Dell launches colorful PCs

17:41' 28/06/2007 (GMT+7)

Dell Inc. announced nine new Inspiron desktops and notebooks and an XPS M1330 notebook, all available in a choice of eight shell colors. Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc., listens to a Dr. Evil character at Dell's keynote address at the 2007 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada January 9, 2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) The new Inspiron notebooks cost 749 U.S. dollars for the model 1521 to 999 dollars for the model 1720, with a choice of processors from Intel Corp. or Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). The Inspiron 1420 comes with an additional choice of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista or the Ubuntu Linux operating system, for 799 dollars. "The Dell of today is vastly different from the Dell of six months ago or even last week," said Alex Gruzen, senior vice president of Dell's consumer product group. "We're here at Macy's in New York City. That alone is different for Dell, being in a department store or any kind of retail setting at all." In an effort to bolster its sliding market share and quarterly profits, Dell began selling certain PC models at Wal-Mart retail stores on June 10, marking the first time it had strayed from the direct sales model. Dell rose to prominence by cutting its costs through eliminating retail middlemen and selling its PCs only through its Web site, phone lines and catalogs. "This is really just a hint of what we're doing to get these exciting new products into customers' hands," Gruzen said. "We have a broader retail strategy and over the coming months we will announce more partnerships, both with Wal-Mart and with other retailers." Dell emphasized those increased choices with its color options for each PC, including pink, yellow, green, red and blue, as well as standard white and black. An increasing number of PC vendors will soon begin to follow that pattern, trying to differentiate themselves with flashy style and design instead of solely through technical details like processing power, according to a report released this week by Forrester Research Inc. "The consumer PC industry is entering the Age of Style, a time in which radical form factor innovations, increased aesthetic diversity, and consumer choice and personalization will determine which models, and which PC vendors, win or lose," Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder said. VietNamNet/Xinhuanet

Belly dancing gathers force

16:48' 28/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - “Let’s shake the butt and make the belly dance!” shouted Ara Hwang in one of her daily lessons. From only a few enrollees, the talented Korean artist’s class in Hanoi is attracting more and more girls. Ara Hwang’s success is reflected in Bastet Douat, the first and only belly dancing group in the country, which she founded at the beginning of 2006. And just one year after being established, Bastet Douat, which is made up of 6 young Vietnamese girls, has a hectic schedule. On the heels of their recent first public performance at the Sheraton Hotel in Hanoi, the dancers will visit Shanghai, China from July 17- 20 to give 2 performances at the Salsa and Swing Festival to be held there with the participation of many famous international dancers. And at the end of this July, the girls will travel south for shows in HCM City only to return right away to Hanoi to compete in the Salsa International Competition, where they will have to show off both their belly dancing and salsa skills. At the end of August, Bastet Douat will organise a belly dancing festival in Hanoi. Talking about belly dancing, a beautiful and difficult type of dance originating from traditional dances of the Middle East and Arab countries elsewhere, Huyen Trang, a Bastet Douat member, said that this dance was particularly good for one’s mental and physical health. It helps the muscles to be nimble and strong and ensures a good gait for the body. The beauty and healthiness of belly dancing is thus drawing more and more Hanoi girls to Ara Hwang’s class. Her basic session now has 40 students, who are captivated by the sexy, attractive and feminine belly dance, plus those colorful costumes with tiny bells giving off merry ringing sounds every move one makes. (Source: Viet Nam Net)

Abundance of IPOs deals blow to investors

17:12' 28/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – The OTC market had not yet recovered from the two big IPOs by the Phu My Fertiliser and Bao Viet when it received another ‘blow’, the IPO of 10mil shares by PetroVietnam Insurance (PVI) on June 26. Securities investors on trading floor Before the PVI auction on June 26, PVI shares were traded at VND110,000/share on OTC market. The price dropped dramatically on June 27 after the final average price of the auction at VND75,499/share was announced. On OTC websites, PVI shares are being offered at VND75,000/share. A lot of other OTC share items got involved in the misfortune when the prices dropped dramatically and they are unsalable because investors fear that more IPOs will take place in the coming time. PVI shares have become the obsession of many investors as they set a record in price decrease, though PVI announced impressive business performance. Le Van Hung, Chairman of PVI, said that PVI expected to obtain the turnover of VND1,768bil, or more than $100mil. There are two ways for investors to go now, either to hold shares with the hope that the PVI share price will increase when they are listed, or to sell the shares right now for fear that the price will further decrease. In fact, PVI’s price has decreased not because PVI’s business is bad, but because of too many commodities on the market. Experts have warned that if the IPOs of big corporations took place in the time to come as previously planned, the supply of securities will far exceed the demand, which will result in the dramatic drop of prices and the fall of the market. Kim Thanh, an expert with the State Bank of Vietnam’s Monetary Policy Department, said that 40 IPOs had been made so far this year, with 451mil shares sold. Soon after the IPO by PVI on June 26, Vincom will sell 5mil of shares to the public in early July at the starting price at VND80,000/share. Other IPOs will come in August (Vietcombank), October (MHB), while other big corporations have announced IPOs for the fourth quarter of 2007, including MobiFone and Sabeco. A question has been raised: do investors have enough money for the large and massive number of IPOs? Phan Vu Hung, an investor in HCM City thinks that enterprises should delay their IPOs. He said that domestic investors would not have money to buy all the shares to be issued, especially with commercial banks limiting loans for securities investment. Ngoc Lan, an investor on Bao Viet Securities Company’s trading floor, said that a massive number of IPOs would cause indigestion in the market and not bring much money to the securities issuers as public capital is not unlimited. Unlike the IPOs made last year, the final prices from this year’s share auctions are just a bit higher than the starting prices. Several issuers have to organise auctions twice as they cannot sell all the shares in one auction. The Phu My Thermo Power Company, for example, had 4.8mil unsold shares after the first auction, while the percentage of Thac Mo Hydropower Plant’s shares left unsold accounted for 38%. Tran Bac Ha, Director General of the Bank for Investment and Development (BIDV) has warned that at least six IPOs of big corporations will take place from now until the end of the year. Mr Ha said that the IPOs will make supply far exceed demand, thus badly affecting the market. Viet Nam Net

Anti-corruption website inaugurated

17:03' 28/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – The Government Inspectorate today, June 28, launched its anti-corruption website, which is considered one of the agency’s efforts to promote anti-corruption activities in Vietnam. From the left: Deputy Minister of Post and Telematics Tran Duc Lai, ADB Vietnam Country Director Ayumi Konishi and Deputy Chief Government Inspector Mai Quoc Binh at the launching ceremony of the anti-corruption website. The website (http://chongthamnhung.thanhtra.gov.vn/) contains information and legal documents on anti-corruption policies of Vietnam. According to the Government Inspectorate’s Information Technology Centre, the website’s database will be uploaded with much more information and many more functions from July 1 to September 1, 2007. As of September 1, the site will be updated with hot news on a daily basis. Viet Nam Net

US enterprises lead new wave of investment in Vietnam

16:43' 28/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – US businesses are taking the lead in the new wave of investment into Vietnam, said Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), after President Nguyen Minh Triet’s visit to the US. Mr. Loc said that up to 150 Vietnamese companies accompanied the President to the US and this was a message showing Vietnam’s desire to strengthen economic relations with the US. The visit is hoped will contribute to promote the investment wave of the US into Vietnam. That’s why the Vietnamese mission spent a lot of time meeting with American CEOs and groups. Large contracts signed during the Vietnamese President’s US visit 1. The Saigon Investment group and Tan Tao Industrial Zone Development Company signed an agreement with American partners to build a complex of seaport industrial zones, a 3,600MW thermo-power plant, and a loan, totalling $4 billion in value. 2. Electricity of Vietnam group (EVN) signed a gas trading and gas development contract worth $4 billion. The group also signed a $100 million loan contract with Citbank to build a hydropower plant. 3. TVN signed a contract with CitiGroup on bond issuance consulting worth VND3 trillion ($187 million). 4. The Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam (Agribank) signed an agreement on buying Microsoft Office software copyright and other agreements with US banks worth $700 million. 5. The Vietnam Shipping Lines Corporation (Vinalines) signed a contract with SSA Marine to build the Cai Lan seaport, worth $500 million. It also signed a contract to borrow $175 million from CitiGroup to build seaports. 6. The Saigon Securities Trading Company and Credit Suisse signed a contract on a $100 million credit. 7. Phong Phu Textile Company and ITG signed a contract on textile-garment cooperation worth $100 million. 8. SOVICO and NBH Group signed contracts on energy, crude oil investment and establishing an investment fund in Vietnam, totalling $600 million. 9. Mai Linh Company and Texas Tech Group signed a contract to build a $100 million hospital. 10. Hoang Quan Real Estate Company signed a contract to build a $30 million technology university in Vietnam and an agreement to sell its stocks to IndoChina Capital, worth $100 million. “Recently we have heard much about the new wave of investment in Vietnam. That’s the investment wave of leading world groups in finance and hi-tech into Vietnam. I believe that with their capital, technology and market, American investors will lead the new wave of investment into Vietnam and soon become the number-one investor in Vietnam,” Mr. Loc said. What do you think about the contracts that Vietnam and the US signed during the recent US visit by President Nguyen Minh Triet? During the President’s visit, I saw that American businesses are very interested in investment in Vietnam through big projects in important areas of the economy. The two sides signed many important agreements and contracts worth around U$11 billion. This is a meaningful, record figure. Contracts signed during the visit include large projects on infrastructure such as building seaports, power plants, industrial zones, residential areas, those to develop the financial market and financial institutions in Vietnam, hi-tech projects in the fields of information technology and telecom, import-export contracts and projects on education and training, specifically the agreement to establish a technology university in Vietnam. Along with a record number of contracts, the quality of projects is also high. We know that the US is the best in the world in infrastructure development, hi-tech and education. Meanwhile, Vietnam needs to strongly develop those fields to boost modernisation and industrialisation. Contracts signed on this occasion are suitable to the advantages of each side. The flow of US investment running into Vietnam through those contracts are in various forms, from wholly foreign owned or joint venture, portfolio investment through buying stocks of Vietnamese companies, and US provisions of credit for Vietnam’s imports to serve its projects in Vietnam. The two sides also discussed other projects and I hope that in the coming time, many new projects will be signed. Thus, the results of this visit don’t include already signed projects but projects for the future. Among signed projects, which impress you most? All projects signed in the US are important, meaningful and impress me in different ways. For example, large projects on infrastructure development such as seaports or power plants have huge capital and are very important to the development of Vietnam. Even small-scale agreements such as the agreement between the Vietnamese and US stock exchanges or the Vietnamese Government and businesses buying Microsoft software copyright, which are only worth several tens of millions of US dollars, are still very meaningful in terms of intellectual property protection and pave the way for hi-tech investment into Vietnam. Hi-tech investment always goes with intellectual property protection. Another example is a $30 million project to build a university in Vietnam. $30 million is not large in the total number of $11 billion but it is a pioneer project for Vietnam-US cooperation to build universities in Vietnam. We wants to cooperate with the US to develop top-tier universities in Vietnam, so besides government agencies, Vietnamese companies are also seeking cooperation with American partners in this area. This is a field with potential for Vietnam-US cooperation. We can see that contracts and agreements signed during the visit are quite comprehensive, covering many fields. There are big ones with billions of US dollars of capital and there are small ones which have great meaning because they mark the first cooperation between the two sides in new areas. Mr Vu Tien Loc In this visit, what did we do for the textile-garment supervision issue, which is hindering Vietnam’s exports to the US? Since Vietnam has become a WTO member, there are still barriers from the two sides, firstly the technical barrier like the supervision on Vietnam’s textile-garments. At meetings with US partners during this trip, we suggested lifting that barrier to boost Vietnam’s exports to the US and Vietnam’s imports of US hi-tech products. The American Importers’ Association confirmed that the application of the supervision mechanism on Vietnam’s textile-garments was a violation of WTO rules and was unfair. The Vietnam Textile-garments Association will work closely with American importers and Government agencies to ask for the removal of this mechanism. We have reasons to affirm that Vietnam’s textile-garment exports don’t influence the US textile-garment industry. Such problems can continue to appear through commercial lawsuits such as anti-dumping lawsuits so Vietnamese enterprises need to cooperate with not only the community of local businesses but American partners to create a common voice to lift barriers in economic ties. What agreements did Vietnam and the US reach to assist enterprises of both sides in trade and investment relations? During this trip, VCCI and the American Chamber of Commerce reached an agreement on establishing the Vietnam-US enterprise forum. The forum will be a regular mechanism of the Vietnamese and US communities of business to exchange information on trade, investment and policies. It will also promote trade and investment cooperation between the two sides. It will be set up soon to connect Vietnamese and US businesses. In addition, the two governments signed the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, a following step of the Vietnam-US Bilateral Trade Agreement and a step towards the Vietnam-US Free Trade Agreement. The two sides also established the investment-business consulting council. These are the foundations for Vietnam-US economic cooperation at higher levels. Along with promising results through the President’s US visit, Vietnam is receiving the interest of many foreign investors. What should we do to take advantage of the new wave of investment? The investment environment of Vietnam in the WTO era has undergone important changes but we are still facing fierce competition from other economies, which are also trying to improve their investment climates, such as China, India, and ASEAN countries. Before making investment decisions, foreign investors always compare Vietnam to other countries. Vietnam is now in the eyes of big groups so we have to gear up to take advantage of this opportunity. I think with a new cabinet, an improving investment environment, and harsh measures in administrative reforms, investment of the US and other countries into Vietnam will surely increase. Viet Nam Net