Thai Nguyen foreign investment management authorities have felt the pinch of the global economic turmoil with the province’s two largest licenced foreign-invested projects on the back foot. The two affected projects, the $100 million Xuong Rong Lake property complex and $147 million Nui Phao mining, had a combined registered investment capital of more than half [...]

Vietnam’s government has proposed using most of the 17 trillion dong of an economic stimulus package to subsidise interest payments on loans to businesses next year as it moves to stave off an economic slowdown. The proposal, which is still subject to final approval from the National Assembly, or parliament, would cover 420 trillion dong [...]

Administrative reform has made little headway because of the unhelpful attitude of government employees, company executives said at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday. Speaking at the conference held to enable entrepreneurs to directly discuss tax and customs reforms with the Ministry of Finance, Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan said reforms in [...]

Cutting base interest rate, reserve requirement ratio and interest rates paid to required reserves are in line with the government’s economic stimulus package designed to create better access to banking credit for local enterprises. Better access to bank loans will help them restructure businesses and push exports. However, cutting the market interest rates increased pressure [...]

The US’ Watson Wyatt Worldwide (WW) recently acquired Smart Human Resource Vietnam Company, a premier human resources consulting firm in Viet Nam. Andrew Heard, WW’s Asean regional managing director tells Viet Nam Investment Review’s Hoang Mai about Vietnamese labour market trends in a tough 2009. Why did WW choose buying an established Vietnamese firm rather [...]

Quang Nam Province plans to spend VND4 billion (US$235,000) to promote tourism following a sharp drop in local and foreign arrivals recently. Many international tourists have canceled tours to the central province, travel firms said. Quang Nam also announced a slew of activities meant to attract visitors, especially to Hoi An. It includes encouraging hotels [...]

The southern province of Tien Giang attracted 8 foreign-invested projects with total registered capital of US$150 million, increasing nine times more than the same period last year. As a result, the province has so far lured 28 foreign-invested projects worth of US$480 million. Major projects focused on the fields of processing aquatic products, animal feed [...]