Liberty joins hands with bank for loan program

HCMC - Liberty Insurance and Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) signed an agreement last week to launch a loan program to provide financial support for those who want to buy cars.

Under the collaboration program named “Car Within Reach,” Liberty will offer insurance service to auto buyers while the bank will offer loans in Vietnam dong for customers to buy cars. The loan requires collateral including fixed assets, the car itself, or third-party guarantees.

OCB says the approved loan may be up to 100% of the car value for a maximum term of five years. The borrowing procedure is simple as the bank will confirm their approval within 24 hours.

The bank says repayment can be made by automatic account deduction or directly at any of its offices. Besides, the loan program also offers a discount rate of 0.5% per year off the standard interest rate charged by OCB.

OCB says it is cooperating with most authorized auto dealers in the country to extend more loans for car buyers.

Trinh Van Tuan, general director of the bank, says the “Car Within Reach” program is designed to offer consultancy not only on the bank’s loan programs, but also on the selection of cars and car insurance products. This will help save time for customers.

“We have studied and found that Liberty is appreciated for the auto insurance product thanks to its service quality, and simple, fair and fast claim procedures,” Tuan said in a statement.

Carlos Vanegas, general director of Liberty Insurance, pins hopes on the partnership, saying that it will create a premise for further cooperation programs between the bank and the insurance company.

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Surge in foreign arrivals puts target within reach

The target of 4 million international arrivals this year seems well within reach since the number has already reached 3.83 million, a third higher than last year at this stage, according to the General Statistics Office.

Several major events scheduled during the remaining months, like the upcoming 1000th anniversary of Hanoi and the International Yacht Festival in Mui Ne, are expected to attract flocks of visitors.

Most visitors so far this year – around 3 million -- have arrived by air, while 703,600 came by road, and 37,500 by sea.

The number of people visiting for tourism is up 44.3 percent year on year at 2.35 million.

China remained the leading market with 676,000 Chinese visitors arriving in the first nine months, a 89 percent increase.

It was followed by Korea, the US, and Japan with 364,400, 324,900, and 317,700 visitors, or increases of 29.4 percent, 2.4 percent, and 18.7 percent.

The tourism sector, which has earned revenues of around VND70 trillion (US$3.6 billion) so far, has also reported 23 million domestic tourists.

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Ministry says trade deficit uder check

HANOI – The Ministry of Industry and Trade is confident that the country’s target to keep trade deficit under 20% of the export value this year is well within reach given the strong export growth in the year to date.

Vu Van Chinh, head of the ministry’s Import-Export Department, told an online review meeting on Monday that “keeping trade deficit at less than 20% of the total export value this year is highly probable unless there occur sharp changes in the rest of the year.”

Export value in the January-August period increased by 19.7% year-on-year to US$44.85 billion, while import expenditure in the period totaled US$52.67 billion, leaving a trade deficit equivalent to 18.32% of export earnings, Chinh said.

Trade deficit stood at US$0.9 billion in August, which is the fourth straight month the deficit is kept below the bar, according to Chinh.

Therefore, “the trade deficit target is within reach if there are no upsurges in imports due to speculation on commodities,” he remarked.

Chinh predicted that exports would remain upbeat in the rest of the year, and the total export value for 2010 would likely hit US$68.5 billion if more efforts are made to keep monthly export revenue at US$5.9 billion. Import spending is estimated at US$80-82 billion.

However, Chinh also pointed out that challenges remained to be addressed, including the lack of materials for export processing in the fishery sector, the shortage of labor in the garment, footwear and furniture industries, and technical barriers in importing countries.

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