[VN Courier 4/7] Business briefs

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Business briefs

The Prime Minister announced that violators of the regulation on post
and telecommunications service may bring fines up to 100 million VND.
The violators may also have licenses withdrawn or equipment confiscated.
The regulation was issued on June 19 to take effect on July 4.

The first Vietnamese company producing finance and accounting software
has launched its first package. The Financial and Accounting Software
Company (FAST) is marketing a product named Fast Accounting developed by
its staff of Vietnamese software experts.

Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT) has signed a
contract with Monetel of Japan and Gemplus of France to provide
equipment for setting up a network of telephones used with plastic cards
nationwide. This 1.2 million USD contract is the first part of a 7
million USD project to set up one central and six remote management
centres. In the first stage, 581 public phone-card telephones will be
installed in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Ba Ria-Vung
Tau, Dong Nai and Song Be.

PetroVietnam had by the end of June exported a record production volume
of 4.8 million tons of crude oil, a 18.6% year-to-year increase and
53.3% of the yearly plan. By late August, PetroVietnam is expected to
have produced  a total output of 50 million tons of crude oil since its
first year of operation.

Twelve member companies of the Vietnam Cement Corporation (VCC) paid  in
the first six months a total tax contribution of 473.4 billion VND, or
56% of its yearly plan. VCC has produced 2.85 million tons of cement, a
18% year-to-year increase and 53% of its yearly plan. It has also sold
3.05 million tons of cement, up by 12% over the same period last year
and 53.6% of the yearly plan.