Business in brief 26/6
Vietnam’s economic growth in the second quarter of this year quickened to an estimated annual rate of 4.5 percent, from an annual rise of 3.1 percent in the first quarter, a state-run newspaper said on Friday. The faster growth in the quarter ending June highlighted considerable growth in the first six months of the year, and showed the economic downturn may have turned the corner, the Planning and Investment Ministry said. Vietnam’s economy, buffeted by the global recession, grew an estimated 3.9 percent in the first half of 2009 from the same period last year, while annual inflation sunk to its lowest level in more than five years in June.
The Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, or Vietcombank (VCB), will debut its shares on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange on June 30 at an initial price of VND50,000 per share, the market operator said Thursday. The Hanoi-based bank will list more than 112.28 million shares, or 9.3% of its total shares, on its debut, the HOSE said in a statement. Foreigners can buy as much as 30% of the total shares to be listed on the HOSE. For the first trading day, Vietcombank’s shares will be subject to a trading band of 20% around the initial price, wider than the usual band of 5%, it said.
Vietnam expects coal exports to rise 68% on year in June to 2.1 million metric tons, according to figures issued Thursday (25 June 2009) by the General Statistics Office. The exports, worth $110 million, would be 7.8% higher on year, the GSO said. The country’s coal exports will fall 9.4% to 11.92 million tons in the first half of the year, it said. Value of the shipments will fall 16% on year to $591 million in the January-June period, the GSO said. The GSO usually issues coal figures before the end of the reporting period, based on estimates.
Foreign investors were net buyers of VND153.3 billion ($ 8.76 million) of Vietnamese stocks Thursday out of a total VND2.05 trillion traded, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange said. Volume traded totaled 52.1 million shares, with foreigners accounting for 8.8% of that volume, the stock market operator said. In the month to date, foreign investors have been net sellers of VND517.8 billion of Vietnamese stocks.
Vietnam wants to strengthen links with Panama and Austria, said National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong while receiving the two countries’ outgoing ambassadors in Hanoi on June 24. At a reception for the Ambassador of Panama, Lizia Zenaida Lu, the NA Chairman expressed hope that the two countries would improve their relations in various fields. On meeting Austrian Ambassador Johannes Peterlik, NA Chairman Trong said that he was pleased with the fine developments in bilateral ties in recent times and the ambassador’s active contributions. He emphasized that the two countries should further exchange delegations and their experiences in introducing legislation and judicial reforms.
Taiwan Cooperative Bank is planning to open overseas branches in Sydney of Australia and Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam before the end of this year, while setting sight on setting up a branch in Suzhou of Jiangsu Province in eastern China. Liu Teng-cheng, chairman of the large financial conglomerate, announced the plans at a shareholders meeting yesterday. In addition to opening the new branches in Australia and Vietnam, Taiwan Cooperative Bank will give top priority to establishing a branch in Suzhou City once Taipei and Beijing officially sign various memoranda of understanding (MOUs) for cross-strait financial cooperation and supervision on the operations of banking, securities and insurance sectors, Liu said. But the bank will maintain its operations in Beijing with the status of a representative office in the near future, he added.
Vietnam is expected to have disbursed $1.27 billion of official development assistance in the first half of this year, up 9% on year, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said Friday. The country plans to disburse $1.9 billion worth of ODA this year, the ministry said in a statement. At a meeting of the World Bank Consultative Group for Vietnam held in December, foreign donors pledged $5.01 billion of development assistance for the country this year, compared with $5.4 billion for last year.
