Vinamilk licensed to invest in New Zealand

HCMC – The local leading milk producer Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Co. on Saturday received a license from the Ministry of Planning and Investment to set up its presence in New Zealand, the company said in a statement on Sunday.

This is the company’s first project outside Vietnam that would pave the way for it to further penetrate the global milk market, said the milk processor commonly known as Vinamilk. It will buy a 19.3% stake in New Zealand-based Miraka Limited Company which has built a high-class powder milk factory at the center of North Island in the country, Vinamilk said in the statement sent to the Daily.

Vinamilk said that the factory in New Zealand, costing 121 million new Zealand dollars (some VND1.62 trillion) and having annual designed capacity of 32,000 tons of powder milk, would officially operate in August next year. The factory, which uses fresh milk supplied by farmers in New Zealand as feedstock, will sell its products widely on the global market.

The outbound investment project is in line with Vinamilk’s plan to expand its processing capacity and to secure more fresh milk material supplies for its production.

On the home front, Vinamilk has lately developed five cow farms in five provinces of Tuyen Quang, Thanh Hoa, Binh Dinh, Nghe An, and Lam Dong, with the total herd of 5,000 cattle head. The company expects to import 1,000 more cows this year.

Mai Kieu Lien, chairwoman and CEO of Vinamilk, told local reporters in a meeting last Friday that the company forecast its demand for fresh milk in the next five years at 1.3 billion liters annually, but the current local supply was about 200 million liters only. Therefore, the company is developing its own farms.

“We target to secure 40%-50% of fresh milk material demand from our own farms by 2015,” Lien said.

Vinamilk is deploying several projects to enhance its production in the country. The company will put into operation its US$30-million milk factory in Danang City by August next year, which will mainly produce yoghurt and liquid milk products.

By late 2012, two more factories of Vinamilk will operate.

The first one is a US$120-million liquid milk factory with an annual designed capacity of 400 million liters in the first phase and 800 million liters in the second phase. Meanwhile, the other one costing over US$100 million will produce powdered milk for kids with an annual designed capacity of 55,000 tons, four times higher than the current capacity of Vinamilk’s factory now.

Vinamilk currently has 250,000 distributors and retailers, selling nearly 10 million milk products a day. It now has a market share of 40% in Vietnam.

Lien said the company’s local sale revenue in this year to date has amounted to about VND9.6 trillion, equivalent to the whole revenue of last year.

Besides the local market, Vinamilk is also strong in export, obtaining about US$80 million in revenue every year. Its main export markets are the Middle East, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Australia.

In related news, Vinamilk is considering to raise product prices to compensate rising input costs. The company’s CEO said that Vinamilk was calculating to harmonize product prices with the price of fresh milk purchased from farmers.

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Denmark supports Vietnamese SMEs

Danish Ambassador to Vietnam John Nielsen announces the Business Sector Program whose main goal is to support Vietnamese SMEs in the private sector - Photo: Quoc Hung

HCMC - The Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) has approved the Business Sector Program in Vietnam, which will strongly benefit small and medium enterprises, especially those in the private sector.

The program will have a total budget of 123 million Danish Kroner, or about VND422 billion, and last for three years from 2011, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam John Nielsen told reporters at a press briefing in HCMC on Friday.

The program is now subject to the appraisal of the Vietnamese Government. The government-to-government agreement between the two countries is expected to be signed in December in order to allow for the program to begin in January 2011, according to the Danish embassy in a statement released at the meeting.

With the objective of strengthening the competitiveness of Vietnamese growth- and export-oriented enterprises and creating decent jobs, the ambition of the program is to help create conditions for continued strong private sector-led growth.

In particular, the program aims at strengthening innovation and adaptation of new technologies in SMEs known as component 1, supporting measures to fortify the national system of occupational safety and health in component 2, and enhancing the understanding of the SME sector through economic research in component 3.

For Component 1, the program will spend 63 million Danish Kroner to support 40 to 50 projects with an average funding of VND4 billion per project for enterprises in seven provinces, the ambassador said.

The direct target group is Vietnamese non-public enterprises providing services to small businesses or household enterprises or farmers operating in the export-oriented value chains, while the indirect target group includes small businesses, household enterprises and farmers.

The Global Competitiveness Facility (GCF) funding is expected to reduce the financial risk for Vietnamese non-public enterprises and organizations embarking on offering business services, new technologies, access to new export markets and piloting new business models.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs; the Central Institute of Economic Management and the Global Competitiveness Facility continue to be key partners of the program.

The support to improve labor protection under Component 2 will be implemented by the labor ministry through sector budget support to the National Program on Labor Protection and Occupational Safety and Health 2011-2015.

Ambassador John Nielsen says in the statement that “the strong economic performance of Vietnam over the past two decades reflects the increasing strength and buoyancy of the private sector, which is mainly made up of SMEs. The critical challenges of the next decade for Vietnam are to improve the quality of production, achieve and sustain global competitiveness and at the same time make sure that the poor are being taken along the growth path.”

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Denmark supports Vietnamese SMEs

Danish Ambassador to Vietnam John Nielsen announces the Business Sector Program whose main goal is to support Vietnamese SMEs in the private sector - Photo: Quoc Hung

HCMC - The Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) has approved the Business Sector Program in Vietnam, which will strongly benefit small and medium enterprises, especially those in the private sector.

The program will have a total budget of 123 million Danish Kroner, or about VND422 billion, and last for three years from 2011, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam John Nielsen told reporters at a press briefing in HCMC on Friday.

The program is now subject to the appraisal of the Vietnamese Government. The government-to-government agreement between the two countries is expected to be signed in December in order to allow for the program to begin in January 2011, according to the Danish embassy in a statement released at the meeting.

With the objective of strengthening the competitiveness of Vietnamese growth- and export-oriented enterprises and creating decent jobs, the ambition of the program is to help create conditions for continued strong private sector-led growth.

In particular, the program aims at strengthening innovation and adaptation of new technologies in SMEs known as component 1, supporting measures to fortify the national system of occupational safety and health in component 2, and enhancing the understanding of the SME sector through economic research in component 3.

For Component 1, the program will spend 63 million Danish Kroner to support 40 to 50 projects with an average funding of VND4 billion per project for enterprises in seven provinces, the ambassador said.

The direct target group is Vietnamese non-public enterprises providing services to small businesses or household enterprises or farmers operating in the export-oriented value chains, while the indirect target group includes small businesses, household enterprises and farmers.

The Global Competitiveness Facility (GCF) funding is expected to reduce the financial risk for Vietnamese non-public enterprises and organizations embarking on offering business services, new technologies, access to new export markets and piloting new business models.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs; the Central Institute of Economic Management and the Global Competitiveness Facility continue to be key partners of the program.

The support to improve labor protection under Component 2 will be implemented by the labor ministry through sector budget support to the National Program on Labor Protection and Occupational Safety and Health 2011-2015.

Ambassador John Nielsen says in the statement that “the strong economic performance of Vietnam over the past two decades reflects the increasing strength and buoyancy of the private sector, which is mainly made up of SMEs. The critical challenges of the next decade for Vietnam are to improve the quality of production, achieve and sustain global competitiveness and at the same time make sure that the poor are being taken along the growth path.”

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New housing project launched in Long An

A man takes a look at a zoning map of the Mekong Riverside project in Long An Province - Photo: Dinh Dung

HCMC - The private company Dai Duong last week started marketing its residential project in the Mekong Delta province of Long An, offering individual investors and homebuyers land plots for commercial houses in the project underway along the Vam Co Tay River.

Nguyen Hoang Dong, director of the company, says the company’s new urban town project named Mekong Riverside has finished the first phase of infrastructure development, making it ready for sales program.

The residential project is developed on a 70-hectare site as part of a master project covering 250 hectares in the newly upgraded Tan An City designed to house a new administrative and commercial center for Long An Province in the years to come.

As designed, the Mekong Riverside project will include land plots for row houses, commercial houses, garden villas and riverside villas. Besides parks along the river and public facilities, a marina is also designed to serve the project’s future residents.

According to Tin Nghia Land and LandMark, two property trading floors appointed as distributors for the housing project, selling prices will start from VND3.9 million per square meter, or around VND400 million for a land plot in the project. As planned, those land plots will be handed over to buyers by the second quarter of next year.

Speaking at the project’s launching event, Nguyen Quang Hung, vice chairman of Tan An City, said the city’s expansion plan with projects including Dong Tam Long An, Kien Phat, Thai Duong and Mekong Riverside is promising a new facelift to the existing city. Thanks to its proximity to HCMC, some 40 minutes drive on HCMC-Trung Luong Highway, the new city Tan An will act as a bridge linking the economic hub HCMC to the Mekong Delta provinces for industrial and service development.

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Vedan deal with Dong Nai settled

HCMC – Polluter Vedan Vietnam last Friday signed a minute to compensate nearly VND120 billion for farmers from Long Thanh and Nhon Trach districts in Dong Nai Province for damages cause by its illegal discharge of untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River, but one stakeholder could prevent the deal from going through.

The sum includes VND88.8 billion for farmers in Long Tho and Phuoc An communes in Nhon Trach and VND30.7 billion for Long Phuoc and Phuoc Thai communes in Long Thanh.

Most families in Dong Nai as of September 9 had accepted the compensation offer while only Vien Dong Company still insisted on individually suing Vedan. Vien Dong has demanded compensation for its 28 hectares of farming land in Long Thanh District.

Representatives signing the minute will cooperate with relevant departments to try and persuade Vien Dong to accept the offer. The offer will still take effect even if Vien Dong insists on bringing the lawsuit to the court, as it will be settled in a separate case.

Vedan in the minute pledged to give the sum providing that local farmers would not file a lawsuit for damages. The minute was signed between representatives of farmers’ unions in the locality and Yang Kun Hsiang, general director of the Taiwan-based monosodium glutamate producer.

Vedan would transfer half of the compensation to farmers within seven days of the signing day. The remainder would be transferred on January 14, 2011 at the latest, underwritten by the HCMC branch of Bangkok Bank.

Vedan two years ago was found to discharge untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River. Dong Nai Province suffered most from the pollution.

Vedan has so far headed off lawsuits from angry farmers, tired of waiting for their losses to be paid for, by agreeing to compensate nearly VND220 billion for three affected localities of Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and HCMC. The sum is nine times higher than that initially offered by Vedan.

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Vedan deal with Dong Nai settled

HCMC – Polluter Vedan Vietnam last Friday signed a minute to compensate nearly VND120 billion for farmers from Long Thanh and Nhon Trach districts in Dong Nai Province for damages cause by its illegal discharge of untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River, but one stakeholder could prevent the deal from going through.

The sum includes VND88.8 billion for farmers in Long Tho and Phuoc An communes in Nhon Trach and VND30.7 billion for Long Phuoc and Phuoc Thai communes in Long Thanh.

Most families in Dong Nai as of September 9 had accepted the compensation offer while only Vien Dong Company still insisted on individually suing Vedan. Vien Dong has demanded compensation for its 28 hectares of farming land in Long Thanh District.

Representatives signing the minute will cooperate with relevant departments to try and persuade Vien Dong to accept the offer. The offer will still take effect even if Vien Dong insists on bringing the lawsuit to the court, as it will be settled in a separate case.

Vedan in the minute pledged to give the sum providing that local farmers would not file a lawsuit for damages. The minute was signed between representatives of farmers’ unions in the locality and Yang Kun Hsiang, general director of the Taiwan-based monosodium glutamate producer.

Vedan would transfer half of the compensation to farmers within seven days of the signing day. The remainder would be transferred on January 14, 2011 at the latest, underwritten by the HCMC branch of Bangkok Bank.

Vedan two years ago was found to discharge untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River. Dong Nai Province suffered most from the pollution.

Vedan has so far headed off lawsuits from angry farmers, tired of waiting for their losses to be paid for, by agreeing to compensate nearly VND220 billion for three affected localities of Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and HCMC. The sum is nine times higher than that initially offered by Vedan.

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Toll collection for Can Tho Bridge begins this week

The Can Tho Bridge Toll Gate ready for operation - Photo: Mong Binh

HCMC - The Ministry of Transport has approved toll collection from September 15 for the Can Tho Bridge spanning the Hau River to connect Can Tho City and Vinh Long Province in the Mekong Delta.

The approval came after the Ministry of Finance issued circular 84/2010/TT-BTC governing the lowest toll level of VND15,000 (around 77 U.S. cents) per trip for vehicles of less than 12 seats and two tons as well as public buses running on the longest cable-stayed bridge in Southeast Asia.

The highest toll of VND100,000 (US$5.1) per trip applies to trucks with 40-foot containers and vehicles with combined load of 18 tons or more. The lowest monthly and quarterly charges are VND450,000 and VND1.2 million respectively while the highest corresponding levels are VND3 million and VND8.1 million.

The long-awaited Can Tho Bridge was opened to traffic on April 24, 2010 after nearly six years of construction. This bridge on National Highway 1A cost more than VND4.83 trillion (some US$248 million), which was funded by Japan’s official development assistance fund and the counter capital of Vietnam.

The 15.85-kilometer-long bridge was designed for vehicles to move at a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour. Approach roads on either side of this four-lane bridge are 13.1 kilometers combined, and consisted of nine auxiliary bridges, with four in Vinh Long Province and five in Can Tho.

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