Gold dealers urged to innovate

HCM CITY — Viet Nam Gold Traders Association chairman Nguyen Thanh Long said last Friday that members should innovate in technology and improve designs to boost the country's jewellery industry.

The association should start by establishing a jewellery and gemstone verification centre to test and certify members' jewellery before gradually expanding to the whole market, Long said at the association's annual meeting in HCM City last weekend.

The industry has been plagued by unstable quality and unhealthy competition, according to insiders.

Nguyen Van Dung, chairman of the HCM City Association of Fine Arts, Gold Jewellery and Gemstones, called for creating a quality standard for gold jewellery and carrying out more checks to ensure quality.

The general director of Phu Nhuan Jewellery Company, Cao Ngoc Dung, said the association should seek recognition for the gold and jewellery business as an industry from the Government which now treats it akin to foreign exchange.

The association asked the Government to allow further gold imports so that it can make Vietnamese jewellery competitive in the domestic and global markets.

It is estimated that gold jewellery exports were worth US$900 million in the first five months of the year. — VNS

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Timber suppliers learn about legal issues

Photo: Tuoi Tre

A workshop in Hanoi Monday has supported Vietnamese timber suppliers update with revisions of the Lacey Act of the US,  which is currently Vietnam’s largest furniture trader.

“Supplementary articles of the Lacey Act, dated May 2008, provide challenges and also opportunities for Vietnam to better improve its management of forest, timber import and processing,” Ha Cong Tuan, Deputy Director General Vietnam Directorate of Forestry said in his opening speech of the Legality Training Workshop.

By bettering its management, Vietnam aims to sustain and expand its share of the US furniture market, Tuan noted, emphasising that, “ Vietnam considers the US furniture market a high priority”.

In 2009, Vietnam earned US$1.2 billion from the US furniture market, or 44 percent of its timber export value.

As new product declarations under the Lacey Act are enforced from September, a growing number of US-based forest products importers will seek assurance from their suppliers that products they source have been legally produced.

This means they must be able to demonstrate that the timber has been harvested, possessed, transported, sold and exported without breaking any relevant laws in the country where the tree was grown, even if it was processed in another country.

Combating timber trafficking was also a highlight of the workshop, which brought together representatives from Government, the forestry sector and suppliers of forest products.

“Cooperating on tackling illegal logging will help Vietnamese producers, because as demand increases, Vietnam can gain market access by increasing its supply of legal timber products,” said Francis Donovan, Mission Director of USAID Vietnam, which is among the organisers of the event.

He underscored his country’s commitment to working with Vietnamese producers in the supply of legal and sustainable products that meet international market standards.

Tuan affirmed that Vietnam has cooperated with many countries around the world and made governmental-level commitments to intensify its forest management to prevent illegal logging.

He cited the country’s participation in the ASEAN action plan to adapt to the EU Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT).

“Illegal logging and timber trade not only undermine conservation, they also lead to reduced profitability of legal trade, loss of foreign revenue and currency exchange, uncollected forest-related taxes and depleted forest resources and services,” said Chen Hin Keong, the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network (TRAFFIC) Global Forest Trade Programme Head.

Vietnam has increased its forest coverage from 34.3 percent in 2000 to 39.6 percent in 2009. It is among the world’s top five in terms of increased forest coverage and top ten in terms of furniture exports.

As an exporter of up to 90 percent of its wooden furniture, the country is set to rake in $3 billion from furniture this year.

The workshop was co-organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) with support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Two similar workshops will be held, in Quy Nhon, the central province of Binh Dinh, on August 25, and in Ho Chi Minh City on August 27.

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CAAV cannot force Indochina Airlines to pay off debts

Passengers pass by the emptied ticketing counter of Indochina Airlines at the domestic terminal of Tan Son Nhat Airport on Sunday. The fate of this carrier remains undecided though it has suspended services for almost 10 months - Photo: Mong Binh

HCMC – The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) has confirmed that it cannot force Indochina Airlines to pay off debts totaling tens of billions of dong for ticketing agents and service providers as this is a matter between the airline and its creditors.

However, CAAV will help the creditors with the steps to get their money back from the airline that has suspended services for almost 10 months because of financial woes, said Vo Huy Cuong, head of CAAV’s Air Transport Department.

Cuong explained that CAAV would only be able to inform Indochina Airlines of what the creditors requested for debt payment when the authority got the appeal from ticketing agents as the authority was not involved in the contracts signed by the first operational private carrier and the agents.

Cuong told the Daily on the phone that relevant regulations already in effect from 2006 clarified companies were not required to register with CAAV when they wanted to act as agents for a local airline. So, the agents should negotiate directly with the carrier and then take legal actions if talks between them do not bring about any good results.

Cuong said what CAAV would do in the case of Indochina Airlines was similar to the moves of Macau’s aviation regulator after the latter received CAAV’s document about the money that Viva Macau owed to ticketing agents and service providers in Vietnam. In its written reply, the foreign agency said it had told Viva Macau about its responsibility to settle debts but stressed payment would depend on legal procedures in Macau.

Viva Macau suddenly suspended its services to HCMC and Hanoi in late March this year, and has not paid money back for the already booked tickets and deposits of travel agencies, ticketing agents and passengers in Vietnam.

Viva Macau is said to owe more than US$100,000 to travel agencies, ticketing agents and passengers in this country. But, the total debts of this low-cost carrier in Vietnam are much bigger if unpaid bills of airport service providers are also calculated.

Cuong said CAAV did not know the exact debts of Indochina Airlines but put the combined amount at tens of billions of dong, with the biggest parts attributed to the jet fuel supplied by Vietnam Air Petrol Co. (Vinapco) and services providers at Tan Son Nhat Airport.

Tran Huu Phuc, director of Vinapco, said Indochina Airlines had not paid off any of the around VND20 billion (more than US$1 million) worth of jet fuel.

Phuc said Vinapco was waiting for instruction of the parent company, Vietnam Airlines Corp. and observing moves of airport services suppliers before preparing legal procedures against Indochina Airlines.

Cuong said Indochina Airlines would have been grounded for one year this October and thus having its license revoked according to the country’s civil aviation regulations.

The Ministry of Transport has not decided the fate of Indochina Airlines though Cuong said CAAV had reported the actual situation of this airline to the ministry months ago.

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Local universities sign IT agreement

HCMC – Local universities which have information technology training field signed an agreement last Thursday in Phan Thiet Town to reinforce cooperation with an aim to develop the country’s IT training and application.

The schools included University of Engineering and Technology under the Vietnam National University in Hanoi, Phan Thiet University, FPT University, and the University of Information Technology under the Vietnam National University in HCMC. Joining the alliance were also Duy Tan University, Hung Vuong University, Ba Ria-Vung Tau University, Information Technology College, Hai Phong Polytechnics College, and Saigon Advanced Institute of Technology.

The signing ceremony was part of the 6th International Conference on Information Technology for Education held Thursday and Friday in HCMC and Phan Thiet.

These universities will together build learning resources consisting of curricula and materials for their IT faculties. The resources will be organized as an online library for lecturers and students from these universities.

The cooperation will also help universities effectively utilize the international human resources such as inviting professors and experts worldwide to teach and give speeches to students of the universities besides sharing materials and free international software in the field of information technology.

“These terms of the agreement will help member universities to gain the best learning results and save costs,” Hoang Van Kiem, rector of the University of Information Technology, told the Daily on the sidelines of the first day of the conference held in HCMC.

“We hope that in the near future, other universities will join our network,” he said.

Last Friday, over 300 delegates and scholars from the U.S., Canada, France, Australia, Singapore, Korea, Japan and Poland attended the second day of the conference in Phan Thiet. They discussed different IT topics, including computer-based education and e-learning, computer science and learning environment, and machine learning among others.

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New rule requires prior registration of milk prices

Vietnam's Finance Ministry has issued a new regulation that, for the first time, requires all imported milk powder products for children under six to have their prices registered with the authorities.

The move aims to exert some control over milk prices in Vietnam, which have increased steadily in recent years to an unreasonable level, news website VnExpress reported Sunday.

Under the new regulation, which takes effect on October 1, dairy firms have to register their prices before launching new products or adjusting prices.

Current regulations require only companies with 50 percent state capital to register their prices with the authorities.

As most of the dairy firms in Vietnam are private and foreign-invested companies, they could not be forced to list their prices until now.

Experts and consumers alike have complained that milk prices in Vietnam are too high despite low tax rates.

They said dairy firms spent too much on advertising and sales commissions to compete with each other, and then passed on the burden to end users.

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Foreign partners sought for Hue airport upgrade

Vietnam is looking for partnerships with foreign investors to develop Phu Bai Airport in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue into an international one that can serve five million passengers in 2020.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has asked the Ministry of Transport to work with concerned agencies and create plans for such a partnership.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had in July last year approved a plan to upgrade the airport so that it can meet international standards and receive large aircraft. It can only serve 500,000 passengers a year at present. 

Last month the provincial administration requested the government’s consent for attracting foreign investment to upgrade the airport.

State-run Middle Airports Corporation, which manages Phu Bai and six other airports in the central coastal and highlands region, said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore's Changi Airport International in 2008 to form a joint venture for the upgrade project.

Both sides, however, have failed to agree on many key issues, including partnership benefits and management.

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Foreign partners sought for Hue airport upgrade

Vietnam is looking for partnerships with foreign investors to develop Phu Bai Airport in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue into an international one that can serve five million passengers in 2020.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has asked the Ministry of Transport to work with concerned agencies and create plans for such a partnership.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had in July last year approved a plan to upgrade the airport so that it can meet international standards and receive large aircraft. It can only serve 500,000 passengers a year at present. 

Last month the provincial administration requested the government’s consent for attracting foreign investment to upgrade the airport.

State-run Middle Airports Corporation, which manages Phu Bai and six other airports in the central coastal and highlands region, said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore's Changi Airport International in 2008 to form a joint venture for the upgrade project.

Both sides, however, have failed to agree on many key issues, including partnership benefits and management.

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