Japan firms increase local acquisitions

A recent survey by StoxPlus Financial Media of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Viet Nam found 63 deals took place in the first nine months of the year, worth a total of US$2.67 billion – an increase of 150 per cent over the same period last year.

While the greatest number of the deals involved takeovers by American and Chinese enterprises, the greatest value in terms of direct cash flow was generated by Japanese companies. M&A deals involving Japanese investors reached a valued of nearly $236 million, the survey found.

"The interest of Japanese companies in the Vietnamese market has been increasing over other foreign investors," said StoxPlus. Sectors in which Japanese partners have sought to invest more include finance, construction materials, logistics and pharmaceuticals.

In recent deals, FPT Securities Co sold a 20-per-cent stake worth $25 million to Japan's SBI Securities Co at a price of VND45,000 per share, three times its price on the over-the-counter (OTC) market. After the deal, FPT Securities increased its charter capital to VND550 billion ($27.5 million) and enjoyed enhanced capacity in advisory and underwriting services.

Nikko Cordial Securities Co has also acquired a 14.9-per-cent interest in PetroVietnam Securities, worth $6.9 million. The Japanese securities firm promised to support the local company, especially in its risk management systems.

In a new deal being negotiated, Mizuho Bank will acquire a 20-per-cent stake in Vietcombank. The $560 million deal, if concluded, would make 2011 a record year for Japanese investment to Viet Nam.

In the consumer products sector, Japanese brewery group Kirin Holdings acquired Viet Nam's Interfoods in March, buying up 57.25 per cent of total outstanding shares for a sum of over $4 million. More recently, Unicharm paid $128 million last month to buy 95 per cent of sanitary goods producer Diana Viet Nam.

Greater transparency for petrol fund

All petroleum stabilisation fund activities will be published to ensure transparency in managing petroleum prices according to market mechanisms, Minister of Finance Vuong Dinh Hue has said.

"The country will pursue this policy with the participation of State management to reach macroeconomics targets, curbing inflation and ensuring social security," Hue said.

Speaking at a conference on controlling petroleum prices using the market mechanism held in Ha Noi yesterday, he affirmed the fund was necessary and asked businesses to report their losses, adding they should use other solutions to avoid a rise in petroleum prices. "The fund, however, should have additional mechanisms to ensure it's effective," he said.

Management board chairman and general director of the Viet Nam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex) Bui Ngoc Bao said in the first eight months of the year, the corporation estimated VND1.8 trillion (US$86 million) in losses and said they would face an additional loss of VND200 billion ($9.5 million) this month if the country continued to maintain the price mechanism.

"Petroleum is an item which requires conditions under State management in doing business - it could be said that petroleum has had the most transparent price as imported prices have had updated daily with clear taxes and other costs," Bao said.

Separating oil and petrol losses was useless, as both items had reported losses, he said.

The conference also heard difference opinions from the ministries of Finance and Industry and Trade about the price management.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu said petroleum price control had only paid attention to prices, not losses to businesses.

"We should consider petroleum to be a good and gradually liberalise the market, allowing businesses to decide prices," Tu said.

"We have not clarified the main target of management, which has developed a number of shortcomings.

"Management has three targets including ensuring energy security, resolving inflation and ensuring customers' rights," he said, adding that management had only focused on customers.

Price management in the upcoming time should be given priority to compensate losses for petroleum businesses and the price stabilisation fund, he said.

Finance Ministry's Price Management Department head Nguyen Tien Thoa shared these ideas, saying petroleum prices had not been regulated under the market mechanism and remained subject to economic and administrative measures from Government.

However, Thoa said the situation was due to high inflation and if domestic petroleum prices increased with world prices, it could affect other items.

"The management mechanism would be a temporary solution - a price system would not reflect real market value and it would create conditions to fuel smuggling," Thoa said.
 
He said the petroleum price must further increase from 2010 if a stabilisation fund was not established, adding that without the fund the petroleum price, which had remained unchanged at the Tet holiday (Lunar New Year), ought to have been pushed up by as much as VND700 to VND1,200 per litre.

Head of the Ha Noi Institute for Socio-economic Development's Economic Research Department Nguyen Minh Phong said the fund had seen shortcomings which could create gaps for corruption and emerging fees.

"The fund should be directly managed by the interdisciplinary agency of the two ministries," Phong said.

Economist Nguyen Thi Hien said the fund should not be established at the business level and the most important solution was to reduce the monopoly and promote transparent regulations.

Figures released by the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed the price stabilisation fund's balance was VND852 billion (US$40.6 million), which the fund was not expected to use until the end of this month.

The fund has been managed by businesses and used for stabilising fuel prices, but is separate from the State budget.

The ministry said the fund had been an effective solution to control prices which had been applied in many countries in the world.

It has co-operated with the State Audit of Viet Nam and relevant agencies to review the fund's activities.

Smartlink launches interbank transfer via card service

Credit, prepaid and ATM cardholders of Vietcombank, Asian Commerce Bank and Eximbank can now transfer money to each other via cards without having to come to the transaction office as Smartlink Card Services JSC and its members have launched a new service.

As of September 14, credit, prepaid and ATM cardholders of Vietcombank, ACB and Eximbank can transfer money to one another via ATM booths or internet banking and mobile banking services under Smartlink’s interbank transfer via card service, the first of its kind in Vietnam.

The sender only has to provide his/her card number and that of the beneficiary without having to specify the name of the latter’s bank or branch.

Cardholders used to have to physically go to the banks’ offices to make such transaction and could only make transfer transactions via cards to people of the same bank.

Nguyen Tu Anh, Smartlink’s CEO, said six more members would join in the service in December, expanding the number of customers eligible for the service to 12 million plastic card holders.

Smartlink is an ATM network with membership of 30 banks under a program to develop the country’s POS (point of sale) system of the State Bank of Vietnam.

Its member banks are now operating 6,000 ATMs and 29,500 POSs nationwide.

Over US$13 million invested into Metro Cash & Carry in Vinh

Metro Cash & Carry – the world's leading company in wholesale trade – opened its new branch in Ben Thuy ward, Vinh City in the central province of Nghe An on September 21.

The centre has an investment capital of US$13.3 million and covers an area of 5,600sq.m, providing over 25,000 different products for customers, such as hotels, restaurants, retailers, service companies and offices.

Randy Guttery, Managing Director of Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam, said that with a population of 2.9 million, Nghe An represents a huge potential market. He added that the centre will directly provide 400 new jobs for local people.

Ho Duc Phuoc, Chairman of Nghe An provincial People’s Committee, highly appreciated the inauguration of the centre and noted that the province always attempts to create favourable conditions in order to attract business’s investment.

Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam has so far opened 14 retail centres in Vietnam.

EU keeps its eye on Vietnam shoemakers

Exporters of leather-upper shoes have faced new difficulties to accessing the European market even though the EU lifted its anti-dumping tariff on April 1.

This was said by the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) general secretary Nguyen Thi Tong at a workshop in Hanoi on September 20.

The end of the 10-percent tariff, which has been imposed for four years, appears to make Vietnamese shoes more competitive with rival producers like India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia, which has not been slapped with anti-dumping tariffs and may have even enjoyed tariff preferences, Tong said.

Nevertheless, the EU has announced a programme under which it will continue to monitor leather-upper shoes exported to the EU from Vietnam for one year, according to a representative of the Multilateral Trade Assistance Project (MUTRAP III).

If the monitors find that the volume of shoes imported into the EU from Vietnam continue to increase considerably in spite of falling prices, the EU might view it as evidence of “continuation or repetition of dumping” by Vietnamese exporters and would re-impose the tariff without any further investigation.

Therefore, exporters should report to Lefaso and the Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) to avoid the reimposition of anti-dumping duties, said Vu Ba Phu, VCA deputy director.

Reports should include the quantity and value of products exported to the EU and reflect a reasonable increase in monthly export earnings, he said.

Seminar discusses new rural area construction

A seminar on the National Target Programme on Building New Rural Areas opened in the northern province of Tuyen Quang on September 21.

The event was jointly organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and provincial authorities.

Addressing the event, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nguyen Dang Khoa underlined that building new rural areas is of strategic importance to national industrialisation and modernisation as over 70 percent of the Vietnamese population live in rural areas and over 50 percent of the labour force work in the agricultural sector.

In addition to challenges, Khoa said that with the support of international organisations and Vietnam’s efforts, the face of new rural areas has changed over the past year.

At the event, the delegates from six northeastern provinces focused on discussing planning for building new rural areas with the participation of locals, promoting training and information dissemination, and development of agricultural commodities agriculture based on market mechanisms as well as proposing policies for the northeastern region to speed up the programme.

Deputy PM works with Ministry of Construction

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai met with the Ministry of Construction in Hanoi on September 21 to review this year’s tasks and to devise plans for the next year and the 2011-2015 period.

Speaking at the working session, Mr. Hai praised the positive results that the Ministry has achieved over the past 8 months. which have greatly contributed to the country’s socio-economic development, especially in the context of Vietnam having to tighten public spending to stabilise the macroeconomy and ensure social welfare.

He noted that the disbursement of investment capital and the ability to implement large projects have remarkably improved.

The Deputy PM asked the Ministry to continue the programme of building houses for workers and students and to cooperate with the Ministry of Finance to calculate the real estate tax to avoid speculation and make the real estate market become more transparent.

He affirmed that the State will provide policies to support real estate agents to raise the rate of renting houses and meet the housing demand for the entire population, especially people on a low income.

Vietnam helps Cuban rice production

Vietnam’s agricultural experts have conducted a training course on rice cultivation for Cuban farmers in Pinar del Rio province.

Director of the provincial Rice Experimental Centre, Alexander Miranda said Vietnamese experts will provide Cuban farmers with advanced rice cultivation, watering and caring technologies along with techniques to improve productivity and yielding.

Vietnam will also transfer technologies for the centre.

The training courses are under the framework of a four year cooperative programme between Vietnam and Cuba to help the Caribbean country to produce rice.

Vietnamese experts are currently in seven provinces of Cuba to help the country self-produce rice to serve domestic demand.

Dwindling capital inflow rattles banks

Many banks find themselves sitting in hot water now as fund mobilization tends to fall following the central bank’s tough imposition of the ceiling deposit rate of 14% a year.

A joint stock banker in HCMC said that the situation got strained as his bank’s public mobilization had dropped sharply over the past days since the ceiling deposit rate was vigorously enforced on September 8. No banks dare breach the rate cap after the State Bank of Vietnam had lately announced harsh penalties against violators.

The director general of a small bank in District 1 felt tremendously worried as the mobilization faced a day-on-day decrease of VND20 billion, saying that though the liquidity remained unaffected, the bank’s activity would be greatly influenced and the bank could made no credit increase if the trend kept on.

Earlier, DongA Bank’s director general Tran Phuong Binh had said his bank had seen its mobilization contracted by VND20 billion each day, explaining that people withdrew money to invest in other assets such as gold and securities as they found the new interest rate unattractive. DongA Bank was banned from expanding network for one year after an executive had allegedly raised money at over 14%.

To cope with the situation, banks are struggling to map out ways to retain customers’ deposits.

Lately, Western Bank has launched a daily savings product with an interest rate of 14% a year, which can be accrued up to 15% a year, while Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) adjusted its one-, two-, and three-week interest rates to 14%. Normally, short-term deposits are subject to lower interest rates, but banks now offered clients the ceiling rate to attract more funds.

ACB also revised the coupon up 0.2% a year for certificates of gold deposits at all terms with the highest level being 1.3% a year for 11-month term.

Housing Development Bank, or HDBank, also raised its three-month certificates of gold deposit rate for economic organizations to 1.2% per annum on September 13 as well as driving up other term interest rates.

The increase in gold deposit rates, as explained, is aimed at partly luring deposits in gold so as to keep banks’ total assets from sharp decline due to the plunge of deposits in Vietnam dong. If the total assets plummet substantially, the capital adequacy ratios (CAR) and banks’ ability to pull up credits will all be affected.

The director general of VietinBank fund management company Nguyen Anh Tuan said that the biggest risks facing Vietnam banks, especially small ones, were liquidity and interest rate.
 
Money transfer via ATMs possible at four banks

Over seven million card holders of Vietcombank, ACB, Sacombank and Eximbank can transfer money via automated teller machines (ATM) from now on without having to make transactions at banks, according to Smartlink Card Services Co.

This service, developed by Smartlink and its member banks, allows holders of credit cards or debit cards to electronically transfer money through transaction channels including ATMs, Internet banking, and Mobile banking to other domestic or overseas card holders.

Currently, only clients of these four banks can use the service and transfer quickly just by entering cards’ code numbers of receivers. Besides, the service enables money transfer at anytime and any place, especially with same fees at any provinces and cities.

There will be at least ten banks running this program by the year-end, expanding transferring range and raising the number of people using this service to around 12 million, said Nguyen Tu Anh, general director of Smartlink.

Smartlink was set up by Vietcombank, or Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, and 15 commercial banks to play an intermediary role to facilitate e-payments with an aim to professionalize and diversify forms of non-cash payments.
 
S Korea offers loans for medical equipment projects

Deputy Minister of Finance Truong Chi Trung on Tuesday clinched two agreements with vice chairman of Export-Import Bank of Korea Sang Wan Byun to borrow US$23.6 million from the South Korean government via its Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF).

US$13.6 million will be spent on a project to buy medical equipment for a hospital in the mountainous province of Lao Cai while the rest of the money will be used for the same purpose for the Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy Center in Danang City’s hospital.

The interest rate of the loan under South Korea’s official development assistance (ODA) program for Vietnam is 0.1% a year while the repayment period is 35 years including a grace period of 10 years.

According to the Ministry of Finance, in the 2008-11 period the South Korean government pledged to provide Vietnam with US$1 billion worth of credits and has become one of Vietnam’s biggest donors.

To date, the South Korean government is committed to lending capital via EDCF to over 30 projects in the field of infrastructure such as traffic, energy, tap water supply, waste treatment, and medicine.

Specific projects include the National Highway No.18 upgrade project, Thien Tan 1 water plant project in Dong Nai Province, a project to produce five types of vaccine against diseases, a project to manage and treat solid waste in Hai Phong City, and a steam generator project for Ba Ria power plant.
 
Insurance growth slows down

The total insurance premium reached VND23.24 trillion in the first eight months while compensations rose, according to the Insurance Management and Supervision Department under the Ministry of Finance.

The department recorded the total premium of non-life and life insurance at VND13.54 trillion and VND9.78 trillion respectively, up 26.6% and 15% from the same period last year.

Life insurance saw a rise of 12% in the number of new contracts, in which the premium increased by 29% year-on-year with VND2.72 trillion.

PetroVietnam Insurance Company (PVI) is a firm holding the biggest share of the total non-life premium. There is also a strong rise in many other insurers including Groupama, Bao Viet Tokio Marine, Liberty, Chartis. PTI, Fubon and Bao Long.

The vehicle insurance got the highest premium of over VND4 trillion and a proportion of 30.6% among the total premium in the period.  Meanwhile, those of property and damage insurance and health and accident insurance were 26% and 13% respectively.

However, the amount of compensation rose while insurance premiums declined. The Finance Ministry reported total compensation of over VND4.66 trillion in the January-August period.

Bao Viet, Pjico, Bao Long, ABIC, BIC, Phu Hung, UIC, Samsung Vina and Liberty are firms having high compensation rates.

Insurers are making more efforts in finding customers, developing new products, providing convenience and expanding distribution channels instead of competing with others by lowering premiums or loosing insurance requirements.

Besides, the ministry’s Circular 121 taking effect from next month states that agriculture insurance will be piloted on rice, poultry, and fisheries in provinces in the Mekong and Red River deltas and the midland. Insurers in the past years did not invest in this kind of insurance due to its high risk and cost and low efficiency.

The ministry has also issued Decision 1848/QD-BTC on forming a managing board for the trial scheme of export credit insurance to support the ministry in conducting, consulting, inspecting, instructing and training firms to pilot the project.
 
M&A activity surges to record high

The mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the January-August period surged 50% year on year to US$2.67 billion worth of 63 successful deals, Nexus Group and StoxPlus Financial Media Corp. said in a just-released report.

The companies said they recorded 63 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and private equity investment deals finalized in Vietnam plus nine still under negotiations and one unsuccessful case.

According to the report, the economic crisis and shortage of investment capital along with rising interest rates have caused prices of assets to deflate, offering the opportunity for foreign groups and investors to join the local market via M&A.

Experts of the two organizations predicted the scale of the M&A market this year would be double against last year with estimated total value of over US$3 billion.

Meanwhile, total capital inflow in foreign currency into Vietnam in the January-September period reached US$2 billion, excluding a number of successful deals among foreign corporations.

The biggest transaction so far this year was in the animal feed industry and amounted to US$609 million. China-based CP Pokphand (CPP) Co., Ltd acquired a 70.82% stake of CP Vietnam Livestock Corporation under Thai-based Charoen Pokphand Group in early July.

Since the deal was finalized between foreign entities, the capital amount was transferred to the parent company in Thailand instead of its subsidiary in Vietnam.

The second biggest case saw Russia-based VinpelCom Ltd pay US$196 million to increase its stake in its Vietnamese joint venture GTEL-Mobile Joint-Stock Co. to 49% from 40%. The next two deals involve issuing additional shares in which Masan Consumers transferred a 10% stake worth US$159 million to the U.S.-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Vietnam Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade, or VietinBank, collected US$186 million from selling its shares to IFC at VND21,000 per share.

The report also showed that Japan was still a nation investing strongly in Vietnam via M&A activity with total capital of over US$236 million and it would continue to invest more next year. Specialists even suggested this kind of activity would be much more ebullient in the future.

So far numerous foreign enterprises have announced their plans to penetrate the domestic market under M&A form to replace foreign direct investment like before. Also, several local groups with strong financial capabilities have taken a great opportunity to realize their development strategies by taking over others instead of developing and establishing their own businesses from scratch.

Meanwhile, local groups including both state-owned and private companies have disclosed their schemes to sell their subsidiaries as part of a new policy which has not been seen for many years at home.
 
Rattan, bamboo products return to local market

Local resorts are becoming outlets for products made of rattan, bamboo, sedge and water hyacinth as producers seek to return to the domestic market, having mainly focused on bigger overseas markets like the U.S. and Europe for a long time.

Nguyen Hoang Tan, director of Anh Tan Cuong Joint Stock Company specializing in rattan, bamboo, and leaf products not only faces with hardship from the slowdown of the export markets but also a lack of capital to invest in equipment and upgrade factories so as to improve productivity and cut down costs.

Therefore, the company has decided to shift attention to the local market, eyeing mainly resorts and hotels. Tan says his company has revised its business targets, seeking to cut the proportion of its output for export to 60% from 90% achieved in previous years and raising local consumption accordingly.

In order to exploit the local market, Tan has opened a showroom on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street in HCMC to display and introduce the products in addition to boosting marketing and sales to realize the company’s strategy.

“The showroom helps introduce the products and promote our trademark so that we can approach the resort and hotel sectors, which have been thriving these days, more easily,” Tan explains.

Tan notes that as resorts tend to use natural materials, products made of rattan, bamboo, and leaves are emerging as top choices.

Meanwhile, Le Phuc Thinh, director of Saigon Palm Company in Binh Thanh District, also considers the local market a new segment to develop after witnessing falling orders from overseas customers, especially those from the U.S. and Europe.

Thinh says his company plans to invest heavily in the local sales staff after receiving contracts to supply resorts in Danang City and Binh Thuan Province’s Phan Thiet City.

“An order to supply the resorts with tables and some interior decorative items like hanging picture frames for between 60 and 70 rooms could far outweigh an export order,” Thinh says.

“I now realize that supplying the products to the local market could even generate more profits and be easier than exporting as we could enjoy more flexible methods of payment and delivery.”

According to Dang Quoc Hung, deputy director of the HCMC Handicraft and Wood Industry Association (Hawa), to expand the local market share, enterprises that used to rely on export markets have to beef up investment as the local market far differs from the export ones. Should export enterprises need production workers and warehouse staff, those supplying products to the local market will need more staff for marketing, designing, technical issues, assembly, delivery, warranty services and renting costs for showcasing and introducing products.

“The current biggest problem facing enterprises is capital as most of the producers are small- and medium-size ones,” Hung observes.
 
Fuel smart vehicles to shine

Fuel efficient vehicles are set to enjoy more tax incentives to prop up domestic manufacturing.

The Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) is proposing the Ministry of Finance (MoF) offer a top excise tax incentive to hybrid cars as long as they met global standards.

VAMA also asked the MoF to abrogate the requirement to prove hybrid cars could save 30 per cent of fuel compared to similar vehicle lines in the market.

It argued there were multiple hybrid car lines in the market made by diverse manufacturers whereas figures relative to car fuel usage are not always readily available.

In addition, testing fuel consumption by hybrid cars is costly.

In light of current regulations, cars running with petrol combined with electric or biological energy sources in which the petrol volume in use does not exceed 70 per cent of total used energy are subject to 70 per cent of excise tax applied to similar car lines.

Last year, the MoF composed a tax guiding draft towards petrol efficient hybrid cars and sought comments from competent state agencies.

The move came after the MoF received a proposal from businesses in trouble with these car lines’ preferential tax policies.

Earlier, customs bodies issued orders to collect tax arrears from hybrid car importers. The suspected cars were mostly Lexus’ HL line, Toyota Prius, Toyota Camry Hybrid or Honda Insight brands which were imported into Vietnam in 2009 and the importers claimed they were hybrid cars running with petrol combined with electricity.
 
HCM City’s CPI sees 0.88 per cent September rise

The consumer price index (CPI) of Ho Chi Minh City in September increased by 0.88 per cent over last month, the municipal Statistics Office said.

The index represented a rise of 14.49 per cent from the beginning of this year and 18.87 per cent over the same period last year, the office said.

The biggest price hike in the month was seen in the education group, up 4.54 per cent due to the beginning of a new academic year.

It was followed by goods and other services with 2.49 per cent; entertainment and tourism service with 1.30 per cent; garment-footwear, 0.98 per cent and restaurant service, 0.92 per cent.

Medicine and health service only increased slightly, by 0.01 per cent, while transport and telecom services decreased, both by 0.07 per cent in comparison with last month.

According to market experts, the prices of many commodities, excluding food, were down this month, because it is a promotional month.

During September, the gold price soared 11.17 per cent against last month while the price of US dollar was up 1.53 per cent.
 
Exporters to sharpen Mideast, Africa focus

The recent economic crisis has proved that domestic businesses should not depend solely on traditional markets like the EU, US and Japan, and should expand investment and business activities into the Middle Eastern and African markets so as to disperse the risk, a senior official said on September 20.

Bui Thi Thanh An, head of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (VIETRADE)’s HCM City office said at a seminar that there is huge demand for Vietnamese goods, especially for consumer goods, machinery, food, medicine, textile, rice, seafood and agricultural products, in the Middle Eastern and African markets.

Ly Quoc Hung, head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Africa-Western Asia-Southern Asia Department, said product diversification and intensification of promotional programmes are key for domestic businesses to further take advantage of untapped potentials in new markets.

Vietnamese products are presently shipped to 55 African countries, with Egypt , South Africa , Angola , Nigieria , Ghana , and Algeria being the major markets, he said.

He said domestic businesses should ensure that the brand name and production information on the packaging are printed in English, Arab or other languages specific to the market. Besides, the businesses need to thoroughly understand local customs and tastes.

Vietnamese firms should visit these markets and commercial centres to meet local businesspeople and seek ways to co-operate. Participation at conferences and trade fairs was also necessary, Hung said.

"Vietnamese firms should not try to establish co-operation through the Internet because the risk of being cheated in business, especially in Western and Central Africa, is high," he said.

Some markets like Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Cape Verde, which were developing countries, offer many investment opportunities in infrastructure and supply of staple goods, he said.

He also cautioned that Middle Eastern and African countries had trade barriers, including complicated and slow procedures that Vietnamese businesses should be aware of.

In the first six months of this year, Vietnamese exports to African countries reached $1.692 billion. Major export products were textile, leather shoes, seafood, rice, coffee, pepper, rubber and wood products, while import items, worth $548 million included plastic material, oil, chemicals and steel.

Two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and African countries is expected to reach $3.1 billion this year, an increase of 70 per cent over last year.

The Middle Eastern region, comprising 16 countries, is a highly promising market, but Vietnamese exporters have not been able to tap its potential.

The region accounts for three-fourths of oil reserves in the world. It has huge potential in finance and huge capital resources. Besides, Israel presents great potential in biotechnology and hi-tech industries.

The tourism potential in these markets is also high with opportunities present for businesses on both sides, speakers said at the seminar.

Currently, Kuwait has offered loans worth $140 million to Vietnamese investors for infrastructure development in its mountainous region.

Saudi Arabia has now a huge demand for migrant workers and can take in 400,000-700,000 Vietnamese labourers. Saudi Arabia plans to cooperate with Vietnam in implementing vocational training projects.

In the first nine months of the year, two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and Middle Eastern countries is estimated at $3.5 billion, of which Vietnamese exports account for $1.62 billion.

An said VIETRADE will continue to take measures to help Vietnamese businesses step up their exports, such as organising conferences and seminars for providing market information to businesses and sending trade delegations to study potential markets.

From September 25 to October 2, VIETRADE, in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the national agency covering small and medium-sized enterprises in Benin, a country in Western Africa, will organise a trade promotion programme. The aim is to study the market and organise B2B (business-to-business) meetings.

Benin is a country with plentiful sources of raw material including cashew, timber, seafood and minerals that are now scarce in Vietnam.

Vietnam attracts Thai visitors by land

More than 30 travel agencies from central provinces have set up their club with the aim to better serve Thai visitors who arrive through international border gates in the region.

According to Le Hung Phi, Director of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Department of Quang Binh province, the number of Thai visitors to central provinces boomed when Bridge Friendship 2 connecting Mukdahan of Thailand and Savannakhet of Laos opened to traffic, facilitating traffic on the East-West Economic corridor through 13 provinces of Vietnam , Laos , Thailand and Myanmar .

The improvement of infrastructure and visa procedures at border gates also contributed to luring more Thai tourists to the central region, Hung added.

In recent years, Thailand has been in the list of 10 key tourism markets of Vietnam . In 2010, Vietnam welcomed more than 200,000 Thai tourists, who came mainly by land routes through Lao Bao border gates in Quang Tri, Cau Treo border gate in Ha Tinh, Cha Lo border gate in Quang Binh and Nam Can border gate in Nghe An.

So far this year, Thai visitors have made up about 20 per cent of foreign tourists to the central region, higher than the number of visitors from traditional markets like France , Australia and Germany .

“Land border gates will become popular routes and tourism promotion will attract large number of visitors in the future,” said Cao Tri Dung, Director of Vitours travel company.

In order to help tourism companies, the tourism sectors of Quang Nam , Da Nang and Thua Thien-Hue have organised a programme in Thailand to introduce Vietnam ’s cultural heritage sites and local tourism potential to travel companies in the north-eastern provinces of Thailand .

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has forecast that by 2015, the number of visitors travelling between Vietnam and Thailand through the East-West Economic Corridor would reach 1 million after Bridge Friendship 3 connecting Thailand and Laos is put into operation in June, 2012.

According to Vu The Binh, Director of the Travel Department of VNAT, the administration will replicate the club model among companies serving Thai visitors through other international border gates.

PV