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President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (left) and Ambassador of New Zealand Tredene Cherie Dobson (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on June 16 held separate meetings with ambassadors of New Zealand, Argentina, Pakistan and Romania who came to present their credentials.

At a reception for Ambassador of New Zealand Tredene Cherie Dobson, the President said he hopes that the ambassador will raise initiatives to promote cooperation between the two countries in the time ahead, especially when the bilateral relationship is developing intensively and extensively in the spirit of the strategic partnership.

He called on New Zealand to share its experience in COVID-19 combat, and suggested the two sides step up high-level visits after the pandemic is put under control.

The two countries also should foster trade ties, particularly the export of fruits, Phuc said, suggesting New Zealand further assist Vietnam in education, especially English language teaching.

Vietnam wishes to tighten coordination with New Zealand and relevant parties in realising the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and accelerating the ratification and implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in the coming time, he added.

The ambassador pledged to make every effort to contribute to strengthening the bilateral relations, and support Vietnamese firms to access the New Zealand market.

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) and Argentina ’s Ambassador Luis Pablo Maria Beltramino (Photo: VNA)

Meeting with Argentina’s Ambassador Luis Pablo Maria Beltramino, Phuc wished that the two countries will enhance all-level delegation exchanges and bring into full play dialogue and cooperation mechanisms to advance the bilateral comprehensive partnership to a new high.

The President called for joint efforts to press ahead with negotiations of a free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), and suggested both sides maintain their mutual support and cooperation at multilateral forums.

The ambassador said he hopes to coordinate with Vietnamese agencies to elevate the bilateral ties to a new level.

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) and Pakistani Ambassador Samina Mehtab (Photo: VNA)

At a meeting with Pakistani Ambassador Samina Mehtab, the State leader expressed his hope that the diplomat will have measures to forge economic and trade ties between the two sides.

Vietnam and Pakistan should optimise their strengths and beef up cooperation in trade, while tightening their collaboration at regional and multilateral forums, the President suggested.

Mehtab said she hopes that Vietnam would serve as a bridge between Pakistan and ASEAN, and the two countries will intensify tourism cooperation.

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) and Romanian Ambassador Cristina Romila (Photo: VNA)

Receiving Romanian Ambassador Cristina Romila, Phuc said Vietnam always attaches importance to the traditional friendship with Romania, and bears in mind the country’s valuable support during Vietnam’s struggles for national independence and national development.

He also praised Romania for its efforts in pushing ahead with the signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) when Romania held the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Phuc asked the ambassador to convey his invitation to the Romanian President to visit Vietnam at an appropriate time.

Romila, in reply, affirmed that Vietnam remains Romania’s important partner, and congratulated the Southeast Asian nation on its achievements in the pandemic fight./.

Another batch of ‘thieu’ lychee from Hai Duong province will be shipped to France this week thanks to swift consumption of the fruit in the market. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Another batch of ‘thieu’ lychee from the northern province of Hai Duong will be shipped to France this week thanks to swift consumption of the fruit in the European country .

As the French side decided to speed up import procedures ahead of schedule to meet local demand, two batches containing nearly 1 tonne of lychees each have been flown to France within just one week.

Labelled with Vietnam’s itrace247 origin tracing stamp, the first batch was shipped thanks to trade promotion efforts by the Vietnam Trade Office in France and the Trade Promotion Agency (Viettrade) at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, following a series of business matching sessions involving Hai Duong lychees.

Vu Anh Son, head of the office, said that France consumers attach importance to food origin labels to ensure quality and responsibilities of growers and distributors.

The shipment of the fruit demonstrates a strategic and responsible export policy of the Vietnam ese Government, he noted.

On June 12, an about-1-tonne batch of ‘thieu’ lychee grown in Hai Duong arrived at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. It was available at the prestigious Asia supermarket chain in Paris and strongly favoured by local consumers.

Before the arrival of the batch, the Vietnamese fruit was imported in a small amount and made almost no appearance at big local shopping malls.

To further promote the consumption of Vietnamese lychees in France, the trade office and the Embassy of Vietnam will set up a booth dedicated to the fruit at the 2021 Vietnamese Food Festival, which is slated for June 19 in downtown Paris.

Viettrade and the trade office in France are seeking more import partners and firms in Vietnam meeting requirements of the European market, in an endeavour to bolster export of agricultural products at large and lychees in particular, thereby optimising advantages from the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement./.

The anticipated rise in farm and food prices, especially for chicken, sugar, tapioca products and pineapples. (Photo: Bangkok Post)

Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s food exports are forecast to recover to 7.1 percent growth this year, fetching 1.05 trillion THB (35 billion USD), driven by growing demand in the global market.

The anticipated rise in farm and food prices, especially for chicken, sugar, tapioca products and pineapples, as well as Thailand’s strict safety and supervisory measures to prevent the spread of the virus and food contamination, are factors in the food export prediction, according to the Board of Trade, the National Food Institute and the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).

FTI president Anong Paijiprapapon said food exports tallied 980 billion THB last year, down 4.1 percent from the previous year, with shipments in dollar terms equivalent to 31.3 billion USD, down 5.1 percent.

Lower exports led Thailand’s share of the world food market to drop to 2.32 percent last year from 2.49 percent in 2019. Thailand ‘s food exporter ranking in the world fell to 13th from 11th the year before.

According to Anong, Thailand’s food exports only grew to China, the US and Oceania, with outbound shipments to China amounting to 180 billion THB, up 18.1 percent, with those to the US up 12.2 percent to 119 billion THB, and Oceania up 1.7 percent to 33.1 billion THB.

Exports to other markets, particularly Africa, ASEAN, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and the United Kingdom all fell, she said.

China is Thailand’s top food export market, accounting for 18.3 percent of the total, followed by CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) at 13.9 percent, and Japan at 12.7 percent.

Anong said apart from the pandemic impact, food exports last year also struggled with the stubborn baht strength, a container shortage and higher transport costs./.

Sugarcane imported from Thailand is taxed 47.64 per cent for five years

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has issued Decision No.1578/QD-BCT applying anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes at 47.64 per cent to a number of sugarcane products originating from Thailand in the next five years.

The imposition of tax is applied to organisations and individuals producing and exporting goods originating from Thailand with the official anti-dumping tax rate of 42.99 per cent, and the official anti-subsidy tax rate of 4.65 per cent. Totally, the two types of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tax are 47.64 per cent.

“Anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tax are additional import taxes applied to sugarcane imported from Thailand, including imports under tariff quotas,” said the MoIT. The investigation process was carried out in accordance with the provisions of the World Trade Organization, the Law on Foreign Trade Management, and related regulations.

Compared with the temporary tax rate applied from February 2021 at 33.88 per cent, the final official tax rate is still lower than the initial investigation result of 48.88 per cent. It was alleged that sugarcane products imported from Thailand, including refined sugar and raw sugar, have been subsidised and dumped, causing heavy damage to the domestic sugarcane industry.

Under the impact of sugar imports from Thailand being dumped and subsidised, over the past time, a series of sugar factories have had to close, seriously impacting employees. According to data from the ministry, 3,300 workers lost their jobs and 93,225 households have been affected due to the difficulties of the domestic manufacturing industry.

The main reason for the situation is that the import of subsidised and dumped sugar from Thailand increased sharply in 2020, to nearly 1.3 million tonnes, up 330.4 per cent compared to 2019.

Vietnam is rolling out policies to improve FDI mobilisation

After the meeting with the task force for foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction in late-May, last week, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, head of the task force, urged all ministries and agencies to provide more general advice and policies to lure in more investors and strengthen investment promotion activities.

Of these, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) is the focal agency in the building of Vietnam’s FDI mobilisation strategy by 2030 to be submitted to the prime minister this month. The ministry will also be forwarded all reports and recommendations related to enterprises’ difficulties and challenges sent to relevant authorities.

Based on initial feedback, tax and related issues remain a headache for investors. The deputy PM asked the Ministry of Finance to provide measures as soon as possible to remove challenges related to withholding tax (especially foreign contractor withholding tax), the conflicts of legal provisions on taxes as well as export, and import tariffs.

Meanwhile, DPM Minh asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade and relevant ministries to consider off-shore wind power projects and consider adding a new form of energy (hydrogen) to the master plan.

The Ministry of Labours, Invalids, and Social Affairs will have to make more efforts to urgently resolve all issues related to granting and extending work permits for experts working for foreign-invested enterprises; as well as accelerate the training of workers to meet the needs of large corporations for skilled, technical, and management workers in line with Industry 4.0 trends.

The efforts of the task force and the local governments have proven effective so far. A few weeks ago, Binh Duong People’s Committee handed over investment certificates to five foreign-invested companies valued at $1 billion in the midst of the fourth COVID-19 outbreak in Vietnam.

Of these, Polytex Far Eastern Vietnam (from Taiwan) had the largest capitalisation with a total investment of $600 million, followed by Cheng Loong (also from Taiwan) pouring an additional $100 million into its $1 billion local project, and Singapore’s New Motion Industrial Co., Ltd. registered a new $184 million project. This has pulled Binh Duong to the fourth position among 56 cities and provinces receiving FDI in the first five months of 2021, with the total investment of $1.1 billion.

Meanwhile, the task force has also boosted cooperation with numerous new billion-dollar projects in the first months, clinching deals like the LNG power plant in Long An and O Mon II thermal power plant in Can Tho, while encouraging others to expand.

Regent Garment Factory Ltd., a subsidiary of Crystal International Group Ltd., was approved in May to build another factory in Hai Duong with the value of $35 million. This is the fourth factory of the company which has so far registered the total investment of around $227 million in the country.

The total investment in the first five months saw a slight increase on-year to nearly $14 billion. Moreover, the average scale of newly- and additionally-registered projects has risen significantly since last year, from $2.2 million to $14.4 million, and from $7.9 million to $11.3 million per project this year.