Joint actions caused by 5 muscles

The heavy rains on early Friday morning flooded Saigon, causing many trees to collapse.

Lychee being canned for export to the US. Viet Nam’s exports to the US in the first two months of the year accounted for $13.83 billion or 28.4 per cent of total exports. VNA/VNS Photo Vu Sinh

Exports for the year as of March 15 were worth US$62.01 billion, a year-on-year increase of 22.7 per cent, according to the General Department of Viet Nam Customs.

Exports to the US in the first two months of the year accounted for $13.83 billion or 28.4 per cent of total exports.

In recent years the US has become Viet Nam’s biggest market. Last year, for instance, at $76.4 billion it accounted for 27 per cent of the latter’s total exports.

Than Duc Viet, general director of Garment 10 Joint Stock Company, said there were several factors behind Viet Nam’s rapid growth in exports including to the US.

Primarily, he said, the COVID-19 pandemic has gradually been controlled around the world, especially after several countries started vaccinating their populations, enabling many of them to reopen their borders and trade to resume.

Businesses in the country, hit badly for the last year or so by the pandemic, are making strenuous efforts to bounce back, he pointed out.

Many countries around the world have rolled out large stimulus packages to spend their way out of the economic slump, and this has revived trade, he added.

Many analysts concurred with these views, saying the US recently launched a $1.9 trillion package to make direct payments of $1,400 to individuals earning up to $75,000 a year starting in April.

This is the third and largest stimulus since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

Viet Nam, one of the US’s major exporters, supplying essential items like fisheries products and garments and electronics, is expected to benefit from this relief package.

Viet of Garment 10 told Dau Tu Chung Khoan magazine that Vietnamese exporters hope to get orders from the US.

Americans are known as big spenders, and if they get the money from the Government consumption would surely rise, he said.

His own company’s exports to the US saw relatively high growth in the first quarter and are expected to grow further due to the huge new stimulus package.

Bui Viet Quang, general director of Red River Garment Joint Stock Company, said his company had enough export orders for until August this year, 80 per cent from the US.

“The US’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package will surely affect enterprises that export to the market. We expect to see robust growth [in US export orders] in the fourth quarter.”

Analysts said a recovery in the US economy would help Vietnamese exporters, especially those in the textile and garment industry.

However, analysts also sounded a warning saying while the US stimulus packages would benefit Viet Nam’s exporters in the short term, loose monetary policies could cause high inflation, which would increase their costs whereas they would not be able to increase prices immediately, affecting their margins.

Besides, the inflation would also hurt demand, they added.

Why property companies want to own banks

Nguyen Tuan Anh, director of the State Bank of Viet Nam’s department of credit for economic sectors, said growth in bank lending to the property sector in 2020 was 9.97 per cent, lower than the overall credit growth rate of 12.13 per cent.

This is becoming an emerging trend.

Enterprises in the sector have found it difficult to borrow from banks after the central bank issued a circular in 2019 prescribing limits and prudential ratios for banks.

It reduced the use of short-term deposits for medium- and long-term loans from 40 per cent to 37 per cent from October 2021 and to 30 per cent from October 2022.

This was aimed at controlling credit to high-risk sectors like real estate.

In the event, the only option real estate companies have is to themselves acquire stakes in banks.

They also target owning a piece of securities firms since that would enable them to mobilise capital from the market by issuing stocks and bonds.

Thus, Tran Thi Thu Hang, the CEO of Sunshine group, became vice chairwoman of the Kien Long Joint Stock Commercial Bank in 2018 and chairwoman of KS Joint Stock Company (KS Securities) around the same time, indicating that Sunshine or related parties had become major shareholders in the two.

Analysts said the finance and property sectors always have a symbiotic relationship since the latter is highly capital intensive with slow returns.

Thus, Vingroup has tied up with Techcombank, MIKGroup with VPBank, Dat Xanh Group with Viet A Bank, and TNR Holdings Viet Nam with MSB.

While the Government’s efforts to control lending to the property sector have had some effect, banks remain an important source of funding for real estate development projects.

This trend is expected continue in future, analysts said. VNS

Cao Thi Ngoc Dung, chairwoman of PNJ, talks about the company’s plans for this year at its annual general meeting of shareholders held in HCM City on April 17. — VNS Photo

Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ) targets net revenues of more than VND21 trillion (US$910.09 million) and net profits of VND1.23 trillion ($53.3 million) this year, up 20 per cent and 15 per cent from last year, its chairwoman, Cao Thi Ngoc Dung, has said.

It plans to achieve this by improving its autonomous supply chain, quickly expanding its retail network, optimising all its stores, reducing costs, and improving the customer experience and market forecast.

It also plans to invest further in technology.

“PNJ plans to open 40-45 more stores this year,” she said.

The company held its annual general meeting of shareholders in HCM City on Saturday, and shareholders approved a number of targets and plans for 2021, including a private placement of 15 million shares at VND10,000 per share, equivalent to 6.6 per cent of its outstanding shares, to raise its charter capital from VND2.276 trillion ($98.6 million) to VND 2.426 trillion ($105.1 million).

The fund raised will be used to strengthen jewellery production capacity, improve production technologies and product designs, expand the retail network, and speed up digital transformation.

Shareholders also approved the issuance of more than 3.4 million shares at VND10,000 per share to employees who have made outstanding contributions.

Talking about the company’s vision for this decade, Dung said: “PNJ aims to become the leading jewellery production and retail company in Asia.”

Le Tri Thong, the company’s CEO, said despite difficulties last year due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, PNJ grew net revenues by 21 per cent to over VND17.5 trillion and profit after tax by 28 per cent to VND 1.07 trillion.

According to Forbes Vietnam, the brand value of PNJ climbed by $15.5 million last year to $94.1 million, rising three places to 21st in the country and remaining at the top of the personal consumer goods industry. — VNS

Vicostone Joint Stock Company, member of Phenikaa Group, is targeting 20.1 per cent and 15.1 per cent in net revenue and pre-tax profit respectively to nearly VND6.8 trillion (US$292 million) and VND1.9 trillion ($83 million) in 2021.

These figures were announced at the company’s Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting 2021 held in the capital late last week. The shareholders attending the meeting hold more than 143 million shares, representing 89.64 per cent of the total voting shares.

The company will focus on enhancing research and development activities to create new products, improving market competitiveness based on the advantage in science and technology while expanding production and better control expenses.

Top priority will also be given to connecting other members in the Phenikaa Ecosystem for added values and benefit and broadening the culture and values as well as balancing the interests among all stakeholders.

Vicostone earned VND5.66 trillion worth of total net revenue and VND1.67 trillion worth of pre-tax profit tax in 2020.

Last year, it sought further penetration in new markets in addition to existing ones such as North America, Europe and Asia. The exploration of new markets helped strengthen the presence of Vicostone in more than 50 markets across the world.

In 2020, Vicostone became the third largest engineered countertop supplier to the global market, according to the US research firm Freedonia, and that was a strong confirmation and recognition of VICOSTONE® in both domestic and international markets.

Thanks to the postive business performance, Vicostone planned to distribute a 40 per cent dividend for 2020, including cash and bonus shares, to fulfill its commitment to the shareholders. — VNS

The ambassador bid farewell to the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense before leaving the country.

During the reception, General Giang congratulated the US Ambassador on his achievements during his term in Vietnam, contributing to promoting the bilateral ties in general and bilateral defense cooperation in particular, in the framework of the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership.

The Defense Minister also affirmed Vietnam’s consistent viewpoint of always considering the US one of its most important partners and hoped to develop comprehensive relations with the country on the basis of respecting the independence, sovereignty and political institutions of each other.

As Ambassador Kritenbrink has been promoted to US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, General Giang expressed his belief that in his new position, Ambassador Kritenbrink will continue to achieve success and further focus on promoting relations between the two countries and militaries, especially in overcoming the consequences of war.

On this occasion, Ambassador Kritenbrink congratulated General Giang on his promotion to Defense Minister. Ambassador Kritenbrink also promised that in his new position, he would pay attention to promoting the relationship between the two countries and militaries.

At the meeting, General Giang and Ambassador Kritenbrink highly appreciated the results of the cooperation between the two countries in recent years on both bilateral, regional and international levels. The two sides acknowledged and hailed the implementation of the memorandum of understanding on promoting bilateral defense cooperation and the joint vision statement on defense relations.

Especially, both sides praised the outcomes of cooperation between Vietnam and the US in overcoming war consequences, thereby effectively building trust between the two countries.

The successes of the two sides’ cooperation projects, such as the already-finished Environmental Remediation of Dioxin Contamination at Da Nang Airport Project, as well as the ongoing Bien Hoa airport dioxin cleanup project and continual MIA missions have contributed to strengthening friendship and creating favorable conditions for the two sides to boost cooperation.

General Giang emphasized that Vietnam will prioritize the cooperation in overcoming war legacy in the coming time.

In addition, both sides agreed to continue cooperation activities according to the signed documents for mutual benefits of the two peoples.

Translated by Minh Anh