Agricultural Investments

HCM CITY — Việt Nam is an emerging market for financial investment with favourable conditions created by new policies and fresh impetus given to the equitisation of State-owned enterprises, senior officials said at a conference yesterday. The seminar was titled Vietnam – Korea Capital Markets and Investment Co-operation Prospects. VÅ© Bằng, chairman of the State Securities Commission, reaffirmed that the country’s first derivatives market will become operational by the end of this year, with products including covered warrants and GDK (Generalised Derivative Kernel).

Agricultural companies are expanding their rubber businesses even after prices of the commodity plunged recently to nearly seven-year lows.  While depressed rubber prices are making it hard for smallholding farmers to eke out a living, big agricultural businesses are creating large plantations across Southeast Asia, partially reversing decades of downsizing in the sector. In Malaysia, one of the world’s top three rubber exporters, acreage owned by large estates dedicated to rubber increased 7.5% in 2015, while small-farmer holdings rose less than 1%, according to the Malaysian Rubber Board. In Indonesia, another top exporter, rubber plantations owned by large estates rose 2.5% in 2014, latest available government data show.

TAN UYEN TOWN, Vietnam—Industrial tire specialist Camso Ltd. has inaugurated production of solid forklift tires at a new plant in Vietnam’s Binh Duong Province, part of the company’s strategy to “gain leadership position” in the Asian materials-handling market. Camso—formerly Camoplast Solideal—built the 247,500-sq.-ft. factory in 14 months. It did not disclose its investment in the facility nor the production capacity. The plant employs 160.

South Korea’s CJ Group will invest US$500 million (Bt17.5 billion) in the three key Vietnamese sectors of agriculture, entertainment and logistics in 2016. The company's total investment in the country over the past 20 years was $400 million. It will increase its investment in agriculture through mergers and acquisitions and basic investment in the value chain.

The Dak Lak Province administration has fired shots at Trung Nguyen Group, Vietnam’s top coffee processor, for sluggish progress on a string of tourism projects in the Central Highlands province. Trung Nguyen, which runs Vietnam's biggest chain of coffee houses, must speed up progress to finish five tardy projects in order to meet deadlines or risk having their licenses revoked, according to an ultimatum from the provincial administration.

HCM CITY — The municipal agriculture department plans to expand application of Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGap) standards to 1,730ha, or 50 per cent of the city's vegetable gardens, by 2015. Le Minh Dung, deputy director of the city's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, told a forum organised recently in HCM City that by then, 30 per cent of vegetable gardens in the city are expected to have VietGap certification.

With its new solid tyre plant in Vietnam’s Bình DÆ°Æ¡ng Province, Camso says it aims to “gain leadership position in the Asian material handling market.” The off-road tyre and track specialist completed the 23,000 square metre plant in the town of Tân Uyên within 14 months and views the site as “an ideal location” for further diversifying Camso’s manufacturing operations and improving the company’s competitiveness.