PALIN MITENK BLOG

Arriving in HCM City on January 7, Miss World 2008 Ksenia Sukhinova have participated in various activities in Vietnam. VietNamNet reviewed her work by photos.

Miss World 2008 at HCM City-based Tan Son Nhat Airport on January 7.

The beauty queen and the General Director of RAAS Company at a press conference on January 7.

Miss World 2008, Mr. Hoang Kieu and the Chairwoman of the Miss World Organization at the press conference.

Miss World 2008 Ksenia Shukhinova at the Centre for Disabled Children in the coastal city of Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa City in the morning of January 9:

Presenting Tet gift to disabled children.

Participating in an event of the National Television Festival in the evening of January 9:

At Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport on January 10:

Getting into a car to go to Ha Long Bay, Quang Ninh.

In Ha Long City, Quang Ninh on January 10:

(Source: VNN, VNE)

Miss World 2008 Ksenia Shukhinova arrived in HCM City on Wednesday to prepare for her trans-Vietnam trip to help the poor.

The beauty queen arrived at the Tan Son Nhat Airport at 6:00pm and she immediately spoke to the local media. “My hometown of Tyumen in Siberia is now at minus 25 degrees centigrade but HCM City is so warm. Before coming here, I knew about Vietnam as a country with comfortable weather, good food and friendly people,” she said.

The Miss World 2008 met with correspondents at a press conference at the Sheraton hotel on the same evening. Today she will fly to the coastal city of Nha Trang to take part in some activities there, including the ongoing national television festival.

She will start her trans-Vietnam trip on January 9 through over ten provinces and cities, from Cao Bang in the north to Kien Giang in the south to do charity. Miss World 2007 Zhang Zilin will join the trip in the middle.

This is the first trip of the beauty queen in her one year of duties as the Miss World. The girl was crowned in December 2008.

VietNamNet introduces some photos of the Miss World 2008 in HCM City:

Miss World 2008 Ksenia Shukhinova at Tan Son Nhat Airport, HCM City.

In the VIP room of Tan Son Nhat Airport.

With Hoang Kieu, General Director of RAAS group, the representative unit of organization of Miss World 2010 in Vietnam, and the Chairwoman of Miss World Organization Julia Morley.

Interviewed by Vietnamese correspondents.

A representative of the Russian Consulate in HCM City presented flowers to Ksenia Shukhinova.

V. Tien

Halong Bay - one of Vietnam’s World Heritage Sites - is officially a contender in the second phase of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

The announcement was made on January 7 on the New 7 Wonders’ (N7W) website. To earn the elusive status, 261 national and international sites will vie to make it into the top 77.

The Mekong River, which flows China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar was nominated by six countries.

Voting will go on until July 7, 2009. Finalists will be chosen by the N7W Panel of Experts for short listing.

Twenty-one sites will be chosen in July 2009 to go forward to the next stage of voting.

The final voting stage will take place between 2010 and 2011. During this time, the N7W World Tour will visit all 21 sites. The N7W of Nature will be unveiled in the summer of 2011.

During the first phase of the campaign, which ran from July 2007 to December 31, 2008, three of Vietnam’s tourist hot spots were nominated, including Halong Bay, Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and Fansipan Mountain.

(Source: VNA)

Diverse culture, tourism and sports events are taking place across the country to welcome the upcoming lunar New Year Festival (Tet) - the Year of the Buffalo.

The main streets in Nha Trang City of central coastal Khanh Hoa Province are bedecked with flowers, colorful lanterns, slogans and flags to welcome Tet. The director of the Khanh Hoa provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Truong Dang Tuyen, said many activities will be launched for the occasion, such as a Tet trade fair, a spring flower trade fair, a spring newspaper exhibition, a film week, photo and calligraphy exhibitions, a lion dance contest and a human chess competition.

Apart from film shows in Nha Trang City, two mobile film screening teams will be sent to the two mountainous districts of Khanh Son and Khanh Vinh to serve local ethnic minority people.

During a week-long cultural event in Khanh Hoa, many folk games and traditional ritual festivals will also be held, such as the Cau Ngu Festival, the Thap Ba Ponnaga ritual, a boat racing, a sea swimming competition, a junior football tournament and a sea volleyball competition. Organisations and individuals are encouraged to participate in all these events.

Firework displays will be launched in Nha Trang City and Dien Khanh District with generous sponsorship from local businesses.

To meet the people’s demand for entertainment during the Tet holiday from January 15-31, the central province of Quang Ngai will organise many sports, culture and tourism activities for local residents.

There will be a fireworks show on Lunar New Year’s eve in Quang Ngai City and in the Dung Quat economic zone along with many exciting programmes. Diverse cultural activities will also be held in a number of places in the province, including an exhibition on art and handicrafts, film shows, folk games, and sports games such as volleyball, badminton, Chinese chess, traditional martial arts and boxing. The national music and dance troupe and the provincial cinematographic centre will give performances to entertain local residents in seven mountainous districts and islands.

Local people will enjoy lion dances and performances and celebrate the 79^th anniversary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. An exhibition to display photos of the late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong will also be held.

(Source: VOV)

VietRees, a real estate consultancy and management service provider, does not think that the real estate prices will increase in 2009, while reporting further decreases in real estate prices in December 2008 in HCM City.

Explaining this, Vu Quoc Thai, Analysis Director of VietRees, said that overseas remittance (the money sent by Vietnamese overseas to their relatives in Vietnam) has not been poured into the real estate sector like in previous years, but has been used for resuming production or paying debts. Many real estate development firms are seriously lacking cash to maintain their operation, and they seem to be unable to get further loans from banks.

Meanwhile, Thai said, some banks have been trying to sell high-grade real estate mortgaged by clients, or have been trying to extend debt payment, so that clients have more time to sell real estate to obtain money for paying debts. The low demand in the national economy, the difficulties in accessing credit and the matured credit contracts have forced real estate developers to sell real estate at low prices, which is proving to be even lower than the initially set prices.

Luxury apartments unsalable

The percentage of successful transactions seemed to be a little higher at the end of the year in comparison with previous months. However, most successful transactions focused on low-cost apartments, while very few transactions have been reported for luxury apartments.

However, the supply of low-cost apartments proves to be limited, and the sale prices in this segment of the market did not see any big changes in December, in comparison with the previous month.

Luxury apartment prices reportedly continued decreasing in December. According to VietRees, the price decreased by approximately 6% compared to November 2008, which proves to be the sharpest decrease since June 2008.

The prices of many apartments in Phu My Hung urban area and other areas in districts 2 and 7, though having seen the prices decrease by over 50%, still find it difficult to find buyers. With the current conditions of the market, VietRees has predicted that luxury apartments will go down further in prices after Tet.

The gloomy market has forced a lot of investors, who jumped into the real estate sector after they found it profitable, to return to their main business fields. A lot of investors are facing big challenges as they do not have cash and they cannot find buyers.

If the situation continues, some real estate developers will have to bargain projects away and escape from the market in 2009.

Injecting money in low-cost houses advised

According to VietRees, after Tet, which will come at the end of January, the real estate market will be the ‘playing field’ for investors who have huge capital and aim for long-term investment plans.

It said that real estate developers should focus on apartments with sale prices suitable to medium-income earners instead of high-cost projects. The low-cost and medium-cost projects can be sold quickly, which allow investors to take back capital for re-investment. In fact, the demand for low-cost apartments remains very high as real estate developers did not focus on this segment of the market

VietRees said that investors should inject money in apartments with an area of 40-60 sq. m., which have the sale prices of VND 10 million per sq. m. or lower, which means the value of VND 400-600 million/each apartment. The investors should target young families, students and office staff.

(Source: TBKTVN

Exporters lay groundwork for 2009 - UPDATED: 09/01/2009 - Despite the global financial crisis that is seriously affecting the country’s economy, many exporters are in reasonable shape, thanks to their good preparations. More than 15,000 workers at the Thai Binh Footwear Joint Stock Co, for instance, have begun to execute this year’s business plan, which targets export value of over US$100 million. "A few years ago, the company invested $5 million in installing a complete production line," Nguyen Duc Thuan, general director of the country’s biggest footwear exporter, said. It employs 400 designers who create 35,000 models for all four seasons every year based on demand in importing markets. Thai Binh sells directly to four large importers in the US and Japan. The footwear industry also came under pressure last year from an EU anti-dumping tax on leather shoes. Vietnamese companies quickly switched to other kinds of footwear like sports shoes and fashion shoes for women and children. They achieved total exports of $4.8 billion, or a fifth higher than in 2007. The textile and garment industry has seen export contracts and prices fall by 20 per cent due to the recession. Many companies are cutting their margins while others are eyeing the local market. According to the general director of the Viet Nam Textile and Garment Corporation, Vu Duc Giang, the industry would explore new markets like the Middle East and Africa this year. The signing of a bilateral trade agreement with Japan would help garment firms export to the East Asian country. The corporation plans to open 20 more supermarkets around Viet Nam. For the Sai Gon 3 Garment Joint-stock company, export was up $80 million and profits 20 per cent last year. "We carried out many cost-cutting campaigns and maintained our quality," Pham Xuan Hong, general director of the company, said. In 2009 its turnover target remains unchanged from last year, but it eyes 20 percent lower profits. Leading exporter Viet Tien Garment Company has a brand name trusted in many foreign markets. The company has thus managed to sign several major deals, targeting a 10 per cent increase in exports to $190 million. Viet Tien will also launch more luxury and popular products in the local market this year. It will soon hire 500 workers who have been laid off by other garment companies.
VNS