Apparel sector enjoys robust export growth, good prices

Workers at a garment factory in HCMC. Increasing prices of garment and textile products have helped local producers boost exports - Photo: Le Toan

HCMC – The apparel industry has gained robust export growth of over 20% in the January-September period to earn US$8 billion due to good prices and ample orders, and is poised to fulfill its 2010 target of US$10.5 billion, sources said.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said in a report on Monday that prices of garment and textile exports have increased by 15-20%, making life easier for garment exporters who have faced a surge in input costs including higher materials prices.

Furthermore, shipments to most markets except the slow-moving European market have recovered strongly, according to the report. In particular, the nine-month export revenue of the country’s garment and textile products to Korea had surged a staggering 80%, while that to Japan also increased by 15%.

Recognizing that apparel exports in the January-September period increased 20.6% year-on-year to US$8 billion, experts in the industry predicted that the target of US$10.5 billion in export revenue for this year will be highly obtainable.

The ministry said that although the labor cost in Vietnam is higher than in other nearby countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar, many foreign buyers still prefer Vietnam’s products because the country’s garment producers can meet their choosy demands.

But many challenges are still ahead, according to the ministry.

These include the lack of laborers hindering garment enterprises from expanding production, the rising prices of imported materials and accessories for the industry, and especially the illegal import of garment and textile products from China stonewalling local enterprises from boosting their local market shares.

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Parkson to manage Saigon Paragon shopping mall

GS transfers property project in HCMC

The Paragon building in HCMC’s District 7. Parkson is in deal with Kim Cuong Corporation to manage the Saigon Paragon shopping mall at this building - Photo: Dinh Dung

HCMC – Parkson, widely known for the high-end shopping centers of the same name in the country, has struck a deal with a local firm to manage the Saigon Paragon shopping mall that is claimed to be poorly performing in HCMC’s District 7.

Le Hoai Anh, general director of Kim Cuong Corporation, told the Daily on the phone on Tuesday that the corporation had reached agreement with Parkson to manage the shopping section in the Paragon building in Phu My Hung town.

The local firm had decided to temporarily close the shopping mall on Nguyen Luong Bang Street in Phu My Hung after it had been operational for a year.

The 10-story building includes some 7,500 square meters for the shopping mall, some 9,000 square meters for office space, 4,000 square meters for an entertainment section and 3,000 square meters for a conference center.

Anh explained the temporary closure was due to the poor business performance in the shopping section due partly to ineffective management.

“We’ve decided to partner with the professional management firm Parkson to improve the building’s business performance,” Anh said, pinning hopes that Parkson’s good management will give a boost to the shopping mall.

However, tens of tenants in the shopping mall have voiced their anger as the building owner suddenly sent a notice of closing the shopping mall from early this month without informing them in due course, Tuoi Tre reported on Tuesday.

Some of them accused the building owner of violating agreements, unilaterally terminating contracts signed between the two sides. Others said that they received no information about the closure. The fact is that many tenants spent money for their store decoration and the closure will damage their turnover.

Anh told the Daily that the corporation had sent a notice of closure on August 14, advising tenants to temporarily stop their business for around two months so that the new management company could upgrade the building.

Anh said the corporation was negotiating with tenants to solve the problem, and expected to see the existing and new tenants to continue and start their business when the shopping mall section is up and running by December 15 this year.

In a related development, the HCMC government has issued a decision allowing property developer GS Saigon Development Company to transfer its property underway on Ly Thuong Kiet Street in HCMC’s District 10.

The project, one of the five property projects awarded to the company in return for the development of Tan Son Nhat-Binh Loi road, will be transferred to Phu Son Thuan Investment Construction Co., the city’s Department of Zoning and Architecture stated in its website.

The Xi Grand Court project is being developed on an area of around 18,000 square meters, with three blocks of condo buildings from 28 to 30 stories and a mix-use 25-story building.

According to the department, the project transfer is made because the property developer has faced difficulties as a result of the global economic downturn, and the transfer is to collect money for developing the road that it has pledged to pursue.

The department cites the city’s decision, saying all money from the deal will be used for the road development. The project’s site clearance has been done, and it is scheduled for completion by 2014.

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Danang to welcome more chartered flights

HCMC – The central city of Danang in the next four months will welcome several chartered flights bringing in travelers from Asian destinations namely Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, a local tour operator said.

Cao Tri Dung, director of Vitours in Danang as a key local partner catering to such flights told the Daily that the first chartered flight from Hong Kong to Danang would start on November 11. During three months, visitors from this market will come in on every Wednesday and Saturday.

Similarly, frequent chartered flights will also come from Taiwan and South Korea. Dung said tourists from Taipei would fly to Danang every five days from December 26 for a period of three months, while travelers from Korea’s Seoul would come from January 1.

“In the high season, the city will receive around 1,000 passengers per week from the end of December to January. Our company will cater to half of the total,” Dung said.

Along with the inbound tours, the company is preparing for outbound tours to take local tourists to travel to Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea on these flights.

“We expect the outbound tour prices will be lower than normal because partners are focusing on inbound travelers and have booked all of planes’ inbound seats,” Dung said, hinting that outbound seats would be vacant.

Danang is receiving Chinese tourists two times per week on chartered flights.

The tour operator said more visitors are coming to the city because Danang is a new destination offering affordable prices to tourists. However, Danang is able to attract visitors from short-haul destinations in Asia only, he said.

“The city needs to get more connected via more international air routes to woo travelers especially people from long-haul markets like Europe. The chartered flight is the good start for the development,” Dung noted.

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Korea Testing Laboratory to enter Vietnam

HCMC – The Korea Testing Laboratory, or KTL, is planning to enter Vietnam to further facilitate trade between the two countries as the rapid growth of trade between Vietnam and South Korea results in high demands for testing, a KTL executive said.

Jung-sup Kim, director general for the industry support division of KTL, told a seminar in HCMC on Tuesday that the rising exchange of commodities between the two countries prompted KTL to come to Vietnam to serve the big testing demand.

Kim told the seminar it co-held with Vietnam’s Quality Assurance and Testing Center 3, or Quatest 3, that testing for electrical, electronic and medical devices as well as toys was on the rise.

Therefore, “it is necessary for the industries to have testing regarding quality and safety in addition to mandatory regulations relating to the conformity assessment of the governments for the production and trading of these products,” he said.

Korean experts at the seminar introduced local businesses to its compulsory certification schemes for electronic products, medical devices and the Energy Efficiency Labeling Program.

KTL, under the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy, provides testing, certification, quality certification services and R&D for product safety, reliability, performance and standards.

In addition, the founding member of the Asian Network Forum (ANF) is working with Quatest 3 to help the latter upgrade itself to international standard.

Hoang Lam, deputy director of Quatest 3, told the seminar that collaboration with KTL would make his agency’s testing results more widely recognized.

“We are to join the ANF in November, and at the time, the products tested by our laboratory will soon be recognized be regional laboratories,” Lam said.

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Market suddenly bounces back

HCMC – The local market suddenly rallied to over the 450-point level on Tuesday after two successive falling sessions. The VN-Index gained 5.13 points, or 1.15%, from the previous day to close at 450.96.

Liquidity, however, fell back sharply with 33.2 million shares worth VND839 billion traded, plunging by 33.7% and 31% against a day earlier respectively. Investors on the southern bourse bid for nearly 72 million shares, rising by 7.5% from the previous session, while they offered 54.3 million shares, a 34.4% decrease.

The market opened lower and hit a low of 440.63 in the second matching phase before a rebound. It enjoyed a late surge which included a four point jump at the close to end the day at the highs.

The market saw 131 stocks rising and 72 others closing down, of which 11 stocks went to the ceiling prices and seven others plunged to the floor prices.

Ocean Group Co. (OGC) once again was the most actively traded stock, rising 2.3% to VND30,800 per share with 1.6 million shares traded. Sacombank (STB) still stood at the second position, closing flat at VND16,800 on the volume of 1.4 million shares.

Foreigners remained strong net buyers as they bought 5.8 million shares worth VND220 billion and offloaded 1.9 million shares worth VND78.8 billion. They accounted for 26.2% and 9.3% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.

The Hanoi market also recovered after a four-session losing streak while turnover fell to VND720 billion. The HNX-Index rose 1.1 points, or 0.91%, from the previous session to 122.02.

There were 171 stocks advancing and 96 others losing, of which 32 stocks closed the day at the ceiling prices and nine stocks dropped to the floor prices. Foreigners were net buyers again to the tune of VND7 billion worth of shares.

Fiachra Mac Cana, managing director of HCMC Securities Corp., said both markets rebounded in late trading after a weak start but volumes were lower. The late bounce was at least partly down to technical trading in the southern bourse and therefore perhaps less than convincing.

“Even so we are happy to see some buying support above the critical 118-point level on the HNX-Index. Market breadth widened somewhat, while foreigners were very active buyers again on Wednesday,” he said.

“While we think the late rebound was encouraging with volumes fairly low and market bids and offer levels trailing below recent averages it lacks conviction. Therefore, the market is still likely to test lower short term in our opinion. We keep our investment stance that medium to long-term players can continue to buy in gradually,” Mac Cana added.

Vietnam International Securities Co. (VIS) said the market would check the 450-point level for several times before a clearer tendency got visible. “The market may not see a strong decline as stock prices had suffered enough impacts of bad news. The market will see another rising session on Thursday,” VIS said.

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Heritage site aims to lure investment from RoK

Thua Thien-Hue province, where the Hue imperial city is located, has
been given a promise from the Republic of Korea (RoK) Ambassador
to encourage investors to come.

The RoK diplomat, Park Suk Hwan, told the provincial People’s Committee
Chairman, Nguyen Van Cao, during their meeting in the central region
province on October 6, that he would promote the province’s strengths
and potential among RoK business circles, to encourage them to invest.

Thua Thien-Hue is home to Hue Imperial City
which has been recognised as a world cultural heritage site by the UN
Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Cao reported that the province has granted 11 licences for investment
to businesses from the RoK, capitalised at some 560 million USD.

Most of their projects are in the hospitality industry, services, and
construction and investment in technical infrastructure for industrial
zones.

In addition to Foreign Direct Investment,
the province has received the RoK’s aid in Official Development
Assistance (ODA) for the construction of a 500-bed hospital, capitalised
at 20 million USD./.

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Auditors seek assistance from Slovakia

During talks in Hanoi on October 6 the Vietnamese audit chief asked
his Slovak counterpart to provide technical assistance for State Audit
of Vietnam, with funding to come from Slovak Official Development
Assistance (ODA) and State budgets.

Talks between
Auditor General Vuong Dinh Hue and President of Slovakia’s Supreme
Audit Office (SAS) Jan Jasovsky focused on the agreement of cooperation
signed in Bratislava , Slovakia , in December, 2009.

Under the document, SAS will help the State Audit of Vietnam increase
its competence in budget auditing and verifying State budget estimates
before submission to the National Assembly for approval.

The scheme also calls for further cooperation in consultancies around
information technology, under which the SAS will send experts to
Vietnam for exchange of experience.

During the
talks, the Vietnamese auditor general also expressed interest in sending
his staff to Slovakia to attend workshops and take part in
programmes sponsored by SAS.

Further cooperation
with SAS within the framework of the International Organisation of
Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) was also high on the duo’s talks,
focusing on environmental audit, public debt audit, IT audit, auditing
quality supervision and operational auditing./.

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