Credit tightening will not affect stock market

VietNamNet Bridge – Information about banks tightening loans for securities investments would have raised concerns that this would negatively influence the stock market – if the information had been released one year go. However, this is not the situation at this moment.

Information about banks tightening loans for securities investments would have raised concerns that this would negatively influence the stock market – if the information had been released one year go. However, this is not the situation at this moment

In principle, the tightening of credit means that investors will not have as much money to make securities investments. Therefore, it is understandable why people are worried that the tightened credit will affect the stock market.

The State Bank of Vietnam has sent documents to commercial banks, asking them to reserve capital for production and business, while limiting credit for consumption, real estate and securities investments.

In fact, the stock market has been influenced by the credit tightening policy for the last month, when the State Bank of Vietnam announced it would inspect banks’ credit activities. This was considered a move that heralded the policy on tightening credit to fund securities investments.

Since the move, banks have been controlling their loaning for securities investments, stopping providing loans and checking outstanding loans. Dau tu chung khoan reporters found out that there is still ‘room’ at securities companies to loan to securities investments. Most borrowers have sold stocks to pay debts back to banks. Other investors, fearing risks, dare not borrow money for investments at this moment.

The activities of loaning and borrowing money to inject in securities investments at this moment are not as hot as they were one month ago, when securities companies’ loan limits had nearly run out. At that time, short-term investors rushed to borrow money just for two weeks to make surfing investments.

Experts believe that the credit tightening will not affect the stock market because investors themselves are cautious when borrowing money at this moment. Currently, investors only borrow money for several days to make payments. For example, when restructuring their investment portfolios, investors want to purchase some share items but they still cannot sell other items to get money, so they borrow money from banks to make payments.

However, experts still believe that the tightening of credit will affect investors.

Investors understand that the State Bank of Vietnam is tightening credit because it wants to keep control over the stock market and does not want to see the stock market develop too hotly.

Experts have applauded the policy on tightening credit for securities investments, saying that it is a good policy for the market now.

As banks will reserve capital to fund production and business, listed companies in particular and businesses in general will benefit from the loans.

The State Bank of Vietnam has slashed the interest rate for compulsory reserves of commercial banks at the State Bank, a move that should be seen as a method to encourage money to be put into circulation.

VietNamNet/DTCK

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May CPI increased by 0.44%

VietNamNet Bridge - Consumer price index (CPI) in May increased by 0.44% compared to the last month, according to the General Statistics Office.

Domestic gold price set a record high on May 22, almost VND20.7 per tael of SJC gold

Since early this year, CPI rose by 2.12% and the average CPI of the first five months in 2009 increased by 11.59% over the same period last year.

In May, ten groups of goods and services, all increased by 0.03% to 1.8% in prices, of which, the groups of transportation and postal services had the highest increasing level at 1.8%.

Especially, the groups of post and telecommunications saw the highest increase by 1.92% after several declining months. Other consumer goods and services groups rose by 1.44%; housing and construction materials groups increased by 0.97% and groups of equipment and household appliances went up by 0.51%.

CPI of food and food service groups increased by 0.18%. Among them, foodstuff group and eating outside group rose by 0.36% and 0.38% respectively while food group decreased by 0.37%

The gold price and US$ price indexes in May increased by 0.61% and 1.25% respectively against the last month.

Since the beginning of this year, the gold price has risen 17%, in line with fluctuations in the world market. On May 22, the country saw a record high – almost VND20.7 million per tael (1.2 troy ounces) of SJC gold.

On May 21, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it affirmed its 'BB/B' foreign currency and 'BB+/B' local currency sovereign credit ratings on Vietnam.

The world’s foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices and risk said that healthy economic growth prospects, reinforced by the government’s persistent efforts in economic restructuring, partly offset these weaknesses. A modest level of external indebtedness also supports the government's credit quality.

By April, inflation has receded to below 10% and the trade account was in surplus for the first four months of this year.

Amid the current global economic slowdown, the Vietnamese government on May 19 asked the National Assembly to agree to reduce this year’s economic growth target to around five percent from the previous goal of 6.5 percent.

The World Bank has estimated 5.5 percent economic growth for Vietnam in 2009 and the International Monetary Fund predicts 3.5 percent growth.

VietNamNet/VOV, SGGP

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Illegal foreign labourers in Vietnam, lack of proper management?

05:23' 27/04/2009 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - Many foreign people are working in Vietnam without labour licenses or professional certificates. The Prime Minister has asked the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and relevant ministries and agencies to intensify tough measures on foreign-worker management. Unskilled foreign workers flow into Vietnam Unskilled foreign workers not permitted to work in Vietnam PM asks for check of foreign workers in Vietnam 2,000 Chinese laborers may work on Central Highlands alumina project While Vietnamese guest workers in foreign countries have to register with the local authorities through their employers, there is a large number of foreign workers illegally employed in Vietnam but local authorities do not know the exact figure even where they live and work. According to Phan Quoc Thai, deputy head of the Vietnam Immigration Department in Southern regions of Vietnam under the Ministry of Public Security, the number of foreign workers from Africa and the Middle East coming to Ho Chi Minh City has increased rapidly in recent years. The number rose from 2,893 in 2005 to 4,080 in 2007 and 1,765 in just the first half on 2008. However, many foreign workers in Ho Chi Minh City do not have work permits because they don’t satisfy the criteria in terms of work experience. Some work at two firms at once. Tam said the Department is seeking ways to address the situation. Problems persist in the management of foreign labourers. Ho Chi Minh City currently has about 8,000 legal foreign workers, however, this figure is only the tip of the iceberg. Many enterprises recruit foreign labourers themselves from China and African countries, since there are no enterprises in Vietnam which are permitted to do it for them. Foreign labourers work in Vietnam in such fields as education, footwear, garments and textiles, printing and building-often for low salaries. Most footwear and garment and textile companies employ Chinese workers. Illegal foreign workers number in the thousands A report from Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Labour-Invalids and Social Affairs in a survey of 200 enterprises at the end of 2008 shows that 30% of foreign workers do not have permits and 10% of them are not qualified to get one. After concluding their review of 14 companies employing foreign labourers in the last quarter of 2008, the review committee was shocked to discover that only 3 out of 23 foreign workers have a labour license. Some experts are worried about the difficulty of foreign-labour management in the face of increasingly large numbers. Last year, for example, the number of Asian workers in Ho Chi Minh City rose drastically. In addition, the number of Korean, Japanese, Malaysian and French workers also increased sharply, respectively by 125%, 35%, 136% and 87%. Le Hong Tam, head of the Ho Chi Minh City’ Department of Labour-Invalids and Social Affairs, said that the Department cannot control the amount of illegal labourers being used by companies outside the designated economic zones since reporting by such companies to the Department is often incomplete, moreover, many foreigners work illegally using tourist visas. In Hai Phong there are about 4,000 labourers, half of them working on the construction of the Hai Phong thermal power plant in Thuy Nguyen district, while others work in Do Son industrial park and some factories in An Duong district. According to Nguyen Hong Mai, deputy head of the Institute of Construction Economics, large construction sites like Ca Mau Gas-Power-Fertilizer Complex and Hai Phong’s thermal power plant always employ thousands of Chinese workers. Nguyen Cong Luc, head of the Department of Economic Sectors of the Government Office said that a thermal power plant in Quang Ninh uses more than 2,000 Chinese workers. The chairman of the Vietnam Association of Building Materials added that more than 10 large cement factories and power plant projects are being undertaken by Chinese contractors. Tran Ngoc Hung, head of the Vietnam Federation of Civil Engineering Associations confirmed that Vietnamese contractors are worried that Chinese contractors are winning in key construction projects for the production of electricity, cement and chemicals. To make matters worse these contractors bring with them thousands of Chinese workers and materials which can be easily obtained in Vietnam. Tougher foreign labour management needed Mr. Thai pointed out that the number of visas granted cannot be used to count the number of people registered to work in Vietnam since visas are granted for both tourism and business, and are then extended by those wishing to stay in the country to work. This uncontrolled process of visa granting enables foreigners to easily immigrate to Vietnam in large numbers. The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has proposed that foreign labourers in Vietnam be required to have at least a university degree. Foreign workers skilled in traditional handicrafts or who have valuable experience in their profession but who do not have qualifications must obtain approval from relevant authorities in their country of origin. This would enable Vietnam to close the door on unskilled foreign labour. However, since there is no set agreement among Vietnam and other countries as to the definition of ”a skilled worker” employers may be able to exploit the situation to bring in unskilled workers anyway. This would make it easy for some foreign workers to enter the country and negatively impact social security and the development of many regions in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs urged its Department to broaden their knowledge of laws and regulations on the employment and the management of foreign labourers in Vietnam, which apply to local enterprises and organisations. The Vietnam Immigration Department, under the Ministry of Public Security, has already officially notified the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform them that the Department of Security under the Ministry of Public Security has instructed the police in the cities and provinces not to grant visa application and extensions for foreign workers without reason. Statistics from the relevant agencies have shown that most foreign workers employed in the educational, footwear, garments and textiles, banking, finance, securities and building construction sectors have a stable monthly payroll much higher than Vietnamese workers. For foreign workers who have labour contracts, enterprises must post the job advertisement and register with relevant organisations. Nearly 2,800 foreign workers from 46 countries and territories were newly licensed in 2008, an increase of 55.3% over 2007. Among the top 10 countries with the largest numbers of guest workers are China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, which supplied more than half of the total. VietNamNet/VOV

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IMF says Iceland cannot ease capital restrictions as crisis rages

Iceland should retain capital restrictions imposed in November for as long as global economic turmoil persists, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

The unfolding crisis makes it difficult to say when capital flows can be freed, IMF Mission Chief to Iceland Mark Flanagan told reporters in Reykjavik Friday.

“At the moment the liberalization of capital controls would be a very risky move in the present global environment,” Flanagan said. “With interest rates, there is scope to move forward in the near future.”

Iceland’s economy will shrink as much as 10.5 percent this year, Flanagan said, signaling a deeper recession than the 9.6 percent contraction the fund forecast last year. The country needs to keep capital controls in place to prevent a sell-off of the krona, which lost more than two thirds of its value last year after the collapse of the three biggest banks.

The IMF is not concerned that an election due to be held on April 25 would reduce the government’s commitment to following the fund’s program designed to rebuild the economy, Flanagan said.

Iceland got an IMF-led loan of $5.1 billion in November to help it rebuild the crippled economy, the fifth-richest per capita as recently as 2007.

Source: Bloomberg

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Four maps to confront climate change

VietNamNet Bridge – The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho is working with experts of the World Bank to build a set of maps to service its program on coping with climate change.

The set of maps includes four digital maps on the current material facilities, social-economic regions, the history of natural calamities in the past, and the map about the future development.

These maps are expected to be the ground to develop priority programs to cope with climate change and to call for investment and assistance.

Learning about Can Tho’s experience against natural calamities, the experts from the World Bank appreciated the effectiveness of the solution called “Residential Groups against Flood.” However, they said that this solution can only deal with social welfare, not job creation and environmental protection.

The program to cope with climate change will help solve the remaining issues.

VietNamNet/TP

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Is HCM City real estate market really hot?

VietNamNet Bridge – The real estate market is showing different price performances. While the medium and high grade segments have not shown signs of recovery, land priced at VND10mil/sq m seems to be increasing.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai group, a real estate developer, has announced a 40% reduction on its apartments at Hoang Anh River View and Phu Hoang Anh projects. Meanwhile, Dat Xanh Company has launched a programme on slashing apartment prices for the Sunview project. The price of apartments, which was announced previously at $1,300/sq m, has been slashed to $764/sq m, down by 42%. Moreover, Dat Xanh has also announced 4% bank interest rate support for the buyers of apartments.

The market of transferred apartments (buyers can move in right after paying money) is also cool now. For example, Hoang Anh Gia Lai 2 apartments are going for VND15-17mil/sq m.

Meanwhile, the prices of project land in some areas have been rising. The land price in district 9 has risen by VND500,000-1mil/sq m, or even VND2mil, as the sellers target people who have to leave their homes for site clearance within the Thu Thiem new urban area project.

When asked if the real estate market is really heating up or not, no one dares say anything for certain. They say that the phenomena in the market recently show that the market is recovering. However, if considering the conditions of the national economy, they are not sure if this will continue.

It seems that the market now has favouorable conditions for recovery. However, investors and those who have idle capital are not joining the market just yet.

Analysts say that investors will remain cautious about investment decisions because they have learned lessons from what happened in July 2008.

After a long time of freezing, the real estate market suddenly warmed up in July 2008. The land price in South Saigon urban area at that time rose significantly, by VND1-2mil, in just one week. This made investors think that the market would recover quickly and they began making investments. However, they were wrong: The land price is dropping again, just one month later.

Though no one can say for sure if the market is really heating up or not, they all say that there will not be any big changes with the market. People have every reason to believe this: Real estate companies are trying to lower sale prices of their products to boost sales. If the companies keen on the field believed that the market would warm up soon, they would not be offering products at low prices.

VietNamNet/LD

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Industrial packing paper enterprises cry for help

VietNamNet Bridge - Industrial packing papers have piled up in large stocks because they have been left unsold. The industry has fallen into the most difficult period ever.

Industrial packing papers have piled up in large stocks because they have been left unsold

On February 15, the Hoang Van Thu Paper Company, representing the member companies of the industrial packing paper association, sent a petition to the Prime Minister, Ministries of Finance, Industry and Trade, and to the Chairman of the Small and Medium Enterprises’ Association, crying for help. The petition was sent after most of industrial paper companies have had to narrow the production scale and cut jobs.

Production paralyzed

According to the Vietnam Industrial Packing Paper Association, 80% of its member companies have halted production, or cut down productivity by between 40-60% since the fourth quarter of 2008. It is because the import industrial paper has become very cheap, thus bringing loss to local producers.

As the global economy has entered the recession period, foreign industrial paper producers have been bargaining papers away to clear stocks and return capital. Meanwhile, the import tax of the products remains at low levels, which have paved the way for foreign products to flood the domestic market which threatens to kill the local production.

Thanh Dung Company Ltd now has 3,000 tonnes of kraft in stocks, and 6,000 tonnes of material paper. The Dong A Company has 2,000 tonnes of kraft in stocks and 5,000 tonnes of materials, while Hoang Van Thu has 1,500 tonnes and 5,000 tonnes. The unsold products mean that several billions of VND are being buried in the products.

The Hoang Van Thu Paper Joint Stock Company in Thai Nguyen City, which has two production lines, has maintained one production line only to keep jobs for workers at the minimum level.

Similarly, The Dong A Company also said that they only have one paper machine operating, while the other two have been left idle. More seriously, all the production lines of the Thanh Dung Company Ltd in Hai Duong province have stopped operation, pushing 250 workers into unemployment.

Crying for help

Industrial paper producers have called for support, saying that local production should not be ignored. They said that the quality of domestically made paper products is not inferior to imports from Asia.

They said that the association’s companies use scrap paper and used paper as input materials, which can help treat waste and protect the environment.

In order to rescue the local production, the association has called on state management agencies to give VAT incentives to the companies which use scrap paper as input materials. The VAT cut from 10% to 5% has been suggested.

The association also said that the twelve industrial paper workshops now are in very dangerous situation, especially when the electricity price will increase as of March 1.

VietNamNet/LD

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Help desk

A help desk is an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with computers or similar products. Corporations often provide help desk support to their customers via a toll-free number, website and/or e-mail. There are also in-house help desks geared toward providing the same kind of help for employees only. Some schools offer classes in which they perform similar tasks as a help desk. In the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, within companies adhering to ISO/IEC 20000 or seeking to implement IT Service Management best practice, a Help Desk may offer a wider range of user centric services and be part of a larger Service Desk.

Contents [hide] 1 Functions 2 Organization 2.1 Deskside team 2.2 Network team 2.3 Other teams 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Functions

A typical help desk has several functions. It provides the users a central point to receive help on various computer issues. The help desk typically manages its requests via help desk software, such as an incident tracking system, that allows them to track user requests with a unique ticket number. This can also be called a "Local Bug Tracker" or LBT. The help desk software can often be an extremely beneficial tool when used to find, analyze, and eliminate common problems in an organization's computing environment.

The user notifies the help desk of his or her issue, and the help desk issues a ticket that has details of the problem. If the first level support technician is able to solve the issue, the ticket is closed and updated with documentation of the solution to allow other help desk technicians to reference in the future. If the issue needs to be escalated, it will be updated, noting what was attempted by the technician and dispatched to second level support.

There are many software applications available to support the help desk function. Some are targeting enterprise level help desk (rather large) and some are targeting departmental needs. See Comparison of issue tracking systems.

From the mid 1990s research by Middleton ^[1] at Robert Gordon University found that many organizations had begun to recognize that the real value of their help desk(s) derives not solely from their reactive response to users' issues but from the help desk's unique position where it communicates daily with numerous customers or employees. This gives the help desk the ability to monitor the user environment for issues from technical problems to user preferences and satisfaction. Such information gathered at the help desk can be valuable in planning and preparation to other units in IT as well as non-IT departments such as sales and product development.

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