Although profit takers were more active, the VN-Index extended its rising streak for a seventh straight session on Thursday given good performances of some blue-chips. The VN-Index would almost have closed in the red had it not been for VCB which went down most of the time but staged a sharp rally during the closing order matching phase. With 1.1 points contributed by the bank ticker, the VN-Index... 

Software enterprises in the country have expressed concerns over a draft value added tax (VAT) law that, if passed, would slap a 10% VAT rate on software products instead of the current 0%. The Ministry of Finance now is sending out the draft of the VAT Law for feedbacks from local agencies. The ministry in the tentative draft plans to treat software as products subject to VAT at a tax rate of 10%,... 

HSBC Global Research in a just-released report says Vietnam’s effort to eliminate bad debts in 2013 is not enough as the fundamental issue is to improve the efficiency of the economy to lure foreign capital for long-term development. HSBC expects a fiscal stimulus to spur growth is unlikely in 2013 as tax revenue has been decreased and state expenditure must be cut. Tax revenue collected dipped to... 

The growth in farm produce and mineral exports markedly slowed down in 2012, while there was a steep surge in exports of industrial items. All three main groups of export items scored year-on-year growth, but their growth rates significantly differed. Agro-forestry-fisheries products recorded a growth rate of less than 7%, much lower than in previous years. Similarly, fuel and mineral exports only... 

The U.S.-based Starbucks Coffee Company announced on Thursday it will open its first store in Vietnam next month via the partner Coffee Concepts Vietnam Limited. Jinlong Wang, President of Starbucks Asia Pacific, told the Daily that the only partner licensed to operate Starbucks stores in the Vietnamese market was Coffee Concepts Vietnam, a subsidiary of Hong Kong Maxim’s Group. The signing with... 

Realty companies would take up to three years to relinquish their unsold apartments as long as they kept discounting the prices, said a property market researcher. Monitoring the market’s moves in the last quarter of 2012, CB Richard Ellis Vietnam (CBRE) noticed 28,000 apartments in HCMC had not found buyers. Marc Townsend, managing director of CBRE, said property enterprises would only be able to... 

The Korean life insurance company Korea Life Vietnam on Thursday held a press briefing in HCMC to announce its brand name being officially changed into Hanwha Life Vietnam. The change was announced after its parent company Korea Life Insurance had earlier been renamed Hanwha Life Insurance. Even though the new name does not result in any changes in the business strategy as well as the operation... 

Vietnam’s aviation sector posted single-digit growth in terms of passenger number in the challenging year 2012 when macro-economic woes forced individual and corporate passengers to tighten their purse strings. The latest report of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) showed the country’s airports handled 25.3 million passengers on domestic and international flights, up 6.5% on... 

REUTERS – Investors’ “fiscal cliff” worries are likely to give way to more fundamental concerns, like earnings, as fourth-quarter reports get under way next week. Financial results, which begin after the market closes on Tuesday with aluminum company Alcoa (AA.N), are expected to be only slightly better than the third-quarter’s lackluster results. As a warning sign,... 

Commercial banks have been making fat profits from ATM services, but they have decided to collect fees from inner-network transactions as well. Banks have finally obtained the thing they want – the permission from the State Bank to collect fees on very transaction on auto telling machines (ATMs). A circular has been issued by the central bank stipulates that from March 1, 2013, banks would be...