Thread: Latest news on the Dong!

Golf investment scalding hot
08:31' 22/10/2006 (GMT+7)
Soạn: HA 931363 gửi đến 996 để nhận ảnh này
The Czech Republic Ambassador to Vietnam plays golf at the Dong Mo golf course.

VietNamNet Bridge – As golf becomes a fashionable sport, building golf courses alongside hotels and villas has become an attractive model of investment in Vietnam.

There are around 5,000 golf players in Vietnam, including 2,000 regular players. Playing golf is not simply a form of entertainment but the symbol of success in the circles of businessmen, politicians and diplomats. As a result, the number of golf players in Vietnam is on the rise.

Thailand has 109 golf courses, Malaysia 173, Indonesia 117 and Vietnam 11.

Of those playing at golf courses, Koreans account for around 45%, followed by Japanese, 25%. Vietnamese players account for around 10%, but the number is increasing quickly.

(Source: Asian Professional Golf Player’s Association)

The number of travelers who come to Vietnam to play golf is also increasing. Pham Tu, Deputy Chief of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), said that the number of Korean visitors coming to Vietnam reached more than 300,000 last year and may hit over 500,000 in the near future. Many of them come to Vietnam to play golf because Vietnam is an attractive and cheap tourist site.

Vietnam currently has only 11 golf courses and as the number of golf players is increasing, many new golf course projects are underway.

The north has the Hanoi golf course, which is wholly invested in by a Japanese company, Kim No, a joint venture with Thailand, Dai Lai Star, Flamingo Dai Lai, Sky Lake Golf, and Long Son golf courses, which are wholly Korean invested.

The central region also has big golf projects in the works worth $100 million like the Da Nang golf course, invested in by VinaCapital.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), there are up to 28 golf course projects that are at different stages of completion in Vietnam now. They comprise 13 in the north, 10 in the central region and five in the south.

An official from the MPI said that from now to the year’s end around 3-4 new golf courses will be put into operation. Meanwhile, existing golf courses are trying to upgrade and offer preferential policies to maintain their players. Dong Mo golf course has reduced member fees by half for officials compared to the fees for businessmen. The Chi Linh Star golf course has invited Lars Holden, a member of the Australian Professional Golf Players’ Association, to be its general director.

Golf players hope that with many new golf courses, the expenditures for this sport will be lower.

Deputy Construction Minister Tong Van Nga said that expensive fees hinder Vietnamese from playing golf. Normally golf players have to pay hundreds of millions of VND to buy membership cards and equipment.

Additionally, each time they go to a golf course, people have to pay other kinds of fees worth tens of US dollars.

(Source: Do Thi)

Vietnam’s WTO negotiators go to Geneva for last session
13:41' 23/10/2006 (GMT+7)
Soạn: HA 932351 gửi đến 996 để nhận ảnh này

VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu led Vietnam’s WTO negotiation mission to Geneva on Sunday to prepare for the last two sessions.

According to the WTO’s schedule, after negotiations for Vietnam’s WTO membership conclude, the WTO Working Group will transfer commitments by Vietnam to all member countries. Those countries will have around one week to check those commitments.

After all sides participating in multilateral negotiations reach agreements on the final issues, an unofficial multilateral session will be held by the Working Group on October 25. After that, the last official multilateral session will be held on October 26.

At this session, the Working Group will ratify all negotiation documents related to the WTO accession of Vietnam, including the report of the Working Group, commitments on services and goods.

The initiation ceremony will be held from November 6-8 and Vietnam will become the 150th member of the WTO.

(Source: TN)

Over 20 companies sponsor APEC meetings
15:39' 24/10/2006 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Chile will provide around 2,500 bottles of special wine for some major parties organised during the APEC week from November 12-19 in Hanoi, a Chilean diplomat said.

This special wine will be used at the gala dinner for APEC economic leaders, which will be hosted by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and his lady, with the participation of around 1,000 guests at the National Conference Centre on November 18.

The wine will also be used at the banquet for over 800 delegates of the CEO Summit on November 16-17.

So far, over 20 companies and groups in the world like Samsung, Boeing, General Motors, Microsoft, BP, and Ford have committed to sponsor the APEC Week with products, services and cash worth around VND50 billion (US$3.125 million).

(Source: Tuoi Tre)

US President to bring 1,000-strong entourage to APEC summit
08:30' 24/10/2006 (GMT+7)
Soạn: HA 933069 gửi đến 996 để nhận ảnh này

VietNamNet Bridge - US President George W. Bush will be bringing nearly 1,000 people with him when he comes to Vietnam for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Among his myriad companions will be Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as well as the chief executives of Microsoft, City Group, Ford, Boeing, FedEx and other US firms, not to mention all the security men.

The "Alliance of APEC-US Entrepreneurs", which was set up recently, is chaired by Ms. Virginia Foote, president of the US-Vietnam Trade Council and executive vice president of the US-ASEAN Business Council.

The alliance, also the major sponsor of the APEC CEO Summit 2006, will be holding a forum for American and Vietnamese business people as well as a series of meetings between Vietnamese government officials and the visiting US executives.

The international media organizations CNN, Fortune and Time have registered to sponsor the APEC CEO Summit.

(Source: SGGP)

HCMC proposes to import 10 more tons of gold
09:10' 24/10/2006 (GMT+7)
Soạn: HA 933051 gửi đến 996 để nhận ảnh này

VietNamNet Bridge -
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee recently proposed that the State Bank of Vietnam allow the Saigon Jewelry Company to import more than 10 tons of gold to meet the market demand.

The Ho Chi Minh City-based leading gold enterprise, Sai Gon Jewelry Company (SJC), has imported 12 tons of material gold for gold bar processing since the beginning of this year.

According to the city’s People’s Committee, the proposal to import more gold aims to stabilize the domestic market and meet the soaring demand for gold bar.

Another local gold enterprise, the Ho Chi Minh City Gold, Silver and Gemstone Company, also sought the license from the central bank to import 50 kilograms of Switzerland-standardized gold.

Previously, the Southern Commercial Joint Stock Bank obtained permission from the State Bank of Vietnam to import 1,000 kilograms of unrefined gold.

According to experts, gold demand has risen more than 30% annually and the extra imports are expected to be enough to match the Vietnamese customers’ needs in the traditionally strong time for gold towards the end of the year.

(Source: SGGP, TN)

IBM teams up with Vietnamese universities
12:11' 24/10/2006 (GMT+7)
Soạn: HA 933081 gửi đến 996 để nhận ảnh này

VietNamNet Bridge - The world renowned, US-based company, IBM has provided its IBM Academic Initiative for students from 11 universities in Vietnam.

IBM Academic Initiative is an innovative program which partners with colleges and universities worldwide to better train students for a more skilled and competitive IT workforce.

The program offers students access to IBM software, courseware, hardware, tools and books. Vietnamese students are also provided with the latest IBM technology training, including open-source Eclipse, Rational and WebSphere software.

Included universities are as follows: the University of Natural Sciences (under the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City), the Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, the Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Can Tho University, Van Lang University, the University of Technology, Le Qui Don High School, the University of Natural Sciences (under the Vietnam National University – Ha Noi), Thang Long University, the College of Education, the College of Technology (both under the University of Da Nang) and Duy Tan University.

(Source: SGGP, VNE)

Wireless internet set to launch in remote areas
13:01' 23/10/2006 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam's first-ever trial WiMAX (World Interoperability For Microwave Access) equipment will be fully installed in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai to bring wireless internet to previously offline areas by the end of this month.

WiMAX is a new advanced wireless broadband technology that can provide high quality wireless broad-band internet to rural areas in radii between 2 to 10km per base station.

The pilot project is being implemented by Intel in co-operation with the Viet Nam Datacommunications company (VDC), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Lao Cai People's Committee leadership.

The project will set up one WiMAX base station to access 20 or so wireless transmission modems installed across different public and community service locations in the province.

Users will include schools, health care centres, the Post Office, an internet cafe, a farm family, a hotel, a business project, and selected Lao Cai public and commune service locations.

This WiMAX network will provide access to both broadband internet and Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP), neither of which are available through the province's dial-up phone network.

"Fixed WiMAX is an ideal service that can extend the advantages of high speed internet communications to rural, remote and mountainous areas where land-line telecommunication infrastructure has not been set up," Vu Hoang Lien, general director of VDC said.

Final installations and training are presently being conducted so that local people and operational staff may take full advantage of the WiMAX trial.

"The Lao Cai pilot is the first phase of a two-phase trial involving the partnership of USAID, Intel and VDC," said Than Trong Phuc, Country Manager of Intel Vietnam and Indochina.

If successful, the project will be expanded not only throughout the province, but to other areas in Vietnam as well.

(Source: Viet Nam News)

Foreigners to get blueprint
06:21' 22/10/2006 (GMT+7)
Soạn: HA 931377 gửi đến 996 để nhận ảnh này

VietNamNet Bridge - Foreign investment in the post and telecoms sector is set to be regulated following a decree from the Ministry of Post and Telematics planned for release next year in order to meet WTO obligations.

The Ministry of Post and Telematics (MPT) will seek the government’s approval to institute a decree for the sector to guide the implementation of the new Investment Law in the post and telecom sector.

If everything runs smoothly, the decree will be issued in 2007. The decree is also part of the government’s preparation for WTO entry.

The document’s content will not only cover the process of granting investment licences but also investment conditions including procedures, investment pro-cesses, licence transferring and stake selling.

The decree will lay the legal foundations for establishing joint ventures and for share acquisition once local service providers go equitised.

This legal document takes root from the initial plan for compiling the governmental decision on foreign investment in the telecom sector.

“The document will include a large number of clauses on other issues,” said Pham Hong Hai, director of the MPT’s Telecom Department. Compiling will start following the government’s approval. The conditions for investment in telecom may include the size of investors, investment fields and local partners.

“Vietnam lacks regulations on foreign investment relating to investment conditions and has incomplete financial regulations on how high a percentage of shares foreign investors can sell,” said Hai.

He suggested a legal document be issued to allow foreign investors to sell all their shares to other investors, changing the owning entity of the shares.

Vietnam does not have clear regulations regarding conditions for granting investment licences. The existing regulations require new projects to match market strategy, which is vague and confuses investors when they are compiling projects.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has just granted an investment licence to set up an express delivery service joint venture between DHL and VNPT, marking the first JV in both post and telecom services sectors with the foreign partner holding 51 per cent stake.

The previously allowed investment form is a business cooperation contract for services in the industry.
There are two existing business cooperation contracts running for S-Fone and Hanoi Telecom networks to offer mobile services. Other joint ventures are in the telecom industrial production.

According to the Vietnam-US bilateral trade agreement, Vietnam will open its telecom sector to US investors by allowing joint ventures with a 49 per cent US stake in offering basic telecom services such as fixed, inter-province and international from December 2007.

To date, no US investor has requested a licence following the signing of the US-Vietnam WTO market opening agreement.

However, it is expected investors will start flooding into the country after Vietnam enters the WTO and local telecom operators are equitised.

The telecom sector, with an annual growth rate of 30-50 per cent, is the fastest growing sector in the country.
The nation has 15.8 million telephone lines and a tele-density of 19.01 per 100 people in 2005, doubling the state plan set in the previous year.

(Source: VIR)

Originally Posted by chouchou

Vietnam’s WTO negotiators go to Geneva for last session
13:41' 23/10/2006 (GMT+7)
Soạn: HA 932351 gửi đến 996 để nhận ảnh này

VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu led Vietnam’s WTO negotiation mission to Geneva on Sunday to prepare for the last two sessions.

According to the WTO’s schedule, after negotiations for Vietnam’s WTO membership conclude, the WTO Working Group will transfer commitments by Vietnam to all member countries. Those countries will have around one week to check those commitments.

After all sides participating in multilateral negotiations reach agreements on the final issues, an unofficial multilateral session will be held by the Working Group on October 25. After that, the last official multilateral session will be held on October 26.

At this session, the Working Group will ratify all negotiation documents related to the WTO accession of Vietnam, including the report of the Working Group, commitments on services and goods.

The initiation ceremony will be held from November 6-8 and Vietnam will become the 150th member of the WTO.

(Source: TN)

Great Find...This is BIG news I wish Iraq was this far along!!!!!

Originally Posted by chouchou

Vietnam’s WTO negotiators go to Geneva for last session
13:41' 23/10/2006 (GMT+7)
Soạn: HA 932351 gửi đến 996 để nhận ảnh này

VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu led Vietnam’s WTO negotiation mission to Geneva on Sunday to prepare for the last two sessions.

According to the WTO’s schedule, after negotiations for Vietnam’s WTO membership conclude, the WTO Working Group will transfer commitments by Vietnam to all member countries. Those countries will have around one week to check those commitments.

After all sides participating in multilateral negotiations reach agreements on the final issues, an unofficial multilateral session will be held by the Working Group on October 25. After that, the last official multilateral session will be held on October 26.

At this session, the Working Group will ratify all negotiation documents related to the WTO accession of Vietnam, including the report of the Working Group, commitments on services and goods.

The initiation ceremony will be held from November 6-8 and Vietnam will become the 150th member of the WTO.

(Source: TN)

I also read this on the net. Great News!