Sourcing in Vietnam’s blog

Sourcing in Vietnam is looking to hire a high calibre Senior Procurement (Factory Sourcing) Manager to be responsible for factory and component sourcing In Vietnam.

The candidate needs the following skills:

· Work well on their own or as part of a team

· Vendor management and price negotiation

· Develop policies, guidelines and procedures for improving the logistic and overall purchasing process

· Monitor daily production schedule from vendors to match delivery requirement

· Establish purchasing agreements with strategic suppliers

· Inventory control on consignment materials

· Proficient in both English and Vietnamese

· Vietnamese National

· Minimum 7 years experience in factory sourcing and component sourcing

· Degree in Procurement / Supply Chain Management/ Business or equivalent

· Sound interpersonal and supervisory skills, proactive, cost-conscious

Responsibilities:

· Liaise with overseas buyers

· Liaise with internal customers and factories in Vietnam

· Responsible for samples and order follow up, sourcing and product development

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen yesterday agreed to enhance trade and investment activities to increase two-way trade turnover to US$1 billion in the next few years.

The agreement was reached at a meeting hosted by PM Dung in Ha Noi on the occasion of PM Vanhanen’s three-day visit to Viet Nam.

They were unanimous on boosting new fields of co-operation including labour and industry, trade, energy and clean technology, fostering renovation to cope with climate change and protecting the environment.

They talked about bolstering the implementation of the framework agreement on education and training, according to which Finland will help Viet Nam increase the number of doctors in information technology, health, environment, forestry and fishery.

The two leaders also targeted increasing Finland’s investment in Viet Nam to $1 billion in the next few years. To facilitate this, Viet Nam committed to create favourable conditions for Finnish enterprises to invest in their strengths such as telecommunications, shipbuilding, the timber industry, paper production, rural development and clean water supply.

In return, Finland would create favourable conditions for Vietnamese products to be exported to Finland, North Europe and European Union markets and cease imposing anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese leather shoes.

Prime Minister Dung thanked the friendship and support that the Finnish Government and people gave Viet Nam in the wars for independence and spoke of how highly it valued Finland’s role in addressing international issues and global challenges.

Dung confirmed that the Vietnamese Government and people always attached great importance to strengthening the traditional friendship and co-operation between the two countries on the basis of stability, long-term and mutual benefit.

For his part, Prime Minister Vanhanen expressed his pleasure at being back in the country after five years since the 5th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in 2004.

He highly valued Viet Nam’s achievements in its renewal and integration process as well as its maintenance of high economic growth over recent years, adding that Finland appreciated Viet Nam’s position and role in Asia and in the world.

PM Vanhanen went on to say that Finland wanted to boost comprehensive co-operation with Viet Nam, especially in trade, commerce and investment in order to heighten relations in these fields.

He also congratulated Viet Nam on its increased standing on the world stage and upon its election to the Executive Council of the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in 2009-13.

Overall, the two leaders were pleased with the development of the two countries’ relations in recent times and highly valued the initial result of labour co-operation. They agreed that the trial co-operation programme on migrant labour in Finland should be expanded soon.

Dung and Vanhanen also discussed other issues concerning coping with the global financial crisis, climate change and energy security and affirmed their determination to support each other at multilateral forums like the UN, ASEM and ASEAN-EU.

Dung said that as Viet nam was becoming the Chairman of ASEAN in 2010, the country would be the bridge linking Finland with Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, Vanhanen affirmed that Finland would continue to support Viet Nam in negotiating the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement with the EU.

After the meeting, the two prime ministers signed a memorandum of understanding on labour and industry policies.

Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh met with the Finnish Prime Minister in Ha Noi yesterday to exchange viewpoints and discuss potential co-operation between the two countries.

The visiting Prime Minister affirmed Finland’s esteem and desire to boost friendship and co-operation relations with Viet Nam. He noted that forestry, among many other fields, had huge potential for the two countries to co-operate on. This would aid the process of developing a sustainable, long-term, equal and mutually-beneficiary relationship between the two sides.

In return, the host Party leader thanked the Finnish people for their support to Viet Nam during the country’s struggles for national independence and reunification and development. Manh expressed his appreciation of Finland’s active role in solving international issues and coping with global challenges. Manh said that Viet Nam, with respects to its diversified and multilateral policies, would treasure and develop relations between the two countries. The Vietnamese Party leader urged the two sides to further develop the co-operation potential by boosting activities in trade and investment as well as in forestry. The two governments are expected to support and give favourable conditions to their businesses. The two sides are planning to open a trial programme for migrant labourers in Finland, and will also promote the two nations’ co-ordination for international forums.

Paliamentary co-operation

The Finnish leader also met with National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong yesterday to exchange ideas and discuss the role of the National Assembly in making decisions related to education and climate change.

PM Vanhanen expressed his appreciation of the NA’s role in creating a more favourable legal environment for businesses from both sides to boost investment. He also noted that it was imperative to follow up on legal enforcement and the effective implementation of committed agreements between the two nations. He hoped that the two legislatures would streng-then their exchanges of experiences in lawmaking and prioritised co-operation fields. The Prime Minister highlighted the anti-corruption programmes between the two countries’ parliaments and that Finland would be willing to share with Viet Nam its experiences from this field.

Chairman Trong informed the guest leader that Viet Nam was seriously fighting corruption. He expressed his hope to welcome the Finnish NA Chairman to Viet Nam in order to pursue a deeper and wider discussion about ways to improve the co-operation between the two parliaments.

Trong promised the Finnish Prime Minister that the Vietnamese National Assembly would strengthen its supervision of the implementation of signed agreements, which will create a more favourable legal environment for foreign investment in Viet Nam.

Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan, who also met with PM Vanhanen, appreciated the two Prime Ministers’ signing of an MoU earlier yesterday concerning labour and industrial policies. The host Vice President affirmed that Viet Nam would be ready to create a strong link between Finland and Southeast Asia.

Vietnam Textile and Garment Association (Vitas) has reported that the country’s apparel export in first ten months to two major markets US and Europe Union fell 4.5 percent and 3.5 percent correspondingly compared with the same period of 2008.

The falls are acceptable when the total demand of both markets slumped 11-13 percent year-on-year, according to Vista chair Le Quoc An.

Particularly, US apparel import from Hong Kong dropped by 21 percent in Jan-Oct, from Thailand down 25.61 percent and from India plunging 7.65 percent. In such a context, Vietnam’s apparel export to US still surged 18 percent in volume and tumbled 4.5 percent in turnover.

The fact showed that US consumers still prefer using Vietnam made apparel. However, the more important thing is the big efforts and cooperation between apparel producers and importers in re-defining pricing structure to stabilise the product and service quality.

In Europe, enterprises tried to enhance product quality and expand support service for importers as well as comply with new regulations on safety for consumers. Thanks to this, the country’s apparel export to EU in Jan-October reached approximately $1.6 billion, down only 3.5 percent against 2008 while EU’s imports in the period declined 11 percent.

At a time of global economic crisis, many Vietnamese apparel companies are focusing on marketing promotion in big cities along with the programmes of bringing products to rural areas.

According to Nguyen Thi Hong Tin-head of Vinatex’s Trade Research and Promotion Committee, when the traditional markets were narrowed, a lot of enterprises made big efforts to expand business to new markets. So, in first ten months, Vietnam made apparel into Korea jumped 50 percent and to Saudi Arabia soared 23 percent year-on-year.

In 2009, the textile and garment sector targets to reach a growth of 1 percent. With the achieved export turnover of $7.5 billion in Jan-Oct, enterprises strive to earn $850 million a month in remaining two months of this year. The full year’s targeted $9.2 percent can be reached.

Reported by Vitas, a line-up of big importers and well known brands such as Gap and Union Bay are negotiating export processing prices for 2010 with many Vietnamese firms. Nguyen Van Thoi, general director of Thai Nguyen Investment and Trading Co said that the export price his firm signed with partners for 2010 delivery has increased by 10 percent compared with the current level.

Coffee prices in Asia were steady in the week to Friday, with little new crop traded in Vietnam, as an earlier typhoon delayed the ongoing harvest.

“The harvest has been delayed by Typhoon Mirinae. It may take another 10 days for the beans to arrive,” said a trader at an agricultural commodities trading house in Vietnam.

Cash discounts for the new crop narrowed to around $50 a metric ton against the Euronext.liffe January contract, down from $80/ton a week ago.

The benchmark January contract settled at $1,313/ton Thursday, $32 lower from a week earlier.

“People are paying close attention to any news about the quality of the new crop and the total output,” said an executive at a local trading firm, adding there isn’t much clarity. The firm expects a 10% drop in output, the executive added.

Vietnam, Asia’s largest coffee exporter, produced 16 million 60-kilogram bags in the 2008-09 crop year.

The International Coffee Organization said earlier this week the world’s 2009-10 coffee production will likely fall below 128.1 million 60-kg bags achieved in 2008-09, due to adverse weather in Brazil and Vietnam. It didn’t give a specific forecast.

Traders said the uncertain production outlook, coupled with falling local prices, curbed farmers’ interest in selling.

Local prices were quoted around VND23,000/kg this week, versus VND25,000/kg a week earlier.

In India, another major Asian producer, old crop robusta cherry AB beans traded at INR78/kg, down slightly from INR80/kg a week earlier, while arabica beans were quoted steady at 13 points over the ICE March futures contract.

The new crop is expected to come to the market in mid-December, traders said. (Dow Jones)

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a mutual investment encouragement and protection agreement between the Governments of Vietnam and Kazakhstan.

The agreement is one of the seven cooperation documents signed during PM Dung’s official visit to Kazakhstan in mid-September 2009.

According to the PM decision, the Ministry of Planning and Investment will be responsible for guiding the implementation of the agreement.