Hanoi to start urban railway construction

Construction will begin on Sept. 22 on a pilot urban railway, running
from Nhon in Tu Liem district to Hanoi Railway Station, as part of a
largest ever public transport project in Hanoi, said Head of the
municipal People’s Committee’s Office Nguyen Thinh Thanh.

The municipal People’s Committee requested Tu Liem district to finalise
preparations, especially site clearance for the project before Sept. 16.

Under
the plan till 2020, Hanoi will have five urban railway routes,
linking the inner city with nearby urban centres of Bac Ninh, Vinh Phuc,
Hung Yen and Thai Nguyen.

The Nhon-Hanoi Railway Station, the
third route of the plan, has a total length of 12km, connecting the
city’s west part to the downtown and the southern part.

The first
route will run between Ngoc Hoi, Yen Vien and Nhu Quynh. It will link
areas located in the northeast and the south of Hanoi with downtown.

The second route, Noi Bai-downtown-Thuong Dinh,
is the backbone of the urban area at the present and in the future. It
will connect with the railway route from Cat Linh, Hanoi to Ba La,
Ha Dong.

The fourth route will run between Dong
Anh, Sai Dong, Vinh Tuy, Thanh Xuan, Tu Liem, Thuong Cat and Me Linh.
This route will connect urban development projects.

The fifth route will run between the southern part of West Lake ,
Ngoc Khanh and Lang-Hoa Lac to connect the downtown with urban areas
located along Lang-Hoa Lac corridor./.

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Vietnam's reserves dip to $13.85 bln in March - IMF

HANOI - Vietnam's international reserves hit $13.85 billion by the end of March this year, a 42 percent slump from the end of 2008, figures compiled by the International Monetary Fund show.

The figure confirms that Vietnam's reserves continued to fall well into this year as the dong remained under pressure against the dollar.

The State Bank of Vietnam does not make public the current level of foreign exchange reserves, leaving outside economists guessing about a figure seen as a critical gauge of the country's ability to keep its beleaguered currency on an even keel.

The International Monetary Fund's International Financial Statistics September update for Vietnam, posted on the IMF website, said total reserves minus gold stood at $13.85 billion at the end of March, falling from $15.49 billion in February and $15.74 billion in January.

At the end of 2008 reserves stood at $23.89 billion, it showed.

Vietnam has devalued the dong or adjusted its trading band against the dollar several times over the past two years, with the currency under depreciation pressure from a structural trade deficit, high inflation and chronically weak levels of confidence.

The central bank has lowered the midpoint reference rate around which the dong is allowed trade against the dollar in a fixed band by some 15 percent since mid-2008. The latest devaluation, a 2 percent move, was taken on Aug. 18.

The IMF had said in that June reserves equaled about seven weeks of imports, although the coffers had increased by about $1 billion by that point in the second quarter.

On Wednesday, the dong hovered around VND19,500 per dollar -- the weak end of its 3 percent trading band -- on interbank and unofficial markets.

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Kia Vietnam dealer seeks information about recall

Photo: Photo courtesy of Kia Motors Corp

Truong Hai Auto Group, a Kia Motors dealer in Vietnam, is awaiting advice from the Korean company about recalling vehicles in the wake of the massive recall in the US by Kia to fix a technical problem.

The Hanoi-based dealer has asked if the 2010 Soul and Sorento models have the same electrical fault in interior lights that could cause fires as the 35,200 that have been recalled for fixing in the US.

Besides Truong Hai, many other Vietnamese dealers have also imported the two cars for sale in the country.

The head of the South Korea's second-largest automaker has resigned to take responsibility for the mass vehicle recalls of the four models including the SUV Borrego and the Cadenza sedan.

Chung Sung-Eun, who is also a vice chairman of the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, stepped down after Kia had to issue a global recall of 85,900 vehicles, AFP quoted spokesman Michael Choo as saying.

In China a Kia Motors joint venture, Dongfeng Yueda Kia Motor Co, on Monday separately recalled 18,147 Sorento, Borrego and Soul models.

Yonhap news agency reported that Chung was sacked by group chairman Chung Mong-Koo.

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Hanoi firm to build $2 bln theme park near HCMC

An artist impression of the Happyland theme park and amusement complex in Long An Province

Photo: Photo courtesy of Khang Thong Corp

Hanoi-based infrastructure developer Khang Thong Corp will invest $2 billion to build the Happyland theme park and amusement complex in Long An Province.

The 338-hectare complex in Ben Luc District, situated 20 minutes by road from Ho Chi Minh City, will have a $600 million theme park designed and operated by the US-based Steelman Partner, Singapore-based Meinhardt Group, and UK-based PricewaterhouseCoopers and Savills Property Group.

It will reportedly be modeled on famous international theme parks like Walt Disney and Universal Studio.

The complex, licensed in June, will have an exhibition center, a commercial center, hotels in categories ranging from three-to five-star, a water park, film studio, discotheque, museums, apartments, and villas.

Khang Thong will obtain loans from Agribank, BIDV, and Oceanbank and sell stakes in its subsidiary, Phu An Infrastructure Investment and Development Co, to foreign investors.

Work is expected to begin next January and finish in April 2014.

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Firms urged to cut imports

Containers are loaded at Chua Ve Port in Hai Phong. The nation's imports totalled $52.68 billion in the first eight months of the year, an increase of 24.4 per cent over the same period last year. — VNA/VNS Photo Hong Ky

HA NOI — Businesses should reduce imports and increase the use of domestic raw materials and equipment in order to help curb the nation's trade deficit, said Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang during an online meeting with business leaders on Monday.

Firms also needed to find ways to reduce costs, increase the supply of skilled workers, and boost trade and export promotion efforts, Hoang said.

Attendants at the conference agreed that a dependence on imported materials was influencing the prices of export products due to market fluctuations. They also noted that it could subject some export products to trade barriers from other countries.

The trade deficit hit a record US$8.16 billion in the first eight months of the year, an increase of $3 billion over the same period of last year, according to ministry sources.

Imports also rose to 18.3 per cent of total export turnover, and, without more effective measures, the ratio might exceed the 20-per-cent limit set by the National Assembly, the ministry said.

The nation's imports totalled $52.68 billion overall in the first eight months of the year, an increase of 24.4 per cent over the same period last year. Domestic businesses accounted for $30.3 billion of the imports – an increase of 13.2 per cent – while foreign-invested firms imported $22.37 billion worth of goods, a whopping 43.6-per-cent increase.

Imported materials for industrial production rose dramatically, including machinery, up 14.9 per cent, textiles, up 38.1 per cent and metals, up 79.9 per cent Among consumer products, imports of electronics, computers and accessories rose 31.5 per cent and imports of clothing climbed by 26.6 per cent. — VNS

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OECD praises drive to cut red tape

HA NOI — One of the world's leading economic advisory groups, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has praised the success of a two-year-old project to simplify State bureaucratic procedures in Viet Nam.

Known as Project 30, the three-year project was establied by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in 2007.

Under it, Viet Nam has already slashed about 30 per cent of all existing red tape.

The head of an OECD delegation that recently visited Ha Noi, Josef W.Konvitz, acknowledged that the project was playing a criti cal role in reforming public servic procedures.

Accordingto the PM's special Task Force for Administrative Procedures Reform, Konvitz said that Project 30 had already reviewed and simplified 10,000 sets of communal adminis trative procedures and 700 sets of district-level documents, slashing them down to a bare 63 sets of documents each.

This amounted to about 30 per cent of the red tape in all bureaucratic procedures.

Konvitz warned that the challenge now was to complete the reforms otherwise the situation could revert back to the complicated ways of the past.

During a working session with Vietnamese officials to assess progress, Konvitz acknowledged the commitment of the Government to achieving the reforms.

"Everybody has been working hard for the success of the project," Konvitz said.

"A few people doing business in Viet Nam have told me they are glad the project is underway and are grateful for being consulted on their experiences with administrative procedures."

Ngo Hai Phan, deputy head of a working group set up to initiate the reforms throughout the nation, said that all ministries, industries and localities nation-wide had managed to review administrative procedures as required by the Prime Minister.

The OECD and the Government Office are now assessing the progress of the reforms from 2007 to 2010. The results will be a reference for completing the programme from 2011 to 2020.

An OECD report is scheduled to be presented in November. — VNS

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German bank makes loans for rural power

HA NOI — Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) and Germany's Reconstruction Credit Institute (KfW) initiated a 162 million euro (US$207 million) project to increase energy effectiveness in rural areas.

EVN's General Director Pham Le Thanh described the event as a turning point in Vietnamese and German relations, specifically regarding the electricity sector. "With the country's strong economic growth rate, electricity demand has annually increased from 13 to 15 per cent over the past years. Consequently, EVN mobilised $4-5 billion annually to invest in power projects," he said.

In an effort to improve low- and medium-pressure electricity grids, the project will target 26 provinces across Viet Nam until 2013. The project intends to minimise electricity losses, improve electricity supply quality and ensure power grid safety in rural areas.

EVN initially invested 120 million euros ($153 million) of preferential loans from the German Government and then invested an additional 42 million euros ($53 million). Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved the use of the development loans, marking the first time EVN borrowed money directly from KfW.The loan has a 4-year-term that will end in June 2014 and the debt is to be settled within nine years. — VNS

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