministries and local authorities on reducing coconut export taxes from 3 per cent to zero per cent. The move aims to help coconut farmers and exporters overcome their current difficulties.

In addition, the ministry issued Circular No 11/2012/TT-BTC exempting construction materials that are used to build, repair and maintain infrastructure from import and export taxes.

The policy has assisted companies in improving infrastructure at non-tariff zones.

Good year for all leading timber exporters
 
Increases in export orders of wood products are likely to see the sector hitting a value of US$4 billion in wood exports for this year, slightly higher than last year's US$3.9 billion.

Nguyen Chien Thang, chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCM City (HAWA), said almost all major wood processors had signed export contracts to be fulfilled by the end of this June.

However, Thang said many domestic wood processors still faced difficulties in ensuring capital and in overcoming surging production costs.

"One important thing now is that local producers should improve marketing activities and the designs of their products," he said.

Vo Truong Thanh, chairman of the Binh Duong Furniture Association (Bifa), said recently, export orders of wood products had increased in volume and value after a long period of sluggish exports.

Exports were held back in part due to a shortage of supply, as many small- and medium-sized wood producers had reduced production or closed due to difficulties in capital and short supply of raw materials, Thanh said.

The time was right for wood export producers in Viet Nam to increase exports and selling prices, which would contribute to substantial revenue growth for this year, he said.

HAWA predicted that the major export markets for Vietnamese wood products this year would be Asian countries and South American countries. In particular, the export value of Vietnamese wood products to Japan rose by 27 per cent since the end of 2011 and would continue the increase this year due to high demand for wood in construction projects following last year's massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Thang said.

Meanwhile, American partners returned to local wood producers to order export products instead of China as before because of competitiveness in price, said Thanh.

Therefore, the total export value of wood products was expected to top US$4 billion this year, higher than last year's level of $3.9 bllion.

The sector was also aiming to better ensure supply of raw timber. Nguyen Ton Quyen, chairman of the Viet Nam Wood and Forestry Product Association, said that under the national development strategy for the forestry industry, by 2020, the sector would be able to meet domestic demand for wood as well as for export.

That meant until 2020, local producers had to continue to still import raw materials for export processing, often at high prices.

"So they must seek solutions to increase their competitive ability against wood product producers from other countries," Quyen said.

Pepper exports likely to dip

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has revised its forecast for Viet Nam's pepper exports this year to about 123,500 tonnes, more than previously forecast, and earning the country US$894 million in turnover.

With the ministry's forecast, the country's pepper exports were expected to register a 22 per cent year-on-year increase in value despite equalling the previous forecast in terms of volume.

The ministry attributed its revised prediction to limited global supplies of pepper, rising prices of the product. That would create more favourable conditions for Viet Nam to further expand its pepper exports.

The International Pepper Community (IPC) previously forecast the world market would likely see a shortage of 51,000 tonnes of pepper this year. Though, Viet Nam and India, the two largest pepper producers in the world, have finished harvesting the 2011-12 crop while two others, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, have started their main crops. That means world pepper prices could still rise.

Surging prices of pepper on the global market have facilitated Viet Nam's exports. During the first five months of this year, the country's exports saw annual increases of 47 per cent in value to $424 million and 15 per cent in volume to 15,000 tonnes.

During the period, the US remained the largest importer of Vietnamese pepper, accounting for 12.8 per cent of the country's pepper export volume. It was followed by Germany and the Netherlands.

The ministry wants to expand the country's pepper crop to 150,000ha with annual exports of $1 billion by 2015.

The Viet Nam Pepper Association has said the country needs a comprehensive strategy to add value to pepper products to achieve ambitious targets. The strategy will have to focus on encouraging pepper producers to invest in processing technologies to add value and build brand names for Vietnamese pepper products.

Military-run property firm is market's top performer

Ha Do Joint Stock Corporation, a real estate firm, topped the list of 50 top performing enterprises listed on the stock exchange announced by the Nhip cau Dau tu (Investment Bridge Span) weekly.

It was followed by Petro Viet Nam Southern Gas JSC, real estate developer Vincom and the dairy firm Vinamilk.

"Our survey aimed to find out what were the strong and weak points, as well as the vision pursued by enterprises in the last three years so as to figure out what advantages they will have in the future," said Dang Nhat Minh, editor-in-chief of the weekly.

Based on the "Bloom-berg business week 50" and "Fortune 50" listings, the magazine researched the business effectiveness of 87 of 701 companies listed on the stock exchanges in HCM City and Ha Noi.

The assessment was based on four growth indicators: turnover, profit, return on equity (ROE) and return on capital (ROC) in the 2009-11 period.

These 87 enterprises were those that had a charter capital of at least VND500 billion (US$25 billion), a yearly turnover of VND200 billion ($10 million) and annual after tax profits of at least VND20 billion ($1 million) each year.

The short-listed companies were in 23 different industries (based on Industry Classification Benchmark' standards by Dow Jones and New York Stock Exchange).

Data was taken from Bloomberg, Thompson Reuters and original financial reports of enterprises.

The top two or three enterprises in each industry were selected and compared to each other for a position in top 50 list.

"We would like to encourage enterprises with good governance as well as sound corporate and long-term development strategies, also search for talented leaders with strategic visions and brilliant thinking," said Tran Trong Tu, editorial general secretary of the magazine.

The magazine has carried out many interviews with the CEOs of these 50 companies to acknowledge their vision, ability to implement long-term strategies and maintain business stability.

However, the research also reflects economic cycles and macro economy management policies, unstable banking interest rates and high dependency of enterprises on banks, the weekly said. For several years before the recession hit, credit growth had reached 30 per cent each year, helping construction and related industries, and the performance of real estate market and banks had rocketed.

Rubber cultivation lifts growers out of poverty

Rubber cultivation has helped many families, especially from ethnic minorities, in the central province of Binh Thuan escape poverty, according to the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The province now has nearly 35,000ha of land under rubber, mostly in Tanh Linh, Duc Linh, Ham Thuan Bac, Ham Thuan Nam, and Ham Tan districts.

In Tanh Linh and Duc Linh, which have the largest rubber areas, farmers earn a profit of VND40-45 million (US$1,900 – 2,100) per ha annually.

In Ham Thuan Bac's mountainous La Da and Dong Giang communes, 250ha out of the 570ha of rubber trees yield latex.

With local authorities assisting by providing new strains and cultivation and harvesting techniques, many ethnic minority farmers in the two communes have escaped poverty.

K'Van Thinh, a K'Ho ethnic farmer in Dong Giang, earns VND70-80 million annually from his 2ha rubber plantation.

This is much higher than income from other crops, he said.

Keeping the sea sustainable
 
Viet Nam yesterday hosted an international workshop here to share experiences on the development of fishing in difficult times.

Participants at the workshop, run by the International Co-operative Fisheriies Organisation (ICFO) in co-ordination with Viet Nam Co-operative Alliance (VCA), focused on overcoming the growing pollution of the sea, the depletion of breeding stocks and the impacts of climate change.

Chairman of the organisation, Lee Jong-koo said this was why it was necessary to build a stronger foundation for the future development of fisheries.

Representatives attended from Japan, South Korea, China, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.

Politburo member and Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the second anniversary of World Fisheries Co-operative Day organised by ICFO and VCA in Da Nang city was an important event during the International Year of Co-operatives 2012.

"Viet Nam has a coastline of 3,260km and hundred of thousands of hectares of sea area, ponds and lakes, which are very rich in resources," said Phuc.

"Viet Nam has joined the top 20 countries in terms of fisheries sectors in recent years and become the sixth largest exporter of seafoods. The sector also has helped reduce poverty and created jobs for millions of people in the fishing industry."

Viet Nam's fisheries sector produced a total of 5.3 million tonnes of seafood and aquaculture last year, said VCA chairman of Dao Xuan Can.

He said the sector had earned US$6.1 billion last year, making fisheries one of the country's top three export industries. The sector also employed five million people last year.

Viet Nam now has more than 4,200 fishing groups and more than 25,000 fishing boats.

At the event, the VCA presented campaign medals to ICFO chairman Lee Jong-koo, ICA general director Charles Gould and president of the National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations of Japan, Ikuhiro Hattori, for their contributions to the establishment and development of VCA.

Nguyen Ngoc Hai from Thoi An Aquaculture Co-operative in Can Tho was awarded the World Co-Operator Prize worth US$5,000.

Many others earn dozens of millions of dong.

The period between planting the rubber trees and harvesting latex is six to seven years, so many farmers also plant other crops such as corn in their plantations to earn additional incomes of VNÐ5-10 million per ha per crop.

Besides, this also helps keep the land fertile and moist and prevent soil erosion.

In recent years the area under rubber in Binh Thuan has increased by an average of 4,000ha a year.

The province has 13 latex processors with a total annual capacity of 30,000 tonnes.

Their exports have skyrocketed from 318 tonnes in 2005 to 3,500 tonnes last year.

Under a programme to develop rubber farming in ethnic minority areas that wraps up this year, households planting the crop are provided loans, free farming courses, and 50 per cent subsidies for buying rubber saplings.

The province hopes the programme will add a further 1,282ha of rubber.

Ministry aims to ensure land for rice farming

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced VND4 trillion (US$190.5 million) has been earmarked for preserving rice-growing land.

Under a decree to take effect next month the Government will provide VND500,000 per ha per year to everyone growing wet rice.

It will also subsidise 70 per cent of fertiliser and pesticide costs if the crop sustains more than 70 per cent damage from natural disasters and other causes, and 50 per cent if the damage is 30 – 70 per cent.

The main goal of Decree 42 is to maintain 3.8 million ha of land under rice, Nguyen Tri Ngoc, head of the ministry's Cultivation Department, explained.

The support rates have been carefully considered to ensure their feasibility, he said, adding that they would encourage farmers to continue to grow rice and protect them from natural disasters and crop diseases.

Tran Xuan Dinh, deputy director of the Thai Binh Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the decree would play a significant role in motivating farmers to grow rice since they otherwise faced a lot of risk from natural disasters and diseases caused by climate change.

Currently the northern province gets a Government subsidy of around VND40 billion ($1.9 million) to sustain rice production on 76,000 – 82,000ha every year.

In 2000-10 the country's rice-growing area dropped by nearly 370,000ha, according to a report from the ministry.

The decreasing trend has continued due to industrialisation, urbanisation, and infrastructure development.

Worse still is the fact that by 2020 at least another 300,000ha will be converted for use for other purposes, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

It is estimated that around 6,000ha would be lost due to the impact of climate change by 2020 and nearly 20,000ha by 2030, mostly in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, the ministry said.

Vietnam Airlines joins ITE, promotes tour industry

Vietnam Airlines participated in a four-day annual International Travel Exhibition in Hong Kong, which ended yesterday.

Chief representative of Vietnam Airlines in Hong Kong said ITE was a great event of the tourism industry in Asia with the participation of many travel global agents.

At the event, Vietnam Airlines had the opportunity to introduce its flight routes and seek more partners. More than 600 exhibitors from 54 countries and territories participate in the event.

FPT rides high profit of nearly 13%

Software giant FPT group announced Thursday that in the first five months it posted a profit of nearly VND974 billion (US$46 million), a 13 per cent year-on-year increase. The group achieved more than VND10 trillion ($479 million) in turnover and fulfilled 100 per cent its yearly plan. The average earning per share is 2,185.-

Apartments for Thua Thien-Hue

The Asia-Pacific Investment Company yesterday signed an agreement with Thua Thien-Hue New Urban Area Management Board to invest in the Thuy Van Complex.

The VND1.6 trillion ($76 million) project includes villas, apartment buildings and commercial centres on an area of around 35ha.

The complex will be operational in 2020.-

Thach That plans extensively

Chairman of the Ha Noi People's Committee Nguyen The Thao has approved the development of Thach That District into the city's western centre of science and technology, education and training, small industry, tourism and ecological agricultural production.

Plans aim to effectively utilise land and infrastructure to provide homes and jobs for local people.-

$1m complex for HCM City

Singapore's SULT Group on Wednesday announced the development of a US$1 million entertainment and retail complex in HCM City.

The group invested through a wholly foreign-invested company set up to develop and expand entertainment complexes in Viet Nam.

A group spokesman said there was optimism about the potential of the growing Vietnamese youth market.-'

Ha Dong gets housing approval

The municipal People's Committee has approved a proposal to build a housing and service complex in the city's Ha Dong District.

Covering an area of around 12,000sq.m, the VND124 billion (US$5.9 million) project includes three apartment buildings, restaurants and shopping malls, a conference centre, spa and gymnasium.-

Ha Dong gets housing approval

The municipal People's Committee has approved a proposal to build a housing and service complex in the city's Ha Dong District.

Covering an area of around 12,000sq.m, the VND124 billion (US$5.9 million) project includes three apartment buildings, restaurants and shopping malls, a conference centre, spa and gymnasium.

BIDV offers cheap home loans

The Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) on Thursday signed an agreement with the Tan Hoang Minh Group to provide preferential credit to customers buying apartments in the D.Palais de Louis project.

Under the contract, customers will be offered an annual interest rate of 7 to 9 per cent with 15 years to buy the apartment.

The agreement is part of BIDV's credit supporting package of VND4 trillion (US$190 million) to assist real estate projects.

e-Biz index to boost online trade

The Viet Nam E-Commerce Association (VECOM) plans to develop an e-commerce index to review progress in development of services across the country that enable business to be carried out online.

The new Viet Nam e-Biz Index, part of the Government's master plan to develop the e-commerce sector, will help enhance the competitiveness of businesses and the country as a whole, according to VECOM.

The index will also accelerate the modernisation of the econ-omy, which had a GDP of US$119 billion last year, while helping concretise Viet Nam's commit-ments for international integration with WTO, APEC and ASEM.

VECOM's vice chairman Nguyen Thanh Hung said that to build the index, from July to August this year the association would survey e-commerce readiness at thousands of businesses across 63 provinces and cities nation-wide.

Results of the survey would be collected and processed to develop and complete the index, scheduled to be published in November this year, he said.

According to the master plan on e-commerce development for the next five years, The Government aims to ensure at least 80 per cent of the country's businesses have their own websites with information about their products and promotion activities while half of all public utilities providers (including those providing water, electricity, telecommunications and media) will accept payments made online.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, 60 per cent of large companies had e-commerce services during the 2006 - 11 period, of which 70 per cent had websites, 95 per cent received online orders and 96 per cent used email regularly for their business activities.

Meanwhile, up to 85 per cent of small and medium enterprises allowed their customers to place orders online and 80 per cent of them considered email as a tool for business.

In addition, 49 per cent of households in Viet Nam have an internet connection and 18 per cent make online purchases, according to the ministry.

The Viet Nam ICT index, another indicator relating to the information and technology sector, measures the readiness of ICT (information and communications technology) applications and development in provinces across the country.

The central city of Da Nang last year topped index for the third consecutive year, marking the sixth year it had been listed among the top five cities.

HCM City secured the second place and the northern province of Bac Ninh ranked third.

Banks increase lending
 
Commercial banks will cautiously attempt to increase lending in the second half of the year while trying to avoid incurring further bad debts, industry leaders have said.

Despite a slowdown in credit growth in the opening months of the year, most major banks continued to post comfortable profits for the period.

In a recent response to a National Assembly deputy's query, State Bank of Viet Nam Governor Nguyen Van Binh said the nation's lending had been showing signs of rallying since March.

But banking industry insiders continue to see difficulties facing credit operations, the major source of profits for banks.

National Advisory Committee for Financial and Monetary Policies member Tran Hoang Ngan attributed declines in lending this year to moves by many banks to accelerate lending figures at the end of last year to meet credit growth quotas. This caused the bad debt levels of many banks to gradually increase and hindered them from extending new loans, Ngan said.

DongA Bank general director Tran Phuong Binh said banks were expecting the credit picture to improve in the second half of the year so that they would be able to meet ambitious profit targets for this year, which include VND6.5 trillion (US$312.5 million) in profits for Vietcombank, VND5.5 trillion ($264.42 million) for Asia Commercial Bank, and VND4.6 trillion ($221.15 million) for Eximbank.

Profits from lending represented about 70 per cent of DongA's total pre-tax profits, Binh noted, but he also said that banks would not try to boost credit growth at any cost in the face of the current bad debt situation.

Eximbank chairman Pham Trung Cang said his bank was selecting borrowers very carefully to avoid the risk of increased bad debt levels – even though the bank had substantial disposable capital on hand.

"We have slashed interest rates to levels even lower than the ceiling rates, but it's not easy to lend," Cang said. "It's very hard to find good clients to whom to lend money at the present time."

Eximbank reported on its website that it had reached a profit of about VND1.47 trillion ($70.77 million) in the first quarter of this year, up 48 per cent over the same period last year. Lending grew by 2.4 per cent in May after slumping by 5 per cent in the first four months of the year.

Vietcombank posted a pre-tax profit of VND1.35 trillion ($64.7 million) in the first quarter. Bad debts rose to 2.87 per cent by the end of March, however, requiring the bank to establish a provisionary fund of VND950 billion ($45.7 million) to cover credit risks, its financial report showed.

Among other leading banks, HDBank posted a profit of VND140 billion ($6.7 million) in the first quarter, despite a 5-per-cent decline in lending during the period. According to the publication Dau tu Chung khoan (Securities Investment), Asia Commercial Bank posted a VND1.1 trillion ($52.38 million) profit for the quarter, while DongA Bank saw a profit of VND500 billion ($23.8 million) in the first four months of the year and Sacombank tolled a pre-tax profit of VND1.6 trillion ($46 million) in the first five months. Many banking industry leaders said the high profit figures were still low for major banks with trillions of dong in equity.

Keeping the sea sustainable
 
Viet Nam yesterday hosted an international workshop here to share experiences on the development of fishing in difficult times.

Participants at the workshop, run by the International Co-operative Fisheriies Organisation (ICFO) in co-ordination with Viet Nam Co-operative Alliance (VCA), focused on overcoming the growing pollution of the sea, the depletion of breeding stocks and the impacts of climate change.

Chairman of the organisation, Lee Jong-koo said this was why it was necessary to build a stronger foundation for the future development of fisheries.

Representatives attended from Japan, South Korea, China, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.

Politburo member and Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the second anniversary of World Fisheries Co-operative Day organised by ICFO and VCA in Da Nang city was an important event during the International Year of Co-operatives 2012.

"Viet Nam has a coastline of 3,260km and hundred of thousands of hectares of sea area, ponds and lakes, which are very rich in resources," said Phuc.

"Viet Nam has joined the top 20 countries in terms of fisheries sectors in recent years and become the sixth largest exporter of seafoods. The sector also has helped reduce poverty and created jobs for millions of people in the fishing industry."

Viet Nam's fisheries sector produced a total of 5.3 million tonnes of seafood and aquaculture last year, said VCA chairman of Dao Xuan Can.

He said the sector had earned US$6.1 billion last year, making fisheries one of the country's top three export industries. The sector also employed five million people last year.

Viet Nam now has more than 4,200 fishing groups and more than 25,000 fishing boats.

At the event, the VCA presented campaign medals to ICFO chairman Lee Jong-koo, ICA general director Charles Gould and president of the National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations of Japan, Ikuhiro Hattori, for their contributions to the establishment and development of VCA.

Nguyen Ngoc Hai from Thoi An Aquaculture Co-operative in Can Tho was awarded the World Co-Operator Prize worth US$5,000.