Business in brief

Japan’s DDK Ltd. has started building a $25-million factory in Vietnam to produce connectors for computers, a local government statement said Wednesday. The plant covers three hectares in the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park in Binh Duong province, 40 kilometers north of Ho Chi Minh City, the province said in the statement. The plant is scheduled to start production in October, providing 500 jobs in the first phase, it said.

 

Wheeling Jesuit University President Julio Giulietti is traveling to Vietnam this week to set up a training program for health workers. Giulietti says the university can provide faculty and staff to train workers in programs such as physical therapy. Guilietti, who departs on Thursday, says he hopes to bring Vietnamese officials to Wheeling later this year to work on an exchange of students. Giulietti has traveled to Vietnam several times, including as a former director at Georgetown University’s Center for Intercultural Education and Development.

 

A real estate trade exchange in Hanoi was recently opened by the Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Joint Stock Corporation (Vinaconex). Founded by the Vinaconex and Investment and Tourism Company (Vinaconex ITC), the Vietnam Export-Import Bank (Eximbank), and the Agribank Securities Company (Agriseco), the trading floor has capital of VND300 billion (approx. US$17 million). Vinaconex´s real estate trade exchange is expected to provide services such as asset valuation, professional training, brokerage, consultancy, loan consultancy, mortgage advise, marketing and auction.

 

Global Telecom Corporation (GTel) has inked a deal with equipment vendor Alcatel-Lucent to improve the cellco’s wireless services in central and northern Vietnam. The vendor will provide GTel with a business support system (BSS) wireless network and a microwave transmission system, and has announced it will extend its training assistance to the cellco’s staff while the network is being built. GTel Mobile, which was licensed to develop a mobile telecom network in Vietnam in September 2008, is a joint venture between Vietnamese state-owned Global Telecommunications Corporation and Russia’s Vimpelcom Group. Once operational, GTel hopes to offer fixed, mobile and broadband services.

Philand Corporation has signed an agreement with Thien Nam Investment and Construction Corporation to cooperate in the areas of commercial, industrial and residential real estate construction. Thien Nam, established in 1993, has successfully completed numerous major commercial, industrial and residential projects for Vietnamese and international clients, including Vietnam VMEP R&D Center, Olympic Cable Factory (Malaysian), Kazu Furniture Factory (Japanese), Bonfigliory Electric Motor Factory (Italian), Vietnam Australia Hotel (Australian), IDT Office Building (Korean), and Duc Thanh Resort (Taiwanese), to name a few.

 

Domestic small- and medium-sized enterprises will be eligible to apply for soft loans from the Vietnam International Bank (VIB), guaranteed by the Vietnam Development Bank (VDB). Under the terms of an agreement signed by the two banks on Feb. 17, VIB will earmark more than 8 trillion VND for the project during 2009, which is soon to be launched across its 106 branches nationwide. It is estimated that approximately 1,000 small- and medium-sized enterprises across the country will be eligible to benefit from the preferential loans provided by VIB. The move aims to ease small firms’ access to capital sources in order to maintain their business and production activities in the face of the global financial crisis.