Category: Business

Hanoi: Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha has signed a decision approving a roadmap for the implementation of the national electricity development plan for 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050.

The approval aims to vigorously step up the energy transition from fossil fuels to new and renewable energy sources, thus easing environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and realising commitments to the Nationally Determined Contributions and the 2050 net-zero target.

As per the roadmap, by 2030, the total domestic capacities of thermal, LNG thermal, and coal-fired thermal power plants will be 14,930 MW, 22,400 MW, and 30,127 MW, respectively.

Regarding renewable energy, by the year, the total capacities of offshore wind, onshore wind, and biomass power will be 6,000 MW, 21,880 MW, and 1,088 MW. Electricity generated from waste will be 1,182 MW, while the additional capacity of rooftop solar power will be 2,600 MW. The total capacity of battery storage is set at 300 MW.

The roadmap eyes the development of
300 MW of flexible power sources, prioritising the development in areas with possible shortages of reserve capacity and utilising existing electricity grid infrastructure.

In addition, electricity imported from Laos is projected around 5,000 MW, which could increase to 8,000 MW in favorable conditions with reasonable prices.

Regarding renewable energy sources serving exports, the roadmap identifies the central and southern regions as potential areas, with export scales ranging from 5,000 MW to 10,000 MW for feasible projects.

It also outlines specific lists of important transmission grid projects, prioritising investment in interconnected grids with neighbouring countries.

As for the rural, mountainous, and island electrification programme, it includes providing electricity to 2,478 small- and medium-sized pumping stations in the Mekong Delta region, as well as supplying electricity from the national grid or renewable energy sources to remaining islands in Quang Tri, Kien Giang, and Ba Ria – Vung Tau prov
inces.

In terms of building the industrial and service ecosystem for renewable energy, the roadmap envisions researching and building two interregional industrial and service centres for renewable energy by 2030./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: The Government’s drastic directions in financial and monetary management, and growth support in the first quarter of 2024 are a foundation helping Vietnam’s economy overcome difficulties and achieve impressive growth amidst a variety of challenges of the world economy, according to economists.

Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc said that the financial sector has continued to solve a “difficult problem” of implementing a reasonable expansionary fiscal policy to both promote the economy and ensure macro-economic stability, control inflation, and ensure national financial safety. Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has operated the fiscal policy flexibly and effectively.

Economists assessed that in an unprecedented context, the MoF has researched and submitted to competent authorities to maintain solutions to implement policies on exemption, extension, and reduction of taxes and fees, such as reducing the value-added tax rate by 2 percentage points from the 10% rate.

Economist Dinh Trong Thinh said
that these policies have received applauses and appreciation from businesses and people.

Sharing the same view, To Hoai Nam, Standing Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, said that these policies have helped enterprises promote production and business activities, reduce production costs and product prices, and stimulate domestic consumption, which benefits people.

The MoF always determines to accompany and stand side by side with firms through solutions to support the business community to overcome difficulties, quickly recover and develop production and business activities, thereby contributing back to the economy and the budget, and nurturing a stable and long-term revenue source, affirmed Phoc.

In the coming time, the ministry will focus on operating the fiscal policy proactively, reasonably, flexibly and effectively; and combine the fiscal policy and other economic policies to maintain the macro-economic foundation, control inflation, ensure m
ajor balances, and promote growth and sustainable development of socio-economic fields.

In addition, the MoF will continue to improve institutions, laws and policies on state budget revenue, keep a close watch on socio-economic developments, and research appropriate tax policies to help enterprises deal with difficulties, he added./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: The Government’s drastic directions in financial and monetary management, and growth support in the first quarter of 2024 are a foundation helping Vietnam’s economy overcome difficulties and achieve impressive growth amidst a variety of challenges of the world economy, according to economists.

Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc said that the financial sector has continued to solve a “difficult problem” of implementing a reasonable expansionary fiscal policy to both promote the economy and ensure macro-economic stability, control inflation, and ensure national financial safety. Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has operated the fiscal policy flexibly and effectively.

Economists assessed that in an unprecedented context, the MoF has researched and submitted to competent authorities to maintain solutions to implement policies on exemption, extension, and reduction of taxes and fees, such as reducing the value-added tax rate by 2 percentage points from the 10% rate.

Economist Dinh Trong Thinh said
that these policies have received applauses and appreciation from businesses and people.

Sharing the same view, To Hoai Nam, Standing Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, said that these policies have helped enterprises promote production and business activities, reduce production costs and product prices, and stimulate domestic consumption, which benefits people.

The MoF always determines to accompany and stand side by side with firms through solutions to support the business community to overcome difficulties, quickly recover and develop production and business activities, thereby contributing back to the economy and the budget, and nurturing a stable and long-term revenue source, affirmed Phoc.

In the coming time, the ministry will focus on operating the fiscal policy proactively, reasonably, flexibly and effectively; and combine the fiscal policy and other economic policies to maintain the macro-economic foundation, control inflation, ensure m
ajor balances, and promote growth and sustainable development of socio-economic fields.

In addition, the MoF will continue to improve institutions, laws and policies on state budget revenue, keep a close watch on socio-economic developments, and research appropriate tax policies to help enterprises deal with difficulties, he added./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Dong Nai: The southern province of Dong Nai logged a trade surplus of over 1.6 billion USD in the first quarter of this year, reflecting a surge in export activity.

The provincial Statistics Office reported a positive trend, with export turnover in March reaching nearly 1.8 billion USD, an increase of 28.6% compared to February. This contributed to a cumulative export value of 5.26 billion USD for the first quarter, representing a year-on-year growth of 7.8%.

Growth was observed across all economic sectors, with the State-owned sector annually expanding by 3%, the non-State sector by 6.4%, and the foreign-invested sector by 8.5%.

The US remained the top export destination for Dong Nai, accounting for 27.97% of the total with a value of 1.47 billion USD. Japan followed closely at 10.38% (546 million USD), with China (10.3%, 542 million USD) and the Republic of Korea (5.82%, 306.6 million USD) rounding out the top four markets.

While exports experienced a strong upswing, import turnover also surged by 29.2%
in March compared to February, reaching 1.3 billion USD. However, the first quarter import figure of 3.6 billion USD reflected a slight 2% decrease year-on-year. China remained the largest import source with a value exceeding 1 billion USD, followed by the Republic of Korea (578 million USD), Japan (471 million USD), and the US (188.5 million USD).

Several export commodity groups witnessed significant annual growth in the first quarter, including cashew nuts, up 45.7%; coffee 95.6%; wood products over 10%; footwear 10.6%; machinery, equipment, and tools over 4%; and fiber 11.5%.

Others experienced declines, including rubber down 6.5%; apparel 1.4%; computers and electronic products 9.3%; and plastic products 1.7%.

Looking ahead, Dong Nai is actively rolling out numerous trade promotion programmes, with a focus on both traditional and emerging export markets, on the back of new-generation free trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the
EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on April 2 chaired a hybrid conference with Vietnamese representative agencies abroad and provinces and cities nationwide to discuss enhancing economic diplomacy and its role in Vietnam’s development in 2024 and beyond.

Addressing the event, PM Chinh highlighted investment, export and consumption as three traditional growth engines, alongside emerging sectors such as green economy, digital economy, circular and sharing economies.

The PM emphasised the need for breakthroughs in economic diplomacy this year guided by the spirit of renewed mindset, creative strategy, unanimous awareness and unified actions.

He outlined major orientations for economic diplomacy in the time ahead, one of which is to well prepare for external activities of both high-ranking officials and all-level exchanges and clearly define specific plans, projects and products with each partner.

Ministries, sectors, localities, businesses and rep. agencies should work together to renew growth drivers whi
le promoting new ones such as digital economic, green economy, circular economy, sharing economy and knowledge-based economy, as well as new breakthrough fields like hi-tech, innovation, semi-conductor, hydrogen and AI.

The PM requested efforts to optimize potential of newly-upgraded frameworks and relations and signed FTAs, as well as the resources of more than 6 million Vietnamese overseas.

The Foreign Ministry reported on comprehensive and effective economic diplomacy efforts by ministries, agencies and localities, which have opened up new directions for cooperation and contributed significantly to Vietnam’s socio-economic development.

Economic cooperation has been made the focus of nearly 60 high-level diplomatic activities conducted by Party and State leaders since early 2023, resulted in many specific economic cooperation agreements with various partners. Notably, market access and attracting resources for new economic fields in green technology, energy transition, hi-tech agriculture, tourism, and l
abour have always been on the agenda of high-level exchanges with big partners in Northeast Asia, Europe, North America, and potential partners in South Asia, East Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. The mobilisation of resources of overseas Vietnamese has also been promoted.

Ministries, sectors and representative offices abroad have actively supported Vietnamese localities and enterprises in participating in international events and promotional activities, and connected Vietnamese businesses with international partners to expand markets so as to draw quality foreign direct investment (FDI) and secure new-generation official development assistance (ODA).

They have also closely monitored and warned about trade defence measures used by other countries, protected the legitimate rights of Vietnamese businesses abroad, and timely provided information on the world economic situation and trends to localities and domestic enterprises.

Ministries and agencies are working closely together to carry out the
16 signed free trade agreements (FTAs), advancing negotiations on new agreements like the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the United Arab Emirates, and FTAs with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Mercosur, among others; advocating the recognition of Vietnam’s market economy status, contributing responsibly and effectively to important multilateral economic cooperation mechanisms such as the United Nations, ASEAN, APEC, Mekong, G7, G77 and WEF.

Economic diplomacy activities have contributed significantly to Vietnam’s total export-import turnover of 683 billion USD in 2023, with an all-time high trade surplus of about 28 billion USD. Despite the global economic downturn, Vietnam attracted nearly 36.6 billion USD in FDI, up 32.1%, with some 23.2 billion USD disbursed, the highest level ever recorded./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

HCM City: Ho Chi Minh City’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) was estimated at over 406.34 trillion VND (16.34 billion USD) in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 6.54%, the highest growth recorded for Q1 since 2020, heard a meeting of the municipal People’s Committee on April 2.

The service sector remained the key locomotive of the city’s economic development during January – March, contributing 71.6% to the growth and accounted for 65.5% of the economic structure.

Meanwhile, industry posted positive expansion and contributed 16.4% to the overall growth. The local index of industrial production climbed 5.1%, higher than Hanoi with 3.6%, Da Nang 0.6%, Can Tho 2.1% but lower than Hai Phong 12.6%.

State budget collection was also a bright spot with more than 138.54 trillion VND, rising 7.6% against the same time last year.

The city gained 10.1 billion USD from exports and spent 13.1 billion USD on imports, year-on-year increases of 7.5% and 3.1%, respectively.

Earnings from tourism grew 23.
8% to an estimated 44.71 trillion VND.

During the period, there were 12,433 enterprises entering the market, registering 106.12 trillion VND in capital, up 12.01% in enterprise number and 8.47% in capital from the same time last year. However, 15,600 firms halted their operation, expanding 20.64% year-on-year.

Despite sound economic situation in Quarter 1, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Phan Van Mai pointed to several challenges that hampered economic growth, including low credit growth, a sluggish recovery of the realty market, and a fall in FDI attraction.

He called on competent departments and sectors to pen solutions to the current problems so as to achieve better economic performance in the following quarters.

He particularly stressed that the city must disburse 73 trillion VND in public investment by the end of the year, asking districts and relevant sectors to join hands to remove bottlenecks to realise the set target./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency