Thread: Latest news on the Dong!

Vietnam to construct first nuclear power plant


Vietnam is expected to inaugurate its first-ever atomic energy plant by 2020, said the Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission at a nuclear power conference in Hanoi Tuesday.

Minister of Science, Technology and Environment Hoang Van Phong told the conference, held by the commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that Vietnamese agencies are mapping out detailed plans for the plant.

Experts said the plant must live up to demanding technological quality requirements and comply with stringent international safety and security standards.

Vietnam should improve human resources training by opening rigorous institutes and universities providing demanding training in the field, said IAEA members, noting that the government also needs to issue legislation pertaining to nuclear energy.

Last year the United Nations’ atomic agency approved six projects valued at almost US$1.5 million to develop nuclear technology in Vietnam in 2007 and 2008.

Source: Tuoi Tre – Translated by Tuong Nhi
Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily

Vietnam fund hires Greg Norman to design $130 mln golf complex


VinaCapital has chosen former golfing great Greg Norman, now one of the world’s top golf course designers, for its US$130 million golf complex in central Vietnam.

A contract was signed Tuesday for the purpose.

Horst Geicke, chairman of the UK-listed VinaCapital, said construction of the 260ha complex in Danang city’s Hoa Hai Ward would be divided into two phases.

In the first phase, a 350-room five-star hotel, villas, and the 18-hole golf course, to be named Dunes, will be built.

In the second, two five-star hotels, a cultural village, a meeting hall, a 33-storey twin tower, and another 18-hole golf course – this one called Heritage – will be constructed.

Construction is expected to begin by the end of this year and take two to three years.

Under a memorandum of understanding inked with the local government, VinaCapital has a 50-year lease on the site for which it paid $29 million.

VinaCapital is also set to begin work on a $200 million commercial-residential complex in Danang.

It will have trading centers, apartments, office blocks, and villas on nine hectares in Son Tra district.

Established in 2003, VinaCapital manages three funds with a total corpus of $1.4 billion: the $800 million VOF, the $600 million Vinaland – both listed on the London Stock Exchange – and the $50 million DFJ VinaCapital L.P. which invests in information and communications technology firms.

VinaCapital fund oversubscribed

In related news, a mutual fund issued on the London stock market by the Vietnam Infrastructure Limited (VIL), VinaCapital’s fourth fund which will invest in infrastructure projects in Vietnam, has been oversubscribed by over three times.

The issue targeted $200 million but applications have been received for $780 million. VinaCapital will retain $350 to $400 million under a greenshoe option.

One-third each will be invested in companies building infrastructure, new projects, and projects that are underway but need more capital.

VIL eyes include roads, bridges, hydropower and thermal power plants, ports, and airports.

The company aims for an average annual return of 20 percent per annum from investment to exit.

Vietnam’s rapid growth over the last decade has placed increasing strain on its ageing infrastructure with demand fast outstripping supply.

According to the World Bank, it will need to invest $140 billion in infrastructure over the next five years.

Source: VietnamNet, Thanh Nien – Compiled by Dong Ha
Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily

Originally Posted by chouchou

Vietnam fund hires Greg Norman to design $130 mln golf complex


VinaCapital has chosen former golfing great Greg Norman, now one of the world’s top golf course designers, for its US$130 million golf complex in central Vietnam.

A contract was signed Tuesday for the purpose.

Horst Geicke, chairman of the UK-listed VinaCapital, said construction of the 260ha complex in Danang city’s Hoa Hai Ward would be divided into two phases.

In the first phase, a 350-room five-star hotel, villas, and the 18-hole golf course, to be named Dunes, will be built.

In the second, two five-star hotels, a cultural village, a meeting hall, a 33-storey twin tower, and another 18-hole golf course – this one called Heritage – will be constructed.

Construction is expected to begin by the end of this year and take two to three years.

Under a memorandum of understanding inked with the local government, VinaCapital has a 50-year lease on the site for which it paid $29 million.

VinaCapital is also set to begin work on a $200 million commercial-residential complex in Danang.

It will have trading centers, apartments, office blocks, and villas on nine hectares in Son Tra district.

Established in 2003, VinaCapital manages three funds with a total corpus of $1.4 billion: the $800 million VOF, the $600 million Vinaland – both listed on the London Stock Exchange – and the $50 million DFJ VinaCapital L.P. which invests in information and communications technology firms.

VinaCapital fund oversubscribed

In related news, a mutual fund issued on the London stock market by the Vietnam Infrastructure Limited (VIL), VinaCapital’s fourth fund which will invest in infrastructure projects in Vietnam, has been oversubscribed by over three times.

The issue targeted $200 million but applications have been received for $780 million. VinaCapital will retain $350 to $400 million under a greenshoe option.

One-third each will be invested in companies building infrastructure, new projects, and projects that are underway but need more capital.

VIL eyes include roads, bridges, hydropower and thermal power plants, ports, and airports.

The company aims for an average annual return of 20 percent per annum from investment to exit.

Vietnam’s rapid growth over the last decade has placed increasing strain on its ageing infrastructure with demand fast outstripping supply.

According to the World Bank, it will need to invest $140 billion in infrastructure over the next five years.

Source: VietnamNet, Thanh Nien – Compiled by Dong Ha
Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily

Well maybe with my Dong I may be able to go to Vietnam and try out their soon to be new golf course! However a $130million dollar mini golf complex, I don't know think they could have spent that money elsewhere, maybe schools, education, etc. Come on RV.

Originally Posted by Spoiledred

Well maybe with my Dong I may be able to go to Vietnam and try out their soon to be new golf course! However a $130million dollar mini golf complex, I don't know think they could have spent that money elsewhere, maybe schools, education, etc. Come on RV.

Where is that RV by the way?
Are we waiting for the dinar? I really hope not.
Come On Dong!

Vietnam's foreign currency reserves have reached a record high and are enough for 17 weeks of imports, a central bank’s newspaper reported Thursday.

"There are large inflows of forex entering the country to invest in local stocks and bonds in the first six months of this year," Director Truong Van Phuoc of the State Bank of Vietnam's exchange bureau was cited as saying by Vietnam Banking Times newspaper.

Based on official statistics, Vietnam is estimated to have forex reserves of US$16 billion.

In November 2006, the SBV said Vietnam had forex reserves of $12 billion, enough for 13 weeks of imports.

Source: Dow Jones Newswires
Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily

BUSINESS IN BRIEF 25/6

17:52' 25/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VN-Index up, HaSTC slips</SPAN>

The VN-Index at the Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Centre increased by 10.7 points to close at 1044.39 points by the end of the June 25 trading session.

The market saw more than 4,865,000 shares, worth 497.123 billion VND, change hands.

In contrast, HaSTC-Index in the Ha Noi bourse continued its downward trend by having 3.85 points shaved off its value to end the day at 295.92 points.

Trading volume at the bourse was minimal as only 957,500 shares worth 89 billion VND, were traded.

The market saw 47 shares fall, including blue chips, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Bao Viet Securities (BVS), Saigon Securities (SSI) and Bao Minh Insurance (BMI).</SPAN>

International retail complex opens in Quang Ninh</SPAN>

Quang Ninh (VNA) – Fuelled by massive increases in cross border trade with China, over 100 Chinese businesses have decided to set up shop in an international retail complex in the country’s northern Quang Ninh province.

The 7,000 square metre Hai Yen retail complex opened on June 25 and was built at a cost of 6 million USD by the Ha Noi-based Quang Thai Joint Stock Company.

The six-storey centre displays a wide range of products, including electronics, garments and textiles, automobile spare parts and computer equipment.</SPAN>

HCM City’s industrial production up 12.6 percent</SPAN>

Ho Chi Minh City’s industrial production value for the first half of the year surged to more than 158.5 trillion VND (9.9 billion USD), a year-on-year rise of 12.6 percent.

The foreign-invested sector led the charge by posting a 15.5 percent growth, followed by the non-State sector with 13.5 percent.

The State-owned sector recorded a modest increase of 11. 2 percent.

Market experts have pointed to big leaps in production of electric equipments, automobiles, and wood furniture as key drivers for the increased output of between 39 and 62 percent.

However, they noted, food and drinks, textile and apparels, footwear and metal production recorded slight increases in production value.</SPAN>

HCM City licenses 182 FDI projects in six months</SPAN>

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have granted licences to a greater number of foreign invested projects (FDI) in the first half of the year but total invested foreign capital was down from the same period last year.

A total of 576 million USD has been pumped into 182 FDI businesses since the beginning of this year as opposed to almost 750 million USD in 126 FDI projects in the first six months of 2006.

Eighty-five existing projects have increased their registered capital by a combined 122 million USD in the past six months.

Topping the list of major projects to get off the ground were a 189 million USD residential area on 349 ha in Nha Be district financed by the RoK’s GS Engineering & Construction Corp. and a 101 million USD project in a hi-tech zone.

The majority of the investments found their way into industry with 215.6 million USD and real estate development and consulting services with 294.3 million USD.

Investors from the Republic of Korea (RoK) were again topping the list of foreign investors to the southern economic hub with 64 projects capitalized at 307.6 million USD.

They were followed by Singapore with 106 million USD and the UK with 105.6 million USD.

HCM City now boasts 2,341 valid foreign invested projects with a combined capital of 15.2 billion USD.</SPAN>

(Source: VNA)

Standard Chartered bank goes to HCM City

17:48' 25/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - Standard Chartered Bank will begin offering retail banking services in Ho Chi Minh City from June 27.

"Within the beginning phase, the first products and services to be introduced will include wealth management, transactional banking for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and individuals as well," said Namita Lal, the bank's head of the consumer banking section in Vietnam.

"In the next six months we'll add to our portfolio personal loans, credit cards, mortgages and SME loans," she said last week.

The bank will provide retail banking in Ha Noi in early 2008.

Currently the consumer banking unit employs 41 staff and the figure is expected to rise to 150 by the end of next year.

Standard Chartered plans to increase its network to no more than 30 branches from the current two, and operate around 500 ATMs by 2010. It also plans to established a bank in Vietnam.

(Source: VNA)

Can Tho calls for investment in 41 projects

17:46' 25/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - Can Tho city, known as the capital of Vietnam 's Mekong Delta is calling for investment of 560 million USD in 41 projects.

They include a project to develop two ecotourism resorts covering 165 ha in Cai Rang and Kinh Kieu districts, projects to build a four-star hotel, a veterinary medicine factory, a feed production factory, a fruit juice processing factory with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes a year, a 5 million-tonne-per-year fertilizer factory and a weaving factory to produce 55 million metre of high-quality fabrics a year.

Other projects call for investment in developing shipbuilding industry, farm machine production, diesel-fueled motor production, motorbike assembly, mechanical engineering, electronics, farm produce processing and transport infrastructure construction.

The city has made every effort to improve the local investment environment by speeding up administrative reform, reducing land rent and infrastructure using charge. Particularly, the city offered exemption and cut of land rent, land use charge and enterprise income tax for foreign investment projects in the form of built-operate-transfer and built-transfer-operate in their first 8-10 operational years.

Can Tho City has so far this year attracted 152 domestic and foreign investment projects with a total registered capital of 850 million USD, an increase of 385 million USD over last year. They mainly focus on agricultural and aquatic product processing, footwear, fertilizer, chemicals and auto assembly.</SPAN>

(Source: VNA)

June export revenue exceeds US$4 billion

17:11' 25/06/2007 (GMT+7)

Coffee - one of major export items of Vietnam

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s export revenue in June 2007 continued to grow, hit $4.1 billion, bringing the total export turnover of the first half of 2007 to $22.5 billion, 19.4% more than the same period of 2006, according to the Trade Ministry.

In the first half of 2007, there were six groups of products with export turnover of more than $1 billion: seafood (1.65 billion), crude oil ($3.75 billion), coffee ($1.2 billion), textile-garments ($3.4 billion), footwear ($1.93 billion) and wood products ($1.12 billion).

Other products that had export revenue of billions of US dollars in 2006 also saw high export revenue in the period, including rubber ($527 million), electronics and computer components ($935 million) and rice ($731.5 million).

The Trade Ministry’s concern over the possible failure of its annual export plan to be realised has been eased with export revenue reaching nearly $4 billion in May and $4.1 billion in June.

According to the ministry’s calculations, to achieve the annual plan on exports this year, Vietnam has to earn average monthly export turnover of $4 billion. However, the figure was $3.6 billion on average for the first five months of 2007.

For Vietnam, export turnover often increases quickly in the late months of the year. With $4.1 billion in June, the target for 2007 is still feasible.

Phuoc Ha

PM requests reconsideration of power trading company

17:06' 25/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Ministry of Industry to coordinate with related agencies to further discuss the Electricity of Vietnam Corporation’s scheme to establish the power trading company.

Power-trading company to kick off competitive power market
WB, EVN still arguing about PTC

The Ministry of Industry must report its assessment of this scheme to the Prime Minister in July.

Eight state-owned groups and corporations are nurturing the plan on setting up the power trading company with the chartered capital of VND1tril ($62.5mil). The company would purchase electricity from power plants to sell to distribution companies, and import electricity as well.

However, the World Bank’s Acting Country Director in Vietnam, Martin Rama, has expressed concern about the suggested model of the power trading company, saying it could lead to a monopoly.

(Source: SGGP)