Day: March 16, 2023

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Thai Binh works hard to have EC’s “yellow card” against seafood removed

Authorities of the northern coastal province of Thai Binh have instituted a series of measures to better manage fishing ports, inspect and monitor fisheries activities, in an effort to have the European Commission (EC)’s “yellow card” warning against Vietnam’s seafood exports lifted.

Thanks to its tireless efforts, the province has recorded positive changes in fishery management.

The provincial People’s Committee has issued plans with specific roadmaps and assigned tasks to relevant departments, sectors and localities.

Hoang Minh Giang, Director of the provincial Fisheries Sub-Department, said that as of March 2023, as many as 763 local fishing vessels were registered and relevant data was synchronised with the Vietnam Fisheries database system (VNFishbase).

There have been 174 out of 182 offshore fishing vessels (95.6%) eligible for food safety certificates. Meanwhile, as many as 692 (90.69%) out of the 763 fishing vessels have been granted fishing licences.

Authorised forces have regularly inspected and strictly control the management of fishing ports and fisheries activities in line with the recommendations of the EC and the Directorate of Fisheries.

The locality targets completing 100% of the registration and marking of fishing vessels, the granting of fishing licences, and the installation of cruise monitoring equipment (VMS); and the update the data of all fishing ships into the VNFishbase.

The local authorities will also pay attention to inspecting and controlling fishing vessels entering and exiting berths; monitoring fishing vessels operating at sea through the vessel monitoring system, controlling fishing vessels operating outside the province; and implementing origin-tracing for 100% of fisheries outputs./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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CPV delegation attends CPC’s dialogue with world political parties

A delegation of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) attended a high-level dialogue between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and world political parties via videoconference on March 15.

The CPV delegation was led by Le Hoai Trung, member of the Party Central Committee and Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations.

The event saw the participation of more than 530 leaders and representatives of countries, political parties, and political organisations in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania.

At the meeting, CPC General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping delivered a keynote address presenting the CPC’s new thought, mindset, and strategy on modernisation.

He proposed the Global Civilisation Initiative, calling for the respect for the diversity of civilisations and the upholding of the principles of equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness among civilisations.

Leaders of political parties congratulated China on its successful organisation of the first sessions of the National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in the 14th tenure. They also congratulated Xi on his re-election as President of China.

Participants updated the situation in their respective parties and countries while presenting viewpoints on modernisation and issues related to global governance and the response to traditional and non-traditional security challenges. They also agreed to increase exchanges and consultation among civilisations and share political parties’ experience in state and social governance./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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HCM City, UK agree to enhance trade, investment ties

Ho Chi Minh City and the UK should strengthen cooperation in trade and investment, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Phan Van Mai said on March 16.

The collaboration should focus on the exchange of experience in building legal mechanisms, the implementation of a project on building the HCM City financial centre, the establishment of an innovation centre of HCM City, first in health care, and the research and manufacturing of drugs and medical equipment, Mai told Mark Garnier, the British Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Brunei.

The official stressed that HCM City benefits from good relations between Vietnam and the UK, and that the city wishes to work together with the UK to step up trade activities to soon fulfill the target of raising bilateral trade to 1 billion USD right in 2023 when the two countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.

HCM City will coordinate with the British Consulate General in the city and British partners to implement the agreements, contributing to consolidating and promoting the Vietnam-UK relations, he affirmed.

For his part, Garnier expressed his impression on the dynamism and development potential of Vietnam and its southern economic centre in particular, and pledged to work harder to enhance the trade and investment links between the UK and Vietnam and the city as well.

British firms are always interested in and ready to cooperate with HCM City in materialising the plan of building the city into a regional financial centre which is competitive globally, he said.

They are also fully aware of HCM City’s potential and demand in health care and drug research, and wish to step up cooperation with the city in this regard, and promised to support the southern metropolis in development, the envoy continued.

The UK is willing to cooperate and assist HCM City in high-quality personnel training in service of banking, financial and medial sectors, thus contributing to fostering the trade and investment ties between the two sides and the two countries at large, he stressed./

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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Opportunities for Vietnamese goods in foreign supermarkets

There are many opportunities for Vietnamese goods, especially agricultural products, to enter foreign distribution channels, said Ta Hoang Linh, director of the Europe – America Market Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The awareness of the business community, ministries, branches and localities about the role of foreign distribution channels has deepened, said Linh.

Foreign distribution channels have been increasingly appreciated and considered an effective export and promotion channel for products and brands, he said.

With more than 60 deals in countries around the world, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to support ministries, branches and localities in advising and providing strategic guidance on market access, as well as informing and connecting Vietnamese businesses with foreign purchasing and distribution systems.

However, in order to export more, Linh said that localities needed to promote their role, focusing more on supporting products with strengths, and selecting some really potential markets and a few leading enterprises to act as a driving force for the industry to penetrate deeper into the foreign distribution system.

Exporting goods through overseas distribution systems was strongly deployed last year.

Through large distribution channels, Vietnamese goods, especially agricultural products, have been on the shelves of large supermarkets in France, Australia, Japan, and Thailand.

The goods on display are all famous agricultural products of Vi?t Nam such as lychee, dragon fruit, banana, and fish sauce and strictly comply with regulations on quality.

Shiotani, General Director of AEON Vietnam told An Ninh Thu Do (Capital Security) newspaper that in the past, AEON mainly imported fresh bananas from the Philippines, which made up 70% of its import volume, for the distribution system of the group.

AEON started importing bananas from Vietnam from last year and its consumers commented that Vietnamese bananas tasted better than other countries, said the director.

The representative of AEON also said that besides the reasons of quality and price, Vietnamese banana production companies for export had a circular production model.

In addition to planting bananas, they have a model of aquaculture and cattle breeding and fertiliser for banana trees.

With this closed model, the amount of waste was almost zero, he said.

“In the past, when it comes to imported goods, we focused on price, quality and supply chain. But now and in the future, supplier selection criteria of us and the whole world has changed. It is whether the supplier can build a sustainable production model or not,” said Shiotani./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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India looks to promote trade, investment cooperation with Da Nang

Indian Ambassador to Vietnam Sandeep Arya on March 15 underlined the need to promote economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries, saying that this is a good time for the two sides to intensify similarities, thus fostering development cooperation.

During a meeting with Secretary of the Party Committee of Central Da Nang city Nguyen Van Quang, the diplomat stated that the embassy will serve as a bridge connecting businesses of the two sides.

He said he believes that the two sides will further step up good cooperation relationships, especially in education, people-to-people diplomacy and culture exchange.

The ambassador stressed that he will persuade Vietnamese airlines to soon open more direct flights from Da Nang to some other Indian localities, saying that this move can open more cooperation opportunities between Da Nang’s tourism firms and hotel groups of India.

For his part, Quang briefed the guest on the city’s socio-economic development, and the potential for cooperation between the two sides to develop projects.

He said there is great potential and opportunities for Da Nang to cooperate with India but the relations between Da Nang and Indian localities still remain limited.

The city has not yet established twinning relations with any locality in India, he said, expressing the hope that the ambassador will pay attention to connecting an Indian locality with Da Nang.

He suggested the Indian diplomat act as a bridge to promote investment cooperation in the fields of urban infrastructure, hi-tech industry, information technology, pharmacy, healthcare, and tourism, affirming that Da Nang will select potential fields with high feasibility to prioritise cooperation with India in the near future.

As of 2022, Indian firms had poured capital into five projects in Da Nang with a total registered investment of about 14.7 million USD. There are three direct air routes connecting India and Da Nang. In the first two months of 2023, Da Nang attracted over 19,000 Indian tourists./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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Reference exchange rate up 3 VND

The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference exchange rate at 23,622 VND/USD on March 16, up 3 VND from the previous day.

With the current trading band of +/- 5%, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is 24,803 VND/USD and the floor rate 22,441 VND/USD.

The opening hour rates at commercial banks saw mixed fluctuations.

At 8:30 am, Vietcombank listed the buying rate at 23,390 VND/USD, and the selling rate at 23,760 VND/USD, both up 10 VND from the end of March 15.

BIDV cut the buying rate by 20 VND to 23,420 VND/USD but reduced the selling rate by 80 VND to 23,720 VND/USD./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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EU- Thailand relaunch trade negotiations

The EU on March 15 announced the relaunch of negotiations for a modern and balanced free trade agreement (FTA) with sustainability at its core, especially in the green technology field.

The bloc and Thailand, Southeast Asia’s second largest economy, launched negotiations in 2013 but discussions stalled due to Thailand’s political instability.

To date, the EU’s investment in Thailand in many areas such as clean and renewable energies, electric vehicles and microchips is under-represented in spite of they are strategic areas in the bloc’s industrial policies.

The first round of talks is expected to be held in the coming months.

Trade turnover between the two sides was worth over 42 billion EUR (44.3 billion USD) in 2022.

The EU is pushing to develop better trade relations with a fast-growing Indo-Pacific region, especially in clean technology as the bloc races to meet climate targets by 2030.

Brussels already has trade agreements with Vietnam and Singapore. In September 2022, the bloc set a target to agree a free trade deal with Indonesia within two years./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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Agreement on use of foreign photographer’s works on Son My massacre

A press conference was held in the central province of Quang Ngai on March 15 to announce the content of the agreement on the right to use a foreign photographer’s works on the Son My massacre.

The massacre happened on March 16, 1968, taking the lives of 504 civilians, including many children and women. Ronald L. Haeberle’s images of the incident were published on the US’s Life magazine in 1969.

On March 8, the provincial People’s Committee signed an agreement with the photographer on the license to use and display photos of Son My massacre at the Son My memorial site with the caption “Photos taken by Ronald L. Haeberle”.

On March 7, the US photographer and international friends returned to Son My, an area in Tinh Khe commune of Quang Ngai city, where he took 60 pictures of the mass killing by US troops 55 years ago.

On March 16, 1968, US troops stormed Son My village with the aim of killing all and destroying all. Within just four hours, 504 civilians there, including 17 children and 182 women, were slaughtered. The incident went down in history as a piercing pain of people in Son My and Vietnam as a whole./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency