Director’s S.E. Asia visit

24 June, 2009

Markstone Group director Doug Townsend has returned from a successful trip to south-east Asia.

Mr Townsend visited Vietnam and Hong Kong in a whirlwind trip filled with back to back meetings with diplomats and company chiefs.

In Vietnam, meetings with a number of key people were held to explore the opportunity of selling energy related products into the country.

“Huge demand exists in Vietnam driven by two major factors – large population growth (1 million people per year – and the country become more open to the west and causing electricity needs to climb,” Mr Townsend said.

A meeting with the chairman of EVN, the State owned electricity network, indicated that from 2035 Vietnam would experience a shortfall of up to 250m tpa of thermal coal.

“Vietnam has long been the little brother to China which is taking a strategic thermal coal position to meet its own needs making it difficult for Vietnam to compete,” Mr Townsend said.

“Vietnam is a great country with easy people to deal with if you have the right gateway into the well connected business community.
“As a Vietnamese ex pat living in Melbourne, our partner Albert Huynh has provided a link between the two countries which has already proven critically important in getting deals done.”

The Hong Kong leg of the trip was to meet with a number of businessmen to explore energy trade opportunities into both China and Taiwan.
Mr Townsend will travel to Ho Chi Minh later this year to follow up business opportunities identified during this trip.