BINH PHUOC

A farmer looks after high-yeild cashew trees in Krong Pa District in the Central Highland province of Gia Lai. Cashew growers and processors are being urged to developing trademarks to achieve higher international recognition and prestige. ¡ª VNA/VNS Photo Sy Huynh

 

Viet Nam should develop and maintain trademarks for its cashew nut products to achieve higher international recognition and prestige, experts have said.

This would also help the domestic cashew industry expand its reach to new markets, they said at a seminar held in Binh Phuoc Province this week under the auspices of the first national cashew festival.

Bui Van Thach, deputy chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said it was necessary to develop local and national trademarks for the cashew industry to affirm its first rank in the world market.

Agreeing with Thach, Nguyen Quan, deputy minister of Science and Technology, said high quality products and a prestigious trademark would affirm the industry’s development.

It would help foreign firms feel secure about Vietnamese cashew products, Quan said

he Intellectual Property Department under the Ministry of Science and Technology said the development of a reputed trademark would boost the image of enterprises, and attract new customers and investment capital.

It would make it easier to distribute the products, open new markets for exporters and cut marketing costs, it said.

Bui Van Quang from the HCM City Industrial University noted that to develop a trademark, businesses had to stabilise quality and supply of input materials and control product quality at the processing stage.

Domestic cashew businesses needed to invest in modern technology to diversify their products, increase productivity and lower their costs, he added.

Enterprises should also strengthen training for workers, especially to boost professional knowledge and improve selling skills to serve customers better and further meet the requirement of trademark development, speakers said.

Since quality played an important role in building the reputation of a trademark, scientists needed to research and come up with high quality varieties that are also highly productive, Quan said.

Nguyen Thai Hoc, vice president of the Vietnam Cashew Association, said cashew processing companies must apply international-standard systems like BRC, HACCP, GMP, and ISO 14000 to gain a good reputation.

Co-operation between cashew farmers and cashew processing companies must be tightened to improve productivity and product quality, he said.

Ta Quang Minh, deputy head of the Intellectual Property Department, said registering trademarks and brands was necessary to protect them. This would have a strong impact on their business, he advised enterprises.

"As most Vietnamese enterprises are small- and medium-d enterprises, they will face severe competition from foreign enterprises. A well protected brand name will help them raise their "voice" in the market," Minh said.

A brand name would also provide legal foundation to compete with fake products, protect the rights of manufacturers and consumers, and stabilise the export market, he added.

However, domestic cashew enterprises were not fully aware of the importance of brand name protection and registration, the seminar heard. For instance, in Binh Phuoc Province, just four cashew producers and processors have registered their brand names so far.

State management agencies should coordinate with relevant local departments to disseminate information on the role and impact of brand name protection among domestic cashew enterprises, Minh said.

Another meeting attracted some 300 cashew traders, intermediaries, exporters and importers, both local and foreign.

During the event, the organisers briefed the participants on State policies on developing the cashew sector, provided an overview of Viet Nam’s cashew trade relations and answered requests for information from interested customers.

At the conference, the cashew manufacturers, processors and exporters raised their concerns about the material shortage for the processing industry.

Currently, the country’s production factories had to import more than 300,000 tonnes of cashew per year from Asia and Africa.

The Viet Nam exporters still lack information about technical barriers to markets, among other issues.

The conference also called for close co-operation among cashew businesses, banks, scientists and farmers to produce products with high productivity that would help raise incomes of farmers and others.

Dao Quang Phu, director of Kiet Viet Ltd Co, said the Government needed to create the best conditions for the Vietnamese cashew businesses.

Together with the cashew development co-operation in Laos and Cambodia, the Viet Nam Cashew Association and businesses should eye Africa, he said, because of the suitable weather for cashew development.

Viet Nam could coordinate with African countries in growing cashews, or even build processing factories there to penetrate the market.

The event was part of the Golden Cashew Festival, the first of its kind in the country, which kicked off on March 20 in Binh Phuoc. 

VNS

Ambassador Rose leremia shared views with Viet Nam News readers about the importance of Greek National Day today.

On the 25th of March, Greece celebrates its national day. On that day the Greek Nation commemorates the start of its struggle for independence.
During the course of history, many nations lost their sovereignty and found themselves under the occupation of another nation. A great number of these nations, fought back a little later, when chances were better for them to regain fheir independence.
However, Greece’s struggle had a unique characteristic: the national identity was kept alive although the nation was under occupation for 400 years. The fall of Constantinople, capital city of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans on May29, 1453, started the period of Turkish occupation over  the Greeks. Ten generations of Greeks were born after the Ottoman occupation and they managed to pass their vision of freedom and independence from one to another. When the historical conditions coincided regarding leadership, decisiveness and preparations, the struggle started on  March 25,1821.
The Greek revolution lasted about nine years and in 1830 the first modern Greek stale took form. As the landmass of die new state was at the lime not corresponding lo the size of the actual Greek territory, it look another 120 years of struggle, both militarily and politically, to consolidate the current state.
In the course of the years that followed the formation of the new state, there came many wars and otiier misfortunes, the worst being the civil war that lasted for four years during the aftermath of World War II. As a result of Ihc war, the lack of employment opportunities and the poverty that followed, many Greeks went abroad in search of work and bet-ter living conditions. Today one can find numerous Greek communities in the US and Australia as well as in Germany and many other countries.
In 1974 Greece became a stable, modern democratic country and was admitted to the European Union in 1981. The head of the State is the President of the Republic, who is elected by the members of Parliament. According to the Constitution the members of Parliament are elected by the people every four years, unless there i.s a serious reason to call for elections before the due lime. Following the last elections, held on October 4, 2009, there are now six parties in the Greek parliament.
Currently, Greece is facing an exceptionally difficult financial situation, due partially to the international financial crisis, as well as to a number of other factors, i.e. the heavy burden accumulated by the cost of the (successfully organised) Olympic Games in 2004, the chronic loopholes of the taxation system, the high rate of unemployment, etc. The newly elected government has taken a number of measures in order to address the situation. The measures are not meant to be popular,but to provide a quick remedy to the crisis. Most of the citizens show a remarkable solidarity in order lo overcome the difficulties. 
However, there is a number of citizens with shrinking incomes that are reacting by protesting and demonstrating. 
Not with standing the temporary financial strains, Greece fulfills its international obligations and participates in the major activities in the  international arena. Greece has been a non-permanent member on the UN Security Council, and had presided over,  in 2009,  the Organisation for the Security and Co-operation in Europe. 
As maritime piracy continues to pose a serious threat to international navigational routes, in January 2009, a Contact Group was created to coordinate actions in or-der to eradicate piracy from the western part of the Indian Ocean.
On 28 January 2010, Greece has been elected to the Chairmanship of this Contact Group.
Greece has been also participating in a number of E.U. operations, namely EUFOR Althea, ATALANTA (in Somalia shores), EULEX Cosovo, EUMM Georgia, EUBAM, EUFOR-Tchad/RCAand in numerous disaster-relief activities. All official development assistance, as well as all assistance to other countries, is provided by Hellenic Aid from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Greece recognised the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on April 1975 and, since then, the two countries maintain diplomatic relations. The Embassy of Greece in Ha Noi was established three years ago, whilst the opening of the Vietnamese Embassy in Athens is promised to fake place in the near future. An official visit from the then Greek Prime Minister Koslas Karamanlis was paid to Viet Nam in 2007. The President of the Republic of Greece also paid an official visit in 2008, which was re-ciprocated by an official visit from the President of Viet Nam to Athens in the same year. During 2009, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Gia Khiem paid an official visit to Athens. Concerning economic bilateral relations, Viet Nam had exported goods to Greece during 2009, which was worth 72 million Euros.
Faced with the present challenges while looking forward to a future in the post-economic crisis era, Greece maintains good relationships with all countries and hopes to broaden co-operation and improve existing ties, politically as well as economically. During the implementation of these plans, Viet Nam is and will continue to be a priority country.

VNS

HA NOI

Big C supermarket in Ha Noi stocks more than 50,000 products, including food, electrical items and home decorations. The finance minister said the Government planned to introduce measures that would include consistent market-pricing policies to curb inflation while ensuring economic growth.—VNA/VNS Photo Tran Viet

The Government would implement measures to curb inflation while ensuring economic growth, said Finance Minister Vu Van Ninh.

The minister was responding to concerns that inflation for all of 2010 might surpass the National Assembly’s limit of 7 per cent.

Viet Nam’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.75 per cent in March over the previous month and 9.46 per cent over the same period last year, reported the General Statistics Office (GSO).

First quarter CPI rose an unexpected 4.12 per cent.

The minister said Government measures would include consistent market pricing policies to avoid irrational pricing and curb inflation while ensuring economic growth.

The minister told a Vietnam News Agency reporter that the Government would continue to effectively control goods and services while encouraging price competition.

The GSO reported that 10 out of 11 commodity groups recorded increases of between 0.15 per cent and 1.38 per cent, but post and telecom services prices continued to drop, by 0.2 per cent, as a result of promotions and discounts.

Housing and construction materials saw the sharpest increase this month, soaring by 1.38 per cent, followed by food and restaurant services, rising by 1.03 per cent, transportation services, up by 0.92 per cent, entertainment and tourist and cultural services with a 0.5-per-cent rise. Garment and footwear saw the lowest increase with 0.15 per cent.

According to Nguyen Duc Thang, deputy director of the GSO’s Trade and Pricing Department, the sharp increase in CPI during March is attributed to the rise in the price of essential items, including electricity, coal, petrol and steel.

"These are important inputs for many industries," said Thang.

In addition, traditional price increases during the Lunar New Year were not followed by the usual fall in prices after the end of the holiday period.

Rising petrol prices had an impact on transportation and freight charges, which saw an increase of 0.92 per cent, the highest increase during the last five years.

Construction steel prices have gone up to between VND12 million (US$631) and VND12.8 million ($673) a tonne, about VND600,000 ($31.5) higher than three months ago, due to price rises in March for many production inputs including electricity, fuel and coal.

The recent adjustment in the exchange rate for the US dollar and Vietnamese dong by the State Bank of Viet Nam has also made the inputs for many domestic producers more expensive, with producers now relying more on imported raw materials.

Economists says that when the country has fully integrated into the world economy, prices of many essential goods will gradually conform to the market economy.

In March, gold prices and the US dollar soared over the previous month, rising by 1.21 per cent and 1.28 per cent, respectively. Domestic gold prices remained high against last March with an increase of 36.86 per cent due to the impact from the global gold price rises.

Pricing policies

Fiscal policy would be managed in a flexible and careful manner to ensure liquidity in the economy. Payment methods and outstanding credit loans would be put under close control, said Ninh.

"The ministry has asked the Government to require economic groups and State corporations to conduct price stabilisation measures to ensure demand for production and consumption while curbing inflation and ensuring social welfare," he said.

Regarding the continuous increase in petrol prices, Ninh said the ministry had guided petrol trading companies in widening the intervals between price increases.

"To stabilise the market, the ministry will also work with relevant ministries and agencies to ease difficulties for businesses, to improve the business climate and review irrational expenses with a view to saving costs for businesses," said Ninh.

"Businesses are also required to make efforts to renew their technology and more efficiently use energy, in a bid to offer more competitive prices to consumers.

"Electricity and coal prices should be stabilised by the end of this year as required by the Government ."

VNS

HA NOI

Viet Nam will draw about VND765 billion (US$40.5 million) from the State budget to ensure national information safety from now until 2020.
The money would be used for technology infrastructure and institutions to protect national information, the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT) director Vu Quoc Khanh told the Security World 2010 conference in Ha Noi earlier this week.
The national information security development plan would create a legal foundation for ministries and agencies to fight against hackers, he said.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved the plan in January.
The director said a lack of skilled personnel was the major challenge to security in Government agencies, organisations and businesses.
"There is also shortage of guidance and regulations relating io information security while the ability of ministries, agencies and business to forecast and use information aboul security problems is limited," he said.
State agencies needed to train IT workers to improve their professional skills and awareness about information security.
This was particularly true of network security and data protection.
The ministry’s professional computing technology director Nguyen Viet The told the conference: "2010 is forecast to be a ’hot’ year for information security as many new variants of viruses had appeared and hackers become more professional and dangerous."
Hackers were forecast to focus on finance, banking and the stock exchange, he said, and the development of mobile technology would make it easier for transmission of viruses.
The theme of the conference, which opened on Tuesday, is building effective security strategy in response to new economic challenges.

VNS
 

HCM CITY

HCM City is looking for investment in transport projects that focus on bus terminals and car parks.—VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Phan

In a regulation issued last Friday to encourage investment in transportation and traffic infrastructure projects, the HCM City People’s Committee called on foreign investors to invest in building bus terminals, parking lots and other transportation infrastructure projects through various forms like build-operate-transfer, build-transfer-operate or build-transfer.

Investors will enjoy incentives under the current investment law, including preferential loans and taxes as well as fee exemptions.

Besides planned parking plots inside the city or in the city’s gateway, investors can propose that the municipal government grant permission for building them in other places as long as they do not affect local traffic and infrastructure development.

The city requires investors to ensure technical standards in building transport terminals, including reserving at least 70 per cent of their total area for parking.

For inter-provincial coach stations, depending on their scale, the city requires investors to set aside 1,000-2,000sq.m to build a transit terminal for bus passengers.

VNS

The first independent auditing company started operations in the country in 1991, marking an initial step torward lor this new sector in Viet Nam. Since then the Government issued a series of decrees on independent auditing, and recently it issued decrees to supplement and amend previous decrees, honing the legislation. However, many local and international experts claim that it’s high time for Viet Nam to improve its overall legal framework to ensure the independent auditing process and the nation’s taws are in line with international rules.
As scheduled, a draft of the Law on Independent Auditing will be submitted to the National Assembly in May 2010. The Australian auditing association CPA and the Viet Nam Association of Certified Public Accountants are joinly holding a seminar on the matter today in an effort to help hone the draft. Viet Nam News reporter Phuong Hoa talked with Gary Pflugrath, policy adviser of CPA Australia before the seminar.

What is your advice for Viet Nam on issuing a comprehensive law that is compatible with international rules?

The importance ol robust and stable auditing regulation - including appropriate registration and monitoring of auditors/auditing firms - cannot be overstated.
Furthermore, in a global environment, it is important to ensure that standards of regulation and practice meet the highest international expectations - which means that practice should be based on high quality international standards on auditing and quality control issued by the International Audit and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) and the Code ot Ethics for Professional Accountants issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA).

What are the main requirements for effective registration of independent auditors?

An effective registration system should require that auditors who wish to be registered are suitably qualified, adequately competent, suitably experienced and be deemed to be fit and proper’ (for instance, not be a bankrupt nor have criminal charges against them).
Furthermore, the registration process should ensure that once registered, auditors continue to keep abreast of professional developments and continue to undertake suitable training.
Other aspects of the registration arrangements considered important include an oversight, monitoring and inspection programme to ensure that auditors meet the registration requirements and are conducting audits appropriately, as well as the need for appropriate levels of professional indemnity insurance.
However, it should be noted that in Australia, an authorised auditing company can only be registered where all of the directors of the company are registered auditors themselves.

What types of companies should be required to have compulsory auditing?

In its latest version ot the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, the IESBA describes a group of entities as "public interest entities" which impose rotation requirements for auditors  These entities include listed entities The IESBA has left it to the discretion of each jurisdiction to determine how it defines "public Interest entities" more broadly.
In Australia, there are a number of entities which are required to have compulsory auditing - under both Federal and different State laws. The Australian Corporations Act requires that listed companies, registered schemes (like managed funds), large private companies, and public companies be audited. As well as most banks, insurance companies and superannuation funds being covered by this legislation, they are also subject to additional auditing requirements under various legislation.

What is the best way of ensuring the quality of financial reports by auditing firms?

Auditing firms in Australia are typically private enterprises, partnerships or companies and therefore do not issue publicly available financial reports on their operations. Therefore, they would typically prepare reports using a special-purpose reporting framework.
Recently there has been some discussion about the possibility of auditing firms being more transparent and providing more information to the public. The International Organisation of Security Commissions (IOSCO) issued a consultation paper seeking stakeholders’ views on the matter.
In Australia, the Commonwealth Treasury has recently issued a discussion paper on auditing quality-one matter on which it is seeking views in relation to whether auditing firms should publish annual transparency reports.

How can we ensure an auditor does not intentionally mislead or unfairly hurt the interests of others, such as enterprises listed on the stock market?

A matter to consider is whether the auditor has performed competently and appropriately in meeting the objective of the auditing The monitoring, oversight and inspection of auditors by the regulator - Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) - in Australia is an important factor In ensuring that auditors conduct their work as required.
It should be noted that ASIC has powers to refer registered auditors to a disciplinary board if it believes that the auditor has not performed sufficiently (for example, if the auditor has breached an auditing standard). The board may conduct a hearing of ASIC’s referral and may, if found to be sustained, discipline the auditor, and possibly, de-register the auditor.

How will implementation ot the independent auditing law impact the stock market and Viet Nam’s economy in general?

It must be kept in mind that the objective of a audited financial report is to enhance the degree of confidence of intended users in the financial report. The auditor expresses an opinion on whether the financial report is prepared in all material respects in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework.
Furthermore, an effective oversight monitoring arrangement is also important - in Australia, ASIC notes that the objective of its inspection programme is to promote high quality external audits ol financial reports of listed and other public interest entities in Australia so users can have greater confidence in financial reports.
These objectives will be met where the auditing regulations and arrangements are effective and appropriate -and where practice is based on the highest quality international standards on auditing and quality control (issued by the IAASB) and the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (issued by the IESBA). If users have a greater degree of confidence in the financial reports being issued by reporting entities, it suggests that a more efficient and effective stock market will result.

VNS