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US House passes trade bill for Vietnam
US House passes trade bill for Vietnam
Last Updated: Saturday, December 9, 2006 10:15:39 Vietnam (GMT+07)
The United States’ Republican-led House of Representatives passed a package of trade bills Friday night that includes a measure extending normal trade status to Vietnam.
The lawmakers narrowly approved a raft of trade legislation to normalize trade ties with Vietnam, expand trade preferences for Haiti, and renew duty reductions for the Andean region and over 100 developing nations.
The House of Representatives voted 212 to 184 for the trade package, which is expected to go to the Senate this weekend as part of a larger tax and energy package in an 11th-hour push to close the current Republican-led Congress.
If the Senate should resolve its disputes, pass the package and adjourn, the Republican control of Congress, which has lasted 12 years in the House, would be over. That would set the stage for the next Congress to convene Jan. 4 with Democrats in the majority in both the House and the Senate.
The Vietnam bill would end the Cold War requirement that trade with the Southeast Asian state be reviewed every year.
Sen. Max Baucus, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the bill "makes certain that more U.S.-made goods will get into Vietnam's markets."
Republican Rep. David Dreier said the Vietnam measure would encourage economic and political liberalization in the Southeast Asian nation and provide access for American companies hoping to crack a booming market.
"This legislation will help to create stronger trading partners for the future, while also recognizing our responsibility ... to help developing countries grow," Republican Rep. Bill Thomas, outgoing chairman of the influential Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement.
The measure grants Permanent Normal Trade Relations to fast-growing Vietnam, 30 years after its war with the United States, but it comes late for President George W. Bush, who arrived empty-handed at a Hanoi summit last month after an initial PNTR vote failed.
The legislation also broadens textile preferences for Haiti, allowing it to increase duty-free exports to the United States of clothes that aren't made with U.S. yarn and fabric.
"We hope that ... we can send a signal to other countries to come to the aid of this poor nation," said New York's Charles Rangel, a Democrat who will head the Ways and Means Committee when Democrats take control of Congress next year.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab hailed Friday's vote, saying increased trade had not only helped workers in poor countries but lowered priced for U.S consumers.
Some industry groups, however, are worried that Vietnam's heavy subsidies and other trade policies have damaged the U.S. textile industry severely, costing companies billions of dollars and destroying American jobs.
The trade package also would extend or expand trade breaks for Haiti, sub-Saharan Africa and Andean nations, drawing opposition from supporters of the beleaguered U.S. textile industry.
Eight Republican senators on Thursday wrote congressional leaders, saying 100,000 textile jobs in their region already had been lost due to trade agreements. They said they would oppose "as forcefully as possible" the Haiti measure.
Republican President George W. Bush's trade liberalization efforts could face trouble in the next Congress.
Source: Reuters, AP
Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily
Commercial banks ready for global integration
Last updated: 16:19 - December 8, 2006
Commercial banks ready for global integration
Banking regulators, executives and experts have sounded gradually less concerned by the fierce competition which will be brought by the country's WTO membership.
Domestic banks were first worried over Vietnam's banking-financial commitments to the World Trade Organisation, which will allow wholly-foreign banks to operate or have branches in Vietnam from April 1, 2007, citing the inferior financial capacity and technology compared to foreign rivals.
However there is relief due to their careful preparations as well as full understanding of the roadmap which, in the first five years from 2007, limits foreign banks in attracting savings in Vietnamese dong from local depositors and refuses them to open the second branch offices. Foreign investors' shares in Vietnamese banks will not exceed 30% in the period under review.
Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Phung Khac Ke said one of major challenges for commercial banks is their possible losing of retail market shares, in which they own up to 90% of, to foreign rivals.
In addition, risks related to prices, foreign exchange rates and banking interests may turn into financial and economic crisis as part of the regional or global quagmires, Ke said.
He also said that the Government has issued a policy on scaling up banks' capital to cope with their disadvantage in financial capacity. Under the new decision, joint stock commercial banks or joint ventures have to increase their registered capital to at least VND 1 trillion by 2008 and VND 3 trillion by 2010.
Those banks which fail to meet the requirements will face punishments, including the revocation of licenses, said the bank executive.
Le Dac Son, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam joint stock Commercial Bank for Private Enterprises (VPBank) said the decision was necessary in the context that Vietnamese banks were small-scale and the compulsory decision will not make it difficult for banks operating for more than 10 years.
He also said that there will be many banks raising their capital to the VND 1 trillion mark until the year-end, such as the VPBank which will increase its capital to VND 2.2 trillion by 2007 and VND 3 trillion by 2008.
In an effort to enhance the competitiveness of Vietnamese banks, the Prime Minister has recently agreed to equitise three state-owned banks, namely the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), the Industrial and Commercial Bank of Vietnam (ICB) and the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), with a goal of attaining sound financial indexes in terms of international standards for the BIDV and the ICB by the end of 2006, and the Agribank by the end of 2007.
The PM also requested the Vietcombank and the Bank for Housing Development in Mekong Delta to complete their equitisation process in 2007.
For their part, commercial banks have been speeding up their investment to expand infrastruture and upgrading their business networks. The Sai Gon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank), particularly, over the last few years has built a retail network with 150 branches throughout the country. In the near future, the bank will increase the number of its local branches to 250 and open branches abroad.
With an investment worth US 10 million for new technologies and equipment, the Asian Commercial Bank (ACB) is now regarded as Vietnam's best bank in management because all its 72 branches have direct link with headquarters and its customers are offered mobile telephone banking services.
Many banks also developed such services as money withdrawal and transaction through Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs), telephone banking and electronic money transfer which is attracting more and more customers.
According to Phung Khac Ke, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, with current trends, the scale of the banking market will be multiplied after 10 more years. (VNA)