Business briefs

• Vietnam’s exports this year may grow 19-21 percent while imports could rise 16-17 percent from 2009, said Le Van Duoc, director of the Industry and Trade Ministry’s Planning Department. Exports could rise 10 percent in 2011 to US$74.8 billion, while imports could increase 9.7 percent to $89.4 billion, creating a trade deficit of $14.6 billion, the Planning and Investment Ministry has projected.

• The government on Tuesday named a new chief executive officer for state-owned shipbuilder Vinashin, the fourth head of the group over the past two months. Truong Van Tuyen, former deputy general director of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group was appointed, replacing acting chief executive Nguyen Quoc Anh, who took the post on August 30. The two predecessors, Pham Thanh Binh and Tran Quang Vu, were suspended amid a financial investigation into the company.

• Major state-owned companies will receive a total capital injection of VND5.18 trillion ($265.9 million) to develop infrastructure projects in 2011, news website VnExpress reported on Tuesday, citing the Ministry of Planning and Investment. The capital includes VND3.5 trillion for oil and gas group PetroVietnam, VND45 billion for the Vietnam National Shipping Lines, VND1.33 trillion for Vietnam Railways, and VND215 billion for Electricity of Vietnam.

• The government has ordered the Ministry of Industry and Trade to take measures to reduce power cuts and ensure all power plants run at their full capacity. The ministry was also asked to supervise prices set by power producers in an attempt to make pricing more transparent.

• Inflation in Vietnam may rise 1.56 percent in the final three months of the year as commodity prices are stabilized, Hoang Trung Hai, deputy prime minister, said in a statement on the government’s website on Wednesday.

• Gold prices in Vietnam have exceeded world prices as investors accumulated the metal to repay bank loans taken out several months ago, which they had sold for cash, said Tran Thanh Hai, director of the Vietnam Gold Business Corp. Domestic gold prices hit a record VND33 million ($1,690) per tael on Wednesday, up 4.4 percent from the previous day. One tael is about 1.2 ounces of gold.

• The central bank may allow businesses to import gold to “stabilize the market” so that domestic prices will move closer to the international trend, online newswire VnEconomy reported, citing Nguyen Quang Huy, head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s department for foreign-currency management. Any imports will be based on a “suitable volume and timeframe,” the report cited Huy as saying.

• Air Mekong, a local private air carrier that has partnered with Skywest Inc., will start domestic flights on October 9, said Doan Quoc Viet, chairman of the carrier. The company will use four CRJ-900 aircraft produced by Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. for its flights.

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Vietnam Jan-Sept credit expected to rise 19.5 pct

Photo: Tuoi Tre

HANOI - Loans in Vietnam by the end of this month are estimated to rise 19.5 percent from the end of 2009, the central bank said on Thursday, on course to reach an annual target of 25 percent credit growth.

The projection was based on expansion of 19.27 percent as of Monday, State Bank of Vietnam Governor Nguyen Van Giau said in a statement on the central bank's website.

"The credit growth target of 25 percent for the whole of the year will be attained," Giau said in the statement.

The government has supported credit expansion to facilitate economic growth, which accelerated to an annual rate of 7.16 percent in the third quarter.

Credit jumped 37.7 percent last year from 2008, speeding from an annual rise of 23.58 percent the previous year, the central bank has said.

Loans for securities investment of 15 trillion dong (US$769.6 million) had the highest rise of 19.8 percent, consumer loans jumped 19.7 percent to 151 trillion dong while non-production loans rose 18.2 percent to 385 trillion dong, Giau was quoted by Thursday's Thanh Nien newspaper as saying.

He gave no value estimates for Vietnam's total credit at the end of September.

He said lending interest rates dropped very slowly in September, edging down just 0.01 percentage point from August. Lending rates in Vietnam now range at between 13-15.5 percent.

The central bank will work with commercial banks to further cut interest rates, Giau said in the newspaper report.

The central bank said on Wednesday it would relax compulsory reserve requirements for banks that made significant loans for agriculture or rural development as a way to mobilize funding for the countryside.

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Vietnam’s GDP grows 6.52 percent in 9 months

HCMC

Vietnam’s economy grew 6.52 percent in the past nine months, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) reported on Monday.

The growth was hugely supported by industrial production value, which hit VND574 trillion or a rise of 13.8 percent compared with the same period last year and exports, which rose 20 percent to US$51.5 billion.

According to the MPI, the export figure was mainly contributed by the foreign direct investment sector and the rising prices of rubber, pepper, cassava, cashew nut, tea, rice and seafood in the world market.

In the past nine months, retail and service sales raked in VND1.146 trillion, a rise of 25 percent compared to the equivalent period in 2009.

The ministry reported that the state had collected VND360 trillion for its budget, which represented 78.2 percent of the yearly estimate.

Despite gains, the national economy still faced a high trade deficit, the MPI said, citing an import value of $60.08 billion, which represented a rise of 22.7 percent compared with the corresponding period last year.

The MPI predicted that prices of consumer goods would go up in the remaining three months because of the rising prices of input materials and commodities in the world market.

It asked relevant ministries and sectors to introduce detailed plans to retain the prices.

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Vietnam’s GDP grows 6.52 percent in nine months

Vietnam ’s economy grew 6.52 percent in the past nine months, the
Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) reported on Sept. 27.

The growth was hugely supported by industrial production value, which
hit 574 trillion VND or a rise of 13.8 percent compared with the same
period last year and exports, which rose 20 percent to 51.5 billion USD.

According to the MPI, the export figure was mainly contributed
by the foreign direct investment sector and the rising prices of rubber,
pepper, cassava, cashew nut, tea, rice and seafood in the world market.

In
the past nine months, retail and service sales raked in 1,146 trillion
VND, a rise of 25 percent compared to the equivalent period in 2009.

The
ministry reported that the State had collected 360 trillion VND for its
budget, which represented 78.2 percent of the yearly estimate.

Despite
gains, the national economy still faced a high trade deficit, the MPI
said, citing an import value of 60.08 billion USD, which represented a
rise of 22.7 percent compared with the corresponding period last year.

The
MPI predicted that prices of consumer goods would go up in the
remaining three months because of the rising prices of input materials
and commodities in the world market.

It asked relevant ministries and sectors to introduce detailed plans to retain the prices./.

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Asia defies global newspaper meltdown

Photo: AFP

HONG KONG - Asian newspapers are defying the global print media meltdown while their counterparts in the West spill red ink and lay off staff in droves as readers flock to online news.

Print advertising -- the lifeblood of a newspaper's revenue base -- has plunged 47 percent in the hard-hit North American market since 2005, while the outlook for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) remains tepid, says a new study by global consultancy Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

However, Asia's newspaper advertising is expected to rise 3.1 percent annually through 2014 to US$27.3 billion, according to PwC's "Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2010-2014."

The trend toward online news has been slower in Asia where newspapers remain popular, including Japan which has the world's highest newspaper readership.

"In Asia Pacific and Latin America...newspaper readership has held up and is increasing, which accounts for their stronger performance in recent years and faster growth rates compared with North America and EMEA in the next five years," the report said.

Spending in Asia's newspaper sector will rise at 2.3 percent annually through 2014, it added.

In Hong Kong, the city's myriad Chinese and English-language newspapers wage a daily battle for readers in one of the world's most saturated newspaper markets.

Leading tabloid Apple Daily boosts its coverage with fanciful animated depictions of gruesome and violent news stories, and employs an army of young reporters who will stop at little to get the story.

"It is cut-throat competition," says Cheng Ming-yan, Apple's chief editor, adding, "We're not conservative -- we have very aggressive reporting."

Number-one selling Oriental Daily News (ODN) once sued its bitter rival Apple over claims that its reporters tricked ODN colleagues into divulging exclusive stories.

"It is pretty intense -- Hong Kong has always been a newspaper town," said Steve Shellum, executive editor of the English-language daily The Standard.

Newspapers reach almost 80 percent of adults in Hong Kong, a city of seven million, and its two biggest-selling papers each claim a daily readership above 1.2 million, according to "World Press Trends 2010" produced by newspaper association WAN-IFRA.

"Chinese people are eager to get information from newspapers because, traditionally, that was the way their mother and father spent their leisure time," said Cheng at Apple Daily.

But circulation at Hong Kong's paid dailies has still been dropping as free newspapers muscle in on their turf.

Apple not only plans to continue using cartoon animations in its print edition, it is also moving to video with sometimes questionable depictions of news -- all in a bid to attract the next generation.

"It's very important and will become more important. Young people have grown up with cartoons -- they want the image," Cheng said.

Apple's computer-generated video of Tiger Woods' now ex-wife running after his car swinging a golf club -- after hearing of the golf legend's infidelities -- was an Internet sensation, and seems unlikely to be a one-hit wonder.

"Our new business is to focus on live animation news," Cheng said.

That swing to online and video news will ultimately spell doom for newspapers even in the Asian market, said Chan Yuen-ying, director of the University of Hong Kong's journalism school.

"(The decline) is hitting Asia slower and media owners still have some time, but the door is closing," Chan said.

"I don't think there is reason to be optimistic."

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Foreign investment hits 11.57 billion USD

Vietnam has attracted more than 11.57 billion USD in foreign direct
investment (FDI) since the beginning of this year, a year-on-year drop
of 12.3 percent.

Of the figure, 10.79 billion USD
came from 658 newly-licensed projects, up 41 percent year-on-year in
value, and 787 million USD from 143 operational projects, down 85.8
percent in terms of capital compared to the same period last year.

In August alone, the country licensed 125 projects with a combined
registered capital of 2.47 billion USD and permitted six others to add
72 million USD to their existing investments, reported the Foreign
Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

As many as 850 million USD of FDI were disbursed in
August, bringing the total amount so far this year to 7.25 billion USD, a
year-on-year rise of 3.6 percent, according to the FIA.

During the January-August period, the FDI-invested sector earned 23.96
billion USD from exports and spent 22.37 billion USD on imports,
year-on-year rise of 26.6 percent and 43.6 percent, respectively.

Vietnam expects to attract between 22-25 billion USD in FDI this year./.

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