Vietnam Industrial Parks InfoGate ! Industrial Zones ! Export Processing Zones ! Business in brief 15 Sep 2011

The local firm Coteccons has won a contract to work as the main contractor for the Ho Tram Tourism Complex project in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. The contract was signed by the investor of the Ho Tram Tourism Project, Canadian Asian Coast Development Corporation, and Coteccons last week. Coteccons is responsible for the main civil engineering items and will manage the project, with the first phase of the project valued at VND3.2 trillion (US$155 million). The first phase will be completed in 2013. With a total investment of $4.2 billion, the 160-ha Ho Tram strip is ranked as Vietnam’s first large-scale integrated resort, and among the largest in Southeast Asia. Construction of the Ho Tram complex includes a five-star hotel, a casino and a golf course.

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) will organize a business forum today in Ha Noi in co-operation with the Indian Embassy in Vietnam. Many top Indian enterprises in the fields of technology, construction, machinery, real estate, banking and transport will join the forum. The VCCI will also publish a directory book of the two countries’ forum members which will be available at the event.

The Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex) officially received its investment licence in Laos at a ceremony held at the Laos International Convention Centre. Petrolimex will now be able to directly conduct business activities in Laos with the co-operation of Chevron, the world’s third largest oil group. Petrolimex has already established a limited company in Singapore and a representative office in Cambodia.

Two months after the first maintenance work was carried out on the Dung Quat Refinery, operations resumed at full capacity on Tuesday, two days earlier than scheduled. The refinery actually resumed operations on August 26 at 85 per cent capacity, but this was increased to full throttle from noon yesterday, said Nguyen Hoai Giang, general director of the Binh Son Oil Refining and Petrochemical Co Ltd. Since it resumed operations, the refinery has produced about 70,000 tons of oil and petrol, including 40,000 tons of diesel oil, 21,000 tons of petrol and 10,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas. Operations started at the refinery in February 2009, and to date, it has imported more than 12 million tons of crude oil.

A new regular air service commenced between the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, local airport authorities said. The new flight, which includes a stopover in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, was jointly launched by Guangxi Airport Management Group, Nanning municipal government and Sichuan Airlines. Sichuan Airlines offers a round-trip flight every Monday and Thursday, a spokesman with the Guangxi Airport Management Group said. The air service has been launched in part for the upcoming 8th China-ASEAN Expo, which is slated for Oct. 21-26, he said. It also serves Guangxi’s residents and visitors to Vietnam, which has become Guangxi’s largest trading partner among ASEAN countries, he added.

Vietnam’s central bank set the U.S. dollar’s exchange rate at VND20,628 Thursday, unchanged from Wednesday. Currency dealers said gold-shop rates rose for a third straight day on continued demand for dollars, as more investors converted their dong savings into U.S. currency following the central bank’s decision this week to cut commercial banks’ interest rates for dong deposits. "More people are holding the dong and seeking alternative ways to invest, and buying the greenback is a preferred option," said a dealer with a Hanoi-based commercial bank. The dealer added dollar rates are also rising because of corporate demand, as many companies are buying the U.S. unit to pay their dollar debts.

Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry & Trade, or VietinBank, may offer a coupon of 5 percent to 6 percent on its planned $500 million overseas bond sale this year, Chairman Pham Huy Hung said in an interview in Hanoi today. The lender is “determined to sell the bonds within this year,” said Hung. The coupon will be determined based on market conditions, Deputy General Director Le Duc Tho said at a company conference. The bond sale will take place in the fourth quarter, Tho said. The company has sought approval from the country’s central bank for the issue, he said last month. HSBC Holdings Plc and Barclays Bank Plc have been appointed advisers and will jointly arrange the sale, Tho told Bloomberg News Sept. 12.

Saigon Trading Group, or Satra, will open a convenience store chain Satrafoods with ten stores planned for this year, and a supermarket chain in HCMC in the future. Satra has just opened its fourth convenience store in the city at 175-177 Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Street in Binh Thanh District. The company will open six more stores until the year-end with an investment of VND 1-1.3 billion for each, providing around 2,000 basic food products for customers’ daily needs. With the advantage of having eight affiliates, 16 subsidiaries and over 50 associated companies, including many large food firms such as Vissan, Cau Tre, APT, Cofidec, Agrex Saigon, Nhabexim, Satra, through its convenience store chain, will directly distribute food products of member firms to consumers. In addition, Satra is building a supermarket chain, scheduled for operation this year, and targets to run a modern and large retail chain in HCMC.

A centre for information and communications technology training will be opened in Thanh Xuan District tomorrow. It is a gift from the Indian Government to Vietnam. The project has been built at a cost of over VND57 billion (US$2.7 million) with VND46 billion ($2.2 million) worth of equipment, software, text books and teachers’ training paid for by India’s non-refundable aid. Once operational, the centre will train programmers, professional technicians, State employees and enterprise managers for Ha Noi and nearby regions, with the aim of building an e-administration for the capital by 2015.

Only two cement factories have been put into operation since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Construction has said. According to the ministry’s plan, about 10 cement plant projects are set to be finished this year. These projects were forced to a complete stand-still and haven’t even begun construction. Several projects were left unfinished, awaiting further bank loans.

Four French information technology enterprises have paid a three-day visit to Ha Noi and HCM City since Monday, according to the French Embassy in Vietnam. ESI Group, MEGA International, SYSUN Technologies and Worketer spent the trip learning more about the IT developing potential of Vietnam. The visit aimed to intensify mutual trading and co-operation in the field of information and technology between the two countries.