Economy

"Logistic costs accounts for 30 percent of product price, which is an unreasonably high proportion. In Thailand the figure is 12.5 percent, and the average global figure, 14 percent. This hinders Mekong Delta agriculture products from competing with equivalents from Thailand and China," said Pham Tien Hoai, chairman of Hau Giang Business Association. Ngo Tuong Vy, deputy director of Chanh Thu Import-Export Limited Company, specializing in agriculture products, said: "Air transport fees for fresh Vietnamese dragon fruit to Japan is $6 per kilogram." She said fresh fruit need to be well-preserved after harvest so it could be exported by sea to reduce costs. Mekong Delta contributes 90 percent of the country’s rice exports, 65 percent of seafood exports, and 70 percent of fruit exports. It has a total seven ports, of which the largest is Long An International Port in southern Long An Province. The latter can accommodate cargo ships with a capacity of 70,000 tons. The second largest is Cai Cui Port in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, which can handle 20,000 ton cargo vessels. It also has 57 inland waterway ports. Experts say the Mekong Delta waterway traffic system is of low quality, limiting the capacity of cargo ships operating in the area. There are only two ways to reach Hau River ports via either Dinh An and Quan Chan Bo estuaries. However, the Dinh An estuary has not been dredged for years and can only handle cargo ships of 3,000 tons. The Quan Chanh Bo estuary can handle cargo ships from 7,000-10,000 tons, but does not have breakwaters, meaning vessels can only operate at low speed to prevent waves from affecting nearby aquaculture projects. Thus, ships normally take a day to pass through the 26-kilometer Quan Chanh Bo estuary. Heads of export firms said Mekong Delta lacks deep-water ports for container ships serving export, besides logistic centers, warehouses and irradiation facilities. Agriculture products from Mekong Delta have to be shipped …

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Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged members of the D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation (D-8), which comprises eight Muslim-majority countries, to play a major role in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and recovering the global economy, particularly through expanding vaccine production capacity. The President also called for efforts to boost the equal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines as well as concerted efforts from the D-8 in rebuilding the global economy. In order to facilitate trade within the D-8, trade barriers must be minimised, he said. Widodo emphasised the need to develop digital technology and artificial intelligence, saying that in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, D-8 member states should utilise these trends to keep up with robust changes in the world. He stressed the importance of investing in the D-8’s young population, which totals around 323 million people, or 27.3 percent of the total population. The D-8 is an organisation for development cooperation among Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey./. VNA …

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Traders work at the trading floor of Sai Gon Securities Inc. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The development of the equity market will help promote the transparency and corporate governance of listed companies, especially public companies with State capital , an official has said. The statement was made by Dang Quyet Tien , director of the finance ministry's Corporate Finance Department, during a recent seminar in Hanoi. “This will help boost the volume of transactions in the stock market, increasing the liquidity for State shareholders,” Tien said. “There is a problem that has persisted for many years in most State-owned enterprises, which is the ineffectiveness in the management and use of State capital,” he said. “The development of the equity market would help State-owned enterprises be less dependent on bank credit loans, diversifying forms of capital mobilisation.” The Vietnamese stock market has seen remarkable development since its inception, but the rate of capital mobilisation via this market was still very low, said Nguyen Tu Anh, director of the General Economic Department under the Central Economic Committee. “The diversification of products on the market is still poor, resulting in high volatility. At present, idle capital in the economy is quite large, the deposit interest rates of banks have decreased and the interest rates of Government bonds have dropped deeply, which are very favourable conditions to develop the stock market,” he said. “Over the past 20 years, Vietnam’s stock market has made great progress, promoting its role as a capital mobilisation channel for the medium and long term. However, more efforts are still needed to achieve the upcoming development goals,” said Ta Thanh Binh, Director of Securities Market Development Department under the State Securities Commission. “The status upgrade of the stock market needs efforts not only from the securities industry and the stock market regulators but also from …

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