By Joyce Roque
Mar. 17 – Foreign investors in Vietnam may need to import components of their business not readily available in the local market.
Import duty rates regularly change so it is best to always keep abreast with the latest rates. Authorities however prefer businesses that do not import majority of their manufacturing needs from overseas. Enterprises and business cooperation contract parties doing business in the country are allowed the following import tax exemptions: Read the rest of this entry »
Aug. 11 – The Ministry of Industry and Trade has submitted a proposal that will allow businesses that operate only during the day to be qualified for a 20 percent discount on electricity costs during peak hours of the morning.
Currently, business power users are charged double in the peak hours between 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. as well as 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. If approved, the discount will begin on September 1 and will last for only 6 months until new rates are determined for next year.
Only companies operating in the daytime and purchasing power at medium voltage levels of 35 kilovolts or less will be given the discount.
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Jul. 16 – A survey conducted by banking company, HSBC, showed Vietnam as having the most optimistic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region.
The HSBC Emerging Markets Small Business Confidence Monitor tallied the answers of more than 3,400 SMEs in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Respondents in the Asian region included India, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Companies were polled asking about their plans in the next six months in terms of capital investment and recruitment plans in addition to forecasts on economic growth. In Vietnam, 49 percent of the 300 companies answered that they will be hiring in the next six months, compared to the Indian market where only 22 percent of SMEs said they will be doing the same.
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By Fan Feng
Jul. 9 – The country’s largest software park and high-tech industrial area, Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Industrial Zone, has approved the investment licenses of four projects worth a total of US$316.45 million.
Shipbuilder Vietnam Shipping Industrial Group invested US$85.6 million for the Vietnam Ship Research Institute to house its national research and design lab within the complex. The Vietnam Internet Center is funding a US$16.29 million internet center. The Financing and Promoting Technology Group is using US$154.1 million to build a software facility and information technology university – FPT University – within the compound. And a US$105.46 million post and telecom center is being built by the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group.
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May 18 – The subsidiary of South Korean Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction inaugurated a US$300 million plant in central Vietnam with the aim of developing it as a global production hub.
Doosan Heavy Industries Vietnam’s plant in Quang Ngai Province’s Dung Quat Economic Zone will make major components and equipment for the flagship company’s power and water businesses. This will include boilers, heat-recovery steam generators, seawater desalination evaporators, and material handling equipment.
The plant will also provide the chemical process equipment (for Doosan Mecatec, also under Doosan Group and will employ 1,300 locals eventually increasing staff to 3,000 by 2013.
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Sept. 4 – Local outsourcing companies in Vietnam say that the country’s poor information technology education threatens to hamper the industry’s growth.
Companies complained that even IT graduates coming from the best schools had to be retrained another 3 to 6 months because they lacked foreign language skills, math abilities and programming knowledge.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Computer Association (HCA), while the number of IT graduates increases every year the quality of training remains inadequate.
The country has a total of 390 universities, colleges and IT training centers, 43 of which just opened in the past year.
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