Foreign companies provide relief for Vietnam typhoon victims

MasterCard Worldwide donated US$50,000 and medical company Fresenius Kabi Bidiphar gave essential medicines worth VND700 million (US$39,000) to Vietnamese victims of Typhoon Ketsana.

Typhoon Ketsana hit Vietnam’s central region at the end of September (Photo: SGGP)

Ajay Bhalla, executive vice president of MasterCard Worldwide for Southeast and South Asia, said the company deeply sympathized for the victims and wanted to contribute to relief efforts.

On behalf of the company, he also sent condolences to bereaved families and those that suffered losses.

The company made the donation through the Vietnam Red Cross Association.

The $50,000 is part of $200,000 it donated for victims in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Germany-based Fresenius Kabi Bidiphar, a leader in infusion therapy and the manufacture of intravenous fluids, handed over the medicines to authorities in central provinces.

At the handover ceremony, Truong Xuan Huong, deputy chief of the Health Ministry Office and deputy head of the ministry’s committee for disaster prevention and search and rescue, appreciated FKB’s gesture.

Related articles:
Number of Vietnamese killed by Typhoon Ketsana rises to 162
Central region begins recovery after Typhoon Ketsana

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Companies tackle drugs, prostitution

QUANG NINH — Building policies and programmes for HIV/AIDS prevention, education and drug and prostitution control at the workplace has become an urgent task for businesses trying to retain their work force and increase their productivity.

The Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) reported that out of 12.8 million employees, which represents 14.6 per cent of the total population and 28.2 per cent of the labour force, approximately 5,000 are drug users and 1,000 have contracted HIV. However, several officials and experts acknowledge that the realistic amount of drug users and HIV cases are much higher than what has been reported.

“If there was not such a high number of people on drugs or infected with HIV, productivity would increase and we would save a considerable amount of money,” said Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong.

“The drug abuse problem among staff and workers in our country is getting more and more serious with around 5,000 employees using drugs and more than 1,000 infected with HIV,” said VGCL Vice President Hoang Ngoc Thanh. The remarks were made at a conference, which focused on policies related to HIV, drugs and prostitution prevention, in Quang Ninh Province last weekend.

The conference, hosted by the National Committee of HIV/AIDS prevention and drug and prostitution control, was attended by the committee’s chairman Trong, representatives from ministries, international non-governmental organisations, provincial People’s Committees, provincial confederations, national trade unions, economic groups and enterprises.

Attendants at the conference all agreed that HIV/AIDS prevention was a national concern that could not be addressed without long-term engagement with the business community.

“We are aware that enterprises play an important role in HIV/AIDS prevention and drug and prostitution control,” said chairman of Nam Trieu Ship Building Company’s Labour Union Nguyen Van Canh.

Participants also acknowledged that drug addiction should be treated as a disease that could potentially affect anyone, and therefore individuals who struggled with addiction should not be discriminated against by the community.

“Drug addiction is a chronic relapsing disease that requires long-term treatment, which takes into consideration the biological, social and psychological aspect of the whole person,” said advisor on drug abuse Kevin Mulvey.

UNAIDS country director Eamonn Murphy said as many as nine out of 10 people living with HIV were adults in their most productive years.

Two out of three people living with the disease go to work everyday. Studies have shown that people who receive treatment are more likely to have happier, healthier and more productive lives.

He said HIV was a work-force issue and that the key populations at high risk in Viet Nam were of working age.

Eamonn added that what was good for communities was good for business. A healthier labour force generated more spending power and a more developed economy. Therefore, effective HIV prevention helped to prevent production losses.

Speaking at the workshop, business leaders were aware of the losses HIV had caused to their companies, as well as to the communities.

Pham Minh Tuan, an employee at Ha Tu Coal Joint Stock Company in Quang Ninh Province, had previously been hopeless about the future due to his drug addiction.

“In 1992, I began using drugs. My job, life and family were seriously affected by my addiction. I was sure that I was going to lose my job,” Tuan recalled.

However, he was not dismissed and received support from his company to undergo treatment at a drug detoxification centre.

After being treated, he was offered another job at the company as a driver. In time, he was able to regain the trust of his co-workers and was later nominated to be the head of the company’s driving team. Tuan now has a happy family and is actively contributing to the company’s development.

Not everybody has been as lucky as Tuan. According to Deputy PM Trong, Viet Nam now has 350,000 enterprises with millions of workers and civil servants. However, the number of businesses that employ people who have been treated for drug addiction or HIV is relatively small.

Trong asked the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in co-ordination with relevant ministries, organisations and localities and international organisations to promote solutions that encourage businesses to actively participate in facilitating drug users and people infected with HIV. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Lawmakers to scrutinise export labour companies

HCM CITY — A programme to inspect and handle the movement of guest workers going abroad will be submitted for approval at the next session of the National Assembly.

Head of the NA’s Committee for Social Affairs, Dang Nhu Loi, said the business environment of companies supplying guest workers had to be improved to increase the prestige of Vietnamese labourers in the world market.

Loi, speaking in HCM City last week at a conference on policies and laws governing overseas labourers, said the present licensing of labour-export enterprises often created difficulties for State agencies.

Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, head of the Overseas Labour Management Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), complained that only one-third of labour-export enterprises ran their businesses efficiently.

“There is no criteria to assess activities of enterprises working in the field of labour export,” he said. “Assessments to date are only based on the number of an enterprises’ contracts and labourers.”

Quynh said that his department was creating a document to help evaluate the efficiency of labour export businesses. This would show ways of improving the quality of export workers and controlling incompetent enterprises.

“Some newly established enterprises simply lack experience,” he said. “Under the draft criteria, businesses that fail to send workers abroad within a year will have their licences revoked.”

According to a department report, 29 out of the 164 existing labour-export enterprises did not sign a single export contract between 2007 and 2009.

The report also said that only 54 enterprises had sent more than 1,000 labourers overseas in the same period, while 16 had sent less than 100.

Loi from the NA’s Committee for Social Affairs said that this created confusion and distrust among labourers, possibly leading to a reduction in numbers.

“Most enterprises just think of profit, not benefiting labourers,” he said. “Besides, many labour exporters don’t recruit directly but through intermediaries,” he said.

“This leads to inconsistent and unclarified service costs among enterprises. Many labourers have to pay fees to 10 times higher than advertised just to find work.”

Nearly 46,000 labourers went overseas in the first eight month of this year, 50 per cent of the target for 2009. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Companies should also promote made-in-VN goods

HCM CITY — Encouraging consumers to use Vietnamese-made goods is a task not only for the Government but also for businesses, according to economist Pham Chi Lan.

Speaking at a seminar on how to make people buy domestic products organised in the city on Wednesday by the HCM City Business Association, she said consumers could only be persuaded to buy locally if quality and price were satisfactory to them.

Addressing delegates representing more than 250 domestic enterprises, she said it would be unrealistic for producers to offer low-quality goods at high prices but expect consumers to give them preference.

As the domestic market opened up to foreign products and services, if Vietnamese products fail to make a mark, customers would be disheartened and turn their backs on them, she warned.

Besides, with quality requirements likely to be raised to match international standards, domestic firms need to adapt their business strategies to ensure survival.

They should, therefore, change the competition among themselves from one of lowering prices to raising quality, she said.

“To make Vietnamese buy domestic goods, the most important thing is that enterprises must fully understand and meet customers’ needs,” she said.

In July, the Politburo approved a campaign to persuade people to use Vietnamese goods.

“Vietnamese products can no longer depend on patriotism to sell,” said Nguyen Thi Hong, vice chairman of the city People’s Committee, “but only on quality, reasonable prices, and diversified designs.”

Enterprises should win consumers’ trust by placing their benefits at the top, she added.

Le Phung Hao, deputy general director of Kinh Do Confectionery Group, said if consumers gave them preference, producers needed to change their mindset. For instance, they should not consider the domestic market as a place for selling export rejects. Products meant for the domestic market must be equal in quality with exports, he said.

Phan Quoc Cong, chairman of the International Consumer Products Corporation which makes the popular men’s toiletry range X-men, said to win customers’ trust, manufacturers must focus on research, develop new products, and tie up with foreign partners to apply modern technologies. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

SSC submits draft rules for securities companies

Hanoi (VNA) – The State Securities Commission (SSC) is planning new regulations and decrees on criteria and terms for setting up securities companies, according to SSC Chairman Vu Bang.

Bang said that mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcy were considered, under the development of a market economy, tools to help securities firms run effectively.

The Vietnam Association of Securities Businesses (VASB) General Security, Nguyen Thanh Ky, said that the SSC should stop issuing licences for new securities firms as there was only space for only 40-50 such firms in the market.

The SSC submitted an outline of the draft regulations to the Ministry of Finance for approval.

Changes include the provision that new securities companies have at least two organisations as their legal shareholders, of which one has to be the founder of the firm, and the company must operate under the laws of credit organisations, securities and insurance.

The founding shareholder must have a minimum charter capital of 300 billion VND (18.2 million USD), and must operate their firm for at least five years, with two consecutive years of profit, before establishing a securities firm.

The organisational shareholders must own at least a 65 percent stake in the company, among them financial group shareholders must provide a minimum 30 percent charter capital.

The draft rules also state regulations concerning individual investors, who must make bank deposits for three consecutive months to be eligible to purchase a stake in a securities company. If the contribution is in the form of securities, they must be listed at securities trading centres and the investor must prove his financial capacity of at least twice the capital invested.

Foreign experts, however, think that the SSC should allow newly-established securities firms develop naturally, instead of limiting investors, as healthy competition is essential to a free market.

According to HCM City Securities Corp General Director, Johan Nyvene, although a large capital allows securities firms to operate better, experience and depth of management were more important.-

SSC submits draft rules for securities companies

HA NOI — The State Securities Commission (SSC) is planning new regulations and decrees on criteria and terms for setting up securities companies, according to SSC Chairman Vu Bang.

Bang said that mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcy were considered, under the development of a market economy, tools to help securities firms run effectively.

The Viet Nam Association of Securities Businesses (VASB) General Secretary, Nguyen Thanh Ky, said that the SSC should stop issuing licences for new securities firms as there was only space for only 40-50 such firms in the market.

The SSC submitted an outline of the draft regulations to the Ministry of Finance for approval.

Changes include the provision that new securities companies have at least two organisations as their legal shareholders, of which one has to be the founder of the firm, and the company must operate under the laws of credit organisations, securities and insurance.

The founding shareholder must have a minimum charter capital of VND300 billion (US$18.2 million), and must operate their firm for at least five years, with two consecutive years of profit, before establishing a securities firm.

The organisational shareholders must own at least a 65 per cent stake in the company, among them financial group shareholders must provide a minimum 30 per cent of charter capital.

The draft rules also state regulations concerning individual investors, who must make bank deposits for three consecutive months to be eligible to purchase a stake in a securities company. If the contribution is in the form of securities, they must be listed at securities trading centres and the investor must prove his financial capacity of at least twice the capital invested.

Foreign experts, however, think that the SSC should allow newly-established securities firms develop naturally, instead of limiting investors, as healthy competition is essential to a free market.

According to HCM City Securities Corp General Director, Johan Nyvene, although a large capital allows securities firms to operate better, experience and depth of management were more important. —

Securities companies facing tough times

HA NOI — The Viet Nam Association of Securities Business (VASB) reports that 70 to 80 per cent of the total 98 securities companies are cutting back operations, reducing the labour force and limiting their activities.

The association attributed the difficulties to poor management and the recent boom of securities companies. High inflation also had an impact, said Nguyen Thanh Ky, general secretary of the VASB.

Ky said that to help securities companies overcome impediments and continue to develop, support from authorised agencies and policy-makers was essential.

VASB requested that the National Assembly and Government temporarily delay levying personal income tax on investors in order to create a stable mid-and-long-term capital mobilisation channel to attract more domestic and foreign investors.

Ky said the number of domestic companies was high compared to other countries and territories in the region, with Thailand at 41, Malaysia 37 and Taiwan 31.

To improve the operation of the securities industry, the Government would need to limit the establishment of new securities companies while strengthening the quality of existing ones, he said.

In response to proposals from the VASB, the chairman of the State Securities Commission (SSC), Tran Thanh Tan, said that authorised agencies had been enhancing inspections on liquidity and risks for securities companies and would further supervise the operation of securities companies.

Tan said stock market transparency must be increased through specific policies and laws.

Authorised agencies needed to conduct their forecasts and warnings in a timely manner and strictly supervise information and transactions released by securities companies, he added.

The Government should also reconsider allowing investors, businesses and individuals to open multiple securities accounts. However, inspection and control should be used to make investor transactions more flexible and help stabilise the market, Tan said.

Nguyen Viet Trung, of ACB Securities, said the Government should research and establish a stock market without a trading band.

The current trading band opens the market to fraudulent activities and counteracts the standard rules of international investors .

Annulling the trading band would make investors more careful, which would gradually bring the stock market back to its real value, said Trung. —

Clothing companies recognised

HA NOI — Fifty one out of 315 registered companies nationwide won outstanding textile and garment awards this year, the competition’s organisation board announced yesterday in Ha Noi.

The board included the Viet Nam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) and the Sai Gon Economic Times. The awards were also supported by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

This is the fifth time that the awards have been granted to outstanding clothing firms.

The board considered 10 criteria to evaluate the enterprises, including revenue growth rate, export turnover, trademark, market share, information technology application, retail system and environment friendliness.

“The aim is to honour well-performing clothing companies and point out advantages and disadvantages of businesses in an effort to help them work out effective solutions for development,” said Vitas chairman Le Quoc An.

Among 51 award winners, the top 10 were Viet Tien Garment Co, Viet Thang Textile Jointstock Co, Coats Phong Phu Joint venture, Tien Tien Garment Jointstock Co, Garment Jointstock Company No 10, Nha Be Garment Jointstock Co, Scavi Jointstock Co, Hoa Tho Garment Jointstock Co, Sai Gon Garment Jointstock Co No 3, and Thai Tuan Textile and Garment Jointstock Co.

Notably, Viet Tien Co was recognised as the most outstanding apparel enterprise in Viet Nam this year for the fifth year in a row.

“The textile and garment industry witnessed tremendous development over the past five years,” An added.

In 2003, there were only 1,000 clothing firms in Viet Nam with a total export revenue of US$3.6 billion. The country was ranked 16th amid garment exporters in the world. —

VN companies earn higher credit ranking

HA NOI — A total of 117 of 293 listed companies in Viet Nam scored the highest possible ranking for creditworthiness last year, by the Credit Information Centre and leading global credit-rating corporation Dun&Bradstreet.

The findings were released in a report yesterday, marking an increase of 23.16 per cent over 2006.

This means that as predicted two weeks ago, 40 per cent (39.93 per cent to be exact) of listed Vietnamese companies are rated at the highest level.

And about 80 of the 117 highest-rated firms were from HCM City Stock Exchange.

In addition, 170 stock-market companies were classified as having a “good creditworthiness level” somewhere between triple “A” and triple “B.” The remainder scored average levels.

“We aim to provide investors with adequate information on listed firms through the ratings, although they are not perfect,” said Dao Quang Thong, Deputy Director of CIC.

“Our local stock exchanges are based on the transparency of information, which plays an important part in helping investors with securities investment,” said Cao Sy Kiem, chairman of Viet Nam Association of Small&Medium sized Enterprises.

And Kiem said traders were thirsty for information, especially from reliable sources. “Thus, (through the report) market transparency will be raised,” he said.

According to the book, big-scale enterprises were much more effective at using credit than middle and small-scale companies.

“The ratings will be a basis for listed firms to review their businesses in a year, helping them promote their ability in administration and finance,” said the chairman of the State Securities Commission, Vu Bang.

Bang also suggested CIC quickly complete a standard system to rate listed firms so that investors would have more accurate information with which to deal.

Stock guide

CIC, in partnership with D&B, began ranking listed firms in Vietnamese stock markets in 2007. It has also introduced a guide to assess companies listed on Vietnamese stock markets.

The centre evaluates company credibility based largely on State-audited financial reports, banking loans and non-financial services. It then assigns a grade ranging from triple “A” to the lowest rating, “C.”

During the launch, the centre held awarded the top 20 listed firms with distinguished ratings of credit worthiness.

These enterprises included Asia Commercial Bank, the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology, Saigon Securities Incorporation and Vincom.

“This award appears to be recognition for our attempt at doing business in a transparent fashion, as we said we would at the outset,” said Vincom’s general director Mai Huong Noi.

She said the award encouraged the firm to try harder to give investors accurate and reliable information about its business.

Nguyen Bang Tam, vice-chairman of the Listed Enterprises Club, said his organisation would use the ratings to support enterprises on the average level. —

Singaporean leading companies eye Binh Duong

Hanoi (VNA) – More than 50 Singaporean leading companies in industry, commerce, services, construction and banking from visited southern Binh Duong province on Aug. 22 to look for investment opportunities.

Working with the province’s leaders, Chua Thian Poh, President of the Association of the Chinese’s Businesses in Singapore, said that his delegation was impressed by Binh Duong’s rapid economic development in the recent past.

During the visit, the businessmen hoped to get important information which enable them to develop detailed plans to invest in Binh Duong, he said.

Tran Van Loi, Permanent Vice Chairman of Binh Duong People’s Committee, informed the delegation about his province’s advantages for economic development, infrastructure construction and domestic and foreign investment.

The Management Boards of Industrial Zones in Binh Duong and the Becamex IDC Company also informed the Singaporean delegation about the land planning in the province’s IZs.

Binh Duong currently gives incentives to investment projects in property development, which is attractive to Singaporean businesses.

Singapore is the 2nd largest foreign investor in Binh Duong after Taiwan.-