Office gives okay for 3 new trademarks

The National Office of Intellectual Property in Viet Nam has acknowledged trademarks of products Rach Goc dried shrimp, boi dried fish and U Minh Ha honey.

The Farmer Associations of southern Ca Mau Province districts Ngoc Hien, Tran Van Thoi, U Minh districts, plan to expand their market domestically and abroad, and extensively promote their trademarks.

In 2012, the provincial Department of Science and Technology will propose the recognition of product trademarks for Nam Can sea-crab, ca bong tuong (large goby) and the Tan Thanh eel.

Ha Noi fair opens tomorrow

A seven-day promotional fair will be held in Ha Noi from tomorrow and run until January 4.

It aims to stimulate consumer demand and support business operations.

The annual fair has attracted 200 enterprises who will showcase garments, textiles, food, household utensils, souvenirs, handicrafts, footwear, handbags, cosmetics and jewelry.

Vinashin delivers completed ships

Pha Rung Shipyard Co Ltd, under the Viet Nam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (Vinashin), yesterday handed over a 34,000-tonne cargo ship and a 13,000-tonne oil-chemical tanker to their owners in the northern port city of Hai Phong.

The cargo ship, named Inlaco Express, which is 180m long, 30m wide, 14.7m high and is powered by a 7,860kW engine, can reach 14 nautical miles per hour.

It is the first to be handed over under a contract to build 20 ships for the International Labour Co-operation Company (Inlaco Sai Gon-Vinalines).

The oil tanker, named Prime Sun, is the first of its kind built by the shipyard. It is 128.6mlong, 20.4 wide and a speed of 13.5 nautical miles per hour.

Shares rebound on improved value

Shares on both national stock exchanges rebounded this morning after several consecutive sessions of decline.

HCM City saw more than 60 per cent of codes posting gains. The benchmark VN-Index rose 0.82 per cent to finish today's session at 350.66 points.

Most of the blue chips gained in value, with Vietinbank (CTG), Vietcombank (VCB), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), property developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and Vietnam-Italy Steel (VIS) hitting their daily limit of 5 per cent. Others increased from 0.6-4.4 per cent.

Of the 10 leading shares by capitalisation, only Sacombank (STB) bottomed out and insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) declined 2.1 per cent.

Financial Ocean Group (OGC) rose to be the most active code today with 1.84 million shares changing hands, gaining 4.1 per cent to close at VND7,600.

Overall the market volume increased slightly to over 57.7 million shares, worth more than VND838 billion (US$40 million).

In Ha Noi today, the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) auctioned nearly 85 million shares in its initial public offering with the starting price of VND18,500 ($0.88) per share.

Up to 16,238 investors had registered to buy over 140.8 million shares, surpassing the registered number by 66.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index today surged 2.56 per cent to close at 58.15 points, with gainers outnumbering losers by 171-65.

The value of trades decreased 20 per cent, however, totalling VND249 billion ($11.9 million) on a volume of 30.5 million shares.

VNDirect Securities Co (VND) continued to be the most heavily traded stock in Ha Noi today with 2.71 million shares traded, closing unchanged at VND6,900.

Bank name change given the go-ahead

The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) announced yesterday that it had approved a decision to rename Gia Dinh joint-stock commercial bank (Gia Dinh Bank) as Viet Capital Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Viet Capital Bank).

Previously, SBV issued Decision No2665/QD-NHNN to approve an amendment to a business licence in the name of Gia Dinh Bank on December 13.

The Decision takes effect after its signing and is an integral part of the operation permit No 0025/NH-GP dated August 22, 2011.

Pomelo packaging plant inaugurated

A pomelo packaging factory equipped with Taiwanese technology was inaugurated late last week in the southern province of Ben Tre.

The facility has a total investment capital of VND7 billion (US$336,000), of which 70 per cent was invested by Huong Mien Tay factory.

The province now has 4,000ha to grow green-skinned pomelos with only 30 per cent meeting export standards. Export volume will increase to 70-80 per cent if growers apply advanced production models and Global Good Agricultural Practices standards (GlobalGAP).

HDBank gets nod to up charter capital

The Ho Chi Minh Housing Development Bank, or HDBank, has got the green light from the State Bank of Viet Nam to increase its charter capital from the current VND3 trillion to VND5 trillion (US$143 million-$238million) .

This will improve its financial ability while the money will be used to acquire technical infrastructure and upgrade transaction offices.

HDBank has more than 11,000 ATMs.

New high-income consumers emerge in Vietnam

While low-income consumers still consider product prices the most important factor in their spending, a new class of consumers who can spend up to US$4,800 each time they shop has emerged in Vietnam, a recent survey has found.

Speaking at a conference on the economic forecast for 2012, Associate Professor Doctor Pham Tat Thang, superior researcher of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, cited survey findings as showing that more than 70 percent of the total income of Vietnamese is spent on purchasing goods.

However, there exists an unequal purchasing contribution among consumers, with the country’s 6 major cities, where 14 percent of the population lives, accounting for as much as 39 percent of the total sales of consumer goods, while the 70 percent of the population that lives in rural areas accounts for only 40 percent of total demand.

Thang said this inequality can be better observed in the area of consumer spending.

“Around 20 percent of the population is underprivileged consumers, who consume only 7.2 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods; while the figure is as high as 43.3 percent for well-off consumers, who account for only 20 percent of the population,” Thang said, citing survey statistics.

He said that in many rural areas, the quality and safety of products are not as important as price, since most consumers belong to the low-income class.

“Meanwhile, the newly-emerging class of consumers pays little attention to prices when they shop,” he said.

“They can spend an average of VND80-100 million ($3,800-4,800) each shopping trip.”

However, locally-made products have failed to appropriately meet the demands of both classes, leaving most of the market share to imported products of both high and low quality.

“In fact, Vietnamese goods have yet to achieve a high enough level of quality to serve consumers with extremely high income, while there is a shortage of low-cost products to meet the demand of those who earn a low-income.”

Thang said that one of the main reasons locally-made products are losing on their home-turf is the fact Vietnam has yet to formulate a plan to sustainably exploit the domestic retailing market.

He said the country has put all of its effort into attracting foreign investment in the manufacturing sectors that focus on exports.

Local businesses only focus on manufacturing goods of high quality for exports, thus neglecting the domestic market, he said.

“Meanwhile, some Vietnamese businesses have brought the low-quality products that fail to meet standards for exports, the unsold goods, or those whose expiry dates are nearly passed, to sell in the rural market,” he said.

“This has adversely affected the reputation of Vietnamese goods among local consumers.”

Thang said that since Vietnam is considered one of the world’s most profitable retail markets, local businesses can sustainably and successfully develop in their home market if they have the appropriate strategies.

“[Local businesses] will then no longer have to rely so much on the exporting markets, which are now full of risks and instability.”

Vietnam products continue penetration into Korea

With more than 116,000 Vietnamese living and working in South Korea, this market opens much potential for Vietnamese consumer products, Le An Hai, Vietnamese Trade Counselor to South Korea, told Tuoi Tre.

He said such Vietnamese consumers in Korea are expected to consume Vietnam-made products worth around US$72 million a year.

Since [Vietnamese] goods are also favored by Filipino and Thai consumers in Korea, the Vietnamese Trade Office expected that this market could consume $200 million worth of Vietnamese goods every year, he added.

He said the Vietnamese Trade Office in Korea had cooperated with Korean distributors to set up warehouses in localities where Vietnamese are living to exclusively provide Vietnam-made products to these consumers.

However, Hai admitted that Vietnamese consumers in Korea still have little chance to access Vietnamese goods, although the products are on sale in some Korean supermarket chains such as Lotte Mart, Home Plus, and Tesco.

Most of the 70,000 Vietnamese laborers in Korea have to work from early mornings to 8pm, and the Vietnamese brides also have to take care of their husband families, thus having little time to go to the supermarkets.

Hai said the Vietnamese Trade Office had launched a promotional campaign titled “Vietnamese Products’ Days” from November 11 to 17 at the Lotte Mart supermarket chains to enable Vietnamese consumers in Korea to have better access to their home-made products.

“All of the food and consumer products were sold out in the very first day of the campaign,” Hai said.

“The campaign reaped an impressive revenue of around $500,000 in just three days, which has led to Lotte Mart’s plans to continue to bring Vietnamese goods to ten other supermarkets under its chain in 10 major cities where most Vietnamese are living.”

The Vietnamese Trade Office would continue this campaign next year, he added.

He said the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods relative to their Chinese or Indonesian counterparts has increasingly been improved.

“For instance, Korean businesses have switched to importing certain textile and garment and agricultural products from Vietnam instead of China as they used to,” he said.

Illegally imported Kobe beef will be destroyed

Since Vietnam and Japan have yet to sign any agreements on veterinary hygiene to officially import Kobe beef, any shipments of the luxury beef caught entering Vietnam will be destroyed, Nguyen Xuan Binh, an official of the Department of Animal Health, said.

Binh, who is the director of the Animal Health Agency Zone VI under the department, said that since Kobe beef imports from Japan have yet to be officially approved, he was not sure where the Kobe beef that many food services in Vietnam claim to use in their dishes originates from.

“I wonder if it is real Kobe beef,” Binh told Tuoi Tre.

“If what is being served in the Kobe beef pho (Vietnamese beef noodle) or Kobe beefsteak in Vietnam is authentic, then smuggling is the only way the luxurious meat could have entered the country.”

Binh added that the animal health agency has previously destroyed batches of Kobe beef imported from Japan following detection by customs authorities.

Currently, Vietnam has only approved beef imports from countries such as the US and Australia.

Meanwhile, Hoang Van Nam, head of the Department of Animal Health, said that Japanese animal health authorities have recently shown his department legal documents concerning Kobe beef imports that have allegedly been approved by their Vietnamese counterparts.

“In reality, these are fake documents, since the Department of Animal Health has yet to license any agencies or businesses to conduct quarantines on beef imported from Japan to Vietnam,” he was quoted by newswire VnExpress as saying.

“The Japanese authorities have agreed on exporting Kobe beef to Vietnam thanks to such contraband papers.”

Thus, Nam urged authorities to clarify the origins of the fake papers, as well as to detect whether the imported beef is real Kobe beef, and whether the beef can meet all food safety and hygiene standards.

“Since Kobe beef has yet to be officially imported, many food services have faked the papers to have the meat for their dishes,” he said.

“If Vietnamese consumers are really demanding Kobe beef, we will seek agreements with Japanese authorities to officially import the meat in the near future,” Binh promised.

Since Kobe beef comes from cows raised in a very special manner, the meat can cost as much as US$500 a kilogram, and thus dishes made from it have steep prices.

The cows are only fed gourmet foods like immature corn and buckwheat. They drink beer instead of water, listen to Mozart and Chopin, and are massaged daily with sake.

At some restaurants in Hanoi, a bowl of pho made with Kobe beef costs VND850,000 ($40), but remains a best-seller despite the very high price.

Other restaurants also offer beefsteak made from Kobe beef, at the eye-watering price of VND1.9 million ($91.2) a dish.

A normal bowl of pho and a serving of beefsteak usually cost around VND30,000-50,000 ($2.4) in Vietnam.

In the latest development, Nguyen Dac Loc, deputy head of the Hanoi Market Management Agency told VnExpress that all Kobe beef offered by food services in Hanoi had been illegally imported.

Loc said the conclusion was drawn from inspections conducted by his unit into restaurants that offer dishes made from Kobe beef in the capital last week.

“All of the restaurants failed to show out valid receipts and invoices for the luxurious meat,” Loc was quoted by the newswire as saying.

“Under the current regulations, the beef should be destroyed.”

Loc added that the municipal market management authorities had also banned the restaurants from advertising and quoting prices of Kobe beef in their services.

“Customers who find any restaurant posting advertisements or quoting prices of Kobe beef are highly advised to report to the market management authorities,” he said.

Markets open for agricultural exporters

Vietnamese firms should take advantage of a market opportunity to step up export of agricultural products, rice in particular, to Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, a senior official said on Friday.

Ly Quoc Hung, head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's African, West Asian and South Asian Markets Department, was addressing a seminar in HCM City.

The U.A.E market has imported rice worth US$1.3 billion last year, mainly from Thailand. However, the output of Thai rice has decreased in the 2011-12 crop because of natural disasters, leading to inadequate supply and high export prices, he said.

"It is a good opportunity for us to occupy a larger proportion of such markets next year", he added.

Rice is still Viet Nam's biggest export item to Africa and Bangladesh, accounting for more than 16 per cent of the total export turnover last year, followed by seafood, textile and garments, electronic and electrical products.

Hung noted that in the next five years, rice would remain the key export item because of great demand in many African countries. Every year, African countries import an average of more than 8 million tonnes of rice.

Most African and Middle Eastern nations lack developed agricultural sectors for various reasons, so demand for staple grains is high. A rising trend in using seafood to replace meat in daily meals in African and Middle Eastern markets has increased demand for these products as well.

This demand presents a valuable opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to intensify exports and undertake research in the aquaculture potential of these countries to serve exports to neighbouring countries.

Meanwhile, some other items accounted for a large chunk of the export turnover to African, Middle East and South Asian markets. These included coffee, pepper, cashew, coconut and basa catfish, Hung said.

Apart from agricultural items, the export of gold and precious stones to the African market has increased sharply since 2010, particularly to South Africa.

The mobile phone is a new export item for Viet Nam, but it is one of the items with high turnover. This business is done primarily by FDI businesses in the country.

For the Middle Eastern market, textile and garments, footwear, household appliances and construction material were items of high interest, he said.

Hung also warned the Vietnamese exporter about taxation barriers, especially anti-dumping taxes in trade, especially in India and Turkey. Because it had a large market share, Viet Nam should keep a close eye on warning systems in these countries to timely prevent trade lawsuits that can have negative impacts on bilateral trade relations, he said.

Another difficulty faced by Vietnamese exporters was in securing payment. Vietnamese businesses should ensure payment through advance deposits or opening a letter of credit with prestigious banks because of many instances of fraud in the African, Middle Eastern and South Asian markets, Hung said.

To speed up exports to these regions, Viet Nam needs to pay attention to product quality and design, to ensure that they are in accordance with market demand and technical regulations.

To fully tap the export growth potential in South Asia, Viet Nam should take opportunities presented through the India-ASEAN free trade agreement. It would also consider signing preferential trade agreements with Sri Lanka to expand exports to the new market and develop new export items for Bangladesh and Pakistan, Hung said.

Nguyen Son Ha, Viet Nam's Trade Counselor to India, said Vietnamese businesses need to invest in building trademarks for Vietnamese agricultural products to increase their competitiveness.

Phan Minh Quang, Vietnamese Trade Counselor to Egypt said Vietnamese businesses should be made more aware of the export potential in the three regions.

The State also needed to provide support by organising trade promotion programmes that develop understanding of new markets, he said. In order to minimise risks, businesses should contact with commercial affairs departments in the embassies of different countries to verify trade partners and establish trust in transactions, he added.

Ngo Khai Hoan, Vietnamese Trade Counselor to Dubai, reiterated the need for trade promotion activities for the Middle Eastern market.

Dubai was a strategic location for transport and re-export for Vietnamese products to the Middle East and Northern Africa, he said.

Viet Nam should consider organising programmes to sponsoring UAE and Middle East importers to visit Viet Nam as Malaysia has done effectively, he said.

Enterprises receive tax breaks worth more than $637 million

More than VND13.3 trillion (US$637 million) in taxes have been reportedly exempted, reduced and extended for payment in 2011 in an attempt to support enterprises in the context of the sluggish economy at home and abroad.

The figure was announced by Deputy Director General of General Department of Taxation Tran Van Phu at a meeting in Ha Noi yesterday to review tax collection in 2011.

Of that figure, nearly VND9.5 trillion ($450 million) was from payment extensions for corporate income tax.

The remainder was from the reduction and exemption of taxes, including nearly VND2 trillion ($94 million) of personal income tax and over VND1.9 trillion ($92.1 million) of household business income tax.

"The exemption, reduction and extension of tax payments have helped to stabilise enterprises in a year when access to credit has been difficult," Phu said.

He also noted that VND525 trillion ($25 billion) in taxes had been collected this year, 16.3 per cent higher than previously estimated.

Addressing the meeting, Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan urged the taxation staff to thoroughly prepare for new laws which would come into effect next year. The laws included the Law on Non-agricultural Land Use Tax and the Law on Environment Protection Tax.

"The revised Law on Personal Income Tax will also be submitted to the National Assembly for discussion next year," Tuan noted.

He also asked the sector to increase tax collection from 5 to 8 per cent.

Companies told to look into FTA agreements

The business community should make itself better informed about the free trade agreements that Viet Nam has signed to take advantage of favourable tariffs and other benefits, officials said yesterday.

According to the Multilateral Trade Policy Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Viet Nam has to comply with several agreements including the AFTA (ASEAN FTA) as well as FTAs that ASEAN has signed with China, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and India.

Department officials urged businesses to understand and make use of commitments under these FTAs to garner several benefits including favourable tariffs.

Tran Ba Cuong of the Export and Import Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade also said greater understanding would help businesses benefit from favourable tariffs.

"Favourable tariffs will stimulate production and push the businesses towards selecting proper technological solutions and business strategies," he said.

Phan Hoai An of the Ministry of Finance's international co-operation department said the country had various tariff commitments to different FTAs.

He said the country had set a time frame for cutting 62.2-100 per cent of trade tariffs under several agreements including ASEAN-China, ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and the Viet Nam-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Different tariff rates will be applied to goods on the sensitive list (SL), the highly sensitive list (HSL) and general exception list (GEL).

An said the sensitive list includes agro-products, meats, crude oil, textile materials and construction materials. The highly sensitive list includes alcohol products, cigarettes, cement, petrol, engines and steel.

GEL contains items that the country has not committed to cut tariffs on.

The Multilateral Trade Policy Department encourages businesses to find out under which list the goods that they deal in fall, so that they can apply to receive due tariff cuts, officials said.

They also asked the businesses to ensure that they procure valid certificates of origin (CO) for the items.

Speaking at a workshop on FTA updates held by the Multilateral Trade Assistance Project (MUTRAP III) in Da Nang City, Cuong said businesses should submit applications for getting COs for each item that they export or import.

He added that CO forms are available on the official website of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

"Businesses should investigate carefully the principles of origin and the relevant tariff rates in the partner country or countries before signing export or import contracts," he said.

"In case a CO has been refused, businesses should investigate the cause of refusal and inform the organisation that issues the certificate," Cuong said.

Experts at the workshop also said that a greater understanding of commitments under all FTAs signed by Viet Nam will benefit businesses in their trading activities.

Officials said that a similar workshop would be held in HCM City for the local business community today.

State firms held to core investments
 
The Ministry of Finance has issued detailed measures to restructure State-owned enterprises (SoEs) so that non-financial groups and corporations are banned from investing in finance, banking, securities, insurance and real estate.

Finance Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said the ministry would require an SoE to invest only on its core business and not to invest in other sectors. SoEs which have invested in other sectors besides their core business would have to withdraw all of their capital before 2015.

The restructure also includes speeding up SoE equitisation; more incentive policies to attract major domestic and foreign strategic investors; applying comprehensive measures to develop the financial market, especially securities, and debt and asset trading; streamlining the operation model and improving investment and financial management competence of the State Capital Investment Corporation and the Debt and Assets Trading Corporation.

The finance ministry will also submit to the Government for approval a decree on SoE management competence based on international rules.

The ministry also expects to complete a project on SoE restructuring in which each group and corporation will get detailed plans and roadmaps.

It is expected to finish the restructure of SoE debt and the equitisation of approved SoEs before 2015. The equitisation of remaining SoEs will be completed before 2020.

Nguyen Minh Phong, from the Ha Noi Institute for Economic and Social Development, said the regulation to ban State-owned groups and corporations from investing in sectors outside their core business was necessary as it forced SoEs to focus on their main operation and avoid having them use State capital to invest in other sectors to make profits.

He said State-owned groups and corporations so far represented up to 60 per cent of banks' outstanding loans.

Transformer station becomes operational

The Project Management Board of Central Power Projects (AMT) yesterday handed over a 500kV transformer station in the northern province of Bac Giang to the Power Transmission Power No 1 company for management and operation.

Covering an area of 17ha in Hiep Hoa District, the Hiep Hoa 500kV transformer station is the largest of its kind in Viet Nam, built at a cost of VND1.221 trillion (US$58 million).

As one of the major projects of the Son La Hydropower Plant, the station includes two 500kV transformer towers with a combined capacity of 1,800 MVA and other 500kV, 220kV and 35kV distribution equipment.

Hanoi attracts more foreign direct investment

Hanoi has licensed 344 foreign invested projects worth US$1.5 billion this year, up 78.7 percent over last year, according to the Hanoi Moi daily on December 26.

Of the total, US$957.1 million came from 283 newly licensed projects, while the remaining capital came from 61 existing ones.

The newspaper cited economic experts as saying that the FDI increase is still far from meeting Hanoi’s needs in the face of budget cuts.

The city should attract more FDI with the aim of making a breakthrough in economic development in the time to come, they said.

92 businesses join Dalat flower festival

Ninety-two domestic and international businesses have registered to participate in the 2012 Dalat international flower festival, according to Lam Dong provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

This year’s festival will take place from December 30, 2011 to January 1, 2012, with “flower and light” street parade and the “flower space” show as its highlights.

The opening ceremony of the biannual festival will be held on the night of December 31, 2011 to be followed by a series of cultural and arts activities, including a flower road at the Palace Hotel and tours of flower villages, fields, valleys, hills and villas, a trade village fair, a gala night of street dances and flower balloon performances.

The event is expected to attract around 300,000 visitors.

JDR fined for staining environment

Phu Yen provincial People’s Committee just slapped a fine of VND130 million ($6,250) on JRD Manufacturing Automobiles Company Ltd for contaminating the environment.

The committee also told the company to clean up its mess within the next three months.

JRD, in Tuy An district’s An My commune, was busted for letting oil spill into the environment, not classifying its toxic waste and dumping toxic waste with concentrations far higher than permissible limits. The company also failed to draw up plans to manage the factory’s oil and waste water.

The oil spill caused major damage to a nearby rice paddy. The latest fine is the third JRD has been hit with for environmental damage. In late October, the company was fined over $1,200 by the provincial authorities after being found burying toxic waste. In 2008, authorities also discovered JRD had buried five tanks of toxic chemicals.

A JRD source told VIR the company was cooperating with an environmental pollution treatment company to install a modern waste treatment facility.

The source said the latest punishment had badly dented the company’s prestige at a time when it was faced with business difficulties. “Automobile sales of the company in 2011 are down 10 per cent against 2010. The company has also had to cut its workforce by 15 per cent. I think the company’s future business performance here may be even more difficult than it is in 2011,” the source said.

JRD company was licenced in May 2005 as a $100 million joint venture between Malaysia’s leading automobile manufacturer JRD Motor Vehicle and local firm Phu Yen Industrial Production Export Import Company. The joint venture can churn out as many as 15,000 assorted cheap cars per year.

In a similar development, southern Binh Phuoc People’s Committee has forced South Korean-invested C&N Vina - the investor of Minh Hung Industrial Park - to pay the $7,200 fine it incurred last September for pollution. C&N Vina has yet to cough up.

The provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment has also asked the committee to impose a fine of $14,900 on South Korean cassava starch maker Wusons, after this firm was found to be discharging wastewater with pollutant concentrations far higher than permissible limits.

Since 2008, many other foreign polluters have been caught damaging the environment. These include Taiwanese-backed Vedan, South Korea’s monosodium glutamate maker Miwon Vietnam – which discharged toxic water into the Red River – and Japan’s Da Lat-Japan Food Company in Lam Dong province.

Other offenders include Thai-backed MK Sugar International in Binh Thuan province, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province-based British-backed Meisheng Text, Ho Chi Minh City-based Vietstar company and Taiwanese-backed Tung Kuang in Hai Duong province.

Magnicon Company, South Korean-backed Sae Hwa Vina Company, Binh Duong province-based Taiwanese-backed Kin Sing Company, Fotai Vietnam Company, Taung Liang, Jorn Technology and Cosmos Knitting International, Ho Chi Minh City-based South Korean-backed Kukjin company, and Indian-invested sugar and alcohol maker Nivl Joint Stock Company have also got into hot water.

Work starts on new property projects despite dreary market

The local property market is still plagued by extremely low consumer demand, but some developers have begun work on their projects in certain areas in District 9, HCMC.

Thang Long Real, a property developer, has kicked off a sale of Nature Land, a part of Dong Tang Long urban area in the district’s Truong Thanh Ward, which will cover 160 hectares and cost US$94 million.

There are 119 lots of land available for sale at VND9.9 million per square meter. The period of payment is one year and a half. The company has recently organized a meeting with 500 potential buyers and 17 of them have put their names down to purchase lots.

In another project, HVK, a joint venture between construction firm Hung Viet and Korea Real Estate Development Fund (KRDF03), has commenced work on The Eastern on Lien Phuong Street, District 9.

The venture will invest about US$40 million in the project with 648 apartments of 56 to 112 square meters each. The project is projected to be ready in end-2013.

Adjacent to The Eastern, there is a Villa Park project just completed by Khu Dong, a unit of Khang Dien Company, and 60 units there have been handed over to customers. The 11-hectare luxury Villa Park in Phu Huu Ward has a total of 213 semi-attached and terraced units.

A second handover is expected to take place in June next year.

According to property market research firm Savills Vietnam, HCMC’s eastern area including districts 2 and 9 is a key source of land lot supply with prices ranging from US$140,000 to US$2.38 million per villa and from US$96,000 to US$890,000 per terraced house.

More than 1,700 villas and terraced houses are forecast to enter the HCMC market next year and another 2,000 in the two following years in districts 2, 9, 7 and Nha Be.
 
Manufacturing takes bulk of FDI inflows

HCMC has attracted 47% of fresh foreign direct investment (FDI) capital into the manufacturing sector while other provinces have seen a decline in new FDI pledges.

Latest figures of the HCMC’s Department of Planning and Investment showed US$2.85 billion had been committed in the year to date, up 22.6% year-on-year, with over US$2.4 billion sourced from 397 fresh projects, up by 28% in value, and the remainder from 131 existing projects.

While the nation has seen a slide in new FDI with the year’s US$20-billion goal seen as unattainable, the FDI picture in HCMC is encouraging, buoyed by large projects including the US1-billion thin-film solar power project of First Solar in Cu Chi District.

Thanks to this project, the city’s manufacturing and processing industries takes the leading position in terms of fresh FDI capital with US$1.13 billion, 47% of the total newly-registered capital. Still, the projects in these industries only account for 13% of the 50 projects.

However, the First Solar project was indefinitely postponed last month and the company cited an imbalance between solar power supply and demand on global markets as a key reason for postponement.

The property sector has attracted the second most FDI with around US$700 million. Meanwhile, the retail sector has lured US$318 million from 102 projects.
 
Great potential for tropical fruit, vegetable export in Vietnam  

Vietnam holds great potential in export of tropical fruits and vegetables, said Huynh Quang Dau, Vice-Chairman of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association (Vinafruit).  

With favorable weather conditions, Vietnam is suitable for growing tropical fruits and vegetables, and has become the fifth largest Asian fruit and vegetable exporter.

This year, fruit export turnover is around US$600 million, an increase of $150 million compared to that in 2010. At present, Vietnamese fruits and vegetables are being exported to 50 countries and territories around the world with core markets being China, Japan, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Russia.

Nevertheless, turnover of fruit exports is far less than other agro-aqua products. For instance, seafood exports reached $6 billion, rice $3.7 billion, wooden furniture $3.5 billion, cashew $2.7 billion.

Economic experts believe Vietnam can earn more dollars from fruit exports as the demand for fruits and vegetables is very buoyant.

Vinafruit pointed out the various shortcomings in fruit exports such as scattered small-scale orchards, shortage of freezers, discoordinated management and poor safety standards.

Matthew Lantz, an expert from USAID STAR plus project, said the US consumes a large quantity of fruits yet it also has to import 50 percent of agriculture produce.  Vietnam has much opportunity to enter the larger markets with its special tropical fruit varieties.

Nguyen Huu Dat, director of Post Entry Quarantine Center No.2 under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that soon after the first shipment of dragon fruit reached the US, Vietnamese longan, lychee and rambutan also entered the US market.

Vietnam cultivates dragon fruit on 1,300 hectares in the central province of Binh Thuan, has 9 packaging plants and two radiation factories. The country has seen an increase of dragon fruit exports to the US from 100 tons in 2009 to 1,300 tons in 2011.

Rambutan export volumes to the US have risen from only 2 containers per week to 20 containers a week, as the unseasonal fruit is not competitive with the Thai and Mexican variety.

Vietnam needs to group small-scale farms into larger ones to meet the demand and easily control the quality of fruits which will help push the sector.
 
Work begins on bauxite transport route

The Ministry of Transport last Friday started the upgrade of National Highway 20, a key road for transporting alumina from Tan Rai factory in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong to Go Dau Port in Dong Nai Province.

The first section of the upgrade project stretches about 123 km, starting from Dau Giay T-Junction in Dong Nai Province to Provincial Road 725 in Bao Loc District, Lam Dong Province.

The build-transfer upgrade requires VND4.5 trillion and is slated for completion at the end of 2014.

The second section from the intersection with Provincial Road 725 to the intersection with National Highway 27 will be upgraded later at a total cost of over VND3 trillion.

The project owner is a consortium comprising Cuu Long Corporation for Investment, Development and Project Management of Infrastructure (Cuu Long CIPM), Western Mekong Co. Ltd, PetroVietnam Construction Joint Stock Corp. No.1 and Building Materials Corporation No.1.