finance & business news 20 December - hkbav.org .pdf · (FII) in the last months of the year,...

20 December

finance & business news

FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Reference exchange rate revised down 8 dong 1Interbank rates fall sharply due to abundant liquidity 1Investors optimistic about gold price this week 2Digital banking needs framework 2Non-cash payment programmes encounter barriers 3IFC's lending package helps VN's SMEs 4SBV meets with foreign stakeholders 4Only 51pct of Vietnamese has credit profile 5Mobile banking the top channel for Citi clients in Vietnam 5ADB lends $290 million to Vietnam 6Kuwait Fund loan for coastal infrastructure development 7Vietnam, RoK trade grows sharply on FTA 7Nation's trade value up fourfold since 2007 8Trade surplus: Joy and anxiety 8Outbound sales of tra fish forecast to reach $1.8 billion 9Central Highlands achieves record export turnover 10RoK imposes anti-dumping duties on VN alloys 10Ministries mull over easing automobile import rules 11Exorbitant transport costs make Vietnam goods uncompetitive 12Vegetables and fruits seen leading Vietnam agriculture 12Licensing uncertainties grip foreign-invested enterprises 13Vietnam's minimum wages to increase by 6.5 per cent in 2018 15Who will take control of billion-dollar pharmaceutical market? 15Gasoline market competition seen intensifying 16Foreign firms buy into mergers 17Boosting industry via M&As 18Rural area considered as 'fertile' market for FMCG industry 19Dong Thap poised to attract more investment: PM 20

BIZ NEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Business Briefs 20 December, 2017 21All indexes lose ground 21Stocks make best gain in 2017 22Top listed firms for 2017 announced 23Sabeco slump slows down shares 24

ACV to sell 20pct stake in 2018 24Major property projects to undergo inspections next year 25Booming Airbnb service puts pressure on hotels in Vietnam 25HCM City plans electric bike rental service 27Hanoi prepares land for developing resettlement apartments 27Hanoi disciplines market management staff over Khaisilk incident 28IFC & Supreme People's Court introduce arbitration and

mediation guide 28Buses are easy to make but difficult to export 29Panasonic Eco Solutions expands Binh Duong plant, to double

capacity 31Petrolimex to sell euro 5 diesel in 2018 31Work begins on VND200 billion fruit and veg processing

plant in Son La 32Vinamilk faces pressure on brand maintenance and fast growth 32VNA, USTH join forces to train aircraft maintenance engineers 35Mobile World officially acquires Phuc An Khang Pharmacy 36Amway Home acquires high reputation Safer Choice

Award from US 36AEON MALL Hai Phong project to be kicked off in second

quarter of 2018 37FrieslandCampina praised for sustainability 37Navigos launches 1st career platform for top executives 38Keppel Land to spend $300 million on prime sites in HCM City 38Cat Ba to get a new resort 39Ca Mau: Work starts on construction of five-star hotel complex 39Savills to manage The Eden Rose 39CapitaLand hands over Vista Verde apartments 40Furama Resort Danang named winner at 2017 World

Luxury Hotel Awards 41Post-Apec opportunity for Vietnam's industries 41Vientiane forum seeks to boost Vietnam-Laos trade 42Over 300 exhibitors to join auto fair in HCM City 42

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FINANCEReference exchange rate revised down 8 dong

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| TIN TUC

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) set the daily reference dong/US dollar exchange rate for December 20 at 22,437 dong/US dollar, down eight dong from the previous day.With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is 23,110 dong/US dollar and the floor rate is 21,764 dong/US dollar. The opening hour rates at major commercial banks remained stable.Vietcombank, Vietinbank and BIDV kept the exchange rate at the same level compared to the previous day at 22,680 dong/US dollar (buying) and 22,750 dong/US dollar (selling).

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Vietnam finance & business 20 December

Intellasia 20 December 2017 2 / 43

Interbank rates fall sharply due to abundant liquidity

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| TRI THUC TRE

The banking system continues to record abundant liquidity although the peak season is approaching. In addition to the stability of inflation and exchange rate which has been maintained since the beginning of the year, the strong growth in disbursement of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as well as the surge of Foreign Indirect Investment (FII) in the last months of the year, typically the share offerings of Vinamilk and Sabeco in the recent time, have supplied a large amount of foreign currency to the banking system.This factor has again significantly pulled down the interbank rates in the last week. Specifically, overnight and one-week rates fell sharply by respectively 47 basis points (bps) and 52bps to less than 1%, while one-month and three-month rates fell more slightly by respectively 17bps and 8bps.After net injecting 34 trillion dong into the economy in the previous phase, on the Open Market Operation (OMO), the State Treasury continued to issue bills at a total value of 24.2 trillion dong, and net withdrew 2.4 trillion dong within the week.Recently, the State Treasury has decided to reduce the plan to issue government bonds in 2017 as the capital mobilisation demand is not urgent in the context when the state budget deficit is at low level.Accordingly, the issuance plan in the fourth quarter is cut to 21 trillion dong, equiva-lent to a reduction of the annual plan from 183.3 trillion dong to 169 trillion dong (not including the issuance for Social Insurance).According to SSI Retail Research, the completion of the government bond issuance tar-get is not necessary when the budget deficit is low and disbursement of government bonds remains slow.The bond market in the week only recorded the participation of the State Treasury with the issuance of 10-year bonds valued 1.3 trillion dong. The State Treasury issued 100 percent of the volume at rate of 5.28%, signicantly lowered by 14bps. The sharp in-crease in liquidity of the system and the low inflation positively influenced the result of the bond auction.With this result, the State Treasury has completed 94.5 percent of the annual target and the agency needs to raise an addition of 10 trillion dong of bonds in the remaining time of the year.

Investors optimistic about gold price this week

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA|THE SAIGON TIMES

Investors have expressed optimism that the price could inch up this week, Dan Tri news website reports.Some big gold firms in Hanoi quoted the SJC gold at VND36.38 million per tael for buying and VND36.46 million for selling at 10 a.m. on December 18, down VND10,000 per tael against the opening session of the day. A tael equals to 1.2 troy ounces.In the afternoon, gold was quoted at VND36.37-36.45 million per tael at DOJI, and VND36.32-36.52 million per tael at SJC.The newspaper quoted DOJI as saying that the price rise last weekend was not strong enough to attract the attention of investors.At the end of last week, the world gold price had risen to $1,255.5 an ounce, the first week to see the price increasing after four consecutive weeks of decline.The world gold price rose last week as the US dollar edged lower given the US tax re-form and the US Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike.The Fed recently raised basic interest rates from 1-1.25 percent to 1.25-1.5 percent against the backdrop of improvements in the US economy and labour market.The gold price is always sensitive to US interest rate movements as a rate spike could make the dollar stronger but affect the demand for gold.A majority of voters taking part in online Wall Street and Main Street polls of Kit-co.com, 68 percent and 57 percent respectively, expected gold to rise this week. Mean-while, 21 percent in Wall Street poll and 32 percent in Main Street poll were bearish.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57580/Investors-optimistic-about-gold-price-this-week.html

Digital banking needs framework

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

Vietnam needs a legal framework for the development of digital banking, heard a con-ference held by the State Bank of Vietnam in Hanoi on Tuesday.Deputy Governor of the central bank Nguyen Kim Anh said the rapid development of information and technology, especially the fourth industrial revolution, was bringing

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opportunities for digital banking.The digitalisation of banking services would help the sector improve convenience in providing financial services, Kim Anh said, adding that digital banking had potential to become a core business of banks in Vietnam."This is big opportunities for credit institutions and financial technology (fintech) com-panies," he stressed.However, he added there were risks regarding system errors, security issues and mon-ey laundering.Digital banking was different from traditional banking from policies, products and services, Pham Tien Dung, director of the central Bank's Payment Department said."It is important to have a legal framework for digital banking development," Dung said. In the short-term, relevant regulations must be revised for amendments, Dung said, adding that in the long run, a law on payment should be issued to regulate issues such as payment services of non-bank institutions, mechanisms to protect users and data security.According to Dung, payment was especially important in digital baking.Many types of payment services have been developed, such as Internet Banking, SMS Banking, Mobile Banking, Mobile Payment and online card payment, but they lacked links and failed to give customers smooth experiences, Dung said.He cited statistics that 25 fintech companies which provide payment services are li-censed in Vietnam but only five are profitable.He said Vietnam was still in the early stages of digital banking.Pham Anh Tuan from the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam said that security must be given special importance in digital bakingCross-border transactions was also a challenge Vietnam during the development of digital banking, Tuan said.Experts said that the legal framework for digital banking should focus on ensuring se-curity, protecting user information and preventing frauds.A representative from the Ministry of Public Security said that a citizen database was being developed to connect with other systems such as banking and health care in or-der to simplify procedures in individual verification.http://bizhub.vn/banking/digital-banking-needs-framework_290892.html

Non-cash payment programmes encounter barriers

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

The smartphone-based payment service market in Vietnam has become busy in the last six months, but Vietnam is still far from its 'non-cash payment' target.The country had great opportunities to develop mobile payment services as the Viet-namese retail market, with high growth rates, is among the top 3 in Asia. According to GSO (General Statistical Office), the retail revenue of goods in 2016 reached $118 bil-lion, up 10.2 percent over 2015.Mobile Vietnam, a report released in April 2017 by Appota, the provider of smart-phone-based platforms, said that 72 percent of Vietnamese had used smartphones by 2016 (the figure was 20 percent in 2013). By the end of June 2017, Vietnam had 48 mil-lion broadband mobile subscribers.Bank cards and smartphones are increasingly popular in Vietnam. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) reported that more than 110 million bank cards had been issued in Vi-etnam by the end of the second quarter, and the figure is expected to rise to 150 million in 2018.However, despite favourable conditions, payment service providers are still meeting difficulties,Samsung Global's deputy CEO admitted that problems occurred when it began launching Samsung Pay in Vietnam. Vietnamese laws only set regulations for busi-nesses which act as payment intermediaries.Samsung Pay is not an intermediary, but is the provider of platform, apps and pay-ment solutions. Therefore, it is not easy to apply current regulations to Samsung Pay's services.


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At least 50 percent of the population is working age but only 40 percent access finance services. Most of them live in cities.A survey by the World Bank showed that the number of non-cash transactions per head in Vietnam is 4.9 percent, much lower than Thailand's 59.7, Malaysia's 89 and China's 26.1 percent.Also according to World Bank, 65 percent of adults send/receive money through unof-ficial systems, or pay for tuition and other services in cash.An important barrier exists as 6.2 million adults cannot access finance services. 2.2 mil-lion say it is too expensive to use, 2.3 million find it difficult to open accounts and 1.1 million don't have confidence in the financial system.According to Can Van Luc, chief economist of BIDV, the first thing Vietnam needs to do is heighten public awareness of new payment methods.Luc sees one advantage which can help increase non-cash payment methods: Vietnam-ese show an open attitude towards new payment methods.According to Visa, nine out of 10 consumers are willing to try new payment methods, while 88 percent said they are likely to use a smartphone for payment.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/192025/non-cash-payment-programmes-encounter-barriers.html

IFC's lending package helps VN's SMEs


International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced on Tuesday a successful syndicat-ed senior loan package transfer of $110 million to An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBANK) as a joint effort to boost the latter's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) lending.The loan is the first phase of a $150 million financing package from IFC and Goldman Sachs for ABBANK, with more than one third of the said funding intended for women-owned SMEs.Tuesday's statement from ABBANK indicated its aim to triple outstanding SME port-folio and quadruple lending to women-owned SMEs, which are expected to go beyond $1 billion by 2021.IFC disclosed that out of the total $150 million financing package, it would contribute $40 million from its own account, $70 million from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited and Maybank Interna-tional Ltd and $40 million from two other international lenders to be decided by 2018.At least $45 million will be exclusively allocated to women-owned SMEs, Kyle Kelhof-er, IFC country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR, said."This project will promote women-owned SMEs as a viable business opportunity when provided with tailored products, appropriate offerings and right marketing. Subsequently, it will support the growth of women-owned SMEs, which will in turn create jobs and drive wage growth", he added.ABBANK confirmed it would make use of the said much-needed syndicated funding from IFC and partner banks.Long-term funding for SMEs is going to become critical in Vietnam, as SMEs account for more than 98 per cent of the country's businesses and 50 per cent of employment, according to IFC's research.However, IFC also found that only 30 per cent of registered SMEs have access to for-mal financial services, which is even more difficult for women-owned SMEs, with an estimated credit gap of $1.2 billion per annum.The loan scheme was launched in cooperation with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative, a global finance facility since 2014 to enable access to capital to more women entrepreneurs.IFC became ABBANK's foreign investor with 10 per cent equity stake in 2013.http://bizhub.vn/news/ifcs-lending-package-helps-vns-smes_290891.html

SBV meets with foreign stakeholders

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) recently held its end of the year meeting with inter-


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national financial and monetary organisations, foreign banks in Vietnam, and foreign agencies with a working relationship with the central bank, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica).Representatives from international monetary and financial organisations and foreign credit institutions expressed their appreciation of Vietnam's achievements in macr-oeconomic stability, especially in the management of monetary policy and the restruc-turing of the banking system.Talking about the operational performance of the banking system in 2017, Eric Sig-wick, Country director of the ADB in Vietnam, said the government improved impor-tant parts of the legal framework on the restructuring of weak banks and bad debt resolution, such as Resolution No. 42/2017/QH14 dated June 21, 2017, the pilot settle-ment of bad debts at credit institutions, laws amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Credit Institutions, and Decision No. 1058/QD-TTg dated July 19, 2017 on approving the scheme to restructure credit institutions in combination with NPL resolution in the 2016-2020 period.He added that the SBV has conducted flexible monetary policy management. Com-mercial banks themselves enforce more stringent internal control and other specific so-lutions to prevent and control risk, which have strengthened the soundness and stability of the banking system.Deputy SBV Governor Dao Minh Tu said that 2017 was the first time in many years the government reached 13 comprehensive socioeconomic development targets.Growth was 6.7 per cent for the year. In the banking sector, monetary policy was run in line with fiscal policy and other macroeconomic policies, aiming to curb inflation at 4 per cent, while interest rates were stable and tending to fall, creating favourable con-ditions for the economy, credit growth was positive and safe, focusing on the produc-tion and business, and the exchange rate was stable.Liquidity in the banking system was maintained and foreign exchange reserves reached a record $46 billion during the year.The SBV will continue to operate flexible and active monetary policy to support liquid-ity in the system while ensuring the stability of financial markets in general in 2018.http://dtinews.vn/en/news/017004/54358/sbv-meets-with-foreign-stakeholders.html

Only 51pct of Vietnamese has credit profile

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| BIZLIVE

Analysis of the World Bank (WB)'s announced data showed that only 51 percent of the adult population of Vietnam has credit profile, meaning that 49 percent of them have no credit data, according to Le Anh Tuan, Head of Research and Development, Viet-nam Credit Information centre (CIC),Compared to developed countries in the world with credit coverage of approximately 100 percent of the adult population, Vietnam's proportion of 51 percent is relatively low.At the beginning of 2017, CIC just had 31.5 million borrowers with credit information in the data warehouse, which has now risen to 34 million customers, including credit information of 33.4 million individuals and over 700,000 corporate customers.Tuan added that some finance companies have to adjust the credit information of cus-tomers up to 94 times per month, or Home Credit Vietnam adjusts up to 44 times per month.This shows that companies need to refine their procedures on loan profile accurately and fully. Otherwise, they will pose a risk in lending.

Mobile banking the top channel for Citi clients in Vietnam

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Mobile banking now the preferred channel of Citi's customers in Asia-Pacific and Vi-etnam.Mobile banking overtook other digital channels to become the preferred channel used by Citi's Asia-Pacific and Vietnamese clients during 2017, according to the latest an-nouncement from Citi.


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Mobile use at Citi has surged in the last 12 months by 48 per cent, making it the fastest growing digital channel at Citi. Vietnam has recorded 82 per cent year-on-year growth in downloads of the Citi Mobile (R) App and Citi's customers show strong engage-ment, with those who actively use the app increasing 85 per cent year-on-year."At Citi our goal is to deliver remarkable banking experiences to our clients wherever they are," said Natasha Ansell, Citi Country Officer for Vietnam. "We have been trans-forming our business to be simpler, faster, scalable, and digital. The growth we are see-ing in mobile and digital underlines the progress we are making in being increasingly relevant where our clients need us to be."Digital is also growing rapidly as a source of new business at Citi. Digital acquisition in Citi's Credit Cards and Loans business grew 57 per cent year-on-year, and digital lending now accounts for 39 per cent of total consumer loans fulfilled by Citi in the re-gion.For digital acquisition, in Vietnam, the sum of 2017's digitally-acquired cards and dig-itally-acquired loans has grown 65 per cent year-on-year. Ninety per cent of customers avail themselves of the Citi Easy cash facility through digital channels. This growth has been underpinned by Citi's digital investments and growth in partnerships on leading digital ecosystems.Citi has digital credit card partnerships with leading players in Vietnam, including La-zada, Grab, and Adayroi. It also has partnerships with leaders like Amazon, Expedia, and Airbnb in other countries in the region.Citi also recently partnered with Facebook to launch its first banking chatbot on the Fa-cebook Messenger platform, in Singapore. Giving customers real-time information on their accounts, transaction details, and rewards points balances, Citi's chatbot will be rolled out across the region over the next few months. Citi also recently reached a ma-jor milestone, with 3 million customers having registered to use its voice biometric au-thentication.The Asia Pacific Global Consumer Bank's focus on transforming its business continues to yield positive results. For the third quarter of 2017, the business reported a 5 per cent increase in revenue year-on-year, to $1.87 billion, representing its fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth in the region and making it the fastest-growing consumer business for Citi globally.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/mobile-banking-the-top-chan-nel-for-citi-clients-in-vietnam

ADB lends $290 million to Vietnam

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved two loans totalling $290 million for Vietnam to boost economic development and improve people's living standards, ac-cording to Dau Tu Chung Khoan newspaper.A $150 million loan will be used to improve economic connectivity in four northeast-ern provinces and another worth $149 million will be utilised to promote basic infra-structure services and inclusive and sustainable economic growth in four provinces in the north central coast region of Vietnam.Eric Sidgwick, ADB country director for Vietnam, said Vietnam has achieved impres-sive growth in recent years. However, most economic gains have accrued in urban ar-eas, while rural areas have lagged behind. The $150 million loan will help tap into the potential of the northeastern region, especially in trade, agriculture and tourism.Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Ha Giang, and Lang Son provinces have considerable potential to become commercial hubs as they are located along the commercial route linking Chi-na, Hanoi City, Hai Phong Port and the north-south economic corridor in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.However, these potentials have yet to be fully unlocked as gross domestic product per capita in the four provinces in 2015 was $1,160, nearly half the country's average (US$2,036).Specifically, the project will improve road connectivity among the four provinces by upgrading 121 kilometers of provincial road and 144 kilometers of district road, sup-


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ply water for 42,300 people and improve agricultural value chain infrastructure in Lang Son Province through farm-to-market connection and support local enterprises.The project costs a total of $195.9 million, with $45.9 million funded by the Vietnamese government.As for the $149 million loan which will benefit over one million people in Ha Tinh, Nghe An, Quang Binh, and Quang Tri provinces, Sidgwick said Vietnam has been one of the world's fastest growing economies since 2010 with an average growth rate of about 6 percent in 2015. But growth has not been seen in rural areas, particularly in north central provinces.Therefore, ADB's assistance is expected to help promote inclusive growth and bridge the development gap by integrating cities and rural areas in the region with a regular loan of $52 million and a concessional loan of $97 million, Sidgwick noted.According to ADB, economic development in the project provinces has been con-strained by the fragmented coverage of basic infrastructure, with the 2015 poverty rate reaching 13 percent compared to the country's average of 7%.Besides, these provinces are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters and have been forecast to have the highest increase in annual temperatures (1.7%) and rainfall s(20%) compared to other parts of the country.To address these issues, the project will improve connectivity among the four provinc-es by upgrading and constructing some 214 kilometers of climate-resilient provincial and district road. It will also boost business development through the construction and upgrade of rural water supply, flood control, irrigation and port services.The two projects which will improve the capacity of the provincial governments, par-ticularly in public asset management, are expected for completion in the first quarter of 2023.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57581/ADB-lends-US$290 million-to-Vietnam.html

Kuwait Fund loan for coastal infrastructure development

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

The Ministry of Finance and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFED) signed a loan agreement on December 19 to develop infrastructure in coastal areas in Thai Thuy district of the northern province of Thai Binh.Deputy minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha said the over 9 million-USD loan is signifi-cant to Thai Binh one of the localities in Vietnam bearing the most brunt of climate change.The project is expected to help the province increase business production, he added.Vietnam pledged to direct relevant ministries and management agencies to make the most efficient use of the loan, he affirmed.Deputy director general at KFED Hisham Al-Waqayan said the Kuwait Fund is willing to sponsor development projects in Vietnam.The two sides are discussing to sign other projects in the near future, including one in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang, which aims to improve local living standards.To date, Kuwait Fund has supported loans for Vietnam to carry out 14 projects worth nearly 169 million USD, focusing on improving rural infrastructure for poor provinces such as roads and irrigation networks.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/kuwait-fund-loan-for-coastal-infrastructure-development/123568.vnp

Vietnam, RoK trade grows sharply on FTA


The Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK), which came into effect two years ago, has served as a catalyst for the two countries' trade growth.Bilateral trade surged 43 percent year-on-year to 58.8 billion USD during January-No-vember.The RoK's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on December 19 that two-way trade has increased in three consecutive years and Vietnam has become fourth largest


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trade partner of the RoK.In the first 11 months of the year, the RoK's exports to the Southeast Asian country soared 48.4 percent from the same time last year to 43.7 billion USD on semiconduc-tors, displays, wireless communication equipment and electronics parts. With such re-sult, Korean products made up 22.3 percent in the Vietnamese market, just following China.Meanwhile, imports from Vietnam rose 29.2 percent to 14.8 billion USD in the re-viewed time, mostly in wireless communication equipment, clothing, and other daily necessities.The ministry said that RoK enterprises poured 54.5 billion USD into Vietnam in the first half of the year, making it become the largest source of foreign direct investment of Vietnam.More than 5,000 RoK companies are running business in Vietnam, including Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc. and Doosan Engineering & Construction Co. They chose Vietnam to take advantage of cheap labour and a growing number of middle-class consumers in the fast-growing economy.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-rok-trade-grows-sharply-on-fta/123563.vnp

Nation's trade value up fourfold since 2007


After 10 years of membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Vietnam's ex-port and import value has increased four times to reach over $400 billion, or 170 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), according to the general Department of Cus-toms (GDC).At a ceremony organised by the GDC in Hanoi on Tuesday to mark the $400 billion trade milestone, deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue heaped praise on the achievement, attributing it to "right policies" of the Communist Party of Vietnam.He also appreciated efforts made by the customs sector, especially in reforming its ad-ministrative procedures.Hue noted that the nation's trade value had doubled every five years and its GDP has also increased.The trade value touched $100 billion for the first time in December 1, 2007 with the GDP reaching $77.4 billion that year. Corresponding figures in 2011 were $200 billion and $133 billion.The growth trend continued, reaching $400 billion in trade value and nearly $225 bil-lion in GDP for 2017.Notably, Hue said, Vietnam saw very strong growth in trade value from 2015 on-wards, going from $300 billion to $400 billion. This was due, the deputy PM said, to the effectiveness of Free Trade Agreements that Vietnam had signed.The good results in trading affirmed the correct policies on international economic in-tegration espoused by the Party over the past 20 years and the government's consistent implementation of those policies, Hue said.He noted that after joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2007, Vietnam had actively and consistently negotiated bilateral free trade agreements.Achievements in trade and foreign investment after joining the WTO demonstrate that international economic integration had promoted strong reforms of domestic econom-ic institutions, improving national competitiveness, he added.According to the World Trade Organisation, in 2006, Vietnam's total export and im-port turnover ranked 50th and 44th in the world. In 2015, the nation jumped 23 and 16 steps, occupying 27th and 28th positions, respectively.GDC statistics also indicate that structure of export and import products has seen pos-itive changes.At present, Vietnam has 30 export groups with an annual turnover of at least $1 billion each, including textiles, leather, footwear, coal and crude oil.Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) pouring into Vietnam over the last five years has con-tributed $60 billion to the export value, the GDC said.Meanwhile, in the first 11 months of 2017, key import products included electronics,


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computers and accessories ($34 billion), machines and tools ($30.7 billion), phones and spare parts ($14.4 billion), fiber ($10.3 billion), iron and steel ($8.3 billion), plastic ($6.7 billion), petrol ($6.3 billion) and materials for the textile, garment and footwear ($5 bil-lion).Vietnam has trade relations with more than 200 countries and territories, gradually moving import-export market from Asia to Europe, America.The high trade deficit recorded in the years 2006-2011 has reduced and the nation has even recorded trade surpluses in recent years, the GDC said.http://bizhub.vn/news/nations-trade-value-up-fourfold-since-2007_290890.html

Trade surplus: Joy and anxiety

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

The General Statistical Office (GSO) has announced there was an excess of exports over imports of $2.8 billion in the first 11 months of the year. However, this was overshad-owed by the fact that most of the reports came from foreign invested enterprises (FIEs), while domestic enterprise contributions were modest.In the first 11 months of the year, FIE exports accounted for 72.6 percent of total export value of Vietnam, while imports accounted for 60 percent. The trade surplus from FIEs reached $26.2 billion, an increase of 33 percent over the same period last year.Samsung, Foxconn, LG, Panasonic and Intel are among the biggest exporters. Samsung Vietnam alone plans to earn $50 billion from exports. It exported $40 billion worth of products last year.A report from CIEM (Central Institute for Economic Management) shows that the country's electronics industry has been witnessing a high growth rate of over 30 per-cent per annum since 2013.Vietnam has become the 12th largest electronics exporter in the world and the third in South East Asia.However, the problem is that domestic enterprises are mostly 'out of the game'. In 2016, FIE electronic exports accounted for 95 percent of total electronic exports and 96.6 percent of phone and phone accessories exports.FIEs are also major exporters in textile & garments and footwear, key export items of Vietnam.FIEs make up 60-65 percent of total value of the textile & garment industry. The busi-ness field attracts a high amount of FDI with $5 billion worth of capital registered in the last five years, according to FIA (Foreign Investment Agency).Similarly, in the footwear industry, according to MOIT (Ministry of Industry and Trade), more than 80 percent of export value belongs to FIEs.A report from GDC (General Department of Customs) found that 90 percent of turno-ver from machine, equipment and components is from FIEs.FIEs lead in the top five export business fields. In a survey conducted by VCCI (Viet-nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry), seven dong out of every 10 dong worth of export turnover is from FIEs.Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises have great advantages in the export of farm pro-duce and seafood. Most of the names in the list of top 10 seafood exporters are Viet-namese companies.The 'Vietnamese hallmark' can also be seen in the export of wooden furniture (Viet-namese exports account for more than 50 percent of total export turnover in the indus-try), cashew nuts (export turnover in the first 11 months far exceeded the turnover in 2016), and vegetables & fruit ($3.2 billion).http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/192096/trade-surplus--joy-and-anxie-ty.html

Outbound sales of tra fish forecast to reach $1.8 billion


Export sales of tra fish (pangasius) are projected to reach a staggering $1.8 billion in all of 2017, VnEconomy news website reports.Each kilo of tra fish is priced at as high as VND28,500-28,700. "This is the first time tra fish has seen an increase in price in end of the year months. This is the highest level in


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more than 20 years," said Ho Kim Thoa, a fish farmer in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap.Vinh Hoan Corporation is purchasing unprocessed tra fish at a price of VND28,500 a kilo, Cuu Long Company in Dong Thap Province at VND28,600, and Cuu Long Com-pany in An Giang Province at VND28,700.Unprocessed tra fish are in short supply in the Mekong Delta, said some tra processors, adding they are boosting exports. The price of the fish is forecast to rise further.Weather conditions have turned unfavourable this year, affecting output of unproc-essed tra fish. Seafood processors are facing shortages of tra fish for export processing.Data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shows the acreage under tra fish farming was more than 5,800 hectares in the Mekong Delta between January and November, a year-on-year rise of 2%.Statistics of the general Department of Vietnam Customs show outbound sales of tra fish totalled around $160.2 million last month, and the figure in the year to November had reached $1.6 billion, up 5.3 percent over the year-ago period.China, the United States, and the European Union were Vietnam's three largest tra fish buyers in the 11-month period, with their respective turnover being around $373.3 mil-lion, $319.7 million, and $180.1 million.Experts forecast outbound sales of tra fish may reach $1.79-1.8 billion in the entire year.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57584/Outbound-sales-of-tra-fish-forecast-to-reach-US$18 billion.html

Central Highlands achieves record export turnover


The Central Highlands provinces achieved export turnover of more than $2.66 billion in 2017, reaching nearly 102 per cent of the year's plan and increasing 22.71 per cent compared with 2016.The Central Highlands provinces also achieved the highest export turnover ever this year.According to the Central Highlands Steering Committee's Standing Board, at present, export commodities in the Central Highlands provinces are increasingly diversified, contributing to the increase in export turnover.The main export products of the Central Highlands provinces include coffee, pepper, rubber and alumin, as well as honey, tapioca starch, cashew nuts, vegetables and flow-ers.Of these provinces, Dak Lak Province had the highest export turnover with over $575 million, achieving 100.9 per cent of the year's plan and a year-on-year increase of 4.55 per cent.Export products of Dak Lak are coffee beans, instant coffee, pepper and rubber, as well as tapioca starch and honey.Currently, Dak Lak Province has exported coffee beans to 75 countries and territories globally, including 36 markets with turnover of more than $1 million. Of these, 10 mar-kets achieved export turnover of over $10 million, namely Germany, Japan, the United States and Italy, as well as Switzerland, the Republic of Korea, India, Spain, Mexico and Sweden.In addition to the export of coffee beans, the Central Highlands provinces also encour-aged domestic and foreign enterprises to invest in the construction of coffee processing facilities to increase the added value of coffee products the leading agricultural export products of the Central Highlands.In Dak Lak Province, there are a number of domestic and foreign enterprises building factories to process coffee powder and instant coffee for export such as An Thai Devel-opment and Investment Joint Stock Company, Nam Nguyen Company Limited and Ngon Coffee Company Limited.The provinces in the Central Highlands have promoted trade promotion, directly con-necting with customers. Besides this, import-export businesses have also expanded their direct sales channels to large customers and final consumers in many countries.However, according to the Standing Board of the Central Highlands' Steering Com-


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mittee, the export commodities are still mainly raw materials, therefore, the value add-ed is low and economic efficiency is not high.Specifically, although Dak Lak Province is considered the key coffee and pepper sup-plier region of the country, the provincial annual export is only some 215,000 tonnes of coffee beans, over 4,800 tonnes of pepper and more than 5,000 tonnes of rubber latex.http://bizhub.vn/news/central-highlands-achieves-record-export-turnover_290880.html

RoK imposes anti-dumping duties on VN alloys


The Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOST) has decided to impose anti-dumping duty on Ferro-Silico-Manganese alloys (HS code: 7202.30.0000) imported from India, Vietnam and Ukraine.The anti-dumping duty rates applied for manufactures and exporters of Vietnam, Ukraine and India are 4.06 per cent, 19.06 per cent and 7.4-19.06 per cent, respectively, for five years.Previously, the Korean Trade Commission (KTC) on December 7, 2016, initiated the anti-dumping investigation on Ferro-Silico-Manganese alloys products imported from Vietnam, Ukraine and India. The investigation was based on petitions filed by Dongbu Metal, Simpac Metal, Simpac Metalloy and Taekyung Industrial.The investigation period for dumping is from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. The injury investigation period is from January 1, 2013 to June 30, 2016.On May 31, 2017, KTC applied the temporary anti-dumping duty at 7.48 per cent for Vietnamese manufactures and exporters.On September 14, 2017, KTC announced the final results of the anti-dumping duty on this product imported from the three countries at rate ranging from 4.06 to 19.06 per cent.http://bizhub.vn/news/rok-imposes-anti-dumping-duties-on-vn-alloys_290882.html

Ministries mull over easing automobile import rules

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

As expected by foreign automobile manufacturers, Vietnam is considering delaying the effective date of Decree No.116/2017/ND-CP for possible revisions to ease import rules.At last week's dialogue between the government and Japanese firms, minister-Chair of the government Office Mai Tien Dung, asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), and the Ministry of Transport (MoT) to consider the postponement of the ef-fective date of the decree on requirements for manufacturing, assembly and import of automobiles and trade in automobile warranty and maintenance services, issued on October 17, 2017, in order to amend some regulations that will ease its negative im-pacts on business operations."Decree 116 is to protect customers and the brand names of manufacturers. Many countries do not provide a copied certificate of eligible imported automobile class is-sued by competent foreign authorities (Vehicle Type Approval -- VTA). Thus, MoT, MoIT, and the Ministry of Justice should amend the requirement," Dung, who is also Chair of the Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform, requested.Regarding the emission and safety test requirements for completely built up (CBU) models by shipment, the chair asked relevant ministries to reassess the legal obliga-tions and performance of importers and manufacturers in applying emission and safe-ty inspection -- or test the first shipment only and accept test reports for following shipments.An MoIT representative, in response, affirmed that the ministry will propose MoT to accept the test report for subsequent shipments within six months.Issued on October 17, 2017 and slated to take effect on January 1, 2018, Decree 116 was said to cause many difficulties for importers."The stipulation of Article 6 of Decree 116 that requires overseas importers to submit VTA is not in line with international norms. As competent foreign authorities do not provide VTA, we cannot meet the requirement," said Toru Kinoshita, general director


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of Toyota Vietnam."For example, to import vehicles into Vietnam from the EU, euro 6 emission standards will be met, but the EU does not provide VTA. Neither does the Japanese government."In addition, as regulated, the decree will take effect 45 days after date of issuance. However, this rule does not suit the auto industry as it often takes importers around three to four months from ordering to importing a batch of cars."To import a batch of vehicles into Vietnam in January 2018, we would have to place an order with manufacturers abroad as early as in September or October 2017. With such a short preparation time, we are faced with many difficulties because we cannot stop the orders, while some of our orders are facing risks of impossible imports," Ki-noshita added.Regarding emission and safety inspection, Kinoshita said that it takes up to two months and costs up to $10,000 for a single round of testing. If an importer needs to do this with every shipment, it will cause a huge waste of time and money.It is not only Japanese automobile importers who have complained about Decree 116.Last week, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers' Association (whose members in-clude influential names like Toyota, Ford, Honda, GM, and Mercedes-Benz) worked with MoT on the possibilities of replacing VTA with a copy of a certificate provided by overseas manufacturers.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/192386/ministries-mull-over-easing-auto-mobile-import-rules.html

Exorbitant transport costs make Vietnam goods uncompetitive


Vietnam's logistics costs remain high as they represent 20.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and are double the world's average, with transport expenditures mak-ing up the largest proportion and thus hurting the competitiveness of domestic prod-ucts.At a conference on logistics development in the transportation sector in the Mekong Delta held in Dong Thap Province on December 18, Le Duy Hiep, chair of the Vietnam Logistics Association (VLA), said the logistics sector has grown at an annual rate of 15-16 percent and has been ranked 64th in the logistics performance index.However, high transport costs are the main culprit, followed by cargo handling and storage costs.Particularly, respective transport costs of seafood, textiles and garments, rice and fruits are 51%, 61%, 58 percent and 61%.High logistics costs are ascribable to service charges at seaports, collected by foreign shipping lines, underdeveloped seaport infrastructure and a maze of fees.In addition, fuels make up nearly 30 percent of transport costs while toll fees at build-operate-transfer (BOT) road toll stations across the country account for 15 percent and even 30 percent on the Hai Phong-Hanoi route.Hiep said road transport is much expensive than seaborne transport. For example, it costs VND30-35 million and VND37 million respectively to transport a 20-feet contain-er and a 40-feet container by road from Hai Phong to HCM City while the sea transport cost is only VND5.2 million and VND6.7 million.Hiep proposed developing waterway transport to cut transport costs and logistics costs as a whole.Traffic congestion at seaports and in many parts of HCM City, especially in Cat Lai Port, also plays a part in high logistics costs, Hiep added.Fees imposed on exports also send transport costs higher. In Hai Phong City, exporters must pay a VND250,000 fee for each 200-feet container.The time-consuming customs clearance procedure is also a factor for exorbitant logis-tics costs. The country annually spends 28.6 million working days, equivalent to VND14.3 trillion, on inspections of goods, with those subject to at least two separate inspections making up 58%, Hiep said.Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The said high logistics costs have eroded the com-petitiveness of Vietnamese goods and eaten into farmers' already-low incomes. The


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ministry would work towards improving logistics infrastructure and reducing inter-mediate costs.Hiep said relevant ministries, agencies and the association should effectively carry out the prime minister's Decision 200/QD-TTg on action plans to raise the competitiveness of the logistics services. Especially, the government should make road toll fees at BOT stations transparent and low.The country should improve policies, streamline administrative procedures, develop infrastructure, warehouses and product distribution centers, and promote multimodal transport and training courses, The said.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57578/Exorbitant-transport-costs-make-Vietnam-goods-uncompetitive-.html

Vegetables and fruits seen leading Vietnam agriculture


Vegetables and fruits are poised to emerge as the key growth driver of Vietnam's ag-riculture in the future, heard an agriculture forum held in Dong Thap Province on De-cember 18.Speaking at the forum "Expanding Market for Fruits Vegetables and Improving Logis-tics for Agriculture and Rural Development," Le Thanh, head of the Institute of Viet-nam Organic Agricultural Economics, said the global market for fruits and vegetables is expanding, thus creating a chance for Vietnam to develop the sector.According to Thanh, global fruit and vegetable sales revenue reached $250 billion in 2015, of which 63 percent came from fresh and 37 percent from processed fruits and vegetables. The global fruit and vegetable processing industry is expected to make $317 billion in revenue in 2021.Thanh said this sector in Vietnam holds great growth potential, with natural condi-tions favourable for growing fruit trees and vegetables.The country has 863,000 hectares under fruit cultivation and 908,000 hectares under vegetable farming, mainly in the Mekong Delta and the Red River Delta.Although there are only 145 fruit and vegetable processing companies in the country, their total exports in 2016 hit $2.5 billion, up 44 percent year-on-year.Thanh said many other countries invested in the fruit and vegetable processing indus-try years before Vietnam. However, the country can catch up by using modern tech-nology.Taking Lavifood JSC in Long An Province for example, Thanh said, the company has invested in a VND1.5 trillion (US$66 million) fruit and vegetable processing plant us-ing Italian and German technologies. Its products are exported to many countries.Addressing the forum, prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc pinned hopes on fruit and vegetable sector development, saying fruits and vegetables have become a major ex-port earner of the country.Fruit and vegetable exports amounted to $3.5 billion last year, higher than that of rice and crude oil. However, the development of this sector is facing a number of challeng-es.Phuc said farming productivity and product quality are still low. Therefore, the coun-try should invest more in biotechnology and improve transplant quality.Besides, unstable markets and high logistics costs have hampered the development of the fruit and vegetable production and processing industry. According to Phuc, logis-tics costs make up more than 20 percent of Vietnam's gross domestic product (GDP), twice as high as the global average of nearly 12%.Phuc told ministries and local authorities to improve logistics service and have favour-able policies to facilitate the development of the sector.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57583/Vegetables-and-fruits-seen-leading-Vietnam-agriculture-.html


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Licensing uncertainties grip foreign-invested enterprises


The Ministry of Industry and Trade's Legislation Department has clarified that all commercial processing activities of foreign firms in Vietnam are subject to Decree No.23/2007/ND-CP issued in February 2007, detailing the Commercial Law regarding goods purchase and sale activities and other related activities of foreign-invested en-terprises (FIEs) -- not to a circular issued two months later.Pham Dinh Thuong, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)'s Legislation Department, told VIR that all FIE commercial processing activities are now subject to Decree 23, not Circular 04."Despite contradictions between the decree and the circular, the decree is still enjoys priority in application, meaning all enterprises must obtain a trading licence," Thuong said.In fact, unclear regulations are adding uncertainty and risk to the foreign investment picture for firms providing commercial processing services for other firms in Vietnam.Under Decree 23 issued on February 21, 2007 detailing the Commercial Law regarding goods purchase and sale activities and other related activities of foreign-invested en-terprises, commercial processing is regarded as an activity relating to the sale and pur-chase of goods. Accordingly, if an FIE wishes to get involved in commercial processing, it should obtain a trading licence.However, after Decree 23, the Ministry of Trade (now MoIT) issued Circular No.04/2007/TT-BTM on April 4, 2007, guiding the import, export, processing, and liquidation of imported goods and consumption of products of FIEs.This circular detailed the implementation of Decree No.108/2006/ND-CP dated Sep-tember 22, 2006, which guides the implementation of a number of articles of the Invest-ment Law 2005. Notably, under Circular 04, such a licence is not needed.Circular 04 outlined several conditions which an FIE must meet to process goods with-out a trading licence. First, the processing activity should be consistent with the objec-tives set out in the investment certificate of the FIE. Second, the processed goods must not be banned or suspended from import and export. If the processed goods are sub-ject to an import and export licence, the FIE can enter into a processing contract only when the import and export licence is obtained.Moreover, an FIE can process goods if it has completed its capital construction invest-ment and has commenced production and business activities."It appears that a trading licence is not required under Circular 04," said Le Minh Thuy, a lawyer at Venture North Law Limited. "Currently, it is unclear under the Vietnamese law if an FIE needs to obtain a trading licence to provide commercial processing serv-ices for other companies."Also commenting on these vague regulations, Venture North Law's founder and busi-ness lawyer Nguyen Quang Vu told VIR, "Unclear and out-dated regulations increase unnecessary legal costs and legal risks for businesses. For example, though FIEs can operate normally under Circular 04, they may face big risks when authorised agencies inspect them and refer their operations to Decree 23 -- then they will be found to have no trading licence."According to Nguyen Lan Phuong, partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie Vietnam, the question at hand is whether "commercial processing activities" are also subject to a trading licence. This commercial activity, together with almost all other commercial activities like advertising, sales promotion, logistics services, auctioning services, and postal services under Chapters IV, V, and VI of the Commercial Law, are included by reference to Decree 23.All of these activities are considered "goods purchase and sale activities or goods pur-chase- and sale-related activities" pursuant to Decree 23. Accordingly, they are subject to a trading licence requirement.However, each of these highly-regulated services is subject to their own business con-ditions under separate legislation. For example, logistics services are subject to the business conditions under DecreeNo.140/2007/ND-CP, while advertising services are subject to the Advertising Law and its regulations. The role and function of Decree 23


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is reduced to governing only trading and distribution services."The drafting of Decree 23 has certain issues, and whether all the services under Chap-ters IV, V, and VI of the Commercial Law are included by reference to the decree is the intention of the drafter of Decree 23 is at least unclear. Decree 23 is entangled with oth-er decrees, which are at the same normative legal document level," Phuong said."The risks due to the ambiguity and entanglement of the legal documents still remain. FIEs are confused as to what to follow, the black letter of the law or the practice and guidance of the authorities. They are unsure whether their legitimate rights and bene-fits will be protected if the trade authorities change their views and insist on the au-thority to issue the trading licence to this wide range of services."This, Phuong said, has major ramifications for foreign direct investment in Vietnam. "The impact is evident," she said. "FIEs are cautious of the market. They are not confi-dent to bring in the expertise, the world brands, the know-how and knowledge, and the necessary soft and hard investment in order to develop their industries and mar-kets in Vietnam."However, according to Thuong, if all activities prescribed in Decree 23 coincide with any specialised law or decree, such activities will be subject to the specialised regula-tions. For example, advertising activities are subject to the Advertising Law, not De-cree 23.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/192384/licensing-uncertainties-grip-for-eign-invested-enterprises.html

Vietnam's minimum wages to increase by 6.5 per cent in 2018


The minimum wage will be officially increased from January 1, 2018 by an extra VND180,000-230,000 ($8.07-10.13), depending on the region.The government has issued Decree No.141/2017/ND-CP, amending regional mini-mum wages for workers employed under a labour contract. Accordingly, the increase stands at an average of 6.5 per cent (See chart below).Before being submitted to the government for approval, the proposal to increase the minimum wage by an average 6.5 per cent was subject to heated debate. However, af-ter three meetings, the local authorities and business associations reached a compro-mise over the proposal via a vote.Notably, at the first meeting, various options for the raise were recommended, includ-ing increases of 5, 6, and 6.8 per cent. Specifically, the National Salary Council pro-posed the highest increase of 13.3 per cent, while the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) proposed an increase of less than 5 per cent or even keeping wag-es unchanged.At the second meeting, after numerous discussions, there was a slight change in pro-posals. Notably, the National Salary Council recommended the figure of 8 per cent, while VCCI's figure was 5 per cent. However, relevant authorities still failed to reach a compromise.At the third meeting, deputy minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs cum chair of the National Salary Council Doan Mau Diep said that after discussions, the Vietnam general Confederation of Labour (VGCL) and VCCI put two figures (7 and 6.5 per cent) to vote. As the result, eight out of 14 members voted in favour of the 6.5 per cent plan, and the remaining members selected the 7 per cent plan.http://www.vir.com.vn/vietnams-minimum-wages-to-increase-by-65-per-cent-in-2018.html

Who will take control of billion-dollar pharmaceutical market?


With hefty experience in distribution and retail, Mobile World, FPT Retail, Digiworld, and Nguyen Kim have been entering pharmaceutical retail, but who will seize control?A land without a "king"In the past year, giants from the Vietnamese distribution and retail sector started look-ing for new places to develop and have all set eyes on the same market that is bursting with unexploited potential, pharmaceutical retail.


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At first, Mobile World Group (MWG) announced intentions to set foot in the pharma-ceutical retail sector by mergers and acquisitions (M&A). MWG expected to appear on the pharmaceutical retail scene in June 2018 by signing with such brands as Phuc An Khang and Phano Pharmacy.FPT Retail has carried out a pilot investment into Long Chau Pharmacy and expects to add this sector's revenue to FPT Retail's general revenue from 2019.Similarly, Nguyen Kim Group has just already raised its ownership to over 51.14 per cent (from the current 24 per cent) to dominate Lam Dong Pharmacy (Ladophar). Nguyen Kim has to pay around $3 billion for this deal, then continues evolving Lado-phar's business which is pharmaceutical agricultural production, business in drugs, medicine, health equipment, and pharmaceutical export-import activities.Digiworld has entered into a cooperation with Vinamedic to set foot in the functional foods market by the distribution of Kingsmen products for over-40 males.In the Vietnam Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare report of Business Monitor Interna-tional, the revenue of the pharmaceutical sector hit $4.7 billion, up 13 per cent com-pared to the same period last year, and is expected to continue two-digit growth in the next five years. Meanwhile, the revenue of pharmaceutical retail reached $1.56 billion.According to the latest analysis of FPT Securities, the average gross profit margin in the pharmaceutical sector went from 35 to 40 per cent in 2006-2016, net profit margin was 10 per cent, and ROE increased from 10 to 15 per cent. This profitability is much lower than that of the leading corporations worldwide, but similar to large enterprises in the Asean.The three major distribution channels are hospitals, pharmacies, and private clinics. Of these, retail pharmacies distribute 65-70 per cent of all drugs. This is the reason behind the four electronic giants jumping on this sector.Robert Tran, CEO of Robenny Corporationone of the global leaders in business devel-opment strategy advisory in the US, Canada, and the Asia-Pacific, said that there are 34 leading pharmaceutical corporations in Vietnam. He also confirmed the potential of the pharmaceutical market.This is a special sector, as drug sales depend on prescriptions or just a patients' decla-ration on their health status. "What will the retailers do to control output?" asked Rob-ert Tran.Who will take control?Despite being a potential market, the wholesale channel makes up only a small pro-portion. This is both an opportunity and challenge. The four retailers could use their experience on store chain management but have to face three risks posed by the dom-inance of the wholesale channel, managing the whole supply chain (from the import of drugs to delivery to consumers), and employee management. There are thousands of medical graduates, but they cannot meet the requirements of this sector, causing a shortage of qualified employees.If these retailers follow the model of foreign pharmaceutical chains, the combination between grocery stores and pharmacies will open up new ways. Medicare in collabo-ration with Guardian implemented by this way but not successfully, due to habit of Vi-etnamese. They could spend hours in a super market but do not want to stay long in a pharmacy.Retailers like MWG, FPT, Nguyen Kim, and Digiworld see favourable conditions pro-vided by the government to encourage private sector investment. With these advan-tages, they could jump on the pharmaceutical sector, but Robert Tran doubted the capacity of dominating the market. He said this sector is a place for giants and long-standing prestige, simply understanding the concepts or models of store chain man-agement will not suffice.In order to take part in this sector, the four retailers have to do M&A. Nguyen Duc Tai, chair of MWG, said that instead of researching this sector for two or three years, MWG chose to acquire a pharmaceutical brand, especially those owning 10 to 15 stores. MWG spent VND500 billion ($22 million) acquiring 20 to 40 per cent of the shares of an existing pharmaceutical retailer, then raise it to 60 per cent.


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This is a clear objective but there is little in the way of selection. Almost all pharmaceu-tical brands are too young. M&A with any pharmaceutical brand could help them to join the market, but if they want to become leaders, they will not only need to spend a lot of resources but keep their reputation.At this time, pharmaceutical firms still aim to expand their market. Phano Pharmacy intends to expand to 300 pharmacies, including 10 per cent of franchised stores by 2020. Pharmacity will expand to 200 and hit $45 million in revenue by 2020 (its revenue in 2016 was $8.5 million).http://www.vir.com.vn/who-will-take-control-of billion-dollar-pharmaceutical-mar-ket.html

Gasoline market competition seen intensifying


Competition on the gasoline market will soon no longer be among domestic enterpris-es only as Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (BSR) is selling a large stake to strategic investors next month.The company has held talks with 17 investment funds and five partners that might be-come strategic investors of BSR. Of these, World Petro from the US and MacronPetro Petroleum from Africa want a 49 percent stake, the maximum offered volume, BSR general director Tran Ngoc Nguyen told the Daily last week.As decided by the government, the State stake at BSR will be lowered to 43 percent when 49 percent of BSR's chartered capital is sold to strategic investors, including for-eign ones, 8 percent to investors at auction and 0.21 percent to the company's employ-ees.BSR's initial public offering (IPO) is scheduled for January 17, 2018 after multiple de-lays and considered the biggest IPO of a company wholly owned by the State.The oil prices which tumbled in recent years are improving this year. The average price as of last month was $54.2 per barrel, $8.4 higher than the estimated price of $50.Besides, lower exchange rate risks and higher profit margins have contributed to better business results of Vietnam's crude oil processing sector, with the return on sales pro-jected at 10.56 percent this year compared to last year's 7.49%.According to the Vietnam Petroleum Institute, domestic consumption of gasoline and diesel oil in 2018-2022 is around 6.5 million tonnes and 8.5 million tonnes respectively.Each year, Dung Quat Oil Refinery can provide some 2.74 million tonnes of gasoline and 3.06 million tonnes of diesel oil, not to mention its additional capacity after the ex-pansion. Meanwhile, Nghi Son Oil Refinery, which is set for operation early next year, can supply 2.3 million tonnes of gasoline and 3.7 million tonnes of diesel oil.In addition to these two major refineries, the country's oil processing plants like PV Oil Phu My, Saigon Petro, and Nam Viet Oil have a combined capacity of some 690,000 tonnes of gasoline per year.This has resulted in a shortage of only 0.8 million tonnes of gasoline and 1.8 million tonnes of diesel oil.However, fuel imports depend on market conditions. Therefore, that foreign partners buy into Vietnamese firms and local firms get ready for competition will benefit con-sumers.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57588/Gasoline-market-competition-seen-intensify-ing.html

Foreign firms buy into mergers


Foreign firms control 75 per cent of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Nguyen Quoc Viet, deputy general director of AVM Vietnam Company, said yesterday.Viet told an Industrial Investment Promotion through M&A conference held in Hanoi that the foreign companies acknowledged Vietnam's growth potential and were ready to carry out deals with high prices thanks to their capital advantages."They expect double or triple digit growth for consumption and retail sectors," he said, adding that Vietnam had huge potential due to its rapid integration into the world cul-ture of young people.


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He said foreign investors would buy at high prices knowing they could get better yields in a few years by improving money flow and administration."M&A activities in Vietnam in recent years have rapidly increased in number and eco-nomic value," he added.Last year, the total value of M&A deals in Vietnam reached a record level of $5.82 bil-lion with an annual growth rate of 12 per cent. However, most M&A deals in 2016 had a modest value of less than $20 million each. There were two big deals valued at more than $1 billion.In the first quarter of this year, total M&A deals fell by 25 per cent from the same peri-od last year to $1.1 billion.The sale of 343.6 million shares or a 53.6 per cent stake in the Saigon Beer, Alcohol and Beverage Corporation (Sabeco), brought an estimated VND110 trillion ($4.89 billion), making it the biggest deal so far. The deal will bring the total value for M&A deals in the country this year to $8 billion.Vu Ba Phu, director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) said many for-eign investors poured capital into Vietnamese listed firms to realise long-term targets of getting a toe-hold in the country.Of these, investors from Japan, South Korea and Thailand had been investing in con-sumer goods, financial services, retail, distribution and building materials."However, there were not many deals from big investors in the EU and north America, which are considered to have big potential. This is why Vietnam should further pro-mote international investment," Phu said.Vietnam's industrial sector has seen strong development. The average index of indus-trial production (IIP) growth rate has been more than 7 per cent a year since 2012.Metal production posted an 18 per cent increase in 2016, following by electronics and computers at 13 per cent.Figures from the General Statistical Office showed that the IIP in the first 11 months of the year posted 9.3 per cent year-on-year rise."The figures reveal that Vietnam's industrial sector has been in strong growth. If local industrial firms promote cooperation with foreign companies that have high technol-ogies and professional management, they have opportunities for further develop-ment," he said.Tran Kim Oanh, director of the Vietrade's Centre for Industry and Trade Investment Promotion, said many Vietnamese companies built long-term development strategies, but M&A was one of their most important tools."Local investment funds have seen development both in quantity and scale, thus con-tributing to more M&A deals. With the advantage of deep understanding of the do-mestic market, investment promotion through M&A should pay more attention to potential local firms," Oanh said.http://bizhub.vn/markets/foreign-firms-buy-into-mergers_290884.html

Boosting industry via M&As


M&As represent a key channel in industrial investments, December 19 conference hears.There are many industrial investment opportunities in Vietnam via merger and acqui-sitions (M&As), Vu Ba Phu, director general of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade), told the Industrial Investment Promotion Through M&A conference on De-cember 19.The provided information on investment opportunities as well as measures to im-prove the efficiency of industrial investment promotion via M&As and to carry out Vi-etnam's industrial development strategy to 2025 and vision to 2035. Phu emphasized that Vietnam's industry sector has seen strong performance, with the manufacturing index growing at an annual average of over 7 per cent since 2012. In-dustries recording significant growth in 2016 included metal production, up 17.9 per cent, motor vehicle manufacturing 16.4 per cent, and computers, electronics and relat-ed items 12.8 per cent.


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Recent figures from the General Statistical Office (GSO) show that Vietnam's industrial production continued to grow well during 2017, with the manufacturing index for the first eleven months rising 9.3 per cent year-on-year, higher than the 7.4 per cent in-crease in the same period of 2016.The M&A market has witnessed many business deals with foreign parties, such as SCG Group and the Vietnam Construction Materials Company, the CJ Group and the Cau Tre Company, and the Daesang Company and the Duc Viet Food Company.Many foreign investors now choose to invest in listed companies and have a long-term vision when investing in Vietnam. Asian investors, such as those from Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, are investing in many different fields, including consumer goods, financial services, distribution, retail, and construction materials production.Relatively few investors are from North America and Europe, and those that are in Vi-etnam are primarily in consumer goods and oil and gas. Phu therefore pointed out that it is necessary to adopt measures to further promote international investment, es-pecially from the US and Europe.Domestic capital, meanwhile, is gradually asserting its position in the M&A market, with many local firms developing long-term strategies in which M&As are an impor-tant tool. Domestic investment funds are also growing in both number and capital, to the benefit of domestic businesses.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/boosting-industry-via-m-as

Rural area considered as 'fertile' market for FMCG industry

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| NHIP CAU DAU TU

The likelihood of success in rural area is larger than in the countryside, according to Nielsen.Domestic FMCG businesses are growing very well and becoming "equal" competitors with multinational companies. Forty two percent of the entire FMCG's revenue comes from domestic businesses. Apart from the rise of domestic businesses, FMCG industry in 2017 has other outstanding things.*FMCG industry dominates rural areaAccording to Nielsen's report on FMCG industry in Q3/2017, the rural area still contin-ues to be a potential land for businesses.Specifically, the growth in Q3 of the rural market reached 7.6 percent (with 7.4 percent coming from output growth), and continued contributing 54 percent to the total sales of the FMCG industry nationwide.Meanwhile, the growth rate of the FMCG industry in urban area only touched 4.7%.Also according to this data, the national growth of the FMCG market in Q3/2017 showed positive changes, reaching 6.4%, up 3.5 percent from the same period last year (in Q3/2016, the growth rate of the entire industry was 2.9%). The growth rate in this Q3 mainly came from the productivity growth (5.8%).Looking closely at major commodity groups nationwide (including drinking water, food, milk, family care products, personal care products, and cigarettes), the beverage industry continues to lead with impressive growth rate of 8.5%, of which, the produc-tivity growth hit 6.4%. Cigarettes also showed positive signals in this quarter with a 5.9 percent growth rate.Meanwhile, all the remaining sectors showed slowdown in growth. For example, the food industry only touched 4.6%, down from 5.9 percent in Q2/2017; milk and milk products only hit 4.2%, down from 7.4 percent in Q2/2017.Vietnam rural community will continue developing, transforming and gradually be-coming a focus for businesses so understanding clearly who they are, what they buy, where they buy the most from, and how they buy will be the prerequisite for future success.Nielsen's Q3 report is based on the retail measurement results of the FMCG market, based on major groups of products, to continuously monitor the circulation of prod-ucts through defined commercial channels and retail stores.According to the survey of Nielsen, one of the important reasons for consumers to choose Vietnamese goods is the national pride. Accordingly, more than 69 percent of


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consumers believe that domestic businesses can better meet their demand and the sup-port to domestic businesses under the motto "Vietnamese people use Vietnamese goods" made 48 percent of consumers decide to choose domestic products instead of the previous habits of favouring foreign goods.Domestic businesses are gradually gaining market share by improving product quali-ty and applying measures to check food hygiene and safety, thereby consumers feel more secured when shopping. More and more retail businesses choose domestic sup-plier meeting ISO standard, high quality Vietnamese goods to increase their competi-tiveness with foreign businesses. For example, at such systems as Saigon Coopmart, Maximark, Vietnamese goods always account for 80-90 percent on the shelves.For personal care, family care and beverage industries, domestic businesses account for less than 40 percent of the market share, but in the food industry, the market share of domestic businesses amounted to 55%.Thanks to the advantage of understanding consumption habits of Vietnamese people and the ability to learn quickly, domestic FMCG businesses have understood the real demand of customers from time to time, thereby improving products in line with con-sumer trend.

Dong Thap poised to attract more investment: PM


A new wave of investment is expected in Dong Thap Province as its business climate has greatly improved in recent years, prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at a con-ference held on Tuesday.Speaking at an investment promotion conference held in the province, Phuc urged Dong Thap to enhance linkages with surrounding provinces and support enterprises, especially start-ups.He also noted the importance of meeting the growing demand for labour from foreign companies and urged authorities to ensure that local investment policies are consist-ent, open, transparent, predictable and convenient.Like other provinces in the region, Dong Thap suffers from the effects of climate change, particularly in agricultural production. Phuc called on the province to take se-rious climate-adaptation measures to ensure its sustainable development.Dong Thap is the first area in the Mekong Delta to participate in the government project called "Restructuring the Agricultural Sector until 2020 and Vision to 2030".The prime minister expressed confidence that the province would become a model of agricultural efficiency and sustainability for the entire country.Considered the country's rice granary, Dong Thap is the best region in the country for fruit growing, including Cao Lanh mango, Chau Thanh longan, Lai Vung mandarin, Phong Hoa grapefruit, and many other short-term crops.New projectsDong Thap is calling for investment in 13 major projects involving hi-tech agriculture, the processing industry, urban development, industrial parks, manufacturing, tour-ism, and trade and services.Nguyen Van Duong, chair of the provincial People's Committee, said Dong Thap had recently become an attractive investment destination because of incentives and long-term commitments from local authorities."Dong Thap will continue to create the most favourable conditions for investors with a focus on improving its business climate, infrastructure construction, administrative reform, and human resources," he said.Le Minh Hoan, Dong Thap Province Party Secretary, said Dong Thap was among the most dynamic provinces in the Mekong Delta with great advantages in natural re-sources and geographical position.The province contributes to the nation's rice production and produces many other agro-forestry-fishery products for export every year, Hoan said. "The business envi-ronment in the province has also improved recently."Ousmane Dione, World Bank country manager in Vietnam, said: "We believe Vietnam and Dong Thap have great potential to develop agribusiness with a focus on high-tech


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SVietnam finance & business 20 December

agriculture and modernisation of agri-food value chains."This would include "agriculture that is more diverse and resilient to climate change, producing safer and higher quality products for domestic and export markets", he added.Dione said that agribusinesses should work closely with farmers, creating more jobs and bringing new technologies and investments, which are especially important in the light of public debt constraints."I also see potential for Dong Thap and provinces in the region to promote multi-mo-dal transport solutions for future trade and cooperation with Cambodia on agricul-ture, industry and construction materials," he added.All of these opportunities require financing and strong engagement of the private sec-tor."Given the fiscal constraints at the national level, increasingly Dong Thap will need to attract more private sector (foreign and domestic) investment in areas like agribusi-ness. I've noticed that a friendly and modern framework is already in place and is be-ing progressively improved," Dione said.At the conference, the prime minister witnessed the launch of a one-stop-shop and on-line public service system, which is expected to help investors easily fulfill administra-tive procedures online.Also, as many as 21 projects were granted investment certificates and 16 Memoran-dum of Understandings worth a total of VND23.9 trillion (US$1.05 billion) were signed.Dong Thap in the Mekong Delta is about 160km southwest of HCM City, about a three-hour drive by car.With its mild climate, widespread irrigation systems and abundant fresh water and fertile sediment, the province has rich agricultural resources and diverse ecosystems containing many species of fauna and flora.It also has great potential to become a tourist destination as it has many historic sites and traditional craft villages.http://bizhub.vn/news/dong-thap-poised-to-attract-more-investment-pm_290886.html

BIZ NEWS

Business Briefs 20 December, 2017

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA |

* HDBank has issued over 98 million shares in a private placement, raising its char-tered capital to VND9.8 trillion. Among buyers are Sovico JSC which bought 38.2 mil-lion shares and chairwoman Nguyen Thi PhuongThao who acquired 17.6 million shares.* Trinh Van Quyet, chair ofFLC Group (FLC), has purchased 37 million FLC shares to spur his ownership from 15.4 percent to 21.2%.* Duong Hieu Trading and Mining Company (DHM) has decided to sell 12.5 million shares to existing shareholders at VNDI0,000 each, much higher than its current mar-ket price of nearly VND4,000 per share. DHM will use the proceeds to supplement its working capital and invest in construction projects.* Vinh Linh Investment Joint Stock Company has registered to buy 1.6 million shares ofKido Group Corporation (KDC) from now to January 18, 2018. The investor is hold-ing over 9.8 million shares ofKDC, or a 3.83 percent stake.* Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) is seeking shareholder approval to sell a maximum of 1,200 convertible bonds, which will have a face value ofVNDl billion and carry an es-timated coupon of 4 percent per annum. The debt will be converted into shares at VND31,000 each. SSI will sell the bonds to less than 100 investors via a private place-ment.* Truong Thanh Furniture Corporation (TIF) will issue 100 million shares for 12 indi-vidual investors at a minimum price ofVND10,000 each by December 18. The issuance will help TTF raise its registered capital by 69.16 percent to VND2.45 trillion. Earlier,

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the Hochiminh Stock Exchange warned that it may remove the listing of 144.6 million shares of TTF because the company reported an accumulated audited consolidated loss ofVND 1.42 trillion as of Iune 30, accounting for 98 percent of its registered capital ofVND1.45 trillion.* Vietnam Electricity Construction Corporation (\ E) will pay an interi n dividend of,TD50 per share or 20 7 a 0 ecem er 27.,- will make the payment on January 11, 2018. In the January-September period, VNE earned a consolidated net profit ofVND76 bil-lion, versus a loss ofVND20.83 billion last year, while its net revenue increased 32.9 percent year-on-year to VND654.4 billion, according to Viet Capital Securities Compa-ny.

All indexes lose ground


Poor December 19 on both markets.All main indexes on Vietnam's stock market closed lower on December 19.On HSX, the VN Index lost 6.64 points (0.69 per cent) and the VN30-Index 3.19 points (0.34 per cent).On HNX, the HNX-Index fell 0.36 points (0.31 per cent), the HNX30-Index 0.42 points (0.19 per cent), and the UPCoM-Index 0.18 points (0.32 per cent).Liquidity on HSX reached VND4.8 trillion ($211.4 million), 8 per cent higher than yes-terday, and on HNX was VND909.9 billion ($40 million), 0.8 per cent lower.The VN Index opened at 961.03 points and fell to 956.39 points before ending the morn-ing at 954.98 points. It then closed the day at 951.42 points.In food and beverages, TAC gained 2.2 per cent, VCF 1.1 per cent, and BBC 0.6 per cent, while KDC lost 1.4 per cent and VNM 1 per cent. TLG closed at its opening price.In banking, VCI increased 3.3 per cent, BVH 2.9 per cent, SSI 1.3 per cent, MSN 0.7 per cent, and VPB 0.5 per cent, as CTG lost 2 per cent, STB 1.6 per cent, BID 1 per cent, MBB 0.6 per cent, and VCB 0.1 per cent. EIB closed at its opening price.In energy, PVD rose 4.5 per cent, PLX 1.7 per cent, and PPC 0.2 per cent, while GAS lost 2.3 per cent, NT2 1.8 per cent, and PGD 0.1 per cent. PVT closed at its opening price.In construction and real estate, ROS gained 7 per cent, REE 4.5 per cent, HT1 2.8 per cent, and DXG 1 per cent, while FLC lost 2.8 per cent, QCG 1.4 per cent, CTD 1.1 per cent, ITA 0.9 per cent, VIC 0.7 per cent, and NVL 0.2 per cent. VRE closed at its opening price.DHT was the largest net sold share on HNX, with VND1.9 billion ($83,700), followed by PVE (VND923.2 million ($40,669)), PVS (VND798.2 million ($35,162)), VNR (VND462.3 million ($20,365)), and MAS (VND393.6 million ($17,339)).On UPCoM, foreign investors bought 782,190 shares worth VND25.95 billion ($1.1 mil-lion).http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/jcghkkj6-all-indexes-lose-ground

Stocks make best gain in 2017


The stock market started the week with the biggest single-day gain of the year, with the VN Index rocketing 22.9 points, or 2.45%, at 958.06.The HCM City bourse saw 241.4 million shares worth more than VND5 trillion chang-ing hands at the end of the day, down slightly against last Friday when exchange trad-ed funds finished their quarterly rebalancing activities. Almost all large-cap stocks jumped with strong turnover, except for beverage stock SAB which closed the session unchanged.The Ministry of Industry and Trade sold more than 343.6 million shares of SAB, equiv-alent to a 53.59 percent stake, at an auction on December 18. Some 20,000 shares were sold to a local individual at VND320,500 a share while 343 million shares were sold to an institutional investor at the minimum bid of VND320,000 each.The total proceeds from the share sale amount to VND110 trillion. Previously, Vietnam Beverage, which is 49 percent indirectly owned by Thai Beverage, bid for more than 25


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percent of SAB at this auction.According to vietstock.vn, the successful auction will leave meager impact on the trad-ing of SAB shares in the near future as investors just bought SAB shares at the mini-mum price. SAB did come under selling pressure on December 18 while another beverage company, BHN, closed at the reference level.ROS, a construction firm, went up to its ceiling price of VND146,400 per share with over 1.1 million shares changing hands. Leading gas firm GAS gained the most this year, extending its 58 percent jump over the last four months, after announcing pre-liminary last-quarter business results.For the seafood sector, VHG and ASM touched their upper limits with matching vol-ume of 1.1 million shares and 8.2 million shares respectively.Among speculative stocks, property firm FLC fell 1.37 percent at VND7,200 per share and took the lead by liquidity with 65.8 million shares traded.On the Hanoi market, the HNX-Index closed at an intraday high, adding a massive 1.88 percent versus the previous session at 113.71 points. Trading volume and value soared 29.3 percent and 62.8 percent at 67.4 million shares and over VND1.1 trillion.Among the heavyweights, construction firms VCS and VCG lost 3.1 percent and 1.7 percent at VND248,900 and VND22,900 per share respectively. Meanwhile, lender ACB added 2.6 percent at VND35,100 with volume of 1.86 million shares.Foreign investors stayed on the buying side, net purchasing over VND145.8 billion of shares on the southern bourse and VND25.7 billion on the northern market.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57593/Stocks-make-best-gain-in-2017.html

Top listed firms for 2017 announced


Vietnam Report Company (VNR) on Tuesday announced the top 10 most prestigious listed companies for 2017.The company said the top 10 enterprises had good business results and image man-agement.Its survey of the top prestigious listed companies showed that Vietnam's stock market this year saw strong growth of the VN Index -- from 665 to 926 points.The capitalisation value was equal to 65 per cent of Vietnam's gross domestic product in 2017, increased from 35 per cent in 2016. The liquidity was also double that of last year, while foreign investors were active in net buying with total indirect investment rising by 47 per cent from the beginning of this year.VNR added that the shares that are being traded on the market have improved both in quantity and quality. By the end of October, the total number of listed and registered for trading firms was 1,374, posting 30 per cent year-on-year increase. Many listed companies completed their set targets for the whole years within the first 9-10 months of the year.The company's survey revealed that most enterprises were confident about their oper-ation in the first three quarters of the year as 72 per cent of surveyed firms expected their revenue and profit would become higher.More than 40 per cent of surveyed listed companies reported price hike as of December 13, 2017, such as Hoa Binh Construction Group Joint Stock Company (HBC), Refriger-ation Electricial Engineering Corporation (REE), Vingroup Joint Stock Company (VIC) and Phu Nhuan Jewellery Joint Stock Company (PNJ).VNR said the IPO and capital divestment of large businesses in the time ahead would also contribute to the growth of the stock market. The divestment from leading firms with large stocks such as Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (VNM), Vina-conex (VCG) and FPT attracted many big foreign investment funds.Its statistics showed that in the first 11 months of the year, foreign net buying was $1.77 billion, six times higher than the same period last year. The market capitalisation of foreign investors' portfolio was estimated at $32.5 billion, increasing by 59 per cent from last year.This is clear evidence on the attractiveness of the local stock market in 2018, it added.As many as 45 per cent of surveyed firms highly valued finance and banking stocks


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due to their high profitability in the market in 2017. The stocks are expected to be the most worthwhile investment in 2018, followed by real estate and consumer goods.The report also revealed that a company's development has the main impact on price movement. Stock investors have therefore conducted deeper studies and assessments on quality of traded shares.In term of media coverage, the companies have been among the popular names in the country.VNR selected and analysed listed companies with high capitalisation value based on three criteria -- financial capacity as shown in financial reports, prestige in the media and evaluation by specialists on growth potential of stock prices and their effects on the VN Index.Top 10 most prestigious listed companies 2017:1. Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company2. Vingroup Joint Stock Company3. Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade4. Mobile World Investment Corporation5. Refrigeration Electricial Engineering Corporation6. Bao Viet Holdings7. PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation8. Sai Gon Securities Inc9. Hoa Phat Group Joint Stock Company10. Vicostone Joint Stock Companyhttp://bizhub.vn/markets/top-listed-firms-for-2017-announced_290885.html

Sabeco slump slows down shares


Shares declined on the two national stock exchanges on Tuesday, dragged by the slump of brewer Sabeco, but cash flow remained strong which opened an opportunity for a recovery in the next session.The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange edged down 0.69 per cent to close at 951.42 points after rising 2.5 per cent on Monday.On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index decreased 0.31 per cent to end the trade at 113.36 points. The northern market index increased 1.9 per cent on Monday.The collapse of Sabeco (SAB) and other major large caps pulled the market down.Contrary to Vinamilk (VNM) which rose after successful divestment of State Capital Investment Corporation, shares of Sabeco hit the floor price of a 7-per-cent drop on the HCM City bourse despite the Ministry of Industry and Trade selling the entire offering of 53.6 per cent of Sabeco's capital on Monday's afternoon.Sabeco's shares closed at VND287,600 a share (US$12.61) per share, a 10 per cent dis-count of the VN320,000 per share sold to investors in the auction. The third largest shares by market value, Sabeco's slump harmed overall market conditions.Also on the defensive were many large-cap stocks such as Vinamilk (VNM), down 1 per cent; PV Gas (GAS), down 2.3 per cent; Vietinbank (CTG), down 2 per cent and lender BIDV (BID), down 1 per cent.Seventeen of the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity on the HCM Stock Exchange lost value and only 10 advanced. Gainers included FLC Faros Construction (FLC), Petrolimex (PLX), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), budget airline Vietjet (VJC) and steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG).According to BIDV Securities Co (BSC), stocks with good expected last-quarter busi-ness earnings such as VJC and HPG, increased positively and supported the market."We believe the market will quickly recover in the upcoming sessions as liquidity is gradually recovering in the Q4 business results reporting period," BSC's analysts wrote in a Tuesday report.A total of 283 million shares worth a combined VND6.4 trillion ($280.7 million) were traded on Tuesday on the two exchanges, down 8.4 per cent in trading volume but up 3.2 per cent in value compared to the previous sessions.http://bizhub.vn/markets/sabeco-slump-slows-down-shares_290889.html


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ACV to sell 20pct stake in 2018


The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) plans to sell 20 percent stake, equivalent to 4.35 trillion VND (194.77 million USD), to foreign and domestic investors through open auction in 2018.Each share has the face value of 10,000 VND.This information is key content in an ACV report sent to the Ministry of Transport after the prime minister approved the list of 406 State-owned enterprises marked for divest-ment from now until 2020. Divestment rate of State capital at ACV will be 20 percent to touch 75.4 percent of the registered capital by 2018.The specific offering rate will depend on the sale plan approved by authorised bodies and the actual situation of the market to ensure the highest interests of the State. The sale may be conducted once or several times.ACV is publicly auctioning State capital to ensure publicity and transparency as well as to stabilise the stock market.The Ministry of Transport will select independent consultancy agencies to set up plans for sale of State capital.According to the equitisation plan approved by the prime minister, assets in airfields serving flight operations will not be equitised but transferred to the State."This may affect the attractiveness of the State capital offering at ACV because domes-tic and foreign investors cannot assess the entire rights and obligations of ACV in the future," an ACV official told the Vietnam News Agency.Another difficulty that may affect the result of the sale of State capital at ACV is that the ability to absorb stocks in the UPCoM market is not high because the liquidity of this market is lower than that of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) and the Ha-noi Stock Exchange (HNX). Further, transactions of State capital at large enterprises are usually conducted on the HoSE or HNX.ACV is actively pushing the negotiation process with the transport ministry on issues related to assets in the airfield, which is the main barrier making the corporation un-qualified to list on HoSE. If the negotiation is completed successfully this year, ACV can delist from UPCoM and move to HoSE in the next six months.ACV currently has a monopoly on trading, managing and operating 22 international and domestic airports throughout the country, with 65 percent of the revenue coming from duty-free sales at airports.The corporation's targets of total revenue and profit-before-tax this year are 13.29 tril-lion VND and 3.67 trillion VND, respectively.Earlier, ACV officially operated as an equitised company since April 1, 2016, after it sold more than 77.8 million shares during the initial public offering on HoSE.ACV has registered capital of 21.77 trillion VND (9595 million USD), equal to 2,177 mil-lion shares. The shares have been traded on the UPCoM market since November 21, 2016, with price fluctuating between 58,000 VND and 87,900 VND in the recent 60 transactions (from August 31 to November 23, 2017).https://en.vietnamplus.vn/acv-to-sell-20-percent-stake-in-2018/123578.vnp

Major property projects to undergo inspections next year


The Ministry of Construction plans to inspect large-scale property development projects next year to see whether they comply with the prevailing housing regulations, says a Dan Tri news website report.According to the ministry's Decision 1190/QD-BXD, Construction minister Pham Hong Ha told the chief inspector at the ministry to carry out an inspection plan as re-quired by the Inspection Law and other relevant regulations.A host of major projects in Hanoi City, Quang Ninh Province, Hoa Binh Province, HCM City, and elsewhere in the nation are subject to inspection. Some of the projects are in HCM City, including a residential zone of Khang Dien JSC in District 9's Phuoc Long B Ward, Ben Thanh-Ho Tram Resort, and Cat Lai Residential Zone.The ministry will inspect the management of construction projects at the State Treas-ury, the Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation, and the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture


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and Rural Development (Agribank).Investors of build-operate-transfer (BOT) and build-transfer (BT) infrastructure projects are also on the radar, such as Cam Ranh International Terminal JSC, Danang Port JSC, Trung Nam Construction Investment Corporation (Trung Nam Group), and a joint venture between Bamboo Capital JSC and Bang Duong Investment-Construc-tion-Trading Co LtdAccordingly, inspectors will look into the international passenger terminal of Cam Ranh International Airport in Khanh Hoa Province, and the phase two upgrade of Tien Sa Port in Danang City.Earlier, the ministry inspected 12 large property firms like Tan Hoang Minh Group, which have developed major projects in Hanoi City, Danang City, Khanh Hoa Prov-ince, and HCM City.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57592/Major-property-projects-to-undergo-inspec-tions-next-year.html

Booming Airbnb service puts pressure on hotels in Vietnam

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VNEXPRESS

Three-star-hotels are affected the most because they focus on the same market as acco-modation-sharing services.A room with a comfy clean bed, free wifi and a nice hot shower might sound like the perfect spot for tourists. But the simple formula no longer seems to be so attractive to young local and foreign visitors to Vietnam as accommodation-sharing services such as Airbnb grow increasingly popular.The service is competing with traditional hotels to attract visitors who want to enjoy local life for up to half the price."Rather than staying in hotel rooms, many visitors prefer to stay in homes," said a rep-resentative of Luxstay, an Airbnb-like business that offers properties for rent in Viet-nam.The rising number of people visiting Vietnam has created the momentum for growth in the accommodation-sharing businesses, according to experts.Vietnam is on track to receive 12.8 million foreign tourists this year, up 28 percent against 2016, having already broken the record of more than 10 million with still two weeks to go until the end of the year.Official data from the General Statistical Office shows that more than 11.6 million for-eign tourists arrived in Vietnam between January and November this year, up 28 per-cent against the same period last year.Since officially launching in Vietnam in 2015, Airbnb has enjoyed explosive growth. There are now over 6,500 active Airbnb listings in Vietnam, with Saigon alone offering 4,000 places to rent. Hanoi has been slower to embrace the service with around 2,500 listings, according to a recent report by accounting and consulting firm Grant Thorn-ton.The driving force shifting consumer attention to Airbnb in Vietnam is a willingness to experience something new and affordable when it comes to rented accommodation, said Grant Thornton.According to a Nielsen report, 76 percent of respondents in Vietnam like using shared products or services, compared to 66 percent of consumers globally.In a country with strong entrepreneurial spirit where people want to run their own businesses or have a side venture in addition to their day jobs, many locals have snapped up the opportunity.Forty-year-old construction engineer Nguyen Van Bao has been renting out four rooms in one of his properties in Hanoi's Old Quarter for the past six months. Each room costs $18 per night. He did not reveal how much he has earned from Airbnb, but said that his property is nearly occupied on most nights.Home sharing is also becoming increasingly common, and some people have turned the service into a full time job.Nguyen Thuy Hoa, a 44-year-old property host in Hanoi, has turned her new house into two listings on the service. She has equipped her home with everyday necessities


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for families such as cookware, changing tables and high chairs, and rents each part of her home out for $20 per night.She said that family-friendly amenities are important to guests who want to continue their usual daily routines and sleeping schedules while they're on holiday.Hoa said most of her guests are young and from western countries. "I like meeting peo-ple from different cultures."Hotel reactionsTony Chisholm, general manager of Hotel Pullman Saigon Centre, said that booming home-sharing services are competing with traditional hotels. Three-star-hotels are the most affected by the competition because of the market they focus on, he said.This has forced some hotels to cut their room rates, according to industry insiders. Ac-cording to a report by HCM City's tourism department, average prices at 3-5 star hotel rooms fell 11.3 percent in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period in 2014.However, many other hotel operators are unperturbed by the growth of the service.Forbes quoted general manager of the five-star Reverie Saigon Hotel Kai Speth, who previously helmed the iconic Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, as saying that Airbnb might make for a good fit in destinations such as New York and London. But there were some challenges worth considering when opting for such alternative choices in emerging markets."In Vietnam, issues such as power outages, noise pollution and loss of internet connec-tivity and hot water for indefinite periods are not uncommon," he said."Well-established hotels such as ours, however, that have been built to meet the most stringent of international standards, can ensure that such challenges won't mar holi-days that people have spent months planning. And having unrestricted access to ex-perienced professionals can make all the difference."However, theses issues do not concern hosts like Bao, the construction engineer in Ha-noi."These problems happen sometimes, but mostly in rural areas, not in big cities like Ha-noi and HCM City. I believe guests will continue to use the service because of quality and price," he said."I'm thinking about putting another property on Airbnb to earn more from this lucra-tive market."https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/booming-airbnb-service-puts-pressure-on-ho-tels-in-vietnam-3686338.html

HCM City plans electric bike rental service


The HCM City Department of Transport has proposed the city government allow a private company to provide electric bike rental service in the downtown area, Lao Dong newspaper reports.If approved, the firm would lease 1,000 electric bikes that are worth a total of VND15.5 billion (US$0.68 million). After three years, the plan would be expanded from District 1 to other parts of the city with 50,000 environmentally friendly bikes.The investor would be exempted from rentals of the bikes within the first one to three months and sidewalk usage fees during the pilot period so that fees for using electric bikes could be kept at low levels.Commuters should install a mobile app called Vimotor on their smartphones and cre-ate an account for the service. After locating the nearest areas where electric bikes are parked, they would have to scan QR codes to unlock vehicles. Bikes should be re-turned to where they are parked.The fee, which is expected at VND3,000 for the first 10 minutes and VND1,500 for each following five minutes, would be deducted from user accounts after each ride. Each commuter could use the bike for 15-20 minutes for VND4,500-6,000.Such electric bikes would be parked around bus stations.Relevant departments and agencies have thrown support behind the plan. However, the HCM City Police Department suggested reducing the number of electric bikes as 50,000 might make the already-nightmarish traffic situation worsen.


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Hanoi prepares land for developing resettlement apartments


Hanoi said it has prepared 28.5ha of land for developers to build 27 resettlement hous-ing projects with an estimated 19,800 apartment units.The capital city recently submitted a document to the government Office to clarify its proposed mechanisms for firms to develop resettlement apartments in the capital city.Under the proposals, Hanoi will prepare land and select developers with adequate ca-pacity to develop these resettlement housing projects. An important criterion for de-velopers is that they must promise not to calculate loan costs in the apartment price.The developers will be allowed to make a profit of 10 per cent or sell 20 per cent of the apartments to the market.After nine to 12 months, if the city failed to introduce home buyers, the developers will be allowed to sell the apartments to recover their investment.It was estimated that the city needed more than 22,130 apartments by 2020 to meet the resettlement demand for site clearance to carry out infrastructure development projects,Currently, some 4,500 resettlement apartments were being developed and the city needed another 17,600 units.The capital city said the new mechanisms would encourage developers to invest in re-settlement housing projects.Under the current mechanisms, the government will have to spend money to develop or buy housing projects for resettlement. After that, the resettlement housing projects will be sold to citizens. The capital city said this mechanism was not efficient due to the tight budget.http://bizhub.vn/property/ha-noi-prepares-land-for-developing-resettlement-apartments_290864.html

Hanoi disciplines market management staff over Khaisilk incident


The Market Management Department of Hanoi has disciplined two of its market man-agement staff over their oversight of Khaisilk's fraudulent trading practices.This was announced by Nguyen Dac Loc, deputy head of the Market Management De-partment of Hanoi, at the conference organised this afternoon, according to newswire Vnexpress.Loc explained that the lack of employees made it difficult for the department to control the stores' trading practices. There are a number of employees charged with market management in Hoan Kiem district, however, they have to control a large area with over 20,000 stores.Previously, the local authorities found that Khai Duc JSC, operated by Hoang Khai or Khaisilk, violated regulations on trading in fashion products on five counts, one of them being the criminal act of trading counterfeiter products.Notably, the local authorities found that a number of silk products lack the logo or con-tain different materials than denoted. Besides, the company misled customers by sup-plying incorrect information about the origins or the material of its products.In addition, the company was found to have committed violations in declaring its busi-ness results, showing a difference between the revenue the company declared for tax payment and its real income, without any explanation.With these violations, Hoang Khai, the chair of the Board of directors of Khaisilk JSC, who holds 99 per cent of the company, is facing a sentence of six months to five years of imprisonment, while the highest punishment for these violations may reach up to 15 years.http://www.vir.com.vn/hanoi-disciplines-market-management-staff-over-khaisilk-in-cident.html

IFC & Supreme People's Court introduce arbitration and mediation guide


Judicial Manual for Commercial Mediation and Arbitration to help judges take a con-sistent and predictable approach and improve Vietnam's business and investment en-vironment.


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The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and Vietnam's Supreme People's Court recently launched the "Judicial Manual for Com-mercial Mediation and Arbitration", to assist judges in adopting a consistent and pre-dictable approach in applying national legal regulations on arbitration and mediation-related matters, building investor trust and improving the country's business environ-ment as a result.Vietnam is a signatory to many international treaties governing international trade and investment, including the 1958 New York Convention on Recognition and En-forcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, since 1995. An international framework aimed at harmonising international arbitration law and increasing predictability in recogni-tion and enforcement, its application by national courts is an important reference point for foreign businesses when considering business engagements with Vietnam.At a time when the country is accelerating its integration into the global economy, Vi-etnam wants to ensure consistency between its legislative and regulatory framework and international regulations on commercial dispute resolution.The result of significant effort, the comprehensive manual interprets key legal con-cepts and terms, elaborating on notions that are particular to arbitration and media-tion. It also explains concepts that are crucial for issues related to alternative dispute resolution. Additionally, the manual offers a how-to on applying arbitration laws in a uniform manner and offers examples to help judges draw from judicial practice in oth-er countries that have dealt with similar issues."We hope this manual will serve as a practical desk guide for judges to better under-stand the legal regulations and apply them properly to efficiently resolve arbitration and mediation-related matters under the jurisdiction of People's Courts," said Nguyen Thuy Hien, deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court.Introduced at a roadshow covering the three major business cities of Hanoi, Da Nang, and HCM City, the manual intends to serve as a reference point, helping judges apply the law consistently across courts to resolve arbitral issues with regard to new regula-tions in the Civil Procedural Code 2015. The code was amended to ensure consistency between Vietnam's legislative and regulatory framework and the regime under the New York Convention."The rule of law and its enforcement is crucial for an improved business environment," said Kyle Kelhofer, IFC Country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. "Busi-nesses and investors need clarity on rights and procedures to enforce contracts in Vi-etnam. When something goes wrong, both parties should know what to expect from the legal and arbitration system."Developed in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the manual will be a significant step towards making Vietnam a reliable des-tination for business and investment, where the rights of investors are respected and exercised fairly.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/vietnam-today/ifc-supreme-people-s-court-intro-duce-arbitration-and-mediation-guide

Buses are easy to make but difficult to export


Truong Hai Auto Company (Thaco) is making a move in the field of bus. On one hand, Thaco partnered with Daimler (Germany) to replace Mercedes-Benz Vietnam (MBV) in the distribution of trucks and buses under Fuso brand. On the other hand, Thaco signed contract with Mitsubishi Fuso on technology transfer and distribution. From here, Thaco will manufacture and assembly Fuso truck and Rosa bus models, and use main engines and spare parts to manufacture and assemble other types of buses.The signing is expected to support Thaco in organising and operating the new plant. This plant specialises in manufacturing buses and can reach a capacity of 20,000 units a year. In fact, before putting this plant in operation (December 8th 2017), Thaco has 10 years of experience in manufacturing and assembling buses. In the early days, Thaco manufactured buses on a line (2006), then established its own plant (2011). Two years later, Thaco self-designed and raised the localisation rate of buses under Thaco brand


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to 50%. To date, Thaco Bus plan has a modern scale and technology, with automated line and self-operating robots.In terms of output source, according to information from Thaco, the firm has provided more than 14,000 buses of all types to the market, accounting 54 percent of the bus mar-ket. Other companies such as Samco, Daewoo Bus, 1/5 Automobile Company, and Transico, etc. share the remaining market share.However, with new opportunities from the rising demand for public transportation (about 8 percent per annum), and the openness of international integration from 2018, both Thaco, Samco and Thanh Cong etc. have made strong investment activities.If Thaco has invested a plant for buses alone, Thanh Cong has recently shaken hands with Hyundai to set up Hyundai Thanh Cong Venture (HTCV), with the purpose to manufacture, assemble and distribute Hyundai models.With this joint venture, Thanh Cong has officially replaced Thaco to become the exclu-sive partner for Huyndai in Vietnam. Notably, after eight years of presence in the seg-ment of passenger vehicles, the cooperation with Thanh Cong marked a step forward in the commercial segment of Hyundai in Vietnam. In addition to manufacturing all kinds of trucks, HTCV plant will manufacture 12,000 passenger cars and buses each year.Meanwhile, Samco has gathered resources to the CNG buses (compressed natural gas). This investment is based on the policy of bus renovation from the People's Com-mittee. Specifically, in the four-year roadmap (2014-2017), the Hochiminh city People's Committee has plan to replace 1,680 buses, mainly by CNG buses, not including the addition of new buses.The reason for the interest of Samco, Thaco, Thanh Cong, or Tata (India), and Daimler (Germany), etc. in the field of bus is the prospect of bus development in the country.The Hochiminh city market is very potential. In particular, according to the target, Hochiminh city plans to make public transport, including buses, to cover 30 percent of the travel needs of people by 2030, rather than just 9-10 percent as at the present time. According to calculation, in the next 13 years, Hochiminh city will need to invest new vehicles at a quantity of 3-4 times larger than the current number. Information of the Hochiminh city Department of Transportation, as of May 2017, the city had about 3,000 buses in operation.If Hochiminh city bans all motorbikes in urban districts in 2030 as the policy men-tioned, buses will have the opportunity to develop. Furthermore, other provinces such as Hanoi, Binh Duong and Dong Nai, etc. also plan to promote buses. This is the driv-ing force for bus companies. Many units operating in the field of transportation, tour-ism or schools also have the needs to invest in busses. For example, Kumho Samco Buslines currently owns over 300 buses. In particular, in 2016, Kumho Samco Buslines purchased 50 sleeping buses from Thaco, and still has plan to purchase more vehicles of the same type over the years.Nevertheless, the need to buy new buses or improve buses in the domestic may be less than the supply from manufacturing and assembling. If running at full capacity, the bus supply from the plants of Thaco and HTCV is estimated to reach 20,000-32,000 units per year. Including the number of vehicles of other manufacturers, the supply of buses in the future will be much larger, not to mention imported vehicles. Currently, in the segment of mid-range buses (24-29 seats), Hyundai's County brand almost has no rival. Meanwhile, for Rosa bus model of Fuso, the orders, according to Fuso's rep-resentative, reached 350 units at the time of its establishment being launched into Vi-etnam's market in May 2016.This is probably the reason why both HTCV and Thaco are targeting to export buses. The goal of HTCB is to export the first batch of buses to neighbouring countries by the end of 2018, and it will expand the export to other regions around the world. For Thaco, the export target is also the Southeast Asia. Right in the inauguration of Thaco Bus plant, Thaco signed a contract to export nearly 1,200 buses to Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Cambodia. Initially, Thaco will export 550 units in 2018.Both Thaco and THCV expect to seize the opportunities from a large Southeast Asian


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market after ATIGA agreement on removing tariff barriers takes effect (from 2018). However, the export of buses of Vietnam to Asean countries may not be as favourable as expected.For example, despite being said as the "factory" of the regional automobile sector, the segment of buses is much smaller than that of the passenger vehicles. According to re-port of EIC, in 2011-2015 period, just about 1,500 new buses were sold in Thailand eve-ry year, as Thai people are increasingly choose to travel by metro (MTR) and sky train (BTS).In bus investment, Thailand favours the investment in used buses due to significantly cheaper prices (only 0.3-3 million baht while a new bus costs 5-10 million baht). Thai-land most imports buses from China market (accounting for over 50 percent of market share), followed by European and Japanese markets, etc.Analysis of Ipsos Business Consulting pointed out that Southeast Asia is not only the fifth largest automobile consumption market in the world but also a global automobile manufacturing hub. This means that the export of Vietnamese automobiles will have to face not only rivals from China, Japan and South Korea but also local names.For example, Proton brand is as popular in Malaysia as Honda in Vietnam. Proton has been sold in 10 countries, mostly in the Asian region.In terms of market, Vietnam is emerging as the most potential automobile consump-tion market in the world, with a low automobile ownership ratio with just 23 vehicles per 1,000 people, while this ratio in Thailand is 204 vehicles per 1,000 people and at least 400 vehicles per 1,000 people in developed countries, particularly 790 vehicles per 1,000 in the US. Improving infrastructure and income per capita expected to reach 3,000 USD per annum by 2020 are the reasons for the booming demand for car owner-ship in Vietnam.Nevertheless, if this is an opportunity for assemblers like Vingroup, it is a difficult task for assemblers like Thaco, especially when the auto industry is still mainly importing and assembling with low localisation rate, rudimentary supporting industry and high-er costs than Thailand and Malaysia.

Panasonic Eco Solutions expands Binh Duong plant, to double capacity


Panasonic Eco Solutions Vietnam Company Ltd on Monday completed expansion of its wiring devices and circuit breakers factory in the southern province of Binh Duong.A second factory building has been built to double production capacity by 2020, en-hancing its responsiveness to the rapid increase in demand for the products in Viet-nam.The existing plant produces around 53 million wiring devices and 13 million circuit breakers annually.With further expansion in the works, the company plans to sell its products in other Southeast Asian countries as well.Masaaki Kobayashi, general director of Panasonic Vietnam, said: "With our mission of making 'A better life, A better world' and contributing further to the development of Vietnam, the inauguration of the factory expresses our commitment to developing high Japan-quality 'made in Vietnam, make for Vietnam' products."As a brand built upon 100 years of reliability, Panasonic will continue to expand in different fields, invest in R&D, develop leading technologies, solutions and products, enhance customer service as well as contribute to society through different educational and environmental projects in Vietnam."http://bizhub.vn/corporate-news/panasonic-eco-solutions-expands-binh-duong-plant-to-double-capacity_290883.html

Petrolimex to sell euro 5 diesel in 2018


Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) plans to sell diesel meeting euro 5 emissions standards from January 1, 2018, becoming the first company to distribute diesel of the highest quality in Vietnam.At a press conference on Tuesday, deputy director general of Petrolimex Nguyen


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Quang Dung said some 70 per cent of Petrolimex stations will sell euro 5 diesel on the first day of 2018. Its price will be some VND15,210 (67 US cents) per litre, just around VND50 higher than diesel oil meeting euro 2 and euro 3 emissions standards.Although Vietnam only requires the euro 4 standard for diesel vehicles from 2018, Petrolimex's move to supply euro 5 diesel oil ahead of the schedule is part of the cor-poration's business strategy of competing through quality products and professional services, Dung said.The use of euro 5 diesel will help reduce emissions in the environment while increas-ing the endurance and capacity of vehicles thanks to the low ratio of sulfur, which is safer for users.Petrolimex also began supplying euro 4 RON 95 petrol from early 2017 and bio-fuel E5 RON 92 since December 15. It will stop selling mineral petrol RON 92 from the begin-ning of 2018.Currently, 82 per cent of its stations sell bio-fuel E5 RON 92.Petrolimex reported revenue of VND152.9 trillion in 2017, representing a rise of 7 per cent over the previous year.Its before-tax profit reached more than VND4.73 trillion, 1 per cent higher than the tar-get.At the conference, Dung also said Petrolimex will invest some VND1 trillion in devel-oping its petrol and oil retail stations nationwide in 2018 to cope with competition from the participation of foreign companies in the petrol retail market."The participation of other companies in the petrol retail market, especially foreign in-vestors, is a normal thing for us," Dung said.Petrolimex is the largest oil and petrol retailer in Vietnam with market share of some 50 per cent and more than 2,400 stations across the country.http://bizhub.vn/news/petrolimex-to-sell-euro-5-diesel-in-2018_290881.html

Work begins on VND200 billion fruit and veg processing plant in Son La

20/DEC/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV

Nafoods Tay Bac JSC broke ground on a fruit and vegetable processing plant in Moc Chau district, northern Son La province on December 19.The plant will be built on a 2ha plot in the Bo Mun Industrial Zone, Moc Chau District with an investment of VND200 billion over two phases of construction. It is expected to come into operation in September 2018.Equipped with modern facilities, the plant will have a daily processing capacity of 120 tonnes of passion fruit and vegetables. This production increase will lay the founda-tion for Son La passion fruit and other farm produce to gain a firm foothold in the do-mestic market and spread to demanding markets like the EU and America.After two years of cultivation, Nafoods Northwest Company has established nearly 700ha of passion fruit crops and is expected to raise the size to 5,000ha by 2021.According to Nguyen Van Anh, CEO of Nafoods Northwest Company, the achieve-ments of being certified by Global G.A.P and completing the export of their first 3 tonnes of passion fruit to France and Switzerland are considered a passport for the fruit to conquer the world's most demanding markets.This is a big event not only for Son La province but also for Vietnam's agriculture on a grand scale, said Van Anh.http://english.vov.vn/investment/work-begins-on-vnd200 billion-fruit-and-veg-processing-plant-in-son-la-364983.vov

Vinamilk faces pressure on brand maintenance and fast growth


One of the most impressive M&A deals in 2017 is the deal of Jardine Cycle & Carriage. The investor from Singapore surprisingly spent nine trillion dong to acquire more than 48 million shares of Vietnam Dairy JSC (Vinamilk), raising the ownership rate to 5.53%, though VNM share price is at record high level.When the Vietnam biggest dairy company is seeking for a new generation of leaders to replace old senior leaders, Jardine's drastic takeover move shows great ambition of this investor. Jardine Cycle & Carriage does not hide the ambition to quickly create in-


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fluence, becoming the real counterbalance of the two current big shareholders i.e. the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC, owning 36%), and Fraser & Neave (F&N, owning 18.7%). But is this easy? With foreign capital flow, will Vinamilk have more momentum to carry out new ambition?Vinamilk's attractiveness is obviously clear to domestic and foreign investors. In one recent decade, shares of the Vietnam biggest diary company have always been target-ed by many famous investment funds such as Dragon Capital, VinaCapital, DWS, etc.Over the last decade, VNM market price has increased nearly 300%, the capitalisation is largest in the market with more than $11.6 billion. The revenue growth over the last few years has been maintained at two digits to achieve more than 46.9 trillion dong in 2016. In the first nine months of this year, in spite of facing intense competition pres-sures from domestic and foreign competitors, Vinamik also recorded the growth rate of 10.37 percent compared to the same period last year while the net profit increased sharply 13.45 percent (8.548 trillion dong). This result is thanks to the shift of product structure focusing on higher added value industry and more efficient products such as organic milk produced from clean material area in Da Lat.In this year, the profit target set by the company's leadership is 9.735 trillion dong but some securities company assess that Vinamilk's profit may surpass 10 trillion dong for the first time. VNM stock is being traded at 194,000 dong, up nearly 50 percent from a year ago.Vinamilk's market share in the entire milk industry increased slightly 1.9 percent to 57.8 percent at the end of Q3/2017, of which, the market share of the liquid milk seg-ment is 58.1%, compared to 40.5 percent of powder milk segment besides continued dominance in the field of condensed milk and yogurt, though the yogurt market wel-comes another heavyweight component i.e. Nutifood.According to Kantar World Panel, the room for growth of the domestic milk industry still remains large thanks to the on-going population structure, urbanisation process and increased income. The average milk consumption per capita in Vietnam is just about 17 litters per annum, still rather low compared to Thailand market with 35 lit-ters/annum and Singapore with 45 litters/annum.Vinamilk's strength also lies in the scale of distribution channel when owning as many as 240,000 retail outlets nationwide. Besides, Vinamilk also owns 360 Vinamilk stores which are expected to increase to 400 at the end of this year in the strategy on expan-sion of the chain store to 1,000. Perhaps, apart from Masan, few other food businesses have such strong distribution system as Vinamilk now.Along with excellent marketing strategy, along with competitive selling price com-pared to other competitors, that Vinamilk is eyed by foreign investors is evident. In fact, Jardine Cycle & Carriage is no stranger to investors in the region. It is a Singapore-based group and member of a Hongkong-based multi-sectoral group Jardine Mathe-son. Some other members in this group is taking part in other fields in Vietnam such as real estate (Hongkong Land) and F&B franchise such as KFC Vietnam, Pizza Hut, etc. Jardine Cycle & Carriage is also a major shareholder of Truong Hai Automobile JSC with the ownership rate of 25.1%. In addition, this company also owns nearly 23 per-cent stake of Refrigeration Electrical Engineering JSC (REE). These are also industry leaders in their field and contribute significantly to Jardine's profits. "Vinamilk has an-other long-term financial investor with a wealth of experience". Jardine contributes more stability to Vinamilk and may increase value for the business in many different ways", said Hochiminh City Securities Company (HSC).The sudden appearance of Jardine makes the distribution of power in Vinamilk in the near future to be very difficult to predict. In the current Board of directors, the largest shareholder SCIC is holding three "seats", and F&N is holding two "seats". With the ownership rate of more than 10 percent of Vinamilk stake, Jardine may win a seat fol-lowing cumulative voting rule and may participate in strategic decisions of Vinamilk later on.Of course, other competitors cannot stand still. To maintain influence against too dras-


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tic takeover move of Jardine, F&N also joined into the race when registering to pur-chase nearly 22 million VNM shares from now till the beginning of 2018. If the purchase is successful, the ownership rate of F&N in Vinamilk will be raised by 1.5%.More than anyone else, F&N understands clearly the value that Vinamilk brings about, even the lifebuoy for the Group in the context of declining consumption in other mar-kets. At the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2017, F&N attained the record profit of 1.28 billion Singapore dollars (SGD) compared to just 108.1 million SGD in the pre-vious year. The largest contributor to F&N was the extraordinary income worth 1.2 bil-lion SGD from the reappraisal of the investment in Vinamilk under equity method.Without extraordinary profits from the sharp increase in VNM share price, F&N will witness a decrease in net profit by about 8.3 percent from 2016 due to the sharp in-crease in financial costs (partly due to the loan to acquire Vinamilk), declined sales and increased marketing cost.Besides F&N, decisions of the largest shareholder SCIC in the near future also greatly affect the situation of this deal. Although Vinamilk is on the list of SCIC's full divest-ment from now till 2020, the stock transfer at small ratio from the end of 2016 till now shows that SCIC is still considering carefully.The complete abandonment of the "golden egg" that brings about as much as $90 mil-lion dividend is a difficult "math" for any financial investor. That is not to mention, af-ter divesting from Vinamilk, the search for investment opportunities having equal profitability is also a big challenge for SCIC.After the transfer of VNM shares to Jardine investor, the ownership rate of SCIC still ensures veto right (at least 35%). However, the game is getting more balanced because the total ownership of two foreign shareholders i.e. Jardine and F&N has now reached more than 28%. That means if two foreign shareholders unite to increase ownership rate or negotiate with other shareholders having ownership rate of at least eight per-cent, they will have the same veto right as SCIC.Earlier, Vinamilk's management board agreed to loosen foreign room to the maximum level (100%), thereby making foreign investors to look at Vietnam market at desiring eyes.The recent move of Vinamilk i.e. to spend trillions of dong to acquire Khanh Hoa Sugar Company and rename it into Vietnam Sugar JSC (Vietsugar) marks a new milestone in the use of M&A tool to complete production chain and support growth.This can be considered a wise move. Although the company's performance is very good when the Return on Equity (ROE) has always been maintained at approximately 40 percent in recent years, with the market share that has accounted for more than half along with slower revenue growth (HSC forecasts Vinamilk's net revenue in this year is just 10.1%), the search for other growth momentum is necessary. "Other M&A tar-gets can be animal feed industry or other F&B businesses. Of course, these deals may happen in the long term", said Saigon Securities Company (SSI).As of the end of Q3/2017, the total short-term and long-term loans of Vinamilk were 517 billion dong, very modest compared to the asset scale. Healthy financial structure brings about significant advantage to the company in implementing M&A deals at large scale.In 2016-2017 period, Vinamilk plans to achieve an annual growth rate of 11.2 percent with revenue to reach 81 trillion dong, while maintaining net profit margin at 20%, or a bit lower than the previous stage. To meet growth demand in the coming years, Vinamilk with invest in expanding Mega plant with the target of doubling the current capacity from 400 million litters/annum to 800 million litters per annum in the context that the plant is now running at its almost full capacity.Vinamilk also plans to increase the material cow herd to 44,000 by 2021, actively meet-ing about 20 percent of the company's raw milk supply from about nine percent now.Earlier, the liquid milk market mainly belonged to Vinamilk and FrieslandCampina with smaller rivals such as Long Thanh, Da Lat, Moc Chau, Ba Vi, etc. In recent years, there appear more competitors such as TH True Milk, Nutifood, etc. along with dozens of liquid milk brands imported from abroad. This competition pressure forces


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Vinamilk to increase investment further to keep market dominance advantage. Vinamilk has very good cash flow generated from stable business with high profit growth. This is the platform for the flexible implementation of business strategies, putting pressure on all components. The real market capacity shows that just foreign rivals can threaten Vinamilk's position.Along with that is the expansion of export to potential markets. Vinamilk has overseas plants such as in the U.S (owning 100 percent of Driftwood plant in California), Cam-bodia (owning 100 percent of Angkormilk in PhnomPenh), NewZealand (owning 22.8%) and a subsidiary company in Poland. The company's products have been ex-ported to 43 countries in the world such as the U.S, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Myan-mar, Bangladesh and countries in the Middle East.Currently, the contribution of Angkormilk's revenue and profit into Vinamilk is still modest but this is the plant that has strong growth prospect and can be the model for Vinamilk's future expansion to regional markets such as Myanmar. Recently, Vinamilk signed a memorandum of understanding on supply of milk products to Chi-na market and expects to start importing the first shipments from 2018 after terminat-ing the period of examining product criteria."The initial export value may not contribute much to the general business result but this will be a big step forward of the company when it is able to bring products to a potential market with the world's largest population", Viet Dragon Securities Compa-ny said. The target to become one of the 50 world leading dairy companies with the turnover of $3 billion is still the next challenge that Vinamilk needs to conquer.Having foreign investors holding a large volume of stakes will bring about the hope of technology, capital and market, helping Vinamilk realise its ambition. Of course, the entire aforementioned ambitious plan can be affected if the company's shareholder structure is volatile and heterogeneous.Sharing about the prospect that Vinamilk may fall into the hands of other investors, especially foreign investors, Mai Kieu Lien, CEO of Vinamilk, said the most important issue is to maintain and protect brand. "Keeping Vinamilk brand is the thing that any-one is worried about. Foreign investors just purchase Vinamilk to develop but not to remove a long-standing and well-performing brand", said Lien.

VNA, USTH join forces to train aircraft maintenance engineers


Vietnam Airlines Engineering Company (VAECO), an arm of national flag carrier Vi-etnam Airlines (VNA), and the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH) have clinched an agreement to jointly train aeronautical staff, especially aircraft main-tenance engineers.The two sides will cooperate in a bachelor programme in aeronautical engineering and a Master's programme in international air transport operation management.Under the deal, USTH will coordinate with VNA to promote the two programmes and enroll students. The university will also provide facilities and lecturers to make the programmes efficient.Meanwhile, VNA pledged to annually recruit 30 graduates from the bachelor pro-gramme in aeronautical engineering for VNA or VAECO in the 2018-2022 period. The airline will choose people to attend the Master's programme as well.Vietnam Airlines and VAECO will make conditions favourable for trainees of the two programmes, including the provision of practice facilities and instructors.With the participation of European trainers, the bachelor programme is expected to train engineers with B1 and B2 aircraft maintenance certificates issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam. The Master's programme is aimed at developing man-agers for the aviation sector.Candidates can put their names down to join in the two programmes from January next year.VNA will support Vietnamese and European trainers and executive managers of the programmes in air travel between Paris and Hanoi from 2018 to 2023.At the signing ceremony, VNA general director Duong Tri Thanh said VNA's fleet has


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been improved in terms of quantity and quality. The demand for engineers, masters and researchers of the aviation sector is increasing, so VNA expects to tie up with pres-tigious universities at home and abroad to train high-skilled staff in charge of main-taining equipment, fuselages and engines, contributing to making Vietnam the leading aircraft maintenance centre in the region.USTH rector Patrick Boiron said the university is responsible for training high-skilled workers to meet the development goals of the country, especially the aviation sector. The idea of forming an aviation faculty in the university came up two years ago with the support of French universities and major firms and agencies in the Vietnamese avi-ation sector.According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Vietnam is one of the world's five fastest growing aviation markets. The number of domestic air passengers surged over 130 percent to 28 million last year over 2012. VNA has welcomed its 200 millionth passenger after more than twenty years of operation.VNA currently operates 90 flights to 20 domestic and 29 international destinations with an average of 400 flights a day. It has a fleet of modern aircraft including Boeing 787s, Airbus A350-900 XWBs, Airbus A330s and Airbus A321s.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57591/VNA-USTH-join-forces-to-train-aircraft-maintenance-engineers.html

Mobile World officially acquires Phuc An Khang Pharmacy


Tran Kinh Doanh, a member of the Mobile World Group (MWG) Board of directors, confirmed that the company has acquired Phuc An Khang Pharmacy to officially set foot in the pharmaceutical sector.The business deal has been completed and the partnership has launched a new brand name -- An Khang Pharmacy.This is the first time a representative of MWG confirmed the acquisition of the Phuc An Khang pharmacy chain. Earlier, there were wide-scale speculations and some stock companies have produced analysis of this possibility.Phuc An Khang was established in May 2006 with a total of 14 stores in HCM City. Meanwhile MWG planned to jump into pharmaceutical retail at the beginning of this year and expected to expand to 50 or 60 stores next year.Also, at this moment, MWG has been acquiring shares of Tran Anh Group (TAG). Doanh said that MWG has started to take over the business, IT system, and accounting departments, and sent key personage to manage TAG. The total M&A funds of MWG reached VND2,500 billion ($110 million).http://www.vir.com.vn/mobile-world-officially-acquires-phuc-an-khang-pharma-cy.html

Amway Home acquires high reputation Safer Choice Award from US


On December 14, Amway Vietnam officially launched the Amway Home product line that earned the Safer Choice Award of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in the framework of "Amway's Homecare Products & Safer Choice Cer-tificate Conference." Amway Home is one of the first homecare brands in Vietnam to receive this award.The "Amway's Homecare Products & Safer Choice Certificate Conference" took place at GEM Centre in HCM City with the participation of leading experts and doctors, such as Jim S. Pell -- specialist in Product Development and Technology Transference at Amway US Corporation, and Ngo Cao Lam -- dean of the Environmental Health De-partment of Preventive Medicine Centre of HCM City.Earning a safer choice label is the result of an extremely strict process in which Am-way's products had to improve tremendously to meet EPA requirements. Notably, the ingredients must be safe for human use and the environment with volatile organic compounds that reduce air pollution and the risk of respiratory disease. Additionally, products must contain highly efficient liquid concentrate for reducing water and elec-tricity consumption, waste, and be more economical. Besides, safe pH levels minimise


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skin irritation and eye injury.Moreover, EPA must review ingredients against agency standards for human and en-vironmental safety. They also review outside suppliers and audit manufacturing sites. Even after receiving the designation, EPA will continue to verify that Amway and partners adhere to the standards."I think the message needs to be about Amway's historical commitment to providing safer and more environmentally-sensitive homecare products to our customer. Am-way began its commitment to safer products in 1959 with the introduction of L.O.C. (liquid organic concentrate) -- one of the first multi-purpose biodegradable household products," scientist Jim S. Pell, specialist in R&D and Technology Transference of Am-way US Corporation, said at the event. "This is a commitment we are now reinforcing globally with the launch of the safer choice certification. Safer choice is a partnership with the US Environmental Protection Agency which assures that our products are saf-er for them, their families, and the environment without sacrificing quality or perform-ance."The Safer Choice Award has a total of five categories and Amway Home was reward-ed in the creator or producer category. The Safer Choice label signifies that the prod-uct's formula, as Amway has represented it to the EPA, contains ingredients with more positive human health and environmental characteristics than conventional products of the same type.http://www.vir.com.vn/amway-home-acquires-high-reputation-safer-choice-award-from-us.html

AEON MALL Hai Phong project to be kicked off in second quarter of 2018


Japanese shopping mall developer AEON MALL, the investor of AEON MALL Hai Phong in collaboration with the Hai Phong People's Committee, has accelerated com-pleting the procedures in early 2018 so that the construction can be started in the sec-ond quarter.At the working session with leaders of the Hai Phong People's Committee, Iwamura Yasutsugu, general director of AEON MALL Vietnam, affirmed that the company signed a contract in principle with Viet Phat Import-Export Trading JSC to develop the project which is expected to create about 2,000 new jobs for locals.Yasutsugu urged the Hai Phong People's Committee to accelerate the site clearance so that the construction can be implemented on schedule.The city will complete the site clearance this month, simultaneously completing the approval of procedures in January 2018. In addition, the city is accelerating the con-struction of transport infrastructure, including the Ho Sen-Cau Rao 2 Route in 2019, before Aeon Mall Hai Phong comes into operation.Earlier in September, AEON MALL Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hai Phong Investment-Trade-Tourism Promotion Centre to develop the project.Under the agreement, AEON MALL Vietnam will invest, build, manage, and develop an integrated shopping mall and provide related services, including catering, amuse-ment parks for children, as well as rental space, counters, and shelves, all constructed, installed, and decorated.The $180 million (approximately VND4 trillion) facility covers an area of 9.3 hectares at the Ho Sen-Cau Rao 2 Route and will be the company's third shopping mall in the north and the sixth one in Vietnam.Scheduled to come into operation in 2020, the Hai Phong mall is expected to attract over 13 million visitors every year from Hai Phong and the surrounding provinces, such as Quang Ninh, Hai Duong, Thai Binh, and others. The mall will not only be a place to improve shopping convenience for customers, but also a multi-purpose com-plex and a place for cultural and social activities for all ages, with many integrated en-tertainment and educational facilities.http://www.vir.com.vn/aeon-mall-haiphong-project-to-be-kicked-off-in-second-quar-ter-of-2018.html


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FrieslandCampina praised for sustainability


FrieslandCampina Vietnam has been ranked among the 100 most sustainable busi-nesses of 2017 for its contributions to the sustainable development of the country.The company has reduced the use of energy by 15 per cent and water by 25 per cent and cut CO2 emissions by 40 per cent compared to 2010.Its programme for the milk industry development, Den Dom Dom, which builds new schools in disadvantaged areas, provides nutrition education and does research, bring benefits to the community.For instance, the company has collaborated with the Red Cross for a campaign called Drinking Milk- Exercising- Healthy that benefits 75,000 children at 112 schools nation-wide.It also is working with Agriterra, a Dutch agriculture agency founded in 1997 to pro-mote, facilitate and support lasting cooperation between rural organisations in the Netherlands and in developing countries, to train Vietnamese farmers in best practic-es.This is the second year that the list has been drawn up by the Vietnam Business Coun-cil for Sustainable Development of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry along with the Ministries of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs, Industry and Trade, and Natural Resources and Environment, the Vietnam general Confederation of La-bour, and the State Securities Commission of Vietnam.It honours enterprises and organisations that pioneer sustainable development in the country.http://bizhub.vn/corporate-news/frieslandcampina-praised-for-sustainability_290887.html

Navigos launches 1st career platform for top executives


Leading recruitment company Navigos Group on Monday launched PRIMUS, the first career platform meant for candidates looking for managerial jobs with a minimum sal-ary of $3,000."Top 1" candidates can register with PRIMUS (www.primus.vn), and those who pro-vide full profiles, which are verified, will be able to access all placements posted on the site.When they want to apply for a job, PRIMUS will use a "matching score" tool to assess their suitability in terms of experience, skills and position.Applicants will also get help from professional recruitment consultants at PRIMUS to connect with employers.Currently, job searches and applications are free."Currently, we are having more than 4,000 high-level candidates, five verified recruit-ment agencies and 35 recruitment consultants," Gaku Echisenya, CEO of Navigos Group, said."We have about 200 vacancies with a minimum salary of $3,000, of which 60 per cent are at a director level, 18 per cent are at C-level and 90 per cent of the positions are pro-vided with full information."Navigos also has online recruitment portal VietnamWorks and executive search firm Navigos Search.http://bizhub.vn/tech/navigos-launches-1st-career-platform-for-top-executives_290888.html

Keppel Land to spend $300 million on prime sites in HCM City


Keppel Land Limited (Keppel Land) has signed sales and purchase agreements to ac-quire 100 per cent interest in two prime sites in HCM City. The total development cost of the two sites is estimated at $297 million.According to information published on the company website, on the first site located in Saigon South, Keppel Land plans to develop about 220 landed homes and a 1,029-unit high-rise condominium. The two developments will span a gross floor area (GFA) of about 36,110 and 141,540 square metres, respectively. The total development cost,


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inclusive of the expenditure for land purchase, is about $235 million.The second site is located in District 9 and borders the affluent residential enclave of District 2. Keppel Land will develop another 300 landed homes spanning a GFA of about 55,000sq.m. The total development cost for the six-hectare site, inclusive of land cost, is about $62 million.Ang Wee Gee, CEO of Keppel Land, said, "Vietnam's housing demand is expected to continue on its upward momentum, supported by the country's young population, growing middle-class, as well as rising urbanisation.""The two projects will add to Keppel Land's pipeline of more than 20,000 homes in Vi-etnam. We will continue to leverage our experience and expertise as one of Asia's pre-mier property companies with a strong track record of delivering well-planned, quality, and thoughtfully designed homes to meet the lifestyle aspirations of discern-ing homebuyers in Vietnam," Gee added.Keppel Land sold a total of 1,010 homes in Vietnam in the first nine months of 2017, four times its performance in the same period last year. The company has received pos-itive responses for Tilia Residences and Phase 2 of Empire City, which was launched in July 2017 and has sold more than 90 per cent of the 472 launched units by the end of September 2017.One of Asia's premier property companies, Keppel Land, a subsidiary of Keppel Cor-poration, is recognised for its sterling portfolio of award-winning residential develop-ments and investment-grade commercial properties, as well as high standards of corporate governance and transparency.The company is geographically diversified in Asia, with Singapore and China as its core markets, as well as Indonesia and Vietnam as its growth markets.In Vietnam, Keppel Land is one of the largest and pioneering foreign real estate devel-opers with a diverse portfolio of properties in Hanoi, HCM City, Dong Nai, and Vung Tau, including Grade A offices, residential properties, retail centres, integrated town-ships, and award-winning serviced apartments.http://www.vir.com.vn/keppel-land-to-spend-300 million-on-prime-sites-in-ho-chi-minh-city.html

Cat Ba to get a new resort


A future Cat Ba beach resort known as The Flamingo was publicised on Saturday in Hanoi, attracting attention from many real estate agents, such as An Cu, Dat Xanh and Landplus companies.The project is located in an area with developed infrastructure and traffic, such as Cat Bi airport, Lach Huyen international harbour, Hanoi-Hai Phong and Hai Phong-Quang Ninh highways.The resort covers an area of 77,843sq.m on Cat Co 1 and Cat Co 2 beaches of Cat Ba Island and has views of Lan Ha Bay. The resort has beautiful beaches, luxury accom-modation, coral reefs and mangroves.A conference centre with 800-2,000 seats will be built at the resort. It will provide an entertainment area, cinemas, child games area, swimming pools and a fitness centre. The project began in Hai Phong City with an investment of VND3 trillion (US$132 mil-lion). It is scheduled to be completed in 2019.http://bizhub.vn/property/cat-ba-to-get-a-new-resort_290832.html

Ca Mau: Work starts on construction of five-star hotel complex


Construction of the five-star Sao Mai international hotel complex began at Nhut Hong new urban area, city of Ca Mau, the same name province, on December 19.The 23-storey hotel is invested by the Sao Mai Group at total cost of more than 700 bil-lion VND (30.87 million USD). It has a total area of 46,000 square metres with 200 rooms and five-star services.Once operational in 2019, the complex is expected to cast a new look for the region, cre-ate jobs for local labourers and meet the demand for high-end accommodation of tour-ists and local residents.


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At the ground-breaking ceremony, Chair of the group Le Thanh Thuan pledged to car-ry out the project in line with set plan and ensure labour safety as committed to local authorities.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/ca-mau-work-starts-on-construction-of-fivestar-hotel-com-plex/123567.vnp

Savills to manage The Eden Rose


Vimefulland appoints Savills Vietnam to manage property in Hanoi's Thanh Tri dis-trict.Savills Vietnam has been appointed property manager of The Eden Rose, a villa and townhouse development belonging to Vimefulland, a real estate developer under the Vimedimex Group.This is the third project in which Vimefulland has selected Savills' property manage-ment services, following the Belleville Hanoi and The Emerald.Located in Thanh Liet, Thanh Tri district in Hanoi, the Eden Rose is on an 8-ha site at the junction of arterial roads connecting western and southeastern Hanoi: Ring Road 3, Road 70A, Kim Giang Road, and Bang Liet Street.The city centre is easily accessible with this new infrastructure, as is the airport and nearby shopping and entertainment facilities. The Eden Rose's location will become even more advantageous in the future when Thanh Tri district becomes a new eco-nomic hub of the capital.The development has 233 villas and townhouses designed around a central park. Six-ty-five per cent of the area is covered by gardens and lakes, including a signature rose square.Within the project is a school, a public library, medical and healthcare services, swim-ming pools, and restaurants. With hand over expected in the second quarter of 2018, Savills will begin providing property management services at The Eden Rose at the be-ginning of the new year, taking over the project from subcontractors and establishing management and operations systems, including recruiting a property management team and conducting relevant training.After the official confirmation by Vimefulland, Vu Kieu Hanh, Head of Property Man-agement at Savills Hanoi, said she believes this is a strategic move by the developer. "In a residential market with an abundant supply of high-end products, customers not only consider obvious factors like price and location," she explained. "Complementing enhancing values are also taken into account, and the quality of the property manager is one of them. Homebuyers look for professional management to help ensure their benefits as future residents. And investors look for a reputable and trusted property manager to more easily attract tenants. Many developers choose to announce early on in the sales phase their cooperation with an experienced property services provider to support better sales. This is exactly the value that Savills Vietnam will bring to The Eden Rose before beginning to provide property management services, upholding our reputation as a professional and trusted international property manager with many years of doing business in Vietnam."The Eden Rose, Belleville Hanoi, and The Emerald are the latest additions to the ap-proximately 2,500 sq m of property managed by Savills, with other projects including StarLake, Goldmark City, Mandarin Garden, Richland Southern, BIDV Tower, and Capital Tower in Hanoi, and Saigon Pearl, The Vista, Avalon, Riviera Point, and Mas-teri Thao Dien in HCM City.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/property/savills-to-manage-the-eden-rose

CapitaLand hands over Vista Verde apartments


Developer's HCM City project welcoming homebuyers ahead of schedule.CapitaLand has recently announced the hand over to buyers at the last two buildings of the Vista Verde residential project in HCM City's District 2.First launched in 2014, Vista Verde has been developed by CapitaLand Vietnam and its joint venture partner the Thien Duc Trading Construction Company, with two


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phases: Towers 1 and 2 in the first and the Lotus and Orchid Towers in the second. More than 80 per cent of Phase 1 has been handed over since July.Phase 2 is now ready for hand over, ahead of schedule. The Lotus and Orchid Towers are the most premium of the project's towers, with the majority of units having spec-tacular views over the Saigon River and Districts 1, 2 and 7. Each Tower also boasts exclusive facilities such as an observation deck and picnic lawn.Vista Verde's retail mall, Faifo Lane, already has key tenants, including cafes, conven-ience stores and supermarkets. More tenants are expected to open early in the new year, including food and beverage and spa and wellness outlets."CapitaLand Vietnam is committed to timely completion and hand over to homebuy-ers," said Chen Lian Pang, CEO of CapitaLand Vietnam. "With the handing over of residential units at Vista Verde and completion of Faifo Lane, we believe we can build a vibrant community in the Thanh My Loi area, similar to how we have transformed the An Phu area in District 2 with our projects The Vista and Oxygen Mall."Comprising 1,152 high-end apartments in four 35-storey residential towers, Vista Verde showcases lush green landscaping and is designed to bring a symphony of na-ture to residents. Strategically located in the heart of District 2's administrative centre, it is just five minutes away from essential amenities.Vista Verde provides residents with more than 50 recreational facilities and design fea-tures. In addition, Faifo Lane will provide residents with essential retail shopping at their convenience. Designed for modern living, apartments at Vista Verde include spa-cious living and dining areas, natural ventilation, and loggias.It won the prestigious "Best Condominium in Vietnam" award at the Asia Pacific Prop-erty Awards 2015 and the "Best Landscape Architectural Design" award at the Viet-nam Property Awards 2015. The two awards recognise CapitaLand's efforts to incorporate international design principles and practices at Vista Verde.

Furama Resort Danang named winner at 2017 World Luxury Hotel Awards


Furama Resort Danang, a five-star culinary beach resort in Vietnam, has scooped up two winning trophies at the prestigious World Luxury Hotel Awards. The awards cer-emony took place earlier this month in St. Moritz in Switzerland.Furama Resort Danang was announced as the winner of the Luxury Ocean View Re-sort and the Luxury Wedding Destination titles for its prime location as well as excel-lent services.Since 2006, the annual World Luxury Hotel Awards has been serving as the global rec-ognition of hotels' sustained commitment to excellence in hoteliering and outstanding achievements in the international luxury hospitality industry.Conducted in a four-week period starting from the beginning of September, this year's poll received some 300,000 votes from international travellers and leading tourism ex-perts.Furama Resort Danang is part of the Ariyana Tourism Complex, including Furama Re-sort, Furama Villas, and the new Ariyana Beach Resort & Suites project, with more than 1,000 apartments, and the Ariyana Convention Centre, where a week-long series of Apec meetings and related events was held earlier in November.Reputed as the best culinary beach resort in Vietnam and overlooking one of the six most gorgeous beaches in the world, Furama Danang comprises of 198 resort rooms and 56 two-to-four bedroom pool villas, featuring tasteful decor designed in a tradi-tional Vietnamese style and a touch of French colonial architecture and Champa arte-facts.Matthias Wiesmann, general manager of Furama Resort Danang, said: "It is such a great honour for us to receive another international recognition. This reward befits our resort's commitment to service excellence and all our constant efforts put in providing guests with unforgettable experiences. The awards are a reminder that we have to keep on improving our services and product offerings considering the tough competi-tion in the Vietnamese hospitality sector."


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Post-Apec opportunity for Vietnam's industries


More than 150 business leaders have gathered at a conference held today in HCM City to discuss the orientations of Vietnam's industries after the Apec Vietnam 2017.Hosted by SCG, one of the leading conglomerates of the Asean, the conference aims to summarise the key resolutions of the Apec Business Advisory Council (ABAC)'s meet-ing during the Apec 2017 in Vietnam and highlight its impact on the growth of key in-dustries in Vietnam.According to Hoang Van Dung, chair of ABAC Vietnam, the ABAC meetings were concluded with numerous recommendations to Apec leaders to foster regional busi-ness progress."The recommendations focus on promoting regional integration and removing protec-tionist barriers to facilitate business development and investment; addressing climate change and the energy framework; the importance of sustainability and inclusive de-velopment; and supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises in finance and tech-nologies, with vision until 2020 and onwards. These proposals, once put into action, will directly impact local businesses," Dung said.The conference has also provided suggestions on how companies in Vietnam could grab these opportunities to grow their businesses inclusively and sustainably.Especially, SCG -- as the leader in building materials, packaging and the plastic indus-try -- provided top-line insights in these sectors, with practical recommendations for local businesses."This year, following ABAC's resolutions in strategic issues including inclusive devel-opment and sustainability, this conference was organised for the country's business leaders to discuss the specific impacts of these trends on Vietnam's industries. These insights will hopefully support local businesses to plan ahead for future challenges," said Vu Tien Loc, chair of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).http://www.vir.com.vn/post-apec-opportunity-for-vietnams-industries.html

Vientiane forum seeks to boost Vietnam-Laos trade


The ministries of industry and trade of Vietnam and Laos co-organised a forum in Vi-entiane on December 19 to seek ways to improve bilateral trade, which is estimated at 900 million USD in 2017, up 10 percent year-on-year.Vietnamese deputy minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh said after a pe-riod of decline in 2015-2016, Vietnam-Laos trade regained momentum this year and met the target of 10-percent increase as set by leaders of the two countries.Lao deputy minister of Industry and Trade Bounmy Manivong said the forum aims to provide a chance for the two sides to review relevant documents reached during the past time and look for measures to remove outstanding problems and obstacles in bi-lateral trade and investment cooperation.Speakers presented their assessments about the current trade relations, pinpointed problems in trade and trade-related investment activities between the two countries, particularly those related to mechanisms and administrative procedures.Current bilateral cooperative mechanisms also came under spotlight, with the aim of improving them to support the business communities of both countries to enhance production and export capacity.Participants compared notes on the good and bad points of the One stop shop model at border gates with a view to facilitating border trade.Another issue of interest on the agenda was the direction and solutions for the trade of electricity between Vietnam and Laos.The forum attracted the participation of industry and trade officials of the two coun-tries, and representatives from Vietnamese and Lao economic groups and firms.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vientiane-forum-seeks-to-boost-vietnamlaos-trade/123572.vnp


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Over 300 exhibitors to join auto fair in HCM City


More than 300 domestic and foreign businesses will take part in the 14th Saigon Auto-tech & Accessories International Exhibition scheduled in HCM City on May 24-27 next year.On display at 500 booths will be alternative drive units, charging accessories, automo-biles, motorcycles, electric and sport bikes, accessories and spare parts, and smart parking solutions, among others.The event is expected to attract over 15,000 visitors.According to the organiser Asia Trade Fair & Business Promotion, Vietnam's spare part industry will face fierce competition from Thailand and Indonesia when the Asean Free Trade Agreement takes effect in 2018, bringing import-export tax on auto-mobile accessories and parts among Asean countries down to 0 percent.The exhibition is organised to promote the exchange of technology and trade among leading spare part and accessories suppliers in the region.Preferential treatment will be given to Vietnamese businesses to encourage their en-gagement in the event.The organising board has also planned a business matching conference, providing a platform for domestic and overseas producers to seek partnershttps://en.vietnamplus.vn/over-300-exhibitors-to-join-auto-fair-in-hcm-city/123574.vnp End


finance & business news 20 December - hkbav.org .pdf · (FII) in the last months of the year,...

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