Business in brief 08/10
Early this week, Vietnam has signed a veterinary agreement for allowing German fresh pork to be exported to the South Asian country, the German agricultural website Top Agrar reports. "This means we have set a major step to increase the cooperation between Germany and Vietnam, as agreed in a protocol in March 2009," said secretary of state Ursula Heinen-Esser in a meeting with her Vietnamese colleague Tan. As the ministry of agriculture has also reported, a larger share of the market in Asia is open to German meat production companies.
Pham Tien Van, the Vietnamese Ambassador in Seoul, said by this August, Korea had invested USD 22 billion in over 2,200 projects to place second among 90 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Ninety Korean business executives attended the seminar organized by the Korean Small and Medium-Sized Business Association and the Vietnamese embassy. Interest in investing in Vietnam has grown strongly in Korea, Mr. Van added. On the same day, the Korean Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and the HCMC Union of Friendship Organizations celebrated Korea’s 4,341st founding anniversary, October 3. The chairman of Vietnam - Korea Friendship Association, Vu Van Hoa, said Vietnam desires to promote comprehensive and long-lasting cooperation with Korea.
An increase in tuna exports from Vietnam to Canada has made the northern American country one of the top importers of the aquatic product. The Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers of Vietnam (VASEP) reported that tuna exports to Canada are experiencing double digit growth. Since mid June, exports have gone up 384% in volume and 107% in value from a year ago, while those to other countries have shown negative growth. With this result, Canada has become Vietnam’s fifth largest buyer of tuna after the United States, the European Union, Japan and Israel.
However, the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD) is worried that due to the global financial crisis and the lack of a trademark for tuna exports, Vietnamese exporters, who are now selling their tuna to intermediaries at low cost, might find it difficult to penetrate into markets. The export of unprocessed tuna yields a lower profit compared to processed tuna, which is another concern posed by MARD.
Banks in Vietnam reported loans at the end of September were up 28% from the end of 2008, in line with a 2009 credit growth target of 30%, the central bank said on Tuesday. Money supply (M2) last month rose 21.69% from December 2008, while bank deposits increased 22.45% in the same period, the State Bank of Vietnam said in a report without giving any values. Vietnam should devise “flexible fiscal and monetary measures” to prevent the return of high inflation, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told a cabinet meeting last week, suggesting a possible tightening in policies to curb rising consumer prices. But the central bank has maintained its monetary stance, leaving the base rate for dong loans unchanged at 7% this month. It has projected both credit and money supply will grow 30% in 2009.
Eximbank, 15% owned by Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, said its gross profit in the first nine months of this year rose 5.5% to VND6 trillion (USD 336.3 million). The Ho Chi Minh City-based lender said in a statement on Tuesday its total assets reached VND6 trillion at the end of September, a rise of 30.6% from the end of 2008. Eximbank, or the Export Import Bank, announced the nine-month results ahead of the domestic listing of all its 880 million shares on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange later this month. Eximbank said January to September’s loans reached VND35 trillion, a surge of 65% from the end of 2008, while it also raised deposits worth VND5 trillion during the first nine months of this year. Apart from SMFG, British Virgin Islands-registered VOF Investment Ltd owns 5% of Eximbank and MAE, part of South Korean fund group Mirae Asset, has 4.5%.
Standard Chartered Bank launched its Priority Banking service in Ho Chi Minh City on October 6. The service will provide Standard Chartered Bank’s customers with a series of global services including financial solutions in banking transactions, loans, guaranties, investments, new products and high-quality services, in addition to attractive interest rates.
The Priority Banking service, which is part of Standard Chartered Bank’s global expansion strategy, provides access to experienced consultants and managers and quick service at 200 Priority Banking transaction centers in 25 countries. Members will also receive a special prime rate on time deposits and personal lines of credit, free services such as unlimited domestic money transfer, free overseas money transfer and free international debit cards.
The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) on October 6 opened a workshop with a view to strengthening economic and trade cooperation between Vietnam and the Sudan. Known as a gateway between Africa and the Middle East and the largest of the leading members of the common market in South-eastern Africa, Sudan is a partner of great potential for Vietnam.
Bilateral trade between the two countries has significantly increased in recent years, topping 63.4 million USD in 2008 from less than one million USD in 2002. In 2008, Vietnam exported 23.9 million USD worth of various items mainly computers, electronic appliances and spare parts, garments, rice, coffee, bags, leather wallets and purses. The impact of the global financial crisis in 2009 slowed Vietnamese exports to the African country. In the first six months of this year, Vietnam earned 14.75 million USD in exports to Sudan and imported 750,000 USD worth of goods.
Vietnam Oil & Gas Group said crude oil exports in the first nine months rose 12% from a year earlier to 11.7 million metric tons. Crude oil shipments in the nine-month period have already met 97% of the full-year target, the Hanoi-based company said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday. PetroVietnam in June set a target of 12.05 million tons for 2009. The company now plans to ship 13.14 million tons of crude oil and condensate this year, the statement said. Nine-month sales exceeded VND186 trillion (USD 10.4 billion), accounting for 88% of the full-year forecast, according to the statement. The company has supplied 1.13 million tons of crude oil to the Dung Quat refinery in the central Quang Ngai province since it started operations in February, PetroVietnam said in the statement.
Vietnam’s largest insurer, Bao Viet Holdings, said on Wednesday (07 Oct) gross profit in the first eight months of this year jumped 43% from a year earlier to 828 billion dong (USD 46.4 million). Gross profit for the Hanoi-based group, 10.3% owned by HSBC Insurance, was 6.3% above the annual projection after January-August revenues rose 10.7% to 6.65 trillion dong, a Bao Viet statement said. HSBC Insurance wants to buy another 8% in Bao Viet, the statement quoted a representative of the foreign investor as telling Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung at a meeting on Monday. HSBC Insurance and Bao Viet will start talks on the 8% stake purchase via a separate share issue scheduled later in 2009, the statement said without giving further details.
Lam Dong Province is helping Champassak Province of Laos to breed high-value cold-water fish on 3 ha in Paksong District. The pilot project is part of a friendship cooperation program between the two provinces, said Lam Dong Provincial People’s Committee. Under the project, Lam Dong will send its technicians to transfer breeding techniques to Champassak province and provide 2,000 sturgeon and 1,000 salmon fry, along with nearly two tons of fish food and medicine. The cold-water fish breeding model of the project will be expanded within two or three years, said the Lam Dong Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. At present, Lam Dong nets a profit of more than 2 billion VND per year per ha of cold-water fish breeding.
Foreign investors were net buyers of VND44.4 billion (USD 2.5 million) of Vietnamese stocks Wednesday out of a total VND2.44 trillion traded, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange said. Volume was 47.37 million shares, with foreigners accounting for 7.1% of that total, the stock market operator said. In the month to date, foreign investors were net sellers of VND215.1 billion of Vietnamese stocks.
