Singaporean group doles out aid to disadvantaged children

The fund said it would spend 330 million VND (around 18,500 USD) on supporting child flood victims in central provinces .

The rest of the finance will be used to buy milk for orphan and disabled children who are living at the care centre for the poor and children with disabilities in Ba Vi district, Hanoi ; building sanitation facilities and providing teaching aids for kindergartens in the mountainous district of Tan Lac, Hoa Binh province.

Thakral Group is one of the Singapore ’s largest conglomerates with operations worldwide in various areas, including manufacturing, logistics and property management.

Dutch give 22,000 tulips to Hanoi for anniversary

Hanoi (VNA) – To join in the celebration of Hanoi ’s 1,000 th anniversary, the Netherlands will present more than 22,000 tulips as a gift to the capital city during the Hanoi Flower Festival from December 30, 2009 to January 3, 2010. 


This gift was offered by Dutch Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality Gerda Verburg during her visit to Vietnam in July 2009. The visit was successful in further strengthening and promoting trade and cooperation in the agricultural sector between the Netherlands and Vietnam . 


Knowing that Hanoi was going to celebrate its 1,000 th anniversary, Verburg offered the tulips, a loved symbol of the Netherlands , as a present to the citizens of Hanoi . 

Together with other kinds of flowers from Vietnam , more than 22,000 brightly coloured tulips will be displayed around Hoan Kiem Lake from December 30, 2009 to January 3, 2010. 

In addition, a pair of giant wooden shoes from the Netherlands will be on display. 


The Hanoi Flower Festival will start with an opening ceremony on December 30, which will be broadcast on national television. 


In the evening of December 31, the Ao Dai Festival with the topic “Convergence of quintessence” will take place. In the morning of January 1, a flower arranging contest and flower demonstration will be held to welcome the New Year 2010. 


The Netherlands is one of Vietnam ’s biggest trading partners in Europe in agricultural products, mainly fisheries, dairy products, coffee, fruits and vegetables.

Free eye surgery offered to poor

HCM City (VNA) – The Ho Chi Minh City Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients plans to establish an eye bank to facilitate free eye operations for the poor and enlarge the network of participating hospitals providing free heart surgeries to poor children in the 2009-14 period, acting chairman Le Thanh Hai has said. 
Speaking at the fourth congress of the association held in HCM City on Dec. 23, Hai said the establishment of the eye bank would help expand the “Bringing sight for the poor blind” programme and ensure 30,000 surgeries could be performed every year. 

He also listed the other programmes it would carry out in the next five years under an overarching plan titled “All for poor patients” that seeks to continue to save lives and relieve the pain of poor and disabled people in 35 cities and provinces. 

With the support of VinaCapital Group, East Meets West Foundation, and individual donors, an ongoing programme titled “Save the lives of 1,000 children born with heart disease” will be expanded to include more hospitals to the existing eight.

All disabled people living in HCM City will be donated wheelchairs at the rate of 5,000 per year.

The “Sound and voice for the deaf and dumb children” programme will provide 2,000 hearing aids every year. 

The “Smile for the young” programme will provide free surgery to children with cleft palates, while the “Free meals for poor patients” programme will build a kitchen in every hospital to provide free meals to poor patients.

In the last five years, the association provided more than 181,000 free eye operations, restoring vision for more than 300,000 blind people, including nearly 4,900 operations for Laotians and 18,000 for Cambodians. 
A total of 37,000 children with cleft palates received free surgery in the period.

Hanoi to host youth games

Hanoi (VNA) – The 14 th Asian Youth Athletics Championship will be held in Hanoi ’s My Dinh Stadium from July 1-4, according to the Vietnam Athletics Federation (VAF).

The Asian Athletics Association (AAA) handed over authority for the VAF to organise this event after the VAF successfully held the third round of the Asian Grand Prix 2008, the Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championship 2009 and the third Asian Indoor Games.

VAF estimated that the expenses for the event will be around 5 billion VND (277,000 USD), part of which will be supported by the AAA.

VAF is expected to be the host of one of the continent’s most important events, the Asian Athletics Championship.

This year’s tournament will attract Asia ’s young talents from the ages of 18-20 to take part in 44 different events.

BUSINESS

Belgium daily: EU divided over tax decision against VN

Brussels (VNA) - The Council of European Union (CEU)’s decision on the extension of anti-dumping duties on leather-capped shoes from Vietnam and China for 15 months has created a division among EU members, reported a Belgium daily.

The Evening (Le Soir) newspaper on Dec. 23 ran an article saying that European countries that still have a shoemaking industry such as Italy support the decision, which is in stark contrast to northern European countries that are in favour of free trade.

European well-known shoemakers that are producing a huge volume of footwear in Asia such as Adidas, Puma, Timberland and PME also decried the continued imposition of anti-dumping taxes.

“First, the financial crisis that has made our exports to plunge down by 16 percent in 2009. And now, the extension of anti-dumping measures against our leather shoes by the European Union, our biggest customer. This has caused severe impacts on our workers," Nguyen Thi Tong, Secretary General of the Leather and Footwear Association (LEFASO) of Vietnam was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Truong Quoc Can, an ActionAid’s representative in Hanoi , called it an “unfair and contradictory” decision. 

“On the one hand, the EU spends a lot of money for programmes to reduce poverty in Vietnam and on the other hand, it imposes heavy taxes that directly affect the country’s most vulnerable workers,” Can was quoted as saying.

Simultaneously on Dec. 23, the Vietnamese government voices dissatisfaction with the anti-dumping tax decision. 

“This is an unobjective and unfair decision and does not reflect the practical conditions of Vietnamese footwear production and business in the country. It goes counter to the trade liberalisation spirit launched and promoted by the European Union,” Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Nga said.

She went on to say that the decision has not only created negative impacts on workers in developing nations like Vietnam but EU importers, distributors, retailers and consumers as well.- Enditem 
Singaporean group doles out aid to disadvantaged children 

Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam Children Sponsor Fund on Dec. 23 received a donation worth 28,500 USD from Singapore ’s Thakral Group which is made to help disadvantaged children in the country.

The fund said it would earmark 330 million VND (around 18,500 USD) to support child flood victims in central provinces .

The rest of the finance will be spent on buying milk for orphan and disabled children who are living at the care centre for the poor and children with disabilities in Ba Vi district, Hanoi ; building sanitation facilities and providing teaching aids for kindergartens in the mountainous district of Tan Lac, Hoa Binh province.

Thakral Group is one of the Singapore ’s largest conglomerates with operations worldwide in various areas, including manufacturing, logistics and property management.

VN-Index registers fourth day of gains

Hanoi (VNA) – The HCM Stock Exchange saw its fourth consecutive day of increases on Dec. 23, with the VN-Index picking up an additional 1.18 percent to close at 470.75.

The value of the day’s trades totalled over 1.6 trillion VND (89.7 million USD) on a volume of 40.2 million shares, with gainers almost evenly split between decliners and 41 codes remaining unchanged.

Eximbank (EIB) was the most heavily traded share with over 3.5 million changing hands, accounting for over 10 percent of the total market volume.

Vincom (VIC) saw the highest increase on the day, picking up 4,000 VND to close at 101,000 VND per share, with more than 21,000 shares traded.

Dat Xanh Real Estate Service and Construction Co (DXG) and Vien Dong Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Co (DVD) both saw shares traded for the first day. DXG shares hit their opening-day ceiling price to close at 50,000 VND per share, while DVD hit the floor, closing at 71,000 VND per share.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange on Dec. 23, the HNX-Index also rose by 2.51 percent to end the day 153.26 points.

Trading volume, however, slipped to about 22.7 million shares, worth a total of 634.5 billion VND (34.3 million USD). Advancers outnumbered decliners on the northern bourse by 168-58.

Kim Long Securities (KLS) was the most active share with nearly 5.9 million traded.

Vietnam’s ASEAN trade drops

Da Nang (VNA) – The nation’s trade with other ASEAN countries reached 17.8 billion USD in the first 10 months of the year, down 30 percent on the same period last year. 

Le Trieu Dung, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s ASEAN Department, released the figures at a seminar held in the central city of Da Dang on Dec. 23. 

Dung attributed the significant decline in trade with Vietnam ’ biggest trading partner to the world economic crisis. “But a bright spot was that the trade deficit with other ASEAN countries dropped significantly for the period,” he said. 

The nation exported about 7.1 billion USD worth of goods to ASEAN and imported about 10.7 billion USD, creasing a 10-month trade deficit of 3.6 billion USD. This was far lower than last year’s 9.3 billion USD total deficit, he said. 

The deficit was due to falls in imports, including petroleum. “Many goods are also showing good competitiveness on the ASEAN market, like confectionery and fruits.” 

Dung said enterprises needed to make more effort to boost exports, especially in sea-food, coffee, garments and textiles, and electronics. Firms should also speed up the development of supporting industries and material sources. 

The ministry urgent firms to carefully study investment and trade agreements with the ASEAN, especially tax agreements, to make best use of preferences offered. 

From January 1, six nations, including, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, will cut their import taxes to zero percent from the current 0-5 percent, under ASEAN agreements. 

Dung said this would be a great opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises. But only about 20 percent of domestic companies now enjoyed ASEAN tax preferences as most failed to meet local or ASEAN- content requirement of 40 percent. “Many still lack knowledge about agreements by the association.”

HCM City to host fifth ethnic Chinese trade exhibition

HCM City (VNA) – The fifth Cho Lon trade fair will offer many opportunities for companies to promote their trademarks and seek local partners. 

Speaking at a press conference on Dec. 23 in HCM City , Truong Tu Muoi, director of the Cho Lon Economic Development Centre, said the fair would be a bridge for exchanging information and increasing economic cooperation among domestic enterprises. 

The event will feature outstanding economic achievements of the Hoa (Chinese-Vietnamese) community in maintaining production despite the global economic crisis. 

“The fair was seen as one of the biggest festival days for Chinese-Vietnamese enterprises,” she said. 

According to organisers, the five-day event attracts more than 140 enterprises form many provinces and cities including Long An, Hanoi, Binh Duong, Dong Thap, Dong Nai, Soc Trang and HCM City. 

The fair will feature about 300 booths showcasing products ranging from electric cables, industrial machines, steel, leather shoes, textiles and garments, handicrafts, furniture, household utensils, foodstuff processing and confectionery. 

The enterprises will offer a discount of at least 5-10 percent on their products at the fair. A Chinese food area will also be set up. 

A job festival day will also be held during the event to help young Chinese-speaking people find jobs. 

Forty-five businesses need to recruit 5,500 labourers in the fields of interpretation, business administration, marketing and accounting. 

Advisory programmes will be offered to enterprises to help them understand intellectual property law and the registration process for brand protection. 

The fair will be held from Dec. 31 to January 4 at the Phu Tho Indoor Stadium by HCM City ’s Department of Industry and Trade in collaboration with the city’s Chinese Mission Committee.

Beer industry grows despite recession

Hanoi (VNA) – White many other businesses are struggling with the world recession, the Vietnamese beer industry is proudly showing a significant growth this year, according to the Vietnam Beer-Alcohol -Beverage Association (VBA). 

“In 2009, the domestic beer industry is estimated to reach a growth rate of between 12 and 15 percent over last year,” said Nguyen Thi Huyen, secretary of the association. 

According to Huyen, up to December, almost all of the alcohol, and beer companies in the country reaches around 90 percent of their 2009 targets. 

“This number is really high compared to last year when it was only 60-70 percent,” Huyen said, adding that some big companies announced that by the middle of December they had exceeded their targets. 

The weather is one of many factors helping the industry to achieve a high growth rate this year. 

This summer, it was so hot that demand for beer strongly increased. 

This year, moreover, the impact of inflation has reduced, so many people are able to afford beer. 

“Another reason is that consumers prefer domestic beer because it is more suited to their tastes,” Huyen said. 

According to the association’s forecasts, beer consumption in the coming months will increase due to the Tet holiday. 

Recently, the Vietnamese beer industry has shown many good signs. Over the past 10 years, the industry has achieved a high and stable growth rate. 

In 2007-08, 151 beer manufacturers existed nationwide with an annual output for more than 2 billion litres. 

Of them, eight manufacturers were run at a capacity of more than 100 million litres per year. 

Consumption of bottled beer and canned beer has increased year-on-year by about 13 and 20 percent, respectively. 

This output makes the Vietnamese beer industry the second largest in Southeast Asia and export destinations include Japan , Indonesia , the Republic of Korea , Laos and Cambodia . 

At this rate, the country plans to produce and consume between 3.1 and 3.2 billion litres of beer next year. This number will increase to 6-6.5 billion litres and 7-7.5 million litres of beer in 2015 and 2025, respectively. 

In order to achieve this goal, the association advised companies to strengthen their competitiveness by expanding and improving their production as well as to invest in technology. 

In recent years, the Sai Gon Company and the Hanoi Beer Company invested a large amount in technology to help them produce many high-quality products at lower prices, the association said.