RoK firm starts expansion of central industrial zone; Chilean press highlights rise in trade with Vietnam; US investors advised to consider Vietnam’s ETFs
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Upon completion, the current Phu Bai zone will have an additional 87 hectares for use, raising its total area to 800 hectares.
According to Dae Jong Kim, a representative from Ace Vina, the group will try its best to complete the construction work on time which will help the zone to attract more foreign investment.
So far, the Phu Bai industrial zone houses 33 investment projects with a combined capital of 31 trillion VND (roughly 1.73 billion USD), of which 18 factories have already started operating.
Every year, exports worth around 10 million USD of construction materials, furniture, textile and pottery products and minerals make a significant contribution to the state budget and have accelerated growth in the province.
Investors in Phu Bai are entitled to a variety of incentives such as low land fees, a flexible mechanism for rental payments and registration support for ISO certificate or property rights.
Chilean press highlights rise in trade with Vietnam
The Asia-Pacific portal at the Chilean Congress’s Library has run an article highlighting trade between Vietnam and Chile in recent years.
According to the article, the two countries are expected to inform each other of the finalising of negotiations on the bilateral free trade agreement, during an official visit to Chile by State President Nguyen Minh Triet from Sept. 27.
Themed “Trade connects Chile and Vietnam,” the article described Vietnam as an economy with many prospects. The Asian nation began its economic reforms in 1986 and has become one of the fastest growing economies in the region in recent years and a promising destination for investors thanks to a young population and increasing purchase power.
Two-way trade between Chile and Vietnam reached nearly 177.38 million USD in 2008, a year-on-year increase of 9 percent, according to the Chilean export promotion agency (ProChile).
Trade rose by 39.3 percent to 147.71 million USD in the first seven months of this year.
Vietinbank finances Ca Mau fertiliser plant
The Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) will provide the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) with a 220 million USD loan to build the Ca Mau nitrogenous fertiliser plant.
The contract was signed by the bank and the PVN in Hanoi on Sept. 25.
The 800,000 tonne per year plant will be built in Khanh An commune, U Minh district in the southernmost province of Ca Mau and cost 900 million USD.
The contractors, the WEC-CMC Group from China, will carry out the project under the Engineering-Procurement-Construction formula, to enable the plant to start running commercially by the second quarter of 2012.
Earlier this year Vietinbank also provided PVN with a 200 million USD loan for the Dung Quat Oil Refinery in April.
As one of Vietnam’s biggest banks, Vietinbank has reserved a large amount of its capital to finance the nation’s major projects.
For the power sector alone, Vietinbank has pledged to provide more than 20 trillion VND for the construction of the Uong Bi and Phu My thermo-electric power stations and the Quang Tri and Pleikrong hydro-electric power stations.
Coupled with that, the bank has provided the oil and gas sector with credit for several large-scale projects, including the Dung Quat Oil Refinery, the Nam Con Son gas pipeline and projects to develop the Lan Tay and Lan Do oilfields.
At present, Vietinbank is mulling over a plan to open several branches overseas, with the first one to be set up in Germany in 2010.
According to the bank, it has established ties with 850 banks around the world and is a member of the Asian Bankers Association, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications and a number of e-payment card organisations.
It is the founder of and a partner in Vietnam’s first joint venture bank – Indovinabank, with Taiwan ’s Cathay United bank.
It is expected to sign a contract with the Phu My Joint Stock Company (PMC) to arrange the credit package for the construction of a tunnel through the Ca Pass in Phu Yen province.
Recently, Vietinbank and PMC worked with Australia’s Baulderston Group and Germany’s Bilfinger Berger groups to establish cooperative ties and arrange loans for PMC’s projects.
US investors advised to consider Vietnam’s ETFs
Website iStockAnalyst.com, the flagship product of Oregon based corporation Wall Street Tools LLC, has advised US investors to consider Market Vectors Vietnam (VNM) as the best option out of the five recently launched international exchange traded funds (ETFs).
In an article entitled “the five new, hottest international ETFs to consider” posted on Sept. 24, iStockAnalyst.com said that VNM, launched by New York-based Van Eck Global, made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on August 14, would give investors a slice of the local stock market, including financial, energy, industrial, and consumer companies. It is risky, but the opportunities are huge, wrote the website.
“With a young population, a strategic location and abundant natural resources, Vietnam is one of the world’s fastest growing economies. The country exports rice, oil, cashew nuts, and black pepper. Privately owned businesses are thriving and the industrial sector is growing fast,” added iStockAnalyst.com.
The site also advised US investors to diversify their portfolio’s into other hot, new markets with one simple trade on the US exchange by considering four other ETFs, namely Market Vectors Indonexia (IDX) from Indonesia, iShares MSCI Peru (EPU), Global X InterBolsa FTSE Colombia 20 (GXG) and Global X FTSE Nordic 30 ETF (GXF) from the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Falling global prices trim Vietnam trade deficit
Despite maintaining significant export volume, the country’s export turnover in the first nine months of this year reached roughly 41.7 billion USD, down 14.3 percent from the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The deputy director of the GSO’s trade statistics department, Le Minh Thuy, attributed the decline to falling prices for major export products on the global market.
Crude oil exports, for instance, totalled 10.95 million tonnes during the period, up 8.6 percent year-on-year, but earned only 4.77 billion USD, a decrease of 45.6 percent, due to the declining global oil price, Thuy said.
Agricultural products were one of the few bright spots, with earnings from pepper exports up 5.5 percent to 267 million USD, and rice, rubber and coffee all surging in export value by 7-34 percent.
The country’s import in the first nine months also decreased in value to 48.2 billion USD, a 25.2 percent decline which the GSO attributed to falling domestic demand as well as declining world prices.
Steel imports, for instance, topped 7.3 million tonnes and totalled 3.8 billion USD, a 1.2 percent increase in volume but a 35.5 percent down in value. Major equipment imports totalled 8 billion USD during the period, a decrease of 15.4 percent.
The figures trimmed the nation’s trade deficit in the first nine months to 6.54 billion USD, 58.8 percent less than the same time last year.
The GSO was predicting total export turnover for the year to remain below 60 billion USD, lower than the originally targeted 64 billion USD.
Test-run for state-of-the-art cement plant underway
A major cement plant with a daily capacity of 2,500 tonnes of clinker was put into operation in the northern province of Phu Tho on September 24.
The Song Thao Cement Plant is scheduled to roll out its first batch of product after one week of test-runs. The inauguration ceremony is to take place on October 8.
It is one of the most advanced of its kind in Vietnam in terms of automation and the first success of the country’s engineering, procurement and construction model by a domestic contractor in cement plant construction.
The project was built at a cost of over 1.67 trillion VND by the Song Thao Cement Joint-stock Company under the Housing and Urban Investment and Development Corporation (HUD), which is also the project’s investor.
Retailer AEON Malaysia eyes Vietnam
The AEON Co. ( Malaysia ) Bhd, a subsidiary of Japan’s second largest retailer – AEON Co. Ltd – is eyeing Vietnam as a potential retail market.
AEON Malaysia Managing Director Naghahisa Oyama said his company is considering plans to invest in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Laos.
He said he is entrusted to seek potential partners and locations in Vietnam and to complete a report on the market in October. However, he added, the investment plan is likely to start in 2011.
According to Oyama, the AEON group will give Vietnam first priority and Ho Chi Minh City is seen as the most promising location, followed by Hanoi.
VietNamNet/VNA
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