Container scanner runs at low capacity

A customs officer inspects a container using the scanner at Cat Lai Port in HCMC - Photo: Vu Thuoc

HCMC – The country’s first container scanner at Cat Lai Port in HCMC is operating at 40% capacity due to patchy container transport services at the port, according to the customs.

Ton Thanh Phong, deputy head of the Saigon Port Customs Office – Zone 1, the operator of the scanner, said the US$9.6-million equipment just scanned around 40 containers a day as less-than-expected containers were carried to the site where the scanner is located for inspection.

Following some technical glitches, the scanner funded by Japan is now in good condition but there are less-than-required trucks for transporting containers to the scanner. “New Port Co. has six or seven trucks used for this activity, so goods owners have to queue,” said Phong.

He said a number of goods owners had hired trucks or used their own vehicles to quicken the customs clearance process at the port. “The customs office has asked New Port Co. to add more container trucks to speed up the scanning process.”

A high fee is another problem. Phong said the fee for traditional customs inspections which require containers to be unsealed was VND436,000 per container but that for the scanner service is VND350,000 per 20-foot container and VND510,000 per 40-foot container.

The scanner helps shorten the period of customs inspection by four to six times and easily detect smuggled and prohibited goods.

Haiphong Port is expected to receive a similar scanner, also funded by Japan, in the first quarter of next year, according Hoang Viet Cuong, deputy head of the General Department of Customs.

This equipment will be used at other ports in the future, he said but declined to elaborate.

In related customs news, HCMC from early November will expand electronic customs procedures at five more agencies, raising the total number of customs units with e-customs to eight.

The e-customs had already been applied at Cat Lai, Tan Cang ports and Linh Trung Export Processing Zone.

The department will organize four one-day training classes on e-customs declaration skills for enterprises at Him Lam Co. in Binh Thanh District from October 12. Around 1,500 enterprises are expected to join the classes.

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City officials reveal solutions to traffic congestion

A new high-rise building going up in downtown HCMC. The HCMC Institute for Development Studies (HIDS) is going to work with relevant agencies to find  measures to cope with chronic traffic congestion, especially in the downtown area where more and more buildings are springing up - Photo: Le Toan

HCMC - The HCMC Institute for Development Studies (HIDS) has been assigned to team up with relevant agencies to map out proactive measures to deal with chronic traffic jams in this economic hub of Vietnam.

The measures would likely cover restriction on bikes and skyscraper buildings in downtown areas as well as a brake on HCMC’s population as revealed by HIDS president Nguyen Trong Hoa and Tran Chi Dung, director of the city’s Department of Urban Planning and Architecture.

Hoa and Dung answered a host of queries in relation to the city’s urban planning vision to 2025 from companies and organizations at a business luncheon held in here on Wednesday by the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) in Vietnam.

Hoa said HIDS was working on policies to restrict bikes in downtown areas and impose fees on vehicles running into the central business district, while earmarking prioritized streets for buses. He stressed these policies would probably result in public outcry but would be a must to ensure sustainable development for the city.

Dung of the department confirmed public transport network took one of the focuses of the HCMC government and this was proved by substantial investment in buses over the past year. But, public transport means can meet a mere 7% of the demand compared to 20-30% as targeted.

In its development strategy, the city will have modern subway, monorail and tram systems to lure citizens to public transport means, and investment capital is being sought from different sources, including official development assistance (ODA) loans to translate these projects into reality.

Dung said more ODA loans had been pledged from Europe for metro developments in HCMC. The first metro route stretching over 19 kilometers from Ben Thanh Market to Suoi Tien has its depot constructed and is scheduled to go online in 2015.

Hoa of HIDS said the chronic traffic congestion in HCMC would be eased when six planned metro routes are in place. However, he said this would be possible if the city’s population was capped at 10 million.

An adjusted master zoning plan for HCMC until 2025 envisages the city’s population at 10 million and the number of non-residents at 2.5 million. In that year, up to 7.4 million of the citizens will live in the central area and the rest in outlying districts.

HCMC’s residential area will be limited at 90,000-100,000 hectares by 2025 and the central districts account for some 49,000 hectares. Hoa said as the city’s land could not be widened, its citizens should not be more than 10 million.

“Ten million citizens will be the maximum population that HCMC can endure in terms of accommodation and traffic movement, given the roads, beltways, bypasses, bridges, schools, hospital and houses the city has now and in the future,” Hoa explained.

At the luncheon, the audience also raised questions about licensing new high-rise buildings in downtown area and its impact on traffic jams. Hoa said new projects would be approved in accordance with a new zoning plan for the central business district.

“New high-rise developments will continue to go up in downtown area but their licensing will be weighed carefully,” Hoa said. He added it was difficult for the department to consider new projects in the absence of the zoning plan.

Dung expected the zoning plan would be completed and passed by the end of this year. He said more than 100 of the some 255 high-rise projects would be approved and developed.

“We and the HCMC planning and architecture council will consider every new project before making the report to the city leaders to seek appropriate measures to meet the needs of investors,” Dung said.

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Italy seeks cooperation in transport, energy and environment

Italian firms interested in Vietnam agriculture

Representatives of an Italian food processing firm meet local businesspeople at a B2B session in HCMC on Thursday - Photo: Nguyen Huy

HCMC – A delegation of Italian engineering companies and contractors in the transport, energy and environment sectors will start a three-day visit to Vietnam this Sunday to sound out business opportunities here.  

The Italian Trade Commission (ITC) Trade Promotion Section at the Italian Embassy says in a statement that it will hold several events in Hanoi including a ministerial-level seminar on October 4 and business-to-business (B2B) meetings the following day.

The Vietnam trip aims to present Italian companies from the transport, energy and environment sectors and cooperation opportunities with Vietnamese businesses.    

According to ITC, over the past five years infrastructure investments in Vietnam have not kept pace with its average annual GDP growth of 7.3%. Citing official sources, it said the country would need about US$165 billion to upgrade its infrastructure over the next five years to meet development goals.

A comprehensive study done by the ITC shows the current projects, which will be completed by 2015, in the key sectors of transportation, energy, environment and infrastructure are worth US$85 billion. Besides, Vietnam is encouraging public-private partnerships in infrastructure development.

Therefore, Italian companies in the relevant sectors are exploring opportunities in Vietnam and interested in projects to build underground car parks, traffic management systems, highways and green energy facilities.

“Vietnam’s steady growth needs increased investment in infrastructure, as acknowledged by the Vietnamese government and by foreign and domestic investors. The seminar will be an excellent chance for Vietnamese companies to forge business and investment opportunities with Italian partners,” Marco Saladini, Italian trade commissioner in Vietnam, said in a statement.

The delegation includes four engineering companies – Ideas, Majone and Partners, Molinaro Architettura and Studio Roberto Cortesi, one provider of energy production and transmission products and technologies – Finmeccanica, one major general contractor –n Cmc di Ravenna, one contractor specializing in hydraulic works – Seli, and one company providing turn-key solutions for environmental protection – Perteco.

* Italian enterprises in the food processing sector had a business matching event with Vietnamese companies in HCMC on Thursday.

Marco Saladini, Italian trade commissioner in Vietnam, said at the incorporated business matching and seminar in the city that Italy would promote Italian machinery for food and vegetable processing in Vietnam.

“As there is a strongly growing market for Italian goods in Vietnam with a population of 86 million and GDP growth of about 7%,” he said.

The Italian Trade Commission (ITC) targets fostering technological and business collaboration among Italian and Vietnamese enterprises in the field through this event.

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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./.

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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./.

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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.

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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.

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