KTFA:  Vietnam

Henig:  Shares make large gains on banking, securities stocks

January, 18/2023 - 06:55

Vietnamese equities closed sharply higher on Tuesday, bolstered by a dramatic injection of cash flow into banking and securities.

HÀ NỘI - Vietnamese equities closed sharply higher on Tuesday, bolstered by a dramatic injection of cash flow into banking and securities.

The market’s benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) ended the day at 1,088.29 points, an increase of 2.03 per cent.

The breadth of the market stayed in positive territory, with more stocks gaining points. Specifically, 352 stocks advanced on the southern bourse, while 69 stocks inched lower.

Investors poured nearly VNĐ11.7 trillion (US$499.3 million) into the southern exchange, equivalent to a trading volume of 673.9 million shares.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, also increased by 2.6 per cent, to 1,103.73 points.

Twenty-nine stocks in the VN30 basket witnessed positive performance on the trading day, while only one tumbled.

Strong cash flow poured into blue-chips, spurring the market’s gains. Among the most notable gainers were Hoà Phát Group (HPG), the Việt Nam Rubber Group (GVR), SSI Securities Inc (SSI), Khang Điền House (KDH) and FPT Corporation (FPT), Vingroup (VIC), Vincom Retail (VRE), Masan Group (MSN), Vinhomes (VHM), Novaland (NVL), Vietjet (VJC), Vinamilk (VNM), Mobile World Group (MWG) and Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH).

Bank stock prices have witnessed a substantial increase such as Agribank Securities Corporation (AGR), Asia - Pacific Securities Joint Stock Company (APS), Viet Nam Bank For Industry & Trade Securities JSC (CTS), Military Bank (MBB), Petrovietnam Securities Incorporated (PSI), Sacombank Securities Joint Stock Company (SBS), VNDirect Securities Co (VND), FPT Securities Joint Stock Company (FTS) and Liên Việt Post Bank (LPB).

“In the last week of the Lunar Year, BSC maintains the view that VN-Index may not have too strong fluctuations and will continue to accumulate in the range of 1,050-1,065,” said BIDV Securities Co (BSC).

Foreign investors net bought VNĐ227.96 billion on HOSE, including FUESSVFL with VNĐ124.26 billion, Hoà Phát Group (HPG) with VNĐ30.29 billion, Bank for Investment and Development (BID) with VNĐ29.99 billion. Foreign investors were net sellers on HNX with the value of VNĐ1.5 billion.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index moved up. The northern market’s benchmark closed at 215.15 points, a decline of 2.02 per cent.

During the session, nearly 64.7 million shares were traded on HNX, worth VNĐ934 billion.

— VNS   LINK

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Henig:  Support industries vital for global integration

06:00 | 18/01/2023

(VEN) - “Entering 2023, Vietnam needs to promote the development of support industries to help the country’s industrial sector effectively participate in the global supply chain,” said Deputy Director of the Industry Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) Ngo Khai Hoan in an interview with Vietnam Economic News’ Lan Anh.

What is your evaluation of the linkage model between foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises and Vietnamese companies?

Most FDI enterprises invest in Vietnam to take advantage of investment incentives, low labor costs, and other advantages offered by our various free trade agreements (FTAs). As a result, they do not pay attention to the formation of domestic supply chains and have only a loose connection with domestic enterprises, which does not create spillover effects between the FDI sector and the domestic economic sector.

Currently, with the increase of per capita income, Vietnam’s advantages of low-cost labor are no longer sufficient magnets for large FDI enterprises. Vietnam must therefore adopt breakthrough policies, build sustainable cooperation and connection models between the government, FDI enterprises and Vietnamese companies.

What should the government and businesses do to promote the development of support industries?

The government needs to improve the capability of Vietnamese enterprises by adopting solutions on business connections, market information, human resource development, etc. These long-term goals need to be implemented simultaneously to raise awareness of related parties and the supporting industry community towards long-term and sustainable development goals.

Vietnamese enterprises also need to be proactive and make efforts to access the government's support programs, as well as equip themselves with new technologies and innovative management methods to optimize production and improve competitiveness, in order to manufacture products of high technology content and high added value.

FDI enterprises should continue to actively coordinate with the Vietnamese government and enterprises in sharing information, support training, transferring technology, and facilitating the participation of Vietnamese enterprises in long-term, sustainable supply chains.

What specific opportunities did the selection of six prioritized industries in the supporting industry development strategy create for foreign investors and Vietnamese enterprises?

The selection of the six prioritized industries following Decree 111/2015/ND-CP, including textiles and garments, footwear, electronics, automotive, mechanical and high-tech industries, reflect government determination in these fields. This is one of the most important solutions for Vietnam to affirm its position in the global supply chain.

In addition, the selection is a signal and basis to attract and encourage FDI enterprises to invest in or expand investment in the above-mentioned industries. Particularly, it will give priority to projects of high technology content that use advanced and clean technologies, adopt modern management and have spillover and connective effects with global production and supply chains.

In 2023, the promotion of domestic support industries is expected to help the Vietnamese industrial sector effectively participate in the global supply and value chains.

According to the MoIT, supporting industry development is one of the most important solutions to improve the quality of Vietnam’s economy, promote its sustainable growth and enhance its attraction to foreign investors, thereby helping domestic enterprises deeply participate in supply chains of FDI enterprises and global value chains of multinational corporations.

Lan Anh  LINK

Henig:  Forest exports target $17.5 billion

January, 18/2023 - 09:52

Trần Thanh Bình from the Import and Export Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the wood industry, like all trade sectors, could not avoid difficulties.

HÀ NỘI — Despite many difficulties, the export of wood and forest products still reached the target of US$16.9 billion last year. Continuing this momentum, the industry has set an export turnover target of $17.5 billion this year.

Trần Thanh Bình from the Import and Export Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the wood industry, like all trade sectors, could not avoid difficulties.

The reason is that the COVID-19 pandemic, the political situation and the high inflation coming from the US and EU major markets make it difficult for businesses to sign and fulfil orders.

The common difficulty of wood industry enterprises is high input costs and rising prices, which reduces the competitiveness of goods, including timber.

Strong fluctuations in the financial and monetary market also make wood production lose its competitive advantage.

Rapidly rising interest rates lead to high capital costs and the risk of disruption to the supply of raw materials and the value chain for the wood industry.

One of the critical drivers of exports is the expansion of exports in China, Japan and South Korea.

The US, Japan, China, EU and South Korea accounted for the total export value estimated at nearly $15.5 billion, accounting for 91 per cent of the export value of forest products, said the general secretary of the Việt Nam Timber and Forest Product Association Ngô Sỹ Hoài admitted.

In the opposite direction, the import value of wood and wood products was estimated at $2.8 billion last year, up 4 per cent compared to 2021.

The industry has a trade surplus of about $14.1 billion, up 6.5 per cent year-on-year.

The industry sets a positive target, with export turnover reaching $17.5 billion this year.

The growth rate of forestry production value is from 5 to 5.5 per cent. The forest cover rate remained stable at 42 per cent.

Concentrated afforestation will be 245,000 hectares, 140 million scattered trees will be planted, the output of harvested forest timber will be 22 million cubic metres, and the revenue from forest environmental services will be about VNĐ3 trillion (US$127 million).

Dealing with trade remedy lawsuits

Việt Nam is integrating very deeply with the free trade process through many trade agreements. Therefore, trade competition will become increasingly fierce; many countries apply self-defence measures.

Hoài explained that the wood industry has been facing anti-dumping lawsuits.

The country has over 6,000 small and medium enterprises, of which about 3,000 enterprises participate in the global supply chain.

Hoài emphasised the need to prepare well in two stages to respond well to trade defence cases.

The first is the pre-suit; before signing a commercial contract and preparing the shipment of wooden furniture for export, enterprises must listen and equip the best tools.

Enterprises needed to apply modern accounting software so that when there is a problem, it could provide proof, invoices and documents to prove business transparency.

Next comes dealing with the major market lawsuits that initiated the investigation.

"Vietnamese businesses are weak in knowledge of international law, foreign languages, and informatics," he said.

Strengthening corporate capacity management was essential, which included investing in knowledge, technology and people.

In addition, the role of each local timber association, the Việt Nam Timber Association, and the authorities must be enhanced, timely warnings to businesses must be increased, and training courses for businesses on trade defence skills, criticism, and record-keeping must be organised.

— VNS   LINK

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Henig:  Trade with Australia hits record high in 2022

January, 18/2023 - 08:56

Việt Nam has become Australia's 10th largest trade partner for the first time, while Australia is now Việt Nam's seventh largest trade partner.

SYDNEY — Two-way trade between Việt Nam and Australia topped US$15.7 billion in 2022, up 27 per cent year-on-year, statistics from the Việt Nam Trade Office in Australia revealed.

Last year, Việt Nam exported $5.55 billion worth of goods to Australia, a year-on-year increase of 26 per cent while its imports from the market saw a yearly hike of 27.3 per cent to $10.14 billion. 

Vietnamese export items posting high growth amid various challenges included iron and steel (103 per cent); electric wires and cables (81 per cent); coffee (63 per cent); machinery, equipment, tools, and other spare parts (62 per cent) besides footwear (41 per cent);  aquatic products (37 per cent); textiles (26 per cent); handbags, suitcases and umbrellas (25 per cent).

At the same time, Australia continued to be an important supplier of raw materials for Việt Nam’s production of coal, cotton, ores and other minerals, and wheat. 

Head of the office Nguyễn Phú Hòa said that the industry structure of Việt Nam and Australia were complementary to each other, helping the two economies enhance their advantages instead of competing.

He added Việt Nam had become Australia's 10th largest trade partner for the first time, while Australia is now Việt Nam's seventh largest trade partner.

According to economic experts, there remain room for the two countries to promote bilateral trade.

The implementation of free trade agreements, including the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANFTA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), have been offering opportunities for further cooperation between the two nations. 

Chu Hoàng Long, Lecturer at the Australian National University (ANU) suggested State agencies and businesses from the two nations clearly identify their strengths and comparative advantages; carefully study the legal system, customs, regulations and standards of goods and services while improving their local knowledge and understanding about the capacity of partners in order to make good use of cooperation opportunities. 

For Việt Nam, it was necessary for the Southeast Asian country to enlist the support of Australia to improve its investment and business environment, so that it could be ready and proactive to receive technology transfer, upgrade value chains in both governance and technology to quickly connect with Australian value chains and reach out to the global value chain.

This year, the Việt Nam Trade Office in Australia plans to implement promotion programmes for industries with large turnover and follows the directions of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in expanding Vietnamese exports, especially frozen fruits such as jackfruit, passion fruit and durian besides some spices. 

— VNS   LINK

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Henig:  Challenges persist for small and medium-sized domestic packaging companies

January, 17/2023 - 09:41

According to Ngô Đức Nhật, co-founder of HCM City-based Hoàng Phát Packaging Co, which specialises in carton packaging production, this market segment had slowed down during the social distancing period due to restrictions in good transportation and import and export activities.

HÀ NỘI — Despite the hard work of small and medium-sized domestic packaging companies to stay in tune with market demands and apply the latest production technologies, they continue to face a host of challenges.

According to Ngô Đức Nhật, co-founder of HCM City-based Hoàng Phát Packaging Co, which specialises in carton packaging production, this market segment had slowed down during the social distancing period due to restrictions in good transportation and import and export activities.

Similarly, the glass packaging segment was also affected when consumption of cosmetic products and high-end drinks in glass bottles slowed down as bottled water producers preferred to use plastic packaging, Nhật told thesaigontimes.vn.

In the post-pandemic period, Việt Nam’s major import markets faced many difficulties and the risk of economic recession, so they cut back on goods imports and outsourcing orders. That had reduced the amount of packaging they consumed, especially those used to pack goods for export, Nhật said, emphasising difficulties local pulp packaging producers had been coping with in production activities.

Furthermore, dependence on imported raw materials, which had been significantly influenced by many relevant factors such as prices of gasoline and logistics services, also affected the firm's revenues and profits, he spoke to the online newspaper.

The Việt Nam Pulp and Paper Association also agreed. It said packaging enterprises still faced many challenges, such as consumption competition among domestic enterprises due to many new production lines being put into production, harsh competition from foreign rivals, lack of raw materials and high raw material prices and transportation costs.

Moreover, the market has also been experiencing many changes in packaging trends and demands. For example, in the face of climate change, concerns about business sustainability were more important than ever, with a particular focus on packaging and waste generated from food, beverages and consumer products.

Therefore, domestic enterprises needed to grasp this trend to make the necessary changes to solve these challenges.

According to the association, several enterprises had converted packaging production technology from recycled PP plastic pellets - a material with abundant domestic supply. That helped them meet environmental protection requirements and avoid affecting manufacturing costs.

Haiquanonline.com.vn cited a representative of Đồng Tiến Paper and Packaging Co saying that consumers' awareness about the classification and recycling of waste was increasing. Still, recycling in Việt Nam faced many obstacles due to the lack of collection facilities and the low quality of output materials because of old technology, leading to commercial recycled products not having high value.

Therefore, the company invested VNĐ57.8 billion in a system of factories and production lines for toilet paper and packaging from recycled materials.

For Hoàng Phát Packaging Co, Nhật said his company was striving to automate production processes, facilitating IT appliances to improve the management quality and finding solutions to improve the quality and the design of packaging products to meet the requirements of the demanding partners.

Diversifying packaging products would also be included, he said.

In the long run, Nhật also called for packaging enterprises, especially small and medium-sized ones, to foster their cooperation.

He explained that currently, each enterprise often covers all stages or several stages in the production process. That forced them to divide their investment capital and buy out-of-date machines.

If the firms could team up, each enterprise could specialise in one stage to invest in a modern, high-quality machine for that particular stage.

Thanks to co-operation, the finished product of each stage would have a high quality, and all members of the production chain would benefit from that.

According to Nhật, quality was the most effective language for promotion, and open-minded and cooperative thinking would help the firms have more customers.

A recent survey by Vietnam Report showed that there remained huge room for the domestic packaging industry to promote growth in the future. Specifically, when Việt Nam and many countries that were the main export markets of packaging enterprises had also switched to a strategy of living with COVID-19, the sector had many prospects for recovery as high consumption would open growth opportunities for the packaging industry.

On the other hand, free trade agreements such as EVFTA, CPTPP, and RCEP continued to open up export opportunities for industries that used a lot of packagings such as agriculture, forestry, fishery, and processing industry, along with the large demand for high-quality packaging in the world such as high-grade packaging paper, which presented great export opportunities for Việt Nam's packaging industry.

FiinGroup also said in its report that packaging was one of the fastest growing industries in Việt Nam, with an annual growth rate of 13.4 per cent between the 2015-20 period. It was expected to continue double-digit growth in the coming years.

The strong development of the packaging sector in Việt Nam was driven by solid growth of such related sectors as F&B, consumer goods, export activities, and the robust development of modern trade.

To support the development of the local packaging industry, FiinGroup mentioned several solutions for domestic packaging companies, including catching up on the key trends in global packaging materials and designs, such as environmentally friendly and biodegradable products or products from recycled materials.

They should also have a thorough understanding of the requirements/commitments on certification of origin, technical standards, and sustainable development of the bilateral and multilateral FTAs Việt Nam signed in recent years to boost exports.

They should also pay attention to accelerating digital transformation, and automation of manufacturing processes to improve efficiency and product quality, it said.

— VNS   LINK