Vietnam Industrial Parks InfoGate ! Industrial Zones ! Export Processing Zones ! Business in brief 5 Dec 2011

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has decided to establish a Key Economic Zone in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta. The planned KEZ, which includes southern provinces of An Giang, Kien Giang and Ca Mau as well as Can Tho City, is expected to have a growth rate 1.25 times higher than the average GDP growth rate of the country in the 2011-20 period. Under the plan, this KEZ in the country’s major rice basket would make up 40 per cent in the nation’s GDP in 2020. The zone’s economy would be restructured, with an increase in the contribution of the industrial and services sectors and fewer inputs from the agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors. The contribution of the zone’s industrial and construction sectors would rise from 29 per cent in 2010 to 40 per cent in 2020, and the contribution of the zone’s service sector from 42 per cent to 45 per cent over the same period.

Vietnam is taking part in the World SMEs Expo that opened in Hong Kong on Thursday to promote the business and investment environment of Vietnam and facilitate links between businesses of the two sides. The three-day expo has attracted 320 small and medium enterprises from 33 countries and territories. Vietnam would introduce its exports, such as seafood, agricultural and garment products, and foster exports to Hong Kong and other countries, said Nguyen Viet Chi from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Asia-Pacific Market Department. Participating in the fair, 100 Vietnamese enterprises would have opportunities to seek new partners and expand investment co-operation with foreign enterprises, she said. Vietnam was among 30 top countries in terms of bilateral trade with Hong Kong in recent years, according to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Bilateral trade and investment relations have developed significantly, with two-way trade reaching US$2.4 billion in the first 10 month of this year.

Vietnam has begun construction of a second terminal to ease overcrowding at the only airport in the nation’s capital, the government said. Officials held a ceremony at the Noi Bai airport on Sunday to break ground on the four-story facility which is being funded by more than 75 billion yen ($961 million) in Japanese aid, the Vietnamese government said. "Terminal 2, expected to be completed by the end of 2014, was designed to handle 10 million passengers per year," it said in a statement released Sunday. The existing terminal handled some 9.5 million passengers last year, exceeding its capacity of six million, the official English-language Vietnam News reported. Flag carrier Vietnam Airlines hopes to make the country’s two biggest airports -- in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City -- gateways to the fast-growing Southeast Asian region.

Vietnam exported 415,871 metric tons of rice in November, down 5.8% from 441,339 tons in October, the Vietnam Food Association said Monday. The figure is higher than an estimate of 400,000 tons released by the General Statistics Office late last month. Rice export revenue in November fell to $232.76 million from $242.1 million in the previous month, the association said in a statement. The country exported 6.74 million tons of rice in the first 11 months of the year, up 7.6% from a year earlier, it said. Vietnam’s rice exports are expected to exceed 7 million tons this year, up from 6.7 million tons in 2010.

Vietnam was estimated to incur $6.6 billion trade deficit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jan-October, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said. Vietnam-ASEAN’s two-way trade reached $28.6 billion in the period, making ASEAN to be the biggest trade partner of Vietnam in the first 10 months of this year, GSO added, citing that the country has earned $11 billion from exports to the ASEAN, up 31.6% on year and spent $17.6 billion to import goods, up 34.5%. Vietnam maily exported crude oil, rice, seafood, apparel and electronic spare parts to ASEAN while it imported machinery, consumption goods and materials.

Thailand’s Berli Jucker Public Co. Ltd plans to expand its operation in Vietnam and Myanmar to meet an increasing consumer demand in the Southeast Asian region. BJC President Aswin Techajaroenvikul said Vietnam’s consumer demand is high thanks to its large and young population. He said BJC, listed in Thailand’s securities market, is currently running three factories in HCM City producing glass bottles, aluminum cans, and tissue paper. According to Bangkok Post, BJC is negotiating with a potential partner of Vietnam and plans to buy about 51 percent of its shares. The purchase aims to widen the company’s distribution, particularly in the northern region of Vietnam, as the demand for bottles and cans in the Vietnamese market is increasing.

The December’s Consumer Price Index is forecast to increase by 0.5 to 0.6 per cent compared with the previous month due to the advent of Christmas and coming Tet holidays. The forecast by the Domestic Market Management Team under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said the price of a number of goods, including food and foodstuff, would rise due to increased demand. Flooding in several areas would also have an effect. Gas prices would surge this month, following increased world prices but the price of steel, cement and other construction materials would remain stable despite it being the peak season for construction. The sugar price was forecast to fall slightly due to abundant supplies.

A delegation of 10 French companies in railway and urban rail solutions will be in Vietnam from December 5-8 to take part in a mission organized by UBIFRANCE-French Trade Commission in Vietnam. According to the French Embassy in Vietnam, the French delegation will travel throughout Vietnam and meet decision makers, international donors and major actors in the fields of railway and urban rail transportation. This business trip is expected to help French companies improve their understanding of the Vietnamese authorities’ policy in the sector, and seek opportunities to take part in projects in railway and urban rail transportation as foreign suppliers and investors. They will also have the opportunity to meet in Hanoi bilateral and multilateral donors, including Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Overseas Investment Department (under Ministry of Planning and Investment-MoPI) on Nov. 29 organized a seminar in HCM City to seek opinion on the draft Decree No 78 on direct investment in foreign countries. Do Nhat Hoang, head of the Overseas Investment Department, said the new point in this draft is to require investors to report quarterly and annually about the operation situation of investment projects in foreign countries to MoPI and Ministry of Finance. Biannually and annually, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) will have document to evaluate the support of the diplomatic missions abroad for the operation of Vietnamese enterprises in the countries and territories receiving investment of these firms. Mofa must direct diplomatic missions abroad to regularly monitor and support the activities of Vietnamese enterprises and investors in the countries and territories receiving investment of Vietnamese enterprises.