030118Intellasia Finance Vietnam - hkbav.org · bonds, government-guaranteed bonds, and local...

3 January 2018

finance & business news

FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Reference exchange rate goes down by 10 VND 2Interest rate in home credit programme kept at 5pct 2HCM City tightens controls on crypto-currencies 2State Treasury enters bond market as special investor 2Short-term capital limit for medium and long-term loans o

fficially adjusted 4Is there a third investment wave in Vietnam banks? 4Why cannot e-wallet develop despite much potential? 5Banks' profit skyrockets due to credit growth 6StoxPlus to organise credit risk conference 7Banks lead market upturn in 2018's first trading day 7Foreign investors pour hundreds of US dollars into bank stocks 8Where do three big banks get money from to raise capital

by 1.8-2 times? 10Viet Capital Bank provides credit package to Nam An Hoa project 12Moody assigns first-time rating to LienVietPostBank 12HSBC Vietnam scores hat-trick at The Asset's Triple A Awards 13Eximbank sells over 1.3 million shares of Sacombank 14Vietcombank's total assets exceed VND1 quadrillion 14Government Inspectorate calls attention to multiple

violations at Vietcombank 15Top 10 key events that defined Vietnam in 2017 15Inflation predicted to stay below 4pct in 2018: Ministry 18PMI rises to 52.5 in last month 19HCM City builds on 2017's remarkable achievements 19HCM City aims for 8.3pct-8.5pct GRDP growth in 2018 20New trade, auto rules to usher positive changes 20Vietnam breaks export growth record in 2017 22Vietnamese exports enjoy stellar growth 23Export goods spotlights 2017 24Vietnam gains record in seafood export value in 2017 25Fruit, vegetables become big foreign currency earner 26HCM City exports earn $35b in 2017 27euro 5-standard diesel, euro 4 RON 95 petrol hit market 27Varying levels of enthusiasm greet bio-fuel E5 roll-out 28HCM City trade dept offers online service 28HCM City to focus on land, finance policies this year 29

A modest end to 2017 transactions sets up big for 2018 29Vietnam government seeks to cut half of business rules in 2018 31Foreign firms stream to Vietnam 31Processing, manufacturing firms expect better business in

2018 Q1 32Foreign giants step up franchising efforts in Vietnam 33Trio of manufacturers assist in 'made-in-Vietnam auto dream' 34HCM City plans more safe farm produce markets 35Real estate association claims HCM City won't face real

estate bubble 36Chu Lai EZ draws record $1.4b in 2017 36Phu Yen pours VND2.12 trillion into aquaculture 37Long An to increase aquaculture area in 2018 37

BIZ NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Business Briefs 03 January, 2018 37Shares open on positive note in 2018 38All indexes gain ground 38Expert: Consumer goods, transport stocks to grow in 2018 39What's behind the strong performance of the stock market

in 2017? 40559 million shares to be auctioned at HNX 40Food safety board wants to take over pork supervision job 41Navigational channel upgrade high on priority list 41Tour guides complain about phone and carrier requirements 42Vietnam leads region for ratio of female business leaders 43Can Tho launches electric car service for tourists 43Saigonese turn to homegrown veggies for meals, Tet gifts 44Hanoi approves new 'most expensive road on the planet' 45Vietnam Railway to pilot free meal service 46Tollgate to be dismantled to ease traffic congestion at

Saigon River Tunnel 47First Swiss-standard watch warranty centre opens 47Uber sues HCM City tax dept 47Russian firm helps Vietnam build mini hydropower plants 48Sojitz Corporation targets Vung Tau Airport relocation project 48ZOCV and POSCO sign over recycling plant 49Why Vinhomes Central Park attracts foreigners? 49Firms showcase goods for Tet in Quang Tri 50

FINANCEReference exchange rate goes down by 10 VND

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| VNA

The State Bank of Vietnam slashed its reference VND/USD exchange rate by 10 VND to 22,405 VND/USD on the morning of January 3.With the current/- 3 percent VND/USD trading band, the ceiling exchange rate is 23,068 VND per USD and the floor rate is 21,732 VND per USD.Accordingly, major commercial banks raised their rates.Vietcombank and BIDV offered the same rates with 22,675 VND (buying) and 22,745 VND (selling), per USD, up by 10 VND from the morning of the day earlier.Vietinbank posted 22,675 VND (buying), and 22,744 VND (selling), per USD, up by 5

FINANCE

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Vietnam finance & business 3 January 2018

VND from the day ago.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/reference-exchange-rate-goes-down-by-10-vnd/124239.vnp

Interest rate in home credit programme kept at 5pct

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has issued a decision ordering commercial banks to keep the interest rate in the VND30 trillion preferential credit programme for low-in-come homebuyers at 5 percent in 2018.According to Decision No.2735, the 5 percent rate is the same as the preferential rate applicable to this programme last year and loans disbursed by December 31, 2016.Regarding loans disbursed after December 31, 2016, clients are subject to commercial interest rates in line with their contracts with banks.The central bank is mandated to set the interest rate for this home credit programme on an annual basis in the final month of year.The interest rate for this programme was 6 percent in 2013. SBV deputy governor Nguyen Dong Tien on January 2, 2014 singed Decision No.21 cutting the rate to 5 per-cent and this rate has been kept unchanged until this year, according to Tuoi Tre news-paper.english.thesaigontimes.vn/57807/Interest-rate-in-home-credit-programme-kept-at-5.html

HCM City tightens controls on crypto-currencies


The central bank's HCM City branch and the city police will join hands to prevent the use of crypto-currencies for payment in the city.Any form of payment using digital currencies like Bitcoin, which are banned in Viet-nam, will face severe sanctions.The city's departments of industry-trade, tourism and education-training are respon-sible for supervising service providers in their respective fields with regard to pay-ments by virtual money.According to the HCM City government, Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are not legal tender in Vietnam. Therefore, using crypto-currencies for payments is neither al-lowed nor protected by law. Credit institutions and service suppliers are banned from using digital currencies for payment.The prime minister has assigned the central bank and the Ministry of Justice to study and propose regulations on managing the use of virtual assets, and virtual currencies. They must report to the prime minister next August.Though there are no official statistics about the Bitcoin market, experts estimate daily Bitcoin transactions may amount to dozens of millions of US dollars.english.thesaigontimes.vn/57795/HCM City-tightens-controls-on-crypto-curren-cies.html

State Treasury enters bond market as special investor

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| VIR

In order to cure the sluggishness of the government bond market, Vietnam State Treas-ury (VST) has decided to join as a secondary investor. Tran Thi Hue, director of the De-partment of Treasury Management, spoke with VIR's Huu Hoe about the state office's specific plans for the upcoming participation as well as expectations for the new course of the government bond market in 2018.Other than being the main issuer on the primary market of government bonds, it is said that Vietnam State Treasury (VST) is planning to become a secondary investor in this market. How has VST prepared for this new function?Decree No.24/2016/ND-CP on national treasury management has, for the first time, al-lowed temporarily idle funds to be used to repurchase government bonds.In more details, temporarily idle funds will be used in the following order of priority: advancing the central budget, advancing the provincial budget, be deposited at com-mercial banks with high safety ranking from the State Bank of Vietnam, and repur-chasing government bonds. Based on this juridical mechanism, for the first time, VST is allowed to participate in the government bond market as a secondary investor.

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The decree was enacted on January 1, 2017, but in 2017, VST's participation was post-poned due to complex preparation procedures, including staff training, and finalising procedures. Therefore, starting from 2018, VST will participate as a secondary investor in the government bond market.Another remark of the 2018 government bond market is the introduction of the policy for investors to lend bonds for selling purposes, satisfying the diverse demands of in-vestors, and accordingly, providing instruments for market leaders.In your opinion, how will VST's new role contribute to improving the government bond market's liquidity?As a secondary investor, the possibility of VST partaking in the government securities market depends on the availability of temporarily idle funds.While VST's participating as a secondary investor will help support market liquidity (the current transaction rate is around VND9 trillion per day), as a special member holding a significant impact on the market, VST will remain cautious before and dur-ing participation.What changes will VST see as an issuer in 2018?VST's guidelines to attract capital in 2018 will continue to closely follow the quotas as-signed by the Ministry of Finance (MoF). MoF is allocating room for issuance to each unit as well as constructing guidelines for the amount of capital to attract from the do-mestic and the international market. After receiving the quotas for 2018, VST will im-mediately start the operation.Following the positive results on the primary market, while keeping the issuing guide-lines for 2018, VST will strive to extend the terms of government bonds so that bonds with a term of five years or longer will account for 80 per cent of the total issued bonds.In 2018, in an effort to restructure loans through government bonds, VST will focus on judging categorised debts to calculate issuance plans to rotate debts at maturity and extend peak debt for the upcoming period.Also in 2018, a new feature of the bidding operation is that VST will encourage Viet-nam Social Insurance to directly participate in the process instead of directly purchas-ing from VST. This will help the market function more smoothly and transparently.In order to increase the attractiveness of primary bonds products, will VST introduce new products such as floating rate notes in 2018?The idea of issuing floating rate bonds has been studied by the Department of Finance and Banking under the management of MoF since the end of 2016. However, an opin-ion poll of market participants indicated that not many are intrigued by the idea.Therefore, in 2018, VST will not issue such products, and along with conducting re-search on possible products to satisfy investor demand, VST will continue to issue tra-ditional products based on the expectations of investors.A draft decree on issuing, registering, posting, and transacting government debt tools, which was composed to replace Decree No.01/2011/ND-CP on issuing government bonds, government-guaranteed bonds, and local government bonds with lots of new content, is currently being surveyed by MoF.Likewise, this decree is expected to be enacted and enter into effect on July 1, 2018, at around the same time when the amended law for regulating public debt comes into ef-fect. VST will then deploy new solutions to drive the bonds market in a more profes-sional and effective direction.www.vir.com.vn/state-treasury-enters-bond-market-as-special-investor.html

Short-term capital limit for medium and long-term loans officially adjusted

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| VNECONOMY

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has issued Circular No.19/2017/TT-NHNN, continu-ing to amend and supplement Circular No.36/2014/TT-NHNN stipulating limits and capital adequacy ratios (CAR) in the operation of credit organisations and foreign bank branches.Reflecting on some recent adjustments, the State Bank has consistently implemented the orientations suggested last year, adjusting the limits of using short-term capita for medium and long-term loans.


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Specifically, according to the recently issued Circular No.19 dated December 28, 2017, since January 1, 2018, credit organisations, foreign bank branches must comply with the maximum proportion of short term capital for medium and long term loans under new limits.From January 1, 2018 till December 31, 2018, the ratio applied to banks, foreign bank branches will be 45 percent, compared to 90 percent for non-credit organisations.From January 1, 2019, the aforementioned ratio for banks, foreign bank branches will continue decreasing to 40 percent, compared to 90 percent for non-bank credit organ-isations.Since the end of 2015, the limit on the use of the aforementioned loans has been set for many times.After suddenly loosening the ratio of short-term capital for medium and long-term loans from 30 percent to 60 percent, since the end of 2015, the State Bank started to make plan to tighten.However, to limit the disturbance for the capital balance of credit organisations, since the end of 2016, the State Bank has tightened this policy step-by-step, by reducing from 60 percent to 50 percent in 2017, to 45 percent in 2018 and 40 percent in 2019, and fur-ther specified in the aforementioned Circular No.19.

Is there a third investment wave in Vietnam banks?

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

While some analysts note that a number of foreign banks have withdrawn capital from Vietnam banks, others see signs of a third investment wave from foreign investors.The first wave of foreign investment in the banking sector occurred in 2005-2008, when bank shares were traded at sky high prices at hundreds of thousands of dong per share.The first foreign strategic shareholders in Vietnam banks included ANZ, which ac-quired a 10 percent Sacombank stake in 2005, Standard Chartered which had a 9 per-cent ACB stake in 2005, and HSBC which bought a 10 percent Techcombank stake in 2005 and later raised its ownership ratio to 20 percent.OCBC bought a 10 percent VP Bank stake in 2006 and later raised the ownership ratio to 15 percent, Societe general had a 20 percent SeABank stake in 2008, and BNP Paribas invested in OCB in 2009.The second wave was seen in 2011-2014 with a number of outstanding deals such as the $60 million investment by Commonwealth Bank in VIB Bank in 2011 and the $40 million investment by IFC in An Binh Bank in the same year.The other big deals included Mizuho pouring $576 million into Vietcombank in 2012 and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi buying a 20 percent VietinBank stake at $743 million in 2013.The stock market plunged to its bottom in 2012, but has bounced back since then. The strong rise recently of bank share prices has caused foreign investors to divest shares.ANZ has left Sacombank after seven years, while OCBC divested from VP Bank in 2013. Since the beginning of the year, the market has seen HSBC leaving Techcombank and Standard Chartered Bank planning to leave ACB.However, analysts say the banking sector has become attractive again, and can attract foreign investment, especially when foreign investment has been heading for Vietnam in the context of stable macroeconomic conditions and GDP growth.On December 7, TP Bank and PYN Fund Management signed a contract under which PYN Elite Fund will own a 4.99 percent stake of TP Bank at the price of $40 million. TP Bank has announced a plan to list shares on the bourse soon.On December 8, the OCB board of directors announced a ceiling for foreign ownership ratio at 23.66 percent.Sources said many banks are rushing to look for foreign strategic shareholders. Viet-combank and Vietinbank, where the state still holds a controlling stake, have left open the plan to admit foreign shareholders.Meanwhile, BIDV, another bank in the 'big four', is said to be planning to issue 10 per-cent of shares specifically to a strategic investor, a bank from South Korea.


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Why cannot e-wallet develop despite much potential?

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| VNEXPRESS

The market currently has 20 e-wallets licensed to operate and is assessed to have much potential for development. However, in fact, many people are still strangers to e-wal-lets. Even, many of them registered accounts but did not use them.According to Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency (Ministry of Indus-try and Trade), Vietnam is considered as one of the countries with the fastest growth rate in e-commerce in the world with 35 percent per annum, 2.5 times higher than Ja-pan. Along with the development of e-commerce, e-payment or recently e-wallet has more advantages and growth momentum.At the end of September 2016, the number of e-wallets released to the market was more than three million accounts. Though so far, there have had no specific statistics for 2017, according to the publication of some popular brands, e-wallet is having very strong growth.At the signing ceremony with Uber at the beginning of December, representative of MoMo said more than five million customers are using MoMo e-wallet product and this number is expected to increase 2-3 times in the next 12 months.Leaders of LienVietPostBank (the owner of Vi Viet or Vietnamese wallet) said, as of December 15, 2017, Vi Viet had more than two million users and planned to have 3.5 million users in 2018.Currently, Vietnam has had more than 20 e-wallets licensed to operate, mainly serving large cities. The features of Vi Viet mainly revolve around such services as phone re-charge, money transfer, card payment, bill payment, vehicle ticket purchase, movie ticket purchase, etc. And these gadgets are mainly domestic which cannot reach out to the world.*Many barriers from payment habit of Vietnamese peopleThere are many utilities that have many advantages of the proportion of internet users, large coverage of mobile subscribers and rapidly growing e-commerce. However, in reality, many people are still very strange with e-wallets. Even, many people only reg-ister accounts without using them.One of the biggest obstacles is that the habit of making payment by cash is very diffi-cult to change. Even, the payment by bank cards has only developed in recent years, and has not become a familiar way in the life of the majority of Vietnamese people.The use of an invisible wallet to make payment causes many people to concern about the confidentiality. Or in other words, money held in hands or through banks is still believed to be more secure and certain.One of the most favourite features of e-wallet is the online payment of water and elec-tricity bills, condominium fees, tuition fees, etc. However, this feature faces the com-petition from the mode of collection at payment locations such as Mobile World, etc.Due to large network and thick coverage, it is quite easy and quick to make payment at these payment points, thereby the people have not wanted to get rid of this habit to shift to using e-wallet.*The eco-system for e-wallet is not large enoughApart from difficulties from psychology and habit of customers, the e-wallets them-selves now have not been completed to meet diversified demand of customers.Currently, Vietnamese e-wallet have had quite many features for domestic payment such as money withdrawal/injection, money transfer, payment of bills, phone re-charge, online shopping, and consumer loan payment. However, the number of pay-ment accepting points is still limited so people who go to supermarkets or restaurants still use cash or bank card to make payment.E-wallet can be considered as the inter-session of three ecosystems including cell phones, finance and banking system and retail market. Therefore, the cooperation to carry out payment transactions in these ecosystems is very important, deciding the de-velopment of those e-wallets.Many experts suppose that the problem that hinders the popularity of e-wallets is the low number of bank account users and many banks have not connected to companies that carry out e-wallets.


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Meanwhile, persuading retailers to accept as payment points will take the highest amount of time compared to banks' linkage because of excessive number and shortage of a close system like banks.Looking at China's e-wallet development lesson, Alipay and WeChat are the two most popular e-wallets with about more than one billion regular users. Most of all social ac-tivities such as eating, shopping, entertainment, etc. can be paid by these two applica-tions.For example, Alipay is the e-wallet created by Alibaba Group, which has large trading platforms including Alibaba and Taobao. Owning a huge ecosystem with a large net-work of affiliated members helps Alipay quickly become popular among users and easily develop.Meanwhile, in Vietnam, hardly any e-wallet can do so without a similarly strong foun-dation. Among more than 20 e-wallets, there is no name that really dominates the mar-ket.Only a more popular number targets at large number of customers such as momo, we-pay, zalopaym, payoo, etc. while the majority of e-wallets are developed to serve a very small number of customers internally.Typical cases for e-wallets that serve internal customers are businesses operating in games industry, and these e-wallets themselves do not put much emphasis on the col-lection of service fee but mainly complete payment channels, making the sale of cards and game recharge to be easier.

Banks' profit skyrockets due to credit growth


Due to the recovery of the credit market throughout the year 2017, plenty of banks an-nounced positive business performance with increased profits whilst fostering asset trading, risk management, and control over non-performing loans.In particular, for the first nine months of 2017, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) was re-corded to achieve total pre-tax profits worth about VND2 trillion ($88.37 million) and total after-tax profits worth VND1.5 trillion ($67.29 million), respectively 61 and 53 per cent up against the same period in 2016.Based on these statistics, ACB's profit for 2017 is forecast to exceed the original expec-tation of VND2.2 trillion ($97.24 million).In addition, Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) also report-ed surpassing its expectation of VND585 billion ($25.79 million) in pre-tax profit for 2017, with a profit of VND1 trillion ($45.2 million) during the first nine months, a five-fold increase over the same category in 2016 and almost doubling the planned profit for 2017.Likewise, a significant number of Vietnam-based commercial banks, including Viet-combank, BIDV, Viettinbank, Techcombank, MB, HDBank, LienvietpostBank, OCB, and TPBank also expected their profits to be worth trillions of dongs by the end of 2017.Financial specialists attributed banks' increased profit to positive credit growth. With the credit growth level anticipated at around 19 per cent, a raise in banks' returns was expected. In addition, improved non-performing loan management also added to banks' profitability.Dr Bui Quang Tin, a lecturer at Banking University of HCM City, explained that banks had a major restructuring progress, especially in the area of risk management.Judging the current state of Vietnam-based banks, Le Anh Tuan, deputy general direc-tor of Dragon Capital's investment and economy division, noted that the accelerated restructuring process played an important factor in enhancing the overall performance of the industry. During the year 2017, commercial banks profit performance drew sub-stantial attention, while the slowly warming real estate market also had a positive im-pact on bank credit."However, it is of paramount importance that Vietnam-based banks should pay more attention to risk management and credit quality in order to obtain higher returns, lead-ing to highly distributed profits," Tuan added.


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To date, a remarkable number of bank managers expected that the positive credit growth would support commercial banks to strengthen control over non-performing loans and reduce reserve funds with the intent to increase their profits.www.vir.com.vn/banks-profit-skyrockets-due-to-credit-growth.html

StoxPlus to organise credit risk conference

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| VNS

A conference on "Credit Risk Management for Trade and Investment in Vietnam" will be held in Hanoi on January 11 to address credit risk management practices in Vietnam and strategies to gain the trust and confidence of foreign firms seeking to partner with Vietnamese companies.Some 200 participants CFOs, finance and accounting professionals, risk management and investment officers of companies that receive FDI, financial institutions and com-panies that have trading and investment relations with Vietnamese companies -- are expected to participate in this event.It is co-hosted by StoxPlus and Credit Information Centre, endorsed by Vietnamese Party Central Committee's Economic Commission and supported by Japan's Nikkei Inc.According to StoxPlus, Vietnam is one of the most open economies in the world with import-export turnover at approximately $405 billion, or 187 per cent of GDP, in 2017. Trade contributes significantly to the country's economic growth. However, Vietnam ranked 68 out of 190 nations and territories for ease of doing business, according to a survey by the World Bank in 2017.The low ranking is explained by many factors, including the low level of information transparency, lack of financial corporate data, low coverage of credit ratings and relat-ed protection products such as credit risk insurance. Although measures have been taken to address this situation, a number of issues have been raised by market partic-ipants.At the conference, high-level officials of Ministry of Planning and Investment and the State Bank of Vietnam and experts from Vietnam National Credit Information Centre, the World Bank, risk solution firms and foreign investors will share their knowledge on information infrastructure and credit risk management practice in Vietnam.Some key themes to be addressed in the conference include improving the investment environment for Vietnam with corporate financial transparency; enhancing credit in-formation and technologies for credit institutions to improve risk management in Vi-etnam and enhancing corporate information to help foreign investors gain confidence in doing business in Vietnam.The event will take place at Lottle Hotel Hanoi, No. 54 Lieu Giai Street, Ba Dinh Dis-trict, Hanoi.http://bizhub.vn/banking/stoxplus-to-organise-credit-risk-conference_291113.html

Banks lead market upturn in 2018's first trading day


Stocks ended the first trading day of 2018 in the green on the two national stock ex-changes, reflecting investors' optimism about the market outlook this year.On the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN Index advanced 1.17 per cent to close Tuesday at 995.17 points. Vietnam's benchmark index climbed 48 per cent in 2017.On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 1.71 per cent to end at 118.87 points. The northern market index also soared 47 per cent last year.Bank stocks led the upturn on Tuesday on investors' regard for the banks' positive earnings last year and their rosy 2018 outlook.Nine of 10 listed lenders on the two exchanges gained value while only one closed un-changed.BIDV (BID) was the biggest gainer with growth of 5.9 per cent while the others in the Big Four (four biggest banks by market value and assets) Vietcombank (VCB), Viet-inbank (CTG) and VPBank (VPB) increased 1.3 per cent, 3.1 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively.The two biggest banks on the Hanoi exchange Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Sai


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Gon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) rallied by over 5 per cent each.In the VN30 basket (which tracks the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquid-ity on the HCM City's exchange), 25 advanced and only four declined."The index is predicted to stay on the uptrend this week thanks to increasing buying demand, mostly for leading large-cap stocks. In addition, listed companies with solid Q4 earnings results will also draw cash inflows in the next sessions," said Tran Duc Anh, a stock analyst at Bao Viet Securities Co.A total of 250.7 million shares worth a combined VND6.65 trillion (US$292 million) were traded in the two markets.Foreign investors also concluded Tuesday as net buyers on both exchanges, picking up total net value of VND290 billion.Impressive 2017The first trading session of Vietnam's stock market in 2018 was marked with a ceremo-ny held by the State Securities Commission and the Hanoi Stock Exchange.Addressing the event, minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung said the stock market wit-nessed breakthrough development in 2017. The newly opened derivatives market de-veloped rapidly, helping to perfect the structure of the stock market in particular and the financial market in general.With the presence of many big businesses, the value of the securities market was equivalent to over 78 per cent of the GDP in 2016 and 70.2 per cent of the GDP in 2017, reaching the target set for 2020.The VN Index ended the year 2017 at over 984 points, up 48 per cent from 2016. The liquidity of the stock and bond markets rose by 65 per cent and 39 per cent, respective-ly.The minister said that last year, the stock market successfully established itself as a channel for mobilising medium- and long-term capital for the government and busi-nesses. It greatly contributed to the equitisation of and divestment from State-owned enterprises and to the attraction of foreign investment.The official said his ministry will coordinate with other ministries and sectors to carry out key solutions to continue developing Vietnam's stock market in a rapid and sus-tainable manner.http://bizhub.vn/markets/banks-lead-market-upturn-in-2018s-first-trading-day_291105.html

Foreign investors pour hundreds of US dollars into bank stocks

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| NDH

For a long time since the banking sector of Vietnam entered the restructuring phase, bank stocks have not drawn attention of foreign investors. However, in a few last months of 2017, HDBank and VPBank have grossed hundreds of USD from selling shares to international organisations, and the bid volume was even much larger than ask volume.The credit rating agency Fitch, in its report in late 2016, noted that the ratings of Viet-namese banks were still the lowest in Asia. This reflects many problems of the banking system, from structure to bad debts, but most painfully capital shortage, especially when the system is preparing to pilot the capital and risk management in accordance with Basel II standards.This view was also repeated in a post on Bloomberg View in late September 2017, which said that Vietnamese biggest shortage is capital. As the bad debt situation has not been fully reported until now, this lack of capital is actually worse than what the data shows.However, this challenge has provided an opportunity for another story accelerating capital mobilisation and the return of foreign capital. "In the eyes of investors, the banking sector of Vietnam is one of the most feasible destinations in Asia", Bloomberg stated.This argument was explained by the strong growth in recent years, from the recovery of Vietnamese economy to the gradual stability of the real estate market. Although the banking system is struggling with high bad debt ratio, it has recovered some of its


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health. In particular, credit growth an indicator to access the return of the sector has begun to rise again.After a long period of time since the system entered the large-scale restructuring in 2008, the banking sector has witnessed hundreds of USD Initial Public Offerings of banks.Most recently, HDBank raised 300 million USD from international organisations after selling shares from existing shareholders by book-building method. This 6.8 trillion dong deal is the second largest deal of the banking sector after the mobilisation of over 460 million USD of Vietcombank in 2007, with bid volume three times being larger than ask volume.Investors participating in the IPO of HDBank are all major financial institutions on in-ternational markets such as Credit Saison (Japan), Deutsche Bank AG (Germany), JP-Morgan Vietnam Opportunities Fund, CAM Bank (Japan), Charlemagne (UK), Dragon Capital, VinaCapital, Macquarie Bank (Australia), and PYN Elite.Prior to HDBank, VPBank also completed its sale of shares in May 2017 and grossed 250 million USD. In particular, the value of shares registered to sell, according to the bank's consulting unit, reached up to over 1.2 billion USD.The success of these two banks is not only seen via the scale of their capital raising but also via ask price.A year ago, except for Vietcombank, the price level of bank stocks were only 1x, and the trading prices on the Over-the-counter (OTC) of many bank stocks were even be-low par. However, at present, 3x-4x price for a bank stock has now been accepted by investors. Foreign investors were willing to pay HDBank up to 32,000 dong per share and expected this stock will continue to rise when HDBank gets listed on the Hochim-inh city Stock Exchange (HoSE) in early 2018. The record large-scale capital raising of these banks have motivated the rebound of the "king stocks", especially when inves-tors tend to take the offer prices to foreign investors as the reference for the investment of stocks on the exchange.The mobilisation of foreign capital is a sign of return of the banking sector in the race to raise capital, but in fact this trend is not for every bank. Even the four largest banks on the market are struggling in increasing Tier-1 capital.Over the past year, Vietcombank has not yet been able to solve the problem of offering shares to foreign partner even preliminary agreement with GIC to sell nearly 306 mil-lion VCB shares (7.7 percent) was reached since August 2016. The reason for this un-successful deal is that the bid price of GIC (about 400 million USD) was much lower than the market price at that time (about 640 million USD at 52,000 dong per share).BIDV the bank having the largest total assets in the system is also struggling to raise capital as its Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) is about to reach a risky threshold. Al-though the bank has been ambiguous about the presence of a new Korean partner, the deal to sell shares to strategic shareholder of BIDV is forecasted to be difficult to be im-plemented soon.In addition to seeking partners, the foreign ownership limit is also a difficult issue when raising capital. The success of VPBank and HDBank in raising foreign capital is also thanks to the wide remaining room for foreign ownership limit of 10 percent. VP-Bank's ownership limit for foreign investors has been fulfilled when it carried out list-ing, while that of HDBank remains about 8.5 percent. Meanwhile, the room for foreign investor ownership of VietinBank has reached about 30 percent. With very limited room left for foreign investors which can only meet daily trading needs, the attraction of foreign funds to raise Tier-1 capital has become a tough problem.Along with that, the internal status of banks is also an attractive spot for investors. As of December 30th 2017, HDBank recorded a total assets (separate) of 180.816 trillion dong and equity of 14.051 trillion dong. HDBank expects to attain 2.4 trillion dong of pre-tax profit in 2017, up by 130 percent compared to the same period of 2016.HDBank has made outstanding growth over the time. Compared to 2011, the total as-sets of the bank as of December 31st 2016 increased by three times, and equity in-creased by nearly three times. The bank's mobilisation grew by over four times, while


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lending grew by five times and pre-tax profit developed by over two times. With close relationship with major partners such as Vietjet Air, Vinamilk and fast growing fi-nance credit of HDSaison, HDBank is attractive to foreign investors as it brings them the expectation of an outstanding growth compared to the average level of the sector in the next five years.Clearly, although chances are not for every bank, capital is still flowing into potential investments in the banking sector which is expected to recover strongly.

Where do three big banks get money from to raise capital by 1.8-2 times?

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| DTCK

Over the last period, increasing equity has always been the pressure for credit organi-sations in order to meet the requirement on Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) under Ba-sel II by 2020.According to calculations by the National Financial Supervisory Commission (NFSC), the CAR of the entire system was estimated to reach 11.1 percent in 2017 (compared to 11.6 percent in 2016). The ratio of Tier 1 capital/total adjusted risky assets was eight percent. However, currently, the entire system has 9/118 credit organisations with neg-ative equity.Excluding credit organisations with negative equity, the CAR of the entire system touched about 12.3 percent. In 2017, the growth rate of equity of credit organisations was slower than the growth rate of total assets. Specifically, the total assets converted with risk ratio swell 9.3 percent, while the equity was estimated to improve 4.6 percent."In the coming time, to ensure the CAR ratio to meet Basel II standard, the demand for capital increase of credit organisations is very large, especially for state-owned com-mercial banks", said a senior leader of NFSC.Under the policy on pilot implementation of Basel II with 10 largest banks in the sys-tem, the time of implementing CAR regulation was from September 2017 and one of the requirements that banks must comply with was the CAR at eight percent or higher.However, according to Circular No.41/2016/TT-NHNN regulating CAR for banks, for-eign bank branches, from January 1, 2020, banks that have no subsidiary companies, and foreign bank branches must regularly maintain the CAR of at least eight percent. As such, CAR has been adjusted down from nine percent to eight percent in the next three years.However, the market reality shows that banks are still suffering from pressure to raise capital to meet requirements on CAR under Basel II standard.Looking at 10 pilot banks, the group of private commercial banks such as ACB, VIB, Techcombank, etc. are more likely to meet the demand as they have had a significantly higher CAR compared to the prescribed level. Meanwhile, the group of state-owned commercial banks including Vietcombank, Vietinbank, and BIDV will suffer from large capital increase pressure.In this context, many banks have strongly raised their equity by many different meth-ods such as issuance of long-term certificate of deposits to increase Tier 2 capital, no payment of dividend to supplement equity or raise chartered capital under two com-mon forms of payment i.e. to make dividend payment by shares and additionally issue more shares to existing shareholders.Hoang Van Cuong, Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) said most banks have applied the short term method i.e. to raise Tier 2 capital by issuing short-term bonds with the success of many banks such as ACB, VietinBank, LienVietPost-Bank, VPBank, Vietcombank and NCB.Specifically, at the end November, Vietinbank announces the successful offering of bonds for sale to the public for the first phase of 2017 with 200,000 bonds, and the total issuance value of two trillion dong for a 10-year term.Earlier, VietinBank issued a total of 18.3 trillion dong bonds, including 16.3 trillion dong more than 5-year tenor bonds, and two trillion dong 5-year tenor bonds.Or since mid-2017, BIDV was also approved by the State Bank with a total issuance val-ue of more than 20 trillion dong by par value.However, according to Cuong, this method is really ineffective because firstly, it only


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helps banks solve the situation in short term.Secondly, it increases the capital cost pressure as bond yields are 1-2 percent/annum higher than the normal deposit rates and the competition of capital mobilisation in bonds from other financial institutions.Thirdly, most of these bonds are mutually invested by banks, leading to the cross-own-ership among banks.Fourthly, according to Circular No. 41, banks that are holding a large volume of Tier-2 capital of other banks will face the decreasing pressure of Tier 2 equity since 2020 when having to exclude this investment.NFSC says that it has developed the model of forecasting the annual demand for equi-ty for three state-owned banks including Vietinbank, BIDV and Vietcombank to esti-mate the capital demand for 2018-2020.The model is developed based on the following assumptions: the asset growth rate of about 14-18 percent/annum; the CAR fulfilment of eight percent; and the ratio of risky assets/total assets that apply Basel II at about 65-95 percent.The result of the model shows that as of the end of 2020, due to increasing demand for equity, banks must raise the expected equity by 1.8-2 times compared to the current level to meet Basel II requirements. Therefore, these credit organisations need to have specific roadmap and suitable calculation of the capital supplementation to meet the demand by 2020."To ensure proper capital demand under Basel II, the total equity of banks must in-crease 1.8-2 times from now till 2020. This will be a warning, a very large challenge", said Nguyen Xuan Thanh, director of Development at Fulbright University Vietnam.With this situation, Cuong recommends specific measures. Firstly, state-owned banks themselves need to increase risk management to reduce risk provisioning costs (a very costly item in the business operation). Increasing the quality and effectiveness of busi-ness operations of banks is an important measure to strengthen equity.The following thing is to strengthen the search for potential strategic partners like Vi-etcombank, BIDV are implementing. At the same time, banks should apply thoroughly and consistently with the solution to retain dividend to increase chartered capital and make dividend payment by shares to enhance the equity scale.Other options can be implemented such as issuance of preferential shares or non-vot-ing shares and issuance of bonds to increase capital (calculated into the equity of the maximum bond value equal to 50 percent of the Tier-1 capital) in order to strengthen the equitisation progress or attract financial investors, strategic investors.Also according to the NFSC, in terms of the support from policy, the capital increase is facilitated through Decision No. 1058/QD-TTg issued in 2017.Accordingly, the prime minister asked ministries and sectors to consider and allocate resources to increase chartered capital for commercial banks whose the State holds more than 50 percent of the chartered capital till 2020, selecting strategic shareholders, and ensuring at least one strategic investor having prestige in the market and good fi-nancial capacity as well as management experience."Credit organisations have actively developed capital increase methods, in which, Vi-etcombank's capital increase method was approved by the prime minister. The capital increase of credit organisations will be more favourable due to 2017 positive profits, stable macro economy, improving business and production situation, and expectation of bad debt settlement under the spirit of the National Assembly's Resolution No.42", said a senior leader of NFSC.

Viet Capital Bank provides credit package to Nam An Hoa project


Kien Giang Construction and Investment Consulting Corp has started construction on the Nam An Hoa residential area project in Kien Giang Province's Rach Gia City.Covering an area of over 100,000sq.m, the project has a total investment cost of over VND700 billion (US$30.8 million), of which Capital Bank has provided a credit pack-age of VND300 billion. The project is expected to be completed in 2021.The project includes 252 townhouses, 36 garden houses and 64 land plots for resettle-


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ments. Once completed, it will provide accommodation for about 1,800 residents.Nguyen Quoc Su, chair of the Rach Gia City People's Committee, said planning for the new construction would include removing makeshift homes and helping local resi-dents whose houses were cleared to make way for the project to relocate in better liv-ing conditions.The project, which is near the new Kien Giang general Hospital, will only use 50 per cent of the land for construction. The rest will be allocated for public facilities such as parks, kindergartens, wastewater treatment stations and green spaces.http://bizhub.vn/banking/viet-capital-bank-provides-credit-package-to-nam-an-hoa-project_291106.html

Moody assigns first-time rating to LienVietPostBank


Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday assigned first-time ratings and assessments to LienVietPostBank.Under the ratings, Moody's assigned LienVietPostBank's long-term local and foreign currency deposits and issuer ratings of B2 with a stable outlook.The ratings reflected baseline credit assessment (BCA) at B2 and the government's sup-port to the bank at a positive level of B1.BCA at B2 also showed improvements in assets' quality and the profitability index at the bank. In addition, Moody's also assigned LienVietPostBank's short-term local and foreign currency deposits and issuer ratings of Not prime, Counterparty Risk Assess-ments of B2 (cr)/NP (cr).The ratings were released as the bank's loans mostly focused on enterprises and retail, accounting for 54 per cent and 32 per cent of its total outstanding loans by the end of June 2017, respectively.The bank has gradually shifted its lending structure toward retail.In addition, Moody's also assessed LienVietPostBank with a high liquidity of 39 per cent of its tangible assets by the end of 2016.As of June 30, 2017, its total deposits accounted for 76 per cent of its total assets.Moody's expected that the bank's capital resources would be improved thank to stable mobilisation from individual deposits with low costs, which LienVietPostBank has en-joyed due to its postal network nationwide.According to Moody's ratings, LienVietPostBank has similar ratings with five other commercial banks of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Military Bank (MB), Vietnam In-ternational Bank (VIB), Techcombank and An Binh (ABB).LienVietPostBank has been the first Vietnamese bank to receive the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards (APICTA) 2017 award for its Vi Viet e-wallet an online banking serv-ice, last month. APICTA is considered as the Oscar Award in the ICT sector in the Asia Pacific region. Vi Viet was awarded the second prize for Financial Industry Applica-tion.By the end of November, the bank's charter capital reached VND6.46 (US$284.3 mil-lion) trillion, total assets reached VND154 trillion, total capital mobilisation at VND141 trillion and total debt reached VND98 trillion.It reported a pre-tax profit of VND1.7 trillion in the first 11 months of the year.LienVietPostBank has the largest network among joint stock commercial banks, with 200 branches and over 1,000 transaction offices, nationwide.http://bizhub.vn/banking/moody-assigns-first-time-rating-to-lienvietpostbank_291103.html

HSBC Vietnam scores hat-trick at The Asset's Triple A Awards

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Bank caps off stellar 2017 by picking up three Triple A awards.HSBC Vietnam capped off a successful 2017 by picking up no less than three prestig-ious prizes at The Asset magazine's Triple A Awards, an annual event recognising ex-cellence across Asia in the fields of banking, finance, treasury, and capital markets.HSBC Vietnam was not only named Best Global Bank for the second-year running but also scooped the prize as Best Global Corporate and Institutional Bank and Best M&A


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Deal, after facilitating the largest transaction ever made in Vietnam's construction ma-terials sector: Siam City Cement's acquisition of a 65 per cent stake in LafargeHolcim Vietnam for $524 million."We are delighted to end the year on such a high note at this illustrious event," said HSBC Vietnam CEO Pham Hong Hai. "To land three of the most acclaimed awards is tremendous acknowledgement of all our hard work and a year of dedicated customer service.""It is a privilege for us to leverage our global banking expertise and connectivity to con-tinually bring such great benefits to the clients and Vietnam's economy," he added. "HSBC Vietnam has now advised on five of the ten largest M&A deals in Vietnam, demonstrating the bank's strength in advising on complex, cross-border M&A trans-actions in the country."In the Best Global Bank award, banks' overall achievements were evaluated across a number of categories, including financial performance, size of operations, spread of business, corporate and institutional banking performance, capital raising, advisory and transaction banking performance, and contribution to domestic markets.In Best Global Corporate and Institutional Bank, banks were evaluated with the Triple A Scoring Quotient (TASQ), an in-house ranking system developed by The Asset over the past 18 years. The TASQ looks at the number of deals, types of deals, industry spread, size/significance of deals, number of sole books, innovation/impact on the cap-ital market, quality of execution, and secondary market performance."To be ranked highest in three of the most comprehensive categories by The Asset is immensely gratifying and also inspires us to work even harder throughout 2018 and top the rankings again next year," Hai said.HSBC Vietnam's "hat-trick" at the Triple A Awards is the icing on the cake in a stellar 2017, in which the bank landed a host of other prizes. It was also named Best Foreign Bank in Vietnam and Best Foreign Investment Bank in Vietnam by FinanceAsia, Best International Bank in Vietnam by Asiamoney, and Best Domestic Cash manager in the Euromoney Cash Management Survey. It was also named as one of the Top 3 banks with the highest credit payment volumes by Visa."Yes, it's been a good year all aroundwe grew our business, increased total operating income, and surpassed our sustainable savings target, and we contributed to the de-velopment of Vietnam's economy and banking industry, leveraging our business cor-ridors to capture FDI/FII flows into Vietnam," Hai said.In 2018, HSBC Vietnam will continue to leverage the group's international connectivity to help its clients grow their businesses and will continue to raise the bar in customer service. "We will also continue to be a pioneer in the global fight against financial crime, which will contribute to enhancing the integrity of the financial system," he said. "Last but not least, digital innovation will remain a priority for our long-term and sustainable growth. We look forward to rolling out more digital banking products and services in the very near future."http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/hsbc-vietnam-scores-hat-trick-at-the-asset-s-triple-a-awards

Eximbank sells over 1.3 million shares of Sacombank

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| TRI THUC TRE

The Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank of Vietnam (Eximbank, code EIB) has recently announced the sale of shares the bank owns at Saigon Thuong Tin Commer-cial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank, code STB).Accordingly, HDBank will continue to sell.31 million shares of STB, lowering the own-ership rate to 7.94 percent of shares with voting rights, equivalent to over 143.17 mil-lion STB shares.This deal was recorded on December 20th 2017.Previously, Eximbank continuously reduce its ownership at Sacombank, from over 165.2 million hare, equivalent to 9.16 percent of share with voting rights of Sacombank in the initial time, to just 160.29 million shares, equivalent to 8.887 percent of shares with voting rights of Sacombank in November.


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This move of Eximbank is to meet the regulations of Circular 36 which stipulates the limits and safety ratios in operation of credit institutions and foreign bank branches. According to the circular, commercial banks are allowed to own less than 5 percent shares with voting right of another commercial banks.Eximbank and Sacombank are the two of the strongest banks in the group of joint stock banks in the South, and they used to rule the roost on the market. In 2012, these two banks signed comprehensive strategic agreement with the prospect of merging togeth-er, even with Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), in order to form a regional-scale bank. Eximbank at that time elected Pham Huu Phu to represent its capital at Sa-combank. Phu was later chosen to be the bank's Chair of the Board of directors. Nev-ertheless, after two years, Phu returned to Eximbank as the bank's general director and resigned in October 2015.Eximbank and Sacombank is also one of the two cross-ownership pairs after the drastic handling of the central bank, along with another pair related to Kien Long Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Kienlongbank).

Vietcombank's total assets exceed VND1 quadrillion


As of December 31, 2017, the total assets of the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vi-etcombank) reached VND1.05 quadrillion (US$46 billion).This makes it the fourth bank of Vietnam possessing total assets exceeding VND1 quadrillion.Vietcombank is the focal point of purchasing nearly $5 billion in the State capital's di-vestment at Saigon Beer, Alcohol and Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) on December 29.This transaction, equivalent to VND110 trillion, pushed Vietcombank's total assets to exceed VND1 quadrillion only a few days before the end of 2017, two years earlier than the targeted plan in 2020.Till date, the commercial banking system in Vietnam has four members reaching over VND1 quadrillion in total assets, including the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Devel-opment (Agribank), Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vi-etinBank), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and Vietcombank.This is also the "Big 4" group of State-owned commercial banks, of which, only Agrib-ank has not been equitised yet. This group currently holds around 50 per cent of out-standing loans and deposits of the entire banking system.Together with the total asset size, this is the first time the local banking system has seen its official membership's before-tax profit exceeding VND10 trillion.Specifically, according to 2017's data, Vietcombank is the first commercial bank to ex-ceed this profit figure, with more than VND10.8 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 32 per cent. The profit, which service segment made up 24 per cent against 20 per cent in 2015-16, is expected to be the highest level in the entire banking system.Remarkably, this profit was made after Vietcombank continued to increase its provi-sion for risky loans in 2017 to some VND8 trillion, which accounted for some 130 per cent of the bank's total bad debts.Last year, although the State Bank raised credit growth target to 18 per cent, Vietcom-bank increased only some 17.4 per cent.In the end of 2016, the bank's retail lending ratio was only 33 per cent; however, in 2017, it had risen to 41 per cent and the trend may surpass 50 per cent in 2018.http://bizhub.vn/banking/vietcombanks-total-assets-exceed-vnd1-quadrillion_291102.html

Government Inspectorate calls attention to multiple violations at Vietcombank


Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) was found in numerous counts of violations in its credit activity, selling bad debts, financial investments, and property sales and purchases, according to the conclusion of the government Inspectorate.Notably, according to newswire Cafeland, Vietcombank had violated in regulations governing approving, expertising as well as disbursing loans. Besides, the bank cannot


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control the entirety of its loans as well as the customers' capacity to pay the debt. Viet-combank's collateral valuation has yet to comply with regulations.According to the government Inspectorate's report, Vietcombank issued unclear guid-ance for debt trading, causing confusion between stages of transaction. Furthermore, the bank also fails to comply with regulations when it directly sells bad debts to cus-tomers via direct negotiation instead of auctions.Regarding violations in financial investment and M&A activities, Vietcombank has de-layed in divesting from enterprises which do not operate in the banking sector or en-terprises operating without profit. The effectiveness of investment activities does not match the investment capital.In addition, the bank has yet to comply with regulations on investment process, the ca-pacity of the project supervisors do not meet the requirements, and it has neglected su-pervising the contractors' implementation of projects.With the above violations, the government Inspectorate proposed the prime minister to assign the Governor of State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to discipline branches and in-dividuals responsible according to the government Inspectorate's report. Besides, the government Inspectorate proposed SBV to inspect Vietcombank's dossiers granting credit for debt selling.The government Inspectorate also asked Vietcombank to issue a decision to ban Tec-apro and Cpauraca companies from joining bidding on projects under the manage-ment of Vietcombank.Responding to the government Inspectorate's report, Vietcombank affirmed that it will remedy these issues in the shortest time.In 2017, Vietcombank reported the highest increase in term of scale and business effec-tiveness in the past ten years, with profit over VND10 trillion ($440.35 million), up 20 per cent on-year. Vietcombank set the target to become the No.1 bank in Vietnam and work its way onto the list of the 100 largest banks in Asia as well as become one of the 300 leading financial groups on the world.At the moment, Vietcombank holds 8.19 per cent of the stakes in Eximbank, 7.16 per cent in MBB, and 5.07 per cent in OCB.http://www.vir.com.vn/government-inspectorate-calls-attention-to-multiple-viola-tions-at-vietcombank.html

Top 10 key events that defined Vietnam in 2017


VET selects the ten major events that shaped the year.1. Successful Apec both in content and organisationVietnam welcomed some 21,000 delegates to attend Asia Pacific Economic Coopera-tion (Apec) conferences held around the country and then 11,000 delegates during the Apec Summit Week in Da Nang during November, including senior leaders and offi-cials as well as regional and international businesses.As Apec Chair last year, Vietnam successfully garnered mutual understanding from member economies with theme "Creating New Dynamism, Fostering A Shared Fu-ture", with four well-supported priorities: promoting sustainable, innovative and in-clusive growth; deepening regional economic integration; strengthening micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)' competitiveness and innovation in the digital age; and enhancing food security and sustainable agriculture in response to climate change.Vietnam's greatest success was maintaining Apec's goals in the context of a complex world with different trends in economic issues, trade, investment, and new economic sectors.During the Apec Week, Vietnam hosted four high-level visits from China, the US, Chile, and Canada, while holding 50 meetings of senior leaders. These affirmed Viet-nam's profile and strengthened relations with major partners. The signing of 121 deals worth more than $20 billion was also indeed a great moment for Vietnamese business-es.2. Private sector: A driving force of growth


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After more than 30 years of innovation, Vietnam's private sector was identified for the first time as an important engine of the country's socialist-oriented market economy. The guiding principle in the Resolution 10-NQ/TW of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, which was issued on June 3, 2017, affirmed that devel-oping a healthy private economy under market mechanisms is an objective require-ment, both urgent and long term, during the process of the institutional improvement and development of the socialist-oriented market economy. It also acts as an important means to boost productivity and mobilise, allocate, and effectively use development resources.3. New turning point in corruption fightThe Communist Party of Vietnam enforced discipline on an unprecedented scope on a wide range of cadres from the central to local levels, creating a new turning point in the fight against corruption. The frequency and extent of the fight has become fiercer and much more intensive than in previous years.The highlight of such efforts came in December, when the Hanoi People's Court decid-ed to bring former HCM City Party Chief Dinh La Thang and 21 others to trial on Jan-uary 8, in a multi million-dollar case at the PetroVietnam Construction Corp. (PVC). This made it perfectly clear that no one is immune in the country's fight against cor-ruption, as Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong said.A number of senior officials were also disciplined in others matters, such as Nguyen Xuan Anh, Secretary of the Da Nang Party Committee, Vu Huy Hoang, former minis-ter of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Minh Quang, former minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Ho Thi Kim Thoa, former deputy minister of Industry and Trade, Pham Van Vong, former Secretary of the Vinh Phuc Provincial Party Committee, Phung Quang Hung, former Chair of the Vinh Phuc People's Committee, Pham The Dung, former Chair of the Gia Lai People's Committee, and Nguyen Van Thien, former Secretary of the Binh Dinh Party Committee.4. GDP growth hits 6.81 percent, surpassing targetsFor the first time in many years, Vietnam exceeded all 13 socioeconomic targets set by the National Assembly (NA), with GDP growing 6.81 per cent, surpassing the 6.7 per cent target and marking the highest growth in recent times.Notably, GDP growth was consistent throughout the four quarters, revealing the ef-fectiveness of the government's approach and methods. The macroeconomy was sta-ble, with inflation under control, exports increased sharply, and the trade surplus hit $2.7 billion. The industrial sector recovered significantly, becoming an important en-gine of economic growth.A spirit of innovation, reflected in startups opening, was apparent throughout the year. Newly-established enterprises reached a record 126,850, with new and addition-al capital totalling over VND3,160 trillion ($139.35 billion), while 26,450 enterprises re-turned to operations after a period of suspension.Foreign direct investment (FDI) is becoming increasingly important through the devel-opment and enhancement of value-added localisation rates, creating jobs and contrib-uting to the State budget. Total registered FDI capital rose to a record high in 2017 of $35.88 billion, with $17.5 billion disbursed; the highest in the last 30 years.5. Trade turnover reaches $424.87 billionAs at end-2017, Vietnam's import-export turnover had set a record of $424.87 billion. Total trade turnover was only some $30 billion in 2001, and in 2007, when Vietnam joined the WTO, was just $100 billion.Four years on, trade turnover had doubled in 2011, to $200 billion, then hit $300 billion in 2015. In 2017, total trade turnover reached $424.87 billion, of which export turnover from FDI enterprises was $265.85 billion, up 23.2 per cent year-on-year and accounting for 65.6 per cent of Vietnam's total export turnover.6. FDI capital inflows highest in 9 yearsTogether with newly-registered FDI capital reaching $29.69 billion, the $6.19 billion in capital contribution and share purchase by the FDI sector in 2017 brought total FDI in-flows to $35.88 billion; the highest level in nine years.


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The spectacular rise of foreign capital inflows last year was primarily the result of a se-ries of billion-dollar projects, including three build-operate-transfer (BOT) power plants: the $2.79 billion Nghi Son 2 Thermo Power Plant, the $2.58 billion Van Phong 1 Thermo Power Plant, and the $2.07 billion Nam Dinh 1 Thermo Power Plant.Other major projects included the additional investment of $2.5 billion by Samsung Electronics' display panel subsidiary to boost capacity at its plant in the northern prov-ince of Bac Ninh, and PetroVietnam Gas Corp. (PV Gas) and its two foreign partners' investment of $1.27 billion in the Block B- O Mon gas pipeline project in the Mekong Delta's Kien Giang province.7. VN Index surgesWith the VN Index closing at 970 points on December 4, up 46 per cent since end-2016, Vietnam's stock market officially regained all the losses from the 2007 global financial crisis. As at the end of 2017, market capitalisation was VND3,360 trillion ($148.2 bil-lion), equal to 74.6 per cent of GDP.Foreign investors net bought nearly $1.85 billion in shares during the year, compared to net selling VND6.8 billion ($300 million) in 2016. As at the end of December, the total portfolio value of foreign investors stood at more than $32.5 billion, up 60 per cent year-on-year.On December 18, nearly 343 million State-owned shares in the Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp. (Sabeco), or 53.59 per cent of total shares, were purchased by two in-vestors, in which Thai Beverage's Vietnam Beverage paid nearly VND110 trillion ($4.85 billion).Previously, a 3.33 per cent stake in the Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk) was successfully auctioned, with a Singaporean corporation outlaying VND9 trillion ($397 million) to buy the entire offering.The two successful auctions deliver a message: Foreign investors are eagerly awaiting State equity withdrawals at many large enterprises in 2018, with names including MobiFone, PV Oil, PV Power, the Vietnam National Tobacco Corporation (Vinataba), and the Binh Son Refining & Petrochemical Co. (BSR).8. Vietnam welcomes 12.9 million international touristsHaving welcomed 12.9 million international tourists and hosted 73.2 million domestic tourists in 2017, revenue from tourism was estimated at VND510 trillion ($22.5 billion), contributing positively to the country's economic growth.Vietnam's tourism industry was globally recognised in 2017, with the country ranking seventh among the world's Top 20 fastest-growing destinations by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). Other notable achievements included the In-terContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort being named "World's Leading Luxury Resort" for the third consecutive year, JW Marriot Resort Phu Quoc Emerald Bay being named "World's Best New Resort", and Vietravel being named "World's Leading Group Tour Operator", while Vietnam Airlines was voted "World's Leading Cultural Airline" and "World's Leading AirlinePremium Economy Class".9. Storm Damrey kills 107 people, causes economic losses of $970 millionStorm Damrey, the strongest storm to hit Vietnam in many years, made landfall on the south-central coast late in the year, leaving 107 people dead, 16 unaccounted for, 342 injured, and 165,000 houses damaged. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Devel-opment estimated that the storm caused economic losses of about VND22 trillion ($970 billion).Vietnam was hit by 16 storms during the year, with severe human and material losses, including 375 dead and missing, 636 injured, and nearly VND51.6 trillion ($2.23 bil-lion) in economic losses.10. Some BOT transport projects become hot button issuesIn 2017, shortcomings at some BOT transport projects attracted public attention, de-spite the fact that the policy of developing transport infrastructure in the BOT form is the right move to take and that many BOT projects have contributed to improving transport infrastructure and developing the economy in certain localities. At some BOT toll booths, many drivers and local residents objected to paying fees, causing traf-


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fic jams and forcing investors to allow vehicles to pass through without paying. prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged responsible agencies to strictly address the prob-lems and legal violations while revising inappropriate procedures.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/vietnam-today/top-10-key-events-that-defined-vietnam-in-2017

Inflation predicted to stay below 4pct in 2018: Ministry


The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has outlined three scenarios for inflation in 2018, with the consumer price index (CPI) in all circumstances staying below 4 per cent, the target set by the National Assembly.In the first scenario, food prices are expected to remain relatively stable and only rise slightly during the holidays.Hikes in healthcare costs in the first quarter are projected to increase the CPI by 0.17 per cent, while wage increases and higher power costs will drive up the CPI by 0.14 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.A 5 per cent increase each in petrol and gas prices will lift the CPI by 0.28 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively.After factoring in these price rises, the average CPI in 2018 is expected to rise by 3 per cent.In the second scenario, which is largely the same as the first one, with the exception that pork prices rise by 7 per cent at the end of the year and petrol and gas prices in-crease by 10 per cent, the average CPI in 2018 will rise by 3.4 per cent.Meanwhile the average CPI will increase by 3.9 per cent in the third scenario, assum-ing a 15 per cent rise in pork prices and 15 per cent hikes in petrol and gas prices with other price increases the same as in the first scenario.According to the general Statistical Office (GSO), Vietnam's average inflation in 2017 fell from 5.22 per cent in January to 3.61 per cent in November.The year 2017 is considered a successful year in inflation control, as the average CPI increased 3.53 per cent over 2016 and 2.6 per cent compared to December 2016, fulfill-ing the target of keeping the rate under 4 per cent for the whole year, GSO Nguyen Bich Lam said during a meeting last week.Lam pointed out major reasons behind the CPI rise, including hikes in the prices of health care and education services, as well as an increase in regional minimum wage.At the same time, domestic fuel prices in 2017 rose 15.49 per cent compared to 2016, contributing 0.64 per cent in CPI increase for the whole year.The price of construction materials was up 5.23 per cent due to increases in the prices of sand and steel. Rising prices of essential goods in the global market also pushed the import price index up by 2.57 per cent and export price index up by 2.93 per cent; the Producer Price Index (PPI) expanded by 2.82 per cent.Lam underscored that a record number of 16 storms were seen in 2017, which pushed up the prices of food and foodstuff in affected localities, especially central provinces.Meanwhile, there were a number of factors helping rein in inflation, including a down-turn of 2.6 per cent in food prices in 2017, helping reduce the overall CPI by about 0.53 per cent.GSO director Nguyen Bich Lam attributed the success in meeting the inflation target for the year to efforts of ministries in encouraging businesses' involvement in stocking goods and stabilising the market.The Ministry of Finance had kept a close watch on market developments, while coor-dinating with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to manage fuel prices, he said.http://bizhub.vn/news/inflation-predicted-to-stay-below-4-in-2018-ministry_291108.html

PMI rises to 52.5 in last month


It was a positive end for the Vietnamese manufacturing sector in 2017 with the Manu-facturing Purchasing managers' Index (PMI) rising to 52.5 in December from Novem-ber's 51.4, according to the latest survey from Nikkei's IHS Markit that released on


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Tuesday.This is also the highest PMI in the last three months of October, November and Decem-ber.Nikkei evaluated that one of the factors leading to the improvement in operating con-ditions was a return to production growth. The modest increase in output in December followed broadly unchanged production volumes in November.Increased consumer demand also reinforced optimism that output will increase in the next 12 months. December's business optimism improved to a nine-month high.A rising production demand contributed to the 21st consecutive monthly rise in em-ployment at Vietnamese producers. The pace of job creation was the strongest since September.Costs of raw materials such as oil and steel rose while prices of materials from Chinese suppliers increased, leading to a sharp rise in input costs in December. This led to an increase in output price.Delivery time of suppliers continued to be extended in December. Members of the sur-vey team said late delivery was mainly due to the shortage of raw materials. Delivery time increased for 11 consecutive months.Andrew Harker, associate director at IHS Markit, which compiles the survey, said "The Vietnamese manufacturing sector recorded a welcome return to growth of output in December, supported by a solid and accelerated increase in new orders.""Overall, 2017 has been a positive year for the sector with the average PMI reading the highest since the survey began in 2011. Industry in Vietnam therefore looks to be in good shape heading into 2018," Andrew added.http://bizhub.vn/news/pmi-rises-to-525-in-last-month_291100.html

HCM City builds on 2017's remarkable achievements


The significant socio-economic-cultural accomplishments that the southern economic hub of HCM City gained in 2017 will create a firm foundation for its stronger develop-ment in 2018 and the following years.Important milestonesIn 2017, the city recorded an 8.25 percent increase in gross regional domestic product (GRDP), higher than the 8.05 percent growth in the previous year. The economic struc-ture shifted towards higher proportion of high-quality, high added value and highly competitive services. The export turnover was valued at 35.2 billion USD, up 15.1 per-cent.Domestic investment, including registered and supplemented capital, reached over 899 trillion VND (39.5 billion USD), three fold against 2017, while foreign investment hit 6.38 billion USD, doubling the figure of the previous year.HCM City received 5.2 billion USD in foreign remittances, 70 percent of which were poured into investment, being an important financial resource to boost business pro-duction.The index of industrial production (IIP) increased by 7.9 percent with four main indus-tries of mechanics-manufacturing, electronics-information technology, chemical in-dustry-plastic-rubber, and food processing recording annual average growth of 15.5 percent. Production value at hi-tech parks was valued at 12 billion USD.The city channelled over 347.9 trillion VND (15.3 billion USD) for the State budget, rep-resenting a year-on-year rise of 12.94 percent.The good growth rate in 2017 creates an impetus for the city to strive for stronger de-velopment in 2018 and fulfil the target of an economic growth of 8.5 percent in 2015-2020.More rapid and sustainable development2018 is the first year HCM City will carry out Conclusion 21 of the Politburo and Res-olution 54 of the National Assembly, which allow the city to pilot specialised policies and mechanisms for more rapid and sustainable development.According to Chair of the municipal People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong, HCM City will focus on supplementing and promulgating legal documents and consulting


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related ministries and sectors on revising laws, decrees and circulars related to the spe-cialised policies and mechanisms this year.The municipal authorities have outlined 8 groups of tasks and key measures to in-crease growth quality and economic competitiveness as well as ensure healthy invest-ment environment and encourage innovation, start-up movements and business development.The city will focus investment on major infrastructure projects to ease traffic conges-tion and accidents, reduce inundation and environmental pollution, and cope with cli-mate change.At the same time, attention will be paid to ensuring social welfare, reforming admin-istrative procedures, accelerating the building of smart city and e-governance, main-taining social-political order and stability, and expanding external relations and international integration.It will continue supporting small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase their competitive edge to engage in global value chains, especially in the fields of processing, manufacturing, electronics, and information technology.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hcm-city-builds-on-2017s-remarkable-achievements/124205.vnp

HCM City aims for 8.3pct-8.5pct GRDP growth in 2018

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| VOV

HCM City is destined to reach Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) growth of be-tween 8.3 percent and 8.5 percent for 2018, according to a January 2 conference on the city's socio-economic development.HCM City has outlined 20 developmental goals in 2018, the first year of realising its pilot specific mechanism, focusing on administrative reform, investment attraction, in-frastructure building, and start-up encouragement.Su Ngoc Anh, director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment said to meet the set targets, at least 35 percent of GRDP must be allocated for development investment and it is imperative to mobilise a total investment capital of $8.5 billion this year.At a get-together with HCM City authorities, local businesses were confident that the new specific mechanism granted by the National Assembly will ensure the city be-comes a magnet for investors and further promotes the private sector.Nguyen Kim Thoa, director general of the Hi-Tech Golden Stork group said, "We hope the national economy will achieve greater progress. We are looking for better access to capital and preferential policies to develop Vietnam's agriculture in the time ahead.http://english.vov.vn/economy/hcm-city-aims-for-8385-grdp-growth-in-2018-365866.vov

New trade, auto rules to usher positive changes


Foreign traders not present in Vietnam will have the right to export or import under Vietnamese law and international treaties that the country has signed.This is one of several positive changes expected in the business environment as a set of new policies that take effect early this year.The changes will directly impact import and export, production and business activi-ties, officials have said.As the country integrates deeper into the global economy, importers and exporters have paid great attention to the Law on Foreign Trade Management, which is expected to improve the management of foreign trade activities in Vietnam.It is the first time that several provisions on anti-dumping, anti-subsidies and other safeguards are being written into law, and these are expected to make it easier to re-solve trade disputes, thereby facilitating foreign trade.They stipulate that foreign traders not present in Vietnam can engage in export or im-port in compliance with provisions of Vietnamese law and international treaties that Vietnam is a party to.The law specifies administrative measures like prohibiting, restricting or stopping the


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import and export of particular goods or services as warranted by circumstances.It also deals with the application of technical measures, especially those relating to hy-giene and sanitation.Auto industry hitUnder the Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFT) commitments, a zero per cent tax will apply on cars imported from the bloc with a localisation rate of 40 per cent or more in the country or origin.The models most imported from the Asean market, especially Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, include pickup trucks, Toyota Fortuner, Honda CR-V, Ford Everest and Toyota Yaris.In an effort to boost the national automobile industry in the context of the zero import tax, the Vietnamese government has issued Decree No. 125/2017/ND-CP, approving the application of zero tax on auto parts imported from Asean nations so that locally assembled cars can be cheaper.Enterprises eligible for this tax incentive will have to meet conditions relating to man-ufacture, assembly, import, warranty services and auto maintenance set in the Decree 116/2017/ND-CP.Under Decree 116, importers have to get an automobile importing business licence from the Ministry of Industry and Trade. To qualify for this, importers must have ap-propriate warranty and maintenance facilities and be authorised by the manufacturers in exporting countries to conduct recalls in Vietnam if needed.Decree 125 also changes regulations on used cars in an effort to minimise their imports. Specifically, cars with nine seats or less (including drivers) and engine displacement under 1,000cc will attract a flat tax of $10,000 each, double the current rate. Used cars with engines of 1,000cc displacement or more and passenger cars of 10-15 seats are subject to varied tax rates. Accordingly, for vehicles with engine displacements of be-tween 1,500cc and below 2,500cc, the tax will be calculated thus: a tax rate of between 150 and 200 per cent on the taxable price, plus $10,000. For used vehicles of 2,500cc or more, $15,000 will be added to the tax rate of between 150 and 200 per cent on the tax-able price.The businesses must also commit to producing and assembling vehicles that meet euro 4 emissions standards (from 2018 to 2021) and euro 5 (from 2022 onwards).According to the revised Special Consumption Tax Law, effective January 1, 2018, pas-senger cars with nine seats and less and engine displacement of 2,000cc and less will enjoy a five per cent reduction in special consumption tax, which means the rate goes down from 45 per cent 40 per cent.The New Year has also witnessed new actions from the Vietnam Register on emission standards for cars and motorbikes.As of January 1, the agency has stopped registering or granting technical safety certif-icates for newly-manufactured, assembled or imported autos that use diesel engines with emission levels below euro 4 standards. euro standards are a series of emission control standards compiled by the European Union for all new land vehicles. euro 6, currently the highest standard, is widely used across European countries.Experts have said the leading cause of air pollution in Vietnam is from various means of transport, particularly engine-run vehicles, necessitating strict limits on their emis-sions.http://bizhub.vn/news/new-trade-auto-rules-to-usher-positive-changes_291107.html

Vietnam breaks export growth record in 2017


From textile and garment to mobile phones, Vietnam's 2017 export-import picture was bright with a record $425 billion.Breaking the recordDespite facing many challenges in the first two quarters of this year, with orders from importers falling sharply and the US -- Vietnam's biggest export market for textile and garment -- withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Vietnam earned $31 billion from textile and garment exports in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 10.2 per


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cent, and posting a trade surplus of $15.5 billion for the first time ever.Chair of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) Vu Duc Giang told VIR that, "The year of 2017 was a tough year, but Vietnamese textile and garment sector made a breakthrough, turning over last year's falling $2 billion short of meeting the an-nual export target of $30 billion."With the impressive result, Vietnam ranks as the world's 26th textile and garment ex-porter (in terms of turnover) as well as made huge contributions to Vietnam's export picture.The general Statistical Office (GSO) released a report last week, stating that in 2017 Vi-etnam's export turnover reached $213.77 billion, up 21.1 per cent compared to the pre-vious year -- the highest-ever increase. In this, the domestic sector contributed $58.53 billion, an increase of 16.2 per cent, while foreign-invested enterprises posted an im-port-export turnover of $155.24 billion, up 23 per cent year-on-year.Nguyen Bich Lam, director general of GSO, said that this year is considered a miracle because previous years' exports of crude oil and natural resources account for a very large share in the export structure. The year of 2017, on the opposite, electronic com-ponents and mobile phones occupy the highest proportion in the structure.Samsung Vietnam and its affiliates in the country also made significant contributions to the Vietnamese exports, expecting to obtain an export revenue of $50 billion in 2017.According to a report of Samsung Vietnam, the group earned $46.3 billion in revenue last year, despite stopping the production of Galaxy Note 7 phone devices. The corpo-ration's export value hit $39.9 billion, accounting for 22.7 per cent of Vietnam's export turnover and rising 9.9 per cent compared to the previous year.Tran Thanh Hai, deputy director of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, told VIR that unexpectedly, vegetable and fruit exports were also positive, estimated to reach $3.52 billion, a sharp year-on-year growth of 43.2 per cent.Hai added this high export growth contributed to a trade surplus this year.Enjoying a trade surplusVietnam witnessed a trade surplus of $2.7 billion this year, according to GSO, an un-expected turn of events as the National Assembly previously only targeted a trade def-icit of some 3.5 per cent of the total export turnover.Explaining the trade surplus this year, Hai told VIR that "The trade surplus this year was boosted by high export growth as well as increasing locally-made materials that contributes to reduce the imports."He added that both foreign and local firms invested into facilities to ensure materials supply for themselves or to become a vendor for international firms. The automobile, mobile phone, and textile and garment sectors are increasing localisation rates in Viet-nam to reduce costs and ensure a stable supply of components.Samsung reported that through great efforts to seek out and connect Vietnamese ven-dors, the number of Samsung's tier-1 Vietnamese vendors has increased dramatically from four businesses in 2014 to 29 at the moment.Working towards the target of having 50 tier-1 vendors by 2020, while promoting the development of Vietnamese supporting industries, Samsung has collaborated with MoIT to expand the business consultation programme by establishing an advisory board to carry out the programme on a larger scale.Targets for 2018The National Assembly of Vietnam adopted a socioeconomic development plan for 2018. Accordingly, the country's export value is expected to increase by 7-8 per cent and trade deficit is to be maintained at 3 per cent of total export revenue.When asked whether this target is modest, Lam from GSO said that it is entirely rea-sonable as the World Bank had forecasted global trade growth at 3.8 per cent, lower than the 4 per cent in 2017.However, he warned that this was no easy task as the European Commission has is-sued a "yellow card" warning to Vietnam that seriously harmed the reputation of Vi-etnamese seafood around the world, weakening sales, while steel products made in


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Vietnam are facing anti-dumping measures in some markets.Giang from Vitas said that the textile and garment sector target to reach about $34 bil-lion in export turnover for 2018, but it is forecast to become fiercer in 2018 as Vietnam's textile and garment import markets are experiencing unforeseen fluctuations caused by protectionism.He added that all types of input costs, including workers' salaries, are on the rise, thus increasing labour productivity through improving technology, equipment, and busi-ness management is considered the main solution.http://www.vir.com.vn/vietnam-breaks-export-growth-record-in-2017.html

Vietnamese exports enjoy stellar growth

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| VOV

Vietnam's export turnover has seen spectacular growth over the past 11 months con-sidering the nation's adjustment for the reduction in natural resource exports.Vietnam's export growth performance has become a highlight of the national economy in 2017 as total import-export revenues reached the $400 billion milestone, with ex-ports estimated to make up the impressive figure of $200 million.FTAs allow export market expansionEconomic adviser Vo Tri Thanh has attributed the country's bright economic outlook in 2017 to Vietnam's successful hosting of the Apec Economic Leaders' Week with the signing of trade deals worth up to $20 billion, the exponential growth of 21 percent against the set target of 10 percent.Such growth is attributed to the development of domestic enterprises and increases in exports farm produce, especially seafood, fruit and vegetables.Economist Luu Bich Hop in points hi-tech agriculture as a success of restructuring in agriculture, noting that shift to hi-tech will enable the agriculture economy to shape into a sustainable farming model with a focus on the development of clean and organic farming.Despite natural calamities and the effects of climate change, this year has seen the ag-ricultural sector undergo major developments with a dramatic shift from rice to shrimp production and interconnection between farmers and businesses to enhance processing capacity and increase the value of exported products.Vietnam has taken full advantage of the opportunities presented through bilateral and multilateral free trade agreement suit has negotiated to increase the country's standing as a goods exporter from 50thto 26th place over the past ten years.Dr Luong Van Khoi, deputy director general at National Centre for Socio-Economic In-formation and Forecast says Vietnam's economic growth this year has lessened its de-pendence on mining exploitation while the country has intensified the expansion into foreign export markets through FTAs.Regarding the quality of exports growth with the agricultural sector recording a trade surplus of $7 billion, Minh Phong says Vietnamese businesses have been on the right track to boost agricultural investment and focus on increasing quality rather than quantity.Service exports considered a breakthroughRegarding the country's trade balance, despite the nation enjoying its highest trade surplus so far, atUS$3.17 billion, this number is mainly the result of the import and ex-port activities of foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs).FDI businesses enjoyed a trade surplus of over $23.8 billion while domestic businesses have run a trade deficit of up to $20.67 billion.Dr Nguyen Minh Phong says for the improvement of import-export restructuring, Vi-etnam needs to develop services, especially logistics services to realise the desired sur-plus in service exports and map out a development strategy for the support industry by integrating with the global supply chain to secure export markets.english.vov.vn/economy/vietnamese-exports-enjoy-stellar-growth-365672.vov

Export goods spotlights 2017


Vietnam's agricultural, forestry, and fisheries (AFF) exports have seen spectacular per-


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formance in certain product categories and markets, such as processed chicken export-ed to Japan or dragon fruit to Australia, but some difficulties remain in need of attention from management agencies.Export of AFF products over $36 billionAgriculture has made a remarkable contribution to economic growth in 2017. Export value of AFF products hit $36.37 billion, up 13 per cent compared to 2016 and sur-passed the target of $32-33 billion.Notably, the export of fruits and vegetables exceeded rice and rubber to become the key goods for export. Their export turnover hit $3.45 billion, up 40.5 per cent compared to last year, right after cashew nut with $3.52 billion (up 24 per cent). The growth of fruits and vegetables export is the highest in 2017. It is also the first time the export of fishery products has surpassed $8 billion.After nine years of negotiations, Australia has approved to import Vietnamese dragon fruit in January. In September, the first batch of dragon fruits of Hoang Phat Fruit Co., Ltd in Long An were shipped to Australia.As many as 32 provinces and cities cultivated dragon fruit on an area of 25,000 hectares and output of 460,000 tonnes per year. Production is concentrated in Binh Thuan, Tien Giang, and Long An. The export turnover of dragon fruit hit $895 million, making up 50.3 per cent of the fresh fruit export turnover.Since June 2017, Vietnamese chicken can be exported to Japan. Specifically, Japan ap-proved to import the poultry and processed poultry of Koyu & Unitek Co., Ltd based in Dong Nai. On December 9, 2017, the first 300 tonnes of chicken were officially shipped to Japan. This is a historical milestone of the livestock sector because the Jap-anese market is very difficult.Difficulties remainVietnamese catfish exports to the US have been shut down since August, after efforts to abolish a programme shifting the regulation of catfish producers to the US Depart-ment of Agriculture (USDA) failed. This decision was based on the catfish and Sil-uriformes fish inspection programme, according to the Farm Bill. If they fail to meet US standards, Vietnamese catfish may face a high risk of losing this export market from March 2018.Additionally, the domestic price of some goods has also been fluctuating in 2017. The price of steel in August and September increased to VND14.5 million ($640) per tonne, the highest price in the last eight years. The price of hot-rolled steel was $590-620 per tonne, while it was $420-450 in the previous months.At the end of December 2017, the price of Chinese steel was raised by 43 per cent com-pared to the beginning of the year due to increased global steel demand. Besides, the price of steel materials rose sharply by 31 per cent within two months, to $340 per tonne.In contrast to the high increase of steel prices, in August, the price of live hogs fell sharply to VND30,000 ($1.3) per kilogramme, the lowest in the last ten years. The fast growth of the livestock sector led to the abundance of supply, while exports were not positive. Vietnam has only exported 120 thousand tonnees of baby pigs to three coun-tries during the year. At the time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development urged consumers to give priority to eating pork to help farmers overcome difficulties.MoIT proposes four solutions for 2018To promote the export and import targets, minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh proposed to carry out administrative procedures from the central to local levels in 2018, as well as perfect the institutional, business, and export climates."It is necessary to boost the restructuring of the economy, sectors, and state-owned en-terprises. Criterias on competitiveness, the ability to take part in the global value chains, and the effectiveness of investments are the important measures of restructur-ing," the minister emphasized.Another solution minister Tuan Anh raised is to develop the domestic market, fight against smuggling, fake and imitation goods, as well as trade fraud.The fourth solution of the minister is to strengthen international integration along with


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specific measures to accelerate free trade agreements between Vietnam and other countries to find out international destinations for Vietnamese goods."While implementing our integration commitments, ministries and sectors should co-ordinate closely and effectively through action plans complying with the directions of the government," the minister said.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/193043/export-goods-spotlights-2017.html

Vietnam gains record in seafood export value in 2017


Vietnam gained its highest ever seafood export value of $8.32 billion in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 18 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural De-velopment.The US, Japan, China and South Korea were the top four export markets for Vietnam-ese seafood products, accounting for 55.3 per cent of the total national export value.Vietnam's export markets with strong growth in seafood export value included China (up 64.4 per cent), the Netherlands (up 48.6 per cent), the UK (up 36.4 per cent), South Korea (up 29.1 per cent), Canada (up 22.3 per cent) and Japan (up 20 per cent).The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said shrimp exports provided the biggest contribution to the total national seafood export value, with a growth rate of 21 per cent to $3.8 billion in export value for 2017.The strong growth in shrimp exports was mainly due to confidence of export markets for Vietnamese shrimp products, said Truong Dinh Hoe, VASEP general secretary.Other reasons for strong growth in shrimp exports included an increase of 10 per cent in export shrimp price, higher quality of material and high volume of processed prod-ucts, Hoe said.Shrimp export value increased by 60 per cent to China, 42 per cent to the US, 33 per cent to South Korea and 18 per cent to Japan.Meanwhile, the export value of tra fish (pangasius) reached nearly $1.8 billion in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 4 per cent despite difficulties in many export markets.Vietnam's tuna export value achieved a year-on-year increase of 16 per cent to $600 million while export value of squid and octopus stood at about $600 million, gaining strong growth of 42 per cent.A surprising point regarding Vietnam's seafood exports in 2017 was that China sur-passed the US as the top export market of Vietnam's tra and shrimp products.China was the leading export market of Vietnamese tra fish with a year-on-year surge of 37 per cent in 2017 to $420 million and the third largest shrimp export market of do-mestic shrimp products after the EU and Japan. Vietnam gained a year-on-year in-crease of 60 per cent from the export value of shrimp to China to $677 million.VASEP said that China will continue to be an important market for local seafood en-terprises in the future because Vietnam's seafood exports to the EU and the US still face anti-dumping tax and technical barriers.Seafood exports in 2018 are expected to reach over $8.5 billion, up about 3 per cent compared to 2017, though Vietnam's seafood exports to the US and EU markets will continue to be affected by catfish inspection, anti-dumping and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), according to the VASEP.To achieve this target, Vietnam must pay attention to antibiotics to ensure quality and competitiveness of Vietnamese seafood material, Hoe said.The nation should carry out traceability for seafood export products of Vietnam as per demand of markets importing Vietnamese products, he said.Local seafood enterprises should also focus on applying technology in processing sea-food products for export to increase added value and competitiveness of Vietnamese products, he said.Agro, forestry exports upThe export value of agro, forestry and seafood products reached a record $36.37 billion this year, a year-on-year increase of 13 per cent, according to the ministry.The export of major agricultural products was estimated at $18.96 billion, a year-on-year growth of 15.7 per while the export value of forestry products in 2017 was esti-


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mated at $7.97 billion, an increase of 9.2 per cent year-on-year.Total rice exports for the year reached 5.89 million tonnes, earning $2.66 billion, a year-on-year surge of 22.4 per cent in volume and 23.2 per cent in value.China continued to be the largest buyer of Vietnamese rice, accounting for 39.5 per cent of the total exports.Rubber, tea, cashew nuts and other produce also saw high growth in 2017.In 2017, rubber exports reached 1.39 million tonnes worth $2.26 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11 per cent and 35.6 per cent, respectively, in volume and value. China, Ma-laysia and India were the three largest rubber buyers.High prices pushed cashew nut exports to 353,000 tonnes worth $3.52 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.9 per cent in volume and 23.8 per cent in value. The US, the Neth-erlands and China were top importers.This year, the export of tea was estimated at 140,000 tonnes worth $229 million, up 7.2 per cent in volume and 5.6 per cent in value over last year.Exports of cassava and cassava products were estimated at 3.95 million tonnes in vol-ume and $1.04 billion in value for a year-on-year surge of 6.9 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively.However, coffee exports decreased slightly by 20.2 per cent in volume to 1.42 million tonnes and 3.8 per cent in value to $3.21 billion. Germany and the US were still the top two export markets for Vietnamese coffee.There was a strong reduction in pepper exports in 2017 because export prices fell sharply by 35 per cent over the previous year. While pepper export volumes surged by 20.5 per cent to 214,000 tonnes, its value fell 21.9 per cent to $1.12 billion, compared to 2016.http://bizhub.vn/news/viet-nam-gains-record-in-seafood-export-value-in-2017_291114.html

Fruit, vegetables become big foreign currency earner


Fruit and vegetables have surpassed traditional farm produce such as rice, rubber, tea, and cashew nuts to become a major foreign currency earner in the agricultural sector.Fruit and veggie exports first exceeded the one billion-USD mark in 2013 and went on to set new records year after year, reaching 3.5 billion USD in 2017, a 40 percent in-crease from the previous year.Secretary-General of the Vietnam Fruit & Vegetable Association Nguyen Huu Dat said in 2017, Vietnam successfully opened the door of some demanding markets for several types of fruit, exporting dragon fruits to Australia, and mangoes and star apples to the US.The country's fruits and vegetables are being sold in 40 countries and territories around the world, including the US, Japan, the RoK, Australia and New Zealand. Chi-na topped the list, consuming 75 percent of Vietnam's fruit and vegetable exports, fol-lowed by Japan, the US, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and the Netherlands.[Fruit, veggie exports set record of 3.45 billion USD]Developing large-scale production is of great importance to achieve sustainable export and increase local produce's competitiveness in the global market, Dat said, noting that large-scale production will make it easier to ensure consistent product quality.He also suggested developing production chains from supplying saplings and tree cultivation to product purchasing, processing and exports.Businesses operating in the field called for developing processing in order to increase added values of products.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/fruit-vegetables-become-big-foreign-currency-earner/124219.vnp

HCM City exports earn $35b in 2017


HCM City's export revenue reached an estimated $35.55 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 16.1 per cent, according to the city Department of Industry and Trade.The department said the city's exports have changed significantly, to put them in line


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with the city's export targets as well as with changes in the economic structure.Specifically, the export of agro-forestry-fishery products has reduced its proportion of the city's total export turnover. Agro-forestry-fishery exports accounted for 18.4 per cent in 2015, then reduced to 16.4 per cent in 2016 and 15.4 per cent in 2017.Meanwhile, exports of industrial products have continuously increased and accounted for the highest portion of the city's exports at 75.3 per cent.Exports of computers, electronic products and accessories were among the products with the highest export revenue, and had stable growth in the past, with exports from firms located at the HCM City Hi-Tech Park accounting for 90 per cent of the total ex-port revenue in this group.Regarding export markets, the department said exports to markets that Vietnam has free trade agreements with such as the EU, Asean, China, South Korea, Japan, Austral-ia and New Zealand have tended to increase significantly.To raise the efficiency in exports, the department has identified the list of goods that have high export potential and competitiveness.The department is working with the Institute of Public PolicyUniversity of Economics HCM City and experts of Fulbright University to develop the Export Development Project in the 2017-20 with an orientation to 2030. The project is expected to be sent to the city People's Committee for approval in the first quarter of this year.http://bizhub.vn/news/hcmc-exports-earn-35b-in-2017_291111.html

euro 5-standard diesel, euro 4 RON 95 petrol hit market


The Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex) officially started selling diesel oil with euro 5 standard and euro 4-standard RON95 petrol nationwide from January 1, 2018.These products are distributed by the company's network together with other non-lead petrol products, such as euro 3 RON95 petrol and euro 2 diesel.In the initial period, diesel oil with euro 5 standard is available in 70 percent of Petrolimex gas stations.RON95 petrol with euro 3 and euro 4 standards are sold at 19,280 VND (0.85 USD) and 19,480 VND (0.86 USD) per litre, respectively.The price of E5 bio-fuel is 18,240 VND (0.8 USD) per litre, while those of diesel with euro 5 and euro 2 standards are 15,210 VND (0.67 USD) and 15,160 VND (nearly 0.67 USD) per litre, respectively. The kerosene price is 13,610 VND (0.6 USD) per litre.According to Petrolimex deputy director general Nguyen Quang Dung, selling the two new products helps enhance the company's competitiveness while contributing to reducing gas emissions and protecting the environment.On December 15, Petrolimex and PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PVOil) on officially supplied E5 RON92 bio-fuel for sale nationwide to replace RON 92 petrol.According to a statement released by the government, the ban of RON 92 grade is in line with the government's effort to boost consumption of environmentally friendly E5.The shift aims to help ensure energy security, reduce dependence on fossil fuels and carry out commitments made by the Vietnamese government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Vietnam requires euro 4 standard for diesel-fueled vehicles from 2018.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/euro-5standard-diesel-euro-4-ron-95-petrol-hit-market/124200.vnp

Varying levels of enthusiasm greet bio-fuel E5 roll-out


Since January 1, 2018, the nationwide switch from RON A92 to bio-fuel E5 has been in effect, however, along with good feedback, a number of customers have been express-ing concerns about the quality of the new fuel.According to newswire Nhandan, on the first day of selling, a massive volume of peo-ple bought bio-fuel E5."Numerous people said that bio-fuel E5 is a fire hazard and is more expensive than


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RON A92, however, I have been using bio-fuel E5 since mid-December 2017 and have yet to see any difference," said Nguyen Thanh Cong, a customer from Cau Giay.Besides, a lot of people decided to switch to bio-fuel E5. Nguyen Thi Hoa from Ba Dinh district stated that she researched bio-fuel E5 and knows that it is safe for vehicles and the selling price is cheaper than RON 95, thus, she decided on using bio-fuel E5.On the other hand, although numerous petroleum stations hang out banner to intro-duce bio-fuel E5 to customers, numerous people are still hesitant. Tuan, a customer from Dong Da district, said that he has yet to trust the quality of bio-fuel E5 to use in his car.Other customers still use RON 95 petrol for their vehicles and stated that they will wait for feedback from others before deciding to switch.According to the retail selling prices of petroleum published by Petrolimex, since Jan-uary 1, 2018, unleaded RON 95 petrol in region I and II costs VND19,280 and VND19,660 per litre. The retail selling prices of bio-fuel E5 in region I and II are VND19,480 and VND19,860 per litre, respectively.Previously, PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PV Oil) started to switch from RON A92 petrol to bio-fuel E5 nationwide on December 15. This was 15 days sooner than the of-ficial date approved by the government.http://www.vir.com.vn/varying-levels-of-enthusiasm-greet-bio-fuel-e5-roll-out.html

HCM City trade dept offers online service


The HCM City Department of Industry and Trade last week launched an online public service for 55 administrative procedures in 11 areas, enabling enterprises to submit re-quests to the department through its website.With this service available, businesses can now save time and money and track the progress.Among the 11 areas are production and trading of alcohol, tobacco and tobacco ingre-dients, petroleum, sample contracts, chemicals, and trading of liquefied petroleum gas.On this occasion, the department joined hands with local postal and telecom enterpris-es as well as banks to return results to enterprises, send notifications via text messages, and pay online.The 55 administrative procedures now available online are those widely used by indi-viduals and enterprises among a total of 107 procedures and services. The department will work towards making the remaining procedures available online in the near fu-ture.In addition, the department will upgrade its portal at congthuong.hochiminhci-ty.gov.vn to provide socio-economic information, prices of commodities and business activities in the city for enterprises.The department has estimated more than 60,000 visitors come a year to carry out ad-ministrative procedures.According to the director of the department, Pham Thanh Kien, representatives of the department have visited 325 enterprises to learn about their concerns.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57798/HCM City-trade-dept-offers-online-serv-ice.html

HCM City to focus on land, finance policies this year


HCM City People's Committee this year will focus on carrying out National Assem-bly's Resolution No 54 on piloting special policies on land management, investment, finance and the state budget for the city.The resolution, which takes effect on January 15, devolves decision-making on grant-ing authority on several matters, including setting the salaries of civil servants whom the city manages.Speaking at a conference on socio-economic development plans and the city budget held yesterday, HCM City Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan said that, with the resolution, the city had a good base for development this year.


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Nguyen Thanh Phong, chair of the city People's Committee, said that plans to carry out the policies would be carried out by March.To attract more investors, priority will be given to industrial parks, traffic infrastruc-ture and high-tech areas, Nhan said.To reduce costs, Nhan said that capital acquired from land, land bids, and invitations for bids for projects should be used instead of designated contractors.The city should also invest more in science and technology, including creating an in-novative urban area to improve the quality of growth and economic competitiveness, he said.He also instructed the city to develop ways to encourage innovative startups.This year, the city aims to reach a gross regional domestic product growth rate of 8.38.5 per cent.To reach the goal, the agricultural sector will have to rise by at least 6.3 per cent, while industry and construction will have to grow by 7.9 per cent, and 8 per cent for services.The city would aim to achieve budget collection worth VND376.8 trillion (US$16.5 bil-lion), an increase of 8.3 per cent compared to last year, Phong said.To do so, the city would have to collect more than VND1.2 trillion ($52.6 million) every day, excluding Sunday, he added.The city would also need VND850 trillion for programmes on reducing pollution and flooding, and building traffic infrastructure.Since the city's budget meets only 30 per cent of the requirements for such pro-grammes, investment from the private sector is needed, according to the chair.Last year, the city saw socio-economic progress, which contributed to improving the quality of life for its residents but challenges still exist, he said.The city last year did not reach its targeted economic growth rate and number of new enterprises, he noted.Infrastructure remained overloaded and traffic jams in rush hours continued to occur, while many areas were flooded during heavy rains and tides.In addition, the city found violations in construction projects in many areas last year, Phong said.http://www.vir.com.vn/hcm-city-to-focus-on-land-finance-policies-this-year.html

A modest end to 2017 transactions sets up big for 2018


This year's merger-and-acquisition movement is coming to a somewhat quiet close in terms the fourth quarter of completions, but deals that have been stuck in due dili-gence or with approvals are finally moving forward.This year's merger-and-acquisition movement is coming to a somewhat quiet close in terms the fourth quarter of completions, but deals that have been stuck in due dili-gence or with approvals are finally moving forward. Activity was led by Chinese, Sin-gaporean, Korean, and Japanese investors, and despite a limited supply of opportunities investor appetite has not receded for income-producing, standing assets across all real estate sectors.Even with few opportunities, prices are holding firm and the amount of cheap offshore capital has not compressed cap rates more than 10-25 basis points over deals agreed to in 2015, keeping valuations sensible.In 2018, we will see local entities continuing to feel the credit restrictions as banks con-sider their risk-weighting and exposure to real estate, leaving the private sector to pick up the shortfall. Investors should look to capitalise on this new lending sensibility and target groups having to re-work their capital supply and find sources of finance. Inves-tors will need to move fast as the current rates will naturally compress when the chequebooks from the region start to open up.An opportunity arising out of this more moderate lending atmosphere is that the standing assets held by local groups and international players will become candidates for monetisation. With the lack of transparent opportunities for fully-owned assets, in-vestors should look for opportunities to take controlling positions in local holding companies, as well as considering smaller equity opportunities in well-managed and


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structured businesses. Investors taking out a large shareholder will do well to enshrine drag-along rights; or with smaller equity deals, they should ensure well-drafted put options are agreed upon. As always, those that do the basics well holding each deal to the same standard they would in their core markets will do well in Vietnam and see real sustainable value generated.The industrial and logistics sector was among the top performers across the Vietnam-ese property market in 2017Investor confidence is founded on good demand in critical segments of the market; in 2018 the office sector will continue to perform well and a burgeoning industrial seg-ment is maturing and has seen unprecedented levels of interest from investors in 2017. The office sector in HCM City will fall to extremely low vacancy, pushing rents to heights not seen since 2009, and Cushman & Wakefield estimate in the extreme this could spell an increase of 20 per cent for for some grade A properties in 2018. This will have a dampening effect on leasing transactions as limited space is available. The mar-ket will therefore see re-gears and mid-term rent reviews becoming commonplace in the market for the first time ever.Hanoi's transaction volumes will continue to strengthen but rents will not necessarily rise as much, with an estimated 3-5 per cent rise above 2017, essentially in line once standard escalations are taken into account on existing and new leases. Savings on ex-isting rents are still likely for many occupiers and the west and midtown areas of Ha-noi will still be competitive from landlords keeping the market average down. Hanoi's central business district (CBD), which is now frozen in terms of new development, will see faster rent growth and low vacancy, which will also push some occupiers out of town.Evolving technology, infrastructure, and non-designated workspace concepts for mul-tinational corporations (MNCs) in Vietnam may just push some occupiers from more expensive HCM City to Hanoi, and perhaps further to Danang or Binh Duong. The workforce wants to be in HCM City, but the city is now less competitive on a national or regional basis and MNCs will look to leverage cheaper space in alternative cities in-side and outside of Vietnam. This large rent increase in HCM City is a result of high land prices restricting good commercial development levels over the last few years meaning there will be an undersupply through 2018 and some of 2019. The pressure will however diminish in 2019 and 2020, when a glut of supply will come online, both in the CBD and in previously less considered areas like Thu Duc, District 9, and Dis-trict 2's Thu Thiem area.The industrial and logistics sector was among the top performers across the Vietnam-ese property market in 2017, and this trend is expected to have more growth in the 2018-2019 period. Do not forget, this is despite the unconcluded Trans-Pacific Partner-ship.According to our statistics, land prices and warehouse rents in HCM City gained a growth of 2.5 per cent in 2017 compared to a marginal increase in Hanoi. However, most of the well-established industrial parks (IPs) gained 5 per cent growth. The larg-est growth experienced across a region in the north was Hai Phong, averaging 4 per cent on-year, and in the south, it was Dong Nai at 5.9 per cent.In the extreme, Cushman & Wakefield have experienced some asking rents increase by as much as 10 per cent for the best IPs. Quality will continue to outperform and there is willingness from occupiers to pay higher prices, but only if they can see genuine im-provement in park infrastructure, management standards, and construction quality.Investors and occupiers still have a challenge in finding clean sites and opportunities, and therefore some restrictions will remain on the volumes of transactions in 2018. If the quality of supply and willingness to transact in more sophisticated transactions continues, 2018 will be a record year in industrial land and building take-up nation-wide.Overall, we have a positive outlook across the commercial sectors in 2018 with quality assets in high demand. Occupiers and investors need to be prepared to battle for the best opportunities.


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Vietnam government seeks to cut half of business rules in 2018

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

The government will strive to reduce and simplify half its of current existing condi-tional business requirements in 2018 in an effort to improve Vietnam's business cli-mate to boost growth.It is part of a string of measures outlined in a resolution signed by prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on January 1.The government is aiming for growth of 6.7 percent in 2018 after the Vietnamese econ-omy performed better than expected last year, expanding by 6.81 percent.In addition to streamlining the business rules, the government also aims to halve the roster of goods subject to inspection and simplify the checking procedures to bring Vi-etnam to the group of the four most business-friendly countries in Asean.Under the resolution, the government will strengthen macroeconomic stability, take bold administrative reforms, step up the fight against corruption and wastefulness and cut recurrent spending from the central budget.In 2018, the government seeks to curb the budget deficit at 3.7 percent of GDP and pub-lic debt at 63.9 percent of GDP with government debt at 52.5 percent of GDP and ex-ternal debt at 47.6 percent of GDP.Also high on the government's agenda in 2018 is the effort rein in the implementation of public-private partnership projects, especially toll road projects, which were a source of public objection in 2017.This year the government will also concentrate resources to speed up major national projects such as the north-south expressway and the Long Thanh International Airport project.At the same time, the government will be more selective in attracting foreign direct in-vestment with a priority placed on high-tech and environmentally friendly projects as well as stepping up the equitisation of State-owned enterprises.http://dtinews.vn/en/news/017004/54567/vietnam-government-seeks-to-cut-half-of-business-rules-in-2018.html

Foreign firms stream to Vietnam

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| SGGP NEWS

HCM City received nearly 800 businesses from 15 nations and territories learning about local market and investment opportunities in December this year. Economic ex-perts forecast that the number of companies coming to HCM City and Vietnam will continue increasing next year.A representative of the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that so far Vietnam has attracted businesses from 129 nations with 24,580 projects and the total investment capital of $316.9 billion.Of the invested fields, processing and manufacturing accounts for 59 percent, real es-tate, accommodation service and construction 24 percent; electricity, gas and water production and distribution 6.5 percent and auto retail and wholesale 2 percent.South Korea is the largest investor with the total funds of $57 billion, followed by Japan with $49 billion, Singapore $42 billion and China $12 billion. Vo Tan Thanh, deputy chair of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that Vietnam has become one of the most five attractive Southeast Asian nations to for-eign investors.The country has many advantages such as stable economic growth maintaining to be above 6 percent. GDP per capita increased 6.5 percent in 2017 and 55 million people are in working age.The ratio of highly skilled workers has been on the rise, mainly concentrating in big cities. Traffic infrastructure has been much improved for the last three years facilitat-ing trade connectivity among provinces and cities and partly meeting development demand.Vietnam is located in a strategic position taking only 50 flight hours to access 50 per-cent of the world market. Over 50 nations have opened the door for Vietnamese goods through bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements which the country has signed.Most of foreign businesses learning about investment opportunities in Vietnam come


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from fields such as electricity-electronic equipment, tech toys, components, machines and accessories, building materials, interior and exterior decoration, food and bever-age and beauty products.Many more incentivesAccording to Nguyen Thi Huyen Ngoc from Southern Investment Promotion Centre, many preferential policies for investors have been issued the government and imple-mented by investors to increase the attractiveness of Vietnam's investment environ-ment. Among these is the policy identifying corporate income between domestic and foreign firms to create fair competitiveness.The tax rate has also reduced from 25 percent to 20-22 percent.Firms investing in priority fields enjoy more incentives such as lower than normal cor-porate tax or exemption during a certain period of time. Those carrying out education, health, culture and sport projects pay the tax rate of only 10 percent.If the above projects are implemented in disadvantageous areas, investors will be ex-empt from paying corporate tax in four years and enjoy 50 percent cut in the next nine years.The 10 percent tax rate is also applied for businesses conducting agricultural and sea-food projects in disadvantageous areas.Key industries, environmental protection and large scale projects in hi-tech parks, eco-nomic zones and industrial zones will also enjoy the 10 percent tax rate during 15 years of operation. In following years after getting profit, investors will be exempt from pay-ing corporate tax in the first four years and receive 50 percent cut in the nine following years.They will also see tax exemption for importing machines and equipment not yet pro-duced domestically for production lines of projects.Vietnam has improved infrastructure ad put into operation 324 industrial parks to re-ceive investment waves in the upcoming time. Of these are 43 foreign invested indus-trial parks, 16 coastal economic zones and three high-tech parks.The Vietnamese government have encouraged businesses to invest in high value projects using modern technologies, projects transferring from doing outwork into making high added value products, infrastructure structure development, high quali-ty human resource training, modern services and large projects able to attend global supply chains.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/192900/foreign-firms-stream-to-viet-nam.html

Processing, manufacturing firms expect better business in 2018 Q1


Up to 48.2 percent of the processing and manufacturing enterprises joining in a survey of the general Statistical Office (GSO) said business activities in the first quarter of 2018 will be better.The survey on business trend of the processing and manufacturing enterprises for the first quarter of this year showed that 35.7 percent of the surveyed enterprises thought their business will be stable in comparison with the fourth quarter of 2017.Meanwhile, 16.1 percent of the firms predicted they will be hit by more difficulties.Up to 49.2 percent of the firms forecast an increase in their production, while 14.9 per-cent predicted a reduction and 35.9 percent foresaw stability in their performance as they made a comparison with their operations in the fourth quarter of 2017.Meanwhile, 35.8 percent of the firms will see an upturn in the number of orders for ex-port, while 14.9 percent are likely to suffer a downturn. Up to 50.2 percent of business-es said they may see no changes in their orders from the fourth quarter of 2017, according to the survey.The GSO reported that the number of new enterprises set up in 2017 was 126,859 with a total capital of over 1.29 quadrillion VND (56.8 billion USD), a year-on-year rise of 15 percent and 45 percent respectively.Together with nearly 1.87 quadrillion VND (82.46 billion USD) of additional capital of 35,000 operating enterprises, total capital pumped to the economy in 2017 was 3.16


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quadrillion VND (139.3 billion USD).At the same time, 26,448 enterprises resumed their operation, down 0.9 percent year-on-year, raising total operating firms to 153,300.The retail and wholesale sector drew the largest number of new businesses with 45,400 firms, followed by the processing and manufacturing sector with 16,000 enterprises and construction with 16,000 firms. Science, technology, consultation services, design, advertisement and other sectors also saw 9,400 new enterprises.Increase in the number of newly-established businesses was recorded in all regions, leading by the southeast region with 53,700 firms, up 14 percent.However, in 2017, 60,553 businesses halted their operation, a fall of 0.2 percent year-on-year. 12,113 others were dissolved during the year.-

Foreign giants step up franchising efforts in Vietnam


According to the Ministry of Investment and Industry (MOIT), 183 foreign brands have been granted a franchise in Vietnam, mostly from the US, Australia, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and the EU.The franchise mode existed in Vietnam prior to 1975 with franchise contracts from the US oil & gas distributors such as Mobil, Exxon and Shell. The second franchise wave returned in the mid-1990s.A number of well-known brands in the world operate in many different sectors, from fast food, hotel to cosmetics and fashion have come to Vietnam, including McDonald's, Baskin Robbins, Haagen-Dazs, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pepper Lunch and Burger King.The US fast food giant McDonald's joined the Vietnamese market in 2014 and has opened 13 shops so far, planning to have at least 100 shops within 10 years.However, Lotteria leads the fast food industry in Vietnam with 211 restaurants in 30 provinces/cities. From 2013-2015, Lotteria opened 70 new restaurants, or 20 restau-rants a year.As for KFC Vietnam, the fried chicken chain has 140 restaurants in 18 cities/provinces, which means that it opens 10 new restaurants every year.Pham Nguyen Minh of VIT commented that though franchises only returned to Viet-nam in the 1990s, the business model has been growing rapidly, by 15-20 percent per annum.In 2015, Vietnam had 150 brands franchised, while the number has soared to 183 re-cently, according to an MOIT report.Nguyen Phi Van, president of Retail & Franchise Asia, said at Shop & Store Vietnam 2018, an international exhibition, that Amcham ranks Vietnam's franchise market eighth among the 12 markets that have the most potential in the world. Therefore, Vi-etnam is considered a 'magnet' to foreign brands which are seeking franchise opportu-nities.Economists said that international brands are more attractive to franchisees than do-mestic brands, because international brands have existed for a long time and they have standard working procedures. Meanwhile, the majority of Vietnamese companies have small and medium scale which still cannot build up standard business proce-dures.They also commented that the franchise granted by foreign brands to Vietnamese busi-nesses is mostly under the mode of first-tier franchise or master franchise.A businessperson said Vietnamese businesses cannot reap big fruits in franchise con-tracts."Foreign brand owners just want Vietnamese companies to develop their brands in Vi-etnam. If you take losses after a certain period, you will have to compensate. If you sell well, you'll just get modest shared profit," he said.Also according to the businessperson, franchisors ask Vietnamese partners to use 100 percent of imported materials, including ones which can be made in Vietnam. The high percentage of imports cause losses to Vietnamese partners.


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Trio of manufacturers assist in 'made-in-Vietnam auto dream'


Vietnam once put high hopes on automobile joint ventures, believing that foreign tech-nologies would help develop the automobile industry. However, it now believes that it would be better not to rely on outsiders.In the early 2000s, two Vietnamese companies had strength in the truck and passenger vehicle market segments. However, Vinaxuki went downhill and had no opportunity to recover. As for Thaco, Tran Ba Duong, its CEO, chose the correct path to develop-ment.Starting business as a used car dealer, Thaco later began making trucks, buses and now assembles Mazda, Kia and Peugeot.Do Huu Hao, former deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), commented that Thaco started with simple jobs (assembling trucks and buses) and then undertook more complicated work (sedans).The manufacturing of buses and trucks helped Thaco accumulate experience and mon-ey to make sedans. Thaco is now a big power in the market and its sale promotion cam-paigns always have an impact on the market.Thaco said Vietnam cannot compete with other countries which have been making cars for hundreds of years.However, this is quite different for buses and trucks. In 2011, Thaco began building a factory for making buses, the first in Vietnam which has 80 percent of equipment de-signed by Thaco's engineers.Most recently, Thaco inaugurated the largest and most modern bus factory in South East Asia and signed a contract on exporting 1,150 businesses to four countries.Meanwhile, Thanh Cong Group's success was a surprise to many people. In 2009, Thanh Cong became the distributor of Hyundai cars. Even when Hyundai fell into Thanh Cong's hands, few people thought Hyundai sedans would be assembled in Vi-etnam and exported.The rapid growth has placed Hyundai Thanh Cong (HTC) in the top five manufactur-ers with the largest market share in Vietnam. Most of HTC's models are now made at HTC's factory in Ninh Binh province.The third name in the 'trio' is Vinfast, an ambitious investor. Unlike Thaco, Vinfast, from the beginning, stated that it would make sedans with Vietnamese brand.The manufacturer, belonging to VIngroup, a powerful conglomerate with investments in many business fields, has hired famous design centers in the world to design models 'with a Vietnamese soul and for the Vietnamese market'.VinFast promised that Vietnamese will have opportunities to own cars at reasonable prices and the project will help generate 25,000 workers, thus indirectly feeding 25,000 families.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/192768/trio-of-manufacturers-assist-in--made-in-vietnam-auto-dream-.html

HCM City plans more safe farm produce markets


The HCM City Department of Agriculture and Rural Development plans to set up 10 safe farm produce markets that will open every weekend to bring together producers and buyers of clean agricultural products.The first market opened in August 2016 at the Dong Ho Restaurant in District 10.Initially it opened every other week, but now it opens on Saturdays.Similar markets now operate every Sunday at Le Van Tam park in District 1 and Le Thi Rieng park in District 10.Each market features around 20 producers and traders selling rice, vegetables, fruits, poultry, pork, and seafood.Around 500-1,000 people shop at each market every week, bringing in VND175-265 million (US$7,700-11,600) in revenues, according to the department.Le Ha Mong Ngoc, director of Nam Viet (Vietnamese mushroom) Biotech JSC and head of Nam Viet Cooperative, sells her produce at these markets though they are also sold to major supermarkets.


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Selling there is a good way to learn about the market and consumer, she said."Customers who shop at these markets are highly aware of food safety and hygiene."Over time customers place orders by phone, and their purchases are delivered to their home, she told Nguoi Lao Dong (Labourers) newspaper.Mai Thi Thuy Trang, owner of Tai Thinh Phat, a prawn, crab and fish supplier to sea-food processing and export companies in Ca Mau Province, said though her products meet the very strict requirements of international markets, she still found it difficult to sell locally because consumers did not trust sellers."But now, thanks to these markets with strict food safety regulations, customer trust has increased."We now can convince consumers easier. As long as we ensure product quality, cus-tomers will come back."The three safe farm produce markets are running smoothly, and the department plans to have 10 by 2020.Four more will soon open in Districts 2, 7, Tan Binh, and Binh Tan.When asked why few such markets are being opened though demand for clean and organic agricultural produce is high, an official from the department's Centre for Counselling and Support for Agriculture blamed it on the many requirements for set-ting up a standard market.He pointed out the location has to be large and needs to have parking space, a place to store traders' equipment and electricity to refrigerate meat and seafood, yet be afford-able for household and small businesses.The department has called for greater participation in the markets by household busi-nesses and farmers in the Mekong Delta to diversify the products sold.To qualify as sellers, participants need to prove their products are clean and safe, be-long to the city's safe food chain and meet VietGAP (Vietnamese good agriculture practices) or GlobalGAP standards.Samples of products sold at the market are regularly collected for tests by the Food Safety Management Board.Of 540 vegetable and fruit samples it collected over several months starting last July, five were found to have organic phosphate and carbamate exceeding allowed levels.Their growers have since been banned, and to reenter the markets they have to do an-other residue test before seeking the department's permission."We have received many applications to participate in these markets. But many busi-nesses cannot provide certifications [for VietGAP standards]," Bui Van My, head of the Centre for Counselling and Support for Agriculture, said."Even businesses which have been accepted to the markets can be removed if their cer-tifications expire. They can only resume selling at the markets when their certifications are renewed."In the long run, the department plans to privatise these markets and only monitor food safety, he added.http://bizhub.vn/news/hcm-city-plans-more-safe-farm-produce-markets_291109.html

Real estate association claims HCM City won't face real estate bubble


The HCM City Real Estate Association (HoREA) predicted stable development for the city real estate sector and claimed that there would not be a real estate bubble in 2018.According to the HoREA, the real estate sector development will continue to be stable and positive. From 2018 to 2020, there will be an adjustment to balance supply and de-mand. Affordable housings with prices around VND1bn (USD44,000) per apartment still have the most buyers.It also predicts cheaper high-end housing in order to attract more customers and more land sales. However, disputes at apartment buildings will become more common and need to be addressed.FDI and overseas remittance will remain important sources of capital.Firms can find various opportunities in HCM City as a number of infrastructure projects are being planned or carried out such as the metro lines, new buses, waterway


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public transport and the upgrade of Tan Son Nhat Airport.HCM City authorities are considering converting a third of the city's agricultural land into industrial and urban areas.Moreover, HCM City has eyed USD9,800 per capita income goal by 2020. With higher incomes and young population, demand for better housings and online transactions.The HoREA claim a real estate bubble could not happen in 2018 thanks to timely inter-ference from the state and investment restructuring at firms. They suggested that after several bubbles and crashes investors, banks and customers have become less bad at reading the market.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/193064/real-estate-association-claims-hcm-city-won-t-face-real-estate-bubble.html

Chu Lai EZ draws record $1.4b in 2017


Total investment of $1.4 billion was made during the year, 13.5 times as much as the year before.Director of the Economic Zone Authority (EZA), Do Xuan Dien, said this was the big-gest growth in investment since the economic zone opened in 2003.He said business promotions and forums were held in the province, HCM City, Macau-China and this year's Apec meeting in Quang Nam.Dien said infrastructure and administrative reforms had been promoted to smooth the way for investors.He said the zone had attracted 138 projects, of which 34 were FDI projects worth $1 bil-lion involving total investment of $3.68 billion since 2003.Eighty-eight projects worth more than $1.3 billion, are in operation, including 24 FDI projects worth $227 million.At an investment promotion conference in June, the province presented investment li-cences to 32 projects with a total registered capital of $15.8 billion. The biggest licence was a $10 billion framework agreement signed between Exxon Mobil and the State oil and gas giant PetroVietnam (PVN) to develop a power plant using natural gas from the Blue Whale field off the coast of Quang Nam.A series of huge tourism property projects also began construction in 2017, including Vinpearl South Hoi An worth $213 million; An Thinh resort complex ($191 million); beach resort Opal Ocean View ($205 million); Binh Duong resort complex ($206 mil-lion) and an infrastructure project at Tam Thang Industrial Park ($220 million).Last year, Japan's Mazda Motor Corporation, in cooperation with local Truong Hai Automobile Joint-Stock company (Thaco), started construction of a new Mazda plant at a total investment of $380 million.The 32,400ha zone has invested $39 million to dredge the main ports of Tam Hiep and Ky Ha for ships with a capacity of 10,000 dwt (deadweight tonnage) and 20,000 dwt.Direct sea routes were launched from Chu Lai to Incheon in Korea, and Fangcheng in China for hosting textiles, automobiles, logistics experts, exports and investment flows from Korea and Japan.According to Nguyen Hong Quang, head of the provincial secretariat, the budget car-rier VietJetAir and US partner Parsons Brinckerhoff have proposed a master plan for development of Chu Lai airport as an international airport in 2020-25.It will host in host 2.3 million passengers and handle 1.5 million tonnes of cargo per year.http://bizhub.vn/news/chu-lai-ez-draws-record-14b-in-2017_291110.html

Phu Yen pours VND2.12 trillion into aquaculture


Authorities in the central coastal province of Phu Yen will spend nearly VND2.12 tril-lion (US$93 million) developing aquatic resources from now until 2025.According to provincial deputy Chair, Tran Huu The, the master plan will involve aquaculture, harvest and processing and building infrastructure for fishing and logis-tics, including breed stock production.From now until 2020, the province will invest more than VND1.45 trillion in conduct-


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SVietnam finance & business 3 January 2018

ing 13 key projects setting up sustainable development for aquatic resources. These projects include building Long Thanh aquaculture infrastructure system, upgrading infrastructure for the Hoa An aquaculture production centre in Song Cau Township, building a fishing port, a tuna auction market and a tuna processing factory, with a ca-pacity of 1,800 tonnes per year in Tuy Hoa City.In Song Cau Township, the province will also construct a frozen seafood processing factory with a capacity of 3,500 tonnes per year and a factory to produce feed for lob-sters, which can make 1,000 tonnes per year.The master plan is aimed at giving a boost to the potential of local aquaculture and pro-duction in modernisation, contributing to developing the local economy. The province has set a target to reach an average growth of 5.2 per cent per year from now until 2030.http://bizhub.vn/news/phu-yen-pours-vnd212 trillion-into-aquaculture_291099.html

Long An to increase aquaculture area in 2018


The Mekong Delta province of Long An plans to increase its aquatic farming area by 200 hectares to approximately 9,200 hectares and expects to produce 52,550 tonnes of aquatic products this year.To this end, the province will tighten management on commercial aquatic farming and announce a list of freshwater aquatic species included in the province's policies to sup-port the development of local aquaculture in Dong Thap Muoi (Plain of Reeds) region.It will improve electricity supply networks for aquaculture, dredge irrigation systems and apply a set of standards on aquatic breeding businesses to control the quality of breeding.It will also intensify management on water environment by monitoring the water qual-ity on the regular basis and make recommendations for water treatment if necessary.Most of the aquatic farming in Long An are located in Can Duoc, Can Giuoc, Tan Tru, Tan Thanh and Thanh Hoa districts. The province cultivated about 9,000 hectares last year.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/long-an-to-increase-aquaculture-area-in-2018/124228.vnp

BUSINESSIZ NEWS

Business Briefs 03 January, 2018

03/JAN/2017 INTELLASIA |

* Saigon Real Estate JSC (SGR) will float over 39.5 million shares on the HCM City ex-change on January 15 at the starting price ofVND29,000 each. It obtained VND544.9 billion in revenue and VND132.7 billion in pre-tax profit in the Ianuary-Septernber pe-riod of 2017, meeting 45 percent and 66 percent the year's goals respectively.* Generation Power Corporation 3 (Genco 3) has announced its equitisation plan, un-der which Genco 3 will issue shares to lower the government' take. Of the VND20.8 trillion capital, 12.8 percent of equity shares will be put up for auction vhile 36 percent will be offered to a strategic partner with the government keeping a stake of at least 51 percent until 2019. The starting price in the initial public offering (IPO) will be VND24, 600 a share. Genco 3 is looking to complete the IPO in February and plans to list on the HCM City exchange or me market for unlisted public firms, or UPCoM, within one year after the IPO.* Thu Due Housing Development Corporation (TDH) expects to make a consolidated net profit ofVND128 billion in 2017, 31.54 percent higher than in the previous year and exceeding the full-year target by 9.46 percent. Its consolidated revenue may rea VND1.54 trillion in 2017, surging 69.8 percent and surpasing the year's plan by 43 per-cent.* Masan Beverage Company Limited expects to receive over VND1.2 trillion from a dividend payment by Vinacafe Bien Hoa Company (VCF), which will pay an interim dividend ofVND66,000 for each share for 2017 on the record date ofJanuary9. The com-pany will make the payment on January 31. Masan Beverage holds a 68.46 percent stake in VCP. The investor plans to raise its ownership in VCF to 100 percent by buying shares at VND202,000 each. The transaction is scheduled to complete in the first quar-ter of 2018.


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* BacABank (BAB) has got approval from the central bank to raise its chartered capital from VND5 trillion to VND5.5 trillion. The bank will carry out the plan in two stages, with 46.2 million shares issued to pay a 2016 dividend for shareholders and 3.7 million shares offered in a private placement. Launched on the UPCoM on December 28,2017, BAB is now trading at around VND25,000 per share.

Shares open on positive note in 2018


The VN Index opened the first trading day of 2018 on a positive note with a rise of 0.4 per cent to 987.97 points on Tuesday morning.Twenty of the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity on the HCM Stock Exchange advanced and only seven declined.Overall market condition was also optimistic with 142 stocks rising, 119 falling and 87 remaining unchanged.VPBank (VPB) led the gainers with 6.3 per cent growth, trading at VND43,550 (US$1.91) per share.Many large-cap stocks witnessed substantial increases, including Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), VinGroup (VIC), Masan Group (MSN), FPT Corp (FPT), lender BIDV (BID) and Kido Group (KDC), up between 1.3 and five per cent each.On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was up 0.7 per cent at 117.69 points.Over 137 million shares worth a combined VND3.7 trillion ($161 million) were traded on the two markets.The afternoon session begins at 1pm.http://bizhub.vn/markets/shares-open-on-positive-note-in-2018_291092.html

All indexes gain ground


Positive performance all round on January 2.All main indexes on Vietnam's stock market closed higher on January 2.On HSX, the VN Index increased 11.53 points (1.17 per cent) and the VN30-Index 17.20 points (1.76 per cent).On HNX, the HNX-Index gained 2 points (1.71 per cent), the HNX30-Index 3.84 points (1.73 per cent), and the UPCoM-Index 0.45 points (0.82 per cent).Liquidity on HSX reached VND5.4 trillion ($237.9 million), 7.5 per cent higher than yesterday, and on HNX was VND970 billion ($42.7 million), 30.6 per cent higher.The VN Index opened at 986.05 points and fell to 984.41 points before ending the morn-ing at 987.97 points. It then closed the day at 995.77 points.In food and beverages, KDC gained 6.3 per cent, VCF 3.4 per cent, TLG 1.5 per cent, and VNM 1.4 per cent, while TAC lost 2.2 per cent and BBC closed at its opening price.In banking, BID increased 5.9 per cent, VPB 5.6 per cent, MBB 4.5 per cent, BVH 4.4 per cent, STB and MSN 4.3 per cent, VCI 3.3 per cent, CTG 3.1 per cent, VCB 1.3 per cent, and SSI 1 per cent. EIB closed at its opening price.In energy, PPC rose 4.2 per cent, NT2 2.1 per cent, PGD 1.3 per cent, and PVT 0.5 per cent, while GAS lost 2.2 per cent and PVD 1.5 per cent and PLX closed as its opening price.In construction and real estate, REE gained 4.1 per cent, DXG 2.8 per cent, NLG 2.3 per cent, HT1 1.9 per cent, QCG 1.3 per cent, VIC 1.2 per cent, NVL and ITA 0.6 per cent, and VRE and CTD 0.4 per cent. ROS lost 6.7 per cent and FLC 0.7 per cent.NTP was the largest net sold share on HNX, with VND2.57 billion ($113,215), followed by PMC (VND245.3 million ($10,806)), DHT (VND134 million ($5,903)), CTP (VND52.5 million ($2,312)), and SFN (VND34.1 million ($1,502)).On UPCoM, foreign investors bought 456,250 shares worth VND13.77 billion ($606,607).They net bought on HNX by VND33.21 billion ($1.4 million).http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/tnfbjdtr-all-indexes-gain-ground


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Expert: Consumer goods, transport stocks to grow in 2018


The stock market is expected to soar to new highs in 2018 as many sectors such as con-sumer goods, transport, logistics and retail are seen posting positive results in the near future.Vu Quang Dong, CEO of Vietcombank Fund Management Company, said many sec-tors may develop strongly. For instance, the real estate sector will enjoy better growth as interest rates will stay low and large cities will still see large housing demand.Besides, tourism and related sectors will become promising as the government is fo-cusing on tourism development, raising the tourism sector's contribution to gross do-mestic product (GDP) from 6 percent in 2016 to 10 percent in 2020.The banking sector has implemented a restructuring plan and lenders have been told to set up provision funds. The revised Law on Credit Institutions will also help im-prove the health of the banking system.Therefore, banks many continue reporting positive gains in the near future. However, different banks may get different outcomes depending on their restructuring process-es and the new law, Dong said on news website vneconomy.vn.Last, the crude oil price has stabilised, thus propping up supporting industries and manufacturers such as those of plastics and packaging, the expert added.The VN Index rose 0.77 percent last Friday, with the year 2017 ending on a high note. The market soared 48 percent to a 10-year high. The index made daily gains last week for a combined rise of 3.4 percent, its second weekly increase in a row and the best week in the last five.According to Viet Capital Securities Company, this year's surge was the largest as the index shot up 142 percent and was the second highest since the Hochiminh Stock Ex-change debuted in 2001. Several large new listings, including those of retailer VRE, fuel distributor PLX, low-cost carrier VJC and bank VPB, helped send the market cap-italisation up to $114 billion, up from less than $10 billion in 2008.Large-cap stocks performed well this year, led by dairy firm VNM, property firm VIC, gas group GAS and lender VCB. Banks, such as CTG, BID and MBB, had a strong year along with top consumer goods stocks like PNJ, MWG, FPT and DHG.Turnover, however, slumped on both bourses, with matching volume averaging out at 150.4 million shares and 45.4 million shares per session on the HCM City and Hanoi markets, down 16.4 percent and 16 percent versus the previous week respectively.Foreign investors net bought over VND1.7 trillion of shares, including VND1.68 tril-lion on the southern bourse and VND50.9 billion on the northern exchange.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57800/Expert-Consumer-goods-transport-stocks-to-grow-in-2018.html

What's behind the strong performance of the stock market in 2017?


The Vietnamese stock market in 2017 saw stock prices escalating, but not all investors could make money.Tuan, a 27-year-old investor, spends most of his time watching electronic boards on se-curities and trading floors and calling brokers. He was surprised that the CMG share price had dropped so dramatically despite the upward trend of the market.Two weeks ago, Tuan bought 5,000 CMG at VND37,000 per share. One week later, the price escalated to VND52,300 per share. However, it unexpectedly dropped late last week to VND34,000,Tuan was not the only investor who took a loss even though the VN Index climbed to new highs."When the VN Index increases by 50 percent, this doesn't mean that all the investors who inject VND1 billion into the market will receive VND1.5 billion," an analyst said. "If someone can receive VND1.5 billion from the initial investment capital of VND1 bil-lion, this means that another investor injects VND1 billion but receives VND500 mil-lion only."Too strong', 'crazy' and 'incredible' are the words investors use to describe the rise of the stock market in 2017.


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The VN Index increased by only 40 points in 2015 and by 80 points in 2016. But it has soared by 300 points so far this year and exceeded the 10-year high 950 point threshold.In 2016, the average trading value was VND3 trillion per session and there were only a few sessions with the trading value of over VND5 trillion.Meanwhile, VND5 trillion sessions were commonly seen in 2017.With the growth rate of over 40 percent, Vietnam has become one of the fastest-grow-ing markets in the world.SSC's (State Securities Commission) chair Tran Van Dung said the high GDP growth rate, the government's actions, and foreign capital flow are the three factors behind the strong rise of the stock market in 2017.Unlike 2007, when the stock market's growth depended on domestic investors, in 2017, foreign investors have joined both the stock and bond markets.The shift of the global capital flow which is now heading for emerging markets and the upgrade in credit ratings given by Fitch have made Vietnam a brilliant market.One report shows that foreign investors have bought more than sold by $1.8 billion. This figure is only about secondary transactions in the stock market. In addition, there are many deals issuing shares specifically to groups of investors by Vietjet, Vincom Re-tail, HD Bank, VP Bank, Vinamilk and Sabeco.Finance Asia in late November chose Vincom Retail's stock sale as Asia Pacific's most successful private equity investment deal in 2017, with record trading value of $741 million.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/192659/what-s-behind-the-strong-per-formance-of-the-stock-market-in-2017-.html

559 million shares to be auctioned at HNX


The Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) will organise 15 auctions to offload 559 million shares in January.Seven auctions held on the northern bourse last December collected a total value of 949 billion VND (42 million USD), according to the Hanoi Stock Exchange.They included one initial public offering (IPO) of the Song Da Corporation, five divest-ment auctions of Thanh Hoa Port JSC, Mechanisation Electrification Construction Cor-poration JSC, VINACONEX Corporation, Agribank Jewellery Co. Ltd and Orient Commercial JS Bank; and one public auction of BIDV Securities JSC.The total volume of shares sold in December reached more than 365 million shares, 6.9 times higher than the previous month.More than 50 million shares, equivalent to 14 percent of the offered volume, were sold to investors with a total value of over 949 billion VND, which is higher than the initial price of 227 billion VND (10 million USD).The five divestment auctions attracted high interest of the investors. Especially, shares of Thanh Hoa Port JSC, Mechanisation Electrification Construction Corporation JSC and Agribank Jewellery Co. Ltd were sold out at the auctions.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/559 million-shares-to-be-auctioned-at-hnx/124230.vnp

Food safety board wants to take over pork supervision job


The HCM City Food Safety Board has proposed the HCM City government permit it to take over the pork management, identification and traceability programme from the Department of Industry and Trade.Nguyen Nguyen Phuong, head of the Trade Management Division under the Depart-ment of Industry and Trade, told a press conference last week that the proposal by the food safety board is reasonable as the department lacks manpower to carry out the programme.He explained the department has been implementing the programme since October 2016, and has faced difficulties in the execution process due mainly to a shortage of staff.As planned, the department started the second phase of the programme on January 1 to manage the origin of pigs from birth, farming and slaughter to pork distribution at


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wholesale and retail markets, and supermarkets.The first phase of the programme only tracks the origin of pork from farms and slaugh-terhouses to pork consumption at supermarkets and wholesale markets only.Therefore, he noted, if the programme is transferred to the board, the board would have to carry out the second phase.He said the department intends to report its detailed plan to the municipal govern-ment after the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet. If the department is given the go-ahead, it would operate an online platform for pork trading early next year.The platform will facilitate pig farmers to have direct access to buyers and have the right to price their pork products in a proactive manner, he noted. As such, these farm-ers will try to improve the quality of their products so that they can be sold at high pric-es.Customers can rest assured that they eat high-quality and safe pork while authorities can easily track the origin of products to stabilise the market, according to him.More than 2,600 pig farmers and 38 slaughterhouses are joining the pork management, identification and traceability programme. Between 7,500 and 8,000 pigs, before being slaughtered, are attached with identity tags on a daily basis.english.thesaigontimes.vn/57789/Food-safety-board-wants-to-take-over-pork-super-vision-job.html

Navigational channel upgrade high on priority list


The transport ministry has set out priorities for the second phase of a navigational channel upgrade project to allow larger vessels to call at ports along the Hau River via the newly-opened Quan Chanh Bo Canal in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh.The second phase of the project will be developed through a private-public partner-ship (PPP), according a report on opportunities and potentials for logistics develop-ment in the transport sector in the Mekong Delta, which was released last month by the Transport Development and Strategy Institute under the transport ministry.The report shows the project costs an estimated VND3.2 trillion (around $141 million), and is the only maritime transport development project which is high on the ministry's priority list in the delta.Earlier, deputy minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat said the ministry proposed carry-ing forward VND1.6 trillion in surplus capital in phase one of the project to the second phase.The embankments of the Quan Chanh Bo Canal are not yet complete, so some stretches of the banks have slid since big ships are allowed to travel in the Hau River to visit the Tan Cang-Cai Cui Port in the Mekong Delta of Can Tho.The major project is intended to allow vessels of 10,000-20,000 dwt to come to ports along the Hau River, according to the ministry.The project will make it possible for the ports to handle 21-22 million tonnes of general cargo, and 450,000-500,000 TEUs of containerised cargo a year by 2020. Therefore, it is highly expected to fuel economic growth in the Mekong Delta.english.thesaigontimes.vn/57787/Navigational-channel-upgrade-high-on-priority-list.html

Tour guides complain about phone and carrier requirements


Freelance tour guides in HCM City have complained about a requirement that forces them to use smartphones and subsribe to the Viettel mobile network when joining the Vietnam Tour Guides Association.In a complaint sent to authorities and media outlets last week, tour guides voiced their concern over the mobile carrier requirement. They said such a requirement is not suit-able for those tour guides who are neither young nor familiar with smartphones.In addition, an annual membership fee of VND500,000 and an entry fee of VND500,000, according to the tour guides who filed the complaint, are unreasonable. They want an association for tour guides in HCM City.The Vietnam Tour Guides Association, under the Vietnam Tourism Association, was


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founded last month, just before the new tourism law goes into force.Under the new law, those wanting to cater to tourists are required to possess tour guide ID, have employment contracts with travel firms or tour guide suppliers, or be a member of social or professional organisations, or have contracts to work as tour guides or have written proof of job assignment.This rule will greatly impact freelance tour guides, who currently need tour guide ID issued by authorities and contracts with travel firms only.There are no firms supplying tour guides, whereas travel firms only sign employment contracts with some tour guides and relying mostly on freelancers. As a result, free-lance guides need to join the newly established association to be eligible for working as tour guides.Regarding the complaint of freelance tour guides in HCM City, the Vietnam Tour Guide Association told the Daily that the requirement existed before, but was not com-pulsory.In particular, the association needs funding to build a website. This website is expected to work as a platform to connect tour guides, enable them to bid for tours offered by travel firms, and provide information useful for tour guides such as weather, transpor-tation and emergency assistance.However, due to a funding shortage, the association has signed a strategic cooperation deal with Viettel to get the company's assistance in developing the online platform.The association previously required its members to use services of mobile carrier Viet-tel just for convenience and to make use of its extensive coverage. Members did not have to pay for simcards as they were included in the association's entry fee.According to the association, Viettel has pledged preferential mobile packages such as free calls among members. The website is not yet available, and the association now allows its members to use any mobile network they like.Commenting on the smartphone requirement, the association said this should not be a big deal as a large number of tour guides already have smartphones. For those who have not got one, owning a smartphone will make their work easier, enable them to get connected to the online platform and seek emergency assistance easily.There are now more than 20,000 tour guides with ID across the country, but most of them are freelancers.US$250 million loan disbursed for Hanoi's urban railwayHCM CityThe Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank) has completed proce-dures to disburse $250 million for Hanoi City's Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway project that has fallen behind schedule due to the lack of cash, Phap Luat newspaper reports.At a meeting with deputy minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong late last week, the Management Board of the Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway project said the railway is 95 percent complete.Before the $250 million loan agreement became went into force on December 28, only $10 million had been disbursed for the project between January and September last year, leading to the project lagging behind schedule.Deputy minister Dong asked the project management board to work with the contrac-tor to ensure the railway can be put into operation this year. The ministry will report the progress of the project to the government this month.According to the Chinese contractor's plan, the trial operation of all 13 cars of the train will begin in September and the project will be officially put into service three to six months later.At a meeting on December 22 last year, minister of Transport Nguyen Van The told the deputy minister to work with the Embassy of China, the Ministry of Finance and relat-ed parties to accelerate capital disbursement and review connectivity between Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway with other means of transport.english.thesaigontimes.vn/57796/Tour-guides-complain-about-phone-and-carrier-re-quirements.html


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Vietnam leads region for ratio of female business leaders

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| VNEXPRESS

Some 25 percent of CEOs or board directors in Vietnam are women.Vietnamese women hold more leading positions on the business map compared to other countries in the region, including Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.Women hold 25 percent of CEO or board level positions in Vietnam.That figure stands at 14 percent in Malaysia, 10 percent in Singapore and only 6 per-cent in Indonesia, Bloomberg cited September data from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), an American worldwide management consulting firm, as saying.Up to 81 percent of women in Vietnam want to be promoted within their current com-panies, compared with 74 percent in Singapore and 59 percent in Malaysia,Malaysia has the largest proportion of female respondents who intend to stay in their current roles, said the BCG report, which was built based on a survey of more than 2,000 employees in the four countries.In June 2017, Deloitte LLP looked into 7,000 companies in 64 economies and found that women account for only 7.8 percent of board directors in Asia. That is a little higher than in Latin and South America, but far below Europe's 22.6 percent the highest re-gional ratio.Japan, South Korea and Taiwan rank among lowest in the region.In Vietnam, women make up 17.6 percent of board members. In Malaysia, that ratio stands at 13.7 percent, while it's just 10.2 percent in Singapore, said the UK-incorporat-ed multinational professional services network.Deloitte also pointed out that in Vietnam, there are no quotas for women board mem-bers. The country aims to increase the ratio of leading businesswomen to 35 percent by 2020, it added.https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/vietnam-leads-region-for-ratio-of-female-busi-ness-leaders-3693035.html

Can Tho launches electric car service for tourists


Tan Dai Phong Construction Trade Production Company last week launched an elec-tric car service for tourists in Can Tho City, which takes in the famous tourist destina-tions in Ninh Kieu, Binh Thuy and Phong Dien districts.Nguyen Thanh Phong, director of the company, said the company initially put three 9-15 seater cars into service and was planning to have three more cars costing a total of VND3 billion (US$132,000) in the first quarter of this year.The routes include Ninh Kieu Wharf-Truc Lam Phuong Nam Monastery-My Khanh, Ninh Kieu Wharf-Thu Khoa Huan Monument-Binh Thuy Temple, and Ninh Kieu Wharf-Tan An Temple-Night Market. The ticket price is VND20,000 per kilometer per car.Tan Dai Phong will put 26 other electric cars into service in the near future if the trial operation is successful.Pham Van Luan, deputy director of the Can Tho Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the city last year received 7.5 million tourists, including 300,000 foreign-ers. Total tourism revenue grew 60 percent year-on-year to VND2.9 trillion.The municipal government has issued Decision No.03-NQ/TU developing tourism into the city's key economic sector in 2020.According to the Ministry of Transport, there are currently about 40 businesses oper-ating 1,300 electric cars nationwide.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57797/Can-Tho-launches-electric-car-service-for-tourists-.html

Saigonese turn to homegrown veggies for meals, Tet gifts

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| TUOITRE NEWS

Spooked by unsafe greens sold at markets and supermarkets, more Saigonese are now growing their own vegetables at home for meals and giving as Tet presents.As tainted veggies posing serious health hazards to consumers are rife on the local market, including those imported from China, a rising number of residents in the southern metropolis have removed vegetables available there from their daily menus.


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They come up with a more cost-effective, fail-safe approach: growing their own veg-gies or getting agricultural specialists to tend to them in their rented areas or in their own gardens or terraces.The practice also serves as an eco-friendly, rewarding pastime, provides opportunities for family get-togethers and helps growers as well as their families, particularly chil-dren, better appreciate the fruits of their labour.More companies have thus begun to offer 'package' services, supplying their clients with high quality saplings, as well as counselling and training in applying various af-fordable cultivation technologies such as aeroponics, or a process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium.After a night rain, the veggie beds on the rooftop of a house in Binh Tan District owned by Bui Thi Thuong look as verdant as those grown on silt-laden soil.She began using her entire rooftop space to cultivate over 20 varieties of vegetable and set up a frame of perennial climbing squash two years ago.Thuong revealed she started germinating seedlings of net melons, cauliflowers, and cabbages two months ago, in time for this Tet harvest.This year's Tet (Lunar New Year) will begin on February 16 and linger for one week or so.Her yield last year was big enough to sustain her family's meals while also providing gifts for her relatives and friends for the festive occasion.Short of time to tend to vegetables, Tran Van Thao, director of a construction company, took to growing his greens on vertical aeroponic towers, which would allow him ac-cess to hygienically ensured, nourishing produce.In his home in Binh Tri Dong B Ward, Binh Tan District, Thao has turned his 50m2 rooftop into a green space with a fish pond and five vertical aeroponic towers watered by an automatically operated irrigation system.After two months, all his five towers have begun yielding verdant lettuce and morning glory.He divulged that he had sowed his second batch of morning glory in time for Tet con-sumption.Similarly, despite living a stone's throw from An Dong Market, District 5, one of the city's major conventional markets, Chan Duc and his family have put veggies grown aeroponically in 1,600 holes on his rooftop on their daily menu.The entire system cost over VND20 million (US$879) and the automatically operated watering towers require around 9m2 space."We can rest absolutely assured about our access to hygienically guaranteed vegeta-bles," Duc noted.Thriving businessMore growers have also adopted hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent; or aquaponics, which refers to any system that combines conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics in a symbiotic environment.Over recent years, companies specialising in gardening tools and techniques have mushroomed and offered various packages at different prices.Realising the benefits he had reaped by growing his own veggies, Truong Binh Son has established a firm which offers vegetable-growing services.Towers manufactured at his company fetch VND1.5-VND2 million (US$66-US$88) apiece.Many families have opted for the aeroponic model for its limited space required, au-tomatically operated watering system and diversity of greens on each tower, Son ex-plained.Apart from vegetables, Son's company is also germinating breeds of flowers on verti-cal aeroponic towers to cater to booming Tet demand.Likewise, Pham Thanh Loc, director of a hi-tech agricultural service company based in Cu Chi District, supplies a nine-tube aeroponic system with 400 holes, which takes up a floor area of a mere 1.5m2, for VND6.5 million (US$286).


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His products have been in good demand and fervently embraced by consumers across the country.As the service is thriving, his staff have their hands full catering to a soaring demand as Tet is two months away.According to Vo Thi Thu Ha, who runs a company specialising in hydroponic veggie-growing services in HCM City, families need only a 2m2 space on their terrace or bal-cony to set up a 100-pot veggie garden.Her systems are priced at VND3.6 million (US$158) to VND8 million (US$351) apiece.Ha's company also offers packages including saplings, tending, nutrition and harvest-ing at clients' homes."We normally germinate 10,000 saplings. The number triples to cater to Tet demand, but we still run out of stock," she said.Many businesses sell aquaponic models installed on terraces for VND8 (US$351) mil-lion to VND25 million (US$1,099).Le Phuong Vy, representative of a local hydroponic veggie-growing business, dis-closed there were only a few firms offering home growing services five years ago with a handful of clients each month.His current number of rivals has surged to dozens, with sales also rising dramatically.According to statistics released by five major businesses in HCM City, each installs 20-30 aeroponic and hydroponic systems at local households monthly.Around 70 percent of these households continue to use the companies' accompanying services including hydroponic nutrition, seeds and seedlings.http://english.vov.vn/economy/saigonese-turn-to-homegrown-veggies-for-meals-tet-gifts-365815.vov

Hanoi approves new 'most expensive road on the planet'


Hanoi will build Hoang Cau-Voi Phuc Road, which is to be "the most expensive road on the planet," carrying a price tag of VND7.78 trillion ($342.59 million) for 2,274 me-tres and breaking the previous record held by Hoang Cau-Lang Ha Road.According to information published on the government Portal, on December 27, dep-uty prime minister Trinh Dinh Dung approved the Hoang Cau-Voi Phuc Road project, a section of Belt Road No.1 crossing Dong Da and Ba Dinh districts. The construction of the project is expected to be implemented in 2017-2020. The investment capital will come from Hanoi's budget and other legal capital sources.The above funds will be used for land clearance, the construction of the road and other infrastructure elements, such as overpasses, parks, and trees. The project is expected to take up 160,000 square metres and 2,044 households will have to be relocated. As a result, 80 per cent of the investment capital will be used for land clearance and the compensation of relocated households.With total investment capital of nearly VND7.8 trillion ($343.47 million) for a 2.2-kilo-metre road section, the average expenditure of Hoang Cau-Voi Phuc road will be VND3.42 trillion ($150.59 million) per kilometre, triple the construction expenditure of Kim Lien-O Cho Dua Road and 2.4 times the expenditure of O Cho Dua-Hoang Cau Road.The first record was made in 2006, with the 1.1-kilometre Kim Lien-O Cho Dua Road, which cost VND700 million ($35,000) per metre. Up to 81 per cent of the total invest-ment was spent on land compensation, as more than 1,000 households needed to be relocated from nearly 56,000sq.m of land.In 2012, the 547-metre O Cho Dua-Hoang Cau section broke the record with the cost of VND1.4 billion ($61.65 million) per metre. In 2015, Hoang Cau-Lang Ha road section set a new record with about VND2.5 billion ($110.1 million).http://www.vir.com.vn/hanoi-approves-new-most-expensive-road-on-the-plan-et.html

Vietnam Railway to pilot free meal service


The Vietnam Railway Corporation (VNR) will begin a pilot service offering free meals


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to passengers to mark the addition of six new trains on the North-South line on Janu-ary 10.This is one of the new services introduced under the cooperative arrangement between VNR and the Southern Airports Services Joint Stock Company.Passengers will be provided a main dish and a side dish at certain times of the day.Main dishes include rice with pork, fish or eggs, fried rice, or fried noodles; each served with soup, fruit and drinks. Side dishes include steamed dumplings, sticky rice and drinks. The menu will change, featuring specialties from each province, and will cater to vegetarians.Each meal is packaged in accordance with airline standards, with a use-by date of just one day, and are heated before being served. Due to the length of train trips compared to air, meals will be larger.On the first day the new trains operate, passengers will be offered a 10 per cent dis-count on tickets. The new trains are made from high-quality materials using modern technologies. Air conditioners are in each carriage and every seat has a socket to re-charge electronic devices, a foldable TV under the luggage shelf, and a reading lamp.The new carriages and free meal service is an effort by VNR to improve service quality. It also said it will focus on providing training courses for railway staff at airline train-ing centers.VNR has made great efforts in recent months to win back passengers. Dozens of new carriages have been put into use, as have refurbished carriages. A number of promo-tions have been offered, including 50 per cent discounts and random VND10,000 ($0.44) tickets for passengers using VNR's electronic booking system.To better meet travel demand during the Tet (lunar new year) holiday in mid-Febru-ary, VNR has upgraded hundreds of carriages and put some 60 new carriages into service, including 30 five-star carriages. Restaurant cars have also been introduced on new first-class trips on popular routes.At the same time, VNR continues to offer special promotional programmes for people subject to preferential policies, including the elderly, children, the disabled, and war veterans.VNR served some 9.4 million passengers in 2017, down 4 per cent against 2016.http://dtinews.vn/en/news/017004/54566/-vietnam-railway-to-pilot-free-meal-serv-ice.html

Tollgate to be dismantled to ease traffic congestion at Saigon River Tunnel


HCM City will soon remove the long-inactive Saigon River Tunnel toll station to re-duce traffic congestion at the tunnel, said Vo Van Hoan, head of the HCM City People's Committee Office on December 29.Hoan said congestion in the tunnel area has occurred since the city recently finished coping with heavy traffic on Vo Van Kiet Avenue which leads to the tunnel.A representative of the Management centre of Saigon River Tunnel (MCST) said con-gestion in the tunnel area has been caused by a recent increase in motorbike traffic through the tunnel.At present, there are about 220,000 motorbikes using the tunnel a day, up 10 percent year-on-year. Many high-rises have been built along Mai Chi Tho Street on the District 2 side of the tunnel and a 4-kilometer section from District 2 to District 9 of HCM City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway has been opened to traffic, both of them connected to the tunnel.Some traffic experts said that when in place, Thu Thiem 2 Bridge would help ease traf-fic through the tunnel and on Saigon Bridge.The tunnel under the Saigon River was opened to traffic on November 20, 2011 and the HCM City Department of Transport briefly collected tolls at the tunnel in September 2012.No formal toll collection has since been conducted. But the presence of the tollgate near the non-operational tunnel is seen as one of the reasons for congestion at the tunnel.


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First Swiss-standard watch warranty centre opens


XWatch distribution system launches Swiss Standard Warranty centre in Hanoi's Thanh Xuan district.The XWatch distribution system has officially launched a Swiss Standard Warranty centre in Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi.This is the first such centre in Vietnam with the necessary equipment, machinery, and procedures to repair watches under Swiss standards, which are the strictest in the watch industry.The XWatch warranty process goes through 21 strict steps in accordance with Swiss standards and are conducted under the supervision of a team that were technically trained in Switzerland.Checking and repairing watches are strictly carried out under modern equipment.At the launch ceremony, Trinh Quang Ninh, director of the warranty centre, also re-leased the Rolex Day Date watch, costing $10,000. The high-end watch, with up to 200 parts, has a casing made from 18k gold.Attending the ceremony, Ho Quang Thai, Chief of the Vietnam Anti-Fake Fund Of-fice, said he expects the XWatch warranty service will meet the demands of customers and provide quality services.The centre will also contribute to the anti-counterfeit activities of the government and protect customers.XWatch is a genuine watch distribution system in Vietnam with six brands: Seiko, Ori-ent, Casio, Citizen, OP (Olympia Star, Olym Pianus), and Ogival. It began in October 2014. With efforts and support from XWatch's staff, it has 13 stores: nine in Hanoi, three in HCM City, and one in northern Quang Ninh province.vneconomictimes.com/article/business/first-swiss-standard-watch-warranty-centre-opens

Uber sues HCM City tax dept


Ride-hailing firm Uber International Services Holding B.V., which is registered in the Netherlands, has filed a lawsuit against the HCM City Tax Department over the latter's request for back tax payment, Tien Phong newspaper reports.The department said it last week received an emergency notice from a HCM City court which told the department to suspend the collection of back taxes.Last September, the department ordered Uber to pay VND66.68 billion (US$2.9 mil-lion) in back taxes. The decision was announced after the department had inspected its operation since its launch on the domestic market in June 2014 to late last June.The back tax amount includes around VND10.5 billion in corporate income tax on for-eign contractors, over VND26.3 billion in value-added tax, VND14.6 billion in personal income tax payable on behalf of drivers, and billions of dong in fines for late tax pay-ments and false tax declarations, said the newspaper.However, the company lodged a complaint about the corporate income tax to the gen-eral Department of Taxation under the finance ministry, arguing Vietnam and the Netherlands already signed an agreement on avoidance of double taxation.The finance ministry dismissed Uber's petition, saying its drivers are based in Viet-nam, so the company is responsible for paying the tax amount as required.The company has paid only VND13.3 billion in foreign contractor tax so far.The HCM City Tax Department earlier requested five commercial banks Vietcombank, Eximbank, Sacombank, ACB, and VietinBank to help collect more than VND53.3 bil-lion in back taxes from Uber over a period of between January 1 and 10. But the com-pany asked the court to suspend the action.Uber's total revenue from its Vietnam operations between 2014 and mid-2017 amount-ed to VND2.7 trillion, but the company paid a mere VND76.8 billion in taxes, accord-ing to the general Department of Taxation.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57799/Uber-sues-HCM City-tax-dept.html


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Russian firm helps Vietnam build mini hydropower plants


The State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM) of Russia is willing to cooperate with Vietnam in developing mobile mini hydroelectric plants using environmentally friendly technology.The hydropower plant of this kind will help save construction cost and bring high eco-nomic efficiency, Timofey Dolgikh, a representative from ROSATOM, told Lao dong newspaper.Green energy balance is the only solution to sustainable development promotion and ecological preservation, he said, noting that the use of nuclear energy can help reduce about 2.1 billion tonnes of CO2 a year.Mobile mini hydroelectric plants can meet the demand on electricity in remote areas where it is difficult to build power lines, he said.With a maximum capacity of 2MW, each plant of this kind can supply power for 250-400 households, he added.ROSATOM has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam on the con-struction of a Centre for Nuclear Energy Science and Technology (CNEST) in Vietnam during the Russia visit by President Tran Dai Quang last year.The deal is expected to help Vietnam access modern and reliable nuclear technology from one of the world's largest nuclear technology providers.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/russian-firm-helps-vietnam-build-mini-hydropower-plants/124203.vnp

Sojitz Corporation targets Vung Tau Airport relocation project


Large-scale Japanese business Sojitz Corporation expressed intentions to cooperate with Song Hong Investment Construction Trading JSC to carry out the relocation of Vung Tau Airport to Go Gang Island located in Long Son commune, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. Responding to the investor's plan, the Ba Ria-Vung Tau People's Committee has asked the province's Department of Planning and Investment as well as relevant authorities to supply initial information for investors as well as support them during the study process.Vung Tau Airport covers an area of 172 hectares in the centre of Vung Tau city, which is a crowded residential area. The airport, managed by Southern Service Flight Com-pany under the Ministry of Defence, hosts helicopter flights to serve oil exploration and exploitation activities at sea with a capacity of 100,000 passengers and 500 tonnes of cargo per year.However, after considering the airport's effect on the city's space development plan and the flights' threat to the lives of the locals, in September 2013 provincial authorities agreed to relocate the airport to a less densely populated area on Go Gang Island, some 12 kilometres away from the centre of Vung Tau city.The cost for building a new airport was expected to be over $1 billion. The relocation project was then approved by the prime minister. Accordingly, the new airport will be built for both civil and military purposes, with funds coming from the national budget and investors.However, as of now, the project has yet to be implemented because the province and relevant authorities have yet to find a suitable relocation plan.Sojitz Group consists of approximately 400 subsidiaries and affiliates from Japan and around the world, with wide-ranging general trading company operations in a multi-tude of countries and regions.Recently, Sojitz Planet Corporation, the plastic division of Sojitz Corporation, formed a strategic partnership with Rang Dong Plastics JSC to set up a new venture called Rang Dong Long An.With total investment capital of $32 million, Rang Dong Long An is a 80:20 venture be-tween Rang Dong Plastics and Sojitz Planet. The project will house three factories on an 8.7-hectare area in the southern province of Long An. The factories will apply the latest technology from Germany, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea.


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ZOCV and POSCO sign over recycling plant


The EPC Contract Electric Arc Furnace Dusts (EAFD) Recycling Plant of Zinc Oxide Corporation Vietnam JSC (ZOCV) was signed on December 28, 2017 between ZOCV and the main contractor POSCO E&C Co. and POSCO E&C Vietnam Co., LtdEAFD Recycling Plant was invested by ZOCV (Korea Zinc Group). The main contrac-tors are POSCO E&C Vietnam Co., Ltd and POSCO E&C Co.The facility will be constructed at Phu My 3 Industrial Zone of the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. The purpose of the project is to produce zinc oxide by treating 100,000 tonnes of EAFD per year from steel mills in Ba Ria-Vung Tau.\Speaking at the ceremony, Lee Sang Ki, president director of POSCO E&C Vietnam and the contractor's representative thanked the owner and committed to complete the project on schedule, while ensuring quality and labour safety in accordance with the requirements of the project.Lee Sung Chae, general director of ZOCV lauded the construction capability of PO-SCO E&C Co. and POSCO E&C Vietnam Co., Ltd He believed that the cooperation would help ZOCV to complete all requirements of the EAFD recycling project.The EAFD recycling plant will commence operation in January 2018 and be completed in May 2019.http://www.vir.com.vn/zocv-and-posco-sign-over-recycling-plant.html

Why Vinhomes Central Park attracts foreigners?

03/JAN/2018 INTELLASIA| TUOITRE NEWS

Vinhomes Central Park is rapidly becoming a desirable urban spaceOfficially welcoming residents since late 2016, Vinhomes Central Park is rapidly be-coming a desirable urban space through owning the largest and most modern river-side park in HCM City.This is also the place where the expatriate community from America or Europe choos-es to live when coming to Vietnam due to its many advantages.Time saving for movingLocated at the intersection of District 1 and Binh Thanh District, it takes just five min-utes to reach companies and corporations in the central area.Vinhomes Central Park is popular with the expatriate community because it is very convenient for transportation, and is especially suitable for those interested in getting to the workplace quickly. The ideal location not only helps customers reduce the cost of travel significantly every month but also saves a lot of their precious time.A variety of life experiencesThe highlight of Vinhomes Central Park is the city's biggest riverside park, inspired by a design from Central Park (New York), which was completed and opened at the end of 2016. The park is designed with green lawns, nature trails, modern amusement parks, mixed with oriental items such as Koi fish ponds, pedestrian walkways, bonsai gardens, and bonsai apart from landscapes, colourful fountains, which all provide myriad experiences for foreign customers.David Thompson, a 48 -- year -- old man from the United States who currently lives with his wife and two children in Vinhomes Central Park, said, "My family often takes a walk every afternoon at Central Park because of the spacious and cool space, which is good for exercising, or having a picnic over the weekend."Ideal healthcareMany foreigners living in Vinhomes Central Park shared that one of the things they liked most in this area is the Vinmec International Hospital a Vietnamese hospital with a certificate from Joint Commission International (JCI), the world's leading certificate on quality medical services, which is recognised in more than 90 countries and is the "gold standard" for well-known hospitals around the world.Most foreigners pay particular attention to health issues and need regular visits to hos-pitals or clinics. Therefore, the appearance of a five-star international hospital, with modern equipment, a team of highly qualified doctors and a customer care depart-ment with language proficiency, helps to give customers the convenience and feeling of absolute peace of mind.


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Privilege to enjoy the perfect utility systemWith integrated planning and full facilities, Vinhomes Central Park is fully equipped with convenient facilities such as K-Mart Korean supermarket, VinMart convenience store, Vincom shopping centre, Vinschool system, gymnasium, tennis court, swim-ming pool, etc. All of these facilities are designed so as to bring a comfortable and peaceful life to customers coming to live here.In addition, living in the urban area of Vinhomes Central Park, foreign guests find it easier to get the absolute support from the "host" Vinhomes.Here, the customer care and reception staff are proficient in foreign languages and can assist and provide services to foreigners quickly and efficiently.It can be said that Vinhomes Central Park has completely conquered most foreign cus-tomers with the experience just "strange" enough to help them enjoy life as indigenous people, and familiar enough for them to enjoy a modern life with comfort and safety the same way as in their countries.Vinhomes Central Park consists of three subdivisions, The Central, The Park and The Landmark, and 88 luxurious villas, of which the 81-storey Landmark building has set a record for being the tallest building in Vienam. The luxury apartments have 1 to 3 bedrooms each.In addition, the project also has the largest riverside park in HCM City, with an area of 14 hectares, together with hospital facilities, supermarkets and schools. From De-cember 2017, Vingroup started offering serviced apartments for rent Vinhomes Serv-iced Residence at Landmark 4, Landmark 5 and Landmark Plus in the Vinhomes Central Park complex.Address: 208 Nguyen Huu Canh, Ward 22, Binh Thanh District, HCM CityHotline: 0947003773Email: [email protected]://tuoitrenews.vn/news/business/20180103/why-vinhomes-central-park-attracts-foreigners/43416.html

Firms showcase goods for Tet in Quang Tri


Up to 180 businesses are displaying their goods, including textiles and garment, foot-wear, home appliances, food and handicrafts, at a trade fair which opened late last week in the central province of Quang Tri.The province's Department of Industry and Trade, one of the fair's organisers, said the event will create opportunities for businesses to better understand the demands of lo-cal people, especially for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, as well as advertising their trademarks and seeking new trade partners.The fair, which comprises 500 booths, will wrap up on January 8. It is expected to wel-come 100,000 visitors.http://bizhub.vn/news/firms-showcase-goods-for-tet-in-quang-tri_291091.html End


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