ECB rates on hold, experts view bank loan policy

 Eurozone interest rates are set firmly on hold and any signs of change will probably show up first in the European Central Bank‘s exceptional loan support measures, analysts say.

“The ECB will leave interest rates on hold at 1.0 percent at its November policy meeting,” Capital Economics economist Jennifer McKeown said on Friday. Bank policymakers convene on Thursday.

The rate has been at a record low since May and persistent concern over the strength of an anticipated eurozone economic recovery will keep it there for some time, experts say.

European business and consumer confidence is on the rise, having firmed in October for the seventh consecutive month, but ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet has stressed that a recovery would be “uneven.”

The euro’s rise in value against the dollar has stirred up a headwind for exports from eurozone countries, while domestic consumption remains fragile amid fears that unemployment could climb higher in 2010.

A giant symbol of the euro currency outside the European Central Bank in Frankfurt

The US Federal Reserve and the ECB “still harbour doubts about the pace of recovery and expect only lacklustre growth in the medium term,” Commerzbank economists said in a research note.

But the ECB has also warned banks to brace for the end of “enhanced credit support,” which expanded after the US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008.

ECB governing council member Axel Weber, who is also the German central bank governor, commented last week that dependence on central bank funds was “certainly not a sustainable business model.”

“Banks should prepare for the progressive withdrawal of medicine administered by central banks,” Weber said.

The main feature of ECB support has been the supply of unlimited amounts of cash at its benchmark rate for periods of up to a year, aimed at keeping credit flowing through eurozone banks to the wider economy.

Reaching a peak in June with one-year loans of 442 billion euros (655 billion dollars) — the largest volume of funds ever provided in a single step — the policy has helped bring down interbank lending rates.

But banks have been slow to relay much of the credit to businesses and households, saying that demand has fallen as a result of the global downturn.

In September, eurozone lending to the private sector contracted for the first time on record, though an ECB bank lending survey showed later that banks could begin easing credit standards soon and that demand for home mortgages was firmer.

The economic think tank Ifo said Friday that the credit hurdle in Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy, was slightly lower in October though large firms found it harder than smaller ones to secure loans.

As a first step in what is called an “exit strategy” for unorthodox measures, the ECB could announce that its next 12-month refinancing operation in December could be the last, and/or that it will begin to charge more than 1.0 percent for central bank funds.

But Weber implied that the policy of granting all requests for funds, also an exceptional measure, would likely be continued even after the length of time they are loaned for was cut back towards the previous maximum of three months.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Vietnam retail market to expand over next two years, say experts

Vietnam’s retail market is forecast to explode over the next two or three years, with the appearance on high streets of many foreign retail companies, including shopping centers and large sized supermarkets, said Fabrice Carrasco, general director of TNS WorldPanel Vietnam on October 30.

Shoppers in a supermarket in Vietnam

Speaking at a retail and distribution conference held in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Carrasco said Vietnam’s retail market is smaller than that of other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand, Malaysia and Philippine, however, Vietnam’s consumer habits are changing sharply.

According to RNCOS, a global market research company based in the US, retail turnover in Vietnam will top US$85 billion in 2012.

Vietnam’s retail turnover was $23.7 billion in 2008 and is expected to rise to $39 billion by the end of this year.

Bui Ngoc Hong, a law consultant at Indochina Counsel, said foreign firms have been eyeing retail and distribution business in Vietnam.

Indochina Counsel has alone supported seven foreign retail companies, which will appear on Vietnam’s high streets in the next two years, Mr. Hong said.

2009 is considered an important milestone year for trading and distribution sectors in Vietnam. Distribution in Vietnam is set for a shake up, as foreign companies move in following the country’s commitment to open the market in 2009, on the back of World Trade Organization accession in 2007.

As a result, firms from abroad have been setting up shop here since early this year, particularly firms from Japan, though no official statistics are currently available.

Japanese sewing machine manufacturer Brother International recently won a license to set up a distribution company with an initial investment of $2 million.

Stainless steel and construction material producer Sojitz opened an import, export and distribution branch in March.

Car manufacturer Nissan and electronics producer Sharp have both started distributing their own products.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam’s annual retail turnover has increased by 20 percent, on average, over the last few years and is forecast to maintain the same growth for the near future.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Experts discuss juvenile crime preventive models

Experts discuss juvenile crime preventive models

QĐND – Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 19:44 (GMT+7)

Vietnamese experts and their peers from UNICEF and the non-governmental organisation Plan are working on models to prevent juvenile crime at a symposium held in Hanoi on October 27.

Present at the event, Deputy Justice Minister Hoang The Lien said he hoped the experts would show teenagers effective ways to live within the law, at a time when juvenile crimes have been on an alarming rise recently.

Under a child protection programme signed between the Vietnamese Government and UNICEF, officials from the Vietnamese Justice Ministry, UNICEF and Plan Vietnam have already coordinated in re-examining juvenile crime-related laws, policies and preventive models to systematise them.

The lack of interaction between children and adults as among the factors that double the risk of adolescents committing crimes, experts said.

They underscored the necessity to mainstream juvenile crime preventive activities and other forms of prevention giving equal importance to both the theoretical and practical aspects of the issue.

Source: VNA

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Experts say rural pollution is alarming

A farmer in Cu Chi District, HCM city is feeding his pigs. Livestock farming is one the factors that contribute to the rising enviromental pollution in rural area. — VNA/VNS Photo Van Khanh

HCM CITY — The rural environment is being polluted at an alarming rate, experts warn and call on authorised agencies to adopt measures to ensure sustainable development of both the agricultural sector and the overall economy.

Viet Nam is still a predominantly agricultural country, with the farming sector contributing 24 per cent of its GDP and 30 per cent of its exports.

But its development is being threatened by pollution which has become increasingly serious in recent years, causing growing concern among the public and policy-makers.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat admitted the rural environment had been polluted and groundwater and soil degraded in many areas, endangering the future of the economy.

Growing crops, which contributed US$9 billion to the country’s exports last year, has been one of the major causes of pollution.

Most areas in the country favour intensive farming and multiple cropping to increase output. This has caused an increase in pests like brown plant-hoppers, stunt rice plants and rolled leaves disease in rice-growing areas in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta and sugarcane areas in the central region.

Overuse of pesticides and fertilisers have also reduced the fertility of farming land.

This has caused serious soil and water pollution in many areas and an imbalance in the environment.

The unplanned expansion of area under cash crops has exhausted water resources, leaving coffee and pepper crops in many places in the Central Highlands and southeastern regions parched.

Livestock farming is also blamed for environmental pollution – it produces around 74 million tonnes of waste every year, of which only 40 per cent is treated before being released into the environment.

According to Hoang Kim Giao, director of the Animal Breeding Department, the country has around 16,700 animal farms and millions of households raising animals but only 1,700 of them have waste-treatment systems.

Because of the pollution, epidemics like bird flu, blue ear pig disease, and foot and mouth disease are a constant threat to the country’s poultry and livestock.

“Similarly, waste from aquaculture farms is also discharged directly into lakes, rivers, and seas without treatment ,” Le Vien Chi, deputy head of the Department of Aquatic Production, said.

“Farming households are the first victims of this pollution, losing much of their shrimp and fish populations to diseases,” he said.

Others sources of rural pollution are craft villages, especially those involved in processing agricultural products and foodstuffs.

According to Nguyen Binh Thin, deputy head of the Department of Science, Technology and Environment, soil in city suburbs and provinces are being increasingly contaminated by toxic metals discharged by industrial parks, craft villages, chemical fertilizers, and household waste.

Rural areas discharge more than 100 million tonnes of trash every year. This is expected to increase to 145 million tonnes by 2020. But only 30-40 per cent of it is being collected.

Solutions

Environmental protection is one of the country’s three main goals along with economic and social development.

Minister Phat said rural environmental problems must be settled by deploying national-level measures to ensure sustainable development of agriculture.

His ministry is preparing a set of standards for managing rural environmental issues.

It was also drafting policies to encourage the use of technologies to treat agricultural waste and investments in clean water supply and rural environmental protection.

Phat said, however, that it is necessary to improve social awareness of rural environmental protection in addition to strategies, programmes, and projects.—

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Experts discuss future trends in IT, communications market

HCM CITY — Foreign and local experts and business executives met at a three-day seminar ending yesterday to compare notes and to discuss trends in information and communications technologies and services.

Organised by the Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications (VNPT) Group and Adsale exhibition Services Ltd, it was part of the 12th international exhibition in Viet Nam on telecommunications, information technology and electronics products.

In a message, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Hung said grasping the changing trends in technology and building a competitive business environment are essential for a flourishing ICT industry.

Figures tabled at the seminar show the telecom sector had a turnover of VND67 trillion (US$4 billion) last year, 36 per cent higher the previous year.

Since 2004 the telephone market has grown rapidly, with mobile subscriptions doubling every year and landlines growing 18 per cent a year.

As of September 2008 the total number of subscribers was 70.4 million while the teledensity phone was 82.5 per 100 people.

There were 20.5 million Internet subscribers, four times more than at the beginning of this year.

Software sales was $498 million, with $318 million in the domestic market and the rest exported.

The ICT industry employed around 261,000 people.

Trends in technology

Nguyen Trong Duong, deputy director of the Department of Information and Technology (DIT), said convergence is increasing rapidly.

The future would see the convergence of customer electronics, information technology and communications; the Internet, digital content, and mobile communications; and technology and services, he said.

Pham Hong Hai, director of the Telecommunication Department, said a telecommunications bill, to be discussed by the National Assembly at the end of 2009 and likely to take effect in July 2010, would facilitate convergence.

The DIT said the rapid increase in the number of mobile phone and Internet subscribers, introduction of broadband and 3G services and wimax networks, and the improved legal environment would boost the development of digital content services.

Masatoshi Suzuki, senior executive vice president of Japanese telecom behemoth NTT DoCoMo, said Viet Nam has enormous potential in 3G services. The government is set to grant licences to four 3G service providers next year.

Duong, however, said Viet Nam’s ICT industry faces many problems like bad quality of data transmission, information security, and crime.

DIT added expensive technical infrastructure to that list.

The seminar was also attended by information technology and telecommunications ministers of Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. —

Japanese experts tackle Hanoi’s chaotic traffic

Hanoi (VNA) – Experts from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) helped to train journalists from the Hanoi Traffic Culture Communication Club on Nov. 19, as part of a project promoting traffic safety in the city.

The club, the first of its kind in Vietnam , has been established in order to improve awareness of traffic safety among the city’s residents and authorities, said Takagi Michimasa, JICA’s chief consultant in Vietnam .

In October of this year, a JICA team visited the Hoan Kiem district of Hanoi city, and conducted an experiment in which volunteers, with the help of the police and traffic officers, instructed passengers with regard to road safety and gave them information on how to conform to the nation’s traffic laws, thus increasing their awareness of these issues when travelling on the city’s roads.-

Experts warn high-rises ruin old quarter image

Ha Noi General University with French-style structure in Hoan Kiem District was designed by a French architect in 1926. New developments could change the face of this area. — VNS Photo Truong Vi

HA NOI — French and Vietnamese architecture experts are concerned that newly-built housing constructions are changing the face of the French-style quarter in Ha Noi’s Hoan Kiem District for the worse.

Deputy director of the Ha Noi Department of Planning and Architecture Nguyen Van Hai said in the last few years, there were some high-rise constructions whose designs were incongruous to the region’s general architecture.

“The region is being faced with challenges of urban development. If architecture planning isn’t oriented and managed in time, we will face the danger of losing specific values of a French-style old quarter located in centre of Ha Noi,” he said.

These concerns were raised at a seminar in Ha Noi yesterday to review the first-year phase of the four-phase project “Protection and Development of Old Quarter France” that aimed to specify and assess the city’s urban architectural heritage, the transportation situation, technological infrastructure and surroundings.

Jointly implemented by the planning department and Ile de France’s Institut des Metiers de la Ville-IMV, the project aims to develop measures to reserve and promote unique existing values and positively respond to the economic, cultural and social development situation in the city.

France has allocated US$125,000 for the project, and Ha Noi will invest $31,250.

Ha Noi’s urban image has been changing gradually with the opening and revitalisation of the country. There was a trend to develop international commerce and services in the old quarter, because investors considered this the most strategic location, according to IMV architecture experts.

These changes were, however, trending to deform the French-style residential quarter in Ha Noi. A big concern is the enlargement of the quarter’s residential houses without any co-ordinated management or cohesive architectural plan, according IMV experts.

On the other hand, IMV experts also say that the old quarter’s French-style architecture has not been changed dramatically, and there have been no major deviations from the planning map created by the French in 1920.

Since 1986, there have been international and domestic organisations working on and studying architecture and urban buildings in the old quarter.

Viet Nam lacks stringent measures to control and plan for urban development, said Hai. —

Experts address social change

– About 40 European and Southeast Asian experts from politics, business and social sciences gathered in Hanoi on Nov. 12 for an interdisciplinary debate on responses to rapid social change in the region.

The forum was hosted by Bertelsmann Stiftung ( Germany ) in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was supported by the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, the Asia Society New York and the Asia Pacific Times.

As the European Union (EU) celebrates the Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the forum addressed European-Asian relations and how EU-Asia relations can address the challenges.

Professor Dr Bob S Hadiwinata, head of Department of International Relations at the University of Parahyangan , Indonesia , said the EU acted as the ultimate entity in promoting democracy and human rights.

“In promoting democratic principles, international agencies share the same ideas of the centrality of values or principled ideas, that is, respect for human rights, belief in the effectiveness of the electoral system, confidence in the functioning of democratic institutions, and being positive about a vibrant civil society,” he said. Liz Mohn, vice chairwoman of the executive board at Bertelsmann Stiftung, said the foundation aimed to develop an unbiased, balanced and deepened understanding of Asia .

“The Southeast Asian region and its 560 million people are currently experiencing a remarkable economic boom and we Europeans must devote much greater attention to the area,” she said.

“Undoubtedly Europe and Asia are increasingly influencing each other and are facing comparable challenges. We enter a new era of both inner-Asian as well as global cooperation.

“In a dialogue between Europe and Southeast Asia , we can work together to shape a future that is neither Western nor Asian, but that is instead global.”

Bertelsmann Stiftung promotes social change through project work that focuses on ensuring society’s long-term viability, she said.

Working with a wide range of partners, the foundation wants to identify social problems and challenges at an early stage and develop exemplary solutions.

Bertelsmann Stiftung has held a series of international cultural forums since 2001 to bring people together across various divides, as well as to examine the role played by non-Western societies in the process of globalisation.

As the foundation seeks to contribute to a better understanding between Europe and Asia, such forums in Tokyo (2001), Beijing (2004 and 2007), New Delhi (2005) and Vietnam (2008) have led to a focus on Asia that is to be expanded further.-

Experts discuss brand building to beef up competitive edge

HCM CITY — Viet Nam needs to build strong brands that can compete in the increasingly competitive domestic and international markets to fuel sustainable growth, according to experts.

“A product serves functional benefits, and is interchangeable. But a brand can generate preference and loyalty from customers, and is a much stronger and more enduring base upon which to build one’s business,” said Katryna Mojica, managing director for Olgilvy&Mather Viet Nam at a seminar on branding on Saturday.

“It’s no longer enough to have a brand positioning,” said Stephen Mangham, chairman of O&M Singapore.

Brands needed to have a unique belief system and a point of view that drives everything that a brand does and helps it attract widespred support, he said.

“Over the last two years we have developed a concept called the ‘Big Ideal,’ and found it incredibly useful in strengthening our clients’ brands,” said Mangham.

He explained a Big Ideal was not the same as a brand positioning, which could be based on a purely functional benefit. An ideal contains an inherent point of view, a conception of something in its perfection, to create stronger consumer appeal.

On how to capture big ideals, Mangham said that in this collaborative environment, with various departments, units, even countries, working on a brand, it was helpful to capture what the brand stands for in a short phrase that can be remembered – simple but rich enough to avoid being simplistic. Furthermore, big ideals exist at the intersection between a brand’s core identity and local sociocultural conditions.

Prof. Ho Duc Hung, director of the Institute of Economic Development Research at the HCM City University of Economics, stressed that marketers should understand thoroughly local environmental, cultural, demographic and psychological features, and “use the information to explore opportunities, identify potentials, make forcasts, be creative and transform potentials into reality.”

Hung said recent research on 500 outstanding businesses nationwide showed that up to 25 per cent did not invest in brand building, 70 per cent made insufficient investments, while only 5 per cent were fully committed to the work.

The Government has selected 30 businesses for a national brand programme called “Building Viet Nam’s Brands,” which aims to create a competitive advantage for brands here and overseas. —

Experts talk internet resources management

Hanoi (VNA) – An international conference on the management of internet resources and technology trends opened in Hanoi on August 26, drawing the participation of experts and policymakers from Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, the Republic of Korea and Vietnam.

The two-day conference is expected to provide the participants, including nearly 200 delegates from Vietnam’s internet community, with opportunities to share experiences in developing the internet and information technology, setting up e-government and promoting the internet technologies for mobile phone networks.

The participants are set to focus their discussions on internet development strategies and policies, e-government formulation, internet resources management, software industry and security technology development, and internet technologies for mobile phone networks.

The event is co-hosted by the Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC) and the National Internet Development Agency of Korea (NIDA).-