Top 5 Secret Enemies To Your Success (Humour)

By Geoffrey James

December 8th, 2009 @ 5:30 am

Think your competitors are your worst enemies? Think again. Your worst enemies — the people most likely to keep you from making a sale — work right inside your own firm!

This post reveals these hidden enemies of your sales success. Click on the link below to reveal their true identities… if you dare!

SALES ENEMY #5: THE BRAINIAC

• Typical Job Titles: Chief Technical Officer, Head Engineer, Chief Programmer, etc.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: He’s so proud of his technical achievement that he can’t imagine that a customer might not be automatically impressed.
• Why He’s Your Enemy: He thinks that products sell themselves and therefore sales pros are parasites.
• How He Screws You Up: When he meets customers, he does a memory dump of the internal product workings, and then treats them like idiots if they don’t understand what he’s talking about.
• How To Cope With Him: Keep him away from your customers!! If you can’t avoid such contact, prep up your customers ahead of time so that they don’t take him too seriously.
• Warning: Will badmouth you mercilessly if you dare to question his technical opinions.

SALES ENEMY #4: THE BEANCOUNTER

• Typical Job Titles: Chief Financial Officer, Chief Efficiency Officer, Head Accountant, etc.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: Obsessive concern for saving money no matter how much it costs to do so.
• Why He’s Your Enemy: He views sales is an expense rather than the core of the business.
• How He Screws You Up: He devises rules and regulations that make it nearly impossible to sell. Example: cutting travel budgets for reps covering the entire Eastern seaboard.
• How To Cope With Him: Calmly point out the revenue and profit impact of the “cost savings.” Be sure to have a spreadsheet to prove your point.
• Warning: If you get frustrated, you’ll only encourage him. He feels that if he’s not making you miserable, he’s not doing his job.

SALES ENEMY #3: THE MAD MAN

• Typical Job Titles: Chief Marketing Officer, Vice President of Marketing, Marketing Manager, etc.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: He thinks that marketing “drives” sales or that sales is just the operative arm of a marketing campaign.
• Why He’s Your Enemy: He adds to the cost of sales, but adds nothing of value to the sales process.
• How He Screws You Up: He spends big money on product videos and brochures full of biz-blab that makes customers roll their eyes.
• How To Cope With Him: Refuse to let him take credit for any sale where he did not generate the sales lead.
• Warning: He may very well have your clueless top management bamboozled into thinking that he’s actually useful.

SALES ENEMY #2: THE DICTATOR

• Typical Job Titles: Sales Manager, Chief Sales Officer, Vice President of Sales, etc.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: He thinks that managing a sales team means controlling everything that they say and do, and that screaming for half an hour is “coaching.”
• Why He’s Your Enemy: He creates a negative environment that makes it horribly difficult to sell.
• How He Screws You Up: He goes on your sales calls, screws up your deals, and then blames you for the bad results.
• How To Cope With Him: Stay away from the office as much as possible and keep him in the dark about the sales in your pipeline.
• Warning: He may install a CRM system so he can check up on your daily activity.

SALES ENEMY #1: YOU

• Typical Job Titles: Sales Rep, Sales Associate, Sales Agent, etc.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: You haven’t taken the time and trouble fully develop your sales skills, attitude, business acumen, etc.
• Why You’re Your Own Worst Enemy: Your sales success is up to you, regardless of what problems or enemies you face on a day-to-day basis.
• How You Screw Yourself: Endless ways. You talk to customers more than you listen, you fail to prepare for customer meetings, you don’t follow-through on commitments, etc., etc., etc.
• How To Cope With Your Limitations: Overcome them! Decide, right here and now, that you won’t be satisfied with ANYTHING less than the absolute BEST that you can be. Make a commitment and then take action. You know what to do!
• Warning: If you actually make that commitment and take action, none of the other four enemies can possibly prevent you from becoming wildly successful in Sales!!!

http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=5688&tag=col1;post-5688

How to Write a Killer Sales Proposal

By Geoffrey James

March 23rd, 2010 @ 5:30 am

, Proposal Theme, Executive Summary, Sales Strategy, Sales Force Management, Sales

There are few activities in the world of selling that are more time-consuming (but potentially lucrative) than writing sales proposals. They’re a lot of work, but they’re also the key to winning the big money deals. Therefore, if you’re going to write a sales proposal, you’ve got to do it right, and get it right.

In this post, I’ve collected and ordered everything that I’ve learned about sales proposals from Tom Sant, the world’s foremost expert on writing winning proposals, along with some great suggestions from other experts.

In the process, I’ve created one “go-to” post to help you structure your sales proposal activities from the beginning of the sales cycle. Bookmark this post, because if you’re going to be writing sales proposals, this is where you’ll want to start.

STEP #1: LAY THE GROUNDWORK

Your sales proposal will not be read unless you’ve established some recognition in the mind of the decision-makers — long before you write and submit it.

In a global sense, this is accomplished through having some reasonable visibility in the marketplace, which is usually accomplished through highly targeted advertising, sponsoring conferences, sending speakers to conferences, publishing newsletters, and so forth.

In individual sales situations, you establish recognition through sales calls, customer meetings, e-mails, notes, and phone calls.

While you’re cultivating the opportunity, take the time to find out about the prospect’s business, business model, competitors, organizational structure, and buying behavior.

The reason is simple. The prospect will reject your sales proposal will be rejected if you fail to uncover the customer’s true decision criteria and decision makers. Your proposal will need to address the customer’s real concerns, which may lie deeper than the customer’s collective wisdom about their own problems.

In order to make sense, the proposal must state the solution in terms that the customer understands and accepts. In order to provide value, the proposal must address the specific value system and concerns of each set of decision-makers.

Engineers, for example, may have a different set of value criteria than accountants, looking for technology enhancements rather than ROI. A proposal targeting a mixed group of decision-makers from both Engineering and Accounting will need to provide a value proposition for both disciplines.

IMPORTANT: If possible, get involved early enough so that you can help the prospect write the RFP. Customers often work with a vendor (or vendors) to write an RFP that makes sense and which will attempt to address the prospect’s challenges in a reasonable way.

When vendors write the RFP, they almost always get the business, according to Ryan Kubacki, president of the sales training firm Holden International. “The idea is to shape the RFP around strengths that the competition cannot match,” he says. “Ideally, you want to change the groundrules from expected customer value to unexpected value, this early in the business development campaign.”

STEP #2: CREATE A COMPELLING STORY

Even if your proposal will be constrained by a rigid request for proposal (RFP) structure, look for opportunities to tell a creative story in RFP sections that ask for solution overviews, architectural principles or customer references.

A proposal theme is not unlike the plot in a novel or film,” according Richard Fouts, a research director at the market research firm Gartner. “The storyline sets up the prospect’s situation, the impact it’s having on their bottom line – and how you propose to deliver resolution.”

Get your team in a room with a white board, generate as many themes as they can, then use a voting technique to start prioritizing ideas. Start merging ideas into single themes, then wordsmith them down to a theme that everyone can agree upon.

A confident story shows you’ve done your homework — that you’ve charted a clear path between the prospect’s desired outcome and your capabilities.

Here are three rules:

• Rule #1: Keep it simple. Stay focused on the single, most-important thing you want the prospect to remember about your offer.
• Rule #2: Keep it memorable. Create a vivid picture of a business outcome. Think of a favorite novel or film. There’s usually one character or image that people remember, even years later.
• Rule #3: Have a story line. Acknowledge the prospect’s situation or pain, the impact this situation is creating and show you will can help turn a challenging situation around. I

Resist the knee-jerk reaction to respond blindly to product functionality, methodologies or other offering-specific capabilities that focus on them — versus the prospect’s desired business outcomes, explains Fouts. “Prospects go to great lengths to tell you their story, and they look to partners to vendor a good ending,” he says. “They’ve set up the conflict, now it’s your job to provide resolution. It’s what a good story is all about – and one that results in a win.”

STEP #3: MAKE THE SUMMARY A SALES TOOL

Many salespeople wrongly believe that an executive summary should be a summary of the contents of the proposal. As a result, they write the executive summary last, after all the information has been gathered into the body of the proposal. In fact, the executive summary does not summarize the proposal; it summarizes the reasons why the customer should buy from you.

Think of it as an executive briefing-focused on basic issues and bottom-line results. It is your key sales tool and should be written first, in order to set the tone and direction of the body of the proposal. As we shall see, the primary function of the body of the proposal is to offer a detailed solution and substantiation of your capabilities to deliver it.

According to Sant, the executive summary should follow a structural pattern he calls the “persuasive paradigm”:

• Part 1: The Problem/Need/Goal. Demonstrate your understanding of the customer’s business situation. The definition of the problem/need/goal is more than a paraphrase of the customer’s original requirements. Instead, it should reflect the results of your research into the customer’s situation and should show that you understand their business.
• Part 2: The Expected Outcome. Describe the potential positive impact on the customer’s organization if the problem is solved, the need is fulfilled, or the goal is achieved. Note that this is not a discussion of your solution’s features and benefits. Rather, the focus is on the organization and the gains it will achieve from implementing your solution. Examples: “When problem ‘A’ is solved, you will have 50 percent less downtime…” “Achieving goal ‘B’ will allow you to open your products to new markets…”
• Part 3: Solution Overview. Provide, for the non-specialist, a brief overview of the solution that’s being proposed. Ideally, each element of the solution should tie back to one of the customer’s problems or needs and to one of the desired outcomes. Examples: “We are proposing ‘A’ because it solves the problem of…” “We are proposing ‘B’ because it provides the following value to your firm…”
• Part 4:The Call to Action. Ask for the business. This can be something as simple as “We’re eager to work with you.” In asking for the business, mention one or two key factors that differentiate your as a vendor and that make you the right company for the client to choose.

Notice that the executive summary does not start by giving your company history or an overview of your product line. The initial focus must be on the customer and what they need. In fact, in general the name of the customer should appear two or three times as frequently as the name of the vendor.

Similarly, if the executive summary (or indeed the body of the proposal) contains jargon, it should be the customer’s jargon, not your company’s idiosyncratic jargon. You don’t want the reader of the proposal to be wondering what you’re talking about because you introduce unfamiliar terminology.

Avoid putting costs in the executive summary unless the customer has specifically requested that the price be mentioned there. Instead, use the executive summary to make your first presentation of a compelling value proposition-increased productivity, reduced operating costs, increased market penetration, lower total cost of ownership, or some other important measure of gain.

Emphasizing what you can do for the customer and what’s unique about your solution creates a perception of value that can raise your proposal above the rest, even if other solutions might cost less.

STEP #4: TARGET YOUR AUDIENCES IN THE PROPOSAL BODY

The body of the proposal is written for evaluators who are looking for details and evidence about your solution, your experience, and your capabilities. They are looking for detailed explanations of how you will do the work, who you will provide, what prior successful experience you have in this area, which other customers you have done this kind of work for, how you will manage the project, and evidence of your core competency and financial stability.

Start each section of the proposal body with a summary statement that indicates what the section will cover and that reinforces your key value propositions.

Avoid the mistake of providing information that is too technical or that offers an abrupt, nonpersuasive answer. For example, suppose the customer’s Request For Proposal (RFP) contains the question: “do you have 24/7 support?” As a proposal writer, you have three possible responses:

1. Answer “Yes” and move on to the next question.
2. Include pages of technical detail about the mechanics of your support infrastructure.
3. Describe specifically what differentiates your 24/7 support from the competition’s and how those differences will reduce the customer’s overall costs.

Approach “a” has too little information, while approach “b” has too much. By contrast, approach “c” turns answering a simple question into an opportunity to create the perception of value that will lead to a successful sale.

Articulating business outcomes is one of the most obvious ways providers can distinguish themselves from others, according to Fouts. “It’s the business outcome you propose to deliver that provides the inspiration for your proposal theme and storyline,” he says. “A product-oriented approach, with pages of features, functions and architecture not only puts you in the proposal clutter, it shows you haven’t been listening to what the prospect is trying to change.“

STEP #5: EDIT YOUR PROPOSAL MERCILESSLY

Because the proposal is a “product” of your firm, you must make certain that it represents the quality that your firm is offering the customer. Needless to say, there can’t be any glaring inconsistencies in the description of the products or services that are to be provided. But appearance can be as important as content.

There should be no obvious grammatical errors and an absolute minimum of typographical errors. If boilerplate (standardized material from other proposals) is included, it must be carefully customized to match the customer’s own situation.

IMPORTANT: be extremely careful to edit any passages that might contain the names of other companies for which the boilerplate was used in the past. Many proposals have been thrown out simply because the proposal-writer left the name of one of the customer’s competitors in a paragraph lifted from an old proposal.

Make sure that you edit out all the biz-blab and useless buzzwords, unless those are words that you hear constantly in the prospect’s regular business lingo.

STEP #6: PRESENT YOUR PROPOSAL PERSONALLY

Gartner’s research into successful proposals show clearly that proposals that end up being presented personally to the buying team have a 50 percent higher probability of winning that those that are not presented.

Don’t be shy about demanding a personal presentation, long before you agree to write a proposal. After all, you’ve invested heavily in a proposal effort, so you’re entitled to the courtesy of a chance to present it.

But there’s an even more important reason for you to present personally according Fouts. “Because trust is the most important component to winning a big-ticket opportunity, providers need to have face time with the prospect to secure their commitment to the deal,” he says. “The presentation is also an opportunity to continue sustaining the relationships the account team began during the sales cycle.”

SUMMARY

• Step #1: Lay the Groundwork
• Step #2:Create a Compelling Story
• Step #3: Make the Summary a Sales Tool
• Step #4: Target Your Audiences in the Proposal Body
• Step #5: Edit Your Proposal Mercilessly
• Step #6: Present Your Proposal Personally

http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=9012&tag=nl.e808

Vietnam - News and Regulations

PRIVATIZATION - Vietnam to sell part of MobiFone, Bidv in 2010: prime minister

Vietnam plans to sell stakes in leading telecoms firm MobiFone, the country's top oil product distributor Petrolimex and state lender Bidv this year among major state-owned companies, prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung said.

The sale of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which also include textiles and steel corporations, is part of Vietnam's effort to complete a restructuring of the state sector that began in 1992, Dung told Reuters.

"The target is that by 2015 Vietnam will basically complete the work of restructuring SOEs," Dung said in written answers to questions from Reuters.

Most public offerings of state-owned firms in Vietnam leave the state with a majority stake, and they are often referred to as "equitisations."

Dung did not give specific timing for the sales of stakes in the three firms.

The sale of shares in MobiFone, a mobile phone operator owned by state group VNPT, had been scheduled for the second quarter of 2009 but has been delayed. Local media early last year cited a Credit Suisse report that valued the firm, which has subscribers across the country, at $2 billion.

Bidv, or the Bank for Development and Investment of Vietnam, is the second-largest lender by assets after state-run Agribank. A partial sale of Bidv has been expected for years after minority stakes in Vietcombank and Vietinbank were floated on the stock exchange.

Hanoi-based Petrolimex commands 55 percent of Vietnam's retail fuel market.

State-owned companies, including oil group PetroVietnam and Vietnam Electricity, currently account for 40 percent of Vietnam's gross domestic product, which grew 5.32 percent last year to nearly $92 billion, government figures show.

Dung said that by the end of 2015 there would still be 400 businesses wholly owned by the state, including those operating in the areas of security, defense and other key economic sectors.

"Vietnam encourages enterprises of all economic sectors, including the sector with foreign direct investment, to develop without any limits on their size," Dung said.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT - MPI to have more rights in licensing of FDI projects

A big question mark still hangs over who should have the final say in licensing foreign invested projects.

According to a draft decree, which will replace Decree 108/2006/ND-CP guiding the implementation of the Investment Law issued in 2005, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) would regain its licensing agency status for specific foreign direct investment (FDI) projects.

The Investment Law, effective from July 1, 2006 put an end to the MPI's status as an FDI licensing agency and gave full power to local governments, plus industrial park and export processing zone local management authorities.

Remanding the reins of power back to the MPI is one of three options made by the draft decree's author, the MPI's Legislation Department.

If the first option gets the green light, the MPI would be in charge of granting investment certificates to strategic FDI projects, projects requiring prime ministerial approval and FDI projects to be implemented in more than one locality.

In accordance to Decree 108's Article 37 issued on September 22, 2006, FDI projects to be approved by the prime minister are those in the aviation, ports, mineral exploitation, broadcasting, casino, cigarettes production, university, industrial park, export processing zone and hi-tech park construction segments. prime ministerial approval is also needed for FDI projects with investment capital in excess of VND1.5 trillion ($78.9 million), if they are in the power, mineral processing, infrastructure, beer and wine sectors.

The draft decree adds that FDI projects covering 100 hectares in delta regions and 200ha in mountainous regions or reclaimed land accommodating more than 20,000 people would also need prime ministerial approval. "Tightening the rights of local authorities in FDI attraction will be a suitable movement to control investment quality," said Hong Sun, secretary of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam.

It would also guarantee all FDI projects were invested under the country's master plans, he said. Hong is also the chief executive officer of Hermes & Sun Development and Construction Company – which has invested in an industrial park project in Thuong Tin district, Hanoi. Suwes Wangrungarun, deputy general director of Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand Group, said licensing agencies' ability to appraise quality FDI projects was essential.

The draft decree's other options, are for FDI projects belonging to the mentioned-above categories to be appraised by the MPI before local authorities grant them investment certificates. The third option is the MPI to lead a taskforce representing concerned state agencies for appraising those FDI projects before investment certificates are issued by local authorities

The draft decree is expected to take effect in the second half of 2010. Professor Nguyen Mai, chair of Vietnam Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises, said the decentralisation policy to simplify administrative procedures for investors when setting up investment projects had actively contributed to booming FDI projects in Vietnam in last few years. "But some local authorities do not have enough appraising ability to ensure projects' quality," he noted.tton

CAPTITAL MARKET - MoF enhances G-bond issue of 2010

Ministry of Finance has expressed satisfaction over the success of the third tranche G-bond issue of 2010 on March 10. The government raised total 3.020 trillion dong of two-year bonds and 200 billion dong of three-year bonds from the big buyers including Maritime Bank, Vietinbank, Techcombank, ACB, VIB Bank, Eximbank and Bidv.

On March 18, the following bond tender valued at one trillion dong will take place on Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and this is expected to be successful also.

The factor promoting the successful bond tender of March 10 came from the attractive coupon rate. Ministry of Finance approved the winning coupon rates of both above terms (two-year and three-year) at 12 percent pa, equivalent with SBV's ceiling level and higher one percentage point than the previous tender (on February 2010). However, the winning coupon rate remained much lower than the real negotiated interest rate of enterprises at banks. Yet, credit institutions (mainly commercial banks) still purchased and used these 3rd tranche G-bonds on the open market (OMO). deputy general director of a bank said, banks can trade bonds to take the short term dong on OMO with the interest rate of about 8 percent a month for terms of 1-4 weeks.

The problem is whether banks will continue purchasing extra trillions of dong in bonds or whether the finance ministry will fix a higher coupon rate band or not. As estimated, credit institutions will not buy additional high volume of G-bonds because they could not raise much capital at low deposit rates. Furthermore, total daily trading value of OMO is limited because banks must meet a lot of strict requirements (along with valuable papers) to borrow capital via OMO. Some times Central Bank had to limit the capital pumping into OMO at the highest level of seven trillion dong a day.

MoF's coupon rate increase inflected right the demand and supply of market because from the start of March 2010, the yield rate of bonds on Hanoi Stock Exchange surpassed 11.5 percent pa. Financers forecast that the coupon rate of G-bonds could be hiked further to new highs if the problems in banks' liquidity are treated.

Currently, because of the difficulties in credit development, some banks are restructuring bond portfolio and focusing on the bond trade including both corporate and international bonds. In 2009, few banks decided to invest in short term bonds because of high safety rate instead of depositing money at foreign banks, which brought huge profits to banks.

Notably, banks paid more attention to corporate bonds. When cannot borrowing bank loans, enterprises used to issue 1-2 year corporate bonds at floating coupon rates (equalling to 12-month saving rates of credit institutions plus 3-4 percentage points). According to regulations, the coupon rate of corporate bonds is not limited by SBV's ceiling interest rate. But, domestic corporate bond is not the absolutely safe finance product. One bank bought bonds of a state-guaranteed group with the annually fixed coupon rate on every December 31. But when the interest payment date came, the group [issuer] asked to delay the payment to extra three months.

As planned, total G-bond capital assigned to ministries, sectors and local governances will be 56 trillion dong, particularly 20.2 trillion dong will be managed by five ministries of defense, traffic and transport, agriculture and rural development, health and police and the remainder will be allocated to local governances. Thus, MoF will have to issue at least 56 trillion dong of bonds to the state budget, excluding the bond volume for paying advances of State Treasury in 2009, some state corporations and groups.

Since the beginning of 2010, Vietnam has issued 3.297 trillion dong already.

In 2007, the G-bond issue in dong attracted many foreign investors. But presently, no foreign investor almost joined Vietnam's dong bond tender for the fear of the appreciation of US dollar against the dong. Since last November, US dollar price increased total 6.8 percent against the dong.VNS

Investment funds - Funds change investment targets

Foreign investment funds have started to change their investment strategies.

Previously, financial-banking sector, real estate and domestic big producers were the first choice of foreign investment funds'. However, in 2010, many funds have different perspectives on investment opportunities in Vietnam.

Dang Minh Loan, investment director of VOF fund-VinaCapital Co, said that her fund's strategy this year will be to focus on companies in fields such as education, health and agriculture. Explaining about this change, Loan analysed macro-economy this year is forecasted to have many changes. So, it is hard to predict about sectors that are being impacted directly from the macro-economy such as financial-banking and property.

In addition, VOF greatly appreciates the potential of the fields of education, health, agriculture in Vietnam. For example, as for education sector, the number of private schools currently has not met the demands of society. Even, there is still lack of standard private schools with large scale. This is similar to the health sector. Therefore the potential of these areas is very attractive.

As for agriculture field, supporting services for the development of agriculture such as pesticides, fertilisers and transportation, are a matter of VOF's concern. VOF has invested in Lam Thao Fertiliser & Chemical Co. This year, VOF expected disbursements the capital of some $50-100 million.

IDG Ventures Vietnam Fund specialising in information technology is also planning to debut a new fund with a total investment of $150-200 million to invest in health and education.

Since the beginning of March, VinaCapital has cooperated with inProjects, a group specialises in providing professional services on project management for trade centre, entertainment, tourism and hotel, to establish VinaProjects Co that will operate in field of supplying service products on project management, design and asset management in Vietnam.

Thus, VinaCapital officially expanded business to service activities of real estate sector, a very potential market.

Similarly, Louis Nguyen, director board's chair of SAM Co that is running two investment funds in securities and real estate and listing shares on German Stock Exchange, said that this year there will be many changes in investment strategy of these two funds. As for securities fund, instead of investing in big trade names and blue-chips like earlier, the fund's aim is small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Notably, the fund will stop disbursement on non-listed firms that were the first goals in the fund's portfolio previously.

As for real estate fund, SAM has started a new fund with the name "Smart Money" under a different investment model. The fund is cooperation between a big investor and domestic and foreign specialists in many sectors with an aim to create value for the fund. The fund's goal is to seek assets that are being evaluated below the real value and companies that plan to become public companies to invest in.

Changes in investment strategies of foreign funds will be factors that domestic investors should care about in order to have fuller look on the market.tbkt

BANKING - VIB plans to reach 2010 pre-tax profit of 906.7b dong

Vietnam International Commercial JS Bank (VIB) yesterday organised the 2010 annual shareholder meeting in which the chair Han Ngoc Vu reported that the bank last year reached total assets of 56.639 trillion dong, a year-on-year growth of 63.1 percent, total deposits of 1 at 34.210 trillion dong, total outstanding loans of 27.353 trillion dong, pre-tax profit of 614.3 billion dong, up 166.5 percent against 2008 and bad debt ratio of 1.27 percent.

Currently the bank has 117 business sites in 27 cities/provinces with nearly 2,500 staffs.

Last December, after issuing extra 60 million shares to the existing shareholders, VIB Bank's chartered capital increased to three trillion dong. The bank plans to offer 20 percent of three trillion dong to a foreign strategic shareholder but the plan yet to be fully completed.

In late 2009, VIB also established VIB Asset and Debt Management Co Ltd (operating under the one member limited company) with an initial chartered capital of 50 billion dong.

On March 17, VIB-Ngo Gia Tu Co kicked off work on VIB-NGT building at No 16 Phan Chu Trinh St, Hoan Kiem Dist, Hanoi, which will become the headquarter of VIB later.

This year VIB could hike its chartered capital from current three trillion dong to 4.250 trillion dong through three share issue phases. Firstly, the bank will issue 40 million more shares to the existing shareholders to raise capital from three trillion dong to 3.4 trillion dong. Secondly, VIB will retail 60 million shares to the foreign strategic partners. If calling capital from a foreign strategic shareholder or negotiations between two sides is not successful, VIB will delete the second capital increase phase and only reach the maximum chartered capital of 3.4 trillion dong in 2010 fiscal year.

Lastly, 25 million odd shares of VIB will be offered to the foreign strategic shareholder who bought shares of VIB in the second phase. Thanks to this, foreign strategic holding in VIB could be raised to maximum 85 million shares equalling to 20 percent of a 4.250 trillion dong chartered capital. Similar to the second phase, if facing inconveniences, the maximum chartered capital of VIB in 2010 will be only 3.4 trillion dong (ending phase 1) or four trillion dong (ending phase 1 and 2) in 2010 financial year.

In addition, Han Ngoc Vu revealed, his bank has not been able to list on the stock market because the negotiations with foreign strategic shareholder have not come into fruition. "We are [VIB] seeking a foreign strategic partner", he said. INTELLASIA

Infrastructure - Transport infrastructure projects face cash crunch

Funding is expected to be a major problem for transport infrastructure works this year, with allocation by the government falling short of requirement and investors still reluctant to open their purse strings.

The Thai Bao Kinh te Vietnam (Vietnam Economic Times) newspaper quoted the Ministry of Transport as saying on Monday that work on 40 new projects would start this year in addition to many ongoing projects.

They include the HCM City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway project, Van Phong International Port project in the central province of Khanh Hoa, and the Noi Bai - Lao Cai, Cau Gie - Ninh Binh, and Hanoi

- Hai Phong expressways in the north.

Minister of Transport Ho Nghia Dung has admitted funding would be difficult across the spectrum of official development assistance, bond issue, and built- operate - transfer (BOT) this year.

Truong Tan Vien, director of the ministry's Planning and Investment Department, said: "The amount allocated for infrastructure projects from the budget and bond issues this year is much lower than the actual need."

For instance, the allocation from bond issues is only 12 trillion dong ($628 million) while the ministry needs 17 trillion dong for projects dependent on bond funds, he said.

"If there is a cash crunch, some projects will be delayed and payment to contractors postponed," he said.

The State-run Vietnam Expressway Investment and Development Corp (VEC), which depends on BOT investors and government bond issues, said it is struggling to raise funds since commercial banks' interest rates are high, affecting bond issue.

"Last year VEC only succeeded in issuing bonds worth 423 billion dong ($22.1 million) with coupon rates of 8.9 to 10.5 percent while it needed 2.5 trillion ($130 million)," Tran Xuan Sanh, the corporation's general director, said.

Several BOT investors have said they find it difficult to mobilise capital, including for the expansion of National Highway 51 and the Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway.vns

Economic Growth - Hanoi's Q1 GDP expected to rise 8.7pct

Prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, on March 17 chaired the working session between the Permanent government and leaders of Hanoi City on the implementation of large investment projects in the city and solutions for traffic jams and preparation for the Great Ceremony of 1,000 years of Thang Long - Hanoi.

Stating at the working session, PM allowed Hanoi to apply some specific mechanisms such as increasing registration fees, transportation fees for personal vehicles in the city, striving to limit the individual vehicles and particular mechanisms in dealing with violations.

PM acknowledged the efforts of the city in preventing the economic recession and maintaining high GDP growth rates at 6.7 percent in 2009 and it is expected to grow 8.7 percent in Q1, 2010.

In 2010, Hanoi's total social investment capital would be some 170 trillion dong with 352 existing projects and 206 others under preparation period.

Currently, the city is carrying out 80 key transportation projects.

In 2010, the city expects a socio-economic growth rate of 9.5-10 percent.vns

RENEWABLE ENERGIES - Vietnam government to approve renewable energy development plan next month

The Vietnamese government will approve the national renewable energy development plan between 2010 and 2015 with a vision for further development through 2025 next month, said Nguyen Anh Tuan, deputy director of Vietnam Energy Institute.

Under the plan, investors who invest in small-sized hydropower projects, wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, biomass and bio-fuel will receive much support from the government, Tuan noted.

Vietnam boasts a huge potential for harnessing 1,800MW wind energy, 150MW of biogas, 800MW of biomass, 350MW energy created from rubbish, 340MW of geological energy, and 4,000MW of hydropower.

Currently, renewable energy accounts for just 1 percent of Vietnam's total power capacity, or 12,000MW.

The country plans to raise the proportion of renewable energy sources to 3 percent of the national total commercial power supply through 2010, to 5 percent by 2020, and 11 percent by 2050. SGT