Saigontourist, Rex selected best tour operator hotel

15:15' 10/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Tourism Association has selected Saigontourist Travel Service Co. and the Rex Hotel as the best tour operator and hotel in the country respectively. The association held an award ceremony in Hanoi last night for the top ten tour operators and the top ten hotels for 2006. Saigontourist, for two consecutive years, ranked first on the list, followed by Apex Vietnam, Vietnamtourism in Hanoi, Ho Guom Diethelm, Ben Thanh Tourist, Fiditourist, Vietravel, Peace Tour, Huong Giang and A Dong. The list of the top ten tour operators for 2006 changed a little compared to last year. Exotissimo and Vietnam Tourism in Danang fell off the list, and Huong Giang and A Dong have become new winners. As for the top ten hotels, the four-star Rex Hotel rose to the top position from the sixth place last year, followed by the Majestic, Sofitel Metropole Hanoi, the Caravelle, Ana Mandara Nha Trang, Melia Hanoi, Sofitel Plaza Hanoi, Nikko Hanoi, Furama Danang, and De Nhat (First). The new faces on the list are Furama, the Majestic, Sofitel Metrople Hanoi and the Caravelle, while the old names like the Hanoi Hotel, Huong Giang and the Grand did not make the list. HCMC has 11 travel companies and hotels on the list of top ten hotels and top ten tour operators, six in Hanoi, one in Thua Thien Hue, one in Danang and one in Khanh Hoa Province. Bui Van Dung, deputy chief of the Members Development and Training Division of the tourism association, told the Daily that the hotels had been chosen based on the same criteria as last year with high profit chosen as the main criterion. The key criterion for the top ten hotels is also high profit. Saigontourist Travel Service received 164,000 tourists last year, with 61,000 of them being inbound guests, and total revenue amounting to VND473bil, up 20% year-on-year. The 300-room Rex Hotel reported total revenue of VND150bil last year, up VND35bil from 2005. Last year, Vietnam attracted 3.58mil international visitors, up 3% year-on-year, and 17.5mil domestic tourists, up 6.6% year-on-year. Tourism revenue was worth VND51tril or some US$3.2bil, of which international visitors contributed around VND45.6tril, or nearly US$2.9bil. This year Vietnam is looking to 4-4.4mil foreign visitors and 19-20mil domestic tourists with total revenue reaching VND56tril, or US$3.5bil. (Source: Viet Nam Net)

SSC may tighten licencing of securities companies

07:37' 11/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – The State Securities Commission (SSC) has asked for the intervention of the Ministry of Finance in order to restrain the establishment of a massive number of securities companies, but it has received no reply. SSC’s Deputy Chairman Nguyen Doan Hung talked about this. What rights does SSC have in the licencing of securities companies under the current regulations? SSC’s Deputy Chairman Nguyen Doan Hung Some 50 applications for setting up securities companies have been put on the table of state management authorities. If all the 50 investors can prove their capability and get operation licences, the market will have more than 100 securities companies (there are now 56 operational companies). You may know that opinions on the issue vary, and securities companies themselves do not want intervention by administrative order. However, some experts have said that it is necessary to limit the number of securities companies on the market. Similarly, the central bank has the right to tighten and limit the capital flow onto the market. If considering the current laws, you may see that the Law on State Bank stipulates that the central bank can make decisions relating to the existence and operation of banks based on the market situation. However, the Securities Law does not mention the similar right of state management authorities. The law says that investors who can meet all the requirements must be licenced. Investors can initiate legal proceedings against authorities that make decisions contrary to the law. Will management authorities set under-law regulations which relate to the establishment of securities companies? State management authorities can set stricter requirements in order to limit the number of securities companies. However, authorities still must licence companies which can meet all the requirements. In the past, securities companies must have VND43bil to be eligible to provide five types of services. The required capital has been raised to VND300bil, or five times higher than the previous level. However, this seems to be not a barrier for the establishment of more securities companies. A lot of applications have been submitted to SSC and Ministry of Finance. Under the law, the regulation on the required capital cannot be amended. However, state management authorities will consider setting up stricter requirements on technical issues, for example the staffs and qualification of staffs. For example, in order to be able to provide a kind of service, a securities company must have at least three certified staffs specialising in this service. Besides, the requirement on the general director of the companies has also been heightened. I have learnt that in Thailand, state management authorities collect fees for licencing companies. The fee, I guess, may reach VND1bil, which will be collected gradually over five years. In Vietnam, securities companies still get the licences free of charge. You have said that there are different viewpoints about whether to limit the licencing of securities companies. What is the official viewpoint of SSC, then? SSC has made suggestions about this issue. You may see that the existence of too many securities companies has caused an overly high demand for material facilities. The Hanoi Securities Trading Centre, for example, has no more room for transaction representatives from securities companies. The network of trading centres lacks portals for companies to connect to. Some experts said the current number of 200,000 securities investors proved to be too small if compared with the population. If more investors join the market, it would be fine to allow more securities companies to be set up. I have heard some others say that management authorities should let companies be established, the law of competition will decide which company will exist, and which will be dissolved. However, in case we cannot attract more investors, which means only 200 accounts exist, the number of clients for every securities company will be very low. You may know that if companies only serve a limited number of clients, they will not make heavy investment in technologies, which should be seen as a bad thing for the development of the stock market. Has SSC thought of a non-administrative measure, for example, a warning, in order to curb the establishment of more securities companies? Warnings will not help. Every citizen has the right to do business. However, SSC has the right to inspect the material facilities and technologies at securities companies to ensure that the licenced companies operate in good conditions. Will SSC consider revoking licences of companies that cannot meet requirements? SSC has never revoked any licence. In fact, we have released many decisions on punishment over companies that cannot meet requirements or violated the current regulations. The violations were not heavy enough to consider licence revoking. (Source: Viet Nam Net)

US Ambassador’s wife tells about her life in Hanoi

12:28' 10/07/2007 (GMT+7)

US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Marine and his wife, Mrs. Carmella Marine at a party held by the Vietnam-US Association. VietNamNet Bridge – “I’ve seen by my eyes turtles rising on the Sword Lake. So certainly enough that I will be very lucky and I will live till 200 years old,” said Mrs. Carmella Marine, the wife of US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Marine. She said that when see came to Vietnam, she faced some difficulties. One of which is that she couldn’t pronounce Vietnamese words correctly, even the name of the street where she lives, Ton Dan Street. “One time I called a taxi but the driver couldn’t understand the place where I wanted to go. So I had to walk home. Now the situation is better but when I say ‘bao nhieu tien’ (How much money), many people still can’t understand,” she said. Mrs. Marine said that after three years in Vietnam, she has learnt the habit of Vietnamese people like waking up early and take a siesta. “I get up at 4am. Mike, my husband, is very busy the whole day so he can never get up early like that. Around 5 or 5.30 am, I walk to the Sword Lake. There I meet many people, most of them are elderly like me. We walk two laps around the lake together”. “They don’t know who am I. Because we don’t understand the languages of each others so we don’t talk. But there is an old man who always shakes my hands whenever he sees me. I always say “Chao ban” whenever I see him”. “Like many Vietnamese people, I have early lunch at around 11.30am. After that I take a siesta. The hot weather like this always makes me tired. But with a siesta I can stay awake till 10 or 11pm”. “Three years ago, when I had just come here, I saw a turtle rising in the Sword Lake at the early morning. It is grey and its head looks like the head of a sea lion. The day after that I went to the lake and I saw it once again. And I ask others and know about the story that the King returns the sword to the turtle. It is strange that there is a turtle living in the lake and I saw it twice. So certainly enough that I will live till I’m 200 years old”. “My hobby is reading. I read many books about Vietnam. It is interesting to read about Vietnam when I’m here. In addition, once a week I play bridge with several friends from different countries. There is a Vietnamese woman who is very intelligent. She always wins”. “Sometimes I help children at a pediatrics hospital in Hanoi to study English. Just several simple dialogues. I also assist doctors and nurses there about medical terms, which are based on Greece and Latin languages”. “There are several things that I don’t like about the life in Hanoi. I’m scared to pass the road here. It was better in the past three years but there are so many motorbikes now. I think we should do something. You say that the weather is so hot so wearing hamlet is very inconvenient. But in Thailand the weather is also hot but they still wear helmets”. “There are racers who like driving around the lake in the evening. I don’t dare to walk at night because I couldn’t pass the road. Parents let’s their children stand on motorbikes. Once I saw an accident and a woman who held her child standing on the road to argue about that accident. I think we should have more TV programmes and newspaper articles to educate people about traffic safety”. “One more thing is taxis. I think taxis must be for everybody. When your children are ill, you can call a taxi to bring them to hospital but here taxi service is very expensive. Once a taxi driver asked me to pay double the official charges. He didn’t know that I know clearly about taxi charges and I debated with him in English. Finally, I only paid him the amount of money that I had to pay”. “Each time I was far from Hanoi, the atmosphere became quiet. At that time I remembered the noisiness of Hanoi because I’m so familiar with it”. “Just several weeks more I and my husband will leave Vietnam. Here I have had a happy period of time. I have met with kind-hearted people, who always look ahead and hope. I will tell American people “Let’s go to Vietnam to help and to visit this country”. (Source: Viet Nam Net)

IPO timing should be re-arranged?

13:20' 10/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – If a lot of IPOs are made at the same time, it would cause losses to the State, as the seller. However, the re-arrangement of the IPOs is thought to spoil the process of state owned enterprise (SOE) equitisation. Warning: massive IPOs will cause losses Under the Government’s Decision No 1729, in 2007-2010, Vietnam will have 71 economic groups and general corporations equitised. In 2007, some 20 corporations will be brought into equitisation, including Vietcombank and the Mekong Housing Development Bank (MHB). However, according to Nguyen Trong Dung, Deputy Head of the Enterprises Renovation Department under the Government Office, the Government is reconsidering the timing for IPOs of these enterprises, since the supply is now exceeding the demand, which may cause losses to the State. Mr Dung said that the SOEs now subject to the equitisation are all 100 times bigger than the SOEs equitised in the last time. While the supply-and-demand imbalance exists on the market, the additional supply of commodities will make the state lose a big sum of surplus capital during the share auctioning process. Sharing the same view, Ngo Tri Long, Deputy Head of the Market and Price Research Institute under the Ministry of Finance, stressed that the rethink of IPO timing proves to be very necessary, which can help prevent the ‘Russia’s lesson’ from repeating. According to Mr Long, when equitising SOEs, Russia tried to sell out the shares of big enterprises. As a result, many opportunists could buy many shares of the enterprises at very low prices, then grasped power in these enterprises. Foreign media once called the equitisation process in Russia a ‘tragedy’. Nguyen Dinh Cung, an economist, said that the Government has made the right decision to ask for reconsidering the IPO timing. IPOs should not be conducted at an unsuitable time. The decision by the Government and viewpoint by economists has been applauded by many individual investors. Nguyen Thanh Duong, an investor on SeABS trading floor said: “The State would suffer a loss if its sells commodities now”. Mr Duong now holds nearly VND3bil worth of Phu My Fertiliser’s, Bao Viet’s, Mediplantex’s and Hoa Phat’s securities. These are all OTC commodities which cannot be sold at this moment, when the market is quiet. Mr Long surely does not want the State to pump more commodities to the market when he still cannot ‘drive out’ the commodities he has taken on at high prices. However, the decision by the Government has not been applauded by Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) investors who have returned from Russia. From the beginning of 2007, when the Government of Russia decided to tighten the business of foreigners in the country, many Vietnamese people have returned to Vietnam, bringing a big sum of capital. The capital, according to experts, will be injected in the real estate market and securities. In one word, these investors need somewhere to invest in, and they are awaiting the IPOs of big groups and corporations. Nguyen Minh Long, head of a group of Viet Kieu investors, said that his group’s VND20bil are awaiting to be injected in shares of Vietcombank and MHB when the two big banks make IPO as planned. IPO rethink will delay equitisation process The statistics showed that by the end of 2006, Vietnam had equitised 2,935 SOEs, 80% of which have been equitised since 2001. In fact, the State only equitised 77% of SOEs with the capital of less than VND10bil and 30% of SOEs with the capital of less than VND1bil. After equitising, the state still holds the controlling stakes (more than 50%) in 33% of equitised companies, and less than 50% in the other 37%. The State does not hold stakes in the unprofitable enterprises of less than VND1bil. Economists have estimated that only 12% of total state owned capital has been equitised, and only 3.6% of the equitised state owned capital have been sold to the public. In fact, the majority of shareholders in equitised companies are still the state, as most of the strategic shareholders and capital contributors in equitised companies are other state entities. Experts have warned that if the state reconsiders the IPO timing of a lot of SOEs in 2007, it would affect the quality of the equitisation, which has been considered as of ‘low quality’ due to the low proportion of shares sold to the public. Besides, the equitisation process, which has been slow, will be further slowed down. (Source: Viet Nam Net)