AP - Friday, March 27
HANOI, Vietnam - Eight Vietnamese Roman Catholics plan to ask an appeals court Friday to overturn their convictions for disturbing public order and damaging property during a series of demonstrations last year to demand the return of former church lands.
VNBusinessNews - The Ministry of Science and Technology is compiling a national technology renovation programme. However, renovation can take place whenever businesses want.
Vietnamese businesses lack sci-tech strategies
A ‘disease’ of Vietnamese businesses is their sluggishness and dependence on state subsidies. This is the major hindrance to the development of science and technology, experts say.
VNBusinessNews - There are huge opportunities for Viet Nam’s exports to Brazil, regarded as potentially the most lucrative market in Latin American, according local experts.
Domestic firms should foster trade promotion to increase exports to Brazil, especially in the current downturn, suggest experts.
VNBusinessNews - There’s little prospect that airlines will cut fares in 2009 despite falling consumer purchasing power, lower fuel prices, and a 10-per-cent decrease in the import tax on jet fuel.
“The airlines will adjust reasonably depending on market movement together with the purchasing power of passengers,” says Vietnam Airlines General Director Pham Ngoc Minh
VNBusinessNews - A governmental delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai paid a working visit to Thanh Hoa Province to discuss with local officials ways to speed up the implementation of projects in the Nghi Son Economic Zone, Tinh Gia District, Thanh Hoa Province.
VNBusinessNews - The construction of a resettlement area for national key projects in the Vung Ang Economic Zone commenced in Ky Lien commune, Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province on February 26.
VNBusinessNews - Australia and New Zealand have officially recognised Viet Nam as a full market economy and agreed to treat Vietnamese imports in accordance with WTO regulations on anti-dumping and subsidies.
VNBusinessNews - With the current economic recession changing people’s spending habits, marketers should adapt themselves accordingly, a study says.
Eye on Asia, a study by the Grey Group, a communication multi-national, that surveyed more than 7,500 people in 16 Asian countries, has found that there is a growing tendency to seek enriching life experiences rather than possessions.
VNBusinessNews - Around 50% of raw materials used in Vietnam’s traditional arts and crafts production are currently imported from foreign markets according to the Viet Nam Trade Village Association.
This situation is due to the exhaustion of local raw material sources, which resulted from both the lack of material investment in those sources, and also from over exploitation.
VNBusinessNews - Coffee growers in Central Highland provinces are selling their crops before they have ripened, prompting fears of quality problems.
The growers are selling to small traders before the crops have ripened in fear the price will fall at harvest time as it did last year.
VNBusinessNews - A group of 88 entrepreneurs, representing 63 Japanese companies, are to visit Viet Nam from March 1–6 to explore investment and business opportunities in the country.
The visit, jointly organised by the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) and the Kansai Economic Federation (Kankeiren), will attract businesses involved in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, mechanical engineering, trade, consultancy and information technology.
VNBusinessNews - Figures by the General Statistics Office (GSO) of Viet Nam show that the number of imported CBU (Completely Built-Up) automobiles reached 1,300, worth a total of US $ 27 million, in January of this year.
VNBusinessNews - Half a million tourists, including 20,000 foreigners, visited the southern province of Kien Giang in the first two months of 2009, bringing it total revenue of roughly VND70 billion.
Phu Quoc Island, a historic site, welcomed more than 40,000 tourists, double the figure of the same period last year.
VNBusinessNews - The potential for trade and economic co-operation between Viet Nam and Myanmar remained large and the two countries’ governments and businesses should work hard to realise it, said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien.
VNBusinessNews - Leaders of Southeast Asian nations have agreed to ease monetary policy and resist protectionism as they fight the financial crisis that is hurting their export-dependent economies, a draft statement showed.
The 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations also vowed to work with the Group of 20 on reforming international financial institutions.
