JULYASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8ADANI TARGETS PORT IN VIETNAM TO TAP TRADE OPPORTUNITIESITALY TO OFFER DEFUNCT AUTOMOTIVE BRANDS TO CHINESE COMPANIESBillionaire Gautam Adani plans to build a port in Vietnam as the Indian conglomerate seeks to develop infrastructure overseas to tap opportunities from increasing trade. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone has secured an "in-principle approval from the Vietnamese government" for a greenfield development in Da Nang, Karan Adani, managing director of the company, said in an interview. This will be the fourth international port asset for the Adani group after Haifa in Israel, Colombo in Sri Lanka and the Port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. On Friday, Adani's new mega port in southern India saw the arrival of its maiden mother ship and the company wants to accelerate the expansion of the facility in a bid to grab a bigger share of the international maritime trade that's currently dominated by China."The idea is to make India a maritime hub," Karan, the elder son of Gautam Adani, said. "We are targeting countries that are high on manufacturing or high on population, which will lead to high consumption. We are focusing on export volumes in these countries."Adani Ports is the largest port operator in India. It gets about 5 percent of its total volume from international operations and wants to increase the ratio to 10 percent by 2030, Karan Adani said. The company is looking at opportunities in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, East Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Vietnam and Cambodia as these are regions where trade is coming to India, he said. Italy's government is considering taking control of the defunct auto brands Innocenti and Autobianchi, currently owned by Stellantis, and offering them to Chinese companies to encourage setting up factories in Italy, as reported by Il Sole 24 Ore on Friday.Innocenti, known in the 1960s and 1970s for producing an Italian version of the British Mini, and Autobianchi, which produced upscale city cars like the A112 and Y10, were both shut down in the 1990s. The Italian industry minister has registered new versions of these brands at the national patents and brands office, with graphics that are different from those registered by Stellantis.According to Il Sole, the government's move could be facilitated by a law passed in December, along with a draft implementing decree currently under examination by the Court of Auditors, which allows the appropriation of brands unused for at least five years. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's nationalist government has had ongoing disputes with Stellantis, accusing the automaker of neglecting its historical production sites in Italy. The government is in discussions with Stellantis to increase Italian production to 1 million vehicles annually and aims to attract a Chinese automaker to expand the domestic industry.Fiat, now part of Stellantis, unveiled its Serbian-made Panda model and celebrated its 125th anniversary at its historic headquarters in Turin. NEWSROOM
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