* Some of Vietnam’s largest state-owned enterprises suffered big losses in 2009, according to a report published by the State Audit Tuesday. Construction company Song Hong Corporation, for instance, lost VND20.6 billion, or nearly US$1 million. Vietnam Post, a member of telecom giant VNPT, posted losses of VND1.02 trillion, the report said.
* Hyundai Engineering and Construction, South Korea’s largest builder, said Tuesday it has won a $1.46 billion order to build two power plants in Vietnam. The deal with the Vietnamese government calls on Hyundai Engineering to complete the coal-powered plants at Mong Duong, 250 kilometers northeast of Hanoi, by August 2015. The plants have a total capacity of 1,000 megawatts, the company said in a statement.
* The State Bank of Vietnam has removed a rule that limited commercial banks to lending up to 80 percent of their deposits, it said in a statement on its website. The move took effect September 1, according to the statement.
* Vietnam set up a group of central and provincial officials to help resolve land clearance and compensation issues that have delayed the construction of Tata Steel Ltd.’s $5 billion project in the country. The group aims to work with officials at Tata Steel, India’s largest producer of the alloy, to come up with a solution within a month, Vice Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong said Tuesday. “It’s still a priority project,” he said.
* Vietnamese citizens who are traveling abroad are allowed to buy up to $1,000 in foreign currency for each ten days of travel, according to a statement on the central bank’s website posted Tuesday.
* The Vietnam Sugar and Sugarcane Association said it will propose that the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Agriculture Ministry refrain from importing sugar in 2012 as domestic output is expected to rise nearly 22 percent to 1.4 million tons thanks to an expansion in cane planting area, Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam newspaper reported Monday.
* The Dung Quat refinery resumed output on August 26 after completing maintenance work, and will run at full capacity by the first week of September, Nguyen Hoai Giang, chief executive of the company that runs the plant, said last Friday.
* Vietnam expects disbursements of foreign direct investment to rise by as much as 10 percent in 2012 after forecasting it will be flat at $11 billion this year, Dang Huy Dong, Vice Minister of Planning and Investment said Tuesday. The actual amount forecast to be disbursed compares to pledged foreign investment that may total $15 billion to $16 billion this year, he said. Vietnam attracted $18.6 billion of committed foreign investment in 2010, according to figures on the ministry’s website.