Thread: Latest news on the Dong!

CHINA was pressured to revalue currency, and since CHINA pulls Viet Nam's strings, don't expect anything to happen until Yaun makes a significant move, which may start by end of year, but I don't see it moving as much as many were talking about, just as the Yaun won't be moving much either as I see it. By end of year we should see a dozen currencies go up, with Iraq the only one of significance as I see it.

Success to all, Mike

Gov. Gregoire helps celebrate new shipping terminal in Vietnam
http://www.governor.wa.gov/news/news...583&newsType=1

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM - On the final day of her trade mission to Asia, Gov. Chris Gregoire helped celebrate the accomplishments of SSA Marine, a Washington company that is partnering with the government port authority to build and operate a major shipping terminal in southern Vietnam. The facility is located at Cai Mep, 50 miles southeast of Ho Chi Minh City.

“The Cai Mep Port will help expedite international shipping – but even more importantly, the work SSA-Marine has done in Vietnam, their expertise, and their positive relationships with government officials reflects well on our state and paves the way for other Washington companies to do business in Vietnam,” Gregoire said at a ceremony celebrating the new shipping port. “This venture will provide greater operations – which in turn will fuel economic growth on both sides of the ocean and create jobs.”

SSA Marine has been working in Vietnam for six years to develop the Cai Mep shipping terminal. Because of its ability to serve large containerships unable to call at existing Ho Chi Minh City ports, the facility will help relieve congestion, increase efficiency and provide additional capacity to handle the region’s projected container volume growth. Vietnam’s growing economy and burgeoning middle class make it a significant emerging market for Washington products.

Jon Hemingway, chief executive officer of SSA Marine, says his company is proud to have been chosen as a partner by the government of Vietnam,Vinalines, and Saigon Port and to contribute to expanding opportunities for Washington companies in Vietnam’s growing economy. “We started in 1949 in Bellingham, Washington, and even though we’re recognized as the largest U.S. port operating company in the world, we always strive to represent our home town values,” Hemingway said.

SSA Marine is also currently developing a bulk cargo terminal near its origins in Whatcom County. Hemingway said the Whatcom County terminal will help exporters in Washington and across the Northern Tier of the U.S. be competitive with other countries in shipping their commodity goods to growing Pacific Rim markets, including Vietnam.

Also on Thursday, Gregoire joined members of the delegation at a KFC in Ho Chi Minh City to continue to promote Washington grown potato products. Washington state is the number one producer and exporter of frozen potato products, meanwhile Vietnam is the 12th largest export market at $1.4 million for frozen potato products in the U.S. While potatoes aren’t a staple of a Vietnamese diet, the country has seen a significant increase in restaurants that often rely on U.S. grown potato products.

“I told my team the other night, this trip couldn’t have been more successful,” Gregoire said. “We met with everyone from premiers to everyday citizens to tell Washington’s story, share our products and create excitement about what our businesses have to offer. I’m confident new doors will be open as a result.”

Vietnam's Phu Quoc island slowly opening up to the world
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-...,2053272.story


La Veranda, a 48-room boutique hotel and spa which opened in 2006, is Phu Quoc's first five-star international resort. Above is the beach-side massage area. (Julian Abram Wainwright)

Reporting from Phu Quoc, Vietnam — During the four years I lived in Hanoi, where I was The Times' bureau chief in the late 1990s, I did a pretty good job of getting around Vietnam and exploring new places, from Can Tho in the southern Mekong Delta to Sapa on the northern border with China. But I missed Phu Quoc, Vietnam's largest island. So did most people. Unless you were a backpacker looking for a cheap beach hotel, there wasn't much reason to go.

Fast forward to 2010. Phu Quoc, once known mainly for its pungent fish sauce and wartime history, is the hottest new tourist destination in Vietnam, a slice of tropical perfection with mile after mile of wide, uncrowded beaches, dense jungle, virgin rain forests and a lazy, laid-back atmosphere that reminds a visitor of what Phuket, Thailand, was like a generation ago.

Chuck Searcy, a former U.S. serviceman who lives in Vietnam and runs humanitarian programs, remembers his only visit to Phu Quoc about a dozen years ago. His plane circled the airport three times to scare cows off the runway, and the island had only three hotels, "all decidedly 'no star,' to put it kindly." Said Searcy: "I'm sure I wouldn't recognize the place today."


A few weeks ago, my wife, Sandy, and I hopped onto one of the nine daily turboprop flights Vietnam Airlines runs from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) to Phu Quoc. No cows impeded our arrival. Our taxi took us through the dusty town of Duong Dong and down a dirt road lined with little patio restaurants; a cemetery, crammed between two bars; and a bamboo hut that served as a laundry. Although I had a moment of doubt, our driver insisted that just ahead lay La Veranda, Phu Quoc's first five-star resort.

The jungle parted, and we caught a glimpse of the Gulf of Thailand and Long Beach, which stretches for 12 miles. And in a waterside clearing lush with flowers and foliage stood La Veranda, a 48-room boutique hotel and spa with two restaurants. It seemed as though we had stumbled onto a French colonial plantation, its large louvered windows open to the sea, its deep balconies, high ceilings and overhead fans reminiscent of a bygone era.

That, in fact, is exactly what the owner, Catherine Gerbet, had in mind when she designed the hotel, now 4 years old. A French Vietnamese, she was born in Cambodia, raised in Hong Kong and lived in Saigon. Her goal was to build something that captured her childhood memories of Asia, and she didn't miss a touch. I wouldn't have blinked had I seen Graham Greene sipping a martini while sitting in one of the bar's wicker chairs.

I asked La Veranda's Swiss general manager, Nicolas Josi, what attracted foreigners to Phu Quoc and what they did when they got here.

"First, the island is just being discovered. It still feels authentic," Josi said. "You won't, for instance, find a building over two stories. A lot of our guests are tourists who have been hurrying about in Ho Chi Minh City and Hue and Hanoi. They take a break here to recharge their batteries. What they like to do here is often nothing, just relax."

Phu Quoc, a triangle-shaped island just 30 miles long, is closer to Cambodia than to the Vietnamese mainland. Settled in the 17th century by Vietnamese and Chinese farmers and fishermen, it was occupied in 1869 by French colonialists who built rubber and coconut plantations. The island was so remote for so long that when Saigon fell to Communist troops in April 1975, Phu Quoc's 10,000 people hardly seemed to notice and went quietly about their daily business, catching squid and tending their pepper vines.

But the island's isolation did not shelter it from war. Vietnam's largest prisoner-of-war camp was here, near the U.S. naval base at An Thoi on the southern tip of the island. Pol Pot's murderous Khmer Rouge guerrillas invaded and briefly occupied the island after Saigon's fall, and some of the non-Communist South Vietnamese forced out of the cities by Vietnam's harsh, new rulers were resettled here and told to become farmers.

"My parents were teachers. They didn't know how to grow turnips. We nearly starved," said Hoi Trinh, a Vietnamese Australian lawyer, who arrived here with his family in 1977 as a 7-year-old. To help support his family he sold watermelon seeds on Long Beach, not far from where La Veranda now stands. When he and his father were caught trying to flee by boat to Malaysia, young Trinh was sentenced to a month in Prison No. 7.

It was a full day before my wife and I emerged from La Veranda. We were massaged, fed, pampered at the swimming pool and on the beach by a locally recruited and trained staff whose eagerness to please and unfailing politeness more than compensated for its struggle with foreign languages. We checked out a trip to Ganh Dau on the northwest coast: Scuba diving, including transportation, lunch and equipment, was $80 for the day; snorkeling, $25. The water, we were told, was 88 degrees with a visibility of 30 feet. Instead we hired a taxi with a driver who spoke some English and set out to explore the island. The cost for three hours would be $30.

Scores of beachside bungalow-style hotels with open-air bars and restaurants were tucked unobtrusively among clusters of palms on the coastal road south. Some charged as little as $25 a night. French road markers along the way showed the distance to the next village. Hammocks, often occupied, hung in tree-shaded front yards. Peppercorns lay drying on faded blue tarpaulins, a reminder that Vietnam is among the world's largest exporters of pepper. Sometimes we caught a whiff of nuoc mam fish sauce, which the Vietnamese use to flavor almost every dish. We stopped at one of the many pearl farms, where a clerk showed us a $9,000 necklace. Happily, Sandy settled on a pair of $70 earrings.

The fishing boats had long since pulled out of An Thoi and other little ports, having left at dawn not to return until sunset, by the time we reached Coconut Prison. It was built by the colonialists in 1953, a year before Vietnam defeated France at Dien Bien Phu. The Americans and their South Vietnamese allies took over the 1,000-acre site in 1967, and for a time it held 40,000 North Vietnamese prisoners of war. More than 4,000 were said to have died there.

Guard towers still loom over rows of windowless tin POW barracks that are surrounded by coils of concertina wire. Except for an occasional tourist, the place was silent and empty. The small nearby museum (admission is 3,000 dong, about 16 cents) is not for the faint-hearted, with its scenes of torture depicted by chillingly real life-size mannequins.

The grimness of the place seemed incompatible with the tranquility of Phu Quoc, and leaves one thankful that Vietnam has known 35 years of peace. And what changes that peace has wrought. Less than three decades ago Vietnam had no tourist industry, and Vietnamese were forbidden to speak or socialize with foreigners.

Today, Vietnam attracts nearly 4 million tourists a year and luxury resorts — which numbered one when the five-star Furama opened on Da Nang's China Beach in the mid-1990s — reach up the coastline from Vung Tau, south of Ho Chi Minh City, to Thanh Hoa, near the former demilitarized zone.

With tourism creating jobs and spreading wealth, Phu Quoc's population has surged to 70,000, even though the northern part of the island, home to a large national park, is mostly uninhabited. Phu Quoc absorbs well the 50,000-plus visitors it draws annually, but changes are afoot.

The government has a master plan to develop Phu Quoc into a high-quality eco-tourism destination by 2020, when it aims to attract 2.3 million visitors a year. An international airport is scheduled to open in two years to accommodate nonstop flights from Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong. Roads and bridges are being rebuilt and a deep-water port is being dug at An Thoi. Life may never be the same for an island that now uses generators to produce much of its electricity and gets its water from wells.

Driving north from An Thoi at sunset, watching the fishing boats return to port, we passed Duong Dong's night market, where $2 gets you a fresh seafood dinner, and got out of the taxi to walk on a deserted beach the last mile to La Veranda. Phu Quoc, I hoped that warm, star-lit night, would not lose its character in the tidal wave of coming development, because even by the toughest of standards, it's just about perfect as it is.

Vietnam Must Address Concern Dong May Slide, IMF's Benedict Bingham Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-0...gham-says.html

Vietnam must work to address expectations its currency will depreciate further, according to the International Monetary Fund’s representative in the country.

The Southeast Asian nation faces an “embedded expectation of a declining trend in the dong,” Benedict Bingham, the IMF’s senior resident representative in Hanoi, said in prepared comments for a presentation. It was delivered at a seminar in Ho Chi Minh City on Sept. 21 organized by a National Assembly committee, and posted on the IMF’s website this week.

Vietnam’s central bank devalued the dong last month for the third time in the past year, citing the need to curb the trade deficit. Further pressure on the currency “would be negative” for financial stability, Fitch Ratings said in July when it lowered the nation’s debt rating.

The state of the country’s foreign-exchange market has “undermined confidence in the dong” in part because it has “increased transaction costs and uncertainty for Vietnamese businesses,” Bingham said. The currency market has also “impaired Vietnam’s standing among international investors,” he said.

The State Bank of Vietnam weakened the dong’s reference exchange rate by 2 percent on Aug. 18 to 18,932 per dollar. The currency can fluctuate 3 percent on either side of the figure. It was trading at 19,490 at 12:58 p.m. in Hanoi, compared with 17,886 in November 2009 before the first of the three devaluations.

Concerns about an overheating economy, the balance of payments and a high inflation rate will probably “keep the currency under stress,” Capital Economics Ltd. analysts said in a research note sent yesterday, predicting an exchange rate of 20,400 per dollar by the end of 2011.

The Vietnamese have shifted from dong to U.S. dollar assets or into gold because of expectations of dong devaluations, the IMF said in a report this month.

Vietnam’s financial system has faced excessive volatility, Bingham said. A lack of transparency has hurt confidence in the country’s macroeconomic management, partly due to a reluctance to adjust the central bank’s benchmark interest rate, he said. The benchmark was left unchanged at 8 percent for the ninth consecutive month in September.

Jason Folkmanis in Ho Chi Minh City. Editors: Sunil Jagtiani

CNA reopens Vietnam bureau
http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNe...D=201009250015

Taipei, Sept. 25 (CNA) The Central News Agency reopened its bureau in Hanoi Saturday, becoming the first Taiwan media organization to return to Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

CNA correspondent Tony Fang arrived in Hanoi Saturday, after the Vietnamese government gave approval recently for Taiwan's national news agency to operate there.

The bureau will dispatch news about political and economic developments in Vietnam and the country's ties with Taiwan.

The coverage is expected to include Taiwan's vast investment in Vietnam and the economic integration of the South East Asian region.

Nguyen Bac Cu, director of the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, welcomed the CNA's decision to reestablish a presence in Vietnam.

Vietnamese officials also said in letters to the CNA that they are looking forward to working with the agency.

Founded in 1924, the CNA is Taiwan's national wire service and provides round-the-clock news to government departments as well as other media outlets in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Chinese-language news organiza

Vietnam, China talk economic, trade cooperation
http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Vietn...109/119877.vov
A seminar on trade and economic cooperation between Vietnam and China was held in HCM City on September 24, offering an opportunity for businesses from HCM City and Guangdong province’s Zhuhai city to boost bilateral trade and investment cooperation.
The seminar, co-organised by the HCM City branch of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), and China-ASEAN Business Council (CABC), drew the participation of 50 entrepreneurs from Zhuhai city operating in such areas as electricity, electronics, biology, pharmaceuticals, garment-making equipment, household utensils, environmental technology and chemicals.

More than 100 representatives of VCCI member businesses also took part in the event.

According to VCCI Vice President Doan Duy Khuong, Vietnam and Guangdong have promoted each other’s strengths in economic, trade and investment cooperation. They are striving to raise their two-way trade to US$5 billion in the next three years.

The CABC Deputy Secretary-General, Xu Ningning, said China has maintained its position as Vietnam’s largest trade partner for six consecutive years.

Vietnam and China see great potential for economic and trade cooperation as more and more Chinese businesses are interested in investing in the Vietnamese market, he said.

Vietnam active in settling the age’s challenges to mankind
http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Vietn...109/119909.vov

President Nguyen Minh Triet has concluded his visit to New York where he attended the United Nations’ meeting to review the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the 65th session of the UN General Assembly.
Speaking at the UN forum, national leaders expressed pleasure at the achievements from implementing the eight MDGs, especially efforts to reduce poverty, increase the rate of children attending school, raise the number of people with access to clean water, and curb epidemics.

These successes were achieved in even some of the poorest countries, which proves the MDGs are feasible. Vietnam has halved its rate of poverty, from over 58 percent in 1993 to about 29 percent in 2002 and to 14.5 percent in 2008. Ghana slashed its poverty rate by three quarters, from 34 percent to just 9 percent, and ten other African countries have also halved their numbers of extreme poor.

UN Chief Ban Ki-moon stressed the need to safeguard the advancements that have been made because many of them are fragile.

At the UN meeting, countries shared their difficulties and highlighted obstacles on their way to the MDGs, including little time, scarce resources, climate change, the economic crisis, natural calamities, and armed conflicts.

A report says that the 2008 economic and financial meltdown drove 60 million people into poverty.

A number of African countries called on the West to take more action and argued that meetings and negotiations could not help them attain MDGs; they urged the international community to immediately realize the signed agreements.

Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba said his country is facing a cut in international development aid because it has been placed among middle-income countries and he called on international financial institutions to create a special mechanism for countries like Namibia to get preferential financial assistance for long-term development.

At the meeting, Ban Ki-moon highlighted the fact that countries continue to uphold their previous commitments despite the current difficult global context. Governments, charities, and private groups have pledged US$40 billion for initiatives on improving women’s and children’s health. EU countries pledged to contribute one billion euros to the UN poverty reduction fund while France pledged to donate 60-360 million euros to the AIDS and malaria treatment fund.

The presence of President Nguyen Minh Triet reiterated that Vietnam is always an active member which contributes proactively to the settlement of great challenges to humankind. In front of all the representatives of the 192 UN member states, President Triet stated that Vietnam had accomplished many of its MDGs before schedule and could attain the rest by 2015.

Vietnam’s efforts to implement the MDGs by incorporating them into the development strategies and programmes at all levels, which was highly valued by other countries.

Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said the UN Secretary General praised Vietnam as one of the countries that had achieved and exceeded the MDGs and the speech by the Vietnamese President won special attention from many countries, especially those in Africa.

Mr Minh said the president stressed that maintaining peace, stability and cooperation created favourable conditions for countries to achieve their MDGs.

In the meetings with the Vietnamese delegation, leaders of African countries highly appreciated Vietnam’s accomplishments and expressed their wish to learn about Vietnam’s experiences in agricultural development and poverty alleviation.

Vietnam starts work on Hanoi's first rail system
(AFP) – 10 hours ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...6UiRwgaQ1plk5A
HANOI — Vietnam has started work on Hanoi?s first urban rail system in an effort to ease traffic congestion in the capital, reports said Sunday.
A ground breaking ceremony was held Saturday for a 12.5 kilometre (7.8 mile) line, which will cost around one billion dollars, according to a news report on the government's website.
According to the Thanh Nien newspaper, Hanoi aims to build eight urban rail lines, five of which already have government approval.
The first, linking west Hanoi with the central railway station in the south of the capital, is expected to open in 2015. Two thirds of the line will be elevated and the rest will be underground, the paper said.
Blighted by traffic jams Hanoi, a city of 6.5 million people, is in dire need of improved public transport.
The communist government announced plans in 2008 to build seven railway lines in the city at a cost of 7.3 billion dollars, along with an urban railway system in Vietnam's southern commercial hub Ho Chi Minh City.

Taiwan emerges as major source of foreign investment in Vietnam
2010/09/26 21:19:10
http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNe...D=201009260020


Hanoi, Vietnam, Sept. 26 (CNA) Taiwan is one of the main sources of foreign investment in Vietnam, with accumulated capital infusion estimated at around US$25 billion, according to the head of a Taiwanese industry association in Hanoi.

Huang Teh-hsiu, president of the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce in the Vietnamese capital, said there are some 30,000 Taiwanese business people operating in Hanoi at present and that the number of Taiwanese business people and their dependents throughout Vietnam is approaching 200,000.

According to Huang, Taiwan dropped to third in terms of capital investment funneled into Vietnam so far this year, trailing behind South Korea and Japan.

He attributed the decline mainly to the fact that fewer Taiwanese companies have bid for public infrastructure construction projects in Vietnam this year.

But Huang said he believes that if the amount invested by Taiwanese companies via third countries was included, Taiwan would remain as the top foreign investor in Vietnam.

Taiwanese business groups began forays into the Vietnamese market 20 years ago, Huang said, adding that major Taiwanese conglomerates, including the Hon Hai Group and Compal Electronics Co., now have a solid presence in Vietnam.

With its rich natural resources and political and economic stability, Vietnam is a favorable investment destination, Huang noted.

"I hope our government will give more assistance to Vietnam-based Taiwanese companies to expand their market share in the country," he added. (By Tony Fang and Sofia Wu) enditem /pc

Vietnam turns at last to promotion of renewable energies
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/20...ergies-937578/

VietNamNet Bridge – Policies advocated by the Vietnam Energy Association to create a friendlier climate for development of technologies that make power from the wind, the sun and natural wastes seem to have won the Government’s support.

Tran Viet Ngai, chairman of the Vietnam Energy Association, talked with Thanh Nien Daily. He said: The demand for power is rising in Vietnam. It is estimated that we’ll need to be able to generate 30,000 MW by 2015, double the current capacity of our power plants. Traditional energies like coal and oil are becoming exhausted, and our imports of energy will increase. There’s an urgent need to use our sources of energy more effectively and economically. And in addition, Vietnam needs to explore renewable sources of energy.

Favored by Mother Nature, Vietnam has great potential to develop solar power, wind power, geothermal energy and biofuels. We’ll have to take advantage of this potential to help meet our demand for power.

Thanh Nien: Isn’t it true that so far we’ve hardly begun researching renewable energy?

Tran Viet Ngai: Developed countries have explored wind, solar energy and biofuels for a long time. If you include hydroelectric power, renewable energy currently accounts for about eight percent of total energy output in the US. It is near 15 percent in Germany, France and Japan.

In Vietnam, except for hydropower, we have not invested in these energies. That’s regrettable because these sources of energies are friendly to the environment. Now we are taking the first baby steps, building wind-power plants and using solar energy for public lighting.

Vietnam has potentials and there are already modern technologies to exploit this kind of energy. Our task is to choose suitable technology and put it to work. However, the development of this kind of energy faces certain barriers.

Thanh Nien: What barriers?

Ngai: In the national power strategy to 2025 and vision to 2050, the Government set goals for developing renewable energy. However, we still don’t have a clear national policy in this field. The government encourages renewable energy but we lack clear directions and incentives.

The fact is that the initial investment in renewable energy is higher than traditional energy. For instance, to install capacity to generate 1 KW of wind power, we have to invest from $2,500-3000. The investment cost for 1 KW of coal power is only $2000. Investors, therefore, don’t want to invest in wind or solar energy projects.

We also lack people trained in exploiting renewable energy.

Thanh Nien: How should we deal with these matters?

Ngai: We should decide to subsidize development of wind and solar energy, for example, we could give investors in approved ‘green’ power generation technologies exemption from value added tax and corporate income tax for the first ten years. Our investment policy should support this by encouraging build-operation-transfer (BOT) and independent power plant (IPP) arrangements – if investors can see that they will not lose money, they will work with us to develop renewable energies.