Press digest – March 2

Gov’t convenes regular meeting

PM Nguyen Tan Dung on March 2 chaired the Government's regular meeting. Cabinet members heard and discussed a report on the country's socio-economic performance in February and the first two months of 2015, a report on cabinet members' feedback on the Government's draft Resolution to implement measures to improve the business environment and national competitiveness in 2015 and some law projects.

VN attends UN Human Right Council meeting

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Cuong led a Vietnamese delegation to participate in the high-level segment of the UN Human Right Council’s 28th session, which opened in Geneva, Switzerland.

The four-day meeting is the first in a series of activities of the council’s 28th session, including high-level working sessions, dialogues, and seminars, which will take place from March 2-27.

WB finances US$100 mln for northern mountainous poverty reduction

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved an additional credit worth US$100 million for Northern Mountains Poverty Reduction Project.

The credit will support the Government in poverty reduction by improving the capacity of the local authorities and community in six northern mountainous provinces of Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Yen Bai.

Number of newly-established businesses up 26.6%

As many as 13,766 businesses were set up in the first two months of 2015, with a combined capital registered at VND77,500 billion, up 26.6% in terms of number and up 23.3% in terms of capital.

The new businesses were estimated to create 197,200 jobs, a year-on-year increase of 19%.

Over the past two months of the year, 2,055 businesses completed procedures to dissolve, up 8.7% and 14,040 ones were forced to stop operating, up 25%.

Agro-forestry-fishery exports valued at US$1.78 bln in February

Viet Nam’s export revenue from agro-forestry-fishery products has been estimated at US$1.78 billion in February and around US$4.18 billion for the first two months of 2015, a 1.9% decrease from the same period last year.

Of the total figure, farm produce exports were valued at US$1.87 billion, down 5.3%, seafood exports generated US$907 million, an annual decline of 9.4%, and only forestry product exports saw an increase of 7.9% to US$989 million.

Trade turnover, retail sales figures recorded in February

Viet Nam enjoyed a trade surplus of US$630 million in the first half of February. In the reviewed period, the nation gained US$7.33 billion from exporting, bringing the total export turnover to US$20.72 billion so far this year.

The country’s import turnover in the first fifteen days of February reached US$6.7 billion, raising the total import turnover to US$20.43 billion.

The total retail sales and service revenues achieved VND542,700 billion over the past two months of this year, witnessing a year-on-year increase of 11.4%.  

In February only, the figure represented a year-on-year increase of 11.6%, attaining VND276,000 billion, up 3.7% compared to the previous month.

US – VN’s largest apparel importer

Viet Nam expects to earn more than US$11 billion from exporting apparels to the US in 2015, up 13% from a year ago.

The nation’s garment export turnover in the first month of 2015 achieved more than US$1.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.7%.

The US is the largest garment importer of Viet Nam with US$926.69 million, accounting for 48.31% of the total.

(Source: VNA/VGP)

By Thuy Dung