VN Business News (Mar 7-8)

[Dam Son <son@fermi.phys.washington.edu>]

   Mar 08: PetroVietnam, U.S. Conoco Near Deal On Offshore Oil Block 
   Mar 08: Vietnam sees early membership in APEC, WTO 
   Mar 07: Ho Chi Minh City declares Vietnam's first bankruptcy
   Mar 07: Senior Vietnam Communist Sees Private Sector Role: Report 

                                      
   Saturday, Mar 08, 1997 [33]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] PetroVietnam, U.S. Conoco Near Deal On Offshore Oil Block_
   
   Hanoi (AP, Dow Jones) -- State-owned Vietnam Oil & Gas Corp.
   (PetroVietnam) and a consortium of four foreign oil companies led by
   Conoco Inc. of the U.S. is nearing agreement on rights to Vietnam's
   most promising unawarded offshore oil block, a person familiar with
   the situation said Saturday.
   
   In a somewhat delphic comment, the source said a deal is likely to be
   signed 'very soon, but subject to agreement.'
   
   The Conoco-led consortium is the only one with which PetroVietnam is
   still negotiating over rights to offshore block 15-1, the source said.
   
   In addition to Conoco, the consortium's members include state-owned
   Korea Oil Development Corp. (PEDCO) and Yukong Ltd. (C.YUK) of South
   Korea and Geopetrol S.A. of France.
   
   Geopetrol originally had pursued a separate bid for the rights to
   block 15-1, but now has joined the Conoco group.
   
   If a pact is finalized, PetroVietnam also would become a consortium
   member.
   
   Block 15-1, which is located just off the southeastern coast of
   Vietnam, is regarded highly because its southeast corner lies in the
   middle of a trend line that includes two already producing fields -
   Bach Ho and Rong - and four oil discoveries.
   
   The process of awarding the block has been a drawn out one, with its
   formal origins in 1995.
   
   That slowness has been one factor contributing to foreign investor
   frustration with Vietnam's oil and gas sector.
   
   Among many foreign oil company representatives in Vietnam, there is an
   impression the Vietnamese government is unable to decide how to
   develop its oil and gas industry. Some have said this indecision might
   cause foreign oil concerns to lose interest in the country and invest
   elsewhere, thus retarding the nation's overall economic growth.
   
   In addition to the delays with block 15-1, other examples of apparent
   government inability to move forward include the ongoing saga of
   Vietnam's planned first oil refinery - a project that has just
   collapsed for the second time in two years - and delays in awarding a
   $160-million gas processing plant.
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   Saturday, Mar 08, 1997 [34]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] Vietnam sees early membership in APEC, WTO _
   
   NEW DELHI (Reuter) -- Vietnam's ruling communist party will press
   ahead with open-market economic reforms and expects early membership
   in both APEC and the World Trade Organisation, Prime Minister Vo Van
   Kiet said on Saturday.
   
   Kiet told a business conference in the Indian capital that Vietnam,
   which first embraced open-door economic policies in the late 1980s,
   aimed to become an industrialised state by 2020.
   
   ``We will continue to further push forward our reform, sustain the
   pace of growth, maintain a balance between economic growth and social
   and environmental requirements, encourage foreign investors and help
   them to explore and exploit business opportunities in Vietnam,'' Kiet
   said.
   
   Vietnam is striving to link its economy more tightly to those of the
   region, and has become a member of the Association of South East Asian
   Nations (ASEAN) which also groups Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia,
   Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines.
   
   ``Vietnam is now actively preparing the groundwork for and looking
   forward to her early membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic
   Cooperation (APEC) forum and the World Trade Organisation,'' Kiet
   said.
   
   Vietnam is the only ASEAN member outside APEC. At the APEC summit last
   November in the Philippines, ASEAN members pressed other APEC states
   to reconsider membership for Vietnam. But the call to reconsider
   Vietnam prompted some leaders to demand similar consideration for
   Peru.
   
   APEC has agreed to draft a set of conditions for new membership this
   year, announce successful candidates in 1998 and accept them as full
   members in 1999.
   
   Vietnam initiated the formal process for entry into the WTO in early
   1995, soon after the organisation's establishment.
   
   The Hanoi government says membership would open access to
   international markets and support its economic reforms.
   
   Kiet cited ``upsetting'' problems which have emerged as Vietnam opens
   its economy to trade and investment. He cited acute competition which
   was forcing developing countries ``to penetrate into the developed
   markets which are thoroughly protected under various new and
   sophisticated forms.''
   
   He said Vietnam could not ignore poverty in some segments of society,
   unemployment, income disparity, environmental concerns and the need to
   preserve the national culture.
   
   While economic liberalisation unleashed private enterprise, the state
   must remain the ``multiplier of people's creative resources and the
   successful organiser of reforms,'' he said.
   
   The state must also ensure political and social stability, which are
   prerequisites for economic restructuring, Kiet said.
   
   The Vietnamese prime minister vowed to complete the ``unfinished
   elements of the market economy'' and to pursue difficult
   administrative reform.
   
   The Vietnamese leader, who arrived in India on Friday, was scheduled
   to meet Indian President Shankar Dayal Sharma and Prime Minister H.D.
   Deve Gowda on Saturday.
   
   India and Vietnam were expected to sign trade and industrial
   agreements before Kiet leaves on Sunday, the Press Trust of India
   said.
                    ___________________________________
                                      
   Friday, Mar 07, 1997 [35]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] Ho Chi Minh City declares Vietnam's first bankruptcy _
   
   HANOI (AFP) -- In a decision lauded by foreign lawyers, a court in Ho
   Chi Minh City has made Vietnam's first declaration of bankruptcy since
   the country passed a law allowing the move three years ago, a court
   official said Friday.
   
   The Duc Thang Ltd. Co. was declared bankrupt on February 24 by the
   municipal economic court, following a request by one of its creditors,
   Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP), the court official said.
   
   A BNP representative refused to comment on the case.
   
   "Its very interesting that a foreign company brought this against a
   local company," said a foreign lawyer.
   
   "It's a positive sign that a foreign creditor could get that kind of
   relief."
                    ___________________________________
                                                                            
   Friday, Mar 07, 1997 [37]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] Senior Vietnam Communist Sees Private Sector Role: Report _
   
   Hanoi (AP, Dow Jones) -- The top economic official of the Communist
   Party of Vietnam reiterated his organization's commitment to the
   leading role of the state but also seemed to accept an enduring role
   for the market, in an interview published in an official newspaper
   Friday.
   
   'Our policy is to move the reform forward and to turn the State
   economic sector into an efficient sector to play the leading role,'
   said Nguyen Tan Dung, the head of the Party's central economic
   commission, in an interview in the Saigon Times Daily.
   
   But he added: 'The capitalist economic sector, the private
   economy...are encouraged to develop in the long run, and their rights
   to ownership and legitimate interests are protected.'
   
   Dung, who is in his late 40s, rocketed from relative obscurity last
   June to become the youngest person on the five-member standing
   committee of the Communist Party's politburo.
   
   He is understood to be a protege of reform-oriented Prime Minister Vo
   Van Kiet.
   
   Although Dung holds one of the most senior posts in the Party, he has
   kept a relatively low public profile since attaining his new rank. The
   interview with Saigon Times Daily is among the first in which he has
   discussed his broad economic views.
   
   In the interview, Dung largely held to the Party's established public
   line about the role of the state and private economic sectors. But he
   didn't hammer away about leading role of the state, nor did he express
   an overly hostile attitude toward the private sector.
   
   Asked whether a market economy can exist in tandem with socialism,
   Dung replied: 'The production of commodities doesn't contradict
   socialism.' A market has 'positive roles,' but also 'generates several
   negative aspects,' he said.
   
   And asked if Vietnam would take lessons from any model of market
   economy, Dung even went so far as to say, 'Vietnam will adopt a market
   economy and put into action industrialization and modernization
   efforts to conform with our own identity.'
   
   Dung indicated solid support for the government's policy of partially
   privatizing state-owned companies, known locally as 'equitization.'
   
   He said he believes the nation will achieve its development goals, but
   that the task won't be easy. 'I am confident Vietnam will succeed. Yet
   the path to the crown of success is paved not with red carpets and
   flowers alone.'
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