Economy

Workers place shrimp containers at the Minh Phu Seafood Corp’s factory in the southern most province of Ca Mau. (Source: VNA) The plan hopes to improve the quality, efficiency of production and competitiveness of Vietnamese shrimp products, in a bid to benefit farmers, businesses and the country’s economy. According to the action plan, the domestic shrimp industry is expected to gain US$5.5 billion in export value and record an annual average growth of 10.79% in 2017-20, including US$4.5 billion from brackish water shrimp exports.  The total area rearing brackish water shrimp is estimated to reach 710,000ha, with total output of 850,000 tonnes of shrimp during 2017-20, and expand to 750,000ha and 1.1 million tonnes of output in the period from 2020-25. Meanwhile during the period of 2017-20, the industry will have a total area of 30,000ha rearing giant freshwater prawn with total output of 30,000 tonnes and one million cubic metres of cage rearing lobster with … [Read more...] about Vietnam’s shrimp industry to become key economic sector

These advantages from existing mechanism and policies include a programme on sustainable development of the fisheries economy during 2016-20. Under the programme, the shrimp industry will actively produce varieties of black tiger shrimp and white leg shrimp to meet the demand of market demand. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as well as other State management agencies have removed many obstacles in export procedures to create favourable conditions for export enterprises. The shrimp sector now has many favourable conditions with the Government’s higher attention, including opening of material production centres and solutions on supplying raw material, according to a representative of Minh Phu Seafood Corp, Vietnam’s largest shrimp producer. Regarding the export market, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the global economy is expected to recover strongly, especially in major markets such as … [Read more...] about Vietnam to gain US$4.8 billion from shrimp exports

During the first 11 months of the year, Vietnam's exports stood at an estimated US$241.2 billion, up 7.8 per cent on year. Of the figure, export turnover within the domestic sector enjoyed an 18.1 per cent surge to US$74.72 billion, while exports in the FDI sector, including crude oil, were at US$166.7 billion, an increase of 3.8 per cent. According to the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of International Trade (MoIT), a number of favourable factors such as the comprehensive international integration have served to support the Vietnam’s exports in the future as the country has become a signatory of 13 FTAs with a further three FTAs in the negotiation process. Furthermore, domestic goods for exports will become more competitive with other providers due to the removal of tariff barriers. Despite this, several factors look poised to hinder export growth, including a global economic slowdown. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development cut its prediction … [Read more...] about Exports to endure sluggish growth in remaining months

Famous names in the market include Keppel Land and CapitaLand, with the first high-end real estate projects in the country such as The Estella and The Vista. The total supply of high-end apartments in Ho Chi Minh City as at the end of 2007, at approximately 1,700 units, of which about 1,000 units were from FDI projects, was a very small proportion compared to the city's population of 6.85 million at that time. “Since the market share of FDI projects is not high, the average price of high-end primary stocks in 2007 was at US$2,800 per sq m (at an exchange rate of VND16,112), representing an increase of 86 percent compared with sales launches in the previous year,” according to Khanh Nguyen, Associate Director, Capital Markets of Vietnam, at JLL.  “This created a supply-demand imbalance that pushed prices beyond the affordability of homebuyers with real demand. There has been a long queue of buyers trying to compete for the very limited availability of these … [Read more...] about High-end residential the top choice of foreign investors

The Vietnam Maritime Administration is taking comments for a draft on a possible increase of 10 per cent in container handling charges, except for the Mekong Delta. This means that shipping lines might follow a rise in terminal handling charges. According to Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), in recent years, many shipping lines increased their charges way above their previous rates. Since 2013, Mearsk/MCC Line, which has the largest market share in Vietnam, increased a series of its charges. For example, THC increased from VND4 million ($177.77) to VND5.2 million ($231.1) per container, while delivery order fee rose from VND550,000 ($24.44) to VND730,000 ($32.4). What is more, shipping lines also applied new charges, such as container imbalance charge (CIC), which goes at $60 per container. Differences in the application of the same charges are also a problem. For example, THC for 20-feet container varies from $90 … [Read more...] about Import-export firms fear possible rise in terminal handling charge