Business in brief 26/10

* POSCO Engineering wins USD137 mln order from Vietnam. South Korea’s POSCO Engineering & Construction Co. said Wednesday (21 Oct) that it has signed a USD137 million deal to build a section of highway in northern Vietnam. Under the deal with state-run Vietnam Express Corp., POSCO Engineering will construct a 22.1km section of the 224km highway linking the cities of Lao Cai and Noi Bai by the first quarter of 2013. Last March, the South Korean builder clinched a USD150 million deal to build a 27km section of the highway.

• Vietnam’s Central Bank said that commercial banks lifted interest rates for the dong in Vietnam’s interbank, worth mentioning that the overnight rate inclined to reach 7.25% by the end of last week as it rose 0.4% from the previous week, while the six month rate reached 10.5%. The central bank added that U.S dollar supplies increased in the banking system last week when companies sold American dollars to banks. Interbank local currency transactions recorded 66.43 trillion dong, while foreign currency transactions totaled USD2.2 billion.
• Vietnam’s Techcombank raises USD118 mln in dong bonds. Vietnam’s Techcombank, 20 percent owned by HSBC Holdings Plc, said on Monday it had raised 2.1 trillion dong (USD118 million) by issuing three-year bonds this month. The debt due Oct. 22, 2012 carried a coupon of 10.5 percent for the first year, while that on the remaining years would be equal to the average rate on 12-month savings paid by four state-run banks plus 2.8 percentage points, a Techcombank statement said. Proceeds from the bonds would go towards working capital, the statement said. Techcombank plans to raise its registered capital to 5.68 trillion dong by the year-end from 5.4 trillion dong now.
• Vietnam Jan-Oct trade gap down 47 pct. Vietnam’s trade deficit in the first 10 months of this year is likely to have fallen around 47 percent from a year earlier to USD8.78 billion, after exports fell 13.8 percent and imports dropped 21.7 percent, a state-run newspaper reported on Monday. The Planning and Investment Ministry estimated January to October exports at USD46.34 billion and imports at USD55.12 billion, the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper said. It cited a ministry report as projecting Vietnam’s trade deficit for the whole of the year would reach USD11 billion. The report did not provide any value for key items such as crude oil, coffee and rice. The government is expected to release full trade data later this week.
• Vietnam raises gasoline, diesel prices on higher oil costs. Vietnam allowed its state-run fuel retailers to raise gasoline and diesel prices because of higher costs in the global oil market, according to a statement on the government’s Web site. The price of 92-RON gasoline, the most common grade in Vietnam, increased to 15,500 dong (87 cents) a liter from 15,200 dong on Oct. 24, according to the statement, citing a joint- decision by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Industry and Trade. Diesel prices climbed to 13,300 dong a liter from 12,800 dong, the statement said. Crude oil futures have risen 13 percent this month on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
• Vietnamese PM approves a plan to develop economic zone in central province. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved a plan to develop a complex and modern economic zone on an area of 20,730 hectares in the country’s central province of Phu Yen, said a report on the government website on Monday. The South Phu Yen Economic Zone will be a driving force for development in the central region of Vietnam, said the report. The zone will have a duty-free area, according to the report. There will also be a port area, industrial zones, urban areas, and tourism sites in the zone. By 2015, the population of the economic zone is estimated at about 145,000 people. The figure is expected to increase to 185,000 in 2025, said the report.
• Lao Cai to apply e-commerce gateway. The gateway, which is an upgrade of the e-commerce transaction floor, will be put into operation as of November 2. It coincides with a Vietnam-China International Trade and Tourism Fair which will take place in Lao Cai from November 2 to 7. Participating members will have access to provincial guidelines, mechanisms and policies in all fields and have the right to upload their information to the gateway. In the initial years, Lao Cai province will finance all expenses to help businesses participate in the gateway. The provincial Department of Information and Communications has provided a training course for 100 businesses how to effectively use the service.