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Customers at Saigon Co.op (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – The consumer price index (CPI) in the southern largest economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City increased 1.19 percent in February from the previous month, according to the city’s Statistics Office . Among 11 groups of products and services in the CPI basket , the group of housing, electricity, water and construction materials had the highest price increase of 2.06 percent. This included a 13 percent hike in power price , 2.65 percent rise in water price, and 0.14 percent fall in housing rent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The prices of restaurant and catering services showed a big jump of 1.35 percent, with those of foodstuff growing 1.79 percent from January. The strongest surges in this group were seen in the prices of pork (5.28 percent), beef (2.36 percent), poultry (3.99 percent) and aquatic products (3.12 percent) due to high demand during the traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday – the biggest traditional festival of Vietnamese people. Moving in the same trend were groups of beverage and tobacco (0.41 percent), and garment, hats and footwear (0.35 percent). Affected by the petrol price hikes on January 26 and February 25, transportation fees increased by 1.68 percent. In contrast, the prices of medicine and medical services dropped by 0.05 percent, and those of the education group decreased by 0.01 percent. The Statistics Office also said that the gold price went up by 1.1 percent while the price of US dollar expanded 0.02 percent as compared to January./. VNA …

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On behalf of the real estate enterprises, Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HOREA), said that compared to the previous year, there was an additional petition of Gamuda Land Joint Stock Company. The petition states that while waiting for the Prime Minister to decide on a VND514-billion deduction following the recommendations of the Government Inspectorate, over the past time, construction investment and business activities of the company have been stagnant, affecting the reputation and brand of this company in 10 years of operation in Vietnam. As for the matter of social housing, Mr. Le Huu Nghia, CEO of real estate developer Le Thanh, said that they were considering whether to develop social housing again. Because of too many difficult procedures, many people advised him to play safe by switching to develop commercial real estate. At the Le Thanh Tan Kien social housing project in Binh Chanh District, although the HCMC People's Committee had directly instructed to remove obstacles, after three years of implementing the project, now it backs to square one. Although the regulation for the processing time of the application by authorities is 215 days, in fact, the processing of the application can take a lot longer than that because the application must be transferred between departments and districts. Even a document from the urban management office to the district People's Committee takes several months. Moreover, although the social housing projects are invested by enterprises from start to finish, they are audited as projects using capital from the State budget. Meanwhile, the auditors are too strict. They slap them with high fines on petty mistakes, discouraging investors, Mr. Le Huu Nghia explained. Le Thanh Company is one of 20 enterprises that have petitioned the city through the summary of HOREA. This list shows that many petitions had been raised by investors at meetings with the city leaders in the past years, …

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Export value skyrockets over Lunar New Year Vietnam's export turnover during this Lunar New Year saw breakthrough growth, occupying nearly half of the total export-import turnover. The latest data published by the General Department of Vietnam Customs showed that export volume over the seven days (February 10-16) of the Lunar New Year holiday reached $730 million, rising 79 per cent on-year and accounting for about 44 per cent of the $1.67 billion export-import turnover. The main export articles include mobile devices and components valued at $332 million; computer and electronic products worth $251 million. The two categories accounted for 80 per cent of the total export value. This Lunar New Year saw exports going to 80 markets, seven more than last year. China continues to be the leading export market with a value of $189 million (26 per cent). Following are the US ($152 million), South Korea ($67 million), and Hong Kong ($57 million). According to statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs, there were 960 import-export businesses, up 59 per cent on-year. Nevertheless, importers still outnumbered exporters with an import turnover of $940 million, up 37 per cent on-year. Thus, from early this year to February 16, the total export-import turnover reached $74.51 billion, up 31 per cent on-year. Of this, exports hit $38.57 billion, up 36 per cent on-year while imports reached $35.94 billion, up 26 per cent, resulting in a trade surplus of $2.63 billion. Drug market forecast to grow by 15 per cent in 2021 The pharmaceutical industry grew by just 2.8 per cent last year, much lower than its average 11.8 per cent growth in the last five years. It is expected to recover and grow by 15 per cent this year, mainly due to a rapidly ageing population and increasing incomes, analysts at SSI Securities Corporation said. Last year there was a short supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients from China and India due to social distancing and …

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