Yuon flaunting its $6 bln investment in its colony of Cambodia

Viet Nam to promote $6b investment in Cambodia

28-12-2009
VNS (Hanoi)

HCM CITY — Viet Nam and Cambodia signed deals worth US$6 billion at a conference held in HCM City last Saturday to promote Vietnamese investment in Cambodia.

Held by the Cambodian Development Council and Viet Nam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment, the conference brought together 500 policymakers and business executives from the two countries under the chairmanship of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Sen.

Under the various agreements signed at the conference, Viet Nam will invest in electric generation, food processing, fertiliser production, rubber plantation and bauxite mining in Cambodia.

"This is a huge investment from the Vietnamese side," said Dung, noting that the country’s total investment in 50 countries was just $7 billion.

"The Vietnamese Government is committed to creating favourable conditions for domestic businesses to invest in Cambodia," Dung said.

Vietnamese businesses have invested in over 60 projects in Cambodia with a total capital of nearly $900 million, making Viet Nam among the top three foreign investors in Cambodia.

Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Corporation, vowed to further step up investment there, noting that his corporation was currently farming 20,000ha of rubber in Rattanakiri Province and mining ore at a total investment of $100 million.

"We have also built villages, roads, and schools in areas that we invest in apart from providing $4 million to set up a soccer academy."

Hun Sen said Cambodia was calling for foreign investment in its areas of strength, such as agriculture, forestry, industry, infrastructure, processing, mining and tourism.

Cambodia would create a favourable investment environment for Vietnamese businesses to operate in the country, Hun Sen vowed.

"On behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, I guarantee Vietnamese investors lots of preferences," he said, noting that Cambodia allows investment even in some sensitive sectors like banking, insurance, and media not yet fully open in other countries.

Dung hailed the efficiency of Vietnamese-invested projects in Cambodia but said that the results have not yet matched the potential of both countries nor lived up to people’s expectations.

At the conference, the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Cambodian Development Council signed a memorandum of understanding on investment promotion.

The Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade and the Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mining and Energy also signed the minutes of their meeting regarding bauxite exploration and exploitation in the Cambodian province of Mondulkiri.

The Bank for Investment and Development of Cambodia (BIDC), which opened its HCM City branch over the weekend in the presence of Dung and Hun Sen, also signed commitments to provide financial services to Vietnamese businesses investing in Cambodia.

The branch was part of BIDC’s strategy to expand into a major financial source for Vietnamese investors and businesses operating in Cambodia.

The Phnom Penh-headquartered bank was launched last July with charter capital invested by the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam.

BIDC president Tran Thanh Van said at the opening ceremony that the new branch was expected to serve as a payment channel connecting the economies and banking systems of the two countries.

With a Vietnamese citizen for president, how can BIDC be billed as a Cambodian bank? BIDC is just another Yuon subterfuge?

The Bank for Investment and Development of Cambodia (BIDC) opens its Ho Chi Minh City branch on December 26 in the presence of Vietnamese and Cambodian Prime Ministers Nguyen Tan Dung and Hun Sen (Photo: VNA)

Cambodian PM honours bank opening in HCM City

Sunday ,Dec 27,2009
VNA (Hanoi)

The Bank for Investment and Development of Cambodia (BIDC) opened its Ho Chi Minh City branch on December 26 in the presence of Vietnamese and Cambodian Prime Ministers Nguyen Tan Dung and Hun Sen.

This is the first branch of the BIDC’s expansion strategy to generate a major financial source for Vietnamese investors and businesses operational in Cambodia.

The Phnom Penh-headquartered BIDC was put into operation on July 26 with the charter capital fuelled by the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).

BIDC President Tran Thanh Van said at the opening ceremony that the new branch is expected to successfully serve as a payment channel to connect two economies and banking systems in the two countries.

He pledged to lead the BIDC and its HCM City branch to a great success and abide by the two countries’ law, thus boosting trade and investment relations between the business circles and residents from the two countries.

Hun Sen was in Vietnam’s southern economic hub to co-chair with his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan Dung, a conference to promote investment between the two neighbouring countries.

Vietnam runs out of land for rubber plantations and thus had to rent space in Cambodia and Laos -sic!-

High yield rubber needed to sustain growth: analysts

Saturday, October 3, 2009
Thanh Nien News (Hanoi)

Rubber companies are running out of land and need to plant a high yield breed if the industry is to maintain growth, said analysts with the local finance website Vietstock.

Despite the government efforts to increase rubber cultivation, rubber businesses are running out of land and have turned to renting space in Laos and Cambodia. Vietnamese rubber planters plan to open a total 200,000 hectares of rubber fields in the two countries, Vietstock analysts said last month.

However, the two governments are unsure as to whether the pros of gaining more rubber trees will outweigh the cons of losing forests to rubber cultivation, which also degrades the soil.

Therefore, Vietnam rubber firms need to cooperate to create a high-yield breed so that the industry can continue to meet domestic demand and retain its position among markets worldwide, Vietstock asserted.

Global positioning

Vietnam was the world’s fifth-largest rubber producer in 2008 after Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and India. The government now aims for local firms to be producing 1.2 million tons of rubber per year by 2020.

Southern Rubber Industry Joint-Stock Co. (CSM VN), Vietnam’s third-largest listed rubber company, said its pretax profit in the first nine months of this year may reach VND241 billion ($13.5 million), six times its original full-year profit forecast, the HCMC-based company known as Casumina said in a statement.

Trinh Vinh Quyen, an analyst at HCMC-based DongA Securities Co., told Bloomberg last month that “rubber stocks will rise as world prices increase and demand gains. I expect these [rubber] companies will have strong earnings this year.”

Reported by Tai Viet

Svay Rieng Industrial Zone belongs to Vietnam?

The Svayrieng Industrial Zone in Cambodia, which has thus far attracted many Vietnamese investors.

07/01/2008
Domestic firms invest $391mil overseas

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese businesses invested US$391.2mil overseas in 64 projects in 2007, bringing total investment overseas during 1988-2007 to $1.39bil, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Of the total, 17 projects, capitalised at $156.8mil, were in the agricultural sector and 23 projects, valued at over $147mil, were in industry, with the remainder in services.

The average scale of investment was around $6mil per project.

Of 35 countries and territories receiving Vietnamese investment, Laos attracted the greatest amount, with 86 projects worth a total of $583.8mil. It was followed by Cambodia, with 27 projects worth $88.4mil and Russia with 12 projects valued at $48.1mil.

Businesses were targeting Africa, China, Singapore, Japan, the US and the EU for further projects specialising in oil and gas, mineral exploitation, transportation and trade services, the ministry said.

Among the most high-profile overseas projects are PetroVietnam gas exploration and exploitation projects in Algeria with an initial investment of about $30mil. The project has already discovered new crude oil resources and PetroVietnam plans to increase the level of investment.

Rubber plantations valued at over $60mil are being implemented in Laos by the Viet Nam Rubber Corporation and Dak Lak Rubber Co.

Overseas investment could bring multiple benefits for the country's economic development, said Nguyen Minh Phong of the Ha Noi Institute of Social and Economic Development.

If Vietnamese businesses had more representative offices, branches or facilities abroad, he said, they could take the initiative in establishing their own distribution systems as well as grasping demand and tastes in overseas markets.

Investing abroad would also create opportunities for Vietnamese firms to seek new trading partners and diversify raw material sources, he added.

In order to encourage businesses to invest aboard, local experts suggested continuous improvements in the legal system and simplifications in administrative procedures.

Comprehensive information about foreign markets, trade partners and investment climates as well as consultancy in law, accounting and import-export procedures would also help boost investment abroad.

Source: Viet Nam News