BACKDOC: WITH CURRENCY FLUCTUATIONS BECOMING SO DRAMATIC IN WORLD MARKETS, COMPANIES ARE UNABLE TO PREDICT PROFITS DUE TO DECLINING SALES AND MARGIN PRESSURES FROM COMPETITION IN THIS DEFLATIONARY ENVIRONMENT! (See article below)
WITH COMPANIES CHALLENGED FOR GROWTH AND YEILD, IT SEEMS A PROFIT DEATH SPIRAL IS IN PLAY FOR MANY COMPANIES.
THIS PROCESS TO THE DIGITAL WORLD MAY BE MORE CHALLENGING THAN THE SMARTEST EVEN KNOW!
HOW CAN YOU PLAN ANYTHING WHEN THE BASIS OF VALUE IS NEVER THE SAME? IMPOSSIBLE!
DOC IMO
Thunderhawk: Backdoc Alert
Morgan Stanley strategist: Our moves were ‘horrendous’
Up is down, down is up, the bull is a bear, the bear is a bull and an economy in recovery is really in recession.
Such is the current state of the markets, according to Morgan Stanley strategists, who see a “Bizarro World” where nothing makes sense and it’s getting tougher and tougher to make a buck.
“Everything seems backwards,” Adam Parker, the firm’s chief U.S. equity strategist, said in a note to clients. “Sell winners, buy losers, own staples in both up and down markets. Just do the opposite of what makes sense.”
The “Bizzaro” reference is familiar to Superman fans for a world where the Man of Steel is really a bad guy and everything else is upside down as well.
But for Morgan Stanley, it’s been no comic book but rather stark reality. The firm’s investment portfolio registered its worst month in more than five years — 61 months, to be exact — as the stock market got off to one of its worst starts ever this year.
“Our portfolio advice has been pretty horrendous lately,” Parker confessed. He added:
For those who follow our portfolio, we did quite well over the five years from 2011-2015. But, our portfolio just had its worst month in 61 months in January,and things have not improved in February.The market is down more than we thought it would be. Our biggest sector bet has been financials (particularly credit cards). As an investor recently said to us at a conference, “I am doing a lot of things, just nothing with confidence.” Doing the opposite of what were commended would have been better. Bizarro World. Or at least hopefully not the real world.
Parker and Morgan Stanley, of course, have plenty of company.
Most Wall Street firms had a fair amount of confidence and have been forced to walk back their aggressive forecasts in recent days. Barely a month into 2016 Bank of America Merrill Lunch on Friday cut its full-year S&P 500 forecast from 2,200 to 2,000. Wells Fargo on Tuesday followed by slicing its range from 2,230-2,330 to 2,000-2,100, a 10 percent reduction.
The typical investor portfolio had declined 10.35 percent year to date, according to Openfolio, which compiles the number from results of 60,000 users on its social networking site.
Parker reiterated many of the oft-cited factors working against the market, such as the sharp decline in energy prices, a slowdown in China and worries that the Fed might make a policy mistake.
He added a few: That the health of the U.S. consumer may have been overstated; an investor focus during earnings season on punishing companies that missed estimates rather than rewarding the beats; and fears that the fixed income market and its plunging bond yields are a more accurate forecaster of the road ahead than the optimistic equity market.
Added together, Parker still holds a generally bullish case for the market, stated with a contrarian twist:
The positives are this: No one is articulating a bull case for U.S. equities with conviction. Earnings expectations are potentially low.There is some fiscal stimulus this year (vs. drag previous years). The presidential candidates don’t appear to be multiple expanders now, but they will get more centrist and the riffraff will be removed in a few more weeks. Sentiment is low (two weeks ago an investor on a panel we moderated said, “It is a multi-variable world and every variable is negative”.) The U.S. probably looks relatively better than other parts of the world. So maybe, the bull case is just that no one can articulate a bull case.
From a strategic standpoint, Parker said the firm is “a bit more nervous than we were last year.”
That translates to overweighting health care and utilities, staying underweight energy and cutting discretionary. Morgan Stanley also is cutting its position in American Express and Hewlett-Packard and upping its stake in Apple, among other moves.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/16/morgan-s … ndous.html
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BACKDOC: THERE MAY BE MORE TO THIS STORY IN THE FUTURE! (see article below)
TOO BIG TO FAIL MAY BE BROKEN UP INTENTIONALLY TO SPREAD THE TOXIC DEBT AROUND SO THAT IT PREVENTS A COMPLETE SYTEM BREAKDOWN!
WE WILL KEEP OUR EYES ON THIS PROCESS! DOC IMO
Blinkster: That is along the lines of what I’m thinking, BackDoc. How on earth can just breaking up “too big to fail” banks solve any toxic financial problems (ie derivatives) that they already are infected with…unless, somehow, they can muddy the waters a bit by somehow spreading the infection around? How to get unencumbered banks to take on some of this negativity, or at least somehow to be burdened with it (let’s share the problem, shall we??) is a big unknown at this time…
Dnari131: yep and sometimes the dam just breaks in a Blink..
Thunderhawk: Backdoc Alert
Fed’s Kashkari, in first speech, suggests radical Wall St. overhaul
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s newest policymaker and a former point man for the government’s bailout of the financial industry on Tuesday called on lawmakers to take radical action to rein in banks and protect taxpayers.
In his first speech as head of the Minneapolis Fed, Neel Kashkari, a Goldman Sachs executive before he worked at the U.S. Treasury, urged Congress to consider “bold, transformational” rules including the breaking up of the nation’s largest banks to avoid bailouts.
Kashkari indicated that his work at Treasury, where he managed a key part of the banking and auto industry bailouts during the financial crisis of 2007-2009, helped inform his current view.
A set of regulations introduced since the crisis, known as Dodd-Frank, did not go far enough, he said in prepared remarks that straddled the line between the Fed’s policymaking remit and political advocacy.
“Now is the right time for Congress to consider going further than Dodd-Frank with bold, transformational solutions to solve this problem once and for all,” Kashkari said, arguing that the biggest banks are still too big to fail and continue to pose a significant, ongoing risk to the U.S. economy.
He urged lawmakers to consider breaking up large banks into “smaller, less connected, less important entities” and took a swipe at existing rules for winding down failing banks should they run into difficulty amid a weak global economy.
“I am far more skeptical that these tools will be useful,” Kashkari said, adding that “we won’t see the next crisis coming.”
He said Congress should consider compelling banks to hold so much capital that they “virtually can’t fail,” in effect treating them like public utilities.
Speaking after his address, Kashkari said global economic and financial developments would be an “important” input when the Federal Reserve next meets on March 15-16.
He hewed closely to the Fed’s January statement, saying he sees moderate growth and a gradual increase in interest rates. He declined to specify how many rate hikes there might be this year.
Kashkari added he does not expect negative rates will be needed in the United States but it was something the central bank could use if deemed necessary.
Financial markets have plunged amid slowing global growth and several central banks are using negative interest rates to avoid deflation and stimulate economic activity.
Kashkari took the helm of the Fed’s smallest regional bank last month, two weeks after the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in a decade.
He does not have a vote on the Fed’s rate-setting committee until 2017 under its rotation system, but participates in deliberations.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-f … SKCN0VP1Y4
Mountainman: ???……Is it “TIME” to MOVE the GLOBAL OIL Budgets FORWARD…..As Negotiations UNVEIL and NEW CONTRACTS “Expose”….. IRAQ/IRAN to Re-ENTER the GLOBAL STAGE w/Their “NEW VALUES” ???…..Many other Countries have Agreed to Halt Production as WELL=ALL PUMPS are “PRIMED for TIME”!!!!!!!!…..IMO Blessings,Mountainman
BACKDOC: IRAQ HAS THE SPIRIT OF COOPERATION, AND IS READY AND WILLING BUT IRAN IS SEEMS TO BE A HOLD OUT SO NOTHING WILL HAPPEN UNTIL THERE MAY BE SERIOUS PAIN IN THE MARKETS!
WITH A 3 TO 7 DOLLAR EXTRACTION COST , IRAN AND IRAQ HAVE A MAJOR ADVANTAGE OVER OTHER COUNTRIES! LOWEST EXTRACTION COSTS WIN! DOC IMO
Thunderhawk: Backdoc Alert
Iraq ready to freeze oil output at January levels pending deal – source
Iraq is ready to commit to freezing its oil production at January levels if a deal is reached among OPEC and non-OPEC countries, an Iraqi oil ministry source said on Tuesday.
“Iraq is with any decision that contributes to propping up oil prices,” the source said.
Top oil exporters Russia and Saudi Arabia have agreed to freeze output levels but said the deal was contingent on other producers joining in – a major sticking point with Iran absent from the talks and determined to raise production.
The Saudi, Russian, Qatari and Venezuelan oil ministers announced the proposal after a previously undisclosed meeting in Doha. It could become the first joint OPEC and non-OPEC deal in 15 years, aimed at tackling a growing oversupply of crude and helping prices recover from their lowest in over a decade.
Iraq’s oil ministry said on Tuesday production hit a record high in January, with crude output from all the country’s fields, including those controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), averaging 4.775 million barrels per day (bpd).
It said earlier in the month that production from southern fields, excluding KRG-controlled fields, had dropped to 3.9 million bpd in January from 4.13 million bpd the previous month, itself a record high for the southern fields alone.
The KRG does not disclose production figures for fields in the autonomous northern region and the disputed Kirkuk field, which is operated by Iraq’s state-run North Oil Co but has been under Kurdish control since June 2014. It has said exports via pipeline to Turkey rose to an average of 601,811 bpd in January.
Exports via the pipeline increased steadily last year as the Kurds cut allocations to Iraq’s state oil marketing firm SOMO from June, ramping up their own independent crude sales in an effort to tackle an acute economic crisis.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday suggested a deal on sharing oil and revenues between Baghdad and Erbil could be revived if the KRG stopped selling oil independently.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq- … SKCN0VP1R8
Mountainman: As BAD as it APPEARS and Yet…..THINGS aren’t ALWAYS as THEY APPEAR……..”HOLD Em”…….. CHINA says THINGS are About to CHANGE….IMO!!!
Thunderhawk: Yuan Heads for Biggest Two-Day Drop in a Month as PBOC Cuts Fix
The yuan headed for the biggest two-day decline in more than a month as the central bank’s fixing for the currency tracked an overnight advance in the dollar and official media voiced concern that capital outflows will increase.
Yuan depreciation expectations will accelerate outflows this year, a researcher with the State Information Center wrote in the Shanghai Securities News. This will constrain the use of monetary tools such as cuts to interest rates and bank reserve-requirement ratios, the researcher said. China’s foreign-exchange reserves shrank by $99.5 billion in January, the second-biggest decline on record.
The yuan fell 0.12 percent to to 6.5259 against the greenback as of 10:38 a.m. in Shanghai on Wednesday, according to China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices. That takes its decline for the past two days to 0.5 percent, the most since Jan. 8. The People’s Bank of China cut its reference rate by 0.16 percent to a one-month low of 6.5237, surprising some analysts who had forecast smaller moves ahead of a Group of 20 meeting next week. A gauge of the dollar rose 0.18 percent overnight.
Stability Expectation
“The reference rate was weaker than expected,” said Irene Cheung, a foreign-exchange strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., who had predicted a level between 6.51 and 6.52. “But this doesn’t indicate policy makers will push the yuan lower, as they’ll try to stabilize it before the G-20 meeting. Also, sentiment has improved lately as investors are looking forward to new reforms and policies to be announced during the National People’s Congress.”
Government officials and business leaders will gather in Beijing for the annual NPC in early March, where delegates will sign off on a new five-year economic plan. China can keep the yuan’s exchange rate basically stable, a spokesman for the National Development and Reform Commission said at a briefing on Wednesday.
China’s broadest measure of new credit surged to a record in January as a seasonal lending binge coincided with a recovery in property prices, and as companies paid back foreign currency loans amid yuan weakness.
Credit Surge
The data raise expectations of a repeat of the first quarter of 2009, when the PBOC opened the credit spigot for a $4 trillion yuan fiscal package to fend off the global financial crisis, Tim Condon, head of Asian research at ING Groep NV in Singapore, wrote in a note Wednesday. Such levels of credit expansion would intensify pressure for the yuan to decline further, and China will likely cut benchmark interest rates by 50 basis points by mid-year, he said.
The offshore yuan traded in Hong Kong fell 0.15 percent to 6.5292 a dollar, or about 0.05 percent weaker than the rate in Shanghai, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. The currency swung to a 1 percent premium last week, when onshore Chinese markets were shut for the Lunar New Year holidays.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ … c-cuts-fix
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Thunderhawk: Tehran to host tripartite meeting of Iran, Iraq, Venezuela oil ministers
Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh said on Tuesday that he will be hosting a tripartite ministerial meeting to be participated by his Iraqi and Venezuelan counterparts on Wednesday
‘Iraqi Oil Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino are scheduled to arrive here for a tri-partite meeting on Wednesday,’ Zangeneh said.
‘What is important is that, first, the market is oversupplied, and, second, Iran will not give up its quota,’ he was quoted as saying by Shana news agency after a meeting with the visiting Georgian Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze.
Asked to comment on the joint meeting of Russian, Venezuelan, Qatari, and Saudi oil ministers in Doha on Tuesday, Zangeneh said he was not communicated with the outcome of the meeting.
‘According to reports about the meeting which I am still not informed about its final results, there were talks over stabilizing the production quota,’ the minister said.
‘It requires discussion and examination to be seen what has been their point.’
http://www3.irna.ir/en/News/81966996/
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Mountainman: I Personally Think there is “MORE” to this COLLABORATION on “OIL”…….This SEEMS to be A MEASURED CALCULATION Of FOREGONE “PRICES” set for A TIMED PURPOSE…..Just My Opinion here……A COLLECTIVE IDEAL for MANY!!!!!!!!…..??? How Else are “THEY” to INDIRECTLY let the WORLD Know The PETRO DOLLAR has CHANGED for A “CHANGE”!!!!!!!!
Thunderhawk: Asian energy firms dip after oil deal, eyes on Iran-Iraq talks
HONG KONG (AFP) – Energy firms retreated in Asia Wednesday after an oil output freeze by Saudi Arabia and Russia disappointed investors, but crude prices rebounded ahead of a meeting between producer giants Iran and Iraq.
The commodity had enjoyed a surge from Friday to early Tuesday as Moscow and Riyadh — the world s two biggest producers — prepared for talks on a rout that has seen the cost of a barrel collapse and hammered global markets.
But the conditional agreement between Saudi Arabia — the de facto leader of OPEC — Russia, Venezuela and Qatar to freeze output at record January levels, rather than make cuts, left a bad taste in the mouths of traders, sending both main contracts into reverse.
“The market was expecting a little more — cuts to production, for example, and it s undeniable that investors aren t fully satisfied with the pledge,” said Chihiro Ohta, general manager of investment information at SMBC Nikko Securities.
Eyes are now on historic rivals Iran and Iraq, both OPEC members, to see if they can reach an agreement that would help ease a crippling global supply glut.
“Iraq and Iran are the two countries that are going to contribute to growth from the OPEC nations this year,” Richard Gorry, managing director at JBC Energy Asia in Singapore, told Bloomberg Television.
“Getting an agreement from these is going to be very difficult, particularly in the case of Iran,” he added, referring to the fact the country has only just started exporting after Western nuclear-linked sanctions were lifted.
In early trade, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 1.1 percent and Brent 1.6 percent.
But after a recent rally, energy firms were in retreat. Hong Kong-listed CNOOC fell two percent and PetroChina was more than two percent off, while in Sydney Woodside Petroleum lost 6.5 percent and Rio Tinto was one percent lower.
http://dunyanews.tv/en/Business/323211- … yes-on-Ira
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BACKDOC: THERE ARE SO MANY GLOBAL MELTDOWN TRIGGERS THAT COULD SURPRISE AT ANY MOMENT BUT CHINA’S BUSINESS DEBT IS CERTAINLY ONE OF THEM!
CHINA HOLDS THE LARGEST BUSINESS DEBT IN THE WORLD AND AN UNWIND IS IN THE CARDS! JUST LIKE IN THE U.K., THEY WILL LIKELY HAVE SOME BANK FAILURES! DOC IMO
Thunderhawk: Backdoc Alert China’s Subprime Crisis Is Here
Sorry, Kyle Bass, you’re a bit late to the game. The debt problem in China has already reached the proportions of the U.S. subprime mortgage debacle. Don’t worry, though: Chinese authorities are on the case — discussing reducing the required coverage for bad loans so that banks can keep booking profits and lending.Including “special-mention” loans, which are those showing signs of future repayment risk, the industry’s total troubled advances swelled to 4.2 trillion yuan ($645 billion) as of December, representing 5.46 percent of total lending. That number is already higher than the $600 billion total subprime mortgages in the U.S. as of 2006, just before that asset class toppled the world into the worst financial crisis since 1929.
The amount of loans classed as nonperforming at Chinese commercial banks jumped 51 percent from a year earlier to 1.27 trillion yuan by December, the highest level since June 2006, data from the China Banking Regulatory Commission showed on Monday. The ratio of soured debt climbed to 1.67 percent from 1.25 percent, while the industry’s bad-loan coverage ratio, a measure of its ability to absorb potential losses, weakened to 181 percent from more than 200 percent a year earlier. The news looks to have scared Chinese authorities into reacting. Note that they aren’t curbing the ability of Chinese banks to lend or asking them to write off bad credit. Instead they’re considering putting aside checks already in place that are aimed at ensuring the health of the financial system: by reducing the ratio of provisions that banks must set aside for bad debt, currently set at a minimum 150 percent, as Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
GROWTH CONTROL
Perhaps, they’re hoping banks will lend even more if they ease the rules. That’s one way to keep the ratio of nonperforming loans under control. As the denominator increases the ratio remains steady or even drops. The absolute number of bad loans, however, keeps swelling. Guess what? Banks are lending more. China’s new yuan loans jumped to a record 2.51 trillion yuan in January, the People’s Bank of China reported on Tuesday, way above the 1.9 trillion yuan median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Aggregate financing, the broadest measure of new credit, also rose to a record, at 3.42 trillion yuan.China’s bad loans have grown 256 percent in six years even as their ratio to total lending dropped. The true amount of debt that isn’t being repaid is open for debate. One example of how the data can be distorted: Banks are making increasing use of their more opaque receivables accounts to mask loans and potential losses, as Bloomberg News reports today. Still, adding special-mention loans to those classed as nonperforming gives some measure of the size of the bad-debt problem. Unfortunately, the CBRC started to publish special-mention loan numbers only last year, so it’s hard to put them in historical context.
OPEN POCKETBOOK
The dynamic is clear. A splurge of new lending can help to dilute existing bad loans, but only at a cost. This is a game that can’t continue forever, particularly if credit is being foisted on to an already over-leveraged and slowing economy. At some point, the music will stop and there will have to be a reckoning. The longer China postpones that, the harder it will be.
http://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/article … ready-here
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Mountainman: Well It APPEARS VIETNAM is Creating A FLEXIBLE and USER Friendly Economic ENVIRONMENT w/TPP to DRAW in “TOOLS” for Foreign Investors in this COMPETITIVE MARKET…….WINE and DINE em…….IMO…….*NOTE*……IMO “TREMENDOUS” PROFIT will come as THE CHAINS COME OFF them in The NEW GLOBAL REALITY……That is WHY??? USA chose Them!!!!
Thunderhawk: Vietnam’s stock market more open to TPP
With 12 member countries joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has officially put pen to paper on this text, Vietnam stock market will further open the door wider and deeper integration with the world.
According to the Finance Ministry, compared with WTO commitments, Vietnam committed to open some type of additional new services to create market access opportunities for foreign service providers such as national treatment for for service providers of foreign securities for some services, such as financial data processing across the border; consulting services and ancillary services relating to cross-border transactions or proprietary trading account clients’ accounts; Opening management services portfolio across the border …
TPP also allows countries to apply exceptions needed, creating policy space, including precautionary measures, measures to protect national security; exchange rate policy, the currency in order to ensure a stable investment environment and safety.
Many such new commitments in the field of securities are expected not only to promote investment opportunities, helping Vietnam stock market to attract foreign capital flows better, but also contributes to enhanced dynamics of product quality, securities services.
http://www.tin247.com/ttck_viet_nam_the … 10073.html
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Mountainman: Here we see EVERYTHING from Tourism,FOOD,and INSURANCE INSTRUMENTS to be sold at BANKS……TPP/Bilateral Relations will OPEN and CLOSE Many Doors it just Depends How A COMPANY is Able to COMPETE or NOT in “THE NEW ENVIRONMENT” MONEY will be Made on MANY NEW FRONTS as You can See!!!…..IMO Blessings,Mountainman
Thunderhawk: US, VN firms sign investment deals
Vietnamese corporations on Monday (United States time) inked several investment and business co-operation deals with American firms on the sidelines of the ongoing ASEAN-United States summit in Sunnylands, California.
The signing of the deals took place in the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
The Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) signed an agreement with BIDV Metlife Life Insurance Limited Liability Company, a joint venture between the United States-based Metlife and BIDV, on expanding the life insurance business in Viet Nam.
Accordingly, the two sides will exchange information and experience as well as introduce opportunities in finance and life insurance to each other. Additionally, BIDV Metlife will help BIDV develop Bancassurance, an insurance product sold at banks, and several all-in personal financial services.
During the signing ceremony, Viet Nam’s Bien Dong Seafood, Co. Ltd also signed contracts for the supply and development of fishery products with the American H2Origins Seafood Inc firm.
Bien Dong Seafood and H2Origins Seafood will work together to increase seafood sales in the American market to more than US$300 million over the next three years. They also aim to boost their market share to more than 40 per cent by sharing market intelligence and developing new high-quality seafood products for the United States market.
Another deal was signed between the Thai Group and Hyatt Hotel Corporation about developing the Park Hyatt brand in Viet Nam. The Thai Group and Chicago-based Hyatt agreed to build a $165-million Park Hyatt hotel in Ha Noi. The 300-room luxury hotel is expected to be completed in 2018.
http://vietnamnews.vn/economy/282407/us … deals.html
Mountainman: In Other WORDS……This Is The USA’S 1st Round #1 DRAFT PICK…….Our CASH COW!!!……Mooooooooo!!!!!!!!…..IMO……
BTW……..VIETNAM we have been ANTICIPATING Your ACCEPTANCE w/Our GLOBAL TEAM for A “LONG TIME”!!!!!!!…..LOL
Thunderhawk: US becomes Viet Nam’s top trade partner ahead of TPP
The US has become Viet Nam’s leading trade and investment partner, which has been reflected through impressive trade values between the two countries over recent years.
Bilateral trade has expanded from zero since the day Viet Nam and the US normalised their diplomatic ties 20 years ago to US$36.3 billion in 2014. The figure is expected to hit $40 billion in 2015.
According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, among the free trade agreements Viet Nam has engaged in, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement is expected to afford favourable conditions for Vietnamese exports.
Nguyen Duy Khien, head of the American Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), said Viet Nam shipped $30.6 billion worth of goods to the US in 2014, up 24 per cent against the previous year.
According to the MoIT, Viet Nam began to access the US market in 1995. Viet Nam’s export turnover to the country reached $800 million in 2000 – the year the Viet Nam-US Bilateral Trade Agreement was signed.
The US has become Viet Nam’s largest importer, purchasing garments, electronic products, footwear, rice and fish from the Southeast Asian nation.
In the sphere of investment, the US ranked seventh among the countries and territories investing in Viet Nam with a total direct investment of $10.7 billion by June this year.
Vu Duc Giang, President of the Viet Nam Textile and Apparel Association, said Viet Nam was the world’s fifth largest garment-textile exporter, and the US remained the country’s top market in this field.
However, the garment-textile and footwear sectors are forecast to face difficulties as a result of Viet Nam’s TPP membership as the US has initiated the “yarn forward” rule of origin.
In order to benefit from tax breaks, Vietnamese companies must use materials imported from other TPP members, Giang said, noting this would be a real challenge for Vietnamese businesses when up to 70 percent of materials they are currently using are purchased from foreign countries, mainly China – a non-TPP member.
Deputy Minister Tran Tuan Anh said the TPP would be an impulse for Viet Nam’s economy to gear towards comprehensive renovation, a higher competitive edge and a better business environment.
Anticipating opportunities afforded by the TPP, lots of US businesses have suggested expanding footwear orders with Viet Nam, while many others have invested in weaving and dyeing projects in the country.
The trend sparks the hope that the TPP will continue creating a momentum for the two countries’ relationship, he said.
Economists also stressed the need to provide more information about the two countries’ markets and conduct trade promotion activities such as exhibitions, workshops and market surveys.
The US now has more than 720 valid projects in Viet Nam. In the first quarter of 2015, US investors poured nearly $68 million into eight new projects in the country.
http://vietnamnews.vn/economy/282356/us … f-tpp.html
