ULAANBAATAR — Viet Nam President Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday wrapped up his two-day visit to Mongolia by urging Vietnamese investors to explore investment opportunities in the north Asian nation.

Triet said this would not only boost two-way trade, but also be a gesture of gratitude to Mongolian people for their war-time support of Viet Nam. The President made the remarks at a bilateral business forum in the Mongolian capital.

He told hundreds of entrepreneurs that present trade and investment was far from the potential of both countries and so more effort should be spent on looking for promising markets.

He suggested the two governments create favourable conditions for business, given the present economic restraints.

HA NOI — President Nguyen Minh Triet said he expects the business community to further contribute to national industrialisation and modernisation, at an awards ceremony organised by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) recognising the 100 top entrepreneurs in the country last Saturday.

Triet said Vietnamese enterprises have made increasing efforts to developing their businesses, expanding investments, improving the quality of their products, as well as advertising. He said the Government supports this development and provides policies to further develop a competitive business community.

Awards were given to businesses that have achieved high growth rates, improved production quality and services, have strong trademarks, have obeyed the law and taken environmental protection measures, and introduced new high-quality services and products.

HA NOI — Industrial production value in September fell to its lowest compared to the monthly average earlier in the year, the General Statistics Office has reported.

The figure marks only a 15.2 per cent year-on-year increase. The increases in September of previous three years were 18.1 per cent in 2007, 18.7 per cent in 2006 and 19.8 per cent in 2005.

Growth in industrial production value in the first nine months of this year only reached only 16 per cent, the office said. The figure was also the lowest compared to the last three years: 17.1 per cent in 2007, 16.8 per cent in 2006 and 16.5 per cent in 2005.

Industrial production value in the first nine months of 2008 reached VND493.19 trillion (US$29.9 billion), including VND113.36 trillion ($6.87 billion) from the State-owned enterprise sector, VND175.31 trillion ($10.62 billion) from the private sector, and VND204.52 trillion ($12.39 billion) from the foreign invested sector.

HCM CITY — Despite great volatility this year, the Vietnamese property market is still considered one of the most attractive in Asia, a seminar that ended in HCM City on Wednesday heard.

Delegates from more than 70 domestic and foreign property companies told the two-day seminar held jointly by the city’s Foreign Affairs Department and the Singapore-based International Quality and Productivity Center that the market in Viet Nam has many advantages, one of them being the relentless rise in foreign direct investment.

FDI worth US$45.28 billion was committed in the first seven months, almost five times the figure for the same period last year. Of this, $21.4 billion, or 48 per cent, was in the real estate sector. HCM City attracted the second-highest amount among all provinces and cities with US$7.9 billion, 90 per cent of it in the property sector.

HA NOI — Amid the world economic recession, the Vietnamese Government was pursuing the right policies in ensuring long-term sustainable growth instead of prioritising rapid growth, but the country needed to do more to minimise its adverse effects on the economy, economists said yesterday at the second Viet Nam Economic Forum.

The forum entitled "Sustaining the Growth" attracted more than 600 domestic and foreign economic experts, policy makers and businesspeople who discussed changes in the world financial system, their impacts on Viet Nam’s economy as well as solutions to deal with existing financial, human resource and infrastructure problems.

In his opening speech, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said Viet Nam had made great efforts to curb inflation and control the trade deficit during the past time.

HA NOI — Viet Nam has set reining in inflation and implementing social welfare policies as its first and second priorities amid the current global financial crisis, said Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung in Ha Noi yesterday while meeting the head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Hung discussed the impact of global issues on the Vietnamese economy with UNCTAD Secretary General Supachai Panitchpakdi.

"When striving to curb inflation, the Vietnamese Government is sustaining growth because without growth the situation would be even worse," he said.

HA NOI — The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) has suggested that six to nine-seat vehicles should be subjected to a lower special consumption tax to boost the local automobile industry.

In an official document sent to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee last week, the ministry said they should be taxed 10 per cent less than cars with less than five seats – and 10 per cent lower than that outlined in a draft proposal by the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

This would mean, depending on cylinder size, six-to-nine-seat cars paying a 40 per cent tax instead of 50 per cent as proposed by the MoF. And it would set them apart from six-to-15-seat vehicles presently taxed at 30 per cent.

MIT Deputy Minister Bui Xuan Khu argued the six-to-nine seat cars were multi-functional and mainly served family needs, therefore promoting their use fitted in with the country’s infrastructure.

HA NOI — While authorities work to ease the consequences of flash floods in Tung Chin Hamlet, Lai Chau Province, two photographers’ efforts have been recognised in bringing the tragedy to the public’s eyes.

Photographers Xuan Truong and Thong Thien’s work in capturing the devastation that swept over the area took the special prize in the Golden Moment press photography contest yesterday.

The contest, organised for the first time by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and funded by Nokia, attracted 3,000 photos from 409 photographers nation-wide. It aimed to enhance the quality of journalistic photography and promote the role of press photography in society as a whole.

According to the jury, the winning series was selected because of its timely depiction of the violent devastation of flash flooding last month that completely washed away the Tung Chin

HA NOI — Forty-five artists are taking part in an international percussion music festival that started yesterday in Viet Nam.

The festival, titled Cracking Bamboo, saw participants gather from Asia and Europe in Ha Noi from September 15-22. The musicians are working in three mixed ensemble groups to create a 35-40 minute programme comprised of solo contributions, improvisation and short composition.

The resulting program-me will be performed in concert today at the Goethe Institute, on Thursday at the French Cultural Centre, and on Friday and Saturday at the Ha Noi Opera House.

The three ensemble groups will then form new groups for the second phase, in order to give participants an opportunity to work with different artists.