Hundreds of hectares of protective forests in the Mekong provinces of Long An and Tien Giang have been wiped out, paving the way for industrial development projects.

Some 300ha of protective forests in Tien Giang’s Go Cong Dong District were destroyed after the provincial authority granted a licence to a subsidiary of Viet Nam Ship-Building Industry Corp. (Vinashin) to develop a shipyard on 285 ha of land in Gia Thuan and Vam Lang communes.

In addition, Tien Giang will soon hand over another 300 ha of protective forests in the communes of Tan Phuoc, Gia Thuan and Vam Lang to the developers of sizable industrial projects such as Petro Mekong’s Soai Rap Fuel Depot, Soai Rap Industrial Park and Thuan Tien Fuel Depot.

According to Nguyen Huu Chi, ex-chairman of Tien Giang People’s Committee and currently deputy minister of Finance, as of March 2008 tenants have unveiled plans to lease up to 6,000ha of coastal land in the province’s Go Cong District. If these contracts are signed, thousands of hectares of land in coastal areas in Tien Giang will be wiped out for industrial parks.

Nguyen Thien Phap, head of Tien Giang Irrigation Division, said the destroyed protective forests were mangrove and nipa tree swamps seven to eight years old.

Phap was quoted by Sai Gon Tiep Thi (Sai Gon Marketing) news magazine as saying that it took some VND5 million to grow mangrove and nipa trees on a hectare of these forests.

He said local people were not prohibited from destroying these forests, which are used to protect the sea dyke systems against rising tides and tropical storms from the ocean.

Long An provincial authority has also planned many industrial parks in Can Giuoc District’s coastal areas. Up to 482ha in the 500-ha Vinh Thanh Hamlet in Phuoc Vinh Dong Commune have been earmarked for ports, shipyard and urban development projects to be carried out by companies such as Shin Petro (a subsidiary of Vinashin), Lilama and Caric Enterprise.

Pham Van Bien, deputy chairman of Phuoc Vinh Dong Commune People’s Committee, said at the moment only Caric has cleared the site of 30ha of land in the commune. When other projects are realised, hundreds of hectares of protective forests will be destroyed.

However, all the destroyed areas have been left fallow and no industrial complex has been built on the land that had been once protective forests. Without these forests the coastal areas in Long An and Tien Giang will be threatened by natural disasters such as high waves, rising tides, winds and tropical storms.

Phap said the irrigation sector was responsible for managing and protecting the protective forests while the provincial authorities were assigned to license projects that result in forest destruction.

After Tien Giang wiped out hundreds of hectares of protective forests for planned industrial development projects, the Government recently approved a project to upgrade the sea dyke system in the province’s Go Cong District.

The VND1.4 trillion (US$78 million) project includes the afforestation of 100ha of protective forests which can help combat rising tides and tropical storms, to ensure safety for 54,000 ha of arable land and the lives of tens of thousands of families in the region.

Overseas remittances drop

The number of remittances from overseas Vietnamese is expected to fall sharply this year because of the ongoing global economic and financial crisis.

The State Bank of Viet Nam has said total remittances from overseas Vietnamese in 2009 were expected to be around $6 billion, down by 30 per cent compared with last year’s figure ($8 billion), according to Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam (Viet Nam Economic Times) newspaper.

To cope with difficulties and challenges caused by the economic crisis, many countries have dismissed their employees while others have suspended the hiring of guest labourers. As a result, the overseas Vietnamese community has less money to remit to their homeland.

In a report released in mid-July, the World Bank said Viet Nam was one of the world’s top-ten recipients of global remittances among developing countries, with the total amount estimated at $7.2 billion in 2008.

The WB report says in 2007, Viet Nam received remittances of $5.5 billion, equivalent to eight per cent of the country’s GDP.

WB also predicts a decrease of seven to 10 per cent in global remittances to developing countries over the world this year before rising again in 2010 and 2011.

The Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper said remittances from the overseas Vietnamese community were down this year, but have not fallen as far as was feared.

The chairman of the National Finance Supervision Council, Le Duc Thuy, said that a decrease in overseas remittances in 2009 is "inevitable".

"The global financial crisis has affected the businesses of Vietnamese people all over the world. So there is less money to be sent to their relatives in Viet Nam," Thuy was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

He quoted some unidentified sources as saying the overseas remittances would be $6.8 billion this year, adding that remittances in 2008 reached $8.0 billion, or nine per cent of the country’s GDP.

Ho Huu Hanh, director of the HCM City Branch of the State Bank of Viet Nam, doubted that remittances through commercial banks in the southern metropolis would reach last year’s level of $4 billion.

Hanh said that some $2 billion was remitted through the city’s banks in the first six months of the year.

According to figures from the United Nations, at least 3 million people of Vietnamese origin live and work in 40 countries, including guest workers. Viet Nam stood among the top ten country recipients of global remittances in 2006.

In 2007 overseas remittance flow into the country was estimated by the UN at $6 billion, excluding remittances through non-official channels.

Brands

Despite the trade deficit of $6.5 billion in the first nine months of 2009, local customers are spending more foreign currencies on buying imported cars, new or used.

According to figures from HCM City Customs Bureau, nearly 50,000 vehicles were imported to Viet Nam in the first nine months of 2009.

Favoured imported car brands included the medium-priced brands such as Hyundai, Toyota Yarit, Venza and Camry but also the luxury cars such as Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus and Acura, which are priced at approximately $100,000 per unit.

Car imports amounted to 8,700 units in July, valued at $118 million, but fell to 7,300 in August, worth $107 million.

Vietnamese importers spent $632 million to import 39,600 vehicles in the first eight months of the year.

The National Statistics Bureau estimated that the car imports amounted to 46,900 vehicles worth $737 million in the first nine months of 2009. If so, the 2009 figures would show year-on-year 11 per cent rise in value but a 3.5 per cent increase in quantity.

The HCM City-based Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper, said as customers’ demand for cars was on the rise and exceeded local manufacturers’ supply, they had sought to buy cars from abroad.

The signs of a recovery of the country’s economy and the growth of its securities market were reasons behind customers’ decisions to spend more on luxury goods, including cars.

Meanwhile, many of them would like to buy cars now to avoid the special consumption tax and licensing fees that will make car prices increase by 10 per cent from early 2010.

Phung Van Minh, sales manager of Hai Chau Trading Co. in District 6, said cars sales were expected to increase sharply for the remaining months of the year, even double last year’s figure.

He added many trading companies had unveiled plans to import thousands of medium-priced cars to meet customers’ rising demand. — VNS

Source: Viet Nam News