Thread: Latest news on the Dong!

A Walt Disney in centre of Hanoi?
17:52' 02/02/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – The Hanoi Peoples’ Committee has agreed in principle on the Vincom’s project on turning the Thong Nhat Park into a small Walt Disney.


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Thong Nhat park

Vincom Joint Stock Company, the investor, plans to inject VND1,500bil ($93.75mil) in the project and turn the existing Thong Nhat park into a small Walt Disney.

The news were released after the hot meeting between the Hanoi’s leaders, relevant authorities and Vincom Joint Stock Company.

Located in the centre of Hanoi, a city with more than 4mil of population with the high living standards, covering an area of 50 ha, including a 21 ha pond, Thong Nhat park has every factors that promise the success of the project.

However, Le Khac Hiep, Chairman of Vincom Company, said that profit is not the most important issue for the investor when deciding to inject money in the park.

“A capital that considers tourism as the most important sector, must not lack the places for entertainment,” he said. The lack of entertainment places and services makes the capital less attractive in the eyes of foreign tourists, while local residents do not know where to relax and entertain.

“Several million dollars of Hanoians have been poured into the entertainment places in the neighbouring countries. What we want is to lure visitors,” Mr Hiep added.

According to the cursory plan, Vincom will turn Thong Nhat park into the No 1 entertainment place in Hanoi with the complex of intellectual and risky games, sports and cultural items. There, in the park, will serve the games on land and underwater which will run by the world’s modernist entertainment technologies.

“We will hire consultants, purchase definitively technology and develop the amusement complexes, while not setting up a joint venture with foreign partners,” Mr Hiep said.

Mr Hiep said that his company may make several million dollars in investment in the entertainment complexes, and Thong Nhat park in the future will be a small Walt Disney.

In addition to the amusement items, Vincom also plans to make investment in an entertainment complex of international rank, which consists of discotheque, studio, 3D-technology cinema. Shopping centres will also set up in the park to meet the demand of visitors. Meanwhile, a parking area with the capacity of 500 units will be set up under the green trees to meet the hot demand for parking of the city.

Mr Hiep has called for the support from the city’s authority and local residents for the project. He has also promised to ensure the jobs for the 400 existing labourers of the Thong Nhat park.

“If everything goes smoothly, the investor will kick off the project soon, and it is expected that the project will be completed on the occasion of the 1,000 anniversary of the establishment of Thang Long – Hanoi, ” he added.

(Source: Tien phong)

Goldman Sachs to enter Vietnam
17:03' 31/01/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Goldman Sachs, a full-service global investment banking and securities firm, is planning to enter Vietnam’s financial market. It has chosen Thien Viet Securities Company as the local partner to implement its plans in Vietnam.


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Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs meets the leaders from the State Capital Investment Corporation of Vietnam

A Goldman Sachs representative said that it was optimistic about the economic growth potentials in
Vietnam and considered Vietnam a strategic market in its long-term development strategy.

In the immediate time, Goldman Sachs plans to make direct investment in Vietnam, providing consultancy services, including equitisation consultancy, guaranteeing securities issuances, helping enterprises list on the bourse and raise capital in both the domestic and international markets. The main clients of Goldman Sachs will be groups, general corporations and big companies.

By the end of November 2005, Goldman Sachs had managed the total assets of $532bil. In 2006, the firm continued to be a symbol of investment banking success with the net turnover of $28bil.

In 2006, Goldman Sachs ranked 41st on the Fortune 500 list, and ranked third among investment banks.

In January 2006, Goldman Sachs made a strategic move when it spent $2.5bil to buy 5% of the the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). This was the result of the strategic relationship Goldman Sachs had built up in China for more than 10 years. Now the $2.5bil deal made by the firm has the market value of $8.6bil.


In 2006, Goldman Sachs also acted as the main bank managing the listing transactions of Bank of China (BOC) worth $11.2bil. It was also the co-manager of the IPO transactions of the Republic of Korea’s Lotte Shopping group, worth $3.7bil (the ROK’s biggest-ever IPO transaction so far and the biggest IPO transaction carried out in foreign currencies since 2001).



Hong Thu

300 million USD credit for Dung Quat oil refinery
08:13' 31/01/2007 (GMT+7)

Four foreign commercial banks have agreed to provide a 300 million USD loan for the development of infrastructure facilities of the Dung Quat oil refinery, central Quang Ngai province.
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Workers at the construction site of Dung Quat Oil Refinery.

A contract was signed in Ha Noi on Jan. 30 between the Vietnamese Finance Ministry and BNP Paribas, ANZ, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Corporate Bank and and Tokyo branch of Paribas.

Japan's Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) will provide insurance for the loan. This is the first time, NEXI will provide credit insurance in Viet Nam, thus opening up a way for Viet Nam to access sources of capital in the world market.

According to Tran Ngoc Canh, General Director of PetroVietNam, the Dung Quat oil refinery project - a key project in the country - will meet 30-40 percent of the domestic demand for refined oil once its construction is completed.

The loan will help PetroVietNam, owner of the Dung Quat refinery project, to accelerate the pace of construction in order to put the project into operation by early 2009.

(Source: VNA)

Investment Forum planned for March
08:10' 31/01/2007 (GMT+7)

The second annual Viet Nam Investment Forum will take place on March 19-20 this year in the capital city of Ha Noi.
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Participants will have a chance to receive update information of Viet Nam's strong economic growth

This year's forum, under the theme of "Financing the Growth of Asia's Next Tiger", is expected to attract 1,000 international delegates, including portfolio investors, international financers and bankers who will have a chance to receive update information of Viet Nam's strong economic growth, successful reforms and how WTO entry alters the picture.

Keynote speakers and panel discussion and workshop participants will include top government officials and international financers.

The forum will be sponsored by Euromoney, which has organised conferences and events in more than 60 countries.

Speakers at the event will include chairwoman of the State Capital Investment Corporation, Le Thi Bang Tam, group Chief Executive Officer of HSBC, Michael F. Geoghegan, Managing Director of the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV), Tran Bac Ha in addition to many other leaders and officials.

(Source: VNA)

Taiwanese firm plans $3 billion high-tech investment in Vietnam


Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s leading maker of outsourced electronics products, plans to build factories in two northern Vietnamese provinces.

It chose Bac Ninh and Bac Giang following a visit there by chairman and CEO, Terry Gou.

Foxconn, which manufactures world-famous products like Nokia cell phones, iPod music players, PlayStation 2 game consoles, and Sony Laptop, will invest US$3 billion in these two plants.

Under a plan it discussed with the leaders of the two provinces, Foxconn is likely to build a 1,000 ha complex in Bac Ninh including a hi-tech park, township, golf course, hospital, and entertainment park.

In Bac Giang too it will build a similar, 1,500 ha complex.

The two facilities will churn out computers and communications and consumer electronic products.

In their first two years of full operation, the plants will generate some $3.5 billion a year in exports.

Foxconn has signed a contract for leasing 50,000 sq.m in Bac Ninh’s Que Vo Industrial Park.

It expects to get the land in April and start operation in May.

The group is also looking for areas in southern and central Vietnam to build two hi-tech parks.

Foxconn, the trade name for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., exports some $45 billion worth items each year, with 80 percent coming from facilities in China.

Reported by M.Q. – Compiled by Dong Ha

Vietnam's software industry grows by 30 pct


Vietnam's software industry grossed US$300 million last year, including $90 million from exports, up 30 percent against 2005, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Wednesday.

The Vietnam Software Association (Vinasa), representing 110 software developers, attributed the rise to improved local and international market penetration.

Software companies in the country also improved their reputation in key markets worldwide, including Japan, the United States and the European Union.

Vinasa will soon submit a software export promotion program to the Vietnamese government and prepare for the establishment of an export center in capital Hanoi.

Vinasa has 14 foreign-invested firms as members, and represents 60 percent of Vietnam's total software production capacity.

Source: Xinhua

Disney TV time slot to debut in Vietnam


Buena Vista International Television-Asia Pacific (BVITV-AP) has reached a deal to launch a daily Disney-branded block of time on terrestrial broadcaster Ho Chi Minh Television (HTV7) this month.

The deal for Toon Disney was inked between BVITV-AP and Vietnamese distribution agent Q.net Co Ltd.

The animated programming block will air daily on HTV7 Monday through Sunday from 6am to 6:30am and will feature a wide range of top animated series from Disney including Disney’s Mickey Mouseworks, Adventures of Mickey & Donald, Disney/Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Disney’s Timon & Pumbaa.

BVITV-AP inked a fair amount of business in Vietnam last year, licensing Desperate Housewives, Lost, Alias, Criminal Minds and Ghost Whisperer into the country.

Last year also saw the first live broadcast of the 78th Annual Academy Awards on HTV7. And in November 2005, one of the first Jetix-branded animation blocks in the Asia Pacific launched on Vietnam Television (VTV).

HTV’s director general, Huynh Van Nam commented: “Ho Chi Minh City Television was honored to be the very first Vietnamese broadcaster to run the two channels, Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney, on our pay-TV package HTVC.”

“And now, once again, we are proud to be the first broadcaster to launch Disney’s top animated series on our free TV channel HTV7. We look forward to having Mickey Mouse and Donald join our local children in a new and comfortable playground,” Nam said.

Source: WorldScreen.com

US investor gets license for $1 bln resort in Vietnam island


The US-based Rockingham Asset Management company has received the license for its US$ 1 billion tourism complex on Phu Quoc Island in southern Vietnam.

The US investor’s proposal dovetails with a government master plan to turn the island into an international aqua-eco-tourism destination as well as a trade and cultural hub.

The master plan envisages setting up tourism, entertainment, sports, and healthcare facilities on an area of 1,000 hectares.

Included in these are a 36-hole golf course, a high-end resort with more than 2,000 rooms, villas for rent, a motor racetrack, a tourism school, and other tourism facilities.

Construction is set to be completed by 2015.

The US group has set up the Rockingham Vietnam Real Estate Development Company for the project.

Source: Tuoi Tre, TTXVN

Luxury hotel investor KHI unveils Vietnam resort project


Kingdom Hotels Investments (KHI), a Dubai-based hotel and resort investment company, announced Tuesday it plans to build a luxury resort in central Vietnam.

In a press report KHI said the resort in Da Nang City signaled a forthcoming shift in emphasis away from its traditional core markets of the Middle East and Africa, which account for 27 of its 31 hotels.

Raffles Da Nang, the US$65 million, 150-room property in Vietnam, due to open in 2011, was the first of many planned acquisitions to tap into rising demand for luxury hotel and residential resorts in Asia’s fast-growing economies.

It had acquired a prime beach site for the project in which it would own 80 percent and European Hotels Corporation Ltd 20 percent.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, KHI chairman, said the project helped KHI “be well positioned to offer the market a leading international hotel property" as inbound leisure and business tourism increased in Vietnam.

CEO Sarmad Zok said the project “demonstrates the company's ability to grow within Asia's emerging markets."

The listed company, founded a decade ago by Alsaud, finances and develops hotels and luxury residential resorts managed by leading international brands like Four Seasons and Movenpick.

Source: Press release

Shortage of villas for rent in Ho Chi Minh City


Villas for rent in Ho Chi Minh City have now mostly been booked up, though their rental fees are up to $6,000 a month per villa.

An Phu mansion area in District 2 has 200 villas which are all full. Another villa area named Thien Nga nearby is too filled, though rents here are US$3,500-6,000 a month. Most tenants signed contracts lasting 1-2 years.

Another villa area covering thousands of square meters on Phung Khac Khoan Street in district 1 belonging to the Foreign Trade Development and Investment Corporation is also booked up.

Recognizing the high demand for villas, the company has been building more mansions on prominent land plots in downtown areas, but while they are yet to be finished, they have been booked by either firms, investors or speculators, a company employee said.

Here, fees are $18-20 per square meter and a rental contract must have duration of at least one year.

State-run Service Company to Foreign Missions (Fosco) said villas on Ba Huynh Thanh Quan Street in district 3 charging $1,700-1,900 per month per villa had been filled for the past six months.

Thirty mansions up to $3,000 a month in rents overseen by Fosco have also been full.

Meanwhile, rental fees for offices have gone up 30 percent from $23 per square meter a month to nearly $30 in the city.

Source: Tuoi Tre – Translated by Hoang Bao