Vietnam Industrial Parks InfoGate ! Industrial Zones ! Export Processing Zones ! Business in brief 8th Aug 2011

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has asked the Ministry of Finance (MoF) not to impose an export tax on rubber coded HS 4001 to encourage exports this year. Bui Ba Bong, MARD’s deputy minister said that under the nation’s rubber development plan to 2015 with a vision to 2020 approved by the Prime Minister, incentives were needed in order to boost the domestic rubber industry, including a tax-free export policy for latex. The request comes in response to a draft mulled by the MoF that intends to increase the export tax rate to 5 per cent for rubber. According to MARD, only 18 per cent of the rubber produced was used domestically, while the majority was exported. In the first seven months of the year, Vietnam exported 349,000 tons of rubber worth US$1.5 billion. That volume is forecast to reach 800,000 tons with a total revenue of $3 billion by the end of the year.
FDI registrations so far this year is US$9.05 billion, down 24 percent from a year earlier, according to the Foreign Investment Agency. FDI disbursements had in July had rebounded to one billion dollars. In the first seven months disbursements were US$6.3 billion up 1.6 percent from a year earlier. Vietnam is targeting US$20 billion in fresh FDI pledges this year, up from the US$18.6 billion last year. FDI disbursements are targeted to rise to US$11.5 billion this year from last year’s US$11 billion.
Marubeni Corp., a Japanese trading company, agreed to supply 1 million to 2 million metric tons of coal a year to Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Group. The coal will come from Australia or Indonesia, the Vietnamese company said in a statement on its website yesterday, citing Mamoru Sekiyama, Marubeni’s senior executive vice president. The type of coal, financial terms and delivery dates weren’t disclosed in the statement. Vietnam imported its first cargo of power-station coal in June, the Vietnam News Agency reported on June 13, citing Vinacomin, as Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries is known. The state-owned coal producer plans to buy about 10 million tons from overseas markets in 2012, according to the report. Vinacomin aims to increase coal output to 55 million tons in 2015 from about 44 million tons this year, the company said in its statement.
A 2.5 billion dollar coal plant by Malaysia’s Jaks Resources has boosted foreign direct investment pledges to the Northern Vietnam province of Hai Duong, which has overtaken Ho Chi Minh City. The Ministry of Planning and Investment has just awarded an investment certificate to Malaysia’s Jaks Resource Bhd to develop a US$2.26 billion coal-fired power plant in the province. With this project, Hai Duong has in the January-July period attracted nearly US$2.5 billion of pledged capital, followed by HCMC with more than US$1.63 billion, Ba Ria-Vung Tau with US$510 million and Hanoi with US$500 million. A total of 49 new foreign-invested projects have been licensed in July with combined pledged capital of US$3.23 billion.
The total value of goods traded online in Vietnam is estimated to reach US$6 billion by 2015, of which US$2 billion would be paid online, forecast economic experts from the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) on Wednesday. Vietnam has nearly 30 million internet users, of whom 58 percent have accessed internet to search for information of the products they would like to purchase. This provides favorable opportunities to e-trade to develop in Vietnam. However, online payment is often risky, so to find a safe, creditable payment mode for the customers is the prime factor that decides the businesses’ sales turnover, said VCCI.
Around 1.5 billion liters of beer was consumed in the first seven months of 2011, up 8.7% against one year earlier, the Tuoi Tre Online reported, citing data of the General Statistical Office (GSO). In July alone, 279.1 million liters of beer was consumed, increasing 14% year-on-year. This is one of few industrial sectors that performed IPP growth from the year early, which surged 15.6% compared with the Jan-July period of 2010. Sabeco and Habeco, two big breweries, continued to dominate the market with a compound production proportion of 65% in the whole industry.