Workshop increases Vietnam-India strategic partnership

Vietnam and India have a great potential for cooperation in services,
pharmaceuticals, oil refinery, transport, agriculture, information
technology, tourism, education and production of fine art articles, said
a workshop in New Delhi.

Trade and economic ties between India
and Vietnam have seen a rapid growth in recent years with two-way
trade rising from 489.2 million USD in 2003 to over 2 billion USD in
2009, participants stressed at the September 30 workshop entitled
India-Vietnam strategic partnership: tapping potential for expanding
cooperation.

The two countries expect to bring the bilateral
trade to 2.55 billion USD this year. Vietnam’s exports to India are
mainly tea, coffee, rubber, coal, computer hardware and electronic
appliances, while its imports from India steel, livestock feeding,
pharmaceuticals, machinery equipment, cotton, leather and textile
products and pesticide.

However, participants stressed Vietnam
and India have yet to fully tap their potential in trade and
economic ties, urging the two countries to overcome existing
difficulties, such as tax levels, customs procedure and transport./.

Related Articles

• Indian diplomat vows to accelerate strategic partnership with VN
• Workshop calls for longer-term plans to audit State entities
• IFC: Vietnam needs to increase PPP to support economy
• High rice price cuts exports
• Naval forces boost global co-operation

Footwear sector plans to develop supporting industry

The Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) has submitted to
the government a strategy to develop the sector from now till 2020 with a
vision for 2015, focusing on the supporting and material industry.

According
to Lefaso President Nguyen Duc Thuan, the strategy aims at ending the
sector’s dependence on foreign materials and technologies and shifting
from sub-contracting.

Under the strategy, the sector will need
18.8 trillion VND (989 million USD) to produce shoetrees and models and
expand production of materials including leather and leatherette.

The
plan is expected to help the sector to earn 8.5 billion USD from
exports by 2015 and 11 billion USD by 2020 with the localisation rate of
65-75 percent from 50 percent at present.

Thuan explained that
the strategy was prompted by the fact that the sector has been suffering
from a serious shortage of materials for many years, due to a lack of
supporting industry.

At present, the country has only 30
enterprises, including five with foreign investment capital, producing
tanned leather, the main material for the footwear sector. Those
enterprises can meet only 30 percent of the demands for materials of
domestic footwear enterprises.

The Lefaso leader further said
that the sector has also to cope with the EU’s anti-dumping tax on
Vietnam’s footwear products.

In an effort to boost exports,
Lefaso has carried out many promotion activities, including hosting the
29th international conference of the Asian footwear sector and the
international fair of footwear materials and machines.

At
present, Vietnamese shoe makers have got orders for exports to fill
until the first quarter of 2011, as customers are shifting their
attention from China to Vietnam.

In the first nine months
of the year, the sector earned over 3.6 billion USD from exports, a
year-on-year increase of 23 percent. The figure is expected to hit over 5
billion USD by the end of the year./.

Related Articles

• Workshop calls for longer-term plans to audit State entities
• Countries of CLMV join hands for tourism development
• Party reports come in from provinces
• PM foresees bright future for co-operation with Africa
• Preparations for congress reviewed

Gov’t gives visa fee exemption for tourists

HCMC – Visa fees will be exempted for all international travelers coming to Vietnam as organized by international travel companies who have registered to join the national marketing campaign named Vietnam – Your Destination.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has just announced the Government decision, which offers visa fee exemption between now and the end of this year.

Vu The Binh, head of the Travel Department under the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), told the Daily on Thursday that the tourism sector would have a good opportunity to woo more visitors to the country in the next three months because all of the country’s international travel companies were joining the marketing program.

“Along with the diplomatic channel, we will send the good information directly to overseas partners to encourage more foreign guests to come,” he said.

VNAT has reported that more than 383,000 foreign visitors visited the country in September, bringing the total number of foreign arrivals to over 3.73 million in the year to date, up 34.2% year on year.

The top ten markets of the country’s inbound tourism sector are China, South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and France. Arrivals from these markets alone hit nearly 2.79 million, while arrivals from the remaining markets total 942.000.

Related Articles

• Vietnam extends visa fee exemption through year’s end
• Countries of CLMV join hands for tourism development
• Fitness for all
• HCMC to relay grand sale program to November
• Expats sing happy birthday to Ha Noi

Binh Dinh to hold first forestry festival next year

HCMC – The central province of Binh Dinh will organize the first forestry festival in Quy Nhon City from March 26 to 29 to create a venue for stakeholders to propose ways to develop the sector.

Le Huu Loc, deputy chairman of the province, said at the press conference in HCMC early this week that the event would be a convergence point for scientists, enterprises and managers to suggest solutions for forestry development from planting to processing and consumption.

This is a joint effort of the province, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the provincial Forestry Association.

The province, Loc said, would also take the occasion to honor contributors to forestry development and promote business links between local exporters and international buyers, probably from North America, Western Europe, Russia, Japan, China and Thailand.

The festival will feature a showcase of forestry products at 700 stands of 400 local and international businesses.

Binh Dinh – which belongs to the central focal economic zone, about 670 kilometers northeast of HCMC and 1,065 kilometers southeast of Hanoi – has 150 wood processors, most of them exporters, with annual output of 150,000 cubic meters of refined woodwork and more than 300,000 cubic meters of chip wood.

Last year, Binh Dinh exports US$250 million worth of wooden goods, 60% of the province’s total export revenue.

Related Articles

• Retail sales soar 25% in first nine months
• Hanoi T&T win first V-League after scoreless draw
• Vietnam extends visa fee exemption through year’s end
• New decree hopes to protect holders of convertible bonds
• iPhone 4 flies off shelf on first sales day in Vietnam

City hires bidding consultant for second metro route

HCMC – The HCMC government has allowed the Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) to hire a domestic firm as bidding consultant for the design and inspection package of the city’s second metro line project.

MAUR deputy head Nguyen Van Quoc said hiring a local enterprise would help the city reduce costs after the city had to revise capital for the first metro route. He was confident the job could be done well by local enterprises, he said.

The organization will advance money from its operation expenditure to cover hiring charges. Selection of the consultant would be completed within this year and the city would begin the package in early 2011.

Construction of the metro line, starting from the planned Ben Thanh Terminal in District 1 and ending in Tham Luong Depot in District 12, began in August at a total cost of VND23.6 trillion. It was funded by official development assistance (ODA) loans of the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, and German development bank KfW, as well as the government budget.

The 11.3 kilometer first phase will include a one-kilometer feeder line leading to the Tham Luong Depot, 9.3 kilometers of underground track and almost one kilometer of elevated track. The project will be implemented from 2011 to 2015 and start operating in 2016.

Related Articles

• Developers eye second-home market
• Container scanner runs at low capacity
• City officials reveal solutions to traffic congestion
• Energy group asks for 50% price hike
• Hanoi T&T win first V-League after scoreless draw

Market slightly rebounds

HCMC – The local market bounced back slightly on Thursday given strong demand for large caps at the end of the session. The VN-Index rose 1.58 points, or 0.35%, against the previous day to close at 454.52.

The market opened slightly in the red and traded for much of the day in a very narrow three-point range around Wednesday’s close before jumping 1.5 points at the close.

Liquidity also increased strongly as 40.6 million shares worth VND1.2 trillion were traded, surging by 22.4% and 34.8% against the session earlier respectively. On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, bids rose 11.7% to 63.5 million shares while offers dropped 12.4% from the previous day to nearly 62.8 million shares.

The number of losers was more than twice that of advancers at 145 to 68, of which six issues went to the ceiling prices and nine others plunged to the floor prices.

Ocean Group Co. (OGC) once again led the market in terms of liquidity, ending the day down 1.9% to VND31,600 per share with 1.8 million shares traded, followed by Thuan Thao Corp. (GTT), gaining 4.5% from the previous session to VND11,500 on the volume of 855,000 shares.

Vimedimex Medi-Pharma Co. (VMD) began trading 8.1 million shares on the bourse on Thursday but it dropped 20% against the preference price to VND32,000 per share on the volume of around 164,000 shares.

Foreigners turned strong net buyers, acquiring 5.4 million shares worth VND190 billion and offloading 1.8 million shares worth VND54 billion. They accounted for 18.4% and 5.2% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.

The Hanoi market fell for the third consecutive session on Thursday and turnover dipped to VND630 billion. The HNX-Index dropped 0.12 point, or 0.09%, from the previous session and ended the day at 127.29.

Only 74 stocks rose while 221 stocks lost ground, of which six stocks went to the ceiling prices while 10 stocks dropped to the floor prices. Foreigners were slight net buyers and accounted for 0.66% of the buying value and 0.6% of the selling value.

Fiachra Mac Cana, managing director of HCMC Securities Corp., said the markets closed mixed with the HNX-Index continuing to decline while the southern bourse moved higher. Trading volumes were unchanged overall as a dip in the northern bourse was offset by higher volumes in the southern market.

Sentiment, however, remained fragile as a weakening currency in the unofficial market coupled with higher gold prices dogged investors, he commented.

Vietnam International Securities Co. (VIS) said the 450-point level seemed to be especially firm for the VN-Index in the coming time when supply would far outpace demand on the market.

“The index traded narrowly around the level in recent sessions despite supporting news from the macro economy, which showed that investors were still very cautious. The market may move flat around the 455-point level within the next few days,” VIS predicted.

Related Articles

• Developers eye second-home market
• VN firms may qualify for S Korea exchange listing
• Market moves up sharply
• Greenback firmer on signs of rising demand
• Gov’t gives visa fee exemption for tourists

Wood imports eat up furniture makers’ profits

Vietnamese wooden furniture makers’ profits are less than 5 percent since 80 percent of the raw materials have to be imported, according to the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association.

The dependence on imports is pinching them especially after the prices of timber in main supply markets like China, the US, and New Zealand have spiraled by 15-30 percent this year.

Pine and oak have seen the greatest rise, Tran Duc Sinh, the chairman of Viforest, as the association is known, said.

Exports of wooden furniture were worth $1.82 billion in the first eight months, up 20 percent year on year.

The industry hopes to increase that to $3.1 billion for the year and has enough export orders on hand to hit the target.

However, more than 6.4 million cubic meters of wood is required for that while domestic supply is only around 1.6 million cubic meters.

Besides, since the local supply is sourced mostly from young forests, the wood quality is low and only really suitable for the paper industry.

The Vietnamese government limits commercial logging to 300,000 cubic meters a year to prevent over-exploitation.

But in 2012 it will be calculated differently, ensuring domestic supply will partially replace imports, Thoi Bao Kinh Te Sai Gon Online (The Saigon Economic Times Online) quoted Pham Minh Thoa of the General Forestry Department as saying.

Local supply will also be augmented under a pilot project on sustainable forestry exploitation and management, following the international Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) model, she said.

FSC certification is required by major furniture importers like the US and European countries as a measure against illegal logging but, a condition most Vietnamese timber suppliers have yet to meet.

Vietnam ranks second in Southeast Asia in terms of wood products export, shipping its goods to 120 countries.

Related Articles

• The power of persimmon
• Assoc insists on power price hike despite protests
• Hanoi T&T win first V-League after scoreless draw
• Binh Dinh to hold first forestry festival next year
• Timber-product exporters sign $3b deals