Co-operation lifts rice profits
 
Rice farmers in the south have earned high profits under a pilot programme launched in March by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

For the last summer-autumn rice crop, farmers earned an additional profit of VND2-3 million (US$98-145) per ha.

Under the programme, farmers whose fields are adjacent to each other co-ordinate the planting of rice and use advanced production techniques.

The farmers plant their rice at the same time and use seeds and other services provided by sponsoring companies taking part in the programme.

The programme began in March with a model project in An Giang Province and has expanded to several dozen rice fields of 100 to 2,000 ha each in southeastern Tay Ninh Province, Can Tho City and 12 Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces.

Pham Van Du, deputy head of MARD's Plant Cultivation Department, said 6,400 farming households with a total of 7,800 ha were participating in the programme.

The production cost of one kilo of rice fell by VND120-130 a kg, compared to costs when the farmers worked independently and were not part of the programme.

In Dong Thap Province, for example, farmers with an average output of 6 tonnes per ha earned a profit of VND16-18 million ($780-880) per ha in the last summer-autumn rice crop, more VND2.5 million ($120) per ha compared to farmers not taking part in the programme.

As part of the programme, farmers are given instruction in planting techniques, offered interest-free loans to buy fertiliser and pesticides, and offered higher prices for rice that is high quality and clean.

Although the programme has been successful and will be expanded to 1 million ha in the future, not all of the farmers have had similar success.

Huynh Van Thon, general director of the An Giang Plant Protection Company, which launched the first model rice field in An Giang Province, said some farmers wanted to sell freshly harvested paddy at rice fields.

This has created pressure on purchasing companies which must dry paddy and transport it from the fields.

Bui Ba Bong, deputy minister of MARD, said co-operation among farmers and companies must be improved to solve these problems.

The ministry has issued criteria for developing large-scale rice fields, which will be implemented for the 2011-12 winter-spring crop.

The ministry targets developing large-scale rice fields in the south to 20,000 ha for the 2011-12 winter-spring crop and to 100,000 ha in 2013. After 2013, it will be expanded to one million hactares.
 
Key plant-breed plan to cost $8m

The Government will invest VND170 billion (US$8.25 million) in developing key plant breeds, according to VietGAP (Vietnamese Good Agriculture Practices) standards.

The funds will be devoted to 29 projects that will run until 2015, according to Tong Khiem, director of the National Agricultural Extension Centre under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Khiem said the work will help local produce meetingVietGap standards, which is based on the ASEAN GAP and GlobalGAP standards on food safety, environmental management, social welfare and produce quality.

Pham Dong Quang, deputy head of the Cultivation Department, said 11 cities and provinces had made plans and policies to follow VietGap standards to ensure safe production of vegetables, fruits and tea plants.

The country so far has 343 models which applied the VietGAP standards across a total area of more than 9,500ha. Among these models, 199 (nearly 60 per cent) have been certified as meeting the VietGAP or GlobalGAP standards with a total area of 2.643ha.

Vu Dinh Phuong, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of northeastern Bac Giang Province, said the total area for litchi cultivation applying VietGAP in the province's Luc Ngan District is at more than 6,000ha and was continuing to increase. There still exist, however, many challenges hampering the application of VietGap, according to Quang.

One of the biggest challenges was the small scale and unorganised nature of agricultural production in Viet Nam.

"Producers' skills and awareness on ensuring food safety and protecting the environment is still low," he said.

Quang said the link between production and consumption wasn't good enough, while the domestic market for these products was still limited.

He added that it was expensive and required complicated procedures to get a VietGAP certificate, which was beyond many producers' capacity.

The economic benefit of standard production, however, has not been shown clearly.

Additionally, there are some strict and impractical requirements regarding the quality of land, water or pesticide storage.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is revising the Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices to simplify the system to better suit the capacity of Vietnamese producers, especially those involved in small-scale vegetable cultivation.

The ministry will also issue documents to amend the VietGAP Certification Regulation with the aim to make the certification fairer, more transparent and objective while at the same time ensuring the quality of produce.

Critics doubt viability of housing saving fund

Many people are still questioning the feasibility of the housing saving fund, which is aimed at creating housing opportunities for low-income people.

Recently, the Prime Minister approved a project for setting up a housing saving fund as a non-profit organization with voluntary contributions from its members’ monthly incomes.

Under the fund’s spirit, laborers in need of social or low-cost houses can freely participate in the fund and contribute only 1% of their monthly income. After it is established, the fund will prioritize lending to its members and construction firms that engage in social housing development programs.

If participants no longer have demand for owning a house, they can withdraw from the fund and get back both their contributions and the interest of 3-5% a year.

Pending specific information on the regulations of the fund, many real estate enterprises question its feasibility.

Nguyen Van Duc, deputy director of Dat Lanh Real Estate Company, said the fund would not attract many participants due to its voluntary nature and only concern those wishing to buy social houses. Moreover, the contribution of 1% income is too low given current house prices.

Duc cited an example that a laborer with a monthly income of VND5 million would contribute only VND50,000 a month, or VND600,000 a year, to the fund. Therefore, after ten years, he only has a VND6 million contribution, which won’t even buy him a single square meter of low-cost housing.

Experience from other countries, such as Singapore, showed that members of housing saving funds would likely wait at least 12-15 years to achieve their goal of owning a house, said Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the HCMC Real Estate Association (Horea).

Along with contributions from its members, the fund needs support from the Government and other non-governmental organizations as well, Chau added. Beside the capital mobilization, many people are concerned with the transparency and fairness of the fund operation.

Chau suggested the fund should be on a local level rather than operating on a national scale, which may lead to the imbalance in proportion of contribution between provinces. In addition, housing saving funds must be developed in sync with social housing programs, helping low-income earners approach house buying opportunities.

The Government is also proposed to finance the project to realize the fund in 2-3 years’ time. In fact, many low-cost or social housing projects are still unattractive to property developers.

Chau said a housing saving fund is strongly approved in other countries and that Vietnam must have a transparent mechanism and regulations to gain public confidence.

Real estate firms fret over site clearance regulations

Many real estate enterprises have had difficulty with the Land Law and related decrees that specify no Government involvement in land recovery and site clearance for commercial development projects but allow residents with related rights and obligations to lodge complaints.

This was the view shared by many legal experts and business representatives at a seminar on a draft review report on implementation of the Land Law, the Real Estate Law and the Audit Law held in HCMC on Thursday. The seminar was part of a project to review 16 economic laws in Vietnam deployed by the Government Office and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

Tran Quang Huy from the Hanoi Law University, head of the expert group assessing the Land Law, admitted many commercial project developers had violated site clearance regulations due to their improper interpretation and comprehension.

Huy said Article 40 of the Land Law and Article 36 of Decree 181/2004 stipulated some cases in which the Government would not be involved in project site clearance. Therefore, project owners must negotiate with the residents themselves, resulting in problems when some individuals or households refuse to relocate.

Previously, property enterprises received support from authorities when 80% of the site clearance was done. However, the current effective Decree 84/2007 states enterprises must accomplish 100% compensation agreements on their own, said Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nhu, deputy director of Tan Vu Minh Company.

Besides, the decree allows residents to send their complaints to local authorities and go to court if they disagree with an administrative decision, spelling more trouble for businesses.

Also, Nhu said the site clearance headache had forced many project owners to adjust their project designs at some less important locations. However, if the area is essential to the project deployment, enterprises must accept high costs for compensation, meaning their apartment products would have increased prices.

Huy said another problem for real estate firms was compensation negotiation. In land compensation regulations, households forced to move by the site clearance can choose to receive either other pieces of land with the same use purpose or land compensation equivalent to the current land price.

Still, both options have their own shortcomings. The land fund for resettlement is limited and the compensation equal to current land prices is not widely accepted because land prices constantly change.

Experts and enterprises participating in the seminar demanded a regulation on the Government’s engagement in project site clearance when project owners have completed negotiation with 70-80% households in the project land. Besides, instructions must be sent to local governments, directing the confirmation and publishing of land prices in each phase of the clearance.

Vietnam export growth to slow in near future

Vietnam’s prospect of export growth in the years to come looks gloomier than other neighboring economies, according a UNESCAP trade report.

The Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2011: Post-crisis Trade and Investment launched on Thursday in Hanoi said that while the region as a whole is expected to return to a historical trade growth rate of about 10% in 2011 and 2012, Vietnam’s trade growth is expected to be slower than the regional average.

The forecast for Vietnam is that export growth will slow to 1.4% in 2011 and then rise to 8.9% in 2012, while imports are projected to increase by 4.9% in 2011 and 7.4% in 2012.

Meanwhile, the report pointed out that although Vietnam’s trade picked up last year, with an estimated growth of 5.2% in export volume and a rise of 2.5% in import volume, this was slower than the average rates achieved by Asian developing countries with 17.3% and 15.8%, respectively.

Witada Anukoonwattaka from the Trade and Investment Division, UNESCAP said at the launching ceremony that the macroeconomic instability is a near-term risk that may curtail economic growth and adversely affect the confidence of foreign investors.

She added that rising oil and food prices as well as the pressure of accelerating demand will continue to drive inflation, which had already risen above 20% in June 2011, compared with the same month in 2010.

“The high rate of inflation may deter private consumption, increase production costs and hurt the export competitiveness of Vietnam,” she warned.

However, Nguyen Anh Tuan, head of division, Asia-Pacific Market Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, who was invited to the launching ceremony to comment on the report, said he was not concerned about the figures.

“Personally, I think the way the report authors look at Vietnam is not new in comparison with those from other international entities like ADB and WB,” Tuan told the Daily.

“I don’t worry about bad figures, which depend on a different calculation. Moreover, these figures could have no influence on potential foreign investors, who want to do business here. They make their decisions based on reality rather than these figures.”

According to the report, overall, Vietnam’s economy is currently ranked fifty-third in the world, based on the value of the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index, with a score of 2.96.

During the past five years, Vietnam has attracted a significant inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI), which has been growing at an average of 22% per year while the country’s FDI inward stock has been rising by about 14% per annum.

The country is ranked fourth in Southeast Asia in terms of FDI inflows.

Agro-forestry, fishery exports top $16 bln

Vietnam ’s agro-forestry-fishery export turnover reached $16.4 billion in the first eight months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 34.2 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Of the total value, exports of agricultural products hit $9.3 billion, up about 44 per cent, while aquatic products reaped $3.7 billion, a rise of 24.4 per cent, and forestry products earned $2.6 billion USD, up 12.4 per cent.

Among agricultural products, rice was the most outstanding commodity, with a total export of 5.4 million tonnes worth $2.7 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.4 per cent in volume and 14.6 per cent in value.

The Philippines continued to be Vietnam ’s leading rice importer, followed by Indonesia , Malaysia , Cuba and other new markets such as Senegal , Bangladesh and Ivory Coast .

During this period, the whole nation exported 958,000 tonnes of coffee, earning $2.1 billion, up 12 per cent in volume and over 72.2 per cent in value, and 449,000 tonnes of rubber worth $1.9 billion , increases of 4.1 and nearly 70 per cent, in volume and value, respectively.

Due to rising demand from major markets like China and Japan , since the beginning of this year, the nation has earned $2.4 billion from exports of wood and wooden products, up 13.5 per cent.

The agricultural sector forecast that from now until the end of this year, exports of agro-forestry and fisheries will face difficulties due to the fact that non-tariff protective measures for these commodities have been lifted and commodities have been managed under technical standards.

This year, the sector targets the promotion of quality products and the export of $23 billion worth of agro-forestry and fishery products, surpassing the record $19.2 billion set last year.

IT mover and shaker is in the mix

F5 Networks, a global leader in application delivery networking, last week announced the opening of its first office in Vietnam.

Phan Viet Linh, F5 Networks’ country manager for Vietnam, said the expansion would support F5 Networks’ customers’ efforts to move toward a more dynamic data centre with next generation application and data delivery infrastructure, that aligns IT functions and services more closely with business needs.

According to Linh, the explosive growth in mobile and internet data traffic, plus the increased adoption of cloud computing in Vietnam were driving demands for advanced application delivery networking services to provide unparalleled control and compelling cost savings for service providers, enterprises and government agencies.

“The Vietnamese government has set its sights on harnessing information and communication technologies (ICT) to transform and develop its social and economic fabric by 2020. To realise this vision, service providers, major enterprises and government agencies in Vietnam need to build dynamic data centres that can deliver services on demand,” said Christian Hentschel, F5 Networks Asia-Pacific and Japan vice president.

“As web applications increasingly consume internet bandwidth, a new level of intelligence is needed in the data centre to ensure application and data performance, availability and security. Being the global market leader in application delivery networking technology, F5 is well positioned to bring the benefits of its innovations to Vietnam.”

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices worldwide, F5 Networks helps enterprises and service providers realise the full value of virtualisation, cloud computing, and on-demand IT. Its solutions help integrate disparate technologies to provide greater control of the infrastructure, improve application delivery and data management, and give users seamless, secure, and accelerated access to applications from their corporate desktops and smart devices.

In August 2010, the company was recognised by Fortune magazine as one of the 100 fastest-growing companies, ranking 17th among the top technology companies globally. F5 Networks’ revenue for fiscal year 2010 was $882.0 million, up 35 per cent from $653.1 million in the previous fiscal year.

F5 Networks’ wide range of innovations include the BIG-IP, a modular system which offers tremendous scalability and flexibility by allowing organisations to add more capacity and functionality as business demands change. This includes protection against multi-layer cyber attacks currently besetting many organisations worldwide, improving end-users application experience, and enhancing workforce efficiency with simplified application access enforcement.

October’s Metalex Vietnam to show innovations, Titan the robot

METALEX Vietnam 2011, a machine tools and metalworking technology trade exhibition and conference, will take place in Ho Chi Minh City on October 6-8 together with another show on assembly, measurement and testing technologies for electronics manufacturing, the organizers have announced.
 
The other exhibition is called NEPCON Vietnam, Mr. Chainarong Limpkittisin, managing director at Thai company Reed Tradex, told a press briefing in the city Thursday.

The Thai company and its Vietnamese partner Eifec Company organize the two shows at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in District 7, he added.

He said the event would display about 700 brands from 25 countries and territories, including six group pavilions from China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and his country Thailand.

“We will have a complete range of the word’s top-five brands of machine tools and metalworking technology, top-five brands of surface-mount technology and soldering technology, leading mold-making or technologies in local markets…

“In addition, we will also be providing insightful knowledge on new technologies and trends from industry gurus in on-site seminars,” he said.

The manufacturing and supporting industries not only have a bright future but also play vital roles in the well-being of the economy, the Thai executive said.

“I must say that I’m excited for the future of Vietnam whose economy and industries have seen so much growth in the past two decades; especially in the last few years, during which the growth has been rising so fast – particularly in the manufacturing and supporting industries.

“I’ve read a report from the Ministry of Planning and Investment that the Index of Industrial Production of Vietnam in June hit a record high of 12.7%. The manufacturing and processing industries, which account for nearly 70% of the industrial sector’s total added value, contributed the most with a surge of 16.3%.”

The event will introduce robot “Titan” which will fly in direct from the UK, he added.
 
Titan the robot on September 22, 2010 outside the George Lucas Stage where the Star Wars films were made (Source: www.titantherobot.com)

The world-renowned giant robot, designed and built by Cyberstein Robots Ltd. in England, will perform everyday during the two shows, three times a day, he said.

“You may ask why Titan. Its body is a proof of the excellence on the machine tools and metalworking innovations as its abilities are the testament of the peak of electronic technologies, so Titan’s performances will inspire the industrialists and bring to them the future of technologies which are available now.”

Copycat, fake producers make merry

Copycat and fake product remain rife in Vietnam as manufacturers are handicapped by tortuous legal procedures and ridiculously light penalties for offenders.

Tran Dinh Thi, deputy director of MyLan Co Ltd, which produces the MyLan brand of tissues, said there were more fake MyLan tissues in the northern market than original ones, fakes made mostly of recycled paper which was harmful to health, according to Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper.

He said his company had cooperated with the authorities to raid many producers of the fakes in Hanoi and Bac Ninh Province.

“The copycat makers stay low for a while after each crackdown but resume selling again,” he lamented.

Perfetti Van Melle Co, the Italian owner of famous confectionary brands including Happydent, Alpenliebe, Golia, Mentos, Big Babol and Chupa Chups, is also considering suing some fake producers.

The company said it had found many illicit producers in Hanoi’s Hoai Duc District making fake Chupa Chups products.

But it is wary of the large cost involved in taking the fake producers to court and fact that the latter would just be fined modest amounts compared with the large profits they earned from making the fakes.

Tran Manh Hung, a lawyer with the Baker & McKenzie law firm, said the penalties for copycat-makers were not harsh enough to deter offenders.

Getting compensation from the violators was a drawn-out and costly affair, while it was also difficult to prove how a business had been affected by the copycats.

This meant very few lawsuits were filed for violating intellectual property in Vietnam, he said.

He called for amending the intellectual property law and simplifying legal procedures to enable manufacturers to sue violators easily.

Earlier this month personal hygiene products maker Kimberly Clark Worldwide Inc and the authorities found an illicit producer in Hanoi’s Gia Lam District making copycats of the company’s Kotex brand of tampons and calling them Koteir.

There were 3,840 packs of Koteir tampons and fake Kotex labels at the production facility owned by Vu Thi Son.

The Ministry of Science and Technology’s inspection agency said the name Koteir misled consumers since it sounded similar to Kotex, while Koteir’s design too violated Kimberly Clark’s registered intellectual properties.

The inspection agency slapped a fine of VND4.2 million (US$210) on Son and ordered her to remove the Koteir labels on the products and destroy the fake Kotex labels.

Huge “made in Vietnam” oil rig jacket in action

A 11,000-tonne jacket structure for the Moc Tinh oil rig was launched successfully on August 27 at the Vietsovpetro port in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

The jacket structure includes three-dimensional frames made from large tubular steel members, allowing the jacket, which takes the loadings from the topside and sea environment, to be attached by piles to the seabed.

With construction beginning in June last year by the Petroleum Equipment Assembly and Metal Structure Joint Stock Company (PVC-MS), the 136 metre high structure was the largest manufactured in Vietnam .

In April the company also manufactured and launched a jacket structure for the Dai Hung oil rig with weight of 7,000 tonnes and height of 120 metres.

The Moc Tinh oil rig is part of the Bien Dong 1 project, invested by the Bien Dong Petroleum Operating Company (Bien Dong POC), and the rig’s jacket structure will be installed offshore by September 5./.

FDI reaches over 9.5 billion USD in eight months

Vietnam lured 9.56 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first eight months of 2011, equivalent to 74 percent of the sum attracted in the same period last year.

According to the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, 7.94 billion USD of the amount cam from 582 FDI projects licensed in the period, representing year-on-year decreases of 30 percent in capital and 34 percent in the number of projects.

The remaining 1.62 billion USD were increased investment from the existing 168 projects.

FDI still headed into processing and manufacturing industries.

In contrary to the downward trend of the registered FDI capital, the eight-month FDI disbursement reached 7.3 billion USD, an increase of 1 percent against the same period last year.

FDI projects (including crude oil) posted total export and import turnovers of 32.64 billion USD and 30.1 billion USD in the first eight months of the year, up 34 percent and 31 percent respectively./.

Left in the lurch by foreign investors

Many manufacturers in the southern province of Binh Duong say working with foreign investors has left them nothing but massive debts.

Lured by the promises of lucrative profits, these manufacturers have agreed to apply for business licenses for their joint ventures and borrow bank loans under their names.

But when the going got tough, the foreign investors fled, leaving the local partners behind to shoulder all responsibilities.

Nguyen Thanh Lien, who runs Nam Tien paper manufacturing business, said two years ago, she worked with two Taiwanese businessmen to open a paper plant and used her name to register for the business license and borrow some bank loans.

Lien said the two parties didn’t put down their cooperation in a contract. After one year of operation, Lien was shocked to learn that her Taiwanese partners had returned home when the plant encountered difficulties and she was to be held responsible for the plant’s debts, which amounted to VND100 million (US$5,000).

Another businessman, N.V.T., was similarly cheated. He joined hands with two Chinese businessmen to open a company under his name under the agreement that the profits would be equally shared among them. But when the company was in trouble, the Chinese fled, leaving T. to shoulder a massive bank debt he had earlier borrowed to set up production facilities.

T.T.L., chairwoman of L.P. Co, also incurred a VND180 million debt after she applied for a license to run a textile company for a Korean couple.

“I know I was cheated but couldn’t do anything because I didn’t have any information about the Korean partners,” she said.

Le Viet Dung, Deputy Director of Binh Duong Department of Planning and Investment, said foreign investors usually ask locals to apply for business licenses under their names as the paperwork required for local investors is much simpler.

To avoid risks, local manufacturers should thus learn as much as they can about their partners before agreeing to work with them, Dung said.

Phan Le Diem Trang, Deputy Chairwoman of the Binh Duong Textile and Garment Association, said many people agree to work with foreign investors because they think they can earn profits and have nothing to lose in case their ventures suffer losses.

“They don’t know that they have to be responsible for anything that is registered under their name,” she said.

China wood imports increases prices in Vietnam

China has begun to import large quantities of timber from Vietnam, threatening to cause a supply shortage and price hikes in the domestic market.

Nguyen Huy Cuong, manager of a Dong Nai-based sawmill, said many Chinese traders and their Vietnamese representatives buy up all kinds of wood at up to 10 percent higher prices than local buyers.

Some of them opt for planed wood to enjoy the lower export duty of 5 percent. Timber attracts a 10 percent duty.

Last year too Chinese buyers bought raw wood to take back to China, sending rubber wood prices up by 20 percent.

Trinh Kim Thanh, director of Dong Nai-based furniture maker Kien Phuc Company, said wood prices have gone up several times this year.

“It is risky to sign new contracts since wood costs continue to rise,” she said worriedly.

A wood processor said timber prices had shot up in China, making Vietnam a good source for the Chinese wood processing industry.

According to the customs department, wood exports to China surged 63 percent year-on-year to US$344 million as of the end of July.

With this, China became for the first time Vietnam’s second largest timber importer after the US, which bought wood worth $745 million in the same period.

Nguyen Ton Quyen, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Produce Association, said the rising export to China is not exactly good news.

“The question is what kind of wood they buy from us.”

He said it would be good if China imported wood products.

“But if they buy raw wood, we must be wary of a supply shortage for the domestic wood processing sector,” he explained.

Nguyen Chien Thang, chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association (HAWA), said only a few wood processing businesses have their forests to grow timber, with the others having to buy on the market.

Tran Quoc Manh, HAWA’s deputy chairman, was quoted by Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper as saying, “The rising raw-material costs will force local processors to hike their prices, thus lowering their competitiveness with Chinese businesses.”

Creating trademarks for Vietnamese products

Vietnam is one of the top seafood exporters in the world however, consumers do not know much about the country's fish and shrimp because there are no clear brand names.

Vietnamese goods, such as agricultural products, garments and footwear, have high export value but no recognizable trademarks or brand names.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Thanh Bien said that Vietnam faces this problem because the country primarily exports raw materials.

Some experts consider the tra and basa fish price dumping lawsuits overseas an opportunity to promote the image of Vietnamese seafood and suggested creating a collective brand name for the country's seafood. However, this has not yet happened.

Nguyen Quoc Thinh, Director of the Trademark Centre under the University of Commerce, said it is high time for seafood producers and exporters to create trademarks for each seafood product, especially collective brand names for tra fish and shrimp, which are the sector's two key export products.

An initiative to build a collective brand name for Vietnamese shrimp has been in progress for many years, but although there have been many seminars and conferences, no model has yet been found. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that businesses do not realise the importance of trademarks.

Hundreds of Vietnamese businesses are currently raising and exporting tra fish. Of the 272 businesses that are exporting the product, half of them are not members of the Vietnamese Association of Seafood Producers and Exporters (VASEP). Vietnamese tra fish is now available in 125 countries and territories, but most of the brand names are those of the importers. Therefore, consumers do not know these are Vietnamese products.

Thinh said creating a collective brand name for a group of seafood products has been limited. Localities and associations say they are keen to develop a collective trademark, but desire and reality are two different things.

Thinh reported that only 12 out of 127 customers surveyed at 37 supermarkets in the US knew about Vietnamese products and only three could list some high quality trademarks, such as Pho 24, Vinacafe and Tosy.

Building, managing and developing collective brand names and trademarks is now a hot issue in Vietnam. The Government’s programme, “Developing Intellectual Property in Business,” focuses on projects to establish, manage and develop brand names and trademarks and some have already been implemented, such as Thanh Ha and Luc Ngan litchis, Hoa Loc mangos, and Chau Doc and Phan Thiet fish sauce.

Businesses are beginning to realize the importance of brand names but they do not know how to start or how to coordinate with others to build a trademark.

Phu Quoc fish sauce is a typical example. An association has been established to manage the use of this collective brand name however, violations are very common and no measures have been devised to prevent them. Because of insufficient monitoring by market management agencies, many fake products called Phu Quoc fish sauce have appeared on the market, which has weakened the product's image.

Tran Le Hong, Director of the Information Centre under the Intellectual Property Agency, said localities just register for trademarks and brand names instead of utilizing them effectively. Also, most trademarks and brand names have not been registered to protect products overseas.

A collective brand name represents an association or group of businesses. Therefore, if there is no association of tra fish producers and processors, it will be difficult to register a brand name for tra fish.

Thinh said, if a collective brand name does not have special features, attract many more domestic producers and benefit its members, it won’t leave a deep impression on customers, which will make it difficult to prevent violations of the trademark.

Binh Duong attracts over US$14 billion in FDI

The southern province of Binh Duong has attracted more than US$14 billion through more than 2,000 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects, according to the provincial People’s Committee.

Seventy percent of the total investment disbursed so far has helped to boost and stabilise the province’s industrial sector, said Tran Thanh Liem, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee.

By the end of August, 46 projects were licensed with a total registered capital of US$250 million and 65 other projects in operation contributed an additional US$220 million.

Liem attributed the improved infrastructure and effective administrative management of industrial zones to the strong flow of FDI into the province.

The province’s industrial sector offers jobs for more than 720,000 labourers, of which over 600,000 come from other provinces.

Among 37 countries and territories investing in Binh Duong, the Republic of Korea was the leader, with over 400 FDI projects worth about US$1.5 billion.

Vietnam seeks stronger farming ties with Myanmar

Vietnam has made many proposals for cooperation with Myanmar in agriculture, forestry and fishery during the 2011-2020 period.

According to the International Cooperation Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the two sides will increase the exchange of experts in aquaculture, rice cultivation, irrigation and livestock feed production, as well as agricultural technologies.

Vietnam is keen to exchange good varieties of livestock with Myanmar, to breed them nationwide, the department said.

In implementing the memorandum of understanding on fisheries cooperation inked by the two countries in April, 2010, Myanmar is committed to creating more favourable legal conditions for Vietnamese businesses to implement projects in aquaculture and aquatic product processing in the country.

Vietnam is also stepping up negotiations with Myanmar on a cooperative agreement on planting rubber trees and other industrial crops on an area of 200,000 hectares.

The department said the agroforestry and fisheries cooperation between Vietnam and Myanmar for 2006-2010 is limited to regional channels and the exchange of experts.

With rich natural resources, Myanmar, the second largest country in Southeast Asia, is seen as a country holding significant development potential. It is likely to be Vietnam’s major competitor in agricultural exports.

Myanmar’s agricultural sector now makes up 44 percent of GDP and 20 percent of export turnover and generates jobs for two thirds of the country’s labourers.

The country boasts over 20 million hectares of farm land, more than 6 million hectares of water surface and a 3,000-km coastline.

Private helicopter service opens in Vietnam

Vietnam Air Service Company (VASCO) under Vietnam Airlines Corporation will cooperate with the Azur Helicopter Company (AHC) of France and the Vinacopter Company to open Vietnam’s first private helicopter service.

The charter service was expected to be operational by the end of October, using the Eurocopter AS350 B2 of AHC, which can transport four passengers and two pilots.

Flights will depart from Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City to popular sites in the southern cities and provinces.

According to Jussi Hoika, Commercial Director of Vinacopter, apart from transporting passengers, the helicopter is also suitable for filming and aerial photography.

Ministry approves new location for Vung Tau Airport

The Ministry of Transport has agreed on a new location for the airport in Vung Tau in response to a recent suggestion of local government as part of its zoning plan to expand the southern city, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV).

CAAV announced the ministry’s agreement last week after Transport Minister Dinh La Thang met with relevant agencies of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. The aviation authority has been told to ask the Ministry of Defense to seek approval of the Prime Minister for the new site of the Vung Tau Airport.

The existing airport in Vung Tau will be upgraded to handle both military flights and services for air taxi, chartered flights and those flights to oil facilities off Ba Ria-Vung Tau in line with a master zoning plan for Vietnam’s civil aviation development as endorsed by the Prime Minister in January 2009.

The current Vung Tau Airport has a 1,800-meter-long runway able to handle small-sized planes and helicopters. CAAV said this airport now served military flights and was not opened to civil services.

CAAV did not mention the new location for the Vung Tau Airport. However, the Ba Ria-Vung Tau government issued a document about two years ago to order its agencies to prepare a plan for the new site of Vung Tau Airport with a 2,000-meter-long runway in Long Son Commune.

In addition to the Vung Tau Airport, Ba Ria-Vung Tau is also home to Con Dao Airport off the coast of the province. Currently, Con Dao Airport under the management of Southern Airports Corp. (SAC) serves daily domestic flights to and from HCMC by Vietnam Air Service Co. (Vasco) under Vietnam Airlines Corp. and the country’s private carrier Air Mekong.

Located 185 kilometers from Vung Tau City and 230 kilometers from HCMC, Con Dao Airport on Con Son Island has a 1,830-meter-long, 30-meter-wide runway and a 9,270-square-meter parking area for ATR-72, Fokker and Bombardier CRJ-900 airplanes.

The airport’s two-storey terminal received 94,305 passengers on nearly 1,950 flights last year compared to more than 67,270 passengers and 1,310 flights respectively in 2009.

* The Ministry of Transport has backed a proposal by the Dong Nai People’s Committee to regard site clearance and compensation as a separate component of the Long Thanh Airport project to ensure scheduled tempo of the country’s biggest future international airport.

Deputy Transport Minister Pham Quy Tieu, who is also general director of CAAV, has been assigned to work with relevant agencies over components of the big-ticket airport so that this project would get off the ground in Long Thanh District by 2015 as planned.

Southern Airports Corp. as the project’s owner is currently working on a pre-feasibility study for the airport about 40 kilometers from the heart of HCMC. This project will need over US$6.74 billion, including US$696.5 million for site clearance and compensation.

PV