First dry-storage battery plant in Vietnam debuts

The CSB Battery Viet Nam plant of Taiwan’s CSB Battery Corporation (China) officially made its debut at the Nhon Trach 3 Industrial Zone (Dong Nai province) on July 16.

This is the first dry-storage battery plant in Viet Nam, with total investment capital of 25 million USD and an annual capacity of 18 million batteries. The factory is expected to recruit about 5,00 local labourers. The factory's primary product will be dry-storage batteries with the lifespan of between 5-20 years and will be used in the telecom and civil industries.

It is estimated that the factory’s turnover in the first year of operation will reach 100 million USD. (Tuoi Tre) >>Full Story...

What lies behind commercial banks’ liquidity difficulty?

There are 5 main reasons for this problem, resulting from the side both commercial banks and customers. To this moment, according to the State Bank’s report, the liquidity of the banking system is ensured and the excess of capital spare is at a high level.

It is time for bankers and professionals to gather within the framework of the seminar taking place last weekend under the organization of Lien Viet Bank and the Institute of Banking to figure out the reasons lying behind the intensity in liquidity emerging at the beginning this year.

The seminar focused o­n the 5 following main reasons.

Firstly, the intensity in liquidity was due to overheating growth of credit market. That commercial banks’ credit grew 53.89% in 2007 was too hot in comparison with economic growth and the speed of capital mobilization, said associated professor-doctor Nguyen Thi Mui-Vice director of the Institute of Banking.

Doctor To Ngoc Hung, director of the Institute of Baking, added: “Overheating growth of credit together with inappropriate investments which largely focused o­n real estate and chasing short-run benefit is likely to bring about high risk when the market freezes, resulting in the imbalance in term of fixed asset and liabilities because commercial banks has used too much short – term capital for long-term loans. This exposes commercial banks to the risk of high liquidity.”

Secondly, banks’ forecasting and analyzing market trends are too weak. Vietnam’s commercial banks are well advised to learn from their foreign counterparts.

According to Mr. Hung, Vietnam’s commercial banks are still too dependent o­n the

Government, whereas foreign banks, apart from playing safe to secure rates, also frequently forecast and analyze market trends, allowing them to spare liquidity capital in advance and make timely adjustment, therefore avoiding negative impact of the market.

Thirdly, there is a weak connection between commercial banks to guarantee the security in liquidation, which results in unfair competition and rocketing interest, counterbalancing the flow of deposit, weakening the responsiveness of the whole banking system in the incident of liquidity shortage.

In addressing these above reasons, Doctor Le Kim Nga, member of the Vietcombank Administrative Board, said that it is necessary for commercial banks to have an even liquidity distribution and a strong connection in the system since the infectiousness of the problem.

Fourthly, there still remain shortcomings in liquidity management at these commercial banks. This is also the reason that was greatly attributed to the recent period of intense liquidity.

According to Doctor Nguyen Thi Mui, it is commercial banks’ weakness in managing fixed asset and liabilities and the lack of effective tools in management that exposes the State Bank to the trouble of reviewing the liquidity status as well as the major changes in members’ asset so that it can have timely modifications in regulations and support.

Fifthly, the reason is attributed to customers. This makes commercial banks unable to use market tools to effectively modify their liquidity.

“On getting untrustworthy and unclear information, some customers (including body corporate) withdraw deposits from this bank to put into an account in another bank, or civilians withdraw to purchase gold and USD…, which has led to the market insecurity of domestic and foreign exchange, posing challenges to customers themselves who are using the bank’s services”, said Doctor Nguyen Thi Mui.

Some commercial bank’s raising mobilization interest to high records has also added clouds to the situation while banks can not persistently base o­n the interest tool to fix this imbalance.

Facing these above reasons, the insiders and professionals made the recommendation that commercial banks put liquidity management as the 1st priority. Before the State Bank can be the survivor, commercial banks have to rescue themselves. According to Nguyen Duc Huong, CEO of Lien Viet Bank, of the most importance is each bank’s active response, avoiding the passiveness and “sudden shudder” in seeking solutions to the problem.

Among other solutions, linking the banking system is the o­ne of urgent adoption. It not o­nly allows in time linkage and support but also create a healthy environment for competition. If banks can reach high consensus in this collaboration, the race for raising interest will be reduced. >>Full Story...

Mobifone remains leader

Mobifone has kept its first position in the quality of telecommunications services, followed by Viettel and Vinaphone, according to a recent survey by the Post and Telecommunications Quality Management Department.

With point 3 as a standard, Mobifone attained 3.522 points while Viettel and Vinaphone reached 3.517 points and 3.383 points, respectively. As for lost calls, Mobifone stood at 0.29% while Viettel and Vinaphone at 0.35% and 0.5%, respectively.

As for successful calls to operators within 60 seconds, Mobifone scored 98.82% while Viettel and Vinaphone achieved 91.72% and 85.88%, respectively. >>Full Story...

Tax procedures for SMEs to be improved

Vietnam’s General Taxation Department and the International Financial Corporation (IFC) will shake hands to streamline tax procedures for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The cooperation is planned to be carried out from July 2008 to December 2010.

Accordingly, with IFC assistance, the General Taxation Department will conduct surveys to appraise SMEs’ spendings o­n taxes, analyze causes to SMEs’ unnecessary tax procedures, and study international norms and practices, and the world’s experiences in the sector.

At a seminar o­n streamlining tax procedures for SMEs in Vietnam held in Hanoi o­n July 17, Le Hong Hai, Vice Chief of the General Taxation Department worded that the nation has about 180,000 private SMEs and 3 million household-based businesses. However, their contributions to the state budget are still modest. >>Full Story...

Government encourages transport service on Ho Chi Minh road

The government will create favourable conditions for goods and passenger transport on the Ho Chi Minh road by investing in and exploiting stopover stations, car parks, petrol stations.

The information was revealed by Mr Nguyen Van Thanh, vice director of the Viet Nam Department of Roads, at a conference on encouraging the exploitation of the Ho Chi Minh road on July 17.

According to the Management Board of Ho Chi Minh road, the road currently goes through 30 provinces and cities nationwide, with a total length of 3,167 km. As many as 50 petrol stations have been so far built on the line between Hoa Lac (Ha Tay province) and Tan Canh (Kontum province). (Tuoi Tre) >>Full Story...

Saigon Invest Group ventures into power sector

Saigon Invest Group, developer of 16 industrial zones nationwide and several real estate projects, has plans to invest billions of dollars to develop a coal-fired power plant in central Viet Nam in cooperation with foreign companies, sources said.

Quang Ngai Province has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to allow for Saigon -Dung Quat Development Investment Joint Stock Co., a subsidiary of Saigon Invest Group, to develop the 2,400-megawatt project in the province's Dung Quat Economic Zone.

The province has suggested the ministry to include this project in the country's master plan on power development for 2006-2015, said Le Van Dung, director of Dung Quat Economic Zone Authority's Investment Promotion Centre.

The Dung Quat power complex if approved will become the biggest electricity' generation project in Central Vietnam. Dung said that the company planned to build a coal-fired plant of 2,400 megawatts at an estimated cost of nearly US$2.6 billion.

But speaking with the Daily on the phone Tuesday, Dang Thanh Tam, chair of Saigon Invest Group, said that the total capital for the project would exceed US$3 billion.

"We will cooperate with foreign companies to carry out the project, of which Saigon Invest Group will contribute more than 50% of the required capital," Tam said.

The plant, expected to become fully operational in2019, will generate 15.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year from four turbines, with the first one starting operation in 2015.

The proposed plant will use coal imported from Australia and Indonesia as feedstock, at an estimated volume of 5.2 million tonnes per year.

To carry out the project, the investor will also develop a port able to accommodate vessels of 150,000 tonnes for offloading coal, Tam said.

He said his company would need some 500 hectares at Dung Quat Economic Zone for the project, which will likely be situated near the country's first oil refinery in Dung Quat.

High demand for power and the government's policy to encourage private participation in electricity generation have prompted Saigon Invest Group to venture into the sector, Tam said.

"We will continue to invest into other potential sectors," Tam added.

He said the project will supply power to the Dung Quat Economic Zone and Central Vietnam, which are now in dir need of power for development.

Apart from this power project that is awaiting the final say from relevant ministries and the government, Saigon Invest Group also has plans to invest in some other projects in the province by cooperating with some foreign firms like J -Power and Sumitomo.

Private power projects are currently highly encouraged in Vietnam because of a severe shortage.

In recent years, the government has adopted priority policies to attract investors to build power plants, but the electricity supply capacity still cannot keep pace with economic growth.

Many investors have built their own power stations to cover their needs and sell the surplus to the state utility Electricity of Viet Nam. Those investors include Amata, Nomura, Hiep Phuoc, Vedan, and Bourbon. (SGT) >>Full Story...