Under a restructuring scheme for the banking system from 2011 to 2015, the number of commercial banks cut from 42 to 34. Besides restructuring 10 banks through mergers, the central bank dealt with three ailing banks – Ocean Bank, Vietnam Construction Bank (VNCB) and Global Petroleum Bank (GPBank) – by acquiring them at zero dong.

With the acquisition, the SBV currently holds stakes in eight banks, instead of five it held before 2011. Total charter capital owned by the SBV in the eight commercial banks by the end of last year increased 1.7 times to more than VND113 trillion (US$5.15 billion). The figure is equal to roughly 37 per cent of total charter capital of 34 commercial banks in Vietnam.

Thanh said that transparency in the banking system has improved significantly in the past four years. Cross ownership at banks has been put under control and liquidity of the banking system has been secured.

However, Thanh required banks to take more drastic measures this year to enhance their financial and governance status to meet the rising demands.

He said that the central bank this year would also continue to ramp up the merger and acquisition of ailing credit institutions with priority given to those which are done voluntarily. If the institutions did not approach voluntarily, the central bank would intervene.

Most of the products exported were wood products from industrial tree plantations, along with Job’s tear, sweetcorn, rubber, fruit, handicrafts and non-timber forest products.

To reach their target, the department will focus on SME development, especially technology improvements to increase efficiency for exports, as well as providing better facilities for freight movement.

The province will also focus on commercial promotion, marketing and regulatory awareness-raising for businesses as well as backing border trading, in order to link with regional and international markets.

The department will take more responsibility in preventing illegal trading and work at assisting employee skill development.

As the sector continues to expand, the department plans to increase cooperation with development partners to encourage more investors and seek new markets.

Trading cooperation between Laos and other countries continues to increase, especially between Laos and China which reached almost US$22 million last year and more than US$2 million between Laos and Vietnam.

However, imports also increased by about 300 per cent to supply the growing number of construction projects.

Most imported products are construction and electronic equipment as well as food and beverages and household equipment.

MAA forecast Malaysia’s total industry’s volume to drop by 2.5 per cent to 650,000 units in 2016 against last year.

The automotive industry has been growing for six consecutive years since 2010, peaking at a new all time total industry volume (TIV) high of 666,674 units last year, albeit at a marginal increase of 0.03 per cent against 2014.

MAA president Datuk Aishah Ahmad explained that its members forecast a less robust year for 2016 mainly due to the subdued global economic growth, uncertainties over the fall in crude oil price and the slowdown in China’s gross domestic products.

“Malaysia’s economy too is expected to expand at a slower pace of 4 per cent to 5 per cent this year and the ringgit will continue to impact business confidence and consumer sentiment.

“The persistent weak ringgit will continue to affect business confidence and consumer sentiment,” she said in a press briefing yesterday.

Another factor would be the tighter lending guidelines including for hire purchase loans but the authorities to rein in household debts.

“We hope that banks will look into a leaner hire purchase loan guidelines. As of now most banks have shortened the hire purchase repayment period up to maximum of seven years from the previous nine years.

“This is expected to have an impact on the lower income group buying power. Inevitable and expected price increase will also be a factor.

“But, some sub-segments of the private vehicles sales such as pick-up trucks, sport utility vehicles and luxury cars are expected to withstand the choppy waters ahead,” she said. Out of the projected TIV of 650,000 units, the MAA expected 575,250 to be passenger vehicles and the remaining 74,750 commercial vehicles.

This was in contrast with last year’s 666,675 units, of which 591,298 were passenger vehicles and the remaining 75,376 were commercial vehicles.

Aishah said 2015’s TIV growth was attributed to factors like stable economy and employment rate, sales increase in the fourth quarter, following normalisation in the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, aggressive sales campaign, new offers and schemes for car buyers and introduction of new models.

National brandnames Perodua and Proton still conquered the two biggest chunks of market share at 32 per cent with 213, 307 units and 15.3 per cent with 102, 175 units respectively last year.

Honda was the top non-national brand at 14.2 per cent or 94,902 units, Toyota was a close 14.1 per cent at 93,760 units (of which 65,295 were passenger vehicles and the remaining 28,465 were commercial vehicles).

In third spot for non-national brands, Nissan was third with 7.1 per cent at 47,235 vehicles of which 41,941 were passenger vehicles and the rest of 5,294 commercial vehicles.

“We are praying for 2017 to be a better year,” she said.

For 2017, the MAA expects sales to rise 3 per cent to 669,500 from this year. TIV for 2018, it estimates TIV to rise 2.5 per cent on-year to 686,200 and for 2019 (702,000) and in 2020 (717,444).

According to 2015 market review, Perodua was the top seller with a share of 36.1 per cent when it sold 213,307 passenger vehicles followed by Proton with a market share of 15.3 per cent or 102,175 units. On the effects of the Transpacific Partnership Aggreement (TTPA) on the industry, Aishah did not expect many benefits except for those sourcing out from North America, Mexico and Canada to explore these new markets.

Speaking to reporters after its 54th AGM on Thursday, the group CEO Lim Yew Hoe said the investment in the new line in Shah Alam was necessary to meet growing demand for its ready-to-drink beverages.

The new line, he said, would be operational by June this year, and would boost its production of bottles by 40 per cent a year, and would be in time to meet additional demand during Hari Raya.

“Despite the challenging market conditions, and less than favourable forecasts, we are taking the contrarian view and see this as an opportune time to invest in expanding our operations and capacity.

“In fact, the economic slowdown offers us a window of opportunity to get the best deals from suppliers, especially those from Europe and Asia, whose economies are also down,” he said.

While the oil price has reached $27 per barrel, production costs in the Pertamina West Madura Onshore (WMO) project and Pertamina Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) project were at least at $30 per barrel, Pertamina CEO Dwi Sucipto said.

“Pertamina currently invests $3 billion to $4 billion per year in upstream projects. However, we will not cut investment as it is related to infrastructure. Therefore, we will try to cut employment costs,” he said on Wednesday in Jakarta.

The state-owned oil and gas producer was considering whether to cut staff numbers or cut employee spending. “Let’s hope Pertamina’s staff agree to have their salaries reduced. We need to reassess the policy regarding bonuses, as well as the yearly salary increases,” Dwi said.

Moreover, he added, Pertamina planned to conduct a “cross subsidy” from its downstream unit to the upstream one, because the company had successfully cut costs on the downstream side.

Pertamina has changed its trading supply chain from Petral to Integrated Supply Chain (ISC), which led to a $179.4 million efficiency, bought oil in a bigger capacity which saved $90 million, and prevented fraud in its oil shipments by implementing tighter controls, saving around $255 million.

“The normal oil loss during shipments, caused by technical factors such as oil evaporation, is just 0.2 percent. However, Pertamina’s level was so high, at 0.4 percent, that we implemented tight supervision on the ship and then managed to save a significant amount,” Dwi said.

Foreign investment amounted to US$5.2 billion last year, which is a 58 per cent increase compared to five years ago. Currently the province has 160 investment projects from more than 20 countries.

Numerous modern industrial factories have set up in the Savan-Seno special economic zone, Dansavan border area and outside the special zone. These are involved in manufacturing: Japanese camera parts, French sunglasses, Korea vehicles, Toyota spare parts, aviation spare parts, telecommunication equipment, and other vital products.

Freight and passenger vehicles crossing Savannakhet-Mukdahan Friendship Bridge and Dansavan border (Lao-Viet) increased from 77,800 vehicles in 2006 to 216,700 vehicles in 2015.

The value of imports and exports at the Savannakhet-Mukdahan Friendship Bridge reached US$1.341 billion last year while the number of tourists increased from 435,900 in 2006 to about 1 million in 2015.

Exports for the five years (2011 to 2015) reached US$3.6 billion, and imports US$1.2 billion, while revenue collection was over the plan each year by about 18 per cent to 20 per cent.

The electricity grid has gradually been developed to provide sufficient supply for industrial needs and to expand into remote areas, with over 80 per cent of villages presently being able to access electricity covering 87.8 per cent of all households.

With socio-economic development growth, poverty has been reduced. Presently, throughout the province there are only 149 poor villages, which is about 14.6 per cent of the total.

There are 8,633 poor households or 5.3per cent of the province’s total with only the districts of Xepon and Nong identified as poor.

The governor added that implementing east-west economic corridor integration still faced challenges that needed to be continuously addressed, such as socio-economic infrastructure, the lack of financial resources, technology, labour force issues, the competitive abilities of businesses, and the quality of management.

For the next five year plan, the province will focus on resolving issues to ensure better results based on the government’s directions.