Vietnam urges US to reduce trade barriers

Vietnam has called on the US to minimise its trade barriers and
play a more active role in the multilateral trade system.

A Vietnamese representative made the request at a session held at the
World Trade Organisations (WTO) headquarters in Geneva on Sept. 29 and
Oct. 1 to review the US ’s trade policies.

Head
of the Vietnamese Delegation to the UN, WTO and other international
organisations in Geneva Ambassador Vu Dung and officials from the
Ministries of Industry and Trade, and Foreign Affairs attended the
event.

The representative voiced concerns over the
US ’s trade barriers that resulted in anti-dumping duties against frozen
shrimp, plastic bags and tra fish (Pangasius) imported from Vietnam .

Vietnam expected that the US would
re-examine its investigations on the imposition of anti-subsidy and
anti-dumping tariffs before making decision to avoid affecting other WTO
members.

Two-way trade between Vietnam and the
US has grown steadily, reaching its peak of 15 billion USD in 2009, 15
times higher than the figure in 2001 when the two nations had not
signed the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) yet.

The
US has become as Vietnam ’s biggest importer in recent years,
importing 11.5 billion USD worth of goods in 2009, accounting for
one-fifth of the Southeast Asian country’s total exports. In the first
five months of 2010, bilateral trade hit 7.75 billion USD, including
6.09 billion USD from Vietnamese exports.

The
country emerged as the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam last
year, with a combined registered capital of 9.8 billion USD.

The US is also an important partner of Vietnam in the current
negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership
Agreement./.

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Hanoi birthday bash fails to enthuse travel agents

It has been the most anticipated event of the year, but travel agents and domestic tourists do not seem to be caught up in the enthusiasm as Hanoi’s 1,000th anniversary celebration gets underway today.

There has been no increase in prices of tours, but travel agents are concerned about difficulties in transportation because of the ban on vehicles on several streets. They are also worried about the traffic jams likely to occur during the ten-day festivities.

Nguyen Cong Hoan, deputy director of travel agent Hanoi Redtour, said: “We are not providing tours to Hanoi for this event.”

It was difficult to work out plans for the tours because the event’s detailed program was declared too late, he said.

“The most difficult part for tours at this time is not booking air tickets or hotels, but vehicles to transport visitors,” he said.

The Hanoi Transport Department did not announce the list of streets where vehicles will be banned on the festive days until September 20, while most travel agents have to book hotels months earlier.

Many hotels are located on banned streets, so it would be impossible to get there by car. Also, agents could not cancel bookings they’d already made to seek other hotels with better access and facilities for their customers.

Other shortcomings in organizing the festival have also puzzled travel agents. Hoan said: “We don’t know which programs (of the event) visitors can attend, or where to buy tickets for them.” He was also concerned about taking care of his customers as a huge number of visitors will rush to Hanoi at this time.

Duong Mai Lan, head of the market research and development bureau of travel agent Vietravel, admitted that the number of visitors booking tours on the occasion of the festival is not big. Her firm is now still selling tours for local customers to Hanoi during the festival.

Due to the ban on vehicles in some routes, and difficulties in booking hotels, the firm has to change some programs in tours to Hanoi during this event, Lan said. “We may book hotels in Ha Long Town instead of Hanoi as previously planned.”

Nguyen Ngoc An, who is in charge of domestic tours for travel agent Fiditour, said they had not focused on attracting tourists for the occasion, partly due to difficulties in booking low-cost air tickets, and transportation of customers in vehicle-banned streets.

The firm has received more than 100 customers for Hanoi tours during the event, he said.

Some people in Ho Chi Minh City have said they are fed up of the traffic jams in their own city and do not want to experience the same again in Hanoi.

The director of a travel agency said it was not peak tourism season right now. There are a few families booking tours, because children have to go to school, he said.

Plenty of room

Hanoi expects to welcome 700,000 to 800,000 local and foreign visitors during the event, according to the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

However, even given this influx, there has been no shortage of hotel rooms for visitors and prices have not increased by much.

Lan of Vietravel said most hotel rooms had been reserved months ago, so there was no increase in the prices.

A representative of the Hoa Binh hotel said: “The possibility of hotel room shortage is very low. We have many rooms vacant right now.”

To serve visitors for the occasion, Hanoi has garnered an additional 4,000 hotel rooms. The city now has ten five-star hotels, several dozen four or three-star ones, and many mini hotels.

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Vietnam reaffirms inflation control plan

Vietnam will continue to tighten control over consumer prices through the end of the year as the country aims to keep inflation at 8 percent.

At a press conference held on Thursday, Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said it will be necessary to keep an eye on milk and medicine prices in particular.

Phuc said the government believes it can keep inflation under its target maximum, but that does not mean there is no need to maintain vigilance.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered drastic measures to be taken to keep prices stable and ensure enough supplies of consumer goods, Phuc said.

Consumer prices in Vietnam climbed 8.92 percent in September compared to a year earlier, according to figures released last week by the General Statistics Office in Hanoi.

Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank on Tuesday forecast that Vietnam’s inflation this year will reach 8.5 percent.

Vinashin’s restructuring

Talking to the press on Thursday, Phuc said state-owned shipbuilder Vinashin has raised US$75 million by selling five ships. The group planned to sell another 35 ships for a total of around $160 million by year's end.

He said the 70,000 jobs at Vinashin have been secured. He also said new blood will be brought into the company, including a new chairman.

Vietnamese police have arrested five former Vinashin officials amid a financial investigation in to the company, which teetered on the verge of bankruptcy this summer. Pham Thanh Binh, the company’s former chairman and chief executive officer, was arrested in August.

Deputy Transport Minister Nguyen Hong Truong announced that the government has lent $3 million from its bond proceeds to Vinashin so that the company could repay the remaining debt owed to France’s Natixis Bank.

The loan did not come from the $1 billion 10-year bond issued in January as reported by local media, he said.

Truong also said many Japanese and Taiwanese investors have expressed interest in buying Vinashin’s factories, but so far no official purchase offers have been made.

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EVN Telecom speeds up privatization

EVN Telecom, a subsidiary of state-owned Electricity of Vietnam, plans to complete its share selloff this year as the company is facing financial difficulties, news website VnExpress reported Friday.

The phone company will sell up to 30 percent of its shares in an initial public offering and at least 20 percent to foreign strategic partners, the report said. Foreign candidates have to meet certain requirements including experience in operating 3G networks.

VnExpress said two foreign institutional investors and two local companies have offered to become EVN Telecom’s partners.

The report cited an unnamed source as saying that EVN Telecom has had to speed up the process of equitization (the term for privatization in Vietnam) because the company faces financial difficulties and increased competition from other mobile phone carriers.

Vo Quang Lam, deputy general director at EVN Telecom, said the plan to sell shares to foreign investors has been approved by the government.

As negotiations are ongoing, the names of the prospective investors cannot be announced now, Lam said.

Three local telecom companies have partnered with foreign firms – Hanoi Telecom, S-Fone and Gtel. However, the partnerships are unstable and likely to fail, VnExpress noted.

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Authorities fail to control resort boom: official

Beaches in Vietnam have been destroyed by the construction of too many resorts and villas, according to an industry official who called the growth a failure of management.

Many beaches along the country have been “torn apart” and the problem is a headache for tourism authorities, said Nguyen Van Tuan, head of Vietnam's National Administration of Toursim.

Poor plannning of the projects has lead to an inappropriate use of public properties, Tuan said in an interview with Tuoi Tre newspaper on Friday.

As local governments are given the autonomy to license new resorts built on less than two hectares of land, many investors have tried to adjust the size of their projects so that they can be approved easily without seeking consent from the state government, he said.

Beautiful beaches have become overcrowded with resorts and there is not enough space for both the locals and tourists.

“Another consequence is that there can be hundreds of resorts on a long beach, but all of them are small and fail to meet international standards for luxury resorts,” he said. “It’s a huge waste of natural resources.”

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism will review the construction of seaside projects, Tuan said. “Our viewpoint is that we have to address the weaknesses (in planning) to solve the problem.”

Than Thanh Vu, General Secretary of Vietnam's Tourism Property Association, said his association offered to act as an advisory body in the matter.

The development of resorts has, in fact, benefited the economy of several coastal provinces, including Binh Thuan, Quang Nam and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Vu said.

However, he argued, the most important thing is to protect the interests of both investors and the community.

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Authorities fail to control resort boom: official

Beaches in Vietnam have been destroyed by the construction of too many resorts and villas, according to an industry official who called the growth a failure of management.

Many beaches along the country have been “torn apart” and the problem is a headache for tourism authorities, said Nguyen Van Tuan, head of Vietnam's National Administration of Toursim.

Poor plannning of the projects has lead to an inappropriate use of public properties, Tuan said in an interview with Tuoi Tre newspaper on Friday.

As local governments are given the autonomy to license new resorts built on less than two hectares of land, many investors have tried to adjust the size of their projects so that they can be approved easily without seeking consent from the state government, he said.

Beautiful beaches have become overcrowded with resorts and there is not enough space for both the locals and tourists.

“Another consequence is that there can be hundreds of resorts on a long beach, but all of them are small and fail to meet international standards for luxury resorts,” he said. “It’s a huge waste of natural resources.”

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism will review the construction of seaside projects, Tuan said. “Our viewpoint is that we have to address the weaknesses (in planning) to solve the problem.”

Than Thanh Vu, General Secretary of Vietnam's Tourism Property Association, said his association offered to act as an advisory body in the matter.

The development of resorts has, in fact, benefited the economy of several coastal provinces, including Binh Thuan, Quang Nam and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Vu said.

However, he argued, the most important thing is to protect the interests of both investors and the community.

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Vietnam’s first biofuel product registers good sales

PV Oil, a subsidiary of state-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, said sales of its biogasoline product has nearly tripled since its official launch in August.

E5 gasoline, a blend of 5 percent ethanol and 95 percent gasoline, has been welcomed by local consumers because it is cheaper and better for the environment, said Nguyen Thi Dieu Hanh, deputy sales manager at PV Oil.

Hanh said her company is currently supplying around 25,000 liters of the ethanol gasoline to the market every day, up from 8,000-9,000 liters a day in the early days.

E5 was first launched in Vietnam in September 2008 on a trial basis, but sales were halted six days later due to administrative problems. The government issued regulations on quality management of biofuel products last year, allowing PV Oil to begin sales of E5 gasoline officially in August.

Hanh said supply is now falling short of demand because production of the gasoline is still small-scale.

“We want to study more from the response of consumers as well as wait for any support policies from the authorities," she said.

Although PV Oil said it has expanded the distribution system since August, there are now only 29 gas stations that sell the product in large cities. 

Vietnam Oil and Gas Group plans to supply 240 million liters of E5 to local consumers in 2012 at some 4,300 stations.

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