VSIP gets environmental accreditation

Nguyen Phu Thinh (R), general director of VSIP J.V. Co., receives the ISO 14001:2004 certificate from SGS Vietnam - Photo: Quoc Hung

HCMC - The Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) has been awarded the ISO 14001:2004 certificate for taking a proactive approach to managing environmental issues and implementing actions to work towards environmental sustainability.

VSIP is the first industrial park in the southern province of Binh Duong to be certified with the ISO 14001:2004 and also the first industrial park in Vietnam to be awarded the certificate by SGS Vietnam, a unit of the Swiss-based SGS SA, a world leader in inspection, verification, testing and certification.

VSIP has set its own environmental performance criteria across all levels in the organization’s operations to monitor and manage environmental pollution. Processes are in place to systematically separate and treat industrial waste and to ensure regular maintenance of the sewage treatment plant. Staff have also been trained to supervise tenants’ industrial waste treatment and discharge for conformity with the country’s laws and regulations.

To minimize noise and air pollution, VSIP has reviewed its internal traffic system to provide more and clearer road signage for smoother traffic flow to reduce traffic jams. Rain water harvesting will also be improved for use in VSIP’s on-site nursery that goes towards maintaining its landscape.

Separately, VSIP’s efforts have also been endorsed by the Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment (VACNE), who awarded the VSIP with its Greentech Certificate.

Launched in 1996, VSIP is a bilateral cooperation project initiated by the governments of Vietnam and Singapore. It is commercially operated and has enjoyed success as a proven investment location for hundreds of multinational companies with about 394 projects to base their manufacturing and technical service operations, for the domestic and export markets.

VSIP has evolved to become an integrated township and industrial park. There are four VSIP projects in Binh Duong (Thuan An and Ben Cat districts), Bac Ninh and Haiphong with 4,845 hectares of industrial, residential and commercial land.

Out of more than 180 industrial parks in Vietnam, VSIP has been named the “Best Industrial Developer 2008” by UK’s Euromoney Liquid Real Estate magazine.

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Lang Son needs trade, economic breakthroughs

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has requested the northern province
of Lang Son consider making breakthroughs in trade and the bordergate
economy, service and tourism as top priorities in economic restructuring
and development.

PM Dung, who is also a
Politburo member, made the request at the 15 th Congress of the Lang
Son Provincial Party Committee on Sept. 16.

Lang Son province should speed up the construction of the Dong Dang-Lang
Son bordergate economic zone and focus on infrastructure and essential
facilities to attract investment and develop fields that are compatible
with its strengths in order to turn the province into a trade, service
and tourism centre of the northern mountainous region and function as a
trade link in the relationship with China and between China and ASEAN,
said Dung.

He also suggested the province create
breakthroughs in rural agriculture development, with priority
investment in the region’s socio-economic infrastructure, including
traffic, irrigation, electricity, schools and health clinics.

On its first working day on Sept. 15, the congress heard a political
report to review the previous congress resolution and discussed reasons
why targets failed to be achieved, including targets set for the gross
domestic product (GDP) of 2006-2010 period, and the collection of and
processing solid waste.

The political report
also pointed to seven basic economic development targets, nine social
targets and four environmental targets which will be discussed by the
congress in a search for feasible solutions.

The
congress elected the executive committee for the 15 th Provincial
Party’s Committee Congress. Phung Thanh Kiem has been re-elected as
Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee for the 15 th tenure
(2010-2015 period).

Addressing the congress, PM
Dung asked the congress to find out the reasons and provide solutions to
overcome existing shortcomings.

Lang Son should
bring into play its potential and advantages for development as it has a
favourable position and the biggest international bordergate on the
route connecting Vietnam and China – a huge developing market which will
become larger once the China-ASEAN free trade area is established, said
the PM.

The province, which boasts big land,
natural resources and human potential and diversified culture, has an
important position in the Nanning-Lang Son-Hanoi-Hai Phong economic
corridor and the Nanning-Singapore economic corridor, he said.

Dung asked the provincial authorities and people to develop the fine
relationship with the Chinese people and to defend border sovereignty
and security.

He also demanded the provincial
party committee build a strong and pure Party organisation that can
bring into play its nucleus role in the socio-political system,
encourage people to follow President Ho Chi Minh’s moral example and
constantly build strong and transparent politics, authority, fatherland
front and mass organisation system from provincial to grass roots level./.

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Australian bank seeks 20 percent stake in VIB

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) will seek approval to increase its
stake in Vietnam International Bank (VIB) to 20 percent, according to a
CBA statement quoted by Dow Jones on Sept. 14.

"Consistent
with the strategic partnership agreement signed earlier this year,
Commonwealth Bank intends to request an increase in the VIB investment
to 20 percent at the earliest opportunity – the maximum investment
allowed by the State Bank of Vietnam ," said the statement.

No financial details of the transaction were disclosed.

VIB did to give any comment on the statement but confirmed that all
procedures had been finalised to sell a 15-percent of stake to CBA under
a strategic partnership agreement announced last April.

CBA's acquisition of a 15-percent interest added 600 billion VND (30.8
million USD ) to VIB's charter capital, bringing the total to 4 trillion
VND (205.2 million USD). VIB's assets have also increased by an annual
average of 40 percent over the past five years.

CBA is the
exclusive foreign strategic shareholder of the Hanoi-based bank and was
expected to help VIB improve its performance in such critical business
areas as retail banking, risk management, human resources, IT, and
finance.

Commonwealth Bank has quietly been enlarging its
footprint in Asia over the past decade. It is now one of the leading
international banks operating in Indonesia , and it also has
investments and partnerships in two Chinese banks – Qilu Bank in Jinan
and the Bank of Hangzhou ./.

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Europe claims victory in Boeing subsidy row

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft is seen at the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire on July 18, 2010

Photo: AFP

GENEVA - European leaders have claimed victory after the World Trade Organization was said to have judged massive US subsidies to Boeing illegal.

The report, which has not been published, reportedly stated that billions of dollars in US aid to the aircraft manufacturer were illegal, prompting officials from the European Union, France and Boeing's arch-rival Airbus to claim victory.

"Boeing benefits from billions of dollars in government subsidies that have been judged illegal by the WTO," said Airbus spokesman Rainer Ohler.

European Union trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said the WTO findings "support the EU's view" of the decade-long dispute.

The complaint was brought to the WTO by the European Union, part of a long-running transatlantic spat over subsidies to the aerospace sector.

It came a year after the WTO rapped the EU for illegally providing subsidies to Airbus, a unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company.

Under WTO rules, the interim ruling is meant to be held confidential until the global trade body publishes the full report by its panel of dispute settlement arbitrators.

But both sides were keen to spin their version of events as details poured into the public domain.

In a statement, Boeing said the WTO had issued a "massive rejection" of European claims that it received tens-of-billions of dollars in illegal subsidies.

"Nothing in today's public reports on the European case against the US even begins to compare to the 20 billion dollars in illegal subsidies that the WTO found last June that Airbus/EADS has received," Boeing said.

The EU had claimed Boeing received about US$23 billion of subsidies masked as defense research.

But there was some hope that the ruling could pave the way for a deal to end the often bitter dispute over aid.

Airbus called on its US rival to end the row and negotiate new funding rules for the aerospace industry.

"Now that both reports are available, it's time to stop blaming each other and to start assuming our responsibilities," said Airbus's Ohler.

"It's only when we stop these contentious suits and start negotiations that we'll be able to define new equitable rules of the game which will govern the future of the world's aerospace industry, a matter which is much more important than a transatlantic dispute," he added.

The EU likewise insisted that it is time to negotiate a settlement.

"Only negotiations at the highest political level can lead to a real solution," said European Union trade spokesman John Clancy reiterating the EU position that the new report "provides momentum in that direction."

Brussels brought its case to the WTO on October 6, 2004 -- the same day that Washington complained against EU subsidies to Airbus. It had therefore been frustrated by the time lag between the rulings on the two cases.

In Washington, US lawmakers aligned with either Airbus or Boeing voiced divergent views.

US Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, a state where the European firm Airbus manufactures, noted that a WTO preliminary confidential report "confirmed that Boeing has in fact received subsides for aircraft development."

"Today's preliminary ruling clearly states that Boeing was involved in practices prohibited by the World Trade Organization," said Shelby, seen as an ally of Airbus parent EADS.

"While the confidential nature of this report will allow Boeing supporters to attempt to spin the facts in the media, it is clear that they can no longer rationally claim that this trade dispute is one sided."

But Representative Todd Tiahrt and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas said the cases of Boeing and Airbus are quite different.

"None of the alleged subsidies to Boeing have anywhere near the market distorting effects of the launch aid the EU provided to Airbus," the two lawmakers said.

"The alleged US subsidies of standard economic development tools pale in comparison to the systematic EU strategy to take over the aviation industry."

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Interest rates rise for dollar deposits

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Several commercial banks have increased the annual interest rates they pay on US dollar deposits by 0.2 percentage points to an average of 4.5-5.2 percent, sparking worries of a new interest rate war.

Both Asia Commercial Bank and Eximbank have increased interest rates on three-month term deposits to 4.35 percent and on 12-month term deposits to 4.45 percent.

Vietcombank is offering 4.5 percent for a 12-monthterm deposit in US dollars while the Vietnam-Russia Bank, PG Bank and An Binh Bank are offering rates as high as 5.2 percent.

"In the latter part of the year the dollar supply is often limited, and to attract dollars, many banks raise interest rates," said Asia Commercial Bank deputy director Nguyen Thanh Toai.

Another senior official from the same bank who asked to remain anonymous said that the bank raised interest rates to hold onto its existing depositors and did not want to get involved in a new interest-rate war.

Total foreign currency deposits at the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam were down 4 percent last month against July to about $8.56 billion, according to the State Bank.

It was too early to tell whether a dollar shortage would solidify into a trend toward higher interest rates, said one treasury official at Vietcombank.

"The third and first half of the fourth quarter are the toughest time," he said. "December is the best time for dollars because of abundant remittance inflows and high export turnover."

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Best-sellers released in audio

For the first time in Vietnam, 26 audio books featuring popular local
and foreign titles have been released by a local publisher in HCM City
on Sept 15.

An initiative of Phuong Nam Books, the
publications target both chidren and adults who can now listen to their
favourite stories and essays read out for them in their cars, homes and
other places.

More importantly, the books will be of
considerable help to people who are blind or suffer from other forms of
impaired vision.

The titles include the world famous
Chicken Soup books by Jack Canfield, works by Italian writer Edmondo de
Amicis as well as famous novels and short stories by Tran Thuy Mai, Do
Hong Ngoc, Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Pham Thi Ngoc Lien, Luu Thi Luong, Di Li and
other Vietnamese authors.

About 40 musicians, singers and people with sonorous, emotional voices were invited to produce the audio books.

The company plans more audio books for children featuring fairy tales
by Grimm, Andersen and Saint Exypery as well as works by To Hoai and
Phung Quan.

It has also announced that the copyright for
all its audio books will be given to the Audio Books Library two months
after they are released. The library will then deliver the books to
benefit the sight-impaired community nationwide, covering at least 84
schools and organisations.

Nguyen Huong Duong, director of
the library, said that her library needs 30,000 tapes each year to
fulfil the needs of blind children, but it only receives 1,000 titles
and tapes at present.

Nguyen Thanh Thuy, director of
Phuong Nam Books, and the main person behind the audio books production,
also said that the company was negotiating with mobile phone service
providers VinaPhone, Mobiphone, and Viettel to carry the audiobooks to a
wider audience.

She also hopes the books will be popularised on the radio soon.

Meanwhile, the company has launched a contest to find people with
attractive voices and talent to work on audio books that it plans to
launch in the future./.

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Markets wrestle with bears

The VN-Index closed essentially flat Sept. 15 at 448.72 points, saved
from a decline by a steady performance by major shares late in the
session on the HCM Stock Exchange.

Advancing blue
chips included Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), up 1.9 percent, and Ocean Group
(OGC) – Sept. 15's most-active share, with 2.7 million traded – up 1.3
percent

The volume of trades rose 3.7 percent over
Sept. 14's session, to 38.4 million shares, worth just over 1 trillion
VND (52 million USD).

Foreign investors returned to
being net buyers on both of the nation's stock exchanges, picking up a
net of 3.8 million shares worth 134.3 billion VND (6.9 million USD).

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange Sept. 15, the HNX-Index plunged by nearly
2.1 percent to close at 127.21 points, whiping out Sept. 14's 's gains.

About 222 codes declined, while only 59 listed stocks rallying and 30 shares closing unchanged.

Volume remained meagre, with 27.8 million shares changing hands,
generating a turnover of just 665.8 billion VND (34.1 million USD)./.

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