Viet Nam should allow its non-convertible currency, the dong, to fall 5-6% this year to support exports, a senior government adviser wrote in an article published on Friday. “The maximum adjustment for the dong/dollar rate between now and the year’s end should stop at between 5-6%”, Le Xuan Nghia, deputy head of the national financial [...]
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has introduced foreign businesses to Vietnam’s favourable business climate and called on them to invest in its potential market of approximately 86 million consumers. Chairing a direct dialogue with 30 chief executive officers of leading global companies in Davos, Switzerland on January 29, Mr Nhan said that the global [...]
Tourism hotspots like Da Lat, Nha Trang, and Lao Cai witnessed a crippling hotel-room shortage during Tet as holiday-makers took advantage of the long holiday season to travel. By the evening of January 24 – Tet was on the 26th this year — most rooms in Da Lat had been taken. Luxury hotels like Palace, [...]
The Viet Nam Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) has set a production target of 33.5 million tonnes of coal this year, 4.5 million less than in 2008. General director of Vinacomin Tran Xuan Hoa told Viet Nam News that production targets are being reduced as a result of the global economic downturn which decreased [...]
From the February 1 through the end of 2009, the value added tax on cars, automotive parts, precious metals and tourist services like hotels and transport will be reduced by 50%. The Government reduced the tax to help domestic companies overcome challenges caused by the ongoing world recession. The same reduction will also apply to [...]
The Ministry of Health (MoH) is calling on foreign pharmaceutical firms to increase investments in drug manufacturing in Viet Nam, especially for products made from local inputs. By the end of last year, there were 37 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects given licences in the pharmaceutical sector with total registered capital of 282.6 million USD. [...]
Retail banking in Viet Nam is about to undergo a transformation as major international financiers seek more and yet more of the Vietnamese market. And not surprisingly in a country where the average age is 25, the new arrivals are likely to bet on youth. Vietnam ’s young adults-from 21 to 29- are twice as [...]
HCM City People’s Committee said that it has worked out measures to improve the city’s economy and residents’ living conditions in 2009. Le Hoang Quan, chairman of the committee, said the main duty now is to mobilise capital from foreign investors and local businesses and effectively use the city budget for developing the economy and [...]
Coffee prices in Asia rose in the week to Friday, along with gains in London futures, but the Lunar New Year festival in Vietnam during the week kept trading thin, traders said. The benchmark March robusta contract on the Euronext.liffe settled at $1,722 a metric ton Thursday, up $14 from a week ago. Cash discounts [...]
The price of goods and services has either risen slightly or remained stable nationwide during the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, said an official from the Ministry of Finance (MoF). There have not been any shortages of goods in markets during Tet this year, said Nguyen Tien Thoa, Head of the Price Management Department under [...]
South Korea’s won led a decline in Asian currencies this month as a deepening global recession hurt regional exports and sapped demand for emerging-market assets. The Korean currency dropped 8.9% versus the dollar, its worst start to a year since at least 1991, as the government announced the steepest drop in gross domestic product in [...]
HCM City has nearly all models of the most expensive cars in the world. Super-luxurious cars like Audi R8, Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Mclaren, Lamborghini, Hummer, Porsche, Rolls Royce are not abundant, but also not rare in the country’s largest city. Super-expensive cars on streets Imports of super-luxurious cars have not been so noisily announced [...]
Trade and investment were high on the agenda of a working session between Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan and Swiss Vice President Loris Leuthard, in Geneva on January 29. Leuthard, also Economic Minister, asked Vietnam to consider negotiations on a free trade area between Vietnam and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), that consists [...]
Vietnam’s central bank set the dollar’s exchange rate slightly higher at VND16,975 Friday. The state-owned Vietcombank sold at VND17,482, unchanged from last week. Gold shops sold at VND17,700, down from 17,720 previously. Vietnam’s markets reopen Friday after having closed for the Lunar New Year festival from Monday to Thursday. Traders expect the exchange rate to [...]
The Vietnamese economy may be slowing down as a result of the global recession but foreign experts and investors remain highly optimistic, as they told Sai Gon Giai Phong. Thomas Tobin, general director of HSBC Vietnam, said Vietnam would return to a high-growth path in future. Its banking and financial sectors are at the development [...]