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Published: January 28, 2011

Seafood firms take 30 spots on list of top 500 companies

HA NOI — Nearly 30 seafood exporting and producing companies were listed in the top 500 Vietnamese companies of 2010 (VNR500), said office manager of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers Nguyen Minh Tam.

The list, compiled by the Viet Nam Report Joint Stock Company (Viet Nam Report) and online newspaper Vietnamnet, included well-known State-owned and private seafood companies such as Minh Phu Seafood Corp, Cargill, HTFood, Hung Vuong Corp, Vinh Hoan Corp, Quoc Viet Corp, Navico, Minh Hai Jostoco, Stapimex, Utxico and Anvifish.

To add to this success, this year’s list of the top 500 private companies included over 40 involved in the seafood sector.

Minh Phu Seafood Corp ranked highest, breaking into the top 30, with HTFood and Hung Vuong Corp making the top 40 and Vinh Hoan Corp and Quoc Viet Company Ltd appearing in the top 50.

This was the fourth time the VNR500 has been organised. Each year, the top 500 enterprises (both State-owned and private) and the top 500 private enterprises are named.

To break into the list, large businesses should not only focus on business operations but also have an important and active leading role in addressing social issues such as education, health and diplomacy.

This year, nearly half of the companies in the VNR500 were State-owned enterprises. Foreign-invested and private companies accounted for 23.8 per cent and 31.2 per cent, respectively.

The proportion of private companies on the VNR500 has increased yearly, accounting for 24 per cent of the enterprises listed in 2008 and 30 per cent in 2009. — VNS

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By admin

Published: January 28, 2011

Informal poultry sales raise City bird flu concerns

Poultry sold on the roadside between HCM City’s Go Vap District to District 12. Informal poultry trading in the run-up to Tet has raised concerns about avian flu. — VNA/VNS Photo Van Khanh

HCM CITY — Hundreds of illegal poultry shops are operating in HCM City in the lead-up to Tet, sparking concerns about a return of the avian flu H5N1 virus.

High demand during the lunar new year has resulted in an increasing number of shops selling poultry from unknown sources.

Purchases of these kind of products have been much higher than normal during pre-Tet days.

Recent statistics supplied by the HCM City Animal Health Department show that 200 illegal poultry shops have opened, and after one month, another 31 were operating.

Binh Chanh District is the busiest spot in HCM City for the illegal slaughtering and trading of poultry.

The department has seized around 1,000 live poultry a week, excluding eggs and domestic fowl of all kinds from unknown suppliers.

It costs the department more than VND40 million (US$2,000) a day to incinerate and bury the illegally traded poultry.

Last year, the department spent more than VND800 million ($40,000) on this activity.

The busiest streets for the illegal businesses are Nguyen Van Linh in District 7, Pham Hung in District 8 and Truong Dai Bridge in Go Vap District.

The busiest time for sales is early in the morning and late in the afternoon.

Dozens of poultry shops of this kind operate on the 30-m-long Truong Dai Bridge, where many sellers hide their poultry in other places and show up to get customers.

Prices for the illegal poultry vary from place to place, ranging from VND80,000-95,000 ($4-5) per kilo.

Most sellers said their sources of supply were from the Mekong Delta provinces of Long An, Tien Giang and Dong Thap, which are seen as trusted suppliers.

The illegal activity is repeated every year near Tet and local authorities can never comprehensively deal with the problem, according to Huynh Tan Phat, head of the department’s general co-ordination office.

“Shop-owners and sellers trading poultry from unknown suppliers set up business suddenly and recklessly, and it is very difficult to deal with them,” said an official from the department, adding that one of his colleagues had been injured when confronting the illegal traders.

Most of the shops and sellers are located on the borders of the city’s districts and provinces, which makes it easy for them to move around, said Nguyen Cong Thanh, head of the security team of Cau Market in District 12.

The majority of the shop-owners and sellers are migrants, which makes it difficult to inspect and impose penalties, according to Thanh. — VNS

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Published: January 28, 2011

Viet Nam to launch direct flights to UK

HA NOI — Viet Nam and the United Kingdom are expected to launch direct flights to London in the second half of this year as part of an action plan signed by the two countries in Ha Noi on Wednesday.

The Viet Nam-UK 2011 action plan, which sets out a wide range of new initiatives, is an execution of the Strategic Partnership that they signed in September last year.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Cuong and British Ambassador, Dr Antony Stokes signed the action plan.

“The action plan turns the high level agreement of the Strategic Partnership into concrete detail, Stokes said. “It shows Britain and Viet Nam’s solid commitment to work together.”

As agreed, the two governments will continue to deliver concrete outcomes in traditional aspects, including education and trade and investment.

Among other projects are the initial operations of the UK-Viet Nam International University in central Da Nang City this year and support from the UK Department for International Development to the Viet Nam Anti-corruption Initiative.

Also this year, the two sides will speed up joint activities in new and interesting areas such as people-to-people links, with a focus on the development of the media, creative industries and the preparations for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

The two sides will also sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Co-operation.

Also yesterday, Stokes and Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade Le Danh Vinh signed the agreed minutes of the UK-Viet Nam Joint Economic Trade Committee meeting which took place in London in late November. — VNS

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Published: January 28, 2011

Agriculture, aquaculture and forestry exports increase

HA NOI – Viet Nam’s agriculture, aquaculture and forestry exports earned US$1.6 billion during the first month of this year, a year-on-year increase of 13.3 per cent, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Agriculture exports earned $910 million, an increase of 19.34 per cent over the same month last year. Meanwhile, fisheries and forestry exports both earned close to $320 million each.

Coffee, cashews, rubber and pepper continue to be the key exports that are fetching high prices globally.

“The weather in January was not good. Moreover, demand for these products has been increasing because the Lunar New Year Festival is coming. These two reasons have pushed prices up,” said head of the ministry’s Information and Statistics Centre Nguyen Viet Chien.

Rubber is still the country’s most valuable export.

In January, the country earned $250 million after exporting 70,000 tonnes of rubber, an 82.8 per cent increase in value and 28.8 per cent jump in volume over the same month last year.

Cashew’s are the country’s second highest earner. The country sold 15,000 tonnes on the international market earning $98 million, a year-on-year increase of 14.3 per cent in volume and 38.3 per cent in value.

About 7,000 tonnes of pepper and 11,000 tonnes of tea were exported.

In January, Viet Nam’s coffee export volume decreased by 30.3 per cent to 100,000 tonnes. However, the bean earned $175 million, a 13.2 per cent increase over the same month last year.

“The global supply of coffee has decreased so the price continues to rise,” said Chien.

This month, about 380,000 tonnes of rice were exported, worth $200 million. – VNS

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Published: January 28, 2011

Export turnover tops $6b in January

Rice bags being prepared for export at Gentraco Co’s mill in the southern city of Can Tho. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vu

HA NOI — Viet Nam’s total export and import turnovers totalled US$13 billion in January with export revenues of $6 billion, causing a trade deficit of $1 billion for the month, equivalent to 17 per cent of the total revenue, the General Statistics Office announced.

To the $6 billion export revenue, the foreign invested enterprises contributed $3.173 billion (including crude oil), a rise of 10.9 per cent while the rest was made by the domestic sector.

Meanwhile, the domestic sector imported the most in January at $4.1 billion, an increase of 13 per cent, due to their strong demand for production materials and equipment.

Although the export and import revenues saw a decline of 20 per cent and 19.8 per cent respectively in comparison with December last year, they rose 18 per cent and 15.5 per cent compared with the same period last year, the statistics office’s department of trade director Le Minh Thuy said.

The strong rise in export in December happened as Vietnamese exporters tried to fulfil their contracts signed with international importers.

Meanwhile, January’s exports were not able to match December.

However, in comparison with the same period last year, the export turnover still increased, driven by machinery and equipment. Total export turnovers from electronics, computer; machinery, equipment, tools and accessories, wire and cable wire, transportation and assessories rose by 86.6 per cent.

Several other agricultural products, including cassava, cassava products and pepper also experienced a significant hike in export revenues. However, rice and tea saw a decline.

Textile and garments, wood and wood products, and ceramics’ export turnovers experienced an increase and all export commodities gained from a rise in prices.

According to the statistics office, the month’s trade deficit rose slightly compared with the figure of $926 million in January last year. This month’s figure declined by 18.8 per cent from last month’s $1.23 billion.

Imports of completely built unit automobiles surged dramatically by 95 per cent.

Imports in petrol, cotton and fibre were also significant this month with a rise of 50 per cent. Cloth, textile and garments and footwear accessories increased from 17 to 20 per cent.

Steel import increased nearly 28 per cent but other metals decreased by 8 per cent. Meanwhile, import of electronic components and computers rose by 26 per cent.

The total export and import revenues might fall next month due to the long Tet holiday, Thuy said.

He said Viet Nam’s key major export markets were still the US, EU and ASEAN.

The statistics office also announced that last year’s official export and import turnovers were more than $72.03 billion and $84.3 billion respectively. As a result, the trade deficit was at $12.27 billion.

In December last year, the export turnover was nearly $7.5 billion while import revenue stood at $8.73 billion. — VNS

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