Thread: Latest news on the Dong!

US group to develop million-dollar projects in Vietnam
US-based Eighth Wonder Group says it will cooperate with Vietnam's Southern Bank to develop several million-dollar projects in Vietnam.

A delegation from Eighth Wonder visited the local joint-stock bank last month to look into its operations and introduce projects it aims to develop in Vietnam.
The two firms agreed to develop an eco-tourism project in District 9; a hotel, recreation and housing complex in Binh Tan District; and a resort and golf course in the Mekong Delta.
EWG also aims to build a US$4 billion coastal resort, Harry's Island, a 12-hotel complex with 3,000-4,000 rooms, 20 art galleries and 50 restaurants.
EWG will be fully entitled to employ all Southern Bank’s services.
Headquartered in Las Vegas, the Eighth Wonder Group specializes in conceptualizing, designing and developing entertainment and retail companies, and international-standard hotels.
Source: VNS

Thursday, 05/17/2007, GMT+7

http://www.div.gov.vn/EN/news_detail...atID=48&id=428

sorry. It won't let me paste.

Originally Posted by cooldolphins

Thursday, 05/17/2007, GMT+7

http://www.div.gov.vn/EN/news_detail...atID=48&id=428

sorry. It won't let me paste.

It pasted for me, as follows . . .
Rising dong may hit exports

The Vietnamese dong remained steady during 2006, but a recent sharp rise in the dollar supply could lead to an appreciation of the dong and negatively affect national export competitiveness.


The dong fell against the US dollar by 1 per cent in the first 11 months of 2006, confirming a 10-year pattern of the dong declining annually against the dollar, according to a General Statistics Office report.

However, after reaching VND16,100 per dollar for the first time ever on December 15, the dong has been gradually appreciating by the narrowing trade deficit, record-high foreign direct investment, and increasing remittances from overseas Vietnamese, all of which have boosted the dollar supply.

Exports in 2006 were estimated at $39.6 billion, 22.1 per cent higher than in 2005, reinforcing expectations for a trade deficit of $3 billion, 30 per cent less than in 2005, according to a Ministry of Trade report. Foreign direct investment in both new projects and increased funds for existing projects was estimated to rise to a record $10.2 billion.

According to Bui Thu Hang, head of VP Bank’s Foreign Exchange Department, US dollar inflows to the bank this year increased 30 per cent following increased remittances from overseas Vietnamese. Estimates of the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese placed dollar inflows from remittances at $5 billion in 2006, 16.5 per cent higher than 2005.

The head of VIBank’s Corporate Credit Department, Tran Kim Chi, said her bank has seen its dollar sales fall lower than purchases in recent days. “We think that importing businesses will borrow Vietnam dong and then exchange them for US dollars as the supply is profuse,” she said.

Pham Chi Quang, an economist from Vietnam’s Central Institute of Economic Management, said that the revaluation of the dong will urge people who have dollars to sell, which will put more pressure on the Vietnam dong to gain against the US dollar.

According to some domestic banks, foreign currency reserves have fluctuated over the last few weeks at around the limit of 30 per cent of registered capital set by the State Bank of Vietnam. Accordingly, upon closing, banks have had to sell foreign currency surpluses that have arisen during the day, with the State Bank being the ultimate buyer.

“Commercial banks should set a suitable rate to sell out surpluses. The central bank will assist technically if needed to maintain the Vietnam dong’s gradual depreciation again the US dollar,” said the State Bank of Vietnam’s foreign exchange management director, Truong Van Phuoc.

Phuoc said that the dong’s revaluation against the dollar remained under control. “The central bank will soon work out measures to prevent the Vietnam dong’s further appreciation against the US dollar,” he said.

Earlier this year, the Thai Frozen Foods Association complained that they were losing orders to competitors in Vietnam as the baht gained over 12 per cent against the US dollar while the dong continue to decline, making Vietnamese goods cheaper to overseas buyers.

Last September, the Group of Seven industrialised nations called for emerging economies with current-account surpluses to have more flexible currencies.


Vu Giang
Vietnam Investment Review No. 794/January 1-7, 2007

Best to all . . . RR . . .

Originally Posted by RollsRoyce

It pasted for me, as follows . . .
Rising dong may hit exports

The Vietnamese dong remained steady during 2006, but a recent sharp rise in the dollar supply could lead to an appreciation of the dong and negatively affect national export competitiveness.


The dong fell against the US dollar by 1 per cent in the first 11 months of 2006, confirming a 10-year pattern of the dong declining annually against the dollar, according to a General Statistics Office report.

However, after reaching VND16,100 per dollar for the first time ever on December 15, the dong has been gradually appreciating by the narrowing trade deficit, record-high foreign direct investment, and increasing remittances from overseas Vietnamese, all of which have boosted the dollar supply.

Exports in 2006 were estimated at $39.6 billion, 22.1 per cent higher than in 2005, reinforcing expectations for a trade deficit of $3 billion, 30 per cent less than in 2005, according to a Ministry of Trade report. Foreign direct investment in both new projects and increased funds for existing projects was estimated to rise to a record $10.2 billion.

According to Bui Thu Hang, head of VP Bank’s Foreign Exchange Department, US dollar inflows to the bank this year increased 30 per cent following increased remittances from overseas Vietnamese. Estimates of the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese placed dollar inflows from remittances at $5 billion in 2006, 16.5 per cent higher than 2005.

The head of VIBank’s Corporate Credit Department, Tran Kim Chi, said her bank has seen its dollar sales fall lower than purchases in recent days. “We think that importing businesses will borrow Vietnam dong and then exchange them for US dollars as the supply is profuse,” she said.

Pham Chi Quang, an economist from Vietnam’s Central Institute of Economic Management, said that the revaluation of the dong will urge people who have dollars to sell, which will put more pressure on the Vietnam dong to gain against the US dollar.

According to some domestic banks, foreign currency reserves have fluctuated over the last few weeks at around the limit of 30 per cent of registered capital set by the State Bank of Vietnam. Accordingly, upon closing, banks have had to sell foreign currency surpluses that have arisen during the day, with the State Bank being the ultimate buyer.

“Commercial banks should set a suitable rate to sell out surpluses. The central bank will assist technically if needed to maintain the Vietnam dong’s gradual depreciation again the US dollar,” said the State Bank of Vietnam’s foreign exchange management director, Truong Van Phuoc.

Phuoc said that the dong’s revaluation against the dollar remained under control. “The central bank will soon work out measures to prevent the Vietnam dong’s further appreciation against the US dollar,” he said.

Earlier this year, the Thai Frozen Foods Association complained that they were losing orders to competitors in Vietnam as the baht gained over 12 per cent against the US dollar while the dong continue to decline, making Vietnamese goods cheaper to overseas buyers.

Last September, the Group of Seven industrialised nations called for emerging economies with current-account surpluses to have more flexible currencies.


Vu Giang
Vietnam Investment Review No. 794/January 1-7, 2007

Best to all . . . RR . . .

this doesnt look like good news?

VNPT to offer lower fixed-line phone rates from June
The Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) an­nounced it is set to cut fixed and public card phone charges by 15- 20 percent start­ing June 1.

Charges applied to its post­paid service will be VND100 for the first six seconds on intra-regional calls and VND120 for in­ter-regional calls.
Charges for the group's 171 service will be VND84 and VND110 for intra- and inter-re­gional calls respectively.
The call regions are based on the fact that Vietnam is divided into northern, central and southern regions.
Calls made from a tele­phone booth (card phone service) will be VND100 for the first six seconds for intra-regional calls and VND200 for the first 10 sec­onds of inter-regional calls.
The charges for card phone calls using 171 service will be VND100 for the first seven seconds on intra-regional calls and VND200 for the first twelve seconds on inter-regional calls.
VNPT opens US branch
In related news, VNPT has offi­cially opened a branch in the northern California city of San Francisco in the United States.
The branch will focus on trade and investment promotion activities, and mapping out plans for expanding VNPT services in the US and its neighboring markets.
"The opening of the US branch, following the company's ventures in Asia, is part of VNPT's efforts to expand its operations globally," company Deputy General Direc­tor Lam Hoang Vinh said.
Mark Chester, director of San Francisco Mayor's Office of Inter­national Trade and Commerce said municipal authorities would fa­cilitate VNPT's operations as well as those of other Vietnamese busi­nesses.
The opening ceremony hosted local and US government officials, the US-Vietnam Busi­ness Association and several US companies, including AT&T, Verizon, Motorola, and Merrill Lynch.
Last year VNPT became a member of the ASEAN Telecom Holding Company (ATH/ACASIA), one of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)'s leading primary network service providers, made up of the six leading telecom providers in the region, namely CAT, Indosat, JTB, PLDT, Singtel and Telekom Malaysia.
Source: Tuoi Tre, Nhan Dan, VNS – Compiled by Thu Thuy

TNT takes Asia's first road network into Vietnam
TNT express parcel service Thursday announced the expansion of Asia's pioneering integrated road network into Vietnam following a US$4.41 million investment.

Adding to an original investment of $1.5 million, the enhancement brings the total investment to date to $5.8 million. TNT plans to extend the Asia Road Network to reach China through the north-eastern border of Vietnam by the end of this year.
Once completed, the network in Southeast Asia will cover almost 60 percent of the region and link over 120 cities across 4,000 km.

First introduced at the end of 2005, the first phase of TNT's Asia Road Network linked Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
With 24x7 real-time Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) tracking of TNT's container trucks, the service resulted in double-digit growth in overall volumes within a year, particularly among customers with high-value goods such as electronic, automotive and computing components.

The road service is two to three times faster than sea freight and offers customers significant savings of up to 30 percent compared to air freight.
"TNT's expansion into the Greater Sub-Mekong area is logical given the rapid growth of the region, in particular Vietnam," said Onno Boots, regional managing director of TNT Southeast Asia.

The company's expansion of its road network service into Vietnam is in line with the company's strategic intent to expand its presence in Asia, particularly in key emerging markets.
Boosted by Vietnam's WTO accession, foreign direct investment in the country rose by almost 40 percent to reach $10.2 billion in 2006. Vietnam is also expected to achieve an economic growth rate of 8 percent in 2007-08.
Source: Cargonews Asia

Market ends two-day tailspin with upturn
Vietnamese stocks bounced backed Thursday on the back of strong gains by major blue chips that elevated both the Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi indexes to fresh highs.

HCMC’s VN-Index gained 18.8 points, or 1.81 percent to close at 1059.79. And Hanoi’s HASTC-Index increased 2.57 points to close at 337.15.
Closing the session, a little over 5 million shares changed hands, a fall of 10 percent from the Wednesday and the value was down slightly 2 percent to VND696 billion (US$43.4 million).
Trading mostly focused on high-priced stocks of big companies like STB, FPT, SJS, VNM and REE.
There were up 44 gainers and only 32 losers out of the total 107 stocks.
Blue chips were among the great gainers like FPT, STB, VNM, SJS and CII, all of which grew by less than 5 percent.
STB continued to lead the market in terms of both liquidity with 1.04 million shares traded.
The two mutual funds, PRUBF1 and VFMVF1 increased marginally to close VND14,000 and VND34,600 respectively.
The Hanoi bourse closed with 1.58 million shares traded for VND214 billion, a rise of 31.6 percent and 42 percent respectively from the previous session.
In related development, Viet Fashion Company – a garment producer owning the Ninomaxx brand casual wear brand is set to go public this August, mobilizing funds for business expansion in and across Vietnam’s border.
It will scale up its chartered capital to VND80n billion from he current VND16 billion by its owned equities before it goes public.
The fashion company plans to sell a 20 percent stake to outsiders [after increasing capital] via an auction in August.
It now runs 50 privately owned shops and 30 agents nationwide and two shops in the US and set this year turnover of VND150 billion.
Last year the firm earned VND100 billion in sales and over VND2 billion in pre-tax profit.
Source : Thanh Nien – Compiled by Dong Ha

Capital city calls for $2.5 billion in property projects
The Hanoi municipal administration announced Wednesday 90 mega real estate projects are coming down the pipe to 2010, saying around US$2.5 billion would be mobilized for their implementation.

It is reportedly the first time the city has publicly called for capital investment on such a large scale.
The projects belong to the sectors of trade and service, culture and sport, infrastructure, housing and building complex, and industry.
Of behemoth projects looking for foreign investment, there are notably the 2.5-ha Thuong Thanh hotel in Long Bien district, Dai Kim hotel complex covering an area of 4.7 ha in Hoang Mai district, the Phu Dong-Duong Ha golf course in Gia Lam district, and the 2.4-ha Cau Giay new urban area.
Upon 30 days of the project announcement, the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment will hold auctions for projects tendered by more than two bidders.
The department also said work on two licensed five-star hotel projects built by Japanese group Riviera and Korean Keangnam Corporation would get underway in July and September respectively.
The department is considering other major planned property projects so that it could make them public and call for investment until year-end.
The Hanoi real estate market has reportedly emerged as a hot spot for investors.
This public investment should draw in a major wave of foreign investors to the capital, an official said.
Source: Dothi.net – Translated by An Dien

HCM City’s EPZs and IPs asked to go hi-tech16:59' 17/05/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – HCMC's ex-port processing zones (EPZs) and industrial parks (IPs) must now shift their priorities to hi-tech projects in line with the city's socio-economic development in the coming years, officials said on Tuesday.
At a meeting on Tuesday to review 15 years of the city's export processing zones (EPZs) and industrial parks (IPs), officials said future projects into these zones must be knowledge-based and hi-tech ones in harmony with the city's economic restructuring program.
Speaking at the meeting organized by the HCMC Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (HEPZA), vice secretary of HCMC's Party Committee Nguyen Van Dua acknowledged big successes of these zones in attracting investment, but stressed that now was the time for the transition.
"The development of the zones has contributed substantially to the city's economy and helped boost the industrial output value, export turnover and the rapid urbanization," Dua said.
However, the former vice chairman of the city highlighted the need for economic restructuring in the city, and urged HEPZA to match the future development of the zones with the overall restructuring plan.
He urged HEPZA to select big-scale projects having advanced technology and cutting-edge industries so as to help transform the city's economy and boost its competitiveness.
There should be a shift from labor-intensive projects into high-tech and capital-intensive ones.
Dua also said the municipal government would petition the central Government to provide similar incentive policies for hi-tech enterprises investing in HEPZA's zones as those in the Saigon Hi-tech Park.
Deputy Minister of Industry Le Duong Quang seconded Dua's opinions, saying it was now the right time for HCMC to brace for hi-tech development.
"Being the first locality in the country to successfully establish EPZs and IPs, HCMC should also be the first in attracting hi-tech projects," he said.
Vu Van Hoa, head of HEPZA, said at the seminar that the zones had been able to attract several hi-tech projects, and would be able to lure many more in the future.
"There are five projects recognized as hi-tech ones in these zones. We will attract more knowledge-based and hi-tech projects," he said.
However, Hoa remarked that in the first few years of development, the priorities of these zones had been to attract as many projects as possible, and therefore, the lack of hi-tech projects or the like was a certainty.
Up to now, the total investment capital pledged in the zones has climbed to over US$4bil, including projects of industrial production, development of EPZs and IPs infrastructure and services.
More dominant industries in these zones now include textiles and garments (12.9% of total committed capital), food processing (12.4%), electric appliances and electronics (11.8%), mechanical engineering (9.6%) and services (8.7%).
(Source: SGT)

Over 1,400 used cars imported to Vietnam16:55' 17/05/2007 (GMT+7) VietNamNet Bridge – 1,421 used cars have been imported into Vietnam in the last one year since Vietnam lifted the ban on used car imports. These include 849 units imported in the last seven months of 2006 and 572 units in the first four months of the year.

Though the tax rates on used imports have been reduced by 5-20% since mid February 2007, the number of imported used cars has not seen big changes, remaining around 100 units a month. Luxury and small cars remain the main imports, which is contrary to the Ministry of Finance’s prediction that more medium-class cars would be imported once the import tax decreased to 15%.

Before the decision on lowering the import tax on used cars came into effect on February 15, experts forecast that the market would be bustling and more used cars would be imported to Vietnam as used cars would be 15% cheaper thanks to the tax reduction.

It was estimated that with the new tax rates, the post tax prices of cars would see price decreases of at least $1,155/unit and at most $4,950/unit.

Car traders also stated that they would focus on medium-class cars which saw the biggest tax decreases instead of luxury cars as previously.

Hoang Thi Vinh, Director of Vinh Hoang Company, one of the biggest used car importers, asserted that more used cars would be imported, and most of them would be 2.0L and 2.5L, BMW 525, BMW X5 or Mercedes E240.

Among the 572 units which have been cleared since January, there are only 11 special cars, including a five-seat Hummer H3, manufactured in 2005, which has the post-clearance price of $172,000; four Cadillac Escalades, manufactured in 2006, and six Audi Q7s, manufactured in 2006.

The model that has been imported in the biggest quantity is the Kia Morning (170 units), followed by Lexus (87 units), Mercedes (69 units), BMW (60), and Toyota Siena XLE (41). The other most wanted models are Smart Forfour and the new Volkswagen Beatle.

(Source: VNE)