Vietnamnet.vn
Podcast
Vietnam, Laos sign power purchase agreement
Present at the signing ceremony in Vientiane on Oct. 28 were Laos ’ Deputy Minister of Energy and Mining Somboun Ratsasombath and Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Thongmi Phomvisay, and Vietnam ’s Ambassador to Laos Ta Minh Chau.
The Sekaman Hydro-electric Power Plant 1 includes the Sekaman 1 project and the Sekaman Sansay project in Attapeu province of Laos which have a combined capacity of 322 MW to produce 1.2 million kWh per year.
The construction of the 441.6 million USD project is scheduled to begin later this year and it is expected to be put into operation in 2015.
Vietnam to plant more industrial crops in Laos
Vietnam and Laos will put into action a joint 38 million USD project to plant rubber trees and other industrial crops in Xaychamphone district in Bolikhamxay province, Laos.
Laos ’ Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Thongmi Phomvisay and the Director General of Vietnam ’s Thanh Thanh Dat Company, Tran Quang Luan, signed a memorandum of understanding on October 28 in the Laotian capital Vientiane , under which both parties will study the area and the project’s feasibility.
The project will utilise 9,900 ha of land and also build a rubber latex processing plant following environmental requirements, using local labour, said Director General Luan.
Apart from this project, the company has already carried out a number of ventures in Bolikhamxay province and a social welfare programme in other parts of Laos.
PTSC’s annual turnover reaches 1 billion USD
The PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PTSC) is targeting a turnover of 1 billion USD this year, with annual profits of 1 trillion VND and a monthly per capita income of 20 million VND.
On October 28, PTSC held a ceremony to announce the company’s business and production activities and celebrate the its successful financial results.
By September this year, PTSC’s turnover had reached 13.6 trillion VND, up 9 percent against expectations, with pre-tax profits reaching 750 billion VND, higher by 1 percent against the yearly plan. The company also paid 982 billion VND to the State budget, over 36 percent more than expected.
Trades sustain sluggish market
Active negotiated trades helped the VN-Index stave off losses on Oct. 28 to close essentially unchanged at 450.07 points.
Market observers noted that 59 out of 89 successful negotiated orders on the HCM Stock Exchange on Oct. 28 matched share ceiling prices.
This helped some blue chips post modest gains, including Sacombank (STB) – the most active share yesterday with 1.7 million traded – Masan Group (MSN), Eximbank (EIB), and software giant FPT.
Meanwhile, penny stocks generated solid demand, with Thuan Thao Corp (GTT) rising by 4.95 percent, Cat Loi Co (CLC) up 4.88 percent, and Da Nang Construction Building Material and Cement (DXV) rising by 4.85 percent.
The overall volume of trades remained in the doldrums, however, with just over 23 million shares changing hands, worth a paltry 580.3 billion VND (29.8 million USD).
Foreign investors remained net buyers on the HCM City market, picking up a net of 2.6 million shares worth of 88 billion VND (4.5 million USD), and were net buyers by value at Hanoi of 40 million VND (2,000 USD) worth of shares.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell for a second day, closing off over 0.9 percent to 111.51 points, on a meagre volume of only 15.2 million shares.
The value of the day's trades dropped to only 315 billion VND (16.2 million USD), a far cry from Oct. 27's 488 billion VND (25 million USD).
PepsiCo set to build plant in Bac Ninh
PepsiCo, the world's second largest food and beverage company, will build a 73 million USD beverage production plant in northern Bac Ninh province's Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP).
The agreement was signed yesterday between PepsiCo and VSIP Bac Ninh Co under the witness of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong.
When it opens, the new facility will be PepsiCo's largest production plant in Vietnam and one of its two largest in Southeast Asia . It will produce carbonated and non-carbonated beverages, including its Pepsi, 7-up, Mirinda, Aquafina, Sting, Twister and Lipton bands.
PepsiCo recently pledged to invest 250 million USD in Vietnam over three years from 2011, bringing its total investment to over 500 million USD since 1994 when the company's products were first launched in Vietnam .
The new investment aims to help further strengthen the company's existing brands and broaden its product portfolio via innovation with numerous health and wellness initiatives.
First established in 1996, VSIP is a joint venture between Bexamex IDC Corp, a State -owned Vietnamese enterprise, and Singaporean Sembcorp Industrial Parks.
VSIP now consists of four townships and industrial parks located in southern Binh Duong and northern Bac Ninh provinces, and Hai Phong City . The parks have attracted more than 400 companies and created 65,000 jobs to date.
Confab urges electronic payments
Experts discussed ways to encourage Vietnam to adopt the new POS (Point of Sale) plastic money system of paying for their shopping at a conference to introduce Vietnam Banking 2010.
In a recent survey, done by the State Bank of Vietnam 's HCM City branch, 70 percent of banks said they should have better technology infrastructure for linking POS machine with other partners.
Bankers at the conference on Wednesday said the success of POS would depend mainly on the service owners, especially if they did not want banks to have records of their sales transactions, to avoid paying more taxes.
POS fees between banks, software, and the cost of promoting the POS service were also slowing the uptake of POS transactions.
The need to encourage more people to use plastic money was the rationale for the Banking Vietnam conference's theme "Secure technology application and service development," Le Thanh Tam, general director of the International Data Group in Vietnam and Indochina , said.
At present, there are 27 million ATM cards, 42,000 POS machines, and 11,000 ATMs around Vietnam . Growth for card issuance during the 2006-10 period was 150-200 percent a year, but the amount of transactions via the POS system was still very low, at around 5 percent.
"The Government should consider tax incentives for accepting payments via POS. It is the most practical way to pay by plastic into daily life," a representative of SBV's HCM City branch said.
European firms positive about nation's outlook
Most European companies are optimistic about Vietnam 's economic outlook, according to the first quarterly survey of the country's business climate by the European Chamber of Commerce (Eurocham) in Vietnam.
More than 200 member companies took part in the Business Climate Index survey, which was conducted online, said Alain Cany, chairman of Eurocham.
Eurocham executive board member Peter Born said the index showed a positive outlook, with an average of 75 points on a scale of 0 to 100 points, with 100 representing the highest level of confidence.
Seventy percent of the respondents said the outlook for investment was "good" or "excellent", and 68 percent said they planned to increase their investment in Vietnam .
In addition, 60 percent of respondents expected Vietnam 's GDP to reach 6-8 percent next year. The survey showed that Eurocham members were concerned about inflation and the depreciation of the Vietnamese dong against the euro and US dollar.
Half of the respondents said that inflation could rise to 10 percent while 39 percent said it could reach 10-15 percent.
Many of them said they anticipated a 5-10 percent depreciation of the dong against the euro and US dollar.
When asked about recruitment plans, 31 percent of the respondents said they expected to increase the number of employees by 20 percent, while 18 percent indicated a significant increase of more than 20 percent.
Hanoi, Budapest businesses seek to boost trade ties
The Hanoi Small and Medium Enterprises Association signed an economic and trade cooperation agreement with the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BKKI) of Hungary on Oct. 27.
The agreement aims to boost bilateral import and export activities as well as open up investment opportunities for the two countries’ enterprises.
BKKI, founded in 1850, is a representative of Budapest business community.
Source: VNA
.svg){kind=icon}
