Standard Chartered 'may move HQ to Far East'

LONDON - Standard Chartered bank has stepped up plans for possible relocation to the Far East where it does most of its business, as it bids to escape tighter regulations in Britain, a report said on Friday.

The Times wrote that the Britain-based bank had "discussed the issue in depth at several meetings and has a team working on the feasibility of a move to the Far East or elsewhere."

Standard's chief executive Peter Sands recently said the bank's "preferred solution" was to stay in London but added that it would seriously consider moving if it was "hopelessly disadvantaged," the paper added.

Britain's coalition government is looking at toughening banking regulations in the wake of the financial crisis but has been warned by the sector that such moves could hike lenders' costs, forcing them to relocate abroad.

A spokesman for Standard Chartered downplayed the report in The Times.

Relocation "is something we do look at but we have no plans to move," he told AFP.

IBM commits more assistance to city’s development

IBM Corporation will continue to assist HCMC with some pilot programs being implemented in the city, said a senior executive of the company

IBM senior vice president Jon Iwata (L) at a meeting with HCMC vice chairman Nguyen Trung Tin at the City Hall on Tuesday

Jon Iwata, IBM’s senior vice president for marketing, communication and citizenship organization of the company, made the commitment in a meeting with vice chairman of the city Nguyen Trung Tin on Tuesday. IBM will help move the pilot projects forward including projects building e-government, improving food safety, managing heath-care industry and water sources plus infrastructure and high technologies. “We will find a way around the obstacles in the projects through discussion. IBM will help speed up the process, and learn from the pilots to be able to expand the scale of projects that follow,” said Iwata in his first visit to Vietnam to check the implementation of the cooperation projects that started in February. This year, to deploy a global program called “Smarter City”, IBM has sent two groups of consultancy specialists to HCMC. After studying the city’s development needs, IBM’s consultants recommended that the city’s authorities address the needs through three projects on food quality management, healthcare management, and public traffic safety.

Vietnam says to head off U.S. tra anti-dumping tariffs

The agriculture ministry has said the Government would take action if the U.S. imposes new anti-dumping tariffs on tra fish imports from Vietnam, which could amount to 136%.

Tra fish harvested at a farm in the Mekong Delta. Vietnam is trying to prevent the possible U.S. anti-dumping levy on tra imports from Vietnam, which might reach 136%

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Luong Le Phuong told reporters in HCMC on Tuesaday that the Government would do something to prevent this; otherwise, it would affect tra exports to other markets.

“Though tra exporters are not totally dependent on America, the levy may set a negative precedent by encouraging other markets like the EU and Middle East to follow suit. That’s why we must make concerted effort to cope with the matter,” Phuong said.

The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) has said unofficially that the anti-dumping tariffs for products of certain Vietnamese seafood exporters might reach 136%. In a review of the tariffs, DOC used the Philippines as the third-country market to determine dumping margins for Vietnamese tra fish, instead of Bangladesh, thus leading the tariffs to rise.

If the new prohibitively high tariffs are imposed in March next year, many tra fish exporters will certainly leave this market.

Andrew B. Schroth, advocate of the Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP who has advised tra fish exporters on the anti-dumping case, said that if DOC took this decision, it could be seen punitive rather than variable from the last time.

“Though the final rates will not be released until six months later, related sides must work very hard in order to divert the decision,” Schroth told the press conference at the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers office in HCMC.

The possible measures which Vietnam should take, he said, include using all available channels in the Philippines, both legal and political, to prove that the choice of the Philippines as a third country to consider as the benchmark is not at all appropriate.

The Philippines is, in many aspects, far different from Vietnam. Labor, business management cost and even the raw material price are higher than in Vietnam, but they were used for the calculation of dumping margins of Vietnam’s tra fish.

A source from the agriculture ministry, who requested anonymity, said earlier that it was due to the growing popularity of the fish on the American market that had resulted in the Catfish Farmers of America (CFA) lobbying against Vietnamese tra fish.

Last week, John Connelly, president of the U.S. National Fisheries Institute, said during his visit to Vietnam that Vietnamese tra had for the first time become one of the most favorite fish in the U.S.

This explains why DOC suddenly shifted to the Philippines as a third country to calculate dumping margins, the ministry source said.

In the previous anti-dumping review, a majority of Vietnamese exporters enjoyed the lowest tariff of 0.52% and some were even recognized as not dumping the fish on the American market.

The anti-dumping tariffs for Vietnamese tra exports to the U.S. have impacted on the local industry since 2003. Last year tra exports to this market totaled US$134 million, about 10% of the total export.

Business tycoon sues province for taking back leased villas

One of Vietnam’s richest businessmen on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Finance Department in Lam Dong Province for taking back 11 villas that he said his company had leased to build a resort.

Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, told local news website VnExpress that he was “shocked” when the authorities of the central highlands province made the decision.

Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group

“It’s funny because the 11 villas were taken back while my down payments for land clearance so far have been ignored,” he said.

According to Hoang Anh Gia Lai, the company began to pursue a plan to develop 20 old villas in the resort town of Da Lat into a four-star resort in 2002. It signed a contract with Lam Dong Province Finance Department to lease the properties, with a total area of nearly 46,000 square meters, for 50 years.

Fifteen of the villas were transferred to the company and construction work was finished on eight of them, Duc said.

The province, however, decided to take back 11 of the villas in September last year and assigned them to another company in Ho Chi Minh City.

Lawyer Le Thi Hoai Giang, legal representative for Hoang Anh Gia Lai, said the company demands that the Lam Dong Province's Finance Department fulfills its contract. In case the contract is terminated by the department, all financial obligations have to be paid, she said.

Director of the Finance Department, Nguyen Van Yen, told VnExpress that the decision to take back the villas was made “in accordance with legal regulations.”

Yen said the resort project was delayed and the conditions of the villas had deteriorated.

The villas were supposed to be put into business no later than 12 months after their transfer. However, some of them had been left untouched for nearly three years, Yen said.

EU tips faster euro economy growth of 1.7% for 2010

Europe's economy will grow by a substantially faster than expected 1.7 percent across the core eurozone this year, according to new European Union forecasts released on Monday.

Cranes at a construction site in Berlin. According to new European Union forecasts Europe's economy will grow by a substantially faster than expected 1.7 percent across the core eurozone this year.

"Based on an update for the seven largest EU member states focusing on growth and inflation this year... real Gross Domestic Product growth is now projected at 1.8 percent in the EU and 1.7 percent in the euro area in 2010," the European Commission said.

The previous forecast was for 0.9 percent growth in the eurozone in 2010, and 1.0 percent for the 27 EU members as a whole.

Brussels said it was encouraged to see signs of a "revival in domestic demand, including private consumption... particularly in Germany" alongside an export-driven industrial rebound.

But it also warned that "amid continued high uncertainty, risks to the EU growth outlook remain elevated."

Europe's economy outpaced the United States and Japan between April and June, pulled up by Germany's best quarterly performance since reunification in 1990, with growth of 2.2 percent.

The eurozone grew by 1.0 percent compared to quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.4 percent in the United States and 0.1 percent in Japan, according to official data, but masking deepening divergences even among the biggest countries and leading the EU to warn of "multi-speed" recovery in Monday's predictions."Based on an update for the seven largest EU member states focusing on growth and inflation this year... real Gross Domestic Product growth is now projected at 1.8 percent in the EU and 1.7 percent in the euro area in 2010," the European Commission said.

The previous forecast was for 0.9 percent growth in the eurozone in 2010, and 1.0 percent for the 27 EU members as a whole.

Brussels said it was encouraged to see signs of a "revival in domestic demand, including private consumption... particularly in Germany" alongside an export-driven industrial rebound.

But it also warned that "amid continued high uncertainty, risks to the EU growth outlook remain elevated."

Europe's economy outpaced the United States and Japan between April and June, pulled up by Germany's best quarterly performance since reunification in 1990, with growth of 2.2 percent.

The eurozone grew by 1.0 percent compared to quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.4 percent in the United States and 0.1 percent in Japan, according to official data, but masking deepening divergences even among the biggest countries and leading the EU to warn of "multi-speed" recovery in Monday's predictions.

Global bankers meet to agree new capital reserve rules

Central bank governors and senior regulators are meeting in the Swiss city of Basle to agree a deal requiring banks to hold more capital in reserve.

At present the "tier one capital ratio" is 4%. The ratio is a measure of banks' cushion against future losses.

BBC business editor Robert Peston says in future it will be at least 7%.

The meeting at the Bank for International Settlements is a major part of the global financial reforms after the global economic downturn.

The Bank of Japan headquarters pictured in Tokyo.

The new figure is designed to protect the world's banks in future downturns.

Low levels of capital relative to assets were a major factor in the recent global financial crisis.

Any agreement will still need to be ratified by the heads of government of the G20 group of nations at their summit in November.

The tier one capital ratio is made up of equity - its shares - and retained earnings. If a bank makes losses on loans, it is the shareholders who take this loss.

However, once all of a bank's equity is eaten up by losses, the bank becomes insolvent - in other words its assets are no longer worth enough to repay all of its debts.

The new requirement should prove little problem for UK banks, as it is in fact lower than the 8-9% ratio currently held by them.

It is also well below the 10% level that was being pushed for by the UK, the US and Switzerland.

The updated rules will mean some banks will need to raise a lot more money from shareholders.

The rules may have the effect of limiting lending, at least in the short term, as most banks - particularly those in Europe - have too little capital for the loans they have already made.