Vietnam’s central bank expects bank loans to increase 15 percent this year, lower than the original target. State bank of Vietnam Governor Nguyen Van Binh said the growth will be kept at 17 percent or below next year. The monetary authority will focus on providing loans for agricultural production, exporters, support industries and small- and medium-sized enterprises, he told the press Monday. The central bank originally capped credit growth at 20 percent this year, but [...]

State utility Electricity of Vietnam will continue to be in the red this year after posting losses of VND10,162 billion (US$483.9 million) in 2010, a government official said Saturday. Power production is currently a loss-making business as the more electricity is generated, the greater the losses, said Deputy Trade and Industry Minister Hoang Quoc Vuong. He said the utility, also known as EVN, may default unless the losses are cleaned up.

Policymakers and experts from Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines met in Hanoi on Friday for a seminar on monetary policy coordination amid the challenging times facing the global economy. The event, co-organized by the State Bank of Vietnam and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), included discussions on views and practices in managing macroeconomic stability and capital flows, as well as in conducting monetary policy in developing and emerging markets. Participants also made recommendations to improve [...]

Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. has requested Vietnamese authorities check the import of its cars into Vietnam, saying it has only one official distributor in the country, news website VnExpress reported. The request came after a company in Hanoi filed paperwork to clear customs for nearly 100 Toyota cars, claiming it has been authorized by the Japanese auto maker to import the cars into Vietnam. Toyota Motor Corp. rejected the claim, saying Toyota Vietnam is its [...]

Coastal economic zones have developed strength in numbers, but failed to pull their weight. They are characterized by sluggish development, low occupancy rates, modest investments and very small contribution to the state budget. “The investment policy has not had a focus. Thus, coastal economic zones have not yet taken full advantage of their geographical position and natural resources to develop well,” says Nguyen Quang Thai, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association of Economic Science.