THREE NEWS IN VIETNAM (http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/Home/) 1.

Foreign currency loans out of reach to exporters: Wednesday, April 25,2012,23:06 (GMT+7) By Thai Hang and Phi Tuan - The Saigon Times Daily HCMC Export businesses nationwide are mired in difficulties again as local commercial banks have started to limit lending in foreign currency for corporate clients, including those who could make repayments in their own foreign exchange revenue. Nguyen Van Ky, general director of An Giang Fishery Import Export Joint Stock Co., said enterprises in the export and import industry have a huge demand for foreign currency to pay for imported materials and equipment. Although the enterprises can secure debt solvency due to stable foreign currency incomes, many lenders still reject them. Dang Quoc Hung, director of Kim Boi Handicrafts Co. Ltd. specializing in products made from coconut fibers, also said that he still meet difficulties in borrowing foreign currency from banks although his company is in a priority list for this type of loan. A financial officer of a foreign bank branch in HCMC said outstanding foreign currency loans of the lender declined in the first months of this year after the central bank tightened inspection into foreign currency lending. Given loose management over foreign currency lending earlier, some export and import enterprises reached foreign currency credits as a cheap capital source due to low rates of 5-6% per annum. They wanted to compensate for high dong lending rates of 17-20% per annum, the officer said.

Truong Van Phuoc, general director of Eximbank, recently told the Daily that the lender had almost halted lending in foreign currency. After the central banks Circular 03/2012/TT-NHNN comes into effect from May 2, lending in foreign currency will be impossible. Therefore, banks will see a fall in foreign currency deposits from individuals and enterprises in the near future, Phuoc said. Besides, the effects of the regulation still depend on foreign currency volumes kept at commercial banks and sold to the central bank as well as a recurrence of inflation. 2. Vinatex to invest heavily in fiber sector Wednesday, April 25,2012,23:03 (GMT+7) By Tran Thu - The Saigon Times Daily HCMC - Vietnam National Garment and Textile Group (Vinatex) will spend half of its VND24 trillion budget on the fiber sector during the 2011-2015 period. Vinatex plans to invest in expanding production lines, building fiber and dye factories between now and 2015. Particularly, VND10.42 trillion will be allocated to 20 fiber processing mill projects. Thanks to the investment strategy, Vinatexs fiber output will increase at a steady pace, from 112,000 tons in 2011 to 125,500 tons this year and it will hit 231,000 tons by 2015. At present, it generates 21% of the countrys total fiber output of 514,000 tons. The state-run textile group plans to develop fiber factories in the provinces of Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Hue and Quang Nam. Apart from fiber production, Vinatex will set aside nearly VND7 trillion to stimulate the dye industry. It will construct 10 more dye factories in a bid to raise its cloth output to

506 million square meters by 2016 from last years 231.9 million square meters. The countrys apparel industry currently is able to dye and finish around 800 million square meters of cloth annually. It must import 5.2 billion square meters of cloth each year to meet apparel production demand. Total investment capital for the five-year production plan includes VND7.5 trillion from its own budget with the rest mobilized from commercial loans and investment credits, said Vinatex. 3. C.T Land, Korean firm cut deal to develop logistics Wednesday, April 25,2012,23:02 (GMT+7) By Dinh Dung - The Saigon Times Daily Tran Kim Chung (R), chairman of C.T Group, shakes hands with Her Uk, managing director of CJ GLS, at the signing ceremony for the memorandum of understanding on Tuesday - Photo: Dinh Dung HCMC C.T Land, a subsidiary of C.T Group, on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with CJ GLS Co. Ltd., a unit under South Koreas CJ Group, to jointly develop the logistics system in Vietnam. The memorandum allows C.T Land to coordinate with the logistic and shipping company CJ GLS in exploiting the logistics systems, including workshops and warehouses, in Binh Duong in the south, Danang in the central region, and Bac Ninh in the north. C.T Group has completed C.T Song Than Logistics Complex covering over 7.6 hectares in Thuan An, Binh Duong, comprising normal, specialized and bonded warehouses, processing, packaging and distribution workshops and maintenance facilities. Under a business cooperation contract, C.T Land will develop storage facilities at agreed

locations, while the Korean partner will invest in logistics technology, said C.T Group Chairman Tran Kim Chung. Chung said his company had invested US$12 million in the logistics center in Binh Duong, and would spent a respective US$15 million and US$8 million developing similar centers in Bac Ninh and Danang. Later on, C.T Land and CJ GLS will consider establishing a joint-venture company to serve expansion of the logistics system on a national scale. Through this partnership, CJ Group is enhancing its presence in multiple business fields in Vietnam. In the field of entertainment, the South Korean group, via its subsidiary CJ CGV, spent some US$73.6 million acquiring Vietnams top cinema chain MegaStar in July last year. Meanwhile, with 36 members under its umbrella, C.T Group is active in several sectors, such as property, retail, construction, financial investment and entertainment. C.T Group is planning to expand its business into Myanmar. The group has clinched a comprehensive strategic cooperation deal with Myanmars Shwe Taung Development Co. Ltd. to develop shopping centers, supermarkets and building materials in Myanmar. In addition, C.T Group has signed a cooperation agreement with Super One International to supply goods to supermarkets in Myanmar. THREE NEWS INTERNATIONALLY (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/)

1. Spring Meetings of the IMF: Each Spring, thousands of government officials, the private sector, journalists, civil society representatives, and other interested observers gather in Washington DC for the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. At the heart of the gathering are meetings of the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee and the joint World BankIMF Development Committee, which discuss progress on the work of the IMF and World Bank. Also featured are seminars, regional briefings, press conferences, and many other events focused on the global economy, international development, and the world's financial markets. 2. Eurozone leaders push for growth: Eurozone leaders have urged governments to focus on growth amid fears about the negative impact of austerity measures. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi called for a "growth compact", to go with the balanced-budget pact agreed last year. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French presidential candidate Francois Hollande echoed that Europe needs more economic growth. But none said what exactly they are willing to do to boost growth. Adding to tensions, the Netherlands' government collapsed over last-minute disagreements about finding billions of euros in austerity cuts. Speaking to the European Parliament, Mr Draghi acknowledged that austerity in Europe which has brought waves of protest in Greece, Spain and beyond - has curtailed growth without doing much to reduce fears that governments may be unable to repay their debts. He said austerity - spending cuts and tax rises - "has been undertaken and is starting to reverberate its contraction effects, and we haven't seen the benefits". "What is most present in my mind is to have a 'growth compact'," the ECB boss said. Mr Hollande said that, if elected, he will renegotiate the fiscal pact. Signed by 25 of 27 European Union states, it aims to bring about much closer integration of budget policy to try to prevent excessive debts accumulating.

The UK and Czech Republic did not sign up to it. Mr Hollande wants to incorporate measures such as pooling European debt to finance infrastructure projects and a financial transactions tax. "Budgetary responsibility? Yes. Austerity for life? No," he said. These proposals have already been discussed and dismissed many times by Mrs Merkel. On Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters the pact was agreed and not up for renegotiation. "It will not be made dependent on election results," he said. 'Not sufficient' Mrs Merkel also called for growth, but in different terms from the man who may soon be her French counterpart. "In Europe, we are called on to overcome the sovereign debt crisis. "On one hand, that can be done with a sustainable fiscal policy... but that is not a sufficient method of overcoming the crisis, because we also need growth." "We need growth... in the form of structural reforms, as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said," she added. But Mrs Merkel warned that did not mean more stimulus programmes. Crunch 'easing' Mr Draghi testified in Brussels that the structural reforms required for governments to make their economies competitive once again would necessarily entail some pain. But he made clear that it was now up to governments and banks to use the available time to strengthen the banks' finances. "Now the ball is entirely, squarely in the court of governments and banks," he said, The ECB has provided more than 1tn euros in three-year loans to eurozone banks since last December, in order to head off a major banking crisis that threatened to erupt last November. Separately, a survey of eurozone banks allayed fears of a credit crunch.

Only a net 9% of 131 banks tightened their lending conditions in the last three months, according to the European Central Bank's latest quarterly survey. The data suggests that emergency loans provided by the ECB have helped stave off a sudden curtailment of lending. 3. Pixar's Brave to debut new Dolby Atmos sound system 25 April 2012 Last updated at 12:04 GMT

Cinema sound system provider Dolby has announced that its new audio format will receive its premiere in June with the release of Pixar's movie Brave. The Disney-owned animation studio's film will use the format in a limited number of "premium" cinemas in the US. Dolby plans a wider international release in 2013. It says the addition of speakers on cinema ceilings and new software lets sounds be moved and positioned more precisely in theatres. The San Francisco-based firm's senior vice president, Ioan Allen, said the innovation would give audience members "the illusion of there being an infinite number of [audio] channels... all the way around you and over your head". He added: "The theatres want an immersive experience that is something superior to anything the public can have in the home because that's what keeps the cinema business driving, and I think we've achieved that." Extra speakers Technical guidelines released by the firm state that the system offers more control through the addition of surround speakers on theatres' side walls and ceilings. Extra speakers behind the screen are also used to create "smoother pans" of sound something the company says will be most noticeable in rooms with very wide screens. It says each speaker needs to be individually wired back to the cinema's amplifiers to create up to 128 distinct, but simultaneous, audio feeds. In the past, mixers had assigned the same output to groups of speakers in large theatres.

"The audience will enjoy a completely new listening experience with enveloping sound that brings the stories on screen more fully to life," it promises. Using the example of the sound of a gunshot fired, it says that "being able to pinpoint this sound could be more effective than trying to emulate it through an array of loudspeakers". The firm adds that its Atmos tools can also generate mixes for its 5.1 and 7.1 speaker systems, meaning that sound technicians who adopt the format can save time when creating different versions of their soundtracks. The firm has yet to release a price guide to equip or upgrade cinemas, but Forbes reports that the cost of fitting it in a medium-sized theatre is likely to be $25,000-$30,000 (15,500-18,600). This is not the first time that Dolby and Pixar have teamed up to offer a new sound experience. In 2010, the 3D release of Toy Story 3 was the first movie to feature the Dolby Surround 7.1 system, helping match sound effects to the on-screen action.