13 percent growth set for exports

Vietnam must increase the export value by 13 percent and keep the trade deficit at 12 percent in 2012, says Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Mr Dung made the request at a conference of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) in Hanoi on December 3.

He suggested that the MoIT speed up international integration to create conditions for businesses to find new partners, expand markets and diversify exports.

More policies should be introduced to encourage domestic production to replace imports while restricting low-quality imports, particularly those with negative environmental and health impact, said the PM.

He asked the ministry to further support Vietnam’s key exports and encourage businesses to save energy and reduce costs so as to sharpen their products’ competitive edge.

The MoIT needs to examine investments made by State economic groups, corporations and businesses in order to speed up the equitisation process and dissolve those which have suffered prolonged losses and invested outside their core business, he said.

In 2011, Vietnam’s export earnings reached a record high of US$96.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 33 percent and 10 percent higher than the set target. 

Majority of stocks lose value

Shares continued declining on the HCM Stock Exchange this morning, with the VN-Index losing 2.3 per cent to just 340.94 points. Losers largely overwhelmed gainers by 149-60.

Market value reached 88.3 per cent of yesterday's figure, totalling VND304.4 billion (US$14.5 million), and the volume of trades dropped 18.9 per cent to 20.6 million shares.

Blue chips all tumbled, with none of the 10 leading shares by capitalisation posting any gains. Meanwhile, real estate developer Vincom (VIC) hit its floor price of VND94,500 ($4.5) per share.

Sacombank (STB) was still the most heavily traded stock with 1.8 million shares changing hands. It ended today's session down 1.2 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the benchmark HNX-Index retreated by another 1 per cent, finishing at 55.89 points.

Nearly 86 per cent of the listed codes tumbled. Trading value, however, added 12.3 per cent against yesterday's level to VND181.6 billion ($8.6 million) on a volume of 20.4 million shares.

With more than 1.9 million shares exchanged, VNDirect Securities Co (VND) claimed the highest trading volume nationwide. However, the share bottomed out, fetching a value of only VND6,400.

22 exports earning US$1 billion each in 2011

Garments topped the list of 22 export items, fetching US$14 billion in revenue, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

They were followed by crude oil, mobile phones and spare parts, footwear and seafood.

2011 saw a sharp increase in the export of mobile phones and accessories, bringing home US$6.8 billion, up 197 percent against 2010.

Timber product exports also ranked first in Southeast Asia and tenth in the world, raking in US$3.9 billion.

The US took the lead among 24 key markets of Vietnam, importing more than US$1 billion each, followed by Japan and China.

The MoIT forecast that exports in 2012 will face difficulty because many key markets have fallen into public debt crisis. This is already demonstrated by a significant decline in the number of garment business contracts.

More guest workers to be sent abroad

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs planned to send 100,000 labourers to work overseas this year, an increase of 15 percent against last year.  

Management will be tightened in localities to try and weed out cheating brokerage operators.

In addition, skilled labourers will be given preference to meet the demands of employers in Taiwan, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

The market will also be expanded in Middle East countries.

7 million tonnes of rice to be exported in 2012

Vietnam expects to produce 41 million tonnes of food output and export 6.5-7 million tonnes of rice this year, according to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA).

In 2011, Vietnam exported 7.1 million tonnes of rice, earning US$3.65 billion, says VFA.  

The association is urging businesses to sign contracts to export 600,000-800,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2012.

In the Mekong River Delta the price of 5 percent broken rice is VND9,250-9,350 per kilo, 15 percent broken rice is now VND8,750-8,850 per kilo and 25 percent broken rice is listed at VND8,400-8,500 per kilo.

Some experts say that with Vietnam’s rice selling for US$300-400 per tonne less than rice from Thailand, the Vietnamese product is beginning to gain a bigger share of the markets in China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Vietnam is planning to export high-quality rice to Africa to compete against low-grade products from India and Pakistan.

Rice’s export turnover was worth $3.7 billion last year.

Though enjoying a $3.3-billion export turnover last year, rubber exports still rely too much on the Chinese market, which accounted for 60 percent of the total export turnover.

For their part, tea, coffee, and cashew, with respective export turnovers in 2011 of $198 million, $2.7 billion, and $1.5 billion, are facing short material supply.

Petrochemical expert claims bad fuel destroys engines

Share.Vietnamese authorities are speeding up tests on petroleum samples after controversy surrounding recent incidents of vehicle fires.

Tran Minh Dung, Chief Inspectorate of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said the test results will be announced before Tet holiday.

According to Dung, the investigative agency will expand the testing areas for petroleum and gas products in 2012.

After a Daewoo Lacetti caught fire in Yen Dung District, Bac Giang Province, the district police plan to test gasoline at the petrol station where the car owner bought fuel before the fire.

Nguyen Thi Nhan, wife of the car's owner, said, “At 11am on December 26, my husband bought petrol at a station only one kilometre far from our house. We often buy gasoline there.”

Senior Lieutenant-Colonel, Nguyen Van Son, head of Yen Dung District police, told DTiNews that the local investigative agency has asked that the Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Criminal Science participate in the investigation into the cause of the fire.

The district police suspect that the cause is substandard, or improperly mixed fuel combined with mechanical problems.

Police in Thanh Hoa City are also cooperating with local authorities to carry out an investigation of another incident where a Mazda caught fire on December 27. Tran Ba Cuong, the vehicle owner, said that he found it difficult to start the engine before the fire.

Dr. Dao Quoc Tuy, Head of the Hanoi University of Technology’s Department of Organic Synthesis and Petrochemical Technology, said, “If gasoline is blended with additives, such as acetone, methanol or methanol in certain proportions it would reduce pollutants from exhaust. However, if the proportions are not right, it may cause damage to an engine.”

Tuy said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality have issued standards for blending gasoline, which stipulate that only a maximum of 5% ethanol can be added to create bio-ethanol or E5. This ethanol must also be 99.5% alcohol.

According to Tuy, a fire may can occur even when a vehicle's engine is turned off because some of the electrical components remain active. A short circuit could result in a fire.

"In 2006, there was a spate of motorbike malfunctions in Ho Chi Minh City that was apparently a result of of around 10,000 tonnes of improperly blended gasoline hitting the retail market. However, in that case, no fuel-related fires were recorded. In order be certain of the cause of recent vehicle fires, samples of gasoline should be taken and analyzed.."

He noted that if fuel is the the cause for these fires, there would have had to been a large amount of bad fuel sold.

Rubber exports reach record high of $3 billion

Vietnam's rubber export value last year reached a record high of $3.1 billion, with about 800,000 tonnes of rubber exported, according to the Vietnam Rubber Association (VRA).

The figure represented an increase of 2.2 per cent in volume and more than 31 per cent in value, said Tran Thi Thuy Hoa, VRA's general secretary.

Speaking at a conference in HCM City last week, Hoa said despite rubber prices falling by 30-40 per cent in the later months of the year, the average export price last year was higher, about $3,900 a tonne, than the average price in 2010.

To reduce dependence on the Chinese market, rubber exporters last year tried to increase exports to the EU and the US, but demand from those two markets had reached a saturation point, she said.

As a result, China remained a key market for Vietnamese rubber, accounting for 60 per cent of the country's total rubber exports currently compared to 70 per cent in 2010.

Last year the rubber industry encountered many difficulties due to the global economic downturn.

In addition, disasters in Japan and Thailand seriously affected the local tire manufacturing, lowering demand for natural rubber.

In the domestic market, high interest rates and theft of goods from containers meant lower exports and a shortage of raw materials.

The rubber industry this year expected to export as much rubber as last year, Hoa said, adding that with the current situation, export prices would probably not return to the highest price that occurred in early 2010.

However, the price will not drop to below the production costs because Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, the world's four largest rubber exporters, agreed to maintain the price of rubber stable to ensure profits for growers.

Demand for natural rubber might fall in the short term, but in the long term demand is expected to grow steadily.

Hoa said the industry this year would make more efforts to promote the Vietnamese rubber brand in the world market and work with research institutes, businesses and farmers to improve rubber quality.

The country has about 740,000 ha of rubber plantations, mainly located in southeastern provinces. It ranks fifth in the world in rubber cultivation area after Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and India.

The Government has created a master plan to develop the industry until 2015 with a vision to 2020.

Under the plan, the country targets having 800,000ha under rubber cultivation by 2015, producing more than 1.2 million tonnes of natural rubber per year by 2020.

Shares dip on sell pressure

National stock exchanges sank into the red yesterday but the pace of decline was slow.

The VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange dropped 0.33 per cent, ending at 348.84 points, with 96 out of the total of 275 codes posting gains.

Trading value, however, marched 7.6 per cent higher at VND344.8 billion (US$16.4 million) compared to Tuesday's level while trading volume reached 25.4 million shares.

Of the 10 leading shares by capitalisation, only Vietinbank (CTG) hit the permitted increase of 5 per cent, concluding at VND17,800 per share. Others to perform well, included banking shares Eximbank (EIB) and Sacombank (STB), which edged up 1.4 and 3.2 per cent respectively, and property developer Vincom (VIC) up 0.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) bottomed out and the majority of blue chips retreated or closed unchanged.

With more than 2.8 million shares traded, STB became the most active stock nationwide. Notably, Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corp (REE) on Tuesday announced to have registered to sell more than 42 million STB shares it was holding. REE yesterday strongly rebounded along with STB.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index finished 0.63 per cent down to 56.43 points.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 133-86.

The market value climbed 37.4 per cent over the previous day's level, totalling VND161.7 billion ($7.7 million) on a volume of 19.6 million shares. This was mainly due to selling pressure while many shares listed on the northern bourse failed to find buyers.

"The existing money in the market is now focusing only on some stocks with good liquidity," said Bao Viet Securities Co analyst Pham Van Khoa.

However, the flow of money showed signs of declining, he said.

Market movements yesterday exposed a number of investors who wanted to leave the market, Khoa said. "There will hardly be any significant changes on both bourse, and market value will still remain at low levels."

Foreign investors were buyers in both cities, picking a combined margin of nearly VND10 billion ($476,200).

Vietcombank targets 15 pct profit rise in 2012: report

Vietcombank, Vietnam's third-largest partly private lender, expects a 15 percent rise in 2012 gross profit after boosting its registered capital last year, a company executive told a local magazine.

For 2011, the lender expects gross profit slightly above its target of 5.65 trillion dong (US$268.6 million), Dau Tu Chung Khoan (Securities Investment) quoted Chairman Nguyen Hoa Binh as saying in comments seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

Vietcombank, or the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, had projected gross profit to edge up 3.1 percent in 2011 while keeping its credit growth below 20 percent.

Binh did not say how much the Hanoi-based lender earned last year.

Shares in Vietcombank lost 4.59 percent to close at 20,800 dong ($0.99) each on Tuesday as investors returned after a market holiday on Monday. The VN Index fell 0.44 percent to close at 350.00 points on Tuesday.

He said the banking sector would still face pressure in 2012 due to high interest rates, which he said remained "a barrier preventing businesses from accessing bank loans".

Vietnam's bank lending slowed to around 12 percent last year after expanding 27.65 percent in 2010. The country has aimed for an annual credit growth of 15-17 percent in 2012 to help the economy rise at least 6 percent.

The central bank said last month that interest rates on dong deposits would be cut to around 10 percent by the end of 2012, from the ceiling of 14 percent in 2011.

The State Bank of Vietnam has said it will set the annual credit growth target this year for several groups of banks depending on their size and performance, instead of a general target for the entire sector like last year.

Vietcombank became the country's third-largest lender by assets after state-owned BIDV went public on Dec. 28, having taken the second position among the country's 39 partly private banks.

Last September Vietcombank raised its registered capital by 12 percent to 19.7 trillion dong ($937 million) from 17.6 trillion dong earlier in 2011. The registered capital determines the size of a bank's loans and deposits. ($1=21,033 dong).

Local products fail to dominate retail market

While the Vietnamese retail market is considered to be highly profitable by foreign distributors, locally-made products still have little presence in the lucrative market.

The Vietnamese retail market is expected to enjoy a high growth rate of up to 25 percent a year in the next five years, but local producers have left most of the home market share to contraband products and foreign manufacturers, VnMedia reported.

Associate Professor and Doctor Pham Tat Thang, superior researcher of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s vietnam Institute for Trade, said the poor distribution system is a largest disadvantage for locally-produced goods.

By the end of 2010, there were 450 supermarkets, 80 shopping centers, and 2,000 convenience stores around the country, Thang said, citing statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Besides this modern distribution chain, there are also the presences of 8,591 traditional markets, Thang added.

Around 15 to 20 percent of total goods were circulated via the modern distribution channels, 40 percent via the traditional markets, and the rest came from more than 2 million retail households and street stores, he said.

Though certain major brand names such as May Muoi, Viet Tien, Nha Be, Trung Nguyen, Vinamilk, and Kinh Do have successfully established their own distribution chains countrywide, these retail channels still account a modest ratio of the large domestic market.

While a large proportion of Vietnamese products are available on shelves in certain major supermarket chains such as Big C, Metro, Hapro, and Saigon Co.op, few can be found in the traditional distribution systems, especially the large, famous markets which are capable of spreading the products to entire regions, or even the country as a whole, including Dong Xuan market in Hanoi, Dong Ba in Hue, and Ben Thanh in Ho Chi Minh City.

“These markets have become the “home domains” of cheap Chinese goods, which will later be distributed to small markets all around the country,” Thang said.

“It is high time local manufacturers reorganized their distribution systems to bring their locally-made products closer to domestic consumers.”

Thang also suggested that local manufacturers take advantage of the country’s 22.8 million internet subscribers, and 120 million mobile phone subscribers, to open distribution channels to increase the consumption of Vietnamese products.

Thang said that Vietnam has yet to formulate an adequate solution aimed at curbing the penetration of contraband products, especially those from China, into the country.

“The relevant agencies have also failed to efficiently cooperate with each other to fight against such an invasion,” he pressed.

The fact that Vietnam shares borders and territorial waters with China also exacerbates the pressure smuggled Chinese products place on domestic goods, he added.

However, he said that local consumers will not turn their back to Vietnamese-made products once local manufacturers improve their products quality, and ensure the goods’ safety and hygiene standards.

By winning consumers’ trust, Vietnamese businesses can gradually gain back their home market share, he assured.

“Local manufacturers should not rely too much on government assistance, and they have to pay closer attention to consumers’ demands so that they can make suitable changes in their production,” he advised.

“For their part, local consumers should also be more aware of the risks posed by products with dubious origins in order to protect themselves.

“Only when both manufacturers and consumers change their ways can Vietnamese products emerge with a strong presence in the home retail market.”

Market likely to improve this week, say brokers

Securities enterprises expected the local stock market to stage a slight rebound this week as it ended the last trading day of 2011 on a positive note despite earlier intraday losses.

Viet Capital Securities Co. said the short-term technical view has further improved after the VN-Index closed 0.3% higher at 351.55 points last Friday. Investors could feel a bit relieved in putting 2011 behind them and might be bullish enough to boost their accumulation of stocks before taking off for the New Year holiday. Therefore, an upgrade to short-term ‘up’ is likely in the first trading week of the New Year.

“As we mentioned earlier, we see two possible scenarios that will lead to a medium-term ‘buy’ signal. We wait for a final drop to 330 points, either stretching the already oversold technical line to another extreme point or following a premature short-term ‘buy’ signal, the broker said.

“We added FPT to our medium-term ‘buy’ recommendation list as its medium-term technical figures have turned positive. The stock should also have limited downside in case the VN-Index is not able to complete a medium-term bottom. We understand that FPT will likely underperform should the general market finally turn up. However, thanks to its defensive character, we feel comfortable to recommend the stock now, even though the indices were not yet been upgraded to medium-term ‘up’.”

The stock broker also held an upbeat view on other high beta plays like MSN and BVH, but advised investors to wait for more support by the broad market before recommending these kinds of stocks. “In any case, we are watching the market closely as we think that the 330-point mark in the VN-Index will be the low of 2012,” it said.

APEC Securities Co. said the market would move sideways or retreat again within the next few days but those rising sessions, if any, are not signs of the market’s bottoming out. As supporting lines nearest to the VN-Index seem to have no meanings, medium and short-term investors should not join the market now.

Long-term players can consider buying stocks at a moderate ratio. The selection of stocks should be based on fundamental factors, APEC added.

The Hanoi market gained a slight 0.74 point, or 1.28%, against the previous week to 58.74 with three rising and two falling sessions. The market’s daily trading volume averaged out at nearly 32.3 million shares worth VND269.6 billion, up 13.9% and 11.8% against the week earlier respectively. The market is predicted to recover slightly this week.

Purchasing power at supermarkets rises 40 pct

The number of shoppers at major supermarkets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City rose between 30 and 40 per cent during the New Year holiday on January 1-2.

The most consumed products include clothes, children footwear, confectionaries and dry food traditionally used for Lunar New Year celebration.

In order to meet consumer demand in the coming Lunar New Year which will fall on January 23, Saigon Coop supermarket chain increased the stock of essential goods by fourfold compared to normal days.

Nguyen Thanh Nhan, Deputy General Director of Saigon Coop said that their outlets saw purchasing power increase by nearly 50 per cent from early December last year, especially fresh food.

The Big C supermarket also raised the stock of commodities by 30 per cent and launched two promotional programmes with discounts from 5 to 50 per cent on nearly 1,200 items.

From January 2-8, the Vinatex mart chain offers discounts of 50 per cent on garment, cosmetics and foodstuff.

So far, Vissan has stockpiled commodities worth over VND958 billion and plans to give deep discounts on raw pork to serve the poor.

At wholesale markets in HCM City, the volume of vegetables and fruits surged by nearly 30 per cent during the holiday but prices stayed stable

Doji opens new branch

The Gold and Gems Group (Doji) officially opened a new branch in the northern city of Thai Nguyen yesterday.

The move is aimed at meeting the increasing demand for jewellery in the area. Doji will also open branches in Hai Phong City and Viet Tri City in the northern province of Phu Tho this month.

Exotic fruits on the move

Four containers of rambutans were shipped to the US yesterday, according to Mai Xuan Thin, Director of the Rong Do Company in HCM City.

The company has also exported several batches of fruit to other markets in the opening days of the year.

In the first week of 2012, 17 containers of fruit will be shipped to various international markets including five containers of rambutans and two containers of dragonfruit to the US, and 10 containers of dragon fruit and other types of fruit to the EU, mainland China, and the Middle East.

MediaMart Long Bien opens

Mediamart officially opened Mediamart Long Bien on Tuesday in Ha Noi.

This is Mediamart's fifth branch in Viet Nam.

General Director of MediaMart Le Quang Vu said the event confirmed the fast, sustainable development of the MediaMart brand with consistent demand from customers.

Poultry imports soar

The Livestock Production Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that in 2011, Viet Nam imported 107 thousand tonnes of meat, mainly poultry products.

The country also spent US$ 3.7 billion on importing 8.9 million tonnes of animal feed to meet domestic demand.

Da Nang greets 2.4m tourists

Da Nang's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that the city welcomed nearly 2.4 million tourists last year including 600,000 international visitors, bringing a revenue of VND1,800 billion (US$86.4 million).

The city has decided to set up a project to develop tourism towards 2015 with incentives and preferential policies for investment in cruise tourism and marine and waterway tourism.

There are currently 57 tourism projects underway in Da Nang with a total investment of more than $3.1 billion.

Kien Giang leads rice exports

The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Kien Giang led the country's rice exports in 2011, according to the provincial People's Committee.

Rice enterprises in the province sold over 961,000 tonnes last year, achieving a turnover of US$445 million, up by 35.7 per cent in value and 17.2 per cent in volume year-on-year. The province yielded over 3.9 million tonnes of rice, an increase of 420,000 tonnes compared to the same period last year.

The province is focusing on the winter-spring crop of over 285,000ha. Provincial authorities are advising farmers to cultivate high quality rice for export.

PHR announces rubber project

Phuoc Hoa Rubber Joint Stock Co (PHR) has announced that it would be investing in a construction project at the Tan Binh Industrial Park in the southern province of Binh Duong.

The project, which covers an area of 700ha, has a total investment capital of about VND500 billion (US$23.8 million).

PHR plans to set up a joint stock company to implement the project. The new company would have charter capital of VND100 billion ($4.76 million), of which the rubber firm would keep a 70 per cent stake.

Agricultural sector enjoys trade surplus

Viet Nam enjoyed a trade surplus in agricultural, forestry and seafood exports last year while the increase in prices on the world market had an impact on export value but not added value or the quantity of exported products, exporters have said.

In 2011, the agricultural, forestry and seafood sector gained a trade surplus of US$9 billion and opened new export markets, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The sector enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 27 per cent to $25 billion in exports.

Growth in export value was mainly due to a surge in export prices while the volume of most products reduced slightly against the previous year, the ministry reported.

Only rice and rubber experienced increases in export volume last year at 4.4 per cent and 8.2 per cent, respectively, while the export volume of coffee stood at the same rate as the previous year and exports of other agricultural products, including tea, rice, pepper and cashews, fell.

Meanwhile, export prices of all agricultural, forestry and seafood products surged to the highest rate of 66.3 per cent for pepper and the lowest increase of 9.1 per cent for rice.

Do Thuc, head of the General Statistics Office, said two-thirds of export value growth was the result of export price and volume increases.

Growth of the nation's export value could not be based on the agricultural sector because the increase in export value for this sector was not optimistic in 2011 due to the limited availablity of local raw materials for export processing, Thuc told the Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (VnEconomy) newspaper.

Advantages in export prices pushed the value up by 33.2 per cent to $13.7 billion for agricultural products, by 21 per cent to $6.1 billion for seafood products and 12.7 per cent to $4.1 billion for forestry products.

However, total export value in the three sectors made up 26 per cent of the total national export value in 2011, falling from 26.5 per cent in 2010.

In 2012, the agricultural sector is likely to face more difficulty in exporting its products because rice must compete with low-priced rice from India and Pakistan. Seafood exports will be focused on shrimp and tra catfish while rubber will be dependent on the Chinese market, which should account for 60 per cent of Viet Nam's total rubber export value. Raw material outputs are expected for tea, cashews and coffee.

Tea exports decline by 4.3% during past year

Tea exports fell 4.3 per cent in volume and 0.8 per cent in value last year over the previous year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said yesterday.

The country exported 131,000 tonnes of tea last year, totalling US$198 million at an average price of $1,520 per tonne.

This matched the record high in 2009, an increase of 3.5 per cent over last year, said director of the ministry's Information and Statistics Centre Nguyen Viet Chien.

Chien said tea exports had declined in most markets, the notable exception being Indonesia.

Chairman of the Viet Nam Tea Association Nguyen Van Thu attributed the decline to a 5 per cent fall in yield due to wet weather.

In addition, many consumers chose other drinks thanks to better economic conditions.

Thu said tea exporters were facing stiff competition with other countries such as Sri Lanka and India exporting to traditional Vietnamese customers, including Russia, Pakistan and the US.

"In spite of its low price, Vietnamese tea still cannot compete with that of other countries. Consumers want good tea even at a higher price," Thu said.

He noted that although Viet Nam had been the 5th biggest tea exporter in the world and the price had increased, it was difficult to increase the exported volume because the nation exported mainly raw tea.

Currently, Viet Nam had 132,000ha of tea plantations, bringing jobs to 400,000 households in 35 provinces and cities nationwide, mainly in Thai Nguyen, Lam Dong and Tuyen Quang.

llegal petrol stands overrun Nha Trang

Many low-cost retail petrol stands have recently been popping up on the streets of Nha Trang.

These "businesses" sell their products at VND20,000 (USD0.95) per litre. Their competition are local petrol stations, who sell Ron 92 petrol at VND21,210 and Ron 95 at VND21,720 per litre.

Le Hong Phong Street has at least 15 stands which sell the same fuel. Some of them sell anywhere from between 20 to 40 litres per day, attracting a large number of customers.

Quality, however, is another issue. There have been complaints from consumers that this cheaper fuel is not up to standard. There have also been accusations that the measurements have come up short.

When asked about their businesses, most of operators of petrol stands avoided questioning. One of them did comment, "Times are hard at the moment, and I came here to earn a bit of money."

Under the law, a license is required in order to sell petrol products, so as to ensure safety and fuel quality. On the other hand, many see the trade as an opportunity to eke out a living. This has led to the streets of Nha Trang being overrun by cheap and unlicensed petrol stands, which poses a problem for local authorities in monitoring fuel quality.

Nguyen Chi Thanh, from Van Thanh Ward said, “I only buy petrol reliable stations, never this cheap fuel. I have heard of the recent motorbike fire cases. Still a lot of people around here choose to use the cheap stuff.”

To date, local authorities have not yet taken any action to deal with the spreading illegal petrol market.

Diamond Island yacht berths offered at VND10 billion

Binh Thien An Real Estate Joint Stock Company, the investor of Diamond Island condo project in HCMC’s District 2, is offering homebuyers private yacht berths at a maximum of VND10 billion, or US$500,000, each.

The eight-hectare condo project, surrounded by the Saigon and Giong Ong To rivers, is now under construction with the total capital of US$500 million. The project has around 30 yacht berths besides some 1,000 high-class condos priced up to millions of U.S. dollars each.

A representative of the company said half of the berths will serve the Marina Club and the investor is offering 15 berths for private use. The highest price is US$500,000 for yachts from 25-27 meters long.

Nguyen Kim Son, business and marketing manager of the project, said 11 homebuyers have registered to buy the berths although many of them have yet to own a yacht.

Yacht berth construction at riverside projects has been mentioned recently as a way for property investors to better serve well-to-do customers and raise value of their projects.

SSG Group also has plans to build a yacht club and berth at Saigon Pearl complex in Binh Thanh District, which can accommodate around 130 canoes and yachts.

Other investors have also revealed their yacht berth projects but no berth has been put into operation so far.
 
Green light for merger of airports corporations

The Government has approved ‘in principle’ the merger of three airports corporations into Vietnam Airports Corporation as proposed by the Ministry of Transport to better manage and exploit airports across the country.

The approval was stated in Document 2447/TTg-DMDN signed by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh on Wednesday for a plan to restructure 100% state-owned enterprises under the helm of the ministry.

The Government gave the ‘go ahead’ signal to the plan more than two months after the ministry had submitted the plan. The Prime Minister also agreed on retaining 100% state ownership at Vietnam Airports Corporation after the merger as well as a number of corporations and one-member limited liability companies under the ministry.

In early December, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam mentioned the merger plan to form a corporation with an aim at making the most of all airports in different regions of the country.

The ministry submitted the plan to the Government after concerns centered on many loss-running airports, particularly small and domestic airports in the country.