The Ministry of Industry and Trade has proposed that the State Bank of
Viet Nam guarantee credit to small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well
as potential markets. In addition, the Government should institute flexible tax
policies to reduce costs for businesses.
The ministry proposed these
initiatives at a meeting to review the first eight months of the year held in
Ha Noi yesterday.
Vo Van Quyen, head of the
ministry's Domestic Market Department, said the Government has put in place
several policies to help businesses improve their operations.
"However, weak purchasing
power in combination with high inventories must be resolved to help enterprises
overcome the economic crisis," Quyen said.
He said MoIT has asked groups,
corporations and industry and trade departments to take measures towards
accelerating disbursement. Management agencies should also encourage business
components to invest in production.
The ministry has implemented
several programmes to stimulate consumption, including stabilising prices to
keep them low.
He added that the ministry has
several solutions in hand to increase buying of agricultural products and
improve connections between businesses and regions.
‘The department has implemented
pilot models of agricultural product consumption in a chain in 12 cities and
provinces. The model would be widened to cover the whole country".
Nguyen Tien Nghi, vice chairman
of the Viet Nam Steel Association, said the steel sector increasingly did not
make high enough profits on the goods it exported. It saw targeting new markets
instead of traditional ones as one way the steel companies can reduce high
inventories, retain their businesses and limit job losses.
"The association proposed
that the Government should create favourable conditions for trade promotion
activities of steel exporters and reduce value-added tax from 10 to 5 per cent
to reduce inventory," Nghi said.
He said steel businesses have had
to reduce prices by VND200,000-300,000 per tonne to compete in the stagnant
market. However, inventory was still high.
"Our biggest difficulty is
that a market exists for steel products but not capital," he said, adding
that Vietnamese steel has had to compete with cheap imported steel from China
and ASEAN countries.
The ministry's planning
department said coal production output for the Viet Nam Coal and Mineral
Industries Group (Vinacomin) in the eight-month period was nearly 28.3 million
tonnes, representing a 5.9 per cent decrease over the same period last year.
Vinacomin also reported low coal
consumption in the domestic market because of high inventories, while exports
sharply decreased. By the end of last month, the coal inventory was 6.9 million
tonnes.
Petrol importer plans to raise
retail prices
A petroleum importer in HCM City
said it has submitted a proposal to the Finance Ministry to increase retail
petrol prices by VND1,000 per litre and oil prices by VND1,300 per litre.
This was the fifth consecutive
time that petroleum importers proposed a price increase to the ministry. If it
is approved, the new retail price will set a new record of more than VND24,000
per litre.
The importer said the petrol
price in the Singapore market has remained high at US$122.39 a barrel while
diezen price was $136 a barrel.
The importer also said that it
had experienced losses, and that this was what led it to propose that the
ministry increase retail prices after 10 days of the previous rise.
On August 28, petroleum importers
raised retail prices of petrol by VND650 per litre and said that they still
suffered losses of VND450-760 per litre.
Asked about the petroleum
importers' move at the meeting yesterday, Quyen said the market management
would follow Decree 84, which allows businesses to decide prices themselves
based on the world prices.
"The petroleum management
has recently attempted three solutions: reducing taxes, increasing retail
prices and using stabilising funds to share benefits between people and
businesses.
If there is an adjustment in the
upcoming time, the ministry would implement both price increases and tax
reductions," Quyen said.
VNS
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