VN business news (Mar 31, 1997)

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

   Vietnam calls for more investments, says FDI tops 28 billion dollars
   Says Vietnam Factory Labor Incident 'Intolerable' 
   Three State Cos. Want To Sell Shares To Foreigners 
   Vietnam sees Singapore-Vietnam industrial park as model
   Vietnam To Auction 70-Bln Dong 12-Mo. T-Bills Wednesday 
   Vietnam Censors Banking Reporting With State Secrets Policy
   Vietnam Awards $800M In Investment Licenses In 1Q
                                      
   Monday, Mar 31, 1997 [42]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] Vietnam calls for more investments, says FDI tops 28 billion
   dollars_
   
   SINGAPORE (AFP) - Vietnam said Monday it had attracted foreign
   investment commitments of more than 28 billion US dollars in the past
   nine years, and sought more overseas investments in its industrial
   sector.
   
   Do Ngo Trinh, vice minister from the Vietnam ministry of planning and
   investment, told a conference here that 10 billion dollars of the
   money committed to 1,920 projects since 1987 had actually flowed into
   her country.
   
   Singapore is the biggest investor with 4.7 billion dollars committed
   to 164 projects, followed by Taiwan with 4.6 billion dollars and Japan
   with 2.6 billion dollars.
   
   Do said the Law on Foreign Investment legislated by Vietnam in 1987
   had played a key role in attracting the investments.
   
   The law has been further refined to improve "transparency and
   completeness" and simplify investment licensing, land leasing and
   construction procedures as well as import and export controls, she
   said.
   
   It allows more forms of investment and specifies priority sectors for
   foreign investment, such as manufacturing goods for export,
   high-technology, infrastructure, labour-intensive sectors and food
   processing.
   
   "It provides more incentives to reflect the real situation in the host
   country, on the one hand, and to benefit foreign investors on the
   other," the minister said.
   
   She invited a "higher level of cooperation and investment from foreign
   countries," citing Vietnam's high economic growth rates and "eco-socio
   stability."
   
   "The government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is determined to
   sustain the renovation policy by way of industrialisation and
   modernisation, aiming at turning Vietnam into an industrial country by
   the year 2020," the minister said.
   
   Her speech followed the award of investment licenses to the first
   batch of investors in the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park, a
   500-hectare (1,235-acre) project being built near Ho Chi Minh City.
   
   The investors included ST Automotive from Singapore, Alacamax
   Packaging from Malaysia, Godrej from India and Liwayway Foods from the
   Philippines.
   
   "We are encouraged with the response to our marketing efforts. Our
   first 18 clients will initially invest 186 million dollars and will
   create more than 2,300 jobs," said Lai Chun Loong, president of
   Sembawang Industrial Corp.
   
   Sembawang is sperheading the Singapore consortium developing the
   industrial park, which is being built with full infrastructure
   facilities including power, water, sewage treatment and
   telecommunications.
   
   Singapore is building similar projects in China, Indonesia and India.
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   Monday, Mar 31, 1997 [44]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] Nike Says Vietnam Factory Labor Incident 'Intolerable'_
   
   Hanoi (DJ) -- Nike Inc. regards as 'intolerable' an incident in which
   a manager at a contract company made workers run around a factory,
   causing a dozen women to faint and be hospitalized, a Nike spokeswoman
   said Monday.
   
   'It was an isolated incident, but it's not going to be tolerated,'
   said Martha Benson, a Nike spokeswoman in a telephone interview from
   Ho Chi Minh City.
   
   Benson will be visiting the factory where the incident occurred on
   Tuesday.
   
   Both Nike and Pou Chen Vietnam Enterprise Ltd., which owns the
   factory, are 'disturbed' by what happened, Benson said.
   
   Hsu Chin-yun, the Taiwanese manager who forced 56 employees to run
   four kilometers around the perimeter of the Pou Chen factory on the
   outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, was new to the plant and hadn't been
   trained in working in a multicultural environment, Benson said.
   
   Pou Chen suspended Hsu one day after the incident. On Monday,
   provincial authorities filed criminal charges against her for abusing
   laborers.
   
   Five different companies produce shoes for the U.S. footwear giant in
   Vietnam.
   
   Since December, Nike has had a labor practices manager in Vietnam to
   work with those five firms on issues like safety, health and overtime
   policy.
   
   'There are things on a day-to-day basis that we continuously try to
   improve,' Benson said.
   
   'Any time people come forward with constructive criticism, we welcome
   that,' she added.
   
   Pou Chen Vietnam Enterprise Ltd. is a joint venture of Hong Kong's Yue
   Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd. (H.YYI) and Taiwan's Pou Chen Corp.
   (Q.PC).
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   Monday, Mar 31, 1997 [45]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] Vietnam: Three State Cos. Want To Sell Shares To Foreigners_
   
   Hanoi (DJ) -- In what would be a first, three state-owned Vietnamese
   companies are proposing to sell shares to foreigners when they are
   partially privatized, a government official said Monday.
   
   Until now, foreigners haven't been allowed to buy shares in equitized
   state-owned companies.
   
   Equitization is the Vietnamese government's term for the partial
   privatization of state firms.
   
   The three companies are Savimex, a wood processing company, An Phu
   Shipyard Co. and Ho Chi Minh City Cosmetics Co. & Research Center,
   said Doan Kim Dan, an official at the State Enterprise Reform
   Committee, in a telephone interview.
   
   All three companies are in Ho Chi Minh City.
   
   Foreigners have bought shares in a handful of private banks and one
   equitized state company sold convertible bonds to foreigners in
   mid-1996, but government policy so far has barred non-Vietnamese from
   taking up shares in equitized companies.
   
   If the three firms do gain permission to sell shares to foreigners,
   the decision would represent a trial change in policy rather than a
   permanent one, Dan said.
   
   The companies will need to get approval from local and national
   equitization boards and, ultimately, Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet before
   they can proceed.
   
   There hasn't been a decision on the maximum percentage of shares
   foreigners would be able to buy in the companies, Dan said, but the
   State Enterprise Reform Committee will ask Prime Minister Kiet to
   permit up to 30%.
   
   Foreigners and Vietnamese would be able to buy shares at the same
   price, Dan said.
   
   Separately, Truong Tuong Chien, general director of the An Phu
   Shipyard, said in a telephone interview that both the revenue and
   profit of his company increased 20% in 1996 from 1995, although he
   declined to provide specific figures.
   
   He said his company had recently been visited by a representative of
   Japan's Nomura Securities Co. (J.NOM).
   
   According to a report in The Saigon Times Daily Monday, Nomura is
   advising Savimex on its equitization plan.
   
   A Nomura official in Hanoi declined to comment on that report.
   
   The Vietnamese government began its equitization program in 1992, but
   progress so far has been glacial, with only about 10 companies having
   completed the process.
   
   Efforts to accelerate the process have been made recently.
                    ___________________________________
                                      
   Monday, Mar 31, 1997 [47]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] Vietnam sees Singapore-Vietnam industrial park as model _
   
   Japan Economic Newswire
   
   SINGAPORE -- A Vietnamese deputy minister said Monday Vietnam sees its
   joint-venture industrial park with Singapore as a model for
   industrialization in the rest of the country.
   
   "The Vietnamese government considers the Vietnam-Singapore industrial
   park a model industrial park in the country," Do Ngoc Trinh,
   Vietnamese vice minister for planning and investment, said at a
   ceremony here to hand investment licenses to some of the companies
   setting up in the park.
   
   So far 18 companies have pledged to invest a total of 156 million U.S.
   dollars in the 500-hectare industrial park located about 17 kilometers
   north of Ho Chih Minh City in Binh Duong Province.
   
   The industrial park is the first and only industrial park in Vietnam
   to have its own management board comprising Vietnamese officials from
   various government departments to cut down red tape.
   
   The board is empowered to act as a one-stop agency to issue investment
   licenses, construction permits, import-export licenses and customs
   approvals.
   
   The industrial park was first proposed by Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo
   Van Kiet to Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in March 1994.
   
   The project was officially launched in January last year and a
   groundbreaking ceremony was held in May. The park is to be developed
   in three phases over eight years.
   
   Trinh said that in addition to having its own management board, the
   park has good quality infrastructure, clean industries, good
   environmental standards, and is seeking investment from large foreign
   companies.
   
   She said Vietnam aims to develop up to 33 industrial parks by year
   2000.
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   Monday, Mar 31, 1997 [48]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] Vietnam To Auction 70-Bln Dong 12-Mo. T-Bills Wednesday_
   
   Hanoi (DJ) -- The State Bank of Vietnam will offer 70-billion dong
   (about $6.0 million) of 12-month Treasury bills for sale at auction
   Wednesday, a central bank official said Monday.
   
   At the last bill auction, held two weeks ago, the government sold
   50-billion dong of 12-month bills at 12.0%.
   
   Results of the latest auction are expected to be announced around 0700
   GMT (2:00 a.m EST) Wednesday.
                    ___________________________________
                                      
   Monday, Mar 31, 1997 [49]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] Vietnam Censors Banking Reporting With State Secrets Policy_
   
   Hanoi (DJ) -- Vietnam has enacted a new, vaguely worded state secrets
   policy requiring journalists to obtain approval central bank approval
   before publishing financial information.
   
   Independent reporting will be discouraged and may be subject to
   punishment.
   
   The policy, effective one week ago but not yet widely distributed, has
   the State Bank of Vietnam act as a filter for all sensitive financial
   information, according to a copy obtained Monday by The Associated
   Press.
   
   The central bank has yet to say what information will be guarded as a
   state secret, nor has the government indicated the potential penalties
   for violators.
   
   Vietnam's criminal code provides prison terms of up to 15 years for
   disclosing state secrets, but does not define what is secret.
   
   Government officials did not immediately respond to requests for
   clarification of the policy.
   
   'Banking issues are always very sensitive,' said State Bank official
   Nguyen Van Binh in an interview. 'Inaccurate information can affect
   the activities of the whole banking sector.'
   
   'Sometimes it is the right information, but maybe the timing is
   wrong,' he said.
   
   The policy is necessary to protect the reputation of its financial
   industry, Vietnam says. It comes as the country's banking structure
   lurches toward crisis, fueled by bad loans and mismanagement. Official
   media have reported that between 5% and 10% of outstanding loans in
   Vietnam may be overdue.
                    ___________________________________
                                      
   Monday, Mar 31, 1997 [50]... Back to headlines
   
   _[INLINE] Vietnam Awards $800M In Investment Licenses In 1Q _
   
   SINGAPORE (DJ) -- The Vietnam government awarded investment licenses
   for 100 projects worth around $800 million in the first quarter of
   this year, little changed from the level of investment it sanctioned
   in the first three months of 1996, Planning and Investment
   Vice-Minister Do Ngoc Trinh said Monday.
   
   Trinh said the government continues to regard foreign investment in a
   number of industrial parks in the country as a 'short-term priority'.
   
   She said Vietnam plans to increase the number of such parks to 33 by
   the year 2000 from the 29 now in existence.
   
   Trinh was speaking at a news conference ahead of the presentation of
   new licenses to a number of investors in the Vietnam Singapore
   Industrial Park (VSIP), a three-year-old joint venture between the two
   governments.
   
   The Vietnam-Singapore park has attracted 18 light industrial projects
   representing commitments of $156 million so far, said Lai Chun Loong.
   Lai is chairman of the joint venture company and president of the
   industrial division of Singapore government-linked conglomerate
   Sembawang Corp. Ltd. which is leading the development of the site.
   
   'Quite a number of projects are in the pipeline which we are confident
   will be closed by the middle of the year,' Lai said. Phase two of the
   eight-year project, situated near Ho Chi Minh City, should be complete
   by 1999, he said.
   
   Lai said a main advantage of the VSIP is that it is the only
   industrial park with its own management board, which has the power to
   pre-approve projects, grant investment licenses as well as approve
   customs clearance, export quotas and visas.
   
   '(Granting an) investment licence is a very cumbersome process in
   Vietnam,' Lai said. 'This cuts down a lot of red tape,' he said.
   
   Board chairman Le Thanh Cung said members of the board, which is able
   to approve individual projects of up to $40 million, include
   representatives from the relevant central and provincial government
   departments.
   
   Trinh said the VSIP has special status because of the close attention
   the two governments are paying to it. The park was proposed by Vietnam
   Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet in March 1994, which led to an accord
   signed with Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
   
   The VSIP's management board aims to award an investment license 15
   days after a successful application is made, she said. The government
   may set up similar boards in the future, but on a province-by-province
   basis and not for each industrial park, Trinh said.
   
   Trinh added that Singapore continues to be Vietnam's biggest foreign
   investor, with total investment to date of $4.7 billion in 164
   projects. Taiwan and Japan are Vietnam's next biggest foreign
   investors, she said.
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