HCM City industrial output rises

HCM City's industrial output was worth VND609 trillion (US$32 billion) this year, up 14.2 per cent, according to the city Statistics Bureau.

Output was up in 23 of 27 major industrial sectors.

The machinery sector saw the highest growth, with metal products output rising by 21.9 per cent, machinery and equipment by 28.9 per cent, and electrical products by 32.4 per cent.

Leather and footwear, rubber, plastic, electricity, food and beverages, textile and garment, chemicals, and building materials also saw high growth rates.

Automobile assembly and electronics, which could not compete with imports, achieved the smallest growth rates. Coal mining, office equipment, and vehicle repair actually declined in value.

The ratio of sectors manufacturing knowledge-based products, using high technologies, and boasting high competi-tiveness has gradually grown, the Department of Planning and Investment said.

The proportion dependent on natural resources and labour, such as food processing, textile and garment, and leather and footwear, have reduced gradually, moving to neighbouring provinces.

After five years' implementation of restructuring its economy by increasing services and industry and decreasing agriculture, four major industrial segments – machinery; chemicals, plastic, and rubber; electronics and information technology; food and foodstuffs processing – account for 60 per cent of industrial output.

This is an increase of 5 per cent in 2005.

CG informal meeting to convene in Ha Tinh

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has given a nod to the Vietnam Consultative Group (CG) to convene its mid-term meeting in the central province of Ha Tinh .

According to the Government Office’s Official Letter No 9396/VPCP-QHQT, the Ministry of Planning and Investment will coordinate with the World Bank and relevant agencies to organise the meeting.

The CG meeting serves as a platform for the government and donors to discuss Vietnam ’s socio-economic performance, review the sponsors’ implementation of their commitments that had been made in previous meetings and work out measures to improve the effectiveness of aids.

At the 2010 CG meeting that took place on December 7-8, the donor community pledged 7.905 billion USD as Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the country.

Two CG meetings are held each year, including a formal meeting in December and another in June.

The first CG meeting was organised in Paris in November, 1993.

HCM City to host Tet shopping fair

Nearly 300 local companies will showcase their products at the Tet Shopping Fair to be held at the Phu Tho Indoor Sports Stadium in HCM City's District 11 on January 21.

Organised by the Business Studies and Assistance Center and Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper, the fair will feature 700 booths displaying Vietnamese high-quality goods, including garments, footwear, processed foodstuff, beverages, pharmaceutical products, electronic and electric products and household utensils, with attractive promotions.

The event also includes the Anti-Obesity Day, calligraphy writing and other special art programmes. The Don Tet xa nha programme (Celebrate Tet Away from Home) will be held for students who lack funds to return home for the holidays.

Value of honey exportsreaches $20m

Dak Lak Bee Honey Joint Stock Co exported 11,000 tonnes of honey and 200,000 tonnes of beeswax this year, earning an export value of US$20 million – double last year's figure. The US bought 80 per cent of the company's products, but others were sold to Canada, Japan and South Korea. The company invested VND25 billion ($1.2 million) this year in new equipment for bee-farming households and to expand production.

GP Bank obtains licence extension of 77 years

The Global Petroleum Commercial Bank (GP Bank) has had its licence extended from 20 to 99 years under a decision issued by the State Bank of Viet Nam.

The extension was seen as essential to GP Bank's long-term development strategy to become a major commercial bank in Viet Nam, according to GP Bank general director Pham Quyet Thang. GP Bank has total assets worth nearly VND28 trillion (US$1.3 billion).

Work begins on $80m industrial park complex

The $80 million Thuan Thanh II urban area and industrial park project was kicked off by Taiwan-based Shun Far Housing Development Co in northern Bac Ninh Province's Thuan Thanh District last Sunday.

Located near Highway 39, the urban area and industrial park project covers over 304ha in the communes of An Binh, Hoai Thuong, Mao Dien in the northern province. The site will be divided into five functional areas for hi-tech workshops, service centres, entertainment and professional areas, and accomodations for workers.

Domestic drugs need shot in arm

While the Ministry of Health has created favourable conditions for domestic pharmaceutical companies to expand production, the industry needs to develop a strategy to attract investment, says Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu.

Most domestic pharmaceutical companies simply produce basic medicines but not the more specific, higher value products supplied by foreign-invested ones,said Trieu. Over 90 per cent of their raw materials are imported, and they lack high-tech production lines, he says

Vu Thi Thuan, general director of domestic pharmaceutical firm Traphaco, says Viet Nam has many kinds of herbal ingredients available but has not built on this natural advantage.

Only about 10 per cent of materials for the industry come from the domestic market, but this could be much higher if manufacturers took advantage of diverse local materials, Thuan says, urging the Government to generate a strategy for developing markets and growing areas for medicinal herbs under the Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) of the World Health Organisation.

Poor management of raw material supplies has also made it more difficult for the authorities to keep the prices of medicines stabilised, says Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Huu Hao.

The rising prices of imported pharmaceuticals also continue to put pressure on domestic prices, Hao says.

New brand enters local dairy market

The first milk production project in the northern central region on Sunday launched its maiden product line TH True Milk on the local market.

The production project of TH Milk Company has an investment of US$1.2 billion.

The company has imported 10,000 cows from New Zealand, Uruguay and Canada, and produced pure milk processed by equipment and advanced technology from Israel.

Its production plan until 2012 calls for TH Milk to have 45,000 cows and a plant capacity of 500 million litres of milk a year. By 2017, it is targeted to have 137,000 cows on its farms.

"As the company increases its investment to $350 million by 2012, it will be a great impetus to the development of Nghe An and the central region," said Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong, speaking at the launch ceremony.

Trong is also the chairman of the National Steering Committee to the Northwest Region, which includes a part of central Nghe An Province.

The farms and the milk plant are based in the province's remote Nghia Dan District, an area that many experts mistakenly thought did not have the right natural conditions for dairy farming.

"Raising a cow can benefit farmers more than one hectare of rice cultivation can. I believe this milk project will change the local rural facade and economic structure," Trong said.

Thai Huong, general director of Bac A Bank, the project investor, said the economy would benefit from the project. At the ceremony, the company donated VND9 billion ($418,604) to build a cemetery for local war martyrs and offered milk valued at VND3 billion ($139,534) to local poor children.

Workshop scrunitises enforcement of competition law

Recommendations to improve the Law on Competition and its enforcement were made at a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec. 28.

The workshop, reviewing “five-year implementation of the competition law”, is a forum for managers and business sector to share theoretical and practical issues to increase the enforcement of the law.

More than 40 violations of competition regulations have been investigated and handled over the last five years, the workshop heard.

According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Danh Vinh, the investigation and handling of such cases had strictly followed the law, raising businesses’ awareness of basic market principles and ensuring consumers’ rights.

He spoke highly of the State management agencies’ efforts to uphold the principles of the socialist-oriented market economy which, he said, has brought about practical benefits to businesses and people.

Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Legal Department Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan also acknowledged the law’s contributions to making effective management policies and administrative orders.