AEC Feed

After terminating the application of a 50 per cent promotion for prepaid subscribers in from March 1, mobile call rates between operators in Vietnam will be decreased from May 1.
The Ministry of Information and Communications issued Circular 48/2017 regulating mobile rates for mobile operators.
Accordingly, from May 1, the fee for voice calls between two mobile networks will apply as follows.
In case of a call to a Viettel number, the outgoing mobile network must pay for Viettel 400 dong per minute. For calls to subscribers of Mobifone, Vinafone, VietnamMobile, Gtel, the outgoing mobile network will pay 440 dong per minute.
Previously, the fee was regulated from 500 dong to 550 dong per minute.
Therefore, the new rate will be 20 per cent lower than the current charge. |— Viet Nam News 

Bulog to disburse subsidised rice in March

Indonesia’s National Logistics Agency (Bulog) will distribute 400,000 tonnes of subsidised rice in an attempt to stabilize the price in March.
Of the 400,000 tonnes, 250,000 tonnes was taken from the March allocation, while the remaining allocations were in January and February, said Bulog president director Djarot Kusumayakti after meeting with President Joko Widodo at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta. 
Meanwhile, a further 150,000 tonnes of rice from the April allocation would be pushed forward to March he said, adding: “The president has allowed us to distribute April’s allocation in March.”
According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released on Thursday, the price of all qualities of rice had increased in February compared to January.
The price of premium rice increased by 0.31 per cent, while the prices of medium and low quality rice increased by 0.37 per cent and 1.99 per cent respectively.
BPS chairman Suhariyanto said that the price of low quality rice reached Rp 9,987 per kilogramme, higher than the government’s price ceiling target. – The Jakarta Post 

Russian vehicle group enters the Philippines

Russian automotive firm GAZ group is rolling out its GAZelle line of buses and minibuses in the Philippines through five dealerships set up with local firm Eastern Petroleum Corp, seeking to ride on the government’s moves to modernise ageing public utility vehicles (PUVs).
The two partners also launched Gazelle Motors Corp, the authorised distributor of GAZelle vehicles in the Philippines, which has made available the GAZelle NEXT Minibuses and GAZelle NEXT Citiline framed buses—both of which run on 2.8-liter diesel engines.
GAZ and Eastern Petroleum signed a partnership in Russia in September following President Duterte’s visit to that country in May last year.
In particular, the two companies agreed to supply the commercial vehicles “which fully meet the requirements of the [Philippine] government’s Fleet Modernization Programme.”
Gazelle Motors said that in the first stage of the programme, over the next few years until year 2023, a total of more than 200,000 units of PUVs are due to be replaced by new buses and more than 150 new bus routes would be introduced. – The Philippine Daily Inquirer