Development

The information was announced by Senior Lieutenant-General Tran Don, Deputy Minister of National Defense at a meeting with the south-central province’s authorities Friday.

In 2009, the government approved a plan to build Phan Thiet airport in beach town Phan Thiet of Binh Thuan, which lies more than four hours east of Ho Chi Minh City and currently has none.

The plan said the airport would span 543 hectares (1,340 acres) to serve both civilian and military purposes and invested under the build-operate-transfer format by Hanoi-based Rang Dong JSC.

It also said work would start in 2015 for the project to be finished in 2018. However, nothing had been carried out as scheduled.

In 2017, Binh Thuan proposed to upgrade the civil rating of the planned airport from 4C to 4E as regulated by International Civil Aviation Organization.

In specific, the province wanted to extend the airport’s runway from 2,400 meters to 3,050 meters in order to raise its capabilities toward the 4E rating. The increased rating would allow it to handle Airbus A320s or equivalent sized and advanced military aircraft.

The government agreed with the proposal within that year, which means the cost for the airport will stay at around VND10 trillion ($434 million).

The problem with investment capital had prevented the plan to be executed. Now, the problem has been solved, said Deputy Minister Don.

He said the Ministry of National Defense had previously relied on a plan to auction former Nha Trang airport in central Khanh Hoa Province to raise funds for building Phan Thiet airport.

However, the government has recently agreed to build Phan Thiet airport using the state budget in the form of public investment. “The government has allocated the fund for the ministry and work on the joint-use airport should be carried out soon.”

If everything is to happen as planned, construction should be finished in 20 months so the airport could start operation next year, Don noted.

Rang Dong JSC will continue to work as investor for the civilian part of the airport. As assigned by the ministry, the company has to soon complete adjustments to the re-feasibility study report for the project so work on the civilian side could be carried out at the same time as that for its military equivalent.

Vietnam currently has 22 airports, including eight in the northern and north-central regions.

The master plan for airport development the Ministry of Transport is drafting envisages building five new airports, all in the north, by 2030.

It is now in the process of collecting feedback from other government agencies and local administrations before submitting the plan to the government for approval.

Nguyen Giang, owner of The Way Coffee, completed the procedure to open an account at SSI Hanoi Branch after hearing that the HCM CIty Stock Exchange (HOSE) was planning to increase the required minimum trading lot from 100 shares to 1,000 shares.

The reason behind the plan, as explained by Le Hai Tra, HOSE’s CEO, was to ease the overload.

However, this was not good news for many investors, including Giang. Because of Covid-19, he no longer can work as an outbound tour guide, which he did for 10 years.

In 2020, he opened a street coffee shop. However, the third Covid-19 outbreak once again affected his business. Giang then decided to make financial investments as he has confidence in the bright prospects of the stock market.

However, the calculations of the investor may fail because of HOSE’s tentative policy.

If the tentative policy takes effect, Giang will have to spend VND100 million at least for every purchase transaction of VIC (Vingroup), VJC (Vietjet), VCB (Vietcombank) and VNM (Vinamilk).

If buying SAB (Sabeco), he would have to spend VND180 million at least, and ifor VCF (Vinacafe Bien Hoa), he would have to spend VND240 million.

These are very large amounts of money compared with Giang’s investment plan.

However, Tra said the policy, once applied, would bring benefits. It would not only help ease congestion thanks to the reduction of 40-50 percent in number of transactions, but would also better protect small investors.

Nguyen Duy Hung, president of SSI, also commented that this is the best choice for now to maintain the system’s operation.

However, many experts and securities companies don’t share the same view. They have warned that the policy isn’t in line with stock market development and discriminates against small and big investors.

“The plan is unreasonable. It will affect many private investors and be contrary to international practice,” the brokerage director of a HCM City-based securities company said.

The decision to raise the required minimum trading lot from 10 shares to 100 shares in the past once put difficulties for many investors as they could not sell shares. However, the decision was still acceptable because every transaction had value of between several millions of dong to tens of millions of dong only.

But this will be diiferent if the minimum trading lot is raised to 1,000 shares.

V. Ha

This achievement can be attributed to the determination and effort of all sectors, most notably science and technology.

Ten national science and technology projects were approved during the COVID-19 outbreak, including the cultivation and isolation of SARS-CoV-2, test kit production, studying COVID-19 vaccines, and using robotics in hospitals and quarantine camps.

Scientists have not been alone in innovation during the COVID-19 fight. They have been backed by the Government and enterprises. Many people, even those without any academic qualifications, have contributed science and technology innovations to help the country fight the pandemic./. VNA