1 - Vietnam, Singapore ink MoU on government finance

Vietnam and Singapore are expected to foster their cooperation in the area of finance in the future following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the issue signed on Feb. 24.

The singing ceremony took place in Singapore in the attendance of the host Minister of Finance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and his Vietnamese counterpart, Vu Van Ninh, who is on an official visit to the country during Feb. 24-25.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the MoU serves as an extension of strong financial cooperation and “represents a key pillar in the ever-growing architecture of bilateral relations between Singapore and Vietnam.”

The MoU includes strengthening and expanding cooperation in fiscal policy planning, customs, taxation and macro-economic analysis and forecasting.

It also outlines a programme of study visits to Singapore by senior and mid-level officials from the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance, as well as seminars, workshops and training courses for Vietnamese officials./.

(website VietnamPlus/VNA Feb 25, 2009)

2 - FDI inflows reach US$5.3 billion in two months

  Aggregate foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first two months of 2009 has hit US$5.328 billion - equal to just 70 percent of the figure for the same period last year, according to an initial report from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).

  In the reviewed period, local authorities licensed 67 new projects with a registered capital of more than US$1.5 billion, said the report that was based on statistics from seven provinces and cities nationwide through February 20, including Hanoi, HCM City, Binh Duong and Danang.

These figures represent a 65 percent and 69 percent decrease respectively over the same period last year.

Despite an annual drop of 80 percent in the number of projects that received additional capital, their total capital was increased by 41 percent from US$2.694 billion (last year) to US$3.815 billion (this year).

The MPI said the current global economic crisis has had a dramatic impact on FDI attraction in the reviewed provinces and cities in early 2009. For example, Hanoi granted licences to only 30 FDI projects with a total registered investment of roughly US$40 million, which is equivalent to seven percent of the figure for the same period last year. The central coastal city of Danang licensed only one project, which is capitalized at US$2.3 million.

The Foreign Investment Agency under the MPI recently sent a dispatch to the centrally run provinces and cities, asking them to clearly point out the difficulties faced by their FDI projects.

(website cpv.org.vn  ngày 25/2/2009)

3 - Exports rise slightly in Feb

The country’s revenue from exports in February is estimated to hit US$4.3 billion, up 15.5 percent from the previous month, said Bui Ha, head of the Department for National Economic Issues under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

However, the total export revenue for the first two months of 2009 is likely to reach only US$8 billion, down 5 percent as compared with the same period last year. Foreign-invested enterprises fetched just US$2.8 billion from exports, a 13.8 percent drop over the same period in 2008.

The export revenue reduction stems from a price slump for Vietnam’s staples in the world market as well as shrinking markets due to the global economic crunch. For example, major markets such as the US, EU, ASEAN, and Japan reduced orders by more than 20 percent.

Meanwhile, the import turnover is projected to hit US$4.4 billion, up 32.2 percent against January. Foreign-invested enterprises imported US$2.8 billion, a decrease of 29.8 percent.

Vietnam is expected to enjoy a trade surplus of about US$295 million in the first two months of 2009 - equal to 3.7 percent of the country’s total export revenue. However, a dramatic decline in imports critical to domestic production may cause huge difficulties for the Vietnamese economy.

(website cpv.org.vn ngày 25/2/2009)