January post & telecom sector’s revenues jump 23 pct

The Vietnamese post and telecom sector posted revenues of VN11.1 trillion ($528.6 million) in January, up 23 pct on-year, according to the General Statistic Office of Vietnam (GSO).  

In January, Vietnam licensed 832,000 new mobile phone subscribers, up 15.4 pct against the same period from last year. At the same time, only new 2,200 fixed phone subscribers were licensed during the month, down 88 pct from last year.

The GSO reported that, by the end of January, Vietnam had 134 million fixed phone subscribers, and 118.5 million mobile phone users. This figure is up 3.9 pct and 4.5 pct, respectively, since the same period last year.

By this time, the country had 4.3 million internet subscribers, up 18.7 pct from the year before, raising the total number of internet users to 33.4 million.

Last year, the domestic post and telecom industry obtained total revenues of VND167.1 trillion ($7.95 billion), up 19.3 pct against the figures of 2010.

Banking shares favoured as value, volume rise

National stocks gained slightly throughout this morning's session with the VN-Index on the HCM City Stock Exchange inching up 0.45 per cent to close at 411.39 points.

Decliners and gainers were nearly even.

The value and volume of trades jumped 20.8 and 15.5 per cent, respectively, over yesterday's trading, totalling VND771.5 billion (US$36.7 million) on 51.5 million shares.

Blue chips were mixed. Of the 10 leading shares by capitalisation, Sacombank (STB) hit its daily increase limit of 5 per cent. Eximbank (EIB), software giant FPT (FPT), food processor Masan (MSN) and Vinamilk (VNM) rose between 1-1.9 per cent.

The others lost value or closed unchanged.

The four-day-old VN30 added 0.8 per cent to close at 464.73 points. The country's 30 best stocks accounted for VND365.5 billion ($17.4 million).

Three banking stocks – Military Bank (MBB), EIB and STB – were most favoured by investors, with 3.8-4.1 million shares exchanged.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged up 0.13 per cent, concluding the session at 63.82 points.

Growing selling pressure boosted the volume of trades by 37.6 per cent to 56.4 million shares, equivalent to VND444.3 billion ($21.1 million) in value.

Habubank (HBB) emerged as the most active code nationwide with around 9.2 million shares changing hands. It reached its ceiling price of VND5,000 per share.

Blue chip gains boost market
 
Shares continued to improve during yesterday's session, with the VN-Index and VN30 on the HCM Stock Exchange adding 2.1 and 2.6 per cent, respectively.

The VN30 extended Tuesday's increase by concluding at 460.98 points, while the VN-Index closed at 409.53 points.

Advancers outnumbered decliners 190-55.

Market value climbed 20.2 per cent over Tuesday's level, reaching VND638.7 billion (US$30.4 million) and investors exchanged some 44.6 million shares.

One-third of the 30 stocks listed on the VN30 hit their ceiling prices, of which property developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and Sacombank (STB) were the two leading shares by capitalisation.

Other large-cap stocks rose between 0.6-3.2 per cent.

Eximbank was the most active code in HCM City with 3.4 million shares changing hands.

Meanwhile, the most active stock in Ha Noi was Kim Long Securities Co (KLS) with nearly 4 million shares exchanged.

The benchmark HNX-Index edged up 1.9 per cent to 63.74 points. Gainers overwhelmed losers by 206-62.

Trading value on the northern bourse climbed 12.6 per cent, totalling VND369.8 billion ($17.6 million) on a volume of 41 million shares.

"We are optimistic about the coming trend of the VN-Index and VN30, investors can consider buying," ACB Securities Co analyst Cao Tan Phat recommended. However, he said investors could profit on the HNX-Index as it was reaching resistance level of 64-65 points.

On the bond market, the northern exchange said it would auction VND5 trillion ($238.1 million) worth of bonds issued by the State Treasury. "Before a great demand from investors with the expectation that interest rates will decline, we hope the amount bonds successful finding buyers will be high," Phat said.

The total value of bonds to be issued in the first quarter this year is expected to reach VND25 trillion ($1.2 billion).

For the secondary bond market, January was an off month as trading value fetched only VND4.55 trillion ($216.6 million).

Foreign investors bought more than they sold by the end of the day on both bourses by a combined margin of VND118.4 billion ($5.6 million), surging nearly 87 per cent over the previous session and marking their eight consecutive sessions as net buyers.

Ben Tre faces pomelo undersupply for export

Many European partners have shown their keen interest in importing more green-skin pomelo following the Lunar New Year holiday, said Dam Van Hung, director of Huong Mien Tay Co. in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre.

Huong Mien Tay is the first enterprise in the delta to put an export pomelo packaging and preservation plant into operation with technical help from the Southern Fruit Research Institute and the provincial agriculture department. The number of export contracts has increased and prices have soared 5-15% since the operation of this plant.

This business is also the first unit in the locality to purchase all pomelo grown on 200 hectares at a price 5-15% higher than market levels. It will purchase all pomelo meeting Vietnamese Good Agriculture Practices (VietGAP) and Global GAP standards in the province in the coming time.
 
Dai-ichi Vietnam partners with Sacombank

Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company of Vietnam (Dai-ichi Vietnam) has announced a strategic partnership agreement with Sacombank to sell its life insurance products through the local bank’s network.

The agreement enables Dai-ichi Vietnam to work with Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) to jointly develop suitable bancassurance products for distribution via the bank’s network across Vietnam. The insurer will provide courses on life insurance and customer’s services for consultants of Sacombank.   

As part of the partnership deal, Dai-ichi Vietnam and Sacombank launched a new bancassurance product for the bank’s individual customers to have their loans from this bank guaranteed without having to undergo any health check. If there is any unfortunate happening to the customers, Dai-ichi Vietnam will represent them to pay their remaining money they owe to the bank.   

Dai-ichi Vietnam said in a statement that the new bancassurance product was the first fruit of its long-term partnership with Sacombank and would help attract more individual customers to insured financial products and services, as they were able to arrange and decide their plans.

Takashi Fujii, chairman and general director of Dai-ichi Vietnam, said in the statement that the deal with Sacombank was one of the company’s strategic partnerships this year. “This is an opportunity for us to reach out to more customers and bring proper life insurance products to borrowers of Sacombank,” he said.

Dai-ichi Vietnam has provided its life insurance products to nearly 700,000 Vietnamese customers and expanded its presence through more than 80 offices and general sales agents nationwide five years after the Japanese company entered this market.

Last year, Dai-ichi Vietnam reported new premiums of more than VND472 billion (over US$22.5 million), up 24% versus 2010 and more than doubled that of 2009.

Dien Quang makes bulbs in Venezuela

An energy-saving bulbs joint venture between Vietnam’s Dien Quang Lamp JSC and Venezuela’s industrial petroleum and gas group will commission its plant in Venezuela in the second quarter this year.

With a total capacity of 74 million bulbs per annum, Dien Quang’s first overseas energy-saving bulb production project will need US$300 million in total investment capital, said the company’s general director Ho Quynh Hung.

The foreign partner also wants to continue the cooperation with Dien Quang for another energy-saving bulb manufacturing project of the same scale, Hung told the Daily at his company’s review meeting in HCMC last week.

Dien Quang exports its products to 30 countries and has a strong distribution system in Myanmar. This year it will concentrate on setting up distribution systems in Laos and Cambodia.

The HCMC-based business last year obtained VND600 billion in revenue and sets a higher target of VND820 billion for this year.

Dalat flower prices rise sharply for Valentine’s Day

With just over a week to go until Valentine’s Day (February 14th), prices of a large number of Dalat flowers in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong have strongly bounced back since the Tet holiday.

According to flower farmers in Dalat City, the price of roses has increased to VND3,000 a flower from the normal level of VND1,000. Similarly, the price of daisies and carnations has surged from VND800 to VND1,500 per flower and lisianthus and gerberas have risen from 10% to 40%.

Those flower traders specializing in HCMC and central provinces’ markets predicted the prices of popular Dalat flowers for Valentine’s Day like roses and lilies would continue sharply rising due to strong demand from the local youth.

The scarcity of Dalat flowers as a result of the ample supply for the Tet holiday also contributed to pushing up the prices of selected flowers.

APG helps VN in anti-money laundering efforts

The Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering will assist Vietnam in fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.

According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), during a working visit to Vietnam in early February, a high-level delegation of APG had working sessions with the SBV and relevant agencies on the implementation of the national action plan on fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.

APG experts recognised Vietnam ’s efforts in the field, in particular the legal documents guiding the fight, such as the Finance Ministry Circular 148/2010/TT-BTC dated Sept. 24, 2010, the Construction Ministry’s Circular 12/2011/TT-BXD dated Sept. 1, 2011 and the State Bank’s Circular 41/2011/TT-NHNN dated Dec. 15, 2011.

They recommended that Vietnam focus on issuing laws on preventing and fighting money laundering and terrorism, putting in place mechanisms to freeze funds that are used to finance terrorism, and boosting international cooperation. The delegation also pledged to consider Vietnam ’s needs for technical assistance to fight money laundering and financing of terrorism in order to seek donors for Vietnam in this area.

Vietnam became the 34 th member of APG in May 2007. However, following an APG’s appraisal in 2008, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering put Vietnam in the list of countries lacking an effective mechanism for preventing and fighting money laundering and financing terrorism, thus subject to monitoring of the FATF International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG)./.

Mekong Delta set to earn US$2 bln from tra fish exports

The Mekong River Delta plans to raise its tra fish export earnings to US$1.85-2 billion by the end of this year.

The figure was released at a conference held in Can Tho City on February 7.

To achieve the set goal, the Mekong Delta will expand the total tra fish breeding area from 5,500 to 6,000 hectares, with nearly one-third granted VietGap, Global GAP, SQF1000CM, ASC, to have a yield of 1.2-1.5 million tonnes.   

In 2011, 600,000 tonnes of tra fish were exported from the region to 135 foreign markets, earning US$1.8 billion, up 26.5 percent from a year earlier.

Banks sponsor US$7.2 million Vietnam Airlines project

The PetroVietnam Finance Joint Stock Corporation (PVFC) and Cathay United Bank (CUB) have pledged to provide credit worth US$7.2 million for the national flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines.

Vietnam Airlines will receive the seven-year credit loan from the two financial institutions to purchase Airbus 321 standby motors under its investment project to buy ten A321 aircraft.

The Vietnam Airlines project is aimed at increasing its fleet to 115 aircraft by 2015 and 170 within the following five years. It plans to invest primarily in Boeing 777, Airbus A330, A321/320, A350XWB and Boeing 787-9 aircraft with updated energy efficiency and environmentally-friendly technology.

Established in 2000, the PVFC now has VND6,000 billion in chartered capital and total assets worth nearly VND90,000 billion.

CUB, the former United World Chinese Commercial Bank, was set up in 1975 and has total assets of around US$55 billion. It has been rated the most effective bank in Taiwan.

Earlier, Vietnam Airlines was also granted a credit loan in May 2011 worth more than US$7 million to buy standby motors for A321 planes.

Int’l arrivals up 24%; Chinese tourists nearly double

There were 630,000 international visitors coming to Vietnam in January 2012, up 24.8 percent from the same period last year, according to General Statistical Office (GSO).

Of which, arrivals for tourism purposes, business purposes, for visiting relatives, and for other purposes reached 365,000 people, 110,000 people, 120,000 people, and 35,000 people respectively, posting year-on-year increases of 21.6 percent, 61.9 percent, 15.3 percent and 7.5 percent.

Currently, Chinese tourists are taking the leading position amongst international visitors coming to Vietnam with 147,700 people, up 93.4 percent year on year.

They were followed by Korea and US with 60,600 people and 59,300 people, up 17 percent and 26.8 percent and Japan. Visitors from France and Malaysia saw a year-on-year growth of over 20 percent in January 2012.

In 2011, Vietnam's tourism sector received 6 million international tourists, served 30 million local tourists, and earned VND130 trillion ($6.22 billion) in revenues, posting respective year-on-year growths of 19 percent, 7.1 percent and 30 percent.

In 2012, Vietnam expects to welcome 6.5 million foreign tourists, serve 32 million domestic tourists and earn VND150 trillion in revenue, up 8.3 percent, 6.7 percent and 15 percent over last year.

Office tenants move back downtown as rent drops

Many companies are coming back to the center of HCMC as office rent has dropped after moving to the outskirts for several years.

Besides new customers, the market has seen many enterprises shifting among office buildings of grades A, B and C and from old buildings to newly-built ones to enjoy better places and prices.

A survey of Colliers International shows that many companies, which signed office leasing contracts two or three years ago, are considering breaking the deals, accepting penalties to move to buildings of grade A or B with better facilities.

Late last year, Bitexco Financial Tower in District 1 attracted two big customers, Adidas and Samsung, with the former leasing the ground floor for its showroom and another floor for office space. Meanwhile, Samsung moved its office from a building on Nguyen Du Street to three floors in the tower.

In fact, office rentals in the city have plunged by a half compared to those three years ago. The prices now are around US$32-43 per square meter of grade-A office, US$14-32 each square meter of grade B and $10-25 per square meter of grade C.

The city now has 283 office buildings, providing around 1.8 million square meters. However, only over 150,000 square meters were leased last year compared to 220,000 square meters in 2010, according to CB Richard Ellis Vietnam (CBRE).

Concerning the market tendency, Chris Currie, director of CBRE’s office for lease unit, said office rentals had fallen over the past 12 quarters and helped enterprises move back to central areas.

Property investors here have offered many incentives to customers, including longer free time, equipping supports and removal of penalties upon the premature termination of contracts.

Office rents used to hit over $50 per square meter in the city center, placing a great burden on enterprises and forcing them to move to outlying areas, where rentals were around $15 per square meter.

Lower office rents also help enterprises move from street-front houses to office buildings, especially those in the financial sector, Currie said.

Colliers International forecasts office supply to jump to 2.2 million square meters next year, including around 720,000 square meters of grade A offices of Time Squares, M&C Tower, Eden A and Vietcombank Tower projects.

Market observers said that the playground still tilted towards customers in 2012 while investors will continue facing difficulties and have to launch preferential policies to lure renters.

However, the supply may decline in the following years as many projects have been suspended.

Among 20 projects at prime-site areas in HCMC, only two have been completed, and two others, Eden A and Ben Thanh Towers, are underway while the remaining projects haven’t seen any progress, CBRE said.

Currie of CBRE said the falling supply would prompt investors to change leasing strategies and the entire market would be different after the next 12 months.

Ministry poised to streamline honey exports to US

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has issued a document inviting representatives of US state agencies to Vietnam to inspect the local honey production system.

The document, sent to the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of Homeland Security, and the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Embassy of Vietnam in the US, also gave the explanation for the existence of the fungicide residue, avoiding any suspicion that the export shipments contain Chinese honey.

The residue is much lower than that regulated by the EU and the Codex Alimentarius Commission which was created by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO), said the ministry.

It is the latest move of the Vietnamese state agency after the US Food and Drug Administration returned 600 tons of Vietnamese honey exported to the US in July-November last year after detecting fungicide Carbendazim residue.

The move is said to streamline the gridlock of Vietnamese honey exports to US, the biggest importer of the product, after the EU banned the exports due to quality control problems.

According to the ministry, Vietnam has promulgated regulations on the control and supervision of veterinary hygiene in production, to prevent transmission of foreign honey and ensure food safety for this product.

Before that, many experts have warned that Carbendazim contamination would probably be a trade barrier to the US market in 2012.

Fungicide Carbendazim is used on most crops grown in Vietnam, such as coffee, rubber, cotton and cashews, so it is very easy to spread to nectar when honey-bees extract it from the flowers of those plants.

It [the return of exported honey] has a negative impact on 35,000 Vietnamese bee farmers, Dinh Quyet Tam, head of Vietnam Beekeeper Association, said.

Last year, the country exported 27,000 tons of honey worth $2,400 a ton for $68.4 million.

In July last year, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it considered a ban on Vietnamese catfish products after finding samples with excess levels of the antibiotic enrofloxacin, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors.

In early June last year, Japan said it found two shipments of shrimp from Vietnam containing enrofloxacin residue.

Since June 10 it has increased the frequency of inspection of Vietnamese shrimp for enrofloxacin from 30 percent to 100 percent.

German and Italian authorities also said four catfish shipments from Vietnam contained trifluralin residues and the chemical substance chlorpyriphos used to kill termites.
 
Textile-garment sector targets US$1b in export earnings from RoK

Vietnam is set to earn US$1 billion from textile and garment exports to the Republic of Korea (RoK) this year, said President of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) Vu Duc Giang.

The RoK, therefore, will become the fourth largest key market of Vietnam’s textile and garment sector, after the US, EU, and Japan.

Last year, Vietnam’s textile and garment exports to the RoK exceeded US$904 million, showing a year-on-year increase of 145 percent, the highest so far.

Along with a strong rise in Vietnam’s exports to the RoK, Korean businesses have invested intensively in the garment sector in Vietnam, with a total capitalization of US$1.8 billion.

The Vitas leader said not only textiles and garments but also footwear and furniture can get a larger share of the RoK market when the two countries sign a free trade agreement (FTA) in the near future.
Since mid 2011, more than 100 affiliates of Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) have made necessary preparations to take advantage of the ASEAN-RoK FTA and the upcoming FTA between Vietnam and the RoK.

“The FTA will give a boost to the garment industry and create better conditions for Vietnamese businesses to link up with RoK partners which are strong in terms of technology and materials,” said Vinatex General Director Tran Quang Nghi.

Malaysia firm mulls over tourism complex in Quang Ninh

Malaysia’s Genting Group will make a feasibility study for building a tourism complex, including a casino, in the Van Don Economic Zone in the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh.

According to the zone’s management board, Genting and the province recently signed a memorandum of understanding on the feasibility study.

The province plans to allocate about 1,800 hectares of land to this project, which has an estimated investment capital of approximately US$4 billion.

Moody’s says Australian, Vietnamese banks-most exposed to Europe crisis

Banks in Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Vietnam are among the “most exposed” in the Asia-Pacific region to a sudden worsening of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, Moody’s Investors Service said.

The Australian, New Zealand and Korean banking systems’ dependence on foreign funding puts them at risk of increased costs in the event of wholesale market stress, Stephen Long, a managing director at Moody’s financial institutions group, said in a statement. Vietnam’s weak financial system and dependence on cheap dollar loans subjects its banks to tightening foreign- currency liquidity.

These banking systems are “more vulnerable to the first-round impact of a further worsening of the euro area crisis than other systems in Asia Pacific,” Long wrote after Moody’s released a report the topic. “Our base case is that the resilience of banks in Asia Pacific will generally persist. However, the risks to that scenario have increased, warranting a closer examination of how banks could be affected under more adverse scenarios.”

Australian and New Zealand lenders’ proportion of total external funding stands at 19 percent and 16 percent respectively, New York-based Moody’s said. The RoK’s banking system has a foreign currency-to-deposit ratio of 328 percent and relies on external markets for 9 percent of its funding, the report said.

Car importers look to beat road block

Local car importers are trying to continue business in the face of Circular 20/2011/TT-BCT restricting car imports.

Most recently, Kars Haiphong International Company Limited, a wholly foreign owned subsidiary of Kars Motor Group in Vietnam, sent to Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) a record relevant to import of less-than-nine seat Nissan automobiles made in Taiwan into Vietnam.

The record carries a proxy given by Yushin Motor Company Limited, a unit having the right to distribute Nissan brand automobiles in Vietnam which is also a subsidiary of Yulon Nissan Motor Group, a legitimate manufacturer and owner of Nissan brand vehicles in Taiwan.

It also contains a certification proving Kars Haiphong is a licenced automobile maintenance unit by the Vietnam Register.

The company is now awaiting an official response from the MoIT about whether it could import and distribute Nissan automobiles made in Taiwan into Vietnam.

Earlier in January 20, 2012 the MoIT responded to a Nghe An Trading Joint Stock Company proposal of acting as a Nissan brand automobile distributor in Vietnam. The MoIT said the proxy Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, Dongfeng Motor Company Limited giving to Quangzhou DFS Enterprise Company Limited the company included in its application record was not a legal basis proving Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, Dongfeng Motor Company Limited was a legitimate manufacturer and owner of Nissan brand vehicles.

Therefore, Nghe An Trading Company Limited needs to source other valid papers proving that Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, Dongfeng Motor Company Limited was a legitimate manufacturer and owner of Nissan brand vehicles.

In fact, the right to import and distribute Nissan automobiles in Vietnam was exclusively conferred on Nissan Vietnam Company Limited (NVL).

The company’s general director Choo Hong Chow said NVL, a joint venture between Nissan Motor Japan and Malaysia-based Tan Chong Holding Berhad, was appointed by Nissan Motor Japan to act as an exclusive distributor of Nissan brand vehicles in the Vietnamese market from September 1, 2011.

“I will not comment on proposals by some local firms relevant to import of Nissan automobiles into Vietnam as it depends on decisions by relevant Vietnamese agencies,” said the executive.

In fact after Circular 20 took effect, specialised auto trader H.L Company Limited imported over 40 Lexus cars into Vietnamese market. The firm could only present a proxy of a Lexus dealer in US market, but not a proxy directly from Toyota Motor Japan, the singe legitimate owner of Lexus and Toyota brand cars. The fate of the Lexus cars is now up in the air.

On May 12, 2011 the MoIT presented Circular 20/2011/TT-BCT presenting additional procedures for import of less than nine seat passenger automobiles. Accordingly, when conducting importing procedures for cars from nine seats or less, apart from implementation of current regulations, traders must provide following additional documents to the competent state agency:

1. Appointment paper or power of attorney as an importer, distributor of the such car maker, trader who trades such type of car or agent contract of the such car maker, trader who trades such type of car which were consular legalised by the overseas-based Vietnam diplomatic representative agency as prescribed by law: 01 (a) copy certified and sealed true copy of traders.

2. Certificate of car warranty, maintenance establishment with sufficient conditions issued by the Ministry of Transport: 01 (a) copy certified and sealed true copy of traders.

The circular took effect on June 26, 2011.

HCMC joins forces with Korea’s Jeju to promote tourism

The HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Jeju Tourism Organization to promote tourism activities and attract tourists between the two sides.

Nguyen Viet Anh, head of the Travel Division under the city’s tourism department, said the MOU signing is part of the working schedule of Jeju Island’s tourism organization in HCMC.

Under the MOU, the South Korean side will support the local tourism industry to train Korean-speaking tour guides while the latter will receive Jeju’s students coming for studies.

Besides, the two sides will cooperate to develop tourism products such as MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) and promotional activities as well as encouraging enterprises to launch promotional programs for visitors.

According to Anh, South Korea has emerged as one of Vietnam’s fast-growing visitor-generating markets over the past few years. The country now ranks fourth in the top ten visitor-generating markets of HCMC.

In 2011, Vietnam received about 200,000 tourists from this nation. This year HCMC has put on the agenda numerous promotional programs aimed at developing this high-potential market.

South Korea last year was also one of the popular destinations for Vietnamese travelers. Especially, the tourism program to Jeju Island without entry-visa has attracted a huge number of Vietnamese visitors.

A number of travel agencies in HCMC reported monthly tours departing for South Korea these days, which hasn’t been seen before.
 
Listed firms fare poorly

Up to 60% of listed firms on both stock markets saw their performances shrinking in 2011, and some 85 firms were mired in the red last year, according to the State Securities Commission (SSC).

The final statistics is not yet available though most listed firms have submitted their financial statements. However, SSC said 2011 was a grim year for the economy, especially so for the equity market.

Listed firms had to grapple with a raft of hot problems, from higher interest rates to high input costs and difficulties to mobilize funds on bourse. Understandably, the number of loss-making enterprises in 2011 was higher than in the previous year, at 85 compared to some 50.

Property companies suffered the most, followed by construction, sea-freight, power generation and financial enterprises.

Property companies incurred biggest losses in the last quarter last year given surging lending rates as 80% of their investments in property projects were bank loans.

Quoc Cuong Gia Lai Joint Stock Co. (QCG) posted the accumulated losses for the whole year of 2011 at VND30.76 billion despite a profit of VND236.9 billion in 2010. The company’s financial costs, mainly lending rates in the fourth quarter last year, was VND23.47 billion, up 160% against VND9.03 billion in the same period one year earlier.

The firm attributed the late handover of the apartment building Quoc Cuong Gia Lai 1 to the borrowing problem. It complained accessing banking loans was very difficult under the monetary tightening policy and extremely high annual lending rates, at up to 22-24%, which adversely affected its operation.

Similarly, Song Da Urban & Industrial Zone Investment and Development JSC (SJS) suffered a loss of VND61.93 billion in the last quarter in 2011 while having earned VND127.03 billion in profits in the same period in 2010. The whole year of 2011’s accumulated losses of the business amounted to VND46.22 billion while it obtained a profit of VND456.12 billion in 2010.

Local securities trading firms have continuously incurred losses as a result of the gloomy stock market. As of now, 12 listing securities companies have posted losses, mostly due to brokerage services and self-trading activities like AVS, BSI and BVS.

Notably, Sacom Development and Investment Corporation (SAM) posted the loss of VND204.46 billion for the whole year of 2011.

The stock broker’s general director Do Van Trac said his firm had a loss of over VND200 billion for last year’s performance while it earned a profit of VND108 billion in the previous year.

Meanwhile, the loss of Pha Lai Thermal Power JSC (PPC) in 2011 came from exchange rate risks, with a loss of VND1.262 trillion.
 
Commodity prices fall in January
 
Prices of many kinds of agricultural products, including coffee, pepper and cashew, have been falling over the past month and are expected to drop further in the coming time due to uncertainties in the world market.

Future pepper prices on the world market have dropped to US$5,700-$5,900 a tonne from $7,000-$8,000 a tonne in the early fourth quarter last year.

Viet Nam's pepper export price also fell by $400 per tonne last month.

Domestic pepper prices dropped to VND100,000 a kilo compared to the peak of VND155,000 a kilo last year.

Viet Nam exported 4,000 tonnes of pepper last month, earning $30 million, a reduction of 15.7 per cent in volume.

However, value increased by 29.1 per cent because pepper prices last month were higher than last January although prices were much lower than those in the latter months of last year.

According to the agricultural sector, pepper output this year may fall up to one-third compared to last year, due to unfavourable weather and diseases. The volume of pepper exports are expected to fall.

Similarly, coffee prices have edged down after the Lunar New Year by VND200,000-300,000, according to the Viet Nam Coffee and Cocoa Association.

On January 31, a tonne of coffee was priced at VND37.8 million ($1,800) in Dak Lak Province, VND37.6 million ($1,790) in Gia Lai and VND37.7 million ($1,795) in Lam Dong Province.

The price has continued to drop on February 2 and 3 to around VND36.7-36.9 million per tonne on average.

In London, Robusta coffee futures for March delivery dropped by $22 a tonne to $1,843. Viet Nam exported an estimated 170,000 tonnes of coffee worth $350 million last month, a reduction of 20.9 per cent in volume and 15.3 per cent in value over the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Like pepper, coffee output is expected to fall this year due to unfavourable weather and the high number of old coffee trees.

The situation is also the same in the cashew and rubber industries, with prices falling significantly.

The ministry said export turnover from agricultural, forestry and fisheries products last month went down by 16.3 per cent over the same period last year to about $1.8 billion.

Of that amount, exports of key agricultural products fell by 19 per cent.

Fish processing plant underway

Seafood enterprise Hung Ca Ltd yesterday began construction of two factories – one to produce fish meal and fish oil, and the other to process other aquatic feed.

The factories, covering an area of eight ha, are being built in Dong Thap Province's Binh Thanh Industrial Park, which is located in Tam Binh District.

The total investment capital for both projects is estimated at VND250 billion ($12 million).

The aquatic feed factory and the fish meal and fish oil plant, which use European technology, will have a daily capacity of 800 tonnes and 300 tonnes respectively.

Ministries join to fight gas fraud, speculation

With unexpected fluctuations in gas prices, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has been co-ordinating with the Ministry of Finance to prevent fraud and speculation among importers and distributors.

Over the past month, gas prices have increased three times by VND74,000 to about VND440,000 (US$21) per 12kg-canister. The price rose by 40 per cent within one year.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Nam Hai said at a press conference on Monday that gas was listed among commodities in need of stabilisation and gas companies had to register prices with the Ministry of Finance, however the price is still adjusted by the market.

According to Nguyen Tien Thoa, director of the Ministry of Finance's Price Management Department, gas companies have been registering to raise prices since February 1. He attributed the rising local market price to the price hike in the global market. The import price has gone up by 15 per cent since January.

"The MoIT takes responsibility for managing the system of gas distribution. If we discover any speculation for profit, the ministry will strictly enforce Decree 105, dealing with administrative violation in gas trading, which came into effect on January 1 of this year," said Hai.

Vo Van Quyen, director of the finance ministry's Domestic Market Department affirmed that the investigation was usually done by the authorities and in response to the skyrocketing price of gas recently, the authorities have been inspecting and the ministry would report any results to the mass media.

The local media has recently discovered oil frauds with distributors who mixed oil with addictive substances, resulting in the poor quality of petrol products. Hai said that the ministry, in addition to relevant State bodies, would inspect and deal with cases in criminal proceedings.

Particularly, the HCM City People's Committee has withdrawn licences of nine petrol retailers and may withdraw two more.