finance & business news 15 November · finance & business news FINANCE Reference exchange rate goes...

15 November

finance & business news

FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Reference exchange rate goes down by 10 VND 1Should foreign currency lending be stopped soon? 1How will banks' profit be? 3Learning academy TEKY conducting ICO 4VIMO.vn E-Wallet makes shopping easier for Chinese tourists 4TPBank to finalise list of shareholders for IPO 5Is VPBank overly relying on FE Credit? 6HDBank invites foreign shareholders before listing 7Vietcombank to fully cut its cross ownership 7Maritime Bank's total pre-tax profit increases 207pct in 9 months 8Vietnam has less to gain from CPTPP: expert 8Vietnam aims for 2018 economic growth rate of 6.5-6.7pct 9NA sets 2018 budget deficit at VND204 trillion 10Mekong Delta needs $5.3b in public investment 11Trade surplus reaches $2.18 billion 11VN promises export of safe nut products 12Exports of Vietnamese coffee to double by 2030 13Vietnam sees opportunity in fruit, vegetable, flower exports 14Seafood exporters pledge to combat IUU fishing 15MoIT investigates imported fertiliser 16State turns inward for PPP plans 16Vietnam to apply new power retail prices 17Ministry proposes tax law changes 18Multibillion-dollar M&A wave targeting Vietnamese SMEs 19Vietnam holds big potentials for software industry: Siemens

manager 20Savills: prime office space a relative bargain 21Will growth of food and beverage industry boom? 21Giants compete in street food 22Property and tourism investment becomes Quang Ninh's strength 23Businesses encouraged to seek trade opportunities in

Middle East, Africa 24How special should be Vietnam's special economic zones? 25Domestic supermarkets gradually losing competitive ability 25M&As increasingly appealing to Korean businesses 26HCM City promotes trade with S Korea's Daegu city 27Vietnam, Luxembourg sign general Cooperation Agreement 28

On the verge of another Chinese investing wave 29BIZ NEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Business Briefs 15 November, 2017 30VN stocks rise as banks, property firms advance 31Main indexes finish in positive territory 31Stocks skyrocket on strong turnover 32Firms to buy back their shares in bid to raise value 33The automotive giant behind stellar Vinamilk buy-in 33Two companies selected as strategic investors for IDICO 34PV Power shares to be sold at VN14,400 per share 35ABT to acquire stake in Sao Ta Foods 35HCM City helps Binh Thuan consume safe agricultural products 35Vietnam strives to brand rare and precious produce 36Two birds, one stone in waste-to-energy sector 37Single window in aviation to be implemented nationwide 38Airlines to provide flight info all by electronic means 38Accountants warned on marginalisation 39First export processing zone spotlight in HCM City 40Centre on Vietnam-Korea IT cooperation opens in Hanoi 41NA deputies fret over huge cost of airport project 42City asks ministry to rethink extending toll collection from

old expressway 42Vinapharm clinches strategic partnership with Sanofi 43Ford sees rising number of vehicle sales despite new tax policy 43PVGAS signs Alaskan LNG MoU 44Navistar signs MoU with local distributor 44Company to build factory to increase chicken exports 45Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical complex in a rush to

complete construction 46Zara and H&M herald Vietnam's retail market potential 47Apple Vietnam complains about sub-licensing requirements 47Nikkei Asian Review Forum starts today 48VN's largest textile and garment expo attracts hundreds of

international brands 48Techfest Vietnam 2017 opens in Hanoi 49Vietnam attends India international trade fair 49Hanoi cultural heritage festival on way 49

Intellasia No. 21, lane 173/63/17, Ngoc Ha Ward, Ba Dinh Dist, Hanoi © All Rights Reserved

Tel: +844 2213 2244Fax: +844 3759 2034

Email: [email protected]: www.Intellasia.Net www.TriTueAChau.com

FINANCEReference exchange rate goes down by 10 VND

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

The State Bank of Vietnam set its reference VND/USD exchange rate at 22,456 VND/USD on the morning of November 15, down by 10 VND from the day ago.With the current/- 3 percent VND/USD trading band, the ceiling exchange rate is 23,122 VND per USD and the floor rate is 21,784 VND per USD.Major commercial banks' rates were stable.Vietcombank set 22,675 VND (buying) and 22,745 VND (selling), per USD, unchanged from the day ago.

FINANCE

FIN

AN

CE

Vietnam finance & business 15 November

rat22,75VND, per USD.4https://en.vietnamplus.vn/reference-exchange-rate-goes-down-by-10-vnd/121745.vnp

Should foreign currency lending be stopped soon?

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| LAO DONG

Nguyen Ninh, director of a company exporting agricultural products in Hochiminh city said that the short-term lending rates in dong (VND) are currently ranging at 7-9 percent per annum, while the rates in US dollars (USD) are just 2.5-4 percent per an-num, which means that the cost to borrow VND is twice and even triple the cost to bor-row USD.Moreover, the proportion of USD loans of Vietnamese enterprises is still currently high. Therefore, if in the near future exporters no longer enjoy low cost by borrowing USD and have to switch to VND loans, it will be very difficult for them to cut borrow-ing expenses. This will lead to the fact that Vietnamese goods are unlikely to complete with regional rivals.For the case of Ninh, in 2016, when the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) stopped lending in foreign currency, with the demand for capital of about eight million USD a month, his company had to borrow VND at interest rates of 6-8 percent per annum, pushing up the interest expenses to 2.4 billion dong, while borrowing USD at 3 percent per an-num only costs 800 million dong. That is also the reason why enterprises having for-eign currency revenue often seek for foreign currency loans to reduce their financial costs. Thus, enterprises expect that SBV will extent the use of this capital channel in the coming year.However, Circular 31 of SBV will expire by the end of December 31st 2017, which is less than two months left. If SBV does not extend the validation of Circular 31, export-ers will have no chance to enjoy this preferential policy. In fact, in the last few years, SBV repeatedly stopped and again resumed the foreign currency lending, making en-terprises to be very confused and unsure.From 2012 until now, SBV has twice stopped the foreign currency lending, but then re-sumed it to remove difficulties for exporters. Although the deadline has repeatedly been extended, its temporariness has made it impossible for enterprises to predict SBV's decision for the next year.Recently, SBV has made a clear view on foreign currency lending. In particular, due to the low economic growth and modest aggregate demand in the past, SBV supported enterprises having foreign currency revenue to borrow capital at low interest rates, and they could later sell this amount to get VND in order to purchase machinery, equipment and raw materials for production, export, and repay the loan by the reve-nue in foreign currency. Nevertheless, since the economy is currently gaining good growth and credit demand is increasing again, and foreign currency demand is also rising high, the anti-dollarisation process needs to gradually shift borrowing/lending relationship to buying/selling foreign currency.At the meeting between banks and enterprises recently held in Hochiminh city, SBV's deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu confirmed that SBV has many times wanted to termi-nate foreign currency loans, but the agency has repeatedly extended the time due to actual situation. It is true that there are some enterprises are priority objects that need foreign currency loans, but some enterprises not in this group still enjoy the preference of foreign currency lending policy.In the point of view of SBV's deputy Governor, this shows that the game is going on unfairly among business people. Thus, the regulations on foreign currency lending must be tightened.From the view of a direct lender, general director of a commercial bank said that if the regulators determinedly close foreign currency lending and only allow lending in VND, it is a must to follow. However, if some exporters are eligible to borrow foreign currency and some are not, it will lead to the possibility when the ineligible group will try their best to go over the rule to be listed in the eligible group. At that time, the target of ensuring business fairness as desired by SBV will not be possible.According of economic experts, some opinions currently questioned the necessity to

Intellasia 15 November 2017 2 / 50

FIN

AN

CE


cease foreign currency lending. Because, to do this, it is essential to build trust in VND wisely to avoid adverse effect. If lending in foreign currency is prohibited, the demand for VND loans will increase.In fact, foreign currency loans over the time have helped reduce the pressure in order to lower lending rates in VND. If lending in foreign currency is stopped, not only the interest rate reduction goal is not achieved but also the lending rates in VND will hike, affecting enterprises.Economic experts believed that in the immediate future, the borrowing objects should be tightened in order to direct foreign current loans to the right destinations to mini-mise risks. Dr Nguyen Tri Hieu, a banking and finance expert said that to control the enterprises that take advantages of foreign currency lending policy to seek profits, SBV should have specific regulations and should not prohibit all enterprises from borrow-ing foreign currency. For example, those enterprises having at least 50 percent of rev-enue in foreign currency can be allowed to borrow foreign currency. It can be up to 75 percent if required."It is reasonable to extend the foreign currency lending for another year as it is good for export. If this programme is stopped on December 31st, enterprises will surely be disadvantaged. On the other hand, since the exchange rate is currently stable and banks disburse foreign currency loans in VND, lending in foreign currency in the cur-rent context will not affect the dollarisation policy of the government", Dr Hieu ana-lysed.

How will banks' profit be?

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| DIEN DAN DOANH NGHIEP

At the London-based financial technology conference LendIt Europe, Karen Mills, a former cabinet member of the US government, who is in charge of small business group under President Barack Obama said the two big tech giants Google and Amazon will soon boost the lending to small businesses. "I think they will quickly dominate the market and that will be the next thing to happen", she said.Earlier this year, Amazon said it had lent more than $1 billion to small businesses seek-ing to expand via its e-commerce website. According to Mills, Amazon knows every-thing about e-commerce vendors through its e-commerce site, while Google also knows everything about every customer who buys and sells on its platform.In China, Ant Financial that is under the world's biggest e-commerce company Aliba-baexpanded its direct consumer lending channel to customers. Accordingly, consum-ers buying goods on Alibaba's e-commerce system will be able to borrow directly from Ant Financial to purchase goods, rather than borrowing from finance companies or banks.Data from Bloomberg and China Securitisation Analytics show that this year, Ant Fi-nancial sold $23 billion asset-secured securities that are restructured from consumer loans.The lending business of Amazon, Google or Ant Financial has shown a new trend of fintech companies. They do not just focus on payment, but are gradually replacing the work of a bank as a lender.In Vietnam, although such giants as Amazon, Google or Ant Financial have not yet set foot in the country, the threat to domestic banks is not zero. Currently in Vietnam, there are about 50 fintech companies operating and most of them focus on payment sector. However, Nguyen Kim Anh, deputy governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, also acknowledged the spread of fintech companies to other sectors such as mobilisa-tion and personal financial loans.In 2015, FundStart, an online venture platform, was created as a bridge between the community and start-up projects. FundStart is a fintech company that helps start-up businesses mobilise capital from the community in the context of difficult access to loans from banks. A number of similar fintechs have also been established, such as Betado, to raise community funds for art projects.Especially, since 2016, there appeared a fintech company that operated with the func-tion of mobilising capital for small and medium businesses i.e. Finsom. This company


FIN

AN

CE


launched Loanvi.com, which has now been renamed as Huydong.com with the pur-pose to bridge the gap between investors and individuals who do not have access to banking services.Owning $10,000 provided by the Vietnam Silicon Valley, Huydong.com is similar to the Uber or Grab model of the financial industry and is advertised as a simple, safe procedure with competitive interest rate.Of course, not all operational fields of banks will be affected, but analysts around the world say retail business, payment and lending to small businesses will be the seg-ments with reduced profitability because of future fintech companies."In the age of artificial intelligence, people who hold more information will have more advantages", Mills issued such warning to banks when implying that technology com-panies are holding the most customer information".In the middle of this year, VPBank set up a new division called VPDirect, which is ded-icated to researching fintechs, launching new online applications and platforms to meet the changing needs of the financial market. Other banks have also taken certain steps to prepare for a fight with fintech companies. Perhaps banks in Vietnam have seen lessons that Uber and Grab only took two years to beat the two largest taxi firms in the country Vinasun and Mai Linh.Luu Trung Thai, deputy chair of the board of directors and general director of the Mil-itary Bank (MB), said that with nearly 62 percent of the population aged 15-54 using internet and smart phones, 30 percent of the population have bank accounts and only three percent use credit cards in payment, Vietnam is a potential market for fintech companies to fill the gap left by banks."Therefore, not only Vietnamese fintech companies but many international fintech companies and foreign investment funds such as Investree of Indonesia or The FinLab of Singapore are also targeting this market," said Thai.Some banks said that fintech is the extension arm of bank to help increase the number of customers. But that is just to look at the field of payment, when fintech companies provide online payment platforms such as Samsung Pay, VNPay, Momo e-wallet or Moca. Once fintechs have expanded to peer-to-peer lending and borrowing, they will be direct competitors of banks.Representative of a joint stock commercial bank said the cumbersome, complex lend-ing procedures of traditional banking service will drive customers toward fintech companies.But with community funding platforms and online loans such as huydong.com or FundStart, the procedures will be much simpler and the access to capital is also easier. It will take time for fintech companies to grow and consumers to become familiar with their services. However, it is clear that the challenges exist for traditional commercial banks.

Learning academy TEKY conducting ICO

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Initial coin offering (ICO) being held from November 11 to January 14.The first STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) initial coin offering (ICO) in the world is being conducted by Vietnamese learning academy TEKY from November 11 to January 14.Two hundred and eighty million TEKY coins are up for sale, with a target of raising as much as $25 million, a senior executive at the company confirmed with DEAL-STREETASIA and also emphasized that buyers from Southeast Asia, China, Russia, Ja-pan, South Korea, and India are on the radar.The sale consists of two sessions, with a pre-sale open until December 10. Up to 40 per cent in bonuses will be offered to buyers in this session, while 25 per cent in bonuses will be offered to buyers in the ICO public sale from December 15 to January 14.TEKY Coin owners can use the digital currency to purchase smart toys and technology devices at TEKY's e-retail shop, MEK.store, which is expected to be launched in March next year, or apply for a STEAM course at a TEKY Academy in Southeast Asia.After the ICO, TEKY will be listed on the Token Exchange to serve the needs of inter-


FIN

AN

CE


national technology exchange.The first two TEKY facilities were established in Hanoi and HCM City in 2016 with in-vestment from Vietnam's Electronics Technology NextTech, also an e-commerce eco-system developer.The market for IT training is estimated at some $500 million in Vietnam, with approx-imately 21 million K-12 students, about 40 per cent of whom are from the two cities.Many people anticipate virtual currencies will flourish in Vietnam. As one of the world's fastest-growing economies, many of its citizens now have access to smart-phones but have never utilised traditional banking services.Vietnam is examining an increase in investment and businesses transactions with dig-ital money, the scale of which is undoubtedly escalating.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/learning-academy-teky-conducting-ico

VIMO.vn E-Wallet makes shopping easier for Chinese tourists


New intermediary payment unit allows Chinese travellers to use WeChat Pay e-wal-lets when making purchases in Vietnam.VIMO.vn E-Wallet announced on November 13 the first intermediary payment unit that allows Chinese travellers to use WeChat Pay (Weixin Pay) e-wallets to make pay-ments in dong (VND) at VIMO-accepting stores when travelling to Vietnam.Any store in Vietnam can install the "VIMO Merchant" app from phones or tablets and then register a bank account to receive sales revenue at https://merchant.vimo.vn.When Chinese tourists pay for a purchase, the vendor enters the order information and the payment amount in VND to generate a QR code. The tourists then use the WeChat Pay e-wallet installed on their phone to scan the QR code of the seller to complete the cashless payment transaction within seconds. The store receives the payment to its bank account in Vietnam within two working days at most.WeChat Pay also has its own procedures to suggest shops and stores accepting VIMO Merchant Payments to Chinese travellers, which will help increase sales revenue for local businesses.WeChat Pay and Alipay are the two dominant e-wallets in China, with growth of 20-fold over the last four years, reaching nearly $2 trillion in 2016 from 1 billion regular users.Almost all activities, such as dining, shopping, entertainment and travel, can be paid for by scanning the QR code through the WeChat Pay and Alipay payment apps on mobile phones.Following the wave of Chinese tourists travelling abroad in recent years, WeChat Pay and Alipay are also competing aggressively to expand their payment acceptance net-works in Europe and Southeast Asia."Vietnam is one of the most attractive destinations in the region for Chinese tourists, estimated to reach 3.5 million people this year and bring in revenue of some $3 billion," said Do Cong Dien, general director of VIMO.vn. "After a period of inquiry and nego-tiation, in early June, VIMO signed an e-payment agreement and connection with Ten-pay Payment Technologythe owner of WeChat Paywith the aim of bringing convenience to Chinese tourists as well as bolstering tourism revenue in Vietnam."Vimo is now expanding its cooperation with many overseas partners in countries with a large percentage of tourists coming to Vietnam every year, such as South Korea.After six months of testing, VIMO.vn has nearly 500 shops accepting QR Code pay-ments via WeChat Pay, of which more than 50 belong to seven corporations at five in-ternational airports catering to direct flights from and to China."After the pilot of VIMO Merchant at certain stores at international airports, sales to Chinese visitors have grown several times in just a few months," said Nguyen Quang Tuan, deputy general director of the Song Viet Group, which provides non-aviation services at most domestic and international airports in Vietnam. "Based on that achievement, we will be implementing VIMO Merchant extensively at all Song Viet stores nationwide before the end of the 2017 and early in 2018."VIMO is the first intermediary payment unit cooperating with WeChat Pay to allow


FIN

AN

CE


Chinese travellers to make payments in Vietnam.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/vimo-vn-e-wallet-makes-shopping-eas-ier-for-chinese-tourists

TPBank to finalise list of shareholders for IPO

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) will finalise the list of shareholders on November 20 for its planned initial public offering (IPO).Accordingly, TPBank will collect shareholders' opinions in a written document for the listing, no later than the end of this month.Earlier, Do Minh Phu, the bank's chair, said at the shareholder meeting in April that the bank planned to make the IPO this year without citing specific time as it wanted to stablise performance before listing.In the first nine months of the year, TPBank posted positive results with pre-tax profit of some VND807 billion (US$35.7 million), triple that of the same period last year and surpassing the target by 3.5 per cent.The bank targeted pre-tax profit of VND780 billion this year, increasing 10.3 per cent from last year.By the end of September, its total assets reached VND114.5 trillion, increasing 8.2 per cent from the beginning of the year.Its lending in the period was VND56.7 trillion, representing an increase of 21.6 per cent year-on-year, while deposits rose by 6.9 per cent to VND58.9 trillion.http://bizhub.vn/markets/tpbank-to-finalise-list-of-shareholders-for-ipo_290132.html

Is VPBank overly relying on FE Credit?

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| TRI THUC TRE

Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank, code VPB) has just re-leased its third quarter Q3) financial statement. Accordingly, the bank's profit in the first nine months of the year reached 5.6 trillion dong, officially in the top three banks having largest profit, only after Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vi-etnam (Vietcombank) and Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade of Vi-etnam (VietinBank). VPBank took over the position of Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).However, it is worth noting that unlike other banks of which the profit is dependent on the parent bank, VPBank's results are heavily depending on its subsidiary FE Cred-it, which is reflected most clearly in Q3 this year.The bank's financial statement and calculations showed that as of September 30th 2017, VPBank recorded an outstanding credit to customers of over 165.1 trillion dong, over 124.7 trillion dong of which came from the parent bank and 41 trillion dong were con-tributed by FE Credit. Meanwhile, the bank's mobilisation reached over 127.7 trillion dong, in which FE Credit contributed over 5.5 trillion dong.It means that the mobilisation scale of FE Credit was only equivalent to about 4.5 per-cent of VPBank's (it is reasonable because financial companies are not allowed to mo-bilise from individuals while banks make major profit via people's deposits). Meanwhile, the lending scale of FE Credit was one third of the bank's lending to the market.However, the net interest income of FE Credit was much larger than the parent bank's (due to the difference in interest rates). In the first nine months of the year, of the total of over 14.9 trillion dong of the bank's net interest income, FE Credit contributed up to 8.3 trillion dong, equivalent to 126 percent of what VPBank generated.However, considering Q3 alone, FE Credit's net interest income was much higher than VPBank's (2.940 trillion dong compared to 2.422 trillion dong, equivalent to 121 per-cent), while the total income from business activities and services before provisioning of FE Credit is about 10 percent higher than VPBank's.After deducting the risk provisions and operating costs, the pre-tax profit of FE Credit in Q3 was 1.6 trillion dong (equivalent to the result in the whole year 2016), while the parent bank only recorded 771 billion dong. It also means that in the Q3 alone, over two third of VPBank's consolidated profit was contributed by its subsidiary the high-


FIN

AN

CE


est proportion for VPBank in particular and for the banking system in general.VPBank's leaders identified FE Credit as a trump card in the bank's business strategy, at least in 2017 and 2018. VPBank raised the charter capital of FE Credit by nearly 1.7 trillion dong in August, and expected its net profit at over eight trillion dong, in which five trillion dong will be brought by FE Credit.The success of VPBank from consumer finance company is understandable because this sector is fairly new and promising. Many banks are expecting to establish similar financial company to compete, but FE Credit is fairly confident because it is holding over 50 percent market share.However, this raises a question that whether VPBank is relying too much on its finance company with less concentration on the core business.According to an experienced financial expert, although the consumer finance market is potential, it contains many risks because all the loans are unsecured. If the risk man-agement is not cautious, the consequences will be serious. Moreover, since the market may saturate and change any time, especially when other banks are eager to conquer consumer finance field, and some have even sought for support from foreign partners to gain more financial strength and risk management capability.However, anything can happen and time will tell the most accurate answer. In the short term, VPBank in general and FE Credit in particular is still considered as a big competitor for any banks that wish to jump into consumer finance.

HDBank invites foreign shareholders before listing

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

Vietnam's Housing Development Bank will offer 20 per cent of its shares to overseas investors, before getting listed in early 2018.The pre-listing share sale is expected to raise $300 million for the bank, which counts Vietnam's first female billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao as the major shareholder.HDBank said that it would list on the HCM City Stock Exchange in early 2018, after completing the auction. Unlike other lenders in Vietnam, the bank does not seek a sin-gle strategic investor who normally holds 15 per cent of the shares.Instead, it will court four overseas investors, offering less than 5 per cent of ownership to each.This process is similar to what budget carrier Vietjet did last year when it sought for-eign shareholders before listing. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao is currently the airline's CEO, besides holding the majority of the shares at HDBank.In particular, Thao's Vietjet conducted an initial public sale according to international standards, helping the airline's stocks to attract overseas investors and rise by 26 per cent following the listing. Vietjet is also paying generous dividends to shareholders this year, a testament to its positive business results.Back to HDBank, it seems that the lender is on track to receive foreigners' attention, as the overall banking system in Vietnam has been recovering well this year.Thao previously told the media that HDBank is planning to expand to other provinces in Vietnam, particularly to rural areas where locals are still new to financial services. The bank has hired Goldman Sachs as the strategic adviser for this deal."We want to target the 70 per cent of the Vietnamese population that has never used any financial services before. HDBank aspires to become Vietnam's top digital retail bank in the next five years," said Thao.The lender's stock is traded on the over-the-counter market at VND29,000 ($1.2), with limited supply.For the first nine months of 2017, HDBank reaped VND1.91 trillion ($84 million) in pre-tax profit, of which the parent bank earned VND1.7 trillion ($74.8 milion). This result, which is 1.5 times higher than the entire year of 2016, marked the bank's highest achievement so far.Assets under management reached VND174.5 trillion ($7.6 billion), a 26-per-cent in-crease from the same period last year. Bad debt takes up less than 1.14 per cent of all outstanding loans.HDBank's return-on-assets ratio is 1.18 per cent, while returns-on-equity stood at 18


FIN

AN

CE


per cent as of the third quarter of 2017.http://www.vir.com.vn/hdbank-invites-foreign-shareholders-before-listing.html

Vietcombank to fully cut its cross ownership


In a bid to comply with a central bank regulation on cross ownership, Vietcombank is planning to divest its entire stake in five units, including four banks and a finance com-pany, Chair Nghiem Xuan Thanh said.The fourth-largest bank in Vietnam by assets expects to reap VND1 trillion ($44 mil-lion) from selling all of its 6.97 per cent in Military Bank and 8.2 per cent in Eximbank in early 2018, according the Thanh. It previously planned to retain stakes in these two banks, with Military Bank returning good dividends, and an Eximbank that it was "ad-vised" to support during the restructuring process.The bank earlier announced that it will offer 13.2 million shares or 4.3 per cent of Sai-gonbank at an initial price of VND12,550 ($0.55) each, and 6.6 million shares of the Ce-ment Finance Company (CFC) at VND11,549 ($0.5) each at the upcoming auction on November 20.The deals are expected to generate roughly VND242 billion ($10.7 million) for Viet-combank, while it also aims to offload its entire 5.07 per cent holding in the Orient Commercial Bank (OCB) in the time to come, the Chair said.Cross ownership was rampant in Vietnam's banking system five years ago, presenting opportunities for vested interests and manipulation. To deal with the pressing phe-nomenon, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued Circular No. 36 in 2016, stipulating that a commercial bank can own stakes in at most two other credit institutions with less than 5 per cent of voting rights.A recent draft law by the SBV, which revises the Law on Credit Institutions, is set to further crack down on the issue. Cases of purchase, sale, or transfer of shares with a value of 1 per cent or more of a bank's charter capital will require the SBV's written ap-proval before implementation, while the money to buy the shares must be proved le-gally and must not have been originated through loans, according to the draft law.The draft law also stipulates that major shareholders and related persons must not own more than 5 per cent of the charter capital of another credit institution.Many banks have delayed the withdrawal from other banks although the deadline was set for 2015, with Vietcombank itself having been required by the government to comply with the rules. With the benchmark VN Index rising 32 per cent since the start of this year, together with strong rallies of banking shares and solid earnings, Vietcom-bank is expected to see no difficulties in divesting the shares.Vietcombank saw its third quarter pre-tax profit rise 31 per cent year-on-year to VND2.68 trillion ($119 million), resulting in a pre-tax profit of VND7.9 trillion ($348 million) for the first nine months of the year, an increase of 25 per cent year-on-year and equivalent to 86 per cent of its annual plan.The strong increase in Vietcombank's pre-tax profit was attributed to healthy growth in financial services, core business activities, and other activities. It was able to keep its provision for credit losses stable at VND4.5 trillion ($198.2 million), nearly unchanged against the same period last year.After the first three quarters, Vietcombank had total assets of VND898.5 trillion ($39.57 billion), mobilised capital of VND688 trillion ($30.3 billion), and total lending of VND536 trillion ($23.6 billion), with all figures increasing by between 14 and 16 per cent on an annual basis.Its bad debts as at September 30 stood at 1.15 per cent, down from 1.51 per cent as at the end of 2016, thanks to a decline in sub-standard and potentially irrecoverable debts.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/190238/vietcombank-to-fully-cut-its-cross-ownership.html


FIN

AN

CE


Maritime Bank's total pre-tax profit increases 207pct in 9 months

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| DTCK

As of September 30, 2017, Maritime Bank's total pre-tax profit reached 589 billion dong, up 207 percent over the same period of 2016 with Q3 alone contributing more than 59 billion dong.This growth came from the contribution of many factors, of which the total revenue reached 8.631 trillion dong, a year-on-year increase of 27 percent. The net profit from business activity before putting for credit risk provision touched over 1.034 trillion dong, up nearly 32 percent year-on-year.In addition, the credit risk provisioning cost decreased with just more than 89 billion dong in Q3, down nearly 68 percent compared to the same period last year (more than 278 billion dong).By the end of September, the number of Maritime Bank's individual customers swelled nearly 13 percent year-on-year. The number of newly issued cards rose nearly 60 per-cent. Especially, the ratio of business customers that frequently use the service im-proved more than 650 percent.

Vietnam has less to gain from CPTPP: expert

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| TUOITRE NEWS

Vietnam will suffer as a result of the United State's withdrawal from the TPPVietnam will not benefit as much from the newly created Comprehensive and Progres-sive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in comparison to the original TPP.The country's gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to increase by a mere 1.32 percent under the CPTPP, compared to 6.7 percent had the US still been part of the deal, experts say.The original TPP agreement was signed in February 2016 and included the US along-side Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, with the intention of expediting the flow of goods and com-merce throughout the region.In January 2017, the US pulled out of the trade pact, forcing the remaining 11 members to renegotiate parts of the deal under a new name, TPP-11.On Saturday, the TPP-11 ministers, who met in Vietnam's central city of Da Nang, reached a consensus to move forward with the deal under the new name of CPTPP, and leaving room for the possible return of the US in the future.Twenty provisions of the new accord are pending further negotiations before any final approval.Though relieved by the positive outcome of the renegotiation of the TPP, Vietnamese experts do not jump for joy just yet."The results of our analyses reveal that Vietnam will not benefit as much from the new trade deal, at least in quantitative terms, while there are only 11 members," said eco-nomic expert Tran Toan Thang, from the National centre for Socio-Economic Informa-tion and Forecasting.According to Thang, the United States' withdrawal from the trade agreement has shat-tered Vietnam's prospects of increasing its GDP by 6.7 percent. Without the US, the country's GDP rise will be a mere 1.32 percent under the CPTPP.Vietnam's exports are forecast to grow by four percent following the expected ratifica-tion of the CPTPP, compared to 15 percent while the US was party to the original trade agreement, Thang said.The respective figures for imports are 3.8 percent and 10.5 percent, he added."This means that, compared to TPP-12, Vietnam's benefits from joining TPP-11 have decreased significantly in the absence of the United States."Nevertheless, even with 11 members, the CPTPP is still a welcome boost to Vietnam's growth, commerce, investment, and domestic policy reform, he said.Return of the US?Nguyen Dinh Luong, Vietnam's former chief negotiator in the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, said it would be unlikely for the US to return to the negotiating table in the immediate future, though the possibility has not been ruled out by the partici-


FIN

AN

CE


pating CPTPP economies.The desire of US President Donald Trump to enter bilateral trade deals with former TPP members also might be difficult to realise, Luong said, as the countries' economic interests were mostly tied to multilateral economic deals."It's therefore necessary for Vietnam to carry out domestic reform, especially to curb corruption, if it wants to meet the high standards set out by the US should it decide to return to the trade pact," Luong said.https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/business/20171114/vietnam-has-less-to-gain-from-cp-tpp-expert/42654.html

Vietnam aims for 2018 economic growth rate of 6.5-6.7pct

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

Vietnam aims for a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6.5-6.7 percent next year, according a resolution on the socio-economic development plan for 2018 passed by the National Assembly (NA) last Friday.Chair of the NA Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh said that opinions collected from NA deputies during the preparation of the resolution showed that the country will face big difficulties and challenges, in addition to favourable conditions next year. Some sectors have achieved strong growth this year, so it may be difficult to maintain the high growth tempo next year.Besides, the 2018 GDP growth is based on the predicted 2017 rate of around 6.7 per-cent, and the main balances of the national economy in line with macroeconomic indi-cators such as public debt, State budget revenue and job creation.The resolution also targets the consumer price index growth rate of around 4 percent.Thanh said the index depends on many factors like economic growth, import and ex-port growth, and the fluctuation of global commodity prices. Therefore, the NA Eco-nomic Committee asked the NA to keep the number as in the draft resolution.The country targets an export turnover increase of 7-8 percent, a trade deficit of below 3 percent of total export turnover; and total investments making up 33-34 percent of GDP next year.Further, the rate of poor households will be reduced by 1-3 percent, while the unem-ployment rate in urban areas will be cut to below 4 percent, according to the resolution. As much as 85.2 percent of the population will be covered by health insurance.SolutionsVietnam will further safeguard macro-economic stability, and ensure major balances of the national economy, especially the State budget, development investment, import and export, payment balance, food and energy security, labour, employment, produc-tion and business, and economic growth.Measures will be taken to reduce interest rates in line with macro-economic condi-tions, ensure liquidity, strictly control and improve credit quality, guarantee safety for the banking system, and closely supervise credit flowing into the real estate and stock markets.The government will restructure the State budget in a way that gradually raises the ra-tio of domestic revenue, boost investments in development and decrease regular ex-penditures.The government will strengthen its management over non-budget funds and public debts in line with the objectives set by the National Assembly, limit government guar-antees for credits, and strictly control overspending and debt of central and local gov-ernments.The government will strengthen its strict and effective supervision and control of cred-it institutions and State-owned enterprises (SOEs), and enhance the efficiency and re-sponsibility of State, internal and external audit systems.Notably, the government will divest its entire State stakes in those SOEs where State ownership is deemed not necessary.The government will assess the performance of the State Capital Investment Corpora-tion, and set up a committee responsible for managing State capital at SOEs.Besides, the government will encourage and support startups, innovative businesses and small and medium businesses, take measures to transform household businesses


FIN

AN

CE


into companies, and prop up growth of the private sector.The government will further attract foreign direct investment (FDI) projects that are fi-nancially viable, and come up with solutions to prevent FDI companies from transfer pricing.The government will create fair business conditions among local and foreign-invested companies, and improve their relationships as well to promote economic growth and create jobs.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57045/Vietnam-aims-for-2018-economic-growth-rate-of-65-67.html

NA sets 2018 budget deficit at VND204 trillion


The National Assembly (NA) has approved next year's budget deficit of VND204 tril-lion, equivalent to 3.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Dan Tri reports.According to a Resolution on 2017 State budget estimates passed by 86.56 percent of NA deputies on November 13, total budget collections next year are estimated at VND1,319 trillion, whereas spending will be VND1,523 trillion.Of such a deficit estimate, VND195 trillion will be allowed for central agencies and VND9 trillion for localities. Total borrowings, including loans used to fund the budget deficit and pay debts, will be VND363.28 trillion.Regarding adjustments of 2017 budget estimates, the NA agreed to cut budgets mobi-lised from government bonds by over VND14.03 trillion and increasing collections from foreign sources by the same amount to allocate capital for State projects approved in 2016 and before that but have not been given capital.Besides, an additional VND245.8 billion will be allocated to Vietnam Electricity Group and eight localities, and VND77.66 billion from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to environmental protection in Thua Thien-Hue Province.As stated in the resolution, the government is mandated to carry out many financial and budgetary measures, including adjusting the monthly base salary from VND1.3 million to VND1.39 million. Pensions, social insurance allowances and allowances for policy people will be increased and equivalent to the base salary as from July 1, 2018.The NA also told the government to strengthen monetary and fiscal regulations, ob-serve spending estimates, enhance supervision and ensure transparency in the process of using the State budget.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57047/NA-sets-2018-budget-deficit-at-VND204 tril-lion.html

Mekong Delta needs $5.3b in public investment


The Mekong Delta region needs an investment of VND120 trillion (US$5.3 billion) for the green growth from 2016 to 2025, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) said.The investment will be used to carry out the action plan on green growth in five Me-kong Delta provinces of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, Kien Giang and Hau Giang, changing the Mekong Delta into a region of strong economic development, social progress and a diversified ecosystem.Under the plan, those provinces will focus on high linkage and sustainability in devel-opment of the region, including increase of environmental sustainability and protec-tion of diversified ecosystems.The infrastructure for the Mekong Delta region in general and those five provinces in the plan in particular will be built and adjusted to adapt to climate change in the near future.Pham Hoang Mai, director general of the Department of Science, Education, Natural Resources and Environment under the MPI, said those provinces must have synchro-nous solutions to carry out this plan.There are four groups of solutions, including three groups relating to green growth. They are reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, greening of production and greening of consumer lifestyle.http://bizhub.vn/news/mekong-delta-needs-us53b-in-public-investment_290104.html


FIN

AN

CE


Trade surplus reaches $2.18 billion


Vietnam saw its trade surplus surging to $2.18 billion as of the end of last month, as exports expanded in the month while imports tumbled, according to statistics of the general Department of Vietnam Customs.The country's trade volume of $38.4 billion rose 2.2 percent in October over September. Exports edged up 4.9 percent month-on-month to $20.29 billion while imports inched down 0.7 percent to $18.11 billion.Mobile phones and phone components remained the biggest export earner with $5.26 billion in October, growing 8.4 percent over the previous month.Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of $2.56 billion in the first ten months of the year, which is an impressive result as Vietnam faced monthly trade deficits in the first half of this year, leading to a trade deficit of nearly $3 billion as of end-June. The country may continue gaining a trade surplus in the rest of the year.In January-October, the country's trade volume reached $346.54 billion, up 21.5 per-cent over the year-ago period, with $174.55 billion from exports and $171.99 billion from imports, rising 21.3 percent and 21.6 percent year-on-year respectively.China was Vietnam's biggest trade partner with two-way trade amounting to $73.3 bil-lion, followed by South Korea with $50.46 billion, the European Union (EU) with $41.62 billion, and the US with $40.12 billion.* In related news, data from the general Department of Vietnam Customs show Viet-namese exports to China posted the highest growth compared to exports to other Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) member economies in January-October, at 52.9 percent.China was Vietnam's second largest export market among other Apec economies in the period with revenue of $26.47 billion, making up 22 percent of Vietnam's total ex-ports to other Apec members.Vietnam's trade with Apec members amounted to $265.31 billion in the ten-month pe-riod, up 17.4 percent year-on-year and nearly equal to revenue in all of last year. The country shipped $120.48 billion worth of goods and spent $144.83 billion on imports, rising 23.9 percent and 22 percent year-on-year respectively.Thus, Vietnam had a trade deficit of $24.36 billion with Apec members in the year to end-October. This trade gap is on a par with recent data, as Vietnam suffered from an annual average trade deficit of $23.73 billion with Apec between 2010 and October this year.In January-October, the US remained Vietnam's largest export market with revenue of $34.53 billion, growing 9.6 percent versus the year-ago period and accounting for 28.7 percent of total exports of Vietnam to Apec.While China was the second largest buyer of Vietnam's goods, Japan ranked third with $13.85 billion and South Korea came fourth with $12.15 billion, representing 11.5 per-cent and 10.1 percent respectively.According to the customs, Vietnam's main exports to other Apec economies were cell phones and phone parts (up 48 percent), textile products (up 9.3 percent), computers, electronic products and their components (up 41.1 percent), machinery, equipment and accessories (up 25 percent), footwear (up 15.2 percent) and wood and wooden products (up 12.6 percent).On the supply side, China remained the biggest exporter of goods to Vietnam with turnover of $46.83 billion, up 16.1 percent year-on-year and accounting for nearly one-third of Vietnam's total imports from Apec. It means Vietnam suffered a big trade def-icit with China in the first ten months, at $20.36 billion, the second biggest trade gap after South Korea.Although South Korea was Vietnam's second largest supplier with revenue of $38.3 billion, soaring 46.7 percent, Vietnam's trade deficit with South Korea amounted to $26.15 billion.Japan came third with $13.27 billion worth of products shipped to Vietnam, a rise of 7.6 percent.


FIN

AN

CE


In the first ten months of 2017, Vietnam mainly imported computers, electronic prod-ucts and components (up 35.5 percent), machinery, equipment and accessories (up 24.4 percent), phones and phone parts (up 49.2 percent), fabrics (up 8.6 percent), and iron and steel (up 6.4 percent) from other Apec members.english.thesaigontimes.vn/57041/Trade-surplus-reaches-US$218 billion.html

VN promises export of safe nut products


There is a growing demand for nuts, including cashew, and dried fruits globally, of-fering a good opportunity for the industry, the ninth Vinacas Golden Cashew Rendez-vous held in Phu Quoc heard on Tuesday.Michael Waring, vice chair of the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council Founda-tion (INC), said: "The global nut industry has increased in both production and con-sumption tremendously in the past 10 years."The cashew industry has a very significant role in the international nut trade."Demand is expected to continue increasing because consumers are increasingly aware of the nut's health benefits, he said.Nguyen Duy Tuan, market research expert at Lafooco, said: "Supply growth may not be able to catch up with demand growth."Demand from high-income countries is rising, he added.Waring said to capitalise on the opportunity, the sector needs to prepare the supply chain.Nguyen Duc Thanh, chair of the Vietnam Cashew Association, said: "Vietnam has pledged to supply cashew products meeting safety standards."It would not supply GMO cashew or products with mould, micro-organisms or pesti-cides and chemical fertilisers in the Vietnamese and the global warning lists, he said. It would not use forced labour, he said.Talking about development plans for the period up to 2020, he said the sector plans to increase the area under cashew from 400,000ha to 500,000. It includes 65,000ha in Cam-bodia.The industry would also apply intensive farming methods to raise productivity to re-duce the reliance on import of raw cashew, he said.Thanh and many other delegates agreed that the reliance on imports is the biggest challenge facing the sector.Raw cashew importsVietnam imported 1.2 million tonnes of raw cashew nuts in the first 10 month of the year, higher than the figure for the whole of last year of 1.14 million tonnes. The number is expected to rise to 1.3 million tonnes for the full year, with imports from Af-rican countries accounting for 90.7 per cent, Bach Khanh Nhat, director of quality checking company, Vinacontrol, said.He said the quality of imports from Africa is better now than last year, but urged sup-pliers to focus further on improving quality.Wayne Tilton, vice president, African Cashew Alliance's board of directors, said: "Af-rica accounts for 56 per cent of the global raw cashew nut production, but processes less than 5 per cent of the global crop."It wants to cooperate with Vinacas to develop its cashew sector, including learning in-novative methods of processing by-products from Vietnam, he said.Vinacas yesterday signed memorandums of understanding with the Guinea Bissau Chamber of Commerce, African Cashew Alliance and the National Cashew Associa-tion of Nigeria to mutually develop their cashew industries.Deputy minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh hailed the achievements of the country's cashew industry, saying the sector contributes greatly to economic development and provides more than 900,000 jobs.Vietnam accounts for half of all world's cashew exports, and has been the leading ex-porter for 12 years.Its cashew products are exported to 90 countries and territories, with the US, Europe, and China being the main markets.


FIN

AN

CE


According to statistics from the Vietnam Industry and Trade Information Centre, 294,000 tonnes of cashew worth $2.98 billion were exported in the first 10 months of this year, an increase of 0.4 per cent in volume and 25.6 per cent in value year-on-year.Thanh said full-year exports would rise to $3.5 billion, the highest value ever.Organised by Vinacas and the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, the two-day confer-ence has attracted more than 500 local and foreign delegates from 40 countries and ter-ritories.It seeks to promote trade and expand markets for cashew products, help cashew growers and processing firms increase their revenues, and develop the industry sustainably.

Exports of Vietnamese coffee to double by 2030

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV

To achieve a target of $6 billion in export revenue, the coffee industry must improve its output, the quality of products, and added value, said Luong Van Tu, chair of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa).At a November 14 press conference in Hanoi to introduce the first Vietnam Coffee Day, Tu said the coffee industry has been growing impressively over the past three decades. Vietnam's coffee output made up just 1 percent of world market shares in 1991, but that figure rose to nearly 20 percent in the 2015-2016 crop year.The industry has made great efforts to fulfill two chief targets: maintaining its place as the second biggest producer and exporter of coffee beans in the world, and stepping up the processing of instant and roasted coffee, as well as other coffee products in or-der to increase export value from the current $3 billion to $6 billion by 2030, said Tu.The organiser of Vietnam Coffee Day said the first event is scheduled to take place in Da Lat city in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong from December 9-11. A host of activities will be held during the event, including an opening ceremony and an international seminar on the new development stage of Vietnam's coffee industry with the participation of an international panel of delegates.At the event, a 'coffee space' will present the famous coffee products from across Viet-nam. Visitors will have a chance to enjoy high quality coffee products, learn about the coffee culture of different regions, and tour hi-tech coffee production and processing models in Lam Dong.The event will be an excellent opportunity for businesses to gather market informa-tion, share experiences, advertise their products, and seek partners to expand con-sumption markets.http://english.vov.vn/economy/exports-of-vietnamese-coffee-to-double-by-2030-362506.vov

Vietnam sees opportunity in fruit, vegetable, flower exports

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| TUOITRE NEWS

The country's export turnover on these farm produce has already exceeded rice and crude oilNguyen Thien Nhan is Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee, and a member of the Politburo Vietnam's top decision-making body. In this article originally written in Vietnamese submitted to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, he discusses the opportunity for the impoverished regions of Vietnam to escape poverty through the exportation of fruit, vegetables and flowers.In the first nine months of 2017, Vietnam earnt $2.62 billion through the export of fruits, vegetables and flowers, higher than the respective export turnover on crude oil ($2.2 billion) and rice ($2.04 billion) over the same period.These numbers not only reflect a growing global demand for produce from Vietnam, but also open up pathways to prosperity for farmers in rural and mountainous areas.A new solution to income disparityThe majority of farmers living in our country's rural and mountainous areas earn an income far lower than those of us living in urban areas, and current efforts to narrow this wealth gap are not expected to yield significant results in the foreseeable future.In 2016, the per capita income of rural households in Vietnam was VND2.44 million ($107), equal to just 55.8 percent of the per capita income of households in urban areas at VND4.4 million ($194) in the same year. This wealth gap has been narrowed by an


FIN

AN

CE


average of only 0.72 percentage points per annum between 1999 and 2016.Living conditions in many rural areas, especially mountainous ones, still lack basic amenities, according to a 2016 report compiled by the general Department of Statistics.If Vietnam maintains its current rate of reducing income disparity, it's estimated that it would take another 15 years (until 2031) for its rural population to earn two-thirds as much as urban residents.These statistics demonstrate the need to seek new solutions for improving the income of those living in rural and mountainous areas.On a national scale, over the past 30 years the development of both the industry and service sectors has been the primary path toward increasing the size of the economy, an inevitable trend during economic restructuring.Thirty years after Vietnam's major economic reform, the quest to significantly improve productivity and income in the agricultural sector has become decisive given that ag-riculture is the biggest resource for rural and mountainous areas.The development of industrial parks in rural provinces has not been fast enough for a number of reasons, while the possibility remains remote in most mountainous areas because of a shortage of land and proper transport infrastructure.It is therefore likely that agriculture will serve as the primary pathway from poverty in these regions for dozens of years to come.A golden chanceIn reality, fruits, vegetables and flowers are increasingly considered the type of farm produce with huge export potential and to become a source of higher income for farm-ers.Though fruits, vegetables and flowers are not included in a government plan to devel-op six national agricultural products by the year 2020, their collective export turnover in 2016 exceeded that of crude oil and rice which are both included in the plan. The result is a milestone for Vietnamese agriculture in that it also raises the question of whether the achievement is stable and long-term or merely temporary, and whether it signifies a golden chance to improve the income of farmers in rural and mountainous areas.From the statistics around Vietnam's traditional export products, we can safely say that fruits, vegetables and flowers have the potential to become the new star of Viet-nam's exports replacing rice, coffee, seafood and crude oil.Son La Province in northern Vietnam has over 37,000 hectares of fruit-growing land. For the first time, in 2017, the province's fruits and vegetables have been exported safe-ly to Australia and China.Another northern province, Lao Cai, has also dedicated over 400 hectares to fruit and hi-tech vegetable farming, which is expected to yield over VND200 million ($8,811) per hectare annually.Additionally, the famous lychee fruit has provided northern Bac Giang Province with an annual income of VND137 million ($6,035) per hectare of farmland.The development of fruits, vegetables and flowers into the key export products of Vi-etnam over the next ten years will allow each province to make the most of their avail-able soil and weather assets, without relying on large areas of land for industrial parks.In addition, the implementation of hi-tech farming methods will become a part of eco-tourism programmes that explore the rural Vietnamese lifestyle, helping to further im-prove farmers' potential income.Vietnam's major export markets for its fruits, vegetables and flowers include the US, Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, and the European Union.Experts forecast that export turnover will post annual growth of 25 percent between 2017 and 2020, and 18 percent between 2021 and 2025, raising the export value of Viet-nam's agricultural produce to $13 billion by 2025.This number is higher than any current prediction for seafood, rice, coffee or crude oil.https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/business/20171114/vietnam-sees-opportunity-in-fruit-vegetable-flower-exports/42657.html


FIN

AN

CE


Seafood exporters pledge to combat IUU fishing


Vietnamese seafood processing and exporting companies have committed to combat-ing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing after the country got a "yellow card" from the European Commission (EC) over illegal fishing activities.According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), 62 local firms have signed up for the programme. They are resolute about buying raw materials only from legal fishing vessels with clear origin and importing only legally caught seafood.They will not buy seafood from fishing vessels operating without a permit, logbook or report in accordance with regulations or fishing using prohibited gear.VASEP general secretary Truong Dinh Hoe told the Daily that the IUU fishing preven-tion programme should be jointly implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Ru-ral Development and seafood processing and exporting enterprises.A VASEP working group has come to Danang, Binh Thuan and Khanh Hoa to work with local fishery management agencies and fishing port management boards to in-spect the process of issuing fishing licenses, and shortcomings in seafood exploitation and management.The working group has pointed out many defects and difficulties in the fight against IUU including a lack of regulations to establish and manage a database of fishing boats, catches and species.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57046/Seafood-exporters-pledge-to-combat-IUU-fishing.html

MoIT investigates imported fertiliser


The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has issued Decision No 4236/ QD-BCT to extend the deadline for investigating cases of applying safeguard measures for DAP and MAP fertilisers imported into Vietnam before issuing the final report.The deadline for investigation has been extended to January 12, 2018.Earlier, on March 31, some domestic fertiliser producers requested that trade defence measures be applied on a number of imported fertiliser products due to their negative impact on domestic production.Based on the dossier appraisal results, customs data and provisions of the law on safe-guards, on May 12, MoIT issued Decision No 1682A/QD-BCT on initiating a fertiliser dumping investigation and considering the application of safeguard measures on DAP and MAP imported fertiliser products into Vietnam.According to the provision, investigation time limit shall not exceed six months from the date the minister of industry and trade decides to investigate (November 12, 2017). In case it is necessary, the investigation time limit may be extended once for no more than two subsequent months.On August 4, MoIT issued Decision No 3044/QD-BCT to apply safeguard measures on some DAP and MAP fertiliser products imported into Vietnam.Therefore, to collect all the relevant information for this case, thoroughly examine the opinions of relevant sides and assess the socio-economic impact comprehensively, the investigation agency has proposed that MoIT extend the investigation time of the case by two more months.The import of such fertilisers has risen sharply since early 2016, which is said to have affected local production and caused heavy losses to domestic fertiliser producers.Last year, Vietnam spent $1.1 billion to import 4.15 million tonnes of fertiliser, the gen-eral Department of Vietnam Customs reported.MoIT estimated that fertiliser import spending in 2017 is similar to 2016 at $1.1 billion and the main import market is China.http://bizhub.vn/news/moit-investigates-imported-fertiliser_290100.html

State turns inward for PPP plans


Despite growing interest among international groups, Vietnam might have to pivot to


FIN

AN

CE


domestic investment in developing the eastern spur of the North-South Expressway project amid a lack of a guarantee mechanism for foreign investors.According to deputy minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat, Vietnam lacks the type of guarantee mechanism requested by international groups and in line with global norms. The country currently cannot offer a guarantee for investors' revenue and ex-change rate risks."Thus the project will be built with a plan to mobilise over VND63 trillion ($2.86 bil-lion) worth of private investment, of which VND13 trillion ($590.9 million) will be from investors and VND50 trillion ($2.27 billion) from bank loans, aimed at targeting domestic investors," Nhat told VIR.Amid state budget constraints, the country is seeking internationally capable groups to join the project via international bidding. Many supporting policies have been con-sidered.Nguyen Danh Huy, head of the Ministry of Transport's (MoT) Public-Private Partner-ship (PPP) Department, said, "For the first time, Vietnam agrees to provide a support of VND55 trillion ($2.5 billion), which includes site clearance, making it the highest state capital contribution in such a project so far. We have proposed the government increase the profit-to-equity ratio to 14 per cent to attract investors."At present, the ratio is curbed at 11-12 per cent a year for build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects, a PPP format.In spite of that, at some meetings held in South Korea, Singapore, and India to consult international groups about this project, more than 28 leading international transport infrastructure developers and 17 international credit institutions all proposed the guarantee mechanism, while suggesting the profit-to-investment ratio be set at 17 per cent based on Vietnam's economic scale."The proposals make foreign investment attraction for such a project more difficult. The Dau Giay-Phan Thiet Expressway project, which was built to attract foreign inves-tors under the PPP format since 1997, is a typical unsuccessful example because of the lack of this mechanism," Nhat said.In the prefeasibility study for developing some routes of the project from 2017-2020 submitted to the National Assembly (NA) last week, MoT minister Nguyen Van The said that priority will be given to the development of 11 routes in the first stage total-ling 654 kilometres, including three public-invested ones and eight PPP projects. These priority segments include Cao Bo-Bai Vot, Cam Lo-Son La, Mai Son-Bai Vot, Nha Trang-Dau Giay, and My Thuan 2 Bridge.The total investment for the 2017-2020 period is estimated at VND118.72 trillion ($5.39 billion), with over VND63 trillion ($2.86 billion) to be mobilised by investors and VND55 trillion ($2.5 billion) to be sourced from the state.Over 700km of the expressway will be developed in each of the second and third stag-es. From 2021-2025, the Bai Vot-Cam Lo and Quang Ngai-Nha Trang routes will be built, and the La Son-Tuy Loan segment will be upgraded from two lanes to four. In the post-2025 period, the Can Tho-Ca Mau route will be built.The minister admitted that mobilising funds from domestic credit institutions has proven difficult, while getting loans from international lenders requires a government guarantee, a mechanism that Vietnam still lacks. "If approved by the NA, some routes of the project will be able to kick off in 2019," he added.Vu Hong Thanh, head of the NA Economic Committee, agreed in principle with the investment plan. He, however, noted that the PPP model especially the BOT format has proven problematic, and asked the government to take measures to deal with the problems.The eastern spur of the North-South Expressway project, which is estimated to cost VND230 trillion ($10.5 billion) with over 2,100 kilometres to be built by 2025is consid-ered an economically- and politically-important project. It will run through 32 cities and provinces, affecting 45 per cent of the country's population, 65 per cent of ports, and 67 per cent of economic zones.The project has been attracting the attention of many foreign investors. South Korea-


FIN

AN

CE


based Posco E&C has expressed its interest in the project after joining many transport infrastructure projects in Vietnam, including Hanoi-Lao Cai and Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressways.Another leading South Korean infrastructure developer, Lotte E&C, and many other international groups from Japan and the US are also studying investment opportuni-ties in the project.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/190149/state-turns-inward-for-ppp-plans.html

Vietnam to apply new power retail prices


The Ministry of Industry and Trade is drafting a set of regulations on new electricity retail prices, according to a Vietnamnet report.The draft states that electricity retail prices would be set for each category of custom-ers, namely producers, businesses, lodging facilities, administrative agencies, and households.The retail price for households is still divided into six groups. Families who consume up to 50 kWh of electricity per month would pay 92 percent of the average retail price. Those using from 51 to 110 kWh will pay 95 percent of the price, 101-200 kWh 110 per-cent, 201-300 kWh 138 percent, 301-400 kWh 154 percent, and over 401 kWh 159 per-cent. The move is to encourage household customers to save electricity.The government will subsidise poor households with an amount equal to the retail price of 30 kWh per month.Earlier in July, the government issued a new mechanism stipulated in the prime min-ister's Decision 24/2017/QD-TTg allowing the State-run Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) to hike the average power retail price when input cost rises 3 percent instead of 7 percent as before.Depending on the input cost increase, EVN will decide the price hike of between 3 per-cent and less than 5 percent before reporting to the ministries of industry-trade and fi-nance.For increases from 5 percent to less than 10 percent, EVN can raise prices after obtain-ing approval from the trade ministry.For hikes from 10 percent or beyond the permissible price frame, which could poten-tially impact the macro economy, the two ministries will work together to look into the power price plan presented by EVN.The average power retail price has remained unchanged since March 2015.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57032/Vietnam-to-apply-new-power-retail-pric-es.html

Ministry proposes tax law changes


The Ministry of Finance has proposed amendments to the Law on Tax Management, aiming to enhance efficiency of tax collection from multinational companies, cross-border transactions and online businesses.In a recently announced statement about a proposal for compiling an amended draft on the Law on Tax Management, the ministry offered to increase the time for tax in-spection.Currently, the maximum time for a tax inspection is 45 working days and 70 working days for complicated cases. However, conducting tax inspections at large-scale or mul-tinational companies with a complicated structure and related-party transactions are time-consuming.The ministry said that it normally took more than one year for tax inspection at for-eign-invested companies such as Metro and BigC and the tax watchdogs must collect information from mother companies or foreign tax agencies.The ministry cited statistics of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment that time for implementing an inspection of transfer pricing averaged 573 working days in the world.The current regulations are no longer suitable for implementing tax inspections at all


FIN

AN

CE


companies, the ministry said.The ministry proposed that the time for tax inspection at companies with related-party and cross-border transactions be increased to 360 working days.Taxing online transactionsAccording to the finance ministry, the law needed to be amended to efficiently calcu-late and collect taxes from global technology companies such as Google and Facebook.The ministry said most global technology companies did not register their business or have official representative offices in Vietnam while their transactions were cross-bor-der, making it hard to calculate and collect taxes.For example, Google and Facebook provided online advertising services in Vietnam in two ways. The first was through agencies in Vietnam and the second was conducted through online payment via credit cards or e-wallets.The ministry said that it was difficult to clarify the real values of transactions conduct-ed in the second way.In addition, it was also not easy to verify advertising revenues from click counts of for-eign Internet companies as doing this would require checks of payment transactions at banks of both buyers and services providers but banks of foreign Internet companies were mostly abroad."The tax management of online businesses faces difficulties in clarifying taxpayers, revenues, business scale and transaction history," the ministry said, adding that co-or-dination between relevant ministries and agencies must be enhanced to better manage tax collection from e-commerce businesses.Accordingly, the finance ministry proposed the State Bank of Vietnam to study the regulation of requiring cross-border payment transactions to be conducted through lo-cal payment gateway (the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam).Only by this, could tax watchdogs manage values of cross-border transactions to im-pose tax, the ministry said, adding that many countries in the world such as European countries, India and South Korea, had such a regulation.The finance ministry also proposed the Ministry of Information and Communications require foreign technologies companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple to de-clare and pay foreign contractor tax on the services provided to Vietnamese organisa-tions or individuals.The ministry also called for enhanced cooperation with foreign tax agencies and Inter-net services providers like VDC, FPT, MobiFone, VinaPhone and Viettel to better man-age values of e-commerce transactions and banking payments.For individuals selling things online, the finance ministry proposed to impose value added tax and individual income tax on products with prices above VND1 million (US$44) and when transacted two times per day or more.The ministry said that business through social network pages was booming in Viet-nam but tax management was still lagging behind.The Ministry of Finance also proposed investigation function to be empowered to tax watchdogs, adding that some 80 countries in the world currently had tax investigation bodies.Check business operationThe ministry has sent a document to the Ministry of Planning and Investment to re-quest checks on business operation, after finding that thousands of import-export companies halted operation or removed their office addresses without reporting.This triggered worries that those firms took advantage of open business registry pro-cedures to start a business then halt operations to avoid and evade taxes.The ministry's statistics showed that in 2015 and 2016, more than 1,000 firms aban-doned their addresses and had no operations in at least six months.More than 15,400 others had no import-export activities in at least six months without reporting to the management agencies while their information on the business regis-tration portal was still "operating".Twenty-four firms were found with tax violations but they abandoned their addresses without completing bankruptcy and dissolving procedures following established reg-


FIN

AN

CE


ulations to avoid paying tax arrears and fines.Especially, eight of them had tax arrears worth VND12 billion.With the aim of tackling this issue, the finance ministry proposed the Ministry of Plan-ning and Investment to complete the mechanism for cooperating in managing busi-ness operations.http://bizhub.vn/news/ministry-proposes-tax-law-changes_290133.html

Multibillion-dollar M&A wave targeting Vietnamese SMEs


Instead of focusing on conducting M&A deals to acquire large-scale Vietnamese enter-prises, South Korean enterprises are now eyeing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in different sectors to conduct M&A activities in Vietnam.Focusing on SMEsKim Ja Jum, deputy general director in charge of investment in SMEs at Kiwoom Se-curities Co., Ltd, arrived to Vietnam for the first time to participate in the Vietnam-Ko-rea M&A seminar organised by the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra) to find M&A opportunities with Vietnamese SMEs in numerous fields.With a total capitalisation of $1.5 billion, Kiwoom is currently South Korea's leading online securities company with the largest brokerage market share during the past 12 years.Jum came to Vietnam on this working visit as he saw numerous investment opportu-nities. According to Jum, Vietnam is currently undergoing a large-scale shift in the structure of its industries. Accordingly, instead of focusing on developing labour-in-tensive industries, namely the previously popular garment and textile and leather shoes segments, Vietnam currently invests to develop services, retail, electronics, and the fintech sector."Kiwoom focuses on pouring capital into manufacturing enterprises to catch the South Korean investment trend in Vietnam. Notably, South Korean enterprises will import materials from Vietnam to manufacture products and then export the finished prod-ucts to Vietnam. Additionally, South Korean enterprises will directly manufacture products in Vietnam and then sell them domestically and across the Asean," Kim said.If Kiwoom finds suitable partners, the company will spend at least $25 million on buy-ing a controlling stake in each company.Along with Kiwoom, 13 other investment funds joined the seminar to find investment opportunities.Michael Dc Choi, deputy director of the Korea M&A Centre under Kotra, the invest-ment capital volume arriving to Vietnam via M&A deals will increase in parallel with the rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) capital from South Korea. South Korea is currently the largest foreign investor in Vietnam.Choi revealed that South Korean enterprises have negotiated with 12 Vietnamese en-terprises in the sectors of food processing, pharmaceuticals, and fintech. According to the schedule, within the next six months, a number of these deals will be completed. However, the South Korean enterprises are aiming to seize a controlling stake (50 per cent and more) or at least to become strategic investors in these 12 enterprises.Strong financial potential for M&A dealsAccording to Jacob Won, managing director of Locus Capital, South Korean M&A transactions have increased across Asia. Along with becoming the largest foreign in-vestor of Vietnam, South Korea has spent massive capital on conducting M&A deals.At present, South Korea has 14 investment organisations and funds holding a capital funding of at least $1 billion each, almost all of which are operating in the insurance and banking sectors with the capitalisation of $1 trillion.Besides, South Korea's growth fund plans to spend $1 billion of investment fund worth $3 billion on M&A activities. Furthermore, the Global M&A Fund will pour $2 billion into 10 other funds to conduct M&A deals.Almost all South Korean enterprises are concerned about the consumer, retail, and real estate sectors. However, Vietnam still has barriers in attracting capital in M&As due to the lack of transparency in financial reporting. If this problem is surmounted, there


FIN

AN

CE


will be more massive FDI inflows from South Korea to Vietnam.www.vir.com.vn/multibillion-dollar-ma-wave-targeting-vietnamese-smes.html

Vietnam holds big potentials for software industry: Siemens manager


Vietnam holds potential to develop its software industry thanks to having many young IT-savvy workers, according to Cedrik Neike, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG, Europe's leading industrial manufacturer based in Germany.He made the comment at a meeting with deputy prime minister Trinh Dinh Dung on November 13 while visiting Vietnam.In his remarks at the event, deputy PM Dung affirmed economic ties are the backbone of Vietnam Germany relations, and the two countries have much potential for further cooperation in the future.Dung hoped that Siemens, as one of Germany's largest groups, will continue to help boost bilateral relations, particularly in trade, economics, and investment.The deputy PM noted that Vietnam needs to develop its power infrastructure to keep up with economic growth and at the same time, must renovate and develop its power transmission network and enhance technology-based management and operation of the network to ensure safety and cost efficiency.Siemens has been working in many energy projects with a focus on thermal electricity, providing technical solutions in power network operation and control, Neike said.He said that the group is looking to expand into the software industry and transporta-tion infrastructure development through offering solutions for smart traffic and smart city management.Welcoming the plan, Dung added that Vietnam will facilitate investment in machine building, energy, medical equipment and railway.During the meeting, the Siemens manager hailed Vietnam as a dynamic economy in the region and as a promising market for Siemens' products with all the hallmarks for the company to expand production for export.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-holds-big-potentials-for-software-industry-sie-mens-manager/121699.vnp

Savills: prime office space a relative bargain


Vietnam's prime office space still inexpensive regionally, according to latest Savills re-port.Vietnam offers prime office space at a relatively low cost, according to Hoang Dieu Trang, Senior manager, Commercial and Residential Leasing, at Savills Hanoi. "Savills Asia Pacific prime Benchmark 2H/2017 shows Hanoi and HCM City occupancy costs are $38.8 per sq m and $52.2 per sq m, respectively," she said. "Being considerably low-er than Taipei, Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, among others, certainly helps confirm Vietnam's competitive advantage in the eyes of global occupi-ers."She added that with low vacancy rates in many Grade A buildings and limited new supply of prime office space, rents are likely to increase over the next two to three years."Co-working space is a recently emerging trend and, similar to the early stages of the concept in Hong Kong, is still fairly small here," she explained. "However, growing co-operation between international developers and local co-working office providers is expected to increase the scale and quality of shared office space, which will help facil-itate and nurture growth in the sub-segment."Savills has announced its prime office cost index for the third quarter of 2017, with Hong Kong remaining the most expensive prime office market in the world for occu-piers.Global occupancy cost volatility increased during the third quarter compared to a sta-ble second quarter. Face rent increases drove up recorded costs in Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Brussels, as "post-Brexit" requirements materialised and leases were executed by occupiers in these markets. A stronger euro also helped increase occupan-


FIN

AN

CE


cy costs as recorded by the index.Asian markets were less volatile, but continue to occupy six of the Top 10 positions in the index, making the region the most expensive for global companies. Markets showed no discernible uniformity across the region. Tokyo, Singapore, and Seoul all recorded increases in occupancy costs as Mumbai and Shanghai recorded decreases. Overall, the impact of exchange rate volatility on recorded occupancy costs for the re-gion was relatively low compared to prior quarters.

Will growth of food and beverage industry boom?

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| BAO BAU TU

In 2016, the scale of Vietnam food and beverage market was estimated at about $30 bil-lion. This figure is forecasted to increase sharply in the near future if businesses know how to strengthen the brand promotion.Along with the increasingly stable economic growth, Vietnam's young population scale with more than 90 million people also increased the attractiveness of the partici-pation in the food and beverage industry in the market.According to the forecast of BMI Research, Vietnam's food and beverage industry will maintain the doubled annual growth rate for 2017-2019 at 10.9 percent. Of which, the growth rate of the milk industry is expected at about 10 percent, compared to 11.1 per-cent for alcoholic beverage and consumer demand will focus on the group of food and essential goods.Besides large businesses such as Vinamilk, TH True Milk, IDP, Masan, Nutifood, Habeco, Sabeco, Tribeco, URC, Kinh Do, Bibica, Huu Nghi, Tan Hiep Phat and foreign companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever, Nestle, San Miguel, there also ap-pear many groups involving in this industry such as Hoa Phat, Hoang Anh Gia Lai or Vingroup.However, businesses in food and beverage industry are still few and their scale re-mains modest compared to foreign businesses. Such large businesses as Vinamilk, Ma-san, Sabeco or Vinacafe are still quite uncommon.Small scale is a weak point in the current integration period. It is the cause of increased production cost due to the failure to generate increased productivity along with scale.In addition, management and technology ability of domestic food and beverage busi-nesses are still inferior to foreign strong brands.Meanwhile, the psychology of "favouring foreign goods" of a part of Vietnamese con-sumers has increased the appearance of international brands.Foreign businesses will take advantage of all those factors to occupy the domestic mar-ket if domestic businesses fail to strengthen the brand promotion.Taking this trend, the international exhibition Vietfood & Beverage ProPack was launched to promote trade among domestic and foreign businesses (B2B), and Busi-ness to Consumers (B2C).After the unexpected success in HCM City in August, the exhibition continued to take place in Hanoi till end of November 11, 2017.More than 200 businesses from 10 countries and territories (Korea, Singapore, Den-mark, Bulgaria, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, India, China, Vietnam participated in this ex-hibition, a year-on-year increase of 15 percent).The displayed products are very diversified such as vegetables (fresh, dried, canned, prepared); aquatic products (pre-processed, frozen); agricultural products (coffee, tea, cashew, pepper, etc.); raw materials for food processing-beverages-confectionary; al-coholic beverages, fruit juices, tea, coffee; equipment for packaging and preserving fro-zen food; franchise brands, etc.Apart from products from traditional markets such as Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia, Ja-pan, Taiwan, the exhibition welcomed new products from other markets in Europe (Denmark, Bulgaria, and Greece). This shows the attractiveness from Vietnam that Western countries are eager to find a place.Especially, this was the first time that Greece got involved in and displayed very a dis-tinctive product of this country i.e. peach with canned beverages. Greece has the third largest production of peach in Europe and the fifth largest production in the world.Businesses involving in this exhibition expect to improve the business situation in the


FIN

AN

CE


current competition context.

Giants compete in street food

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| PHAP LUAT TPHCM

Retailers such as 7-Eleven, Vinmart +, Satrafoods, etc. have put the commodities that are often sold in street strollers or street cafes in convenience stores.This new trend of competition is spreading rapidly and growing more and more, cre-ating more vitality for the market, especially in the context that consumers are more cautious when shopping at sidewalk eateries.After finishing lessons at school, the first floor of Satrafoods (under Saigon Trade Cor-poration-Satra) in District 10, HCM City becomes more exciting than normal when each group of pupils from Tran Nhan Ton Primary School comes to eat or to shop. The children gather to purchase sausages, milk tea, Yangzhou fried rice, and Bo Bia recipe."The price of food here ranges from 5,000 dong to 30,000 dong each. This price is rather soft, suitable to our pockets. Moreover, we can reheat the food by ourselves in availa-ble microwave which is very convenient", said a pupil namely Trang who explains the reason why her and her friends come here.The introduction of street foods into convenience store system is to improve the com-petitiveness when the market is open and the competition in retail sales is increasingly intense, representative of Satra said. At the same time, this aims to bring about custom-ers rich menu, meeting the demand of difference objects especially the youth."This is not merely a convenience store chain but fast food also, providing convenient meals, etc. We will continue developing this model", said Satra's representative.Field surveys show that the trend of developing diversified product portfolio, fresh food and convenient shopping experience for consumers is booming in convenience stores.At Vinmart + (owned by Vingroup), located in Tan Binh District, HCM City, Ms Le Ngoc Nga, an office worker is buying snacks such as Vietnamese pudding, sweet cake, and mixture rice paper. Nga shared previously she used to go to street vendors to buy snacks but since knowing that the nearby Vinmart + also sells street food, she often comes here to buy because it is both convenient and safe."Price of Vietnamese pudding in the convenience store is 8,000 dong, cream puff price is 19,500 dong per six units. If compared to the street food, the price at the convenience store is higher but it is cleaner, there is supplier information, deadline for usage, cer-tificate of food safety, etc. so it is more secured than buying in trolleys or markets", Nga said.Even the Japanese retailer 7-Eleven also launches more than 100 fresh dishes for the morning, noon, evening to attract customers. In particular, there are many snacks that Vietnamese people really like such as sticky rice, pudding, salad rolls, balut, caramel-ised pork and eggs.Franchise expert Nguyen Phi Van quoted a study from Euromonitor showing that the total street food market value in Vietnam was 46.9 trillion dong with an annual growth rate of about two percent.Lam added: "When supplying fresh food or snacks such as Bo bia recipe, sauteed corn, mixture rice paper, etc. to retailers, we all have to strictly adhere to food safety and hy-giene standards. Street food, when being introduced into the chain of convenience stores, costs more than food at street vendors, but in return, it has quality assurance and customers can trace origin".Nguyen Huy Hoang, commercial director of Kantar Worldpanel, said that snacks are very popular among Vietnamese people. These dishes will help convenience stores at-tract more customers, increase the frequency of shopping and stimulate consumption."Bringing fast-food, convenient and time-saving street food into the convenience store system can be considered retailers' strategy to compete with competitors", Nguyen Huy Hoang acknowledged.With the same opinion, Dr Dao Xuan Khuong, distribution and retail consultant, anal-yses that usually a convenience store selects a type of customer to serve. For example, 7-Eleven's customers are ready to eat, so cake, candy, food, drink, etc. predominate.


FIN

AN

CE


While the target customers of Vinmart + are ready to cook, so they focus on foods such as vegetables, meat and fish."Overall, the expansion of street foodstuffs is to meet the demand for convenience i.e. customers can eat on spot or bring home. It gives customers more choices", he said.

Property and tourism investment becomes Quang Ninh's strength


Investment has been poured strongly into property in the north-eastern border prov-ince of Quang Ninh, seeing the engagement of major property groups, BIM group, VinGroup, Sun Group and FLC, as a few to name.Prominent projects include the Vinhomes Dragon Bay, worth 12 trillion VND (528.4 million USD), Marina Ha Long urban area, which was built at the cost of 2 billion USD, SunWorld Ha Long Park worth 7.8 trillion VND (343.46 million USD), FLC Ha Long costing 3.4 trillion VND (149.67 million USD), Mon Bay Ha Long worth 5 trillion VND (220.1 million USD) and Ha Long Star (550 million USD).Apart from those million-US dollar projects, the property market in the province's Ha Long city has been thriving with the appearance of new resort-tourism products which are more suitable with local people's demand.The first condo hotel (condotel) project named Citadines Ha Long was recently launched in the city, along with the Green Bay Premium hometel project. The project, the first of its kind in the city, allows owners with certificates of land use right to ac-quire long-term ownership and decide whether they want to stay or put their houses out for rent.The constructions are set to be officially completed and handed over to customers in the fourth quarter of 2017.In another move, the province has made efforts to speed up the implementation of Ha Long Hai Phong expressway, Bac Luan II bridge, Van Don international airport, Van Don economic zone, Ha Long Van Don and Van Don Mong Cai highways, FLC Ha Long golf course and resort, Quang Hanh mineral hot spring resort, among others. Some projects will be put into operation at the end of this year or in early 2018.The Van Don international airport is scheduled to be completed and operating in late 2017 and it is estimated to serve two million passengers each year.These efforts aimed to reel in more visitors to explore interesting destinations in the locality. The number of visitors to Quang Ninh is predicted to continue to surge in the near future.Vu Duc Ngoc, director general of the G5 Property said that the number of tourists to Ha Long city alone has escalated over the recent years, hitting an average of about 7.5 million people per year. Occupancy rate in hotels from three- to five-star reached be-tween 60 and 70 percent, he added.A series of large-scale tourism projects worth a total 61 trillion VND (2.7 billion USD) will be built in the Van Don Special Administrative Economic Unit of Quang Ninh in 2018, according to deputy Head of the management board of Quang Ninh economic zone Hoang Trung Kien.The overall plan on developing Quang Ninh tourism by 2020 and with a vision toward 2030 has made positive impacts on local tourism activities via attracting a series of new investment projects from strategic partners such as BIM Group, Vingroup, Sun Group, My Way, Tuan Chau and FLC. The active investment in tourism products from such businesses has brought facelift to the local tourism industry.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/property-and-tourism-investment-becomes-quang-ninhs-strength/121724.vnp

Businesses encouraged to seek trade opportunities in Middle East, Africa

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV

The Middle East and Africa have become a potential market for Vietnamese exporters with an import value of $480 billion last year.The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) will hold a seminar in Hanoi on Novem-ber 21 to update domestic businesses with market information, trade policies, trading habits and import demands of Middle East and African countries.


FIN

AN

CE


Main speakers will be representatives from the MOIT, and embassies of the UAE and South Africa in Hanoi.The Middle East and Africa are considered a potential market with high import de-mands without strict requirements on the quality of products, said a MOIT represent-ative. Import value of the Middle East hit $807 billion last year and is expected to rise to $1,500 billion by 2020.Vietnam has potential to export rice, tea, coffee, pepper, natural rubber, cashew nuts, fruits, seafood, garment, footwear and handicraft products to the Middle East.According to MOIT's statistics, import-export values between Vietnam and the Middle East have constantly increased in recent years, reaching $10.887 billion last year, up 100 percent against 2011, of which Vietnam's exports to the Middle East were valued at $8.059 billion and imports were at $2.828 billion.Meanwhile, trade turnover between Vietnam and African countries reached $5.364 bil-lion last year, including Vietnam's exports of $2.762 billion and imports of $2.602 bil-lion.http://english.vov.vn/market/businesses-encouraged-to-seek-trade-opportunities-in-middle-east-africa-362494.vov

How special should be Vietnam's special economic zones?

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

Though experts all agree that SEZs must be run with 'special political institutions and outstanding policies', they dare not 'make a breakthrough' and design regulations which go beyond the current legal framework.There are two major reasons for Vietnam to be determined to develop SEZs. First, it is encouraged by the legendary development of the SEZs in China, Singapore, UAE and British Virgin Islands. Second, the momentum for domestic economic growth is criti-cal.Vo Dai Luoc, a renowned economist, when discussing the legal mechanism for SEZs, said developing SEZs are nests for phoenixes to come to lay eggs. If Vietnam builds small nests that fit sparrows, phoenixes won't come.The compilers of the draft law on special administrative-economic units, imbued with the spirit of 'special mechanism', have suggested a new model of administrative organ-isation.Under the draft law, people's council and people's committees in SEZs will not exist, but there will be an institution to rule the SEZs with 116 rights. The SEZ heads will be able to make investment decisions for A-group investment projects, except important projects at the national level.According to Tran Duy Dong, a member of the compilation committee, SEZs will still belong to provinces, but even provinces' chairs won't intervene into the SEZs' internal affairs. The head of SEZs will be appointed by the PM."Not only suggesting the special regime, we have also designed socio-economic poli-cies with outstanding features to be sure that Vietnam's SEZs can be competitive with other SEZs," Dong said.The tentative policies are unprecedented in Vietnam, and have stirred controversy.Some experts pointed out that if local authorities don't have people's committees and people's councils, this will violate the Constitution.The number of experts who oppose the suggested regime with no people's committee and people's council is so high that Tran Dinh Thien, head of the Vietnam Economics Committee, predicted that the radical idea may not be advocated."Even progressive experts also don't support new policies, let alone conservative peo-ple," he said."SEZs need to have a special regime. However, they (the experts) fear that the new re-gime would go beyond the current legal framework," he commented."It is necessary to lay down special regime and policies for SEZs to develop, provided that the policies aren't contrary to the Constitution," he added.Nguyen Ba An, former deputy director of the Development Policy Institute, also said Vietnam won't have SEZs if it only offers additional investment incentives compared


FIN

AN

CE


with the current laws.He said that Vietnam has been too slow in building a legal framework for SEZs.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/189946/how-special-should-be-vietnam-s-special-economic-zones-.html

Domestic supermarkets gradually losing competitive ability

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| SGGP NEWS

Vietnam is estimated to be one of the most attracting retail markets in the world, how-ever modern distribution channels such as supermarkets, convenience stores and com-merce centers have gradually fallen into foreign firms who have held up to 53 percent revenue.The country's retail commerce growth is expected to reach 11.9 percent a year in the phase of 2016-2020 with the market size approximating $179 billion by 2020, according to Commerce Research Institute.Britain Euromonitor forecast that by 2020 foreign retailers will occupy 68.3 percent of modern retail market share in Vietnam.Director general of a leading food producer says that Saigon Co.op and other retailers in Vietnam are gradually losing their competitive ability. Vietnamese supermarkets have proved to be falling into disfavour compared to foreign ones such as Aeon, E-mart, Lotte Mart and Mega Market.For the last two years, Saigon Co.op has opened few new supermarkets and just fo-cused on convenient stores. Still Co.op Food stores have slowly developed compared to rookie Bach Hoa Xanh.Domestic retail firms now comprise Saigon Co.op with Co.opmart supermarkets, Co.opFood, Co.op Smile, Co.opXtra and Sense City; VinGroup with Vinmart super-markets, Vinmart+ and VinPro; Saigon Trading Group with SatraFood, Satramart and one commerce centre; The Gio Di Dong with Bach Hoa Xanh stores and Dong Hung Company with Citimart supermarkets and stores.So far, Saigon Co.op has kept leading supermarket trading field. Vingroup's strength is not retail but real estate. Similarly, retail is not the main business of Satra so Satra-food brand name has been faint in the market.Newcomer Bach Hoa Xanh has not been strong enough to impact the market. In addi-tion, the store chain has conducted initial public offering and sold shares to foreign in-vestment funds.Citimart has sold 40 percent of its shares to Aeon. Only Saigon Co.op is purely Viet-namese.While foreign firms are moving forward to develop supermarkets and trade centers through new investment projects and Mergers and Acquisitions deals, domestic com-panies have just concentrated in convenient stores.An unnamed market expert said that even the country's leading retailer Saigon Co.op has showed signs of slowing down with only few new supermarkets being opened for the last two years.In fact, Saigon Co.op has yet to solve big problems in both trading and organisation. It has been out of date for the system to switch its operation model according to Cooper-ative Law 2012. Therefore, it is still unclear that Saigon Co.op is a cooperative or a busi-ness.Being a cooperative, Saigon Co.op has to establish a consumer cooperative because its scope has reached 16,000 people excluding two millions of familiar customers. If main-taining the model of a cooperative, Saigon Co.op needs the attendance of millions of customers to establish the consumer cooperative. Cooperative members will create the system a new force, which its rivals cannot have.Some experts said that after Metro and Big-C met with some legal problems in trans-ferring their shares to foreign partners, it was golden time for Saigon Co.op to speed up investment in supermarket segment, which is its strength. Still the system has not taken advantage of that and left behind by rivals.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/190246/domestic-supermarkets-gradually-losing-competitive-ability.html


FIN

AN

CE


M&As increasingly appealing to Korean businesses


Vietnam-Korea Business Partnership 2017 programme hears of growing interest among South Korean business in M&As in Vietnam.Economic cooperation between Vietnamese and South Korean businesses will be much more diversified in the future, especially in the fields of support industries, serv-ices, and education, Kim Jae Hong, Chair of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra), told the Vietnam-Korea Business Partnership 2017 programme held on November 10 in Hanoi.He also pointed out that more and more South Korean businesses are interested in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the country. Through M&A, the two sides will have the opportunity to cooperate in technology transfer and establish joint ventures. "When South Korea boosts technology transfer to Vietnam, the two countries can to-gether penetrate into other countries through free trade agreements signed by Viet-nam," he said."Trade between the two countries in the first three quarters of this year was $47.2 bil-lion, and I expect the figure to exceed $50 billion in 2017, or more than 100 times the 1992 figure," he added.Vietnam is South Korea's largest investment market in Asean and this trend will con-tinue into the future, he said.Many M&A experts have said that South Korea's M&A deals with Southeast Asian countries are increasing annually in both volume and value.However, South Korean businesses in Vietnam also face a host of difficulties in terms of financial reporting and a lack of advisors and experts with knowledge of Vietnam-ese businesses to negotiate M&A deals.The Vietnam-Korea Business Partnership 2017 programme targeted opening up fa-vourable conditions for the two countries' enterprises in terms of technology, trade, support industries, M&As, intellectual property rights, and corporate social responsi-bility.It comprised a series of events, including one-on-one business meetings between Viet-namese and South Korean enterprises, gathering together 100 Vietnamese companies and 17 South Korean firms operating in the fields of information technology, electrical machinery, components automation, chemicals, construction equipment, and indus-trial materials.M&A activities targeting Southeast Asia so far this year have reached $53.5 billion in 290 deals, increasing in value by 23.1 per cent compared to the same period of 2016.This is the second-highest value in the first three quarters of a year, according to Mergermarket data. In Vietnam, there were 37 deals in the period worth $1.218 billion.M&A deals in Vietnam hit an all-time record of $5.8 billion in 2016, growth of 11.92 per cent compared to 2015, according to a report released at a press meeting to launch the M&A Forum 2017 in July.South Korea and other countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Japan, mainland Chi-na, and Hong Kong are the Top 5 buyers in Vietnam.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/190211/m-as-increasingly-appealing-to-south-korean-businesses.html

HCM City promotes trade with S Korea's Daegu city


Vietnam plans to eliminate tariffs on raw materials and spare parts and lower tariffs on small appliances and cosmetics imported from South Korea, according to Le Thanh Liem, vice chair of the city People's Committee.Speaking at the HCM City Daegu Business Forum held on Monday in HCM City, Liem said in return Vietnam would have opportunities to expand exports to South Korea of key products such as farm produce, seafood and textiles."The South Korea-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which came into effect at the end of 2015, opened new economic cooperative opportunities and is expected to bring two-way turnover at $70 billion by 2020," he said.


FIN

AN

CE


South Korea is one of the three biggest trade partners of Vietnam. "The country is HCM City's fourth investor with 1,417 projects and total investment capital of $4.6 billion," he said.Big Korean groups like Samsung, Lotte, CJ and GS have been successful investors in the city, he said.As for tourism, the city welcomed more than 423,000 Korean visitors last year, a surge of 35 per cent compared to 2015, according to Liem."In the coming time, HCM City aims to achieve sustainable development and become a smart city," Liem said. "The city will focus on improving the quality of human re-sources, quality of growth and competitiveness of the economy, giving priority to re-ducing traffic congestion and accidents and flooding as well as reducing environmental pollution."The city will create the most favourable conditions and protect the rights and benefits for foreign investors, particularly Korean enterprises, to invest in Vietnam, he pledged."The country and the city will continue creating cooperation and exchange pro-grammes through practical projects between the two countries," he noted.Pham Thiet Hoa, director of the HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC), said HCM City was the largest economic and financial centre in Vietnam and one of the most dynamic cities in the Asean region.The city is calling for investment in nine priority sectors, including financecreditbank-inginsurance, commerce, tourism, logistics, science and technology, post and telecom-munication, real estate, healthcare and education.In addition, the city has offered many policies and incentives for four industries with high added value such as mechanical manufacturing, electronicsinformation technol-ogy, chemicalsplasticrubber, and food processing.Kwon Young Jin, mayor of Daegu, said that the city, well known as a hub for thread industry, tourist, health and culture, would welcome businesses from HCM City and Vietnam to invest in the city, and that Korean businesses, especially from Daegu, look forward to more opportunities for cooperation in investment in the city.South Korea also plans to open direct flights from Daegu to HCM City, he said.Korean banks and the Daegu Chamber of Commerce and Industry will open branches and representative offices in HCM City to facilitate trade and share information for business cooperation between the two sides, he added.More than 7, 000 Vietnamese people live and work in Daegu. There are 250 Daegu city's businesses investing in Vietnam.The HCM City Daegu Business Forum was organised by Department of Planning and Investment and ITPC as part of the HCM City Gyeongju World Culture Expo 2017 be-ing held in the city.http://bizhub.vn/news/hcmc-promotes-trade-with-s-koreas-daegu-city_290102.html

Vietnam, Luxembourg sign general Cooperation Agreement


Vietnam and Luxembourg signed in Hanoi on November 14 a general Cooperation Agreement between the two governments, the third of its kinds between the two coun-tries since 1995.In his remarks at the signing ceremony in Hanoi, minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said the non-refundable ODA from the government of Luxem-bourg has been poured to Vietnam's key areas over the past two decades.According to the minister, Vietnam and Luxembourg started their development coop-eration in the 1990s with the first general Cooperation Agreement inked in 1995. Since then, Luxembourg has provided Vietnam with about 124 million euro in non-refund-able ODA, greatly dedicating to the country's socio-economic development.The cooperation programmes have been geared towards Vietnam's five-year socio-economic development plans and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the projects have been approached in a diverse, comprehensive fashion towards the sustainable development, he noted


FIN

AN

CE


Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian of Luxembourg Romain Schneider, for his part, said Vietnam wants to further advance its development; in such context, Luxembourg hopes to expand the relations with Vietnam beyond the tradi-tional donor-recipient ties while establishing a partnership for mutual benefit.The agreement allows different projects to receive coordination from any ministries of Luxembourg. It covers cooperation in multiple areas, including climate change, ener-gy, medical research, finance and banking, he added.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-luxembourg-sign-general-cooperation-agree-ment/121721.vnp

On the verge of another Chinese investing wave


On the occasion of Communist Party of China general Secretary and President Xi Jin-ping's state visit to Vietnam on November 11 and 12, VIR reporter looks into China's latest investment movements in Vietnam.Vietnam is currently on the receiving end of a new wave of mainland Chinese invest-ment this year, with about $1.8 billion of capital registered so far. Investors from Hong Kong have brought an additional $1.3 billion to the table in year to date.Mainland China is regularly listed in the ranks of Vietnam's top foreign investors. To date, mainland China reports a cumulative investment sum touching $11.94 billion an amount made even more remarkable by the addition of Hong Kong's cumulative $17.65 billion investment.A slew of large-scale investment projects from mainland China and Hong Kong have landed in Vietnam. These investments are highlighted by the $4 billion South Hoi An mixed-use resort complex by Hong Kong group Chow Tai Fook, in the central region tourist magnet Hoi An; the $2 billion coal-fired build-operate-transfer (BOT) thermal power plant Vinh Tan 1, in the southern province of Binh Thuan (with 95 percent stake held by a Chinese investor consortium); and the $2.2 billion Hai Duong BOT thermal power plant (with 50 percent held by China Power Engineering Consulting Group Limited).In recent years, scores of mainland China and Hong Kong-based investors in textile, dyeing, and fibre production have opened factories in Vietnam, looking forward to the anticipated opportunities in the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. Texhong Group is one of the most noteworthy.Texhong has successfully invested in a $300 million-plus fibre plant in Hai Yen Indus-trial Park (IP) in the northern province of Quang Ninh, and is developing two more big projects. One is the first-phase Texhong Hai Ha IP infrastructure and the other is gar-ment-textile production project, with a combined investment sum surpassing $515 million. The group is also committed to developing a 2,000-megawatt thermal power plant in Mong Cai.TAL, a leading Hong Kong investor in garment-textile processing for global brands, has made a foray into Vietnam through the opening of new plants in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, and is finding more investment locations in the country.In addition to direct investment, there has been a sharp rise in the amount of stake pur-chased and capital contributions from mainland China and Hong Kong's investors. Of the more than $3 billion in committed investment from mainland China and Hong Kong into Vietnam, about $400 million came in the form of stake purchase and capital contribution. From investors of mainland China alone, the amount comes to more than $323 million.New opportunities on the horizonMajor investments from mainland China and Hong Kong have made big contributions to Vietnam's socio-economic development. Chinese investment projects have ap-peared across the board of Vietnam's economy, from industrial production and ener-gy, to textile, garment and footwear, and mining.As a developing economy, it is important for Vietnam to receive investment from out-side sources, especially in the context of mainland China and Hong Kong pushing up outbound investment.


BU

SIN

ES

SVietnam finance & business 15 November

Last year, Chinese investors spent $183 billion on outbound investment ventures, a 44 percent jump on-year, turning China into the second-largest player in this field after the US."Other regional economies such as Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Thailand are racing to lure Chinese investments. Vietnam is not an exception," said senior financial expert Le Xuan Nghia.The question is how to attract quality investment flow from China into Vietnam. Econ-omist Truong Dinh Tuyen assumed that with suitable approaches, Vietnam can totally attract big investment volume from China, including in the high-tech field.According to senior foreign investment expert Nguyen Mai, it is an urgent task for Vi-etnam to optimise the benefits that Chinese investment flow into Vietnam could bring.In a meeting with leading Chinese CEOs last year, Vietnam's prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highly praised the role that Chinese investments has made to Vietnam's economy and wished to see more quality investment sources from China flowing into Vietnam. "The Vietnamese government and people welcome good businesses as well as environmentally-friendly technologies and equipment from China," said PM Phuc.Meanwhile, the opportunities for Vietnam to woo more investment flow from Hong Kong into Vietnam have also proven bright. In early May, an investor mission from Hong Kong came to Vietnam on a quest for business opportunities.In a recent meeting in HCM City, Tina Phan, Indochina regional director of Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) stressed that there has been a wave of in-vestors from Hong Kong into Vietnam searching for investment into transport infra-structure and wastewater treatment projects.Phan expected the free trade agreement between Asean and Hong Kong that is coming into force will definitely bring multiple opportunities for Hong Kong businesses to bolster investment and trade into Vietnam.HKTDC is reportedly bringing two business missions to Vietnam through January 2018. Besides for traditional fields such as garment production, agro-forestry, seafood item processing, and real estate, the investors are also interested in infrastructure in-vestment and waste treatment under a public-private partnership model."Vietnam commits to creating the best conditions for all of you when doing business, on the principle of mutual benefit. We particularly call for investment into infrastruc-ture, a capital-intensive field, specifically in railways, roads, air routes, and water-ways," PM Phuc said in a recent meeting with investors from Hong Kong.english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/190226/on-the-verge-of-another-chinese-invest-ing-wave.html

BUSINESSEWS

Business Briefs 15 November, 2017

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA |

* Cuu Long Pharmaceutical Company (DCL) has decided to issue $20 million worth of convertible bonds abroad. The five-year debt has a face value ofUS$1 million per bond and a coupon of 1 percent per annum. It can be converted into shares at VND25,000 each after one year from the date of issuance. DCL will use the proceeds from the bond sale to expand its production and supplement its working capital.* Singapore-based Jardine Cycle & Carriage Limited has announced that its affiliate Platinum Victory Pte Ltd acquired over 80.2 million shares of Vietnam Dairy Products Company (VNM). It bought the shares at the public auction held by the State Capital Investment Corporation last Friday. The investor is holding a 5.5 percent stake in VNM.* HDBank expects to raise around $300 million from the sale of a 20 percent stake to foreigners before its listing on the HCM City market early next year.* Credit Suisse AG has sold over 65 million shares ofVincom Retail Company (VRE) to reduce its ownership from over 5.05 percent to 1.6 percent.* Vietnam Petroleum Transport Company (VIP) will buy back three million shares as treasury shares to reduce its total outstanding volume and raise the market share price. In the third quarter of2017, VIP made VNDI71 billion in revenue, up 4 percent over the


BU

SIN

ES


same period last year, while its after-tax profit jumped 11 times at nearly VND 15 bil-lion.* Thanh Thanh Cong Tay I inh Company (SBT) has given approval to TIC Attapeu Sug-ar Company to spur its chartered capital from D815 billion to over VND1.7 trillion. Earlier, SBT and Bien Hoa Sugar Company (BHS) acquired TIC Attapeu Sugar Com-pany from Hoang Anh Gia Lai Company, in which BHS took over 60 percent of its cap-ital while SBT got a 39.97 percent stake.* Sonadezi Corporation (SNZ) will begin trading over 376 million shares on the market for unlisted public enterprises, UPCoM, on November 20 at the reference price ofVNDlO,900 each.* Vietnam Education Publishing House will be selling 1.4 million shares at Education Financial Investment Company (EFI) via put-through transactions. Investors are re-quired to buy at least 400,000 shares at the starting price of VNDI0, 100 each.

VN stocks rise as banks, property firms advance


Shares closed Tuesday morning on a positive note on both local markets, lifted by banks and real estate firms.The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.51 per cent to end at 883.81 points, recovering from an intraday low of 874.74 points.It had rallied total 5.5 per cent in the previous seven sessions.The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange was up 0.92 per cent to finish at 107.77 points, extending its gain from a four-day increase of 1.9 per cent.More than 160 million shares were traded across the two exchanges, worth VND6.29 trillion (US$279.7 million).Bank and property shares were the main driving factors that pushed both local indices up on Tuesday morning.The two sector indices posted growth rates of 1.6 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respective-ly, according to vietstock.vn.Nine of the 10 listed banks advanced with Vietinbank (CTG), Sai Gon-Hanoi Bank (SHB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and VPBank (VPB) performing the best.In the real estate sector, gaining stocks included Vingroup (VIC), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corporation (HQC).However, the trading condition was negative as declining stocks dominated the mar-ket over gaining ones (212 to 199).Among the decliners on the stock market were dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), con-sumer goods producer Masan (MSN) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI).The afternoon trade session starts at 1pm.http://bizhub.vn/markets/vn-stocks-rise-as-banks-property-firms-advance_290128.html

Main indexes finish in positive territory


Solid performance all round on November 14.All main indexes on Vietnam's stock market closed higher on November 14.On HSX, the VN Index gained 1.56 points (0.18 per cent) and the VN30-Index 2.97 points (0.34 per cent).On HNX, the HNX-Index increased 0.28 points (0.26 per cent), the HNX30-Index 0.08 points (0.04 per cent), and the UPCoM-Index 0.20 points (0.37 per cent).Liquidity on HSX reached VND5.05 trillion ($219.5 million), 9.3 per cent higher than yesterday, and on HNX was VND706.6 billion ($30.7 million), 53.1 per cent higher.The VN Index opened at 881.15 points and increased to 875.12 points before ending the morning at 883.81 points. It then closed the day at 880.90 points.In food and beverages, VCF increased 4.5 per cent and KDC 0.6 per cent while VNM lost 2.4 per cent and TAC 1.1 per cent. TLG closed at its opening price.In banking, VCI gained 6.9 per cent, CTG 2.5 per cent, BID 1.5 per cent, SSI 1 per cent, VCB and VPB 0.9 per cent, BVH 0.4 per cent, and MBB 0.2 per cent, as MSN lost 1.7 per cent, EIB 1.3 per cent, and STB 0.4 per cent.


BU

SIN

ES


In energy, NT2 rose 3.9 per cent, PGD 1.1 per cent, GAS 0.6 per cent, and PVT 0.3 per cent, while PPC lost 1.8 per cent, PVD 1.7 per cent, and PLX 0.2 per cent.In construction and real estate, QCG gained 3.6 per cent, CTD 1.7 per cent, VRE 1.4 per cent, ROS 0.9 per cent, and DXG, NLG, and FLC 0.6 per cent. HT1 lost 0.7 per cent and NVL 0.2 per cent, while VIC closed at its opening price.The Top 5 shares bought by foreign investors were VNM (VND157.7 billion ($6.8 mil-lion)), VJC (VND54.5 billion ($2.3 million)), HSG (VND34.3 billion ($1.5 million)), VCB (VND22.7 billion ($986,956)), and HPG (VND20.8 billion ($904,347)).On HSX, CII was the largest net sold share, with VND150 billion ($2.6 million), fol-lowed by MSN (VND45.5 billion ($2 million)), BMP (VND19.3 billion ($1.25 million)), VRE (VND16.2 billion ($513,043)), and DHG (VND10.5 billion ($473,913)).NTP was the largest net sold share on HNX, with VND3.6 billion ($156,521), followed by VGC (VND3.1 billion ($134,782)), DHT (VND285.6 million ($12,417)), AMC (VND88.5 million ($3,847)), and TAG (VND79.9 million ($3,473)).On UPCoM, foreign investors bought 721,127 shares worth VND43.36 billion ($1.9 mil-lion).They net bought on HSX by VND135.22 billion ($5.9 million) and on HNX by VND20.67 billion ($898,695).vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/main-indexes-finish-in-positive-terri-tory

Stocks skyrocket on strong turnover


Stocks kept rallying for a seventh straight session on November 13, lifting the VN In-dex up by a massive 11.13 points, or 1.28 percent, against last Friday at 879.34.Heavyweights again were top contributors to the advance. VNM, a leader in the dairy sector, gained 6.4 percent at VND185,000 a share with matching volume of 4.3 million shares after the successful sale of State-held VNM shares last week.Meanwhile, brewery firm SAB increased 1.27 percent at VND282,200 per share while real estate firm VIC added 3 percent at an intraday high of VND68,000 a share. Among the top 10 stocks by market capitalisation, only lender CTG and consumer goods pro-ducer MSN declined, losing 0.25 percent and 0.84 percent at VND20,600 and VND59,900 a share respectively.Aside from CTG, many bank stocks closed in negative territory. MBB was the most ac-tively traded stock in the sector with 6.3 million shares changing hands, losing 2.1 per-cent from the session earlier at VND23,600 a share.Turnover on the HCM City bourse skyrocketed with 282 million shares worth VND13.4 trillion changing hands, up 25.8 percent and 58 percent from a session earlier respectively. The put-through market saw 94.3 million shares worth VND8.7 trillion traded, mostly VNM shares.Many speculative stocks came under strong selling pressure, especially the stock of FLC and those of its associated firms. FLC remained the most liquid stock with over 38.5 million shares traded but fell 6.5 percent at VND6,020 a share.Agricultural firm HAI and mining enterprise AMD plunged to the floor prices of VND7,420 and VND6,910 a share with volume of 4.7 million shares and VND2.2 mil-lion shares respectively. On the other hand, ROS, a construction enterprise, recovered after having shed 18 percent last week.TCH, a financial investment company, was an advancer among speculative stocks, hit-ting the ceiling price of VND17,700 a share. Property firms HAR and QCG also man-aged to gain ground.The Hanoi market extended its rising streak to the fourth straight session, sending the HNX-Index up 0.39 percent at 106.79 points. There were 50.2 million shares worth VND725 billion traded, jumping 32 percent and 54 percent respectively.KLF, a trading and food service firm, took the lead by liquidity with volume of 16.2 million shares. The associated firm of FLC plunged to the floor price of VND3,400 per share.Among the bank stocks, ACB dropped 0.6 percent at VND32,300 a share with 1.8 mil-


BU

SIN

ES


lion shares transacted. SHB lost 1.27 percent at VND7,900 per share with volume of 3.9 million shares while NVB closed flat at VND7,000 per share.Meanwhile, petroleum technical service firm PVS added 1.2 percent at VND17,000 a share with 3.5 million shares changing hands. Construction firm VCG was the second most actively traded stock with 8.4 million shares, climbing 8.3 percent at VND24,700 a share.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57033/Stocks-skyrocket-on-strong-turnover.html

Firms to buy back their shares in bid to raise value


Seeing share prices tumbling, some companies have decided to buy back their shares in an effort to increase their value.Lam Son Sugar Joint Stock Corporation (LSS) decided to repurchase six million of the company's shares, equivalent to 8.6 per cent of outstanding shares, on the HCM Stock Exchange, after its shares lost over 33 per cent of their value in the last four months.The transactions are expected to happen from December 1-31.LSS shares have fallen below the par value of VND10,000 a share since early this month, a loss of 33.2 per cent from the peak of VND15,000 on June 26, and a loss of 15 per cent since the start of 2017. At this price, the company will likely spend about VND54 billion for the repurchase.The performance of sugar makers has slid this year after a strong showing in 2016. Revenues of Lam Son Sugar declined 53 per cent year-on-year to VND214 billion (US$9.4 million) in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2017-18. Its net profit, at just over VND12 billion, was just one third of its profits over the same period in 2016.In 2016, the company's revenues and pre-tax profits increased 18 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively.The poor result could be blamed on falling sugar prices on the world market, currently being traded around $15 per pound of sugar, down sharply from $24 per pound at the end of September 2016.Another sugar company, Thanh Thanh Cong Tay Ninh JSC (SBT) is also considering a repurchase of 83.5 million shares, or 15 per cent of outstanding shares, after its shares plummeted 50 per cent in the last three months, from over VND41,000 per share in ear-ly August to just over VND21,000 on Monday.The company will seek shareholders' approval for the repurchase programme, which is expected to take place during daily trading on the stock exchange in the sharehold-ers' meeting on November 20.Earlier, the company's trade union registered to buy five million shares of the compa-ny for long-term investment purposes from November 15 to December 14.After the merger with Bien Hoa Sugar (BHS) on September 6 this year, the total assets of SBT increased from VND7.8 trillion to VND19.4 trillion, of which equity capital is more than VND6.9 trillion and liabilities were nearly VND12.5 trillion. The company holds about 30 per cent of the domestic sugar market share.Besides sugar firms, garment manufacturer Everpia JSC (EVE) has also announced a repurchase programme of three million shares, equivalent to 7.1 per cent of its capital. The company's shares have lost about 32 per cent of their value this year after it report-ed gloomy business results in the first nine months: the company posted VND79.7 bil-lion in net revenues and VND32.4 billion in net profit, down 62 per cent and 50 per cent year-on-year, respectively.Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corporation (HQC) has decided to buy back a maximum of 10 million shares, equal to 2 per cent of outstanding shares, to maintain the share value after it plummeted 50 per cent this year to around VND2,600 per share.Companies may buy back their own shares from the marketplace when the shares have declined sharply and are undervalued to push up the price and protect share-holders' interests. This solution seems to be effective so far: shares of all these compa-nies have begun rising again in recent sessions, indicating that investors believe share prices will rise on the companies' buy-backs.


BU

SIN

ES


The automotive giant behind stellar Vinamilk buy-in


On November 13, the largest automotive group from Singapore, Jardine Cycle & Car-riage Limited Company (JC&C), announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Plati-num Victory Pte., Ltd completed the purchase of 80.28 million shares, representing approximately 5.5 per cent stake in Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk) through two back-to-back transactions.The aggregate consideration for the relevant interest is approximately $616.6 million in cash, which will be funded by JC&C's internal resources and external borrowings.According to the information published on JC&C's website, Platinum Victory picked up a 3.33 per cent stake in Vinamilk through an auction organised by State Capital In-vestment Corporation of Vietnam (SCIC) on November 10, 2017. After that, it acquired the balance shares, amounting to 2.2 per cent through open market purchases on No-vember 13.The taking of this relevant interest in Vinamilk is in line with the JC&C group's strate-gy of investing in market leading companies in Southeast Asia. In particular, it increas-es JC&C's exposure to the Vietnamese economy and consideration will be given from time to time to making further such investments.A leading Singapore-based company, together with its subsidiaries and associates, JC&C has a strong regional automotive presence through direct motor interests oper-ating in Singapore, Malaysia, and Myanmar under the Cycle & Carriage banner, as well as through Tunas Ridean in Indonesia and Truong Hai Auto Corporation in Viet-nam.JC&C employs over 240,000 people across Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.JC&C has been present in Vietnam through its 25.1 per cent holding in the country's largest automotive firm Truong Hai Auto as well as a 22.9 per cent ownership in listed Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation.JC&C is 75 per cent held by Jardine Matheson, a diversified business group focused principally on Asia, which also has interest in other Vietnamese businesses, including Asia Commercial Bank, Pizza Hut, KFC Vietnam, and several real estate assets.http://www.vir.com.vn/the-automotive-giant-behind-stellar-vinamilk-buy-in.html

Two companies selected as strategic investors for IDICO


The Ministry of Construction (MoC) has announced the names of two institutions qualified to become strategic investors of the Vietnam Urban and Industrial Zone De-velopment Investment Corporation (IDICO).They are US-based SSG Corporation and Bitexco Group.Kinh Bac City Development Share Holding Corporation was not selected due to the lack of essential documents, including the guarantee certificate and evidence to prove it has enough capital for the stake purchase.The MoC will also release its blockade on Kinh Bac's deposit of VND162 billion (US$7.1 billion) set for the purchase.The shares offered to strategic investors are being negotiated at VND23,940 ($1.05) per share, equal to the average winning price at the company's initial public offering (IPO) on October 5.IDICO sold its entire offering of over 55.3 million shares, equivalent to 18.44 per cent of its capital, at the IPO. Foreign investors purchased 75 per cent of the total shares.Under the equitisation plan, the State will retain 36 per cent stake in IDICO after the IPO but will divest entirely by the end of 2018.IDICO has charter capital of VND3 trillion ($132.2 million), of which 45 per cent stake, or 135 million shares, will be offered to strategic investors.SSG Corporation and Bitexco Group have registered to buy some 90 million IDICO shares and 45 million shares are "open" for purchase after Kinh Bac was ruled out.MoC said the two chosen investors may register to buy an additional maximum 15 per cent of IDICO's charter capital and at least 5 per cent of capital. The deadline for regis-tration is November 15.


BU

SIN

ES


PV Power shares to be sold at VN14,400 per share


PetroVietnam Power Corporation (PV Power) shares may be sold at an initial price of VND14,400 (63 US cents) per share at its initial public offering (IPO). The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has submitted to the prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc the plan for privatisation of PV Power under the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam).According to the prime minister's Decision No 168/2017, PetroVietnam will hold at least 51 per cent of charter capital at PV Power until 2019.However, the corporation still has some loans from foreign credit institutions under the guarantee of the finance ministry for implementation of electricity projects. These include loans with deadline after 2019, such as the Vung Ang 1 Thermo-power Plant. Foreign lenders have directed PetroVietnam to continue to maintain its position as the borrower of the loan contracts until 2025 once power plants are transferred to PV Pow-er.It is the reason the ministry asked the PM to permit PetroVietnam to continue holding 51 per cent of charter capital at PV Power following privatisation. PetroVietnam will divest from PV Power to less than 50 per cent of charter capital after 2025.The MoIT said the Ministry of Justice recommended PV Power's share price at VND14,000 per share based on audited results, its advantages and current regulations.Specifically, 28.8 per cent of the shares will be sold to strategic investors, 20 per cent will be publicly traded through the IPO and 0.118 per cent will be issued to employees.The ministry said the sale of shares would not be attractive to strategic investors if they were sold multiple times. Unsold shares from the IPO and preferential shares for em-ployees would be sold to strategic investors.It added that the IPO is expected to take place in the fourth quarter this year.PV Power is the second-largest electricity producer in Vietnam, after Electricity of Vi-etnam. PV Power manages plants with total capacity of 4,208MW. Last year, the com-pany's plants generated 21 billion kWh of electricity output.http://bizhub.vn/markets/pv-power-shares-to-be-sold-at-vnd14400-per-share_290138.html

ABT to acquire stake in Sao Ta Foods


equivalent to 54.28 per cent of Sao Ta Foods' capitalSao Ta Foods is one of the most-effective subsidiaries under Hung Vuong Corp. The shrimp exporter reported the best-ever result with estimated pre-tax profit of VND125 billion in the fiscal year 2016-17, an increase of 25 per cent over the yearly target and up 60 per cent year-on-year.If the transaction is successful, Sao Ta Foods will become an associate of Ben Tre Aq-uaproduct, focusing on shrimp processing and exporting.Ben Tre Aquaproduct focuses on tra fish and oyster farming. Its performance is getting worse this year with the nine-month profit reaching just VND15.6 billion, a sharp de-cline compared to VND40 billion earned in 2016's nine months.http://bizhub.vn/markets/abt-to-acquire-stake-in-sao-ta-foods_290141.html

HCM City helps Binh Thuan consume safe agricultural products


The HCM City Food Safety Board and the Department of Agriculture and Rural De-velopment of Binh Thuan Province on November 13 inked a cooperation agreement on producing, trading and consuming safe agricultural and aquatic products of Binh Thuan.Products will be closely controlled from production to processing and trading stages, according to the agreement.Pham Khanh Phong Lan, director of the HCM City Food Safety Board, said in a press release that safe food chains would help reassure consumers. It is important to coop-erate with prestigious and large distributors to maximise the effectiveness of these supply chains.With a population of around 10 million people, HCM City is a huge market for Binh


BU

SIN

ES


Thuan's seafood, dragon fruit and other produce, Lan said.The two sides agreed to jointly develop safe supply chains of farm produce and sea-food, create favourable conditions for Binh Thuan's enterprises to provide such prod-ucts to HCM City, and ensure product safety.Mai Kieu, director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Thuan Province, said the province has had difficulty developing supply chains. There-fore, the cooperation with HCM City is extremely important.On the same day, the Saigon Union of Trading Cooperatives (Saigon Co.op) signed a cooperation agreement with Muoi Tuyen Co Ltd in Binh Thuan Province to help con-sume 100 tonnes of seafood processed by the company a month.Saigon Co.op general director Nguyen Thanh Nhan said the store chain operator would raise the volume of the company's seafood sold at its outlets and offer products of other enterprises in Binh Thuan in the near future.Saigon Co.op expects to develop safe food chains for Binh Thuan's other products, es-pecially dragon fruit.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57030/HCM City-helps-Binh-Thuan-consume-safe-agricultural-products.html

Vietnam strives to brand rare and precious produce


Among Vietnam's rare and precious herbs, Ngoc Linh ginseng and agarwood are in the top positions in terms of preciousness and selling prices.However, it is difficult to buy genuine ginseng and agarwood because of counterfeit products in the market.The first Ngoc Linh ginseng market day took place on October 1-3 in Nam Tra My dis-trict of Quang Nam province. All the ginseng products available, including 50 kilo-grams of ginseng bulbs, sold out as the demand was big, bringing VND4.5 billion.The market day was organised under the initiative by Nam Tra My district's authori-ties in a plan to fight against counterfeit products and protect the precious product worth tens of millions of dong per kilogram.A year ago, when Ngoc Linh ginseng received protection for geographical indication and recognition as national produce, the demand for ginseng began increasing rapidly and counterfeit ginseng began appearing in the market.Meanwhile, there is only one ginseng examination centre located in HCM City. The identification and distinction between real and counterfeit Ngoc Linh ginseng depend on ginseng growers' and researchers' experience.Therefore, the Quang Nam provincial authorities allowed Nam Tra My district to or-ganise Ngoc Linh ginseng market-day, once a month, in order to provide genuine Ngoc Linh ginseng to customers. The local authorities are taking responsibility for the quality of the products.Nam Tra My authorities have been making every effort to develop a brand for Ngoc Linh ginseng in recent years. It organises Ngoc Linh ginseng festivals, workshops and ginseng market-days, issues stamps with Ngoc Linh ginseng images and gives live re-ports about ginseng market-days on YouTube.The activities have helped make Ngoc Linh ginseng become more popular and its sell-ing price escalate. In 2015, one kilogram of ginseng was sold for VND30-50 million. One kilogram can be sold for VND60-90 million now.In 2015, Nam Tra My had 120 hectares of ginseng growing area, but now it has 1,500 hectares. TH True Milk and Vingroup alone have decided to invest VND16 trillion to ginseng projects.Agarwood marketBesides Ngoc Linh ginseng, Quang Nam province is also famous for its tram huong (agarwood).In the past, only several shops in Da Nang City sold the product. However, the trade has become bustling recently, since more Chinese and Korean travellers are coming to the province. Meanwhile, more counterfeit products have appeared in the market where the demand is increasingly high.


BU

SIN

ES


In Da Nang and Nha Trang, incense and necklaces made of agarwood sell very well to travellers. The products are expensive, but the quality is unclear because there is no regulation about the required standards of the products.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/189947/vietnam-strives-to-brand-rare-and-precious-produce.html

Two birds, one stone in waste-to-energy sector


Finnish companies are looking to bolster their presence in the promising Vietnamese waste-to-energy sector.Doranova from Finland has teamed up with Binh Duong Water Supply Sewerage En-vironment Co., Ltd (BIWASE) to carry out the second phase of a waste-to-energy project in Vietnam. In the first phase, another Finnish company provided waste sepa-ration lines on the same site.According to Mikko Saalasti, head of renewable energy at Doranova, Vietnam deliv-ered one of the largest projects Doranova has ever undertaken a 35,000-tonne waste-to-energy plant worth euro 6 million ($6.95 million), currently under development on the outskirts of HCM City."This project is expected to reduce the city's landfill, as well as provide additional pow-er generation options for Vietnam's largest metropolis to draw from. Our bio-gas plant will further assist Vietnam to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions," Saalasti said.Specifically, Doranova will collect gas discharged from landfills, clean it, and use co-generation to produce both electricity and useful heat. It will collect landfill gases at a maximum level of 500 cubic metres (m3) per hour. The project kicked off early this year, and is slated for completion by April 2018.A little more than a week ago, the Finnish firm Watrec commenced a waste-to-energy project in Hanoi with a capacity of 600 tonnes of waste per day."We have placed Vietnam atop our list of development countries," Kimmo Tuppurain-en, Watrec's sales director for Southeast Asia, said, adding that the company is plan-ning to team up with local partners to carry out more projects in the country.Tuppurainen said that in the beginning, technology from Finland was expensive. To lower the investment costs, Watrec has joined up with local companies to build sec-tions of the Hanoi plant. The firm has also transferred technology to local experts to ensure the project runs more effectively.Another Finnish company named Valmet has established a presence in Vietnam by of-fering control systems in hydropower plants. The company is now increasing its focus on Vietnam's waste-to-energy sector.Valmet director of Asia-Pacific and China, Matti Miinalainen, commented that Viet-nam is developing rapidly in the field of renewable energy production, and with a spe-cial focus on the waste-to-energy sector. Valmet has superb offerings in this space from which Vietnam can benefit immensely. The firm is also active in the wastewater seg-ment."Over the course of my meetings with customers and others at the Vietwater expo, a pressing need for the kind of expertise for which Finland is renowned has emerged, and we look forward to partnering with the nation in the years to come," he said.These three companies are among 16 Finnish exhibitors, led by the nation's trade pro-motion body Finpro, which participated in Vietwater 2017 held in HCM City last week.Saku Liuksia, Finpro's programme manager of waste-to-energy and bioenergy, said, "Finnish companies started to focus heavily on Vietnam's waste-to-energy, bioenergy, and clean tech sectors roughly one-and-a-half years ago. We are familiar with all the challenges, possibilities, and potentials of these sectors in the Vietnamese market."Finpro not only brings Finnish companies to Vietnam, but also brings several delega-tions from Vietnam to Finland to showcase Finnish expertise and technology. Several matchmaking events have taken place between Finnish and Vietnamese stakeholders. There are also several projects planning to re-use different kinds of materials, like solid waste, agricultural residue, and waste sludge.


BU

SIN

ES


Liuksia highlighted the remarkable progress firms from Finland have been able to make over the past year-and-a-half in assisting Vietnam with its waste and power is-sues. Vietnam's water-to-energy sector is in its early stages, so it will take a bit of time for energy and big waste management projects to develop in the country.According to Liuksia, Finland is a world leader in waste-to-energy technology, and this has proven to be a segment of singular interest to Vietnam. Vietnam has long struggled with issues of waste management, with a recent study estimating that HCM City alone discharges 8,300 tonnes of waste each day, 76 per cent of which ends up in landfills. Meanwhile, power shortages and outages remain a part of daily life in the city and some leading Finnish companies are at the forefront of addressing both of these issues.http://www.vir.com.vn/two-birds-one-stone-in-waste-to-energy-sector.html

Single window in aviation to be implemented nationwide


The general Department of Customs said aviation procedures for entries and exits of aircrafts at all international airports nationwide would be connected to the National Single Window system from November 15.The national single window would allow procedures to be submitted electronically to the State management agencies and vice versa, the management agencies would issue entry/exit permissions through the system.Dossiers would be submitted through the website: https://www.vnsw.gov.vn.Currently, different management agencies require the submission of different dossi-ers, such as the manifest of imported/exported air cargoes, and the lists of crew, pas-sengers, and checked luggage. Most of these are still on paper, which causes difficulties in sharing information.The general Department of Customs said that the national single window system would enable all State management agencies at airports to access all electronic dossiers that were submitted.For the first time, the information about passenger reservations was required to be submitted 24 hours before departure and updated eight hours before departure in an effort to ensure aviation security.The national single window system would save time and costs while enhancing the ef-ficiency of State management in this sector.State management agencies at airports include: border customs, airport authorities, border police, animal quarantine check, plant quarantine check and border health check.The national single window was piloted at Noi Bai International Airport from January 1 this year.The general Department of Customs said that to date, all carriers have committed to join the national single window for aviation procedures.http://bizhub.vn/news/single-window-in-aviation-to-be-implemented-nationwide_290123.html

Airlines to provide flight info all by electronic means


All airlines active in Vietnam will provide flight information by electronic means in-stead of paper documents from tomorrow, and all to the single national portal instead of different agencies, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.The regulation is part of the one-door mechanism in the aviation sector which will come into force tomorrow. Regulations on managing aircraft at international airports separately issued by various State agencies have caused management overlap, accord-ing to the authority.Take the customs sector for example. The border security and immigration manage-ment agencies ask airlines to provide passenger information in advance while the air-port authorities also request them to offer this kind of information for general management. Providing paper-based information makes it tough for management agencies to share and use general information. Besides, this practice makes life difficult


BU

SIN

ES


for airlines.Airlines will send relevant information to management agencies via the one-stop-shop customs system called the Vietnam National Single Window at vnsw.gov.vn at a sin-gle time. The one-door aviation mechanism will help connect general flight informa-tion with the systems of all management agencies in the sector.The move will help shorten customs clearance and offer support to logistics compa-nies, and enterprises involved in export and import activities via airlines.Data of the general Department of Vietnam Customs shows all airlines have signed up for the one-door mechanism in the aviation sector.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57042/Airlines-to-provide-flight-info-all-by-elec-tronic-means.html

Accountants warned on marginalisation


As digital technology transforms businesses and economies across the globe and in-creasingly affects the accountancy profession, it is imperative for members to equip themselves with the skills to deliver higher-value services or risk becoming marginal-ised by automation and artificial intelligence.The statement was made by David Lyford-Smith, technical manager of Information Technology Faculty, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), at a conference held in Hanoi on Tuesday.Digital technology powered by exponential growth of computing power opens a whole new world of opportunities, according to the manager. This allows for unprec-edented innovations in financial services resulting in a higher level of operational effi-ciency and access to entirely new markets. A good example of the technology that is changing today's global business landscape is 'blockchain'- a system of universal entry book-keeping where a transaction or a single input of data can be easily viewed by or shared with many parties on the same network in a systematic and secure manner."If a marketplace or system is running on a blockchain, the nature of assurance that is needed will change. You don't need assurance that your asset exists or that your records agree with others' because that's certain in a blockchain environment. So in-stead the focus of assurance turns to the tie between the blockchain record and the physical world, and more generally to the economic reality of the transaction that is seen in the blockchain," Lyford-Smith said."For example, a blockchain might give you certainty over the timing and amount of a purchase of some goods, but it can't assure you of the condition of those goods," he added.One much-cited use of blockchain is in land registry. The provenance and transfer of geographical assets is a great fit for its transparency, verifiability and ability to publicly show who has previously owned, sold and divided land.These days, finance and business processes are increasingly moving online. Some fi-nance functions have recently focused on increasing operational efficiency through so-phisticated capabilities such as automation, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing.For instance, some are using virtual assistants instead of finance staff in answering questions from suppliers on invoices and payments.The world is also seeing a re-newed focus on shared service centres, global process hubs and outsourcing, where economies of scale justify substantial investments in extensive process automation.To take advantage of these new emerging opportunities, it is important for account-ants to look out for the key trends including big data, crypto currencies, distributed ledger systems, payment systems, mobile money, and also new platforms connecting providers and users of financial services as well as analytics-based financial services.However, along with new opportunities, comes the growing fear that traditional ap-proach to financial reporting and routine accounting tasks are steadily being taken away by automation and artificial intelligence.Members of the profession are not adapting to the new technological trends quickly enough to take advantage of the new available platforms and risk becoming marginalised.


BU

SIN

ES


Sharing his view on the future role of accountants, Lyford-Smith said: 'I think what will happen is not that accountants will disappear, but that the definition of an ac-countant will evolve and that the profession as a whole will move to the higher-value adding activities such as assurance over complex areas, analysis, prediction, and advi-sory services'.Nguyen Canh Thang, deputy head of Sectorial Economic Laws Division, Department of Civil and Economic Laws, Ministry of Justice, said that currently, transactions relat-ed to virtual currency such as Bitcoin had been used by many individuals, but the pro-tection or adjustment of the transaction was not yet regulated by law.The rules on external assets were very specific, however, virtual property is currently not regulated.According to Decision No. 1255/QD-TTg on virtual currency, electronic currency and virtual property, electronic currency is considered a means of payment. "Electronic currency is displayed as an electronic wallet with a 1: 1 conversion rate with the real cash that it is legally recognised by law. The things which are not regulated will not be considered electronic money, for example, bitcoin is not considered electronic money used in payment," Thang added.Thang also suggested that the law need to have clear provisions to ensure fair dealing for traders. "Virtual property is a very broad issue compared to virtual currency and electronic currency. If virtual property is considered as real property, the goods will involve many other issues, especially tax," Thang told Vietnam News.The event was organised by ICAEW in Vietnam and drew the participation of repre-sentatives from the Ministry of Finance, the general Department of Taxation and ex-perts in financial sector.http://bizhub.vn/tech/accountants-warned-on-marginalisation_290136.html

First export processing zone spotlight in HCM City

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| SGGP NEWS

HCM City is the first locality in Vietnam applying one door mechanism which has re-duced time to do administrative procedures of projects in export processing zones (EP-Zs) and industrial parks (IPs), accounting account for one third of that outside the zones and parks, according to statistics by the Ministry of Justice.In 1991, the 7th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam passed the strategy on socioeconomic stabilisation and development by 2000 with the policy of developing all economic sectors and broadening forms of joint venture and coopera-tion with foreign partners to boost export. That was a priority direction to develop and modernise consumer goods industries.The policy of the government, the council of ministers at that time, was to establish ex-port processing zones to materialise the direction and HCM City was chosen to pilot the model.Before being assigned by the central government to pilot EPZ, HCM City leaders had started studying foreign economic development models including successfully built EPZs in some nations and territories.Recalling the first steps in the path of implementing the new model to lure foreign in-vestors, 85 years old Nguyen Long Trao, former office chief of HCM City Party Com-mittee and former deputy director of Saigon EPZ (Sepzone) said that one of difficulties was no legal document stipulating rights and duties of foreign investors in EPZs."At that time, there was Foreign Investment Law but it had yet to meet legal require-ments in building EPZs. Therefore, we must build regulations and submit to the gov-ernment to issue," recalled Trao. Trao decided to travel to Taiwan (China) to learn experience. To save money, he went with the delegation of Cau Tre Food Processing Factory. Arriving in the territory alone without any recommendation, he could not access EPZs.Suddenly remembering a Taiwanese doctor who used to work in Vietnam, Tao con-tacted him. The kind hearted man let him stay in his house and contacted Taichung EPZ to get copies of documents about the zone for him, saying that was a present for Trao's kindness to him in the past.


BU

SIN

ES


With the documents, Trao returned home, together with attorneys compiled a set of regulations on EPZs and submitted to the prime minister for approval.Waiting for a certain period of time without reply, he arrived in Hanoi to meet prime minister Vo Van Kiet.On the following day, the PM read documents and approved Decree 322-HBT to issue EPZ regulations, which is the first legal key for establishing EPZs nationwide on Oc-tober 18, 1991.Country's first EPZOn November 25, 1991, Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone, the first one of the coun-try, was established according to Decision 394/CT by the Council of ministers. The zone opened a wide door to lure Taiwanese investors to Vietnam and create a foreign investment wave in HCM City and adjacent areas.The success of Tan Thuan EPZ and Linh Trung EPZ afterwards has opened the way for HCM City to continue forming many other EPZs.From that success, the city has developed industrial parks in the outskirts of the city, creating a model to develop industrial parks in provinces and cities nationwide. So far, HCM City has built 17 export processing zones and industrial parks which have con-ducted administrative reform to create advantageous conditions for investors and at-tract capital to industrial production field.The administrative reform model has been applied for EPZs, economic zones and hi-tech parks in provinces and cities nationwide. Phan Chanh Duong, former director general of Tan Thuan EPZ Joint Venture Compa-ny, said that EPZs have provided jobs and skill training for workers with modern ma-chines and professional production process from foreign investors. They have brought Vietnam foreign currencies from rent, electricity and water use payment.The biggest benefit is that products of export companies are labeled 'made in Vietnam', showing that although companies are foreign but their goods are made in Vietnam ac-cording to international standards and sold worldwide.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/190245/first-export-processing-zone-spot-light-in-hcm-city.html

Centre on Vietnam-Korea IT cooperation opens in Hanoi


South Korean agency specialising in trade promotion and communications launched a centre on information technology (IT) cooperation between Vietnam and Korea at the Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower in Hanoi City on November 13.You Young-min, Korean minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning, said the coop-eration between Vietnam and South Korea is developing strongly, with IT cooperation playing an important role.As many as 5,000 Korean companies have set up shop in Vietnam since 1992, with in-vestment pledges from Korean investors having reached $45 billion as of the end of last year and expected to climb to $55 billion this year.The minister emphasized that IT goods and services have accounted for over 60 per-cent of trade between the two nations, and Vietnam has taken the second place in pur-chasing South Korea's IT products.He expected the new centre will operate effectively like the four IT cooperation centers in China, Singapore, Japan and the United States.Therefore, he expected the centre will facilitate cooperation between the two countries, and serve as a bridge among universities, research institutes and companies to discuss IT issues. This will also be a place for experts to have discussions about the develop-ment of IT in Vietnam and Korea.Truong Minh Tuan, minister of Information and Communications, said the coopera-tion between the two countries has been developing in all sectors. Korea has become one of Vietnam's important strategic partners, and vice versa.He stressed the cooperation on ICT will help foster the relationship, and positively contribute to the growth of each country."The Vietnamese government always creates favourable conditions for Korean compa-


BU

SIN

ES


nies like Samsung and LG to set up shop and transfer technology to Vietnam in a bid to develop local IT infrastructure and industry," he said.Minister Tuan hoped the centre will become an important bridge to prop up the ICT cooperation between the two countries.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57043/Centre-on-Vietnam-South-Korea-IT-coopera-tion-opens-in-Hanoi.html

NA deputies fret over huge cost of airport project


Many National Assembly (NA) deputies voiced their concerns over a rising invest-ment in the Long Thanh airport project when discussing the feasibility study for the airport's site clearance and compensation on November 13.Deputy Duong Trung Quoc of Dong Nai Province was cited by Tuoi Tre newspaper as saying that there are many projects whose original costs are small but eventually soar.Capital for site clearance and compensation for the airport project was first put at over VND13 trillion as reported by the government of Dong Nai Province, but is now more than VND23 trillion, according to deputy Phung Duc Tien of Ha Nam Province."Such an investment amount is just an estimate given in July, but the project is a large-scale one and needs a lot of time for implementation," Tien said, fearing that the capital would rise over time. He is also worried that the government's backup fund of 10 per-cent for the Long Thanh airport project would not be sufficient to cover unexpected ex-penditures emerging from the implementation process.Under the mid-term public investment plan in the 2016-2020 period, the NA agreed on allocating VND5 trillion to site clearance in the project. However, the government now requests more than VND23 trillion.As a result, around VND18 trillion will be taken from the backup fund of the mid-term plan. Nonetheless, it may be impossible to collect as enough budget revenues as planned.According to Quoc, people in Dong Nai Province are hoping that the project will be carried out soon as little progress has been made over the past 12 years.Regarding capital for the project, many deputies requested allocating capital for the airport project instead of using the VND80 trillion amount set aside for major transport projects of the country.Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The said the mid-term capital will be mostly spent on expressway projects while little is given to railway and road projects.However, according to NA vice Chair Phung Quoc Hien, it is stated in the NA's reso-lution that VND80 trillion would be used for major projects whose cost is more than VND10 trillion each.Therefore, the government's request that VND55 trillion out of VND80 trillion is spent on north-south expressway projects, VND7 trillion on railway projects, and VND8 tril-lion on 27 other projects is not reasonable, The said.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57044/NA-deputies-fret-over-huge-cost-of-airport-project.html

City asks ministry to rethink extending toll collection from old expressway


The HCM City government has requested the transport ministry to reconsider toll col-lection from the HCM City-Trung Luong Expressway for an additional period of eight years and two months, saying the expressway tollgate is close to another tollgate on National Highway 1A.The ministry wants to extend the fee collection on the expressway to raise funds for building another expressway running from Trung Luong to My Thuan and the Me-kong Delta city of Can Tho.According to a recent document sent to the government Office, the city agrees with the ministry on the need to accelerate the construction of Trung Luong-My Thuan-Can Tho Expressway to reduce traffic congestion on National Highway 1 and promote so-cioeconomic development in the key southern economic region.The Trung Luong-My Thuan-Can Tho Expressway under the initial plan should be


BU

SIN

ES


completed by the end of 2018, but despite two kick-offs, the project has not got off the ground over multiple delays.As pointed out by the city, the toll station on the HCM City-Trung Luong Expressway is quite close to the An Suong-An Lac toll station on National Highway 1, which has a long toll collection duration.The ministry has approved the adjusted feasibility study of the expressway section be-tween Trung Luong and My Thuan, under which the section will have four lanes in phase one, instead of two lanes.With an investment of nearly VND15 trillion in the first phase, the Trung Luong-My Thuan section is 51 kilometers long and has 4.5 kilometers of approach road. It will be connected with the HCM City-Trung Luong Expressway at Than Cuu Nghia intersec-tion and end at an intersection with National Highway 30.Under the initial plan, the section was proposed to have two lanes in phase one and six lanes in phase two and use official development assistance (ODA) capital.The Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway is part of the expressway connecting HCM City and Can Tho City. Of the three sections of this expressway, the 40-kilometer sec-tion from HCM City to Trung Luong has been put into use since February 2010.english.thesaigontimes.vn/57048/City-asks-ministry-to-rethink-extending-toll-collec-tion-from-old-expressway.html

Vinapharm clinches strategic partnership with Sanofi


Vietnam Pharmaceutical Corporation (Vinapharm) has inked an agreement on strate-gic partnership with French-invested drug producer Sanofi Vietnam.According to a statement of Sanofi Vietnam, the signing ceremony took place on the sidelines of the Apec CEO Summit in the central coast city of Danang with the attend-ance of deputy minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong and Sanofi executive vice pres-ident Olivier Charmeil.Vinapharm will become a strategic partner of Sanofi Vietnam, a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) drug plant at the Saigon Hi-Tech Park in HCM City. The plant is capa-ble of annually producing 150 million boxes of high-quality medicine.Sanofi has been present in Vietnam for more than 50 years. The expansion of the coop-eration with Vinapharm since 1993 to strategic partnership demonstrates the compa-ny's commitment to Vietnamese people's health, said Nguyen Anh Tuyen, general director of Sanofi Vietnam.Vinapharm chair Le Van Son said Sanofi as a multinational drug firm is excellent at all phases of supply chains of healthcare products. The collaboration with such a pharma-ceutical giant will help Vietnamese patients gain access to drugs meeting international standards.Sanofi Vietnam has more than 1,000 employees and its three plants in HCM City meet-ing WHO-GMP standards account for 80 percent of Sanofi's products in Vietnam. Last year, Sanofi Vietnam held a market share of 4 percent in Vietnam.english.thesaigontimes.vn/57049/Vinapharm-clinches-strategic-partnership-with-Sa-nofi.html

Ford sees rising number of vehicle sales despite new tax policy


Ford Vietnam saw an increase in October retail sales from the previous month to 2,282 vehicles amid a slowdown in industry sales as customers delay purchases ahead of the new tax policy slated for January.Led by the Ranger, Transit, and EcoSport, the company's year-to-date sales have risen slightly versus last year to 23,634 vehicles, representing a market share of 10.4 per cent."Our sales remained steady in October as the overall demand continued to slow ahead of the new excise tax policy's implementation," said Pham Van Dung, managing direc-tor for Ford Vietnam.The Ranger model delivered an exceptional month with retail sales rising 13 per cent from the prior month to 1,425 vehicles. It continues to lead Vietnam's pickup segment with year-to-date sales that have increased 7 per cent to 12,159 vehicles.


BU

SIN

ES


The popular Transit reached October sales of 360 vehicles and year-to-date sales of 4,929 vehicles.Both the EcoSport compact SUV and Explorer premium SUV continued to lead their respective segments.The EcoSport delivered October sales that rose 5 per cent from the prior month to 280 vehicles, driving its year-to-date sales up to 3,205 vehicles. The Explorer recorded sales of 75 vehicles in October with year-to-date sales reaching 981 vehicles.Year-to-date sales of the sporty Focus increased 21 per cent to 874 vehicles, including October sales of 74 vehicles.bizhub.vn/wheels/ford-sees-rising-number-of-vehicle-sales-despite-new-tax-policy_290109.html

PVGAS signs Alaskan LNG MoU


MoU signed with Alaska Gasline Development Corporation on supply and invest-ment.The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) and PetroVietnam Gas (PV-GAS) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) setting forth the basic principles for collaboration on potential opportunities in liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply from AGDC to serve LNG import projects in Vietnam and to evaluate the pos-sibility of upstream resource investment in Alaska.The agreement was signed in Hanoi on November 12 by executives of AGDC and PV-GAS in the presence of State President Tran Dai Quang and US President Donald Trump."The agreement with Vietnam fits very well with AGDC's broader marketing pro-gramme and recently announced deal with Sinopec, which leaves a portion of the Alaska LNG production capacity with AGDC for sale to regional Asian markets such as Vietnam," said Keith Meyer, President of AGDC. "Vietnam is a new entrant to the LNG industry but has the potential to be a rapidly growing customer of LNG and we look forward to participating in the growth of Vietnam's economy by providing relia-ble and stable natural gas supply.""Alaska's market proximity and enormous resource base present an attractive oppor-tunity for PVGAS to provide stable and secure gas supplies to Vietnamese industrial users and citizens, and upstream investment opportunities for a bright long-term fu-ture," said Duong Manh Son, President and CEO of PVGAS.PVGAS is a subsidiary of the State-owned PetroVietnam. It is developing LNG receiv-ing and regasification terminals in VietnamThi Vai LNG Terminal and Son My LNG Terminalin order to supply natural gas to newly-built and proposed power plants and existing gas users.Alaska LNG is an integrated gas pipeline and LNG infrastructure project that will pro-vide a direct and reliable link between the vast proven and conventional natural gas resources on Alaska's North Slope with growing LNG markets across the Asia-Pacific region.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/pvgas-signs-alaskan-lng-mou

Navistar signs MoU with local distributor


Up to $1.8 billion worth of International trucks to be imported into Vietnam over next decade under MoU.by Linh SanThe Navistar International Corporation has signed an MoU with Hoang Huy, its dis-tributor in Vietnam, that paves the way for the import of up to $1.8 billion in Interna-tional trucks into the country over the next ten years.The MoU represents the next phase of an already successful relationship between Navistar and Hoang Huy to grow its business in Vietnam over the next decade through the sale of new trucks, used trucks, and service parts.The signing took place at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on November 12 and was witnessed by State President Tran Dai Quang and US President Donald Trump.


BU

SIN

ES


"Navistar is bullish about the Vietnamese market and we have established a strong and successful relationship with our partner, Hoang Huy," said Persio Lisboa, Navis-tar's Executive vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "Working together, our ex-ports of International brand trucks to Vietnam over the past two years have been phenomenal. We are poised to reach new heights in the months and years ahead as a result of this agreement. We could not have been in this position without the strong support of the US State Department and the US Department of Commerce."Navistar was introduced to Hoang Huy in 2015 via a Gold Key partner search conduct-ed by the US Department of Commerce. The Gold Key service provides US firms seek-ing foreign business partners with introductions to pre-screened candidates. Hoang Huy has sold more than 7,000 International ProStar trucks to trucking and logistics companies, capturing 50 per cent of the heavy truck market in Vietnam. The trucks are used to transport merchandise between Vietnam's largest cities and carry export prod-ucts to neighbouring countries.Navistar also exported 21 new International DuraStar trucks to Vietnam earlier this fall. The medium-duty trucks, which were manufactured at the company's Spring-field, Ohio plant, were purchased by the Vietnamese government. The sale marked the company's first sale of new trucks in Vietnam."I am encouraged by the flexibility and performance of the new trucks and am confi-dent they will be enthusiastically received by customers," said Do Huu Ha, Hoang Huy's Chair.The Navistar International Corporation (NYSE: NAV) is a holding company whose subsidiaries and affiliates produce International brand commercial and military trucks, proprietary diesel engines, and IC Bus brand school and commercial buses. An affiliate also provides truck and diesel engine service parts. Another affiliate offers fi-nancing services.Hoang Huy is currently the leading truck distributor in Vietnam and is listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) under stock code TCH.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/navistar-signs-mou-with-local-distribu-tor

Company to build factory to increase chicken exports

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETSTOCK

The Koyu & Unitek Company, based in the southern province of Dong Nai, plans to develop a second chicken processing factory to meet the demand for chicken products of the Japanese market.The second factory, worth $20 million, is expected to produce some 550 tonnes of proc-essed chicken each month once operational in 2019. It will enable the company to ex-port about 1,000 tonnes of products to Japan, according to a report from the Vietnam News Agency.The company's first factory in the province's Long Binh Industrial Zone has a monthly capacity of 350 tonnes, but it is yet to declare the location of its second plant, where construction will begin in 2018.Koyu & Unitek, a joint venture between Australia and Japan, started exporting chicken products to Japan in September, after receiving approval from Japanese authorities in June. The firm has currently shipped four containers of products to Japan.James Hieu, general director of Koyu & Unitek, said that Vietnamese chicken products are favoured by many Japanese consumers."Our goal is to bring Vietnamese chicken products into supermarkets in Japan. How-ever, due to insufficient quantities, these products are only being distributed to restau-rants and hotels over there," he told the news agency.Apart from Japan, the company is exploring new export opportunities in other South-east Asian countries, Hieu added.Koyu & Unitek is a member of a supply chain that operates in the animal breeding and feed industry. Other three members of the chain are Bel Ga JSC, a joint venture of the Belgian Belgabroed Group and the Netherlands-based De Heus, as well as the Hung Nhon Group and De Heus.


BU

SIN

ES


Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical complex in a rush to complete construction


Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical (NSRP) complex has accelerated the construc-tion of its unfinished stages aiming to meet the schedule and take the project into com-mercial operation in the first quarter of 2018.According to a report published by NSRP, as of October 24, the preparations for the pilot operation, which was expected to start in either late November or December this year, were 37 per cent finished only. At present, NSRP has surmounted technical prob-lems, however, it is forecast that the complex will not start pilot operations on time.Regarding the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract of the project, as of late October 2017, 97.78 per cent has been completed. Previously, on April 30, 2017, NSRP approved the mechanical completion certificate (MCC) of the project.On August 30, the Vietnam Environment Administration under the Ministry of Natu-ral Resources and Environment asked NSRP to build a detention reservoir that is large enough to store a wastewater volume that would be generated by the project in three days. Besides, NSRP has to install an automatic monitoring system via cameras which can connect and transfer data to the relevant authorities.According to Dinh Van Ngoc, deputy general director of NSRP, the factory is in a rush to satisfy all the requirements set by the State Council for Pre-Acceptance Test of Con-struction Works before the plant starts operations.Regarding the environment, the plant conducted a survey in collaboration with the consultancy firm on building the detention reservoir and the online monitoring sys-tem. The construction and installation of these stages are expected to be completed in December 2018.Ngoc added that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment allowed the plant to take the processing workshop into pilot operation.Output challengeTo date, NSRP imported 540,000 tonnes of crude oil for its pilot programme. Accord-ing to the plan, the total crude oil volume used in processing will reach 6.4 million tonnes by 2018, with the total output volume of 5.3 million tonnes, including 1.7 mil-lion tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), 1.49 million tonnes of petroleum, and 2.7 million tonnes of oil.The finished products will be sold to factories, distributors, and petroleum trading en-terprises, among others, via long-term contracts signed in 2013.With the designed annual capacity of 10 million tonnes of crude oil for processing, NSRP faces challenges in selling its products.Notably, Nguyen Quang Dung, deputy general director of Vietnam National Petrole-um Group (Petrolimex), the country's biggest state-owned petroleum distributor, said that Petrolimex is waiting for NSRP's products to diversify its supply sources. Howev-er, NSRP and Petrolimex need to have a clear agreement on the selling price as well as the terms of both the short-term and the long-term contracts.Besides, NSRP currently can receive ships of 30,000 tonnes only, thus it needs over 300 trips per year to serve for the purchase of materials and the sale of NSRP's products. This will create pressure on NSRP's transport system as the refinery has a one-way fairway only.Furthermore, the fees for towing ships at NSRP are very high, 10 times higher than those at Dung Quat refinery, thus, it is also a concern for petroleum traders because, in the end, the expenses will be apparent in the selling price of the products.http://www.vir.com.vn/nghi-son-refinery-and-petrochemical-complex-in-a-rush-to-complete-construction.html

Zara and H&M herald Vietnam's retail market potential

15/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

The opening of Zara and H&M in Hanoi after their success in HCM City has shown the thirst for international brands among Vietnamese people, especially young people.There were long queues at the opening of H&M on November 11 and Zara on Novem-ber 9. Vietnamese young people are willing to pay for fashion and entertainment and fast-fashion brands such as Zara and H&M are huge attractions.


BU

SIN

ES


Quynh Anh, an employee of a tourism firm in Hanoi, said she had spent nearly VND10m (USD440) on the opening days of both brands. According to Anh, the 30-day return policy really pleases the customers and not many local firms can compete with that. With a more reasonable price tags than high-end brands and diverse designs, it has proved easy to get attention from Vietnamese customers.Many high-end brands are presented at Hanoi's Trang Tien Plaza such as Versace and Salvatore. An inside source of Zing News revealed that Japanese fashion retailer Uniq-lo may open the first store in HCM City soon.The real estate services provider Savills Vietnam had remarked that Vietnam retail market has huge potential. It is in the economic transition period and consumer behav-iour is changing drastically.Four years ago, surveys from various international firms showed that it would take at least a decade for the domestic retail market to develop. However, consumer spending on imported products in Vietnam has remained high even during difficult times.Vietnam's consumer confidence index reached 117 in the final quarter, according to market researcher Nielsen. This was five points higher than last year and the highest in the past five years, Vietnam ranked as the fifth most optimistic country globally. This shows the potential of the retail market, consumer optimism and willingness to pay.dtinews.vn/en/news/018/53803/zara-and-h-m-herald-vietnam-s-retail-market-poten-tial.html

Apple Vietnam complains about sub-licensing requirements


Apple Vietnam has asked that some requirements on import examination be removed to shorten the time needed for customs clearance.Vietnamese businesses are also complaining about the complicated procedures.Under the current regulations, Apple must obtain licenses for every consignment of imports. It has also asked to remove the requirement on licenses to import Apple Watches and licenses to import mobilephone products stipulated in Circular 18/2014.Chair of the government Office Mai Tien Dung spoke about Apple's imports at a work-ing session with ministries on examination procedures."Even iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 also have to bear examination, and Vietnam doesn't have laboratories and technologies for examining," Dung said. "The products from G7 coun-tries still cannot be done in Vietnam, but we still examine them."Meanwhile, an analyst said Vietnamese inspection bodies examine imports without specialised instruments. Therefore, it is unreasonableto have imports examined and collect VND1 million in examination fees.Not only Apple, but other gian firms also have difficulties because of the complicated procedures in Vietnam. VCCI's (Vietnam Chamber of Commerce & Industry) chair Vu Tien Loc commented that the requirements on administrative procedures are so com-plicated that even Boeing cannot satisfy them.Meanwhile, FPT's CEO Bui Quang Ngoc commented some policies are 'designed in a way to trap businesses'.A representative of a foreign-invested technology enterprise said it still has to follow a strict examination procedure even though the imports are only for internal testing, not commercial purposes."It takes too much time. In general, the procedure lasts 35-45 days," he said.He went on to say that there are many problems in MOIT's (Ministry of Industry and Trade) Circular 04/2014 on used imports.At his company, computers are replaced once every two years. The new computers are imports, so the enterprise has to follow certain procedures.His company wants to donate the old computers to schools or organisations, but it had to donate computers to Myanmar because of the complicated procedures.The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has agreed with Apple that it would be better to re-move the licensing for every consignment of imports in accordance with Circular 18.Regarding the conformity certification, MOF thinks that Vietnam needs to recognise


BU

SIN

ES


the conformity certificates granted by international organisations as the basis for as-sessing import quality.Regarding the licensing to Apple Watch device imports, the ministry said if the capac-ity of Apple Watch products is less than 60 mW, Apple does not have to get a license for imports from the Ministry of Information and Communication.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/science-it/190126/apple-vietnam-complains-about-sub-licensing-requirements.html

Nikkei Asian Review Forum starts today


The Nikkei Asian Review Hanoi Forum, taking place in Hanoi today, aims to com-memorate and recognise Vietnam and Japan's strategic investment partnership as the former constantly enhances its global status as a leading economy in the Asean region.The Forum is jointly organised by Japan's NIKKEI Inc. and the Embassy of Japan in Vi-etnam, with support from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, as an ideal oppor-tunity for Vietnam to showcase its new economic strategy. It will highlight the Nikkei Asian Review's findings on the country's progress.Today's event features keynote speeches from high ranking Vietnamese government officials and representatives from leading Vietnamese and Japanese companies. They will share their views on concrete strategies for continued development and increased prosperity in the near future with approximately 150 attendants.Speakers from established financial institutions such as international investment funds, banks, insurance companies and development organisations, including the In-ternational Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group, the Japan International Co-operation Agency's Vietnamese Office and members of the Japan Business Association in Vietnam will also be contributing their insights at the forum.Since 2013, the Nikkei Asian Review, published by Japan's NIKKEI Inc., has been bringing pan-Asian perspectives and insights to their wide base of global readers, fol-lowing 300 must-watch companies across the region, based on market capitalisation and growth potential and providing up to date coverage and in depth analysis.Targeting Vietnam's increasing purchasing power as a growing economy with over 50 million people in the labour force, Japanese companies have focused their investment in Vietnamese manufacturing, consumer electronics, automobile, and retail sectors.http://bizhub.vn/news/nikkei-asian-review-forum-starts-today_290140.html

VN's largest textile and garment expo attracts hundreds of international brands


A total of 400 exhibitors from 14 countries and territories will show their latest technol-ogies and machines at the 17th edition of Vietnam's leading textile and garment trade fair in HCM City from November 22-25.The Vietnam International Textile & Garment Industry Exhibition and the Vietnam In-ternational Textile & Apparel Accessories Exhibition (VTG 2017) will be held at the Sai-gon Exhibition & Convention Centre.Most of the exhibitors are from mainland China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uz-bekistan and Vietnam.The country's textile and garment sectors had $14.58 billion in outbound shipments in the first six months of the year, representing a significant annual increase of 11.3 per cent.A number of seminars will be held during the trade fair. Some of the highlights will focus on how Vietnam prepares for free trade areas; the impact of the 4.0 industrial revolution; and the future for the market in changing times.http://bizhub.vn/events/vns-largest-textile-and-garment-expo-attracts-hundreds-of-intl-brands_290130.html

Techfest Vietnam 2017 opens in Hanoi


The annual startup promotion event Techfest Vietnam 2017, themed "Ecosystem con-nect", began in Hanoi on November 14.


BU

SIN

ES


Addressing the opening ceremony, deputy prime minister Vu Duc Dam stated Viet-nam welcomes international investors and scientists to join its innovative efforts, mak-ing creative startup a practical movement.A legal framework coupled with support from the government and succeeded pio-neers are key to the startup development, he added.On the occasion, the Ministry of Science and Technology debuted the national portal for startup and innovation www.startup.gov.vn to help people access updated infor-mation, opportunities, and success stories nationwide.With larger scale compared to last year's edition, the Techfest Vietnam 2017 was esti-mated to attract up to 4,500 visitors, 200 startups, and 130 investors and funds.It featured six potential arenas for startup-related activities agriculture, education, tourism food services, health, new technologies, and start-up support communities.The 2016 Techfest attracted nearly 170 investors and more than 3,000 visitors.With young population, Vietnam is working towards becoming a start-up nation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec). The government targets to have one million effective enterprises by 2020.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/techfest-vietnam-2017-opens-in-hanoi/121716.vnp

Vietnam attends India international trade fair


Vietnam is participating in the 37th India International Trade Fair (IITF) held in New Delhi as a partner country.Speaking at the opening ceremony on November 14, Indian President Ram Nath Ko-vind described Vietnam as a pillar in India's Act East Policy.He expressed his belief that the IITF, which lasts till November 27, will help reinforce the bilateral trade relations.Meanwhile, India's minister of Trade Suresh Prabhu highlighted Vietnam as an impor-tant trade partner of India.According to the Vietnam Customs, two-way trade reached 5.62 billion USD in the first nine months of 2017, a year-on-year rise of 43.4 percent.The Indian Ministry of Industry and Trade expects the bilateral trade to hit 10.73 bil-lion USD at the end of this year.Nearly 3,000 enterprises are taking part in the trade fair.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-attends-india-international-trade-fair/121748.vnp

Hanoi cultural heritage festival on way


Cultural programme to take place from November 17 to 26 in capital's Old Quarter.A cultural programme will take place from November 17 to 26 in Hanoi's Old Quarter to honor the capital's cultural heritages.The programme is in celebration of Vietnamese Cultural Heritage Day, November 23, and aims to preserve, introduce, and promote the traditional culture of Vietnam in general and of Hanoi in particular as well as boost tourism to the city.On November 17 at the Hanoi Old Quarter Culture Exchange Centre, 50 Dao Duy Tu Street, will be a fashion show of ao dai, the traditional Vietnamese long dress, with the latest designs from designers Do Trinh Hoai Nam and Lan Anh being showcased. There will also be an exchange of traditional clothing attended by representatives from Russia, India, and Indonesia. The stage will be on the street, creating an open space for the audience.Unlike other traditional costumes, the ao dai remains popular and influential in mod-ern-day Vietnamese culture. Although it is no longer worn by men nor women on a daily basis, on special occasions, such as Tet (the lunar new year), weddings, and grad-uations it still used widely. In some high schools and universities, a white ao dai is the school uniform for female students.The centre will host a series of activities, including an exhibition introducing the cos-tume and space arrangements in the palace and the exam system from the past, a sem-inar on traditional ao dai for men and its application in modern life, and an exhibition and talk on the worshipping of the Mother Goddesses, which is one of the main reli-


BU

SIN

ES


gions in Vietnam and based on a form of worshipping a mother's incarnation in nature, like the sun, rivers, forests and mountains, to respect the role of women in society and usually performed with ritual ceremonies combining different folk art in costumes, music, singing, and dancing.Meanwhile, the traditional style of drinking Vietnamese tea and traditional tea sets will be introduced at the Vietnam's Heritage House at 87 Ma May Street.The musical art forms of ca tru (ceremonial singing) and cheo (traditional opera) will be performed at Kim Ngan Temple at 42-44 Hang Bac Street. Ca tru is derived from folk songs attached to several folk games and folk shows. It is unique in performance, musical instruments, and poetic style. According to folk artists, it has more than 50 dif-ferent musical forms or melodies and the singing technique is very sophisticated. Sing-ers have to practice in a painstaking and meticulous manner. Cheo, meanwhile, has stories composed by anonymous author-performers and is orally "passed on" to fellow performers. Stories can be legends and poetry or from history and even daily life. It is believed to have originated in the 11th century in village festivals in the Red River Del-ta. After crops were harvested, farmers would gather at festivals to enjoy some leisure time away from work, and cheo singing became one of the popular cultural and social activities.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/biz-traveler/hanoi-cultural-heritage-festival-on-way End


finance & business news 15 November · finance & business news FINANCE Reference exchange rate goes...

Documents

Transcript of finance & business news 15 November · finance & business news FINANCE Reference exchange rate goes...