Tay Ninh Province to get first industrial ‘ecology’ zone; Citigroup to help PetroVietnam seek $550 mln loan for plant; Foreign arrivals to Vietnam drop by 25 percent in October
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Investors look at an artist’s impression of the Bourbon An Hoa Industrial Garden project in the ground breaking ceremony |
Investors look at an artist’s impression of the Bourbon An Hoa Industrial Garden project in the ground breaking ceremony
The industrial zone is located in An Hoa, Trang Bang District, and covers 1,020 hectares. Some 760 hectares will be used for an industrial zone, 76 hectares for housing resettlement and 184 hectares for the port and warehouses.
The project aims to protect the natural and local environment. Each factory will be permitted to use just 70 percent of the area to build house machinery, and cover the remaining 30 percent with trees.
When the industrial zone is operating, it will be given priority for businesses that produce consumer products, household equipment and cosmetics.
The zone will also be able to treat its own sewage.
The industrial ecology zone is an advanced model, which has been already applied in other countries.
Citigroup to help PetroVietnam seek $550 mln loan for plant
Citigroup Inc. will help Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, known as PetroVietnam, source a US$550 million loan for the Nhon Trach 2 power plant in the south of the country, the head of the plant said.
“We have authorized Citigroup to help get money from some local and international banks and Citigroup itself will also give us some funding,” Le Tu Hieu, chairman of the plant’s management board, said by phone from Ho Chi Minh City Thursday. He declined to name other banks involved.
The loan will be for 12 years with a grace period of zero interest in the first two-and-a-half years, according to Hieu. He declined to say how much of the loan Citigroup, the third-largest US bank by assets, would provide.
Vietnam needs more power plants as the government forecasts electricity demand will rise as much as 14 percent annually through 2015. The 750-megawatt, gas-fired Nhon Trach 2 plant is scheduled to start operations in March 2011, Citigroup said in an e-mailed statement Thursday.
“In the wake of the global economic crisis, we can see increased interest among investors and financial institutions to support this kind of critical infrastructure in Vietnam,” Brett Krause, managing director of Citibank N.A. Vietnam, said in the statement.
Citigroup opened its first retail banking branch in Vietnam this month to take advantage of increasing wealth in the $90 billion Southeast Asian economy.
Hanoi-based PetroVietnam, a state-owned company, has moved into electricity generation after Electricity of Vietnam, the country’s biggest supplier, struggled to meet demand.
Foreign arrivals to Vietnam drop by 25 percent in October
The number of international visitors to Vietnam in October reached some 228,000, a decrease of 25 percent over last month, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
Specifically, the number of visitors coming to Vietnam by air and sea, at 158,000 and 3,000, respectively, dropped compared to the same period last year. Only the number of those who travel by land increased, by 72.2 percent.
The total number of international visitors to Vietnam in the first ten months of this year is more than three million people, declining by 16.3 percent compared to the same period last year. The number of visitors coming from the Republic of Korea saw the biggest decrease, of over 24 percent, followed by China, Thailand and Taiwan with decreases of 23.6 percent, 18.8 percent and 16.5 percent, respectively.
The decline was attributed to the global economic crisis and the impact of the A/H1N1 flu.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said that the target of receiving 3.7-3.8 million foreign tourists this year can be fulfilled thanks to a policy to exempt entry visa charges for tourists to Vietnam through the end of the year and the third Asian Indoor Games, which will be held for the first time in Vietnam .
The administration has taken various stimulus measures and organised tourism promotions inside the country and abroad to attract more tourists as well as investment in the tourism sector. Additionally, the government has issued a regulation on building and implementing a national tourism promotion programme for the 2009-2010 period.
The tourism sector has proposed that foreign embassies in the country help promote Vietnam’s National Tourism Year through their information networks, and that also, members of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 and the Council for the Promotion of Tourism in Asia (CPTA) advertise the year of Vietnam Tourism in major Asian cities.
The National Tourism Year and the image of Thang Long-Hanoi broadcast in and outside the country are expected to bring a large number of foreign tourists to Vietnam in the coming time.
Vietnam willing to promote trade, investment with Japan
The Government of Vietnam is willing to cooperate with the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) to further promote trade and investment relations between the two countries, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
The commitment was delivered at PM Dung’s reception for JETRO President Yasuo Hayashi in Hanoi on October 30, who is visiting Vietnam to attend the inauguration ceremony of JETRO’s assistance office for Japanese small- and medium-sized enterprises in the country.
PM Dung said the new office and the upcoming Vietnam-Japan exhibition of supporting technologies this November will help accelerate trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.
At present, Japan is the leading investor in Vietnam and the potential for bilateral cooperation in several different areas is huge, he added.
The JETRO leader said Japanese enterprises are exerting their full efforts to increase the exchange of trade with Vietnamese partners.
He said around 60 Japanese companies will attend the upcoming Vietnam-Japan supporting technology exhibition in Hanoi on November 12-13.
Vietnam’s investment policy and law introduced in Italy
Vietnam’s investment policy and law were introduced at a seminar in Turin in northern Italy.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy Dang Khanh Thoai affirmed that despite the global economic downturn, Vietnam’s economy has been able to maintain a relatively high GDP growth and remains an attractive venue for foreign investors.
President of the Italy-Vietnam Trade Chamber Giovanni Giustetto said that Vietnam has changed rapidly over recent years and is in need of large-scale capital for modernising all of its economic sectors.
Italian businesses highlighted Vietnam’s potential as a market, with a population of 86 million people, but admitted that Italy has not undertaken many major projects in the country.
Italy had 28 investment projects totalling 114 million USD in 2008, jumping from the 36th place in 2007 to the 31st place among 81 investors in Vietnam . Two-way trade recorded a 20 percent year-on-year rise to 1.7 billion USD in 2008. The Italian government has agreed to grant 30 million EUR in credit in the 2009-2012 period to Vietnam’s small and medium-sized enterprises operating in environment and health care.
However, Italy’s foreign economics cooperation agency noted that although the Italian Government considered Vietnam as a strategic bridging point in its foreign economic policy through 2020, its businesses have failed to receive their government’s assistance on information and policies on investing in Vietnam, which has slowed their entry in to the market.
The two countries’ businesses hoped to have more opportunities for future dialogue and cooperation following President Nguyen Minh Triet’s official visit to Italy slated for December this year.
Quang Ninh to host Vietnam-China int’l trade fair
The 2009 Vietnam-China international trade-tourism fair will open in Mong Cai city in northeastern Quang Ninh province on December 4.
According to the organising board, about 250 Vietnamese enterprises and 120 businesses from China have registered to take part in the fair, which will last until December 8.
Entitled “Cooperation for development of trade-tourism, investment”, the fair will showcase economic and social achievements of the host province and China, and spotlight products from local and foreign-invested and enterprises, including those operating in the fields of tourism, services and hotels.
Within the framework of the fair, there will be numerous other activities including performances by Vietnamese and Chinese artists, as well as a seminar on measures to promote trade and tourism between the border provinces of Quang Ninh and Guangxi.
The fair, the second of its kind, will be jointly held by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Quang Ninh People’s Committee.
VietNamNet/VNA, TN, ND
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