Tag: Vinalines

Vietnam National Shipping Lines Corporation (Vinalines) expressed its interest on joining the Global Shipping Alliances (GSA). Specifically, the company will improve its competitiveness by tending its focus on three vital sectors: the development of its port management, shipping, and the maritime services.

Vietnam’s largest stat run shipping company and port operator, Vinalines, announced a new date to launch its initial public offering, which will be in mid-2018. Vinalines will now be private, but the Vietnamese government will retain a 65%, with the rest planned to be sold to local and foreign investors.

Five arrested in Vietnam shipping scandal

Shipping line Vinalines Shipping line Vinalines once symbolized the postwar promise of Vietnam when it began jockeying for global trade after the United States lifted sanctions on its former enemy in 1994.Today, it represents all that has gone wrong since then: a bloated behemoth with 18,000 workers, a fleet of loss-making ships and $2.1 billion in debt. In recent weeks, two senior executives have been arrested, its former chairman is on the run, and the firm has become a byword for mismanagement.Vinalines and other debt-ridden state companies are turning into a big test of the government's graft-fighting credentials and whether Communist-run Vietnam is likelier to reclaim its status as a star among emerging markets or sink deeper into an economic malaise rooted in a state sector plagued by red ink and cronyism."These companies have operated in secrecy for too long but that must come to an end," said Jonathan Pincus, dean of the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program in Ho Chi Minh City and a former Vietnam economic specialist at the United Nations.It adds to a catalogue of problems that have overshadowed Vietnam's promise - bureaucracy, creaking infrastructure, a debilitating trade deficit and, until recently, spiraling inflation and a stumbling currency.State ...

The Ministry of Public Security has announced the results of initial investigations on the case of misappropriating public property and intentionally violating State regulations on economic management that caused severe consequences at Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines).Colonel Tran Duy Thanh, Head of the police agency in charge of criminal investigation and corruption prevention, C48, said in Hanoi on May 22 that the ministry's Investigation Police Agency on May 19 issued a special warrant for Duong Chi Dung, Head of the Vietnam Maritime Administration, the former Vinalines Chairman.The investigation agency concluded that the Vinalines leaders intentionally decided to purchase floating dock No83M at a cost of over US$14 million and build a VND6.5 trillion (US$309 million) ship repair factory in southern Vietnam, when these projects were yet to be included in Transport Ministry planning or submitted to the Government for consideration.The total expense for the purchase, transport and repair of the floating dock and bank loan interests reached VND480 billion (US$22.8 million). Based on investigation results, the Investigation Police Agency has decided to add a crime of intentionally violating State regulations on economic management that causes serious consequences and lodged legal proceedings against those charged with this crime.The agency has ordered ...

Former chairman of Vinalines, who is being sought for investigations into financial mismanagement Vietnamese police are searching for a former senior executive of the Vietnam National Shipping Lines, or Vinalines,one of the people being probed foralleged financial mismanagementof the state-owned shipping company.Police said they could not find Duong Chi Dung, former chairman of the shipper, when they sought to arrest him on Friday.He was neither at his residence nor his office, they said. They officially announced a manhunt for him on Saturday.The International Criminal Police Organization, often known as Interpol,said it has not been informed of the search.Dung, 55, is currently director of the Vietnam Maritime Administration. He took the position in February, after seven years of working at Vinalines.He has been suspended from the current position since last week.Two other Vinalines executives - Mai Van Phuc, former general director, and Tran Huu Chieu, former deputy general director - were detained Friday, also for economic management violations.The government launched the investigation into Vinalines after state inspectors found many wrongdoings at the company during the2007- 2010 period, including buying old ships and using them inefficiently.Vinalines executives have also been accused of making poor investments, allowing the shipping company to establish real ...

Payment delayed and their wages are not enough for them to make ends meet Living on the ill-fated vessels held by Vinalines are the crewmen who lead tough lives since their wages are not enough for them to make ends meet.The US$19.2-million Song Gianh vessel that has been docked in the MAR2 area on the Saigon River for four years has become known by locals and crew members as "Song Gianh pagoda," as there is a Vietnamese proverb that goes "as desolated as Ba Danh pagoda."All of the crew members say they are totally fed up with the boring life on the almost-dead ship, which is always full of mosquitoes even during the day.Crewmen have taken turns living on and taking care of the ship for a few years, they said.Song Gianh ship. Photo: Tuoi TreThere are currently five men on the vessel, including a captain, a vice-captain, and three crewmen."Our job is to protect the ship from robbers and harsh weather, and take care of the anchor," said captain Doan Ngoc Bach, who has been taking the helm of many huge vessels since 1976.Despite his experience, Bach still had no choice but to accept to stand still on Song ...

Three more suspects arrested Vietnamese police have arrested three more suspects as part of a widening scandal in the country's shipping industry, an official said yesterday.The deputy director general of state-owned shipping giant Vinalines, 53-year-old Bui Quoc Anh, was detained on Friday for embezzlement along with two others including a state auditor, a company official said.Local media reports identified the third suspect as an executive at a subsidiary of Vinalines, which is the country's biggest sea shipping group, operating a fleet of oil tankers, container ships and other vessels.The arrests were based on investigations involving one of nine former top executives at scandal-tainted shipbuilder Vinashin jailed last month for intentionally violating state regulations, the official said.He gave no further details, but the official Thanh Nien newspaper reported yesterday that the three new suspects pocketed "billions of dong for personal gain" when buying a container ship.The scandal at Vinashin - which almost collapsed in 2010 under billions of US dollars of debt - sparked investor fears of wider problems at state-owned firms, a key pillar of Vietnam's economy.Former Vinashin chairman Pham Thanh Binh was last month jailed for 20 years, while eight other former executives at the shipbuilder were handed sentences ...