VNBusinessNews – Cement makers in the north will supply 12-12.5 million tons to the southern region to meet increasing demand there, the deputy head of the Construction Materials Management Department has said. Dr. Vo Quang Diem added that to move such a large quantity, production, storage, and transportation plans must be made carefully. Southern demand [...]

VNBusinessNews – Dong interest rates have risen slightly this week as banks need more funds to lend under a government campaign to avert a deeper economic slowdown. The highest increases were on overnight loans and 1-week loans, Reuters data showed VNIBOS. Rates on overnight loans rose to 6.83 percent on Monday from 6.18% a week [...]

VNBusinessNews – The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) on February 18 received 3G technology development and business applications from seven mobile telecom firms namely VinaPhone, MobiFone, Viettel, EVN Telecom, Saigon Postal and Telecommunication Service Joint Stock Co (SPT), Gtel Mobile and Hanoi Telecom. However, the seven firms submitted six applications because one was made [...]

VNBusinessNews – Viet Nam, the world’s second-biggest rice supplier, will only allow new contracts for shipments from July to help stabilize prices after exports in the first half of the year exceeded a government target. The Vietnam Food Association will register export contracts for delivery between July and September, according to a statement on its [...]

VNBusinessNews – Many coffee-growing areas in the central province of Dak Lak are facing a lack of water, provincial irrigation officials warned. By mid-February, more than 170,000 hectares had been watered just once against a requirement of at least four times. Coffee trees in the province, especially in Cu Mgar, Krong Buk and Ea H’leo [...]

VNBusinessNews – The telecommunications sector grew in the first month of the year despite the country’s economic downturn. According to the General Statistics Office, some 3.2 million telephone subscribers were registered in January, an increase of 160.4% compared to the same period last year. Mobile subscribers accounted for 85% of the total. The sector’s revenue [...]

VNBusinessNews – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Ministries of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and Finance to provide him policy options for supporting workers who lose their jobs due to the economic recession. The policies he will draft based on them will focus on three main issues: • Lending by the [...]

VNBusinessNews – Vietnam’s flagship airline will not increase ticket prices and fuel surcharges for internal flights, a spokesman for Vietnam Airlines (VNA) said on Friday. VNA was forced to confirm this Friday as of rumors were circulating that the airline planned to increase ticket prices for domestic flights. “To meet the demands of holiday travels [...]

VNBusinessNews – Hundred of domestic and foreign officials and experts are gathering at the 7th Asia oil and gas technology conference entitled “Developing Fuel Quality And Oil Refining Technology For The Next Generations” opened in Ho Chi Minh City February 18. The three-day conference was co-organized by the state-owned oil PetroVietnam group (PetroVietnam), the Japanese [...]

VNBusinessNews – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) is at loggerheads with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) which does not want import tariffs on dairy products raised. Following protests against a possible hike in the tariffs, the MoF decided on February 19 to lave them unchanged, deputy minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan said. [...]

VNBusinessNews – The Viet Nam Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex) has reduced its retail price in kerosene by VND 500 a litre to VND 11.500 dong a litre in places near the importing ports. The Ho Chi Minh City Oil and Gas Company did the same. The decisions came into effect from on February 2. The decisions [...]

VNBusinessNews – Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai worked with the Dung Quat Oil Refinery Project Management Unit (PMU) on February 21 to put final touches to an inauguration ceremony for the refinery scheduled for February 22 at 7pm. Mr Hai praised the PMU, contractors, consultants, engineers and workers for their enormous efforts to complete [...]

VNBusinessNews – Taiwan’s Fei Yueh Vietnam Company inked a hotel management contract on February 18th with the Japanese JAL-Hotels Company to construct a five-star Nikko Saigon Hotel at 235 Nguyen Van Cu Street in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. The Fei Yueh Company will spend around US$ 100 million to build the 25-story Nikko [...]

VNBusinessNews – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Wednesday asked relevant ministries and the central bank to devise ways to pump more funds into needy enterprises right in February as part of an expanded stimulus program to prop up the economy. In a Government meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday, Dung urged the State Bank of [...]

VNBusinessNews – The two-way trade turnover between Viet Nam and Egypt reached US$180 million in 2007, a year-on-year increase of 70%, according to the Vietnamese Trade Office in Egypt. The country’s key export items to the Egyptian market include coffee, rice, pepper, seafood and other farm products. The Vietnamese Trade Counsellor to Egypt, Dang Ngoc [...]