Press digest – June 27

Party chief welcomes Chinese guest

The Vietnamese Party and State always attach importance to maintaining friendly neighborliness and win-win cooperation with China, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong told Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi. 

During a reception on June 27 in Hanoi for Yang, who led a Chinese delegation to attend the ninth meeting of the steering committee for bilateral cooperation on the same day, the Vietnamese Party Chief suggested enhancing political trust, promoting and improving the efficiency of cooperation between the two nations in all fields in the time ahead. 

PM attends Mekong Delta Forum in HCMC

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc partook in the 2016 Mekong Delta Forum entitled “ Committed to a Prosperous and Climate Resilient Mekong Delta,” in HCM City on June 27 to discuss solutions to critical challenges.

The two-day event was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Australian and Holland Embassies in Viet Nam, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue, Head of the South West Steering Committee, World Bank Regional Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Victoria Kwakwa also joined the forum.

A boost for climate change response

The World Bank (WB) has passed a package of US$90 million to support Viet Nam to reform policies to strengthen its climate change and green growth agenda in line with the World Bank Group’s Climate Change Action Plan.

The financing is the first of the three credits that will back climate change and green growth policy actions under the Vietnamese Government’s Support Program to Respond to Climate Change, led by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

VN, China beef up healthy and stable relations

Deputy PM, FM Pham Binh Minh and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi co-chaired the 9th meeting of the China-Viet Nam Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation on June 27 in Ha Noi.

The two sides agreed to promote the friendly relations and comprehensive cooperation in a healthy and stable manner to meet aspirations and basic benefits of the two countries’ people for regional peace, stability, and development.

VN attends ER Party’s Congress

A Vietnamese delegation led by Pham Xuan Son, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations, is attending the second phase of the 15th Congress of the United Russia (ER) Party from June 26-28. 

The congress brought together about 3,000 delegates and guests from 29 international delegations. 

In his opening remarks, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that the congress is a political event of special significance to not only the ER Party but Russia at large. 

PetroVietnam earns over US$ 2.4 billion in first half

The National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) garnered more than US$2.4 billion from selling 8.68 million tons of crude oil and condensate in the first half of this year, fulfilling 37.15% of the yearly target. 

During the reviewed period, the group provided an estimated 3.73 million tons of crude oil for the Dung Quat Oil Refinery, raking in US$1.58 billion, equivalent to 38.13% of the target set for the whole year. 

MoF drafts preferential tax for SMEs

The Ministry of Finance is drafting a proposal on corporate income tax applicable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the next five years. 

The proposal is in response to Government's Resolution 35 on supporting and developing enterprises until 2020.

According to local website cafef.vn, the ministry will propose two levels of corporate income tax – 17% and 15% - which will be imposed on SMEs from January 1, 2016, to 2020. The current level is 20%.

Agro-forestry-fishery exports fetch US$15 billion

Viet Nam’s combined agriculture-forestry-fishery export turnover reached US$15.05 billion in the first six months of 2016, up 5.4% from one year ago, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Of which, agro-products contributed US$7.32 billion, a 5.1% increase against the same period last year. 

In terms of rice, the country exported 2.69 million tons to earn US$1.21 billion, down 9.8% in volume and 5.9% in value year-on-year. Coffee exports fetched US$1.71 billion from 985,000 tons while 107,000 tons of pepper brought home US$864 million./.

(Source: VGP/VOV/VGP)