BUSINESS IN BRIEF 6/11

State group to exploit two new oil & gas wells

Rice exchange to begin transactions

The first rice trading floor in Vietnam will debut in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang during Vietnam’s first ever Rice Festival at the end of this month.

Director Nguyen Van Dong from the provincial Agriculture and Rural Development Department said that the trading floor is being set up by the Vietnam Food Association, replacing a 20ha rice market in Chau Thanh A district.

This is the second farm produce exchange to be established in the country after the coffee trading floor in Buon Ma Thuot in the central highland province of Dak Lak was opened, added Dong.

So far, 30 enterprises have registered to trade on the floor.

The first trading sessions are expected to be conducted using spot delivery contracts, but after more enterprises join the trading floor, it will expand to include futures contracts.

The floor is expected to help businesses and farmers avoid difficulties due to price fluctuations. It will also offer farmers the opportunity to apply modern technologies to improve the quality of their rice and increase Vietnam ’s competitiveness in the world’s rice markets.

VN, Cambodia encourage border provinces to enhance cooperation

Cambodian Consul General in HCM City Luon Kim Khuon has reaffirmed the Vietnamese and Cambodian Governments’ pledge to create the most favourable conditions for bilateral cooperation in economics, culture, communications and tourism development.

At a meeting to mark Cambodia’s 56th National Day (Nov. 9) in HCM City on Nov. 5, Consul General Luon Kim Khuon said that the two countries consider trade promotion and the exchange of experiences in poverty reduction and hunger eradication as the best ways to help their people enjoy a better life.

He took the occasion to express the deep gratitude of the Cambodian Royal Government and people towards Vietnam for its sincere assistance to the nation to escape from genocide and restore it to life.

President of the HCM City chapter of the Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Association Truong Minh Nhat said that Vietnam’s investment in Cambodia reached 114 million USD in the first nine months of the year, an increase of more than 20 percent compared with 2008.

Both sides committed to promoting trade and service activities to increase two-way trade to 2 billion USD next year, he said, adding that trade activities between HCM City and Phnom Penh have increased significantly with at least three fairs held each year.

Last June, the fifth conference on cooperation and development between Vietnam-Cambodia border provinces was co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng in HCM City.

At the conference, 22 Vietnamese and Cambodian border provinces reached consensus on priority fields and measures to deepen cooperation between their localities.

IBM ready to help Vietnam’s telecoms sector grow

The world’s leading information technology group - IBM - held its first ever seminar in Hanoi on Nov. 5 to introduce its cutting-edge technologies to Vietnam’s telecommunications sector.

The Vice President of IBM’s communications sector in charge of growing markets, Tim Greisinger, said that his group has seen many changes and opportunities in Vietnam and they want to work with the country to step up the process.

Greisinger said Vietnam was on the list of 149 countries and territories around the world to have attracted the interest of leading telecoms and IT providers and expressed his group’s willingness to help Vietnam spur on the sectors development.

The IBM executive suggested that Vietnamese telecoms service providers should develop new business models and accelerate the use of advanced telecoms technologies, especially broadband services, to ensure a stronger growth in the telecoms sector.

Attending the event, the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Hung reiterated the nation’s commitment to creating the right conditions for multinational IT-communications groups, such as IBM, to do business in Vietnam.

He said he expected more Vietnamese telecoms companies to team up with foreign partners in an effort to boost the growth of the national IT-communications sector.

According to the International Telecoms Union, in recent years Vietnam has posted one of the highest telecoms growth rates in the world.

At present, Vietnam has a total of 117 million telephone subscribers, including 99 million mobile phone subscribers, representing 59 percent and 65 percent increases, respectively, over the same period last year.

The number of Internet subscribers grew by 44.6 percent to 2.8 million and the number of Internet users hit 22 million, or 25.6 percent of the country’s population.

Vietnam takes part in Tokyo’s Industrial Exhibition

Several Vietnamese enterprises have joined nearly 400 small and medium-sized enterprises from Germany, the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Republic of Korea and Japan at Tokyo’s 2009 Industrial Exhibition, which opened on Nov. 4.

The Vietnamese participants will give visitors an overview of Vietnam , its land and its people, focusing on the capital city of Hanoi . Nguyen Thi Thuy Van, the Director of Hanoi’s Representative Office in Tokyo, said that Hanoi wants to spotlight the city’s socio-economic advantages and its policies to attract foreign investors and Japanese enterprises.

She expressed her belief that the exhibition would be an opportunity for businesses from Hanoi and Tokyo to get together and exchange information and their experiences to boost cooperation and investment between the two cities. The exhibition, which will last until Nov. 6, focuses on information technology, the environment, the manufacture of industrial machinery and pharmaceuticals.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, a representative from Tokyo ’s civic authority stated that despite the current economic difficulties, the city always creates the best possible conditions for enterprises that want to do business in the capital.

Online job market shows signs of recovery

The online job market continues to show signs of bouncing back as in the third quarter of 2009 it saw a growing demand for personnel.

Statistics released on Nov. 4 by VietnamWorks.com, the country’s biggest provider of online recruitment services, show that the personnel demand index surged by 11.4 percent against the second quarter.

Up to 24 out of a total of 50 sectors saw demand for personnel rise, while only five industries witnessed their demand fall during the reviewed period. The agro-forestry sector’s job demand index enjoyed the highest increase, double that of the previous three months.

However, VietnamWorks.com also states that the worker supply index had dropped by 2.8 percent from the second quarter. The index grows in seven sectors amongst the 50 sectors.

This trend has helped to narrow the gap between the supply and demand for workers and eases the pressure on job seekers, it said.

VietnamWorks.com’s General Director Chris Harvey said that the recovery of the economy and companies in general has warmed up the job market, with a lot of recruitment taking place.

During the past three months, a new trend regarding the recruitment of senior-level foreign managers has appeared, named ‘employing international staff at local salaries’.

An increasing number of foreigners and overseas Vietnamese have come to Vietnam to find work due to impacts of the global economic crisis. However, the demand for senior level foreign managers is low, therefore the supply index is higher than the demand index.

Despite the narrowed gap between supply and demand, the personnel competition index remained unchanged compared with the previous quarter. Administrative-secretarial work, the import-export sector, personnel management, customer services, translators and interpreters saw the fiercest competition.

However, Harvey said that the competition had created an incentive for workers to pursue their studies further and improve their professional qualifications.

India likely to buy rice from Vietnam

India may buy rice from Vietnam and Thailand as the country is expected to import nearly