Vietnam’s rubber exports estimated to hit $3 bln 

Vietnam expects to make over US$3 billion from rubber exports in 2011, because of rising global demand.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the world demand for rubber is about 25.5 million tons this year.

This increasing demand comes mainly from China and India who are very large auto tire manufacturing countries.

Rubber exports to China account for 70 percent of the country’s total rubber exports.

Vietnam is continuing to boost rubber exports to Malaysia and Hong Kong.

This year’s domestic rubber production will increase by 4 percent over last year to 790,000 tons as the rubber plantation area has increased by 40,000 hectares.

The country earned US$774 million from exporting over 173,000 tons of rubber in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 40 percent in volume and 135 percent in value.

Registration deadline extended for power preferential price 

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued a circular extending the deadline for registration of buying power at preferential price until May 15.

This aims to create favorable conditions for the poor and low-income households, consuming less than 50 kWh a month, to benefit from the Government’s preferential policy.

Yesterday, Vietnam Electricity (EVN), the country’s largest power company asked five power corporations around the country to implement the circular guidelines with immediate effect.

According to EVN reports, as of March 31 about three million customers registered for the preferential price. This figure is far less than the EVN statistics show.

Registration for buying electricity at preferential price will be at authorized centers of the power companies. Customers can simply fill in a registration form and present their electricity bills or trade contracts. 

Power prices to be market-regulated from June

Under a decision issued by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung yesterday, power prices will be adjusted based on market conditions from June 1.

Accordingly, power prices will be adjusted when input cost parameters change to a certain extent compared with those based on which current power prices are calculated.

Specifically, when input cost factors, such as fuel prices or foreign exchange rates, change and cause electricity production cost to drop by 5 percent or more, the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) will lower power prices at the same rates.

On contrary, when input factors change and cause electricity production cost to increase by 5 percent, EVN will raise power prices at the same rate, subject to approval from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

In case input cost factors change and cause electricity production cost to increase by over 5 percent, EVN must report the situation to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and refer its plan to raise power prices to the Finance Ministry for consideration before submitting it to the Government for approval.

The decision regulates that the minimum interval between two consecutive adjustments shall be three months.

The Prime Minister also asked the Ministries of Finance, and Industry and Trade to set up a power price stabilization fund based on the annual audit results of EVN.

VN to tighten rules for foreign airlines

Foreign airlines must provide full passenger information before entering Viet Nam following a new decree to take effect from June 1.

Decree 27/2011/ND-CP requires airlines to provide each passenger's name, date of birth, sex, nationality and passport number.

The decree also regulates that detailed information must be provided on the flight crew, airline, flight number, name of the airline's firm and its schedule for entering and leaving the country.

All of the information must be forwarded to Viet Nam as passengers and crew complete procedures to board the plane.

The information expressed in a soft file will be sent to the Viet Nam Airport Authority.

If any technological problem happens, the airline firm must inform Viet Nam immediately.

Based on the data, the authority can give airlines warnings on safety, political security, trafficking prevention and trade cheating where necessary.

The decree also regulates that the authority must keep secret all of the airline firm's information about passengers and the air crew. The date receipt will not affect the airline firm's business.

The decree does not apply to flights transporting foreign passengers at Viet Nam's invitation.

Decree 27 is a new development in managing and controlling airway security, the authority said. Similar regulations were already in place in some other countries.

VN to tighten rules for foreign airlines

Vietnam has the legal framework in place and an agency for trade remedies but its businesses don’t realize they are in the position to tap into this new-found power to protect themselves, a local official claims.

Vu Ba Phu, deputy director of the Vietnam Competition Authority under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, told a conference on Thursday the agency had received few complaints from local businesses against imported products flooding the local market.

No one has made a report regarding anti-dumping and anti-subsidies measures, he said but admitted he did have some complaints concerning safeguards two years ago.

A lack of new technology will hamper any probes, he said. “It shows local enterprises pay little attention to the measures which can help them protect their own production effectively and legally against unfair competition from foreign exporters in the local market,” said Phu, who is in charge of the investigation of unfair international trade practices.

“With our current 4-digit HS code system, instead of 8-digit HS codes of developed countries, we don’t have detailed definition of imports. It means that we can’t define any differences in prices of the products sold in the exporting market compared with the price of the product in our market.”

Phu urged local enterprises to raise their awareness and knowledge of the legal measures for self-protection when imports are flooding the market.

Vietnam has been faced with more than 40 investigations and cases of trade remedies in importing countries.

Vietnam misses chance to boost fishery market share

The shortage of fishery materials has stripped Vietnam of a chance to boost its global market share at a time when many countries are shying away from products originating in parts of Japan coupled with a sharp drop in shrimp output in Thailand, processors said.

Phan Xuan Trang, director of Long An-based Pacific Fishery Company, said Vietnam’s fishery buyers like Russia and China had decided to suspend imports from Japan on radiation concerns.

However, the country’s offshore fishing has been badly impacted by the recent fuel price hike, while the farmed fish output has also tumbled after farmers had incurred big losses last year, Trang said.

He said his company did not have any plan to boost fishery export this year as it could not secure enough materials for processing.

“The supply of caught fish has fallen sharply as fishermen are afraid of losses since the high fuel price has boosted costs by 20%. In addition, many fishing boats do not sell their catch to local processors, but to other Chinese traders right on the sea,” Trang said.

Dang Kiet Tuong, chairman and CEO of Aquatex in Ben Tre Province, said his company did not manage to expand markets due to the critical shortage of materials.

Some other processors have even planned to scale down production due to the problem.

Go Dang Joint-stock Company in Tien Giang Province, for instance, will reduce output this year due to the shortage of materials and the higher input costs, said the company’s general director Nguyen Van Dao.

Dao said that last year his company shipped abroad 25,000 tons of tra fish products, but the amount this year would certainly drop.

“Given the higher tra fish price on the local market as well as bigger input costs including exorbitant interest rates, not only Go Dang but many other processors as well have no choice but to downsize production if they want to avoid losses,” Dao said.

The price of shrimp on the local market has also increased strongly, eating into processors’ profits.

Nguyen Tuan Anh, general director of the fish processing company Ut Xi in Soc Trang, said shrimp output in Thailand is forecasted to drop by up to 60,000 tons, pushing up the local price to between VND190,000 and VND225,000 per kilo.

“At such a high price, few companies are willing to buy shrimp for processing, except those bound to deliver goods to customers in the near term,” Anh said.

Diamond Princess starts regular calls to Vietnam

The luxury ship Diamond Princess of the U.S.-based Princess Cruises on Thursday brought around 2,600 cruise passengers to Vietnam as part of its regular voyages across the world announced last month, said the local travel partner.

Phan Xuan Anh, chairman of Viet Excursions that caters to the cruise ship, said that the Diamond Princess made a port call in the coastal city of Nha Trang before cruising to Phu My Port in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

From Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, the passengers will make tours of HCMC and the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, Anh told the Daily on Wednesday.

As scheduled, the Diamond Princess will have four trips to the country this year. In the next trip, she will be back to Phu My on April 25, and then cruise to Nha Trang.

Last month, the Princess Cruises announced its full 2012-2013 cruise tour program, which would also take in Nha Trang and Phu My in Vietnam alongside other destinations in Southeast Asia, India and Africa.

Anh said Viet Excursions is arranging many trips for big foreign cruise ships in the country. This February, the Queen Marry II with 2,500 passengers on board also visited Nha Trang.

In addition, the company is serving the Silver Shadow in the northern city of Haiphong, and will welcome the Le Diamant ship on Thursday in HCMC. One more ship, the Ocean Princess, will arrive on April 22 with around 800 tourists on board.

In related news, Saigontourist Travel Service Co. on April 26 will receive the Costa Classica ship with around 2,000 cruise passengers and crew members on board which will visit HCMC, Danang and Halong.

In the northern province of Quang Ninh, the sea route linking its capital city of Halong City and Fangchenggang of China’s Guangxi province has been re-opened after a long time of suspension with the first on Tuesday. Two Chinese companies and the Hon Gai Tourism Services of Vietnam will develop the route with three cruise trips per week.

Tourism figures won’t be as high as expected

Local tour operators who previously predicted an outstanding public holiday period are now rethinking their figures with some tourists reluctant to book domestic holidays.

With the April 30 National Day and May 1 International Labor Day annual holidays approaching, tourism companies are in a sweat due to the escalating prices of domestic tours.

Nguyen Minh Man, media manager of Vietravel, told the Daily on the phone on Wednesday, “At first we estimated that the number of bookings would increase over 30% compared to last year but now we only expect a rise of 25%. Previously we expected 19,000 tourists to book tours for the upcoming public holidays but only 80% of them have booked.”

Nguyen Chung Thuy, head of PR for Lua Viet Travel Company, said, “Normally our company receives bookings from the local enterprises which want tours for their staff to travel and relax for the holidays, but the number of individuals booking tours is disappointing.”

Domestic tour prices have surged 30-50% year-on-year with prices of outbound tours rising 10% and this is the reason local tourists are choosing outbound tours instead of domestic travel. 

Thieu Quang Tien, assistant group incentive division of Lys Travel, said that due to rising incomes of Vietnamese people and foreign travel costs on a par with domestic tours, a holiday abroad is more appealing.

“Some foreign countries offer convenient conditions for travelers to get visas and there are more flight carriers to choose from, so more Vietnamese tourists prefer to travel abroad,” he added.

Thuy also noted, “The demand for outbound tours is higher than the supply source of airfares, while domestic destinations such as Fansipan Mountain or northern provinces are not drawing the attention of tourists due to the long distances and high prices involved.”

Exhibitors happy with HCMC Tourism Day

Travel companies joining the exhibition HCMC Tourism Day wrapping up on Sunday say they are happy with the three-day event as many customers have queued up to ask for information or book services.

Many companies such as Ben Thanh Tourist, Saigontourist Travel Services Co., Lien Bang Travelink, and TST Tourist said the number of people buying tours or planning to buy tourism services grew strongly compared to last year’s event.

Tu Quy Thanh, managing director of Lien Bang Travelink, told the Daily that around 5,000 visitors have visited the company’s booth. Of them, 160 people have bought domestic and outbound tours, while 200 other customers have made reservations and promised to pay at the company’s office after the event.

“The number of customers to buy tours was up 50% compared to last year’s event. We had promoted services to customers before the Tourism Day opened to attract them to our booth, and the careful preparation helped us sell products,” he said.

At Saigontourist, around 700 guests have booked outbound and domestic tours compared to slightly over 100 people doing so in the last event.

In addition, about 1,600 people have sought the company’s advice about services especially free & easy tours, promotion programs, and tours for Reunification Day on April 30, said Doan Thi Thanh Tra, marketing director of Saigontourist.

Lai Huu Phuong, director of Ben Thanh Tourist Travel Service Center, said the company is pleased with the event. “We were able to spread our image to potential customers and sell products there.”

He added that in the past, many people just dropped by the company’s booth to take brochures, but this time many visitors booked tours even after the exhibition.

The city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism organized the annual event from last Friday to Sunday, featuring more than 170 booths for 80 travel companies, hotels and restaurants in the city as well as other provinces and cities.

* APEX Travel Co., representing some companies serving Japanese tourists in the country, has requested authorities to allow for Japanese tourists to stay in Vietnam up to 30 or 60 days without having to obtain an entry visa, instead of the current 15 days.

Nguyen Van Tran, general director of APEX, told the Daily that the current duration of visa-free stay is a tad short for Japanese people to make leisure tours of the country.

“We want authorities to extend the length of stay for Japanese to woo them back as Japan is still reeling from its worst disaster,” he said.

Many Japanese travelers have cancelled tours after the earthquake and tsunami struck the country’s northeast on March 11.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has reported around 43,500 Japanese visitors to visit the country last month, down a slight 8.6% from the previous month but still an increase of 10% year-on-year. However, local tourism service providers said the number would tumble in the coming months in the aftermath of the disaster.

Duong Thanh Thuy, chairwoman of Trung Thuy Group Corporation, told the Daily on Tuesday that she predicted the number of Japanese visitors to her shopping centers to plummet 60% next month.

Tran of APEX said that at his company, the number of Japanese tourists is decreasing strongly compared to last month though some new guests are booking tours for the high season of this year.

“That’s why we expect the new incentive to encourage more Japanese people to travel in that season especially those who want relaxations to improve their health after the disaster,” he said.

Tran said VNAT had given support to the request and would meet with relevant agencies about the proposal before asking the central Government for approval.

Japan is the third biggest source market for Vietnam’s tourism with more than 442,000 people visiting the country last year, up 24% year-on-year.

Thailand, in an effort to attract Japanese travelers after the disaster, has allowed Japanese guests to stay for up to 90 days without a visa, compared to the current 30 days.

Exporters get accustomed to changes

Export processing businesses are feeling the pinch with a new customs draft circular.

Under current regulations, export processing businesses are subject to customs check-ups when the customs bodies are doubtful of their addresses, operational or managerial capacity in handling contracts.

However, much more businesses will incur customs checks under the new draft circular guiding customs procedures towards products made under export processing contracts. Some of them are those for the first time getting involved in export processing, businesses that outsource their export processing contracts in whole or in part and businesses importing materials but not having products for export several months later.

Accordingly, businesses must show papers certifying their legal ownership and usage of the workspace, machinery and equipment at the workplace. The customs bodies may also check firms’ human resources capacity relevant to the processing contracts’ implementation.

The draft circular has shocked footwear, textile and garment firms since they have to import up to 70-80 per cent of production materials.

“I felt uneasy after reading the draft circular as it has too many regulations,” said Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association general secretary Dang Phuong Dung.

A Hanoi-based footwear firm representative said many regulations in the new draft circular were unnecessary. He argued that to get business registration licences and tax codes businesses must prove their capacity with the tax, planning and investment authorities, so that the General Department of Customs (GDC) has no need to do the same thing.

GDC deputy head Vu Ngoc Anh said the customs authorities would consider enterprises’ comments before making the circular known to public.

Anyhow, the customs sector gave a warning that tightening management of export processing was of great importance because in reality a great many businesses active in export processing had abused state tax incentives for tax evasion.

Providing some golden arguments

A bunch of measures have been proposed to ensure a healthy local bullion market.

The Vietnam Gold Traders Association (VGTA) recently tabled a solution package in light of bullion market management. It argued that giving birth to new regulations on gold trading management would help reign in inflation, contain trade deficit and release gold sector’s immense growth potential.

Accordingly, the VGTA suggests the state lift up the gold import duty from current zero per cent to 0.5 per cent and relax current overly high gold export duty of 10 per cent.

Gold imports and exports being taken on a more frequent basis would help connect local and the world gold market and abate smuggling, according to the VGTA.

VGTA also assumed it would be important to work out conditions under which gold plate trading is eligible to curtail the number of private gold businesses.

Some particular conditions are businesses eligible to trade in gold plates when they get the business registration licence, having at least VND30 billion ($1.4 million) in total chartered capital and report at least VND500 billion ($24.1 million) in annual revenue in the last two years before getting the gold plate transaction licence.

VGTA’s general secretary Dinh Nho Bang said people would not give up the time-honoured habit of hoarding gold on the back of escalating and persistent inflation. Therefore, if a ban was placed on gold plate trading, they would possibly turn to hoarding gold in other forms such as jewels and gold-made artworks, thus confusing gold market management, Bang said.

ACB Gold Centre director Tran Trong Quoc Khanh said managing gold transactions through a single window would dilute the market’s liquidity.

To facilitate the integration with the local bullion market, VGTA suggested the Vietnamese government found a national gold exchange.

Bang said the birth of national gold exchange would create an impartial and transparent playing field for gold traders, curtail the demand for hoarding gold from people, reducing smuggling, fine-tune the gold price in the domestic market with the world market’s and raise a considerable amount of idle gold from the community into economic development.

The exchange will help state management bodies keep closer eyes on gold transactions in the market to intervene when necessary and circumvent price manipulation cases for a healthy market performance, according to the VGTA.

VGTA also proposes diversifying gold trading types in the exchange, such as futures contracts, to attract investors.

Quang Nam attracts more than 200 tourism projects

The central province of Quang Nam has attracted 201 projects investing in the tourism sector, with a total registered capital of over VND11 trillion.

Of the figure, 20 projects have received foreign direct investment (FDI).

At present, 104 projects are being implemented, while the remainders are completing investment procedures.

Quang Nam is upgrading infrastructure at many beaches, such as Cua Dai, Ha My and Rang Dong, to welcome more tourists.

The province’s tourism sector has organized many activities aimed at increasing public awareness of tourism, helping local people access tourism services, improving people’s living conditions and ensuring sustainable tourism development.

The sector also launched a competition for receptionists and tour guides and has strictly controlled the transport of tourists via waterways.