021017Intellasia Finance Vietnam - hkbav.org · Kien Giang moves to develop supporting industry 35...

2 October 2017

finance & business news

FINANCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Reference exchange rate goes down by 2 VND at week's

beginning 2HCM City credit growth reaches 13.5pct in 9 months 2Banks face charter capital difficulties 2Banks forecasted to have spectacular recovery in 2017 3Banking risks and the rule on 'no pocket' workwear 5Startup businesses still thirsty for capital 6Consumer finance market underdeveloped 7Vietnam Holding Limited adds VPB shares to its portfolio 7Singapore bank licensed to set up subsidiary 8Sacombank thrives in the reign of new chair 8HDBank wins Asiamoney award 9Sacombank additionally sells 2.580 trillion dong bad debts

to VAMC 10Sacombank Laos opens branch in Savannakhet province 10FE CREDIT a double winner at CEPI Asia Awards 11Lotte eyes Vietnamese credit card firm 11Ethnic women to access formal banking services 12OceanBank trials end in death sentence 13Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement ratification expedited 15GDP target achievable, but risks building 15Vietnam economy grows, boosted by exports 16Hanoi: Consumer price index rises over 3pct 17HCM City's CPI rises 0.9pct in September 17ADB applauds Vietnam on reducing deficit 18Hanoi on track to fulfil annual revenue target 19FDI grows 34pct from last year 19Vegetable, fruit exports estimated at 2.64 billion USD 20VN strives for chicken meat export to EU 20EU becomes Vietnam's top shrimp importer 21US approves star apple fruit imports from Vietnam 21VN to reach $70b trade with S Korea 22Vietnam, China seek measures to balance trade 23Trade defence investigations: Ministry discusses experiences 23Ministry relaxes requirements for strategic investors in

equitised SOEs 24Ministry's historic move eliminates hundreds of business

prerequisites 24PM holds policy dialogue with leading private firms 25Industry, trade ministry affirms no beer stamping policy 26Hai Phong attracts over $870 million of FDI in nine months 26VND94.5 trillion of capital pledged for Hau Giang 26HCM City industry parks need new plan 27Retail premises in HCM City's CBD in high demand 28Hai Phong infrastructure boom paves the way for stellar

rise in FDI ranks 29PM urges Hanoi to build green, smart city 30$1.87 billion projected for offshore fishing development 32High growth expected for VN's land lot segment 32Home sales slowdown in September in major cities 33

Hanoi retail sector rising with real estate 34Real estate developers in small provinces do big business 34Kien Giang moves to develop supporting industry 35Vietnamese, Thai firms seek to promote trade at business-

matching event 35BIZ NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Business Briefs 02 October, 2017 36HOSE stock rally triggers profit taking 37VN Index falls after late selling 38HNX raises over 4 trillion VND from government bonds in

September 39Which areas will strongly attract investment? 39Vinacomin divestment opens large opportunities for investors 40Close-up of PetroVietnam's three major IPOs in 2017 41Experts urge to follow market pricing in Sabeco 44Tool to enable construction sector approach industry 4.0 45Using smart phone in cultivating vegetables 45Leading telcos committed to 4G service expansion 46Purchasing power of apartment market in Hochiminh city

drops 25pct 47Housing market in western area of Hanoi in Q3 remains

attractive 47Local e-commerce sites win the hearts of Vietnam's shoppers 48More state-funded projects continue facing losses 49Forest brings higher income to farmers 49India to continue supporting Hanoi in IT training 50Chinese tourists top list of foreign visitors to Vietnam 50Expats get higher incomes in VietnamHSBC survey 51Saigontourist to build more boat stops for waterway tourism 51US$660 million needed to finance ring road project in HCM City 52Cat Linh-Hadong Metro Line unable to start test runs in October 53Vietnam faces shortage of Korean interpreters 53Vietnam suggests foundation of Apec women entrepreneurs'

network 54Bac Van Phong, no longer a sleeping beauty 55Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port needs changes 55Hanoi, Qatar Airways seek tourism development cooperation 56Air New Zealand continues seasonal flights to HCM City 56Airlines sell tickets for Tet flights! 57Details of Toyota recall programme announced 58RoK firm to build waste-to-energy plant in Hung Yen 58Novaland Group receives $40mn loan facility 58Tisco reaches agreement with Chinese contractor to resume

multimillion-dollar project 59Vietnam Airlines aims to transport 25 million passengers in 2018 60Hoa Binh Group conferred Labour Order 60Conference seeks ways to build sustainable rice production

chains 61'Vietnamese Dragon Fruit Day' goes vibrant in Australia 61Workshop in France spotlights Vietnam's economy 62

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Vietnam finance & business 2 October 2017

FINANCEReference exchange rate goes down by 2 VND at week's beginning

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

The State Bank of Vietnam set its reference VND/USD exchange rate at 22,468 VND/USD on October 2, down by 2 VND from the end of last week.With the current +/- 3 percent VND/USD trading band, the ceiling exchange rate is 23,141 VND per USD and the floor rate is 21,795 VND per USD.Major commercial banks made slight changes to their rates.Vietcombank kept its buying and selling rates unchanged from the end of last week at 22,690 VND and 22,760 VND, per USD.BIDV offered 22,695 VND (buying) and 22,765 VND (selling), per USD, up by 5 VND.Vietinbank set its buying rate at 22,690 VND per USD, up by 10 VND, and kept its sell-ing rate unchanged at 22,760 VND per USD.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/reference-exchange-rate-goes-down-by-2-vnd-at-weeks-beginning/118814.vnp

HCM City credit growth reaches 13.5pct in 9 months


Outstanding loans of commercial banks in HCM City in the first nine months of 2017 rose 13.5 percent against December last year to more than 1.67 quadrillion VND (73.57 billion USD), the city People's Committee report stated.Of the total, loans in dong accounted for 90.4 percent, equal to more than 1.5 quadril-lion VND, up 13.2 percent against December last year. Loans in foreign currencies made up 160 billion VND, up 15.4 percent.Non-performing loans accounted for 4 per cent of the city's total outstanding loans, down 0.04 percentage points against December last year.HCM City-based commercial banks during the period lent 152.77 trillion VND to 37,920 customers in the government's five prioritised industries of agricultural pro-duction, export business, production of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), supporting industry and high-tech production, of which loans to SMEs made up the highest proportion of 64.4 percent, or 98.44 trillion VND.The committee also reported that the banks mobilised 1.94 quadrillion VND in the first nine months, up 9.2 percent against December last year.Of the total capital, deposits in dong reached over 1.7 quadrillion VND, accounting for 87.9 percent and rising 9.6 percent against December last year.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hcm-city-credit-growth-reaches-135-percent-in-9-months/118748.vnp

Banks face charter capital difficulties

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

State-owned banks are finding it more difficult to increase charter capital, especially when they still have to pay dividends instead of keeping the money for this purpose.It is estimated that the State budget will get an additional nearly VND6.1 trillion (US$268.7 million) from the dividend payout of three State-owned banks VietinBank, Vietcombank and BIDV by the end of October this year.VietinBank on September 19 announced it will pay cash dividend to shareholders for 2016. The payment rate will be 7 per cent, meaning that for each share, shareholders will receive VND700 on one share holding. At this rate, the bank will pay dividend worth VND2.6 trillion for 3.72 billion shares held by the stakeholders.Of the total dividend, State capital representative State Bank of Vietnam, which holds 64.46 per cent of VietinBank's charter capital as of June 30, 2017, will receive VND1.68 trillion. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, VietinBank's strategic investor, will get VND514 billion, thanks to its ownership of 19.73 per cent of VietinBank's charter cap-ital.Previously, Vietcombank's board of directors also approved to make an 8 per cent div-idend payout on October 16. The bank will pay shareholders VND800 per share. With nearly 3.6 billion shares listed on the HCM Stock Exchange, the value of the dividend payout will reach nearly VND2.9 trillion.SBV is also the largest shareholder of Vietcombank, owning more than 2.77 billion

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shares, or 77.1 per cent of the bank's charter capital. The second-largest shareholder is Japanese Mizuho Bank Ltd, which owns nearly 540 million shares, or 15 per cent of the bank, while other shareholders own total 7.89 per cent of the bank's capital. Thus, the State will receive more than VND2.2 trillion from Vietcombank once the bank com-pletes its dividend payout while Mizuho Bank Ltd will collect VND431.7 billion.With these dividend payout plans, the three banks will contribute nearly VND6.1 tril-lion to the State budget this year. However, the banks will face difficulties as they can-not keep the money to increase charter capital to meet BASEL II standards as regulated by the central bank. According to statistics, the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of the three banks is at 9 per cent; however, the ratio will reduce to below 8 per cent if BASEL II is applied in the country by 2020.Besides, following the first half of this year, all three banks had total assets exceeding VND1 quadrillion. The rapid increase in assets means the banks have to increase own-ership equity quickly to ensure CAR does not fall below the safety margin.Therefore, if the group of banks fails to increase capital, it will result in a strong negative impact on the credit growth plan of the group as well as the credit expansion of the whole banking sector, according to an SBV official who declined to be named.In fact, the three banks have tried to increase capital in the past but failed. Vietcom-bank could not sell more than 7 per cent of its capital to foreign counterparts due to the high market prices, even as investors buying large lots always want cheap prices. BIDV also failed to find a partner to sell up to 30 per cent of its stake as scheduled while VietinBank has not yet completed its merger with PG Bank due to certain issues, in-cluding swap rates.This year, BIDV and Vietcombank also approved capital increasing plans of 13 per cent and 10 per cent to VND38.63 trillion and VND39.57 trillion, respectively, at their an-nual general meetings. However, so far, no further information on the issue has been published.According to experts, banks find it difficult to find additional capital sources, especial-ly in the context that foreign investors are not too keen on contributing capital to do business with Vietnamese banks as they can do business on their own in the form of branches or wholly-foreign owned subsidiaries. Besides this, the government is also urging State-owned groups and corporations to accelerate the withdrawal of capital from the banking sector. Therefore, banks will face more challenges to increase the capital as they still have to pay dividend.http://bizhub.vn/banking/banks-face-charter-capital-difficulties_289211.html

Banks forecasted to have spectacular recovery in 2017

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| DTCK

Commenting on the operational picture of the banking sector, Hoang Minh Hoan, SCB's finance director, shared that from June till now, the capital mobilisation between financial institutions and businesses, residential areas, including interbank market, has been relatively stable.Interbank interest rates have been maintained at 3.5 percent per annum in the past two months, which is quite low compared to the interest rate ceiling of five percent per an-num and the overnight interest rate of 1-2 percent per annum. Especially, state-owned banks have relatively large deposits of the State Treasury, and the system's liquidity support is abundant.Also as per Hoan, although the State Bank loosens credit room to 22 percent following the government's target, there has not had any sudden disbursement move from com-mercial banks, so the system's liquidity remains stable."As a rule, at the end of November and December, there often have slight fluctuations in exchange rates or interest rates. At the end of this year, interest rates and exchange rates may be a bit tense, but basically, I think that the system's business results will be good this year", Hoan said.An important factor that has a great impact on the profitability of banks in 2017 as em-phasized by Hoan is that bad debt has overcome the most difficult time as banks set aside large reserves after selling bad debt to the Vietnam Asset Management Company


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(VAMC) from 2013 to 2015."The risk provision for new bad debts is negligible, while old bad debt had been put for provision. The interest rates in the market are more stable, businesses are doing businesses better so the scale has slightly improved, resulting in improved system in-come. Meanwhile, provisioning costs decrease, making business results be more opti-mistic", analysed Hoan.Also related to the bad debt management of the banking sector, Aeron Batten, ADB economist has recently assessed that the National Assembly's resolution on bad debt resolution properly defines legal barriers that are hindering the effective disposal of bad debt and measures to remove these barriers.In fact, the Resolution No. 42/2017/QH14 on pilot bad debt settlement of credit institu-tions paved the way for VAMC's bad debt settlement in the most difficult step, i.e. the handling of collaterals. Accordingly, on August 12, the Saigon One Tower project of Saigon One Tower Company in HCM City was seized to settle both principal and in-terest amounting to seven trillion dong.Also in August, TPBank announced the selection of asset auction which was the land use rights of 89.6 square meters in Binh Thuy district, Can Tho City and land associat-ed properties owned by Phan Phu Vinh and Nguyen Thi My Duyenwhich were col-laterals for a bad debt.Most recently, on September 22, TPBank announced the disposal of collaterals under the mortgage contract No. 0002C-04.14/HDDTC3/TPB.AGG dated April 26, 2014 (auc-tion of mortgaged assets) through a professional auction organisation to recover debts from Nguyen Thai Son and Nguyen Thi Hue Trinh, to secure the loans of Thuan An Production, Trading and Service. During the process of performing the credit agree-ment, the Company breached its debt repayment obligations as agreed upon.As per Hoan, after having the Resolution No. 42/2017/QH14, the handling of large bad debts may not be done quickly, but obviously, smaller debts will be resolved more res-olutely.The latest survey result on business trend of credit institutions conducted by the State Bank of Vietnam's Statistical Forecasting Department shows that the trend on business result improvement in 2017 of banks. Specifically, 82 percent of credit institutions ex-pect their business performance to improve compared to 2016, with 25 percent of cred-it institutions expecting "much improvement".It is expected that this year, 90.6 percent of credit institutions expect the company's pre-tax profit to grow positively compared to 2016, with the system's expected average growth rate of 13.2 percent, down from the 18.65 percent as defined in the previous survey. Of which, the net income from service and proprietary trading is expected to grow satisfactorily.In the view of Dr Le Xuan Nghia, an economist, 2017 is a year that Vietnam banking system has had a spectacular recovery after a period of making efforts to deal with bad debt, especially the risk provision. The net interest on total assets of the banking sector used to fall to 0.4 percent but has now reached approximately 0.8 percent, while some banks touched more than one percent. The net interest on equity fell to 5.6 percent at some times but has now risen to eight percent, even more than 10 percent at some banks."Compared to the most difficult period, commercial banks' profitability has nearly doubled. This is the most important sign showing that commercial banks' financial po-tential has quite impressively recovered", said Dr Nghia.Also as per Nghia, some banks have increased their equity by domestic capital, and most of these banks have invested heavily in technology to develop new services such as internet banking, mobile banking, automatic payment, etc. in this difficult context. The aforementioned achievements are remarkable, reflecting a new trend of the bank-ing sector in terms of risk management, management and service development to-wards Bank 3.0."Despite the many difficulties, legal risks of the past, the banking sector has been suc-cessfully implementing the government's restructuring programme and is gradually


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strengthening its confidence for the public, domestic and foreign investors.Hopefully, with the stable economic growth of 6-6.5 percent and inflation at less than five percent lasting many following years, with the drastic implementation of the gov-ernment's restructuring programme, Vietnam banking system will overcome difficul-ties in the immediate future and develop stably in the near future", said Dr Nghia.

Banking risks and the rule on 'no pocket' workwear

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VNECONOMY

More than 10 years ago, the sideline of banking activities were in a tumult about the rule requesting staff to wear clothes without pockets when conducting treasury activ-ities with the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV). This regulation partly touched ethical issue.Specifically, the rule issued by SBV's Governor in 2002 specified that "those who are responsible for entering the cash counter or vault must wear on-the-job protection clothing or clothes that have no pockets".Concerning ethical issue, there were some certain discussions at that time. However, the general view considered that rule is normal, similar to the case where the airline staff must also be carefully checked when entering the airport.Since banking activities are sensitive as money is directly involved. This rule can be considered a principle, one of the detailed regulations to limit risks in operation and transactions.So far, the monitoring activities have become stricter with the support of technology and many regulations ensuring the safety in banking activities in internal monitoring and supervision at different levels, etc.However, the hole of moral hazard remains a challenge for banks to face, as has been the cases in the recent time.On September 27th, Hochiminh city People's Court put on trial a former deputy head of transaction and treasury accounting department at a commercial bank for with-drawing 38 savings books of customers by using fake documents (the bank has later paid to customers).A day earlier, on September 26th, the Investigation Security Agency (Ministry of Pub-lic Security) announced that it arrested former director and two employees of a bank branch in Hai Phong after issuing wanted notice concerning the deposits of 400 billion dong of 17 customers which are complained to have disappeared from the system.A month ago, in Phu Tho, there were two cases at two different bank branches report-ing the same information about the loss of customers' deposits. These two cases were transferred to police office (most of the money lost in one case which has valid docu-ments was covered by the bank).From the beginning of the year, many similar cases happened and most of them were transferred to the police and are waiting conclusions.Information from banks showed common points of the cases. Firstly, the involved bank staff and the customers often have personal relationship, the transaction process-es were simplified and based on personal beliefs, and there was abuse of power. In some cases, bank staff and customer self-wrote agreements and used the bank's stamp.Secondly, banks faced internal risks when its employees intentionally deceived or abused their authority to forge and withdraw the deposits.Thirdly, customers were too confident and subjective, or did not know well about the transaction process hence being passive in signing the paperwork, leading to the cases where they can be taken advantage of and bore the risks.Fourthly, some customers do not use add-on products such as automated messages and email to indirectly manage fluctuations and changes in balance of their deposits. In fact, in some cases, customers only found out about the risks and loss after a long time.Fifthly, the hole may be seen in the policy to humour customers with large deposits. To compete and retain customers and complete business targets, bank branches or transaction offices shortened the process, and even allowed employees to go to cus-tomers' houses to collect or return customers' deposits.In short, the ethical risk hole is a tough challenge in banks' operations, even when mul-


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ti-level monitoring and supervision and supportive technology have been applied.In another development, after the recent incidents, on September 26th, the Facebook page of a commercial bank posted an introduction about a mobilisation programmed titled "depositing money everywhere without worrying about loss".The introduction mentioned about customers' worries about having real savings books but the deposits are not shown on the system". There are also introduction about the benefits in verifying of transaction confirmation, instant cash control, and active monitoring of the deposits at any time through online support channel.On September 25th, another bank also published an open letter, recommending cus-tomers to register to use the service of noticing the changes in savings deposit balance in order to actively control the transaction as well as gain initiative in any unusual cas-es that may occur.

Startup businesses still thirsty for capital

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV

Access to sufficient capital resources is crucial to the successful operations of business-es in addition to good ideas, proper business models and strategies, and qualified per-sonnel.The favourable business environment of Vietnam along with numerous incentive po-lices have offered optimal conditions for more and more enterprises to launch startups with their feasible ideals for new products.However, the fact shows that many are still managing themselves to look for capital inflow, which is seen as a key factor behind their smooth operations.Nguyen Sac Phong, Project director of the Green Farm Import Export Joint Stock Com-pany in HCM City, says his company began operations in the field of organic agricul-ture in 2016 and since then its key products and services have been sold well in the domestic market.Phong says initially he plans to expand this business model but failed on the back of capital shortage despite his best efforts to seek funding from multiple sources.Vu Thien Hoang also faced the same situation when he came up with a business ideal for cosmetics and imported food. Hoang had to get along with capital mobilisation from his friends and relatives and seek reputable suppliers during the startup process."If you do not have money in your hands, all ideas will get stuck," he shares.Actually, startup businesses usually only have in-depth knowledge about projects, products, areas of production and business but lack the skills to call for investment and basic knowledge about various related fields such as finance and administration.In addition, many businesses are often impatient in persuading investment funds to lend them money and most banks set a series of rigid loan conditions that startups find difficult to meet.Phan Dinh Tue, deputy general director of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) says his bank is still in the process of building exclusive regulations for startup businesses.According to some economic experts, the capital for startup businesses can still be found from banks and investment funds. The question is to have the knowledge and skills to call capital inflows from commercial banks and investment support funds.There are many investors and private equity funds that startups can ask for help if their projects are proved to have great potential for development.Ho Trong Lai from US financial advisory firm Waterstone Capital Partners LLC in Asia says if a start-up business wants to call for investment capital it is required to out-line a specific project on personnel and capital using plans.Many policies on streaming administrative procedures have been adopted, making it easier for businesses to embark on startups. The crux of the matter is how to ensure sufficient capital. It is now time for commercial banks to give a helping hand to startup businesses by setting appropriate lending criteria.The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has set up the Startup Assistance Fund with a chartered capital of VND2,000 billion with a view to supporting startups but it is essential to define the right target and how much stakeholders will be involved in


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and how much will be provided by the fund.Additionally, startups should stay more active in looking for investment funds or ad-venturous investors as the better way to help deal with capital shortage.http://english.vov.vn/economy/startup-businesses-still-thirsty-for-capital-359493.vov

Consumer finance market underdeveloped

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

The local consumer credit market remains underdeveloped despite high consumer de-mand while the black market still attracts a large number of people in need.At a seminar on consumer lending held by the Institute of Business Administration un-der the University of Economics and Business in Hanoi City on Wednesday, Hoang Van Hai, head of institute, said consumer loans account for a mere 5-10 percent of total outstanding loans, compared to 40-50 percent in developed nations. In addition, the number of credit institutions catering to consumers is small.According to a survey of the institute with 2,000 respondents in 12 provinces and cities, 62 percent of them have never taken out consumer loans as they worry about indebt-edness and stringent lending requirements. Some 53 percent of them will ask for con-sumer loans in case of absolute necessity.However, 48 percent of respondents, mainly young people who have never taken out consumer loans before, are willing to borrow if necessary.The survey shows that there are currently more than ten consumer loan lenders with minimum chartered capital of VND500 billion (US$21.81 million) each, in which, FE Credit is the leader with the largest capital of VND2.79 trillion.At present, FE Credit holds a market share of more than 48 percent, followed by Home Credit with nearly 16 percent, HD Saison with 12 percent, JACCS with 2 percent and Mirae Asset Finance with 1 percent.Most clients are satisfied with lending services and procedures but they are displeased with the high lending rates.A representative of the State Bank of Vietnam admitted that the consumer lending market still faces numerous obstacles despite huge demand.The central bank wants the market to develop safely and moderately so that local peo-ple will be not affected by potential risks.Truong Thanh Duc, chair of Basico law firm, said the legal system has not facilitated the development of the service.Finance firms may face higher risks than commercial banks in recovering debts as this kind of loan does not require collateral. Besides, the legal system is insufficient to deal with violations.However, the sector holds high growth potential as consumer loans are suitable to modern life and help ease concerns of consumers.The survey also shows that consumers ask for loans for a vast range of purposes. Household businesses tend to get consumer loans to increase investments, farmers to pay for healthcare services and household appliances, students to buy personal appli-ances or to travel, and officials to pay for healthcare, entertainment, tourism, beauty care and education.Le Xuan Sang, deputy director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, said Vietnam has huge demand for consumer credit thanks to the young population whose consumer spending makes up 75 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/56373/Consumer-finance-market-underdevel-oped.html

Vietnam Holding Limited adds VPB shares to its portfolio

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| TRI THUC TRE

Vietnam Securities Depository Centre (VSD) has just announced about VPBank share ownership transfer.Accordingly, Vietnam Holding Limited accepted the ownership transfer of 400,000 VPB shares from Fides Xin Moi B&I Private Investment 7, Fides Xin Moi B & I Private Investment 8 and Fides Xin Moi B & I Private Investment 9 with 120,000 shares; 150,000 shares and 130,000 shares respectively.


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The effective date of the transfer was September 27, 2017.On the same day, Phatra Capital Public Company Limited also received 530,000 VPB shares from KT Zmico Securities Company Limited.Foreign shareholders in VPB are currently holding a total of more than 22 percent of the bank's capital.VPBank has listed its shares on HoSE since August 17, 2017 with the starting price of 39,000 dong/share. However, contrary to the general trend of the market, VPBank's VPB shares has been trading below the price of the first day of listing.At the end of September 28, the share price was 37,250 dong/shareequal to Vietcom-bank's VCB price. Nonetheless, this bank still holds the position as a private joint stock bank with the highest market capitalisation of over 55 trillion dong, and together with Vietcombank, these are the two banks that have the most expensive stock price.

Singapore bank licensed to set up subsidiary


Deputy chief inspector of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Pham Huyen Anh on Tues-day handed over a license to Singapore's United Overseas Bank (UOB) to set up its first wholly owned subsidiary in Vietnam, Nguoi Dong Hanh newspaper reports.UOB Vietnam has chartered capital of VND3 trillion (US$132 million) and a licensed term of 99 years. Its headquarters is located at the Central Plaza complex in downtown HCM City. The new bank operates as a commercial bank in line with the government's and the central bank's regulations.UOB managing director Victor Ngo said the bank would operate in an effective man-ner and create favourable conditions for Singaporean and Vietnamese enterprises to speed up cooperation, investment, production and business activities.The central bank on July 19 gave approval in principle to UOB to open the first 100 per-cent Singapore-owned bank in the country, targeting individuals and local businesses as well as foreign investors.UOB was the first Singapore bank to open a foreign bank branch in HCM City, the country's southern economic centre, in 1995.UOB will become the ninth foreign bank operational in Vietnam. The other eight whol-ly foreign-owned banks were approved from 2008 to last year in Vietnam, namely HS-BC, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Standard Chartered Vietnam, Shinhan Bank Vietnam, Hong Leong Bank Vietnam, CitiBank, CIMB, and Public Bank Berhad.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/56375/Singapore-bank-licensed-to-set-up-subsidi-ary.html

Sacombank thrives in the reign of new chair


Sacombank's business results for the first nine months of 2017 point to positive chang-es in the bank's operations despite the post-merger restructuring. Almost all targets have been reached or exceeded, with a pre-tax profit already 87 percent greater than planned. Remarkably, its Q3 pre-tax profit was twice as high as the average of the pre-ceding two quarters. In addition, bad debt settlement is now faster and more efficient. Thus, under the management of the new chair, Duong Cong Minh, Sacombank's oper-ations have displayed signs of prosperity, laying the foundation for further develop-ment of business activities, gradual resolution of the remaining bottlenecks, and shortening of the post-merger restructuring.Since the recent general Shareholders' Meeting, Sacombank has been exposed to a lot of unfavourable information affecting its prestige and brand name. Nevertheless, with a strong foundation and admirable determination for business development, the bank's market share has been enlarged as its total assets, fund mobilisation and loan book increase. Specifically, as of September 21, the bank's total assets had picked up 9.3 percent against the start of the year to nearly VND360 trillion, with significant im-provement in the proportion of profitable assets (up 1.2 percent over the year's begin-ning). Total capital mobilised had been more than VND330.7 trillion, a rise of 9.2 percent from early this year. The deposits of more than four million individual clients


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play a key role in the bank's fund mobilisation structure (10 percent greater than the beginning of 2017), making up nearly 89 percent. Notably, the bank carried out two rounds of issuance of long-term certificates of deposit in the first nine months to boost its Tier 2 capital and quickly attained its goals within a month, which indicates con-sumer confidence in the brand of Sacombank is increasingly sustainable.Sacombank's credit by September 21 had surged 13.4 percent, double the prior compa-rable period, amounting to nearly VND221 trillion. Specifically, more than 50 percent of the increase in its outstanding loans is attributed to the lending to the five preferred sectors. The bank's credit structure by industry and term has been well controlled, ev-ident in a gradually reduction in the proportion of loans for real estate and securities (down 0.3 percent from the year's beginning), a much higher growth rate of short-term credit versus medium and long-term loans, and a 2.4 percent fall in the ratio of medi-um- and long-term loans against 2016. As a result, Sacombank's net interest income has markedly improved, with a year-on-year rise of 48 percent achieved in the first nine months.Furthermore, data on its service income in recent years suggest this activity at Sacom-bank is quite effective, occupying an increasing large share of its total income. Service revenue in the first nine months of this year was estimated at more than VND1.13 tril-lion, up 28 percent year-on-year, accounting for 22 percent of the bank's total earnings, of which the gains from e-banking and card operations grew healthily, by a respective 40 percent and 32 percent over the same period last year. Sacombank has attracted nearly four million card users and 950,000 Internet banking clients, since the bank has always been a pioneer in developing advanced technologies with many e-banking and card services first deployed on the Vietnamese market. Most importantly, the tight se-curity of Sacombank's e-banking has been proven by periodical assessments by the in-ternational auditor Ernst & Young. With an aim to better address the diverse needs of clients, Sacombank will continue to develop towards digital banking in the future.Remarkably, Sacombank this September signed an exclusive insurance agent contract with Dai-ichi Life Vietnam with a 20-year term, which is expected to produce a sub-stantial stable income in the bank's total service revenue. This would thereby build a solid and long-term financial foundation for the successful implementation of the banking restructuring scheme ratified by the central bank.Sacombank informed its accumulated profit in the first nine months was beyond ex-pectations. The stand-alone profit before tax was approximately VND900 billion, while the consolidated amount was put at VND1.1 trillion, or 87 percent higher than planned. Notably, its Q3 pre-tax profit was double the average of the preceding two quarters. ROA and ROE went up 0.3 percent and 4 percent respectively against the be-ginning of the year.As for bad debt settlement, Sacombank wiped out VND6.7 trillion in the first eight months, recovered VND600 billion from the sale of impaired loans to VAMC and more than VND1.2 trillion from the liquidation of collateral. Receivables dropped by nearly VND2 trillion from early this year, demonstrating the gradual effect of the bank's focus on debt recovery. A number of clients and partners are interested in acquiring some assets and large-scale projects, and have brought up this issue, the bank added. Sacom-bank is actively conducting negotiations over the price and will proceed to settlement, with the objective of radically handling VND20 trillion worth of bad debt/collateral by the year's end, thereby recreating funds for profitable business operations.With positive changes in its business operations and a new view of corporate govern-ance, personnel, networks, business processes, risk management and brand develop-ment, the goal of earlier revival than planned and a cut in the time to deal with the remaining problems to 3-5 years that Sacombank strives for is perfectly plausible pro-vided that macro-economic and banking conditions are favourable and stable.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/56357/Sacombank-thrives-in-the-reign-of-new-chair.html


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HDBank wins Asiamoney award


The Housing Development Bank (HDBank) received Asiamoney's award for best bank in Vietnam as chosen by corporate clients at a ceremony in Beijing this week.The magazine said for its Corporate Client Choice Awards it asked corporate treasury officials to rank their banking partners for quality of execution capabilities and quality of relationship in six key business areas capital markets, cash management, credit, rates, foreign exchange and trade finance.Other lenders in Vietnam to win awards included ANZ, HSBC, Citibank and Vietcom-bank.HDBank reported solid results in the first half of the year, with its assets increasing by 31.4 per cent year-on-year to VND169.5 trillion (US$7.46 billion).Deposits were up 34 per cent to VND152.3 trillion and loans outstanding were up 29.8 per cent to VND105.5 trillion.Bad debts accounted for 1.6 per cent of loans, much lower than the limit stipulated by the State Bank of Vietnam of 3 per cent.http://bizhub.vn/banking/hdbank-wins-asiamoney-award_289206.html

Sacombank additionally sells 2.580 trillion dong bad debts to VAMC

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VNECONOMY

In the morning of September 28th, Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank and Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) signed a cooperation agreement on dealing with bad debts and stagnant assets.These bad debts of Sacombank were sold to VAMC on the basis of the provisions of Resolution 42/2017/QH14 of the National Assembly, Directive 32/CT-TTg of the prime minister, Directive 06/CT-NHNN of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and the post-merger restructuring plan of Sacombank.Accordingly, Sacombank and VAMC will cooperate in developing the roadmap and implementing the debt settlement for each year, and accelerating the handling of bad debts to recover debts, in which the immediate objective is to handle and recover from 12 to 20 trillion dong of bad debts.Sacombank will propose a list of bad debts sold to VAMC by receiving special bonds and the bad debts for trading at market value. In 2017, the two parties will consider buying and selling at least one trillion dong of bad debts at market prices.For the bad debts that VAMC purchased by special bonds, the two parties will evalu-ate and classify debts to provide suitable solutions to maximise the effectiveness.At the above signing ceremony, Sacombank and VAMC also signed a contract to trade three debt items at market price with a total outstanding debt of over 2.580 trillion dong, secured by real estate and valuable machinery and equipment in Da Nang and Hochiminh city.Recently, VAMC has released information about finding a capable, experienced and qualified unit to appraise the value of the bad debts including the secured assets of Hoan Cau Khanh Hoa Joint Stock Company and Hoan Cau Nha Trang at Sacombank which were purchased by VAMC via special bonds.At the time of debt purchase, Hoan Cau Khanh Hoa had a principle outstanding loan of 1.3 trillion dong, while that of Hoan Cau Nha Trang was 1.1 trillion dong. VAMC purchased these debts by special bonds at a corresponding value of 2.4 trillion dong. The debts are all secured by the land use rights of a numerous land plots in Hochiminh city.Sacombank is one of the six credit institutions (along with ACB, BIDV, Vietcombank, VietinBank, and Agribank) recently selected by SBV to pilot the implementation of Resolution 42.2017/QH14 (effective from August 15th) on dealing with bad debts.

Sacombank Laos opens branch in Savannakhet province


The Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank in Laos (Sacombank Laos) inau-gurated a branch in the Lao central province of Savannakhet on September 29.Director general of Sacombank Laos Pham Quang Phu said the inauguration of the branch reaffirms the bank's determination to do long-term business in the country and


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bring its modern products and services to Lao customers.He said with an initial chartered capital of 12 million USD, Sacombank Laos has ex-panded its network to key areas in Laos such as Vientiane capital, Pakse city, and Champasak and Savannakhet provinces over the past nine years.As of August 31, 2017, the total assets of Sacombank Laos stood at 157 million USD and its pre-tax profit in the first eight months of this year reached 1 million USD, fulfilling 68 percent of the annual target, he noted.Vice Governor of Savannakhet province Thonkeo Phoutthakaiyalard said the launch of Sacombank Laos' branch in the province not only generates jobs for locals but also contributes to the local social-economic development in the coming years.He said local authorities will create the best conditions for the branch to operate effi-ciently.On this occasion, Sacombank Laos donated 6,000 USD to the province's disaster miti-gation fund.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/sacombank-laos-opens-branch-in-savannakhet-province/118742.vnp

FE CREDIT a double winner at CEPI Asia Awards

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Lender the only Vietnamese company to win at recent Cards and Electronic Payments International Asia Awards 2017.The VPBank Finance Company (FE CREDIT) won two awards at the prestigious Cards and Electronic Payments International (CEPI) Asia Awards 2017 in Singapore recently, becoming the only consumer finance company and the only Vietnamese company to win.The CEPI Asia Awards are the premier regional awards reflecting the latest card and payment trends, recognising noteworthy initiatives that have established a strong foothold in the Asia-Pacific region.FE CREDIT won an award for "Best Technology ImplementationFront End", for the Selfie PLUS+ feature in its PLUS+ Credit Card. The feature allows cardholders to cus-tomise their PLUS+ Credit Card using their favourite selfie, straight from their smart-phone. Keeping simplicity and familiarity with existing customer behavior at the core of technology implementation makes this a winning feature.It also won the Highly-Commended award for "Best Card OfferingSouth East Asia" for the PLUS+ Credit Card, the only credit card tailored to the needs of a first-time card-holder, with features like Fuel PLUS+, Education PLUS+ and Everyday Rewards PLUS+, in addition to Selfie PLUS+."We believe in offering relevant benefits to our valued customers on a fast and easy ba-sis," said Kalidas Ghose, CEO of FE CREDIT. "That is at the core of each of our initia-tives. These awards are welcome recognition of our business philosophy.""We have focused on delivering market-leading products and features for category en-trants in Vietnam," said Nimish Dwivedi, Credit Card Business director at FE CRED-IT. "The recognition at CEPI encourages us to try harder to make things simpler, easier, and benefit-oriented."As one of the few pioneers in the consumer finance industry, FE CREDIT has estab-lished a solid foundation in becoming the market leader in Vietnam's unsecured con-sumer loans market. It currently provides consumer lending services such as personal loans, two-wheeler loans, consumer durable loans, and credit cards. FE CREDIT has served more than 6 million customers, cooperating with 5,500 partners across 9,000 points of sale (POS) nationwide.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/fe-credit-a-double-winner-at-cepi-asia-awards

Lotte eyes Vietnamese credit card firm


Lotte Card Co. thought to be close to signing deal to acquire TechcomFinance.South Korean conglomerate the Lotte Group is seeking to expand its presence in Viet-nam with the acquisition of a Vietnamese finance company, in the hope of offsetting


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its snowballing losses in China amid an ongoing diplomatic spat between China and South Korea over Seoul's installation of a US anti-missile shield.It was reported on September 27 that the Lotte Card Co., the credit card unit of the Lotte Group, is in the final stages of talks to buy out TechcomFinance, a subsidiary of Vietnam's fifth-largest bank, Techcombank."Lotte Card is expected to buy 100 per cent of TechcomFinance from Techcombank," a source close to the acquisition deal, who declined to be named because the talks are still ongoing, was quoted as telling Pulse News.Techcombank hadn't responded to a request for comment at the time of publishing.Once the deal is clinched, Lotte Card will be the first South Korean credit card compa-ny to hold a credit card license in Vietnam. Via TechcomFinance, it will be able to offer card issuing, installment finance, and consumer loans in the country.This is the first acquisition the Lotte Group has made this year. Its decision to venture into Vietnam's credit card market comes after its retail unit, Lotte Mart, closed its out-lets in China after receiving business suspension orders from Chinese authorities.To offset the growing business risk in China, the Lotte Group is believed to have shift-ed its focus away from China to Vietnam, which has been on a solid growth path, with many South Korean companies eager to expand their presence.The credit card market in Vietnam is still in the early stages of development, with only 3.3 per cent of the population owning credit cards, but the South Korean giant seems to be optimistic about the growth potential, as the Vietnamese government has been actively encouraging its people to use plastic.The Lotte Group, which first entered Vietnam with its fast-food chain Lotteria in 1998, is currently operating several businesses under its ten units, including department stores, large retail stores, hotels, cinemas and home shopping. In July, Chair Shin Dong-bin made a visit to Vietnam to look at its businesses in the country.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/lotte-eyes-vietnamese-credit-card-firm

Ethnic women to access formal banking services


LienVietPostBank signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with CARE Inter-national in Vietnam to launch a pilot programme aimed at helping ethnic minority women access formal banking services.The women will be able to access these services via a mobile application called Vi-Viet e-wallet.Under the MoU signed on September 28, the two sides will select six self-managed fi-nancial groups in Thanh Nua and Hua Thanh communes of the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien and train them to use Vi-Viet e-wallet for the following purposes -- selling group shares, transferring money, lending and other services.There are more than 30 self-managed financial groups comprising 900 members in the two communes, who are Thai ethnic minority people with low and unstable income ranging from VND1-3 million (US$44-133) per month.The self-regulatory finance group is a collection of 15 to 30 members (mostly women) who make regular savings through the purchase of shares at regular meetings. These savings are used to lend with interest to members, who agree to develop their liveli-hood, promote business investment and spend on other purposes.In Vietnam, there are 1,500 self-managed financial groups of some 28,000 members, of which 111 groups are in Dien Bien Province, with about 3,000 members. This is a mi-cro-finance model that CARE International has successfully researched and tested in many countries around the world, bringing significant benefits to its members through savings products, by profiting from the savings and gaining access to larger and longer term loans and facing low risk due to discipline of the self-governing group.With LienVietPostBank, this programme will help increase the number of customers using the e-wallet in remote areas and support the development of this type of banking service.The partnership programme between LienVietPostBank and CARE International in


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Vietnam is expected to be piloted from September to December 2017 in the province, and will then be expanded if it really brings social benefits, such as increase in access to formal financial services, capacity of savings and ability of ethnic minority women to do business.This pilot programme is part of the project Comprehensive Financing for Ethnic Mi-nority Women (FinLINK) currently funded by CARE in Vietnam with support from Visa Inc. The main objective of the project is to help ethnic minority women access for-mal banking services through mobile platforms.http://bizhub.vn/banking/ethnic-women-to-access-formal-banking-services_289202.html

OceanBank trials end in death sentence

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

OceanBank's former executives have been given the stiffest punishments in Vietnam-ese law.This morning, the jury of the Hanoi's People's Court pronounced the strictest punish-ments in the OceanBank trials, giving the life sentence to former chair Ha Van Tham starting from October 24, 2017, and the death sentence to former general director Nguyen Xuan Son.The sentences were earlier proposed in the middle of this month by the Hanoi People's Procuracy. Over the past two weeks, the cases and punishments have been thoroughly discussed by the jury.According to the procuracy, OceanBank has seen numerous violations of special grav-ity regarding the mobilisation of deposits, and mismanagement of money sourced from the bank's excessive interest rates. Tham and Son were found to have committed the most serious violations.Son, who served as chair of state-owned oil and gas group PetroVietnam from 2014 un-til he was arrested in 2015, was charged with "embezzlement, abuse of power, and de-liberately violating state regulations on economic management."Son, who had held many executive positions at PetroVietnam since 2003 and served as CEO of OceanBank during 2008-2010, was accused of embezzling about $11 million from the bank. During his term in office, PetroVietnam was a major shareholder of the bank.Meanwhile, Tham faced the same charges, with the additional "breaking regulations on lending activities at credit institutions."According to the Procuracy's indictment, in 2012, Tham approved a VND500 billion ($22.72 million) loan to Pham Cong Danh, former chair of Vietnam Construction Bank, via a property firm without properly securing collateral. The HCM City-based compa-ny later defaulted on the loan. Danh is facing 17 years in jail.During 2010-2014, Tham and other bank officials also offered deposit rates above those set by the State Bank of Vietnam to many customers, including PetroVietnam, causing a financial loss of nearly VND1.6 trillion ($72.73 million) in total.Over 50,000 individuals and nearly 400 organisations, including PetroVietnam subsid-iaries and many state-owned units, benefited from the interest rates, according to pros-ecutors.The procuracy has also proposed different durations of imprisonment for many other OceanBank officers (see box for details).The OceanBank trial kicked off in Hanoi on August 28 and was scheduled to last 20 days. It is considered the biggest in Vietnam's history, involving about 750 attendants and 51 bankers and businesspeople.OceanBank was founded in 1993 with a 20 per cent stake from Ocean Group, which holds investments in a variety of sectors, such as hospitality, securities, media, and re-tail.List of the defendants with penalties1. Ha Van Tham (former chair of OceanBank): Life sentence2. Nguyen Xuan Son (former general director of OceanBank): Death sentence3. Nguyen Minh Thu: (former chair of OceanBank): 22 years imprisonment


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4. Nguyen Van Hoan (former deputy general director of OceanBank): 22 years impris-onment5. Pham Hoang Giang (general director of BSC Vietnam): four years imprisonment6. Hoang Thi Hong Tu (chair of BSC Vietnam): 36 months probation7. Le Thi Thu Thuy (deputy general director of OceanBank): six years imprisonment8. Vu Thi Thuy Duong (former director of OceanBank's Accounting and Domestic Transaction Section): four years imprisonment9. Nguyen Thi Nga (former chief accountant): 42 months imprisonment10. Nguyen Hoai Nam (former director of the bank's Capital Source Section): 42 months imprisonment11. Nguyen Thi Thu Ba (former director of OceanBank's Retail Bank Section): 5-36 months imprisonment12. Do Dai Khoi Trang (former director of the bank's Personal Customers Section): three years imprisonment13. Nguyen Xuan Thang (former vice director of the bank's Big Customers and Strate-gic Partners Section: 36 months imprisonment14. Le Tuan Anh (former director of Thang Long branch): 36 months probation15. Nguyen Thi Kieu Lien (former director of Vung Tau branch): 30 months probation16. Nguyen Minh Dao (former director of Hanoi branch): 28 months probation17. Tran Thi Thu Huong (former director of Hai Duong branch): 24 months probation18. Hoang Bich Van (former director of HCM City branch): 24 months probation19. Nguyen Quoc Chien (former director of Saigon branch): 24 months probation20. Pham Dinh Yen (former director of Dao Duy Anh transaction office): 30-36 months imprisonment21. Ngo Hai Nam (former director of Quang Ninh branch): 30-36 months imprison-ment22. Phan Thi Ta Anh (former director of Quang Ngai branch): 30-36 months imprison-ment23. Le Quynh An (former director of Vinh branch): 30-36 months imprisonment24. Nguyen Hong Quan (former director of Ca Mau branch): 18 months probation25. Nguyen Tra My (former vice director of Thang Long branch): 30-36 months impris-onment26. Nguyen Xuan Son (former director of Nguyen Van Troi transaction office): 20 months probation27. Mai Van Cuong (former director of Hai Phong branch): 20 months probation28. Ta Hoang Phuong (former director of Nha Trang branch): 20 months probation29. Nguyen Van Duc (former director of Thanh Hoa): 20 months probation30. Le Vu Thuy (former director of Binh Duong branch): 20 months probation31. Tran Thi Thien Ngan (former director of Danang branch): 20 months probation32. Le Bao Kien (former director of Hoan Kiem transaction office): 20 months probation33. Phan Thi Lan (former director of Ha Tinh branch): 20 months probation34. Bui Duc Quynh (former director of Dong Nai branch): 20 months probation35. Ngo Hoang Long (former director of Au Co branch): 18 months probation36. Nguyen Thi Binh Phuong (former director of Ca Mau branch): 18 months probation37. Luu Hong Van (former director of Ha Dong transaction office): 24-30 months im-prisonment38. Nguyen Van Chai (former director of Bac Giang branch): 18 months probation39. Hoang Phuong Nga (former director of Phu My Hung transaction office): 18 months probation40. Nguyen Luu Nam (former director of Quy Nhon branch): 18 months probation41. Nguyen Viet Hien (former director of Au Co transaction office): 18 months proba-tion42. Nguyen Quoc Truong (former director of Can Tho branch): 18 months in non-cus-todial reform43. Do Quoc Trinh (former director of Phu My Hung transaction office): 24 months in non-custodial reform


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44. Trinh Xuan Ha (former director of Long Bien transaction office): 24 months in non-custodial reform45. Tran Anh Thiet (former director of Hanoi branch): 18 months probation46. Nguyen Thi Loan (former director of Trung Yen transaction office): 18 months pro-bation47. Nguyen Phan Trung Kien (former director of Dong Do transaction office): 24 months in non-custodial reform48. Nguyen Viet Ha (former director of Thai Binh branch): 24 months in non-custodial reform49. Pham Cong Danh (former chair of Thien Thanh Group Company Ltd,): 14 years im-prisonment50. Tran Van Binh (general director of Trung Dung Company): four years imprison-ment51. Hua Thi Phan (former chair of Phu Mi Investment and Development JSC): 17 years imprisonmenthttp://www.vir.com.vn/oceanbank-trials-end-in-death-sentence.html

Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement ratification expedited

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV5

Some pending issues around the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement are being settled to ensure that the deal will be ratified early next year.The Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) is being struck with bilateral rela-tions between Vietnam and the EU developing well, especially in economics and trade.Under the agreement, the two sides will remove more than 99 percent of tariff lines and offer customs quotas or tariff reductions for other products.The strong commitment to opening their markets is considered one of the agreement's breakthroughs, particularly enhancing Vietnam-EU trade relations in garments, tex-tiles, footwear, agricultural products, machinery, equipment, automobiles, and some EU farm produce.The agreement will also create new market access opportunities in services and invest-ment. Vietnam has agreed to a liberalisation of trade in financial services, telecommu-nications, and postal and courier services. Vietnam will also remove or cut production restrictions in food, beverage, and non-food sectors for EU businesses.With commitments to secure a more open investment and business environment, the deal will increase investment flows from the EU and other partners to Vietnam.This could make Vietnam a transit hub connecting EU trade and investment activities to Southeast Asia.Alann Bouvot, CEO of SODEX Sport Vietnam, which has done business in Nha Trang City since 1991, said "I'm quite optimistic about Vietnam's investment environment. I have witnessed improvements in the local investment climate in 26 years investing there.Since 2017 Sodex has invested in a new production facility covering an area of 15,000 m2. Our investment in Vietnam has brought us advantages in the entire Southeast Asian region. With a strategy to globalise our products, our presence in Vietnam is a key factor."At a recent workshop on the agreement in Brussels, Jean-Jacques Bouflet, a member of the EuroCham Executive Committee, said that to quickly realise the benefits of the deal, both sides should speed up negotiations in this decisive period.Nguyen Hoang Long, director of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Vietnam For-eign Ministry, said EU enterprises expect the deal to be signed soon and become an ef-fective tool to protect them."The EU, represented by EU's chief negotiator Mauro Petriccione, said that the early adoption of the EVFTA will be one of its priorities.It will work closely with Vietnamese partners so that ratification in the European Par-liament and negotiations with partners in the EU will soon be completed," said Hoang Long.http://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnameu-free-trade-agreement-ratification-expedit-


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ed-359250.vov

GDP target achievable, but risks building


After Vietnam's economic growth in July-September reached 7.46 per cent year-on-year, the strongest third quarter growth since 2011, the 2017 GDP growth target, con-sidered by many economists as "ambitious", is now claimed by the General Statistical Office (GSO) as achievable.The statement came after the GSO reported 6.41 per cent year-on-year growth in GDP in the first three quarters of 2017, the strongest in the period since 2015 and up from 5.7 per cent in the first half and 5.9 per cent in the same period last year.The services, industry and construction, and agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sectors were the main contributors to the nine-month GDP growth rate, expanding 7.25 per cent, 7.17 per cent, and 2.78 per cent year-on-year, respectively, GSO Head Nguyen Bich Lam said.The industrial index of production in September rose an estimated 13.2 per cent against September last year, the highest growth since February, while the trade sur-plus grew for the third straight month in September, to $400 million.Vietnam received an estimated $12.5 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first nine months, up 13.4 per cent year-on-year.After failing to hit its target and with the economy slowing for the first time in four years in 2016, the government has said that Vietnam needs to grow 7.4 per cent in the second half of 2017 to achieve the full-year goal and has called for an increase in credit growth to 21 per cent this year despite concerns over bad loans, lower interest rates, and an increase in investment.Results from the third quarter are a positive sign for the country and pushes it towards its full-year growth target of 6.7 per cent.Still, Capital Economics' Senior Asia Economist Gareth Leather said that despite the upbeat short-term outlook, which has been helped by firm exports and accommoda-tive monetary policy, risks are building."In particular, we are increasingly concerned by the rapid increase in debt," he said. "Credit booms on the scale that Vietnam is experiencing are not sustainable over the long term."The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is among a handful of Asian monetary regulators to ease interest rate policy this year, unexpectedly cutting its benchmark rate for the first time in three years in July. prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in August also asked the central bank to take steps to bring down banks' lending rates to help businesses.Total outstanding loans in Vietnam's banking system grew 11.02 per cent year-on-year as at September 20, higher than the 10.46 per cent expansion in the same period last year. Money supply increased 9.59 per cent in the same period, below the 11.76 per cent increase a year earlier. Meanwhile, deposit growth at banks slowed to 10.08 per cent from 12.02 per cent in the same period last year.Recent efforts to raise already strong bank lending growth by cutting interest rates to historical lows have the potential to increase financial sector risks, particularly given the large stock of past unresolved bad debts, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report released earlier this week.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/187502/gdp-target-achievable--but-risks-building.html

Vietnam economy grows, boosted by exports

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VNEXPRESS

The economy expanded 7.46 percent in third quarter of 2017 from the same period last year, the strongest third quarter growth since 2010.Vietnam's economy surged more than 7 percent in the third quarter according to data on September 29, but officials warned the country may still fall short of its annual tar-get.The country has been one of the region's best performing economies in recent years, fueled largely by exports of cheaply made goods like Samsung phones and Nike shoes.


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The middle class is also rapidly expanding in the country of 93 million people, lifting domestic spending across many sectors.But growth dipped last year to 6.2 percent as the economy recovered from a major drought and a massive fish kill along the central coast.GDP expanded 7.46 percent in third quarter of 2017 from the same period last year, accord-ing to the General Statistical Office (GSO), the strongest third quarter growth since 2010."Growth was largely driven by exports. Domestically, strong credit growth is support-ing household spending and the real estate sector," ANZ Bank said in an email to AFP on September 29.It was also a bump up from last quarter's 6.28 percent growth and 5.15 percent posted in first three months of the year.Overall growth for the first nine months of 2017 is 6.41 percent, the highest since 2015 but below the official annual target of 6.7 percent.But the GSO chief warned the economy may struggle to hit that goal."Reaching this year's growth target will be a challenge," Nguyen Bich Lam said on state-run Vietnam Television.The Asian Development Bank said earlier this month it expects annual growth to hold steady at 6.3 percent, even as some sectors have slowed."Despite the drop in mining and oil output, Vietnam's economy continues to perform well, driven by its twin engines of export-orientated manufacturing and rising domes-tic consumption," ADB Vietnam country director Eric Sidgwick said in a statement.Economists have warned that soaring public debt and dodgy loans plaguing the bank-ing sector are holding the economy back.The government has vowed to tackle mismanagement in the corruption-riddled bank-ing sector.http://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnam-economy-grows-boosted-by-exports-359525.vov

Hanoi: Consumer price index rises over 3pct


Hanoi's Consumer Price Index (CPI) in September posted a month on month rise of over 3 percent as reported by the municipal Statistics Office.The Office attributed the rise to the rising prices of the groups of foods and foodstuff, which made the largest part in the groups of commodities subject to calculation for the index.At a conference of the Hanoi People's Committee on September 28, it was reported that the average consumer price index in the capital in the first nine months was up by 3.5-3.55 percent over the same period last year.The average CPI in 2017 is estimated to increase by 3.05-3.11 percent compared to 2016.The city's revenue for the first nine months of the year reached 146.4 trillion VND (6.5 billion USD), meeting 71.5 percent of the year's targeted revenue.It is estimated that the total city revenue for the entire year will reach over 207.6 trillion VND (9.2 billion USD).The city aims for a GDP growth of 8.5 percent in 2017.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hanoi-consumer-price-index-rises-over-3-percent/118796.vnp

HCM City's CPI rises 0.9pct in September


The consumer price index (CPI) in the southern economic hub of HCM City in Septem-ber increased 0.9 percent from the previous month and 4.12 percent over the same pe-riod last year, reported the municipal Statistics Office on September 29.According to the office, out of 11 surveyed commodity groups, education saw the highest price hike of 11.2 percent due to high demand in the beginning of the school year.Meanwhile, transport services rose 0.99 percent as a result of petroleum price adjust-ment in September, the fifth consecutive increase in the year.Other groups which experienced price hikes against August included housing, elec-


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tricity, water, fuel and construction materials (0.3 percent); garments, hats, footwear (0.15 percent); other goods and services (0.02 percent); and drinks and cigarettes (0.01 percent).The prices of of culture, entertainment and tourism services dropped 0.29 percent; home appliance and drinks, down 0.19 percent; posts and telecommunication, down 0.05 percent; and restaurants and catering services, down 0.02 percent.In September, the gold price increased 0.93 percent, while that of US dollar dropped 0.01 percent month-on-month.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hcm-citys-cpi-rises-09-percent-in-Sep/118749.vnp

ADB applauds Vietnam on reducing deficit


The Vietnamese government's efforts to reduce the state budget deficit accumulated by fiscal imbalances have been applauded by the Asian Development Bank.In its update on the Vietnamese economy released a few days ago, the Asian Develop-ment Bank (ADB) stated that the government has achieved "good results in reducing state budget deficit," and that "the state budget revenue has been strongly increasing.""Like in 2016, total budget revenue rose 18.2 per cent in this year's first half, thanks to a hike in revenue from value-added tax, corporate income tax, personal income tax, and non-tax sources," said the report.ADB also stated that amidst rising budget revenue, the government has done a very good job in tightening spending, which increased by less then 10 per cent in this year's first half.The General Statistical Office (GSO) reported that between January and September 15, 2017, state revenue hit $33.5 billion -- higher than the $30.2 billion last year -- while ex-penditure stood at $38.7 billion, slightly higher than the $37.2 billion in the same peri-od last year.Thus between January-September 15, 2017, Vietnam's budget deficit totalled at $5.2 billion, lower than the $7 billion in the corresponding period last year."As revenue growth exceeds expectations, the government's target of trimming the budget deficit to the equivalent of 3.5 per cent of the GDP in 2017 and 4 per cent in 2018 looks broadly attainable," said Eric Sidgwick, ADB country director for Vietnam.However, he also stressed, "This will depend on further efforts to enhance revenue col-lection and stricter control of spending on wages and salaries and other recurrent ex-penditures. After three years of lower infrastructure spending, redirecting the 2017 budget toward capital outlays should help achieve this badly needed adjustment to public expenditure."Statistics from the Ministry of Finance showed that nominal capital spending has been flat for the last five years. As a result, the share of capital spending in the total budget has fallen to 16 per cent in this year's first half from the nearly 30 per cent in 2011.However, since 2010, Vietnam's nominal recurrent spending has more than doubled, driven by rising wage and salary costs, along with health and education spending.Currently, Vietnam has about 11 million people on the state's payroll.Recently, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also commended Vi-etnam for its efforts to control rising public debt. The World Bank said in its update on Vietnam's economic situation that Vietnam has been showing "early signs of fiscal con-solidation.""The government has reinforced its commitment to rein in the fiscal deficit over the medium term in order to contain further increases in the public debt-to-GDP ratio. Fis-cal consolidation is crucial to contain the fiscal deficit and stabilise public debt over the medium term," said Sebastian Eckardt, lead economist and acting country director for the World Bank in Vietnam.Vietnam's medium-term financing plan for 2016-2020, adopted by the National As-sembly in November 2016, envisages a gradual fiscal adjustment over the next four years. The plan aims to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3.5 per cent of the GDP by 2020.According to a document produced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Vi-etnam's economic situation released two months ago, the IMF executive board "con-


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sidered the tightening of the fiscal stance as appropriate and welcomed the authorities' intentions to ensure that consolidation is growth-friendly. They also concurred with the intention to reduce the deficit to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2020 and to maintain public debt below the legal limit of 65 per cent of GDP."According to the National Assembly Economic Committee, by late March 2017, Viet-nam's public debts hit 61.5 per cent of the GDP. It is expected that by late 2017, the rate may reach about 64.6 per cent ($141 billion) of the GDP, almost hitting the 65 per cent limit set by the National Assembly.http://www.vir.com.vn/adb-applauds-vietnam-on-reducing-deficit.html

Hanoi on track to fulfil annual revenue target


The capital city of Hanoi's officials have announced that the total city's revenue this year is projected to exceed the targeted revenue by 1.04 percent and increase by 15.8 percent over last year's figure.The figures were announced at a conference the Hanoi People's Committee held on September 28 to review the city's finance for the first nine months of this year and make decisions to manage the city's budget in the remaining months of the year.The city's revenue for the first nine months of the year reached VND146.4 trillion (US$6.5 billion), meeting 71.5 percent of the year's targeted revenue, according to re-port of the city's Department of Planning and Investment.It is estimated that the total city revenue for the entire year will reach over VND207.6 trillion (US$9.2 billion).Nguyen Manh Quyen, the department's director, also emphasized that the city's in-vestment and business environment had improved.Hanoi ranked 14th on the provincial competitiveness index (PCI) in 2016. It scored 60.74 points, up 10 levels compared to 2015.The average consumer price index in the first nine months was up by 3.5-3.55 percent over the same period last year. The average CPI in 2017 is estimated to increase by 3.05-3.11 percent compared to 2016.Hanoi also ranked third among 63 provinces and cities in the country in the 2016 ad-ministrative reform index.Besides the results, Quyen also mentioned some shortcomings in the city's economic performance this year. Industrial growth is increasing slowly and competitiveness is not high. Violations on construction regulations, public land laws and mining rules persist.Other issues such as health examination and treatment, quality of medicine, food safe-ty and hygiene have improved, but not yet met the people's demands.Quyen said that until the end of the year, the city will carry out drastic measures to manage revenue collection, stimulate consumption and ensure market stability for the coming Tet (Lunar New Year holidays) to achieve the growth target of 8.5 percent in 2017.http://english.vov.vn/economy/hanoi-on-track-to-fulfil-annual-revenue-target-359430.vov

FDI grows 34pct from last year


Foreign direct investment (FDI) registered in Vietnam reached a record $25.48 billion in the first nine months of this year, up 34.3 per cent year-on-year.Of the sum, $14.56 billion came from 1,844 new projects, up 30.4 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Foreign Investment Agency.Another $6.75 billion was added to 878 existing projects, 28.3 per cent higher than the same period last year.The remainder of the FDI, worth $4.16 billion, came from 3,742 deals made by foreign investors to contribute capital to businesses and to buy shares of Vietnamese business-es, jumping 64 per cent compared with last year's corresponding period.During the reviewed period, FDI disbursement also saw a positive yearly increase of


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13.4 per cent to $12.5 billion, according to the data.Exports of foreign-invested enterprises (including crude oil) are estimated at $110.8 billion, up 21 per cent over last year, accounting for 72 per cent of the country's total export turnover. Excluding crude oil, this figure is $108.5 billion, up 21 per cent.Manufacturing and processing industries remained the top sector, receiving $12.64 bil-lion, comprising 49.6 per cent of the total registered FDI.The electricity production and distribution sector ranked second with $5.34 billion, ac-counting for 21 per cent of the total FDI. The mining sector was in third place with $1.58 billion, totalling 6.2 per cent.From January to September, South Korea retained its position as the leading investor in Vietnam with $6.31 billion, and 24.7 per cent of the FDI pledged to the country. It was followed by Japan with $5.91 billion, or 23.2 per cent of the FDI, and Singapore with $4.14 billion, or 16.2 per cent.Among 59 localities receiving FDI during the nine-month period, the southern eco-nomic hub of HCM City was at the top with $3.74 billion, accounting for 14.6 per cent of the country's total FDI.The central province of Thanh Hoa was the runner-up with $3.15 billion, or 12.4 per cent of the total FDI. Northern Bac Ninh Province came third with $3.14 billion, or 12.3 per cent.In a separate report, the southern province of Dong Nai said it had nearly achieved its FDI target set for the whole year.The province, which is listed among the country's top 10 leading localities in terms of attracting FDI, granted licences to 55 new foreign-invested projects and allowed 84 ex-isting projects to add capital in the first nine months of this year with a total amount of $955.5 million, equivalent to 95.5 per cent of the annual target.According to the provincial Department of Planning and Investment, $339.4 million was poured into new projects and the remaining was added to operational projects. The province is currently home to 1,300 valid foreign-invested projects worth $26.27 billion by investors from 45 countries and territories. The leading investors are South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.http://www.vir.com.vn/fdi-grows-34-from-last-year.html

Vegetable, fruit exports estimated at 2.64 billion USD


Exports of fruits and vegetables in the first nine months of the year are estimated at 2.64 billion USD, a year-on-year surge of 44.2 percent, according to the Ministry of Ag-riculture and Rural Development (MARD).China, the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea are largest import markets of Vietnam which all together occupy 85.4 percent of total vegetable and fruit export value. Mean-while, strong export growth was recorded in Japan (64.6 percent), the United Arab Emirates (64.4 percent) and China (60.2 percent).The MARD said that unfavourable weather conditions, especially recent storms, af-fected vegetable and fruit supply in July and August. However, the market has seen signs of recovery recently.In the nine-month period, the country splashed out 1.15 billion USD on purchasing fruits and vegetables from foreign countries, up 78.2 percent from the same time last year.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vegetable-fruit-exports-estimated-at-264 billion-usd/118807.vnp

VN strives for chicken meat export to EU


Deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam held a working session with Dutch company January Zandbergen and some partners exporting live-stock products to the European Union.During the meeting in Hanoi on Thursday, the Dutch company's representative said the EU's 500 million people market has high demand for chicken meat and it currently imports the meat mainly from Brazil, Thailand and Ukraine.


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In 2017, the EU had demand for 950,000 tonnes of chicken meat, 85 per cent of which is chicken breast. January Zandbergen plans to import 85,000 tonnes of poultry, pork and beef worth 400 million euros.January Zandbergen's representative advised Vietnam to export processed chicken meat to the EU, as when the Vietnam-EU free trade agreement takes effect, tax will be cut to zero per cent and Vietnamese chicken meat will not be subject to any EU quota.However, he stressed that Vietnamese firms should meet all quarantine-related re-quirements, especially food safety regulations, origin and disease tracking rules.Pham Van Dong, head of the Department of Animal Health, said Vietnam has issued the Animal Health Law and 13 legal documents in the field, and the country has full capacity to satisfy all requirements of choosy markets, including Japan.Dong proposed that January Zandbergen consider investing in building a processing facility meeting EU standards in Vietnam.Deputy minister Tam said Vietnam has shipped the first batch of chicken breast to Ja-pan after adhering to all the strict requirements on food safety.He hoped that Vietnam would export chicken meat to the EU and other difficult mar-kets soon.http://bizhub.vn/news/vn-strives-for-chicken-meat-export-to-eu_289197.html

EU becomes Vietnam's top shrimp importer


Vietnam's shrimp exports to the EU market reached $483.6 million in the first eight months of this year, a rise of 30 percent over the same period last year, making the EU the top market of Vietnamese shrimp, the place which was earlier held by Japan.According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), leading European importers of Vietnamese shrimp were the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium, with growth of 46.5 percent, 47.8 percent and 34.1 percent, respectively.Currently, the major competitors of Vietnam in the EU market are India and Ecuador. While India is reducing shrimp exports to the EU, Ecuador and Vietnam are paying greater attention to the market.Particularly, the free trade agreement between Ecuador and the EU, which took effect from January 1, 2017, has offered Ecuador the preferential tax rate of zero percent from 3.6 percent earlier, enhancing the competitiveness of the country's shrimp.VASEP experts held that along with making full use of the Vietnam-EU FTA that is ex-pected to become effective in 2018 Vietnamese firms should also meet requirements of the EU in quarantine, packing, and labeling.At the same time, domestic enterprises should also improve their capacity and product quality, while building plans to cope with challenges in the market. They are also ad-vised to pay more attention to labeling and quarantine.Currently, the EU currently consumes about 30 percent of shrimp in the world, with about $6-8 billion per year. The market's shrimp imports increased to $6.7 billion in 2016 from $5.6 billion in 2007.http://english.vov.vn/economy/eu-becomes-vietnams-top-shrimp-importer-359437.vov

US approves star apple fruit imports from Vietnam


Vietnam will be the first country globally allowed to export star apple fruits to the US.The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under the US Department of Agricul-ture on September 27 sent a document to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Devel-opment (MARD) officially approving the import of the Vietnamese fruits, after a notice to the same effect was published by the US Federal Registrar in April.Star apple joins litchi, longan, rambutan and dragon fruits to enter the US from Viet-nam, thanks to the country's efforts over the last 10 years to meet plant quarantine standards.Hoang Trung, head of the MARD's Plant Protection Department, said similar to other fruits which have been approved for export to the US, star apple must be planted in coded areas and treated with irradiation and checked for eight kinds of insects.


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After receiving the US notice, several Vietnamese businesses in the southern region registered for star apple export, he said, noting that shipments may be conducted in 2017.Vietnam has about 5,000 ha of star apple fruits, mostly in the Mekong Delta, especially Tien Giang and Can Tho, which yield about 60,000 tonnes annually.Vietnamese star apple has been exported to China and other Asean nations. Vietnam is also waiting for authorisation from the Republic of Korea to ship the fruit to the mar-ket.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/us-approves-star-apple-fruit-imports-from-vietnam/118724.vnp

VN to reach $70b trade with S Korea


Vietnam is likely to reach $70 billion of bilateral trade with South Korea by 2020, an official said at a seminar on export promotion to South Korea held on Friday in HCM City.Le An Hai, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Asia-Pacific Market Department, said bilateral trade between the two countries had soared 87-fold, from $500 million in 1992, to $43.4 billion last year.Last year, South Korea was the third largest trade partner (after Hong Kong and main-land China) and the fourth largest export market for Vietnam, according to the general Department of Customs.South Korea is the largest foreign-direct investment (FDI) investor among 120 coun-tries and territories with FDI projects in Vietnam, according to figures from the Minis-try of Planning and Investment.There are 6,130 FDI projects from South Korea in Vietnam, with total registered capital of $54 billion, according to the ministry.In addition, the free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the Republic of Ko-rea (VKFTA), which took effect in 2015, reduced more than 90 per cent of tariffs in a bid to increase Vietnamese exports to the country, according to Hai.The FTA has created new export opportunities for more than 500 Vietnamese prod-ucts, especially agro-forestry and aquatic products such as shrimp, crab and fish.Tropical fruit, garments and textiles, and wood and mechanical products will also ben-efit from the relaxation of tariffs, he said.Speaking at the seminar, Heo Songmoo, counsellor for food & drug safety affairs at the South Korean Embassy, said the Korean market has a population of more than 50 mil-lion and high food consumption. Food trade between Vietnam and South Korea reached $12 million in 2015.Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, Songmoo said food safety should match the country's high standard of imports, which is equivalent to standards required in the United States and Japan."Improving marketing tools as well as packaging (attractive, with sufficient informa-tion about the product) should be a top priority for Vietnamese exporters in order to compete with Thailand and others," he told Vietnam News.Meanwhile, Yoon Byung Soo, product strategy director at Lotte Vietnam Shopping Join-Stock Company, said Korean customers preferred healthy, high-quality products.Vietnam should diversify its products and pay more attention to product appearance and packaging as Korean consumers are willing to pay more for those features, he said.Nguyen Minh Phuong, a representative from CJ Freshway Vietnam, said that Korean standards were very high, particularly for agricultural products, creating a tough bar-rier for Vietnamese exporters.South Korea exports to Vietnam are mostly machinery and equipment, computers, electronics and parts, raw materials for textile and garments, footwear, iron, steel and chemicals.Vietnam exports mainly textile and garments, telephones and parts, seafood, wood and wooden products, and footwear to South Korea.


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South Korea has an area one-third the size of Vietnam, but the country's population is 51.44 million. Due to inadequate food supply from domestic producers, South Korea depends heavily on imports of agricultural products.Vietnam, one of South Korea's most important trade partners, has great potential to be-come a strategic exporter of agricultural products to Korea, Phuong said.http://bizhub.vn/news/vn-to-reach-70b-trade-with-s-korea_289209.html

Vietnam, China seek measures to balance trade


Deputy minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh and his Chinese counterpart Gao Yan co-chaired the 10th meeting of the Vietnam-China Committee for Economic and Trade Cooperation in Hanoi, focusing on measures to reduce Vietnam's trade def-icit with China.They were delighted that Vietnam-China trade is growing towards a balanced man-ner.Vietnam's statistics showed that two-way trade reached 71.9 billion USD in 2016, a rise of 7.9 percent over the previous year, while trade deficit reduced 13.67 percent year-on-year.By the end of August this year, trade between the two countries hit 55.2 billion USD, up 23.59 percent over the same period last year, with Vietnam running a deficit of 17.7 billion USD, down 5.76 percent.China continued to be Vietnam's top trade partner, while Vietnam was China's biggest partner in Asean and ninth biggest in the world.The Chinese side agreed to speed up the evaluation of Vietnamese milk and dairy products, while stepping up the quarantine of Vietnamese fruits before allowing the import of these products to China.At the same time, the two sides discussed a wide range of issues to manage the quality of Vietnamese rice in the Chinese market, while concurring to increase the exchange of information to facilitate the export of rice and alive pigs to China.Both countries will encourage businesses and relevant trade associations to foster con-nections to increase the export of Vietnamese farm produce, aquatic products and fruits to China.They also recognised the effective operation of Vietnam's Trade Promotion Office in China's Chongqing city in bolstering bilateral economic and trade cooperation and supporting businesses of both sides. The Chinese side is finalising procedures to ap-prove the formation of a similar office in Hangzhou on the occasion of the Chinese leaders' visit to Vietnam and attend the Apec Summit in November this year.They will work together to deal with problems in joint projects, such as the Cat Linh Ha Dong urban railway project, while discussing the signing of an agreement on co-operation in some additional projects in the future.Both sides will also negotiate for the early signing of a protocol replacing the 1992 Vi-etnam-China border railway protocol, and launch a feasibility study for the use of Chi-na's aid package worth 1 billion CNY (nearly 150 million USD) to build a traditional medicine academy in Vietnam in 2017.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-china-seek-measures-to-balance-trade/118735.vnp

Trade defence investigations: Ministry discusses experiences


The Ministry of Industry and Trade on Friday held a conference in Hanoi to discuss experiences of coping with trade defence investigations initiated by Australia.Nguyen Phuong Nam, deputy director of the ministry's Trade Defence Department, said in the past two years, Australia had hastened the imposition of trade defence in-struments on Vietnamese products.Recently, Vietnam successful dealt with Australia's investigation of anti-dumping and anti-subsidisation of extruded aluminum and galvanised steel, with the Australian Anti-Dumping Commission reportedly dropped the cases following more than one year of investigation.Nam said these cases proved that besides the government's efforts, enterprises must also be active in trade defence.


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According to Dinh Anh Tuyet, a lawyer from boutique law firm IDVN, to successfully appeal against trade defence investigations, Vietnam should study subsidy-related ac-cusations carefully. The process would require close coordination among relevant ministries, associations and firms to collect information and present it to the investiga-tor.Producers should also analyse questionnaires and prepare their response carefully."Firstly, it is important that firms must provide information and send their answers on time, as well as show a cooperative attitude towards the investigation process," Tuyet said.According to Vu Van Thanh, deputy director general of Hoa Sen Group, a Vietnamese steel producer who recently dealt with Australia's anti-dumping investigation, said lo-cal producers and lawyers were still inexperienced in coping with trade-defence cases.In particular, local firms were still hesitant to provide information to the investigator because some of it could be sensitive and might affect their business, which would re-sult in a conclusion to impose trade defence instruments.Thanh said local firms must cooperate with the investigator and set up a department that specialised in handling trade defence issues.http://bizhub.vn/news/trade-defence-investigations-ministry-discusses-experiences_289203.html

Ministry relaxes requirements for strategic investors in equitised SOEs


The Ministry of Finance is about to finish an amended government decree replacing Decree 59/2011/ND-CP on equitisation of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in which the ministry seeks to relax a slew of requirements for strategic investors.According to the draft decree, strategic investors must meet requirements on financial capacity, and their businesses must be profitable for the last two years.Besides, strategic investors must have written pledges to be active in the same sectors of equitised SOEs, and maintain their brands for at least three years.Notably, strategic investors must not transfer the State stakes they purchase in three years instead of the current five years, and must have plans to support equitised SOEs such as technology transfer and personnel training.As such, they will be obliged to pay compensation if they breach their written commit-ments.The draft stipulates the sale of State stakes shall be executed upon a certain auction in which the selling price is not lower than the average bid price in the initial public of-fering.In comparison with the current regulations prescribed in Decree 59, the ministry has relaxed regulations for strategic investors in equitised SOEs in the draft decree whose aim is to attract potential investors.For example, the draft decree requires strategic investor to be profitable for two con-secutive years instead of the current three years.In addition, the current decree requires them to maintain the business sector of equi-tised SOEs without stating a particular length of time, while the draft rule puts it at three years, after which the investors can change the business fields of equitised SOEs.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/56370/Ministry-relaxes-requirements-for-strategic-investors-in-equitised-SOEs.html

Ministry's historic move eliminates hundreds of business prerequisites

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

Half of total business and investment necessary preconditions have been eliminated under a Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) decision, praised as a historic move that aims to create favourable conditions for businesses.MOIT eliminated 675 business and investment requirements, or 55.5 percent of the to-tal preconditions for 27 business areas. With the move, the number of remaining con-ditions is 541 instead of the expected 752.Economists and the business circle applauded the decision, saying this is good news for Vietnam's business environment reform.


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"Anh (MOIT's minister) was very decisive in this issue. I believe that if other ministries follow the same approach, Vietnam will be able to make big leaps in reforming its busi-ness environment," VCCI's legal department director Dau Anh Tuan said.After CIEM (the Central Institute for Economic Management) and VCCI (Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry) announced survey results which showed that businesses complained about too many required business conditions, MOIT analysed the results and accelerated reform.Nguyen Dinh Cung from CIEM called this a 'historic decision', which had never oc-curred because no ministry and watchdog agency has proposed removing business li-censes.He said that MOIT's decision will be both pressure and encouragement for other min-istries to take the same action."As MOIT has cut a high number of 675 business preconditions, the removal of 10 or 15 more won't matter," Cung said.In an interview given to a local newspaper, he said Vietnam has no other choice except the reforming of the business environment in order to mobilise more resources from society.Cung is well known in Vietnam as one of the compilers of the Enterprise Law which pursues the principle that 'businesses can do what is not prohibited by law'.Pham Chi Lan, a respected economist, said that business conditions and the ask-and-grant mechanism have been 'eroding the strength and enthusiasm' of businesses for years'.However, many things will need to be done to carry out the MOIT's plan.Nguyen Quang Dong, an independent expert on public policy, said it is necessary to continue the reform to maintain the achievements. If there is no institutional reform as-sociated with the elimination, business conditions will be re-established in the future.Meanwhile, Lan noted that though MOIT has cut a high number of business precondi-tions, it still maintains over 500 others. She believes the ministry should consider re-moving more conditions which are unreasonable and unnecessary.In related news, the Ministry of Planning & Investment (MPI) has submitted to the government a plan to remove more than 2,000 business conditions.http://english.vov.vn/economy/ministrys-historic-move-eliminates-hundreds-of-business-prerequisites-359521.vov

PM holds policy dialogue with leading private firms


Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc held a policy dialogue with 14 chairmen and gen-eral directors of leading private enterprises in Hanoi on September 30.PM Phuc praised the production and business achievements of the participating firms, which, he described as important contributions to the economy.The PM said he wants the businesses to frankly talk about their difficulties and chal-lenges, stressing that the dialogue was a concrete action to carry out the Resolution on the development of the private sector, which was adopted at the 12th Party Central Committee's 5th plenum.The government leader highlighted the recent substantial progress achieved by the private sector, but also pointed to a lack of large-scale private companies. Most of Vi-etnamese private enterprises are of small-, medium- and micro-sized firms, he said.PM Phuc affirmed that the government will collect feedback from the companies to complete relevant policies, improve the business climate, and remove bottlenecks in order facilitate the private sector's development.According to the Business Development Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the private economic sector contributes 43.22 percent to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), accounts for 39 percent of the total social investment, and generates 11.9 percent of all jobs. Meanwhile, the State economic sector contrib-utes 28.69 percent to the GDP.In 2016, the number of newly-established enterprises nationwide hit a new record with more than 110,000, up 16 percent annually. In the first nine months of 2017, an addi-


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tional 94,000 firms were established with a combined registered capital of 900 trillion VND (39.6 billion USD).https://en.vietnamplus.vn/pm-holds-policy-dialogue-with-leading-private-firms/118769.vnp

Industry, trade ministry affirms no beer stamping policy

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| SGGP NEWS

The Ministry of Industry and Trade yesterday affirmed that the ministry has no policy of stamping beer products and that is just a proposal by Vietnam Beer Alcohol Bever-age Association (VBA).The move was made after some media agencies posted information that beer stamping policy might aggravate cost burden on businesses and increase beer product prices.Previously in 2011, the ministry together with other ministries and agencies studied a project to improve state management ability to beer production and trading to tackle illicit and counterfeit beer, which caused the budget a loss of VND3 trillion (US$132 million) a year.Of these, Vietnam Beer Alcohol Beverage Association (VBA) proposed to stamp all lo-cally made and imported beer products before they are sold in the market.This solution will help the state increase budget revenue over VND2 trillion, business-es save costs on label, stamp and design to cope with illicit and counterfeit goods.However, the ministry has not considered the solution finding it might increase costs for businesses.It will study other solutions to ensure legitimate rights and benefits for consumers and businesses instead.At present, the country has 119 beer production establishments. Each of them produc-es 20-25 million litres a year.Last year, total output reached 3.78 billion litres and budget revenue hit VND30 trillion ($1.32 billion).http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/187474/industry--trade-ministry-affirms-no-beer-stamping-policy.html

Hai Phong attracts over $870 million of FDI in nine months


The northern port city of Hai Phong attracted more than $870 million of foreign direct investment (FDI) during the January-September period, fulfilling just nearly 30 per-cent of its target set for 2017.The Hai Phong Economic Zone Management Board said industrial parks which are lo-cated outside economic zones are facing difficulties in investment attraction as they have received lower incentives.The board also pointed out limited capacity and experience of a number of investors, along with obstacles in land clearance and compensation, leading to the unexpected number.Given this, Chair of the municipal People's Committee Nguyen Van Tung has asked agencies and localities to continue the administrative reform towards openness and transparency, build the e-authority and further improve the investment climate.He also underlined the need to raise the provincial competitiveness index (PCI) during 2017-2018 and absolutely tackle recommendations of enterprises at monthly business dialogues.Le Trung Kien, director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment, said the city will focus its budget on key projects and continue to complete local socio-eco-nomic infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure.Apart from partnering with ministries and agencies to speed up the implementation of major projects, the city will also complete infrastructure in industrial parks and clus-ters, particularly the Dinh Vu-Cat Hai economic zone, and connect these industrial parks and clusters together.With these efforts, Hai Phong is expected to lure about $1.1 billion of FDI in 2017.http://english.vov.vn/economy/hai-phong-attracts-over-us870 million-of-fdi-in-nine-months-359436.vov


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VND94.5 trillion of capital pledged for Hau Giang


Enterprises and associations have signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) to invest a whopping VND94.5 trillion (US$4.16 billion) into the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang.The MOUs were signed at an investment promotion conference themed Hau GiangPo-tentialities of Investment and Development organised in the province on September 28. The organisations involved in the deals include JinkoSolar International Develop-ment Co Ltd, Viet-Lao Power JSC, the Australian Chamber of Commerce, the Korean Trader Association, and the Japan Business Association in Vietnam.At the conference graced by prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the provincial gov-ernment also awarded investment certificates to five projects worth a combined VND1.9 trillion. These projects are invested by Aquaone Water JSC, Hamaco Hau Giang Concrete Company, Sunpet JSC, and Southern Construction JSC.According to Dong Van Thanh, vice chair of the Hau Giang People's Committee, the province has attracted 489 projects of domestic enterprises with total capital of over VND123.4 trillion and 29 foreign invested projects capitalised at $809 million.There are currently 40 investors developing 47 projects in the province's industrial zones with total domestic capital of more than VND68.1 trillion and foreign direct in-vestment (FDI) capital of $764 million.At the conference, the provincial government called for investment in seven projects, including high-quality rice processing area for export, phase one of Dong Phu Indus-trial Zone, Nhon Nghia A Industrial Zone, phase three of Phu Huu A Industrial Zone, Vi Thanh City's residential area, Lung Ngoc Hoang Ecotourism Area, and Hau Giang Hi-tech Agricultural Zone.In regard to the Mekong Delta, the deputy director of the Vietnam Chamber of Com-merce and Industry's (VCCI) Can Tho Branch, Nguyen Phuong Lam, said the delta had attracted nearly 1,400 FDI projects with a total investment of $19.65 billion as of August 2017.Particularly, there have been some projects in wind power and technology develop-ment.Wrapping up the conference, prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc spoke highly of the conference's positive outcomes and significant contributions to promoting investment in Hau Giang.Phuc suggested the province develop hi-tech agriculture, attach environmental protec-tion to economic development and map out incentive policies for Hau Giang Hi-Tech Agricultural Zone.Besides, the province should have a clear vision of its long-term development and ac-tively help local businesses ride out their difficulties.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/56368/VND945 trillion-of-capital-pledged-for-Hau-Giang.html

HCM City industry parks need new plan


Industrial and processing parks in HCM City have not developed to their potential due to poor infrastructure and a lack of connection among the parks, delegates said at a weekend seminar.Speaking on the 25th anniversary of the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zone Authority (HEPZA), Nguyen Thien Nhan, the municipal party secretary said: "Related authorities and HEPZA should review and clarify a new development plan for industrial and processing parks based on high-tech enterprises."Former assistant of the minister of planning and investment Nguyen Van Kich con-firmed that HCM City was the first locality in Vietnam to open and lead the develop-ment of industrial and processing parks, but recently, its role in industrial and processing parks has declined."The development master plan of industrial and processing parks hasn't clarified inter-regional, inter-industry and production chain connectivity," he said.


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HCM City forgotten"In particular, the role of HCM City as the biggest economic hub in Vietnam has been forgotten. In the past, industrial and processing parks in HCM City were not always able to anticipate and prepare for key sectors that require high technology, high intel-ligence and high competitiveness, such as electronics, information technology, tele-communications, bio-tech and engineering," Kich added.Professor Nguyen Trong Hoai from HCM City Economics University suggested that HEPZA should encourage industrial clusters to create close linkages with support in-dustries. "Existing industrial parks should be improved under the principle of a strong connection among manufacturing enterprises and the consumption system," he said.Hoai also urged that all enterprises still located in residential areas should be moved into industrial parks to help protect the environment of those areas.Former director of Tan Thuan Limited company Phan Chanh Duong called on HEPZA to create economic development on a foundation of industrial and processing parks."Right now, industrial and processing parks should not only be concerned about how to attract investors but they also should participate in promoting technological inno-vation with existing enterprises as well as promoting the development of industrial and processing parks in line with specific professional requirements," Duong said.Twenty-five years after the first industrial and processing park was established, 4,500 hectares out of a total of 8,900 hectares in 19 parks have been put in use."Most projects are small and the proportion of high-tech, high-value added projects are small too," Nguyen Hoang Nang, head of the HEPZA, said."Master planning hasn't met the demands of development. There are so many small industrial parks located in different places and there is no connection between them," he added."Industrial and processing parks haven't used land for social welfare projects.""The most important thing is that the "one-gate" management model being applied for HEPZA hasn't been established by law, only at the decree level. Therefore, it is very hard for us to manage and to develop," Nang added.http://bizhub.vn/news/hcm-city-industry-parks-need-new-plan_289216.html

Retail premises in HCM City's CBD in high demand


Even though retail premises in the central business district (CBD) of HCM City are be-coming more scarce and the rents are increasing, premises far from the centre are still unpopular with new retailers.H&M on September 9 opened its first store, located on the ground floor of Vincom B Shopping centre in the central HCM City District 1.A shop distributing the products of a luxury fashion brand from the UK was located there in the past.Jones Lang LaSalle Vietnam's CEO Stephen Wyatt said the strategy by fashion brands and retail chains to expand their networks will heat up the HCM City retail premises market.In June 2017, 7-Eleven entered Vietnam. Nikkei reported that the Japanese retail brand plans to develop 100 shops in Vietnam after three years and 1,000 shops after 10 years of operation in Vietnam.In the immediate time, the first shops will be opened in CBDs.Recently, GS Retail set up a joint venture with Vietnam's Son Kim Group which will run the GS25 convenience store chain in Vietnam.A representative of Son Kim said the first GS25 shop would open in HCM City in De-cember.Trang Bui from JLL Vietnam said the occupancy rate in the Vietnamese retail premises market is relatively high. The rate at Saigon Trade centre and Vincom in district 1 is now 100 percent.The gross rent at CBD shopping centers is $73.4 per square metre per month, an in-crease of 1.8 percentage points quarterly.The premises are mostly leased to foreign brands. In non-CBD areas, the gross rent is


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$37.4, up by 0.2 percent point.Nguyen Hong Trang, CEO of Son Kim Fashion, a subsidiary of Son Kim, noted that in the past, the demand was especially high for the retail premises on Dong Khoi street, but now, the premises on Nguyen Hue, Nguyen Trai and Hai Ba Trung streets are also in very high demand.She noted that the premises rent has never soared so dramatically. "The rent has in-creased by 30 percent, or even 100 percent in some areas," she said.The expense on retail premises now account for 30-35 percent of enterprises' total retail turnover, while it was 25 percent five years ago.The brand director of a HCM City-based company said that shops in CBD just aim to help the company increase its presence and brand identity, and do not bring profit as the purchasing power cannot catch up with the increase in retail premises rent.Meanwhile, investors of premises in other areas have to struggle to look for clients. In district 7, more than 22,000 square meters of retail premises at an apartment bloc are still not fully occupied, even after five years.http://english.vov.vn/economy/retail-premises-in-hcm-citys-cbd-in-high-demand-359400.vov

Hai Phong infrastructure boom paves the way for stellar rise in FDI ranks


Besides enhancing policies and facilitating administrative procedures, new and up-graded infrastructure to bring Vietnam closer to the rest of the world has made Hai Phong more attractive in investors' eyes and as a result, investment flows into the city have spiked in recent years.Major infrastructure investmentsOn September 2, the Tan Vu-Lach Huyen sea-crossing bridge (part of the Tan Vu-Lach Huyen Highway project) was completed and taken into operation, creating a trade connection between the island district of Cat Hai and Hai Phong. Previously, travel-ling by ferry from Dinh Vu ferry station to Cat Hai took about one hour, with only two ferry crossings scheduled per day. Thanks to the new bridge, the trip to Cat Hai now takes less than 30 minutes.The construction of the Tan Vu-Lach Huyen Highway and Bridge is one of the main components in the Lach Huyen Port infrastructure project. Upon completion, Lach Huyen Port will be the new international gateway to northern Vietnam.This project on the Tan Vu-Lach Huyen Highway and Bridge will directly connect Ha-noi-Hai Phong Highway, National Highway 5, the Hanoi-Hai Phong railway, Noi Bai-Halong Highway, and Cat Bi International Airport to create a five-mode transporta-tion system. Currently, the Km2+700-Km15+630 section has been completed. Other sections are expected to be finished in the fourth quarter of 2018.The first 750-metre piers are under construction at Lach Huyen Port. Upon completion, they will be the first two deepsea ports in northern Vietnam, boasting enough capacity to handle container ships weighing up to 100,000 deadweight tonnes and ensure the annual carriage of 12-14 million tonnes of cargo. By July, 97 per cent of the integral con-struction work was completed. The port is expected to be put into operation by May 2018. Investors in northern Vietnam can expect direct shipments to a large variety of ports in Asia, Europe, and the US without the need for transhipment.With the high growth rate of cargo throughput in Hai Phong's existing ports, the con-struction of Lach Huyen Port is necessary to support the increasing demand for ship-ments. Le Van Thanh, Secretary of the Hai Phong Party Committee, said that investors are ready to build numerous ports in Lach Huyen.Furthermore, the prime minister has given in-principle approval for Port of Hai Phong JSC to invest in berths Number 3 and 4.Cat Bi International Airport, which is ranked as a 4E airport in accordance with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, was put into operation in 2016. Approximately 50 flights per day are scheduled to take off from Cat Bi Interna-tional Airport, connecting Hai Phong via air with various locations in Vietnam and abroad, such as direct flights to South Korea, Thailand, and China. Flights to new des-


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tinations such as Japan are expected to be announced in the future.It is anticipated that at the end of 2017, Vietjet Air will start the construction of Cat Bi Terminal 2, which will handle eight to 10 million passengers a year. This terminal is needed to deal with the rapid growth of passengers in Cat Bi International Airport, es-pecially as the existing terminal is forecast to exceed the maximum number of allowed passengers by 2019. Today, all major traffic infrastructures are close to completion. Thanks to this new and rapid development, Hai Phong has attracted several investors, especially to the Dinh Vu-Cat Hai Economic Zone (EZ).New opportunitiesAt the inauguration ceremony of the new Tan Vu-Lach Huyen bridge, prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that the sea-crossing bridge will complete the regional trans-portation system, and thereby, enable cargo transportation in the economic triangle of Hanoi-Hai Phong-Quang Ninh.Since Hai Phong's traffic infrastructure construction projects were started, investment flows into the city have been consistently rising. 2016 was a good year for the city, as total foreign direct investment (FDI) hit nearly $3 billion, signalling Hai Phong's entry into the ranks of Vietnam's leading FDI destinations.After the inauguration of Tan Vu-Lach Huyen Bridge, Vingroup announced its $3.5 billion Vinfast automobile manufacturing complex on Cat Hai Island, part of the Dinh Vu-Cat Hai EZ. This project is expected to contribute VND20 trillion ($880 million) to Hai Phong's budget by 2025.The 500-hectare Deep C 3 developed by Deep C Industrial Zones, a partnership be-tween Belgium's Rent-A-Port NV and the Hai Phong People's Committee and part of the 2,000ha Deep C network of IZs in Hai Phong, will soon open for business. Deep C is set to become the country's most competitive location for the logistics and automo-bile industries, a great advantage for the Vinfast complex.Both domestic and international investors have realised Hai Phong's potential and are seizing the opportunity to invest in the city of ports. Infrastructure investments such as Lach Huyen Port, the international gateway Tan Vu-Lach Huyen Bridge, Hanoi-Hai Phong Highway, and Cat Bi International Airport will help Hai Phong attract addi-tional billions of US dollars in future FDI.Statistics from the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Foreign Investment Agency show that as of August 20, there were 588 foreign-invested projects in Hai Phong with a total registered capital of more than $15 billion. Hai Phong ranks seventh among the 63 cities and provinces in Vietnam."FDI statistics show that Hai Phong is becoming a popular investment destination for foreign investors. During the last five years, Hai Phong has attracted a significant amount of FDI, and worked its way into the top 10 cities and provinces attracting the most FDI in Vietnam," said Nguyen Van Tung, Chair of the Hai Phong People's Com-mittee.Investors in Hai Phong can enjoy improved amenities, such as an international hospi-tal, international schools, housing and hotel services, as well as shopping trips to the newly-announced AEON shopping mall. AEON Mall Vietnam, a leading commercial real estate developer from Japan, will soon start building a 9.3ha shopping mall in Le Chan district, with an investment capital of $180 million. The construction will take about two years, following the memorandum of understanding signed on September 20 with the Hai Phong tourist promotion centre.Infrastructure development spurs Hai Phong's economic growth2016 witnessed a very high gross regional domestic product in the city, up 11 per cent on 2015. In 2016, Hai Phong's contribution to the national budget reached a record high of VND62.64 trillion ($2.8 billion). In the first eight months of 2017, Hai Phong contrib-uted VND46.33 trillion ($2 billion) to the national budget, an increase of nearly 20 per cent compared to the same period last year. During this period, 58 million tonnes of cargo were transported through Hai Phong's ports, a rise of more than 14 per cent.http://www.vir.com.vn/haiphong-infrastructure-boom-paves-the-way-for-stellar-rise-in-fdi-ranks.html


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PM urges Hanoi to build green, smart city


Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has urged the capital city of Hanoi to develop in the direction of a green, smart city based on the rule of law during a working session with the city's officials on September 29.The PM hailed the city for improved business climate and administrative reform, and for leading in the new rural development campaign. The rate of poor households in the city has been reduced to 1.7 percent. It also leads the country in human develop-ment index in culture, school education, health care and sports.He also spoke highly of many innovative ideas and the successful application of scien-tific and technological advances in management of the capital city.According to the PM, the biggest challenge for Hanoi is how to manage a mega urban area, along with those relating to production model transform, workforce training, technological application, resources for infrastructure development, and public serv-ices. He particularly singled out the problem in urban construction in the city.Suggesting several action plans, the PM stressed the need for Hanoi to work closely with neighbouring localities to minimise policy overlapping and fully tapping land re-sources, while continuing to enhance the management capacity of the contingent of public servants in combination with corruption prevention.He required Hanoi to continue to work to meet criteria for a city of peace, especially those regarding social and residential community, and maintain its status as a cultural city representing Vietnamese culture.At the same time, Hanoi should push forward with building a transparent and equal business environment, putting the citizens and enterprises at the centre of its services, PM Phuc said, urging the municipal authorities to continue pooling public resources, especially from the private economic sector, to raise capital for infrastructure works such as metro lines.In his opinion, it is necessary to issue a decentralisation mechanism for the city in line with the law.The PM recommended that the city relocate universities, businesses, hospitals out of the inner area to ease traffic jams, which have become a pressing issue for local resi-dents.Regarding the problem, deputy prime minister Trinh Dinh Dung suggested Hanoi re-duce population in inner areas through building high-quality urban areas in the sub-urbs and accelerating the progress of urban railway routes to ease traffic congestion.Deputy prime minister Truong Hoa Binh called for issuing a special mechanism for Hanoi to enable the capital city to develop more rapidly.Expressing impression over the rearrangement of Hanoi public administrative appa-ratus, deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue agreed with the city's proposals and urged all possible policy support to Hanoi and amendments to the Law on the Capital City.Chair of the municipal People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung reported at the meet-ing that the city collected 146.4 trillion VND (6.36 billion USD) for the State budget in the first nine months this year, or 71.5 percent of the estimate and up 16.2 percent an-nually.The city attracted 398 foreign-invested projects with a registered capital of 2.16 billion USD, 22 others in public-private partnership worth an estimated 60 trillion VND in the period. At the same time, the city recorded 18,685 newly-established firms, up 10 per-cent year-on-year, raising the total number of operating businesses to 225,700.Hanoi ranked third among 63 cities and provinces nationwide in terms of the public administration reform (PAR) index, up 6 places from 2015, and was placed second in terms of readiness for technological application. The rate of business registration on-line hit 96 percent while tax e-filing and electronic customs procedures reached 98 per-cent and 100 percent, respectively.However, rampant violations of construction and land use rules along with serious traffic congestion are among major causes of public concern.


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http://english.vov.vn/economy/pm-urges-hanoi-to-build-green-smart-city-359475.vov

$1.87 billion projected for offshore fishing development


The total investment for the offshore fishing industry for the 2018-30 period has been projected to reach VND42.2 trillion (US$1.87 billion).The directorate of Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development released this information at a meeting held by the directorate on September 28 to dis-cuss the master planning for offshore fishing development, nationwide, by 2020, with orientation to 2030.Of the total capital, VND19.5 trillion or 46.2 per cent will be used during the 2018-20 period, and the rest is reserved for the 2021-30 period. The funds will be mobilised from the State budget, local budgets, all domestic economic sectors and foreign sup-ports.According to the directorate, the objective of the master plan is to industrialise the off-shore fishing industry by 2020 and modernise it by 2030, so that the sector's productiv-ity, quality and efficiency will be improved without harming fishery resources.Specifically, by 2020, the output of offshore fishing will remain at some 1.62 million tonnes. For offshore fishing vessels, the number of net trawlers will be reduced, while the number of fishing boats will be increased. The number of service ships will be some 1,480, thus creating jobs for some 231,100 offshore workers.By the year 2030, the exploited output and the number of offshore fishing vessels will remain the same as in 2020. The number of trawlers will continue to be reduced, and the number of fishing boats will continue to be increased. The number of service ships will be some 1,570, thus creating jobs for some 243,300 employees.Nguyen Van Trung, director of the directorate's Department of Exploitation, said that the issuance of this master plan would be necessary to manage fishing ships and catch output. Until now, localities had failed to do so, he said.According to deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vu Van Tam, the directorate of Fisheries should clarify issues such as the scope of fishing at sea, job shifting for local labourers, infrastructure for fishery services and shelters for boats to avoid storms.He added that the solutions should be implemented toward stabilising or reducing catching output, and improving quality to ensure the sustainable development of the sector.Therefore, Tam asked the directorate of Fisheries to study and revise the planning carefully so that this plan is in line with the 2017 Law of Fisheries and Law on Plan-ning, before it is submitted to the National Assembly at its next meeting.http://bizhub.vn/news/187 billion-projected-for-offshore-fishing-development_289198.html

High growth expected for VN's land lot segment


Many experts believe that the land lot segment has received significant attention from investors as evident from the increasing selling price and transaction numbers.Some even expect this segment could become "hot" in the near future.Statistics from the Department of Housing Management and Real Estate under the Ministry of Construction showed that in the first nine months of the year, total prop-erty inventory in the country was some VND26.2 trillion (US$1.15 billion), of which in-ventory of land lots of more than 3.1 million square metres accounted for the highest value -- equivalent to VND12.5 trillion.Experts and commercial real estate services firms said the land segment has regained the attention of investors.Thuy Lien in Hanoi's Hoang Mai District said her family used to spend money on buy-ing apartments, which could later be sold for profit. However, she felt investing in apartments was no longer a safe and attractive option. Instead, she was now buying land lots as a new avenue to gain profit.


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She explained that a significant number of apartments had been sold, leading to satu-ration of the segment and low liquidity. In addition, the apartments were dependent on construction progress, investors' reputation and legal disputes, in spite of a high in-vestment value. Investing in apartments was therefore riskier than putting money into land lots.Those with strong financial capacity bought land lot projects that were progressing slowly, and were therefore available at low prices. They then waited for the projects to speed up to sell at higher prices.Land lots in new urban areas had the advantages of available infrastructure, transport connectivity and better construction density in comparison with the older residential areas.In addition, the land lot segment had attracted investors as it met both the targets -- accommodation and investment.Most Vietnamese believed that the value of land would increase more than the value of apartments.In the past two years, the "fever" for land lots has been witnessed in the three large cit-ies of Hanoi, Da Nang and HCM City.For example, HCM City saw a high demand for land lots in the city's eastern area, while the price of land lots in Thanh Ha Cienco 5 in Hanoi's Ha Dong District rose by 1.5 to two times in comparison with the initial price.Nguyen Van Dinh, vice chair of the Vietnam Association of Estate Agents, said the market had witnessed a fluctuation in the selling price since March, with land lots see-ing the highest increase.This market segment is expected to see impressive growth rate in the near future, Dinh said.He said State management agencies should have solutions to stabilise the segment to prevent "virtual" price hike, causing negative effects on the market.The ministry said localities should publish information on planning and progress of transport, infrastructure and property projects to prevent a "fever" for the land lot seg-ment.http://bizhub.vn/property/high-growth-expected-for-vns-land-lot-segment_289212.html

Home sales slowdown in September in major cities


Home sales have slowed down significantly in September due to Vietnamese people's psychology of avoiding buying property assets in July of the Lunar Calendar also called the Month of Lonely Spirits.According to the Housing and Real Estate Market Management Department under the Ministry of Construction, initial reports of several property and real estate trading cen-tres, there were around 1,200 successful transactions in Hanoi in September, represent-ing a decline of 11 per cent over the previous month.Experts said that the market was weighed down by the pre-conceived notion of not buying homes in the Month of Lonely Spirits.In addition, a few new home sales were opened in this month.The supply came mainly from existing projects, mostly apartments of medium and high-end segments, while affordable homes were in a shortage.The department said that a few affordable and social housing projects started con-struction from the beginning of this year after the government's social housing stimu-lus package ended while other policies proved inefficient.In HCM City, there were around 1,300 successful transactions this month, dropping by 8 per cent against August.Successful transactions were mainly of high-end projects with advantageous location and a green living environment in the southern city.Affordable homes received great market attention but the supply was limited. Besides, land, townhouses and villas in districts with good infrastructure also showed good transactions.


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The department said that there were no significant changes in real estate prices in Sep-tember.Real estate inventories were estimated at VND26.3 trillion (US$11.5 billion) as of Sep-tember 20, representing a drop of 48.33 per cent over December 2015.http://bizhub.vn/property/home-sales-slowdown-in-september-in-major-cities_289181.html

Hanoi retail sector rising with real estate


The upward trend of investment into the Vietnamese retail sector is raising the number of retail stores in the country's big cities, which results in higher demand for prime lo-cations in attractive real estate projects.In the first eight months of 2017, it is estimated that the Vietnamese retail sector gen-erated nearly VND2.6 trillion ($114.4 million) in revenue, an increase of 8.9 per cent compared to the same period last year, after inflation-adjustment.Along with the rising investment into the retail sector and the continuous expansion of convenience stores and new retail models, the number of retail stores in Vietnam has been rapidly increasing, which leads to the growth of demand for prime locations.CBRE Vietnam, one of the leading commercial real estate services providers in the country, estimated that during the first three quarters of 2017, there were 36,000 square metres of gross floor area to open new retail stores in Hanoi. It is forecasted that the number of retail units in Hanoi will witness a growth of 8 per cent in the last three months of 2017, adding 44,000sq.m of gross floor area.In 2017, the supply of retail store locations in Hanoi remains pretty much stagnant. 35 per cent of retail projects are located in south-western Hanoi. 21.5 per cent of retail stores, including big shopping malls like AEON Mall Long Bien, Vincom centre Long Bien, and Savico Mall, are located in eastern Hanoi. 13 per cent of retail stores are lo-cated in the west, mainly in Cau Giay and Tu Liem districts.In the next few years, the retail sector in Hanoi is expected to develop along with the expansion of real estate and traffic infrastructure projects. Along with constructions stretching down Ring Road No.3 and the two urban railway metro lines, the projects on AEON Mall Hadong, as well as the shopping mall projects of Vincom and FLC Group, are forecasted to make the western, south-western, and southern regions of Hanoi more attractive in real estate investors' eyes.Also, the city's northern areas are expecting revival with Lotte Group's Ciputra Mall, which Lotte confirmed in early 2017 would be started soon.According to a survey of Nielsen, Vietnam's consumer confidence index reached a record peak during the past five years, which helped the country become the fifth most optimistic country on the globe. This demonstrates the prospects of the retail sector as well as optimism for personal finance and immediate spending of Vietnamese con-sumers.Nguyen Hoai An, head of Market Research and Consultancy at CBRE Vietnam, said that 2017 has witnessed the boom of fast fashion, which is a favourable condition for the growth of the Vietnamese real estate market, especially in big cities like Hanoi."Everyone is has seen pictures of long queues in front of newly opened international fashion stores, such as Zara or H&M. They have debuted in HCM City, the most pop-ulous and active city of Vietnam. After getting acquainted with the Vietnamese mar-ket, they will expand their store systems to Hanoi," An said.http://english.vov.vn/economy/hanoi-retail-sector-rising-with-real-estate-359491.vov

Real estate developers in small provinces do big business


Though provincial real estate developers are less known than bigger firms in Hanoi, HCM City and Da Nang, they are rivals with powerful financial capability.Nam Tien Lao Cai has signed a cooperation contract with InVision Hospitality on the management of Scenia Bay apartment project in Nha Trang.Nam Tien Lao Cai remains an unfamiliar name to the real estate market and not many people know why the company based in the mountainous province in the north chose


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to develop a project in the southern part of the central region.However, in Lao Cai, the name is better known. It is a big investor in hydropower, chemicals, construction and real estate development. Nam Tien Lao Cai has charter capital of VND500 billion and revenue of VND1.2 trillion.Thanh Hoa Construction Corporation in the central province of Thanh Hoa once sur-prised investors with the takeover of Sky Park Residence in Hanoi in a deal worth VND143 billion. This is a large project with two buildings, including a 25-storey office building and 35-storey apartment block.In Thanh Hoa province, where the company sets its head office, it has developed many large-scale projects including Hoang Long IZ and urban area and Ho Toan Thanh res-idential quarter. The company has been assigned by provincial authorities to build 30 schools, 18 hospitals and medical centers and other important works in the province.The takeover the 'golden land plot' owned by Sao Vang Rubber Company (SRC) at No 231 Nguyen Trai street in Hanoi once stirred up the public. Hoanh Son Group report-edly spent VND435 billion to help SRC relocate its factory to Chau Son IZ in Ha Nam province.Hoanh Son is unfamiliar to Hanoians, but it is well known in the central region because its name is associated with the building of the Vung Ang Economic Zone.A big real estate developer in Nha Trang City, Phuc Son Group is actually based in the northern province of Vinh Phuc. Though Phuc Son is still little known, its charter cap-ital is huge, VND1.5 trillion.The common characteristic of many provincial real estate groups is that they don't in-vest in their home regions, but tend to look for new promising land and are not afraid to compete with local real estate big developers.Cao Thi Thu Hien, CEO of Nam Tien Lao Cai, said competing with big players is un-avoidable and she has to be ready for the competition. The company based in the mountainous northwestern province is still seeking opportunities to develop resort projects in coastal cities of Nahtrang and Danang.http://english.vov.vn/economy/real-estate-developers-in-small-provinces-do-big-business-359485.vov

Kien Giang moves to develop supporting industry


The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang plans to disburse more than 19 billion VND (836,000 USD) to develop its supporting industry.According to the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, the province will in-vest in developing manufacturing mechanics, packaging production, electronic com-ponents, medium density fibreboard (MDF) wood, and footwear.Vice Chairwoman of the provincial People's Committee Le Thi Minh Phung said some supporting industry products will be developed in the near future such as metal, plas-tic and rubber components, electronics and spare parts, garment-textile and footwear materials.The province pledged to help businesses apply product quality management and busi-ness administration systems in line with international standards to increase their com-petitiveness, she said.Local authorities will also offer assistance in improving human resources quality and increasing connectivity between universities, research institutes, training facilities and enterprises, she added.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/kien-giang-moves-to-develop-supporting-industry/118761.vnp

Vietnamese, Thai firms seek to promote trade at business-matching event


Vietnamese and Thai businesses have enhanced trade promotion activities in the other country to achieve bilateral trade of $20 billion by 2020 as targeted by the two govern-ments, a Vietnam-Thailand Business Matching event heard in HCM City on Septem-ber 29.Pham Thanh Kien, director of the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, said


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SVietnam finance & business 2 October 2017

the trade has been grown rapidly in the last few years, topping $12.54 billion last year.Vietnam's exports were worth $3.69 billion, an increase of 15.9 per cent over 2015, while Thailand's exports grew by 6.9 per cent, he said.He told the Thais, who included executives from 13 major Thai companies in the food and beverages, cosmetics, and personal care industries, to meet and explore the possi-bility of collaboration with more than 30 Vietnamese companies taking part in the event.The event was organised by the Thai consulate in HCM City and Kasikorn Bank (KBank) together with the Vit Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Viet-inBank.This two-day programme, which ended yesterday, also included site visits on Thurs-day to MM Mega Market and Saigon Co-op, the leading supermarket operators in Vi-etnam, to get an inkling into consumer behaviours in Vietnam.Ureerat Ratanaprukse, the Thai consul in HCM City, said with its large population, of whom more than 50 per cent are of working age and increasing affluence, Vietnam of-fers a promising market for Thai products, which are of high quality and reasonable priced.Many Vietnamese love Thai products, another reason for Thai firms to promote their products here, she said.The consulate and Kasikorn Bank plan to take a Vietnamese business delegation to Thailand to explore business opportunities, she said."Building upon the already cordial and close relations between the two countries and Vietnam being Thailand's only strategic partner in Asean, the Royal Thai Consulate-General in HCM City is fully committed to continue working in close and sustainable partnership with authorities and leaders in HCM City as well as our business partners in promoting two-way trade and investment between two countries towards our lead-ers' commitment to achieve bilateral trade of $20 billions by 2020."Nguyen Hoang Dung, deputy general manager of VietinBank, said business matching is a value-added service where the bank provides its clients with opportunities to ex-pand their business, diversify distribution channels and develop new markets.According to Thawee Teerasoontornwong, executive vice president of KBank, the event is part of the bank's World Business Matching programme, which aims to deep-en its client's understanding of the Vietnamese market and connect them with their counterparts across the region."By leveraging the strong network of local partners, we can provide services to the cli-ents which go beyond financial support."Vietnam has always been our key focus, given the current economic performance and favourable policy to support business and investment. More importantly, Vietnam has become one of the major export markets for Thai products and several Thai companies are now looking to expand their business to Vietnam."I hope that this event can serve as a bridge to help deliver high-quality Thai products to Vietnamese consumers. I can also foresee more products from Vietnam entering the Thai market, given the increasing awareness of Vietnamese products among Thai con-sumers, which in turn will help boost the trade between the two countries."http://bizhub.vn/news/vietnamese-thai-firms-seek-to-promote-trade-at-business-matching-event_289200.html

BUSINESSBusiness Briefs 02 October, 2017

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA |

* Credit Suisse AG in Singapore has disbursed $40 million for Vietnamese property de-veloper 0 Va Land Investment Group Corporation (NVL), or ovaland, as part of a USSI 00 million credit signed on August 4, 2017 between the 'two sides. The provision of this unsecured loan follows ovaland's full settlements of two earlier secured loans. The lat-est credit comes with a 42-month term and a three-month LIBOR plus 5.5 percent a year.* Yesterday was the final trading day of28.22 million CVT shares on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) which earlier approved the delisting of the CVT


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stock of CMC Joint Stock Company. The firm will move to the Hochiminh Stock Ex-change. Since CMC began trading its shares on HNX, its registered capital had climbed from VND80 billion to VND282.23 billion.* The State Securities Commission has fined guyen Dang Quang, deputy general direc-tor of Consultant and Inspection Joint Stock Company of Construction Technology and Equipment (C ), VND20 million for failure to timely report on the reason for not buying as sufficient shares as registered. Similarly, guyen Tang Minh Due, a member of the supervisory board of Kim Vi InoxImport Export Production Joint Stock Compa-ny (KVC), was fined VND62.5 million by the stock market watchdog for the same rea-son as Quang's.* SAM Holdings Corporation (SAM) is the new name of SAC OM Development and Investment Corporation following a decision adopted on September 20, 2017 at the general meeting. The electrical equipment and telecoms firm's new headquarters is lo-cated at 152/11B Dien Bien Phu Street, Binh Thanh District, HCMe.* Century Synthetic Fiber Corporation (STK) has acquired a combined stake of more than 50 percent worth over VND40 billion in yam and dyeing firm UNI Industrial and Investment Corporation (Unitex) from two founding shareholders.* Truong Thanh Furniture Corporation (TIP) has won approval from the State Securi-ties Commission to sell 100 million shares under private placement at DI0,000 er hare. The e hare ViII be non-transferrable within one year from the date of issuance. All pro-ceeds from the share sale will be used to restructure debt, improve finances, pay loan interest and add working capital.* The board of No Va Land Investment Group Corporation (NVL), or Novaland, has decided to contribute VND955.5 billion to Sun City Real Estate Co Ltd, equivalent to a 49 percent stake.* Hanoi Beer Alcohol and Beverage Joint Stock Corporation's (BHN) decision to not ex-ercise the right to buy more shares ofHabeco Packaging Joint Stock Company in a new share issue of the latter has led the BHN stake in Habeco Packaging to edge down from 60.69 percent to 44.22 percent. In a related development, BHN will spend more than VND417 billion paying the 2016 dividend ofl8 percent in cash from October 12.

HOSE stock rally triggers profit taking


Profit taking surged on September 28 as the HCM City bourse eased off three consec-utive days of losses, helped by more active trading.The VN Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HOSE) briefly touched the 810-point level, leading to sell orders soaring, which in turn caused the market to almost reverse course. In early afternoon trade, strong trading activity sent the index surpassing 810 points and because of this, an upsurge in sell orders put pressure on the index and thus pushed it down straight to the reference level.Despite the profit taking pressure, VNM of Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Com-pany, SAB of Saigon BeerAlcoholBeverage Corporation (Sabeco), and ROS of Royal Se-curities Corporation were the major supports of the main stock index.The VN Index closed up 0.13 percent at 804.82 points, with 151 stocks advancing and 110 others losing. The market saw 192.67 million shares traded with a total value of over VND3.86 trillion, up 21.94 percent in volume and 13.8 percent in value from the day before.As SAB was recently added to the VN30-Index which features 30 stocks on HOSE with the largest market capitalisation and the highest liquidity, the brewery stock recovered spectacularly in the September 28 session after three days of losses. Similarly, BHN of Hanoi Beer Alcohol and Beverage Joint Stock Corporation (Habeco) rose to its upper limit of VND116,000 per share.If the Ministry of Industry and Trade fails to divest State stakes in Habeco and Sabeco, the country's two leading breweries, these stakes may be transferred to the State Cap-ital Investment Corporation (SCIC) for management to ensure the divestment sched-ules will be met. Under the schedules, the ministry will have to divest the State stakes in Sabeco and Habeco in October and November and all proceeds will be transferred


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to the State-owned enterprise restructuring assistance fund prior to December 1.VNM added 7 percent at VND149,000 per share and ROS gained 0.7 percent at VND106,400 per share.In the basket of VND30 stocks, STB of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) and MBB of Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB Bank) were ac-tively traded on HOSE. The market saw 6.77 million STB shares matched aside from a huge volume of STB shares transacted in put-through deals. STB ended up 2.9 percent at VND12,600 per share.MB Bank had 6.5 million MBB shares matched but its stock price fell 0.7 percent to VND22,500 per share.September 28 was the ex-date of the VCB stock of Joint Stock Commercial Bank for For-eign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) which will pay an 8 percent dividend in cash. It ended 0.9 percent higher at VND37,250 with 1.57 million shares changing hands.Many small-cap stocks such as FIT, HAI, HAR, LDG and CCL stayed in the red.On the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), trade was lackluster, causing the HNX-Index to close down 0.08 percent at 107.43 points. Trading volume totalled 58.06 million shares worth VND584.93 billion, up 15.86 percent and 8.21 percent from a day earlier respec-tively.The market for unlisted public firms (UPCoM) edged 0.03 percent lower at 54.16 points, with 4.84 shares worth VND85.2 billion traded, unchanged from the previous day. Put-through transactions totalled 8.48 million shares with a total value of VND198.34 billion.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/56361/HOSE-stock-rally-triggers-profit-taking.html

VN Index falls after late selling


Shares fell slightly on the HCM Stock Exchange on Friday as large-cap stocks lost steam and declined on investors' late selling.Vietnam's benchmark VN Index on the southern market closed down 0.05 per cent at 804.42 points after having risen as much as 0.5 per cent during the morning session.It also reversed from a 0.13 per cent drop on Thursday. Friday's fall also marked a weekly loss of 0.3 per cent for the VN Index.More than 139.4 million shares were traded on the HCM City market, worth VND3.1 trillion (US$137.6 million).Friday's trading figures dropped 27.6 per cent in volume and 20 per cent in value from the previous session's numbers.Large-cap stocks were unable to maintain their prolonged growth rates as investors in-creased selling to earn profits when the market was coming to a close.Half of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the VN30 Index declined while 12 others advanced and three stayed unchanged.BIDV Securities Company (BSC) said in its daily report that low investor confidence must be blamed for the decline of the stock market as it pulled down market trading liquidity and created strong selling pressure on local shares.According to Vietnam Investment Securities Company (IVS), after tapping the intra-day high of 808.77 points, the benchmark VN Index weakened and finished lower than Thursday's ending level as investors increased their selling in two stocks brewer Sabeco (SAB) and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS).SAB fell 2.3 per cent after having reached its intraday highest growth rate of 2.4 per cent. Shares of the largest brewer jumped 4.3 per cent on Thursday.GAS dropped more than 2.2 per cent after it had gained total 4.3 per cent in the previ-ous six sessions.Other large-cap stocks that also weighed down the southern market index included gas station operator Petrolimex (PLX), consumer goods producer Masan (MSN) and Sacombank (STB).Among the three stocks, MSN was down 1.1 per cent after having risen as much as 2 per cent during the session. MSN gained 1.5 per cent on Thursday.On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index inched up 0.21 per cent to end at 107.66


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points. The northern market index had dropped total 0.4 per cent in the previous two sessions.Nearly 62.5 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND528.8 bil-lion.http://bizhub.vn/markets/vn-index-falls-after-late-selling_289210.html

HNX raises over 4 trillion VND from government bonds in September


The Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) announced it mobilised over 4 trillion VND (176 million USD) from 16 government bond auctions in September.The bonds were offered for four tenures: five years, seven years, 10 years and 30 years.The coupon rates of five-year term bonds were at 4.63-4.67 percent, seven-year at 4.83-4.85 percent, 10-year term at 5.38-5.4 percent and 30 year-term at 6.1 percent per an-num.Compared to August, coupon rates rose 0.02-0.07 percent per annum for five-year, sev-en-year, 10-year and 15-year term bonds while the rate remained unchanged for 30-year term bonds.In the secondary market, the total number of government bonds in outright transac-tions reached over 1.02 billion, which was equivalent to 113.6 trillion VND (5 billion USD), a month-on-month surge of 8.6 percent.The total volume of government bonds in repurchase agreement (repo) trading stood at more than 851 million, valued at over 85.3 trillion VND (3.8 billion USD), down 31 percent from last month.Foreign investors also made outright purchases of more than 291 billion VND (12.8 million USD). They made no repo transactions in September.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hnx-raises-over-4 trillion-vnd-from-government-bonds-in-Sep/118804.vnp

Which areas will strongly attract investment?

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| DTCK

With the abundance of goods coming from IPOs, the divestment of state capital that is opening up opportunities for domestic and foreign investors to participate more deep-ly in the business, which areas will strongly attract investment?Under the plan approved by the Board of director of Vietnam Construction and Im-portExport Corporation (Vinaconex), the entire capital of the company at Vinaconex Clean Water Joint Stock Company which is currently 51 percent will be withdrawn in the year 2017.Many investors are interested in this deal but the advantage seems to belong to a major shareholder of the company. This is the domestic investor who acquired the shares of Singaporean shareholders at Song Da Clean Water company two years ago, at approx-imately 43 percent.Looking at the business results of Vinaconex Clean Water Company, we can see that this is a profitable industry. In the first six months of this year, the company achieved 200.8 billion dong revenue and 83 billion dong pre-tax profit. Thus, the return on rev-enue is very high.In fact, clean water is an area where many investors pour capital. In the middle of March 2017, Duong River Surface Water Treatment Plant in Hanoi was kicked off with the total investment value in the first phase at more than five trillion dong, of which Vietnam Investment Joint Stock CompanyOman is one among investors who contrib-ute capital.Under the recently approved decision, the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), one of the two largest shareholders of VietnamOman Investment Joint Stock Company, will divest all of its capital. This is an opportunity for other investors to buy back the contributed capital, which means indirect investment in the water industry.In a broader view, as per Decision No. 1232/QD-TTg of the prime minister, in 2017-2020, the state will divest from 57 companies in the water supply and sewerage sector, of which 24 companies have the divestment ratio of more than 50 percent of charter capital.


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Essential industries, such as clean water, are likely to generate good returns for inves-tors, especially when they are better managed to reduce the ratio of loss on pipelines.For example, electricity, water is the strategic investment sector that is creating "sweet fruits" with the Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE). In REE's 2017 business plan, the infrastructure, electricity and water sectors account for the highest proportion, estimated at 435 billion dong, accounting for 38.2 percent of the profit structure.Last year, REE decided to invest heavily in the power sector as it took part in the race to buy all of Vietnam Rubber Group's stake in five hydropower companies. Although the deal failed, the recent moves of REE showed that electricity and water continued to be strongly invested by the company, for example increasing its ownership rate in Vinh SonSong Hinh Hydropower Joint Stock Company.The taste of foreign investors is also not too different. Recently, the market is interested in the story that The Nawaplastic Industries (Saraburi) Co., Ltd, a major shareholder of Tien Phong Plastics (NTP) announced the sale of all 21.27 million shares (23.84 per-cent) from September 25 to October 20, 2017 under agreement or order matching meth-ods.The value of proceeds is estimated at approximately 1.600 trillion dong, calculated by market price of NTP shares on the floor that is fluctuating around 69,000 dong per share.As per analysts' forecast, it is likely that The Nawaplastic Industries will divest from NTP to focus on Binh Minh Plastics Joint Stock Co (BMP).Recently, BMP has been approved to loosen the maximum room ratio for foreign in-vestors to 100 percent. At the same time, the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) is urgently implementing procedures on entire capital divestment from BMP.Nguyen Hoang Ngan, BMP general director, said that at the meeting with the compa-ny leaders in Thailand recently, The Nawaplastic Industries expressed their wish to in-crease the ownership ratio at BMP.As per Tong Minh Tuan, director of Vietcombank Securities Company (VCBS)HCM City Branch, many Singaporean and Japanese investors are interested in the equitisa-tion process of the Vietnam Rubber Industry Group.Apart from the advantage of large landholdings, they attach great importance to the core business of the Group, with two main areas being rubber and wood.Through Mizhuho Group (the strategic partner of Vietcombank), many Japanese in-vestors ordered VCBS to seek for opportunities to put large amount of capital in phar-maceuticals, water and other basic industries, which always ensure about cash flow.

Vinacomin divestment opens large opportunities for investors


With the existing potential of Vimico and VVMI, two of Vietnam's leading precious metal mining and processing firms, Vinacomin's divestment from these two firms will open large-scale investment opportunities for investors in the mining industry.At present, Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) owns a 98.06 per cent stake in Vinacomin Minerals Holding Corporation (Vimico) and a 98.19 per cent stake in Vinacomin-Vietbac Mining Industry Holding Corporation (VVMI). According to Vinacomin's divestment plan, it will divest 33.06 per cent, equaling 66.12 million shares, from Vimico and 33.19 per cent, equaling 34.84 million shares, from VVMI.Vimico -- Vietnam's largest copper mining firmVimico completed the equitisation in 2015 and its shares were listed on UpCOM in 2016.The company, which is considered one of the key subsidiaries of Vinacomin in the mineral mining sector, specialises in exploiting a variety of mineral reserves, including gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, and zinc. Copper is the primary item in the compa-ny's diversified portfolio.According to Nguyen Tien Manh, general director of Vimico, the company is one of the few enterprises holding copper mining rights. Vimico currently owns the mining


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rights over Vietnam's largest copper reserve, the Sin Quyen copper complex that holds a reserve of 19.26 million tonnes of ore, and Vi Kem copper mine, which holds 5.15 mil-lion tonnes.The Sin Quyen copper complex started operations in 2006 with a total investment cap-ital of VND1.3 trillion ($56.7 million). The complex sorts ores containing more than 0.8 per cent copper with a recovery rate of 92-97 per cent due to cutting-edge technology and synchronous equipment.Besides, Vimico owns controlling or partial stakes in 15 other mineral mines, many of which have long-term mining rights for precious metals.As the selling price of metals have been recovering since 2006, Vimico has been report-ing sparkling results. Notably, in the first eight months of this year, Vimico acquired VND3.54 trillion ($150.6 million) in consolidated revenue and VND150.3 billion ($6.56 million) in consolidated pre-tax profit, signifying increases of 46 and 75 per cent, re-spectively.Vietcombank Securities Limited Company (VCBS) considers Vimico to have massive development potential due to the increasing demand for metal in general and copper in particular. VCBS expects that in 2017 Vimico will see soaring revenue and profit, ex-pecting VND5.44 trillion ($237.4 million) in revenue and VND263 billion ($11.5 mil-lion) in profit.VVMI -- the corporation holding the rights over two-thirds of domestic coal reservesThe company is one of the four leading coal exploitation enterprises of Vinacomin, car-rying the chartered capital of VND1.05 trillion ($45.8 million).It specialises in coal, cement, construction materials, mechanical businesses. It current-ly manages and exploits three large-scale coal mines, making up two-thirds of Viet-nam's coal reserves, namely Na Duong in the northern province of Lang Son, Nui Hong and Khanh Hoa in the northern province of Thai Nguyen.According to Tran Hai Binh, general director of VVMI, these three coal mines are in-cluded in the Vietnam coal industry development planning to 2020 with vision to 2030. 80 per cent of VVMI's annual exploited coal volume is served for thermal power plants, namely Na Duong, Cao Ngan, and An Khanh, and another 10-15 per cent goes to cement manufacturing factories, namely La Hien, Quan Trieu, and Tan Quang.Thanks to the recovering selling prices of coal and cement, VVMI's business results have been improving since 2015. Notably, in the first six months of this year, VVMI has earned VND1.88 trillion ($82.1 million) in consolidated revenue and VND30.7 billion ($1.34 million) in consolidated pre-tax profit. The figures are expected to reach VND4.3 trillion ($187.7 million) and VND93.8 trillion ($4.09 million) for the whole year.According to VCBS' expectations, along with VVMI's stable output of over 80 per cent of the exploited coal volume, the company's long-term development potential are shown by commitments of launching Na Duong 2 mine by 2020 as well as increasing the exploitation capacity of Khanh Hoa mine.http://english.vov.vn/economy/vinacomin-divestment-opens-large-opportunities-for-investors-359488.vov

Close-up of PetroVietnam's three major IPOs in 2017


The IPOs of three major oil and gas companies -- Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company (BSR), Vietnam Oil Corporation (PV Oil), and PetroVietnam Power Corpo-ration (PV Power) -- are expected to be the "blockbusters" on the stock market in the last quarter of the year.What makes BSR, PVOIL and PV POWER so attractive?Of the state-owned enterprises set to be equitised in the fourth quarter of 2017, perhaps the IPO of Binh Son Refining Petrochemical One Member Company Limited (BSR) has attracted the most attention from the public.By the end of May 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced that the value of the enterprise as of December 21, 2015 was VND72.88 trillion, equivalent to $3.2 bil-lion. Of this, the value of state capital was more than VND44.934 trillion ($1.98 billion).BSR is an affiliate of Vietnam's oil and gas group PetroVietnam, which is directly in


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charge of the management and operation of Dung Quat Refinery -- the country's first oil refinery. The refinery was built to serve the localisation of petrochemical products supply. It was inaugurated in 2011 with a total investment of $3.05 billion and is cur-rently able to satisfy 30 per cent of domestic petroleum demand.In 2015 and 2016, BSR's after-tax profit reached VND6.707 trillion ($295.5 million) and VND4.492 trillion ($197.89 million), respectively. In addition, the return on equity (ROE) of the firm in these two years was 21 and 14 per cent.According to the executives, in the first eight months of 2017, BSR recorded strong business results with an after-tax profit of VND4.002 billion ($176.3 million), close to that of the whole year of 2016.Along with BSR, another PetroVietnam affiliate PV Power is also waiting for its IPO in December 2017. The value of the enterprise as of December 31, 2015 was determined at VND60.623 trillion ($2.67 billion), The chartered capital was estimated at VND21.774 trillion ($959.2 million), while the owner's equity was VND33.550 trillion ($1.48 billion).After being established in May 2007, with 100 per cent of chartered capital invested by PetroVietnam, PV Power gradually became one of the three major pillars of the Viet-namese electricity industry, as it is responsible for managing and operating four gas-fired, one thermal, and one coal power plants as well as three hydro power plants with a total designed capacity of 4,208MW.The corporation's annual electricity output is about 21 billion KWh, accounting for 13-15 per cent of the national electricity output. Gas power is also a major field for PV Power's business.After equitisation, along with maintaining efficiency and improving the capacity of ex-isting plants, PV Power will continue to invest in further development. It looks for-ward to increasing the capacity of its plants by 118.65 per cent to reach 9,201MW by 2020.Besides, by 2016, total capacity is forecast to reach 10,650MW, equivalent to an increase of 160 per cent compared to the end of 2015. Meanwhile, investment will mainly focus on the gas power business.By 2026, gas fired power plants are expected to be the dominant generators and occupy at least 86 per cent of total capacity. In the short term, PV Power has been assigned to invest in large-scale gas projects, such as Nhon Trach 3 (NT3), Nhon Trach 4 (NT4), and Kien Giang Power Centre.The other major oil and gas company awaiting its IPO in the last few months is Viet-nam Oil Corporation (PV Oil). The value of the enterprise as of December 31, 2015 was VND10.342 trillion ($455.6 million).Established in June 2008 after the merger of PetroVietnam Trading Corporation (Pe-techim) and PetroVietnam Oil Processing & Distribution Company (PDC), PV Oil is now the second largest petroleum retailer in Vietnam.It holds 20-22 per cent of the market share, second only to Vietnam Petroleum Corpo-ration (Petrolimex). Gasoline distribution is currently the corporation's largest revenue source, accounting for 75 per cent of the total revenue.Besides the domestic market, PV Oil has expanded to Laos, Singapore, and Cambodia. It is known that in the next five years, PV Oil's management board will spend hun-dreds of millions of dollars to raise the number of sales points across the country to 1,500, three times more than today, to achieve the target 35 per cent market share by 2022.Regarding PV Oil's business performance, in 2016, the corporation achieved VND39 trillion ($1.72 billion) in total revenue and VND626 billion ($27.6 million) in pre-tax profit. In the first six months of 2017, PV Oil is expected to yield VND23.439 trillion ($1.03 billion) in total revenue and a pre-tax profit of VND200 billion ($8.8 million).In addition to the scale of business and operations, investors need to consider aspects generally not featured in reviews or analyses of enterprises.For example, PV Power faces serious issues. Despite the continuous growth in revenue over the years, profit tends to shrink while pressure from debt obligations keeps


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mounting. In 2016, PV Power recorded a pre-tax profit of only VND1.695 trillion ($74.67 million), much lower than the VND3 trillion ($132.2 million) earned in 2014-2015.At the end of 2016, PV Power's liabilities have amounted to VND42.935 trillion ($1.89 billion), making up 61.57 per cent of the total capital. Of this, borrowings accounted for VND30.363 trillion ($1.34 billion), and mainly comprised of long-term USD-denomi-nated debts with floating interest rates.In 2016, PV Power had to put aside VND6.857 trillion ($302.1 million) to pay principal and interest on older debts. Another VND8.213 trillion ($361.8 million) was also re-ported in 2015. Large debts, on the one hand, will put heavy pressure on cash flows as the net cash flow for debt repayment is higher than the cash flow raised by business activities.On the other hand, the firm allow fluctuations in interest and exchange rates to exert considerable impact on profit. As demand for input materials remains low while ex-change and interest rates are pegged stable, if PV Power fails to improve its situation, unexpected fluctuations can strongly affect business results.Meanwhile, despite being an enterprise with a large stock of assets and capital as well as operating in key areas, so far, information on PV Oil is very limited. Therefore, it is quite difficult for investors to fully evaluate the quality of the corporation's assets and capital.Statistics on revenue, return on assets, market share, and network scale also showed a fairly big gap between PV Oil and its current direct competitor Petrolimex. Compris-ing of eight subsidiaries, 30 member units, ten associate companies, and seven finan-cial investment companies, the cumbersome organisational structure of the PV Oil is also a matter of concern for investors.The attractive proportion of shares for saleOne of the factors that make the IPOs more attractive is the amount of shares offered for sale. Accordingly, the government has announced its intention to reduce owner-ship in BSR, PV Oil, and PV Power below the controlling rate, and listing these com-panies on the stock market right after the equitisation.Specifically, according to PV Oil's equitisation plan, which is currently waiting for ap-proval, the state will retain only 35 per cent of the capital and offer approximately 65 per cent for sale. Of this, 50 per cent will be offered to strategic investors and 15 per cent will be sold via the IPO.At PV Power's IPO next December, the corporation plans to offer a 20 per cent stake to investors and offer an additional 29 per cent to strategic investors. The state will retain 51 per cent of the capital before executing its divestment plan sell further stakes in 2019-2020.As stated in BSR's equitisation plan submitted to the government, the state will only hold 51 per cent or less in the corporation.From strategic investors' perspective, a high return on equity will enable investors to buy large amounts of shares and participate in the management and operation of the company, even move towards dominant control over the largest energy corporations in Vietnam.For individual investors, the attractiveness of these equitisation plans largely lies in the expectations that reducing state control will help businesses become more active in the private sector, while making the most of their existing assets and capabilities to im-prove efficiency.The stock market has witnessed positive growth since the beginning of the year, which is reflected exclusively by improvements in performance and liquidity as well as the fact that the derivatives market has been put into operation.This has facilitated the auction of equitised enterprises as well as the putting of these equitisation plans in practice. However, there is not much time left in 2017. Hence, greater efforts and initiatives from these enterprises are required to complete the plans in line with the roadmap.After numerous delays and suspensions, the market expects to see "some blockbust-


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ers" explode in the second half of the year, providing investors with more quality products.However, in order to achieve successful deals, information on business performance, long-term development strategies, as well as offering prices are certainly need to be made easily accessible by enterprises. This is inevitably a prerequisite condition to generate confidence in investors and enhance market appeal.http://www.vir.com.vn/close-up-of-petrovietnams-three-major-ipos-in-2017.html

Experts urge to follow market pricing in Sabeco


Industry experts say that potential investors have the right to negotiate for the best price, but the process of buying Vietnam's two leading breweries must follow market regulations.Carlsberg argues priceThe Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is pushing its divestment efforts at two leading breweries Habeco and Sabeco in October and November. The Ministry plans to give up its entire 81-per-cent ownership at Habeco, as well as withdrawing 53.59 per cent of its 90-per-cent stake at Sabeco. The deadline for both sales is December.Carlsberg, which is currently Habeco's major shareholder with 17 per cent, has ex-pressed interest in rising its ownership to 51 per cent.Vuong Toan, deputy CEO of Habeco, said that the firm will submit its negotiation plans with Carlsberg to the prime minister before November 15.As the deadline is drawing nearer, Carlsberg and Habeco has yet to reach an agree-ment after nine rounds of negotiation. One problem is that besides beer production, Habeco also operates in agriculture and real estate, areas where foreign ownership is limited at 49 per cent of the outstanding shares.However, the bigger issue lies in pricing. Habeco's shares are trading on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange at VND124,000 ($5.28). This is twice the quote on Habeco's first trading day and 1.5 times higher than the initial public sales price, which took place nine years ago. Despite this surge, Carlsberg offered to buy in Habeco at VND48,000 ($2.11).The reasoning behind the offer, according to Carlsberg, is that Habeco's business has slowed down by 11.6 per cent since 2014. Due to this decline, Habeco has also lost its second position in the Vietnamese beer market.Despite the arguments, it is apparent that Carlsberg is still eager to dominate Habeco and take over the Vietnamese beer sector. Specifically, if the Danish brewery manages to seize control, it will boast a 30-per-cent market share in Vietnam and put hands on well-known local beer brands like Hanoi Beer, Huda, and Tuborg.Analysts at Ho Chi Minh Securities said that the price has not been finalised and it can be lower than market expectations.Reports from FPT Securities and VCB Securities also pointed out that Carlsberg's offer does not follow market prices and an undervalued sale will negatively affect the state budget. Previously, Carlsberg was accused of buying under the market price when it acquired 50 per cent of Huda Beer.Pricing must follow market regulationsIn reality, despite experiencing slowing business, Habeco remains the champion of the northern Vietnamese market. In 2017, the brewery aims to produce 542 million litres of beer, up 3 per cent year-on-year.Revenue is expected to reach VND8.8 trillion ($387,200), a 9 per cent increase. The div-idend ratio is likely to stand at 20 per cent.Viet Capital Securities' reports pointed out that the growth potential of Habeco and Sabeco is still immense, thanks to Vietnam's ever-growing beer market.In 2016, Vietnam consumed 3.8 billion litres of beer, stumbling behind Japan and Ko-rea in terms of per capita consumption. On average, each Vietnamese person drinks 41 litres of beer a year, and beer takes up the vast majority of alcoholic beverage con-sumption in Vietnam.After listing, Habeco is now one of the largest companies in the Vietnamese stock mar-


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ket, capitalised at VND24 trillion ($1.05 billion).Sabeco is also doing well, as its market capitalisation only stands behind dairy giant Vinamilk. Lots of foreign investors are lining up to buy stocks at these firms, including Asahi, Thai Beverage, Singha, Kirin, and Heineken.Favourable market conditions have allowed the government to list and divest Habeco and Sabeco. However, from drama with Calsberg, experts warned that the govern-ment should be extra careful in asset valuation and pricing.State-owned assets like the two beer firms should not be sold under value, and market price on the stock exchange must be taken into account when developing a divestment plan.Moreover, experts asserted that the sale must be widely promoted to attract attention from both Vietnamese and overseas investors.http://www.vir.com.vn/experts-urge-to-follow-market-pricing-in-sabeco-and-habeco-divestment.html

Tool to enable construction sector approach industry 4.0


The Ministry of Construction is working with software maker Autodesk to promote the application of Building Information Modelling (BIM) a tool to improve productiv-ity, quality and efficiency of investment activities in construction and facility manage-ment.According to Tran Hong Mai, deputy head of the ministry's BIM Steering Committee, BIM is an important solution for the construction industry to approach the 4.0 era.Previously, BIM was applied in several foreign-invested run or designed projects in Vietnam but the tool is now gaining the attention of domestic organisations, develop-ers and contractors.Mai said the application of BIM in Vietnam's construction sector remained modest and lacked orientation despite its benefits.BIM would help improve productivity, quality and efficiency of construction invest-ment and facility management, he said.BIM would equip Vietnamese architecture, engineering and construction professional with skills and tools to design, construct and operate buildings that involved creating and using intelligent 3D models.Vietnam's growth in the building and construction industry would be further acceler-ated with the adaptation of BIM, Daniel Green, director of government Affairs, Au-todesk, Asia-Pacific, said.In 2017-19, focus would be on raising awareness and encouraging companies to ex-plore BIM implementation, while BIM would be applied and evaluated for pilot projects during 2018-20.The ministry planned to roll out BIM nationwide from 2011 onwards with the issuance of detailed guidelines for applying BIM in construction and facility management.http://bizhub.vn/property/tool-to-enable-construction-sector-approach-industry-40_289205.html

Using smart phone in cultivating vegetables

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV5

Doctor Duong Trong Hai, director of the Institute of Science and Technology has intro-duced the Ilyra agriculture ecosystem along with his associates which enables anyone to cultivate vegetables using the VietGap process.Using the automatic Ilyra system, farmers don't have to go to the garden but can still control the farming experience via smart phone or computer. All the watering, fertilis-ing, spraying, or harvesting processes are programmed.This allows anyone even those who don't have any farming technique to cultivate. Doctor Duong Trong Hai said that in addition to automation, the system also enables origin tracing."The system is useful for farmers and big agricultural producers because it enables growers to make their cultivation process transparent. The public or agencies can col-lect accurate information about products from the system," said Doctor Hai.


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The system helps urban people to grow vegetables for their daily meals and also big gardeners to pursue large-scale production.Doctor Ngo Thi Lam Giang, deputy director of the Agriculture Biology Institute of Nguyen Tat Thanh University said automatic production on a large scale helps save labour and costs and ensure strict technical factors which traditional cultivating meth-ods cannot meet. Circled production and transparent information will help growers earn customers' trust.Ms Giang said "We found the system feasible and a breakthrough, technologically. The system connects all factors in a chain enabling us to manage from the cultivation proc-ess to consumption."The research group is finalising the system which has proved successful in growing 7 vegetable species. They plan to programme the cultivation process on more plants and herbs and establish an electronic business system to connect growers with consumers.http://english.vov.vn/economy/using-smart-phone-in-cultivating-vegetables-359482.vov

Leading telcos committed to 4G service expansion


Leading domestic telcos are strongly committed to expanding 4G coverage through in-frastructure investment, albeit users are still modest in number about four months af-ter the service was launched.In a recent talk with VIR, Tran Manh Hung, chair of Vietnam's leading state-owned post and telecom group VNPT, said that VinaPhone, a key subsidiary of VNPT, has distributed more than nine million 4G SIM cards, however, only 15 per cent of the com-pany's subscribers, mainly in Hanoi and HCM City, have tried 4G services.In other locations, 83 per cent of subscribers have reportedly changed for 4G SIM cards, but only 17 per cent have shifted to using 4G services."Active 4G users still fall short of expectations. Maximum 15-20 per cent of subscribers are forecast to engage in using 4G services," said Hung, adding that until today nearly 50 per cent of their subscribers have been using 3G since the service was rolled out in 2009.According to a source from military-run telecom giant Viettel, their 4G subscribers currently number 5-6 million, less then 10 per cent of their total subscribers.Hung from VNPT has offered a comprehensive list of reasons why 4G services are un-derdeveloped.First, only a fraction of smartphones is compatible with 4G technology, and 4G smart-phones remain expensive.Second, part of the 3G subscribers have switched to 4G after its launch, which helped improve the speed and quality of 3G network services, making subscribers reluctant to switch.Third, the fast pace of optic cable network expansion means that hi-speed Wi-Fi is now widely available in many parts of the country.More stringent procedural requirements towards 4G subscribers have also contributed to slowing down the pace of rolling out 4G services.In this context, VNPT shows commitment to further develop 4G services by boosting services in big urban centres with actual demand.According to schedule, until the end of the year, VNPT will install an additional 3,000 4G small cells in Hanoi and HCM City, and about 7,000 4G stations in other localities, based on customer demand.Earlier, the telco was set to install 14,000 4G stations across the country, with 2,500 sta-tions in Hanoi and HCM City each.According to VNPT VinaPhone deputy general director Nguyen Truong Giang, the corporation prioritises quality over quantity in 4G service deployment and commits to providing the best 4G services in the country.Tao Duc Thang, deputy general director of Viettel, unveiled that after installing 36,000 4G stations that cover 99 per cent of localities nationwide, they will install 5,000 more stations by the end of the year throughout the country to serve customers.


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The group is contemplating increasing 4G small cells in "black spots" where installing 4G stations proved impossible in the past, such as festive venues, entertainment sites or mountainous areas.As the cost of small cells is only 10-20 per cent of a big BTS station, the move could ben-efit all stakeholders.The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has provided 4G service li-cences to four telecom firms in Vietnam, including Viettel, MobiFone, VNPT, and Gtel.According to IDG's survey results on 4G service usage in Vietnam in July 2017, of the three telecom service providers that have engaged in providing 4G services, 52 per cent of 4G users come from Viettel, 21 per cent from MobiFone, and 27 per cent from VinaPhone.Global Telecommunications Corporation (Gtel), a unit under the Ministry of Public Se-curity, was licensed to operate 4G services last October.Until now, its progress to launch 4G services remains unknown.The last player in the Vietnamese telecom scene, Vietnamobile, was reported to have submitted the necessary documents to apply for a 4G service licence, but the approval remains forthcoming.http://english.vov.vn/economy/leading-telcos-committed-to-4g-service-expansion-359518.vov

Purchasing power of apartment market in Hochiminh city drops 25pct


CBRE Vietnam has released its apartment market report in Hochiminh city for the third quarter of 2017, with the highlight being the reduction of supply source in July of the Lunar calendar, which has resulted in the decline of the purchasing power. Al-though this is a cyclical slowdown, the apartment market in July of the Lunar calendar significantly decelerated compared to the same period of 2016.Specifically, in the last three months, Hochiminh city recorded the decline in the number of projects launching for sale with just 7,651 apartments opened for sale from 21 projects, in which most of the products were launched in July and August, and the number gradually dropped in September.In terms of supply, the supply dropped by 20 percent compared to the previous quar-ter, and down by 9 percent compared to the same period of 2016. The products of the high-end segment even fell by up to 32 percent.The consequence of the slowdown in supply was the reduction in trading. The number of apartments sold in the quarter reached 7,207 units, down by 25 percent compared to the second quarter of 2017, and down by 9 percent compared to the last 12 months.The average selling price of the apartments in Hochiminh city on primary market (of-fered by project investors) was 1,500 USD per square metre, down by 3 percent com-pared to the previous quarter, and down by 15 percent compared to the same period of 2016. The accumulated supply by the end of September 2017 was estimated by about 220,000 units.Explaining about the cooling of Hochiminh city apartment market, CBRE stated that this not much positive situation is largely due to the reason that both the project inves-tors and customers were affected by the psychology to cut down selling and paying in July of the Lunar calendar.Enterprises tended to slow down at a time when the market had a psychological bar-rier. However, the supply is most likely to return strongly in the last months of the year.CBRE further forecasted that in the last quarter of 2017, there will be many high-end products to be launched for sale in the eastern urban axis, namely Thu Thiem and Dis-trict 2. With this source of supply, the average selling price of the market is expected to strongly rebound.


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Housing market in western area of Hanoi in Q3 remains attractive

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| NDH

As per CBRE's report, in the third quarter of 2017, the housing market attached to land in Hanoi was supplemented with 1,055 units, of which 84 percent were adjacent hous-es. Four newly opened projects included Louis City, The Eden Rose, The Mansion-sPark City Phase 3 and Iris HomeGamuda Phase 3.Since the beginning of this year, Hanoi had a total of more than 2,600 villas, adjacent houses opened for sale, equivalent to 59 percent of the total number of apartments opened for sale last year. The western region is still considered as the area with the largest new supply, accounting for 50 percent of the total new market supply as of the present time.The housing market in the third quarter recorded 622 units sold, down 52 percent from the previous quarter and 78 percent from the same period last year, partly due to the limited supply of the previous quarter. As of the end of the third quarter of 2017, the housing market sold more than 2,900 apartments, with 63 percent located in the West.Districts such as Thanh Xuan, Nam Tu Liem, Dong Da and Hoang Mai recorded 1.7-7 percent decrease compared to the previous quarter. While districts with many high-quality projects opened for sales recently such as Tay Ho, Bac Tu Liem and Long Bien recorded the secondary price hike of 0.4-4 percent over the previous quarter.Outside the central area, the western region is recorded to have the highest secondary price level and higher than the current market average.Q4/2017 is expected to be a vibrant quarter for the market of adjacent villas with many large-scale projects opened for sale. Thanks to the strongly improved infrastructure, the western region will continue to sustain satisfactory supply.Besides, the Eastern area with future prospects in infrastructure development, better connectivity with the central area through new bridges spanning the Red River will also attract much attention from investors as well as home buyers.

Local e-commerce sites win the hearts of Vietnam's shoppers


Eight out of the 10 most visited e-commerce sites in Vietnam are locally based, but number one spot goes to Lazada.Online shoppers in Vietnam are showing a growing preference for local retailers, ac-cording to a new report released by iPrice, an e-commerce platform available in seven countries across Southeast Asia.Eight out of the 10 most commonly visited e-commerce sites in the country are locally-based firms, the report found.The only two foreign representatives to appear in the top 10 are Alibaba-owned Laza-da and Singapore-based Shopee, who are both expanding their operations across Southeast Asia.Despite dominating the top 10, domestic retailers still lost out on number one spot to Lazada, which attracts 41 million visitors per month. Vietnamese giant The gioi di dong came in second with 32 million visits, followed by Sendo with 24 million. Shopee came in eighth, generating traffic of 7.6 million a month.Vietnam's e-commerce sector has been blossoming in recent years, growing at 22 per-cent annually. Unsurprisingly, competition in the sector is fierce, and some foreign players have already felt the heat.American e-commerce platform Ebay has been unable to compete with local firms, while Singapore's Zalora recently called it a day in Vietnam.The report, compiled in April and June this year, compared 50 e-commerce merchants currently operating in Vietnam based on monthly visits, application downloads and social media followers.In the apps race, The Gioi Di Dong outnumbered its competitors with five million in-stalled, five times more than each of Sendo, Lozi and Shopee.When it came to the number of Facebook followers, Lazada and Shopee outpaced their Vietnamese peers. Lazada now has around 17.5 million followers while Shopee has 2.4 million.Online sales in Vietnam have expanded rapidly in recent years, currently accounting


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for 3.39 percent of the country's retail market. The total retail market grew 10.2 percent last year to $118 billion, mainly fueled by a growing middle-class with expanding dis-posable incomes and an increasing number of internet users.Fabrice Carrasco, managing director of Kantar Worldpanel for Vietnam and the Phil-ippines, predicted that e-commerce in Vietnam will grow more than fivefold by 2020 on the back of widespread smartphone usage and increasing demand for consumer convenience.http://english.vov.vn/economy/local-ecommerce-sites-win-the-hearts-of-vietnams-shoppers-359490.vov

More state-funded projects continue facing losses

02/OCT/2017 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has announced a list of 42 state-fund-ed projects valued at VND43 trillion (USD1.9 billion) that have faced ineffective oper-ations and losses.According to the MPI, the list excludes the Ministry of Industry and Trade's 12 loss-making projects, which have a combined investment of around VND63.6 trillion (USD2.86 billion) announced earlier.Under the list, the real estate and infrastructure sector has around 20 projects which account for up to VND29 trillion (USD1.31 billion) in total, including projects invested by the Ministry of National Defence's companies and the Ministry of Transport.The Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (SBIC) and Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) are among the Ministry of Transport's most debt-hit projects. However, the ministry has yet to make a detailed report on SBIC's ineffective projects.Several Vinalines' projects are performing poorly, including Van Phong International Trans-shipment Port in the central province of Khanh Hoa; Cai Cui Port in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho and a container depot project in Hai Phong.The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has 27 projects worth a total VND909 billion (USD41 million) which show signs of poor investment, including projects by Vietnam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2), Vietnam National Cof-fee Corporation (Vinacafe), and Halong Fisheries One Member Limited Liability Com-pany.Meanwhile, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT)'s Vinasat-2 with the investment of VND5.4 trillion (USD245 million), which was put into orbit in 2012, has suffered a loss of VND1.2 trillion (USD54 million) from 2012 to 2016.The ineffective operations and losses of the projects are attributed to weak investor ca-pacity along with the lax management by authorities.Out of the 72-project list, 29 projects have faced operational delay; 20 others have failed to meet their designed capacity and or exceeded operational costs; 20 others have seen losses for years and some have been liquidated or seen a change in ownership.Dr Luu Bich Ho, former head of the MPI's Development Strategy Institute, said that state-owned ineffective projects have been warned about on numerous times and for many years. It was important to define the situation of each project.He noted that it is essential for SOEs to find financial solutions for their projects by themselves, not depend on the state-budget alone.Sate management should have detected projects at risk of losses earlier to mitigate the pressure on the state budget, said economist Ngo Tri Long, former deputy head of the Market and Price Research Institute, adding that projects which can't be saved needed to be liquidated.Responsibility among the management and supervision agencies must be investigated to find out whether there is any support for the loss-making projects, Long highlight-ed.The MPI has also proposed to the government to select private and foreign investors for big infrastructure projects.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/187463/more-state-funded-projects-con-tinue-facing-losses.html


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Forest brings higher income to farmers


After suffering heavy losses from shrimp farming in 2004, Hoang Van Tuan and his family left their homeland to start up again in Thanh Hoa province. After more than 10 years, all their hard work has paid off.In his second start-up, different from shrimp farming, Tuan had to learn from other models. Making full use of forest resources, he has developed both cultivation and an-imal husbandary farms, which earned him an income 8 to 10 times higher than regular business. For him, each step is carefully made so as to make his dream of poverty alle-viation come true, not only for him but also for others.Tuan has generated jobs for hundreds of local people, improving their income.Recalling the first days on his land, Tuan still cannot believe that his family has over-come all those obstacles. He said he will study more new plant varieties to help himself and others improve their lives.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/forest-brings-higher-income-to-farmers/118813.vnp

India to continue supporting Hanoi in IT training


Chair of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung hosted a reception in Ha-noi on September 28 for Indian Ambassador to Vietnam Parvathaneni Harish who said India will continue supporting Hanoi in human resources training.The Indian diplomat revealed that the Indian government has approved the sponsor-ship of the second phase of the Vietnam-India Advanced Resource Centre in Informa-tion and Communications Technology (ARC-ICT) in Hanoi.He said that many Indian firms wants to launch the model of power-saving light sys-tem in Hanoi's inner districts and hope to receive support from the city.He took the occasion to invite the city leader and Hanoi businesses to visit New Delhi. Harish also noted that 2017 is an important year for Vietnam-India relations as the two countries celebrate 45 years of ties and 10 years of their bilateral strategic partnership.For his part, Chung expressed his gratitude for the support of India in building the ARC-ICT Centre, highlighting that training high-quality IT human resources is crucial for Hanoi in building a smart city.The municipal leader said that he hopes India will continue investing in and cooperat-ing with Hanoi in the field.He said he supports using power-saving lights in the city, pledging that the city will create favourable conditions for the project.Chung also said he hopes the ambassador will help boost Indian investment in Hanoi, especially in new material and technology, and energy.http://www.vir.com.vn/india-to-continue-supporting-hanoi-in-it-training.html

Chinese tourists top list of foreign visitors to Vietnam


Chinese tourists have continued to take the lead in the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam, up more than 47 percent to more than 2.9 million arrivals, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.The number of Korean arrivals also saw an impressive growth of 51 percent.In the first nine months, the country welcomed 1.7 million of Korean tourists, an in-crease of more than 170,000 compared to the total number recorded last year.Meanwhile, the number of Russian visitors to the country reached more than 420,000 against last year's figure of 434,000.Quang Ninh, Da Nang, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc are the favourite holiday destina-tions for tourists from the above mentioned nations. Therefore, a broad array of tour-ism promotion activities have been launched by advertising new destinations for visitors from China, the ROK and Russia and diversifying their tourism products.In the reviewed period, the total number of foreign arrivals to Vietnam surged 28 per-cent to 9.4 million compared to last year's corresponding period.The number of visitors travelling by air increased 31 percent to 8 million while tourists arriving by road jumped nearly 30 percent. The number of visitors travelling by sea de-creased more than 6 percent.


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Expats get higher incomes in VietnamHSBC survey


Many expats have been able to earn higher incomes and save more than in their home countries after they moved to Vietnam for work, plus opportunities for career ad-vancement, according to an HSBC Expat Explorer survey.Expats in Vietnam can earn an average of $88,096 a year and 36 percent of them see an income rise of 25 percent, said the survey.The survey showed 72 percent of respondents said they save more in Vietnam and 67 percent have more disposable income than they did back home. These percentages are higher than the global average of 52 percent and 57 percent respectively.Expats' most popular purpose of saving or investment still belongs to retirement (37 percent) while 29 percent opt for buying the first or next property. Nevertheless, only 18 percent own properties in Vietnam, or half of the global average.The survey found the top three reasons of expats' decisions to move to Vietnam are looking for a new challenge (46 percent), improving the quality of life (28 percent) and being sent by an employer (23 percent). Therefore, 47 percent select Vietnam as a good place for expats who want to progress in their career, lower than the global average (54 percent).Up to 79 percent of expats in Vietnam have benefits as part of their employment con-tract with 49 percent getting health and medical allowances, 42 percent accommoda-tion allowances and 42 percent an annual trip home or airfare allowances, Compared to the respective global average of 44 percent, 20 percent and 19 percent, according to the survey.About 48 percent of expats say they take more holidays when moving to work in Viet-nam, in addition to benefiting from more domestic help/staff such as cleaner and nan-ny (46 percent) and living in a better property (45 percent).Globally, many expats are concerned that the world's economic uncertainty (31 per-cent) and political uncertainty (29 percent) may affect their financial well-being. Mean-while, the survey showed a slightly different picture in Vietnam as 67 percent feel confident in the local economy. However, the issues that concern them about their fi-nancial wellbeing the most are more restrictions on money repatriations (43 percent), less favourable exchange rates and global economic uncertainties (both 34 percent).However, expats give less favourable feedback for Experience and Family factors in Vietnam. Only 28 percent of them say they enjoy the better overall quality of life in-cluding everything from health to culture compared to 52 percent of expats across the globe saying so about their host countries as shown in the survey.In addition, just over a quarter (27 percent) of expat parents say the quality of child care in Vietnam is better than that in their home countries, lower than the global aver-age of 43 percent.Sabbir Ahmed, head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management at HSBC Vietnam, said a satisfactory expat life is associated with how they experience the social and cul-tural aspects in a host country and how it offers the convenience and quality of life to expats and their families.Despite a number of issues, Ahmed stressed, "Vietnam remains a fascinating economy where expats around the world continue to enter to challenge themselves and boost their career."http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/56358/Expats-get-higher-incomes-in-Vietnam---HSBC-survey.html

Saigontourist to build more boat stops for waterway tourism


Saigontourist Holding Company, Vietnam's leading tour operator, on September 28 introduced seven new waterway routes and five motor boats taking tourists to desti-nations in HCM City and neighbouring areas and announced to build more boat stops to develop waterway tourism in the city.Seven tours are from Tan Cang to Binh Duong-Ben Dinh, Binh Duong-Hai Thanh Koi farm, mangrove forests and Can Thanh in Can Gio District, Thanh Da Island, Ben Dinh, Long Phuoc in District 9 and Vam Sat.


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Saigontourist general director Tran Hung Viet said many members of the company, in-cluding Binh Quoi Tourist Village, Saigontourist Travel Service and Vam Sat Tourist Site, have operated waterway routes. In addition to boats and tourist attractions, the company has invested in wharfs, piers and stations for boats at Tan Cang and Binh Quoi 2 tourist sites and will develop a wharf at Saigon South tourist site in District 7.The company has added more tourist attractions and services to make these tours more attractive, Viet noted.Vo Anh Tai, deputy general director of Saigontourist, said the firm will focus on both international and domestic visitors, especially urban people and students.Tours to Can Gio District are suitable for students and the company will set attractive prices to lure such customers.Saigontourist sells waterway tours at its travel agents, hotels and restaurants, and pro-motes them on social and mass media. The products have been also introduced at overseas fairs such as Top Resa exhibition in France this month, ITB travel trade show in Singapore and World Travel Market (WTM) in the UK at the end of this year.In June, the HCM City government approved a waterway tourism development plan in the 2017-2020 which focuses on waterway tourism. At least seven waterway tourism routes were expected to be developed on the Saigon, Dong Nai, Nha Be, Soai Rap and Long Tau rivers by 2020.The city targets to attract 450,000 tourists using waterway services next year and the number will increase 15 percent annually.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/56359/Saigontourist-to-build-more-boat-stops-for-waterway-tourism.html

US$660 million needed to finance ring road project in HCM City


The HCM City Department of Transport says around VND15 trillion (US$660 million) is needed to cover the three remaining sections of Ring Road No. 2 in HCM City.The first section spans from An Lac Intersection on National Highway 1 to Nguyen Van Linh Parkway in Binh Chanh District while the second stretches from Phu Huu Bridge to Binh Thai Intersection both in District 9, and the last spreads from Binh Thai Intersection to Go Dua Intersection in Thu Duc District.The department says the first section has yet to attract any investors. Meanwhile, an investor has expressed interest in developing the second section of 3.82 kilometers in length which requires more than VND5.7 trillion, with around VND4.1 trillion for site clearance. The investor is about to complete a feasibility study for the project.Part of the third section from Pham Van Dong Street to Go Dua Intersection which stretches 2.7 kilometers long got off the ground in end-2015.Besides, its remaining section from Pham Van Dong Street to Binh Thai Intersection had its investment plan approved in end-2016. This road, 1.9 kilometers long and 67 meters wide, needs about VND1.05 trillion, with VND842 billion of it going to site clearance. Its investor has sent an investment report to the department for approval.According to the department, the remaining sections of the ring road are estimated to require VND15 trillion in total. They are among the projects designed to help reduce traffic congestion in the 2016-2020 period.Therefore, HCM City has petitioned the central government to give it the green light to offer no-bid contracts to investors to develop the three sections on schedule.The department says in phase one, the ring road is just 10 meters wide instead of 67 meters in order to meet the demand for travel (in the short run).The entire ring road is about 70 kilometers long from Nguyen Van Linh Parkway to Phu My Bridge, Binh Thai Intersection on Hanoi Highway, Go Dua Intersection, Tan Tao Intersection, Ho Hoc Lam and Ba To streets, and Nguyen Van Linh Parkway. But some sections of the road have not been built.Once in place, the road will help ease chronic traffic congestion in the city centre as trucks will no longer cut through the inner-city areas when transporting cargo to and from ports in HCM City and between the southeast and the Mekong Delta.


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Cat Linh-Hadong Metro Line unable to start test runs in October


The Cat Linh-Hadong Metro Line, Hanoi's first urban railway project, will not be able to begin its trial operations in October 2017 as planned earlier, mainly because of the delay in the disbursement of an additional loan.Deputy Transport minister Nguyen Ngoc Dong announced the delay at the Ministry of Transport's third-quarter press briefing yesterday."At present, around 95 per cent of the project has been completed, while the remaining 5 per cent is depends greatly on the disbursement of the remaining $250 million. How-ever, the additional loan has not yet been disbursed, affecting the purchase and install-ment of equipment for the project," Dong admitted."We will investigate the pertaining issues and will report to relevant ministries and the government," he added.The Cat Linh-Hadong Metro Line was earlier scheduled to begin trial operations in Oc-tober, which was to be followed by the official launch at the end of the first quarter of 2018.The project is using loans from China. An additional loan of $250.6 million is being ne-gotiated by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, and China's Eximbank.According to Nguyen The Hung, deputy Chair of the Hanoi People's Committee, the project would be an immediate solution to ease traffic jams in Hanoi in the 2018-2020 periodThe Cat Linh-Hadong urban railway project would also be a factor enabling the ban-ning of motorbikes from several districts in the capital by 2030.The Cat Linh-Hadong urban railway project was approved in October 2008 and then adjusted in February 2016. It has a total investment value of VND18 trillion ($794.57 million) and was to be officially launched in 2016.http://www.vir.com.vn/cat-linh-hadong-metro-line-unable-to-start-test-runs-in-octo-ber.html

Vietnam faces shortage of Korean interpreters


Many enterprises in Vietnam, especially those in the north, are still struggling to find qualified interpreters and translators of the Korean language although they have of-fered generous salaries and allowances.According to a senior executive of TCE Vina Denim Co Ltd based in Nam Dinh Prov-ince, the company has been unable to find appropriate candidates for the Korean in-terpreter position after months of hunting although it only requires a college diploma, one or two years of experience and basic computer skills.In addition to the starting salary of VND10 million (US$440) a month, the company of-fers benefits such as extra shift allowance and end of the year bonus.On many recruitment websites, there are many vacancies for Korean interpreter and translator positions. According to Navigos Search, a leading provider of executive search and management consultancy services in Vietnam, the huge demand for Kore-an interpreters in the country follows the increased presence of Korean-invested com-panies in Vietnam.The shortage is more severe in North Vietnam than in South Vietnam. Therefore, many companies in northern provinces have even hunted Korean-speaking workers who are living and working in the south.Most sectors with Korean investment need Korean-speaking workers, but the electron-ics manufacturing sector has the largest demand. Most jobs in high demand include interpreters and assistants.Navigos Search said one of the reasons for the shortage is the modest number of stu-dents studying Korean. Besides, most skilled Korean-speaking workers only want to develop their careers in big cities like Hanoi and HCM City, while many Korean-in-vested companies have their factories in other provinces for lower production and la-bour costs.Some enterprises have turned their eyes to Vietnamese workers returning from Korea who know about Korean culture and working environment and have a good com-


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mand of the Korean language.These workers are often offered a salary of up to VND15 million or even VND20 mil-lion. However, according to the Hanoi Employment Service Centre, many Vietnamese workers in Korea do not intend to return home after the end of their work contracts.Director of the centre Vu Quang Thanh said the centre's job fair organised in June could meet only 5-6 percent of demand of participating enterprises for Korean inter-preters. The centre has plans to organise another job fair on October 17 that will focus on Korean interpreter and translator jobs.Vietnams is also struggling with the shortage of Korean-speaking tour guides.According to data of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), there are current only 150 Korean-speaking tour guides nationwide, while the number of Korean visitors to the country last year surged 38.7 percent year-on-year to 1.54 mil-lion.In the year to date, Vietnam has welcomed over 1.71 million Korean visitors, up 51.2 percent compared to the same period last year, resulting in a huge demand for Korean-speaking tour guides, especially in famous tourist destinations like HCM City, Hanoi and Danang.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/56376/Vietnam-faces-shortage-of-Korean-interpret-ers.html

Vietnam suggests foundation of Apec women entrepreneurs' network


Vietnam has suggested the establishment of a network of Apec women entrepreneurs during a dialogue that was part of the 2017 Apec Women and the Economy Forum in Hue city, Vietnam's central province of Thua Thien-Hue.Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (VWEC), told press outlets on the fringe of the event that in her speech, she expressed her hope for the foundation of an association or a network of businesswomen in Apec.The Asean Women Entrepreneurs Network (AWEN), a similar organisation initiated by Vietnam, was set up in April 2014. Minh said she is ready to share her experience in the establishment of AWEN.She noted that an Apec women entrepreneurs' network should be chaired on a rota-tional basis since this is a "common playground" and all need to work together. To play an active role, all economies must rotationally hold the chairmanship."Only when all 21 economies engage in, will such a network become successful," she noted.Minh said though she has yet to receive any response at official sessions, many dele-gates told her on the sidelines that it is a good idea of Vietnam because when they par-ticipate in a network, they will gain precious information and experiences.She noted representatives of the Women's Entrepreneurship in Apec (WE-Apec) initi-ative said they are ready to help turn this idea into reality.The feasibility of this idea still depends on the 21 member economies, the VWEC lead-er added, voicing her belief that people will welcome this idea positively.Established in 1989, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) comprises 21 econ-omies, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indo-nesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam.They account for 39 percent of the world population, 57 percent of the world GDP and 47 percent of the global trade, according to statistics in 2014.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-suggests-foundation-of-apec-women-entrepre-neurs-network/118740.vnp

Bac Van Phong, no longer a sleeping beauty


Once Bac Van Phong SEZ is set up, Van Phong Bay will have great opportunities to de-velop its potential.Van Phong Bay area, including Van Phong Bay, Hon Gom peninsula, the coast in Van


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Ninh district and Ninh Hoa town, includes Vietnamese territorial waters nearest to the busiest international maritime routes.Within Van Phong Bay is Dam Mon peninsula, with the area of 3,500 hectares and wa-ter depth of 20-27 meters, believed to be an ideal location for an international trans-shipment port.In the late 20th century, Van Phong Dai Lanh area was programmed to develop into a national tourism site. An asphalt road of 18 kilometers long was built, running across the sandy beaches of Hon Gom Peninsula, connecting Dam Mon with National High-way 1 south of Co Ma Pass. It was put into use in September 2002 in a plan to develop tourism.However, besides the Co Ma Dam Mon road, no other considerable changes were made. There were only out-of-the-way fishing villages Dam Mon, Khai Luong and Diep Son. Van Phong was called the 'sleepy beauty'.In April 2006, the Van Phong EZ was established, projected to become a general EZ with the international transshipment port as the nucleus.In the next four years, Van Phong EZ attracted 150 investment projects with the total investment capital of $14 billion, including mammoth projects such as the $4.8 billion Nam Van Phong petrochemistry complex, the $3.8 billion Van Phong thermopower plant 1 and the transshipment port project registered by Vinalines.In October 2009, the Van Phong transshipment port project kicked off. However, it lat-er came to a standstill for many reasons before the investment license of the project was revoked in June 2013.The other projects, including the petrochemistry complex and thermopower plant, have not been implemented.Under the plan approved by PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc in August 2017, Bac Van Phong will cover an area of 66,000 hectares, where four groups of industries will be prioritised for development port & logistics services; international finance services; and high-end tourism with casino and hi-tech industries.On August 17, 2017, Le Duc Vinh, chair of Khanh Hoa province, agreed in principle to allow the US-based consultancy firm Boston to draw up the overall Bac Van Phong SEZ development plan.It is estimated that the State will be able to collect $1.2 billion in tax and fee from the SEZ a year, and $1 billion from land. The enterprises in the SEZ are expected to create an added value of $10 billion in 2017-2030.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/187202/bac-van-phong--no-longer-a-sleep-ing-beauty.html

Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port needs changes


The Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port Complex has obtained significant investment for its expan-sion, however, it has still not fully maximised efficiency and capacity, causing wastage of potential and national resources.The statement was made by Nguyen Van Trinh, chair of Ba Ria-Vung Tau People's Committee, at a conference held in the province on Thursday.The event was designed to find solutions to improve the management and exploitation of this port cluster.Trinh recommended that enterprises, functional agencies and associations highlight problems and inadequacies and contribute ideas and solutions to help the province improve the performance of the port cluster.Nguyen Duy Minh, secretary general of the Association of Logistics Services compa-nies in Vietnam, raised the question as to why people tend to use HCM City's Cat Lai Port instead of Cai Mep-Thi Vai, despite the former being frequently overloaded.He said the reason was that the Cat Lai Port had formed an "ecosystem" that included ports, customs (procedures) and fleet transportation, which were synchronised and had optimal cost. Therefore, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province needed to build an "ecosys-tem" for the Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port like the Cat Lai Port, besides organising conferences to introduce the port to customers in the region.


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In addition, the province should also coordinate with Dong Nai Province to form de-pots (dry docks) along Highway 51 and have mechanisms to attract transportation companies to this port, Minh added.Meanwhile, Ngo Minh Thuan, deputy general director of Sai Gon Newport Corpora-tion, suggested incentives on tax and policies should be prioritised and inspection pro-cedures for goods to be shipped directly to the United State and Europe should be simplified.Besides this, it is necessary to install a customs scanner at the port cluster for quick in-spection work and deploy the port management scheme.Under the project "Improving management efficiency for seaports of port group No 5 and ports in Cai Mep-Thi Vai area", over the past four years, the Ministry of Transport has been actively coordinating with HCM City, Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau prov-inces and other related ministries and agencies to enhance the efficiency of the Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port Complex, according to Nguyen Dinh Viet, deputy director of the Vi-etnam National Maritime Administration.In recent years, total cargo and container cargo passing through the Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port Cluster has increased positively. Specifically, in 2013, total cargo reached 35 mil-lion tonnes, accounting for 5 per cent of the growth rate, and in 2016, the figure in-creased to 62 million tonnes, achieving a growth rate of more than 30 per cent.The conference drew the participation of the Vietnam National Maritime Administra-tion, the general Department of Vietnam Customs, the Association of Logistics Servic-es companies in Vietnam, and goods owners and ship owners in the area of the Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port Complex.http://bizhub.vn/news/cai-mep-thi-vai-port-needs-changes_289208.html

Hanoi, Qatar Airways seek tourism development cooperation


Hanoi's Department of Tourism has suggested Qatar Airways to coordinate with the city in promoting its tourism potentials.Tran Duc Hai, director of the Department of Tourism, said at a working session with representatives of the airline on September 29 that Hanoi welcomes over 4 million for-eign visitors each year. Currently, 24 international airlines are operating flights to Ha-noi-based Noi Bai International Airport.Hai pledged that Hanoi will help Qatar Airways promote its images, while creating optimal conditions for the airline to operate in Vietnam.For her part, Jeanie Jin, chief of the Qatar Airways Office in Hanoi, said that the airline has run flights to 150 destinations across the globe.She expressed hope that the launching of the Hanoi-Doha direct air route will help boost tourism cooperation between Vietnam and Qatar.Nguyen Nhat Phuong, from travel firm Saigontourist, proposed that Qatar Airways loosen its regulations on group tours while cooperating with Vietnamese firms and of-fer ticket promotions to introduce new destinations and promote tourism.The Hanoi-Doha direct air route is scheduled to operate from January 2, 2018, which is expected to foster the Vietnam-Qatar connectivity. Currently, flights between Viet-nam and Qatar have to transit in Bangkok.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hanoi-qatar-airways-seek-tourism-development-coopera-tion/118772.vnp

Air New Zealand continues seasonal flights to HCM City


Air New Zealand, named World's Best Airline 2017 by AirlineRatings.com, has recent-ly announced it will continue to operate its seasonal non-stop service to HCM City, due to high customer needs over the last year.For the 2018 season, from June 23 to October 23, the carrier will operate two direct serv-ices a week between Auckland and HCM City, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, using the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. This will be the third consecutive year of its Vietnam opera-tions. Cam Wallace, Air New Zealand's Chief Revenue Officer, said there has been a huge


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appetite for travel to Vietnam by Kiwis since the airline introduced a direct seasonal service to HCM City from Auckland in 2016."It's been fantastic to see so many travellers enthusiastic about HCM City as a destina-tion as it's a great gateway to Vietnam's tourism experience," he said. "Demand for travel to Vietnam has been particularly strong during the July school holidays. Viet-nam is one of the most affordable destinations for Kiwis and offers a memorable expe-rience whether you are flying solo, as a couple, a family or a group of friends. It's not surprising to us that it is starting to become a popular hot spot on the holiday calen-dar."According to figures from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), in the first seven months of this year the number of New Zealanders travelling to Vi-etnam was 27,203, up 119.5 per cent year-on-year.Meanwhile, the number of Vietnamese visitors to New Zealand has also been growing rapidly over the years, with more than 6,000 arrivals by 2016. This shows the strong connection between the two countries and the great potential for flight routes between New Zealand and Vietnam.Passengers will enjoy a uniquely Kiwi experience on board. The carrier's in-flight ex-perience has been recognised with a series of awards, including Best Premium Econo-my Class in the World (Trip Advisor Traveler Choice 2017), Best Personalisation Innovation and Best In-Flight Entertainment Innovation (IFE: 2016 The Airline Passen-ger Experience Association Awards), and World's Best Economy Cabins of 2015 & 2016 (AirlineRatings.com).Air New Zealand is proud to be a member of Star Alliance. The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer worldwide reach, recognition, and seamless service to the international traveler. It currently offers more than 18,500 daily flights to 1,330 airports in 192 countries.http://dtinews.vn/en/news/017004/53069/air-new-zealand-continues-seasonal-flights-to-hcmc.html

Airlines sell tickets for Tet flights!


Local airlines on September 27 began selling air tickets for domestic flights during the coming Lunar New Year, or Tet, the country's peak air travel season.Vietnam Airlines offers 1.4 million tickets for all domestic flights between January 31 and March 2, 2018, up 127,700 seats (equivalent to 694 flights) against last Tet.Meanwhile, Jetstar Pacific puts an additional 540,000 tickets on sale to meet the in-creasing demand of passengers in the period.Air carriers have set different airfares for flights from HCM City to Hanoi with the highest for flights departing 10 days prior to the Tet holiday.Economy class fares will rocket to VND3.59 million (US$156.95) excluding taxes and fees for the national flag carrier's flights between February 3 to 14 next year.Meanwhile, Jetstar Pacific's seats on flights from February 9 to 13, 2018 are being sold at VND3 million each excluding taxes and fees. Low-cost carrier Vietjet offers seats at lower prices, VND2.4-2.6 million, for flights departing from February 2, 2018, but the price will be VND3 million inclusive of taxes and fees.Both Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific affirmed not to revise up their ticket prices compared to last Tet, and to continue offering different ticket price options.However, Nguyen Viet Ha, owner of a ticket agent in Thu Duc District, said airfares during the peak period of Tet holiday will increase by VND150,000-200,000 on average compared to last year's period.The price hike is attributed to higher prices of airport and aviation security services which will continue going up on January 1, 2018. Customers buying tickets of flights departing before February 5, 2018 can enjoy lower prices of VND1.2-1.8 million ex-cluding taxes and fees, Ha said.Due to high prices, passengers are advised to book tickets early to enjoy good deals.On Tuesday, Vietjet launched 1.22 million promotional tickets starting from zero dong for all domestic and international flights departing from November 1, 2017 to March


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3, 2018. The promotional tickets are available for booking within the golden hours be-tween 12:00 and 14:00 from September 27 to 29.Some ticketing agents said promotional tickets would be made available during the Tet holiday for flights on the north-south route only.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/56337/Airlines-sell-tickets-for-Tet-flights.html

Details of Toyota recall programme announced


Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade has announced a recall programme to check and replace airbag inflator modules in the front passenger airbag of Toyota Vios mod-els produced and assembled by Toyota Vietnam (TMV) and Toyota Yaris models im-ported and distributed by TMV.Earlier, TMV said it would recall more than 20,000 Vios and Yaris sedans to check and replace the airbag inflator module of the front passenger airbag.The recall programme covers 18,138 locally-assembled Vios cars produced between January 5, 2009 and December 29, 2012, and 1,877 imported Yaris cars produced from September 1, 2009 to August 31, 2012.The Toyota Vietnam dealership network nationwide will offer free checks and replace-ments for all relevant airbag inflator modules on Toyota Vios cars produced and as-sembled domestically and those imported.The programme will last from now until August 21 next year. Total time for checking and replacement is estimated at around 2 hours per vehicle.For Yaris models which were not imported and officially distributed by TMV, if the re-quest is received from customers, TMV will contact the global Recall Programme of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) to confirm information.Once getting official approval from TMC, Toyota Vietnam will check and replace the airbag inflator module of the front passenger airbag of affected vehicles at no cost.Customers should contact TMV dealership, hotline 18001524 and 0916001524 or visit website toyotavn.com.vn and toyota.com.vn.http://bizhub.vn/wheels/details-of-toyota-recall-programme-announced_289204.html

RoK firm to build waste-to-energy plant in Hung Yen


The Republic of Korea (RoK)'s Hao Group said it plans to invest in a waste-to-energy plant with a daily capacity of 150 tonnes of rubbish in the northern province of Hung Yen.At a meeting with local authorities on September 29, the group said it would produce high-capacity batteries and microbiological fertiliser through waste fermentation.The group called on the provincial authorities to facilitate the early implementation of the project, which aims to provide electricity for the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), re-duce environmental pollution and increase locals' income.Chair of the provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Phong affirmed his support for the project, requesting the group to conduct thorough feasibility studies.He also pledged that the locality will create the best conditions for the investor to suc-cessfully carry out the project.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/rok-firm-to-build-wastetoenergy-plant-in-hung-yen/118756.vnp

Novaland Group receives $40mn loan facility


Developer takes on first loan from Credit Suisse AG Singapore.Credit Suisse AG, Singapore Branch, has recently disbursed $40 million to Vietnamese property developer the Novaland Group. This is the first disbursement from a $100 million credit package committed by the Singaporean capital arranger with a 42-month term, signed between the two parties in early August.After Novaland's two previous secured loans were disbursed, Credit Suisse AG ap-proved this unsecured loan to the developer. The loan has a competitive interest rate of 3-month LIBOR plus a margin of 5.5 per cent per annum.Novaland's brand name and prospective developments have been recognised and


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highly appreciated by Credit Suisse AG. The disbursement will immediately fund the company's projects under development to ensure the product quality and construction progress committed to with customers, simultaneously strengthening its reputation among shareholders and investors.Credit Suisse Group is a Swiss-multinational financial service holding company, head-quartered in Zurich, that operates the Credit Suisse Bank and other financial services investments. The company is organised as a stock corporation with four divisions: In-vestment Banking, Private Banking, Asset Management, and a Shared Services Group that provides marketing and support to the other three divisions.Similar to the previous offshore loans granted by Maybank, Malaysia's largest finan-cial services group and the leading banking group in Southeast Asia, VietinBank Fili-ale Deutschland, the first and only Vietnamese bank operating in Europe, and the Singapore-based GW Supernova Pte Ltd, Novaland had to prove strong financial strength, project development plans, and growth potential.All of the loans from international credit institutions will support Novaland in diver-sifying its sources of capital, especially its access to international capital markets. It previously secured a credit facility of $50 million from GW Supernova Pte. Ltd, matur-ing in 36 months from the first day of drawdown, in December 2016. It included non-convertible and convertible borrowings of 40 per cent and 60 per cent, respectively.In April this year, Novaland also received disbursement of $30 million. The 30-month syndicated loan came from Maybank HCM City, which is the agent and representative receiving and dealing with collateral, Maybank Labuan Malaysia, and VietinBank Fil-iale Deutschland.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/novaland-group-receives-40mn-loan-facility

Tisco reaches agreement with Chinese contractor to resume multimillion-dollar project


The long-delayed Thai Nguyen iron and steel plant-phase 2 will be revised after the investor Tisco and the Chinese contractor reached a compromise in resuming the un-finished construction.After numerous failures to lure the Chinese contractor China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) back to the negotiation table, the parties have managed to resolve their differences.Accordingly, MCC agreed to complete the construction of the unfinished stages of the project, according to the signed engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) con-tract, with the best quality and price.Previously, MCC evaluated that a total investment capital of $105 million will be nec-essary for the construction of the remaining stages, including expenditures for equip-ment suppliers, and sent the evaluation report to Tisco.Besides, the management board of the project and MCC reached a compromise on spe-cific plans to solve existing problems relating to 14 Vietnamese sub-contractors.Along with cooperating with MCC to resume the construction, Tisco also signed a con-tract with a consultancy firm to evaluate Thai Nguyen iron and steel plant-phase 2 as well as assess project efficiency. Accordingly, the consultancy firm will complete the verification before October 30, 2017.Furthermore, Tisco is building a detailed plan to increase its chartered capital, comply-ing with the regulation of not using investment capital from state-run VNSteel. Previ-ously, at its 2017 extraordinary general shareholders' meeting held in mid-May, shareholders approved to issue shares worth up to VND2 trillion ($87.2 million) to in-crease its chartered capital.The plant's construction was kicked off in 2007 under an EPC contract with the initial investment capital of VND3.8 trillion ($170.4 million) but was delayed due to the glo-bal financial crisis. In 2009 it was resumed, however, expected costs increased to VND8 trillion ($361.4 million).In 2012, MCC decided to abandon the project and returned to China because the inves-tor had difficulty arranging capital after disbursing more than VND4.5 trillion ($216.35


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million). Thus, the project's construction has been delayed for four years.In March 2016, Tisco announced that it can arrange the necessary finances to continue the construction. The second phase of the expansion of Thai Nguyen iron and steel plant is one of the twelve loss-marking projects of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. http://www.vir.com.vn/tisco-reaches-agreement-with-chinese-contractor-to-resume-multimillion-dollar-project.html

Vietnam Airlines aims to transport 25 million passengers in 2018


The national flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines, said that it plans to transport about 25 mil-lion passengers in 2018, a rise of 10.8 percent against the previous year's figure.The carrier also expects to transport around 320,000 tonnes of cargo during the year.Besides, Vietnam Airlines will mobilise resources to carry out its key projects in a bid to improve its competitiveness as well as the efficiency of production and business. These projects cover its fleet, infrastructure and information technology.In 2017, the company looks to serve 21.9 million passengers, up 6.2 percent year-on-year, and an estimated 310,000 tonnes of cargo, up 14.6 percent.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-airlines-aims-to-transport-25 million-passengers-in-2018/118805.vnp

Hoa Binh Group conferred Labour Order


Construction company, Hoa Binh Group was awarded the Labour Order, second class, last week by President Tran Dai Quang for its contribution to the sector and society over the last 30 years.Established in 1987, Hoa Binh has now become the leading construction company in the country, having completed 350 projects including many measuring thousands of square metres like German House, Estella Heights, Vinhome Landmark 4-5-6, Riviera Point, and Serenity Sky Villas.The company is now trying to expand globally.Le Viet Hai, its chair, said: "Our strategy is to keep growing in the domestic market be-cause this is our foundation. We will also explore opportunities to develop in foreign markets. Developing our foreign market is a good way for us to ... upgrade our skills and competitiveness. It will also help us catch up with foreign standards. This is the best way to develop the domestic market."This year Hoa Binh targets revenues of VND16 trillion (US$571 million) and profit af-ter tax of VND828 billion ($29 million).On the occasion of its 30th anniversary the company recently launched the Hoa Binh Charity Fund. Together with the existing Le Mong Dao Education Support Fund, it will help disadvantaged people and support healthcare sector.At the anniversary celebrations the company donated VND5 billion ($178,000) to build a Maison Chance in Dak Nong. Work on it started in May last year, and when finished it will be a centre providing healthcare and vocational traning to ethnic and disadvan-taged people.The company also handed over 1,000 healthcare insurance cards worth VND630 mil-lion ($22,5000) to the Red Cross.Many other charity programmes, totally worth over VND6.4 billion ($228,5000), were also undertaken on the occasion of the company's 30th anniversary.http://bizhub.vn/corporate-news/hoa-binh-group-conferred-labour-order_289213.html

Conference seeks ways to build sustainable rice production chains


Measures to build linkages towards sustainable rice production chains in the context of climate change were the focus of a workshop in the framework of the recent invest-ment promotion conference held in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang.Tran Huu Hiep from the Southwest Steering Committee said that investing in produc-tion chains will prevent imbalanced investment. He also recommended that Hau Giang should pay due attention to selecting suitable key products based on local com-


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parative advantages to prevent stretching investment.Meanwhile, Doan Manh Truong from the Mekong Delta Rice Research Institute sug-gested that Mekong Delta localities need to promote linkages through restructuring the rice market from purchasing, processing to consumption markets.Transparent mechanisms for purchasing activities must be set up to prevent unhealthy competition and contract breakdown, he said, adding that priority should be given to facilitating businesses' investment in advanced rice preserving and processing sys-tems.Truong highlighted that connections in rice production and consumption can also be established through cooperation in mechanisation, the transfer of technology and sci-entific advances and development of services and product sale.Hau Giang has over 200,000 hectares of rice with average rice productivity of 6.2 tonnes per hectare per year. The province has built over 3,300 hectares of large scale fields, drawing the participation of 3,200 local households.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/conference-seeks-ways-to-build-sustainable-rice-produc-tion-chains/118741.vnp

'Vietnamese Dragon Fruit Day' goes vibrant in Australia


Nearly 100 kilos of dragon fruit were sold during the Vietnamese Dragon Fruit Day, which was jointly held by the Vietnamese Trade Office and the Embassy of Vietnam in Australia on September 30.The fruit was sold at 30 AUD (23.89 USD) per kilo due to its high quality and eye-catch-ing appearance.At the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia Ngo Huong Nam expressed his hope that Australia market entry will help Vietnamese dragon fruit enter a group of fruits earning export value of 1 billion USD.The move is also a good launch pad for the fruit to go to other fastidious markets worldwide, Nam highlighted.He said that Australia is a prospective market for the Vietnamese fruit due to its con-trast in fruit harvest time with Vietnam.Vietnam will promote negotiations to ship other fruits to Australia like longan, passion fruit and rambutan, he stressed.Hoang Huy Khanh, director of the Da Lat Export-Import Company in Australia, said that farmers and domestic businesses must obey strict requirements in food safety and quarantine set by Australia and the fruit must be harvested from Global GAP farming areas and undergo proper pasteurised process.Among three fruit shipped to Australia (lychees, mangoes and dragon fruit), dragon fruit poses huge potentials as it can fruit all year-round and if the import cost is lower the consumption will go up soon, he added.The first batch of Vietnamese dragon fruit was exported to Australia by the Hoang Phat one-member Ltd Co in the southern province of Long An on September 20.Dragon fruit is one of Vietnam's key export fruits, and saw export sales of 895.7 million USD in 2016, 50.3 percent of the country's total fresh fruit exports and 36.1 percent of its total fruit and vegetable exports.Vietnamese dragon fruit has been exported to 40 countries and territories such as Chi-na, Thailand and Indonesia.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnamese-dragon-fruit-day-goes-vibrant-in-australia/118790.vnp

Workshop in France spotlights Vietnam's economy


A workshop on Vietnam's economy after 30 years of reform has been held in France's central city of Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire by the friendship association Touraine-Vietnam.Speaking at the seminar, Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Ngoc Son stressed that Vietnam began its reform policy by opening its door to the world. Viet-nam wants to become a trustworthy and responsible partner of the international com-munity, he said. The ambssador introduced Vietnam's economic achievements and the


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importance of the Vietnam-France strategic partnership.France is currently the bilateral second biggest provider of official development assist-ance (ODA) for Vietnam, with a committed amount of 3 billion USD since 1993.France is also Vietnam's third biggest export market in the European Union, he said, adding that France is investing over 3 billion euro in more than 300 projects in Viet-nam.However, the diplomat said bilateral economic ties still fail to match with potential of both sides. He expected that the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UVFTA), which is scheduled to take effect next summer, will foster trade and investment relations be-tween the two nations.Participants lauded the strong development of Vietnam in recent years. They ex-pressed their interest to learn about the teaching of French language in Vietnam, key Vietnamese exports to France and Vietnam's average living standards and heath care.Touraine-Vietnam has hosted various events to introduce Vietnam's traditional cul-ture and socio-economic development in France. In November last year, the organisa-tion received a certificate of merit bestowed by Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for its outstanding work.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/workshop-in-france-spotlights-vietnams-economy/118778.vnp End


021017Intellasia Finance Vietnam - hkbav.org · Kien Giang moves to develop supporting industry 35...

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