Master plan for solid waste management till 2020

The Ministry of Construction has worked out a master plan on solid waste management in Vietnam ’s urban areas and industrial zones till 2020 during the country’s process of industrialisation and modernisation.

According to the ministry, the master plan covers orientations and comprehensive and systematic action plans for solid waste management. It also points to problems to be solved, defines the aims of the work in each stage of national development.

Dr. Pham Sy Liem from the Vietnam Construction Federation said that only 17 out of 91 dumping grounds in Vietnam are meeting the hygienic standards.

The country has annually turned out more than 15 million tonnes of waste, including 12.8 million tonnes of household garbage from both urban and rural areas and 2.7 million tonnes of industrial waste.

The medical sector annually generates about 21,000 tonnes of waste, while the industrial and agricultural sectors respectively discharged about 130,000 tonnes and 45,000 tonnesof harmful waste, including toxic chemicals.

To date, Vietnam has mainly buried solid waste. Progress has been made in solid waste management, including garbage gathering, reuse, recycling and treatment in urban areas, over the past 10 years. However, the problem is still serious in rural areas, especially at 1,450 craft villages.

The country is estimated to annually turn out 23 million tonnes of waste by 2010 with the volume of harmful waste increasing.-

Cataract disease on increase in Vietnam

An additional 170,000 Vietnamese have been diagnosed with cataract-related eye diseases each year, according to a report delivered at a national conference on blindness prevention in Hanoi on August 1.

The Central Eye Hospital ’s recent survey shows that cataracts are still the leading cause of blindness in Vietnam , which currently has 251,700 blind people.

Speaking at the conference, co-organised by the Ministry of Public Health (MoH) and the US ’s Atlantic Philanthropies Organisation, MoH Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Xuyen said it is extremely necessary for Vietnam to build a national blindness prevention plan to quickly reduce its blindness rate and develop methods of treatment.

Xuyen, who is also Head of the National Steering Committee on Blindness Prevention, praised the Central Eyes Hospital ’s efforts in blindness prevention over the past years.
The three-day conference also offers an opportunity for Vietnamese experts to learn from foreign colleagues’ experiences in order to build a high-quality and appropriate national blindness prevention plan.

There are around 37 million blind people and 110 million others with poor eyesight in the world.-

Seminar examines economic impact of WTO entry

The Vietnamese economy has taken some advantage of integration but exposed many shortcomings in managing after 18 months in the World Trade Organisation, Director of Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) DinhVan An said at a seminar on August 1.

The seminar to evaluate some impacts on the domestic economy after its WTO accession in 2007 was organised in Hanoi by CIEM, part of the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Speaking at the conference, Vo Tri Thanh, an official of CIEM, said: “A period of one and a half years is not long enough to evaluate and overview WTO’s influences on the conomy.”

“However, there are some lessons to be learned from accession to the world’s largest economic playground.”

Vietnam ’s commitments to integration and improvement of its market-economy mechanism are the most important factors for increasing economic reform and luring foreign investment, Thanh said.

He said Vietnam needed to take advantage of natural resources and cheap industrial labour forces.

According to a survey last year by the Japan External Trade Organisation, Vietnam ’s minimum monthly wage level was about 50 USD, significantly lower than India ’s 74 USD, Indonesia ’s 90 USD, the Philippines 135 USD, southern China ’s 92 USD and Thailand ’s 110 USD.

Thanh pointed out some weaknesses in the Vietnamese economy: poor labour capacity, the modest contribution of finance, banking and insurance to the country’s economic growth, less developed manufacturing and the slow growth of agricultural sector.

He said that inflation and the trade deficit, together with sensitive signals from domestic financial systems, are big problems Vietnam must face in the future.

Basically, WTO accession has directly and indirectly brought about desirable results. The difference between forecast numbers and results are partly due to the complex internal and external elements of the economy, An said.

Pham Chi Lan, an economic expert said everyone should update their knowledge on economic accession to give them a thorough grasp of the opportunities and challenges.-

Overseas remittances rise sharply this year

The amount of overseas remittances from overseas Vietnamese has grown dramatically this year, according to a banking authority.

Nguyen Ngoc Lam, deputy director of the State Bank of Vietnam ’s Foreign Exchange Management Department, said overseas remittances to Vietnam in the first half of this year reached about 5 billion USD, up 300 million USD over last year.

The amount of such remittances is expected to reach 8 billion USD by the end of the year.

In the past, overseas remittances came mostly from Vietnamese living in America , Australia and Europe, but more are being sent by people who live in Asia and the Middle East .

The Eastern Asia Bank’s Eastern Asia Overseas Remittances Company transferred 631 million USD overseas remittances in the first half of this year, 52.6 percent of the year’s target.

In the first half of the year, Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) transferred 730 million USD in overseas remittances, an increase of 25 percent over the same period last year.

For the same period, the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) transferred 430 million USD, up 50 percent against the same period last year.
Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (Sacombank) transferred 840 million USD during the same period. That is expected to reach 930 million USD by the end of the year, an increase of 40 percent over the last year.-

Businesses to get registration certificates within five days

It will take businesses a maximum of just five days to receive business registration certificates, according to a new inter-ministry circular released on July 29.

Under the circular, issued by the ministries of Finance, Planning and Investment, and Public Security to regulate business and taxation registrations, relevant authorities must grant business registration certificates to applicants within five days of receiving legal applications in written form.

Individuals and organisations may also receive tax codes and complete procedures for changing their business operations within five days from the date they applied for the requirements.

Under current regulations, it takes businesses 10 days to complete the procedures related to setting up firms or changing business operations.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the circular aimed to create closer cooperation between the relevant ministries in order to help businesses in setting up firms and in their operations.

Under the circular, departments of planning and investment in cities and provinces, which would act as one-stop shop for the applications, would be in charge of receiving applications and returning the certificates and tax codes to businesses.

The five-day period will also be applied for applications via online business registration systems; however, businesses will be required to submit a written business registration application when coming in to receive their certificates.

The circular will take effect 15 days after it is published in the Governmental gazette.-

Hotels are pricier, despite more rooms

Accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton Vietnam ’s latest survey results on Vietnam ’s hotels show increases in average room rates and number of rooms.

The Hotel Survey 2008, which covers 37 three – to five-star hotels and resorts with more than a total of 5,200 rooms across the country, reveals a 37 percent increase in average room rates from 2006 to 2007.

The rate has reached almost 120 USD in the north, more than 100 USD in the central areas and almost 100 USD in the south.

Hanoi is the most expensive destination in the country and Da Lat is the cheapest of the five surveyed areas – Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City , Phan Thiet, Da Lat and Hoi An-Da Nang.

On average, hotel guests in the capital had to pay nearly 83 USD more than in Da Lat.

In high season, visitors staying in five-star hotels pay about 52 USD, on average, more than in low season.

The total increase in the average occupancy rates from 2003 to 2007 was 142 percent.

HCM City had the highest overall occupancy rate of 79 percent in 2007, up from the previous year’s 77 percent.

The coastal town of Phan Thiet , however, posted the highest annual occupancy increase of 29.4 percent.

The occupancy rate was 76.21 percent at large hotels, 65.83 percent at medium-sized hotels and 66.13 percent at small hotels.

The country’s number of hotels, from one to five-star, nearly tripled from 2003 to 2007, reaching 9,000 last year.

That figure is expected to reach more than 13,500 in 2010.

The number of rooms doubled, reaching over 180,000 last year, expected to go up to 270,000 in 2010.

There were 1.11 and 1.44 employees per room in the north and south and 5.56 in the centre.

However, the average salary in the north was twice that in the centre.

Ken Atkinson, managing partner of Grant Thornton Vietnam , said hotel customers traveling to the country for business purposes had risen 5.26 percent over the previous two years.

Five-star hotels tend to rely more on business visitors as their main source of revenue, representing 39.65 percent of their total revenue.

Meanwhile tour groups made up 39.59 percent of four-star hotels’ revenue.
Last year, international guests accounted for 87.63 percent of hotels’ total customers, up from 2006’s 81.55 percent.-

Both bourses down in last week

Both bourses completed the last week of the month showing falls in many shares. The VN-Index closed on August 1 at 447.11, a drop of 0.94 percent.

Of the 160 listed shares in Ho Chi Minh City , there were 63 gainers, eight remained unchanged and 89 were losers.

Some blue chips continued falling. Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) hit the floor to end at 39,800 VND a share, followed by STB (Sacombank), VNM (Vinamilk), PVD (PV Drilling), ITA ( Tan Tao Industrial Park ) and VPL (Vinpearl).

STB, the most active share during the week, also hit the floor to close at 22,900 VND a share. A total of 2.9 million shares changed hands.

Strong increases were also recorded in blue-chips, such as the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology (FPT) and Hoa Phat (HPG) and Phu My Fertiliser (DPM).

In HCM City, Bach Tuyet Cotton Corporation (BBT), which is on the verge of bankruptcy, on August 1 sold only 60 shares mostly at floor prices.

Manh Ha, an investor with SeaBank Securities, said that after four consecutive upward trends, the downward move of the VN-Index was not unusual as it was at 450 points considered a reasonable level.

Quang Minh, an investor with Vietcombank Securities, expected little change in August trading. He predicted that this would make stock prices less attractive compared to June, adding that trends in the market would rely on macro-economic factors.

The Hanoi bourse saw a strong decrease of 2.87 points to close at 140.45 points. More than 5.2 million shares were traded worth a total of 168.9 billion VND.

There were 45 gainers, 85 losers, two share prices remained unchanged and 14 were inactive.

Foreigners were net buyers of 276,100 shares worth 12.63 billion VND, while they sold 100,200 shares worth more than 4 billion VND.-

Vietnam hands over paedophile to FBI

The Ministry of Public Security’s Investigation Agency handed over a Vietnamese-American paedophile to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Ho Chi Minh City on August 1.

Dang Van Viet, 44, who lived in US’ Waldorf Maryland was wanted by the FBI for child sexual abuse.

According to the FBI, Viet sexually abused his relative’s children for nearly 10 years until Maryland police uncovered his behaviour in March this year.

Viet fled Maryland and the FBI globally released a special wanted notice.

The paedophile fled to many countries before returning to his native land and settling in Can Tho City. He was arrested by Vietnamese police in June.-

Expanded Hanoi eyes high GDP growth

The expanded Hanoi will strive for a GDP growth rate of 11.5-12 percent in addition to an average per capita income of 1,500 USD in the remaining five months of the year.

It will also target a rise of 18-19 percent in social investment, an export growth rate of 22-23 percent, budget collection of 62.2 trillion VND or 5 percent over the estimation, 122,000 new jobs, and the number of poor households below 5 percent in the period.

Those goals were approved by the People’s Council of the expanded Hanoi at its first session after the capital city’s administrative boundary expanded to include neighbouring Ha Tay province and parts of Vinh Phuc and Hoa Binh provinces.

At the closing session on August 2, the new Hanoi People’s Council affirmed that it would instruct relevant agencies to fulfill those new socio-economic targets and continue to deploy inflation control measures and ensure the implementation of social welfare policy.

The council also vowed to focus on addressing issues related to agriculture and rural development and improving the quality of the environment in addition to accelerating the implementation of major State-funded construction projects, infrastructure development in urban and rural areas as well as preparations for the 1000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

The new Ha Noi People’s Council adopted eight important resolutions relating to its 162-member list for the 2004-2009 term, the number of its deputies, the number of its permanent members, the verification of its election of position titles, its tenure name, the city’s socio-economic, security and defence tasks in the remaining five months, budget estimation, and structure of agencies of the municipal people’s committee.

Ngo Thi Doan Thanh, chairwoman of the former Hanoi People’s Council, was elected chairwoman of the new council while Nguyen The Thao, deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, was elected chairman of the Municipal People’s Committee.
The new Hanoi has its boundary tripling the former capital city’s geographical size and its population doubling.-

Expanded Hanoi eyes high GDP growth