[VN Courier] Business briefs

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l	Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer will attend the
inauguration ceremony of the new Australian Embassy in Hanoi during his
official visit to Vietnam, scheduled for July 3-6, according to
diplomatic sources.

l	Japanese Post and Telecommunications Minister, Hisao Horinouchi,
outlined plans to assist Vietnam in radio and television broadcasting
and the communications industry in a Hanoi meeting with Communist Party
Genertal Secretary Do Muoi on June 20.

l	A 20-member mission from the Lao Ministry of Information and Culture
arrived in HCM City on June 20 on a working tour to Vietnam. The tour,
which also took them to Dalat, Nha Trang and other localities, aimed at
exchanging experiences in organising cultural activities with Vietnamese
concerned authorities. This visit was part of a cooperation programme
between the Ministries of Information and Culture of Vietnam and Laos in
1997.

l	Dr. Vogt, Chairman of the Management Board of Germany's Reconstruction
Bank, signed an agreement on reforestation with Deputy Minister for
Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quang Ha during his visit to
Vietnam from June 18-23. According to this agreement, Germany is to
provide 15 million DM for a project 21,000 ha in Ha Tinh and Quang Tri
provinces.

l	Vietnam has been preparing legal documents to strengthen its State
inspection system, Deputy PM Nguyen Khanh told Mr J. L. Maiorano,
Argentina's General Inspector, on June 23 in Hanoi. He said that Vietnam
wanted to gain experience from Argentina's State inspection system.

l	A seminar on Indochina's integration into ASEAN was jointly hosted by
the Japanese Embassy in Hanoi and the ASEAN Department (under Vietnam's
Foreign Ministry) on June 25. The seminar gathered some 40 government
officials and representatives of research institutes.

l	Vietnam has blamed the British and Hong Kong governments for failing
to repatriate the remaining Vietnamese boat people before the colony
reverts to Chinese rule on July, 1. A spokesperson for the Foreign
Ministry said in Hanoi on June 25 that the delayed repatriation of what
has been reported by foreign media of 300-400 people was "beyond
Vietnam's desire and determination". 

l	The Government has approved a feasibility study to build two plywood 
mills in Hoa Binh and Gia Lai provinces and plant  timber trees for
these mills. Each mill is expected to have an annual capacity of 54,000
cubic metres of wood. The Vietnam Agro-Forestry Product Corporation is
to be the project investor.

l	An Giang province has so far this year grossed 97 million USD in
export turnover, a 46.9% year-to-year increase and 60.6% of its yearly
plan. It has exported 398,993 tons of rice paddy, 3,131 tons of frozen
fish and 330 tons of frozen vegetables since early this year.

l	The Bien Hoa Sugar Company is completing legal formalities to equitize
its confectionery workshop of 13,800 tons in annual capacity, or 30% of
the company's annual output. The company's 250 sales agents across the
country have been offered its stocks.

l	The State's import-export tax revenue has dropped compared with  the
same period last year. By the end of May, the General Taxation
Department had collected a total revenue of only 5,304 billion VND, or
30.6% of its yearly plan.

l	The Hanoi Electric Company is completing the second phase of a project
to upgrade the electric grids in Ba Dinh district with a total
investment of 67.9 billion VND. The project is financed by SIDA of
Sweden and  scheduled to be finished this year.

l	The Lam Dong Coffee Company II has so far this year delivered 6,448
tons of coffee bean and 210 tons of pepper to 18 countries, including
Germany, the US, Poland and Japan.  The company is projected to buy
10,000 tons of coffee bean for export by the end of this year.

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