finance & business news 14 December - HKBAV · Third, banks having the largest capital scale in the...

14 December

finance & business news

FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Reference exchange rate down 7 VND 1Maximum credit growth in 2017 forecasted at 18-19pct 1HCM City to issue bonds next Monday 2SBV seeking comments on amendment to gold management

decree 2Industry 4.0 brings e-payment options to VN 3Customs signs agreement with banks for e-tax payment 4IFC launches RPT governance course for VN banks 5Digital banking grows to support new customers 5Revenue growth of insurance market in 2017 estimated at 22.1pct 7OCB loosens foreign room to 23.66pct and issues 19.5m

bonus shares 7ANZ recommends customers to complete transactions

before the transfer to Shinhan from December 15th-18th 8Vietnam among fastest growing e-commerce countries 8ADB lifts growth prospect of VN to 6.7pct 9Australia renews commitment to support Vietnam's economic

reform 9China to become second largest importer of Vietnam shrimp 10Steel prices seen rising further 11HCM City concerned over sand and cement shortages 11PM hails business community for Vietnam's impressive growth 12Foreign investors suggest improvements to Vietnamese

taxation policy 13Creativity key to growth promotion 13Government highlights new opportunities for investors 14More consistent foreign arbitration rules needed for investment 16Vietnam leads in salary increases in Asean 17Productivity key to escaping mid-income trap 17Vietnam listed among top six most-attractive retail markets 19Building material industry must go green: deputy PM 19Dental tourism rapidly grows in Vietnam 20What will foreign investors do with strong Vietnamese brands? 22Private investor allowed to operate airport 22

Mekong Delta has much room for food processors 24Food industry attracting Japanese interest 24Japan's plastics giants partner with local firms 25Vietnam promotes tourism in India 26VN-Russia business relations boom 27

BIZ NEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Business Briefs 14 December, 2017 27Shares fall on market volatility fears 28VN Index & HNX-Index lose ground 29Sacomreal to boost capital by 30 per cent 29Thai Bev: No commitment made to bid for Sabeco stake 30Carlsberg moves closer to Habeco deal in Vietnam 31ACV prepares for colossal divestment 31Vinaconex to divest from five subsidiaries by end of the year 32E-commerce websites have to be registered 32Sales of construction steel surged 58pct in Nov 33US oncology software launched in Vietnam 34Experts find downtown vehicle restriction scheme unconvincing 34Solutions to Cai Lay tollgate to be submitted at weekend 35Worker efficiency must make a leap 36Ministry to monitor M&A deal between MWG and TAG 38Rail giant makes move to logistics 38Which giants are dominating Vietnam telecommunication

market? 40TCC Group launches MM Mega Market Thang Long 40Samsung and LG Lead Vietnamese Economy 41Loss-making ethanol plant may resume operation 42Vietnam Airlines looking for spares and spare services 43Former national rubber group officials prosecuted 43Vietnam Retail Forum reviews 10-year retail market growth 44Conference confers private investment in green growth 44Forum calls for improvement of business environment 45Japan shares experience in developing food industry 45Organic agricultural production forum to draw 400 delegates 46

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NANCEReference exchange rate down 7 VND

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference VND/USD exchange rate at 22,443 VND/USD on December 14, down 7 VND from the rate on December 13.With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is 23,109 VND and the floor rate 21,770 VND/USD.The opening hour rates at major commercial banks stayed stable.BIDV kept both rates unchanged from the previous day at 22,680 VND/USD (buying) and 22,750 VND/USD (selling).Vietinbank also maintained the same rates as on December 13 at 22,675 VND (buying) and 22,745 VND/USD (selling).The rates listed by Eximbank stayed unchanged from the first day of the week (December 11) at 22,660 VND/USD (buying) and 22,750 VND/USD (selling).Meanwhile, Vietcombank raised both rates by 5 VND, buying the greenback at 22,680 VND/USD and selling at 22,750 VND/USD.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/reference-exchange-rate-down-7-vnd/123310.vnp

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Vietnam finance & business 14 December

Intellasia 14 December 2017 2 / 46

Maximum credit growth in 2017 forecasted at 18-19pct

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| TRI THUC TRE

Credit of the banking system has been significantly accelerated in the past month, ac-cording to the report of the National Financial Supervisory Commission (NFSC). Spe-cifically, as of the end of November 2017, the total credit was estimated to increase 2.8 percent from October and 15.3 percent from the beginning of the year. This figure is a little bit lower than the growth rate of 15.6 percent in the same period of 2016.In terms of structure, changes continue to happen as the proportion of medium and long-term loans of the entire system tend to slightly decrease while short-term loans tend to increase. Specifically, medium and long-term credit accounts for 53.8 percent of the total credit (compared to 55.1 percent at the end of last year). Meanwhile, the proportion of short-term credit rose to 48.7 percent from 44.9 percent at the end of 2016.Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC) said it is likely that commercial banks are reduc-ing short-term capital for medium and long term loans in line with the roadmap in the revised Circular 36/2014/TT-NHNN on safety ratio limit in the operation of credit or-ganisations. It is forecasted that this trend will continue in 2018 when the ratio of short-term capital for medium and long-term loans decreased to 40 percent only instead of 50 percent in 2017.With the 11-month credit growth of 15.3 percent as aforementioned, BVSC said it is likely that this year's maximum credit growth will be just 18-19 percent, meaning that the banking system will not use up the increased room (about 21-22 percent).This stems from many reasons. First, it is very likely that the capital absorption ability of current businesses is limited and the economy only requires credit to swell 15-18 percent/annum which is a moderate level without causing too much risk of potential bad debt. Second, some banks such as VIB, ACB, HDBank, MBB, etc. want to strength-en their lending but right in the first two quarters of the year, the "quota" had almost been used up.Third, banks having the largest capital scale in the system such as Vietcombank, BIDV, and Vietinbank are facing difficulties in capital, the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of these banks is also approaching nine percent. Therefore, if capital in the near future does not increase, the credit development of these banks will surely face difficulties and at least cannot grow strongly.With the aforementioned reasons, BVSC once again forecasts that the credit growth for the entire year 2017 is likely to reach the level equal to 2016.

HCM City to issue bonds next Monday

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

The HCM City government intends to issue VND2 trillion of municipal bonds next Monday to raise capital for its urgent and key infrastructure projects, the news website Zing.vn reports.In a document sent to the finance ministry, the municipal government says it will issue debt next Monday, and receive money from buyers on the following day.These bonds will have tenors of 10, 15, 20 and 30 years. Investors' needs and market conditions are taken into account to decide on the size of each type of debt.Upon the first debt issuance, extra bonds may be issued later to ensure sufficient cap-ital from bond sales, and help increase the liquidity of the secondary market.The municipal government urges the finance ministry to come up with a bond coupon range prior to the issuance date.The local government issued VND9 trillion of bonds between 2014 and 2016. The bond term of 15 years last year carried a coupon of 7.55 percent per annum.The city is in dire need of investment capital for a slew of big-ticket infrastructure projects such as Metro Line No. 1 linking Ben Thanh Market in District 1 and Suoi Tien Park in District 9. If slow disbursement continues, this project would be at risk of sus-pension or fall behind schedule.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57505/HCM City-to-issue-bonds-next-Monday.html

SBV seeking comments on amendment to gold management decree

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is collecting comments on a draft amendment to De-cree No. 24 from 2012 on gold trading management, with the proposed elimination of business conditions for producing gold jewellery and fine arts being the prominent feature.Along with the goal of continuing to manage the gold bar market, the amendment aims to simplify administrative procedures and reduce business conditions.

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Enterprises that manufacture gold jewellery and fine arts need only meet the establish-ment conditions in the law to be registered. Other rules on certificates of production and technical facilities will be eliminated.Some 5,800 enterprises hold certificates for gold jewellery and fine art production but problems exist in the operation of these types of enterprises, according to the SBV, with administrative procedures needing to be simplified.For gold bar trading activities, the SBV also suggests reducing regulations on proce-dures for adjusting business licenses in the spirit of cutting unnecessary costs for en-terprises.The SBV does not regulate changes to the location of gold trading. In the past, banks and enterprises allowed to trade gold bars need only conduct business at places shown on their licenses. There are two activities added, including gold mobilisation from or-ganisations and individuals and trading gold on the account.Prior to the implementation of Decree No. 24 in 2012, the gold market fluctuated sharply. The mobilisation and lending of gold affected the liquidity of the banking sys-tem and the interests of individuals and also created economic instability.After five years of implementation, the decree has curbed the status of gold in the econ-omy and helped stabilise the gold market. Movements in the gold market have no links with fluctuations in the exchange rate and the foreign exchange market and does not affect macroeconomic stability.http://dtinews.vn/en/news/017004/54271/-sbv-seeking-comments-on-amendment-to-gold-management-decree.html

Industry 4.0 brings e-payment options to VN

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

The trend of non-cash payments and digitalisation in personal banking and the explo-sion of fintech firms in Vietnam have placed banks ahead of many opportunities and challenges in fourth industrial revolution. Speaking to the media, Dr Can Van Luc, a financial expert, said that in the long term, cooperation between fintech companies and the commercial banking system needs to be tightened, VietnamPlus reports.Could you explain the challenges and opportunities facing the banking system with the application of digital technology?The fourth industrial revolution poses many opportunities and challenges for the Vi-etnamese banking system. Regarding opportunities, we can see that it will reduce costs and increase competitiveness by developing new markets, changing distribution chan-nels to provide higher quality products and services and also create new business op-portunities, especially cooperation opportunities for both domestic and foreign partners. Mobile payments are opening up a global revolution in e-commerce, bring-ing more opportunities to agents in the economies and playing a key factor in boosting comprehensive finance worldwide.Currently, non-touch payment solutions, QR codes and e-wallets are really popular in both developed and developing countries. They have contributed positively to the two-digit growth rate of the global non-cash payment market. The agents involved in providing payment solutions are also increasingly diverse, from traditional providers, which are financial institutions, to large technology corporations such as Apple, Goog-le, Samsung or e-commerce companies such as Amazon or Alibaba, telecommunica-tions corporations and fintech firms. However, there are also many challenges facing the banking system.The first challenge is the change to business models and culture, which leads to ques-tions of how to manage these changes. Secondly, is the investment in information tech-nology including the risks and the cost calculations of this investment. The third issue is human resources many countries have prepared relatively well for human resources in Industry 4.0, however, Vietnam has been a bit slow in this regard. I hope the gov-ernment will soon develop strategies for the Industry 4.0, especially paying more at-tention to human resources. Another challenge is the information technology infrastructure of the country, which is now rather good, but stability and safety are is-sues that need to be addressed in the future. The final challenge is the legal environ-


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ment of Vietnam. I hope that the government will soon guide the legal framework for digital banking and finance to be recognised in a more transparent and full way, from that facilitating both customers and banks.Currently, digital technology has been implemented in the banking system, bringing many benefits to customers, but there are still risks. What can be done to limit the risks and ensure the safety of customers' personal information?I think there are four important solutions.The first is to increase protection measures to enhance the risk control capacity for in-formation technology, especially cyber security. Secondly, it is necessary to increase the knowledge of customers, people, businesses and bankers themselves to jointly con-trol the risk. To control risks, it requires the involvement of not just one but three sides, namely the financial institutions, customers and regulators. Thirdly, a legal corridor should soon be created to better guide financial institutions in controlling risks. Final-ly, we need to strengthen the information technology infrastructure to minimise tech-nical errors.Should banks link up to develop together?In order for the Vietnamese banking system to carry out e-payment systems connected with each other, there should be a common standard for QR codes so that a customer can trade with different banks and use all on a common platform. It is also necessary to standardise the rules to ensure safe transactions for both banks and customers. Some countries have deployed this in recent years such as Singapore and South Korea.In your viewpoint, should banks consider fintech companies as partners?I think that they will cooperate with the other in the spirit of fair competition to pro-vide good services at a reasonable price for customers. They should work together to create an e-payment ecosystem as well as financial services model for people and banks.How do you evaluate the non-cash trend in Vietnam and its impacts on banking oper-ations?Non-cash payments will develop rapidly in the near future, alongside Industry 4.0, e-commerce, the rising use of smart phones and online activity.It is clear that the rate of Vietnamese using e-payment means, especially mobile pay-ments, has grown very fast in recent years. Statistics show that 62 per cent of shoppers in the world have bought and sold online.At present, 44 per cent of Vietnamese customers have been using digital banking and trading on social networks.With the current speed, it will grow faster in the future. For example, on the occasion of Black Friday or Online Friday, customers adopted e-payments very quickly, using QR codes to make non-cash payments. Vietnam's problem is that there is a need for a better eco-system for e-payments, especially mobile payments, as each mobile compa-ny can not do it by itself, but requires an ecosystem of providers, buyers, sellers and the service users, especially the legal corridor along with the information infrastruc-ture to support that ecosystem.Currently, Vietnamese people are not really familiar with this new form of payment. How can this be improved?This is right, many Vietnamese people still have the habit of using cash. So, there are three things to do.Firstly, we need to enhance communication to raise public awareness about electronic financial services, especially relieving people's anxiety over security in e-payment.Secondly, it is necessary to strengthen and build a legal corridor to protect the interests of the involved parties including people and enterprises as well as financial institu-tions when providing e-payment services.Finally there should be a stable information technology infrastructure to ensure that there are no unfortunate incidents during its operation.http://bizhub.vn/business-insight/industry-40-brings-e-payment-options-to-vn_290761.html


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Customs signs agreement with banks for e-tax payment


The general Department of Customs (GDC) on Tuesday signed a cooperation agree-ment with six commercial banks to carry out a 24/7 e-tax payment scheme.The five local banks are Sacombank, VPBank, HDBank, LienvietpostBank, SCB and the foreign bank is Mizuho Bank Ltd The e-tax payment through the six banks will be im-plemented from December 15.Speaking at the signing ceremony, GDC's deputy general director Nguyen Duong Thai said the customs sector was required to upgrade its e-payment portal for the pur-pose of administrative reform.The e-tax payment would facilitate tax payment anywhere, anytime, reduce time and ensure immediate goods clearance. The customs authority will directly support enter-prises to make payment documents from the original data and minimise errors in money transfer procedures.This could help shorten time to complete customs procedures for import-export activ-ities to the average level of Asean-4 countries following the government's instructions.Firms only need certificate authority (CA) to transfer money and authorise banks to pay taxes through their accounts without fees.Banks participating in e-tax payment are required to upgrade their e-payment portal.Previously, the e-tax payment agreement was signed with five banks Vietcombank, Vi-etinBank, BIDV, MB and Techcombank on October 23.So far, about 1,500 successful transactions have been processed through the website with a tax payment of VND200 billion (US$8.8 million).http://bizhub.vn/banking/customs-signs-agreement-with-banks-for-e-tax-payment_290751.html

IFC launches RPT governance course for VN banks


The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Netherlands Development Fi-nance Company (FMO) on December 13 launched an online course on Related Party Transactions Governance for Vietnamese commercial banks.Related party transactions (RPTs) are viewed as situations, which are open to a possi-ble conflict of interest and can harm individual institutions and stakeholders, that should be subject to rigorous review.The e-course is expected to help promote the application of international best practices in RPTs among commercial banks in Vietnam to improve their access to capital.The e-course, based on the Related Party Transactions Guidebook for Commercial Banks in Vietnam in 2016, is divided into five modules, covering the key concepts, in-cluding governance, RPT policy, approval process and monitoring roles. It also high-lights the importance of transparency and disclosure of the RPTs for commercial banks."We believe continued improvement in governance is the key for commercial banks in Vietnam to grow sustainably and can benefit the entire economy," said Nguyen Nguyet Anh, IFC's Corporate Governance Officer.Banks are engines of growth and generate a multiplier impact on the economy. Failure of one bank has a systematically large impact on the banking system and the economy."Financial institutions should make sure that they adequately manage related party transactions. Abusive RPTs can harm individual institutions and trust in the financial sector as a whole," said Jasper Veel, FMO's Corporate Governance Officer, adding that strong practices contribute to a more favourable investment climate.IFC is a sister organisation of the World Bank and a member of the World Bank Group.http://bizhub.vn/banking/ifc-launches-rpt-governance-course-for-vn-banks_290750.html

Digital banking grows to support new customers

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

Digitalisation in retail banking is becoming a vital trend for Vietnam's banking sector, not only to meet bank customers' especially young customers' needs, but also to help the nation achieve its goal of creating a cashless economy. Trang Nguyen reports.


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'Live' banks, 'live' servicesFor Hanoi-based Tien Phong Bank, launching their new digital banking kiosk called LiveBank in 2016 had only one alternative: taking the lead in making use of disruptive technology and offering customers a channel of digital banking services.Available around the clock, endowed with user-friendly functions, and located in res-idential areas and shopping malls, LiveBank gives its customers easy access to make transactions anytime they want.Dinh Van Chien, deputy general director of Tien Phong Bank (TPBank), said that 80 per cent of customers rate LiveBank as easy to use, with 86 per cent of them willing to employ LiveBank as a channel equivalent to entering a bank branch."We aim to have at least 100 LiveBank kiosks deployed across the nation next year, on top of the current 40. Digital transactions already account for up to 80 per cent of our total transactions," said Chien on the sidelines of last week's Vietnam Retail Banking Forum 2017, hosted by the Vietnam Banks Association and IDG Asean.TPBank's move into the digital era may be bold, but the lender is not alone in the race, as many local rivals are doing the same thing. While none are going the LiveBank kiosk route, many are pairing up with fintech companies to come up with new applications. One of these lenders is Vietnam International Bank (VIB), which has deployed the My-VIB social keyboard, which allows users to pay anyone right on the keyboard of any social chat app on their phone."We know that Generation Y (those born between 1981 and 1995) and Generation Z (those born after 1995) are very tech-savvy. We've seen babies who know how to scroll on an iPad before they ever learn to speak," said Tran Nhat Minh, VIB's deputy CEO. "Disruptive tech has become a part of their lives, and banks who want to reach them need to offer products and services that meet their demands. What members of these generations buy aren't products or services, but experiences."According to Minh, banks cannot afford to assume that what worked for previous gen-erations will also work for Generation Z. This includes physical bank branches with white collar staff, ATMs to withdraw cash, and long queues of people waiting for tell-ers. "We now need sophisticated digital products, digital architectures and platforms to support a customer-centric approach, and digital initiatives that focus on the needs of customers. Simply put, traditional banks ought to transform themselves, to catch up with technology, or else they will not be able to survive this digitalisation," Minh told VIR.The numbers speak volumesAccording to a survey on user behaviour and trends in Vietnam released by IDG Viet-nam in 2017, 44 per cent of participants sometimes go to bank branches for transac-tions, while 61 per cent said they regularly make transactions through internet banking. E-banking solutions are growing in favour because of the easy access and time-saving nature, with 81 per cent of participants having used e-banking solutions for transactions, compared to only 21 per cent in 2015.According to the survey, customer satisfaction with online banking services in the country stems from easy access, time and cost savings, transaction accuracy, and avail-ability of mobile applications.Customer dissatisfaction, on the other hand, remained stable over the last two years, with 68 per cent in 2017 compared to 70 per cent in 2015. Reasons for dissatisfaction include major issues like high transaction costs, transaction errors, slow transaction speeds, poor customer service, and concerns about information security.E-banking users request improvements and further development in application ac-cess, e-banking service quality, and safety and security.Nick Middleton, a consultant at IDG Vietnam, noted in his Vietnam Banking Report 2017 that 45 per cent of net profits in retail banking stem from digital technology and 40 per cent of bank transactions in the country will be processed via mobile devices and the internet by 2020.He cited other sources as saying that 25 per cent of costs could be cut to increase reve-nue, should banks employ disruptive technologies in their retail banking business and


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enhance security features for their customers.A budding cashless economyWith e-banking and e-commerce on the rise in Vietnam, cash transactions are expected to gradually fade away. Yet it is not an easy process, as some 90 per cent of transactions in the country are reportedly made in cash."It comes down to trust. Buyers often prefer to see the product they're buying before handing over payments, so 90 per cent of [e-commerce] payments are cash on deliv-ery," noted VIB's Minh.So to promote a cashless ecosystem, it is the banks' responsibility to partner up with e-commerce businesses and fintech companies, in a quest to steadily reduce cash trans-actions from 90 per cent down to about 20 per cent, he added.Jeong Jae Lee, deputy general manager of the Global Business Division at Korea-based NICE Information Service Co., Ltd, who has been providing consulting services on re-tail banking to local banks such as VietinBank, said that Vietnam has got what it takes to transform itself into a cashless nation."I believe the technology is ready, and it's not very difficult to apply in the Vietnamese market. You have all the necessary infrastructure for the data, you have the internet and e-banking. The most important thing is the individual's access to the bank," Lee told VIR. "All individuals need to have a [bank] account and credit card in order to cre-ate a cashless economy."Vietnam aims to boost the number of bank account holders to at least 70 per cent of adults by 2020. Data by the central bank shows that as of September 2017, the country had 66.6 million bank accounts, with 127 million bank cards and credit cards in use.http://www.vir.com.vn/digital-banking-grows-to-support-new-customers.html

Revenue growth of insurance market in 2017 estimated at 22.1pct

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| DTCK

Phung Ngoc Khanh, director of the Agency for Insurance Supervisory and Manage-ment (under the Ministry of Finance) said that in 2017, the entire insurance market is estimated to attain 105.611 trillion dong revenue, up 21.2 percent from 2016. The total amount of insurance benefits in the year was estimated to reach 29.423 trillion dong, up 14.92 percent from 2016.Khanh added that the total assets of the entire market are estimated at 302.935 trillion dong, up 23.44 percent from 2016. The total investment back to the economy is project-ed to reach 247.801 trillion dong, up 26.74 percent from 2016.The main reason why the market continues to keep high growth rate, according to di-rector Khanh, is because in the past year, besides the context of economic restructuring and international integration, the insurance sector synchronously implemented many groups of measures to improve business environment and increase competitiveness of insurers.

OCB loosens foreign room to 23.66pct and issues 19.5m bonus shares

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| NDH

The Board of directors of Orient Joint Stock Commercial Bank (OCB) has approved to increase ownership rate of foreign investors to 23.66 percent.Earlier, OCB closed the list of shareholders to ask for written opinions about the au-thorisation to the Board to decide the maximum ownership rate of foreign investors whose total ownership shall not exceed 30 percent of the bank's chartered capital or an-other maximum ratio as prescribed by the law.At the same time, OCB also announced to issue 19.4 million bonus shares, equal to five percent stake to existing shareholders. The source for implementation will be taken from the undistributed after-tax profit as of the end of 2016, according to audited re-port.After issuing, OCB's chartered capital will increase to 4.195 trillion dong.OCB is also the first bank to meet Basel II in Vietnam, meeting pillars on capital, mon-itoring and information transparency.In terms of business operation, OCB earned 960 billion dong pre-tax profit after 11 month and is expected to exceed one trillion dong in the entire year.


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ANZ recommends customers to complete transactions before the transfer to Shinhan from December 15th-18th

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| THOI DAI

ANZ has made announcement on the transfer of its retail banking business to Shinhan Vietnam, including contents about the temporary suspension of some banking servic-es. The bank advises customers to soon carry out cash withdrawals, payments, and money transfers.According to the announcement, the transfer will be completed on December 18th 2017, and it will affect some banking services of ANZ Vietnam.Specifically, from 5pm of Friday December 15th, ANZ Vietnam will temporarily sus-pend Visa debit and ANZ credit card services, including all cash withdrawals via local and overseas ATMs, all transactions via POS and online channels, and SMS message notification services.In addition, from Monday December 11th to December 15th, all ANZ ATMs will grad-ually stop functioning. The online banking and incoming money transfer service will also be temporarily suspended from respectively 8pm and 5pm Friday December 15th. All incoming money transfers made after 5pm will be returned to the person who made the transfer. Outcoming money transfer orders will be stopped at 12pm noon December 15th.From 12pm noon on December 15th, ANZ will stop accepting requests for cash pay-ment of loans and credit cards. If customers are due to pay for their credit card bills or monthly loan instalment on December 15th, they should to arrange payment no later than Thursday December 14th. From Wednesday December 13th, the repayment of loans will the stopped.ANZ also recommends customers to consider making early cash withdrawals, pay-ments and transfers. ANZ's customers can start trading at Shinhan branches on Mon-day December 18th 2017. All automatic money transfer and debit orders will continue to be performed by Shinhan Vietnam.According to ANZ, there will be no change in the bank's services to retail customers. The staff who serve them today will continue to perform their tasks in the future.

Vietnam among fastest growing e-commerce countries


Vietnam is one of the fastest growing e-commerce countries in the world, heard the Vi-etnam Business Forum 2017 themed "E-commerce Solutions for the Success of Busi-nesses" organised in Hanoi on December 12.According to Do Kim Lang, deputy director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade), which held the forum, the country's e-commerce market grows 35 percent a year, 2.5 times faster than in Japan.Vietnamese businesses capable of taking advantage of the internet and technology grow 2.1 times faster than others. Small and medium enterprises that spend more than 30 percent of their budget on technological innovation grow nine times faster than those spending less than 10 percent.Lang said Vietnam's e-commerce retail sales growth in 2016-2020 is estimated at 20 percent per year, and the country's total retail e-commerce sales would reach $10 bil-lion by 2020.In 2017, e-commerce retail sales have expanded 25 percent and would become an im-portant part of Vietnam's e-commerce sector.However, there are still some barriers that threaten the sustainable development of e-commerce, including low consumer trust in the real products and online payment se-curity.Besides, most Vietnamese e-commerce websites provide basic services only, such as information about products and modes of payment. They should have added services like digital marketing optimisation and connecting online with offline sales.Lang said retailers cannot gain success on the e-commerce market by simply creating and operating a website. They have to develop a thorough and well-integrated strate-gy for all aspects of operation, including production, marketing, product sources, or-der management, and transport and delivery services.


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ADB lifts growth prospect of VN to 6.7pct


The Asian Development Bank (ADB) revised Vietnam's growth prospect upward to 6.7 per cent in both 2017 and 2018 compared with earlier forecasts of 6.3 and 6.5 per cent, respectively.This is part of ADB's forecast on economic expansion of developing Asia, which showed the GDP of the first three quarters of 2017 in Vietnam grew by 6.4 per cent, up from 5.9 per cent in the same period of 2016."Agriculture recovered and grew by 2.8 per cent in the first nine months as drought eased in the Mekong Delta and the Central Highlands. Industry and construction re-mained strong despite drag from the mining and oil subsector, which contracted by 8.1 per cent in the first half of the year," the report said.ADB said the country's manufacturing grew robustly, expanding by 12.8 per cent dur-ing the period, the highest rate of growth in the sector since 2011. Fourth quarter man-ufacturing growth, traditionally the sector's strongest, is likely to exceed growth over the first three quarters. Driven by buoyant tourism and strong banking activity, serv-ices growth accelerated to 7.3 per cent from 6.7 per cent in the corresponding period in 2016.In the report, ADB forecast that economic expansion in developing Asia will accelerate to 6 per cent in 2017 thanks to stronger than expected exports and domestic consump-tion. Excluding Asia's newly industrialised economies, growth is now expected at 6.5 per cent this year.Growth for Southeast Asia is picking up faster than earlier forecast with GDP set to ex-pand by 5.2 per cent in 2017 and 2018, compared with September 2017 forecasts of 5 per cent and 5.1 per cent. The sub-region is benefiting from stronger investments and exports, with accelerating growth for Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.Infrastructure investment continued to play an important role in Indonesia, the Phil-ippines and Thailand. Robust domestic demand -- particularly private consumption and investment -- will continue to support growth in the sub-region, according to the report.In a supplement to its Asian Development Outlook Update 2017 report, ADB upgrad-ed its 2017 GDP outlook in the region by 0.1 percentage points in comparison with its September 2017 forecast, while its 2018 forecast remained unchanged at 5.8 per cent. Unexpectedly strong expansion in Central, East and Southeast Asia offset a downward adjustment in South Asia."Developing Asia's growth momentum, supported by recovering exports, demon-strates that openness to trade remains an essential component of inclusive economic development," Yasuyuki Sawada, ADB's chief economist, said."Countries can further take advantage of the global recovery by investing in human capital and physical infrastructure that will help sustain growth over the long-term," he added.Combined growth for the major industrial economies has been revised upward to 2.2 per cent for 2017 and 2 per cent for 2018 due to robust domestic demand in the euro area, and in Japan due to private investment and net exports. Growth projections for the United States remain unchanged at 2.2 per cent in 2017 and 2.4 per cent in 2018.http://bizhub.vn/news/adb-lifts-growth-prospect-of-vn-to-67_290756.html

Australia renews commitment to support Vietnam's economic reform


The Australian government and the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment jointly launched Aus4Reform a four-year long programme to boost the productivity and competitiveness of Vietnam's economy, in Hanoi on December 13.The 6.5 million AUD programme will support the government of Vietnam to achieve its targets for improving the business environment and move Vietnam towards a more market-based economy through assisting the development and implementation of economic policies, laws and institutions critical to helping Vietnam's economy meet its potential.


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The initiative will also build linkages between Australian and Vietnamese institutions to share expertise and experience.Australian Ambassador Craig Chittick said Vietnam has a long history of pursuing economic reform and Australia is proud to have offered our support throughout this process. "Economic reform is tough, but Australia will continue to support Vietnam on this journey," he said.Australia's support will help Vietnam achieve its goal of one million new formal pri-vate enterprises by 2020, increase the percentage of women-led enterprises and accel-erate the growth in private sector employment.Aus4Reform brings together Vietnam's leading think-tanks and government agencies responsible for economic policy making and implementation, including the Central In-stitute of Economic Management (CIEM), Vietnam Competition and Consumer Agen-cy (VCCA), the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD), Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the Party Central Committee's Economic Commission and the Economic Committee of the National Assembly.The programme builds on the reform momentum achieved through previous Austral-ia support including "Beyond WTO" and "Restructuring for a more Competitive Viet-nam".https://en.vietnamplus.vn/australia-renews-commitment-to-support-vietnams-eco-nomic-reform/123294.vnp

China to become second largest importer of Vietnam shrimp

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV

Vietnam's shrimp exports are estimated at $3.5 billion in the 11 months leading up to December with the EU, Japan and China as the three biggest importers.Exports to China obtained an impressive growth of 60.5 percent with an estimated val-ue of $629.26 million, accounting for 18.1 percent of Vietnam's total shrimp export val-ue. Meanwhile China's shrimp imports are on a strong upward trend to meet rising consumer demands for end of the year festivals, especially the Lunar New Year.The trend also pushes shrimp raw material prices up in some neighbouring countries, including Vietnam. With the move, China is likely to surpass Japan to become the sec-ond largest consumer of Vietnamese shrimp in the first quarter of next year.However, Vietnam just ranks eighth among biggest suppliers of shrimp products to China, trailed by Ecuador, Canada, India, Greenland, Thailand, Argentina and Indo-nesia.Experts said China's shrimp imports have kept rising while its exports have declined over the past 10 years. The country is currently among top ten shrimp consumers in the world. It has become an important destination for shrimp exporters, including Vi-etnam thanks to increasing consumer demand and attractive payment terms.Chinese importers are deeply penetrating Southeast Asian markets to buy huge vol-ume of shrimps to supply the domestic market. China is also a strong rival of Western importers in terms of shrimp raw material, said an expert.Seafood is very important in Chinese cuisine. Besides, the rapid growth of the middle class in the 1.38 billion population country also pushes shrimp consumption up. Ac-cording to statistics, shrimp consumption in China had skyrocketed 123 percent in 10 years from 2005 to 2015 with 1.6 million tonnes annually.Experts also forecast that Chinese shrimp output would drop sharply this year due to diseases and the changing weather. The country has been confronted with 15 storms this year.Professor James from Florida University forecast that China's output of white-leg shrimp would fall from 1.7 million tonnes to 600,000 tonnes this year.Since December 1, China has cut down the import duties on frozen shrimp from 5 per-cent to 2 percent, which benefited shrimp exporters, including Vietnam.http://english.vov.vn/market/china-to-become-second-largest-importer-of-vietnam-shrimp-364579.vov


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Steel prices seen rising further


Some southern steel manufacturers have plans to continue raising steel prices by VND300,000 per tonne this week, having hiked the price by VND200,000 on Monday, Thanh Nien newspaper reports.The steel price may reach VND13.5-13.6 million a tonne excluding value added tax at factories. If the tax is included, the price would be VND15 million a tonne and consum-ers will have to buy steel products at VND15.5-15.7 million, even VND16 million per tonne.Enterprises attributed the price hike to a rise in global material prices since the end of last month. Specifically, steel scrap prices have increased from $230 to $350 per tonne while iron ore prices in China have gone up to $70 a tonne from $60.An expert said steel prices have risen due to higher demand of the Chinese market. Chinese steel products exports to the Southeast Asian region have dipped 42 percent in the last nine months and the fall will continue next year.The steel price hike has caused concerns for southern residents and construction com-panies as the season for home construction and repair is coming.According to the Vietnam Steel Association, domestic enterprises turned out 17 mil-lion tonnes of steel in January-October, up 22.8 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, steel sales in the local market reached 14.2 million tonnes in the period, increasing 18.4 per-cent over the year-ago period.The country had exported more than four million tonnes of steel to fetch $2.7 billion and spent $8 billion importing over 15 million tonnes of steel in the year to end-Sep-tember, up 50 percent and 16 percent in value versus the same period last year respec-tively.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57511/Steel-prices-seen-rising-further.html

HCM City concerned over sand and cement shortages


HCM City may face a shortage of construction sand and cement in 2020, according to the city's Department of Construction.Speaking at a conference on construction materials held by the Ministry of Construc-tion on December 12, Tran Trong Tuan, director of the department, said the city is one of the localities most affected by a construction sand undersupply and rising sand pric-es in 2017.Total reserves of sand in HCM City and 19 southern provinces are estimated at 250 million cubic meters while the total demand for construction sand would amount to more than 366 million cubic meters between now and 2020.However, Tuan said substitutes for natural sand are not always available as only six of the 19 southern cities and provinces have alternative materials.Besides, HCM City would face a shortage of cement if all cement facilities are forced to move out of the city before 2020.Tuan said the city now has 10 cement grinding stations with a total capacity of more than 10 million tonnes. It is possible to raise their capacity to reach the city's demand for cement in 2020, which is estimated at nearly 13.5 million tonnes.According to the master plan for construction materials by 2020 approved by the city government, cement plants, grinding stations and other building material facilities will be moved out of the city no later than 2020 to prevent environmental pollution.However, the relocation will affect the operation of cement facilities, thus causing a ce-ment shortage and a cement price rise.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57503/HCM City-concerned-over-sand-and-cement-shortages-.html

PM hails business community for Vietnam's impressive growth


Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, addressing a end of the year session of the Viet-nam Business Forum (VBF) in Hanoi on December 12, hailed the business community for its painstaking achievements that have helped fuel the country's economic growth this year as well as in the recent past.


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At the 20th VBF, the government leader said the business community has helped raise the country's gross domestic product (GDP) to $220 billion this year, an eight-fold leap from $27 billion in 1997. The number is expected to hit nearly $300 billion by 2020.Back to 2017, Phuc affirmed that Vietnam's economy has grown strongly and compre-hensively, beating all the 13 targets set for this year.It is noteworthy that Vietnam has reached a GDP growth rate of 6.7 percent this year, the highest in ten years. In addition, the country has stabilised the socio-economic sit-uation, controlled inflation, bolstered exports, and enhanced international integration. He also noted the successful organising of the Apec Year 2017 was a plus.The number of new enterprises established this year has hit a record high of more than 120,000 with total registered capital of over VND3,000 trillion. Besides, more than 25,000 suspended businesses have resumed operation.The foreign direct investment (FDI) sector has played a more pivotal role in Vietnam's economy, increasing added value locally, creating jobs and contributing to the State budget. Foreign investment approvals this year have reached a ten-year high of more than $35 billion.PM Phuc attributed the high entrepreneurship and huge FDI inflow to the improved business environment, which has been recognised internationally.In fact, Phuc said, Vietnam ranked 68th among 190 economies in the World Bank's Do-ing Business Report 2018 released this year, a leap of 14 notches against the previous year, while the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report for the 2017-2018 period put Vietnam at 55th out of 137 economies, up 20 places compared to five years ago. In addition, the rating agency Moody's last month also upgraded Vietnam's banking system from stable to positive.The PM advised enterprises to brace themselves for changes in the context of global economic recovery, the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and international integration.The proportion of middle-class consumers in Vietnam's population may surge from the current 10 percent to 50 percent in 2035, creating many new business opportunities for enterprises.In addition, 54 percent of Vietnamese people use Internet services and the proportion of smartphone owners is 55 percent. By 2020, Vietnam will be the leading country in the region with eight out of every ten people using mobile phones, helping potential investors to easily access the Vietnamese market.Vietnam will also invest heavily in research and development, digitalisation, infra-structure and advanced technology.To enhance the competitiveness, the country has carried out administrative reforms, improved the investment environment and created other favourable conditions for en-terprises.The government will further develop infrastructure, encourage investments in educa-tion and science-technology, stabilise the macro-economy and society, boost economic restructuring and reform of State-owned enterprises, the banking system and taxes, settle bad debts, and enhance the transparency and efficiency of the legal system.PM Phuc also pledged to combat corruption, wastefulness and group interests, and take measures to protect the environment and adapt to climate change.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57502/PM-hails-business-community-for-Vietnam percentE2 percent80 percent99s-impressive-growth.html

Foreign investors suggest improvements to Vietnamese taxation policy


In the framework of Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) 2017, representatives of foreign investors complained that they still face difficulties in investing and manufacturing in Vietnam due to the lackluster taxation policies.According to Natasha Ansell, chairwoman of American Chamber of Commerce in Vi-etnam (Amcham), importing products into Vietnam remains more costly and compli-cated given Vietnam's $32 billion trade surplus towards the US last year, thus, it is particularly important for Vietnam to be seen as seriously addressing the numerous


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non-tariff technical barriers and the so-called behind-the-border barriers which restrict the activities of companies and hamper the flow of US exports into Vietnam.Regarding the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)'s proposal to apply a special consumption taxation (SCT) of 10 or 20 per cent on soft drinks, the representative of Amcham expressed concerns about its impact on enterprises' revenue and profit."If MoIT's proposal comes true, the selling price of soft drinks will increase by 12 per cent due to the increased manufacturing expenditure, leading decreasing sales. In this case, small- and medium-sized enterprises will see the largest impact because of their weaker financial potential. They may even face bankruptcy," Ansell stated.Based on comments from European enterprises, vice chair of European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Eurocham) Tomaso Andreatta expressed that the responses from tax authorities (both local and central tax offices) to written requests for clarifica-tion have been very general and do not provide specific guidance to enterprises.As a result, after receiving the responses from the tax authorities, the enterprises are still be confused and unsure about applying the regulations. Enterprises are growing disappointed about the transparency of the tax authorities' implementation of the reg-ulation. Thus, it is important to improve the quality of responses from the tax author-ities, especially the ones addressing concerns over tax policies.http://www.vir.com.vn/foreign-investors-suggest-improvements-to-vietnamese-taxa-tion-policy.html

Creativity key to growth promotion

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV

In many countries' experience, 'creativity' is considered as a key factor behind growth promotion, said UNDP Senior Adviser in Vietnam Rajah Rasiah at the Vietnam Devel-opment Forum (VDF) 2017 held in Hanoi on December 13.Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung and World Bank (WB) Coun-try in Vietnam Ousmane Dione co-chaired the forum on theme "Increasing Productiv-ityLeverage for Sustainable Development" in the presence of prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Those in attendance included development partners, investors, and repre-sentatives from research institutes, ministries, embassies, foreign and domestic organ-isations, and the business community along with provincial and municipal leaders.VDF 2017 focused on specific solutions to spur productivity, creating long-term solu-tions for Vietnam to overcome the middle-income trap and catch up to developing economies, the trend of global productivity growth and challenges for Vietnam.The forum's topic this year is considered very practical for Vietnam's current affairs when its economic growth has experienced a continued reduction. According to a re-port released at the forum, Vietnam's average economic growth in the period 1990-2000 stood at 7.3 percent and the figure fell to 6.7 percent for 2001-2010 and below 6 percent for 2011-2016.Experts said that over the past years, Vietnam's growth was primarily contingent on capital and natural resources and labour intensive industries. Therefore, slower labour productivity is the cause of slow economic growth. Meanwhile, the world is entering the era of the 4.0 industrial revolution and Vietnam is making every effort to maintain substantial growth.In 2017, labour productivity has contributed up to 89 percent to GDP growth, much higher than the 66.3 percent level recorded in the 1990-2000 period. Thus, productivity growth is the key to ensuring Vietnam's steady growth in future.In his remarks, prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called for greater efforts to increase workers' productivity, the efficiency of capital use, and total factor productivity."Increasing total factor productivity is an important task of the government, which strengthens investment in science, advanced technologies, development and research, infrastructure, smart connection, legal reform, governance, business environment, and reducing transaction costs for the economy.We should uphold the people and businesses' spirit of innovation and creativity and seize opportunities created by the 4th industrial revolution to develop the digital econ-omy and smart industry and cities towards higher productivity and efficiency. On the


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basis of total factor productivity, Vietnam will have opportunities to overcome the middle-income trap," Phuc said.He also described increasing productivity as a foundation for improving national com-petitiveness.In order to avoid productivity decline, UNDP Senior Advisor in Vietnam Rajah Rasiah suggested that Vietnam should learn experience from other regional countries. Expe-rience from the Republic of Korea (RoK) Taiwan (China), and Singapore show that "creativity" is a key factor for growth promotion and these economies focus their in-vestments on infrastructure, capital accumulation, and human resource development, export orientations.Therefore, what Vietnam can learn is to focus on human development by strengthen-ing science and technology education, and vocational training, and attracting talents and experience from overseas Vietnamese overseas and from abroad. In addition, it is essential to increase funding for innovation, including preferential interest rates for in-novative activities, and sponsor or work out incentive financial policies for research and development, he said.Like the Vietnam Business Forum 2017 on December 12, speakers once again under-lined effective linkages between domestic and FDI enterprises by becoming involved in production and business activities towards moving up in global value chains and ultimately improving its productivity.World Bank Country director in Vietnam Ousmane Dione said improved productivity is significant to turning Vietnam into a middle-income country till 2035.He hailed Vietnam's growth over the past five years, saying there remains room for the country to improve economic productivity, upgrade transport and logistics and closer collaboration between domestic and foreign firms is vital to elevating Vietnam's status in the global value chain.Vietnam has witnessed another year of robust growth and macroeconomic stability, marked low single digit inflation, a relatively stable exchange rate, and a strengthen-ing external position, he saidHe also congratulated the government for achieving an improvementof 14 ranks in the WBG Doing Business 2018 ranking. Reform implementation must keep this positive momentum, as it is critical for continued macroeconomic stability and higher productivity growth, he noted.The Vietnamese government needs to continue improving its business climate, simpli-fy administrative procedures and properly allocate land and capital resources, he said while stressing the importance of skill training, innovation and effective use of prefer-ential loans.In addition, ministries, sectors, localities and especially enterprises themselves need to raise their awareness about higher investment in research and application of science and technology so as to increase product value and productivity.http://english.vov.vn/economy/creativity-key-to-growth-promotion-364581.vov

Government highlights new opportunities for investors


The Vietnamese government has expressed strong intent to continue supporting enter-prises to seize new business and investment opportunities in the country by creating more favourable policies.At Hanoi-based Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) on December 12 -- a policy dialogue between the Vietnamese government and the business community -- prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highlighted new trends and opportunities that will have positive impacts on enterprises.Specifically, Vietnam is witnessing a rapid rise in the middle class. According to the 'Vietnam 2035' report -- a joint Vietnam-World Bank Group study launched last year -- the middle class makes up 10 per cent of Vietnam's population now and is forecasted to rise to 50 per cent by 2035. Studies of high-profile organisations also showed the same results."This will change the economy's consumption structure, giving many new business


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opportunities to enterprises," Phuc said.He also highlighted strong changes in the Vietnamese IT industry featuring the grad-ual development of automation and artificial intelligence. Vietnam has more than 52 million Internet users (over 54 per cent of the total population), ranking fifth in the Asia-Pacific region. Also, 55 per cent of the Vietnamese population use smart phones. It is expected that by 2020, Vietnam will sit atop the region, with 80 per cent of its pop-ulation using smart phones."This is a very important foundation and a big opportunity for potential investors who will find it easier to sell their products and services to Vietnamese customers," Phuc said.He also committed that the government will create all favourable conditions to "foster innovation and initiatives. More opportunities will be offered to private firms via the restructuring of state-owned enterprise, finance and banking, and public investment sectors. Additionally, financial burdens on enterprises will be reduced.""Especially in the short term, the government will continue to flexibly use fiscal and monetary tools to uphold the economy, generate employment, and improve people's income," the prime minister stressed.He also underscored the role of businesses in socioeconomic development, stating, "You are the very shapers of Vietnam's future economy. You are also both an impor-tant driving force and a tool for the government to realise its vision and aspiration to build a more affluent Vietnam where the government plays a facilitating role for de-velopment.""Every single penny invested by enterprises in the economy not only benefits enter-prises and investors, but also acts as a 'vote of confidence' for the government, minis-tries, and sectors and their efforts to boost reforms and construct a conducive administrative system," he stressed. "Such investment capital also encourages the gov-ernment and the business community to join hands for mutual development in the common house of Vietnam."VBF's Investment and Trade Working Group sees Vietnam as a good investment des-tination for foreign firms, and notably as "a shining example of the potential benefits of global trade."Vietnam has developed quickly from a state of having virtually no trade in 1990 to be-come one of the world's most significant exporters of garments and footwear, seafood, key agricultural products, such as rice, coffee, and spices, furniture, and more recently even electronic products and software, according to VBF's Investment and Trade Working Group.However, while highly commending Vietnam's efforts to boost economic growth and reform the business climate, the foreign business community has also made some rec-ommendations for the country's brighter economic prospects.Tomaso Andreatta, vice chair of EuroCham, stated that the government should have more solutions to create a more business-friendly climate, as unexpected policies are still affecting foreign firms."We do not come here only to make shirts and shoes or to assemble electronics, but to develop the entire supply chain and all the sophisticated services that support it. To bring these here, our companies need sophisticated employees who speak foreign lan-guages and they need reassurance that intellectual property rights are effectively pro-tected."AmCham's chairwoman Natasha Ansell also recommended that the local business en-vironment be even friendlier. She said American companies have invested billions of dollars in Vietnam, helping to integrate the country into the global supply chain, cre-ating quality jobs for Vietnamese workers, and opening a new market for US goods and services."Our members need greater reform efforts that help create a fairer and more competi-tive environment where decisions are made faster, procedures are less complicated, rules are fairly enforced, and companies compete on their merits -- including access to land and opportunities," Ansell stressed.


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More consistent foreign arbitration rules needed for investment


Vietnam has made significant progress in aligning its policies on foreign arbitral awards with international standards, but it needs to foster enforcement capacity to en-hance trust and confidence of foreign businesses.That content was among the discussion of experts at the launch of the 'Judicial Manual for Commercial Mediation and Arbitration' on Tuesday held by International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Vietnam's Supreme People's Court.Vietnam is a signatory to many international treaties governing international trade and investment, including the New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention 1958). Becoming a member of an international framework for resolving business conflicts is an important step to per-suade foreign businesses to consider business engagements in Vietnam.The country is aiming to complete its legislative and regulatory framework to ensure consistency between Vietnam's law and international regulations on commercial dis-pute resolutions.According to Chu Trung Dung, deputy director general of International Cooperation Department under the Supreme Peopple's Court of Vietnam, Vietnamese judges have lacked understanding and experience in dealing with the cases relevant to foreign ar-bitral awards in the country.Vietnam officially joined the New York Convention 1958 in 1995 but only since the Civil Procedural Code was promulgated in 2015 have various former legal issues and inconsistencies between the Vietnamese regulations and the convention been over-come and improved.Dung said the number of cases requiring the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Vietnam is not large. The cases are concentrated in big cities with many industrial parks and commercial investments such as Hanoi, HCM City and Dong Nai."The number of cases has been increasing, however, and judicial authorities have or-ganised many meetings to discuss solutions to address this issue," Dung said.Nguyen Dinh Tien, deputy chief judge on the Economic Court of Hanoi People's Court, said there are still shortcomings between the recognition of foreign arbitral awards and enforcement. He explained that the enforcement procedure must comply with the law on judgment enforcement.Though the 2015 Civil Procedural Code has made progress in enhancing the roles of courts in promoting alternative dispute resolution and the court's recognition of out-of-court mediated settlement agreements, experts have called for greater improve-ments in enforcement capacity."The rule of law and its enforcement is crucial for an improved business environment," said Kyle Kelhofer, IFC Country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR."Businesses and investors need clarity on rights and procedures to enforce contracts in Vietnam. When something goes wrong, both parties should know what to expect from the legal and arbitration system," Kelhofer said.The Judicial Manual for Commercial Mediation and Arbitration, jointly developed by IFC, a sister organisation of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group, and Vietnam's Supreme People's Court, provides reference information for judges re-lated to alternative dispute resolution and offers a how-to on applying arbitration laws in a uniform manner.http://bizhub.vn/news/more-consistent-foreign-arbitration-rules-needed-for-investment_290743.html

Vietnam leads in salary increases in Asean

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

While salary increases in regional countries stand at around 16 per cent, in Vietnam the figure ranges from 20-24 per cent, according to a recent survey released by job portal Jobstreet.com, powered by Jora."According to the survey, there are many factors supporting the positive growth re-sults of Vietnam's human resources market in 2018," said Angie Phang, Country man-


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ager of Jobstreet.com Vietnam. "Together with increasing recruitment demand, the salary increase rate will continue to grow in the near future."Besides the massive jobs growth forecast for Vietnam compared to other Southeast Asian countries, the country also sees a higher happiness index among employees, at the second-highest in the region.The peak season for hiring is from January to June. Backed by foreign direct invest-ment (FDI) growing at 37.4 per cent in the first ten months, the driving force behind predicted jobs growth is believed to be company expansion (68 per cent), the highest ratio in the region. The Top 3 industries predicted to bloom next year, according to hir-ers, are manufacturing and production, wholesale, and construction and engineering.In contrast to the bright forecast for Vietnam's jobs market next year, there are still is-sues that affect the recruitment process and employment growth. Externally, compa-nies said that finding qualified employees and hiring candidates that fit the company's culture and a lack of employer branding in a competitive recruitment market are some of their biggest concerns, in which approximately 50 per cent of respondents worry about finding qualified employees, especially in positions such as supervisor, special-ists, and managers.Vietnam has the greatest need for manager-level candidates. The research shows that industries that require more skilled workers, such as construction, IT, and production, are the Top 3 most challenging industries in terms of employee recruitment.From inside the companies, HR personnel also have to deal with many obstacles, for instance recruitment demand with short notice, as cited by more than 48 per cent of respondents. Together with a better retention strategy, companies need a solid long-term recruitment strategy to fill vacancies and not be affected by talent shortages."The challenge for Vietnam's hirers today is that it's a candidates market, and they need to form a competitive recruitment strategy comprising three major factors: a unique retention strategy for business continuity, building a talent bank for the future, and innovative technology for optimising productivity," Phang said."In the formation of competitive recruitment plans, JobStreet.com powered by Jora is well positioned to be a strategic recruitment partner for Vietnam's HR community in achieving upcoming business growth initiatives. We will continue to innovate to be part of Vietnam's ecosystem in improving lives through better careers."http://dtinews.vn/en/news/017004/54265/-vietnam-leads-in-salary-increases-in-asean.html

Productivity key to escaping mid-income trap


Vietnam has to focus on increasing labour productivity and overall productivity growth to avoid the risk of being stuck in the middle income trap, experts said at the Vietnam Development Forum (VDF) 2017 on Wednesday.Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that there were signs of slowdown in produc-tivity growth, a key driver of sustainable development, and this has to be reversed with innovation, creativity and technological applications.Phuc asked government agencies, business leaders and academia to promote and car-ry out the National Productivity Action Plan, guarding the economy against the risk of lagging behind other regional economies.Chaired by Nguyen Chi Dung, minister of Planning and Investment, and Ousmane Di-one, World Bank Country director for Vietnam, yesterday's forum focused on increas-ing national productivity and creating leverages for sustainable development.A key topic at the forum was productivity growth trends, including demand and sup-ply for skilled labour and how enterprises can take advantage of technological trans-fers to carry out structural changes that help produce more with less in fields like agriculture.Dung also stressed the importance of productivity growth in promoting rapid and sus-tainable economic development.After Vietnam became a middle income country in 2010, it has faced new development challenges and has to ensure that it is not stuck at a certain level of growth, he added.


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Dung further emphasized the decisive role played by labour productivity in economic growth, contributing about 89 per cent of GDP growth in 2017, compared to just 61.9 per cent from 2000 to 2012, said.Acknowledging the country's commendable growth recovery, Dione raised the ques-tion of how Vietnam will utilise its scarce public resources efficiently to finance its de-velopment agenda over the next five years."Improving domestic revenue mobilisation, enhancing expenditure efficiency and debt management capacity will be crucial to achieving development objectives and creating an enabling environment for the private sector's contribution to national pro-ductivity growth," said Dione.He warned that as Vietnam's current annual average labour productivity growth rate was at about four per cent, it was unlikely to deliver the sustained rapid growth that could see Vietnam follow the development trajectory of countries like South Korea and Singapore.Sustainability is a big challenge for Vietnam, as national economic growth has been de-clining rapidly from 6.7 per cent in 2010 to 5.96 per cent in 2016, cautioned Nguyen Dinh Cung, director of the Central Institute for Economic Management.So far the Vietnamese economy has grown at a relatively high rate, but the trend is downward in the medium and long run, he commented.According to Cung, from 2018 onwards, in order to maintain annual growth rate of about 6.8 to 7 per cent, yearly productivity growth must be kept at above 6 per cent, which leaves a gap of 1.25 percentage points with the current labour productivity rate of 4.8 per cent."This is a real challenge for the economy, since labour productivity has long been mainly driven by economic restructuring, while intra-industry labour productivity has tended to decrease," Cung said.He observed an economic composition deadlock in the transfer of resources from pub-lic sector to private sector over the past several years.Rajah Rasiah, Senior Professor of the Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya, commented that Vietnam has implemented favourable policies to develop its techno-logical and scientific infrastructure, encourage innovation and creativity towards boosting productivity and efficiency.However, both the government and entrepreneurs need to strengthen technical edu-cation and vocational training to global standards, Rasiah said.Planning and Investment minister Dung said the government has co-ordinated with private partners, corresponding agencies and qualified experts to identify specific long-term solutions for boosting productivity, as the important growth drivers in the early stages of development, like abundant labour and natural resources, become less and less relevant, confirmed Dung.PM Phuc said he hoped the forum would achieve concrete results in helping local gov-ernment agencies understand the importance of increasing productivity, and that re-search organisations will propose practical solutions to the business community, based on national and international experiences.In its fifth year, VDF 2017 aimed to analyse the current economic situation and obsta-cles to increasing productivity in Vietnam. It also acted as a channel between policy-makers and the business community in finding ways to achieve the 2020 socio-economic development goals.The forum discussed major global economic trends and the challenges they pose for Vietnam, followed by strategies to ensure sustainable development in terms of capital, labour and natural resource utilisation.Over 300 delegates from international organisations, the private sector, ministries and agencies from different countries gathered at the 2017 VDF.They exchanged experiences on productivity incentives and challenges, policy frame-works in favour of realising national comparative advantages and market-based insti-tutional reforms.http://bizhub.vn/news/productivity-key-to-escaping-mid-income-trap_290758.html


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Vietnam listed among top six most-attractive retail markets

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| NHAN DAN

Vietnam has been ranked sixth among the world's most attractive retail markets and named in the top 30 most lucrative retail markets this year, said Hoang Anh Tuan, dep-uty head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)'s Domestic Market Department.Tuan made the remarks at the Vietnam Retail Forum 2017 which was held by the As-sociation of Vietnam Retailers (AVR) in Hanoi on December 12.Tuan said that according to the Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), released by the US-based A.T. Kearney in June this year, Vietnam's retail market has increased sig-nificantly in recent years and attracted a large number of foreign merchants.A series of giant retailers from Japan, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, and France have boosted their investments in Vietnam, showing the allure of Vietnam's retail market with a large and youthful population of more than 90 million.However, Tuan stated that Vietnam's retail market has become more competitive, cre-ating huge opportunities and challenges for domestic enterprises.He added that the forum is an opportunity for Vietnamese retailers and members of the AVR to put forth appropriate strategies for meeting market demand and increas-ing their market share.Dinh Thi My Loan, chairwoman of the AVR said that over the past ten years, the Viet-namese retailer community have managed to stand firm in the face of difficulties and the wave of foreign investment in the retail sector, noting that they have gradually adapted to the new situation and improved their competitiveness.Ten years after joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Vietnam's retail market has seen increasing prosperity, becoming one of the most attractive potential markets for foreign investors.The wholesale and retail sector now accounts for 14 percent of the national GDP. In ad-dition, sales revenue in retail has expanded strongly from $88 billion in 2010 to $158 billion in 2016, surpassing the statistics forecast by many foreign market research serv-ices.Loan said that Vietnam's retail sector should promote its growth through innovation and the application of technology in retail distribution while assisting domestic retail-ers in bringing Vietnamese goods to regional markets.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/192050/vietnam-listed-among-top-six-most-attractive-retail-markets.html

Building material industry must go green: deputy PM


Vietnam's building material industry should invest in the production of environmen-tally friendly building materials, according to deputy prime minister Trinh Dinh Dung.Dung said building materials accounted for 70 per cent of the value of a construction. In past years, investment in building materials had developed strongly, basically meeting the domestic demand.However, he said investment in producing theseg materials had achieved many re-sults, but the sector still lacked new materials, friendly-environmental building mate-rials at a cheap price, and high-grade building materials.Investment in the sector was done spontaneously, not according to plan, leading to overproduction, illegal exploitation of materials or exploitation with licences but dam-aging the environment.The deputy prime minister requested state management and businesses should co-or-dinate more to improve efficiency, invest in the production of environmental-friendly building materials and select new materials instead of traditional.Construction materials must be developed to meet demand for use at home and abroad, Dung said. At the same time, the sector should gradually renovate production technologies, save energy and promote the use of unburnt building materials to re-place baked materials.Dung asked the Ministry of Construction to co-ordinate with other ministries and lo-calities to update plans on building-material production.


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The ministry will review factories causing environmental pollution and control the ex-ploitation of stones, gravel and sand.At the conference, minister of construction Pham Hong Ha said production of con-struction material had improved significantl to reach regional and world standards.Before 2010, Vietnam had to import some key building materials, such as cement, con-struction glass and ceramic tiles. Since then, the building-material industry had devel-oped strongly by adopting many regional and world advanced technologies, Ha said.Many experts claim the production of traditional building materials had used large amounts of raw materials and energy, contributing to environmental pollution.Te Ministry of Construction will urge its agencies to continue researching and renovat-ing technologies to create green, clean and effective products and sustainable develop-ment.http://bizhub.vn/news/building-material-industry-must-go-green-deputy-pm_290762.html

Dental tourism rapidly grows in Vietnam

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| NHIP CAU THOI DAI

As an Australian overseas Vietnamese, after retiring, Le Van has had a long vacation to Vietnam. Like other overseas Vietnamese, she also took the chance to get four dental implants before returning to Sydney. According to Van, the cost to get a dental implant in Hochiminh city is 1,000 USD per unit (about 22.7 million dong), while it is nearly tripled in Australia and insurance usually does not pay for this. Van is not the rare case as dental tourism is a rapidly growing demand in Vietnam, resulting in an enormous development prospect.Dental tourism is quite common in Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia, etc., and it is just a part of the global medical tourism market with a growth rate of about 15 percent per annum, estimated to reach 143.8 billion USD by 2020.While Singapore is well known for its treatment of cancer, South Korea and Thailand are famous for cosmetic surgery and sex change, etc. dental tourism is one of the five types of medical tourism chosen by Hochiminh city as a spearhead to develop in order to bring foreign currency and high income for the community. The basic reason for the attraction of dental tourism in Vietnam is the low cost of dental implants, which is about three to 10 times lower than other countries. Compared to Thailand which is also famous for dental tourism, the price in Vietnam is 30 percent less. While getting a por-celain tooth in Vietnam costs about 60-300 USD (1.36 6.8 million dong), it is five times more expensive in other countries. The Design smile package in Vietnam is about 200 million dong (approximately 8,800 USD), it is over 50,000 USD in Canada. This differ-ence comes from the costs for dentist training, material costs, and labour costs.According to dentist Pham Nhat Huy, master of Dr Beam dentistry, Vietnamese dental has only strongly developed in the last five years. Dental clinics that were established later are equipped with updated technology that not all dental practices are willing to spend, such as private labs, CT Scan equipment, more than 10 beds, etc. Vietnamese dentists, a part from having advantages of owning small Asian hands which are easy to operate, are also aesthetic and willing to learn for improving skills. According to sta-tistics of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, about nearly 100,000 for-eign patients coming to Vietnam for dental treatment each year, bringing nearly 150 million USD. This number is expected to increase by 2.5 times in the next five years.The dental clinics in Hanoi Old Quarter have long been focused on serving tourists. Meanwhile, a large dental clinic in district 1, Hochiminh city said that it has targeted Vietnamese overseas and foreign customers for many years. Although these objects only accounted for 40 percent of customers, they have brought up to 80 percent of the revenue, with an average spending of each customer reaching 2,000 USD per visit. Hochiminh city is home to the largest number of dental clinics and dentists in the country.Nguyen Duc Minh, director of Dental Hospital Hochiminh city, said that approximate-ly 2,000 Vietnamese overseas and over 500 foreigners visit the hospital every year. The increase of this group of customer has encouraged the hospital to build modern oper-


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ating rooms, cooperate with dentists and experts to establish Dental Tourism Club spe-cialising in cosmetic services and dental care for this customer group.In 2017, 14 dental clinics have become member of the Club. Clinics wishing to join the Dental Tourism Club must meet the standards of human resources and facilities. In re-turn, the club will give support in terms of direction and methods towards building a national image of dental tourism, which until now has only developed spontaneously. As expected, by 2020, this system will have about 200 members, serving about 3.5 mil-lion visitors with capacity of 9,600 cases per day. Centers for inquiries and customer services for dental tourism at international airports and places crowed with tourists will be established.In Singapore and Thailand, dental products are incorporated into tour programmes of travel agencies. Customers are even taken to dental clinics immediately after landing at the airport if it is not yet check-in time at hotel, or after they checked out hotel to return to their home countries. Products that are suitable for dental tourism must be done quickly in 30 minutes, one to two hours, or no later than two days with high qual-ity and easy to control, such as teeth veneers, dental examination, bleaching, porcelain implants, etc. Meanwhile, teeth extraction and implants are more suitable for self-suf-ficient tourists with more available time.Despite having potential, dental tourism in Vietnam is just in early stages of develop-ment and facing many challenges. Typically, when an incident occurs, there is no agency offering legal support and protect the dental clinic in the event of having a law-suit in international court. According to regulation, dentists serving foreign customers must have English certification, although the learners must have been fluent in com-munication English and specialised English in order to graduate from the dentistry training programme. Since the power has not been gathered, dental clinics are current-ly attracting customers mainly via word of mouth and self-bearing communication costs with no cooperation with major inbound travel agencies.According to a leading dentist, the "birthday cake" modelin which dentists are classi-fied by professional ability and each person performs the tasks suitable for their ability is appropriate, not only for dental field but also other medical fields. However, this model has not yet been implemented in Vietnam. If a high-skilled dentist is only in charge of complex cases and a dentist is allowed to support different dental clinics, the resources and costs for the patient will be optimised.Nevertheless, dental tourism is a potential piece of cake. Dental tourism is a product that suits dental clinics with mid-range investment and more. With the investment of about 10-15 billion dong per clinic, representative of Dental Tourism Club said that the payback is three years, with appropriate development direction.In 2016, Malaysian's ringgit depreciated by 6.5 percent and hit the lowest level in 19 years. However, this helped the medical tourism market of Malaysia recorded record increase of 25 percent, in which dental tourism accounted for 80 percent. For Vietnam, the country is converging necessary and sufficient conditions and is expected to be the next destination on the dental tourism map. All are just at the starting line.

What will foreign investors do with strong Vietnamese brands?

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

Analysts have warned that strong brands may disappear once foreign investors buy into Vietnamese companies.The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) has announced the sale of 343.66 million Sabeco (Sai Gon Beer, Alcohol and Beverage Corporation) shares at the starting price of VND320,000 per share.The market value of the State's 53.59 percent stake is estimated at VND87.4 trillion ($3.85 billion).With the share price described as 'sky high', the divestment deal worth VND11 trillion is reserved only for investors with powerful financial capability.Those making financial investments to seek profit won't be interested in the deal be-cause of the price.The investors interested in Sabeco shares aim to conquer the Vietnamese beer market.


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Sabeco has a firm foundation, strong brand and large retail network."Sabeco has 24 breweries and relations with 1,200 distributors. Foreign investors are wise enough to take full advantage of the factories and the distribution network built by Vietnamese to bring their products to the Vietnamese market," an analyst comment-ed.He recalled that Unilever took over P/S (a Vietnamese toothpaste brand) and brought its Close-Up toothpaste into the Vietnamese market through the network it acquired. After Carlsberg bought Huda and Halida, the Vietnamese brands began fading away, although they still exist.However, Truong Thanh Hoai from MOIT said there was no need to worry that Sabeco brand would disappear.Besides Sabeco, the state is also planning to sell another brewer Habeco. However, ac-cording to the HCM City Securities Company, the agreement signed with Carlsberg, which became a shareholder of Habeco 10 years ago, has caused difficulties in divest-ment.The problem is that the average price of a Habeco stake is twice as much as the price at which Carlsberg plans to pay to buy.MOIT, the seller, must be sure that the stake sale campaign will bring optimal value. Therefore, the two parties still cannot find a common voice.As for Sabeco, the share price continued to rise after MOIT's announcement. The P/E of Sabeco share reached 50x, much higher than the 16x of Asahi, 21x of Carlsberg and 20x of Heineken.Many investors wonder if Sabeco can sell the 53 percent stake with such a high selling price and low liquidity.Some observers believe that Sabeco share price has been pushed up artificially by a group of investors, who want to profit from selling a Sabeco stake.Meanwhile, others keep Sabeco shares and refuse to sell, hoping the price will escalate.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/191725/what-will-foreign-investors-do-with-strong-vietnamese-brands-.html

Private investor allowed to operate airport

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| NHIP CAU DAU TU

If nothing changes, by mid-2018, Van Don International Airport, Vietnam's first pri-vate airport will be officially put into operation.Sun Group, the investor of Van Don Airport, is urgently implementing the remaining stages of the project to be able to put this airport into operation as planned.In fact, the operation of the airport has been delayed compared to the original plan. Under the old plan, Q1/2018 is the deadline to officially open this airport.However, due to some adjustments, such as changing the planning of Quang Ninh air-port into Van Don international airport; expanding the length of the runway from 3,000 meters to 3,600 meters; supplementing two more airports in two ends of de-scending and departing runways, adjusting the system of traffic lights as well as in-creasing the floor area of the passenger terminal to more than 25,000 square meters, the inauguration of Van Don airport is expected to be delayed for several more months.However, comparing to the landmark of starting operations of Van Don Airport (at the end of March 2016), it only took two years for Sun Group to invest in an international airport.After adjustment, Van Don Airport is likely to accommodate large aircrafts such as B777, B747, and A350. With this capability, only large international airports such as Tan Son Nhat, Da Nang, Noi Bai, and Can Tho can meet. Joinus Vietnam, Posco E&C, CCC Group (Cananda), Korean Airport Corporation (KAC) used to care about Van Don Airport project but in the last minute, Sun Group was the only case to purchase.After officially becoming the investor of Van Don Airport in the form of BOT (build-operate-transfer), Sun Group created some certain impacts.For example, Sun Group proposed to adjust the direction of Ha Long Van Don Mong Cai expressway from Northwest to Southeast, close to the airport project. For the fol-lowing change, Van Don was approved to become international airport.


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Van Don Airport was mainly opened to welcome passengers from the South and Northeast Asia countries such as China, South Korea, etc.Currently, the Northeast Asia region accounted for 60 percent of the total number of international tourists to Quang Ninh. In addition, flights coming and going from Thai-land, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, etc. want to locate their routes here as Van Don has been approved to become a special administrative-economic zone.Compared to the 21 previous airports in Vietnam invested by the State, Van Don is a special case. Sun Group is not only the investor but is also the operator of this airport instead of Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV).However, as aviation is a particular field, government agencies do not let go entirely. Air navigation and aviation specialised service charges are still managed by the State in accordance with provisions in BOT contract and approved financial plans.Recently, Vietnam Aviation Department has also submitted to the Ministry of Trans-port the scheme on establishment of the representative agency of the Northern Airport Authority including 38 people for the purpose of managing and controlling operations in Van Don airport.It can be seen that Sun Group will be subject to certain management in operation at Van Don Airport. The segment that Sun Group can exploit is aviation services such as passenger services, security screening, ground service, etc., take-off and landing, tech-nical support as well as non-aviation services such as store business, restaurants, park-ing lot, advertisement, and car rental service. Aviation service is obviously a potential source of revenue.The evidence is in Vietnam, up to 80 percent of ACV's revenue comes from aviation service. With the growth rate of Vietnam aviation industry at about 7.3 percent/annum in 2015-2030, higher than the region and the world, according to IATA, Sungroup as well as ACV can expect new development opportunities.But the restriction to SunGroup is that this unit has never had experience in operating aviation airport. The highest concern is the management of aviation security, which is related to national security. It is highly likely that in the first stage, Sun Group will seek the assistance of ACV in training aviation security control personnel.It is expected that Sungroup will take about 45 years to recover the capital, the longest for a BOT infrastructure project so far. But Sun Group has reasons to accept.In Quang Ninh, apart from investing in Van Don airport, Sun Group has and will con-tinue investing in a series of projects such as Sun World Halong Complex, Sun Premier Village Halong Bay, the resort complex in Van Don, etc.As such, SunGroup's operations in Quang Ninh will include many segments from real estate, entertainment, ecotourism and casino.Owning Van Don Airport which has been planned to become a special economic zone will certainly bring about many long-term benefits and helps SunGroup have more ad-vantages in business promotion.Is that also the reason why, along with the investment in Van Don Airport, SunGroup is pursuing Lao Cai airport project? This is another signal that Vietnam is increasingly open to attract private aviation.In fact, apart from allowing Sun Group to operate Van Don and Lao Cai airports, the State has also piloted a 100 percent capital divestment from Phu Quoc international airport, and partly divested from Da Nang international airport and Cam Ranh airport in the near future. Or more recently, Vietjet Air has purchased the right to exploit Noi Bai Terminal 1.This change is partly due to the fact that the financial resources from state budget, ODA and preferential loans, are increasingly narrow.Therefore, in the new direction of the state, capital sources from the state budget will be tightened, and will only be used to invest in important works which are related to the public or national interest. In areas and projects that the private sector can partici-pate, the State will not use ODA.


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Mekong Delta has much room for food processors


The Mekong Delta region's food processing sector has great growth potential owing to an abundance of produce there, but investment in the sector there remains modest, heard a conference in Can Tho City on December 12.Nguyen Phuong Lam, deputy director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry (VCCI)'s branch in Can Tho City, stressed at the conference on promoting in-vestment to expand the food value chain that the delta has much room for food processors.He said the region is home to 20 percent of the country's population, and boasts gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of an estimated $2,700 in 2017, which suggests the region may have strong purchasing power in the future.He added the region has average export turnover of around $13-15 billion a year. Its main products are rice, seafood and fruit which account for around 50 percent of out-bound sales of the agricultural sector, equivalent to $6.5-7.5 billion per year.According to Lam, the region is also known as a major agricultural production region. For example, the Mekong Delta accounts for 90 percent of the country's commercial rice output, and seafood including shrimp and tra (pangasius) fish at 3.5-4 million tonnes a year. "This is one of the competitive edges which will help prop up the growth of the local food processing sector in the future," he stressed.However, he said, as of the end of last year, the region had had only 35 projects worth $550 million in the food processing sector.Vo Sang Xuan Vinh, deputy director of Bluewave Advisory Co Ltd, said financial in-vestors who pour money into food chains pay more attention to partners whose finan-cial models are good. In addition, their business performance should be fine and their segments fall into the highest added value."Within a value chain, investors keep an eye on the food processing stage which turns out value-added products," Vinh said.He added investors pay more attention to food processing enterprises that have strong brands, have the ability to export their products, and make their products certified by international agencies available in local distribution systems.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57491/Mekong-Delta-has-much-room-for-food-processors.html

Food industry attracting Japanese interest

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Japanese investors increasingly keen on Vietnam's food industry, conference hears.Vietnam's food industry will attract increasing numbers of Japanese enterprises in the years to come, Kitagawa Hironobu, Chief Representative of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in Hanoi, told the Vietnam Food Industry Development Confer-ence on December 12.He pointed out that many Japanese enterprises work with JETRO in seeking invest-ment opportunities in Vietnam's food industry. The number of enterprises investing in non-manufacturing in Vietnam increased 70 per cent last year, with a particular in-terest in agriculture and food. Le An Hai, deputy Head of the Asia-Africa Market Department at the Ministry of In-dustry and Trade, said that many Vietnamese companies have invested heavily in the processing industry, providing a range of high-quality products for the domestic mar-ket and for export.According to figures from MoIT, as at the end of November, growth in agricultural and processed food exports had increased over 2 per cent this year. "This is an encour-aging result," he said. "However, the food processing industry still has some limita-tions both in quality and quantity."The industry has great potential and opportunities to develop, especially in sectors such as milk, beverages, confectionery, and cooking oil, Hai added. In the 2011-2016 period, growth in fresh milk increased 16 per cent each year, beer 7 per cent, and bev-erages 11 per cent.Notably, the consumption of confectionery in Vietnam in the years to come is forecast


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at some 10 per cent each year. For the vegetable oil industry, per capita consumption in Vietnam is now just 12 kilogram per person per year but is forecast to reach 20 kil-ogram by 2025. Hai added that Vietnam's food processing industry uses modern equipment and ad-vanced technology and take advantage of the country's raw materials in creating di-versified food products that are highly competitive and can establish a foothold in the region and the world."MoIT and other ministries are actively working to develop a legal framework to create the best conditions for Vietnamese and Japanese enterprises to promote investment co-operation in the processing industry," he said. Saka Hrumi from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said there should be cooperative dialogue in linking Vietnam-Japan agricultural value chains. The two countries have held three talks since 2014.Representatives from Japanese enterprises said the government should provide sup-port policies as well as capital and technology for businesses to set up wastewater treatment systems to prevent soil pollution. Businesses should also pay attention to the circulation of goods, to create value-added food chains from production and process-ing to distribution and consumption.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/food-industry-attracting-japanese-inter-est

Japan's plastics giants partner with local firms


Vietnam's fast-growing plastics industry has lured in Japanese companies to strike up deals with local partners.Japan's Sojitz Pla-Net, the plastics division of Sojitz Corporation, entered into a strate-gic partnership with Rang Dong Plastic JSC last week to establish greater cooperation in the market, with Rang Dong Plastic selling a 20 per cent stake in its subsidiary Rang Dong Long An Plastic JSC to Sojitz Pla-Net.The firms will join forces to develop the Rang Dong Long An factory complex in the southern province of Long An. It is slated to open in March 2018.With $32 million in investment capital for the first stage, the plastics complex will house three factories on an area of 8.7 hectares. The factories will employ the latest technology from Germany, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.Norio Satake, chair of the board of directors for Sojitz Pla-Net, said they found rapid growth in the demand for greater sophistication in Southeast Asia's packaging indus-try. This includes not only exported food production, but also the development of a cold chain system that caters to growing middle-class incomes.According to Satake, the investment into Rang Dong Long An will help the firms to create new packaging businesses for the Sojitz supply chain. In Vietnam, the Vietnam-ese firm has been collaborating with more than 20 Sojitz group companies. Taking ad-vantage of this network, it will supply Rang Dong products to Sojitz-operated Ministop Vietnam. In its overseas markets, Sojitz Pla-Net has already started supply-ing Rang Dong products in Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.In addition, Sojitz Pla-Net will supply raw materials to Rang Dong to produce new products for customers. Through this partnership, Rang Dong will have access to a more stable, competitive, and high-quality supply of material.On July 5, Japan-based Sekisui Chemical Group signed a strategic partnership agree-ment with Tien Phong Plastic South JSC, an affiliate company of Tien Phong Plastic. Sekisui has more than 66 years of experience in manufacturing plastic pipes in Japan and Tien Phong Plastic is one of Vietnam's leading plastics manufacturers.Hajime Kubo, director and senior managing executive officer of Sekisui, said that Asia has been the largest revenue contributor to Sekisui. With official development assist-ance funding from Japan, the group has plans to enter regional markets like the Phil-ippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. The group is targeting Vietnam as a potential manufacturing base, capitalising on the country's domestic demand and possibilities for export to other Southeast Asian countries.


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Another Japanese firm, Oji Holdings Corporation, has bought major shares in Viet-namese packaging manufacturer United Packaging Joint Venture Co., Ltd Meanwhile, Japanese investment institution RISA Partners has expressed its intention to invest in Dong An Plastic.Nguyen Hoang Ngan, deputy chair of the Vietnam Plastics Association, considers the plastics industry to be a dynamic sector of the Vietnamese economy, with annual in-creases from 12 to 15 per cent, and some plastic products growing by nearly 100 per cent.At present, the Vietnamese plastics industry has 3,000 enterprises operating across the country. The 2016 revenue of the plastics industry was estimated to reach nearly $14 billion, a 10.3 per cent increase compared to 2015.http://www.vir.com.vn/japans-plastics-giants-partner-with-local-firms.html

Vietnam promotes tourism in India


The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and the Embassy of Viet-nam in India launched a programme in New Delhi on December 12 to promote Viet-nam's tourism.Deputy head of the VNAT Ngo Hoai Chung said Vietnam and India have seen impor-tant developments in tourism cooperation in recent years as well as the bilateral grow-ing comprehensive strategic partnership and traditional friendship.A myriad of tourism promotion activities have been carried out effectively within the framework of bilateral and multilateral cooperation, he said.Vietnam has become a popular destination for Indian tourists, while India is one of the most favourable places for Vietnamese people.During the visit to Vietnam by Indian President Narendra Modi in September 2016, the two sides mentioned the bilateral cooperation in tourism.Chung said Vietnam defines India as a priority tourism market. Therefore, the South-east Asian country has launched a number of activities to explore this market, promote tourism products and services, and engage in trade fairs and exhibitions.The VNAT has coordinated with the two countries' embassies and businesses to or-ganise tourism, aviation and cinema cooperation conferences as well as receive Indian film makers in Vietnam to share experience in creating new products.He affirmed that Vietnam is a stable and peaceful country with growing economy, ec-ological diversity and beautiful landscapes. The country boasts a coastline of over 3,200km with poetic beaches as well as unique culture and world cultural heritage rec-ognised by UNESCO. Vietnamese people are friendly and hospitable.At the programme, businesses exchanged cooperation opportunities. India's travel companies showed their interest in Vietnam's tourism market, which holds a lot of un-tapped potentials.A similar event will be held in Mumbai, one of the most dynamic cities in India.According to India's Ministry of Tourism, the number of Indian tourists to Vietnam in-creased to 85,000 in 2016 from 33,000 in 2010.During his working trip to India, Chung had a working session with the Indian min-istry on December 11, to exchange tourism cooperation between the two countries in recent time.He proposed India facilitate the early launch of a direct air route with Vietnam while enhancing tourism promotion activities and embracing links among travel companies.For his part, Satyajeet Rajan, director general at the Ministry of Tourism said he hopes the two sides will expand cooperation in education-training and human resources de-velopment.He agreed with the proposal of establishing a direct air route between the two coun-tries to increase the number of holidaymakers to the respective countries.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/travel/192060/vietnam-promotes-tourism-in-in-dia.html


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SVietnam finance & business 14 December

VN-Russia business relations boom


Enterprises from Vietnam and Russia should utilise new business opportunities to ce-ment the comprehensive relationship between the two countries.Deputy prime minister Trinh Dinh Dung said this at Expo-Russia Vietnam 2017, which opened its doors here yesterday. More than 500 businesses are taking part."The future of bilateral ties depends not only on the expectations of the two govern-ments, but also on the dynamism and determination of the two business communi-ties," the deputy PM said.Russia is an important trade partner for Vietnam with two-way trade reaching to more than $3.2 billion in the 11 months of the year to date, up 26.7 per cent year-on-year. This figure, however, still lags behind the trade target of $10 billion by 2020 set earlier by the two countries' leaders, Dung said.The deputy PM said he hoped the country's key staples, such as textiles and garments, footwear, seafood, farm produce, timber and electronics and consumer products could better penetrate Russia.Meanwhile, he said Vietnam was ready to import products from a wide range of sec-tors from Russia, including industrial, farm goods, petrochemicals, industrial equip-ment, cars and parts as well as raw materials.Vietnamese firms had shown rising interest in the Russian market, the Vietnam Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry vice-chair Hoang Quang Phong told a business forum at the expo.As of July 2017, Vietnam had 18 investment projects in Russia with a total investment capital of $2.4 billion. The projects mainly concerned energy and mining industries. Meanwhile, Russian firms have pumped more than $1 billion into 115 projects in Viet-nam.Phong said, Expo-Russia Vietnam 2017 would accelerate two-way economic ties by showcasing products and services for export and investment projects and research findings of businesses, universities and research agencies.It would also introduce achievements in energy, machine manufacturing, transport and telecommunications, as well as mining, chemical industry, healthcare, agriculture and hi-tech industries.At the expo, organised by VCCI and Russian company Zarubezh Expo, Vietnamese firms have an opportunity to learn about Russia's investment environment and seek business partnerships.The event, which will run until tomorrow, also includes a workshop on economic co-operation between member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union and Vietnam, and roundtables on agriculture, energy, transport and healthcare.At the first event in December 2015, the Russian side signed 172 agreements with Vi-etnamese partners.http://bizhub.vn/news/vn-russia-business-relations-boom_290763.html

BUSINESSZ NEWSBusiness Briefs 14 December, 2017

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA |

* PetroVietnam Oil Corporation will auction 206.8 million shares, or 20 percent of its chartered capital of VND 1 0.3 trillion, at the starting price of VND13,400 each. It will sell 462.5 million shares, or a 44.72 percent stake, to strategic investors and 1.8 million shares, or 0.18 percent, to employees. After the public auction, PetroVietnam will still hold a 35 percent stake in the oil firm.* Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI)'has passed a scheme to issue 10 million shares to employ-ees atVNDlO,OOO each from December l3 to 29. The issuance aims to strengthen the relationship between staff and the enterprise and supplement its working capital. End-ing the third quarter of 2017, the brokerage firm obtained over VND 1.8 trillion in rev-enue and VND814 billion in pre-tax profit, meeting 88.8 percent and 76.9 percent of the respective full-year targets.* Thien Nam Trading Import Export Corporation has decided to withdrawVND39.9 billion from Saigon 268 Trading and Development Joint Stock Company, cutting its stake to 22.5 percent. Established in March, Saigon 268 Trading and Development


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Company operates in the property sector.* Hoa Sen Vietnam Trading and Investment will be buying 500,000 shares of Safoco Foodstuff Company (SAF) between now to January 11, 2018. The investor is holding over 1.3 million shares ofSAF, or a 17.5 percent stake.* Vietnam Container Company (VSC) will advance a 2017 dividend for shareholders at 20 percent, including 10 percent in cash and 10 percent in share. VSC will make the payment on December 29.* KB Vietnam Focus Balanced Fund has bought 600,000 shares of HCM City Infrastruc-ture Investment Company (CII) to raise its holding to 0.56 percent.* Bamboo Capital Company (BCG) has decided to invest VND92 billion in BCG Energy Joint Stock Company to hold a 40 percent ownership. Established in June with total chartered capital ofVND230 billion, the enterprise is active in power production and transmission, power supply andconstruction.* Individual investor guyen Hong Hiep has acquired over two million shares of Cuu Long Petro Gas Transportation ( PERCENT) to spur his ownership from 15.1 percent to 21.1 percent.* Nguyen Xuan Son, a board member and deputy director of Construction Company No.7 (VC7), has offloaded over 264,000 VC7 shares, or a 2.4 percent stake in the com-pany.

Shares fall on market volatility fears


Shares on both local exchanges declined on Wednesday with investors cautious about market volatility.The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange closed down 0.31 per cent at 924.40 points. It gained 1.07 per cent on Tuesday.The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange dropped 0.42 per cent to end at 110.45 points, making a four-day decrease of 3.5 per cent.More than 215 million shares were traded on both local bourses, worth VND4.67 tril-lion (US$207.6 million).The trading figures represented declines of 35.5 per cent in volume and 38.3 per cent in value compared to the previous session.Losing stocks outstripped gaining shares by 233 to 206 on the two local exchanges, while 120 others ended flat.Bank stocks led the decline of the stock market with the sector's index falling 1.5 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.The worst decliners among the 10 listed banks were Sacombank (STB), MBBank (MBB), Vietinbank (CTG), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and VPBank (VPB), which suffered losses of at least 2.1 per cent.Large-cap stocks also underperformed as half of the 30 largest shares by market capi-talisation in the VN30 Index fell, pulling the large-cap index down 0.16 per cent to 913.33 points.Among stocks that gained, brewer Sabeco (SAB) narrowed its growth from as much as 7 per cent to only 0.3 per cent at the end of the session.Sabeco shares hit the daily increase limit of 6.8 per cent on Tuesday following reports that Vietnam Beverage Co Ltd had signed up to buy at least a quarter of Sabeco shares at its upcoming sale on December 18.However, Vietnam Beverage's parent company Thai Beverage (ThaiBev) on Tuesday announced the registration of interest "is actually only a notification submitted to the organiser of the Competitive Offering of Sabeco shares pursuant to a regulation requir-ing potential investors who have an interest in acquiring 25 per cent or more of Sabeco shares to indicate such a possibility" and "it does not constitute a commitment on the part of Vietnam Beverage to bid for such a portion (or any) of Sabeco shares."On the opposite side, energy, real estate and steel shares continued to perform well, especially the two steel producers Hoa Sen Group (HSG) and Hoa Phat Group (HPG) after the Vietnam Steel Association reported steel consumption in the first 11 months


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of the year rose 18.4 per cent year-on-year to 15.87 million tonnes.According to Sai Gon-Hanoi Securities (SHS), strong selling pressure in large-cap stocks, especially banks, was the main reason for the lack of improvement in the short term.Declining market liquidity indicated that investors were cautious as the market was volatile and they chose to stand by and watch market trading movements, SHS said in a note.The Hanoi-based brokerage firm forecast that the benchmark VN Index would strug-gle in the range of 920 and 930 points on Thursday.http://bizhub.vn/markets/shares-fall-on-market-volatility-fears_290757.html

VN Index & HNX-Index lose ground


Only HNX30-Index and UPCoM-Index close higher on December 13.Most main indexes on Vietnam's stock market lost ground on December 13.On HSX, the VN Index closed down 2.85 points (0.31 per cent) and the VN30-Index 1.49 points (0.16 per cent).On HNX, the HNX-Index lost 0.46 points (0.42 per cent) while the HNX30-Index in-creased 0.45 points (0.21 per cent) and the UPCoM-Index 0.09 points (0.16 per cent).Liquidity on HSX reached VND3.1 trillion ($136.5 million) and on HNX was VND656 billion ($28.88 million).On HSX, there were 116 shares increasing and 161 decreasing while 90 rose and 72 fell on HNX.PVS, PVD, GAS, PXS, PVC, PVB, and PVS gained ground but lost major gains in the morning during the afternoon session. Large caps such as PLX, VNM, BVH, and MSN, and banking shares such as SAB, BHN, VJC, BID, CTG, MBB, ACB, and EIB fell sharply during the morning session.Most large banking shares closed lower: STB by 3.6 per cent, MBB 3.1 per cent, CTG 2.6 per cent, VPB 2.1 per cent, VCB 1.6 per cent, and BID 0.8 per cent.In food and beverages, SAB increased 0.3 per cent and VNM 0.2 per cent as MSN lost 0.8 per cent.In real estate and construction, VIC rose 1.1 per cent, ROS 0.7 per cent, and FLC 0.4 per cent as DXG fell 2.1 per cent and HBC 1.8 per cent.Among other large caps, CMG increased 6.9 per cent and FPT 1.9 per cent while PLX lost 2.8 per cent, MWG 1.9 per cent, and VRE 0.3 per cent.The Top 5 rising shares on HSX were CIG, AMD, SGT, CMG, and BCG, and CJC, SDG, TAG, ATS, and TFC on HNX.The Top 5 falling shares on HSX were PXT, HAS, CCL, TMS, and DAT, and MKV, PEN, VHL, VGP, and TJC on HNX.Foreign investors net bought by VND3.71 billion ($163,362) on HNX.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/gcwfbycr-vn-index-hnx-index-lose-ground

Sacomreal to boost capital by 30 per cent


About 20 per cent of the shares will be offered to existing shareholders and another 10 per cent will be sold in a private placement.The company will hold a shareholders' meeting on December 18 to seek approval for the plan. It will also seek endorsement for Thanh Thanh Cong Investment JSC's share purchase without a public bid.Thanh Thanh Cong Investment currently holds 4.91 per cent of Sacomreal's capital. The company is expected to increase its stake to over 25 per cent of total voting shares.On October 23 this year, Sacomreal issued nearly 16 million shares to pay a 7-per-cent dividend, lifting its outstanding shares to 243.9 million shares.The company's share price has increased more than 6 per cent this year, being traded at about VND9,000 a share.http://bizhub.vn/markets/sacomreal-to-boost-capital-by-30-per-cent_290759.html


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Thai Bev: No commitment made to bid for Sabeco stake


Thai Beverages posts statement on website clarifying the status of its registration to purchase shares in Vietnamese brewer.Vietnam Beverage, a unit of Thai Beverage, has expressed an interest in buying about 51 per cent of Vietnam's top brewer, the Saigon Beer Alcohol and Beverage Corp. (Sabeco), according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), but Thai Beverage has said that no commitment has been made on bidding for the shares.As VET reported earlier, MoIT said in a statement that as at 6pm on December 11, the one prospective investor that has registered an interest in buying 25 per cent or more of Sabeco that has publicised the information is the Vietnam Beverage Co., owned by the Vietnam F&B Alliance Investment Co., which is 49 per cent owned by BeerCo Ltd, an indirect but wholly-owned subsidiary of Thai Beverage.However, Thai Beverage clarified in a statement on its website on December 13 that the registration of interest was only a notification submitted to the trade ministry pur-suant to the regulation requiring potential investors who have an interest in acquiring 25 per cent or more of Sabeco shares. "It does not constitute a commitment on the part of Vietnam Beverage to bid for such a portion (or any) of Sabeco shares," the statement said. "Vietnam Beverage has not submitted the registration form for participating in the bid, submitted any bid, or reached any agreement or decision to acquire a stake in Sabeco.""The matter is still under consideration by Vietnam Beverage, which has up to Decem-ber 17, the last day of the bid registration process, to consider whether to submit the registration form for participating in the bid, and if so, for what quantum of shares, and until December 18 (unless extended by the trade ministry), to submit its bid with its bidding price."Thai Beverage also notified its shareholders that the outcome of the bidding process in the competitive offering of Sabeco shares will be determined by the trade ministry, and even if a bid is submitted, there is no assurance that it will be successful, whether in full or in part.Sabeco ranks as the world's most richly-valued major brewer after surging 58 per cent on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange this year, including a 6.8 per cent jump on Decem-ber 12.Vietnam is Asia's third-largest beer producer after China and Japan and has a work-ing-age population that will overtake the latter's by 2030, and Sabeco has almost half the market. Vietnam could be home to the world's second-largest increase in beer sales by volume between 2016 and 2021, after India.More than $4 billion is sought from the stake sale. The government is offering 53.6 per cent of the brewer, though foreign investors are limited to a 38.59 per cent holding. Combined with the 10.4 per cent already held by investors from overseas, that would hit the foreign ownership cap imposed on some public companies.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/thai-bev-no-commitment-made-to-bid-for-sabeco-stake

Carlsberg moves closer to Habeco deal in Vietnam

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| TUOITRE NEWS

Danish brewer Carlsberg has edged closer to reaching an agreement with the Vietnam-ese government to increase its stake in HabecoDanish brewer Carlsberg has edged closer to reaching an agreement with the Vietnam-ese government to increase its stake in Habeco, one of Vietnam's biggest brewers, which it hopes will speed up the process.Vietnam has one of the world's most attractive beer markets and the biggest in South-east Asia, buoyed by a young population that consumed nearly 4 billion litres last year. The government wants to fully divest its majority stake in Habeco and also in rival Sabeco.Carlsberg, which already owns 17.3 percent of shares in Habeco, has been discussing its priority purchase rights with the Vietnamese government for years."Carlsberg, the Vietnamese government and Habeco have reached a common under-


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standing on a number of issues during the negotiations, and we expect this will accel-erate the process," a Carlsberg spokesman said.Most recently, Carlsberg has acknowledged its long-term obligations in Vietnam with regards to Habeco and the oldest beer brand in Hanoi, he said without elaborating.The government said last month it expects a stake sale in Habeco to be completed in the first quarter of 2018.The government is pushing ahead with a privatisation process against the backdrop of a rally in Vietnam's broader equity market.https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/business/20171214/carlsberg-moves-closer-to-habeco-deal-in-vietnam/43135.html

ACV prepares for colossal divestment


The state will divest about 20 per cent of its stake more than 435 million shares in Vi-etnam's largest state-owned airport operator in the third quarter of next year.According to Lai Xuan Thanh, chair of Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the company submitted its state divestment plan to the Ministry of Transport (MoT) late last month.Under the proposal, the state will divest 20 per cent of the company's chartered capital, equal to 435.4 million shares, through a public auction. It is expected to earn around VND39.19 trillion ($1.78 billion), based on the share's average traded price of around VND90,000 on the unlisted public company market (UPCoM), as of December 5, 2017.If the deal is successful, the state holdings in ACV would be reduced to 75.4 per cent of the company's chartered capital.Currently, the MoT, which represents the state capital owner in ACV, possesses 2.076 billion shares, equal to 95.4 per cent of the company's chartered capital, whereas other shareholders own more than 100 million shares, equal to 4.6 per cent of ACV's char-tered capital.In Decision No. 1232/QD-TTg, dated August 17, 2017, the prime minister approved a list of state-owned enterprises to engage in state capital divestment plans from 2017-2020. The state's shareholding in ACV would accordingly go down by 20 per cent to 75.4 per cent in 2018, before dropping further to 65 per cent by 2020."We propose selling ACV shares in public auctions to ensure transparency and state benefits. Based on the market situation, the stake sale will either take place at once or in several instances at the HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE)," said Thanh.While declining to disclose the state of their continued negotiations of a stake sale to a strategic shareholder France's Groupe ADP (formerly Aeroports de Paris) the ACV leader certified that ACV's state capital divestment aims to attract both domestic and foreign investors, and that the company will host extensive road shows at home and abroad to appeal to investors.Operating officially under the joint stock model since April 2016, after making its ini-tial public offering (IPO) in late 2015, the company now holds a monopoly in manag-ing and operating six international airports and 16 domestic airports, with 65 per cent of its revenue coming from duty-free shops trading.Before holding this state capital divestment round, ACV is set to move from UPCoM to HOSE in an attempt to boost its stock liquidation.With a $2 billion stock volume set to be put on offer, its liquidity remains uncertain be-cause many other SOEs have similar state divestment plans during this period.However, Vu The Phiet, deputy general director of ACV, expressed optimism about the sale. He stated that ACV's stock had been put onto the 'must-buy' lists of some big financial institutions by virtue of the company's upbeat business performance after its equitisation.After one year of listing on UPCoM, the company's stock rose fourfold in value and is an-ticipated to continue its momentum on the back of impressive business results.From the start of the year through September, ACV registered VND10.32 trillion ($469 mil-lion) in net revenue, equal to 77 per cent of the annual projection. The firm's pre-tax profit of VND3.89 trillion ($175.5 million) was 6 per cent greater than its full-year target.


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Vinaconex to divest from five subsidiaries by end of the year


Vietnam Construction and Import-Export JSC (Vinaconex) has announced a series of divestures from five of its subsidiaries by end of the year.Vinaconex will offload 25.5 million shares, or 51 per cent of charter capital of Vinacon-ex Water Supply JSC (VCW), more than 965,500 shares, or 16.6 per cent stake of Vina-conex No 12 JSC (V12), 2.2 million shares, or 18.83 per cent stake of Vinaconex No 9 JSC (VC9), 2.3 million shares, or 15.23 per cent stake of Vinaconex No 2 (VC2) and 2.4 million shares, or 34 per cent stake of Vinaconex Urban and Housing Development In-vestment JSC (Vinahud).The company has yet to disclose the selling prices for the sales, expected to be carried out between December 15 and 29.Except Vinahud, the other four companies are trading on the Hanoi Stock Exchange and Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) with prices ranging between VND15,000 and VND37,000 per share.Vinaconex's shares (VCG) rose 4.9 per cent on Wednesday to VND23,400 (US$1.03) per share after the announcement.http://bizhub.vn/markets/vinaconex-to-divest-from-five-subsidiaries-by-end of the year_290760.html

E-commerce websites have to be registered


A website considered an e-commerce website and must be registered or notified to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).They are those serving part or whole of the following activities is including purchasing and selling of goods or provision of services; from display and introduction of goods or services to contract commitment and service provision, payment and after-sales service.Therefore, almost all websites that sell and introduce goods and provide services on the internet are e-commerce websites, which must be registered or notified to the min-istry as prescribed by the law.When to register and when to notify e-commerce websites?E-commerce website notification according to clause 8, Article 3, Decree No 52/2013/N-CP:If traders, organisations and individuals merely provide information on their commer-cial promotion activities, sales of goods or provision of services of websites they own, they must notify the Ministry of Industry and Trade. For example: the websites of Mo-bile World, CGV, and Vivavivu represent these companies in selling goods (website owners).These websites are collectively referred to as sales e-commerce websites.E-commerce website registration according to clause 1, Article 25 and Article 27 of De-cree No 52/2013/N-CP:Websites built for one of the three following activities must be registered with the MoIT. They include e-commerce trading floor on which other traders, organisations or individuals are allowed to conduct a portion or the whole process of sale and purchase of goods and services on these websites; promotional activities for the goods and serv-ices of other traders, organisations or individuals and online auction websites on which traders, organisations or individuals are allowed to organise the auction of their goods.For example: Tiki, Sendo, and Hotdeal websites are e-commerce transaction floors that enable traders, organisations and individuals who are not website owners to proceed to sell goods or provide services on those websites. These websites are collectively re-ferred to as websites providing e-commerce services.Websites having both functions must be registered and notified to the ministry, ac-cording to Article 36, Article 41 and Article 46 of Decree No 52/2013/N-CP, and Article 8 and Article 13 of Circular No 47/2014/TT-BCT.For example: Lazada, Adayroi, and Robins websites are e-commerce platforms (allow-ing traders, organisations and individuals who are not website owners to sell on the


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site) that also simultaneously sell goods on their behalf (website owners).Fines for failure to register/notify e-commerce websitesA fine ranging from VN10,000,000 to VN20,000,000 shall apply in case of establishing sales e-commerce websites without informing the Ministry of Industry and Trade.A fine ranging from VN20,000,000 to VN30,000,000 shall apply in case of establishing websites that provide e-commerce services without registering with the Ministry of In-dustry and Trade.In addition, the state agency shall impose a suspension of commercial activity from six to 12 months in the event of multiple violations, according to Clause 32, Article 1 of Decree No 124/2015/N-CP.http://www.vir.com.vn/e-commerce-websites-have-to-be-registered.html

Sales of construction steel surged 58pct in Nov

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| NDH

According to Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), in November, Vietnam produced 790,962 tonnes of construction steel, up 4.29 percent and 9.24 percent respectively com-pared with October and the same period of 2016.Steel sales in November reached 884,823 tonnes, up 58 percent over the previous month and eight percent over the same period.Inventory in November 30 was 696,931 tonnes, down 12 percent from the end of Sep-tember 2017.Cumulatively, in January-November, steel output increased 13.7 percent over the same period to 8.3 million tonnes.Competition among manufacturers has been increasingly severe in terms of maintain-ing market share. Hoa Phat continued to lead the construction steel market share in 11 months of 2017 when accounting for 23.94 percent. VNSteel ranked the second with 18.01 percent market share.Overall, in January-November 2017, sales volume of VNSteel decreased 4.8 percent, the joint venture with VNSteel does not have significant average growth in 11 months, and the sector outside VNSteel grew 21.83 percent.Because factories are competing for market share, they do not have many opportuni-ties to adjust up prices. In the North, factories only raised price once in November with an increase of 150 dong/kilogram for rolled steel. In the South, plants cannot revise up price due to the strong competition in market share.The mixed fluctuations in prices of domestic steel scrap and billet also influenced on domestic construction steel prices. Specifically, domestic steel scrap prices increased from 7,000-7.200 dong/kilogram to 7,400-7,600 dong/kilogram. Meanwhile, the price of billet dropped $5 per tonne from $500 to $505 per tonne to $495 to $500 per kilogram in November.

US oncology software launched in Vietnam


Software technology IBM Watson for Oncology developed by US company IBM has just been introduced in Vietnam. The technology, based on expert training by Memo-rial Sloan Kettering physicians, is expected to provide clinicians with evidence-based treatment options.The software allows physicians to enter the patient's diagnostic information into the IBM cognitive computing system. It assesses the medical conditions of the patient by referencing tens of millions of medical records in order to provide the best clinical pro-tocol.The technology assists oncologists in offering treatment options based on medical records. As a result, their diagnosis and treatment will be faster.The World Health Organization has placed Vietnam at 78th among 172 countries with high cancer fatalities, with a cancer death rate of 110 for every 100,000 people. The number of cancer patients in the country has been on the rise with the figure forecast to reach 190,000 cases in 2020 compared to just 68,000 in 2000.Five9 Vietnam, a local private telecoms and software company, has launched the technol-ogy on a trial basis at the Phu Tho general Hospital in the northern province of Phu Tho.


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After the trial scheme, IBM and Five9 will introduce the software on a large scale. They intend to help doctors and patients across the country to have access to the technology.Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, a cancer treatment and research institution founded in 1884 in New York City, is working with IBM to train Watson Oncology to interpret cancer patients' clinical information and identify individualised, evidence-based treatment options that leverage their specialists' decades of experience and re-search.The software has been available at 80 hospitals and other healthcare facilities in 11 countries.Nguyen Trong Huan, chair of Five9 Vietnam, said IBM Watson for Oncology ensures consistency in treatment regimens for patients whether they go to either local or cen-tral hospitals. Besides, it helps doctors look for professional information regularly up-dated, enabling them to keep well informed of the latest treatment methods, and thus improving the quality of cancer treatment.Tran Quy Tuong, director of the Information Technology Department under the health ministry, said the application of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector has be-come an indispensable trend. IBM Watson for Oncology is expected to support doctors in coming up with treatment regimens for cancer patients in a more accurate and ef-fective manner.Ngo Huu Ha, deputy director of Phu Tho general Hospital, said the technology will help doctors save a great deal of time while looking up information so that they can spend more time improving patient care.Deputy minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien said IBM Watson for Oncology is a new advance in the application of information technology in healthcare activities for cancer patients in Vietnam.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57507/US-oncology-software-launched-in-Viet-nam.html

Experts find downtown vehicle restriction scheme unconvincing


Most experts voiced their disagreements over a scheme to impose a fee on cars enter-ing downtown HCM City to reduce traffic congestion, heard a seminar on December 12.According to Tien Phong Technology JSC (ITD) as the investor of the project, the fee would range from VND30,000 to VND50,000 (US$1.32-2.2) per time at rush hours, from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. To collect fees, the company would install 36 automatic collection booths on the streets leading to the city centre spanning 930 hectares.The project would need a total investment of nearly VND1.6 trillion (excluding value-added tax) with VND891.1 billion for equipment and VND40.7 billion for construc-tion. Fee revenue would be used to improve public transport.The project is expected to be piloted in December 2019 and officially operated in 2020.Such a scheme fails to find backers as experts demanded more details.Lawyer Truong Thi Hoa said road users under any regulations do not have to pay fees for causing traffic congestion. In addition, traffic congestion is widespread in the city, not only in the downtown area, so she proposed the project, if ever approved, should also be implemented in other districts besides districts 1 and 3.She also cast doubt on the feasibility of the project.Dong Van Khiem from the HCM City Fatherland Front Committee told the seminar that the investor should secure a consensus among local residents. It is also necessary to survey the number of vehicles entering the downtown area at peak and off-peak hours to bring out an effective solution.According to Khiem, the investor reasoned the project would encourage people to use public transit such as buses and Metro Line No.1 instead of private vehicles but these two transport means alone would not be able to meet commuter demand.Collection booths should not be located near build-operate-transfer (BOT) tollgates to avoid drivers' opposition. Parking lots near collection booths are needed to serve com-


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muters using public transport means to the city centre, said a representative of the Road and Railway Traffic Police Division under the HCM City Police Department.Many other experts also asked if prices of products and services in the centre of HCM City might increase due to the fees to be imposed, and how the proceeds would be used to develop public transport as suggested by the would-be investor.Vo Khanh Hung, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Transport, said ex-perts' ideas are useful to better the scheme before it goes before the city government.ITD general director Lam Thieu Quan stated that the company has hired foreign con-sulting firms to appraise the project, and has collected data from drivers to assess im-pacts of the project on them.As for economic benefits, when the project is implemented, vehicles would move 10 percent faster, generating economic benefits estimated at some VND245 trillion for the city within 15 years from an investment of VND1.5 trillion.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57488/Experts-find-downtown-vehicle-restriction-scheme-unconvincing.html

Solutions to Cai Lay tollgate to be submitted at weekend


The directorate for Roads of Vietnam will send a comprehensive assessment of the Cai Lay road tollgate in Tien Giang Province to the Ministry of Transport this Sunday, Vi-etnamPlus quoted head of the directorate Nguyen Van Huyen as saying.According to Huyen, the directorate is measuring traffic volume and considering so-lutions to be presented to the ministry. The ministry will then report to the government by December 22.Huyen said the four solutions, including three previously proposed by the ministry, are carefully taken into account to avoid big impacts on the project's financial plan.The ministry's three solutions to the Cai Lay tollgate include keeping the tollgate as it is now, building another tollgate on the road bypassing Cai Lay town, and relocating the existing tollgate to the bypass.In case the existing tollgate is moved to the bypass or a new tollgate is built on this road, the State would reimburse the investor the investment spent on upgrading Na-tional Highway 1.Under the fourth solution as suggested by transport and economic experts, the tollgate on National Highway 1 would stay where it is. When the cost of repairing National Highway 1 is fully recovered, the tollgate would be moved to the bypass.These plans will be thoroughly assessed based on analyses by investors and banks to ensure the viability of the financial plan and harmonise benefits among the public, the investor and the State.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57489/Solutions-to-Cai-Lay-tollgate-to-be-submit-ted-at-weekend.html

Worker efficiency must make a leap


With Vietnam trying to find ways to boost its growth, further improvements in labour productivity are considered one of the key factors for reaching the goal. Thanh Thu re-ports.The Vietnam Development Forum 2017 (VDF) will take place on December 13 in Ha-noi, with a key focus laid on the country's productivity, which remains low.The VDF) themed "Increasing productivity the leverage for sustainable development" will be attended by prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and two deputy prime minis-ters, and be hosted by minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung and World Bank Vietnam country director Ousmane Dione. The event is expected to be at-tended by about 350 delegates.VDF 2017, an official policy dialogue between the Vietnamese government and inter-national development partners, will delve into impediments for increasing Vietnam's low productivity, which has been undermining the country's competiveness. The fo-rum will also seek out specific solutions for improving the economy's productivity, which will help the country to catch up with developed economies in the future, espe-


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cially considering that the Vietnamese economy's propellants like capital, labour, and natural resources have almost been maximised," said a Ministry of Planning and In-vestment (MPI) document on VDF 2017.One day before VDF is organised, the Vietnam Business Forum 2017 will take place. This is an official policy dialogue between Vietnam's government and the private busi-ness community.Japanese-backed plastic mould producer Senu Vietnam, based in the northern prov-ince of Hai Duong, is currently busy with production to fulfil its orders for the remain-ing weeks of the year. In 2017, the firm's orders have increased by 15 per cent compared to last year."The increase is due to many factors, but one of the main reasons is that we have im-proved our productivity. With higher productivity, we have been able to land more contracts," said Senu representative Takashi Masumitsu.He told VIR that in the past, every new worker, despite having graduated from voca-tional schools in Vietnam, had to learn how to hold a screwdriver and work a screw from scratch before being allowed to officially work on the production floor.Workers' skills improved this year as the firm has cooperated with vocational schools to ensure workers are educated according to its needs.Senu Vietnam has several automated production lines, with each machine currently operated by only two workers instead of four as had been the case previously."Though our company's productivity is improved, it is still relatively low. generally speaking, Vietnam's labour productivity has gotten better, but remains sub-par. With the same production lines in Japan, we can produce 100 units of product per hour with only one worker, while the figure here is only 80 with two workers," Masumitsu said.Increased productivityAccording to the International Labour Organisation, labour productivity is an impor-tant economic indicator closely linked to growth, competitiveness, and living stand-ards within an economy. It represents the total volume of output (measured in terms of GDP) produced per unit of labour (measured in terms of the number of employed persons) during a given time reference period.The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) reported that over the past few years, even though Vietnam has become a middle-income nation, the factors that have pre-viously functioned as the economy's driving forces, such as strong capital, intensive la-bour, and natural resources, are on the wane.According to MPI, Vietnam is at risk of lagging behind other economies. As stated by the "Vietnam 2035" report a joint Vietnam-World Bank study launched last year it will take Vietnam 18 years with an average annual growth rate of at least 6 per cent to reach an average per-capita income equal to Malaysia's 2010 number of $18,000. With an an-nual GDP growth rate of 7 per cent, Vietnam could hit South Korea's 2003 average of $24,000 within seven years."This requires Vietnam to create a new growth impetus to boost its growth in a more sustainable manner," said MPI minister Nguyen Chi Dung. "Experiences from devel-oped economies show that a rise in productivity is one of the key factors that can create sustainable development and breakthroughs for a nation. In Vietnam, productivity is increasing slowly, and if it is not boosted, the country will lag behind other nations."According to Masumitsu, Japan is a good example for productivity improvements. In the 1950s, the quality of products made in Japan was low. Based on research, Japanese experts designed models to increase labour productivity and the quality of products.Businesses improved themselves according to the 'five S's', which stand for the Japa-nese words seiri (tidiness), seiton (orderliness), seizo (cleanliness), seiketsu (standard-isation), and shitsuke (discipline). These principles were applied radically in all production stages at Japanese firms."In Vietnam, workers' quality has improved but needs to improve much more, and this is one of the key factors for Vietnam to attract more and more Japanese investments, and to keep its economic growth on the right track," Masumitsu said.Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told the National Assembly last month that Viet-


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nam's growth has seen big improvements, with a strong growth rate for a long time, at 6.07 per cent annually in the 2011-2015 period. It is expected that the rate will be 6.7 per cent this year."The most positive indicator is that the economy's labour productivity has risen, mean-ing the economic growth quality has improved," Phuc stressed.Specifically, labour productivity rose by 5.29 per cent last year and 5.87 per cent this year, while total-factor productivity (TFP) was 40.68 per cent last year and 44.13 per cent this year. The incremental capital-output ratio (ICOR) also decreased, at 6.41 per cent last year, and 6.27 per cent this year.TFP is a measure of the efficiency of all inputs to a production process. Increases in TFP usually stem from technological innovations or improvements. Meanwhile, ICOR states how much additional capital is required to produce the next unit of production.According to the General Statistical Office, labour productivity per capita was VND84.5 million ($3,840) last year, up 5.31 per cent against 2015. Compared to 2006, labour productivity rose by more than VND60 million ($2,727).According to a survey on labour productivity and wage growth in Vietnam released two months ago by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Vietnam In-stitute for Economics and Policy, Vietnam's labour productivity has risen by 4.4 per cent since 2004.Mindset changeResolution 5, issued in November 2016 by the 12th Party Central Committee, made in-creasing labour productivity one of the three pillars for achieving a new growth model for the country, in addition to growth quality and increased competitiveness. The res-olution set a target of raising productivity by 5.5 per cent per year, and to have 30-35 per cent of enterprises engage in innovative activities every year in the 2016-2020 pe-riod.At an April 2017 dialogue with workers in Vietnam's central region, prime minister Phuc said that in order to boost productivity and encourage enterprises to apply high technology, the state has offered incentives regarding corporate income tax and per-sonal income tax, as well as other favourable incentive plans."However, enterprises also need to use part of their profits for technological renova-tion. For example, Viettel has earmarked 10 per cent of its profit for renovation. I think we should also combine the state's incentives with enterprises' policies. This is imper-ative for raising labour productivity," Phuc said. "Without investment in renovation, we cannot improve our productivity and competiveness."Vietnam National Productivity Institute director Nguyen Anh Tuan said that in order to boost labour productivity, the country must focus on three factors: capital, science and technology, and human resources."Vietnam is a developing country, so investment capital plays a key role in economic growth. The more focus we put on low-productivity sectors, the lower our economy's labour productivity will remain. So investing more into advanced equipment and im-proving management skills is highly recommended," Tuan said. "However, we should remember that to boost our labour productivity, it is also necessary to raise salaries for employees and give them better benefits."His company holds similar views, Senu's Masumitsu said. Senu's 800 employees have received better salaries and welfare."Vietnam's business climate has improved significantly. If the government comes up with betterprogrammes on productivity improvement, companies like ours will perform better and contribute much more to the economy," he said. "We will continue investing more in training, so each of the machines in our production chains can be operated by only one worker, as is the case in Japan."http://www.vir.com.vn/worker-efficiency-must-make-a-leap.html


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Ministry to monitor M&A deal between MWG and TAG


The Vietnam Competition Authority under the Ministry of Industry and Trade will oversee a mergers and acquisitions deal between Mobile World Investment Corp (MWG), better known as The Gioi Di Dong, and Tran Anh Digital World Company (TAG) to ward off monopoly.MWG has plans to acquire a 100 percent stake in TAG's Tran Anh electronics store chain to increase its presence in northern and central cities and provinces.The competition watchdog said the deal would reinforce the leadership on the elec-tronics retail market of MWG, which is currently holding a market share of more than 30 percent. Therefore, it should be closely overseen to ensure healthy competition on the market.According to the competition authority, the M&A deal between the two would signif-icantly affect the electronics retail market. TAG is now one of MWG's opponents but it will become the leading electronics retailer's subsidiary after the deal.TAG has opened 39 Tran Anh electronics stores, mainly in northern and central re-gions, while MWG has expanded its Dien May Xanh electronics store chain nation-wide since mid-2016.In the year to October, MWG had opened 599 new stores, raising the total in the coun-try to more than 1,850 under different brands including thegioididong.com, Dien May Xanh and Bach Hoa Xanh.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57508/Ministry-to-monitor-MA-deal-between-MWG-and-TAG.html

Rail giant makes move to logistics


State-owned giant Vietnam Railways is venturing further into the logistics services market to cash in on rising trade and to prepare for the possible merger of two railway units.In late November, Vietnam Railways (VNR) and China Railway launched a container block train connecting Huanggang Station in Nanchang and Yen Vien Station in Ha-noi. This is the first container block train linking the two countries.With the launch, the transportation time between the cities was shortened dramatical-ly, from the current 15 days by sea to four days with simplified customs procedures, while transportation costs are cut in half compared to shipments by road.The two sides' plan is to initially run the container block train once a week and then increase the frequency to three times a week. Similar trains between Vietnam and other Chinese cities are also being discussed and could be implemented in the near future.A rush to meet growing trade demandsThe launch of the container block train is one of numerous plans and activities by VNR aimed at boosting logistics services amid stiffening competition and gaining more transportation market share. VNR is also looking to gain a greater allocation of state funding, which in some years accounts for just 2-3 per cent of the state's entire funding for the transport sector."We plan to invest in loading and unloading equipment to cut logistics costs and to shorten the loading and unloading time. We will study the possibilities of investing in or calling for private investment in opening railway routes to potential ports, which boast huge volumes of goods and where site clearance is possible," VNR chair Vu Anh Minh told VIR. "Initially, we are proposing to invest in more railway lines at Vat Cach Port in the northern port city of Hai Phong, while other ports will be studied later."In related developments, VNR and Vietnam Post Corporation (VNPost) the leading postal services provider in Vietnam have signed an agreement to cooperate in trans-portation of packages for customers as well as transportation of goods by rail from Vi-etnam to China.The moves are backed by growing regional cross-border e-commerce and the strongly-developing transport network. This has opened huge opportunities to develop cross-border transport (CBT) between Vietnam and China.International line-haul operations between Vietnam and China include the railway


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lines Nanning/Dong Dang-Hanoi and Kunming-Hekou/Lao Cai-Hanoi.According to statistics by the Vietnam Logistics Business Association, cross-border cargo shipments between China and Vietnam reached 107,600 in 2016. The numbers for China and Laos and China and Thailand were estimated at 2,020 and 128,000, re-spectively. In fact, CBT between Vietnam and China has become popular among inter-national corporations, including those active in Vietnam, because of the high cost of air transport and the high risks of sea transport.China's ZhenYang Logistics Group (ZYL) specialises in the Nanning-Hanoi route and in transport between southern China and northern Vietnam, and focuses on electron-ics and high-tech products. "We are planning to develop more hubs to connect with Vi-etnam, leveraging multimodal transportation of inland routes and cross-border railways to link Vietnam with China and Europe," Nguyen Quang Tung of Zhen Yang Logistics Group, told VIR.The company's customers are mainly foreign-invested firms such as Samsung or Fox-conn, as well as global forwarders. The firm has witnessed the volume of shipped con-tainers ascend from 70-80 containers to 400 containers a month in a short time.Malaysian-invested Overland Total Logistics Services Vietnam JSC (OTL) will also open more hubs and develop multimodal transportation routes including sea, railway, and cross-border transport in the near future, driven by the growing volume of CBT goods.Categories of goods shipped by CBT include electronic products from Samsung, LG and its subsidiaries and suppliers, Foxconn, Canon, and Foster and its subsidiaries and suppliers. Garments from Lear, Adidas, Nike, and Levi's, as well as automotive prod-ucts from Honda, Toyota, Yamaha, and GM also utilise these routes. In addition to its CBT plans, VNR is interested in developing railway logistics networks to reach indus-trial parks (IPs). The group is developing inland container depots (ICDs) in some lo-calities to attract business from nearby IPs."We are cooperating with Saigon Newport Corporation to build two ICDs, in the southern province of Binh Duong and in Hanoi. We are also studying the possibilities of opening a cargo station in the central province of Thanh Hoa," Minh said.VNR is also strengthening its cooperation with other state-run corporations in an effort to realise its plans. From April to September 2017, VNR signed agreements with sev-eral corporations including VNPost and Petrolimex to develop logistics services."We are also planning to cooperate with travel firms to develop logistics services for tourists," Minh said.Future preparations for possible mergerVNR's logistics development is partly also aimed at preparing for the possible merger between Hanoi Railway Transport JSC (Haraco) and Saigon Railway Transport JSC (SRT).As of May, Haraco had 5,170 employees, while SRT had more than 2,500. If the firms are merged, a large number of employees will be restructured."We are planning to launch many more new logistics services and retrain the under-employed to help them adapt to their new situation," Minh said.At present, the two units are providing the same services, which causes unnecessary competition between them. VNR hopes that the merger will help increase operational efficiency. "We are waiting for approval from the Ministry of Transport (MoT) before taking further steps," said Minh.http://www.vir.com.vn/rail-giant-makes-move-to-logistics.html

Which giants are dominating Vietnam telecommunication market?

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| DAN TRI

A business that accounts for a market share of 30 percent or is able to restrict competi-tion significantly is defined by Competition Law as the dominant player in the market. So, at this point, which giants are dominating Vietnam's telecommunications sector?According to the Telecommunications Law, in each period, the Ministry of Informa-tion and Communications shall base on the practical situation to promulgate a list of telecommunications businesses and groups of businesses holding dominant positions


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in important services that the State needs to manage competition; List of businesses holding essential facilities. At the same time, the Ministry also issues regulations and implements management measures to promote competition and ensure fair competi-tion in the business of telecommunications services.At this time, Viettel Military Telecommunications Corporation has dominant position in the market with services, including fixed land telecommunication services.Second in the list is Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT). This group is occupying more than 30 percent of the market share in fixed land telecommunica-tion sectors.The third unit is FPT Telecom Joint Stock Company (FPT). This company has a domi-nant position in the field of fixed land telecommunications services (broadband Inter-net access service).Thus, up to this point, there are three businesses dominating three different important telecommunications services in the telecom market including Viettel, VNPV and FPT. All of these businesses must comply with the provisions of the law for businesses hav-ing dominant market positions when providing the above mentioned services.

TCC Group launches MM Mega Market Thang Long


This morning, TCC Group (Thailand) unveiled its MM Mega Market Thang Long in Hanoi, marking the next step in transforming Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam (Metro Vi-etnam) to MM Mega Market Vietnam as announced earlier this year.The launch of the first MM Mega Market in North Vietnam is a further demonstration of TCC Group's strong commitment to invest in Vietnam, bringing its products and services to consumers in the north.Addressing the launching ceremony, Phidsanu Pongwatana, managing director of MM Mega Market Vietnam, said, "With big changes from the image and store layout to new product development, MM Mega Market Vietnam is advancing food safety by developing safe food supply chains through partnerships with local farmers and sup-pliers. Our aim is to offer safe and quality food products to consumers."To achieve this goal, in April 2017, MM Mega Market set in motion a pork platform in the southern province of Dong Nai, purchasing VietGAP-standard pork from over 400 pork farmers from 23 agricultural cooperatives.MM Mega Market currently buys about 250 tonnes of pork each month from farmers in Dong Nai. Going forward, MM Mega Market will continue working with LIFSAP (a World Bank project for animal husbandry competition and food safety) to set in place another pork platform in the north."We are on the lookout for good farmers and business partners from the northern provinces to build a MM Mega Market Pork Platform. We are confident that this plan will benefit the farmers doing business with MM, given our large-quantity and reliable purchases and good offered prices. I believe that this pork platform will help MM cus-tomers in North Vietnam put to bed food safety concerns over pork," added Pongwa-tana.Along with the new modern warehouse concept, offering maximum convenience and happiness for shoppers, MM Mega Market has been tirelessly developing new services for customers."We have started using QR codes (labels encoded with product information) to allow shoppers to easily track down the food products' origin with their smart phones at MM stores all over the country. More recently, we started offering free delivery in just un-der two hours within a 10-kilometre radius to provide MM customers with the maxi-mum convenience possible," said Pongwatana.One of Thailand's premier investors in Vietnam, MM Mega Market will help TCC Group to fast-track its policy of marketing and distribution of Vietnamese products to Thailand and other Asean markets.Pongwatana said, "We have just received our export license, which is a major step for-ward enabling us to further support promoting Vietnamese products in Thailand as well as other countries where we are present."


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"To speed up cross-border shipments, MM Mega Market not only supports domestic businesses to connect to Big C's distribution system in Thailand (Big C Thailand is an affiliate of TCC Group), but also putting together field trips for purchasing teams from Thailand. In these trips, we communicate about source areas, farming and production processes, and quality control practices to keep them informed about available sup-plies from Vietnam," added Pongwatana.Following the unveiling of the MM Mega Market in North Vietnam, next week, there will be a similar launch in Danang, along with a string of MM malls across the country in 2017.MM Mega Market Vietnam (formerly Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam) started its whole-sale operations in 2002 and now owns 19 stores all over the country with more than 3,300 employees.Over the years, it has been making strong and continuing investments in developing commercial infrastructure as well as food safety in Vietnam. The company has provid-ed training for over 20,000 Vietnamese farmers and fishermen to increase productivity and product safety to achieve better access to modern trade practices and upgrade ca-pacity in the long term.http://www.vir.com.vn/tcc-group-launches-mm-mega-market-thang-long-to-boost-northern-business.html

Samsung and LG Lead Vietnamese Economy

14/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| BUSINESSKOREA

outh Korean electronics companies, such as Samsung and LG, are leading the Viet-namese economy with large-scale investment and recruitment. In particular, Samsung Electronics and its affiliates hired more employees in Vietnam at 160,000, than in South Korea, emerging as a major company that actually leads the local economy.According to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) and industry sources on December 12, Vietnam's overseas exports came to $193.8 billion (211.53 trillion won) as of the end of November, up 21.1 percent from the same period last year. Out of the $193.8 billion (211.53 trillion won), exports of cellphones and their parts amount-ed to $41.3 billion (45.08 trillion won), while exports of electronics devices and com-puters and their parts totalled $23.6 billion (25.76 trillion won). The figures increased 30.6 percent and 38.1 percent, respectively, pushing up the total exports.Samsung Electronics, which produces home appliances and cellphones in Vietnam, ex-ported $44 billion (48.03 trillion won) over the same period, accounting for 22.7 percent of the total exports. The KITA said Samsung Electronics' investments in Vietnam, in-cluding HCM City, Vietnam's northern province of Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen projects, stood at $17.3 billion (18.88 trillion won), becoming the largest investing com-pany in Vietnam.In addition, Samsung Electronics continues to increase its recruitment in the country. Currently, Samsung's electronics affiliates Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electro-Me-chanics and Samsung SDI already employed 160,000 workers in Vietnam. The figure even went up to 180,000 including indirectly employed workers, except for those who work for its subcontractors.It is higher than the total number of employees at the headquarters posted by Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Samsung SDI at 120,000. Samsung Elec-tronics recently carried out the open recruitment for college graduates in Vietnam in order to hire 2,200 new employees again. More than 20,000 local college students ap-plied to the latest recruitment.LG is also making an aggressive investment and hiring new recruits in Vietnam. LG Display, which has an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display panel module manufacturing plant in Hai Phong in the northern part of Vietnam. The company has been expanding its production lines with the investment of $1.5 billion (1.64 trillion won) from last year. LG Display is planning to increase the number of its employees in Vietnam from the current 4,000 to 7,000.LG Electronics, which operates television and cellphone manufacturing plants in Hung Yen and washing machine, vacuum and air conditioner manufacturing plants


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in Hai Phong in Vietnam, recently announced to make a $1.5 billion (1.64 trillion won) investment in Vietnam by 2028 as well. About 2,000 people are working at LG Elec-tronics' plants in Vietnam. In addition, LG Chem and LG Innotek also have plants that manufacture electronics components, such as polarising plates and camera modules, in the country.LG's electronics affiliates LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Chem, LG Innotek have 7,000 employees in Vietnam. The figure is relatively smaller than that of Samsung's electron-ics affiliates.Domestic electronics companies have been pushing into Vietnam due to multiple rea-sons, like production competitiveness, including labour costs, and the Vietnamese government's supports. The Vietnamese government provides various benefits to for-eign companies that invest over 330 billion won (US$302.34 million), including the ex-emption from corporation income taxes for four years. It also established the electronics component industry promotion law, offering up to 75 percent of technolo-gy transfer fees to local manufacturers, related education and training costs and tax re-lief and loan benefits. According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the average yearly income of local employees is 3.84 million won (US$3,518).http://businesskorea.co.kr/english/news/industry/20066-more-hiring-vietnam-korea-samsung-and-lg-lead-vietnamese-economy

Loss-making ethanol plant may resume operation


The Ministry of Industry and Trade is considering re-operating the Dung Quat ethanol plant in the central province of Quang Ngai next quarter to carry out a nationwide scheme to replace RON 92 gasoline with E5 bio-fuel next month.According to the ministry's estimate, facilities of Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) and PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PV Oil) can provide more than six million cubic meters of E5 bio-fuel per year.Tien Phong newspaper quoted deputy minister Hoang Quoc Vuong as saying that the trade ministry is working with the finance ministry over a revision of environmental protection tax to make the price of E5 more attractive to encourage the use of this bio-fuel.Besides the Dung Quat ethanol plant, the Dinh Vu polyester fiber plant and the Phu Tho ethanol plant have been suspended as a result of cost overruns and losses. Of these, Dung Quat ethanol has seen additional costs of more than VND2.1 trillion and lost VND200 billion after one year.The Ministry of Public Security has recently been told to investigate and punish units and individuals involved in irregularities at these projects.

Vietnam Airlines looking for spares and spare services


Vietnam Airlines JSC (VNA) is planning to select a supplier for providing A330 spares and spare services for its A330 fleet (five aircrafts) for the 2018-2019 period. The details are below.No. A/c Tail No. MSN Scheduled Return Date1 VN-A375 366 July 1, 20182 VN-A376 943 May 30, 20183 VN-A377 962 June 30, 20184 VN-A379 1256 October 20, 20185 VN-A381 1266 November 28, 2018If interested, please do not hesitate to contact us at the following addresses: Dinh Ngoc Tung -- Supply & Material Management Department, email: [email protected],Tel: +84-24-38273774, ext. 2841, or HP: (84) 903290971 Nguyen Dang Khoa, email: [email protected], Tel: +84-24-38273774, ext. 2852, or HP: (84) 913525551Bid proposal must be submitted to VNA before 10 AM, December 18, 2017 (local time).


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Former national rubber group officials prosecuted


Five officials charged as part of widening anti-corruption push.Police pressed misconduct charges on December 12 against five former officials at the State-owned Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG) and placed them under house arrest as part of a widening corruption crackdown that has net a slew of officials.Former Chair Le Quang Thung is charged with "deliberate violations of economic reg-ulations causing serious consequences" at VRG and its member units the Dong Nai Rubber Company and the Phu Rieng Rubber Company, the Ministry of Public Security said. The four other officials, who headed VRG member units, face similar charges.The charges were leveled against the officials less than two weeks after prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called for a report on potential fraudulent activity at VRG, after government inspectors discovered the misuse of State capital and assets at the group three years ago.In a report of its inspection into VRG in 2014, the government Inspectorate concluded that violations at the rubber giant had caused losses of nearly VND8.4 trillion ($370 million).Between 2006 and 2011, the group was found to have spent over VND2.42 trillion ($106.24 million), or 13 percent of its charter capital, on non-core businesses, such as cement, hotels, steel, hydropower projects, and the stock market. Most of the invest-ments came from the State budget, but the group reported that it did not generate any profits.Some VRG leaders were also found to have contributed capital to establish and run a seafood import-export firm in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap. They also had the group's member units invest in the firm without approval.VRG also raised its charter capital in 2010 and 2011 without government approval, by VND1.84 trillion ($80.8 million).Although the inspection was aimed at handling individuals and groups that commit-ted fraud, VRG has yet to be held accountable.In September, VRG rolled out an equitisation plan, in which it declared charter capital of VND40.7 trillion ($1.8 billion) and 244,000 ha of land in 18 cities and provinces around the country.The rubber giant, which has 103 subsidiaries, expects to earn VND13 trillion ($570.7 million) from selling 1 billion shares at its initial public offering (IPO). It also targets earning more than VND3 trillion ($131.7 million) in net profit this year, up 9 per cent against last year.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/vietnam-today/former-national-rubber-group-of-ficials-prosecuted

Vietnam Retail Forum reviews 10-year retail market growth


The Vietnam Retail Forum, themed "10 years of retail market and challenges in the fu-ture", was held in Hanoi on December 12.Speaking at the event, Chairwoman of the Association of Vietnam Retailers (AVR) Dinh Thi My Loan said 2017 marks the 10th founding anniversary of the AVR and 10 years since Vietnam entered the World Trade Organisation.Over the past decade, the AVR has strived to develop a modern and consumer-orient-ed retail industry, served as a bridge between manufacturers and consumers and spread the campaign "Vietnamese prioritise Vietnamese goods".Hoang Anh Tuan, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Domestic Mar-ket Department, said the AVR now has 216 members compared to 100 at its establish-ment.He lauded the AVR for connecting its members with State management agencies, giv-ing feedback on retail-related laws and policies and refining policies on managing for-eign retailers.As a member of the domestic market monitoring group, the AVR has directed member firms to deal with fluctuations in markets and held seminars discussing Vietnamese goods in the modern retail system.


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In 2017, Vietnam jumped five spots to sixth place in the 2017 Global Retail Develop-ment Index (GRDI) released by the US's management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. The country was also among the top 30 developing countries for retail investment worldwide.With favourable government policies, urbanisation, a growing middle class and a rel-atively young population, foreign retailers are positive about the country, according to A.T. Kearney.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-retail-forum-reviews-10year-retail-market-growth/123262.vnp

Conference confers private investment in green growth


Encouraging private investment in green growth projects was among key topics at a conference to review mid-term implementation of the national green growth strategy in the northern region in Hanoi on December 12.The discussion of the topic aims to provide updates on the current status of national policies and initiatives for calling private investment in green growth, and outlined ob-stacles and challenges for the private sector, thus making recommendations to boost the green growth in the region.At the conference, experts said the public budget only afford to cover 30 percent of ex-penditure for green growth in the 2016-2020 period, and it was essential that the re-maining must be borne by the private sector."The public fund can and should serve only as a catalyst, creating favourable condi-tions for private investment," Pham Hoang Mai, head of the science, education, natural resources and environment department, under the Ministry for Planning and Invest-ment. According to the government, based on marginal abatement cost curve (MACC), towards 2020, Vietnam needed at least 31 billion USD in investment for green growth in several polluting industries, except agriculture. As Vietnam ratified the Paris agreement on climate change in 2016, the country needs to honour its com-mitment to cut back on green-house-gas emissions, which would require about 21 bil-lion USD.Yet, despite a fairly comprehensive system of policies and institutions to call for pri-vate sector investment and enthusiasm, many challenges stand in the way, Inertia in decision-making level, the limited number of start-ups in green energy, difficulties in accessing international green-development funds, and short-term vision over long-term ones are persistent problems.One example, according to Le Duc Chung, a senior expert in the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in the south-central provinces where solar potentials are significant, the authorities remained overly cautious on the promotion of this cleaner form of en-ergy. Binh Thuan, for example, in its plan, officially accounts for 850 megawatt ( MW), a meager five percent of the total output that interested private investors can produce.On the other hand, private businesses, despite being aware of the benefits of green growth, remain reluctant to place their investments in what, in their eyes, are "risky and potentially disrupting changes".Chung cited the case of offshore fishing companies hesitating to switch to LED lighting despite studies pointing out that such move could save 100 million USD a year.The planning ministry said it wanted the National Assembly to be more persistent in asking governmental agencies to follow through on green-growth tasks and commit-ments. It also called for tighter implementation of environmental taxes for polluters via carbon taxes, easier-to-access financial support and policies for stakeholders as well as monitoring mechanisms.At the conference, UNDP representatives, Global Green Growth Institute and the Ger-man government's international cooperation agency GIZ pledged to help northern provinces devise green growth models exclusively for their localities.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/conference-confers-private-investment-in-implementation-of-green-growth/123257.vnp


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Forum calls for improvement of business environment


Further improving the business environment and facilitating the private sector's de-velopment were part of the focus at the Vietnam Business Forum.In his speech at the forum, prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the government will prioritise investment in infrastructure towards smart and efficient connectivity to improve transparency, and help businesses cut cost and boost competitiveness, while encouraging capital flow into education and technology.David John Whitehead, Chair of Mavin Group told the reporter that the government's effort to facilitate is remarkable, and that he had faith on the prime minister's words for the sake of foreign businesses in Vietnam.Investors and experts called for closer and more effective coordination between the private and state sectors. They said in the context of limited capital, it is necessary for Vietnam to set up an obvious legal framework for public private partnership.They said the country also needs a financial market which is strong enough to mobilise capital from the private sector for infrastructure development.Pham Hong Hai, CEO of HSBC Vietnam said: "Normally, many countries introduce risk sharing policies so that investors do not have to take risks for the entire project. The success in one project will increase their confidence to invest in other projects with higher risks. Moreover, allowing investors to join in a project will increase its transpar-ency."The Vietnam Business Forum, which opened in Hanoi on December 12, is an annual dialogue between the government and business community.Apart from financial issues, participants at the forum gave recommendations relating to the auto, pharmaceutical and cigarette production. Their proposals will be submit-ted to the government for consideration.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/forum-calls-for-improvement-of-business-environment/123303.vnp

Japan shares experience in developing food industry


The Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) will create opportunities for Japanese businesses to meet with Vietnamese food companies to exchange investment informa-tion.Chief Representative of JETRO in Hanoi Hironobu Kitagawa made the statement at a conference on developing Vietnam's food industry on December 12.JETRO will update information in the field to inform Japanese firms, he said.He noted that many Japanese enterprises want to go to Vietnam to explore the food industry in the country.Deputy head of the industry department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade Bui Truong Thang said the food industry in Vietnam has developed strongly in recent years.The sector has supplied various products for the economy, meeting domestic demand and supplying exports.Many businesses have invested in developing material areas, including the largest dairy company in Vietnam Vinamilk, which boasts 10 large-scale livestock farms na-tionwide with 22,000 cows.Saka Hrumi, a representative from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, suggested arranging dialogues to forge Vietnam-Japan agriculture value chains.The two countries have held three such dialogues since 2014, he noted, adding that this conference aims to build an agriculture food value chain through cooperation between State and private firms in Vietnam.The event is expected to be held annually as part of activities to realise the bilateral ag-ricultural partnership in the middle and long term, he said.Japanese businesses suggested local authorities provide more financial and technical support policies to establish a waste treatment system to prevent land contamination.At the conference, Japanese companies shared effective business models. For example, vice chair of the Wagoen Group Kiuchi Hizokazu introduced Japanese vegetable


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growing technology in Thailand. The group hopes to expand production in agriculture in Vietnam, he added.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/japan-shares-experience-in-developing-food-industry/123279.vnp

Organic agricultural production forum to draw 400 delegates


As many as 400 delegates from many countries around the world will attend an inter-national forum on organic agriculture that will take place in Hanoi from December 15-16, revealed deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam.Nam said that the event, themed "organic agricultural production international inte-gration trend", is expected to draw representatives from 27 international organisations and 27 agriculture associations, ambassadors from countries running organic agricul-ture, and over 300 Vietnamese experts.The forum offers a chance for participants to share experience in organic agricultural production and seek partnership.Nam said that Vietnam has increasing demand for organic agricultural production. Currently, the country has about 70,000 hectares of organic farms with the engagement of many large firms, international organisations and enterprises.The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has completed a draft decree on organic agricultural production and submitted it to the Ministry of Justice for verifica-tion before sending it to the government.The document is expected to be issued in early 2018. After that, the ministry will im-mediately design a project on developing organic agricultural production and prod-ucts in Vietnam, Nam said.The deputy minister held that this is a great chance for Vietnamese firms to join in or-ganic agriculture development, providing organic products for both domestic and for-eign markets.A set of standards for organic products will also be made, along with specific criteria of certification and labelling, he said, adding that the certification of organic products will be conducted by international organisations.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/organic-agricultural-production-forum-to-draw-400-dele-gates/123305.vnp End


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