AEC Feed

The Can Lan International Container Terminal in the northern Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh has received the first foreign cargo ships on the first days of the Year of the Monkey.
On Wednesday, the third day of Tet, the Pelicana of Singapore anchored at the port with 5,500 tonnes of ore.
On Thursday, three more arrived, of which the Hong Fu from Hong Kong transported more than 24,000 tonnes of wheat, while Liberia’s Menelaos and India’s Goodwill carried more than 24,000 tonnes of wheat and 32,000 tonnes of dry beans respectively.
Last month, the port welcomed 132 ships and handled 524,500 tonnes of commodities, mainly ore, cattle feed, fertiliser and wood chips. – Viet Nam News

SMEs can borrow up to 70% of capital for supporting industries
Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises can borrow up to 70 per cent of the capital they need for investing in supporting industries prioritised by the government from February 22.
This is stated in a circular issued by the State Bank of Vietnam on February 4 to provide guidelines for a decree on the development of supporting |industries.
The decree, issued last November 3, said preferential policies related to credit, taxes and land rents would be offered to projects applying new technology, equipment and manufacturing processes that can help increase their production capacity by at least 20 per cent.
It also said the money borrowed by the SMEs must be guaranteed by credit-underwriting organisations, and the SMEs must register a mortgage value of at least 15 per cent of the loans at the lending institutions.
The firms should also have at least a 20-per-cent stake in the investment projects, and they must not owe anything to the state budget or be responsible for any bad loans with any lenders.
According to the circular, credit institutions and foreign banks’ branches in Vietnam will finance the prioritised projects with short-term loans in dong, with interest rates being equal to or less than the specific rates set by the central bank’s governor at certain periods of time. – Viet Nam News

Jakarta to sort out bureaucracies in wake of market opening
After opening up 35 industrial sectors to foreign investment, the Indonesian government plans to work on a new package to organise the nation’s bureaucracies better. Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said the government’s latest economic policy package was the largest yet.
He admitted, however, that bureaucratic problems continued to plague Indonesia and had become a serious obstacle to attracting investment. In response, the government would simplify the nation’s bureaucracies in forthcoming packages.
“Maybe a month from now, there will be more packages designed to tweak licensing procedures and bureaucratic matters,” he said.
The sluggish economy, Darmin continued, had weakened investment. Therefore, Indonesia had undertaken special emergency measures such as deregulations and the issuance of various|economic policy packages.
– The Jakarta Post

DBS toppled by Bank Central Asia
Bank Central Asia, controlled by Indonesia's second-richest person, Budi Hartono, overtook DBS Group Holdings this month as Southeast Asia's largest lender by value, with a market capitalisation of US$24.5 billion (S$34.2 billion). The Jakarta-based bank's shares have continued to rise this year as its Indonesia focus shields it from slowing growth in Greater China. DBS is Singapore's biggest bank. - The Straits Times, Bloomberg