Price stabilization program for 2011 

Ho Chi Minh City is continuing to remain committed to stabilizing prices through its program to ensure that necessary commodities reach city residents without fluctuating rates. 

Department of Industry and Trade and some related departments read the program’s draft to the city People’s Committee vice chairwoman, Nguyen Thi Hong.

The program aims to ensure that necessary goods and commodities meet with consumer demands without unusual price fluctuation. The program's commodities will account for 20-30 percent of the market share while the stabilized price will be at least 10 percent lower than that on the market.

The stabilized price commodities include rice, sugar, cooking oil, cattle meat, chicken, chicken eggs, vegetable, fruit and seafood.

All enterprises able to meet the suggested norms will be permitted to join the program. However, they will be excluded if failing to meet the program’s regulations.

Additionally, the Department of Industry and Trade has chosen three commodities of notebook, school bags and uniforms to stabilize on its price stabilization program for the new school year, 2011-2012.

The quantity of these goods will meet 20-40 percent of the market share with price expected to be at least 15 percent lower than market price.

The price stabilization program will last from January 1 until the end of March while the new school year program will begin from May 1 to the end of October.

Ha Noi IZs urged to offer investment incentives

The management board of Ha Noi's industrial parks and export processing zones should create favourable conditions for enterprises and local authorities to promote investment, said Nguyen Huy Tuong, vice chairman of the Ha Noi People's Committee.

In particular, IPs and EZs should build apartment blocks for workers, Tuong said.

Ha Noi's IPs and EZs last year granted licences to 99 projects, totally valued at US$136 million, an 8 per cent rise against 2009, he said.

The revenue of enterprises in IPs and EZs reached $3.6 billion, 12.3 per cent up against 2009, contributing $74 million to the State budget. The total export value hit $2.1 billion, accounting for 26 per cent of the city's total exports.

The total import turnover reached $2.1 billion, up 31 per cent compared to 2009, accounting for over 10 per cent of the total import turnover.

Enterprises in IPs and EZs in the capital created jobs for more than 100,000 additional workers last year. Authorities in the capital have simplified administrative procedures in a bid to attract additional investment.

Cement exports tipped to expand

Viet Nam will export 1.5 million tonnes of cement this year, an increase of 500,000 tonnes over last year, according to the the Viet Nam Cement Association.

Twelve new cement plants would become operational this year, with a capacity to supply 10.18 million tonnes annually, said the head of the association's secretariat, Nguyen Van Diep. This would increase the total capacity of the domestic industry to 60 million tonnes, Diep said.

Since domestic demand has been forecast to rise 10 per cent over last year to about 55-56 million tonnes, most of the additional capacity would be exported, he said.

In an attempt to find new export markets, the Ministry of Construction has urged cement manufacturers to look for potential markets in Bangladesh, the Middle East and Africa.

It has also worked with the association to help cement producers nationwide apply more advanced technology to reduce input costs.

Cement prices have remained stable since the end of last year, at VND900,000-VND1 million (US$46-51) per tonne in the north, and VND1.2-1.3 million ($61.5-66.5) in the south, Diep said. However, prices could be affected by rising electricity and coal prices, he cautioned.

There are currently 90 firms nationwide producing or trading cement. Of these, 33 are subsidiaries of the State-owned Viet Nam Cement Industry Corporation, five are foreign-invested joint ventures and 50 are smaller producers.

Seafood firms take 30 spots on list of top 500 companies

Nearly 30 seafood exporting and producing companies were listed in the top 500 Vietnamese companies of 2010 (VNR500), said office manager of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers Nguyen Minh Tam.

The list, compiled by the Viet Nam Report Joint Stock Company (Viet Nam Report) and online newspaper Vietnamnet, included well-known State-owned and private seafood companies such as Minh Phu Seafood Corp, Cargill, HTFood, Hung Vuong Corp, Vinh Hoan Corp, Quoc Viet Corp, Navico, Minh Hai Jostoco, Stapimex, Utxico and Anvifish.

To add to this success, this year's list of the top 500 private companies included over 40 involved in the seafood sector.

Minh Phu Seafood Corp ranked highest, breaking into the top 30, with HTFood and Hung Vuong Corp making the top 40 and Vinh Hoan Corp and Quoc Viet Company Ltd appearing in the top 50.

This was the fourth time the VNR500 has been organised. Each year, the top 500 enterprises (both State-owned and private) and the top 500 private enterprises are named.

To break into the list, large businesses should not only focus on business operations but also have an important and active leading role in addressing social issues such as education, health and diplomacy.

This year, nearly half of the companies in the VNR500 were State-owned enterprises. Foreign-invested and private companies accounted for 23.8 per cent and 31.2 per cent, respectively.

The proportion of private companies on the VNR500 has increased yearly, accounting for 24 per cent of the enterprises listed in 2008 and 30 per cent in 2009.

Agriculture, aquaculture and forestry exports increase

Viet Nam's agriculture, aquaculture and forestry exports earned US$1.6 billion during the first month of this year, a year-on-year increase of 13.3 per cent, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Agriculture exports earned $910 million, an increase of 19.34 per cent over the same month last year. Meanwhile, fisheries and forestry exports both earned close to $320 million each.

Coffee, cashews, rubber and pepper continue to be the key exports that are fetching high prices globally.

"The weather in January was not good. Moreover, demand for these products has been increasing because the Lunar New Year Festival is coming. These two reasons have pushed prices up," said head of the ministry's Information and Statistics Centre Nguyen Viet Chien.

Rubber is still the country's most valuable export.

In January, the country earned $250 million after exporting 70,000 tonnes of rubber, an 82.8 per cent increase in value and 28.8 per cent jump in volume over the same month last year.

Cashew's are the country's second highest earner. The country sold 15,000 tonnes on the international market earning $98 million, a year-on-year increase of 14.3 per cent in volume and 38.3 per cent in value.

About 7,000 tonnes of pepper and 11,000 tonnes of tea were exported.

In January, Viet Nam's coffee export volume decreased by 30.3 per cent to 100,000 tonnes. However, the bean earned $175 million, a 13.2 per cent increase over the same month last year.

"The global supply of coffee has decreased so the price continues to rise," said Chien.

This month, about 380,000 tonnes of rice were exported, worth $200 million.

HCM City’s GDP reaches nearly 12pct in 2010

Ho Chi Minh City’s authorities had a meeting with representatives of foreign agencies at the office of the municipal People’s Committee on January 27.

They briefed the latter on the city’s socio-economic development in 2010 and its orientation for 2011. Last year, despite facing difficulties, the city maintained its GDP growth at approximately 12 percent, and even over fulfilled some targets of the yearly plan by raising its total revenue from retail business and services by 28 percent and its industrial output by 14 percent.

Many important traffic projects were put into operation, such as Nguyen Van Troi-Nam Ky Khoi Nghia road, flyover in A area, Phu My Hung urban area, Binh Trieu 1, An Nghia and Hoang Hoa Tham bridges, Thu Thiem tunnel and Rung Sac-Can Gio route.

Active preparations were made to prepare for construction of some parts of the metro and monorail system to start in 2011 and the following years.

On behalf of foreign representatives, Germany’s consul general, Conrad Cappell, appreciated HCM City’s great efforts in recent years to help develop and strengthen cooperation ties as well as cultural, education and training exchanges between Vietnam and other countries.

More than US$113m invested in Can Tho IZs

In the second half of 2010, more than 23 projects were invested in Can Tho province industrial zones (IZs).

Currently, there are 192 valid projects in Can Tho IZs, 156 of which are already operated and 25 others are being built.

Total investment in these IZs has reached US$1.7 billion, US$663 million of which has been disbursed. Two-fifth of IZs’ areas have been rented, particularly 135ha of Tra Noc IZ have been rented to projects with a total investment capital of US$328 million.

Businesses in IZs mainly specialise in food processing, agricultural, forestry and seafood exports, footwear, fertilizer, chemicals, and steel production and automobile assembly.

In 2010, their earnings reached US$1.835 billion, up 31.7 percent compared to 2009, of which industrial production value was US$1.2 billion, trade and services US$618 million and exports US$515 million.

FDI businesses’ production value hit US$281 million, a year-on-year increase of 43.9 percent.

Can Tho exports 40,000 tonnes of rice in January

Can Tho City has exported 25,400 tonnes of rice to Asian and European Union countries, increasing the total amount of rice for export in January to 40,000 tonnes.

In the first month of this year, the city earned US$14.4 million from its rice exports, up 14 percent against the same period last year.

The Gentraco Feed Joint Stock Company and the Song Hau Food Company, which lead the city in terms of the largest amount and the highest quality of rice for export, are two companies accomplishing this record high.

Can Tho City strives to export 543,000 tonnes of rice, an increase of 29 percent compared with last year. To reach this goal, the city plans to harvest 3 million tonnes of rice in the Mekong Delta, build new storehouses and secure sufficient processing materials.

The city is also ready to provide support for businesses to advertise their brand names, open consumption markets in Asia, Africa and Middle East, modernise machinery and increase rice production to meet increasing demand in Japan, North America and Europe.

Vietnam attends Davos World Economic Forum meeting

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan is joining around 30 Heads of State and Government at the 41st World Economic Forum Annual Meeting that opened in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 26.

The five-day forum, themed “Shared Norms for the New Reality” will focus discussions on world economic prospects, and policies aimed at promoting economic growth, supporting to the G-20 agenda and building a system to cope with risks.

The Davos forum’s founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab said that this year’s event should define economic challenges to the world instead of considering the aftermath of the recent global financial crisis.

The forum will define new realities and discuss standards for global cooperation in the new period, said Schwab.

On the opening day, delegates were scheduled to discuss economic recovery, the world’s big challenges in 2011, green technology, alternative energy and China’s economic prospects.

PV