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15 March 2018

finance & business news

FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Reference exchange rate remains stable 2Central bank issues bills valued at nearly $1.9bn 2Vietnam central bank seeks to lower commercial rates 2Vietnam has first digital asset trading platform 3Consumer credit market sees more M&A deals 3Peer to Peer lending increasingly popular in Vietnam 4Idle money flowing back to banks 5Foreign capital strongly flows in Vietnamese banks 5Which Vietnamese banks are strong enough to carry out Basel 2? 6Lack of senior staff, banks' remuneration soar 7VIB targets 43pct earnings growth in 2018 8Eximbank under fire after string of embezzlement 9Top legislator: SMEsmomentum of national economy 10JLL: HCM City & Hanoi among most dynamic growing cities

worldwide 10FDI into real estate sector on the sharp rise 11FDI in Vietnam's agricultural sector remains low 11US about to inspect Vietnam catfish control programme 12US steel tarriffs a violation of WTO guidelines: VSA 132,300 tonnes of beef imported from US, Australia 14Vietnam getting tough on harmful online info 15Vietnam's automobile support industry remains underdeveloped 15Electronic firms advised to boost linkages in supply chain 16Domestic businesses expect positive impacts by CPTPP 16Global e-commerce giants willing to take a hit to expand

market share in Vietnam 17Many people want to experience head-hunter job 19JapanPotential market for Vietnam's IT firms 20

BIZ NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Business Briefs 15 March, 2018 21VN Index fails to reach 1,140 points despite vibrant transactions 21March 14: VN Index & HNX-Index gain ground 22State stake transfers must go through auctions 22

Vinafood II raises 51 million USD selling 23pct of stakes in IPO 23Local consumers spend heavily on snacks and beer 23Vietnamese people spend an average of 20m dong on a trip

abroad 24Khanh Hoa, Danang seek to reduce tourism dependence on

China 25Vietnamese thirst for overseas travel grows in tandem with

expanding economy: Visa 26HCM City seeks more metro line funding 26Foreign consultant questioned over low forecasts for Tan

Son Nhat Airport 27Takara Belmont takes over Vietnam's hair cosmetics producer 28FLC insists on twin-tower project in Halong 28Amazon studying Vietnam market 29Amazon welcomes Vietnamese traders, but will not come

to Vietnam 30Inspectorate proposes prosecution of MobiFone over AVG

acquisition 30Petrolimex and PV Oil oppose Saigon Petro's wish to return

to RON A92 31Sabeco charged $110 million in tax arrears 32Grab decries Vietnam's plan to regulate it as taxi service 33First Travelodge hotel on way in Khanh Hoa 34Economist calls for end to negative sentiment against

Vietnam's super-rich 35Vietnam Online Business Forum opens 36HCM City tops Vietnam E-commerce Index 2018 37HCM City authorities work to connect support industry suppliers 38VITM 2018: Vietnam's travel companies adapt to Industry 4.0 38Vietnam attends electricity exhibition Elecrama 2018 in India 3815th China-Asean Expo slated for September 39HCM City hosts 3 international farm expos 39Vietnam Expo to promote regional, international

economic connection 40

FINANCE
FINANCEReference exchange rate remains stable
15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VNA

The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference exchange rate on March 15 at 22,440 VND/USD, unchanged from the previous day.With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is 23,113 VND/USD, and the floor rate 21,769 VND/USD.The rates listed at major commercial banks also stayed rather stable.Vietcombank maintained both rates at the same level as on March 14, at 22,725 VND/USD (buying) and 22,795 VND/USD (selling).The greenback is also traded at 22,725 VND/USD (buying) and 22,795 VND (selling), down 5 VND for both rates from March 14Meanwhile the rates listed at Vietinbank went up 1 VND to 22,730 VND/USD (buying) and 22,800 VND/USD (selling).

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Vietnam finance & business 15 March 2018

After an increase of 5 VND on the first day of the week (March 12), the daily reference exchange rate was adjusted down for two consecutive days before stabilising on March 15.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/reference-exchange-rate-stable/127890.vnp

Central bank issues bills valued at nearly $1.9bn

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VNS

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued bills worth some VND43 trillion (US$1.89 bil-lion) in the past week to withdraw money from the banking system.Reports from Bao Viet Securities Co (BVSC) showed that the move was aimed to min-imise the risks of inflation, especially after the central bank pumped a large amount of dong to buy foreign currencies for the country's foreign reserves in the recent months.According to SBV Governor Le Minh Hung, the SBV's net purchase of hard currencies in the first months of this year was worth more than $4 billion, raising the fund to a record high of more than $57 billion until February 6.The past week also saw the interest rate of dong loans in the inter-bank market decline sharply by 0.29 to 0.49 percentage points for most terms against the previous week.Specifically, the overnight rate dropped to 0.91 per cent against more than 3 per cent before Tet (Lunar New Year). The rates for one-week and two-week loans also reduced to 1.17 and 1.44 per cent, respectively.BVSC said the drop was normal, as it was forecast earlier that the idle money would return to the banking system after Tet.The past week also saw the $/VND exchange rate increase significantly by 15 dong to VND22,761 per dollar, while the central bank reduced the daily reference rate by six dong to VND22,453.bizhub.vn/banking/central-bank-issues-bills-valued-at-nearly-19bn_293177.html

Vietnam central bank seeks to lower commercial rates

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| TUOITRE NEWS

The central bank will pursue a flexible monetary policy that aims at maintaining eco-nomic stabilityThe State Bank of Vietnam will seek to lower commercial interest rates this year to sup-port business activity, while keeping the exchange rate stable, the central bank said in a statement.The central bank will pursue a flexible monetary policy that aims at maintaining eco-nomic stability, according to the statement posted on the central bank's website late on Tuesday.It said it will continue its efforts to clean up non-performing loans in the local banking system and build up foreign exchange reserves. prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said earlier this month that Vietnam's Foreign Reserves hit $60 billion, an all time high.Vietnam is targeting economic growth of 6.7 percent this year. Last year's pace was 6.81 percent, the fastest in a decade. Phuc said first-quarter GDP is likely to grow 7.41 percent.The central bank's benchmark annual refinancing rate is currently 6.25 percent, and was last lowered in July, with the discount rate at 4.25.https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/business/20180314/vietnam-central-bank-seeks-to-low-er-commercial-rates/44536.html

Vietnam has first digital asset trading platform

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

VNDC, Vietnam's first digital asset trading platform, was launched last week, facilitat-ing connection, transaction and exchange of digital currencies.The platform serves as a financial transaction platform whose activities include giving loans, calling for community loans, and issuing gift vouchers.Transactions on the platform which are all involved in online contracts use "VNDC" as an internal digital currency.Digital Asset Management Holding, the operator of VNDC, said in a white paper that each VNDC unit which is backed by a dong held in the reserves of the company's part-ner banks.

Intellasia 15 March 2018 2 / 40

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VNDC owners may use their contracts to exchange or transfer their digital currency units and other digital assets on the trading platform trustdex.io, a convenient place to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.Besides, they have the right to transfer their contracts to TRUSTPay JSC at a fixed ex-change rate with a dong equaling to a VNDC unit.Platform users are able to digitalise their assets, including money, gold, real estate, and corporate assets through blockchain technology, the world's leading software plat-form for digital assets.Earlier, HVA Investment JSC approved a board resolution to acquire all stakes of TRUSTcard JSC, a branch of TRUSTPay JSC. HVA and its strategic partner TRUSTPay that are also co-founders of the VNDC platform will work together to set up the former's Fintech projects.english.thesaigontimes.vn/58776/Vietnam-has-first-digital-asset-trading-plat-form.html

Consumer credit market sees more M&A deals

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

The increased presence of foreign investors in M&A deals of finance companies shows the attractiveness of the consumer credit market.Vietnam is among the countries with the highest ratios of consumption to GDP in Asia, as young people are borrowing more money to buy consumer goods.The growing tendency has caught attention from foreign institutions and stimulated the birth of new lenders and more M&As.In late January, Prudential announced the sale of PVFC, its consumer finance compa-ny, for $151 million, becoming the first foreign company to sell 100 percent of its shares.Meanwhile, Techcombank is the first commercial bank selling a finance company. The buyer of TechcomFinance is Lotte, a South Korean investor. The value of the deal has not been announced in Vietnam, but South Korean media reported the deal is worth VND1.7 trillion.Three investors from South Korea have joined the Vietnamese consumer finance mar-ket, including the veteran company of Mirae Asset.Local newspapers have reported that Japanese Shinsei Group has acquired 49 percent of shares of the Military Bank's finance company Mcredit.Prior to that, Saison jumped into HDBank's consumer finance company.The other Japanese investors in the field include Toyota Finance, JACCS Vietnam and ACS Vietnam, which belongs to AEON Finance.An analyst said that foreign-run companies have advantages in capital and experience developing products.2017 was the first operation year of Mcredit after Military Bank joined hands with Shinsei.Speaking about the role of the foreign shareholder, Hoang Minh Tuan, CEO of Mcred-it, said Shinsei Bank has contributed to improvements in risk management related to customer management, loan management, and optimisation of business processes, and has proposed technological solutions for the development of new channels.Finance companies are gearing up to expand their business and cement their positions in the market.Home Credit has announced changes in brand identity and committed to make bigger investments with the presence of a new CEO, who was an important figure in the Rus-sian market.Meanwhile, FE Credit has been steadily increasing its charter capital every year from VND2.790 trillion in 2016 to VND4.474 trillion in 2017.Finance companies have been exploiting the Vietnamese consumer finance market in the last six years.Consumer credit accounted for 9.8 percent of GDP in 2016, while the figure was 5.2 percent in 2013.


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Peer to Peer lending increasingly popular in Vietnam


Peer to Peer, or P2P lending, became more popular over the last year with the estab-lishment of many online lending companies.In 2012, P2P outstanding loans worldwide totalled $1.2 billion, while the figure rose to $64 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2025.A big advantage of the P2P model is the high information security level based on Big-Data technology which encrypts, stores and controls customers' information.Analysts said with the advantages of the model, plus current conditions in Vietnam, P2P could replace black credit, or lending at very high interest rates, which is illegal in Vietnam.According to the World Bank, 79 percent of the population in Vietnam cannot access official financial services.A banker estimated that nearly 100 P2P lenders have opened in the last few years.Some P2P lending companies in Vietnam are said to have abundant capital as they have received foreign capital.The ease in accessing P2P loans has led to increasingly high demand in Vietnam.An advert of huydong.com, a lending arm of Finsom JSC, said the company generates capital from the public at the interest rate of 10-20 percent per annum (2-3 times higher than the lending interest rate set by banks), while borrowers have to pay interest rates 1-5 percent higher per annum.Besides huydong.com, people can also borrow money from online lending companies Tima, SHA and Mobivi at interest rates of 20-30 percent per annum, including fees.A representative of Tima, a P2P lender running ad campaigns in HCM City, in said the company received 1,000 applications for loans a day in late December.The company plans to provide the service nationwide and upgrade its capability to deal with 10,000 applications per day.To date, 5,000 lenders nationwide have been providing loans on the Tima finance trad-ing floor which has 800,000 clients. Tima has successfully connected lenders and bor-rowers who have made transactions worth a total of VND15 trillion, or $700 million.In Vietnam, as P2P is still not officially legal, the companies in the field usually register as investment consultancy firms.Economists are cautious about P2P, especially after China's recent statement on elimi-nating 157 online lending companies and keeping only one state-owned company.The interest rates quoted by the companies were around 10 percent per annum, but real interest rates were 40 percent.In Vietnam, interest rates applied by some online lending institutions are up to 50-70 percent per annum.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/196765/peer-to-peer-lending-increasingly-popular-in-vietnam.html

Idle money flowing back to banks

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| BIZLIVE

The newly released report of Bao Viet Securities Joint Stock Company (BVSC) shows that last week, the OMO market was less active when the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had no new injection while there was not any capital matured through this channel.Besides, through T-bill channel, the State Bank issued 43 trillion dong new T-bills while the amount of capital matured via this channel reached 33.6 trillion dong. As such, last week, the State Bank net withdrew 9.4 trillion dong through T-bill channel.As such, the State Bank net withdrew 9.4 trillion dong from the market.BVSC said the move to withdraw money immediately after Tet shows the cautiousness of the regulator in regulating money supply to limit the risk for inflation, especially in the context that a large amount of dong has been pumped to the market to buy foreign currency over the last period.Meanwhile, the average interbank interest rate last week continued to fall for over-night, one-week and two-week terms with a decrease of 0.29 percent-0.49 percent.Specifically, the average interest rate for overnight term fell 0.29 percent to 0.91 per-cent/annum. The average interest rate for one-week term decreased 0.39 percent to 1.17


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percent/annum; the average interest rate for two-week term went down 0.49 percent to 1.44 percent/annum.This is considered normal and has been forecasted when idle money after the Lunar New Year holiday tends to go back to the banking system.

Foreign capital strongly flows in Vietnamese banks

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VNECONOMY

On March 12th, Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcom-bank) announced the investment worth over 370 million USD (equivalent to about 8.4 trillion dong) from two independent legal investors managed by Warburg Pincus. With over 370 million USD, the system of Vietnamese joint stock banks continues to receive a large investment from foreign investors, after the impressive return in 2017.Prior to Techcombank, in 2017, the market continuously witnessed big and successful deals from this flow, such as Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VP-Bank) with 250 million USD, Hochiminh city Development Commercial Joint Stock Bank (HDBank) with 300 million USD, or Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) with 40 million USD.Since foreign investors were willing to pay high price for most of the deals, creating a huge surplus which many Vietnamese banks have not generated for dozens of years. The common point is that the above investors all poured foreign capital for "reserva-tion", waiting for the plan to list shares in the context when the stock market is pros-perous and exciting.The above deals left behind a backward flow which occurred over a year ago, when a part of foreign capital was withdrawn from the market. With numerous foreign banks leaving the market, there were many comments and concerns about the market and the potential of investing in Vietnam's banking system. However, an objective reason is that the capital withdrawers are also the institutions which have and have been es-tablishing direct business in Vietnam. They wanted to limit conflicts in competition. In some cases, they withdrew capital due to the changes in the global business strategy.In addition to the above reasons, a knowledgeable insider said that the foreign capital withdrawals at that time were very normal due to a less-mentioned main reason, in which the parent bank must have counterpart fund for the overseas investments in or-der to comply with Basel 3's new standards. Considering this counterpart fund, some foreign investors decided to make divestment. However, following the 2017 develop-ments and starting the year 2018, the large-scale investments and high bid prices show that a part of Vietnamese commercial banks are attractive to foreign investors.The above deals could become a wave, as recently a bank has mentioned about a plan with a privatised state-owned bank, or the case of expanding foreign ownership limit which has been heated in recent information flows. It is easy to see that with large in-vestments and surplus, the "reputation" about the quality of Vietnamese commercial banks in general has been continuously improved and upgraded in the recent time.In 2017 and early 2018, the credit rating organisations such as S&P, Moody's and Fitch (in early March) have continuously upgraded the ratings of some Vietnamese com-mercial banks. After the first phase of restructuring the system with numerous diffi-culties (2011-2015), the banking system of Vietnam is in the middle of the second phase of the restructuring (2016-2020), in which the new and brighter moves, and more deals with foreign investors can be considered a test result.

Which Vietnamese banks are strong enough to carry out Basel 2?

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VNECONOMY

On March 1, the Military Bank (MB) announced the information that its credit rating was upgraded by Fitch Ratings.Accordingly, Fitch raised MB's credit rating but kept the rating of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), Vietnam Bank for In-dustry and Trade (Vietinbank), and Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Develop-ment (Agribank) unchanged.As a result, Vietnamese commercial banks now have different levels, aspects and assess-ment criteria that are periodically ranked and re-evaluated by international organisations.


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Annually, these organisations update rating results, either in groups or individually. The market also looks at the performance of banks in such assessment aspect.Basel 2 is currently the highest and most common standards that Vietnamese commer-cial banks are aiming at.Basel 2 requirements have been set in Vietnam for many years now and 10 pilot mem-bers were identified since 2015.Officially, Orient Commercial Bank (OCB) is the only bank to have announced the completion of Basel 2.A leader of Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank) recently said that the bank has applied Basel 2 standards in operations over the last one year, but still hesitated to announce because if the announcement may cause misunderstanding among customers and in-vestors as Basel 2 standards are not on the same scale as the current system, and the convexity of data can be misleading.For example, banks now have the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) at 12 percent, much higher than the minimum ratio of nine percent as prescribed by the State Bank. Based on Basel 2, that percentage is reduced to about 10-10.5 percent, which could be mistak-en as "inferior" to other non-applicable members if it is publicised.Or a leader of Vietnam Technical and Commercial Bank (Techcombank) also said the bank successfully carried out Basel 2 model since the end of 2016 and has started to run since 2017, especially after the final settlement of bad debts that have been sold to Vi-etnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) since mid-2017.Clearing all the bad debt at VAMC and data inclusion is a challenge for most commer-cial banks now before taking into account the comprehensive implementation of Basel 2. Currently, only some members such as Vietcombank, Techcombank, MB, etc. have completed this.For Vietcombank, the model has been ready, projects have been prepared, and the bank is the first member to clear out bad debt at VAMC, but it still needs to continue strengthening the CAR.The obstacle to ensure the compliance of CAR following Basel 2 standards is also the common practice at state-owned commercial banks (Vietcombank, BIDV, Vietinbank and Agribank) because this group has not been able to raise chartered capital over the last three years, while still having to strengthen the credit expansion, serving the an-nual economic growth target.Leader of Vietcombank said the plan to issue shares to foreign investors to raise capital is expected to be carried out in the first half of this year.Recently, the market also noted that Korean investors are promoting investment plans, thereby opening up the possibility that BIDV may also increase capital.Vietinbank's measure will have to wait till the annual general meeting in this April. Meanwhile, Agribank has not equitised, so it will have to wait to see whether the State Budget will provide additional capital or not.The aforementioned banks are members in the group of the first 10 Vietnamese com-mercial banks to pilot Basel 2 two years ago. But so far, besides limiting the increase in capital in some cases, some members have had large change in health situation com-pared to the previous period. Even there must have mechanism to support restructur-ing.It is expected that until 2020 Vietnam can have a broader and more comprehensive as-sessments about final results of members who can fully carry out Basel 2.

Lack of senior staff, banks' remuneration soar

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| DTCK

After several months being elected, general director (CEO) of a bank has officially re-signed for personal reason. This case is not normal like other CEOs when they were one or two years in positions and left for personal reasons. The reason, rumoured in the market, is that the CEO brought his team from the previous bank to the current bank but the team was found negative in recruitment, leading to legal proceedings. This matter affected the CEO, hence causing him to send in resignation.Relating the issue of "team", according to recruitment manager of a "head-hunter",


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chair of the Board of directors (BOD) of a bank, when inviting a general director of the bank, actually knows and accepts a "team" going together with the general director.The common psychology of general directors is having a team with perfect teamwork and this does not only make the BOD chairmen uncomfortable but also satisfied, some chairmen even suggest the general director to bring his own team. The reason is that inviting middle-level managers is not an easy task. "Normally, if the general director cannot reach an agreement with the BOD chair, he will leave. However, the followers of the general director will not be forced to quit the jobs. They will leave if they feel sorry for the old boss or have a disagreement in point of view with the managers. In most cases, the team will stay as they have certain positions in the bank, which can be a foundation for devoting and expecting promotion", said the above recruitment man-ager.General director of a joint stock bank in the South said that as the banking system in Vietnam has about 50 banks, the workforce for middle-level positions is very large, reaching tens of thousands. However, the number of people banks found suitable is rare. For capable persons which are assessed as suitable for the bank, the remuneration can be considered "a dream".Proving about the attractive remuneration, the recruitment department shared about the case where bank S has just recruited a staff who used to be a staff of bank V as the head of customer service department. This person is paid 100 million dong per month, twice as much as what he received in bank V; and bank S also buys back the preferen-tial loan at bank V. Accordingly, the income of the head of customer service depart-ment is estimated to at about 150 million dong per month.In the report titled "Some of the most prominent issues in the banking industry the views from candidates and employers" announced in late February, 89 percent of the surveyed banks said that the average income of their employees is about 10-30 million dong per month. About 26 percent of the employers said that the uncompetitive salary and benefit policy is the biggest difficulty for them in recruitment process.To increase the efficiency in recruitment, 37 percent of banks said that they would con-sider applying financial incentives to attract candidates. About 56 percent of the sur-veyed banks said that overall they have basic and reasonable policies, but they may diversify and expand these policies to make them really attractive to employees.The recruiting director of the above head-hunter said that year 2017 was a very busy year for the recruitment department of banks. Business reports of most banks were very impressive and they have plans to develop. Hence, they are looking for qualified personnel.In addition, with the 4.0 trend, Digital Banking is a hot topic and the recruitment in this area is very exciting and there is rotation between banks. At the same time, since some banks involved in legal issues and violations of the State regulations, a number of their employees are not feeling secure working and want to move to other banks.Report of the National Financial Supervisory Commission (NFSC) on the socioeco-nomic situation in January 2018 stated that the business results of the entire banking system in 2017 improved significantly after many difficult years. The average Net In-terest Margin (NIM) was 2.9 percent, and average Return on Assets ratio (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) reached respectively 0.73 percent and 11.65 percent (0.56 per-cent and 8.05 percent in 2016, respectively).Nguyen Duc Vinh, general director of Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank), the bank's bonus budget in 2017 increased along with the sharp in-crease in personnel. In late 2017, the number of employees of VPBank reached 23,879 persons, up by nearly 6,500 persons compared to the beginning of the year. Statistics showed that the total number of employees of 15 banks including BIDV, VPBank, Vi-etinBank, Sacombank, Vietcombank, HDBank, MBBank, ACB, Techcombank, LienVi-etPostBank, Eximbank, VIB, TPBank, and NCB as of late 2017 was more than 178,000 persons, including nearly 20,000 additionally employed, equivalent to a 13 percent in-crease compared to late 2016. The group of private banks led the sector in recruitment, typically VPBank, HDBank, MBBank and LienVietPostBank. BIDV's workforce in 2017


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dropped by 500 persons to 24,588 people.Forecasting the 2018 business situation, the NFSC said that the profits of the banking sector will continue to be positive thanks to the stable credit growth and faster bad debt settlement process. Particularly, since some banks have used the provisions for risk to eliminate bad debts from the balance sheets, they will have a large revenue from the sale of secured assets and debt recovery from customers. Thus, the story of finding capable people continues to be a "headache" for the recruiting department.According to survey of Navigos Search, 78 percent of the surveyed recruiters said that to retain talented people for businesses, they will apply clear career advancement path for employees.In addition, 37 percent of the surveyed recruiters are considering applying financial in-centive policies to attract candidates. Regarding candidates, three remuneration poli-cies out of the basic salaries are considered most attractive low-interest rate loans (accounting for 53 percent), bonuses (mid-term bonus, term bonus, and 13th month salary, accounting for 47 percent), and health insurance and life insurance for employ-ees (accounting for 45 percent).Nguyen Phuong Mai, Managing director of Navigos Search commented that "recruit-ing right people and retaining talents are becoming a top concern of most banks in Vi-etnam".

VIB targets 43pct earnings growth in 2018


Vietnam International Bank (VIB) has targeted a pre-tax profit of more than VND2 tril-lion (US$88 million) in 2018, surging 43 per cent against last year's figure.VIB expects its total assets to reach VND150.23 trillion, up 22 per cent year-on-year, and deposits to amount to VND100 trillion, growing by 22 per cent. The bank expects to maintain bad debts at below 3 per cent.VIB will also propose a plan to increase its charter capital to maximum VND8.1 trillion at the forthcoming Annual general Meeting (AGM) of Shareholders on March 29 in Hanoi.The additional capital will be raised from offering and issuing new shares to investors as well as issuing bonus shares using share premium reserves, investment and devel-opment reserves, capital reserves and retained earnings, the bank said in a statement.The capital hike is aimed to provide credit to corporate and individual customers with stable financial status and potential development and to priority customers in the pri-oritised poduction and business sectors as instructed by the government, the bank said.The capital source is also planned to invest in improving facilities, technology, prod-ucts and risk management capacity, and upgrading the branch network to enhance the competitiveness of VIB and expand the presence of the bank in provinces and cities across the country, the bank added.Last year saw the strongest and highest growth of VIB in the past five years, with all business units exceeding its sales and profit plan.The bank recorded a pre-tax profit of over VND1.4 trillion, double the previous year and reaching 187 per cent of the plan approved in the last AGM.Total assets reached VND123.2 trillion, surpassing the plan, while credit growth reached 26 per cent and bad debts were maintained at below 3 per cent.VIB continued to be recognised by international institutions and State management agencies as one of the best banks in terms of quality and transparency. VIB was the first bank in Vietnam to win the "Leading Vietnam Bank for Trade Finance for SMEs" award granted by Asian Development Bank.It also received "Vietnam's Outstanding Innovative Banking Service Award" in 2017 by IDG for MyVIB Social Keyboard, the "Most Innovative Banking Brand in Vietnam 2017" award by the Global Brands magazine from the United Kingdom and the "Best Customer Service Bank Vietnam 2017" award by Global Banking & Finance Review.http://bizhub.vn/banking/vib-targets-43-earnings-growth-in-2018_293167.html


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Eximbank under fire after string of embezzlement

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VIR

The case of Nguyen Thi Lam, an officer of Eximbank's Do Luong branch (Vinh city, Nghe An province), appropriating VND48 billion ($2.1 million) from the savings books of six customers was concluded by the investigation agency in August 2017. Re-cently, the lawyer of these six customers has met the leaders of Eximbank.The lawyer told Vnexpress, that, "At the meeting, I represented the six swindled cus-tomers to ask Eximbank to repay the VND48 billion ($2.1 million) in full before starting the trial. The leaders of the bank asked to hold another meeting this week whereby they can respond via an official document."In the conclusions of the investigation, the police of Nghe An province said that offic-ers in Do Luong branch had deliberately violated regulations on withdrawals so that Nguyen Thi Lam could withdraw the funds before these saving books could reach ma-turity. Thereby, the investigation agency asked Eximbank to take responsibility for damages caused by its employees and compensate the customers for the total amount lost.Earlier, in September 2016, the police of Nghe An province arrested Nguyen Thi Lam on the charge of "abusing trust to appropriate property." She had been working at this branch for five years and collected several close customers.Lam usually invited VIP guests to the bank to sign first and completed documents lat-er. Using these signatures, Lam had composed withdrawal orders herself and submit-ted completed documentations to the leaders.According to investigation results, Lam appropriated more than VND50 billion ($2.2 million) from various customers (including the VND48 billion of the six clients) be-tween 2012 and 2016. Relevant to this case, the agency also arrested Dang Dinh Hong, former director of the Do Luong branch, for "irresponsibility causing serious conse-quences." However, he was released later.Related to cases of funds going missing at Eximbank, last week a customer named Bui To Loan reported that her three gold taels at the bank disappeared. Eximbank prom-ised to pay her in 2013, while she was still holding the accounts.In an other recent case, Le Nguyen Hung, former deputy director of an Eximbank branch in Ho Chi Minh city, appropriated more than VND245 billion ($10.8 billion) from Chu Thi Binh, a longtime client of the bank who used to be the richest woman on the stock market.Last week, Eximbank offered $650,000 advance compensation to her, but Binh de-clined and asked the bank to repay her the full amount lost. Eximbank did not agree, bidding her to wait for the conclusions of the court trial.www.vir.com.vn/eximbank-under-fire-after-string-of-embezzlement-57175.html

Top legislator: SMEsmomentum of national economy


Small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have become a momentum for national economic growth, said Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.They have generated jobs and income for labourers and significantly contributed to national socio-economic development, and narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, the top legislator said at a meeting with a delegation of the Association of Vi-etnamese small-and medium-sized enterprises (VINASME) in Hanoi on March 14.Hailing the association's contributions to the country's achievements, she said VINAS-ME has successfully implemented patriotic movements and major campaigns launched by the Party, State and Vietnam Fatherland Front.The NA leader praised the association's scientific initiatives on counterfeit goods com-bat and drug detoxification, which, she said, have brought great socio-economic ben-efits.She highlighted the Party's policies and State's laws on private economy, support for SMEs and business environment improvement.The chief legislator pointed out the fact that up to 97 percent of private enterprises have micro and small scale, with low technology, financial capacity, productivity and business efficiency. They have also shown weaknesses in connecting with each other


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and with foreign-invested businesses, as well as in joining domestic and international value chains.This explains why many private firms have to halt operation or dissolve, she said.NA Chairwoman Ngan noted her hope that the association will continue to improve its capacity and prestige, and play a more active part in social criticism, and the build-ing and issuance of legal documents on operation of the business circle.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/top-legislator-smes-momentum-of-national-economy/127879.vnp

JLL: HCM City & Hanoi among most dynamic growing cities worldwide

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Two cities rank third and sixth in JLL's City Momentum Index 2018.HCM City and Hanoi remained among the global Top 10 most dynamic growing cities in JLL's Short-Term City Momentum Index (CMI) 2018.Now in its fifth year, the CMI tracks a broad range of factors to identify cities that pos-sess the attributes for success over the short and long term. The rankings identify ur-ban economies and real estate markets that are currently undergoing the most rapid growth. This year it highlights the continued rise of Asia-Pacific cities as destinations for global capital, commerce and innovation, with markets from the region accounting for 25 of the Global Top 30.The pace and scale of change in today's globalised, digitised economy is leading to an unprecedented transformation of our cities. As technology-enabled platforms lower barriers to entry and ensure that demand for talent and innovation becomes increas-ingly global, cities need to adapt and build environments that foster innovation eco-systems, talent and connectivity in order to maintain their competitiveness and gain the benefits of this rapid shift.HCM City (third) and Hanoi (sixth) are attracting sizeable volumes of foreign direct investment (FDI) as they integrate into regional and global supply chains for high-technology manufacturing. This is helping to spur rapid economic and income growth, leading to among the world's highest increases in retail sales and air passenger numbers."It's not surprising to see HCM City and Hanoi ranked in the Top 10," said Stephen Wyatt, Regional director of JLL Vietnam. "The pace of development within both cities is clearly evident and the government is making significant investment in infrastruc-ture, which will help continue this momentum into the future.""There is an energy and buzz in the cities, with high levels of confidence and positive market sentiment. In the past few years there has been significant interest from foreign investors looking to participate in this highly attractive market and we expect this to continue for the foreseeable future."The 131 cities covered by the CMI were shortlisted on the basis of a combination of a weighted index of population, GDP, corporate presence, air connectivity, real estate investment activity, and commercial real estate stock.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/vietnam-today/jll-hcmc-hanoi-among-most-dy-namic-growing-cities-worldwide

FDI into real estate sector on the sharp rise

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Vietnam's real estate sector has continued rising, showing positive signs for the sector.According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Foreign Investment Agency, in the first two months of this year, Vietnam attracted USD312 million investment in the real estate sector, accounting for 9.3 percent of the country's total registered FDI during the period.With the figure, real estate stood third among sectors which lured FDI the most be-tween January and February this year.By the end of 2017, Vietnam attracted a total USD53.1 billion FDI in the property sector, making up 16.7 percent of the country's total FDI.Japan has become the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam's real estate sector with the


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participation of its big names such as Mitsubishi, Maeda, Kajima, Sumitomo, Sanyo and the Creed Group.According to experts, the increased FDI flow shows improvements in the country's real estate sector since the local government allowed foreigners to own houses in Viet-nam. Hotels and luxury property is among the most attractive to foreign investors.It is expected that a bigger FDI would be invested into Vietnam's real estate projects in the near future thanks to more open policies and the country's tourism potentials.Nguyen Hoang, R&D director of DKRA Vietnam, said that the real estate market has mostly attracted FDI through M&A activities.Dr Su Ngoc Khuong, investment director of Savills Vietnam, said "FDI in real estate will help enterprises reduce their dependence on banks."Le Hoang Chau, chair of HCM City Real Estate Association, said that FDI is an impor-tant investment channel into the real estate sector; however careful consideration should be given whether to go down that route.It is more important to see how much of the registered FDI capital could be disbursed, Chau noted, adding that in reality, many investors pledged huge projects which, how-ever, have remained on paper for years.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/197161/fdi-into-real-estate-sector-on-the-sharp-rise.html

FDI in Vietnam's agricultural sector remains low

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| THE HANOITIMES

Foreign firms invested $3.5 million in 514 agricultural projects until February 2018, ac-counting for only some 1 percent of the sector's total investment capital, reports from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) showed.According to the ministry, the foreign direct investment (FDI) capital to the agricultur-al sector represented only 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent of the sector's total investment capital in 2014 and 2016. The figure for 2015 and 2017 was 1 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.Along with the modest FDI inflows to the agricultural sector, the size of the FDI projects are also small, focusing on processing aquatic products and fruits in some provinces.Until now, there are no foreign giants investing in hi-tech and large-sized organic projects in Vietnam's agricultural sector, according to the MPI's reports.The government puts high expectations on green and clean agriculture, considering it a driving force to boost the country's growth, however, investment to the sector re-mains modest. The sector currently ranks 12 and 10 in terms of the number of projects and the investment capital among all sectors.Nguyen Van Toan, vice Chair of the Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises, said the FDI attraction into the agricultural sector was recently improved but foreign investors still go behind domestic enterprises.Experts attributed the low FDI inflows to the agricultural sector to the reasons that in-vestment in agriculture has high risks because it is directly affected by weather, natu-ral disasters and epidemics. Therefore, many domestic and foreign businesses are hesitant to invest in this sector if they do not have enough strength in technology and capital sources.According to Nguyen Trong Nghia, director of Sunstar Lacto Vietnam, the potential of Vietnam's agricultural sector is very large but it just stops in the government's policies and directions in calling for businesses to invest in the sector.In addition, Nghia said, the profit margin in agricultural and rural sectors is very low while doing business in this sector faces many risks because of having to depend too much on weather conditions.However, according to the MPI's Foreign Investment Agency, the reason making it dif-ficult for Vietnam agricultural sector to attract FDI inflow is the fragmentation of the sector despite its huge potential.According to some experts, the bottleneck of agricultural sector will be removed if pol-icies in tax, land and capital have changes.


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Proposing one of the methods that may help FDI businesses invest more easily in ag-riculture sector, representative of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) said the biggest difficulty in investing in agriculture is to secure agriculture land fund. However, this land fund and related procedures are rather complicated.If local leaders care about and have plans to reserve an agricultural land fund for for-eign investors, the businesses will be easier to decide to invest in agriculture, it said.According to deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan, the sector will try to inch up its GDP growth and export turnover plans to 3.05 percent and $40.5 billion this year.The government this year entrusted the ministry to gain a GDP growth rate of 3 per-cent and export value of $40 billion.The ministry said the national export value of farming, forestry and fishery products in the first two months of this year reached $6.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 30.2 percent. Of the total, the export value of primary agricultural products was estimated at $3.3 billion, up 27.8 percent annually, while the export revenue of aquatic products was reported at approximately $1.2 billion, up 29.5 percent against the same period last year.http://www.hanoitimes.vn/investment/2018/03/81E0C329/fdi-in-vietnam-s-agricul-tural-sector-remains-low/

US about to inspect Vietnam catfish control programme


The US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will conduct an on-site inspection of Vietnamese catfish control in the next few months, having already reviewed Vietnam's documents in response to the self-reporting tool (SRT), the government news website reports.According to the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, relevant agencies in Vietnam have handed over some 2,000 pages of documents and informa-tion on SRT to FSIS.In early March, NAFIQAD obtained an official letter from FSIS via the US Embassy stating that after reviewing all relevant documents on SRT, it found that Vietnam's cat-fish control system is compatible to that of the USHowever, FSIS said it would launch an on-site inspection of Vietnamese catfish control in the near future to ascertain that relevant issues, and a date for such an inspection would be announced later.When the inspection takes place is unknown, but NAFIQAD suggests that producers of catfish of the Siluriformes order exported to the United States continue to follow regulations of the US and guidelines of NAFIQAD.Enterprises are also advised to consult NAFIQAD on how to work with the US inspec-tion team.english.thesaigontimes.vn/58777/US-about-to-inspect-Vietnam-catfish-control-pro-gramme.html

US steel tarriffs a violation of WTO guidelines: VSA


Vietnam has urged the US government to consider excluding Vietnamese products from its new announcement on tariff measures for imported steel and aluminium. Chu Duc Khai, vice Chair and general Secretary of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), talks to Vietnam News reporter Ta Thu Giang about the challenges faced by Vietnam-ese steel makers after the decision.US President Donald Trump recently decided to apply 25 per cent tax on imported steel. How do you evaluate this decision?On March 8, President Trump signed a decree imposing a tax of 25 per cent on import-ed steel and 10 per cent on aluminum, with the exception of Mexico and Canada. We think this decision is contrary to the goals and intentions of the World Trade Organi-sation (WTO), of which the United States is a member, and is contrary to international practices.


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The decision goes against the purpose of WTO's guideline to create equality of trade. With the introduction of this tariff, free trade ceases.What is the volume of Vietnam steel exported to America?Vietnam last year exported 4.7 million tonnes of steel to foreign countries, earning a revenue of $3.1 billion.Of this, 567,000 tonnes of steel were exported to the US, occupying 12 per cent of Viet-nam's total export. This volume accounted for just 1.67 per cent of the US's steel im-ports. In 2016, the US imported 31 million tonnes of steel and in 2017, it imported 34 million tonnes.We can see that Vietnam's export volume of steel is quite small compared to the US's volume of import.I want to stress that Vietnamese steel products sold to the US are intended for use in civil construction, not for infrastructure or defence purposes and thus, does not affect the US's national security.Vietnam's export of steel accounts for a small proportion of US's steel imports. It does not damage or threaten the US steel industries.With such marginal volume of export, why is Vietnam named in the group of countries which most affects the US economy?This move comes in the context of Chinese steel products exported to the US falling sharply when the US imposed 14 anti-dumping duties and 10 self-defence taxes in 2016 and 2017. Meanwhile, Vietnam is a country next to China, whose steel exports to this country have increased rapidly. The US suspected Vietnam of importing steel from China and then exporting to the US.In a letter sent to the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Vietnamese govern-ment and the US Department of Commerce, VSA said before July 2017, Vietnam had not manufactured hot-rolled coil steel, so it had to import from other countries, includ-ing China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Russia.We imported hot-rolled coil steel with thickness of 6-7mm. It was then cold rolled down to below 1mm and processed through zinc or aluminium coated and colouring before being exported to foreign countries. The process of making thiner steel is huge and helps businesses to create added value and change Harmonised System code.But it's not just about importing hot-rolled steel and simply processing it before export.Vietnamese businesses have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in modern tech-nology to produce high-quality cold-rolled steel and galvanised steel products that meet the stringent standards of the US and Japan.I affirm Vietnam will easily solve this problem because it is able to produce enough hot-rolled coil steel from this year onwards to make other steel products, ensuring the Vietnamese origin.Although it will certainly be difficult for Vietnamese steel manufacturers after the US's tax decision, Vietnam's steel industry will still promote its export to the world market, including Asean which is currently Vietnam's main market for steel, accounting for 59.3 per cent of exports, and domestic consumption with a population of more than 90 million.How will Vietnam's steel businesses be affected after the decision of the US President?Vietnamese enterprises are facing a lot of difficulties because they have to compete with large steel makers who are experienced in the market economy, such as Japan, South Korea, China and the European Union. In particular, we have to compete with countries that have geographical proximity to the US, such as Brazil, Canada and Mex-ico, as a result of which their costs of transporting goods to the US is cheaper, making their steel prices more competitive.In the open market economy with a deep and large integration, the price of raw mate-rial of the Vietnamese steel industry is in common with global steel prices. With the same kind of product, if the cost of one company is 10 per cent higher than the others, it won't be able to compete with other companies in the market, not mentioning the 25 per cent tax on imported steel to the US.If Vietnam's steel export to the US is reduced, Vietnamese steel companies will face


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many difficulties. For example, the expected volume of export will have to return home and domestic competition will be higher because of the decline in the export market.Vietnam started exporting steel to the US some two-three years ago when the steel maker Hoa Sen Group sent the first batch of 20,000 tonnes of steel products. Vietnam-ese companies saw potential in the US market so they spent a lot of money in building facilities and advanced technologies to produce steel for exports.The US' import tax on steel has been imposed at a time when the Vietnamese business-es' investment has not been refunded, causing losses and unemployment.What are the solutions to help Vietnamese businesses retain their market share in the US?Our association has sent a letter to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to respond to the decision of the US President, asking for more measures to support steel makers. We will seek cooperation and consultation with other countries that are in a similar situa-tion. If unsuccessful, we may consider co-ordinating with other countries to file a law-suit against the US at WTO.We have proposed to the government to negotiate this issue in bilateral negotiations with the US about products it wants to export to Vietnam. This is to persuade the US to exempt Vietnamese steel from the import tax. This is for the interests of both sides.If we are not removed from the list, Vietnamese steel makers will have to minimise production costs to improve competitiveness so that they can maintain and occupy more market share in the US and other countries.We always recommend Vietnamese businesses, who are sufficient in finances and hu-man resources, to invest in modern technologies from the European Union and set up steel factories with a capacity of more than four million tonnes per year, so that they are capable of competing with other steel makers in the region and in the world.http://bizhub.vn/business-insight/us-steel-tarriffs-a-violation-of-wto-guidelines-vsa_293187.html

2,300 tonnes of beef imported from US, Australia


Vietnam spent some $15 million to import nearly 2,300 tonnes of beef from Australia and the United States in the first two months of this year, according to the general De-partment of Customs.Of this, some 1,349 tonnes of beef worth $8.9 million came from the United States, while 948 tonnes worth $6.6 million were imported from Australia.Vietnam imported 930 tonnes of boneless beef and 18 tonnes of beef ribs from Austral-ia and 834 tonnes of boneless beef and 65 tonnes of beef ribs from the United States.In 2017, the country had imported 210 tonnes of beef ribs and 3,901 tonnes of boneless beef from Australia, while it had imported 6,085 tonnes of boneless beef and 353 tonnes of beef ribs from the United States, reported the Phap luat Thanh pho HCM (HCM City Law) newspaper.The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said in 2017, Vietnam imported over 6,500 tonnes of pork worth $11.07 million and more than 81,000 tonnes of poultry meat, valued at over $75.7 million.Last year, the nation imported 262,321 units of live cattle and nearly 42,000 tonnes of beef worth $410 million.http://bizhub.vn/news/2300-tonnes-of-beef-imported-from-us-australia_293166.html

Vietnam getting tough on harmful online info


Social media will be required to come up with solutions to remove information harm-ful to the State of Vietnam and fake news, according to a new government decree.Decree 27/2018/ND-CP, which will replace Decree 72/2013/ND-CP on management, provision and use of Internet services and online information, will come into force on April 15.According to the new decree, social networking and other websites are obliged to de-velop mechanisms to delete violating content within three hours after they receive re-


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quests from the Ministry of Information and Communications, and other competent agencies.Individuals and organisations are forbidden from taking advantage of the Internet to spread information that is against the State of Vietnam and does harm to national se-curity and social order and safety, promotes wars and terrorism, stirs hatred and con-flicts between peoples and religions, and incites violence. Disclosure of State and military secrets and dissemination of fake news are also banned.Social networks are required to take measures for protecting the privacy of their users.They must also have at least one employee responsible for managing content on their sites. Staff must be Vietnamese citizens or foreign nationals who have a temporary res-idence permit valid for at least six months.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/58775/Vietnam-getting-tough-on-harmful-online-in-fo.html

Vietnam's automobile support industry remains underdeveloped


The supporting industry for Vietnam's automobile manufacturing sector is still under-developed, heard a seminar on the industry's development in the fourth industrial rev-olution in HCM City on March 13.According to the Institute of Industrial Policies and Strategies (IIPS), Vietnam is one of the five Asean nations manufacturing vehicles, besides Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.Among the five, Vietnam ranks third in population after Indonesia and the Philip-pines, but its automobile production output ranks fifth, with a yearly output of 300,000 vehicles.The country has 20 automobile assembling firms, with 84 Tier-1 part suppliers and 145 suppliers of Tier -2 and 3. Meanwhile, Thailand has only 16 assembling companies, but the number of Tier-1 suppliers amounts to 690, and that of Tier-2 and 3 suppliers is 1,700.Nguyen Thi Xuan Thuy, IIPS representative, said that due to the small scale of Viet-nam's automobile market, the costs for producing auto parts or components are high. Therefore, demand for domestically made parts is relatively low, constraining the de-velopment of the local supporting industry.As a result, automobile assembly firms choose to use imported parts, creating a vicious cycle that remains unsolved, she stressed.To untie the vicious cycle, Thuy proposed creating a larger market scale through im-porting completely built-up units (CBUs) in the first years and forcing manufacturers to find domestic spare parts with cheaper prices, thus stimulating the local supporting industry.Businesses should also choose advantageous spare parts and products so as to gain as-sess to the Asean production chain, she added.Nguyen Duong Hieu, Chair and general manager of LIDOVIT Trading and Industrial JSC, suggested local producers invest in upgrading their technology, and integrate management systems to better manage their production and approach the market.He said that management agencies should provide local part suppliers with specific requirements of foreign firms so they can prepare to meet their standards.Delegates also suggested that the government set up a website for businesses in the parts industry so they can update their information, which would make it easier for downstream producers, including foreign ones, to find parts suppliers.The seminar was held by the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, the Board of Management of Saigon Hi-Tech Park and HCM City Export Processing and Indus-trial Zones Authority.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnams-automobile-support-industry-remains-underde-veloped/127843.vnp


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Electronic firms advised to boost linkages in supply chain


Vietnam's electronics enterprises should enhance linkages and increase productivity if they want to grow sustainably and integrate more deeply into the global supply chain, experts said at a seminar in HCM City on March 13.Electronics is one of the key industries which are enjoying impressive growth in recent years and has become a spearhead export sector of Vietnam.In the last decade, the number of electronic enterprises has risen four-fold to 1,021, and the number of workers increased to more than 500,000, Nguyen Phuong Dong, deputy director of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, said at the seminar themed "Enhancing linkage opportunities in the electronic supply chain".However, the sector is still in the first phase of the electronic production chain, as do-mestic firms have focused only on assembling and after-sales services, Dong said.Truong Thi Chi Binh, vice Chairwoman and Secretary general of the Vietnam Associ-ation of Supporting Industries (VASI), said that Vietnamese electronic enterprises have yet to contribute properly to the country's electronic product export value.She pointed to the fact that the country's supporting industry has yet to keep up with production demand, resulting in a low supply of domestically-produced components.According to Binh, at present 77 percent of components are imported. Notably, up to 98.2 percent of basic electronic and electric components are bought from abroad.To participate in the global supply chain, Vietnamese electronic enterprises must first meet safety demands and technical requirements and limit hazardous content in their products, she said.VASI can actively support enterprises by providing consultancy, training, informa-tion, and databases and connecting them with international markets, Binh added.Bui Thi Ninh, from the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)'s Branch in HCM City, stated the electronic industry has a very high growth rate and short life cycle for products, requires large investments, yields high profits but comes with fierce competition and high risks.To facilitate the linkages between electronic firms, the VCCI put forward an initiative to establish an alliance of electronic firms to help them strengthen cooperation and solve challenges facing the sector, thus helping improve their brand names and com-petitiveness and minimise business risks.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/electronic-firms-advised-to-boost-linkages-in-supply-chain/127852.vnp

Domestic businesses expect positive impacts by CPTPP


Many domestic businesses expect the newly signed CPTPP will bring positive effects on Vietnam through the expansion of export market along with access to the abundant materials sources in CPTPP member countries.Nguyen Van Sua, vice Chair of the Vietnam Steel Association, was of the view that both TPP and CPTPP would have positive impacts on the domestic steel industry rath-er than negative ones.He explained that several CPTPP members import large volumes of steel products, and the removal of tariff barriers will help Vietnamese steel exporters extend their markets. At the same time, some CPTPP member countries, for example Australia, have abundant sources of materials needed by the steel industry such as iron ore and coal, which will give Vietnam easier access to materials, machinery and technology in the industry.Sua added that negative impacts do exist, though not large, as competition in the steel industry among CPTPP members is not particularly fierce.He said in order to optimise opportunities brought by the CPTPP, domestic steel man-ufacturers should carefully study the deal's content and rules to avoid unnecessary risks, while continuing to increase the content of technology in products along with productivity and environmental protection.The mechanical sector is facing bigger problems as it is at a disadvantage compared to that in other CPTPP members, according to general Secretary of the Vietnam Associa-


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tion of Mechanical Industry (VAMI) Dao Phan Long.Long forecast that there are two directions ahead for the sector, either to continue do-ing outwork for foreign partners or to enter joint ventures to access technology, man-agement know-how and markets. Which direction to take will depend on the government's orientation for the sector and the enforcement of ministries, agencies and the business community itself.He noted that many small-sized enterprises face the risk of collapse if they fail to seek linkages and new markets.To assist domestic firms, the government should define concrete development orien-tations and priorities for the mechanical sector to help businesses devise their invest-ment strategies.Another sector to be affected strongly by CPTPP is the garment-textile industry.Truong Van Cam, vice chair of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Association (VITAS), said the sector hopes to benefit from the deal, which provides opportunities for Viet-nam to reach other markets aside from the US.He stressed that increasing added value will be an effective way for the sector to make the most of incentives offered by CPTPP.According to general director of the Ho Guom Garment JSC Phi Ngoc Trinh, after the signing of CPTPP, garment-textile firms will have bigger chances to enter the Austral-ian and Canadian markets, but the question is whether they can meet those markets' requirements.http://english.vov.vn/economy/domestic-businesses-expect-positive-impacts-by-cp-tpp-370482.vov

Global e-commerce giants willing to take a hit to expand market share in Vietnam

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VNEXPRESS

Companies can see the long-term potential of the country's rapidly expanding online shopping sector.Vietnam's blossoming e-commerce market has attracted global retailers such as Ama-zon, Alibaba and Shopee, but earning a profit in the country is another story.American e-commerce giant Amazon is set to join Vietnam's fast-growing market this month by opening up its platforms to local small and medium enterprises.The company is expected to sign a deal with the Vietnam E-Commerce Association at a forum in Hanoi on March 14.The deal was discussed at a meeting late last year between the association and Ama-zon, the world's most valuable brand now worth $150 billion, according to Brand Fi-nance Global Ranking.Its development strategy will be revealed at the Vietnam Online Business Forum, which will be held first in Hanoi and then move to HCM City on March 16, and include discussions regarding online shopping trends, tax management and new technologies. Other foreign online retailers have already infiltrated the Vietnamese market.Earlier this year, China's second biggest online e-commerce firm JD.com Inc an-nounced plans to invest in Tiki, a Vietnam-based online retailer that it intends to help with fulfillment, logistics and more. JD.com co-led the financing with Vietnamese en-tertainment and social media firm VNG Corp.The firm did not disclose the size of the deal, but said that JD.com will become one of Tiki's largest shareholders alongside VNG.In 2017, Alibaba officially entered Vietnam, and attracted tens of thousands of busi-nesses after just six months. In June last year, the Chinese giant spent $1 billion raising its stake in Southeast Asian online retailer Lazada from 51 percent to 83 percent. Laza-da is the biggest online retailer in Vietnam in terms of revenue, accounting for a whop-ping 30 percent of overall sales.More than 90 percent of investments into Vietnam's e-commerce platforms had come from foreign sources including China, South Korea and Thailand as of 2017, according to Nikkei Asian Review.Trade expert Vu Vinh Phu attributed the inflow of large international e-commerce firms to the country's growing online shopping trend, improved internet services and


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an increase in mobile-based payments.Up to 59 percent of Vietnam's nearly 95 million people have bank accounts, data from the central bank shows.The potential for the sector is huge amid an expanding middle class and smartphone usage.Across the country, the ratio of people using smartphones among mobile phone sub-scribers reached 84 percent in 2017, increasing from 78 percent the previous year, ac-cording to the Nielsen Vietnam Smartphone Insights Report 2017."The growth rate of Vietnam's e-commerce market is estimated at about 35 percent, which is 2.5 times higher than Japan," said industry expert Duc Tam at the recently-held Vietnam Online Business Forum 2017.Online sales in Vietnam have expanded rapidly in recent years, currently accounting for 3.39 percent of the country's retail market. The total retail market grew 10.9 percent last year to $173.27 billion.The World Bank forecasts that Vietnam's $200 billion economy is likely to grow to a trillion dollars by 2035. More than half of its population, compared with only 11 per-cent today, is expected to join the ranks of the global middle class with consumption of $15 a day or more.According to one estimate, about 30 percent of the population will be buying goods and services over the internet in 2020, with each shopper spending an average of $350 per year."Foreign investors have seen the potential and they are pouring in money to take over the market," said Phu.Huge costs hinder profitsDespite the huge potential in Vietnam, e-commerce firms have faced development challenges, and many say they have suffered huge losses for years.VNG Corp reported a loss of $122 billion (over $5.3 million) from its investment in e-commerce firm Tiki.vn in 2017.Some local e-commerce companies like Lingo.vn, Deca.vn and Beyeu.com have been forced to shut down due to prolonged losses.Huge logistics costs, which account for 60-70 percent of online retailers' revenues, were the main cause of their losses, trade expert Phu explained. Large e-commerce firms also need massive warehouses covering thousands of square meters, and hundreds of staff to work in them.Explaining why foreign investors are continuing to increase their presence in Viet-nam's e-commerce market, Phu said their current goal is to attract customers, stretch-ing their influence on the market.Firms often suffer losses in the first 5-7 years, said a trade expert. "It's not time to make a profit yet. It's time to increase market share."Agreeing with them, Nguyen Manh Dung, head of the Vietnam and Thailand Office under CyberAgent Ventures, said e-commerce requires long-term investment, and in-vestors could start to earn profits after 5-10 years of operation.Even Amazon, in some markets, has only started making a profit after 10 years of in-vestment, local media quoted Dung as saying.With fierce competition in Vietnam, it is likely to take e-commerce firms some time be-fore they start reaping the rewards, he added.https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/global-e-commerce-giants-willing-to-take-a-hit-to-expand-market-share-in-vietnam-3722680.html

Many people want to experience head-hunter job

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| SAIGON TIMES

With rather high salary and much benefit from broad social relationship and prestige, the hunting for talented people, especially candidates for management positions, is be-coming the field that many young people want to experience.They are called head-hunters. According to insiders, this is an attractive job but it is entirely not easy to stay with the job when more than 50 percent of participants have had to change jobs.


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It is known that the salary of head-hunters may amount to $1,000/month, not to men-tion the bonuses from successful "matchmaking" deals between candidates and cus-tomers, which normally accounts for 8-15 percent of total costs. Therefore, the higher number of finalised contracts, the larger income of hunters is and their income is not limited by month. However, head-hunters, even experienced ones, are often "bruised" with unsuccessful deals.Hien who is currently recruiting team leader for a well-known head-hunter company told a story that was both funny and regretful.Hien was asked to seek for candidate for a management position at a multinational steel corporation headquartered in Ha Tinh. After a long period of searching, Hien found a candidate who was working in Hanoi and was suitable to recruitment criteria of the client, from qualification, experience, and motivation. Even, this candidate and his girlfriend came from Ha Tinh.After nearly a year of negotiating with both client and applicant, booking air tickets three or four times for the candidate to Thailand to meet senior management of the company for interviews, the two parties came to sign job invitation letter. Then, when the day to come to work was close, the candidate suddenly sent a letter saying sorry that he could not take the job".The reason was because the candidate's girlfriend was unexpectedly pregnant and she wanted to have an independent life with her husband in Hanoi instead of coming back to her husband's hometown to live with her parents-in-law. Hien said "Facing that sit-uation, I could only bless the young couple though on my side, I had to cancel the Job Invitation Letter, and my efforts during more than a year of recruitment were a waste".Van Le, who has had nine years of experience in recruitment job, also could not predict the irony situations of the career.Le said her client is a big company in the FMCG sector and needs to find candidates for the deputy general director's position. This position requires candidates who are both competent and experienced in working for multinational companies but still have to adapt well to the culture of Vietnamese company.Le said finding candidates for this position is not easy. Finally, after efforts to "hunt" for candidates from her own relationships and network, she found a rather suitable one. The client was also satisfied with the candidate. Things seemed to go on smoothly but Le suddenly received notice from the client that the candidate was a member of a partner company which was at that time the major shareholder of the client. Therefore, the candidate was considered as "family member" of the client and recruitment fee could not be charged. After considering, Le agreed with the client's proposal to keep long-term relationship though she had to accept the disadvantage.These are two among many obstacles that people working in head-hunter industry have to face.Ngo Thi Ngoc Lan, Northern director of Navigos Search, said the characteristics of this "matchmaking" career are to consult simultaneously both clients and candidates. And the problem is that head-hunters are always passive with their decisions. Sometimes, the connection seemed to be successful but eventually disbanded. "The recruiting con-sultants have gone through all the rigorous recruitment process and there are still po-tential risks", Lan talked about the case that she had to find another new candidate for her client while having to support candidate to find a new job as he already quit his job.Nguyen Thu Trang, Country manager, Recruitment and Personnel Consulting Servic-es of Manpower Vietnam, said the most desirable factor for a head-hunter is passion for the job. This job is interesting and always new, bringing about chances to meet many people and opportunities to develop diversified skills while also having to face many pressures, especially the strict adherence to professionalism.According to companies in head-hunter sector, the number of people meeting criteria in this recruitment consulting industry is rather low. That is not to mention high un-employment rate because of very difficult requirements of the occupation that they find that they cannot meet after a period of time.According to many recruitment companies, each company has its own database. Espe-


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cially, the database at multinational companies is more diversified. However, this is only a small source of support in determining and seeking for candidates for client. Consultants, or head-hunters, must be able to seek for market information, candidate information to find the right person. At the same time, consultants must have access to discuss about job opportunities with applicants. Consultants must also regularly meet potential candidates to develop relationships and thereby obtaining necessary infor-mation about the market.Especially, Ngoc Lan from Navigos Search said consultants are also trained to have ability to discover a person's character by his/her physical appearance.Candidates will be divided into four groups called "DISC". Group D (Dominance) is a group of candidates who are able to respond very quickly and overwhelm others. Group I (Influence) is a group of influential, diplomatic candidates. Group S (Steadi-ness) is a group of candidates who are steady, slow, like stability, loyalty. Group C (Compliance) is highly compliant, logical-minded group of people."Depending on each group of candidates that head-hunters have appropriate behav-iours," Lan said. For example, candidates in D team are fast responding and results-oriented people, so the way of interaction of consultants with these candidates should also be similar.According to the people in the profession, the higher managerial position a candidate holds, the more modest he/she is and it is "more comfortable" working with them. They understand their value and understand the role of consultants for their new job choice. Sometimes, it is not easy to work with candidates for lower positions maybe because they did not contact much with recruitment consultants before, and some-times they do not know exactly what career path they are pursuing.

JapanPotential market for Vietnam's IT firms


Japan one of countries leading the way in implementing the advances of the 4th Indus-trial Revolution, is witnessing strong investment from Vietnam's information technol-ogy (IT) firms.FPTone of Vietnam's leading technology groups, on March 13 launched its sixth rep-resentative office in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka prefecture. Previously, in 2017, CMC group opened an office in Yokohama city, Kanagawa prefecture.Smaller-scale Vietnamese IT firms also plan to invest in other regions of Japan after opening branches in Tokyo and Nagoya.According to FPT Chair Truong Gia Binh, Japan is a potential market for IT companies, with about 20 Vietnamese IT enterprises having opened offices in the market so far.For FPT, the Japanese market accounts for more than half of its global revenue. The firm has over 400 Japanese customers, including 50 of the world's biggest businesses. FPT has maintained annual growth of 30 percent in the market.The Vietnam Software and IT Services Association is encouraging the trend, which is hoped to lay a foundation for turning Vietnam into a software-export country, he not-ed.Talking about advantages for Vietnamese IT companies when investing in Japanese market, Binh said similarities in culture and strong diplomatic and socio-economic ties between the two countries help Vietnamese operate in the market.Vietnam can also help rejuvenate the workforce in Japan with its young population and low labour costs. Vietnam is a supply source of new technologies, artificial intelli-gence, robotics and data analysis that many Japanese companies want, he added.Vietnam is estimated to earn 1 billion USD from exporting software by 2020.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/japan-potential-market-for-vietnams-it-firms/127832.vnp

BUSINESSIZ NEWSBusiness Briefs 15 March, 2018

15/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA |

* Bamboo Capital Company (BCG) plans to issue VND280 billion worth of three-year convertible bonds this year. The notes will carry a coupon of 5 percent per annum and be converted into shares one year from the issue date. BCG will use the proceeds to in-vest in a solar power project. In 2017, the enterprise successfully issued VND1l3 billion


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SVietnam finance & business 15 March 2018

worth of corporate bonds for three South Korean partners, raising fund for its property projects in Quang am Province and Danang City.* Thanh Thanh Cong-Bien Hoa Company (SBT) has announced to buy back over 83.5 million shares as treasury shares, or 15 percent of its current outstanding volume. The sugar firm will buy the shares at no higher than VND30,000 each via matching. Given the current market price ofVND17,000- 18,000 per share, SBT i expected to spend VND2.5 trillion on the purchase.* Vietnam-Italy Steel Company (VIS) expects its pre-tax profit to jump 64 percent ver-sus last year to VND90.4 billion in 2018. VIS targets revenue ofVND7.09 trillion, up 16 percent against 2017, while its production output is predicted to rise 9 percent at 500,000 tonnes of steel billets. Currently, Thai Hung TradingJoint Stock Company holds a 51.01 percent stake, equal to 37.66 million shares, and Kyoei Steel Vietnam Limited Company owns a 20 percent stake, or 14.77 millionshares, in VIS. The firm has received approval from its shareholders to lift its foreign ownership limit to 100 percent from the current cap at 49 percent.* Shareholders of Phuong Nam Culture Company (P C) have disapproved a share is-sue plan to raise its capital from VNDllO.4 billion to VND300 billion as they declined to buy additional shares to maintain their stakes.* Sao Mai Group has registered to buy 50 million shares of LD.I International Develop-ment and Investment Corporation (!DI) between March 16 and April 13, raising its ownership from 30.3 percent to 66.8 percent, or 121.3 million shares. !DI share price has jumped from VND4,000 to VND16,000 over the past year.* Nguyen Dinh Thang, a board member of An Thinh Company (ATB), will be selling 660,000 shares of ATB, or a 4.75 percent stake.

VN Index fails to reach 1,140 points despite vibrant transactions


Although the stock market experienced vibrant transactions with total value of nearly 8.36 trillion VND (368.7 million USD) on both bourses on March 14, the VN Index of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) failed to hit the threshold of 1,140 points.The VN Index increased 4.78 points to 1,138.09 points with total 251 million shares traded at nearly 7.12 trillion VND (313.28 million USD).Meanwhile, the VNXALL-Index, the common index between the southern and north-ern bourses, was up 7.02 points to 1,584.71 points.The large-cap group VN30 Index climbed 3.62 points to 1,115 points at the end of the session.On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index posted modest growth of 0.77 percent, ending the March 14's session at 130.43 points. A total of 77 million shares worth 1.23 trillion VND (54.12 million USD) were traded.The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) gained slightly 0.04 percent to finish at 61.29 points, with 22 million shares worth 462 billion VND changed hands.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vnindex-fails-to-reach-1140-points-despite-vibrant-trans-actions/127873.vnp

March 14: VN Index & HNX-Index gain ground


Positive day on both exchanges on March 14.The VN Index gained 4.78 points on March 14, closing at 1,138 points on trade of more than 250 million shares worth VND7.1 trillion ($311.8 million). The HNX-Index, mean-while, increased 0.77 points on trade of nearly 77 million shares worth VND1.2 trillion ($52.7 million).In construction and real estate, HBC shares rose sharply at the end of the session and despite not closing at its highest price of the session, still climbed 6 per cent to VND45,700 ($2). QCG hit its ceiling, while other strong gainers included HAR, by 3 per cent, L14 5.5 per cent, VGC 3.5 per cent and VC3 5.3 per cent. DXG, LDG, and DIG rose sharply during the session but lost ground towards the close. VRE fell 4.1 per cent.While CTG and BID only rose slightly, many other bank shares made significant gains.


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The best performer was VIB, rising 9.3 per cent, with HDB increasing 4 per cent. In the securities group, SSI fell 0.8 per cent but other shares such as HCM, VND, CTS and SHS all closed higher. VPB and MBB saw more transactions at their ceiling prices.Petroleum rebounded to some extent, with GAS gaining 2.8 per cent and PVD 1.9 per cent, while PVS shed 2.1 per cent to VND22,800. BSR, POW, and OIL joined it in losing ground.On HSX, after two consecutive sessions of net buying, foreign investors were net sell-ers on the day, by 2.5 million shares worth VND216 billion ($9.4 million). They contin-ued to aggressively buy VIC and VRE, with net buying of VND110.94 billion ($4.8 million) and VND36.34 billion ($1.5 million), respectively. Both stocks, however, closed down.On HNX, foreign investors net sold for a third consecutive day, to the tune of VND15.65 billion ($687,338). SHB and SHS were again the two biggest net bought shares.Foreign investors were also strong net sellers on UPCoM, with 1.52 million shares trad-ed worth VND38.66 billion ($1.6 million).http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/march-14-vn-index-hnx-index-gain-ground

State stake transfers must go through auctions


Holding public auctions will be the first and foremost option when it comes to trans-ferring State-held shares in businesses, according to government Decree 32/2018/ND-CP.Decree 32, which amends Decree 91/2016/ND-CP, specifies transfers of State capital in joint stock and limited liability companies must be conducted under Term 2 in Article 39 of the law on management of State capital invested in production and business ac-tivities.In particular, the withdrawal of State investment capital from joint stock companies which have listed or registered to trade shares on the stock market must ensure the trading price, or the floor price, is no lower than the reserve price.Capital transfers can come in the form of public auction, competitive bidding or nego-tiation (not going through the stock exchange).On the day of public auction, competitive bidding or signing of capital transfer con-tracts, if the trading price is below the payment price or there is no floor price as a re-sult of no transaction, investors would pay State ownership representatives based on the price set for the form of capital transfer. The trading price must be made transpar-ent.At joint stock companies which have not listed or have registered to trade on the stock market but do not make transactions on the market, if the first form of capital transfer is not successful, the next can be adopted.If companies fail to transfer all State capital, State ownership representatives can pick a suitable time to proceed with the transfer.In addition, companies can opt for book building to transfer State capital. The use of this measure must prove that it is more efficient than public auction or competitive bidding.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/58773/State-stake-transfers-must-go-through-auc-tions.html

Vinafood II raises 51 million USD selling 23pct of stakes in IPO


The State-run Vietnam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood II) raised nearly 1.16 tril-lion VND (51.1 million USD) from selling 22.97 percent of its stakes at an initial public offering (IPO) on March 14.The top rice exporter sold all of the 114.83 million shares on offer on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange to 41 investors, including 40 individual investors and one organisa-tion.The shares were offered at an initial price of 10,100 VND per piece, and the average


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successful bidding price was 10,101 VND. The highest bid value reached 12,000 VND (0.53 USD) per share.The corporation will sell 25 percent of its stakes to strategic investors in a later move while only 1 percent will be sold to employees and workers at a preferential price. Multi-sector firm T&T Group has been so far the only one filing documents to become Vinafood's strategic investor.Vinafood II plays a key role in exporting rice in Vietnam. In the first half of 2017, the company earned 4.43 trillion VND in revenue but reported a loss of 118 billion VND.Vinafood II is the first out three SOEs to conduct IPOs this March which will float a total of 110 million USD worth of stakes in the market in the second wave of SOEs IPOs in 2018.The others include Binh Duong Manufacturing & Import Export Corp (Protrade Corp) that will sell 30 million shares, or 10 percent of its charter capital of 3 trillion VND, in the IPO slated for March 28.Hanoi Trade Corporation (Hapro) is the last company to make an IPO this month, on March 30 on the Hanoi Stock Exchange. The company will float nearly 76 million shares, or 34.51 percent of its charter capital at the minimum bidding price of 12,800 VND per share.At this price, the company is valued at almost 2.82 trillion VND, higher than its charter capital of 2.2 trillion VND. If successful, the sale will bring the company at least 971 billion VND.The State will not hold Hapro's capital after the equitisation and about 65 percent of its stakes will be sold to strategic investors.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vinafood-ii-raises-51 million-usd-selling-23-percent-of-stakes-in-march-ipo/127860.vnp

Local consumers spend heavily on snacks and beer


Vietnamese consumers have great demand for snacks and beer, according to a newly-released report by the global marketing research firm Nielsen.The "What's Next in Emerging Markets" report provides compelling evidence that Bra-zil, Vietnam, Argentina, Ghana, and Ivory Coast consumers are increasingly willing to spend on snack and beer products. The document combines Nielsen data on snacks and beer with macro-economic indicators and forecasts to identify these growth mar-kets."Beer and snacks aren't just fun. They are lead indicators of continued buying prefer-ence outside of essentials. Beyond that, the countries highlighted have macro-econom-ic conditions that suggest a favourable environment for growth," said Regan Leggett, executive director of thought leadership and foresight at Nielsen.Nielsen says Vietnam is currently experiencing one of its fastest economic expansions in years. It also boasts one of the fastest-growing fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industries in Asia at 5.9 percent in the year to date.Even more promising, only a few categories are decelerating. Snack is leading the pack in growth, followed by beer and healthy food drinks. Energy drinks and feminine care follow closely behind.Opportunities abound in emerging markets to capitalise on global beer trends, such as premium, craft, ciders and flavored brews, because historically beer category sales in emerging markets have followed global trends, according to Nielsen.Beer consumption in Vietnam topped four billion litres last year, representing a year-on-year rise of 6 percent, according to the Vietnam Beer Alcohol Beverage Association.The volume is approaching the 4.1 billion-litre target set for 2020 in a master plan ap-proved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. On average, beer consumption per cap-ita in the Southeast Asian country reached around 45 litres last year.The beer-loving market is becoming more attractive to overseas investors. For exam-ple, Vietnam Beverage Co Ltd, a local unit of Thai Beverage Public Co Ltd, paid a whopping $4.84 billion for a 53.6 percent stake in Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Cor-poration (Sabeco) in a December auction.


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Other global giants have also been racing for stakes in Hanoi Beer, Alcohol and Bever-ages Corporation (Habeco), another local brewery.The Nielsen report also predicts rural Vietnam will remain a major growth area for FMCG companies. Rural FMCG sales growth outpaced urban growth, 7.6 percent to 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2017.However, according to Nielsen, the growth is still inconsistent, as the heavy costs as-sociated with expanding distribution to traditional trade heavy areas will remain a challenge for manufacturers and retailers.Although FMCG growth is high in Vietnam, it can also be uneven. As a result, compa-nies compete to capitalise on the market's growth. Smaller, local manufacturers have thrived in this competitive environment, growing twice as fast as those in the top 30.Local companies are also reshaping the retail landscape. According to Nielsen Retail Audit data, more than 600 modern trade stores were launched between January and October 2017. Of those stores, three local minimarts were responsible for 275 openings.Smaller format stores like minimarts helped grow the modern trade channel by 9.9 percent year to date in the third quarter of 2017, twice as fast as the traditional trade channel (5.2 percent). However, modern trade still has far to go to catch up with tradi-tional trade and wet markets, which account for 83 percent of all FMCG sales in Viet-nam.english.thesaigontimes.vn/58770/Local-consumers-spend-heavily-on-snacks-and-beer.html

Vietnamese people spend an average of 20m dong on a trip abroad


According to a survey of global travel trends conducted with more than 15,000 people in 27 countries worldwide, on average, Vietnamese people spend $880 USD (about 20 million dong) on a latest trip abroad.It is expected that in the next two years, Vietnamese people will tend to travel more and spend more money. Each visitor is expected to spend about $1,100 on the next trip. Along with that, on average, each Vietnamese tourist will travel five times abroad within the next two years. This number has increased over the last two years (3.5 trips).74 percent of travellers use credit or debit cards for pre-trip expenses. Regarding trans-actions at destination, many people use cards to make payment but most visitors still prefer carrying cash in the form of foreign currency.In the group of countries surveyed, the Vietnamese had the shortest travel itinerary with 74 percent of the trip lasting four nights or less, much shorter than the average in Asia Pacific (seven nights). They choose destinations with an average travel time of 4.5 hours.Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Singapore are the destinations that most Vietnamese choose to travel. Trips in the region are now most dominant with 91 percent of visitors coming to a destination in Asia in the last two years. These countries will continue to maintain their position for the next two years with the United States joining the Top 5."As Vietnam's economy grows with the emergence of middle-class and better-off, more people will be attracted to international tourism. This has been proven in the sur-vey results: people travel more, spending more on tourism", said Sean Preston director of Visa Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.On the global level, the report indicates that travellers worldwide tend to travel shorter days with more frequent densities. In addition, the risk of loss or theft at destination is still a constant concern.Of the five main driving forces when travelling, travellers who like "enjoying" are more likely to stick with friends and relatives or simply enjoying time alone. Travellers who like "exploring" tend to experience new culture and visit more attractive destina-tions. Of the ten international travellers, six (63 percent) said they were travelling for both reasons. The corresponding rate in Vietnam is 72 percent, or seven out of ten.


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Khanh Hoa, Danang seek to reduce tourism dependence on China


Tourism authorities of Khanh Hoa and Danang provinces have taken steps to diversify their source markets so as to cut their heavy reliance on China.The Department of Tourism of Khanh Hoa has proposed hotels in the south-central coast province set aside at least 15 percent of their rooms to serve tourists from differ-ent countries, instead of China only.Chinese tourists to Khanh Hoa have soared significantly, making up most of interna-tional arrivals. Therefore, visitors from other markets, even domestic ones, have found it hard to book hotel rooms in Khanh Hoa.Some hotels provide 15-30 percent of their rooms for tourists from other countries than China but room rates are high, said Nguyen Van Thanh, vice chair of the Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa Tourism Association.Khanh Hoa has around 30,000 hotel rooms, with half of them meeting three- to five-star standards. The scarcity of hotel rooms is mainly seen in its beach city Nha Trang which has been overwhelmed with Chinese tourists.According to the Khanh Hoa Department of Tourism, the province welcomed some 2.03 million international tourists last year, surging 68.9 percent over the previous year. More than 1.2 million of them came from China and 450,000 from Russia. But Eu-ropean tourist arrivals declined.In 2014, when China and Russia were Khanh Hoa's largest source markets, hotels there took a big hit from drastic falls in visitors from these two markets.In related news, the Danang City government has worked out measures to manage preferential policies for Chinese tourists.At a meeting between municipal authorities and travel firms in the city last week, Huynh Tan Vinh, chair of the Danang Tourism Association, said the city's tourism sec-tor is heavily dependent on some foreign source markets, especially China.Vinh stressed the need to tighten control of cheap package tours for Chinese tourists. Such tours do not help Danang's tourism sector as they may lead European tourists and those from other markets to shun Danang and choose to visit neighbouring Hue or Hoi An instead.According to the Danang Department of Tourism, 2.3 million international tourists visited the city last year, with 600,000 of them Chinese, up 25 percent against 2016.The Danang Department of Tourism has announced a 1022 hotline under a Danang tourism promotion centre, a rapid response tourism team under the Department of Tourism and a centre for public service information under the Danang government.english.thesaigontimes.vn/58771/Khanh-Hoa-Danang-seek-to-reduce-tourism-de-pendence-on-China.html

Vietnamese thirst for overseas travel grows in tandem with expanding economy: Visa


The country's emerging ranks of globetrotters are also forecast to spend bigger on for-eign holidays.Vietnamese people are expected to take more trips abroad and increase their spending while overseas thanks to smooth economic expansion, according to a new study by global payments firm Visa.The Visa Global Travel Intentions (GTI) Study, which analysed international travel trends and the behavior of more than 15,000 global travellers from more than 27 coun-tries and territories, shows that Vietnamese travellers are expected to take on average nearly five trips abroad in the next two years, up from 3.5 trips in the last two years.Vietnamese travellers are also expected to spend more on their trips overseas. Each traveler is expected to spend an average of $1,100 per trip, up from $880.Up to 74 percent of travellers use credit or debit cards while booking their trips, but the majority prefer to carry foreign currency when they arrive at their destinations, ac-cording to Visa.The average time spent overseas by Vietnamese travellers was four nights per trip over the past two years, much lower than the Asia-Pacific average of seven nights. They also chose destinations that were, on average, 4.5 hours travel time away.


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Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Singapore were the most visited countries. Intra-re-gion travel dominated, with 91 percent of Vietnamese travellers visiting destinations in Asia in the past two years. They are likely to continue to be well patronised over the next two years, with the U.S emerging in the top five."As Vietnam's economy grows, and an increasing number of citizens join the ranks of the global middle and upper classes, more people are going to take an interest in trav-elling the world," said Sean Preston, Visa country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.According to Mastercard, Vietnam has the second fastest growing outbound market in the Asia Pacific region, after Myanmar, with projected annual growth of 9.5 percent be-tween 2016 and 2021.Eric Schneider, senior vice president, Asia Pacific, Mastercard Advisors, said the bur-geoning middle class is driving the growth of outbound travel in Asia Pacific, includ-ing Vietnam, along with other trends such as the emergence of the Asian millennial traveler, and on the other end of the spectrum, the senior traveler, as well as new tech-nology and infrastructure developments. Asia Pacific travellers will continue to fuel global tourism growth in the years to come, providing vast opportunities for business-es to benefit through the development of products and solutions that seek to improve their overall travel experiences.Mastercard forecast that some 7.5 million Vietnamese travellers will venture outside the country in 2021, increasing from only 4.8 million in 2016.https://e.vnexpress.net/news/travel-life/travel/vietnamese-thirst-for-overseas-travel-grows-in-tandem-with-expanding-economy-visa-3722771.html

HCM City seeks more metro line funding

15/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

HCM City's metro lines are facing various issues with procedures, disbursement, and cost overrun.The HCM City Urban Railway Management Board recently asked the city people's committee to give VND1trn (USD44m) in advance to pay contractors working on the Metro Line 1 this year. This is the fourth time the city has advanced funds because the government has been too slow with disbursement. The city had to pay VND600bn in late 2016 and in 2017, the city paid VND500bn and then VND1.2trn in advance.According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the National Assembly had yet to approve the final cost and the re-lending ratio of ODA from Japan hasn't been spec-ified.Metro Line 1 was approved by the city in 2007 with an investment of VND17.40trn (USD766.4m). Approval by the National Assembly was not needed at that time.A member of the HCM City Urban Railway Management Board said at first the city hired a local consultancy company to do the pre-feasibility study report. This company wanted to make cheap metro lines but they were not up to Japan International Coop-eration Agency's standards. Jica then hired two companies from Singapore to estimate the cost for higher standard metro lines and the investment cost increased to VND47.30trn (USD2.08bn).HCM City People's Committee said the currency exchange, minimum wage increase, and inflation also played important parts in the cost-overrun.However, in 2011, the metro line became a key national project with huge investment cost so it needs approval from the National Assembly. After the prime minister al-lowed HCM City to continue, they signed three loans agreement worth VND31.20trn (USD1.37bn), of which VND12trn has been disbursed. 50 percent of the project is com-pleted but disbursement was stopped and the city now lacks fund to pay contractors.HCM City Chair Nguyen Thanh Phong has sent a letter to the National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, outlin-ing the consequences if Metro Line 1 is not completed in time.In addition to the relationship with Japan being affected, it may impact on future ODA projects."Disputes, lawsuits and wasted capital will occur as we still have to pay commitment


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fees and arrangement fees for loan agreements," he said.He asked all agencies to help speed up the NA's approval in coming meetings. The Ministry of Planning and Investment was asked to continue to disburse the funding.Metro Line 2 also experienced a similar cost-overrun from USD1.37bn to USD2.17bn after being reviewed by foreign consultants.http://dtinews.vn/en/news/018/55580/hcm-city-seeks-more-metro-line-funding.html

Foreign consultant questioned over low forecasts for Tan Son Nhat Airport


According to the HCM City People's Committee, travel demand at Tan Son Nhat In-ternational Airport will reach an estimated 83 million passengers by 2025, much higher than forecasted by the consultant ADPi from France.The HCM City's People's Committee has just raised some ideas via a document sent to the Ministry of Transport (MoT) related to reviewing and considering the expansion of Tan Son Nhat International Airport.The committee asked ADPi for a science-based forecast and update on passenger transport demand at both Tan Son Nhat and Long Thanh airports during 2017-2035. The committee also wants to estimate the number of passengers that would not be served, as well as valuate the economic damage if Tan Son Nhat's capacity was limited at 50 million passengers per year.The French consultant is also required to clarify the technical and economic possibility of transport connection from the southern end of the airport to the city if the passenger number hits 50 million per year."The consultant should analyse risks, particularly delays and consequences of Long Thanh International Airport's construction," noted the document signed by Tran Vinh Tuyen, deputy Chair of the HCM City's People's Committee.According to the committee, based on the estimate that the total passenger transport market will increase by 16 per cent annually in 2015-2020 and 8 per cent in 2020-2030which was approved in Decision No.236/QD-TTg to approve readjustments to the development plan for aviation transport by 2020 with vision to 2030passenger trans-port demand at Tan Son Nhat International Airport is estimated to reach 83 million per year by 2025 and 121 million by 2030.This figure is rather similar to the forecast of the International Air Transport Associa-tion (IATA) and the expert group from HCM City.Meanwhile, ADPi's research outcomes only estimate Tan Son Nhat's capacity at 50 mil-lion passengers per year by 2025 and maintaining this figure in the next years, which is far lower than the previous forecasts. These discrepancies led the Ho Chi Minh Peo-ple's Committee to request the consultant to clarify their forecast and ensure conform-ity with the development plan for aviation transport.In case Tan Son Nhat's capacity is limited at 50 million passengers per year, the HCM City People's Committee asks MoT for the full load time of the airport in order to find solutions to explore other southern international airports, such as Long Thanh and Can Tho.ADPi Engineering, a French company was hired to review and research the master plan of Tan Son Nhat Airport and propose possible ideas. Several expansion solutions were submitted to the government by domestic consultant units.However, there were a lot of comments about these solutions, and MoT decided to hold an international bidding according to the directions of the prime minister.ADPi's proposal claimed a new runway would be unnecessary, and offered enlarging the airport to the north and south while limiting its capacity to 50 million passengers by 2025. Instead, the company proposed building a new 20 million passenger terminal at the southern end of the airport, and more cargo terminals and plane maintenance facilities in the north.Earlier, at the meeting with Nguyen Thien Nhan, Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee, on the expansion solutions of Tan Son Nhat International Airport, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc assigned MoT to record all comments, including ideas of HCM City's experts on upgrading the airport's capacity to 70 million passengers.


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Takara Belmont takes over Vietnam's hair cosmetics producer


Japan's Takara Belmont Corporation has announced to merge Ngu A Chau Service Production Trading JSC (NAC), a leading hair cosmetics manufacturer in Vietnam, into its business after a major stake acquisition.Speaking at a press conference on the merger in HCM City on March 12, Nguyen Van Ngu of NAC said the Japanese partner owns 97 percent of NAC's shares.NAC has a manufacturing plant in Tan Phu Trung Industrial Zone, Cu Chi District, HCM City. Its KNAC-brand products include hair dye, shampoo, hair mask, hair wax and are distributed to more than 35,000 hair salons nationwide.The value of the deal has not been revealed.Takara Belmont said it would maintain the Vietnamese partner's name and brand but it had appointed Keisuke Kobayashi as CEO and legal representative of NAC.The Japanese firm has also picked research and development expert Ui Akamine as NAC's chief production officer to help boost KANAC sales in Vietnam and penetrate foreign markets.With a 3 percent stake in NAC at the moment, Nguyen Van Ngu said he would leave the company in near future.Founded in 1921, Takara Belmont Corporation is now a world leader in salon and spa design, and salon and dental equipment.It ventured into the hairdressing and beauty field in 1931 by producing barber chairs and started its hair cosmetics business in 1966.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/58757/Takara-Belmont-takes-over-Vietnam percente2 percent80 percent99s-hair-cosmetics-producer.html

FLC insists on twin-tower project in Halong


Leaders of property developer FLC at a meeting with the Party Committee of Quang Ninh Province on Monday again sought approval for a twin-tower project in Halong City, having earlier had the project turned down, Lao Dong Online reports.Board chair of FLC Group Trinh Van Quyet told local leaders that the twin towers would serve not only as a commercial project but also a new architectural symbol for Halong City. He expected that Quang Ninh would endorse the project and allocate land at a suitable site as soon as possible for the group to conduct its feasibility study and investment.Previously, FLC sought the nod from the provincial government to construct the twin towers in the premises of the existing headquarters of the People's Committee of Halong City but the application was rejected.At the meeting, Secretary of Quang Ninh Province's Party Committee Nguyen Van Doc assigned Halong City authorities to find a suitable location for the twin-tower project.Concurrently, Doc asked FLC to speed up legal procedures to commence construction of some projects already approved for the group, such as Cao Xanh budget apartment project in Ha Khanh and Nui Ham urban area in Halong, tourist destinations on Ngoc Vung Island and Van Canh Island in Van Don District, and a tourist hydrofoil station in Van Don in April 2018. They were also encouraged to invest in other districts and towns in the province.Currently, FLC is the owner of some luxury projects in Halong such as Halong Star golf course, and the complex of FLC Halong Villa and Resort. They are under progress and some of their components have been finished and ready for operation.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/58772/FLC-insists-on-twin-tower-project-in-Halong.html

Amazon studying Vietnam market


The world's leading e-commerce player, Amazon, is scoping out the Vietnamese mar-ket, hoping to benefit local consumers and enterprises.If Amazon's plan is materialised, Vietnam would be its second Southeast Asian mar-ket, following Singapore.


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Vuong Manh Hoang, CEO of Digital Service Integration JSC, said that Amazon aims to help Vietnamese enterprises export their products to the US through the platform rather than promoting US products in Vietnam.He told a Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper reporter that Amazon would facilitate Viet-namese exports to the US, which he said, have met various barriers regarding proce-dures.Amazon will work with local units to churn out Amazon-branded products in Viet-nam, he noted.Making up 42 percent of the US's e-commerce market share, and with experience in au-tomatic management, goods transportation, warehouse building, consumer assess-ment and barcode technology, Amazon is expected to help boost Vietnam's e-commerce, Hoang added.He highlighted the popularity of online payments and better goods transportation in-frastructure in Vietnam as favourable conditions for Amazon to launch services in the country, adding that there are many online shopping websites in Vietnam but their prestige is low.Tuan Ha, CEO of Vinalink, a digital marketing training and research centre, said Am-azon's presence in Vietnam may open up opportunities for Vietnamese to sell their products through the platform.He also noted the possibility that Amazon will seek partners in logistics or launch an online shopping site in Vietnamese.Vietnam is an attractive destination for e-commerce players since the country ranks 15th worldwide in the number of internet users, or 53 percent of its population. The number of smartphone users in the country also stands at nearly 50 million.According to the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), Vietnam's e-commerce market grew by more than 25 percentin 2017 and the pace could be maintained during 2018-2020.Aware of Vietnam's great potential in e-commerce, Chinese Alibaba Group increased its shares in Lazada, an online shopping site located in Southeast Asia, from 51 percent to 83 percent.During a meeting with leaders of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Executive Chair of Alibaba Group Jack Ma expressed his hope for cooperation with a number of Vietnam-ese companies operating in Fintech Payment.Alipay, Alibaba's mobile and online payment platform, signed a strategic agreement with NAPAS, the first and unique intermediary payment service provider being grant-ed license by the SBV of providing switching and electronic clearing and settlement services in Vietnam.Central Group also purchased Zalora, a leading online fashion shop in Southeast Asia.A representative from VECOM said the Vietnamese e-commerce market is forecast to see fierce competition to attract consumers and gain market share in the near future.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/amazon-studying-vietnam-market/127833.vnp

Amazon welcomes Vietnamese traders, but will not come to Vietnam


Despite rumours that Amazon will enter Vietnam as a competitor of China's Alibaba, the representative of the US e-commerce giant expressed no such intention when he attended Vietnam Online Business Forum today in Hanoi.The manager of Amazon's Global Selling Singapore, Gijae Seong, said they have now three markets in Asia together with five markets in Europe and three others in Amer-ica. The three current markets of Amazon so far are Japan, India, and Singapore.Seong refused to answer any questions about a possible expansion in Vietnam as a re-tailer, but he was eager to welcome local traders to operate on the Amazon platform and export their products to the world.With an introduction on Youtube, Seong took Mary Nguyen as an example. Nguyen started trading her tailored clothes and accessories with the trademark Marycrafts on Amazon in 2015 and posted a growth rate of 150 per cent so far. Based in Singapore, Nguyen has now four workshops with 80 workers in Vietnam.


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Seong told the event participants that other traders in Vietnam could enjoy similar suc-cess when operating on the platform, adding that they can either learn how to trade online on Amazon or join a training session at the local Vietnam E-commerce Associ-ation (VECOM).According to Nguyen Ngoc Dung, vice head of VECOM, they cooperate with the giant retailer to train small and medium-sized Vietnamese enterprises to reach foreign mar-kets through Amazon's platform. They offer different training courses on capacity building and legal knowledge regarding trading on foreign markets.Dung said VECOM will work as a connection and a sharing hub between successful Vietnamese sellers and newcomers to the platform.He said this will definitely help potential small exporters and traders who still face dif-ficulties in exporting, especially to potential markets like the US and Europe.Dung said the first course is expected to begin this April and will be free of charge. Candidates who wish to join should deposit VND2 million and get their money back after finishing the course.According to data, earlier this year, Amazon's market value surpassed Microsoft for the first time. The US e-commerce giant's market capitalisation reached $702.46 billion in February, ranking as the third most valuable company in the world behind Apple and Alphabet, the company that owns Google.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/197171/amazon-welcomes-vietnamese-traders--but-will-not-come-to-vietnam.html

Inspectorate proposes prosecution of MobiFone over AVG acquisition


Most of the violations and damages caused by MobiFone are the responsibilities of the Board of directors and relevant key officers.According to the conclusions of the government Inspectorate in Document No.355/KL-TTCP issued on March 14, the actual financial status and business activities of AVG since its establishment to the time it was acquired by MobiFone were very bad.Its total assets were over VND3.26 trillion ($143.6 million), including VND1.267 trillion ($55.8 million) of payables and VND208.6 billion ($9.2 million) of the remaining value of fixed assets. The company was constantly in the red, accumulated losses of VND1.633 trillion ($72 million) from the establishment to March 31, 2015, equivalent to 45 per cent of AVG's charter capital.AVG's capital from the audio services business line mainly came from loans. This com-pany poured VND2.473 trillion ($109 million) into capturing up to 68 per cent of the charter capital in Mai Linh Silk Worm Seed JSC (SSJC Mai Linh) and An Vien BP JSC.This figure was 13 times higher than the initial investment of these two companies' shareholders, and carried significant financial risks. Additionally, the information on the deals was obscure, but MobiFone still bought these two investments.In MobiFone's proposal submitted to the Ministry of Information and Communica-tions (MIC) to invest into AVG, MobiFone misrepresented AVG's financial status to the degree that it made a positive assessment: "The revenue of AVG from 2012 to 2014 increased, along with gross profit and all other indicators."Misrepresenting information is a violation of Article 9 of Law No.69/2014/QH13 on the management and utilisation of state capital invested in enterprises.MobiFone's irresponsible choice of the appraisal agency, negligence in checking the appraisal results, and relying on them to conduct the acquisition amount to a serious violation of the law.Although AVG's valuation was not objective and reliablenot to mention that it violated appraisal standards, MobiFone accepted the results, which showed the irresponsibility of MobiFone. Meanwhile, the cost for consultancy services was high at VND3.19 bil-lion ($140,000) in the contract, of which MobiFone paid VND1.54 billion ($68,000).MobiFone used the VND16.565 trillion ($730 million) price appraised by AMAX to ne-gotiate and purchase 95 per cent of AVG's shares. This figure included payable debts of VND1.134 trillion ($50 million). In fact, after excluding intangible assets of VND13.448 trillion ($592.5 million) and payable debts of VND1.134 trillion ($50 mil-


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lion), the equity of AVG was only VND1.983 trillion ($87.4 million) on March 31, 2015.However, MobiFone acquired 95 per cent of AVG at VND8.889 trillion ($392 million)a highly inflated price which caused a loss of about VND7 trillion ($309 million) to state capital in MobiFone, including AVG's payable debts of VND1.134 trillion ($50 million).During the share purchase MobiFone did not exclude AVG's two investments outside the television sector (SSJC Mai Linh and An Vien BP), which was not in line with the directions of MIC.In addition to the wrongdoings in formulating and submitting the acquisition propos-al to MIC, MobiFone also violated regulations on share transfer contracts and payment for stake purchases and related costs.In the agreement, MobiFone committed to provide financial assistance for AVG to pay debts of a total of VND1.094 trillion ($48.2 million). This commitment was not in con-formity with the investment policy approved by MIC. MobiFone used 100 per cent of its equity to invest and resulted in a loss of VND1.3 billion ($57,270) in corporate in-come tax for the state budget.As a result, MobiFone's violations caused financial damages of VND7.006 trillion ($309 million) to the state capital in the company, as well as heavily impacted the business results in 2016 and the next years. MobiFone's profit from financial activities in 2016 was reduced by VND321.7 billion ($14.14 million) and the accumulated damages up to December 31, 2017 were VND1.983 trillion ($87.36 million).Based on the conclusions of the inspectorate, the chair and the members of the Board of directors, general directors, deputy general directors, the chief accountant, as well as relevant divisions will be subject to penal review and punished according to the law.http://www.vir.com.vn/inspectorate-proposes-prosecution-of-mobifone-over-avg-ac-quisition-57189.html

Petrolimex and PV Oil oppose Saigon Petro's wish to return to RON A92


Vietnam's two largest petrol distributors, disagree with Saigon Petro Co., Ltd's pro-posal to return to selling RON A92 petrol after reporting low bio-fuel E5 sales.Nguyen Quang Dung, deputy general director of Petrolimex, told Vnexpress that Sai-gon Petro is just one of 29 petroleum distributors, and the remaining 28 distributors did not express agreement with Saigon Petro's proposal.Dung stated that during the bio-fuel E5 distribution process, firms have the right to list their difficulties as well as express their proposals. Petrolimex alone has yet to face any problems during the switch to bio-fuel since the middle of last December.Dung added that it has been two months since the policy came into effect, which is not long enough to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy.Cao Hoai Duong, general director of PV Oil, said that replacing RON A92 with bio-fuel E5 is a smart policy. The E5 sales have been increasing, making up 65 per cent of PV Oil's petroleum sales volume.Previously, Saigon Petro proposed to return to selling RON A92. Notably, in a docu-ment submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Ministry of Fi-nance (MoF), it reported that E5 sales only made up 30 per cent of total petrol sales.According to Saigon Petro, after more than two months since the date set for the nation to switch from RON A92 to E5, 70 per cent of customers still use RON A95 for their vehicles, while only 30 per cent has switched to bio-fuel E5, despite it being cheaper.Notably, the price of RON A95 is VND1,600 higher than a litre of bio-fuel E5. Besides, using RON A95 will not bring Vietnam closer to reaching its environmental protection target.Due to the above disadvantages of RON A95 and the low percentage of E5 users, Sai-gon Petro proposed to return to selling RON A92.Additionally, Saigon Petro proposed a range of solutions to turn customers away from RON A95 and increase E5 usage. Notably, the firm proposed the authorities to increase the environmental protection tax to VND4,000 per litre from VND3,000 on RON A95, while decreasing the tax on bio-fuel E5 to VND2,500 per litre.


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Saigon Petro mentioned in the document that in order to stimulate customers to use bio-fuel E5 instead of RON A95, local authorities need to increase the selling price of RON A95, creating a price difference of VND2,000-2,500 or 20 per cent instead of the existing VND1,600 or 8 per cent.Saigon Petro's proposal to return to selling RON A92 petrol raised questions as to why the company is going against the government's policy to switch to bio-fuel E5.Since January 1, 2018, the nationwide switch from RON A92 to bio-fuel E5 has been in effect. According to statistics published by deputy minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai in early February, the use of bio-fuel E5 has been increasing rapidly, mak-ing up approximately 65 per cent of total petrol sales.Bio-fuel E5 sales in certain cities and provinces accounted for up to 80 per cent of total petrol sales, Hai said, adding that the average rate nationwide was some 60-65 per cent.According to PV Oil, E5 bio-fuel sales at its stations reached 600-650cu.m per day, in-creasing 2.5 times against last year and accounting for 70 per cent of its total petrol sales.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/197173/petrolimex-and-pv-oil-oppose-sai-gon-petro-s-wish-to-return-to-ron-a92.html

Sabeco charged $110 million in tax arrears


Saigon Beer, Alcohol and Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) will have to pay nearly VND2.5 trillion ($109.8 million) in tax arrears, according to newswire Vnexpress.Notably, according to the report of the State Audit Office submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), as of December 31, 2016, Sabeco held more than VND2.8 trillion ($122.99 million) in profit after which it had not declared tax.In the first quarter of 2017, VND76 billion of this VND2.8 trillion ($122.99 million) was divided among several funds. Thus, the remaining undeclared profit of Sabeco was more than VND2.7 trillion ($118.6 million).As 89.59 per cent of Sabeco was owned by the state before selling 53 per cent of this to Thai Beverage, the state audit proposed MoIT to collect VND2.5 trillion ($109.8 mil-lion) to the state budget.Along with the tax arrears, the state audit asked MoIT to consider the responsibility of the board of directors and individuals in not declaring the real profits of the corpora-tion.According to the audited financial results, Sabeco suffered a loss of VND445 billion ($19.54 million) from investing in banking, stocks, as well as pouring money into fi-nancial investment funds.Besides, the state audit found that Sabeco had committed violations in paying the bo-nus of the board of directors. Notably, in the fiscal year of 2015 Sabeco spent over VND15 billion ($658,927) on the bonuses of the chair of the board of directors, the gen-eral director, the deputy general director, the head of the controlling board, and the chief accountant, exceeding regulations by VND13 billion ($571,070).This is not the first time that Sabeco has had to pay tax arrears.Previously, in July 2015, the state audit submitted documents to the Ministry of Fi-nance (MoF) proposing the collection of VND408 billion ($18.7 million) in special con-sumption tax arrears for 2013.After auditing the corporation, the office found that Sabeco has been evading taxes for years by establishing ten regional trading companies where it owned 90-94 per cent of the shares. Sabeco would distribute products at low prices to Sabeco Trading Compa-ny, which would then be distributed to regional trading companies at a higher price before being sold to other distributors and wholesalers.However, at the time, Phan Dang Tuat, chair of Sabeco, told Vneconmy that there is no practical basis for the proposal of the State Audit Office because excise tax is supposed to be levied on producers, not traders. Furthermore, using the selling price of regional trading companies can lead to double taxation, as it applies value added tax.Tuat added, if the final decision of the state audit, MoIT, and the general Department


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of Taxation is that Sabeco must pay tax arrears, then it will do so.In addition, in November 2016, the government inspector proposed MoF to collect nearly VND2.5 trillion ($109.8 million) in the special consumption tax from Sabeco.http://www.vir.com.vn/sabeco-charged-110 million-in-tax-arrears-57187.html

Grab decries Vietnam's plan to regulate it as taxi service


Grab expressed concerns over Vietnam's plan to treat it like a taxi company, not a tech company.Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The said last Thursday that companies like Grab or Uber must be treated as transport companies rather than tech companies with regards to their operating licences, drivers' profiles, and tax duties.The comment was made at the meeting to discuss the draft decree replacing Decree No.86/2014/ND-CP on business and conditions for automobile transportation.In response, Jerry Lim, country head of Grab Vietnam, said that, "Grab cannot be clas-sified as a taxi company and return back to square one, especially with all the efforts Grab, and the government, made to drive Vietnam's digital economy."According to Lim, the classification of the nature of the e-hailing business is a critical decision to make. The reason why e-hailing companies like Grab have received strong support from the public is precisely because of the agility of a technology company to improve the lives of people in Vietnam.He went on to elaborate the benefits of sharing economy services like Grab. Diver-part-ners chose to come on board the Grab platform as they enjoy the flexibility and free-dom to drive. Those who wish to drive full-time can do so, while those who prefer to drive at their own leisure can do so as well. People who wish to drive using their own cars can earn additional income opportunities too.He said that driver-partners who use the Grab mobile application have claimed that they now enjoy more back-to-back passenger bookings, better job satisfaction, better job security, improved time management, and feel safer driving. Most importantly, driving with Grab has provided them with higher income opportunities and better livelihoods for them and their families.Meanwhile, commuters chose Grab because the firm has improved their lives in sig-nificant ways through technologyfrom faster rides, transparency in pricing, conven-ience, and comfort to safety. If driver-partners are being impacted, naturally passengers will be impacted greatly, too. With less driver-partners on the streets, pas-sengers will have a harder time getting their rides, according to Lim."The whole essence of a digital and sharing economy will be lost if we were forced to adopt a taxi business model," Lim stressed. "Our end goal is not to just be a technology platform for e-hailing. We are building an ecosystem that digitally connects multiple consumer services from transport, food delivery, and logistics to a mobile wallet that allows users to buy their daily necessities beyond transport.""We really want to move forward in bringing more tech innovations to Vietnam. We hope the Vietnamese government will take an inclusive approach in dealing with new digital platforms, so that Vietnam can catch up with this global race towards the digital economy," he stated.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/197179/grab-decries-vietnam-s-plan-to-regulate-it-as-taxi-service.html

First Travelodge hotel on way in Khanh Hoa


Arena Cam Ranh will be home to the first hotel in Vietnam with the Travelodge brand.The Nha Trang Bay Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company, the investor of Arena Cam Ranh, has partnered with Travelodge to develop a hotel under the in-ternational brand.Vietnam's first Travelodge hotel is within Arena Cam Ranh, which will be built in Nguyen Tat Thanh Street, Cam Ranh, in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa. The hotel will include an all-day dining restaurant, a gym, and a large swimming pool.The Arena Cam Ranh holiday and entertainment complex has been given a lot of at-


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tention as it is the only condotel project in Cam Ranh at the moment expected to open in 2020. With unique architecture resembling a swallow's nest, its four condotels will be combined with amenities such as beach clubs, a performance arena, retail outlets, restaurants, and the Arena Square, which can accommodate 15,000 people.Another highlight of the complex will be the three-area swimming pool, including a mineral water pool for relaxation and healthcare, a salt mineral water pool for a "beach" experience on days with unfavourable weather conditions for swimming in the sea, and a fresh water pool. The hot mineral water is sourced directly from Cam Ranh Bay to guarantee its quality.The first pedestrian mall in Cam Ranh will also be built by the investor, from Nguyen Tat Thanh Street to Bai Dai Beach, connecting to the Arena Square and the swimming pool.2017 saw a lot of positive changes in Vietnam's real estate market, including notable growth in the condotel segment, which were mostly built in the central city of Da Nang and also Nha Trang, near Cam Ranh in Khanh Hoa province, according to the Vietnam Association of Realtors.With a global network of hotels all over the world, Travelodge is an ideal partner for the stable growth of the property, according to the investor of Arena Cam Ranh. Stephen Burt, Chair of Travelodge Asia, told local media that Vietnam is an important destination as the government has intensified investment in transport and social infra-structure, which has encouraged the hospitality industry's development and resulted in increasing numbers of international travellers over recent years. In its strategy for developing a global network to approach customers from all over the world, Trave-lodge is confident in ensuring capacity in the Arena Cam Ranh hotel's rooms.Travelodge is a US-based global budget hotel chain. It has over 1,000 hotels worldwide but its total number of properties in Asia remains small compared to other regions. It has appeared in the Philippines, the Maldives and Singapore and last year expanded to Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia and is currently looking to further the brand's presence throughout Asia via multiple options, including acquisition, leas-ing, management and franchise.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/biz-traveler/first-travelodge-hotel-on-way-in-khanh-hoa

Economist calls for end to negative sentiment against Vietnam's super-rich


'The presence of affluent people is necessary for a society to develop.'Vo Tri Thanh, deputy director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, shares his perspectives on how Vietnamese people view the affluent in an interview with VnExpress.He also talks about how these views can change for the better as Vietnam ushers in a new era, and how the country's cream of the crop can lend a helping hand for the great-er good.Forbes recently announced its 2018 World's Billionaires list, and there are two Viet-namese newcomers on it. What do you think about Vietnam's growing number of bil-lionaires in recent years?I believe there are way more than four billionaires in Vietnam as reported; the rest just doesn't want to be noticed. As a society advances, the emergence of its upper-class is not something abnormal. The same goes for Vietnam, a developing country with rising numbers of billionaires and tycoons, along with rapid economic growth, is certainly a good sign. This shows that the nation is developing and prospering.The increasing emergence of rich people in Vietnam is a positive sign, but the gap be-tween the rich and the poor is still there. What's your opinion on this matter?The presence of affluent people is necessary for a society to develop, or else it's going be very difficult to do so. On the contrary, the wealthy also need to understand that if society should become too "polarised", there will be less room for them to grow. The rising number of rich people must accompany the closing of such gaps in society, and the idea of "one can only get rich through something extraordinary" has to go.


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First, the appearance of the wealthy goes hand in hand with inequality between the rich and the poor. In my opinion, inequality is a double-edged sword. This isn't about inequality itself, but about the cause behind it. It's fine for billionaires and entrepre-neurs to use information and opportunities to expand their businesses; but once they exploit those things to gain advantages and privileges, or even resort to corruption, then we have a problem.The second thing we need to talk about is the rich's contribution to society. Wealth and prosperity cannot be sustained if the majority of the population is poor. We welcome the emergence of new tycoons and billionaires in Vietnam, and we also need to encour-age them to give more to society, to the development and prosperity of a nation. It would be a boon to the general population if the rich's wealth, aside from being used for personal gains, could be contributed back into society and shared with the less-for-tunate. So, in addition to pouring resources into investments and consumption, the af-fluent can contribute to the community through, for example, investing in non-profit causes in the fields of education, medicine or agriculture.What do you think about people who say it's time for society to look at the upper-class in a less scrutinising, cynical way?I remember how a former official used to say that society tends to think of the rich as people with power. That notion wasn't created out of thin air; everything has a reason.Besides the wealth involved, the wage gap and the inequality I have mentioned above, it is the very lifestyles of some rich people that has earned them less-than-favourable, if not downright antagonistic, gazes from society. However, I do believe it is time for society to be more forgiving.What can we do to facilitate more contributions from Vietnamese tycoons and billion-aires for the greater good?After more than 30 years, Vietnam's entrepreneurship is now in its fifth generation thanks to government reforms which treat private businesses as essential, indispensa-ble cogs on the gears of economic and societal development. In the last few decades, Vietnam has had several decent businesses, but for them to be genuinely great and high-profile, I don't think we're there yet.When it comes to whether a business is "big" or not, the measurements of revenue, workforce or financial contribution might be important, but they're not enough. For me, a "big business" needs to have a global brand, innovative technologies and a man-agable distribution network. These are the principal criteria to determine if a business is "mature" or "big", or if it's still in a state of "puberty".And so, Vietnamese businesses need three things. First is how to manufacture pur-chase orders. Next is to be legally supported. And finally connections between creative businesses at a time when such connections are still weak.As I keep saying, having a lot of money is great, but it does not guarantee success. Pri-vate businesses in Vietnam already have their names and roles, but the waters are still pretty much uncharted.From an institutional perspective, despite some basic changes having been made, min-istries and governmental entities need to work harder to produce policies in line with international commitments and to make themselves more competitive.What do you think about billionaires who say they don't want the title and that it was never one of their priorities?I think those statements are genuine and need to be appreciated. Entrepreneurs and tycoons make money for themselves, yes, but they also want to contribute to society and to their countries. That is why there are successful billionaires investing in non-profits involving education, medicine or agriculture... These businesses may not pro-duce great streams of revenuesome actually lose money insteadbut entrepreneurs still run them because they want to do something for society and for their countries.In essence, what matters here is authenticity. Looking at the circle of Vietnamese en-trepreneurs, tycoons and billionaires, each person can have their own opinions and perspectives, but it is through how they live that they present themselves to the world, that they earn respect. This is not a simple math problem and, of course, there's still so


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much to do.The number of billionaires in Vietnam has doubled from last year to four on Forbes' recently released 2018 list of the world's richest people. The new additions are Tran Ba Duong and Tran Dinh Long, both chairmen in the steel and automotive industries.The Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) was established in 1977 to as-sist the Party Central Committee and the government with economic management and research in accordance with the Resolution of the Fourth National Party Congress. From 2008 to 2013, the institute has presided over the formulation of more than 100 proposals, reports and draft legal documents submitted to the Ministry of Finance, the government and the prime minister.https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/economist-calls-for-end-to-negative-senti-ment-against-vietnam-s-super-rich-3722378.html

Vietnam Online Business Forum opens


The Vietnam Online Business Forum (VOBF) 2018, the second of its kind, opened in Hanoi on March 14 to the welcome of investors following the 2017 success.The VOBF will also come to HCM City on March 16.In his opening speech, head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Department of E-Commerce and Economy Dang Hoang Hai said after two decades of the Internet's presence in Vietnam, e-commerce has been exploding and become popular in the lives of businesses and people.Statistics showed that e-commerce has grown over 20 percent, and particularly 25 per-cent in 2017 among the world's fastest.Hai hoped that the forum, with the participation of prestigious exerts at home and abroad, will discuss new e-commerce trends, outstanding technologies and innovative business ideas.The E-Business Index released by the Vietnam E-Commerce Association (VECOM) showed that online retail and marketing, tourism and payment saw the most impres-sive growth. Specifically, online retail revenue increased by 35 percent while shipping services revenue grew from 62 percent to 200 percent.The National Payment Corporation of Vietnam reported that online transactions using domestic cards in 2017 rose by nearly 50 percent in volume and 75 percent in value year-on-year. Several affiliated marketing companies posted 100-200 percent growth.According to the VECOM, the rate of room reservations via online travel agents in-creased by over 30 percent annually from 20 percent in 2016, pushing the online tour-ism earnings by more than 50 percent.Dang Thuy Ha, director of Consumer Behaviour Research at Nielsen Vietnam, said nearly 4 billion people worldwide are forecast to subscribe to Internet by 2020. Trends such as Big data, virtual reality technology, sharing economy and cashless payment will be increasingly popular. Revenue from sharing economy is expected to near 300 billion USD by 2025.There are 59 million Internet subscribers in Vietnam now while 91 percent of the pop-ulation used smart phones, nearly 80 percent of them live in rural areas. The Vietnam-ese spend 25 hours per week on average on the Internet.VECOM Chair Nguyen Thanh Hung said Amazon will officially enter Vietnam this March, firstly launching a project with VECOM to support small and medium-sized enterprises.VECOM general Secretary Tran Trong Tuyen commented that Amazon's penetration into Vietnam will facilitate the development of eco-system, sales solutions and logis-tics services, as well as bring goods to consumers at more competitive prices.Vietnam's e-commerce market is forecast to see intense competition this year, he said.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-online-business-forum-opens/127867.vnp

HCM City tops Vietnam E-commerce Index 2018


HCM City again leads the country in e-commerce, according to the Vietnam E-com-merce Association (VECOM)'s Vietnam E-commerce Index 2018, released at the Viet-


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nam Online Business Forum 2018 on March 14 in Hanoi.HCM City tops Vietnam E-commerce Index 2018, vietnam economy, business news, vn news, vietnamnet bridge, english news, Vietnam news, news Vietnam, vietnamnet news, vn news, Vietnam net news, Vietnam latest news, Vietnam breaking newsThe city recorded an aggregate score of 82.1 points, 3.5 points higher than in the 2017 index. Sub-indexes put the city much higher than the national average, in particular in Infrastructure and Human Resources and Business-to-Business (B2B) transactions. Hanoi was second, with 79.8 points, 4 points higher than last year, followed by north-ern Hai Phong city, central Da Nang city, and southern Binh Duong province.The distance between HCM City and Hanoi and these localities, however, is substan-tial.The average score was 37.5 points. The difference between the average of the lowest five localities (27.5 points) and the top five (64.3) points was 36.7 points.Despite the efforts of State management agencies, organisations and enterprises to nar-row the gap around the country, results fell short of expectations and bridging the dig-ital divide continues to be a major challenge for Vietnam.The survey on which the index is based was conducted by VECOM from September to November 2017 at more than 4,100 enterprises around the country, measuring four sub-indexes: Infrastructure and Human Resources; E-commerce Business Transac-tions with Consumers (B2C); Business-to-Business (B2B); and government to Business (G2B).Director general of the E-commerce and Digital Economy Department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang Hai said that e-commerce has grown quickly in the 20 years since the internet arrived in Vietnam and has become increasingly popular for businesses and the community. "Growth in e-commerce has always remained above 20 per cent and was 25 per cent in 2017; which is high globally," he said.Some experts have forecast that growth of over 25 per cent can be sustained during the 2018-2020 period.The Vietnam Online Business Forum 2018 attracted many delegates as well as impor-tant speakers from Amazon and Nielsen. Many e-commerce enterprises took part, such as Matbao, DKT Technology, Zalo, and Vietnam Payment Solution (VNPAY).http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/197191/hcmc-tops-vietnam-e-commerce-index-2018.html

HCM City authorities work to connect support industry suppliers


The HCM City Department of Industry and Trade joined hands with the HCM City Ex-port Processing and Industrial Zone Authority and the management board of the Sai-gon Hi-tech Park to connect support industry suppliers at a festival in HCM City on March 14.The event attracted 17 foreign firms operating in electronics, automobiles, lorry and mechanical engineering and 80 domestic support industry manufacturers.Speaking at the event, deputy director of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Phuong Dong said networking will help participating firms improve competitiveness and increase local contents in locally-made products.Under the corporate demand stimulation policy, the department received 12 projects on building workshops and investing in modern equipment at a total cost of nearly 800 billion VND (35.5 million USD).He said the department vows to work closely with agencies concerned to support per-sonnel training, particularly managerial staff, follow mechanisms and policies of the government and HCM City to guide enterprises how to renovate manufacturing, en-hance output and expand markets.Nguyen Quoc Anh, Chair of the municipal Rubber Plastic Manufacturers' Association, said there are a number of policies to support start-ups such as demand stimulation and technological adoption.In the field of plastics and rubber, the rate of locally-made plastics and rubber used in motorbikes and trucks reached 100 percent and 30 40 percent, respectively.


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The event is expected to help industrial manufacturers and support industry suppliers access domestic and foreign markets and gradually join in the global supply chain.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hcm-city-authorities-work-to-connect-support-industry-suppliers/127859.vnp

VITM 2018: Vietnam's travel companies adapt to Industry 4.0


Businesses from 43 provinces and cities across Vietnam will participate in the sixth Vi-etnam International Travel Mart VITM 2018 from March 29 to April 1, seeking to learn about tourism trends in the fourth industrial revolution.Notably, several units have registered to organise large-scale pavilions, including the Republic of Korea (270sq.m), Hanoi (180sq.m), Vietravel (252sq.m), and Hanoi Red-tours (126sq.m).Under theme of "Online travel, Vietnam tourism looks toward the fourth industrial revolution," the VITM 2018 will contain numerous activities encouraging enterprises to gain access to and grasp business opportunities in the digital era.It will see the participation of travel companies from 20 countries and territories.A seminar themed "Online travel inevitable trend of Vietnam's tourism" will take place, together with pavilions for 10 online travel agencies.The Vietnam Tourism Association calls on travel agencies to promptly apply modern technologies to sell their products, thus promoting their capacity to attract and serve customers online.Following the success of VITM 2017, an international street food festival will be held as well, offering visitors with signature street food of Vietnam and other countries.In addition, more than 40,000 low-budgetary air tickets and 15,000 discounted package tours will be on offer at the fair.http://vnbusiness.com.vn/travel/10282-vitm-2018-vietnams-travel-companies-adapt-to-industry-40.html

Vietnam attends electricity exhibition Elecrama 2018 in India


Nearly 40 Vietnamese enterprises in electricity and electronics as well as trade promo-tion organisations joined showcases at Elecrama 2018 at the India Expo Mart in Uttar Pradesh State of India from March 10-14.The biennial event covered 80,000 square meters and attracted 1,500 enterprises and organisations who brought various products, including machines, technology equip-ment and solutions for electricity production, transmission, distribution as well as electronics, renewable energy, automobile electricity, power storage and railway elec-tricity.Along with showcase activities, Elecrama also included seminars, high-level meetings and thematic conferences on electricity and electronics, including the World Unity Summit Conference that allowed participants to meet policymakers, advisors, re-searchers and partners in their area.The ChangeXchange 2018 was a venue for producers and providers of power and elec-tronic equipment, technology solutions and services to meet customers and partners to share experience and seek cooperation opportunities.Sponsored by India's Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Heavy Industries and Pub-lic Enterprises, New and Renewable Energy, and Power, the event lured about 20,000 visitors and 500 enterprises from 60 countries and territories.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-attends-electricity-exhibition-elecrama-2018-in-india/127831.vnp

15th China-Asean Expo slated for September


The China-Asean Expo (CAEXPO) is scheduled to return to Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwestern China, on its 15th edition from September 12-15.The theme of this year's event is "Jointly building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the China-Asean community of innovation."


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More countries, especially those along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Cen-tury Maritime Silk Road, will be invited to attend the expo to create more business op-portunities, said Wang Lei, the expo's secretary-general.Guo Chuanwei, an official from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said he hopes that China and Asean nations can bring more top-level firms to the trade event to deepen cooperation between the two sides.Launched in 2004, the CAEXPO provides an important platform to promote trade and relations between China and Asean.Last year, the trade fair took place from September 11-13 in Nanning. Vietnam was represented by 250 booths, the most among Asean countries, introducing various products, including farm produce, processed food, footwear, consumer goods, wood-en products and handicrafts.China is currently Asean's largest trade partner and Asean is China's third largest trade partner. Trade between the two sides rose by 13.8 percent to $514.8 billion in 2017.Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philip-pines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.http://english.vov.vn/economy/15th-chinaasean-expo-slated-for-september-370479.vov

HCM City hosts 3 international farm expos


The first International Exhibition & Conference for Horticultural and Floricultural Pro-duction and Processing Technology (Hortex Vietnam) and the first International Trade Show on Agricultural Machinery, Equipment and Technologies (Agri Machinery & Tech Vietnam) opened on March 14 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre.The two exhibitions have attracted more than 100 exhibitors from 20 countries and ter-ritories showcasing a wide range of agricultural machinery and equipment; technolo-gies for vegetable, flower and fruits industries; equipment for cultivation, post-harvest and processing of fresh vegetables; and flowers, ornamental plants, plant nutrition, and garden and landscape architecture, among others.Organised by the Minh Vi Exhibition and Advertisement Service Co., Ltd and the Netherlands' Nova Exhibitions BV, the exhibitions will include professional seminars and a business-to-business matching programme.Speaking at the opening ceremony, Nguyen Hong Son, director of the Crop Produc-tion Department, said the country's fruits and vegetables exports enjoyed an average growth rate of 32.7 per cent in the 2011-16 period to reach $3.55 billion last year.Vietnam's horticultural and floricultural sectors have potential to develop further, but they have encountered challenges due to the limitation in use of advanced production and post-harvest technologies.The expos provide an ideal platform for Vietnamese farmers and businesses in the hor-ticultural and floricultural sector to approach new production technologies, especially in processing, Son said.In addition, domestic and international firms can exchange information and explore business opportunities as well as expand markets to enable Vietnam to become one of the world's largest export countries of flowers, fruits and vegetables, he said.Another exhibitionILDEX Vietnaman International Livestock, Dairy, Meat Processing and Aquaculture Exposition, also opened in HCM City yesterday, featuring the latest machinery, technologies and business solutions for livestock breeding, dairy and aquaculture industries, feed and feed ingredients, animal health and pharmaceutical products, and others.The expo features nearly 250 exhibitors from 30 countries and territories, with six na-tional pavilions set up by France, the US, South Korea, the Netherlands, China, and the Czech Republic.Nino Gruettke, managing director of VNU Exhibitions Asia Pacific Co., Ltd, one of the event's organisers, said this year's event is the largest ever and nearly 50 per cent big-ger than the previous one held in 2016.


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There has been a strong increase in the number of foreign exhibitors, accounting for 72 per cent of the total displaying scale.The increased participation by foreign exhibitors shows their interest in the country's livestock industry, he said.Hoang Thanh Van, director general of the Livestock Production Department, said: "Over the past decade, ILDEX Vietnam has greatly contributed to the development of the livestock and aquaculture industries in Vietnam and become an important plat-form for promoting trade and transferring technology and knowledge."The three exhibitions will be held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre in District 7 until March 16.http://bizhub.vn/news/hcm-city-hosts-3-intl-farm-expos_293184.html

Vietnam Expo to promote regional, international economic connection


The Vietnam International Trade Fair- VIETNAM EXPO will return to Hanoi on its 28th edition from April 11-14.Themed "Enhancing regional and global economic links", the fair is expected to draw the participation of 450 domestic and foreign firms from 23 countries and territories worldwide, including Russia, the Republic of Korea, China, Nepal, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Cuba, Laos, Hong Kong (China) and Taiwan (China).On display at 500 booths will be machines, building materials, electricity, electronics and IT, food, beverage, agricultural products and health care products.Other events to be held within the expo will be an export promotion forum, symposi-ums and industrial zone fact-finding tours.After 27 years, VIETNAM EXPO has become a large-scale trade promotion event of the industrial sector. It has brought about numerous economic values as well as opportu-nities for Vietnamese enterprises to boost exports and branch out domestic market.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-expo-to-promote-regional-international-econom-ic-connection/127882.vnp End


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