Thứ Ba, 30 tháng 4, 2013

Visa Card Global Travel Intentions Study 2013 names top destinations and top ...

Visa’s latest Global Travel Intentions Study 2013 has revealed that global cross- border tourism is thriving and travelers intend to increase budgets for their next trip by an average of five percent – with some holidaymakers even suggesting that they would more than double what they spent on their previous trip.


Visa’s regular barometer of travel trends indicates budgets are no longer among the top three reasons behind why travelers choose their next holiday destination. The pull of attractions, scenery and rich culture are instead stronger reasons for travel.


According to the Study, which surveyed 12,631 travelers from 25 countries, the average global travel budget of US$2,390 per trip is set to increase to US$2,501. Top spenders abroad are the Saudi Arabians, spending an average of US$6,666 per trip, while Australian (US$4,118) and Chinese travelers (US$3,824) were not far behind. Future travel budget increases are especially high amongst Asian markets with a predicted increase of 46 percent – travelers from Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong all plan to at least double the budget of their last trip in the future.


“Singapore emerged as a top choice for regional travelers and is home to some of the most travel-savvy consumers in the region,” said Ooi Huey Tyng, Visa Country Manager, Singapore and Brunei. “Singaporean travelers and visitors to this country can be assured they can use their Visa cards at more places locally and globally with greater security and travel benefits.”


“Understanding these changes is key for facilitating collaboration, encouraging informed engagement, and promoting growth across the travel industry. We have been running the Travel Intentions study since 2006 as our contribution to increasing the collective level of information the industry can use to make intelligent decisions to benefit the traveler and the industry at large. Visa is committed to using the results to identify changes and developments to better understand the travel and tourism environment.”


United States remains the top choice destination

Attractions, Scenery, and Culture were cited as the key drivers for a future trip regardless of destination. This desire to explore new horizons was evidenced by the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, which revealed that international tourist arrivals grew by four percent in 2012 to reach 1.035 billion1.


1 International tourism to continue robust growth in 2013, UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, 28 January 2013


Visa’s Study revealed the United States ranked as the most popular destination choice for global travelers, both for trips taken in the past two years (17 percent) and for intended travel in 2013 (10 percent).


Other top destinations in 2011 and 2012 included the United Kingdom (UK) (12 percent), France (12 percent) and China, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong (all 10 percent). Looking ahead, regional travel is set to increase, especially in reflection of the growing popularity and economic strength of Asia Pacific (APAC). 31 percent of global travel is expected to be to Asia, and new APAC destinations such as Australia (four percent) and Korea (three percent) are making it on to the latest list of most preferred destinations for future travel.


Travelers also ranked Japan (five percent) and Australia (four percent) alongside the UK (five percent) as the top four intended destinations for future trips abroad.


Increasing Ease of Travel

An increasing ease and availability of travel options is fuelling the tourism boom. This is particularly prominent in the airline industry where 85 percent of travelers prefer to fly to their destinations despite a preference for shorter distances2. Of this figure, most (71 percent) chose to fly economy class while, perhaps surprisingly, only 16 percent chose budget airlines.

The Rise of the Asian Giant

The increasing popularity of APAC is partially driven from within the region. Among travelers across the four global regions (APAC; the Americas; Middle East and Africa; Europe), respondents from APAC indicated strong intention (77 percent) to travel more in the future – with residents from nine3 of the region’s markets, including Singapore, stating a higher intention to travel than the global average. Much of this increased travel is expected to take place within the region, where 80 percent of Asian travelers have chosen to take trips in the last two years.


The top 3 countries with the highest outbound rates in APAC are Australia (98%), Singapore (97%) and Hong Kong (91%).


2 43 percent of travel within the past two years was short haul trips of four hours or less 3 Malaysia, China, Singapore, HK, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, India


4 The three most popular destinations were China, Singapore and Hong Kong


APAC travelers are also spending more during their trip – those traveling within the region spent an average of US$273 per day, higher than both the global average (US$239) and any other region5.

“The Asian markets have experienced a huge boom in tourism over the past few years due to the continued strength of their economies and the implementation of policies that promote cooperation and coordination in cross-border tourism. The ease of travel within the region, coupled with a rising middle class, has seen a growing demand for travel among the population and we expect this trend to continue into 2013 and beyond,” said Martin Craigs, Chief Executive Officer, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)



Visa Card Global Travel Intentions Study 2013 names top destinations and top ...

Malaysia-Singapore Bonding All Business in Lee-Najib Thaw

At Singapore’s Fullerton Bay Hotel, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak smile and toss yusheng, a raw-fish salad symbolizing prosperity, and in this case a thaw in five decades of feuding.


The traditional feast in February after the Lunar New Year was the latest annual retreat between the sons of former leaders, whose fathers were more likely to hurl accusations than culinary delicacies. After half a century of fighting over everything from a pile of rocks in the ocean, to water supplies and ownership of a railway station, the two premiers are trying to foster cooperation as they face rising competition from other Southeast Asian economies and declining voter support at home.


“The two leaders have good chemistry and rapport and there is a high comfort level,” said Ong Keng Yong, Singapore’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, who has attended annual meetings that Lee and Najib hold. “When businessmen see a good political relationship, they are more comfortable about investing.”


Malaysia is Singapore’s largest trading partner and bilateral trade amounted to S$113.4 billion ($92 billion) in 2012, up from S$77.2 billion in 2003. The island’s investment into Malaysia has climbed about 25 percent annually over the past three years, according to DBS Group Holdings Ltd.


Najib’s visit this year comes as he’s fighting to retain power in elections next week, in contrast to his first official trip as leader in May 2009, a month after he took office. Then, he and his wife Rosmah Mansor had a new hybrid orchid named after them — Dendrobium Najib Rosmah. Najib said at the time that Singapore and Malaysia should not have rollercoaster relations or be encumbered by historical baggage.


‘Lo Hei’


The day after the “lo hei” fish tossing in February, Najib and Lee traveled to Iskandar Malaysia, a special economic zone in Johor state, to unveil projects that will include homes, retailers and spas. One will be developed by Khazanah Nasional Bhd. and Temasek Holdings Pte (TMSK), the state-owned investment companies of Malaysia and Singapore.


In Singapore’s presidential palace hours earlier, the two leaders had announced plans for a high-speed rail link by 2020 that would cut the 300-kilometer (180-mile) journey to Kuala Lumpur to 90 minutes, with Lee saying the two capitals could be seen as twin cities like London and Paris.


“I think we’re in a much better place now than we’ve been in a long time,” Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in a February interview. “Not just at a political level but just the sense amongst the middle class and the professional class and the intellectuals that says ‘look, it makes a lot of sense to work together.’”


Wealth Race


Economically, Singapore has flourished faster than its resource-rich neighbor, with gross domestic product per capita of $60,688 compared with Malaysia’s $16,051, according to World Bank data for 2011. The island is Southeast Asia’s only advanced economy. Malaysia said last month it may reach high-income status as early as 2018.


With other developing economies in Southeast Asia vying for a bigger share of investment, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, Malaysia is keen to make better use of Singapore’s financial muscle.


“The wealth they have in Singapore could certainly benefit Malaysia as well, and Malaysia’s hinterland will benefit Singapore,” Najib said in an April interview. “I told Prime Minister Hsien Loong ‘I don’t mind, you can be the Manhattan, we’ll be New Jersey. But we’ll prosper together.’”


Separate Ways


It wasn’t always thus. British colonial rule had left a tangle of connections on the peninsula that became touchstones for disputes after independence. Singapore and Malaysia were part of the same union for two years until the city-state was ousted in 1965. Much of Singapore’s fresh water came from a pipeline across the causeway that linked it to Johor, while the island’s main railway station and track remained part of Malaysia.


The two soon bickered over water. Tunku Abdul Rahman, then Malaysian prime minister, said he may pressure Singapore’s foreign policy “by threatening to turn off the water,” according to archival records. When Lee’s father, Lee Kuan Yew, was prime minister, he once said he was prepared to send troops to Malaysia if it tried to turn off the taps.


Even as late as 2003, both nations placed full-page ads in the Asian Wall Street Journal to air their water gripes.


A dispute over Pedra Branca, a football-field-sized islet named for its white guano-covered rocks, lasted 29 years, until the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled in favor of Singapore in 2008.


Investment Rivals


Competition for investments fueled the rivalry. Johor’s Port of Tanjung Pelepas more than a decade ago offered lower fees than Singapore’s PSA Corp. to lure away shipping lines on one of the world’s busiest trading routes.


Meanwhile Lee, 61, and Najib, 59, were on paths to power.


Both went to university in the U.K., with Najib graduating in industrial economics at the University of Nottingham while Lee read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, before pursuing a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.


Lee’s father was leader of Singapore from the time of independence in 1965, when Najib’s father, Abdul Razak Hussein, was deputy prime minister and a key player in Singapore’s departure from the union, according to the elder Lee’s memoirs. Abdul Razak became premier of Malaysia in 1970.


After college, the younger Lee was in the army, where he quickly rose to the rank of brigadier general. In 1984, at the age of 32, he entered politics and soon became a junior minister in trade and defense.


Father’s Death


Najib’s career outside politics lasted only two years, during which he served as an executive at state oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd. (PET), before the sudden death of his father in 1976. He stood for the parliamentary seat Abdul Razak had vacated and was elected unopposed at 23.


Najib got his shot at deputy minister posts in energy, education and finance, before the two sons’ paths aligned with both becoming finance ministers and deputy prime ministers.


As leaders, they have attempted to remodel their economies rather than continuing where their predecessors left off. Lee lifted a four-decade ban on casinos within a year of becoming prime minister, allowing two multi-billion-dollar gaming resorts that now have gambling revenue equivalent to two-thirds of the total on the Las Vegas strip.


Shifting Focus


While his father promoted the island as a low-cost manufacturing center for companies such as Texas Instruments Inc. in the 1960s, the son presides over one of the world’s largest foreign-exchange centers, with a S$1.34 trillion asset- management industry.


Najib unveiled a so-called economic transformation program in September 2010 that identified $444 billion of projects that the government planned to promote in cooperation with non-state companies, ranging from mass rail to oil storage.


Still, voter pressure has increased on both leaders, with Najib facing the prospect of a general election that could throw him out of power.


His ruling Barisan Nasional coalition faces its biggest challenge in 55 years as it battles a revitalized opposition led by former Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim in polls on May 5. He has said a win by a fractious opposition could bring “catastrophic ruin.”


Malaysia’s benchmark stock index is Southeast Asia’s worst performer this year, rising 1.7 percent, compared with gains of more than 16 percent in Indonesia and the Philippines.


Crying ‘Wolf’


Anwar called Najib’s comments “shameful” and accused the leader of being like “the proverbial boy who cries wolf.” In a separate interview on March 8, he said he would continue the special relationship with Singapore if he won the election.


“Singapore’s a very important component” within the region, Anwar said. “It has a special relationship and history with us. We need to continue this.”


Lee is also feeling political strains. His People’s Action Party in 2011 had its narrowest election victory since independence after the government’s immigration policy increased voter ire. An influx of foreigners has boosted the population by 1.1 million since mid-2004, to 5.3 million, to make up for a low birth rate among Singaporeans.


With an increasingly crowded island and rising labor costs, Singaporean companies are looking across the causeway to a neighbor that is more than 470 times bigger in size, with a population that’s only about six times larger.


Basic Interests


“Whatever government is put in charge through the democratic process will understand that both economies are intertwined and they will have to work with each other,” said Ong, Singapore’s high commissioner to Malaysia. “Stability and continuity are important.”


One such area of cooperation is Afiniti Medini, a 5-acre (2-hectare) project in Iskandar expected to be completed in 2015 that will include about 400 homes and a health spa.


Singapore companies have invested about S$2.5 billion in Iskandar since it was set up in 2006, making the nation the largest foreign investor, according to the Iskandar Regional Development Authority. The zone, almost three times the size of New York City, is located in a state Lee’s father once described as “notorious for shootings, muggings and carjackings.”


Singapore has “pragmatic and strategic reasons” for being interested in Iskandar, said Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS.


Regional Competitors


“Profit margins are being eroded and local enterprises that are unable to restructure their businesses or improve productivity will either have to cease their operations or relocate,” Seah said. “When you have lower-cost manufacturers like Indonesia and Vietnam emerging and catching up, relationships that are just focused on the manufacturing value- chain will break down. Iskandar includes collaboration in services, property, tourism and this is a model which will be more sustainable.”


Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. (OCBC), Southeast Asia’s second- largest lender, expects loans to Singapore companies relocating to Iskandar to triple in the next two years, according to Tan Chor Sen, who heads international business at OCBC’s global commercial banking division.


“We’ve had water spats, sand spats but it’s like a brother and sister thing which you have once in a while,” said Leslie Foo, managing director for global markets at Malayan Banking Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “I think what has happened in the last three years is what I call a merging of talents. There’s a lot more people who have gone to Singapore to work and there are a lot more guys who have come over here.”


In the April 17 interview, Najib said he was determined to remove the obstacles to bilateral ties when he came to power in 2009 by seeking agreements with Lee on long-standing issues that were mutually beneficial.


“He is someone I can do business with,” said Najib. Singapore officials “are tough to negotiate with but once they agree, things happen, things flow.”


To contact the reporter on this story: Shamim Adam in Singapore at sadam2@bloomberg.net


To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Phang at sphang@bloomberg.net



Malaysia-Singapore Bonding All Business in Lee-Najib Thaw

Travellers care less about budgets than experiences: Visa survey

BUDGETS have become less important to travellers, who now care more for the types of attractions, quality of scenery and rich cultural experiences that a destination offers, according to Visa’s latest Global Travel Intentions Study 2013 of 12,631 travellers from 25 countries.


 


Whereas last year’s findings showed concerns such as “weather”, “fits my budget” and “culture” as influencing travellers’ intention to travel, the latest survey indicated that budget concerns had “fallen off the radar”, said Ross Jackson, head of cross-border business for Visa in Asia-Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa. He said this suggested either economic recovery or a growing appetite for larger travel budgets.



“In past surveys, we were seeing budget or security issues. We’re not seeing that as much,” he told travel industry CEOs at a PATA luncheon on Saturday.



Asian travellers are planning to spend 46 per cent more on travel, with those from Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong intending to almost double the budget of their last trip in the future.



“Thailand is growing immensely. Hong Kong is slightly different; it’s partly fuelled by Japan, one of their favourite destinations, which has suddenly become more affordable due to the exchange rate,” Jackson said.



Nearly 40 per cent of travellers surveyed said they intended to stay in four-star hotels and above. Accommodation, however, would account for only nine per cent of this year’s travel spend, with retail lopping off the most spend (30 per cent), followed by dining (24 per cent) and activities (21 per cent).



Just over a third of global travel is expected to be to Asia, with Australia and South Korea as among the most preferred destinations for intended travel this year.



But the most popular destination choice for global travellers for this year is the US.



Travellers care less about budgets than experiences: Visa survey

KLM"s Miffy campaign; Cathay"s eCoupon offer; Singapore to add Japan flights

KLM’s Miffy campaign


KLM Royal Dutch Airlines launched a direct flight from Amsterdam to Fukuoka on April 3. In celebration, the airline is holding a Facebook campaign called “Miffy traveling Europe with KLM” through May 31.


In this historic service, KLM has become the first airline to directly connect Europe and Kyushu. At the arrival at Fukuoka Airport on April 4, an arch of water was sprayed to welcome the flight.


The campaign offers participants a chance to win round-trip tickets for two to Amsterdam or KLM original Miffy travel goods, such as a suitcase and suitcase belt. KLM’s official Facebook page for this campaign is at www.facebook.com/klmjapan .


To apply, people need to answer some quizzes about the travels of Miffy and Uncle Pilot in each city, which is introduced on the Facebook page by photos and videos.


Winners will be notified by the shipment of the prize. This campaign is available only for people who live in Japan. The terms and conditions might change or be canceled without prior notice.


For more information, visit the KLM Facebook page.


Cathay eCoupon special


Cathay Pacific Airways is holding a campaign through July 28 for those book tickets online.


During the campaign period, among those who purchase tickets from Japan to Oceania or North America for departure from May 1 to July 31 on the website www.cathaypacific.co.jp/en (infant fares, redemption tickets and packages are not eligible) have a chance to receive an eCoupon that can be used as credit for preflight duty-free orders at the Discover the Shop online store.


People who make preflight duty-free orders receive their items on the flight.


For the first 50 economy class ticket purchases, a $50 eCoupon will be provided. For the first 50 premium economy or business class purchases, a $100 eCoupon is provided.


To participate, purchase an eligible ticket online during the booking period and forward the booking confirmation email you receive after making the purchase to complete the application with “Campaign Application” in the subject line.


The booking and application period is through July 28.


For more information, visit www.cathaypacific.co.jp .


Singapore adding flights


Singapore Airlines has announced that to meet demand, it will increase the number of its services between Singapore and Japan for the summer schedule.


Starting May 30, flights between Singapore Changi Airport and Kansai International Airport, currently offered at 11 a week, will be operated twice every day for a total of 14 per week. From May 28, the flights between Changi and Fukuoka Airport, currently offered five times a week, will be offered daily for a total of seven a week.


Also, in the high season, during this Golden Week through May 7 and from Aug. 10 to 18, the airline will use the Airbus A380 for flights between Changi and Narita International Airport to provide more seats.


In August, the airline will offer other additional services to let more customers travel to Singapore.


For more information, visit www.singaporeair.com .




KLM"s Miffy campaign; Cathay"s eCoupon offer; Singapore to add Japan flights

BUSINESS IN BRIEF 30/4

Vung Tau to host Int’l Seaports Festival



An International Seaports Festival will take place in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau from May 17–19.



The event aims to further the Government’s marine-based economic development strategy and consolidate the marine sector’s leading role in the new period.



It is also expected to raise the international community’s awareness of Vietnam’s sovereign seas and islands.



The festival—the first of its kind in Vietnam—will encompass various activities, such as a carnival, a golf tournament, music performances, seminars, exhibitions, and fairs.



The festival’s programme is designed to introduce Vietnam’s various tourism, investment, and maritime industrial policies, promote the sectors’ potential for development.



It will showcase the products, equipment, and internationally advanced technology used in the construction and operation of Vietnamese seaports. It will also demonstrate the quality of their human resources, logistics, imports and exports, and modern customs procedures.



The festival also offers opportunities to exchange commercial port management experiences, carrier and logistics systems connections, and urban and seaport development strategies.


Geographical indications safeguard local trademarks



Vietnam has been developing a geographical indication system to safeguard the patent rights of the country’s famous traditional products with a hope that the new system will help boost production and trade of the country’s unique produce.



At an EU seminar on Geographical Indications (GI) on April 22, Vice Director General of the National Office of Intellectual Property Tran Huu Nam said that the country had certified 35 unique GIs.



A GI is a name or symbol on the packaging of a product certifying that it possesses a certain guaranteed quality due to its geographical origin and the traditional methods used in its creation. Products bearing a GI prove particularly attractive to buyers.



Nam estimated that the country has around 1,000 traditional agricultural products and produce with a fine reputation for quality and an association with a particular region, and declared that in the near future they should be assigned GIs.



He said GIs help consumers find authentic products, thus boosting the production and trade of traditional goods. They also play an important role in the development of agriculture, rural areas and the quality of local products.



Famous certified GIs include Phu Quoc fish sauce, Shan Tuyet Moc Chau tea, Buon Ma Thuot coffee, Doan Hung grapefruit and Binh Thuan green dragon fruit.



The Ambassador-head of the EU delegation, Franz Jessen, said that GIs will guarantee the quality of Vietnam’s agricultural products in the EU.



Vietnam was among only a few countries to achieve export growth to the EU in the last few years, and this growth will help push the negotiation process for a bilateral trade agreement between the country and the EU, he noted.



Deputy Head of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Trong Binh said that GI development in Vietnam faces many difficulties because consumers know little about them and cooperation among sectors remains poor.



He said that the indicators had been mostly used to protect intellectual property, but they should also be seen as an instrument to boost agriculture production.


Vietnam reviews climate change investment



A conference was held in Hanoi on April 23 by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, to collect opinions on evaluating investment activities and public spending on climate change.



Vietnam has joined a number of initiatives in accordance with the Convention of the United Nations (UN) and Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Many national policies have been revised to incorporate climate change issues into environmental management work, biodiversity preservation and other interdisciplinary goals such as poverty reduction.



To date the country has received US$1.2 billion in international aid for climate change adaptation. Experts say investment in this area is expected to increase, but there is a lack of policies and coordination capacity, creating a bottleneck in the implementation process.



According to Pham Hoang Mai, head of the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Department of Science, Education, Natural Resources and Environment, domestic investment in climate change adaptation is still restricted.



Thomas Beloe, a UNDP representative, suggested that Vietnam should take a more proactive approach to climate change, particularly to promote green/low carbon development.



A tough challenge for developing countries, including Vietnam, is how to mobilise sufficient financial sources to deal with climate change, said Murray, a World Bank representative. Therefore, the country should classify climate change-related costs in order to improve the quality of spending on climate change response.


EU says will welcome Vietnam’s GI goods



The European Union (EU) says it will open its door wide to Vietnamese products, especially farm produce registered for geographical indication (GI) in EU, heard a seminar in Hanoi on Monday.



At the seminar on protection and GI registration, Franz Jessen, head of the EU Delegation to Vietnam, said Vietnam needs to have GI products to enter the EU market of over 500 million consumers when the Vietnam- EU free trade agreement comes into force.



The agreement will encourage Vietnamese GI producers to make registration to have their products protected in EU, Jessen noted. This will create favorable conditions for promoting the products on global markets as well, he told the seminar on appellation organized by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development.



Speakers at the seminar agreed that GI products will be sold at higher prices than others. GI is not only a tool to prevent fake items but is used to develop markets also, ensuring healthy competition between products.



GI protection programs have positive socio-economic impacts and are important to remote rural areas where farm products are produced and processed.



Tran Huu Nam, deputy director of the Vietnam Intellectual Property Office under the Ministry of Science and Technology, noticed GI can help improve trade and meet diversified demand for foodstuff, food safety and hygiene, and biological diversity.



The fact that Phu Quoc fish sauce as the first Vietnamese product to be given appellation protection in EU has paved the way for the registration of other home-made GI products in EU. But it took the fish sauce up to three years to be granted the GI license there.



Silva Rodriguez of the EC’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, meanwhile, said protection and market access need to be done at the same time. That is because it is difficult to enter international markets without protection, he explained, adding the quality of products labeled GI in EU will be protected accordingly.



However, GI registration is a troublesome and time-consuming process, said Rodriguez.



It is a complicated procedure because a product to be protected must ensure that there are no arguments about its origin and quality, he said.



Up to now, 35 products had been registered as GI items in Vietnam, including three imported ones. The country has about 1,000 products that are qualified for GI registration, said Tran Huu Nam of the Vietnam Intellectual Property Office.


Duyen Hai power center seaport project kicks off



The seaport of the Duyen Hai power center that started construction on Sunday will receive 12 million tons of coal and 100,000 tons of oil annually for the three thermo-power plants in the area, Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) as project owner said.



The seaport will be completed and operational at the end of 2015 to serve the supply of coal and oil for the three Duyen Hai thermo-power plants in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh designed with a combined capacity of 4,400 MW.



EVN started work on the Duyen Hai 3 thermo-power plant in December and the group also kicked off construction of the Duyen Hai 1 thermo-power plant in September, 2010.



The three thermo-power plants will provide some 25 billion kWh of electricity a year, which is expected to help ensure stable power supply for southern provinces in the near future.



The seaport, covering a total 427 hectares, is developed in Dan Thanh Commune, Duyen Hai District at a total cost of VND2.32 trillion. Some 15% of the investment capital is provided by EVN, with the balance planned to be funded by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd.



The seaport is located 45 kilometers from Tra Vinh Town and about 250 kilometers from HCMC. Its major components comprise two wharfs for coal ships weighing 30,000 DWT and one wharf for oil vessels of up to 1,000 DWT. Besides, there are also a 3.9-kilometer dyke, handling equipment and oil pipeline systems at the port.


Vietnam’s digital content market fetches US$1.3 billion



The domestic digital content sector generated revenue of US$1.3 billion last year, up 12% compared to 2011, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.



Speaking at the seminar on online trading organized by the HCMC Young Business Association (YBA) last week, Pham Duy Yen of the ministry’s Department of Information Technology noted that the industry has made strong growth over the past time.



The country’s online entertainment service market has also seen the fastest growth rate in the world. Last year, online game revenue in Vietnam stood at US$250 million, a 20% year-on-year increase.



Zing, the nation’s biggest social network, has reached 15 million users. These figures prove that the nation’s information technology infrastructure is capable of meeting online trading and e-commerce application demands.



Local experts at the seminar also said that it is the proper time for enterprises to speed up investments in e-trading to enjoy advantages of the sector.



Nguyen Ngoc Dung of the Vietnam E-commerce Association said that Vietnam has made improvements in the world’s ICT competitiveness rankings. The nation now ranks 53rd, up three notches against 2011.



According to a survey of over 3,400 businesses in various fields conducted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, up to 60% of enterprises accept B2B (business to business) method while around 95% of enterprises accept online orders.



One-third of enterprises have e-commerce incomes making up 15% or more of the total earnings. E-commerce transaction currently accounts for 2.5% of the nation’s GDP (gross domestic product).


Samsung reveals interactive smart TV



Samsung Vina last Thursday launched Samsung Smart TV 2013 with improved interactive features allowing users to experience interoperability with voice and gesture.



With a Smart Hub 2.0 interface, Samsung Smart TV 2013 can understand a lot more gestures and voice commands. The new TV series can recognize voice and gesture faster and more accurate as it is enhanced with a quad-core microprocessor. Featuring the LED TV F8000 and the 4K TV 85S9, Samsung Smart TV 2013 is easier to use and give users access to applications, multimedia and social networks.



At this launch, Samsung Vina also announced the upgrade toolkit Evolution Kit for users to upgrade their 2012 smart TVs to the latest version.


Budget condo supply limited, says Savills



Budget apartments covering less than 100 square meters each are the most marketable, but supply of such apartments is limited, says a research conducted by Savills Vietnam.



Do Thu Hang, head of research and consultancy at Savills Vietnam, delivered a report on the research into the Hanoi apartment market, remarking that apartments under 100 square meters sold very well.



Savills carried out the research after the Ministry of Construction issued a circular on the conversion of commercial housing projects into low-cost ones.



The researcher found that Hanoi does not have so many apartments of less than 70 square meters priced below VND15 million per square meter. In the secondary market, there are only some 1,000 apartments of this category.



As per a report of CBRE, the apartments going on sale in Hanoi in the first quarter came from two mid-end projects and seven low-end ones. Project owners pay more attention to the market demand to offer appropriate products, said the property service provider.



Apartment prices continued to go down in both the primary and secondary markets in the first quarter. In the primary market, 95% of the newly-launched apartments had prices below US$1,000, versus 26% in the same period last year.



A number of project owners continued to offer their unsold products at lower prices. CBRE remarked the primary prices of some projects had been reduced by up to 50%.



There are now around 21,600 unsold apartments in Hanoi, up 20% year-on-year. Some 600 flats were sold in the first quarter with budget condos recording the strongest sales.



In the urban areas in Hanoi, 250 transactions were made in the first quarter. About 60% of the 9,000 complete apartments in these urban areas are still unoccupied, which is ascribed to the lack of utilities.



Nguyen Quoc Tuan, deputy director of the Hanoi Department of Construction, said three projects in Hanoi had been given nod for low-cost house development and conversion of commercial condos into low-cost ones. In addition, three other projects are under consideration and 12 projects have registered for building or turning their commercial houses into low-cost ones, he said.



A survey done by the Hanoi construction department reveals that more than 193,000 people have applied for low-cost condos.



Property firms said they wanted to transform their commercial projects into low-cost ones to enjoy certain incentives. This move will also make their products more marketable because the demand for budget houses is very huge.



Therefore, about ten projects in Hanoi will go through such transformation this year, said Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tran Nam at a recent meeting.


HAGL focuses on property projects overseas



Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAGL) will focus on developing property projects in foreign countries at a time the domestic property market remains depressed, said HAGL Chairman Doan Nguyen Duc.



This does not mean the local realty market is no longer attractive, but it is difficult to sell products at home now, he explained.



Real estate is one of three sectors that HAGL is pursuing in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, along with agriculture and hydropower. Therefore, the group will do whatever it can in the sectors that still have room to grow, said the chairman.



This year, HAGL will focus resources on Myanmar, where the group will build the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Myanmar Center. It will spend around US$300 million transforming a seven-hectare land lot in Yangon City into a complex consisting of a five-star hotel with over 400 rooms, a commercial center, offices for rent and some 2,000 apartments.



The first phase of the project is scheduled for completion late next year, said Duc. He declined to reveal the specific apartment price in the Myanmar market, but informed that the price would be several times higher than the level in Vietnam.



Last Friday, HAGL started work on the four-star hotel project Hoang Anh Gia Lai – Vientiane in Laos. The 12-story hotel worth about US$16.5 million will be completed in the next 15 months to supply the market with 185 rooms.



HAGL’s investment abroad is worth 80% of its total assets, said Duc. So far, the group has poured around US$1.3 billion into foreign markets, with Laos having received US$800 million, Myanmar US$300 million and Cambodia the remainder. The major fields for investment are agriculture (rubber and sugarcane), real estate (office building and hotel) and hydropower.



After five years of boosting overseas investment, agriculture has generated profits for the group. It is expected that HAGL will obtain a profit of VND500 billion in 2013 and a larger sum in the following years.



In recent years, HAGL has caught the market’s attention with shocking price discounts. Talking about the chance of another price cut, the group’s chairman said prices of mid- and low-end housing projects could be slashed further.



In the past, HAGL has been able to reduce prices because its satellite companies provided a close chain of services, from design, building materials to construction and interior decoration. Now, the projects under construction cannot be priced lower.



“As an insider, I know… and can tell for sure that if we cannot lower prices, no one can,” said Duc, adding that only incomplete projects would slash prices further to quickly sell products in order to cut losses.


Cruise tourism to get popular in coming years



Cruise tourism will become an important trend in the coming years, heard a conference themed “Asian vision – adapt to the regional development trend” held by the Singapore Tourism Board in HCMC last Thursday.



Cruise tourism in Asian countries, including Vietnam, has been growing in recent years and will grow even stronger in the future, said speakers at the conference.



In 2011, the number of cruise tourists worldwide was about 1.7 million, but just a small percentage of them came to Asia. However, it is forecast that 25% of the world’s cruise tourists will come to this region in 2020.



Particularly, Vietnam is considered an attractive destination, with many World Heritage Sites, a coastline stretching thousands of kilometers and warm weather.



Tran Trong Kien, general director of Thien Minh Group, said the demand for travel by cruise ships and yachts in Vietnam was growing very well and would rise by 25% in the next five years. Thien Minh has invested in ten passenger ships at Halong Bay, but the firm is still worried this is not enough to meet the demand in the coming years.



Jeannie Lim, executive director of exhibitions conferences and conventions meetings at the Singapore Tourism Board, said Singapore had established a cruise center to promote the development of this important tourism segment. However, cruise tourism needs many destinations, so this is a chance for countries to join hands in developing services for tourists.



Regarding the use of the Internet to find tours and book services online, the speakers said this is an inevitable trend that needs investment now.



A survey done by Thien Minh Group shows that about 90% of tourists book services online or view photos and reviews of hotels and resorts before arriving there. In Vietnam, some 10% of bookings are made online, but it will increase to 20-30% in the next 2-3 years.


Malaysia, Vietnam share experience in attracting tourists



Malaysia is a key market Vietnam’s tourism industry should focus on in order to broaden its customer base.



Mohd Akbal Setia, Director of the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board’s Vietnam office, addressed Vietnamese tourism industry leaders and discussed the successful marketing and promotion strategies Malaysia has employed.



Malaysia is a multiethnic society with a diverse culture. More than 60 percent of the population is Muslim, a novel feature that can be used to entice tourists.



In addition to its unique culinary highlights, the country boasts many beautiful destinations visitors are able to explore, ranging from modern cities and tropical rainforests to mountains and beautiful beaches.



Malaysia provides a range of tourism products catering to different tastes at competitive prices, such as resorts, cultural entertainment adventure sports, and shopping.



Malaysia is currently developing new tourism ventures based on the meetings, incentives, conferencing, and exhibitions (MICE) markets.



Setia affirmed Vietnam’s conditions are favourable for becoming an international tourism hotspot, citing its varied and ancient culture and the many sites officially recognised by UNESCO as natural or cultural heritage. The country has some of the world’s most beautiful beaches and bays, and hospitable people.



Vietnam should take advantage of these features to develop distinctive tourism products, Setia said.



Malaysia wants to cooperate with Vietnam in tourism development, creating the best possible conditions for citizens from the two countries to explore their respective regional allies.



Since its establishment in Vietnam in November 2011, the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board regularly participates in activities organised by the Vietnamese tourism sector.



It recently sent representatives to the Vietnam International Travel Mart (VITM 2013) in Hanoi, where three Malaysian companies discussed tourism strategies with six leading Vietnamese travel agents.



The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has also organized a series of promotional tourism activities in Malaysia, including the Vietnam Night at the ASEAN Tourism Forum in 2005, and the MATTA Fair in 2007- a programme involving 60 Malaysian businesses and press.



Many travel agents have sent their staff on fact-finding trips to Malaysia to learn more about its tourism market.



Since the two countries exempted each other’s citizens from requiring a visa if travelling for less than a month, the number of Malaysian visitors to Vietnam has increased significantly from 105,000 in 2006 to 233,000 in 2011.


Gov’t VND30-tril. home loans still at draft stage



The budget home loan package amounting to VND30 trillion promised by the Government to revive the real estate market is still only a draft, despite it was previously estimated to be deployed from April 15.



According to the Credit Department under the State Bank of Vietnam, the draft circular stipulating regulations on low-cost home purchase and leasing under the government’s Resolution No. 02/NQ-CP will obtain approval and take effect within next month.



The department is revising some contents in this draft to suit real demands of homebuyers and as suggested by relevant agencies.



The central bank will set aside VND30 trillion to support five State-owned commercial banks, including VietinBank, Vietcombank and BIDV, to lend eligible borrowers through the refinancing form. The lending rate will be fixed at 6% per year in the first three months and after that, borrowers will continue to enjoy preferential interest rates announced by the central bank.



According to the department, the package is not too big to be deployed at many banks. Besides, the refinancing rate of 4.5% per annum, lower than the lending rate by 1.5 percentage points, will be a challenge to commercial banks in cost compensation.



Pham Huy Thong, deputy general director of VietinBank, said that commercial banks should bear responsibility in giving loans under the supporting package. The important thing is that banks have to cut expenses to prevent operating losses when extending these credits.



Banks have to look into credit applications and set up risk reserve funds for irrecoverable debts. The central bank will collect interest and principal sums at fixed periods regardless of losses or gains commercial banks have made from these loans, Thong said.



As lenders will have to spare a maximum 3% of the total outstanding loans to join this loan package, banks will not suffer big impacts from this program. They will also be able to provide longer-term loans to customers thanks to this fund.



Besides, the number of home loan applications will increase as loan terms for house buyers and renters will be from up to 10 years, Thong added.


Capital’s luxury shopping centres remain empty



Luxury shopping centres are being threatened with closure in Hanoi due to a lack of customers.



Opened in September 2011, Hang Da Galleria is located in a densely-populated and high-income area; therefore, the investor expected the shopping centre to become an ideal area for service and entertainment activities. However, Hang Da Galleria has seen a very low occupancy rate, forcing the centre to temporarily close for an upgrade.



The investor sold its space to tenants, leading to the situation that the centre has many different owners. This has resulted in difficulties in managing the centre. Earlier, Grand Plaza trade centre halted operations in late 2012 for the same reason.



A representative from a real estate consultancy firm said initially the project was planned to be turned into a tourism spot which would only sell traditional products, however, the investor did not agree to the solution and instead decided to select a multi-ownership model for the centre.



Leanne Mitchell, an expert from CBRE, said that many projects had failed due to failure to reach a consensus between owners.



Mitchell said shopping centres were wrong to sell their property to additional investors. The owners should completely control their premises. In cases, where they have to sell their centres, they must have contracts with firm and specific regulations on the responsibilities of any other investor.



Meanwhile, the consumer confidence index has been declining since 2012, and is forecast to further drop in 2013. This will seriously affect the retail market.



Shopping centres are facing fiercer competition, with Parkson and Lotte expanding operations. Parkson has announced it intends to open an additional 3-4 centres in Hanoi. Lotte is working on opening a 65-floor building costing USD400 million. While the Vingroup will open Vincom Royal City and Vincom Mega Mall Times City covering a total area of 460,000 square metres. AeonMall Vietnam has been licensed to invest in a USD200-million retail centre project.



In the current difficult economic situation, shopping centres should have long-term investment strategies following pre-feasibility studies and market surveys. It is also important to survey the incomes of people who live near the project area.


LVI offers insurance to hydropower plants in Laos



Laos-Vietnam Insurance Joint Venture Company (LVI) and EDL Generation Company last Friday signed an operational insurance contract for seven hydropower plants in Laos with the total liability of US$635 million.



Each hydropower plant of EDL Generation Company will be protected in various forms such as asset risks, interrupted business and machine damage during construction and operation.



Pham Duc Hau, general director of LVI, said in a statement released on Monday that this is a big and valuable contract of LVI amid tough competition in the insurance market in Laos.



Over the past five years, LVI, an affiliate of Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) in Laos, has reached average growth rate of over 60% annually.


Government to inspect SBV activities in gold market



The Government Inspectorate has announced that it intends to inspect the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s business management and activities.



The 60-day inspection will focus on the responsibilities and tasks of the State Bank of Vietnam in gold market, as well as the depositing and lending of gold between January 1, 2009 and March 2013.



The Government Inspectorate will set up a four-member task force to supervise the inspection team.



SBV’s management of gold prices has been under scrutiny over the past few years, as domestic prices continue to be volatile.



Recent gold auctions sponsored by the state bank were aimed at stabilising the market. But they proved somewhat ineffective at quelling public concern about the disparity between international and domestic prices, which reached VND6.1 million (USD291.1) per tael as of April 23 morning.



The initiative to stabilise gold prices began in November 2011. At that time, the governor of SBV, Nguyen Van Binh, said the bank would try to reduce the gold prices gap to VND400,000 (USD19) per tael in the coming time. He added that if this goal was not met the entire market should be looked at.


Tokyu Binh Duong launches first condos



Becamex Tokyu Co. Ltd. last Friday launched the sample apartment of Sora Gardens, a component of the US$1.2-billion urban project Tokyu Binh Duong Garden City, and started offering the first apartments of this project.



Some 400 Sora Gardens flats among a total of 1,500 are now on sale through the distributor CB Richard Ellis Vietnam, said Hoshino Toshiyuki, general director of Becamex Tokyu.



Each apartment covers 67-105 square meters and has a price starting from VND1.28 billion, with 30% to be paid when contracts are signed and the remaining sum to be settled when apartments are handed over in the third quarter of next year.



Tokyu Binh Duong Garden City is developed on around 110 hectares in Binh Duong New City at a total cost of VND25 trillion, or some US$1.2 billion. When completed, the project will supply over 7,500 apartments, houses, recreational facilities, and commercial and office space.



Tokyu Corporation, the Japanese investor in the joint venture Becamex Tokyu, said that despite the problems of the property market, Binh Duong remained very potential. The property market in Binh Duong has lured a lot of investors from neighboring localities and helped many realty firms grow up through project distribution.



Binh Duong is better known when the plan for Binh Duong New City was announced about three years ago. The project covering around 1,000 hectares is expected to become an economic-political-social center of Binh Duong, with utilities and services for some 125,000 residents and 400,000 people coming for work.



Binh Duong is one of the few localities with the fastest and the most synchronous infrastructure development. Well-developed infrastructure will create a motivation for the property market.



Not only in the new city, multiple infrastructure projects connecting Binh Duong with nearby localities are also under construction, such as National Highway 13, HCMC-Chon Thanh Expressway, Belt Road No. 3 and 4.


Vinamilk licensed to build plant in Cambodia



Vietnam Dairy Products JSC, or Vinamilk, has just received a certificate for building a milk factory in Cambodia, one of the largest export markets of the company, said Mai Kieu Lien, chairwoman cum general director of Vinamilk.



She was speaking at the opening ceremony for the US$100-million powdered milk plant of Vinamilk in Binh Duong organized on Monday with the participation of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.



Lien did not reveal the capacity as well as the total cost of the factory to be developed in Cambodia. Still, she informed Vinamilk every year exported US$40-50 million worth of dairy products to this market, a volume large enough for the company to operate a milk plant there.



Currently, Vinamilk is holding a 20% stake in a milk plant in New Zealand. The company is seeking to acquire more factories overseas.



“We are eyeing milk factories in Australia and the U.S.,” said Lien.



In 2012, Vinamilk achieved hefty sales revenue of VND27.3 trillion, or some US$1.3 billion, including about US$180 million from export.



Vinamilk wants to make it to the world’s top 50 largest dairy companies with annual sales revenue of US$3 billion by 2017.



Acquiring dairy companies in foreign countries is the shortest way to accomplish such a goal and also an effective method to expand market overseas, said Lien.



To realize its goal of becoming one of the world’s 50 biggest dairy firms, Vinamilk has spent US$200 million building two milk plants in Binh Duong for production of powdered milk and fresh milk. The powdered milk plant inaugurated on Monday has a capacity of 54,000 tons per year, meeting 80% of the demand at home, where Vinamilk is holding a 30% market share.



The two plants will facilitate Vinamilk to boost export in order to expand market overseas.



This year, some 30,000 tons of powdered milk produced at the plant in Binh Duong will be exported, bringing in an estimated US$180 million among US$230 million in the company’s estimated export revenue.


Vinasun to raise capital to VND405 billion



Taxi operator Vietnam Sun Corporation, or Vinasun, will issue around 10.5 million bonus shares to increase its charter capital to VND405 billion, as manifested in a plan approved at its annual general meeting last Friday.



Vinasun will issue the bonus shares at the 100:35 ratio to raise it capital from VND300 billion to VND405 billion. The move aims to sustain development of the company, strengthen its position on the market and improve service quality.



Dang Thi Lan Phuong, general director of Vinasun, said that 2012 was a tough year with repeated gasoline price revisions and a rise in social and health insurance premiums. However, the enterprise obtained over VND2.7 trillion in revenues and VND151.5 billion in after-tax profits, up 19.3% and 14% year-on-year respectively.



In the first quarter of 2013, Vinasun gained VND746 billion in revenues, or 26.7% of this year’s target, and VND47.7 billion in after-tax profits. The enterprise launched 98 more taxicabs into operation in the first quarter.


ONGC continues investment in Vietnam



India’s state-run Oil Natural Gas Corporation, or ONGC, will continue to tap oil and gas offshore to maintain long-term investment in Vietnam.



Speaking at the school sponsorship announcement ceremony in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province last week, Arvind V. Sapkal, representative of ONGC in Vietnam, said that ONGC holds a 45% stake in the block 06.1 including Lan Tay and Lan Do natural gas fields.



Located around 370 kilometers from the southern coastal province, the block 06.1 is the first oil field ONGC has invested outside India. The remaining stake of this block is held by TNK Vietnam Company, a subsidiary of Russian oil and gas group Rosneft, and PetroVietnam.



Since November, 2002, the block has reached a capacity of 15 million cubic meters of gas each day. The block up to now has supplied over 38 billion cubic meters of gas and 13 million barrels of condensate, enough to produce around 22% electricity output in the country.



Natural gas reserves at the Lan Tay and Lan Do fields are expected to run dry by 2023.


FPT dials in unflattering 2012 results



FPT Group, one of Vietnam’s leading telecom carriers, suffered unhealthy business results in 2012.



Despite a 15 per cent downward adjustment to its profit plan for 2012, its profit only made up 92 per cent of its results in 2011.



According to report to submit the shareholders meeting early April, the group reached revenue and after-tax profit of VND25.35 trillion ($1.2 billion) and VND1.54 trillion ($74 million), down by 2.4 and 8.4 per cent year on-year, respectively.



Le Thi Ngoc Anh, a Vietcombank Securities Company researcher, said the payout ratio of most of FPT’s business sectors declined, with manufacturing and distribution of IT products and system integration seen a sharp decrease.



Accordingly, the manufacturing and distribution of IT products, which made up 57 per cent of its revenue, saw a 12 per cent decrease in revenue and 24 per cent decrease in pre-tax profit on-year. The level of system integration was 11 and 19 per cent, respectively.



Short and long-term investment provision sharply rose in 2012 with the standby up 3.5 times or VN191 billion ($9.18 million), while investment activities profits declined.



The group’s deputy chairman Nguyen Quang Ngoc claimed FPT strived to earn a revenue of VND26,926 billion ($1.28 billion) and pre-tax profits VND2,646 billion ($126 million) this year, surging 6 and 10 per cent, respectively, over 2012.


Bad medicine for six pharma firms



Six pharmaceutical firms in Vietnam have violated regulations on medicine material trading, a government investigation has revealed.



The Government Office last week trumpeted a report on results of inspections over the Ministry of Health’s state management on pharmacy.



“Some pharmaceutical firms have violated regulations on trading, export and import of materials. They have sold finished medicines containing habit-forming substances, psychotropic substances and precursor substances,” the report said.



These firms include German-Vietnamese joint venture Stada-Vietnam, and locally-owned Imexpharm, Tipharco, Ho Chi Minh City Medical Export Import, Minh Hai Pharmaceutical and Ha Tay Pharmaceutical.



Specifically, Stada-Vietnam was found to have in 2011 sold 210 bottles of Partamol siro (PSE 30mg) and 240 boxes of Partamol-Codein (Codein phosphat 30mg) with each box containing 100 tablets to Papua New Guinea without any permission from the Ministry of Health (MoH).



Stada-Vietnam is a $20 million joint venture established in September 2012 between locally-owned pharmaceutical firm M.S.T and German-backed Stada Arzneimittel.



Meanwhile, Imexpharm was found to have in between July 2010 and August 2011 sold 4,079,800 habit-forming tablets of Nucofed (Codein base 10mg, Pseudoephedrin HCl 30mg) to those not needing treatment with this medicine. In between January 2008 to October 2011, Imexpharm sold seven types of medicines having habit-forming substances, psychotropic substances and precursor substances to Cambodia without MoH’s permission and customs procedures. As for Tipharco, this firm was discovered to have sold 414,900 psychotropic tablets named Phenobarbital 100mg to those not needing treatment with this medicine during July 2010-August 2011.



The Government Office also found that Ho Chi Minh City Medical Export Import JSC sold to and Minh Hai Pharmaceutical bought from the former 500 kilogrammes of Pseudoephedrine material, which is a type of precursor substance, without MoH’s permission. Minh Hai Pharmaceutical was also found to sell 501,100 psychotropic tablets named Armicort (Phenobarbital 8mg, Ephedrine HCl 25mg) to those not needing this medicine for treatment from January to June 2011.



The authorized agency also saw that this firm had signals of using unlawful invoices for its selling 5,067,000 Artenfed tablets (PSE 60mg) to a pharmaceutical firm in northern Lao Cai province. Also, Minh Hai Pharmaceutical was accused of having sold 1,497,520 Gardenal tablets (Phenobarbital 100 mg) to those not needing this type of medicine for treatment.



The Government Office also said that the MoH had for long time completed inspections over operational activities of Hong Kong’s Zuellig Pharma Vietnam-ZPV under Document 1185/VPCP-QHQT dated November 3, 2011. “However no inspection results and report have been made so far. This means that the MoH has failed to obey the government’s order,” said the report.


Locals talk up future



The global smartphone boom is led by tech giants like Samsung, Apple and Nokia, but Vietnamese firms are starting to make their mark in the low and medium market segments.



Q-Mobile has captured articular attention from consumers. The brand first appeared in May 2008 by An Binh Telecom Company Limited (ABTEL) and is now ranked third in Vietnam’s smartphone market in sale volumes.



According to Q-Mobile chief executive officer (CEO) Nguyen Quang Minh, Vietnam’s smart-phone market is currently vibrant across all market segments, entailing big challenges to the firm.



“But competition is inevitable in the marketplace. With proper strategy, we are confident to compete head-on with other firms on an equal footing,” Minh said.



“Nokia and Samsung have their ‘magic’ products. So do we. Consumers will see our ‘magic’ product roll-out in a not distant future,” Minh added, asserting that high-end market segment was one of the company’s top targets in the upcoming period albeit this segment is now dominated by high-profile foreign players.



Meanwhile, FPT Technology Products deputy general director Le Hoang Hai pointed to core advantages in FPT smartphone lines, particularly in Vietnam smartphones’ first quad core chipset launched by FPT in the recent past.



“Our advantages lie in competitive pricing (averaging VND4.45 million or $210), strong configuration and possession of quad core chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8225Q, enabling users to experience diversified entertainment applications in parallel to slim design,” said Hai, confirming that FPT IV was a competitive item in medium-range smart-phone segment.



Telecom giant FPT reportedly contemplates the creation of one smartphone line each month and constantly improving its smartphone line designs and configurations striving for customer satisfaction.



“Promoting products with price in the range of VND2-5 million ($96-$240) is also one our focuses,” Hai noted.

Nguyen Van Dao, deputy general director at Samsung Vina, said that to remain competitive, Vietnamese firms needed to target medium- and low-end segments suitable to the budget of pupils and students.



“In doing so, their smartphones only need some basic functions and applications to slash costs,” Dao said. Vietnam recorded the sharpest growth of 266 per cent in smartphone and tablet usage in Asia in 2012, according to a Flurry Analytics survey. Flurry Analytics is launched by US-based IT research firm Flurry.


Danlait milk given all clear over quality



The Viet Nam Food Administration under the Ministry of Health yesterday confirmed that Danlait, a goat milk product imported by the Manh Cam Company, has met quality standards.



Speaking at a press conference on the product, Le Van Giang, deputy head of the administration, said that the milk’s quality has been certified by the health ministries of both Viet Nam and France.



According to Giang, Danlait is a food supplement but the importer had wrongly labelled it as baby formula.



Authorities have not yet revealed if they have fined the Manh Cam Company for the violation.


Vietnam earns over 760 mln USD from rice exports



Vietnam has so far this year raked in more than 760 million USD from shipment of over 1.73 million tonnes of rice, according to the Vietnam Food Association.



Currently, the rice price in the Mekong Delta, the country’s largest granary, continues to drop 100 VND (about 0.05 USD) a kilo compared to the last week’s figure. Prices of dry unhusked rice in the Mekong Delta hover from 5,000 VND (around 0.25 USD) to 5,100 VND (0.25 USD) per kilo.



According to the association, provinces of the Mekong Delta have harvested about 10.5 million tonnes of unhusked rice from the winter-spring crop 2013. Meanwhile, local farmers have sowed over 480,000 hectares out of 1.6 million hectares planned for the upcoming summer-autumn crop.



To ensure stable rice production and supply as well as profits for local farmers, the construction of a storage system capable of storing up to 4 million tonnes of paddy rice in the Mekong Delta is underway. The facilities are expected to be operational by the end of this year.-


Source: VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VIR



BUSINESS IN BRIEF 30/4

Singapore"s PARKROYAL on Pickering Hotel Installs Bartech Automatic Minibars

04/30/2013 (press release: PlanAPR) // Plan A PR Marketing


Bartech, a world leader in automatic profit-generating minibar solutions for the hospitality industry, is proud to announce the installation of its Ethernet-connected, energy-efficient automatic minibars in all 367 guestrooms of the luxury PARKROYAL on Pickering in Singapore. The hotel, which debuted in January, is the newest hotel in the PARKROYAL Hotels Resorts portfolio. PARKROYAL on Pickering boasts 15,000 square meters of lofty sky gardens, along with an exclusive rooftop that offers 360-degree views of the Singapore skyline for club room guests.


As a proud recipient of the prestigious BCA Green Mark Platinum Award, the management team at PARKROYAL on Pickering selects all hotel systems and products based on their superior environmental friendliness and sustainable qualities. Bartech automatic minibars feature the proprietary Computerized Energy Saving System (CESS), technology that monitors and adjusts cooling production according to guestroom status, hotel occupancy, nonpeak hours and other criteria. This innovative technology feature helps hotels reduce their energy consumption tremendously. Furthermore, Bartech supplies real glass doors filled in with Argon gas, which improves the minibars’ energy efficiency.


“Bartech’s track record of generating extra revenue while enhancing guest satisfaction makes the solution the choice of an increasing number of hotel operators in Asia Pacific,” says Jan Strijker, Managing Director of Bartech Automatic Systems in Singapore. “Combined with Bartech’s impressive green features—a critical point in a hotel’s environmentally friendly ethos—this makes it an easy choice. Bartech works closely with the hotels’ design teams to maximize the position of the minibars and make them blend with the décor. Bartech offers an array of customizable automatic minibars that are designed to maximize revenue and save hoteliers time and money through increased efficiency. By opting for Bartech automatic minibars, hotels are often able to significantly reduce the number of minibar attendants on staff and simultaneously increase revenue from minibar sales. “The increased operational efficiency resulting from the Bartech system and the reduction in the number of persons required to run the minibar operation is another key benefit of Bartech,” Strijker says.


Other hotels in the Pan Pacific Hotels Group who have installed Bartech Automatic Minibars are Pan Pacific Hotel Seattle, Pan Pacific Singapore and PARKROYAL Melbourne Airport Hotel.


All Bartech products, including the C32 Glass Door automatic minibars installed at PARKROYAL on Pickering, offer fully bespoke design customization. Bartech is also the only minibar provider to incorporate three different types of sensor technologies into their advanced product design, including infrared, magnetic and micro-switch. This allows Bartech minibars to use the most effective and reliable technology for each type of product dispensed, maximizing reliability and efficiency of the minibar operation and minimizing guest disputes.


For more information on Bartech’s extensive selection of customizable automatic minibars that are designed to maximize revenue and save hoteliers time and money through increased efficiency, please contact Sophie Longevialle at + 33 (0)1 41 44 10 10, email info@my-bartech.com or visit www.bartech.com.


About Bartech | For more than 20 years, Bartech has been a pioneer and a leader in the field of minibar design and technology for the global hospitality industry. Since introducing the world’s first open-display automatic minibar, Bartech has developed a stellar reputation as the provider of the industry’s most powerful and sophisticated solutions to manage hotel minibar operations. With minibars installed in more than 60 countries, Bartech has been selected by many of the most prestigious hotel chains and independent properties worldwide. With an in-house RD department and worldwide customer support, Bartech is dedicated to continuously enhancing product design, software and system integration with the latest technologies, in order to meet the growing needs of the industry for increased profit and efficiency. For more information, please visit www.bartech.com.


About PARKROYAL on Pickering | PARKROYAL on Pickering is the flagship PARKROYAL hotel under the PARKROYAL Hotels Resorts portfolio managed by the Pan Pacific Hotels Group. Designed by award-winning architectural firm WOHA, the hotel adopts a hotel-in-a-garden concept and incorporates energy-saving features throughout the property. Its sustainable project design and green efforts have earned it the BCA Green Mark Platinum, Singapore’s highest green rating, as well as the Solar Pioneer Award for its innovative solar energy system. Strategically located at the key gateways to Singapore’s central business district, Hong Lim Park and bustling Chinatown, the 367-room hotel provides an urban oasis in downtown Singapore, with convenient access to waterfront entertainment and dining options along the Singapore River as well as cultural gems across the island. PARKROYAL on Pickering is ‘Your Trusted Local Companion’ in Singapore. For more information, please visit www.parkroyalhotels.com.



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Singapore"s PARKROYAL on Pickering Hotel Installs Bartech Automatic Minibars

LinkedIn Reaches 1M Users In Singapore, Or 20% Of The Country"s Population

LinkedIn has acquired one million users in Singapore, or 20 percent of its 5 million population, since the service’s launch there in 2011, the professional networking site announced today. This milestone means that about 70 percent of Singapore’s labor force and students now have accounts on the Web site, according to the company.


Singapore is the home of the company’s Asia-Pacific HQ and its fourth market in Southeast Asia to surpass the one million milestone, after Malaysia (about one million), Indonesia and the Philippines (1.5 million each). Other Asia Pacific countries with more than one million LinkedIn members are Australia (4 million), India (19 million) and China (3 million).


The site’s rapid growth in Singapore is not surprising because the country is an important business and financial hub. Its expanding user base in the rest of Southeast Asia also underscores that region’s potential as an emerging market for tech and online services. Indonesia in particular sees high usage of social networking services–according to research from Brand24.co.id, Indonesians contribute 2.4 percent of tweets, while Jakarta ranked second in terms of the world’s top cities on Facebook. According to Mary Meeker, Indonesia saw a 58 percent increase in Internet users in 2012, superseded by only China and India.


The top five industries represented among LinkedIn’s Singaporean members are IT, banking, financial services, oil and energy, and education management, while the top five international companies followed are Standard Chartered Bank, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Solutions for Emerging Asia, and IBM.


LinkedIn says that globally it attracts more than two new members every second and has more than 200 million members worldwide.



LinkedIn Reaches 1M Users In Singapore, Or 20% Of The Country"s Population

Global Premium Hotels" gross profit dipped 2.9% to S$12.6m


Prevalence of budget airlines to boost future sales.



According to OCBC Investment Research, Global Premium Hotels’ revenue fell 2.1% to S$14.6m and gross profit declined 2.9% YoY to S$12.6m.



OCBC noted that interest expense was S$1.3m higher (+211.2%) YoY due to the restructuring exercise undertaken by GPH pursuant to the IPO in 2Q12 and this was the primary reason that net profit contracted 32.0% to S$4.3m. Revenue and net profit came out to 23% and 24% of our full-year estimates respectively. 



Here’s more:



Economy hotels resilient

1Q13 hotel room revenue decreased 1.1% YoY was mainly due to the lower average occupancy rate (AOR) of 89.6%, down 2.1ppt YoY. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) remained relative stable YoY at S$91.4.



Given that the vast majority of GPH’s hotels are in the Economy tier, this matches with industry data, which shows that for 2M13, Economy tier hotels were the best performers with the lowest declines in RevPAR.



Rental income for 1Q13 dropped by S$0.2m, or 38.6% YoY due to the disposals of the Changi Road property and Pasir Panjang commercial property in 2Q12.



Administrative expenses for 1Q13 rose by S$0.7m (13.6%) YoY. This was mainly due to the general increase in wages and higher depreciation expenses from higher fair values on leasehold land and hotel buildings.



We expect slightly better YoY performance in the remaining quarters, especially because 1Q13 was slow for the industry because of the later occurrence of Chinese New Year, which pushed back corporate travel.



Management believes that with the increasing prevalence of budget airlines in the region, the performance of GPH’s economy-tier and mid-tier hotels will continue to be resilient, despite increasing hotel room supply for the industry.  



Global Premium Hotels" gross profit dipped 2.9% to S$12.6m

India Builders Get Rate Break and Lure Buyers: Mortgages

Indian homebuilders, facing the

highest borrowing costs in two years, are enticing homebuyers to

help finance projects as they work to revive sales and cut debt.


Developers including Mumbai-based DB Realty Ltd. and
Sunteck Realty Ltd. (SRIN) are offering to make buyers’ mortgage

payments while their home is being built in return for an

upfront deposit of as much as 30 percent that they’ll use to

help fund construction. Indian mortgage rates, among the highest

in Asia at about 10 percent on average, are still preferable to

rates for commercial-bank construction loans, about 15 percent.


“Developers are looking to counter a slowdown in volumes

through these schemes,” said Bhaskar Chakraborty, a Mumbai-

based analyst at brokerage IIFL Ltd. “Affordability in Mumbai

is the most adverse across major metros, with apartment-sale

registrations in the city languishing at a three-year low.”


Indian builders are struggling to reduce debt and increase

sales with interest rates near a two-year high and prices at a

record high in Mumbai, the country’s financial capital. With

sales slowing, the financing plans provide an incentive to

potential buyers, and immediate cash for builders. The combined

debt of India’s six largest developers climbed to a record 370

billion rupees ($6.8 billion) in the 12 months through March 31,

more than double the 158.8 billion rupees in 2007, according to

data compiled by IIFL.


Possible Tightening


Such financing plans, which tend to stoke demand from

property investors rather than those planning to live in the

purchased homes, could prompt further tightening measures from

the central bank, Chakraborty said. Investors, deferring

payments are betting on rising home prices to exit, when the

apartment is ready.


The Reserve Bank of India in 2010 asked banks to set aside

more money against loans on so-called teaser rates, where buyers

get discounted interest rates in the initial years. It also

capped housing loans at 80 percent of the property value, from

90 percent, as it sought to check rising home prices.


The financing options are being advertised as 20:80 because

homebuyers have to pay 20 percent of the value of the home at

the time of purchase, while lenders offer mortgages for a

maximum of 80 percent of the value. Builders agree to pay the

mortgage for up to two years, promising completion of the home

in that period.


The offer by DB Realty (DBRL), the worst performer on the National

Stock Exchange’s 10-member property index this year, allows

buyers to pay 19.9 percent of the cost when they buy and the

rest when the apartment is completed. Sunteck Realty is asking

for 30 percent of the home value upfront.


The property index slid 1.7 percent at 2:15 p.m. in Mumbai

trading. DB Realty fell 1.5 percent to 63.95 rupees, while

Sunteck climbed 0.2 percent to 416.85 rupees.


Mumbai Prices


The stock of unsold homes at new residential projects

climbed to a record in the quarter ended Dec. 31, as rising

prices crimped affordability in the nation’s biggest cities,

according to Pankaj Kapoor, founder of property research company

Liases Foras Real Estate Rating Research Pvt. Total unsold

inventory of residential stock in the six major cities tracked

by Liases Foras climbed to 100 million square feet (9.3 million

square meters), the highest since 2009.


Home prices in Mumbai, India’s most expensive real estate

market, rose to a record high at 11,626 rupees a square foot in

the quarter ended March 31, according to data from Liases Foras.


Construction delays present the biggest risk for homebuyers.

If the project isn’t completed within the two years, the buyer

will have to start making payments on a home they can’t move

into.


“For two years, the developer will pay the interest, but

the big assumption there is that the project will be

completed,” said Ambar Maheshwari, managing director of

corporate finance at property brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle India.

“If the project isn’t completed or is delayed, the bank will

come after the buyer, not the developer, in the event of a

default.”


Delayed Projects


Construction delays are rampant in India. Sixty-one percent

of developments in eight cities across India are not completed

on time, according to data from Liases Foras. Twelve percent are

delayed by more than two years, the data showed.


Developers are also raising prices as a tradeoff for paying

buyers’ mortgages.


Mumbai-based DB Realty is selling its Orchid Crown

condominium project in the city for 26,000 rupees a square foot,

while charging 25 percent more for customers opting for the

deferred-payment plan. DB is offering the option for all its

projects, with about a quarter of its sales being generated

through the plan, said Chief Executive Officer Vipul Bansal.


“We are seeing a boost in sales and this scheme is gaining

ground because it addresses the concern of delays in project

completion,” Bansal said in a phone interview from Mumbai.

“There is a separate charge for this financing. We calculate

the interest and add it on to the base rate to factor in the

interest costs.” Bansal said he wasn’t replacing bank

construction loans with mortgages and charges the higher rate to

customers to service loans on their behalf.


‘Incentivize Customers’


Sunteck, which is developing residential projects in Bandra

Kurla business district in the north of Mumbai, is offering the

deferred-payment plan as an incentive for buyers after raising

the price of the apartments at its Signia Oceans project in Navi

Mumbai, a planned satellite township developed in 1972, about 36

kilometers (22 miles) from the southern tip of Mumbai city. The

condominiums will be completed in about six months and the

company has enough funding to finish the project, said Chairman

Kamal Khetan.


“Since we have raised the selling price, we are offering

this plan to boost sales and incentivize customers,” Khetan

said in a phone interview from Mumbai, adding that Indian

developers typically start offering the so-called “80:20

scheme” when they struggle to sell apartments.


“We have negligible debt so we don’t need to do this to

raise money,” he said.


Debt Aversion


Even after the RBI cut funding costs in March for a second

time this year to 7.5 percent, rates are near a two-year high.

The central bank, which is scheduled to meet on May 3, has said

lingering inflation reduces the scope for further cuts.


Higher interest rates and a cultural aversion to debt

account for India’s relatively low home-loan penetration rates.

Home loan debt of $104 billion is equal to 8 percent of gross

domestic product compared with 20 percent in China and 77

percent in the U.S., according to data compiled by Housing

Development Finance.


India’s average mortgage rates compare with about 2 percent

in Hong Kong, 6.5 percent in China, and 6 percent in South Korea,

according to Credit Suisse Group AG.


Buying Time


The Wadhwa Group, which has teamed with Hong-Kong based

Langham Hotels International to create India’s first airport

transit hotel, has secured funding for one of its Mumbai

condominium projects by persuading enough buyers to opt for the

deferred-payment plan, said Chief Financial Officer Srinivasan Gopalan. In return, Wadhwa assumed liability for their mortgage

interest payments for the first two years, he said.


“Developers do not get a good interest rate,” said

Gopalan. By utilizing this payment plan, “I save about 300 to

350 basis points — that’s huge. It gives me complete financial

closure for the project and I am passing on this benefit to the

customers, too.”


Lenders including Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd., Housing

Development Finance Corp. and ICICI Bank Ltd. are financing such

deferred-payment options.


“The main advantage is that the 20:80 plan allows

customers to better plan their cash flows,” Ashwini Kumar Hooda,

deputy managing director at Indiabulls Housing Finance, said in

an e-mailed response to queries. “The disadvantage to customers

is that in most cases developers hike the selling rate of homes

to factor in the additional burden of bearing interest during

construction.”


Homebuyer Nilesh Jani is betting that the financing is

worth the risk. He bought a 1,500-square-foot, two-and-a-half

bedroom apartment in Wadhwa’s Address project in Mumbai for 19.8

million rupees. Jani made the initial 20 percent down payment on

the house and is taking the remaining 80 percent through a loan

from ICICI Bank Ltd.


“I know I am paying a higher rate for this financing plan,

but it buys me some time,” said Jani, 42, who works for a

private equity firm in Mumbai. “It allows me to defer my

payments by two years, and hopefully in that period I will have

a higher salary and bonuses to help me make my payments.”


To contact the reporter on this story:

Pooja Thakur in Singapore at

pthakur@bloomberg.net


To contact the editors responsible for this story:

Andreea Papuc at

apapuc1@bloomberg.net;

Rob Urban at

robprag@bloomberg.net.



Enlarge image
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India Developers Enable Rate Break to Lure Homeowners


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Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg


Residential buildings stand on Nepeansea road in Mumbai. Home prices in Mumbai, India’s most expensive real estate market, are near a record high at 11,295 rupees a square foot, according to data from Liases Foras.


Residential buildings stand on Nepeansea road in Mumbai. Home prices in Mumbai, India’s most expensive real estate market, are near a record high at 11,295 rupees a square foot, according to data from Liases Foras. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg



Enlarge image
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India Developers Enable Rate Break to Lure Homeowners


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Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg


A man cycles past Signature Island, a residential tower developed by Sunteck Realty Ltd., as it stands under construction in the Bandra Kurla complex in Mumbai on Sept. 27, 2011.


A man cycles past Signature Island, a residential tower developed by Sunteck Realty Ltd., as it stands under construction in the Bandra Kurla complex in Mumbai on Sept. 27, 2011. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg



India Builders Get Rate Break and Lure Buyers: Mortgages

PTT Buys LNG Spot Cargo at Around $14/mmBtu for June Delivery

Thailand’s state-owned PTT Pcl (PTT) has

purchased a liquefied natural gas spot cargo for June delivery

at around $14 per million British thermal units, according to a

company official.


PTT will buy the June cargo from a specific project

operator and not a portfolio seller, said the official who asked

not to be identified as he isn’t authorized to speak to the

media. The company is still evaluating the five offers it

received for a July-delivered shipment, he said.


PTT closed a third buy tender April 22 for two LNG cargoes

shipped in June and July to its Map Ta Phut terminal. In

January, the company bought four LNG spot cargoes delivered from

March to June.


PTT owns and operates the 5 million metric ton-a-year Map

Ta Phut terminal in Rayong that began operating in the third

quarter of 2011. It signed its first long-term contract with

Qatargas in December 2012 for 2 million tons of LNG annually for

20 years starting in 2015, according to data compiled by

Bloomberg.


PTT needs to buy as much as 2 million tons of spot LNG in

2013 to meet power-industry demand, the official said on April

12. The company has taken delivery of four spot LNG cargoes from

Qatar totaling 381,757 tons to date, according to customs and

ship tracking data.


To contact the reporter on this story:

Chou Hui Hong in Singapore at

chong43@bloomberg.net


To contact the editor responsible for this story:

Alexander Kwiatkowski at

akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net



PTT Buys LNG Spot Cargo at Around $14/mmBtu for June Delivery