Press digest – January 6

Grand ceremony marks first general election anniversary

A meeting was held on January 6 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first national General Election to elect deputies to the National Assembly (NA) of Viet Nam (January 6, 1946 – January 6, 2016).

The Party Chief affirmed that after 70 years and 13 sessions, the NA has effectively realized its functions, tasks and rights as regulated in the Constitution and the laws.

As the highest agency representing the people and the nation’s most powerful state agency, the NA needs to bring into full play the achievements made over the past 70 years and improve the quality and effectiveness of its operation to meet the national development requirements in the future, he added.

DPM holds phone talks with U.S. Secretary of State

Deputy PM, FM Pham Binh Minh on January 6 held a phone talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss the bilateral relations and issues of regional and mutual concerns.

The two leaders discussed issues in the Asia-Pacific, including the East Sea issue, supposing that the ASEAN-U.S. relations have made great progress in 2015, especially after establishing the Strategic Partnership relations.

In the future, the ASEAN nations and the U.S. need to actively cooperate to develop the relationship, they said.

Six businesses allowed to directly invest overseas

The Government has issued Decree No. 135/2015/NĐ-CP stipulating indirect overseas investment. Accordingly, six organizations are allowed to pour indirect overseas investment including 1- stock market and fund management companies, 2 - stock investment fund via fund management company (stock management fund) and stock investment company, 3- insurance businesses, 4 – commercial banks, 5 – general financial companies, 6 – State capital and investment corporation.

Urgent projects get more capital

The PM has decided to take VND1,072 billion from the central budget reserves in 2015 for localities and the Ministry of Transport to launch dyke projects to overcome consequences of natural calamity as well as projects of national defense importance and other crucial ones .

Japan helps ASEAN apply credit guarantee mechanism

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry revealed that Japan will support nations in ASEAN to establish and apply a credit guarantee mechanism in an effort to help  businesses investing in Southeast Asia mobilize capital after the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement comes into effect.

Japan will assign professionals to ASEAN to advocate the establishment of financial database for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

VN attracts US$22.8 billion in FDI in 2015

Viet Nam attracted US$22.8 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2015 and disbursed US$14.5 billion in the capital, witnessing respective year-on-year increases of 2.5% and 17.4%.

As of December 20, 2,013 projects were licensed with a total registered capital of US$15.578 billion and 814 projects added capital of US$7.18 billion.

VN’s GDP growth listed among fastest in 2016

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), under the Economist Group, forecasted that Viet Nam’s GDP growth will increase 7%, ranking ninth among the fastest growing GDP in the world.

The EIU supposed that emerging nations in Asia will enjoy high GDP growths, including Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia thanks to personal consumption and tourism.

VN Index growth takes lead in Southeast Asia

Viet Nam’s stock market became the best performing one in Southeast Asia in 2015 with the growth of 6.1%, according to the World Street Journal (WSJ).

Viet Nam ranked fourth among the most developing stock markets in Asia in 2015 after New Zealand (up 13.6%), China (up 9.3%) and Japan (up 9.1%).

By Thuy Dung