A HCM City company has asked the Transport Ministry to approve a VND30 trillion (US$1.37 billion) project to build a expressway that will connect HCM City with a southern border province. The proposal was made by the Cuu Long Transport Infratructure Management Investment and Development in HCM City. The proposed expressway would link the city’s Thu Duc District with Moc Bai Border Gate in the southern Tay Ninh province that borders Cambodia. It will have 84.5 km in length and 15 metres wide for four lanes. The project is expected to be developed under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) form in the two phases. About 55.5 km would be built in the…
VTC, Japan firm launch new TV channel
Vietnam Television Corporation (VTC) in HCMC and View Media Joint Stock Company have launched a new TV channel called View TV, an information and entertainment channel for young Vietnamese families with members aged between 18 and 45, in cooperation with Japanese firm Enter Asia. The TV channel, which will be broadcast on the same frequency with VTC8 channel, will feature programs such as news, reportage and TV shows, along with six programs produced in coordination with Enter Asia to cover stories about social and economic activities, activities for families, entertainment and fashion. Masahiko Aoki, chair of Enter Asia, said: “Vietnam and Japan have certain cultural similarities. Vietnam is on the…
WB report: Vietnam’s GDP to grow 6.5 percent
Vietnam’s gross domestic product growth is forecast to reach 6 percent this year, gradually increasing to 6.5 percent in 2017, according to the World Bank. The growth is attributable to the continued strong performance of manufacturing, export and foreign investment. The World Bank made the statement in its “Global Economic Prospects” report, released on June 10. Growth in East Asia and the Pacific is expected to ease to 6.7 percent this year and remain stable thereafter, with the continued slowdown in China gradually offset by a pickup in the rest of the region, which is benefiting from the strengthening recovery in advanced countries. Regional countries will mostly benefit from low…
Viettel’s Nexttel plans to increase Cameroon subscribers to 3m
Viettel Group’s Nexttel mobile network in Cameroon has signed up 2 million subscribers just nine months after being operations in that country. It has achieved a turnover of nearly US$29 million. With over 1,100 base transceiver stations (BTS), the company is able to provide 2G services to 70 per cent of the population. It also has the largest coverage area for 3G services in the country. With 97 authorised agents, 1,500 mobile vendors, and 40,000 points of sale, Nexttel has been able to take its services to every part of the country. By the end of this year, the company plans to increase the number of base transceiver stations to…
Korean venture to develop logistics net
Multi-industry conglomerate C.T Group will work with South Korea’s CJ Group to develop a large logistics network in Viet Nam. C.T Land, a subsidiary of the C.T Group, on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with CJ GLS Co Ltd on co-operating with each other in exploiting existing logistics facilities and developing new ones. Existing facilities include workshops and warehouses in the southern province of Binh Duong, the northern province of Bac Ninh and the central city of Da Nang. The two companies said they would also consider the establishment of a joint-venture company to develop a large-scale logistics system in Viet Nam. The C.T Group has already completed building…
Nojima now largest TAG shareholder
Japan’s Nojima Electronics has bought another 3.7 million shares of Tran Anh Digital World JSC (TAG), the Vietnam Securities Depository said. The buying of the shares, which belonged to Aureos Southeast Asia Fund and are equal to a 21 percent stake in TAG, has increased the total holding of the Japanese corporation to 30.92 percent, making it the largest foreign shareholder of TAG. TAG is one of the leading electronics firms in northern Vietnam, with a chain of 15 stores. It plans to open seven to nine more stores to serve the northern region. In the first quarter of this year, TAG earned 872.67 billion VND (40 million USD) in…
Japan expresses interest in underground commercial complex
A Japanese delegation held a working session with Ho Chi Minh City authorities on June 10 to seek cooperation opportunities with the city on the construction of the main metro station and an underground commercial centre in front of the Ben Thanh market. Kisaburo Ishii, Deputy Minister of Land, Transport Infrastructure and Tourism and leader of the delegation, told city authorities that the underground complex will be the cynosure marking the development of the city. Despite the high cost, the project will bring a number of benefits and has high profit prospects, Ishii said, predicting it will take 10 to 11 years for investors to recover their investments. A model…
Domestic gold drops to new lows
Domestic gold prices have fallen to a four-year-and-a-half low while the exchange rate between the dong and the greenback has remained stable. HCMC-based Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC) yesterday quoted gold at VND34.7 million for buying and VND34.76 million for selling per tael, down by VND10,000 a tael versus Monday and VND50,000 a tael against late last week. The yellow metal dipped to its lowest price since October 25, 2010, losing 1% against early this year and 2.95% compared to this year’s high (VND35.82 million on January 21). According to kitco.com, the global gold price hit an 11-week low of US$1,175.5 an ounce on June 9. Given Vietcombank’s exchange rate at…
Sanofi to open third pharmaceutical plant next quarter
Sanofi pharmaceutical group plans to commission its third factory in Vietnam at the Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) in HCMC’s District 9 in the third quarter of this year. Eric NG, new chief executive officer (CEO) of Sanofi Indochina, told reporters in HCMC yesterday that the third plant currently under construction has an investment of US$75 million and is the biggest project of the company in the country. The facility has an initial capacity of 90 million units annually and will be expanded to produce 150 million units a year with a wide array of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products. These products will be sold in Vietnam and exported to Asian markets…
LienVietPostBank arranges VND10 trillion for MobiFone
LienVietPostBank has signed a deal to arrange VND10 trillion loans for local mobile carrier MobiFone to carry out its medium and long-term projects. According to Vietnamplus, both sides will work with local electricity companies to launch a power bill payment service using MobiFone accounts. They will also launch a mobile phone fee collection service. They also agreed on the issuance of Macca simcard to provide information on macadamia tree development in the country. Subscribers using the simcard will receive updates about government incentives, business environment, market prices and other planting services. The sale of Macca simcard is part of the cooperation program of LienVietPostBank and Him Lam Joint Stock Co. to…
Hanoi spend 952,000 USD a year on aquaculture
Hanoi has spent up to 20 billion VND (952,000 USD) a year on developing centralized aquaculture breeding areas in a bid to protect the environment, prevent epidemic diseases and protect food safety. The city’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has also organised periodic inspections of aquaculture businesses to ensure food safety while increasing community awareness of protecting aquatic resources. The department has supplied medicinal, chemical and biological products for centralized breeding areas and intensified quality management. In response to the Aquatic Resource Protection Day (June 5) this year, 356 households in the city has committed to not use electrical pulses or toxic substances or explosives to exploit aquatic resources.…
Hanoi, Fukuoka step up bilateral cooperation
Hanoi will organise a cultural exchange programme in Fukuoka with a view to introducing the culture and people of the capital city to residents of the Japanese prefecture. The capital will develop opportunities for investment promotion, promoting Hanoi as a promising investment market to businesses from Fukuoka as well as Japan in general, Chairman of the Hanoi People Committee Nguyen The Thao told visiting Fukuoka Governor Ogawa Hiroshi on June 8. He expressed his thanks for Fukuoka’s support for Hanoi across the fields of economics, environment and society. Meanwhile, Ogawa Hiroshi highlighted the sound relations between Fukuoka and Hanoi, saying that people-to-people exchanges will help further develop the ties. Fukuoka…
Bonsai festival delights tree lovers
The fifth Asia-Pacific Bonsai Festival kicked off yesterday at Rin Rin Park, a Japanese cultural site, in HCM City featuring 500 bonsai from 17 countries and territories. The four-day festival includes ancient, classical and contemporary styles, bonsai with flowers and fruits, among others. Besides bonsai, the festival also includes Penjing and Suiseki (miniature scenes made of carved stone and wood), bonsai demonstrations, ornamental creature auctions and music performances. Local and international artisans will also perform bonsai-making techniques and engage with bonsai experts from around the world. The biennial festival is held rotationally among the Asia-Pacific Bonsai Friendship Federation’s eight members — Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Chinese Taiwan, Viet Nam,…
Green light given to dairy farming project
Binh Ha Livestock Investment Co. has got the go-ahead from the government of Binh Dinh Province to implement a cow farming project worth VND3.6 trillion (US$165.4 million) in the province. A major shareholder of Binh Ha is Hoang Anh Gia Lai Joint Stock Company, which has already partnered with a number of companies to develop a chain specializing in producing beef and milk in and outside Vietnam, according to the provincial Investment Promotion Center. Binh Ha plans to raise up to 100,000 cows on 5,080 hectares in Van Canh, Hoai Nhon, An Lao and Hoai An districts of the province. This will be the biggest livestock project in the central…
Honda Vietnam to sponsor national football teams
Honda Vietnam and the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) on May 20 signed a deal to acknowledge Honda as the official sponsor of national male, female and U-23 football teams. This was the third consecutive year Honda Vietnam has sponsored local football. The value of this sponsorship is unknown. At the event, Honda Vietnam said they would grant a Honda motorbike to each footballer if the U-23 team wins at SEA Games 28 in Singapore in June. The motorcycle producer will give sport devices and facilities to 11 schools nationwide to help improve strength for local kids to become future footballers of the nation. (http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/41016/Honda-Vietnam-to-sponsor-national-football-teams-.html)
Property developments given go-ahead to continue
HA NOI (VNS) — Following a nationwide inspection of housing development projects, the Ministry of Construction has decided to allow more than 3,100 of them to continue construction. Inspections revealed that some 460 projects must adjust their structures in line with their plans and market demand, while another 306 projects must halt their construction. The ministry said that failure in raising more capitals saw most of the projects being temporarily halted (vietnamnews.vn 2015年6月6日)
First precast viaducts of metro line in place
The Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) and contractors on June 4 started to install precast viaducts of the elevated track of Metro Line No. 1, and plan to complete its construction by 2018. Metro Line No. 1 connects the downtown area of HCMC and Suoi Tien Park in District 9. Its 17.1-kilometer elevated section is designed to start from Shipyard in District 1 and end at Long Binh Depot in District 9. According to MAUR, constructors have used a mobile scaffolding system to install the precast segments based on the balanced cantilever method of bridge construction applied for the first time in Vietnam. As many as 4,536 U-shaped viaducts…
ACV plans to expand Tan Son Nhat airport this month
HCMC – Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) plans to begin expanding the international terminal of Tan Son Nhat airport in HCMC later this month to raise its annual capacity from ten million to 13 million passengers. Le Manh Hung, general director of ACV, told the Daily on June 3 that contractors are making final preparations and that work on Terminal T2 could start in mid-June. The expansion project will be implemented in two phases. The terminal will be expanded towards the east in the first phase at a total cost of VND1.52 trillion (US$69.8 million). The second phase costing VND787 billion will commence at the western side of the terminal…
UK funds technology innovation
British Ambassador to Vietnam Giles Lever and Vietnamese Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan on June 3 signed a government-level memorandum of understanding (MOU) on assisting Vietnam in technological and scientific research and innovation under the Newton Program Vietnam. As part of the program, the UK will provide up to 10 million pounds to support Vietnam-UK research collaboration and innovation partnership until 2019. Researchers, fellows, management officials in science and businesses with creativity will be the beneficiaries of the program. The Newton Program Vietnam will focus on scholarships for researchers, research projects on challenges related to development and cooperation plans to commercialize research. Priorities will be given to innovation…
Vietnamese consumers remain optimistic: MasterCard
MasterCard’s latest survey on consumer confidence shows that Vietnamese consumers remain optimistic about the second half of 2009, despite a drop in the outlook for consumer confidence. The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence (MWICC) rated consumer confidence in Vietnam in the first half of the year at 60.9 points compared to 88.1 points of the last second half. Notwithstanding the sharp decline, Vietnamese consumers generally manage to stay slightly optimistic, said MasterCard. Consumers in the Vietnamese market are still fairly optimistic about regular income (72.9 points), quality of life (70.2 points) and economy (67.2 points). However, Vietnamese consumers, for the first time since the country was included in the…
HCMC to remove low-tech firms from industrial zones
Most of industrial parks (IPs) and export processing zones (EPZs) in the city have built traffic, electricity and water infrastructures before calling on investors. They have tried to invite investors as much as possible to fully occupy the built zones and paid little heed to technology, resulting in products’ low-added value. A survey by the city Department of Science and Technology shows that only one percent of businesses at IPs and EPZs are at advanced technology level, four percent at rather good level and 51 percent at low level. According to Hepza, most foreign invested projects in the zones have done outwork using a lot of workers and creating low…
City drums up Japanese investment in key sectors
HCMC – HCMC is calling for Japanese firms to invest in major sectors like mechanical engineering, chemical, food processing, fashion and production of textile-garment materials and pharmaceuticals, HCMC vice chairman Tat Thanh Cang said. Cang mentioned the key sectors in need of Japanese investment at a meeting with a business delegation from Japan’s Saitama Prefecture on June 2. The delegation, headed by Saitama deputy governor Iwasaki Yasua, is in the city to foster economic cooperation between the two localities. Cang that some 700 Japanese enterprises have invested in HCMC and that more companies from the northeast Asian country are coming to explore business and investment opportunities in this city. The…
City drums up Japanese investment in key sectors
HCMC – HCMC is calling for Japanese firms to invest in major sectors like mechanical engineering, chemical, food processing, fashion and production of textile-garment materials and pharmaceuticals, HCMC vice chairman Tat Thanh Cang said. Cang mentioned the key sectors in need of Japanese investment at a meeting with a business delegation from Japan’s Saitama Prefecture on June 2. The delegation, headed by Saitama deputy governor Iwasaki Yasua, is in the city to foster economic cooperation between the two localities. Cang that some 700 Japanese enterprises have invested in HCMC and that more companies from the northeast Asian country are coming to explore business and investment opportunities in this city. The…
WB funds public transport development
HCMC – The World Bank (WB) has approved a loan of US$124 million for HCMC to carry out a project to improve public transportation in HCMC. The WB said in a statement on June 1 that it would finance developing a bus rapid transit lane of 23 kilometers on Vo Van Kiet and Mai Chi Tho roads to connect An Lac, southwest of HCMC, and Rach Chiec in the northeast. There will be some 28 stops on the bus route as part of the project. Once completed, the service will be able to serve up to 28,300 passengers a day with a focus on facilitating the transport of women, children and people…
Technology incentives introduced to Da Nang firms
Representatives from over 70 businesses in the central city of Da Nang were informed of incentives to the use of modern technologies during a local seminar on June 2. A number of them mentioned difficulties in adopting technological advances, including high costs, lack of marketing skills and limited resources to monitor competition and the latest technology trends. They shared that Vietnamese companies predominantly process and export raw materials using outdated technologies, resulting in low added value. According to them, domestic firms also find it hard to access financial subsidies when they plan for technology adoption, partly owing to cumbersome procedures. The Ministry of Science and Technology reported that 76 percent…
Vietnam performs well in world programming competition
The Vietnamese team has performed well in the world final of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM/ICPC) 2015, which took place on May 25 in Morocco, according to the Vietnam National University – Hanoi (VNU-Hanoi). The Java# team from the University of Technology under the VNU – Hanoi, the only Vietnamese representative at the contest, solved six out of 13 problems, ranking 20 th out of 128 teams, the best result Vietnam has ever acquired in the contest. Since 2006, Vietnam has been ranked among the 100 most outstanding teams across the world competing in the contests, the team’s coach Ho Dac Phuong said. This year was the fourth…
A credit package worth some VND20 trillion (US$952.38 million) will be released to support homebuyers interested in commercial and urban housing projects
A credit package worth some VND20 trillion (US$952.38 million) will be released to support homebuyers interested in commercial and urban housing projects, reported Xay Dung, the Ministry of Construction’s e-paper. The ministry made the announcement in a document sent to the government office, whereby it approved the lending programme suggested by the State Bank of Viet Nam. The central bank will disburse the fund through commercial banks in which it has controlling stakes. They include Vietcombank, VietinBank and BIDV, along with Agribank and Viet Nam Development Bank. Deputy Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha said the programme was aimed at boosting the real estate market while helping lending institutions speed…
Many small enterprises hit the wall
For the first four months of this year, 3,249 small enterprises have closed their business, and 19,000 others temporarily stopped operations, a survey conducted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has found. Most of the companies had under 10 billion VND (480,000 USD) of registered capital. The number of enterprises temporarily stopping operation increased by 4.5 percent, though the number of enterprises closing fell 0.8 percent compared with last year. “The development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is very important for any economy and if SMEs can’t develop, the Vietnamese economy will find it hard to grow in a sustainable way,” Nguyen Hoang, president and CEO…
Eco-industrial parks a new trend
VietNamNet Bridge – Foreign industrial zone developers are leading the way in the development of eco-industrial parks (EIZ) in Vietnam. VSIP Nghe An is expected to kick off this September, according to Nghe An provincial authorities. This will be an EIZ to cover an area of 1,400 hectares with investment capital of VND3 trillion in the first phase of the project. The license for the project is expected to be granted in July. This will be the seventh VSIP to be developed in Vietnam. A similar project, the eighth VSIP, would be developed in the central province of Binh Dinh. Like other VSIPs, the IZs developed by the joint venture…
The free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) was signed in Burabai,
Kazakhstan on May 29 after more than two years of negotiation, opening up a new chapter in the partnership between Vietnam and the union as well as each EAEU member in particular. The deal was inked by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and leaders from EAEU members – Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan – as well as the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasia Economic Commission. Launched in Vietnam on March 28, 2013, the comprehensive and highly-committed agreement regulates issues related to goods trading, origin principle, trade remedies, investment, intellectual property, legality and institution, among others. Once it becomes effective, two-way trade between Vietnam and the EAEU is…