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 They shared that Vietnamese companies predominantly process and export raw materials using outdated technologies, resulting in low added value.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…
Japanese company to build industrial park in Vinh Phuc
Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation will build an industrial park in northern Vinh Phuc province, as said in a memorandum of understanding it signed with the provincial People’s Committee on May 29. The industrial park, named Thang Long 3, covers nearly 300 hectares in Binh Xuyen district and has an initially investment of 135 million USD. When operational, it is set to attract over 80 Japanese businesses manufacturing automobile and motorcycle components, high-tech and other products for support industries, providing 40,000 jobs for local residents. Chairman of the Vinh Phuc People’s Committee Phung Quang Hung said Sumitomo’s construction will create a prerequisite for the sustainable development and a breakthrough for local industrial…
Ho Chi Minh City maintains positive economic growth
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest economic hub, recorded a positive economic growth rate in May and throughout the first five months of 2015, a conference heard on May 28. According to the municipal People’s Committee, total retail sales of goods and services are estimated at over 54.3 trillion VND (2.49 billion USD) for May and more than 267 trillion VND (12.28 billion USD) for the January-May period, up by 10.8 percent compared to the same period last year. The city’s Consumer Price Index rose by 0.3 percent in May against the previous month. This month, the export turnover is estimated at 2.57 billion USD and import turnover at 2.67…
Japanese businesses raring to invest in Vietnam
( Scene at the workshop. Photo: VNA) The Consulate General of Vietnam in Osaka, Japan organised a workshop for Japanese businesses from the Kansai region on investing in Vietnam. The workshop was coordinated by the Kansai Bureau of the Economy, Trade and Industry, the Japan-Vietnam Business Support Centre, and the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Association in Sakai, among others. A representative from the Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry stated that Japanese firms consider Vietnam as a top investment destination. More than 120 participating enterprises learned about the trade ties between Vietnam and Japan, the Vietnamese economy and relevant policies. They commended Vietnam for its business climate and investment opportunities during…
Film and TV technology show set for next month
Vietnam Television (VTV) will host the 2015 Vietnam International Exhibition on Film and Television Technology, or Telefilm 2015, at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center (SECC) in HCMC’s District 7 from June 4 to 6, according to the Vietnam News Agency. The annual event is expected to be attended by more than 150 companies and organizations in the television field, with 60 of them coming from France, Canada, Japan, China and Singapore. For domestic participants, apart from local TV stations, a number of TV channels and communication companies such as Cat Tien Sa, BHD, and Multi Media will also show up. This year Telefilm is being held on a larger scale than…
HCM City maintains stable economic growth
Socio-economic development in Ho Chi Minh City in the past nine months continues to progress across fields, as reported at a regular conference in the southern hub on September 24. According to the municipal People’s Committee, the gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated at nearly 650 trillion VND (28.6 billion USD), an annual rise of 9.1 percent. Services accounted for 59.7 percent of GDP (up 10.3 percent) while industry and construction made up 39.9 percent (up 7.5 percent) and agriculture 1 percent (up 5.9 percent). Retail and service revenue totalled more than 493 trillion VND (21.7 billion USD), an annual rise of 11 percent, and export turnover reached over 22.4…
VN smartphone hits shops
HA NOI (VNS) — Bkav Corporation yesterday launched the first made-in-Vietnam smartphone, Bphone, which was in development for more than four years. With a flat design, the phone has a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 with a speed of up to 2.5 GHz, and RAM Sky Hynic 3GB LPDDR3, and eMMC 5.0 flash storage of Toshiba. It comes with a 5-megapixel front camera and a 13-megapixel rear camera with OmniVision sensor. Bphone has the same technology used in global high-end smartphones. For example, it provides Fast Tracking Auto Focus that allows users to take photos and get them in focus later. According to Bkav Hardware Division’s vice president Vu Thanh Thang,…
Foreign investment up by 7.6% this year
With above $1.1 billion, South Korea continued to be Viet Nam’s leading source of FDI, making up 25.7 per cent of the total FDI registered in the country. — Photo vtv HA NOI (VNS) — The disbursement of foreign direct investment (FDI) reached US$4.95 billion in the first five months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 7.6 per cent. ADVERTISING According to the latest report of the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, foreign investors pumped $4.29 billion into Viet Nam during the reviewed period, equal to 78 per cent of the figure for last year. Of the sum, $2.95 billion went to 592 newly-licensed…
Big foreign investors in Vietnam’s construction field
According to the Foreign Investment Agency (Ministry of Planning and Investment), by April 20, 2015, there were a total of 1,196 FDI projects in the construction sector with a total registered capital of about $11.5 billion, accounting for 6.5% of the total FDI projects and 4.5% of total foreign capital. Real estate ranked third for attracting FDI. The average scale of projects in the construction sector was $9.64 million. Among the countries and territories investing in Vietnam in the field of construction, Korea is leading with 587 projects with investment of $ 2.4 billion (representing 49% of total projects and 20.9% total investment of the entire construction industry). Other countries…
Trade sees $1.87b deficit in first half of May
HA NOI (VNS) — Viet Nam exported US$6.32 billion worth of commodities in the first half of May, a decrease of 9.5 per cent compared over the previous fortnight, the General Department of Customs reported. Meanwhile, the country’s imported goods were worth $8.19 billion, an increase of 34.7 per cent compared to the second half of April. This meant the country’s trade deficit was $1.87 billion for the first two weeks of May. This compares to a trade deficit of $3.7 billion from the beginning of the year. The total export turnover from the beginning of this year to May 15 totalled $56.09 billion, while import turnover was $59.78 billion.…
UAE firm mulls US$500-million car park
HCMC – EPS Group from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has proposed a plan to build a smart car park under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) format in HCMC with a total investment of US$500 million. Rustam Ibragimov, a representative of the Dubai group, told the Daily about the plan on the sidelines of a meeting between leaders of UAE businesses and the city government on May 25. EPS has invested in parking lots in 19 countries worldwide. Ibragimov said if EPS gets approval from the city government, it will consider building a system of parking, traffic surveillance and control and vehicle maintenance facilities. HCMC chairman Le Hoang Quan said the city is calling for…
Will Vietnam become “the world’s factory”?
VietNamNet Bridge – According to the Asian Development Bank’s report on Asia’s development prospects in 2015, Vietnam’s GDP growth will reach 6.1% this year and will be 6.2% in 2016, the second highest growth rate in Asia after India. Vietnam is considered a country with the brightest future among the VISTA economies India, South Africa, Turkey and Argentina. Although Vietnam’s annual growth rate in 1998-2008 was 7.5%, it was still in crisis due to inflation, slowing growth and labor competition. According to Bloomberg, Vietnam still has a chance to become a strong emerging economy in Asia thanks to its favorable geographical location, abundant young labor force and its large investments…
Fisheries sector urged to improve production technologies
HA NOI (VNS) — Viet Nam’s fisheries industry should better utilise modern production technologies to improve its competitiveness in the global market, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Cao Duc Phat at a conference last Saturday. The minister said that, though the fisheries industry made some remarkable achievements, it has performed less than expected, especially in applying the world’s advanced technologies for the sector including the breeding. He said that research institutions had not made the best use of the state budget to help developing the industry. He stressed the importance of improving technology available to Vietnamese fishermen, who are responsible for 130,000 fishing boats at sea. However,…
Foreign investors optimistic about Vietnam’s economy
Vietnam has numerous opportunities for economic development due to its stable economy and ongoing reforms in key sectors, the CEO of Maybank Kim Eng Group, John Chong, said at the Invest ASEAN 2015 conference in Ho Chi Minh City on May 25. Chong and other foreign investors participating in the conference were optimistic about Vietnam ’s economy, which is expected to grow by more than 6 percent this year. According to the CEO, the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of this year would create a common market of ASEAN countries in which Vietnam ’s position as the region’s manufacturing hub will be strengthened. The country…
Transparency must be the supreme principle for FDI
VietNamNet Bridge – Taxation bodies are expected to examine the behavior of foreign-invested enterprises suspected of conducting transfer pricing, without fuss. However, most of the works have never been made public. Vietnam, FDI, FIA, MPI State agencies have had their reasons to keep the cases silent. However, this has angered the public and economists. Silence gives the public another reason to believe that many names on the black list of FIEs (foreign invested enterprises) conducting transfer pricing have not been exposed. Nguyen Duc Kien, deputy chair of the National Assembly’s Economics Committee, noted that Metro’s story showed the duplicity of foreign direct investment (FDI). “Investors always try to make things…
The consumer price index (CPI) for May showed an increase of 0.16 percent over April
The consumer price index (CPI) for May showed an increase of 0.16 percent over April and a year-on-year surge of 0.95 percent, the General Statistics Offices (GSO) said on May 24. Hence, average CPI in the first five months of 2015 increased 0.83 percent compared to the same period last year. According to Deputy Director of GSO’s Pricing Statistics Department, Do Bich Ngoc, the rise in May’s CPI is mainly due to the hike in petrol price on May 5, which contributed to a 0.08 percent increase in the CPI. The rise in electricity price in March plus surging electricity use due to hot weather also pushed the CPI up…
Consumer confidence in Vietnam continues growing
The consumer confidence index in Vietnam increased six points against last quarter, according to Nielsen’s consumer confidence index report for the first quarter of 2015 released on May 20. Vietnam’s consumer confidence index rose from 106 to 112 points. It is the third consecutive increase and the country’s highest score since 2010, making Vietnam the sixth optimistic nation in the world. The report showed the continued trend of changing spending habits towards saving more money among Vietnamese consumers, with 86 percent of the interviewees saying they did so during the past 12 months. More than half (56 percent) of the interviewees cited the reason for the cut in spending as…
政治：ベトナム、ニン副首相が第21回国際会議でアジア発展について議論
TOKYO (VNS) — Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh shared his thoughts on the major trends deeply influencing Asia’s development at the 21st International Conference on The Future of Asia in Tokyo yesterday. In his speech at the event, Ninh described Japan as an economic power crucial to Asia-Pacific’s development and the strength of the ASEAN Community. He praised Japan for increasing co-operation with Southeast Asian countries through ASEAN institutions, and important regional summits and forums. He said their participation contributed to building trust, expanding comprehensive development co-operation, and effectively coping with traditional and non-traditional security challenges. Japan is of special significance to Viet Nam as its top investor and…
Japanese investors have injected 37.5 billion USD into 2,619 valid projects in Vietnam as of the end of April.
Japanese investors have injected 37.5 billion USD into 2,619 valid projects in Vietnam as of the end of April. Japanese funding accounted for 14.3 percent of the country’s total foreign-invested projects, as well as 14.6 percent of the total foreign direct investment registered in the nation. Latest statistics from the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) revealed that Japan ranked second among countries and territories investing in Vietnam during the reviewed period. Further, up to 1,344 Japanese-invested projects, worth a combined 31.3 billion USD, were involved in the processing and manufacturing sector, making up 83.3 percent of all Japanese registered capital in this period. In order to…
HCM city seeks cooperation with Japan in agriculture
HCM City hopes to increase cooperation with Japan in agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors, especially hi-tech agriculture, according to Le Thanh Hai, Secretary of the city’s Party Committee. At a meeting with Hiroshige Seko, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, on April 12, Hai said his city has built the Agricultural Hi-Tech Agriculture Park (AHTP) and the Bio-tech Centre in order to welcome Japanese investors. He took the occasion to thank the Japanese Government for providing official development assistance (ODA) loans for development projects in Vietnam in general and in HCM City in particular. Being impressive with the development the city has achieved, Hiroshige Seko said that projects funded by Japanese ODA in…
Two-month goods, services retail sales climb 11.4 percent
(Source: VNA) Total retail sales of consumer goods and services exceeded 542.6 trillion VND (25.83 billion USD) in the first two months of 2015, an annual increase of 11.4 percent, reported the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). Nearly 413.2 trillion VND (19.67 billion USD) was generated through trading activities, representing a 10.6 percent annual increase and 76.2 percent of the total figure. The hotel and hospitality sector contributed over 64.2 trillion VND (3.06 billion USD), or 11.8 percent of the two-month revenue while services accounted for 11.2 percent at 60.8 trillion VND (2.89 billion USD). They posted respective increases of 12.5 percent and 16.5 percent from a year earlier. Tourism accounted for…
Industrial output up 12 percent in early 2015
(Photo: VNA) Annual Vietnamese factory production increased 12 percent within the first two months of 2015, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Increased output was seen in nearly all sectors; the processing-manufacturing and electricity generation-distribution sectors grew between 12-14 percent from the same period last year. Notably, seafood processing recorded a production growth of almost 21 percent. February alone saw a 7 percent increase in industrial production index, despite a nine-day Lunar New Year holiday. (vietnamplus2015年3月10日)
Vietnam participates in Foodex Japan 2015
Seventeen Vietnamese businesses processing and exporting agriculture and aquaculture products are participating in the 40th International Food and Beverage Exhibition in Japan (Foodex Japan 2015), which opened on March 3. Their products, including rice, fruits, fish sauce, cakes and beverages, are displayed across 126 square metres at the Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex in Chiba Prefecture. Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Doan Xuan Hung hailed the preparation of Vietnamese enterprises for the occasion, saying that many Japanese investors showed interests in the featured products. Foodex Japan is the largest international food and beverages exhibition in the Asia-Pacific region. It represents a valuable opportunity for Vietnamese businesses in the sector to seek…