Income from securities could get tax waiver

To revive the stock market, the Ministry of Finance has recommended waiver of tax on income from securities this year, reported Dau Tu Chung Khoan.

They now pay a 5 percent tax on dividends and a 0.1 percent flat tax on transactions.

Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan said the recommendation is in light of the fact that the securities market has been on a downtrend since the beginning of this year.

The 10 percent-plus fall in the VN-Index in the first quarter caused many investors, especially securities companies, to suffer losses.

Generally, income from securities was negligible, he said.

Besides, it is unfair to tax dividend earnings but not interest paid on bank savings accounts, and this also dissuades investors from buying stocks, he said.

A detailed personal income tax exemption scheme would be submitted to the government for approval during the monthly Cabinet meeting next month, he added.

Rice exports top 2.2 mln tons

 Vietnam, the world’s second largest rice exporter, has shipped 2.2 million metric tons of rice in the first four months of this year for more than US$1 billion.

The Vietnam Food Association (VFA), releasing the figures, said they represent a rise of 26 percent in volume and 28 percent in value year on year.

The Philippines, one of Vietnam’s largest importers, has reduced orders by 20 percent to 200,000 tons since it to cut imports by more than half this year.

However, demand has increased in other markets like Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Africa.

China has bought 200,000 tons of the grain from Vietnam.

Export contracts have so far been signed for 3.7 million tons, meaning another 1.5 million tons will be shipped in May and June.

Vietnamese rice exporters have bought 1 million tons of this, the VFA said.

Vietnam’s footwear exports up 26.4 pct

Vietnam’s footwear export turnover in the first four months of this year reached over US$1.74 billion, up 26.4 percent over the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office.

The EU remains the leading importer of Vietnamese footwear with US$511 million in revenues in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 13.3 percent and accounting for over 40 percent of the country’s total footwear export turnover.

Export earnings from the US, Japan, Belgium, Holland, France, Denmark and Czech also rose by between 20-60 percent.

Nguyen Thi Tong, General Secretary of the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (LEFASO) said that the EU’s removal of anti-dumping duty on Vietnam’s leather-capped shoes on April 1 would help stabilise the export of this commodity in the near future.

LEFASO forecasted that footwear exports this year would earn US$5.5 billion in revenue.

Solo helicopter tours for Da Nang

Da Nang-based Vitours, the only travel agency in central city offering helicopter tours, has launched a promotion to attract individual travellers instead of giving priority to groups.

The promotion, launched to mark the International Fireworks Competition 2011 in Da Nang on April 29 and 30, offers a 10 per cent discount to individual tourists.

The tours, which will take off from Da Nang Airport , will provide tourists with a bird's eye view of the city's attractions, including its coastline.

The first tour, which costs VND4.99 million ($240) per person, will land on Son Tra Mountain for tourist to explore attractions in the area by car.

The second tour, which costs VND5.99 million ($285) per person will take tourists to Cham Island off Hoi An City in Quang Nam Province . It offers tourists the opportunity to go diving among coral reefs in Quang Nam waters.

Kyocera plans electronic parts factory in Vietnam

Kyocera Corp. plans to invest around 30 billion JPY in building a plant to manufacture electronic parts for mobile phones and other electronic devices in the suburbs of Hanoi.

Kyocera Corp. President Tetsuo Kuba was quoted as saying at a news conference in Osaka on April 27 that the company will start the construction by the end of this year as it looks to commence the plant’s operations in late 2012.

The plant is designed to cover about 400,000 sq. m in Hanoi’s suburb area, to be on a par with Kyocera's largest overseas factory in China.

It will churn out electronic components used in cellular phones, personal computers and other devices, as well as copiers for subsidiary Kyocera Mita Corp.

"We're expanding facilities in areas of Asia outside of China, where we already have a manufacturing base," President Kuba said, adding that the plant will be a major base for Kyocera Corp.'s sales expansion.

The parts and equipment will be exported to China, Europe, the US and Japan, according to the Japanese daily of Nikkei.

Kyocera Corporation develops, produces and distributes a range of products for the information and communications market and environment and energy market worldwide.

It also develops, makes and distributes parts and devices for electronic equipment such as printers and multifunctional peripherals as well as consumer electronic equipment such as mobile phone handsets.

China buys more rice from Vietnam

China has stepped up rice buying from Vietnam, having signed contracts for up to 200,000 tons so far this year, excluding the border trade amount, according to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA).

Pham Van Bay, vice chairman of VFA, told the Daily on the sidelines of the meeting between Korean rice importers and Vietnam food traders on Wednesday that the contracted rice amount bound for China had amounted up to 200,000 tons.

“Vietnamese exporters have completed the shipment of 70,000 tons and expect to ship more than 130,000 tons in the second quarter, excluding the amount exported through unofficial channels.”

Bay said that if he was right, this was the first time China had bought such a large amount of rice from Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Japan is still weighing buying Vietnam rice, Bay said, adding, “The possibility of Japan buying 250,000 tons of rice from Vietnam remains unclear.”

In April, exporters would fulfill contracts to deliver 250,000 tons to Cuba, 200,000 tons to each of the Philippines and Bangladesh, and 400,000 tons to Indonesia under government-to-government deals. Such big contracts have helped drive up rice prices though the key winter-spring rice crop harvest has peaked in the Mekong Delta.

According to VFA, the country has exported 2.2 million tons of rice this year, earning more than US$1 billion, up 26% in volume and 28% in value from the same period of last year.

Dau Tieng reservoir to be replenished soon

Water from Phuoc Hoa reservoir in Binh Phuoc Province will start flowing into Dau Tieng reservoir from June 30 this year at a rate of some 180,000 cubic meters per hour, thus saving the major irrigation work from exhaustion, said the reservoir operator.

Vu Duc Hung, director of Dau Tieng Water Reservoir Irrigation Company, told the Daily yesterday that the supplementary water would flow through a 40-km canal to help boost the water supply capacity of Dau Tieng reservoir for the lowlands.

Dau Tieng reservoir covers a total area of 27,000 hectares in Tay Ninh and Binh Duong provinces with a total designed capacity of 1.8 billion cubic meters when the water level reaches the maximum height of 24 meters.

However, Hung said, Dau Tieng reservoir currently has only 600 million cubic meters of water, but the useable amount for the lowlands is only 200 million cubic meters.

The reservoir has been operational for 25 years as the main supplier of crude water for tens of millions of people as well as for farming in the lowlands. Besides, the reservoir regularly discharges large amounts of water to repulse the salt intrusion in the Saigon River.

In the first three months of this year, Dau Tieng released around 58 million cubic meters of water to fight salinity intrusion for Tan Hiep water plant along the Saigon River.

“By this time, the water height on Dau Tieng reservoir is at only 18.3 meters and is approaching the dead level of 17 meters,” he told the Daily on the sidelines of a seminar on the water management of Dau Tieng reservoir organized on Thursday by the Southern Institute of Water Resources Research. 

He said the reservoir has recently faced a serious shortage of water from other upstream sources.

Alarmingly, Hung said, the water in the reservoir is facing worsening pollution by receiving huge amounts of untreated wastewater discharged from cattle farms, cassava manufacturers, rubber latex factories and sand exploiters.

He said the company has sent petitions to the environment authorities of Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc and Tay Ninh provinces for tackling the polluters, but the problem has not been addressed.

Related to new utilization of Dau Tieng reservoir, Saigon Dau Tieng Water Supply Corporation (Sadacorp) has submitted to the Government, the HCMC government and other related ministries a project to use crude water from the reservoir for water plants in HCMC.

The project is aimed at building a 60-kilometer water pipeline from Dau Tieng reservoir to Tan Hiep water plant in Hoc Mon District and Kenh Dong water plant in Cu Chi District.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, deputy general director of Sadacorp, told the Daily on Thursday that beside the pipeline construction, Sadacorp expected to build a water plant in Hoc Mon District with a total capacity of 300,000 cubic meters a day. The total investment for the project is around VND7.5 trillion, or some US$370 million.

Tuan said if approval is forthcoming, the project can start operation from 2015 to provide more running water for several western districts of HCMC such as Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Tan Binh and Go Vap.

Most Long An IPs break environment rules

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment inspectors have found almost all industrial parks and clusters in the southern province of Long An are breaking environmental regulations through its wastewater emissions.

The inspectors conducted an investigation at 12 industrial parks, eight industrial clusters and three other enterprises.

The results, released last month, showed 11 out of 12 industrial parks in the province violated the environmental protection law and discharged wastewater exceeding the permitted level several times.

Meanwhile, three industrial clusters were found to have no wastewater facilities and four others were also emitting improperly treated wastewater into the environment.

The ministry said the province has concentrated on attracting investors, but has failed to focus on environment protection at industrial parks and enterprises.

The ministry required the people’s committee of the province to ask the infrastructure developers of IPs and clusters in the province to repair the wastewater facilities and to report back to them by the end of June.

The violated IPs and industrial clusters include Duc Hoa, Hai Son, Cau Tram, Duc Hoa 1, Anh Hong, Duc Hoa 3, Nhut Chanh, Tan Duc, Tan Kim and Thuan Dao.

Environment fund says soft loans await enterprises

The Vietnam Environment Protection Fund on Wednesday introduced a fund for environment protection to southern enterprises and encouraged them to access it for their projects to enjoy lower interest rates than at banks.

Nguyen Nam Phuong, director of the fund, told participants at an investment promotion seminar in HCMC that manufacturers could take out a loan worth 70% to 75% of the total value of their projects for a term of up to 10 years and with an interest rate of 5.4% per year.

Like other credit institutions, the fund requires borrowers to have certain assets as collateral for their loans.

Phuong said this was a non-profit fund mandated to support production companies which are looking for greener business.

He said the fund would base its selection of borrowers on such criteria as the urgency, effectiveness and loan repayment ability of their projects. Besides, the fund will target wastewater treatment projects in industrial park, household solid waste treatment and energy saving projects.

This was the first time the fund had organized an investment promotion event to introduce itself to southern companies. However, several companies in the south have already accessed preferential loans from the fund for their investments.

Ngo Xuan Tiec, general director of Tam Sinh Nghia Development and Investment Co., said the company has secured a preferential loan for its two household garbage treatment plants in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.

A representative of Dong Nai Rubber Company said the company was offered a loan worth VND37.5 billion to build a wastewater treatment system.

Sao Viet Company in Vung Tau City, which has accessed the fund for its project, advised fund seekers to carefully study the criteria and prepared all required documents to save on time.

Phuong of the fund said besides pooling capital from the State budget, the fund had cooperated with other local and international organizations to attract direct funding for projects and to spur capital for the fund.

Set up in 2002, the fund had lent some VND600 billion to 113 projects across the country as of March this year.

50 polluters to go on black list

Binh Duong has 50 manufacturers causing serious environment pollution that needs to be rectified in three months’ time, said an official of the southern province’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Vo Thi Ngoc Hanh, deputy director of the department, told the Daily on Wednesday that next week the department will ask the provincial government to approve a black list of the offending enterprises.          

Most of the companies are dumping rubbish outside industrial parks, she said but declined to reveal their names until the provincial government issues the black list. The provincial government has promised to apply strong measures if the companies fail to repair the environmental damage they have caused within three months.

The deputy director of the department said last year the province blacklisted some 100 enterprises causing serious environmental pollution. Now a year later the number has been cut in half.         

Over 5,000 industrial enterprises in the province still discharge large amounts of wastewater into the environment, which is causing serious pollution for many waterways around the province and HCMC such as Ba Bo canal.           

On the flip side, Hanh said, the provincial government has approved the first list of 32 ‘green enterprises’. The ceremony to acknowledge the 32 environmentally-aware companies is expected to be on May 31.

Vietravel, Cambodian airline jointly offer budget tour

Local tour operator Vietravel has struck a deal with Cambodia Angkor Air to arrange a three-day Cambodia tour at around VND5 million (about US$240), just half the price quoted by Vietravel last year.

Starting from Vietnam’s Reunification Day, April 30, the tour will depart on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

“We’re pinning high hopes on the new tour as it takes less time than the road tour but costs nearly the same,” said Nguyen Minh Man, media manager of Vietravel, which won an Outstanding Tour Operator 2010 award granted by Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism.

The company served about 10,000 Vietnamese visitors to Cambodia last year, just behind the number of local tourists to Thailand, at about 25,000, said Man.

The forthcoming Cambodia tour will take in Angkor Thom, Ta Prolm, Bayon, Baplmon and Phimean Akas temples, elephant fighting terrace, and Angkor Wat, as well as other places of interest such as the Royal Palace, Independence Monument, Wat Phnom Pagoda and Tonle Sap River.

Vietravel, the only local provider of Cambodia tours by air, also offers a four-day tour of Cambodia by bus at a price of VND4.5 million per person. The price charged by other travel agencies on Cambodia tours by road is lower, at around VND4 million per person.

India helps Vietnam build IT resource centre

The Vietnam-India Advanced Information Technology Resource Centre will be established in Hanoi by August with the support of the Indian government.

Being carried out by the Indian Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), the US$2 million project will offer a wide range of human resource training in the fields of information technology, communications and pedagogy.

The specially-designed curricula will help State officials, especially those working in IT improve IT knowledge without going abroad for further training in the field.

Once operating, the central will provide direct assistance in e-governance solutions for various Vietnamese ministries and departments.