Vietnam Economy Forum

[Viet]

VN, RoK aim to boost trade to $70 bln by 2020

TUOITRENEWS
UPDATED : 09/10/2013 15:07 GMT + 7

President Truong Tan Sang welcomes RoK President Park Geun-Hye in Hanoi on September 9, 2013

During their talk on September 9 in Hanoi, Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and visiting South Korean President Park Geun-Hye agreed to take steps to raise the two countries’ two-way trade to US$70 billion by 2020, and boost many other cooperation relations.

The two Presidents expressed their pleasure at the fruitful developments in the two nations’ relations and cooperation in the past 21 years, especially after the two countries established their strategic partnership in 2009.

Besides affirming the need to intensify the cooperation in economics, trade, investment, science, technology, culture, education, labor and environment, the two leaders agreed to accelerate the negotiation process of a bilateral Free Trade Agreement, a new Agreement on Labor Cooperation and the building of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Vietnam

The two sides pledged to maintain the visits and meetings of their high-ranking leaders as well as officials from the two countries’ ministries, agencies and localities, while effectively preserving dialogue mechanisms between them to deepen their relations.

They also agreed to the early signing of an agreement on labor cooperation to replace the former which expired in 2012, and agreed to implement the Vietnam-Korean Institute of Science and Technology project (V-KIST).

The two Presidents highly appreciated close cooperation and coordination at multi-lateral forums and international organizations such as the UN, WTO, APEC and ASEM and other regional cooperative mechanisms such as ASEAN-RoK, ASEAN + 3, ARF and EAS.

The two leaders were unanimous in promoting mutual trust and understanding between the two peoples through exchange activities, including language training, culture, arts and sports.

They agreed to pay due attention to protecting and ensuring the legitimate rights of their respective citizens while increasing necessary care and support for Vietnam-RoK multi-cultural families.

Besides, they also discussed issues related to the Korean peninsula situation and the maintenance of peace and freedom of navigation.

After the talks, the two Presidents witnessed the signing of seven cooperative documents and the two sides issued a joint statement in which the two sides agreed to promote the development of their comprehensive strategic cooperation partnership for common prosperity and the well-being of the two peoples.

 

[Viet]

Fifth Vietnam-Singapore IP gets off ground


Updated : 9/13/2013 5:18:09 PM

(VOV) - Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong attended the ground-breaking ceremony of a Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) in Quang Ngai province on September 13.

The Integrated Township and Industrial Park, the fifth of its kind in Vietnam, will be built on an area of 600ha in Son Tinh district. It is designed following the successful operations of the previous four VSIPs in Binh Duong, Bac Ninh and Haiphong.

So far these VSIPs have attracted 490 investors from 22 countries and territories with a total capitalisation of more than US$6 billion, and generated steady jobs for 140,000 workers.

At the ceremony, both PMs Dung and Lee noted that since the first park took shape in 1996, VSIPs have symbolised successful economic cooperation between the two countries, significantly contributing to Vietnam’s socio-economic development.

Dung said that the Vietnamese government creates the best possible conditions for foreign investors, including those from Singapore, to operate efficiently in the country.

“We are improving infrastructure, completing legislation, simplifying administrative procedures, and actively taking part in free trade area (FTA) negotiations, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to create the best business environment for foreign investors,” he said.

He revealed that the Danang-Quang Ngai expressway, which is under construction, will run through urban areas and industrial parks along central coastal provinces, facilitating local development.

At the ceremony, Quang Ngai handed over investment licences to three foreign projects totalling US$115 million, which are expected to generate 11,000 jobs.

 

[Viet]

Samsung to spend $1.2 bil. on Vietnam chip plant


09:58 | 11/09/2013 VIR

Samsung Vietnam illustration photo

South Korea’s Samsung Electro-Mechanics will start work next month on a $1.2 billion chip and electronic components plant in the northern province of Thai Nguyen.

Necessary procedures for the project at the Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen (SEVT) hi-tech complex in Yen Binh 1 Industrial Park have been completed, according to a source from the management of industrial parks in Thai Nguyen.

When in place, it will supply the SEVT complex where Samsung gadgets like mobile phones, smart phones and tablets are made.

Seung Mo Ryu, general director of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, who had visited Thai Nguyen and worked with provincial leaders on the project in the middle of last month, said the plant’s groundbreaking ceremony was slated for next month and that it would be up and running in August 2014.

The chip and electronic components facility will be the biggest of Samsung Electro-Mechanics outside South Korea, Thai Nguyen newspaper said in a report on its website at baothainguyen.org.vn.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics specializes in making integrated technology products for electronic devices. The company now has plants in China, Thailand and the Philippines among others, with the Thai Nguyen plant being Samsung’s ninth facility and second project in the province.

In encouraging Samsung’s investment plan in Vietnam, Thai Nguyen Province’s leaders have promised to offer favorable conditions for Samsung to put the plant into operation as scheduled.

Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen in March 2013 broke ground for the hi-tech complex at a total cost of US$2 billion. The mobile phone manufacturing and assembly and hi-tech product plant covering some 100 hectares is due to be commissioned at the end of this year.

These two giant facilities are seen as the major manufacturing facilities of Samsung in Vietnam. Member companies of the group also plan to develop plants making electrical and electronic components and mobile and telecom devices using high technologies, with thousands of jobs to be created and around US$20 billion worth of goods to be exported annually.

With the new project, Samsung’s investment commitments to the two production bases in the country amount to a combined US$4.7 billion and Vietnam will become Samsung’s smart phones and tablets manufacturing base in the world.

The first plant of Samsung in Vietnam is situated in the northern province of Bac Ninh with total capital of around US$1.5 billion. It launched its first products in April 2009. Samsung Bac Ninh turns out 13-15 million tons of products per month, with over 90% of them for export. The firm’s exports brought home roughly US$11 billion in the year’s first half, with high-end smart phones like Galaxy SII and Galaxy SIII and Note II made by it.

 

[Viet]

Quang Ninh to have $7.5 billion hotel project

15:57 | 12/09/2013 VIR

Leading officials of the US ISC Corporation – a group of world-class investors – and its partner of Tuan Chau Group (TCG) on September 11 made a fact-finding tour to Van Don island in the northern Quang Ninh province, looking to launch a 7.5 billion USD entertainment and hotel complex project in Van Don and Tuan Chau islands.

According to TCG Chairman Dao Hong Tuyen, the project has been credit guaranteed by three world top banks, including Citi Bank with 7 billion USD.

Quang Ninh authorities, ISC Corporation and the partners have also established a working group, teaming up experts of both sides to conduct studies and surveys, and design cooperation mechanisms and a roadmap to implement the project.

The Tuan Chau Group (TCG) and US-based ISC Corporation yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a project to build a US$7.5 billion entertainment and hotel complex in the Van Don economic zone.— Photo danviet

Tourists visit Van Don Island in the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh, which is pondering the opportunity for a US$7.5 billion entertainment and hotel complex. — VNS Photo Truong Vi

 

[Viet]

A thermal power plant to be built in Quang Ngai

09:34 | 13/09/2013 VIR

A memorandum of understanding on developing Dung Quat thermal power plant under the build- operate- transfer investment form was signed between the General Department of Energy (GDE) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Sembcorp Industries Ltd of Singapore in Hanoi on September 11.

The plant will be built in Binh Son district, Quang Ngai province, at a cost of almost 2 billion USD, said Director of GDE Pham Manh Thang. It is designed to have two turbines with a combined capacity of 1,200MW. Once completed and put into operation, the plant is expected to supply 7 billion kW per year.

As planned, the first turbine will operate in September 2020 and the plant is scheduled to be fully operational in March, 2021.

Thang also underlined the plant will be fuelled by imported coal with hope to help Vietnam meet national energy demand in the future.

 

[Minjitta]

Samsung to spend $1.2 bil. on Vietnam chip plant


09:58 | 11/09/2013 VIR

Samsung Vietnam illustration photo

South Korea’s Samsung Electro-Mechanics will start work next month on a $1.2 billion chip and electronic components plant in the northern province of Thai Nguyen.

Necessary procedures for the project at the Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen (SEVT) hi-tech complex in Yen Binh 1 Industrial Park have been completed, according to a source from the management of industrial parks in Thai Nguyen.

When in place, it will supply the SEVT complex where Samsung gadgets like mobile phones, smart phones and tablets are made.

Seung Mo Ryu, general director of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, who had visited Thai Nguyen and worked with provincial leaders on the project in the middle of last month, said the plant’s groundbreaking ceremony was slated for next month and that it would be up and running in August 2014.

The chip and electronic components facility will be the biggest of Samsung Electro-Mechanics outside South Korea, Thai Nguyen newspaper said in a report on its website at baothainguyen.org.vn.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics specializes in making integrated technology products for electronic devices. The company now has plants in China, Thailand and the Philippines among others, with the Thai Nguyen plant being Samsung’s ninth facility and second project in the province.

In encouraging Samsung’s investment plan in Vietnam, Thai Nguyen Province’s leaders have promised to offer favorable conditions for Samsung to put the plant into operation as scheduled.

Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen in March 2013 broke ground for the hi-tech complex at a total cost of US$2 billion. The mobile phone manufacturing and assembly and hi-tech product plant covering some 100 hectares is due to be commissioned at the end of this year.

These two giant facilities are seen as the major manufacturing facilities of Samsung in Vietnam. Member companies of the group also plan to develop plants making electrical and electronic components and mobile and telecom devices using high technologies, with thousands of jobs to be created and around US$20 billion worth of goods to be exported annually.

With the new project, Samsung’s investment commitments to the two production bases in the country amount to a combined US$4.7 billion and Vietnam will become Samsung’s smart phones and tablets manufacturing base in the world.

The first plant of Samsung in Vietnam is situated in the northern province of Bac Ninh with total capital of around US$1.5 billion. It launched its first products in April 2009. Samsung Bac Ninh turns out 13-15 million tons of products per month, with over 90% of them for export. The firm’s exports brought home roughly US$11 billion in the year’s first half, with high-end smart phones like Galaxy SII and Galaxy SIII and Note II made by it.

Just brought Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 inches "MADE in VIETNAM" in USA

 

[Viet]

and now some bad news...


Mooncakes Go Unsold as Vietnam Slowdown Hurts Companies

By Bloomberg News - Sep 19, 2013 8:30 AM GMT+0200

Street vendors push their carts along a side street in Hanoi. Photographer: Justin Mott/Bloomberg

By noon on a recent weekday, Nguyen Thi Hanh hadn’t sold a single mooncake at her sidewalk kiosk set up for the Mid-Autumn Festival on a busy street in Hanoi. She squatted on the ground to tend to her embroidery, instead.

“I’m very worried the slow sales will cut into my bonus this year,” said the 52-year-old vendor, who sells the sweet pastry stuffed with mung beans at 36,000 dong ($1.70) each for a local food chain. Sales are about half of last year’s, she said Sept. 3, about two weeks before the festival. “There’s no way I can meet the quota set by the company if this continues.”

Hanh’s difficulty in selling during one of the busiest shopping periods in Vietnam adds to evidence that the country’s economic woes are spreading. Retail sales growth cooled to the slowest since at least 2004 in the eight months through August as consumers cut back on purchases of items from cars and plasma televisions to food, piling pressure on companies weighed down by bad debt, a struggling property market and mounting losses.

“If people aren’t spending, businesses aren’t moving their merchandise, their revenues are falling and they are falling behind on paying back their debt,” said Alan Pham, Ho Chi Minh City-based chief economist at VinaCapital Group, the nation’s largest fund manager. Faltering retail sales “are a risk to the economy. GDP growth can’t recover if such a big chunk is weak.”

The economy expanded 4.9 percent in the first half from a year earlier, and the International Monetary Fund predicts Vietnam is set for a third straight year of sub-6 percent growth for the first time since 1988. Retail sales make up about 60 percent of gross domestic product, according to Pham’s estimates.

Stocks Rise

Asian stocks rose to a four-month high today and bonds climbed after the Federal Reserve unexpectedly refrained from reducing U.S. economic stimulus. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 2.3 percent as of 3:23 p.m. in Tokyo.

New Zealand’s economy expanded more than estimated in the second quarter from a year earlier, and Japan’s exports rose the most since 2010 in August.

In Europe, the Swiss central bank will probably keep the band for its benchmark interest rate unchanged, according to a Bloomberg survey. Initial jobless claims in the U.S. probably rose to 330,000 last week, a separate survey showed.

Vietnam’s central bank has cut its refinancing rate eight times since the beginning of 2012 to spur lending, and the government has set up an asset management company to clear bad debt at banks. Still, credit grew 6.5 percent in the eight months through August compared with a full-year target of 12 percent, official data showed. Third-quarter GDP data is due by the end of the month.

Elevated Inflation private consumption growth slowed to 3.5 percent last year from 4.7 percent in 2011, according to the General Statistics Office. It accounts for about 65 percent of Vietnam’s GDP.

In comparison, private consumption in Malaysia climbed 7.7 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, while in Indonesia it climbed 5.3 percent last year, according to official data.

Spending in Vietnam is also hindered by inflation, which quickened to 7.5 percent in August, the fastest pace since May 2012. Retail sales of goods and services rose 12.3 percent in January through August from a year earlier, before accounting for inflation, according to official data compiled by Bloomberg. That is the slowest pace in at least nine years.

After accounting for inflation, retail sales growth in the first eight months of the year was 5.1 percent compared with 6.8 percent in the same period a year earlier. The HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for Vietnam remained below 50, signaling contraction, for a fourth straight month in August.

Jobs Cut

“Vietnam’s businesses and wage earners are in for a rough ride,” Trinh Nguyen, Hong Kong-based economist at HSBC, said in a note last month. “With softer purchasing power, demand for goods, especially manufactured goods, has decelerated.”

The return on equity of Vietnam’s consumer staple companies lags behind some regional peers, according to the companies’ latest filings. Vietnam’s companies in that category returned an average of 11 percent compared to Thailand’s 16 percent and Indonesia’s 15 percent. Masan Group Corp., which makes noodles and soy sauce, returned 4 percent, compared with Thai instant noodles company President Rice Products Pcl (PR) at 18 percent.

While Tran Kim Thanh, chairman of Kinh Do Corp., Vietnam’s biggest mooncake maker, predicts “good” sales this Mid-Autumn season, Saigon Securities Inc. analyst Nguyen Thi Thuy Giang is less optimistic. The outlook for the consumer industry is “not positive” due to slow sales and weak demand, she said.

Jobs Cut

Struggling with rising costs and slowing demand, Vietnamese companies have cut jobs and wages. The unemployment rate was 2.3 percent at the end of June, up from 1.96 percent as of Dec. 31, according to the statistics office.

Those figures are probably underreported, underemployment “has increased significantly and that reflects the change in the economic conditions,” HSBC’s Nguyen said. The number of business closures in Vietnam increased 12 percent in the first six months from a year earlier, according to government data.

“People are buying less of almost everything,” said Le Thi Hao, 46, who lost her job as a cleaner in a food factory last year when it cut output, and now sells fruits on a sidewalk. “My family can afford to eat meat only once every 10 days.”

Vehicle sales grew 13.6 percent in August from a year earlier, slowing from 22.7 percent in July. Consumers are also cutting back on essentials such as groceries and toilet paper, according to the Ho Chi Minh City office of market research company TNS, which surveyed 500 urban households late last year.

The TNS survey showed 79 percent of people planned to spend less, or the same amount this year, on household-care products, while 25 percent said they will cut spending on utilities.

Accountant Tran Thi Hong Mai, whose salary was cut by 40 percent late last year, has had to make many adjustments. She doesn’t buy expensive foreign labels any more, and instead gets locally-made apparel. She also packs lunch to work every day.

For the mid-Autumn Festival today, Mai bought mooncakes at a street kiosk rather than from a luxury hotel as she used to.

“When we are earning much less and inflation is high, we need to be careful with our spending,” Mai said, picking up a box of four mooncakes for 140,000 dong. “I only spend on essential items like milk and books for the kids these days.”


To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Hanoi at uyen1@bloomberg.net; John Boudreau in Hanoi at jboudreau3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Phang at sphang@bloomberg.net

 

[Viet]

Vietnam's scandal-hit shipbuilder to fire 14,000 staff

Published September 19, 2013
AFP

An almost inoperative dock at Vinashin's Nam Trieu shipbuilding factory in the northern coastal city of Hai Phong on February 28, 2013. Vietnam's debt-swamped state-run shipbuilder Vinashin has said it will axe some 14,000 jobs as part of a restructuring that will see it shed 70 percent of its workforce. (AFP/File)

HANOI (AFP) – Vietnam's debt-swamped state-run shipbuilder Vinashin has said it will axe some 14,000 jobs as part of a restructuring that will see it shed 70 percent of its workforce.

The company collapsed in 2010 under $4 billion in debts, triggering investor alarm over the health of other key state-owned firms and leading to a downgrade of the communist country's credit rating.

Vinashin currently employs some 26,000 staff -- less than half the number in 2008 -- but said it had a "plan to restructure its labour, keeping about 8,000 people", in a statement on its website posted Monday.

The firm, which expanded into areas from real estate to electricity generation before it toppled under vast debts, said paying off staff was "not simple" because of a lack of funds.

While the company will lose a total of 18,000 workers in the process, it only specified that 14,000 staff -- many of whom already have no work -- would lose their jobs. It did not give details of the further 4,000.

State-run Lao Dong newspaper said Thursday the cuts were a blow to the group's skilled workforce, who bore no responsibility for its collapse.

Vinashin "used to be given preferential treatment to overcome difficulties. So why is there no plan to help 14,000 employees, redundant due to irresponsible and corrupt officials?" it said.

Before its collapse Vinashin, officially known as Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group, was seen as a new model state-owned enterprise that would lead Vietnam's efforts to compete on a global stage.
The company's near-bankruptcy -- as well as scandals at other state-owned firms -- caused turbulence in Vietnam, which has seen its economic dreams sour in recent years.

Nearly a dozen executives were jailed in 2012 and the Vinashin case piled pressure on Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who appointed the disgraced chief executive and was later forced to accept responsibility for the group's failings.

Vinashin did not specify how long the restructuring would take, but said it would be in two stages.
Economist Jonathan Pincus, dean of the Fulbright Economics Teaching Programme in Ho Chi Minh City, said it was "hard to know... where the job cuts are falling hardest and how it relates to disinvestment in their highly diversified conglomerate".

"Are they focusing on ship building and giving up the other things? Are they consolidating their shipyards? If yes, then it is a positive development," he said.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/0...hipbuilder-to-fire-14000-staff/#ixzz2fLQ25I1X

 

[Viet]

again, a big Thank to our Japanese friends...


Vietnam builds 1st ever energy-generating waste plant


English.news.cn 2013-09-19 23:27:11

HANOI, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The construction of the first waste treatment facility to generate electricity from bio-waste started in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Thursday.

The Nam Son industrial waste treatment complex, which is located in Hanoi's Soc Son District, is the first of its kind in Vietnam, using Japan's incinerators with advanced technologies to turn the heat from industrial and hazardous garbage treatment process into electricity, reported local online newspaper Nhandan (the People).

The system is capable of treating 75 tons of waste per day and can produce 1,930kW of thermal power.

The project costs over 612 billion Vietnamese dong (29 million U.S. dollars) to build, of which over 472 billion Vietnamese dong (22.4 million U.S. dollars) came from non-refundable aid from Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.

The project will provide the electricity for the whole complex, which is one of the measures to deal with the glut of waste in Hanoi. Solid waste burial grounds may be reduced and the industrial waste in both Hanoi and neighboring provinces will be properly dealt with, said the Hanoi Urban Environment Company, the representatives of the owners of this project.

The complex is expected to be put into operations in late 2014.

 

[Minjitta]

again, a big Thank to our Japanese friends...


Vietnam builds 1st ever energy-generating waste plant


English.news.cn 2013-09-19 23:27:11

HANOI, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The construction of the first waste treatment facility to generate electricity from bio-waste started in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Thursday.

The Nam Son industrial waste treatment complex, which is located in Hanoi's Soc Son District, is the first of its kind in Vietnam, using Japan's incinerators with advanced technologies to turn the heat from industrial and hazardous garbage treatment process into electricity, reported local online newspaper Nhandan (the People).

The system is capable of treating 75 tons of waste per day and can produce 1,930kW of thermal power.

The project costs over 612 billion Vietnamese dong (29 million U.S. dollars) to build, of which over 472 billion Vietnamese dong (22.4 million U.S. dollars) came from non-refundable aid from Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.

The project will provide the electricity for the whole complex, which is one of the measures to deal with the glut of waste in Hanoi. Solid waste burial grounds may be reduced and the industrial waste in both Hanoi and neighboring provinces will be properly dealt with, said the Hanoi Urban Environment Company, the representatives of the owners of this project.

The complex is expected to be put into operations in late 2014.

There also one company in the south which own by Vietnamese aboard does the same thing turn waste into electricity , do you if that company in operating yet.

 

[Viet]

Vietnam to become the world’s motorbike production base


Last update 08:00 | 06/09/2013
source: VietnamNet

VietNamNet Bridge – About 3 million motorbikes are consumed in Vietnam every year. Meanwhile, the five big motorbike joint ventures alone churn out 4 million products a year. The oversupply would force the manufacturers to boost exports and turn Vietnam into the world’s motorbike production base.

Honda motorbikes exported to Japan

The website of the Japanese motorbike manufacturer in late August showed a piece of news that SH Mode made by Honda Vietnam would be available in Japan from September 13. This would be the second motorbike model of Honda Vietnam to be sold in Japan in 2013.

It is expected that some 3,000 SH Modes would be consumed in the market every year.

Prior to that, in March 2013, when launching Lead 125 into the market, Honda Vietnam also stated that it would export the products to Japan, where it hoped to sell 12,000 products every year.

As such, Honda Vietnam has become the fourth country that provides products to Honda global. The other three include China, Thailand and India.

Masayuki Igarashi, General Director of Honda Vietnam, said the company plans to boost exports to Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Pakistan and Italia. It earns $40 million a year from the exports to the regional markets with just two models Dream and Wave.

SYM, the manufacturer from Taiwan, has also been trying to exploit the ASEAN market. It has been exporting 4,000 products a month to South East Asian markets such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

Meanwhile, Piaggio Vietnam exports 30,000 products to the ASEAN market every year. Piaggio Vietnam’s Tran Thu Mai noted that the Asian market now sees the fastest growth rate in the world. The manufacturer strives to export Euro70 million worth of motorbikes and motorbike parts in 2012-2014.

Export or die

The motorbike consumption over the last two years has been decreasing dramatically in the context of the economic downturn. Motorbike manufacturers all said 2012 was a very tough year for them.

According to Masayuki Igarashi of Honda Vietnam, the manufacturer sold 3.11 million products in 2012, which was just equal to 93 percent of that in 2011. Especially, Honda Vietnam had to spend VND15 billion on a sale promotion program, a biggest ever sum spent for such a program.

However, despite the big difficulties, motorbike manufacturers still keep expanding their production. The third factory of Honda Vietnam capitalized at $120 million in Ha Nam is expected to become operational by the end of the year, which would raise the total production capacity of the manufacturer to 2.5 million products per annum.

The Yamaha project, worth $50 million, is raising the production capacity to 1.5 million products per annum.

Analysts believe that the manufacturers’ move to scale up the production aims to serve their plan to boost export instead of boosting domestic sales. The total production capacity of the joint ventures in Vietnam is expected to reach 3 million products a year by the end of the year, or 2 million products higher than the demand.

They have also predicted that with such a big capacity, Vietnam would become the world’s motorbike production base in 5 or 10 years.

 

[Viet]

Not bad for a 2 year old airliner...


Vietnam's VietJet agrees bumper $9 billion Airbus order

By Nguyen Phuong Linh - REUTERS
PARIS/HANOI | Wed Sep 25, 2013 3:05pm EDT

France's Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault (R Rear) and Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (L Rear) attend a protocol agreement signing ceremony, with VietJetAir Managing Director Luu Duc Khan (2ndL) and Christophe Mourey (2ndR), Airbus Head of Contracts and Negotiation, at his Hotel Matignon offices in Paris September 25, 2013.

A VietJet A320 airplane is seen while parking before departure for Bangkok at Noi Bai international airport in Hanoi September 25, 2013. REUTERS-Kham


(Reuters) - Low-cost airline VietJet agreed a provisional order for up to 92 Airbus (EAD.PA) jets worth $9 billion at list prices on Wednesday, stepping up expansion to make its mark in a fast-growing regional market.

Vietnam's first privately-owned airline said it would buy mostly A320 planes, financed by a planned stock market listing as well as loans from foreign banks backed by export credits.

The deal is the latest blockbuster order from Asia's budget carriers for Airbus or Boeing (BA.N) jets, as a huge surge in the number of middle-class travelers with disposable incomes pushes up industry traffic forecasts.

Wednesday's announcement in Paris confirmed a Reuters report on Tuesday.

Of the 92 jets, 62 are set to become firm orders with purchase rights - or options with undefined delivery dates - for a further 30. The airline plans to lease eight more planes.

The carrier aims for a stock market listing in either Hong Kong or Singapore in 2015 to fund expansion beyond Vietnam, managing director Luu Duc Khanh said.

"This deal is a milestone in our company, it means we are aiming to be a multinational budget airline," Khanh said in a telephone interview.

"Vietjet Air's purpose is expanding to the regional market, not only in the domestic market, so we need to be in the overseas market in order to call in more capital."

Vietjet, which has been flying since December 2011, has a fleet of nine jets including the country's first equipped with upward-slanting, fuel-saving "Sharklet" wingtips which it received in France on Tuesday. A tenth plane is due next week.

It is the only private airline in Vietnam that offers domestic and international flights. At present, its only overseas destination is Thailand's Bangkok.

BIG AMBITIONS

The plane order was part of an economic package signed during a visit to Paris by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, but only materialized after lengthy negotiations.

"We negotiated most of the night," Khanh, a former banker, told reporters.

When formalized, the deal will include firm orders for 42 A320neo, a fuel-saving version of Airbus's best-selling jet, as well as 14 current-generation A320s and six A321 aircraft.

The first two aircraft will be delivered in the last quarter of 2014 followed by five to 10 jets each year until 2022.

Airline industry experts say VietJet wants to follow the path of low-cost giants AirAsia (AIRA.KL) of Malaysia and Lion Air of Indonesia, which have signed record plane orders.

Shares in Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA) rose as much as 1.2 percent against a weaker European market following the VietJet deal, boosted also by $6 billion of orders in China where Airbus launched a new type of A330 tailor-made for regional growth.

Vietnam's national carrier Vietnam Airlines has also expressed interest in A380 superjumbos, industry sources said.

VietJet is talking to an airline in Myanmar about a possible joint venture similar to its agreement in June with Thailand's KanAir to form Thai VietJet Air early next year, Khanh said.

He would not say which of Myanmar's seven airlines the firm was looking to partner with.

Speaking to reporters in Paris, Khanh said VietJet was also interested in setting up the first low-cost services between Vietnam and North Asia including Taiwan - which has 100,000 Vietnamese residents - South Korea and Japan.

He said the airline would pursue a strategy of alliances to support its international growth and open up new markets.

Khanh said VietJet, owned in part by Sovico Holdings, had turned a profit in the first seven months of this year.

He said the airline, which was recently fined for organizing an in-flight bikini contest, would continue to foster a "fun" brand combined with low prices and customer service. But he also pledged to maintain some of the industry's lowest unit costs.

"My background is in figures and numbers. I know that 1 percent here, 0.1 percent there, make a difference," he said.

(Additional reporting by Tim Hepher and Julien Ponthus in Paris, Jared Ferrie and Aung Hla Tun in Yangon; Writing by Martin Petty, Tim Hepher; Editing by David Cowell and Jane Merriman)


Vietnam's VietJet agrees bumper $9 billion Airbus order | Reuters

 

[Viet]

Poverty rate expected to drop to 7.6% by year-end

Updated : 9/23/2013 6:47:21 PM
source: Voice of Vietnam

(VOV) -The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has predicted that Vietnam’s poverty rate will fall to 7.6% by the end of this year and to 2% in 2014.

The figures were released at a conference held by the National Assembly (NA) Committee for Social Affairs in Hanoi from September 23-25.

The event aimed to review the MoLISA and the Health Ministry’ budget spending in 2013, make budget estimates for next year and, collect opinions on adjustments to a number of laws.

Participants highlighted the MoLISA’s achievements in vocational training, job generation, child protection, and incentive policies for the poor and social-policy beneficiaries.

The MoLISA reported that more than 990,000 were employed after the eight months of this year, meeting 62% of the yearly set target. Over 1 million workers are expected to be trained in 2013.

However, many delegates noted with deep concern about the gap between the rich and the poor and between urban and rural areas, adding that poverty reduction should be ensured on a sustainable basis.

While touching upon salary and employee recruitment, MoLISA Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen pledged greater attention to job creation, poverty reduction and people credited with revolutionary service.

 

[Viet]

Poland’s pharmaceutical firm set to operate in Vietnam

Updated : 9/25/2013 7:11:47 PM
source: voice of Vietnam

(VOV) -Polpharm- a leading pharmaceutical group of Poland has included Vietnam in its market development strategy in Southeast Asia.

Polpharm’s investment scheme and its already successful operations in the EU, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia were announced at a September 25 to debut its business operations in Vietnam

It will open a representative office in Hanoi to introduce more than 600 types of pharmaceutical products, predominantly used in treating heart, digestive and mental health diseases.

Rajmund I. Martyniuk, Vice President of the Management Board and Commercial Director for Polpharm Group, highlighted huge potential for his firm’s operation in the Vietnamese market, which he described as a key location for expansion to other ASEAN members.

Davlet Matkerimov, Polpharma Vietnam General Manager, said his group’s presence in Vietnam will help local patients improve their health condition, adding that his firm wants to produce medicines in Vietnam and transfer knowledge and technology to Vietnamese partners.

 

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