Business in brief in 25 May
Around 200 delegates and 64 businesses from Vietnam and Malaysia gathered at an information and communication technology (ICT) forum in HCM City yesterday to seek cooperative opportunities. The event was jointly organized by the Malaysia Trade External Development Corporation (MATRADE) and the Quang Trung Software Park. At the event, Vietnam’s TMA software company along with its Malaysian partner Nextgrid inked a deal with online payment service provider iPay88, under which a mobile payment system will be set up across Southeast Asia using TMA Nextgrid technology via iPay88.
A number of foreign airlines have begun services to Vietnam. Finland’s Finnair, one of them, has chosen Bien Dong travel firm as its general agent. According to Retteri Kostemaa, the carrier’s Southeast Asia business director, the airline is considering starting a direct service from Helsinki in the near future. From Vietnam, Finnair will team up with other airlines, including Vietnam Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Jetstar, to create transit points – connecting with its flights to Helsinki, other domestic destinations in Finland, and 60 European destinations. Earlier, a number of other well-known airlines announced increases in their number of flights or the start of new air services to Vietnam. Cebu Pacific of the Philippines has begun a twice-weekly service between Manila and Ha Noi. In March the US’s United Airlines and Japan’s ANA announced an expansion of their trans-Pacific joint venture, enabling them to co-operate on airfares and networks on the Vietnam-US sector.
The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has imposed an anti-dumping duty of nearly 28 percent on Vietnamese carbon steel pipes, according to AFP. Taxes levied on steel producers from Oman and the United Arab Emirates vary from 5.6 to 11.7 percent, but an exporter from India, Zenith Birla Company, has to pay an anti-dumping tax of 48 percent. DOC says that these taxes will affect exports from four countries, estimated at nearly US$200 million in 2011 alone. In March, the DOC imposed an anti-subsidy duty of 286 percent on steel pipes imported from India, and 0-8.1 percent on steel pipes imported from three other countries. New Delhi has lodged a lawsuit with WTO.
Only 9,000 square meters of grade A office space will be added to the market in HCM City this year, much lower than the 84,000sq.m planned by developers due to delays, according to property service firm CBRE Vietnam. Five buildings, including Times Square and Le Meridien, were planned to be completed in 2012, but some face delays. CBRE’s office services director Greg Ohan in fact predicted only one or two of them to be finished this year. "As occupancy levels rise and new supply is delayed, the grade A market appears to be approaching a ‘short term’ bottom," he said.
The Ministry of Finance issued yesterday a circular to ask petrol importers to follow the new import tariffs. Under the new circular, import taxes levied on various kind of gasoline will be raised from their current 2 per cent to 4 per cent. The circular also stipulates that import taxes on diesel fuel for cars will increase from 2 per cent to 3 per cent and other fuel will rise to 5 per cent. This circular took effect from yesterday and replaced the one from May 10, 2012.
IFC on May 24 granted a credit package worth US$25 million to Orient Commercial Bank (OCB) to increase capital accessibility for small-and-medium-sized enterprises, especially those managed by women. The credit includes US$15 million directly sponsored by the IFC and US$10 million assisted by BNP Paribas bank, a foreign strategic partner of OCB. All sides agreed to spend US$5 million out of the total expanding credit opportunities for businesses owned by women. Nguyen Dinh Tung, acting general director of OCB, said the credit will target such fields as production, imports, exports, trade, service and agriculture. Simon Andres, IFC’s Regional Manager of Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, said the credit will help OCB reinforce capital capacity and business growth, create more jobs and increase incomes.
Six months after opening a subsidiary in Frankfurt, Germany, VietinBank has completed all procedures to debut its branch in Berlin in late May 2012. VietinBank’s four-story building is located in Lichtenberg borough, home to over 4,000 Overseas Vietnamese (OV) among the total 12,000 OVs in Berlin. The borough also houses two Vietnamese commercial centers, Dong Xuan and Thai Binh Duong, gathering hundreds of small Vietnamese traders. On May 7, the branch in Lichtenberg opened its door to guests, but the official inauguration ceremony is due to take place on May 28. Vo Minh Tuan, deputy general director of VietinBank, said the bank is scheduled to upgrade its branch office in Germany to be its headquarters in Europe and will continue to expand operations to other countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, France and the UK.
One of the country’s top anti-virus software developers, Bach Khoa Antivirus (BKAV) has launched its free online scanning service that allows individuals and companies to better manage security risks on their websites. Using cloud computing, an online data storage technology, the service allows online-users to detect and evaluate thousands of hacker vulnerabilities and their current security status without installing any software. According to BKAV’s statistics, about six Vietnamese websites see attacks from hackers every day. More than 2000 websites are hacked annually, causing great damage to the development of domestic companies. The service is provided at BKAV’s website: webscan.bkav.com.
Work started on a soft drinks plant in Chu Lai Industrial Zone in the central province of Quang Nam on Tuesday. The VND2 trillion (US$95.2 million) Tan Nhat Phat Group plant will be equipped with advanced technology and occupy a 27 ha site. Construction will be in two phases. The first phase, from 2012 to 2013, will include a plant with a production capacity of 300 million liter per year. Over the 2016-20 period, production capacity will rise to 600 million liters per year.
The Cai Mep International Terminal has achieved a record capacity of 183 berth moves per hour, supplying faster loading and unloading cargo service to vessels harbored in Vietnam to and from the US and Europe. With such a capacity, more than 183 containers of all sizes can be loaded or uploaded each hour. In the first month of operation, in December of last year, the terminal had 125 berth moves per hour. During the past six months of operation, the terminal accommodated 151 vessels for 351,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) load. Located in Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province, 50km away from HCM City, the port has a capacity of 1.1 billion TEUs, a 600m-long wharf and a 14m-deep channel.
The Quang Tri provincial People’s Committee has signed an agreement on developing its southeastern economic zone with One ASEAN Development Company (Thailand). The signing ceremony was held on May 24 during the visit to Thailand from May 20-26 by a delegation of high-ranking officials from Quang Tri province led by Chairman Nguyen Duc Cuong. Accordingly, One ASEAN Development Company, which is very experienced in industrial development and infrastructure construction in Thailand, will be responsible for carrying out some important projects to build an oil refinery, a petrochemical complex, a natural gas processing plant and a commercial and entertainment area. As from June 1, the company will conduct a field survey and try to complete its preparatory work in six months.
Orient Commercial Bank (OCB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and French banking giant yesterday signed an agreement for a credit facility of US$25 million in HCM City. With this contract, OCB will be provided US$25 million, including $15 million from IFC (a member of the World Bank group) and $10 million from co-sponsor BNP Paribas (France), OCB’s strategic partner. The total amount will be reserved for SMEs, and OCB will set aside $5 million to serve SMEs owned or managed by women. This program will help to promote women’s role in the development of the national economy in particular and society in general.
