Download - Mau Intellasia Finance Vietnam - hkbav.org · Billions of dollars ready for disbursement in property market 16 Vietnam's green dream within reach 17 Property sales in Industry 4.0

14 March 2018

finance & business news

FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Reference exchange rate adjusted further down 1US dollar losing charm as investment haven in Vietnam 2Foreign currency supply remains plentiful 3Banks stock drive VN Index over peak 4Bad debts yet to decline 4Foreign banks assure continued presence in Vietnam 6Foreign banks' withdrawal no cause for concern: experts 6Non-life insurers set cautious targets in 2018 8Jardines Matheson to play part in restructuring weak banks? 9Japan bank considers funding PetrolVietnam's gas project 9CPTPP a progressive trade direction in 21st century 10Vietnam prime minister says first-quarter growth of 7.41

pct likely: website 11DOC receives petitions for anti dumping investigation on

plastic bags 11Turkey's anti-dumping investigation into Vietnam's core

weldining wire 11VN's laminated woven sacks might face anti-dumping

investigation 12Cement consumption on the rise 12Qualified t people soughfor State capital management committee 13SOEs failed to disclose business information to be punished 13$66b invested in Greater Mekong Sub-region: ADB official 13Can Tho enhances collective economy 14Property market expected to be stable in 2018 15Billions of dollars ready for disbursement in property market 16Vietnam's green dream within reach 17Property sales in Industry 4.0 era 19Office leasing market promises undetained impetus on all fronts 21CP TPP to bring both opportunities, challenges to breeding sector 22CPTPP impacts on small and medium enterprises 23Garment-textile sector eyes 10pct growth in 2018 24Snacks market in VN worth $500 million 24Supporting industries urged to improve competitiveness 25Electronics industry needs development: seminar 26E-commerce eager for Amazon debut 27

Some pursue, some abandon billion dollar projects 28Another domestic giant joins retail segment 29Vietnam & New Zealand trade to reach $1.7- 2bn by 2020 3170 HK businesses seeking trade ties in Vietnam 32

BIZ NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Business Briefs 14 March, 2018 33March 13: Main indexes gain ground 33Foreign investors confident in Vietnamese stock market

outlook 34Thai firms continue pushing for bigger Vietnam market share 35US news website names Hanoi among 13 best places

to visit in March 36Outstanding enterprises in made-in-VN products campaign

to be named 36Vietnam spends big on abattoir training to secure Aussie

cow imports 36More Chinese travellers visiting Vietnam via chartered flights 37Peruvian grapes arrive in Vietnam 38Saigon Petro proposes cutting bio-fuel tax 39Vinachem's loss-making projects grapple with huge interest

payments 39Ministry asks Formosa to clarify investment increase 40UK's group encouraged to participate in SOEs' restructuring 41Korean groups planning Thua Thien-Hue tourism complex 41Lazada to be inspected over customer complaints 41MobiFone, AVG cancel acquisition agreement 43Tuan Chau Group to invest in Vung Tau mega project 44Silk Path Hotels Resorts opens French chateau-inspired

resort in Sa Pa 44ILDC wants to develop $6 billion deep seaport complex in

Soc Trang 45Spotify challenges Apple Music in Vietnam's streaming market 46Exerting influence 46Jail terms declared in Da River water pipelines ruptures 48Binh Duong to host World Technopolis Association 2018 events 50

FINANCE

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FINANCEReference exchange rate adjusted further down

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VNA

The daily reference exchange rate was adjusted down for the second consecutive day on March 14, standing at 22,440 VND/USD, 10 VND less than the rate set on March 13.With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is 23,113 VND/USD and the floor rate 21,769 VND/USD.The opening hour rates at major commercial banks went up slightly.Vietcombank is listing the buying rate at 22,725 VND/USD and the selling rate at 22,795 VND/USD, both up 5 VND from the previous day.Similarly, the rates at BIDV also went up 5 VND to 22,730 VND/USD (buying) and 22,800 VND/USD (selling).Vietinbank is buying the greenback at 22,729 VND/USD and selling at 22,799 VND/USD, both up 1 VND from the rates on March 13https://en.vietnamplus.vn/reference-exchange-rate-adjusted-further-down/127824.vnp

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Vietnam finance & business 14 March 2018

US dollar losing charm as investment haven in Vietnam

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| TUOITRE NEWS

The State Bank of Vietnam takes credit for its resolute effort to keep the foreign ex-change rate stableShort-term trading in US dollars has increasingly become less lucrative in Vietnam as the VND-USD exchange rate has been kept stable by the State Bank of Vietnam, which also maintains a zero interest rate for savings in the greenback.Many Vietnamese would stockpile US dollars for savings instead of the local currency, hoping to rake in profits, albeit insignificant, from short-term price fluctuations.However, this method has become less remunerative in the last few years, when the State Bank of Vietnam, the country's central bank, began to boost its effort to de-dol-larise the economy through different administrative measures."Dollar prices at local banks only rose 1.1 percent to VND22,790 from VND22,540 over the last year, meaning it is not really profitable to hold this currency as an investment," Loan, a HCM City resident, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.Loan and her husband have some VND400 million ($17,640) to spare after the Lunar New Year that ended last month, and were told to invest in foreign currency as the sum was not enough to be channeled into real-estate.However, Loan said she has carefully studied the forex market and decided that "it would be better if we put the money in [VND] savings or stocks."Like Loan, many Vietnamese have changed their mindset, after realising that they could no longer reap easy money from trading the greenback short-term.Huong, another HCM City resident, used to be a short-term trader of the dollar, one who stockpiled the foreign currency only to immediately sell it once its price in-creased."I was able to make a few million dong every several days then but this has no longer been the case in recent years," she said.The VND-USD exchange rate is expected to remain stable even when the US Federal Reserve is projected to hike its benchmark interest rate three times this year."Last year, there were three FED interest rate increases but the foreign exchange rate remained almost unchanged, so I don't think the situation will be different this year," Loan said.Forex rate to remain stable in 2018From a regulatory viewpoint, Truong Van Phuoc, acting chair of the National Commit-tee for Financial Supervision, explained that all the FED interest rate increases were carefully planned and announced beforehand, so any impact they may leave on the in-ternational financial market is quite predictable.Theoretically speaking, a higher interest rate would drive global investment back into the US, thus strengthening the dollar."However, the reality is that some $30 billion worth of investment has since been poured into emerging markets, including Vietnam, and the dollar was actually weak-ened by an average of nine percent compared to other strong currencies," Phuoc told Tuoi Tre.The policies meant to protect the US against a trade deficit under the administration of President Donald Trump could explain this unexpected development, Phuoc added.The official went on to underline that any changes to the FED interest rates in 2018 will also have insignificant effects on the foreign exchange and foreign currency market in Vietnam.The dollar is expected to lose five percent of its strength following the FED rate hikes this year, compared to the nine percent depreciation in 2017, which "only lends cre-dence to predictions that it will leave diminutive impacts on Vietnam."The positive outlook is also backed by such factors as Vietnam's record $60 billion in foreign reserves, and a $1.1 billion trade surplus in the first two months of this year, according to the official."These all lay solid ground for [the central bank] to stabilise the foreign exchange rate," he concluded.Since 2015, the central bank has set a zero percent interest rate for savings in US dollars

Intellasia 14 March 2018 2 / 50

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for both individual and corporate clients in order to support its anti-dollarisation ef-fort.As people are no longer able to take profit from US dollar savings, the central bank has been able to keep the foreign exchange rate stable and managed to buy across a large number of foreign currencies to elevate its foreign reserves.Dao Minh Tu, a deputy governor of the central bank, said in December that it was "not the right time" to scrap this policy.https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/business/20180313/us-dollar-losing-charm-as-invest-ment-haven-in-vietnam/44501.html

Foreign currency supply remains plentiful

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| BIZLIVE

According to Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI)'s Vietnam's monetary and financial report in February 2018, the monetary market in the first two months had many macro factors that were maintained in good condition.In this period, foreign investment in the form of capital contribution and share pur-chase increased 102.5 percent year-on-year to $1.25 billion.Most notably, the sale of Sabeco shares at the end of 2017 helped the state budget gain 110 trillion dong, equal to $4.8 billion, creating an unexpected foreign currency supply for the market.The FDI disbursed in the first two months of this year swelled 9.7 percent year-on-year to $1.7 billion.The trade balance ran a surplus of $1.08 billion in the first two months of 2017, follow-ing seven consecutive months of trade surplus since July 2017.The abundant supply of foreign currency and stable exchange rate continued to facil-itate the State Bank's foreign currency purchase, increasing the foreign currency re-serves to nearly $60 billion only in the first two months of 2018, compared to more than $50 billion at the end of last year.Along with the foreign currency purchase, the State Bank injected a large amount of dong. So, despite the peak of payment in the first two months of the year, the banking system still maintained abundant liquidity status.This is shown on the Open market operation (OMO) where the State Bank only lends more than 20 trillion dong, plummeting from the common amount of more than 100 trillion dong in the previous years.After the Lunar New Year 2018, as the liquidity of banking system was abundant, the State Bank issued T-bills to withdraw 80 trillion dong.Thanks to abundant liquidity, banks have strengthened their investment in govern-ment bonds, causing the demand for bonds to swell, and the bid value is four times higher than the offer value.The winning ratio reached 93 percent, equal to the fact that more than 29 trillion dong bonds were issued, up 10.4 percent year-on-year.The fact that bid winning interest rates fell sharply after Tet caused interest rates to go down about 1.4 percent from the end of 2017, equal to 3.05 percent (5-year term), 3.4 percent (7-year term) and four percent (10-year term).In 2018, the State Treasury planned to issue 200 trillion dong government bonds, up 25 percent from the total actual issuance value in 2017 at 159.9 trillion dong.SSI noted that the value of bonds matured in 2018 significantly decreased compared to 2017 and the budget revenue from State-owned enterprises (SOE)'s equitisation in-creased.According to SSI, till the end of February 2018, most of signals in the monetary market are still positive.The rapid increase of inflation in the first two months of the year has not had any sig-nificant impact as inflation expectations in the following months will be low or de-crease.Foreign capital flowing through various channels have generated positive momentum for the economy, supporting exchange rate and system liquidity, generating large pushes for the stock market.


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However, a noticeable risk is that the reversing foreign capital flow may generate ad-verse impacts, following new developments in the US concerning the trade war and the possibility that the US is likely to raise interest rates faster.

Banks stock drive VN Index over peak

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VNS

A huge cash flow into banking and securities shares in the final minutes of Tuesday's session on the local stock exchanges drove shares up, with the VN Index finally ex-ceeding the short-term peak of 1,130 points.The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange advanced 0.62 per cent to close at 1.133,31 points, totalling a two-day rise of 0.88 per cent.According to BIDV Securities JSC (BSC), the VN Index surpassed the peak with the dy-namics from the smart cash flow."Positive market sentiment will likely pull the index up in the next session. However, the risk still exists when the division tends to spread and liquidity has not really broke through," BSC said.The minor HNX Index moved up 0.47 per cent to end at 129.66 points. The northern market index advanced 1.16 per cent to end at 129.06 points on Monday.More than 289.09 million shares were traded on the two local bourses, worth VND7.9 trillion (US$348 million).On the two stock markets, the market breadth was negative with 268 declining stocks against 214 gaining ones, while 249 other shares ended flat.The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) fell 0.09 per cent to 61.31 points, totalling a two-day lost of 0.19 per cent.Foreign investors today were net buyers of VND184.18 billion on HOSE, focusing on VRE (VND213.64 billion), VIC (VND57.45 billion) and VNM (VND28 billion). In addi-tion, they net sold VND4.95 billion on the HNX.The banking and securities sectors indices jumped 1.65 per cent and 1.67 per cent, re-spectively, data on vietstock.vn showed.Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (CTG) is the most no-ticeable among banking shares that contributed to Tuesday's gain, up 6.7 per cent, fol-lowed by Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPB) and Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBB), up 2 and 2.7 per cent, respectively.Blue-chips in the brokerage sector also rallied, including Sai Gon Securities Incorpora-tion (SSI), gaining 2.86 per cent, HCM City Securities Corporation (HCM), rising 5.46 per cent and VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND), up 1.8 per cent.According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), market sentiment is forecast to stay cautious in the next sessions as investors are waiting for the review of the two ETFs this weekend. The market is likely to continue its sideways movement amid wide di-vergence.Meanwhile, according to Viet Dragon Securities Co (VDSC), the VN Index continued to fluctuate strongly within the session, which might be interesting for risk-seeking in-vestors. As for risk-averse ones, we recommend to monitor market moves and wait for clearer opportunities.http://bizhub.vn/markets/banks-stock-drive-vn-index-over-peak_293144.html

Bad debts yet to decline

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| BAO DAU TU

A bright spot in the banking picture in 2017 was the improvement of asset quality of the credit institution (CI) system. according to estimates of the National Financial Su-pervisory Commission (NFSC), the bad debt ratio of the system by the end of 2017 was about 9.5 percent, significantly lower compared to the 11.9 percent recorded in late 2016, mainly thanks to the reduction of the restructured potential debts, corporate bonds, and external receivables.Figures from the 2017 financial statements of 13 surveyed banks showed that the total bad debts reached 60.533 trillion dong, slightly up by 0.7 percent compared to the be-ginning of the year. In absolute number, eight out of 13 banks recorded bad debt rise in the 2017. Nevertheless, thanks to the acceleration of credit growth, only five out of


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13 banks saw increase in the ratio of bad debts on total outstanding debts, including Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade of Vietnam (VietinBank), Saigon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB), Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank), Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Tech-combank), and Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank). Another good sign is that the total group 5 debts (irrecoverable debts) by the end of 2017 fell by 8.3 percent compared to the beginning of the year.Specifically, Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) had the lowest bad debt ratio in the surveyed group, reaching only 0.7 percent compared to 0.87 percent recorded in the beginning of the year. The bank's irrecoverable debts also dropped from 0.64 per-cent to 0.4 percent. Meanwhile, although the bad debt ratio remains at high level, Sa-combank has made significant progress in settling bad debts. Accordingly, as of late 2017, the bank's bad debt ratio declined to 4.16 percent from 6.91 percent in the begin-ning of the year.The strong bad debt decline of many banks in 2017 was thanks to CIs' acceleration of bad debts after the issuance of Resolution 42/2017-NQ14, particularly in the last months of the year. CIs limited the sale of bad debts to Vietnam Asset Management Company, while other bad debt settlement forms such as sale of bad debts, sale of se-cured assets, especially the use of provisions for risks were also promoted.Hence, provisioning for risks is the pressure for many banks. ACB set aside 49.1 per-cent of the bank's net profit (2.565 trillion dong) to provision for risks in 2017. Mean-while, this number at BIDV was 62.9 percent of the net profit, reaching 14.915 trillion dong.According to assessment of financial experts, in 2018, CIs will continue to provision at 20 percent of the special bonds after selling debts to VAMC. Accordingly, CIs having large amount of outstanding special bonds will continue to be negatively impacted by the provisions for risks, while a small number of CIs which have completed settling bad debts at VAMC will see a more favourable business year.Chair of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) Duong Cong Minh said that the bank's bad debt ratio was 6.68 percent in early 2017 and 4.28 percent in late 2017. It is expected to be lowered to 3 percent in 2018. Sacombank sets 2018 pre-tax profit target cautiously at 1.640 trillion dong.Bad debts and risk provisions are still the burden for Sacombank in 2018. Data gath-ered from financial statements showed that Sacombank currently has the highest bad debt ratio in the system. The surge of Sacombank's bad debts was due to the merger with Southernbank in October 2015.Meanwhile, according to SSI Retail Research, in 2018, after completing the handling of existing bad debts, ACB may record a pre-tax profit of 5.249 trillion dong, up by 130 percent compared to the realised figure in 2017. The bank's credit growth is estimated at 18 percent, equivalent to the overall level of the system. Meanwhile, its profit from business activities may increase by 10.2 percent to 11.740 trillion dong.As forecasted by the NFSC, in 2018, the bad debt settlement will be more positive and substantial, thanks to the stable macroeconomic factors, the growth momentum of the economy, the betterment in the situation of enterprises, stock market and real estate market, and the gradual improvement of the legal framework for bad debt and se-cured asset handling.Financial expert Huynh Trung Minh believed that the issuance of Resolution 42/2017-NQ14 has helped the settlement of bad debts become increasingly positive, especially when the real estate market gets warmer. Despite raising the 2018 profit targets, banks have also been cautious in building plans as the risk provision pressure still exists.

Foreign banks assure continued presence in Vietnam


Some foreign banks have assured that they will retain their presence in Vietnam after withdrawing capital from some Vietnamese partners recently, noting that the country is still an attractive market.Local media recently reported on the capital withdrawal of BNP Paribas of France,


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HSBC of Hong Kong (China) and Commonwealth of Australia from their Vietnamese partners.Last January, Standard Chartered of the US sold all of its 8.75-percent stake in the joint venture with the Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) of Vietnam. Meanwhile, Australian-owned ANZ Vietnam also sold all of its retail banking segment in the Viet-namese market to Shinhan Vietnam in December 2017.The withdrawal of the foreign investors has caused concern of a mass capital outflow from Vietnam.However, a representative of ANZ Vietnam confirmed they will not exit the country, adding that the transfer of the retail segment to Shinhan is part of ANZ's strategy to increase its capital efficiency and focus resources on business and financial institution clients, which are the biggest business segments of ANZ in Asia.The representative said with its long-standing successful operations in Vietnam, the bank pledges to continue its presence in this market to support businesses and finan-cial institutions.Commenting on some foreign banks' capital withdrawal, economy-finance expert Bui Quang Tin said investors usually have their own plans or strategies after joining a partnership."Additionally, business is not always smooth, so withdrawing or investing capital is just a business strategy of foreign investors," he added.According to finance-banking expert Nguyen Tri Hieu, many Asian investors have en-tered Vietnam over the past years. However, those from Europe are rather reluctant and in fact, some big European banks have pulled capital out of Vietnam.He attributed the situation mainly to Asian investors' understanding of the market and business culture in Vietnam. They have also possibly had traditional clients here, and investing in the country is a way to support the clients from their homelands.Some foreign banks also highly value the Vietnamese market, especially its retail bank-ing segment.Sabbir Ahmed, head of the Retail Banking and Wealth Management at HSBC Vietnam, said retail is still an important business segment of HSBC in Vietnam.The ANZ representative also expressed optimism about business opportunities in the Southeast Asian nation, citing a stable government, a favourable population, increas-ing trade integration and foreign direct investment and the strong growth of the mid-dle class.Bui Quang Tin said foreign investors are likely to invest more in local banks like Viet-combank, VietinBank and BIDV when these banks expand foreign ownership. Agrib-ank's coming equitisation has also attracted great interest from foreign investors.Private commercial banks are predicted to earn good profits this year and the follow-ing years. While the bad debt rate is expected to decline, bank stock value has risen sig-nificantly recently. Those factors will entice investors in the time to come, he added.Echoing this view, Nguyen Tri Hieu said thanks to the recent signing of the Compre-hensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, Vietnamese banks will be attractive destinations in the future.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/foreign-banks-assure-continued-presence-in-vietnam/127790.vnp

Foreign banks' withdrawal no cause for concern: experts


The trend of foreign financial institutions withdrawing capital from their Vietnamese joint ventures has raised questions about the country's state of financial stability, but experts claim the situation is no cause for alarm.Since early to mid 2017, well known international institutions such as France's BNP Paribas, Hong Kong's HSBC and Australia's Commonwealth Bank have attracted me-dia attention as they took turns withdrawing money from their Vietnamese partners.The trend continued with ANZ's sale of their retail sector in Vietnam to Shinhan Bank's Vietnamese branch in December 2017. US Standard Chartered Bank sold its entire 8.75 per cent stake in a joint venture with Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) in January 2018.


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The main reason for a number of international banks' narrowed operations in Vietnam, according to some experts, is an inevitable change in their business strategy. These banks consider maintaining previous investments less profitable than withdrawing capital from their Vietnamese partners and investing elsewhere.Banking expert Nguyen Tri Hieu drew a contrast between Western banks and Asian banks. He explained that Asian investors are quite knowledgeable about Vietnam's market and business culture with their own native clients working here, much more so than their Western counterparts.Hieu told the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) that in recent years, many Asian investors from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore have entered Vietnam, while inves-tors from European countries are becoming more cautious, with some banks with-drawing capital from the country.Talking to the VNA, financial expert Bui Quang Tin said that a divergence in business strategies is unavoidable when domestic and foreign capital investors work together for a significant length of time.Tin shared his positive view that in the near future, foreign investors will be able to invest more in local banks, namely Vietcombank, VietinBank or BIDV, once these in-stitutions opt for a more open cooperation policy, especially with Agribank's immi-nent equitisation.He further argued that private commercial banks should expect profit in the following years to rise, while the bad debt ratio is expected to decrease thanks to the National Assembly's Decree 42 on handling bad credit institutions.In the same vein, the National Financial Supervisory Commission quoted financial and banking expert Can Van Luc that the national banking system is better than it was a few years ago.Luc opposed the suggestion that a high level of non-performing loans, lack of risk management and corporate governance have reduced Vietnamese banks' attractive-ness."I do not think that the country's business market is deteriorating, nor is it the reason behind decreasing banks' profit, as some have commented," said Luc.On the contrary, positive factors such as sharply increasing banking stocks, average annual growth rate of 15 to 16 per cent in the financial sector and a more open legal corridor mean Vietnam should be seen as a potential investment destination, he add-ed.Here to stayIn order to attract and retain investment from foreign banks, the domestic banking sys-tem would need to be more flexible, professional and comprehensively re-structured, said Hieu."The national banking system has begun restructuring in recent years, but still not all the way. Only when domestic banks are able to deal with bad debts, replenish their own capital to become healthier, more stable and more attractive, can foreign investors start pouring money in," he explained.And yet, ANZ Vietnam's representative told the VNA that they will not be out of Vi-etnam completely, acknowledging a long and successful operation history in the coun-try.According to ANZ, the transfer of their retail banking business to Shinhan Bank is part of a strategy to simplify the bank and increase its capital efficiency.This would hopefully allow ANZ to focus its resources on Asia's largest business seg-mentcorporate clients and financial institutionsas ANZ is one of the four leading banks in trade support and capital in the region.ANZ's representative further said that the bank was committed to continuing its pres-ence in Vietnam, to support regional and national financial institutions and business-es.The bank was optimistic about business opportunities in Vietnam, thanks to the stable government, favourable population model, trade integration and foreign direct invest-ment, as well as the rise of a new middle class.


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Non-life insurers set cautious targets in 2018

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| DTCK

In 2018, many non-life insurance companies set cautious business targets, especially those having large market share.According to business plans, insurer with large market share such as Bao Minh, PTI, and PJICO aims to achieve revenue growth of about 5-10 percent, in which 10 percent is the highest rate if the market sees more positive factors than forecasts. Some other companies set very low growth and even did not aim at positive growth this year.In 2018, Bao Minh targets to reach total revenue of 4.318 trillion dong, up by 5.6 per-cent. The company generated 4.089 trillion dong revenue, 4.36 percent exceeding plan. In particular, original premium revenue reached 3.411 trillion dong, 2.68 percent ex-ceeding plan and up by 9.96 percent compared to 2016. According to Bui Xuan Thu, general director of PTI, the insurance market is likely to continue experiencing fierce competition and the natural disasters are unpredictable. "With the aim of controlling the compensation rate and maintaining business and production efficiency, we expect to grow the 2018 revenue at the overall rate of the market of 8 percent", said Thu. In 2017, PTI recorded 3.331 trillion dong in revenue, up by 3.2 percent compared to 2016. For PJICO, the company aims at 8-10 percent revenue growth this year, with the expec-tation to develop the group of foreign-invested clients and promote trendy sales chan-nels such as bancassurance and online channel, etc.For insurers with smaller market share, the growth targets in 2018 are set higher than the common target of 8-12 percent of the market. For example, BIC strives to achieve premium revenue of 2.1 trillion dong, up by 16 percent compared to 2017, and aims to record profit from insurance business. The total premium revenue of BIC in 2017 was 1.810 trillion dong, up by 6 percent compared to the previous year. Its original com-pensation rate was 41.6 percent in 2017, lower than the 40.3 percent recorded in 2016, being the lowest rate in the past three years.Meanwhile, MIC sets revenue target at 2.5 trillion dong, up by 20 percent, and com-pensation rate at below 32 percent. Last year was a fairly successful year for MIC as it for the first time attained revenue of 2.123 trillion dong, up by 11 percent, raising the market share from 4.5 percent to 5 percent.According to some experts in the industry, the non-life insurance market in 2018 is forecasted to see major changes which mainly come from the cost management activ-ities under the pressure of shareholders.Domestic companies have set lower growth targets, partly to cope with the possibility that car prices will fall sharply due to the impact of import tax exemption, and also the negative consequences when having to increase fees to cut losses. Since motor vehicle insurance premiums account for up to 40 percent of the total premiums of the market, it is normal when the changes in policies and purchasing powers of the auto market have strong impact on the insurance market.For foreign non-life insurance companies, the year 2018 is still forecasted to be diffi-cult. Due to the disadvantages in relations and in the race to reduce premiums, dozens of foreign insurance companies together have never surpassed the 10 percent market share.In the recent time, insurers such as AIG, AAA and Liberty have been continuously re-structuring, cutting staff and changing strategies in order to reduce fixed costs. Mar-keting and branding activities have almost been abandoned, causing these firms to not only fail to keep up with the growth of domestic insurers but also record revenue de-cline."Since the retail insurance product market in Vietnam has a lot of potential but compe-tition is fierce, for foreign insurers, it is still an uneasy playground", said an expert in the industry.

Jardines Matheson to play part in restructuring weak banks?

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VIR

Jardines Matheson, the strategic investor of Vinamilk, Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco), Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE), and various other companies, will pay attention to the restructuring of weak banks and credit institu-


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tions in Vietnam.Jardines Matheson Holdings Limited is a British conglomerate incorporated in Bermu-da with its primary listing on the Singapore Exchange. The firm's revenue was estimat-ed at over $70 billion in 2017.It has been present in Vietnam for over 20 years in a variety of fields and sectors. Jar-dines Matheson is holding 10 per cent of Vinamilk's charter capital, 25 per cent of Thaco, over 23 per cent of REE, as well as various stakes in other real estate and con-struction companies.At the meeting with deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue on March 12, Henry Kes-wich, chair of Jardines Matheson, applauded Vietnam's to comprehensive economic results achieved in 2017 and the successful deals to sell state capital in enterprises and attract qualified foreign investors. He also expressed interest in the equitisation and di-vestment activities at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and wanted to further partici-pate in this sector.DPM Hue said there are many cooperation opportunities between firms of the two countries, and there will be even more in the time coming. He also suggested Jardines Matheson to further develop in the sectors of milk products, automobiles, machinery, construction, real estate, as well as finance and insurance.Additionally, the group could expand investment and participate in restructuring SOEs and credit institutions in Vietnam, which are two of the five major economic re-structuring initiatives. Thereby, the government has issued a list of SOEs to divest and equitise by 2020.According to plan, the state will only hold capital in security-defense companies and special public services firms. Currently, Vietnam is also working to handle weak banks to achieve the balanced development of credit and non-credit services.The Vietnamese government commits to ensuring macroeconomic stability and creat-ing a favourable business environment in line with international standards and prac-tices. The capital-securities, labour market, science-technology applications, and land policies also being developed to support businesses. Moreover, Vietnam is member of more than ten regional and global free trade agreements.http://www.vir.com.vn/jardines-matheson-to-play-part-in-restructuring-weak-banks-57132.html

Japan bank considers funding PetrolVietnam's gas project


The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (Jbic) is considering funding the Block B&52/97 project of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetrolVietnam) using loans with-out a government guarantee.General director of PetrolVietnam Nguyen Vu Truong Son recently worked with Jbic representatives on financial arrangements for the project.According to PetrolVietnam, the project, worth nearly 10 billion USD, is one of the two largest gas projects in Vietnam. The capital arrangement for the project is one of the main concerns of foreign partners involved in the project.The Block B&52/97 project's oilfield development report was approved by contractors and the State appraisal council, while its environmental impact assessment report was ratified by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The quantitative risk assessment report was also submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.As scheduled, the contract will be awarded in June 2018, and the signing of Engineer-ing Procurement Construction and Installation (EPCI) contracts for the project will be performed in July.The Block B&52/97 project includes two sub-projects. The first aims to develop the Block B oilfield, with PetrolVietnam owning the most capital of the project (42.896 per-cent). Other investors are the PetroVietnam Exploration and Production Corporation (26.788 percent), the Mitsui Oil Exploration Company (MOECO) of Japan (22.575 per-cent), and Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PT-TEP) (7.741 percent).The remainder is to build the Block BO Mon gas pipeline with a total length of 430km.


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It is invested by PetrolVietnam, PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (PV Gas), MOECO and PTTEP.The Block B&52/97 project is expected to bring ashore 5.06 billion cu.m of gas per year within 20 years, meeting gas demand of power plants in the south.It is hoped to contribute about 18 billion USD to the State budget.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/japan-bank-considers-funding-petrolvietnams-gas-project/127784.vnp

CPTPP a progressive trade direction in 21st century


One year after the US's withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the re-maining 11 Asia-Pacific countries, including Vietnam, have signed a new Comprehen-sive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to remove tariff barriers in the region.This is considered a move towards progressive, open and equal trade, without the threat of trade wars.The signing of the CPTPP has delivered a strong message against protectionism, which is emerging across the world as a barrier to global trade growth.The new deal also marks the endless efforts of the remaining 11 member countries to revive the TPP.Japanese minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Toshimitsu Motegi described the CPTPP as a historic achievement that creates free and fair rules in Asia-Pacific.The deal not only benefits member countries but also creates new momentum for re-gional economic-trade cooperation and connection.Many leaders from the 11 CPTPP nations have welcomed the pact as a clear message of support for free trade and multilateralism.Chilean President Michelle Bachelet declared that the signing of the CPTPP is a com-mitment to global integration and a strong signal against protectionism. It is also an ambitious and strategic multilateral cooperation deal in the context of globalisation.Covering 500 million people on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, the pact represents a new vision for global trade as the US imposes steel and aluminum tariffs on even some of its closest allies.The New York Times quoted Wendy Cutler, a former United States trade negotiator who worked on the Trans-Pacific Partnership as saying it's hard for the US to ignore rules that other countries have agreed and must look carefully at these rules.Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal posted a story titled "In America's Absence, the TPP Goes On", highlighting the survival of the TPP, now CPTPP or TPP 11, which will be a boon to traders in Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.The CPTPP is also the latest illustration that other countries are accelerating efforts to conclude trade deals.The CPTPP was inked at a ceremony chaired by Chilean President Micelle Bachelet in Chile on March 8, 2018.Trade ministers of 11 countries participating in the trade pact, namely Australia, Bru-nei, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, at-tended the event.The ambitious deal came after the US pulled out of the TPP agreement last year. It sets high criteria in numerous fields, including labour, the environment, intellectual prop-erty, digital economy and cyber security.The pact will create one of the world's largest free trade blocs with a combined market of 499 million people and GDP of about 10.1 trillion USD, accounting for 13.5 percent of global GDP.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/cp-tpp-a-progressive-trade-direction-in-21st-century/127788.vnp


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Vietnam prime minister says first-quarter growth of 7.41 pct likely: website


Vietnam's economy in the first quarter this year is led by robust exports and tourismVietnam's economy is likely to grow by 7.41 percent in the first quarter this year, led by robust exports and tourism, according to prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, a statement posted on a government website said on Monday.The tourism sector in the January-March period likely grew by 60 percent while total trade will be up by 40 percent from a year earlier, Phuc told a gathering of Vietnamese during an official visit to New Zealand, it added.If achieved, the figure would be the highest first quarter growth in years, well above the expansion of 5.15 percent in the first quarter of last year.Vietnam's growth is often lower in the first quarter than the rest of the year, due to a week-long holiday for the Lunar New Year, which often falls in February.Phuc also said Vietnam is likely to post a trade surplus of nearly $2 billion in the three-month period, according to the statement.Vietnam's economic growth was seen expanding by 6.83 percent this year from 6.81 percent last year, the investment ministry said on Wednesday, citing its socio-econom-ic forecasting and information agency.The government's General Statistical Office is scheduled to release official GDP data on March 29.After visiting New Zealand, Phuc will pay an official visit to Australia later this week, to attend the Asean-Australia Summit in Sydney.https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/business/20180313/vietnam-prime-minister-says-first-quarter-growth-of-741- percent-likely-website/44507.html

DOC receives petitions for anti dumping investigation on plastic bags


The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has received petitions on an anti-dumping investigation into polyethylene retail carrier bags (plastic bags) from Vietnam, report-ed the Department of Trade Defence under the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vi-etnam.According to the department, the products subject to these investigations are laminat-ed woven sacks (LWS) comprised of one or more plies of fabric consisting of woven polypropylene strip and/or polyethylene strip that is laminated to an exterior ply of plastic film imported from Vietnam, coded HS 6305.33.0040, 3917.39.0050, 3921.90.1100, 3921.90.1500, 3923.21.0080, 3923.21.0095, 3923.29.0000, 4601.99.0500, 4601.99.9000, 4602.90.0000 and 5903.90.2500.The petitions were filed by Polytex Fibers Corporation and ProAmpac LLC. They have alleged that LWS products from Vietnam are under government subsidies and sold in the US at less than normal value, causing significant losses for US domestic produc-tion.The DOC has 20 days to examine the petitions in accordance of US law and will an-nounce to initiate the investigation or not on March 27.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/doc-receives-petitions-for-anti-dumping-investigation-on-vns-plastic-bags/127806.vnp

Turkey's anti-dumping investigation into Vietnam's core weldining wire


The Turkish Ministry of Economy has launched an anti-dumping investigation into core welding wire imported from Vietnam, according to the Vietnam Commercial Af-fairs Office in Turkey.The investigation is based on petitions filed by Gedik Kaynak Trade and Industry Ltd, Co. and Oerlikon Welding Electrodes and Industry Ltd, Co. They have alleged that in-creased imports of the product have caused significant losses for the Turkish indsutry.The Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade said the investigation agency will send the questionnaire to concerned businesses that the agency is aware of. Those that do not receive the questionnaire can download it at the Turkish Ministry of Economy's website at www.economy.gov.tr. The businesses have 37 days to answer the questions from the day the notice was issued.


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The answers must be in Turkish and sent to T. C. Ministry of Economy general direc-torate of Imports Dumping and Subsidy Research Office Soutozu Mahallesi 2176. Sk. No: 63 Cankaya/ Ankara Fax: 90 312 204 8633 Email: [email protected]://en.vietnamplus.vn/turkey-initiates-antidumping-investigation-into-vietnams-core-welding-wire/127777.vnp

VN's laminated woven sacks might face anti-dumping investigation


The Department of Trade Defence under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has re-ceived the US Department of Commerce (DOC)'s request for an antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigation on laminated woven sacks imported from Vietnam.The products under investigation included bags and packing bags consisting of woven polypropylene strips and/or polyethylene strips, resin or similar materials imported from Vietnam.Laminated woven sacks (LWS) subject to the scope are typically used for retail pack-aging of goods such as pet food and bird seed. Laminated woven sacks produced in Vietnam are subject to the scope regardless of the country of origin of the fabric used to make the sack.The petitioners were the Laminated Woven Sacks Fair Trade Coalition and its individ-ual members Polytex Fibers Corporation and ProAmpac LLC.They have alleged that the LWS products imported from Vietnam are sold in the US at less than "normal value" due to the government's subsidy which has caused/threat-ened substantial damage to the US industry.The petitioners allege dumping margins of 109.95 per cent to 294.57 per cent.Under US law, the DOC will have 20 days to review the complaint and is expected to issue a decision on whether to investigate by March 27.With the policy 'America First,' Donald Trump's government is reviewing its trade policy. On March 8, President Trump signed a proclamation to impose a 25-per-cent tax on steel and a 10-per-cent duty on aluminium imports. Vietnam is one of the coun-tries affected by this decision.http://bizhub.vn/news/vns-laminated-woven-sacks-might-face-anti-dumping-investigation_293112.html

Cement consumption on the rise


The country's cement consumption in the first two months of the year posted a year-on-year increase of 85 per cent to reach 18.55 million tonnes.According to statistics of the Department of Building Materials under the Ministry of Construction, cement consumption in the period had surged both in local and export markets. The department attributed this to a halt in cement production in China.In February alone, cement consumption reached 7.62 million tonnes, increasing by 38 per cent compared to the same period last year and meeting 23 per cent of the annual target.Cement sold in the domestic market rose by 11 per cent over the corresponding period last year to 5.02 million tonnes. The country exported 2.6 million tonnes of cement in February, increasing 30 per cent from last year.Cement exports in the first two months of the year reached 5.5 million tonnes, repre-senting a year-on-year increase of 121 per cent.Cement prices were stable last month.http://bizhub.vn/news/cement-consumption-on-the-rise_293130.html

Qualified t people soughfor State capital management committee

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

The newly established committee for State capital management must ensure that its staff can hit the ground running, deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue told a meet-ing in Hanoi on March 12.Hue chaired the meeting on the drafting of a government decree regulating the com-mittee's structure and duties, local news website To Quoc reported.


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Chair of the committee Nguyen Hoang Anh said personnel recruitment would be made transparent and that only talented people would be employed. The committee will set out personnel management criteria in the near future, he noted.The committee is responsible for directly implementing the duties assigned by the government and the prime minister, so deputy prime minister Hue said it is crucial to have people who can work effectively from the beginning.Therefore, relevant ministries and agencies need to propose good candidates for the committee.According to deputy minister of Finance Tran Van Hieu, 21 State business groups and corporations will be transferred to the committee. Twenty of these entities have pre-sented preliminary reports, which put their total assets at over VND1,600,000 billion, and State equity at around VND800 trillion.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/58746/Qualified-people-sought-for-State-capital-management-committee.html

SOEs failed to disclose business information to be punished


The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has just asked the government to han-dle the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) which failed to disclose their business informa-tion in 2017 in line with the government's Decree 81/2015/ND-CP issued in September 2015.According to the ministry's report, by the end of 2017, only 265 out of 622 SOEs sent reports to publicise their information on MPI's business information portal. However, most of them sent only five out of nine reports required for publication.The rest mostly operate in irrigation, agriculture, forestry, and lottery in localities. They included the Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (Vinashin), the Vietnam Ex-press Corporation (VEC), the Vietnam Northern Food Corporation (Vinafood), the Ag-riculture and Rural Development Bank (Agribank), and enterprises under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.Besides, many subsidiaries failed to follow the Decree, including one under the Viet-nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), two under the Vietnam National Chemical Group (VinaChem), five under the Vietnam National Coal Mineral Indus-tries Holding Corporation (VinaComin), and four under the Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG).As of December 31, 2017, only 20 out of 84 governing bodies disclosed their business information in line with the decree. The rest have yet strictly followed the decree, in terms of setting up a column to disclose their business information, inspection, moni-toring and violation handling.The MPI proposed the prime minister instruct ministries, and the provincial People's Committees to promptly complete their reports and send to the ministry; and deal with responsibility of the leaders of the SOEs which failed to follow the decree, and publicise the punishments on their own websites and MPI's business information por-tal.-https://en.vietnamplus.vn/soes-failed-to-disclose-business-information-to-be-pun-ished/127807.vnp

$66b invested in Greater Mekong Sub-region: ADB official


The Greater Mekong, including Vietnam, is expected to have a colossal $66 billion poured in to strengthen regional economic cooperation in the next five years, said an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official on Tuesday.The money was upped by $2 billion compared to what ministers of the six Greater Me-kong Sub-region (GMS) countriesMyanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Chinaagreed to in the action plan framework for 2018-2022 late last year.It will more than triple the total amount of $21 billion mobilised for the region since the GMS development programme was first launched by the ADB in 1992, the bank's division of regional cooperation and operations coordination in Southeast Asia direc-tor Alfredo Perdiguero told the Vietnamese media.


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The ambitious financing agreement is due to be signed by leaders of the regional mem-bers at the triennial 6th GMS Summit hosted this March in Vietnam, in which hun-dreds of projects from different sectors will be put on the agenda to open more opportunities in trade and investment through closer regional collaboration."Some $7 billion will be mobilised from the ADB. We will also bring in many other partners to contribute significant amounts, together with the governments of the GMS countries," Perdiguero said.Connectivity expansion"I can say the GMS has been one of the most successful programmes for regional coop-eration and integration in Asia," he said.The development of extensive trans-national road networks which formed the three main economic corridors, or trade routes, connecting the member countries was so far the greatest achievement of the programme, given that there was little transportation connectivity in the region back in 1992.Vietnam, in particular, was the only country in the GMS that participated in all three economic corridors, according to Perdiguero. They included the North-South corridor that connects Vietnam with China, the East-West to link central provinces of Hue and Da Nang with Laos and all the way to Thailand and Myanmar, and finally the South-ern one bridging HCM City with Phnom Penh and Bangkok.But as the development of physical connections in the region, which set the foundation for the countries' connectivity, was relatively complete, the GMS programme was seeking to expand the collaboration in several other sectors.Perdiguero said that they would range from power connectivity, agriculture to health and diseases, together with tourism and urban issues.Fruitful cooperation in those fields would involve not only the governments but also a bigger contribution from the private sector, particularly in tourism and agriculture, he added."That's why we are very happy that the (Vietnamese) prime minister decided to organ-ise the GMS Business Forum to bring in the energy, the ideas, and the knowledge from the private sector," Perdiguero said.Vietnam will organise the first-ever GMS Business Forum on the sideline of the GMS Summit.http://bizhub.vn/news/66b-invested-in-greater-mekong-sub-region-adb-official_293139.html

Can Tho enhances collective economy


Can Tho Cooperative Alliance aims to further enhance the development of coopera-tives as well as the city's collective economy in both scale and quality this year.Specifically, it plans to establish at least 100 new cooperative groups and 35 coopera-tives, unions of cooperatives and form at least 15 cooperative models that have sustain-able value chains.It also aims to raise the number of cooperative members by at least 10 per cent com-pared to last year, the ratio of cooperatives that have high operation efficiency by 50 per cent and increase the charter capital of the Cooperative Assistance Fund to reach at least VND20 billion (US$879,000).To achieve the above objectives, the Can Tho Cooperative Alliance will coordinate with the People's Committee of the city's districts and the relevant agencies to reform propaganda of the government's policies on promoting the development of coopera-tives and intensify communication about developing new-style cooperatives that link with value chain.In addition, the alliance will coordinate with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to review difficulties faced by cooperatives to help them solve difficul-ties.Organising training courses to improve management capacity for cooperative leaders, training for local officials on collective economic knowledge, strengthening solutions to mobilise capital for agricultural cooperative production and trading, and expanding


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the linkage in production and consumption of farm produce through promoting link-age among cooperatives, cooperative groups and businesses, are among its other fo-cuses for this year.It also advocates the development of diversified forms of cooperative groups, and cre-ating conditions to boost the development of unions of cooperatives in localities and inter-regions, with a focus in agricultural and rural areas.At the same time, it will concentrate on raising its capacity in support, consultancy and supply services to meet cooperative demand as well as improve services providing ca-pacity in terms of technology, governance and trade promotion for cooperativesIt proposed that the Cooperative Assistance Fund renew its operations to increase the capacity to mobilise more resources so as to offer more loans to cooperatives.The alliance will cooperate with the city's Department of Planning and Investment and other relevant agencies to promote external activities in the direction of actively ex-panding international cooperation; seeking and calling for international investment in serving the development of cooperatives and the cooperative economy.In addition, it will build and carry out a scheme to improve professional skills and for-eign languages for staff members in charge of external affair jobs.Nguyen Duc Phuong, chair of the Can Tho Cooperative Alliance, said the city now has 223 cooperatives and 1,349 cooperative groups operating in the fields of agriculture, handicrafts, transportation and construction, commercial services and credit funds.Many cooperatives specialising in rice seed production and pangasius farming for ex-port have achieved high revenue and profits, contributing to an increase of income for members. Last year, the city had 35 new cooperatives, up 46.5 per cent over 2016, with agricultural cooperatives accounting for 51 per cent.Many cooperatives have enhanced linkage between production and consumption, re-sulting in higher economic efficiency, he said.http://bizhub.vn/news/can-tho-enhances-collective-economy_293109.html

Property market expected to be stable in 2018


The country's real estate market in 2018 will maintain mid-term stability, while merger and acquisition in the sector will continue to see strong development.This was revealed in the Top 10 Reputable Property Developers, Building Material Companies and Contractors 2018, which was announced by Vietnam Report and on-line newspaper VietnamNet on Tuesday.The surveyed top 10 firms said real estate developers would enjoy opportunities of high economic growth rate, newly-signed Comprehensive and Progressive Agree-ment for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement to attract more foreign investment and approval for establishment of special administrative economic zones.However, the survey also said local property developers would face challenges of macro-economic instability in the region, State divestment making capital dispute more severe and virtual money affecting the market and condotel, officetel and hom-etel segments with potential risks due to lack of clear management policies.The firms said special administrative economic zones would continue to be promising lands to lure large real estate projects.The estate, construction and building material sectors will be linked to the Fourth In-dustrial Revolution.The survey revealed that in addition to traditional marketing methods, customers were increasingly getting access to property information through internet.More than half the surveyed people said they sought information on websites special-ising in real estate and on social networks.When the requirements of home buyers become stricter, information in the market will become more transparent. Investors and contractors will pay attention to the sustain-ability and life span of projects and construction buildings.According to experts, the quality of estates in 2017 improved due to the pressure of competition. They said property developers were required to improve their ability while enhancing professionalism and quality in projects.


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Last year, the real estate market saw positive changes in all segments. In Hanoi and HCM City alone, there were 64,263 successful deals. A range of new products, such as condotel, officetel and hometel were developed, making the real estate market more attractive.According to the report, prestige was one of the top three reasons for customers in choosing a product in the real estate sector.Vingroup and Novaland top the list of the 10 most reputable property developers in 2018.Vingroup has been leading the market with diversified products such as apart-ment buildings, offices, resorts, shophouses, condotel and officetel.Novaland, on the other hand, has been a popular brand in the south, with strong finan-cial abilities and large land funds.Coteccons Construction Joint Stock Company and Hoa Binh Corporation occupy the first and second positions in the list of top 10 reputable contractors in 2018.Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Company and Viglacera Corporation Joint Stock Company top the list of the 10 most reputable building material companies in 2018. Both are large-scale companies in the building material sector with hundreds of construction projects every year throughout the country.The award ceremony will be organised on April 18 at the Vietnam National Conven-tion Centre in Hanoi.Top 10 Reputable Property Developers in 20181. Vingroup JSC2. Novaland Group Corporation3. Dat Xanh Real Estate Service and Constructions Corporation4. Nam Long Investment Corporation5. Khang Dien House Trading and Investment JSC6. CEO Group JSC7. Sai Gon Thuong Tin Real Estate JSC8. Ha Do Group JSC9. Him Lam Corporation10. Hoa Binh Co. Ltdhttp://bizhub.vn/property/property-market-expected-to-be-stable-in-2018_293143.html

Billions of dollars ready for disbursement in property market

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

The Vietnamese real estate market in 2017 welcomed a record-high number of foreign investors, especially from Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and China.Thu Thiem, the new urban area in HCM City, has been a magnet for foreign investors. The HCM City-based CII Group and Hong Kong Land in December 2017 signed a co-operation contract to develop Thu Thiem River Park.In the fourth quarter of 2017, CapitaLand announced it has taken over an apartment project covering an area of 1.45 hectares in district 4 at 53.5 million Singapore dollars, or $40 million.The transaction has raised CapitaLand's number of housing projects in HCM City to 9 and in Vietnam to 11.In another transaction, VinaLand divested all of its shares in Vina Square residential quarter project to Tri Duc for $41.2 million.Investors have also poured money into office building development projects as they see high demand for offices in central business districts.CapitaLand has signed a conditional agreement to obtain a land plot in the central area of HCM City, where it plans to develop an A-class international office tower, the first of its kind in Vietnam.Meanwhile, Mitsubishi has bought 11,000 square meters of office area in Le Meridien from Tien Phuoc Real Estate JSC and 990 Co LtdThe capital flow to Vietnam has been increasing significantly along with increased in-vestments in Asia Pacific.A report found that investment capital in the region in the first nine months of 2017


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reached $97 billion, an increase of 12 percent over the same period last year, while the figure is expected to increase to $130 billion.The deal of transferring Asia Square Tower 2 office building from BlackRock to Capi-taLand Commercial Trust worth $1.5 billion was the most valuable office transfer deal in Asia Pacific and the second largest deal worldwide in 2017.Analysts say that foreign investors are optimistic about the Vietnamese real estate market. The majority of investors want to buy 'green' and 'clean' land, because they do not want to spend too much time on site clearance.However, there are very few land plots and projects which can satisfy their require-ments.The housing market segment, according to JLL, a real estate consultancy firm, is the most attractive investment field as demand has risen thanks to an increase in middle-income earners.The analysts said that investors are now shifting their investments into commercial real estate, with a focus on A-class office projects in advantageous positions which have investment yields of 7-8 percent. Investors also have shown special interest in ho-tel projects.http://english.vov.vn/market/billions-of-dollars-ready-for-disbursement-in-property-market-370314.vov

Vietnam's green dream within reach


Starting from a single green building, Singapore has risen to become the green city of Southeast Asia aiming to green out 80 per cent of the construction works in the city. Do Ngoc Diep, specialist at the Green Building Project of the World Bank Group's In-ternational Finance Corporation, looks at Vietnam's chances of realising its dream of becoming "a green spot" in the region.Grounds for green developmentIn order to answer this question, it is necessary to look back at the history of the devel-opment of buildings from thousands of years ago. In the early days, when energy re-mained scarce, all the construction and operation of housing were carried out manually, posing little impact on the surrounding environment. However, moving to the industrial era (1880-1970), the myriad breakthroughs in science and technology al-lowed people to build high-rise buildings with more amenities.Due to the heavy emphasis on improving the functionality and facility of these build-ings, construction works had underestimated climate adaptability and were heavily reliant on fossil energy sourcesa cheap and huge energy source at the time. Moreover, the unrestrained exploitation of fossil fuels by cities during this period also lead to un-precedented pollution.Since the early 1970s, architects and environmentalists have started embracing "green buildings." On the first Earth Day held in April 1970, the concept of green buildings was officially publicised. However, it was not until 1973, when the global oil crisis took place, that the efforts to build green buildings really began.In the US, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) formed a Committee on Energy that broke into two schools of thought. One group looked towards passive solutions such as reflective roofing materials and environmentally beneficial siting to achieve energy savings, while the other concentrated more on technological solutions such as the use of triple-glazed windows.In the wake of the oil crisis, green buildings received little attention, but there were still a number of key architects who continued to advocate and promote the concept. A couple of notable buildings constructed during the seventies which utilised green de-sign concepts are The Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters in England, which uti-lised a grass roof, day-lighted atrium, and mirrored windows, as well as the Gregory Bateson Building in California, which used energy-sensitive photovoltaic (solar) cells, under-floor rockstore cooling systems, and area climate control devices.Besides reducing reliance on major fossil fuel powerhouses, the utilisation of this en-ergy source also exerts significantly positive impacts on the environment. In particu-


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lar, it helps tackle climate change challenges, which have raised concerns among governments, and thus encourages them to be more active in the development of green buildings.In 1990, the UK's Building Research Establishment (BRE) introduced BRE Environ-mental Assessment Method (BREEAM). This is considered the first green building rat-ing system in the world.In the US, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) was founded in 1993 and in the same year US President Bill Clinton launched the "Greening the White House" pro-gramme with solutions to improve energy efficient in the building and other govern-ment facilities.Vietnam's greener futureAlthough "green buildings" have become a worldwide trend a few decades ago, in Vi-etnam, they appeared about a decade ago and have only started garnering real interest in the past three years. This was when the awareness of "green living" started to grow and became more visible.In 2007, some American factories investing in Vietnam employed the standards of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system to comply with the parent companies' policies. Also around this time, the Vietnam Green Build-ing Council (VGBC), a non-governmental organisation supporting the development of green buildings in Vietnam, was officially established. With the active support of for-eign and local experts and organisations, VGBC has researched and launched the LO-TUS green building rating system. It consists of all the criteria set by the biggest rating systems in the world adjusted to conditions in Vietnam.During this period, the Green Mark system was introduced by Singaporean investors to a number of investment projects in Vietnam. Then, several Vietnamese organisa-tions, including the Vietnam Association of Architects and the Vietnam Association of Construction Environment, have set their own criteria. Most recently, in April 2015, In-ternational Finance Corporation (IFC), the financial arm of the World Bank Group, of-ficially announced a green building certification system for emerging markets, EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies).IFC's new report "Creating Markets for Climate Business" predicts that along with the strong growth momentum of the Asian construction market, the presence of green trends, standards, and technologies will bring tremendous opportunities to widen the market for green buildings. In East Asia alone, the total investment demand for green buildings may reach $3 trillion by 2025, $726 billion of which will go for commercial buildings and $2.4 trillion for housing projects.To date, there have been nearly 100 registered works nationwide and more than half of them have achieved prestigious green building certifications. In addition, green cri-teria have become an integral part of architectural-planning competitions or architec-tural awards. However, the implementation of green construction criteria in Vietnam is still lagging behind other countries in the region, such as Singapore or Malaysia.In the five countries of Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos, there are more than 300 green buildings in totala modest number compared to other devel-oped countries in the region, such as Singapore with 3,000 green buildings alone (June 2017).As it is fully voluntary and non-compulsory, the motivation for green buildings in Vi-etnam largely comes from a sense of social responsibility and the need to reduce the operating costs of businesses. It also raises awareness and draws attention from local firms such as Tien Phat Corporation, Nam Long Group or Capital House, as well as foreign companies like Citra Westlake City Development Co., Ltd, Big C, Intel or Coca-Cola, just to name a few.Sadly, a large number of investors and developers in the country do not understand the issue of initial investment costs or the benefits that green buildings can yield. Many investors think that in order to achieve the green credentials for a certification, the project's investment cost will have to increase by 20-30 per cent.In fact, experience in green construction in Vietnam and other countries in the region


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show that the cost of investment increases by no more than 5 per cent. In addition, if architects bring out green ideas right from the beginning to create a green living envi-ronment and improve the efficiency of energy, water, and materials usage, the con-struction of green buildings without additional investment is absolutely feasible.Another barrier to green buildings lies in the attitude of Vietnamese homebuyers, who often consider price as a determining factor when choosing a residential or investment product. Meanwhile, a couple of factors that have long-term effects on the health and well-being of most communities, like the quality of construction, work efficiency, en-vironment-friendliness and sustainability, do not receive much attention.Dreams come trueThe desire to develop green buildings, in combination with the determination to act, will bring us green buildings of real value. For green buildings to grow and flourish, the associated values must be shared by the whole society, instead of relying on the limited support of some pioneering investors and experts. Once the whole society joins, green buildings will be quickly replicated and become a model for green com-munities and green cities, thus bringing great economic and spiritual value to the res-idential community.Given the current state of the real estate market in Vietnam, the expansion of green buildings is no longer impossible, as advanced countries with similar natural condi-tions and development experience have been helping us to perfect green technologies and practices. Just like the LED bulbsa product that only a few years drew doubts over its quality and price. Now, it has a firm foothold in the market with higher quality, di-versified styles, and ever-decreasing prices. The cost of green technologies will also de-crease as the scale of output increases.In addition, thanks to the pioneering investors who have built several green buildings over the past years, the market has accumulated a lot of experience in deploying "green" criteria on different types of construction works while at the same time build-ing a team of experts with the capability to operate green buildings.With a rather solid foundation, what is lacking is a small impact to foster market de-velopment. This force can be generated by the government through the implementa-tion of policies that recognise the importance and encourage the construction of green buildings to bring real benefits to the whole society as well as the environment.However, longer-term motivation must come from the consumers themselves. When consumers are aware of the benefits and incentives that green buildings can bring to themselves and their families, the "need" for green buildings will be created. At that time, the market will grow further to develop green buildings with higher quality and satisfy the increasingly arduous demands of customers.http://www.vir.com.vn/vietnams-green-dream-within-reach-57138.html

Property sales in Industry 4.0 era


Applying advanced technology is not only helping real estate buyers and sellers to manage information and transactions in an easy and efficient manner, but also enhanc-ing the sellers' ability to connect and advertise their products. However, this is just the beginning of a long journey.Tech on every step of the wayTrying to sell a property of some 40 square metres in Vinh Hung, Hanoi, a seller named Hoang often visits Facebook and other online property trading platforms to check out the prices of properties of the same size. His online activities have in fact been collected by software developers and he is considered a target for pop-up ads and email mar-keting. Hoang has been seeing the ads of properties that he once browsed through or those in similar price and size ranges in the neighbouring areas that are of concern to him.Most people like Hoang are rather surprised about these new types of marketing and advertising. They do not even know how these ad companies or real estate agencies get their phone numbers. It turns out that this is just a new trend of accessing potential customers among property developers and distributorsthe beginning of Industry 4.0


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in the property sector.Given the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), software programmers and Internet providers can collect data from users to form a big data warehouse, scrutinising the trends of Internet usage, online shopping, and prod-ucts of interest.In a bid to reach target customers in a rather competitive market, mortgage brokers that are sensitive enough have launched their marketing campaigns on social media platforms, such as Facebook or Zalo, or through professional online advertising chan-nels like Google AdSense. Many mortgage brokers even purchase customer data, which may include not only the customers' contacts but also their relationships, habits, and demands.Nguyen Quoc Anh, deputy general director of Dai Viet Group, the operator of online property trading platform batdongsan.com.vn, noted that with the development of technology, the online trading of properties has gained popularity due to its conven-ience and cost savings.Property Technology, or PropTech, is the new generation of technology that helps transform the housing market through three main arms, comprising property informa-tion, property transaction, and property management. Through PropTech, developers will be able to manage their property trading and transactions completely online, tar-geting the tech-savvy younger generation.In the past two years alone, data from batdongsan.com.vn shows that some 52 per cent of homebuyers were in the 25-34 age bracket. This age group grew up with technology, social media, and integrated economies. They are highly adaptable and always willing to share facilities with one another.As a result, they are very fond of PropTech that helps them check information, com-pare the prices and products, calculate loans, and find financial solutions that fit them best. What is more, it reduces the risks of buying and selling houses, particularly when making the purchase through an agency. Procedures for housing transactions are also carried out online to save time.Professionalism neededAccording to Pham Thanh Hung, vice president of CEN Group, the opportunity to tap into the real estate market through disruptive technologies is huge, yet many PropTech startups have ended in failure. A reason for this is that they are often follow-ers and thus cannot make predictions. That being said, if they had started off with a PropTech app back during 2013-2014, right before the housing market begun to warm up, they would have been far more successful.Yet there have been a number of startups that develop property-related technologies. With large-scale marketing campaigns and customer networks, they have been reason-ably successful. However, there were difficulties along the way.User behaviour is one of them when many Internet or smartphone users are still new or rather unfamiliar with the PropTech apps or the application of disruptive technolo-gies in real estate. Mortgage brokers, at the same time, do not fully understand the apps themselves and so cannot apply the advanced technology in their property sales.In addition, technology cannot replace the human factor, in this case, the professional mortgage brokers. Should mortgage apps be developed and welcomed by users, real estate agents may no longer find work, as sellers and buyers could contact each other through the apps. But a property buyer still needs a professional service provider to advise him on a purchase and whether the prices are reasonable. Especially, the related legal procedures require professional assistance.Last but not least, in property dealings, creditability is the most important thing. If an app fails to build trust amongst mortgage brokers, buyers, and sellers, it is destined to fail. This has in fact happened to some e-commerce businesses that forged information and at the end lost customers' trust.According to Hung, the application of technology is an indispensable trend in online property trading. While it cannot completely replace human agents, it is a new breeze of change promising to revolutionise the real estate sector to usher in the era of Indus-


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try 4.0.Adopting disruptive technologies is the new real estate trend, and it is a costly game to play as tech changes are unpredictable. The more startups or businesses join the race of advanced technology, the fiercer the competition will be, helping drive it towards professionalism. The ultimate beneficiaries will be homebuyers.http://www.vir.com.vn/property-sales-in-industry-40-era-57137.html

Office leasing market promises undetained impetus on all fronts


The office-for-lease segment in HCM City will maintain its growth momentum in the near future, after a successful year in 2017 featuring high occupancy, increasing rental rates, and strong demand.A bustling marketAccording to the HCM City Real Estate Association's (HoREA) report on the real estate market in 2017, the city's office-for-lease market saw strong growth in 2017 with high occupancy rates. Especially, the Grade A segment recorded an average occupancy rate of 90 per cent. The total stock of office space in the city currently amounts to 1.8 million square metres.Meanwhile, real estate services firm CBRE Vietnam said that HCM City welcomed two Grade A and three Grade B buildings in 2017. The asking rent for both grades dis-played a stable trend, with Grade A and Grade B achieving $37.04 and $20.63 per square metre per month. Grade A reported an increase of 1.3 per cent year-on-year, while Grade B displayed almost no change.The vacancy rate remained low, averaging 8.2 and 2.8 per cent for Grade A and Grade B, respectively, in 2017.The office-for-lease market saw a shift of projects from the city centre to suburban ar-eas, according to HoREA. Three new office buildings were launched within one kilo-metre of Ung Van Khiem Street of Binh Thanh District. A slew of new Grade B offices are underway in districts 4, 7, Binh Tan, and Phu Nhuan.This is the first time in the last three years that the local market has embraced new high-end entries, which marks a step forward, according to Savills Vietnam' fourth quarter market report.Savills Vietnam said that the office market has suffered from a shortage of supply in recent years, and the vacancy rate is always at a low level, as larger sites are very hard to find in the central business districts (CBD).The economic recovery has brought massive foreign direct investment (FDI) capital, rapidly increasing demand for high-end office space. The occupancy of the operating buildings and the entire market's leasing capacity remained high, on 95 per cent throughout all quarters in 2017.Beside the main clients hailing from F.I.R.E. (financial, bank, insurance, and real estate) sectors, new factors that drive demand also became visible throughout the year."Harmonising with the global and regional trends, entrepreneurs experienced in tech-nology and e-commerce are growing rapidly in Vietnam and require both labour and office space. This sector also saw increasing office demand in the past two years," said the Savills Vietnam's report.Office-for-lease in HCM City draws great attention thanks to the positive indicators. The occupancy rates of HCM City and Manila (the Philippines) are two of the highest in Southeast Asia. Despite supply growth, there is also huge demand in the market.A robust year for office leasingSavills Vietnam forecasts that in 2018, capacity will remain high and rent will keep steadily climbing due to pressuring demand.According to CBRE Vietnam, from 2018 onwards, the market will rise with better sup-ply, albeit at a slower pace than in 2017, with only one Grade A in the CBDDeutsches Hauswhile Grade B supply will continue to spread out at non-CBD districts like dis-tricts 2 and 10. Rental growth will increase at a slower pace as existing supply will rem-edy rental rates, while vacancy rates will surge momentarily before dropping just as quick as the market will continue its healthy absorption momentum with new supply.


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According to the HCM City Department of Construction, 2018 promises to be a buoy-ant year for the office-for-lease market due to new supply and strong demand.Bui Van Hieu, chief of Office at the HCM City Department of Construction, said that the city welcomed 41,194 newly-established enterprises in 2017, accounting for 32.4 per cent of the country's total. These new businesses have spurred the market demand for office space in the city. In addition, the city will also relocate 2,000 offices from con-dominiums in 2018.With regards to future supply, the city has a number of land plots ranging from 500sq.m to one hectare in both the city centre and urban fringe areas. As the land sites are not ideal for housing development, investors will build office buildings on these sites instead. Moreover, office buildings have easier licensing procedures than residen-tial projects as they have no limitations on population density. The launch of office building projects in the suburban areas will significantly drive total stock in the city in the near future.In addition to traditional commercial lease, new officetel products by Novaland Group, Hung Thinh Corporation, Vingroup, and Him Lam Land Corporation will come on stream in 2018.Savills Vietnam also forecasts a new breakthrough in 2018. With the successful organ-isation of the Apec Vietnam 2017, Vietnam is on the radars of multinational corpora-tions. Savills Vietnam has learned that most of these companies want to set up representative offices in HCM City.Hoang Dieu Trang, senior manager of the Commercial Leasing Department at Savills Hanoi, said that the office leasing segment in Vietnam is at a turning point. In 2017, oc-cupancy rates for high-end offices were at high levels in both Hanoi and HCM City with vacancies at the lowest points for the majority of projects in the CBD. This will drive average rental prices higher in 2018.The market will continue to see tenants move from downtown to the outskirts, turning them into new centres. New hubs for technology, telecommunications, and commer-cial companies are beginning to take shape in the south and the east of HCM City. Meanwhile, some new commercial leasing models like co-working space will affect the office market in HCM City in particular and in Vietnam in general."These models have great potential for development due to new businesses' rising de-mand for office space. Also, the younger generation of workers prefer working in more open and communal settings, so 2018 will be the most exciting year for this segment," Trang said.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/196643/office-leasing-market-promises-undetained-impetus-on-all-fronts.html

CP TPP to bring both opportunities, challenges to breeding sector


The newly-signed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Part-nership (CP TPP), is expected to create many opportunities and challenges for Viet-nam's agricultural sector, including the breeding industry, stated Hoang Thanh Van, head of the Department of Livestock Production under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.Van said that as CP TPP will cut import taxes, breeding products of countries strong in the industry such as Canada, Japan and Australia will enter Vietnam, harming the breeding sector.He stressed the need to focus on improving quality of strong products, as the produc-tion cost of Vietnam's breeding sector is higher than in developed countries.He said that the CP TPP will allow national branded products to be exported to all member countries without limited quota as long as they meet the countries' require-ments. This will pressure domestic production, but also benefit the country as Viet-nam's products will access more markets, he added.Van asserted that domestic farms should change their management method for inte-gration. Import tax for breeding equipment will also be reduced, cutting production costs.


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Vietnamese agriculture is attractive as the economy is growing and consumption trends are changing, bringing opportunities to lure foreign investment, Van said, not-ing that many firms are looking to pour capital into building a genetic research centre in Hoa Lac hi-tech park.Institutional reform is another urgent need for Vietnam when CP TPP becomes effec-tive, he said, underlining the significance of reviewing technical standards.After thoroughly studying the deal, Van affirmed that CP TPP will bring more benefits than negative impacts to Vietnam.Van revealed that the Department of Livestock Production will hold several national conferences on developing production chains for pork and chicken meat, while re-viewing cow breeding methods to restructure the breeding industry.The CPTPP was signed in Chile on March 8 (local time) by representatives of 11 coun-triesAustralia, Brunei, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, Singa-pore and Vietnam.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/cp-tpp-to-bring-both-opportunities-challenges-to-breed-ing-sector/127780.vnp

CPTPP impacts on small and medium enterprises


Luong Hoang Thai, director general of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department, un-der the Ministry of Trade and Industry, speaks to Vietnam News Agency about the likely benefits and impacts of the CPTPP on the country's economy.Will Vietnam's interests be harmed by the CPTPP, especially because it is being enact-ed without the participation of the USA?All 11 countries signing the CPTPP have committed to open their market, investment and public procurement according to what had already been agreed on in the TPP. That's why, basically speaking, zero per cent of taxes will be levied on goods among all the CPTPP members. However, the other 10 member nations have agreed to give Vietnam a longer road map in implementing the tax article.The other 10 member nations have committed to opening their markets for Vit Nam at a high level. For example, for the case of ca ng (tuna fish), Japan has agreed to open their market for our tuna fish. In addition, they are also committed to opening their markets for our agricultural products.CPTPP members without the USA is still committed to opening their markets for Vi-etnamese goods, particularly in the areas of agro-fishery products, textiles, shoes and sandals. More particularly, the CPTPP will have positive impacts on our country's poverty alleviation programme.Will you please talk a bit further about the likely benefits to our export activities?All signatories to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), including Vietnam, are looking for opportunities to expand their markets. Under the CPTPP this content will remain the same as what had been agreed in the TPP. That means the criteria for market opening remains very high.Regarding goods trade, a road map has been reached for the zero per cent tariff to be levied on goods among the 11 nations. However, for developed nations, the road map is about seven years while for developing nations, the road map will be longer to make it suitable to their development conditions. Basically speaking, the other 10 member nations have agreed to grant Vietnam a special treatment, no taxes for all of its goods.At present, on average, the export tax among CPTPP members is around 1.7 per cent. So if Vietnam enjoys free tax, it will have a direct positive impact on our exports. Al-though the USA is no more a member to the CPTPP, with its population of 320 million people, Vietnam will enjoy big benefits.Besides the field of goods, the CPTPP has also offered us quite a lot of benefits, includ-ing the fields of services, investment and the public procurement from the other 10 member nations. For example, in the past, Vietnam's public procurement activities abroad were very limited. But nowadays, such activities have increased. A case in point is that the FPT Corporation has offered its software services in Japan.Will you please talk more about the direct impacts of CPTPP on Vietnam?


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Joining the CPTPP is a vivid demonstration of Vietnam's resolve to reform in the course of its international integration. This is an indirect benefit for the country.According to research, indirect benefits are greater that the direct benefits from the opening of the market. World Bank research has shown that the CPTPP will directly help Vietnam to increase its GDP to 1 percent, but indirectly, it may help Vietnam reach a 3.6 percent increase in its GDP.In reality, signatories to a free trade agreement all agree to apply the same rules of the game. That's why, in many cases, the non-tariff barriers among the country members have been slashed considerably.For example, it took Vietnam many years to persuade foreign importers that our Viet-namese Thanh Long (dragon) fruits are safe to eat. But now our dragon fruits have met the FTA criteria, the importers will feel at ease to import our fruits.How are Vietnamese enterprises preparing for the CPTPP?I still remember when Vietnam joined the Asean Free Trade Agreement with Australia and New Zealand, many people argued that we would not be able to compete with dairy products from Australia or New Zealand as the price of the dairy products were the cheapest in the international market. But in reality, our dairy products have been improved considerably. This is a good lesson for us. We should adjust the economic structure in whatever sector has good competitive advantages.The CPTPP has come up with a long road map in tax reduction for all enterprises to prepare. Of course, small and medium enterprises will face many challenges in this course. So they should pull their efforts to seize golden opportunities presented to them in the course of international integration.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/197085/cptpp-impacts-on-small-and-me-dium-enterprises.html

Garment-textile sector eyes 10pct growth in 2018


The garment-textile sector is aiming for a growth of 10 percent in 2018 in spite of huge challenges in the global market, said Le Tien Truong, director general of the Vietnam National Textile Garment Group.To realise the target, the sector will improve product quality and ensure on-schedule deliveries at reasonable prices to enhance its competitiveness.The use of technology will be enhanced to increase automatic production, as well as IT-based management and workers' skills.Nguyen Xuan Duong, Chair of the director Board of Hung Yen Garment Corporate underlined the challenges facing the sector, saying that export prices may fall, while production costs increase.Enterprises need to devise measures to become more productive and reform their management, Duong said.Vietnam's garment-textile sector is forecast to face huge challenges and fierce compe-titions in 2018, particularly from China, Myanmar and Cambodia.The sector earned 4.3 billion USD from exports in the first two months this year, up 22.3 percent year-on-year.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/garmenttextile-sector-eyes-10-percent-growth-in-2018/127775.vnp

Snacks market in VN worth $500 million


The Vietnamese snack market, with value of $518 million in 2015, is expected to be worth $1 billion by 2020, experts say.Processed snacks account for 33 percent, nuts 30 percent and potato chips 24 percent.The snack market is becoming more attractive thanks to changes in Vietnamese spend-ing habits, improved income per capita, and changes in lifestyle.A report from Decision Lab showed that people aged 15-23 eat snacks throughout the day with VND13 trillion spent every month.There are three main types of snacks, classified based on materials for processing, in-cluding potatoes, nuts and snacks made of fruits and food.


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The Vietnamese snack market revenue may reach $700 million in 2017. It is now the main source of growth for packaged foods in both urban and rural markets. Analysts say the real figure could be even higher if investors scale up their production.In March 2016, Koikeya Vietnam began building its $8.7 million snack factory in HCM City, and its first products were launched into the market last October.The leading Japanese snack food manufacturer has turned Vietnam into its first over-seas production base, hoping to reach revenue of VND200 billion for hot chili snack products in the next three years.The snack market, however, is getting crowded with the arrival of many brands from all over the world. These include Liwayway's Oshi from the Philippines, PepsiCo's Poca and Orion's O'star. Meanwhile, Kinh Do is a veteran Vietnamese manufacturer making sliced potato chips. All these manufacturers have production bases in Viet-nam.In addition, the domestic market is also flooded with imports, mostly from Thailand and South Korea. The price levels vary, from VND5,000 per pack to VND20,000 per pack, while imports are more expensive, priced at up to VND40,000.The materials used to make snacks are diverse. Oishi, for example, has introduced products made of pumpkin and tomato, while South Korean products are mostly made of seafood.An analyst said the key to success for snack manufacturers lies in marketing and dis-tribution.Snacks sell better in public places like cinemas. However, he said, in order to introduce snacks into the CGV cinema network, distributors will have to pay VND1 billion a year. Karamucho has chosen Mesa as its major distributor. Mesa is also the distributor of Oishi.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/196781/snacks-market-in-vn-worth--500 million.html

Supporting industries urged to improve competitiveness


Vietnamese companies operating in the supporting industry need to increase compet-itiveness to be able to enter global supply chains, experts said at a seminar held in HCM City Tuesday.Nguyen Thi Xuan Thuy from the Institute of Industrial Policies and Strategies (IIPS), which is under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, cited the example of Vietnam's sta-tus among Asean nations that manufacture vehicles.Compared to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, Vietnam ranks third in population after Indonesia and the Philippines but its automobile production out-put ranks fifth among the five countries, she said.The Vietnamese parts supply industry is still underdeveloped, she added. Domestic manufacturing and assembling enterprises in Vietnam have to import automobile spare parts from various sources, including Korea, Japan, China, Thailand and Indo-nesia.Due to the small scale of Vietnam's automobile market, the costs for producing auto parts or components are high. Therefore, demand for domestically made parts is rela-tively low, constraining the development of the local supporting industry.As a result, automobile assembly firms choose to use imported parts, creating a vicious cycle that remains unsolved, she told the seminar on Supporting Industry in Industry 4.0.In principle, the number of part suppliers must be much higher than assemblers, but the total of suppliers remains very modest in Vietnam.For instance, the country has 20 automobile assembly firms, while Thailand has 16, but the number of Tier-1 and Tier-2 and 3 parts suppliers are 84 and 145 in Vietnam, com-pared to 690 and 1,700, respectively, in Thailand, Thuy said.Because the number and capacity of Vietnamese firms is still modest, entering the Asean production chain continues to be difficult.This year the tariff on complete-built-in (CBU) units on automobiles imported from


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Asean nations was reduced to zero per cent under the Asean Free Trade Agreement, causing competition among domestically made products.The automobile market in Vietnam has good prospects, she added. The potential of the country's automotive market is assessed based on factors such as the size and structure of the population, per capita income, the number of vehicles per 1,000 people, and in-frastructure development.Vietnam has over 90 million people and a growing middle class, with per capita in-come estimated to reach $3,000 by 2020.The country's automobile market is expected to soon have an automotive consumption rate (known as motorisation) of 23 vehicles per 1,000 people, Thuy said.Road traffic systems are expanding with intercity connections through a network of highways, creating more favourable conditions for private cars, she added.Delegates at the seminar also spoke about the impact of the so-called fourth industrial revolution on the automobile industry.New technology will help firms increase productivity, but it will also expose challeng-es for local firms. Because of the weak capacity of the industry, firms might lag behind others, they said.Nguyen Duong Hieu, chair and general manager of LIDOVIT Trading and Industrial JSC, said the impact of the fourth industrial revolution was still new to many Vietnam-ese."I think local producers firstly need to invest in upgrading their technology, and inte-grate management systems to better manage their production and approach the mar-ket," he said.He said that management agencies should provide local part suppliers with specific requirements of foreign firms so they can prepare to meet their standards.Delegates also suggested that the government set up a website for businesses in the parts industry so they can update their information, which would make it easier for downstream producers, including foreign ones, to find parts suppliers.The seminar was held by the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, the Board of Management of Saigon Hi-Tech Park and HCM City Export Processing and Indus-trial Zones Authority.http://bizhub.vn/news/supporting-industries-urged-to-improve-competitiveness_293140.html

Electronics industry needs development: seminar


The consumer electronics industry has developed strongly in recent years but a lot more needs to be done to ensure further development."Electronics is one of the key industries with the deepest level of international integra-tion, but the industry is still only focused on assembling, processing and after-sales service," Nguyen Phuong Dong, deputy director of HCM City's Department of Indus-try and Trade, said.Delivering a speech at a seminar in HCM City on Tuesday titled "Enhancing linkage opportunities in the electronic supply chain", he said in the last 10 years the number of enterprises in the industry had grown four-fold to 1,021, and the number of workers by nearly eight times to 327,000."Relevant authorities would like to connect electronics enterprises by offering more in-centives to encourage linkages."Bui Thi Ninh of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Union of Electronics Enterprises in Vietnam said the electronics industry had a very high growth rate and short life cycle for products, requires large investments, yields high profits but comes with intense competition and high risks."The industry has the largest number of workers and earns a large amount of foreign currency.Dr Truong Thi Chi Binh, deputy chairwoman and general secretary of the Vietnam As-sociation of Supporting Industries (VASI), said: "To participate in the global supply chain, Vietnamese electronics enterprises must first meet safety demands and techni-


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cal requirements and limit hazardous content in their products."Quality, environment and energy-efficiency are the general requirements. Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development are appreciated."VASI could actively support enterprises by providing consultancy, training, informa-tion, and databases and connecting them with international markets, she said.http://bizhub.vn/news/electronics-industry-needs-development-seminar_293138.html

E-commerce eager for Amazon debut


Amazon is making its long-awaited foray into Vietnam's e-commerce market in March, a move that could shake up the country's entire online retail market.On March 14, Amazon will make a presentation at the Vietnam Online Business Forum 2018 about its strategy to develop business in Vietnam.The US e-commerce firm will launch a cooperative programme with Vietnam E-com-merce Association (VECOM) this month to aid small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to sell through their website.Nguyen Thanh Hung, VECOM's chair, said that Amazon's strategy is to provide cross-border e-commerce trade, as well as to import products from Vietnam."Vietnamese shoppers will buy products on Amazon, while Amazon is considering selling Vietnam's products. They want to support Vietnamese SMEs on Amazon," he said.Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon, has been operating a repre-sentative office in Vietnam since 2017 to provide cloud computing services. AWS sup-plies cloud-based infrastructure services based on its parent company's back-end technology platform.Commenting on Amazon's move, Tran Trong Tuyen, general secretary of VECOM, said that this is good news for the market. In fact, the year 2017 was a turning point for the Vietnamese e-commerce sector with the entrance of many tech and financial giants."Amazon's arrival is set to spur local market development. Services suppliers will compete to develop selling services, logistics solutions, ecosystems, and much more. Meanwhile, Vietnamese shoppers can buy goods with greater convenience and com-petitive prices," he said.Amazon has spent 2017 pushing into new territories. It expanded into the Middle East following the acquisition of Souq.com, while also debuting in Australia, and purchas-ing Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion.Amazon has been continuing its international expansion push, with last year's launch of its services in Singapore. The move marks its first entry into Southeast Asia, a region of 600 million consumers where rivals Alibaba and Tencent are already actively invest-ing.Alibaba spent $1 billion to acquire a 51 percent stake in Lazada in 2016. Last year, it injected another $1 billion in Lazada to raise the stake to 83 percent. Lazada is the re-gion's largest e-commerce platform, and has operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singa-pore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam.Alibaba chair Jack Ma visited Vietnam in November to promote Alipay and other non-cash payment methods.The company has decided to cooperate with the National Payment Corporation of Vi-etnam, enabling Chinese tourists to use its online payment platform in Vietnam.According to VIR's source, Alibaba is in the process of buying Vietnamese e-commerce platform Sendo.vn to acquire more market share.Meanwhile, Tencent-backed gaming and shopping company SEA is the parent com-pany of e-commerce marketplace Shopee Vietnam, which has delivered solid growth after nearly two years in the market. Recently, JD.com has managed to increase its presence in Southeast Asia by way of investing in Vietnamese e-commerce portal Tiki.vn.Meanwhile, Tran Ngoc Thai Son, CEO of Tiki.vn, hoped that the arrival of e-commerce giants will attract a wave of investment into local companies. Tiki fared well when Al-


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ibaba took over Lazada.Consumer-to-consumer marketplaces in Vietnam include Sendo.vn, Shopee, Chotot, and Vatgia.com, Lazada, Tiki, Adayroi, Lotte, and Vuivui are a few names among the local business-to-consumer marketplaces.http://english.vov.vn/economy/ecommerce-eager-for-amazon-debut-370266.vov

Some pursue, some abandon billion dollar projects

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| BAO DAU TU

Finally, the fate of Vung Ro Oil Refinery project was decided. After getting the approv-al of the government, Phu Yen province officially revoked the project that had the cap-ital scale of $3.2 billion and had experienced 10 years without any operation.Vung Ro Oil Refinery project was licensed for the first time in 2008, with an initial scale of $1.7 billion, which was then increased to $3.2 billion. After a long period of prepa-ration, delay and then extension of implementation period, in September 2014, the project officially kicked off in the exhilaration of parties. At that time, the project in-vestorTechnostar Management Limited, committed to actively prepare to launch the project in 2016. However, the project has remained unchanged until now, and Phu Yen People's Committee has had to repeatedly urge and issued warnings about withdraw-al of investment certificates.At the beginning of this year, Vung Ro Petroleum Co., Ltd unexpectedly signed coop-eration agreement with Demino Tech (Denmark) to build a factory producing bitumi-nous materials (waterproof plastic, asphalt) in the area of Vung Ro Oil Refinery project, sparking the hope that the project will be relaunched. But there was no happy ending. After 10 years of obtaining investment certificate, Vung Ro Oil Refinery had to return to Phu Yen investment management agency this very significant paper.Interestingly, in the context that investment license in Vung Ro Oil Refinery project was revoked, the Southern Petrochemical Complex officially started construction in late February, after 10 years of changing owners. That is to say, while Technostar opens its hands, SCG Group (Thailand) chooses to hold its hands, even wanting to take on this project.Roongrote Rangsiyopash, Chair of SCG said this is the key project in the expansion strategy of this business in Asean, in which Vietnam is the focus. Nguyen Van Trinh, Chair of Ba RiaVung Tau People's Committee, at the ground-breaking ceremony of the project, did not hide the expectation that the project will cre-ate about 15,00020,000 jobs during construction period, more than 1,000 jobs for high technology labourers when going into commercial operation; and is expected to con-tribute $60 million per year to the state budget during 30 years from commercial oper-ation in 2022.If SCG's plan in the Southern Petrochemical Complex is still being calculated, then in another perspective, it can be seen that many other billion dollar projects are operating effectively in Vietnam such as Samsung's hi-tech complexes in Vietnam.According to Samsung's recently released information, this group continued to have a bumper year 2017 with consolidated revenue at $212 billion, up 19 percent year-on-year. The after-tax profit also surged from $20 billion to $37.3 billion. Noticeably, Sam-sung Vietnam contributed largely to Samsung's global impressive business results.Samsung's report shows that in 2017, the total revenue and profits of four companies including Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV-Bac Ninh), Samsung Electronics Viet-nam Thai Nguyen (SEVT-Thai Nguyen), Samsung Display Vietnam (SDV-Bac Ninh) and Samsung HCM City CE Complex (SEHC-HCM City) grew 40 percent year-on-year. Specifically, these four companies generated total revenue of $61.5 billion, and $5.8 billion net profit, accounting for 29 percent and 16 percent of Samsung's revenue and profit respectively.The aforementioned figures once again show how big is Samsung's investment and operation in Vietnam. Last year, Samsung Vietnam exported more than $54 billion, contributing largely to Vietnam's export turnover. Not only "holding tightly", but Sam-sung has "closely clinged" to the Vietnamese economy.In fact, it is a normal thing in investment and business that this project owner may get


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rid of a project while the other project owner keeps a project tightly. The issue is that after the Vung Ro Oil Refinery projectwhich used to gain many hopes of Phu Yen province in particular and the whole country in general, the public requires to review other large scale FDI projects that have remained "intact" for a long time. This is more necessary than ever when Vietnam is preparing to sum up 30 years of FDI attraction.Recent information shows that, along with Southern Petrochemical Complex project, some other billion dollar projects are about to be resumed. One of which is First Solar project, worth $1 billion, in HCM City. Even Berjaya has also spoken about the possi-bility of restarting the $3.5 billion Vietnam Financial Centre project in HCM City.Sharing with the local Newswire Bao Dau Tu at the end of last year, representative of Berjaya suggested that the project was likely to be restarted earlier this year. Now, it has nearly been the middle of March 2018, but there still has no information related to this issue. As such, HCM City may need to continue reviewing and urging investors to carry out its commitments. This project has been granted with investment license for 10 years now.As in Ba RiaVung Tau, there are also many slow-moving projects. By the end of 2016, the province had to send documents "tracing" the investor of $900 million Dragon Sea project. Also in this province, Saigon Atlantic project has also existed for decades now. In Nghe An province, there is $1 billion Kobelco Steel project.It is not difficult to list a series of large-scale FDI projects that are slow in implementa-tion. On several occasions, Prof Dr Nguyen Mai suggested that the Ministry of Plan-ning and Investment (MOPI) to comprehensively review unimplemented projects to classify into two types i.e. projects that can be implemented (Type 1) and projects that cannot be implemented (Type 2), thereby resolutely removing the statistics of Type 2 projects while urging and monitoring so that Type 1 projects can be implemented quickly.The Ministry of Planning and Investment has also urged localities to do so. However, there are still many projects that are "hanging", and need to continue being reviewed, removed.

Another domestic giant joins retail segment

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| NHIP CAU DAU TU

The heat in the retail market is increasing as more and more domestic and foreign brands appear.Most recently, T & T Group first opened supermarkets and convenience stores brand-ed Qmart and Qmart + in Hanoi with small and medium size. This group does not hide its ambition to replicate this retail chain nationwide if the first bricks are successfully built.*Completing 4.0 agricultural chainThe intention of Do Quang Hien, the founder of T&T Consumer, the management unit of Qmart and Qmart +, is clear. Retail sale is the missing piece of this corporation in completing its business chain from processing hi-tech agricultural products to distri-bution and consumption channels.In general, the selection of convenience stores and mini supermarkets is considered quite reasonable for a new player like T & T. The reason is that investment costs will not be as expensive as supermarkets and high-end trade centers. Management is also simpler from which the Group can both work and learn to adjust the steps to suit the reality.According to Nielsen Vietnam, the modern retail market in general and the conven-ience store channel in particular have grown tremendously over the years. While the number of traditional stores has increased by only 3-4 percent, the number of modern retail stores has increased fivefold in the period 2008-2016. "In the first six months of 2017, we saw the number of stores to rise to 400 units", said Nguyen Anh Dung, senior director of retail measurement unit at Nielsen Vietnam.Along with the opening of convenience stores and mini supermarkets, T & T Group also formally set up an unit specialising in agriculture development i.e. T & T Green Life Agriculture Development Company (T.Vita) to invest in producing and process-


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ing agricultural products in the direction of high technology. It is expected that T.Vita's first agricultural product will debut on the shelves of Qmart and Qmart + at the end of this month. "T.Vita will organise production and distribution operations in a closed chain, integrating high technology in cultivation and processing, to ensure the quality and create added value for Vietnamese agricultural products", said Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, CEO of T.Vita".In line with organic growth strategy, the rapid expansion of asset scale of agricultural segment via M&A is also used by Hien. After spending trillions of dong on acquiring shares of corporations in the agricultural sector that have been equitised such as Vege-texco, Vigecam, Vinafor, recently, T&T Group has shaken the market as it plans to spend more than 1.2 trillion dong to own 25 percent stake of the Southern Food Cor-poration (Vinafood 2), one of the largest exporters and traders of agricultural products in Vietnam now.So, along with the financial support from SHB or significant experience in the real es-tate market, the expansion of investment into agriculture and retail distribution clearly shows T&T's strategy to complete its business segments, aiming to serve the increasing consumer demand of the people, towards export.The room for modern channels in general, convenience stores and mini supermarkets in particular remain large for businesses to engage in. Especially, convenience stores and mini supermarkets are expected to grow strongly in the future thanks to the grow-ing spending of nearly 60 percent of the population under the age of 35 along with fast shopping style of small households. "Modern retail market in convenience store and mini supermarket channels still has plenty of space when density of modern channels is 69,000people/store, the second highest among Asian countries", said Nguyen Anh Dung.According to Nielsen's recently released report on "Buyer Trend", in 2016, shopping rate at convenience stores was 19 percent, up three percentage points from 2015. Mean-while, shopping rate at supermarkets in 2016 was 46 percent, down from 52 percent in 2015 and 60 percent in 2014". As such, "it can be seen that consumers' shopping behav-iours have started to shift along with the strong development of convenience store chain", said Nguyen Anh Dung.But, retail sale is not easy to bring about benefits when competition pressure is very intense. Late last year, Saigon Co.op opened the first convenience store branded Cheers franchised by Singapore partner, and SonKim Land cooperated with South Ko-rean partner to develop retail chain G25 with the ambition of opening 2,000 stores within the next 10 years. Participants in convenience store chains and mini supermar-kets also include Saigon Trade Corporation (Satra), FamilyMart, B's mart, 7-Eleven, Vinmart+, C Express, etc. with ambitious plans in the coming years.Facing new competition pressures, Mobile World has announced that it will inject three trillion dong to quadruple the scale of Bach Hoa Xanh chain from 283 stores to 1,000 stores by the end of this year, or Central Group plans to spend an additional $1.51 billion to expand its store chain in Vietnam. All want gain market share and rise to the top in the race worth up to $50 billion.Not only competing intensely and being ready for a competition on price, retail chains also have to compete with 1.48 million traditional grocery stores that are holding about 85 percent of the entire market sales. Changing consumption habit of the people from tradition to modern will not happen overnight.So, in order to win, retailers still have much work to do. According to Nguyen Anh Dung, such retail chains as Qmart, Qmart+ need to pay attention to consumption trend following modern style, understand customers, create attractiveness through the ap-plication of new technology, develop multi sales channels that integrate e-commerce, provide additional utilities in stores such as bank payment service, internet, logistics management system as well as arrange and classify goods so as to bring about the most convenience to customers.Finally, there should not ignore opportunities in rural areas. This area is reckoning for 68 percent of the population, with the average income of 5.3 million dong per month,


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and this figure will continue growing very fast. The proportion of internet and smart-phones usage in rural area is also gradually catching up with urban area. That will be the opportunity for the development of e-commerce for retailers. For example, Alibaba has been very successful in China thanks to the fact that it can deliver goods to rural consumers in the most remote places.

Vietnam & New Zealand trade to reach $1.7- 2bn by 2020

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern agreed on major directions to boost future Vietnam-New Zealand cooperation in all fields during their talks in Auckland on March 13, the Vietnam News Agency reports.In politics, the two sides agreed to maintain exchanges of delegations, especially high-level delegations, while strengthening people-to-people exchanges.In the spirit of the occasion, prime minister Phuc invited prime minister Ardern to visit Vietnam at an appropriate time and conveyed State President Tran Dai Quang's invi-tation to New Zealand's Governor-General to pay a State visit to Vietnam.The two sides also agreed to carry out the Action Programme for the 2017-2020 period in an effective manner and to soon organise the sixth meeting of the Joint Committee on economic and trade cooperation in Hanoi and the 11th Political Consultation in New Zealand.The two sides expressed their delight at the bilateral friendship and comprehensive partnership between the two countries, as the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Partnership approaches in 2019 and the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic rela-tions in 2020.In defense-security, prime minister Ardern agreed that the two sides should carry out specific cooperation within the newly-signed Action Programme on defense coopera-tion in the 2018-2021 period. The two need to promote affiliation in defense industry and research while strengthening collaboration in fighting transnational crime, terror-ism and drug trafficking amid the changing security situation in the region.In terms of economics and trade, both sides are satisfied with bilateral trade growth, which hit $1.24 billion last year for a year-on-year increase of more than 30 per cent. They agreed on numerous trade promotion activities, including the facilitation of farm produce exports, in order to bring bilateral trade to $1.7-2 billion by 2020.Prime minister Phuc asked New Zealand to continue facilitating the export of Viet-namese tropical fruit such as mango, dragon fruit, rambutan, star apple, grapefruit and longan and expand investment in Vietnam in fields where it holds strengths and Vietnam has demand, such as mining, energy, infrastructure, high-tech agriculture, education and finance.Regarding official development assistance (ODA), the Vietnamese leader said he is sat-isfied with the efficiency of New Zealand's ODA projects in Vietnam. He called for its increased provision with a focus on agriculture and rural development, human re-sources development, disaster risk management, and climate change.The New Zealand prime minister took the occasion to announce two new ODA projects: a three-year programme worth NZD1.5 million ($1.09 million) to help Viet-namese farmers increase their incomes, and a pilot project on renewable energy worth NZD500,000 ($365,000).The two sides reached consensus on intensifying collaboration in areas of potential such as education and labour.They acknowledged that cooperation in education and training is growing strongly and is one of the pillars of bilateral relations.They set a target to raise the number of Vietnamese students by 30 per cent by 2020 through encouraging the exchange of students between the two countries' universities.Prime minister Ardern expressed her delight at the positive growth in bilateral tour-ism cooperation, reflected through New Zealand welcoming 17,000 Vietnamese tour-ists last year.Assistance to Vietnam will be maintained in human resources training and support given to the opening of direct air routes linking the two countries and facilitating tour-


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ism and trade cooperation.The two prime ministers affirmed they would push ahead with their cooperation and mutual support at regional and international forums such as the WTO, the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Forum, and the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem).Prime minister Phuc thanked New Zealand for supporting Vietnam in its hosting of the Apec 2017 meetings and in becoming a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure.The New Zealand prime minister will support and work closely with Vietnam in 2020 when it will take up the role of Asean Chair and the bloc and New Zealand will mark the 45th anniversary of the dialogue partnership and the fifth anniversary of the stra-tegic partnership.New Zealand will host Apec Year 2021 and hopes to learn from Vietnam's experience, she added.The two countries agreed to jointly carry out the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and advocated negotiations over the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).Both prime ministers have entrusted ministries and relevant agencies to promote the two countries' relations in a deep and pragmatic manner across different fields in ad-dition to promoting the exchange of a roadmap for the bilateral strategic partnership and soon elevating bilateral relations as agreed upon by the two sides.At the end of the talks, the two prime ministers witnessed the signing of three impor-tant documents: an agreement between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on economic and trade cooperation, a deal between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and New Zealand's Ministry of Pri-mary Industries on cooperation in food safety and quality management, and a strate-gic cooperation plan between the Ministry of Education and Training and New Zealand educational agencies on education and training in 2018-2020.http://dtinews.vn/en/news/017004/55572/-vietnam---new-zealand-trade-to-reach--1-7--2bn-by-2020.html

70 HK businesses seeking trade ties in Vietnam

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VOV

A group of 70 Hong Kong businesses operating in the fields of finance, education, ar-chitecture, law, garments, electronic components, and footwear will visit Vietnam for an exchange with Vietnamese partners on March 21 in HCM City.The event will be held to coincide with a working visit to Vietnam by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong.The exchange is seen as a gateway for HCM City businesses to set up investment co-operation ties with Hong Kong investors.Trade between Vietnam and Hong Kong has increased steadily in recent years. Up to early September 2017, Vietnam was the third largest trade partner of Hong Kong in Asean, with bilateral trade of $13 billion, a year-on-year rise of 12 percent. Over the same period, Hong Kong's exports to Vietnam reached $7.4 billion and imports from Vietnam were $5.7 billion.In terms of investment, up to March 20, 2017, Hong Kong was the sixth biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with more than 1,200 projects totally capitalised at over $17.57 bil-lion.http://english.vov.vn/trade/70-hong-kong-businesses-seeking-trade-ties-in-vietnam-370369.vov

BUSINESSZ NEWSBusiness Briefs 14 March, 2018

14/MAR/2017 INTELLASIA |

* Vietnam Electrical Equipment Corporation (GEX) is going to issue 53.3 million shares to pay a 2017 dividend for shareholders and increase its registered capital. This year, GEX targets to obtain VND15 trillion in revenue and nearly VND1.5 trillion in after-tax profit, up 25 percent and 13 percent against the previous year respectively. In 2017, GEX issued VND500 billion worth of inconvertible secured bonds, which had a face


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SVietnam finance & business 14 March 2018

value ofVNDl billion each.* Pham Anh Duong, chair of An Phat Plastic and Green Environment Company (AAA), has registered to buy over 1.1 million AAA shares from now to April 12, rais-ing his ownership from 2.2 percent to 3.6 percent. At the same time, Pham Hoang Viet, a board member ofthe enterprise, will buy 1.8 million AAA shares to secure a 2.4 per-cent stake.* An Duong Thao Dien Real Estate Trading Investment Company (HAR) plans to raise its capital from VND968 billion to overVNDl trillion this year by paying a 2016 share dividend for shareholders and issuing shares for staff. It expects to gain VND60 billion in after-tax profit, surging by 109 percent versus last year.* Thanh Nam Group Company (TNI) has sold over 15.6 million shares out of the total offer of 31.5 million shares, raising over VND 15.6 billion. It will use the proceeds to invest in a property project in Danang City, pay bank debts and supplement working capital. The enterprise will transfer its entire 8.49 million shares, or an 84.9 percent stake, at Vuon Dao Ha Long Hotel JSC, before the end of the second quarter.* Daiwa Securities Group Inc will be buying over 22.8 million shares of Saigon Securi-ties Inc (SSI) between March 16 and April 13.Once completed, the Japanese investor will raise its holding at SSI from 17.47 percent to 22 percent, or over 1l0.2 million shares.* Ha Tay Pharmaceutical Company (DHT) will organise an annual general meeting on March 26 to seek shareholders' opinions on its business plans for 2018. The enterprise will focus on southern markets such as HCM City, the Central Highlands and the Me-kong Delta and hire foreign experts to launch new products. It also has plans to issue shares for existing shareholders to raise capital.

March 13: Main indexes gain ground

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

UPCoM-Index the only loser on March 13.All main indexes on Vietnam's stock market closed higher on March 13, with the ex-ception of the UPCoM-Index.On HSX, the VN Index closed at 1,133.31 points, up 7.02 points (0.62 per cent), and the VN30-Index 1,111.38 points, up 4.41 points (0.40 per cent).On HNX, the HNX-Index finished at 129.66 points, up 0.60 points (0.47 per cent) and the HNX30-Index 248.85 points, up 1.39 points (0.56 per cent), while the UPCoM-Index fell to 61.25 points, down 0.06 points (0.09 per cent).Liquidity on HSX was VND5.9 trillion ($259.1 million) and VND964.4 billion ($42.3 million) on HNX.The VN Index opened at 1,126.53 points and ended the day at 1,133.31 points.Most large food and beverages shares gained ground, with VNM, TAC and KDC ris-ing 1.9, 1 and 0.8 per cent while VCF lost 1.1 per cent, BBC 0.6 per cent, DQG 0.5 per cent and TLG 0.4 per cent.Most large banking shares gained: CTG, SSI, MBB, VPB, BID, STB and VCI by 6.7, 2.9, 2.7, 2.1, 1.6, 0.9, and 0.1 per cent, while EIB, BVH and MSN lost 1.3, 0.9 and 0.2 per cent. VCB closed at its opening price.In energy, NT2 gained 5.8 per cent, PPC 2.7 per cent, and PVT 1.3 per cent, while PVD, PLX and GAS shed 3.7, 1.1 and 1 per cent.The Top 5 shares bought by foreign investors were VRE (VND213.6 billion ($9.38 mil-lion)), VIC (VND57.4 billion ($2.5 million)), VNM (VND28 billion ($1.2 million)), VJC (VND23 billion ($1 million)), and HPG (VND21.2 billion ($931,210)).On HSX, VCB was the largest net sold share, with VND52.7 billion ($2.3 million), fol-lowed by CTD (VND41 billion ($1.8 million)), HSG (VND33.7 billion ($1.48 million)), CII (VND26 billion ($1.1 million)), and HDB (VND17.2 billion ($755,550)).VGC was the largest net sold share on HNX, with VND11.9 billion ($522,700), followed by DNP (VND1.7 billion ($74,670)), DBC (VND695.1 million ($30,530)), NDN (VND408.3 million ($17,935)), and VIT (VND297.3 million ($13,060)).On UPCoM, foreign investors bought 326,129 shares worth VND4.43 billion ($194,590).


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They net bought on HSX by VND184.18 billion ($5 million) and net sold on HNX by VND4.95 billion ($48,000).http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/march-13-main-indexes-gain-ground

Foreign investors confident in Vietnamese stock market outlook

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| THE HANOITIMES

Countries like Vietnam and Pakistan are coming off a low base in terms of economic development, so there is the potential for a catch-up effect, like what happened in plac-es like Russia and Brazil over the past two to three decades, Jon Scheiber, CEO of Tun-dra Fonder AB, said.Tundra Sustainable Frontier Fund, run by the Swedish manager that oversees $400 million in assets, has returned 6.8 percent this year to beat 97 percent of its peers, ac-cording to Bloomberg. Egyptian, Vietnamese, and Pakistani equities make up almost 60 percent of its holdings, the figures show.Tundra Fonder, which has research offices in Karachi and HCM City, uses its local presence to look beyond the biggest stocks. The top five equities in particular markets can still "be good value but they are well-researched and well-known."Scheiber told Bloomberg that Vietnam has become "a bit pricey but that is tilted to the blue chips." Beyond the half dozen top-valued companies, other smaller ones also look attractive.Earlier, Rong Viet Securities Corporation also said in a report that the VN Index will increase by at least 17 percent this year (even 67 percent under the best case scenario), meaning it could end the year somewhere between 1,170 and 1,640.Nguyen The Minh, a senior analyst at Saigon Securities Incorporation, was more re-served."The VN Index could reach 1,050 points in the short term, and 1,300 by the end of the year," he said.Foreigners have been net buyers of the country's shares this month, even as they pulled a combined $14 billion from nine Asian markets tracked by Bloomberg.According to the National Financial Supervisory Committee, foreign investors made a net purchase of $573 million in Vietnamese stock markets in the first two months of the year.The committee projected that the outlook for foreign indirect investment (FII) inflows to Vietnam this year is generally positive, which will partly support the foreign ex-change rate.To increase the supply source for the stock market and better attract foreign investors, the committee also suggested the government to continuously speed up the equitisa-tion and divestment of State-owned enterprises (SOEs).Major SOEs should have IPO itineraries early to capitalise on the growth of the stock market, avoiding to crowd the market in 2019-2020, it said.The government also affirmed that it is dramatically accelerating sales of stakes in SOEs, announcing this year's plan to sell 6.5 times more shares than last year.Stakes in 245 state companies are up for grabs in 2018, including four scheduled in the first quarterBinh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co., which operates the only oil re-finery in the country, as well as PetroVietnam Oil Corp., PetroVietnam Power Corp., and Hanoi Beer Alcohol & Beverage JSC.According to Dang Quyet Tien, director general of the Ministry of Finance's Depart-ment of Corporate Finance, the number of enterprises earmarked for equitisation and divestment in 2018 account for over 50 and 46 per cent of the total planned for 2017-2020.Bloomberg called Vietnam a "frontier market" in Asia last year, as it was the biggest gainer in percentage terms with a 47 percent gain on the VN Index. Market capitalisa-tion almost doubled to nearly $150 billion, fueled by state-owned company sales and listings, it said.The Vietnamese economy grew by 6.8 percent in 2017, breaking its own 6.7 percent tar-get which both government officials and economists had considered ambitious.


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The country remains one of the fastest growing economies in the world and has set the goal of expanding by another 6.7 percent this year.http://www.hanoitimes.vn/investment/2018/03/81E0C313/foreign-investors-confi-dent-in-vietnamese-stock-market-outlook/

Thai firms continue pushing for bigger Vietnam market share


The just increased ownership of NawaPlastic Industries (Saraburi) Co Ltd in Vietnam-ese firm Binh Minh Plastic (BMP) is yet another clear indication that Thai companies are continuing finding ways to gain a bigger market share in Vietnam.NawaPlastic Industries, a subsidiary of Thailand's SCG that is no stranger in Vietnam, spent more than VND2.3 trillion (around $1 billion) acquiring most of the BMP shares offered by State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) to raise its holding in BMP to 49.9 percent from 20.4 percent.It is worth noting that the BMP shares were sold to NawaPlastic Industries at VND96,500 each, a premium of 17 percent to the March 9 trading price. This showed the Thai firm's resolve to up its stake in BMP, a leading plastic company in Vietnam with more than 700 products, and 1,500 outlets nationwide.With a stake of nearly 50 percent in BMP, NawaPlastic Industries has become one of the Thai firms to holding huge stakes in Vietnamese enterprises.On the part of SCG, it is also expanding its Vietnam operations in three sectors pack-aging, petrochemical and cement. It recently began work on a petrochemical complex in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, 10 years after it got approval. The project will produce material for the plastic sector and export.BJC Group, another Thai firm, has been in partnership with Phu Thai Group of Viet-nam since 2013 to operate B's Mart convenience stores. In 2014, BJC beat Central Group in a bid for the Metro Cash & Carry chain in Vietnam, which was later renamed as MM Mega Market.A BJC subsidiary in Singapore called F&B also acquired a stake in Vinamilk, Vietnam's leading milk processor, and showed no sign of stopping there as it registered to buy more Vinamilk shares on the stock exchange last year.However, the biggest transaction involving a Thai company so far is the 53.39 percent stake acquisition in Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco), the biggest brewery in Vietnam, late last year. Thai Beverage Public Co Ltd established an entity in Vietnam with chartered capital of VND681.6 billion but spent nearly VND110 tril-lion buying the Sabeco shares at VND320,000 each.In 2016, Siam City Cement Public Co Ltd acquired a 65 percent stake in LafargeHolcim Vietnam from LafargeHolcim Group.Besides, Central Group bought the Big C supermarket chain in Vietnam from a French investor and a 49 percent stake in domestic household appliances retailer Nguyen Kim.Meanwhile, Thailand's CP Group is holding a large market share of the animal feed, poultry egg and pork processing sectors and a wide network of retail stores, excluding the fast food kiosk chain Five Star.The growing presence of Thai firms in the local retail sector has made Thai goods more prominent in Vietnam.The increased penetration of Thai firms into the Vietnamese market, according to ex-perts, is an inevitable outcome of their preparations and the Thai government's sup-port.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/58744/Thai-firms-continue-pushing-for-bigger-Viet-nam-market-share.html

US news website names Hanoi among 13 best places to visit in March


As winter's cold grip loosens on Hanoi, the city has been named one of the ideal travel destinations for March by American-based Business Insider.The list is compiled based on analysis of flight tickets, weather and popular travel pe-riods.


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Hanoi in March enjoys a mild climate with average temperatures ranging from 17-24 degrees Celsius, with the cold winds long gone and the sun starting to shine.The capital is also quieter following the frenetic Lunar New Year holiday, a major trav-el season which often ends in February.Since March is by nature a "shoulder season" when tourism neither peaks nor troughs, travellers can enjoy cost-effective journeys, Business Insider says.The news website advises wandering around the Old Quarter in the city centre, an area it describes as "energetic and mazelike."Last year, Time ranked Hanoi at No.1 on its list of Best International Destinations in terms of value for money.In early 2017, Britain's Daily Telegraph listed Hanoi as one of the top 10 cities for street food.TripAdvisor, the world's popular travel guide and review website, also named Viet-nam's capital in the top 10 destinations for 2017, as voted for by its users.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/us-news-website-names-hanoi-among-13-best-places-to-visit-in-Mar/127823.vnp

Outstanding enterprises in made-in-VN products campaign to be named


Ninety-six outstanding enterprises in the "Vietnamese people prioritise using made-in-Vietnam goods" campaign will be announced at an awards ceremony to be broad-cast live on VTV1 on March 17.Specifically, 10 business will be awarded with the "Top 10 Vietnamese product brands" title, while 10 others will be named in the "Top 10 businesses holding excellent Viet-namese brand services" category.The remaining will receive the "outstanding Vietnamese brand enterprises" award.The competition, the second of its kind, was launched in October 2017, with nearly 300 enterprises from across Vietnam nominated.The event, held for the first time in 2014, aims to honour outstanding Vietnamese prod-ucts and services, and encourage domestic enterprises to invest in production and business and take advantage of science and technology advances to increase product quality.Speaking at a press conference in Hanoi on March 12, Le Viet Nga, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Domestic Market Department, said the awards cere-mony is in preparation for the 10th anniversary of the "Vietnamese people prioritise using made-in-Vietnam goods" campaign to be held in 2019.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/outstanding-businesses-in-madeinvietnam-products-cam-paign-to-be-named/127782.vnp

Vietnam spends big on abattoir training to secure Aussie cow imports

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VNEXPRESS

Exports of live Aussie cattle to Vietnam were suspended in 2016 after abattoirs were accused of animal abuse.Two commercial companies in Vietnam have invested millions of dollars to develop two training facilities for abbatoir workers so that the Vietnamese beef industry can continue to secure imports of live cattle from Australia.The training facilities in southern Vietnam, which are set to open within this month, will offer three-month programmes for workers to learn how to process cattle proper-ly, Radio Australia said on Tuesday.Growing demand for Australian cattle has prompted Vietnam's processing sector to invest in abattoir training facilities to improve animal welfare.In 2016, Australia's Department of Agriculture suspended trade after video footage showed Australian cattle being bludgeoned to death in Vietnamese abattoirs.The department banned two unnamed Australian exporters and an unapproved facil-ity under Australia's Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) rules from supplying cattle to Vietnam.ESCAS is designed to ensure that exported Australian livestock are handled in accord-ance with international animal welfare standards and to provide a mechanism to deal


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with animal welfare issues when they occur.The Australian Embassy told VnExpress International back then that Australia had suspended livestock supplies to 18 abattoirs and feedlots in Vietnam pending an in-vestigation into alleged animal cruelty.Since then Australia has been working with Vietnam, which is the second-largest im-porter of live Australian cattle, to improve its animal welfare standards to ensure the country complies with ESCAS.Vietnam's cattle industry is failing to meet the country's increasing demand for beef, forcing local consumers to turn to imported products.Last year, the country imported more than 262,300 live cattle, and nearly 42,000 tonnes of beef and buffalo meat, valued at more than $410 million, official government data shows.Explaining the reason for the imports, Tong Xuan Chinh, an official from the agricul-ture ministry, said Vietnamese people's diets have changed drastically in recent years, and they're now eating more beef and buffalo meat.Average consumption per capita has doubled to 5-6 kilograms of beef and buffalo meat per year in the past decade, but the cattle industry has been unable to keep up with the pace. Local supplies of beef and buffalo meat only meet 80 percent of the cur-rent demand.Imported beef, mainly from Australia and the US, is available in air conditioned super-markets, modern food stores and local markets, and some restaurants are also using imported beef in their dishes.Many local consumers favour imported products thanks to their reasonable prices and food safety concerns that have plagued the Vietnamese food market in recent years. Beef imported from Australia and the US costs from VND100,000-500,000 ($4.4-22.02) per kilogram, around the same price as local products.https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/vietnam-spends-big-on-abattoir-training-to-se-cure-aussie-cow-imports-3722306.html

More Chinese travellers visiting Vietnam via chartered flights


Nha Trang, Da Nang, HCM City and other famous tourism sites are seeing an influx of Chinese travellers.Cam Ranh Airport in Khanh Hoa province was full of Chinese travellers during the Tet holiday. According to a report, there were 30-40 chartered flights a day bringing 9,000-12,000 Chinese travellers to the locality.Reporters who visited the airport on the morning of February 18, or the third day of Lunar New Year, noticed streams of people following customs procedures.However, reporters later found that the number of passengers rose even more between 2 pm and midnight.Colin Blackwell, CEO of Nam Anh Trade and Import/Export company, which offers airport services for foreign airlines, was not surprised when reporters mentioned the tens of flights carrying Chinese travellers to Cam Ranh daily.Some Chinese air carriers can provide hundreds of flights and more if the airport is ca-pable of receiving them, he said."This (China) is a vast market. No worries about a low number of travellers," he said.Chinese travellers also visited many other cities/provinces. Da Nang City, for example, received 10,000 Chinese travellers during the holiday.Nikkei Asian Review cited sources as saying that 6.5 million Chinese people traveled abroad during the one-week 2018 Lunar New Year holiday, and Vietnam was one of their favourite destinations.In 2017, Vietnam received 4 million Chinese travellers, a sharp increase of 48.6 percent over 2016.Blackwell said that more and more Chinese will visit Vietnam, as it as great advantag-es in geographical position and a high number of tourist sites with warm weather year round as well as safety.He said that most of the aircraft serving chartered flights were leased from Vietnam's


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airlines, and the number of Chinese travellers will increase as Chinese air carriers have joined the market.Nguyen Van Thanh, deputy chair of the Nha Trang Khanh Hoa Travel Association, said the Cam Ranh Airport is overloaded. As a result, many flights from China have to be carried out at night.Once the new terminal of Cam Ranh becomes operational, slated for April 2018, it may receive 2 million Chinese travellers this year.China also topped the list of HCM City's 10 largest tourism markets in 2017. The number of Chinese travellers to the city is expected to rise this year because travel firms have found solutions to the lack of parking seats at the airports.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/196779/more-chinese-travellers-visiting-vietnam-via-chartered-flights.html

Peruvian grapes arrive in Vietnam


Peruvian grape festival week being held in Hanoi from March 13 to 20 to mark the in-troduction of the country's grapes.The Embassy of Peru in Vietnam, in cooperation with the Viet Product Development Joint Stock Company (VPD), the owner of the Luon Tuoi Sach (always fresh and clean) fruit shop chain, launched the first Peruvian grape festival week from March 13 to 20 at the Luon Tuoi Sach shop at 70 Tran Thai Tong, Cau Giay district, Hanoi.The festival week aims to officially introduce Peruvian grapes to Vietnamese consum-ers after Vietnam officially allowed their importation in January. "The Peruvian gov-ernment and enterprises negotiated with Vietnam for five years to introduce our grapes, a source of national pride, to Vietnamese people," Fiorella Polanco, First Secre-tary of the Embassy of Peru, told the opening ceremony. "I hope that more Peruvian fruit will be introduced in Vietnam in the time to come." Bui The Dung, general manager of the Luon Tuoi Sach chain, the pioneer importer of Peruvian grapes, said that imported grapes such as those from the US and Japan are already available in Vietnam but this is the first time grapes from a Latin American country have been introduced. "Thanks to Peru's soil, the quality of its grapes is good and their freshness is well-preserved, though it takes time to ship them from Peru to Vietnam," he said. "This provides more options to Vietnamese consumers and they can now enjoy one of finest products from Peru."During the festival week, visitors to any shop in the Luon Tuoi Sach chain will have the chance to taste Peruvian grapes for free and enjoy a promotional price of VND99,000 ($4.4) per kilo, compared to the normal VND179,000 ($7.9). Red and seed-less black Peruvian grapes are now available at Luon Tuoi Sach shops and several su-permarkets. Green grapes may be imported soon after the company identifies a transportation solution, as these grapes are more easily ruined during delivery than other types.Peruvian grapes have a very competitive price compared to other imported grapes, ac-cording to Thu Trang, one of the customers at the festival. She usually pays VND300,000 ($13) a kilo of American grapes. Australian grapes are at the same price, while Japanese grapes cost more than VND1 million ($44) a kilo. "The price of Peruvi-an grape is reasonable for Vietnamese consumers," she said, "They have a nice sweet flavor, not too sweet like some other grapes, and their skin is less astringent."Grapes have a positive effect on antioxidants, providing moisturisation, Vitamin B3, minerals, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, which are all good for the health and the skin. Peruvian grapes have gained a reputation for good quality and are the country's top agricultural export. Grape growing is concentrated along the central valleys on Peru's coast, with new areas in the Piura and Lambayeque regions on the northern coast developing rapidly. The main variety produced is Red Globe, but oth-ers include Crimson seedless, Flame seedless, Sugraone, and Thompson seedless.The country's Foreign Agricultural Service estimates 2017-18 production at 638,000 tonnes, compared to 605,000 tonnes in the most recent season. Exports are forecast at 380,000 tonnes, a jump from the 300,000 tonnes in the 2016-17 season. Export turnover


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from grapes last year was $653.2 million, up 2.6 per cent against 2016, with the US be-ing the largest importer, followed by the Netherlands and China.Luon Tuoi Sach chain:22 Hang Muoi, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi12 Son Tay, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi125 Nguyen Chi Thanh, Dong Da District, Hanoi29A Nguyen Chi Thanh, Dong Da District, Hanoi37 Thai Thinh, Dong Da District, Hanoi36A B1 Ton That Tung, Dong Da District, Hanoi2M Lang Ha, Dong Da District, Hanoi10 Pho Hue, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi105 E3 Le Thanh Nghi, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi70 Tran Thai Tong, Cau Giay District, Hanoi19A Nguyen Thi Dinh, Cau Giay District, Hanoi230 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoihttp://vneconomictimes.com/article/society/peruvian-grapes-arrive-in-vietnam

Saigon Petro proposes cutting bio-fuel tax


Saigon Petro, a HCM City-based fuel trading firm, has proposed the Ministries of Fi-nance and Industry-Trade cut the planned environmental protection tax on bio-fuel E5 to VND500 for each litre sold, news website Dan Tri reports.In a proposed plan, the Ministry of Finance wants the environmental protection tax to rise to VND1,000 per litre of gasoline and VND500 per litre of diesel oil.If the National Assembly approves the plan, the tax on A95 gasoline and E5 bio-gaso-line would surge to VND4,000 and VND3,800 per litre respectively. According to Sai-gon Petro, the VND200 differential between A95 and E5 would be too small to encourage consumers to switch to using E5.Saigon Petro proposed the ministries consider lowering the tax on E5 by VND500 per litre to make it possible for fuel traders to make the E5 price VND2,000-2,500 per litre lower than A95.Dan Tri quoted a source as saying the sales volume of E5 in the year to end-February had grown markedly compared to the same period last year but accounted for around 30 percent of the total.Saigon Petro data shows the sales volume of A92 was around six million cubic meters a year, or 500,000 cubic meters a month prior to 2017. Meanwhile, the amount of the bio-fuel sold represents half of the previous A92 sales figure.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/58733/Saigon-Petro-proposes-cutting-bio-fuel-tax.html

Vinachem's loss-making projects grapple with huge interest payments


Loss-making projects under Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem) are facing an enormous financial burden in 2018-2020 due mostly to huge interest payment obli-gations, news website Dan Tri reported.Vinachem has recently presented its business development plans in the next three years for four poor-performing projects.Of the 12 loss-making projects under the management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, four belong to Vinachem, namely Ninh Binh nitrogenous fertiliser plant, Ha Bac nitrogenous fertiliser and chemicals factory, DAP-Vinachem and DAP 2-Vinachem.At the Ha Bac project, the total loan interest it must pay towards 2020 is over VND2.3 trillion (or VND767 billion a year).The Ninh Binh project is obliged to pay VND1.11 trillion in interest, with VND491 bil-lion of it due this year, VND368 billion next year and VND253 billion in 2020. The re-spective interest amounts of the DAP 2 project in the next three years will be VND269 billion, VND275 billion and VND272 billion.The DAP-Vinachem project will have to pay VND9 billion in interest this year and be free from the interest payment obligation as from next year. This is also the best per-


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forming project of Vinachem as it reported profit last year.To assist these projects, Vinachem has requested the government and ministries to ap-prove some proposals, including loan repayments. In particular, Vinachem has pro-posed extending loan terms to 20 years, paying principles first and interest later, and offering interest exemptions for overdue loans.In addition, Vinachem wants interest rates lowered, with 3 percent per year towards 2022. As from 2023, for loans with annual rates above 8.55 percent, the rates should be adjusted down to the levels applicable to State-funded investment projects.Besides asking for assistance with loans at Vietnam Development Bank, Vinachem is looking for support to deal with loans at other commercial banks.Last year, the four projects reported lower losses, with Ninh Binh nitrogenous fertilis-er, Ha Bac nitrogenous fertiliser and DAP 2 respectively incurring losses of VND933 billion, down by nearly VND200 billion, VND602 billion, down VND449 billion, and VND530 billion, down VND376 billion,. Meanwhile, the DAP-Vinachem recorded a profit of VND15 billion.Vinachem said it believed these projects would be able to perform better if its propos-als are approved.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/58749/Vinachem percente2 percent80 percent99s-loss-making-projects-grapple-with-huge-interest-payments.html

Ministry asks Formosa to clarify investment increase


The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has asked Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Cor-poration to give a clarification of its capital hike from $11 billion to $11.6 billion, ac-cording to news website Vietnamnet.The Taiwanese company sought the ministry's approval for adjusting its investment certificate in line with the capital increase, which it said was due to the increased costs of certain construction components as well as machinery. Formosa also attributed the additional investment of $600 million to an amount of $18 million spent on a chemical coal workshop as a new component, and an increase in the paid-in capital from $4.5 billion to $5 billion.Such details provided by Formosa, however, are still unclear, so the Ministry of Plan-ning and Investment demanded further clarification. For example, as per the steelmak-er's filing, the total capital is raised by $600 million in terms of US dollar, but the amount in dong is reduced from VND248.2 trillion to VND245.7 trillion. The disparity is not explained in the filing.The increased costs, as stated by Formosa, relate to existing construction components plus the chemical coal plant as a new component, so there must be appraisals from rel-evant bodies, according to the MPI. Specifically, such a job requires the involvement of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Construc-tion, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Ministry of Science and Technology.MPI also urged the authority of the Ha Tinh Economic Zone where the steel complex is located to work with the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of In-dustry and Trade to identify whether the chemical coal plant is an additional compo-nent or a must-have component of the company's steel production project. The technology and environment impact of this component should be assessed as well.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/58752/Ministry-asks-Formosa-to-clarify-investment-increase.html

UK's group encouraged to participate in SOEs' restructuring


The United Kingdom's Jardines Matheson Group can enlarge its investment to take part in the restructuring of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and credit institutions in Vietnam.This was announced by deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue during a reception in Hanoi on Monday that he had hosted for Henry Keswich, chair of the Jardines Math-eson Group.


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Jardines Matheson is a multi-sectoral and multi-national group that has been present in Vietnam for more than 20 years. The group holds 10 per cent of charter capital at Vinamilk, 25 per cent of capital at Truong Hai Auto Corporation and 23 per cent at the Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation.At the reception, Keswich expressed his interest in the equitisation and divestment of Vietnamese SOEs, hoping to participate in the field.He also pledged to help Vietnam develop its capital market with high-level services in the time to come.According to Hue, the restructuring of SOEs and credit institutions are two among five key tasks in the country's economic restructuring plan.The State will own full stakes only in fields related to national security, defence and special public-utility services, he said, adding that the government has issued a list of SOEs that must be divested and equitised until 2020. The government is also focusing on dealing with weak banks and balancing credit and non-credit services of banks, he said.He also said the government would work to ensure macro-economic stability and cre-ate a favourable business environment in conformity with international standards and practices.He asked the group to pay attention to developing existing fields such as milk prod-ucts, automobiles, machinery, construction, real estate and finance and insurance.According to Hue, the expansion of investment in Vietnam will benefit Jardines Math-eson as the country is a member of more than 10 free trade agreements.http://bizhub.vn/news/uks-group-encouraged-to-participate-in-soes-restructuring_293129.html

Korean groups planning Thua Thien-Hue tourism complex

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VOV

The business groups of KMH, Glostar, and OCC Company of the Republic of Korea are planning to invest in tourism projects in central Thua Thien-Hue province, accord-ing to Park Mo Won, a representative of KMH group.At a working session with Thua Thien-Hue provincial leaders on March 12, on behalf of the Korean business delegation, Park said that Korean businesses want to build a culture, sports, and hotel complex at Chan May-Lang Co EZ, and a cultural house and a system of tour boats using renewable energy on a river in Hue City.The Korean investors' initial hopes are that the province will create favourable condi-tions for the construction of a resort at Chan May-Lang Co EZ, including a film studio for the biopic of Vietnamese marksman Hoang Xuan Vinh, winner of the historic gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, said Park.Nguyen Van Cao, chair of Thua Thien-Hue provincial People's Committee, spoke highly of the Korean investors' ideas for developing tourism and commercial activities in the province, saying that the People's Committee will authorise relevant agencies to work with the Korean investors to research and carry out the necessary investment procedures so that these projects will come to fruition in the near future.http://english.vov.vn/investment/korean-groups-planning-thua-thienhue-tourism-complex-370363.vov

Lazada to be inspected over customer complaints


The Ministry of Industry and Trade has started an inspection at Lazada after receiving numerous complaints related to the quality of goods and services, focusing on the ob-servance of the law on commerce and the protection of consumers' interests.In 2017, the Vietnam Competition Agency (VCA) received numerous complaint letters related to the quality of goods and services of Lazada.vn, such as delayed delivery, goods being substantially different from advertisements or being old/used, vendors not attaching invoices or automatically cancelled orders, as well as false advertising of discounts.Implementing the requirements and guidelines of VCA, by the end of 2017, Lazada ne-gotiated and resolved 40 out of 41 consumer complaints. The one remaining case is be-


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ing negotiated, but the two sides have yet to arrive to a solution and expect to take the case to the court.According to VCA, the inspection results will be announced soon.Operating in the country since 2012, Lazada Vietnam has become a developed and well-known e-commerce platform. However, Vietnamese customers are slowly losing faith in the platform as complaints keep mounting.Selling Lazada the wrong articles, repudiating liability, and cancelling ordersIn the latest case, according to ICTNews, in late January 2018, a customer named Trieu from Nha Trang city ordered two batches of pants on Lazada. The first batch he re-ceived contained some damaged items, and he has yet to receive the second batch.Upon receiving the faulty items of the first batch, he called the Lazada hotline to re-quest a replacement, but the company refused to exchange the items, despite its cus-tomer policy of providing refunds in seven days after delivery. After long complaints, the customer received an apology and was presented with a coupon worth VND50,000 ($2).Meanwhile, he continued asking Lazada to deliver the second batch but received no active response from the firm. "Lazada is a big company but its work ethic is disas-trous, they pay do not respect the customer, they are slow and reluctant to resolve complaints. I have been waiting for weeks and am growing too tired and angry. They are wasting my time," Tran Van Trieu complained.Earlier, in April 2017, N.V.Q. (from District 2, HCM City) said that he ordered two Gi-coly electric drill machine 139 parts and some blades at the unit price of VND104,000 ($4.6) and paid by card. Then he called the Lazada hotline to make sure the order was placed, which Lazada confirmed.However, in the afternoon, Lazada suddenly cancelled his order as the price was wrong. An employee from Lazada explained that the system was being upgraded and the price was wrong so that the company could not sell the item.The customer disagreed and said that the order was approved by both sides, the deal was done, and Lazada had to perform. The cancellation of order is highly unprofes-sional for a retailer.Fake promotions and wrong pricesD.H.T. (from Nhan Chinh commune, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi) reported that Laza-da deliberately used false advertising to lure in customers. On April 14, 2017, Lazada advertised selling a yellow Smart Watch Uwatch DZ09 with a complementary leather-strap watch. He ordered one and received a confirmation email of the successful order, according to dantri.com.vn.On April 18, he received the package and paid VND207,000 ($9.1). However, the bonus item was a plastic-strap watch. He called Lazada's customer service and was told that the promotion was incorrect, which constitutes as false advertising.Earlier, in the end of 2016 a customer named H.D.S. (from Nha Be district, HCM City) ordered a 43-inch LG smart TV (model 43LH605T) from Toan Linh Electronics on La-zada. That day was the biggest online promotion of Lazada, thereby that television's price was reduced to VND5.6 million ($247) from VND9.1 million ($400). He placed a successful order and paid online by card, Lazada sent a confirmation email, and in-formed him that the item will be delivered between December 14 and 17.However, the TV was not delivered, despite repeated calls to Lazada. On December 19, he received an email informing him that the delivery was not successful and the TV had been returned to Lazada.When he complained, Lazada told him that the item was not delivered as it was wrongly priced. He did not accept Lazada's apology along with an offer of VND1 mil-lion ($44) discount for the TV. He discussed with the general director but the company did not change its decision.The customer was very angry and claimed that Lazada's management was too weak, and the company made a deliberate mistake to spite customers.Selling goods not in inventory and abandoning customersAlso at the end of 2016, a customer named N.T.S from Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi, said


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that he ordered a mini IP Wi-Fi camera with a 32GB memory card on Lazada. Howev-er, the delivered item did not contain a memory card, according to dantri.com.vn.He contacted the customer services department, which confirmed delivering the item without a memory card. Then the supplier of Lazada contacted him and promised to deliver the memory card, which came only half a month later. The customer tried to contact the supplier but they did not answer and Lazada only kept making promises.http://english.vov.vn/economy/lazada-to-be-inspected-over-customer-complaints-370324.vov

MobiFone, AVG cancel acquisition agreement


Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Corporation (MobiFone) and shareholders of mul-timedia company Audio Visual Global (AVG) on Monday decided to cancel the share transfer agreement between the two companies.The decision was made several days after the Party Central Committee (PCC)'s Secre-tariat asked the government to soon release the inspection results of a VN8.89 trillion (US$395 million) acquisition by communications giant MobiFoneAccordingly, MobiFone and AVG agreed to cancel the transfer of 344.66 million shares and refund each other the amount received under the agreement.AVG shareholders will refund the entire amount paid by MobiFone, while MobiFone will return to AVG the number of shares and assets transferred. At the same time, the two sides will try to not let the other party suffer more damages.Phm Nht V, representative of AVG in the negotiations with MobiFone, agreed not to impose a fine and claim compensation while cancelling the deal.In addition to the amount paid to AVG, MobiFone said it had to pay some related ex-penses, such as hiring consultants. AVG has agreed to share this expense with Mobi-Fone.AVG has made a deposit of VN450 billion to proceed the agreement cancelation, Mob-iFone said in a press release on Tuesday.According to the AVG representative, there are many reasons for them to cancel the contract. First, since its acquisition, MobiFone has not operated and developed the AVG brand as planned and missed many opportunities and potential of AVG.Second, V said since the contract was in effect, MobiFone had paid 95 per cent of the contract value. The deadline was over but MobiFone had not yet fulfilled its obliga-tions to pay the remaining 5 per cent despite repeated requests by AVG.Since the inspection of the contract, the process of operating the AVG brand had caused many problems, damaging the reputation of both the parties. According to MobiFone and AVG, the cancellation of the contract is aimed at salvaging the damage.At the meeting, a MobiFone leader said the inspection process had impacted the com-pletion of payment to AVG. He also said due to problems faced by AVG, the market had changed and MobiFone was not able to concentrate on developing AVG.In early 2016, MobiFone formally announced the acquisition of AVG to expand its tel-evision network, one of the company's four main business areas. The details of the deal, however, were not disclosed.At the beginning of August 2016, the government promulgated Document No 1344/TTg, asking the government Inspectorate to investigate the acquisition. The Inspector-ate found serious violations in the acquisition.Last Thursday, the Party Central Committee's Office issued official letter No 6106-CV/VPTW on the handling of MobiFone's acquisition of 95 per cent of AVG shares, which says that this is a serious, complicated and sensitive matter.The Secretariat said that the government and the Inspectorate must be responsible for reviewing and settling cases in an objective and accurate manner under the law to en-sure that punishment is given to the right person and lost State assets are revoked.http://dtinews.vn/en/news/017004/55576/mobifone--avg-cancel-acquisition-agree-ment.html


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Tuan Chau Group to invest in Vung Tau mega project

14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| HANOI TIMES

Tuan Chau Group has proposed building a large resort complex named "Vung Tau Marina City" in Vung Tau, according to the Ba Ria-Vung Tau People`s Committee.Tuan Chau Group confirmed that the group is preparing to invest in Vung Tau Marina City, but has denied to provide specific information on this project. "Currently, the in-vestment planning in this project is not finished, we will provide more information when it is complete," spokesperson who wished to be anonymous, told Hanoitimes.The project will be implemented on a land area of 345 hectares stretching from the beach front to Bai Dau and will be able to accommodate about 7,500 settlers and 12,000 overnight visitors.It is expected that the investor will build a public bathing area and an international boat port to welcome guests. In addition, tourism services at the complex will include high-end commercial facilities, luxury hotels, condotel condos, and sea villas. The project will also include amusement parks and a marine circus with dolphins, seagulls, lion-sea lions, as well as music-movie-fashion centers, fireworks, and water music ven-ues. night, according to Ba Ria-Vung Tau People's Committee report.The goal of the project is to build a port complex and a modern multi-functional tour-ism hotspot in harmony with the natural landscape to meet the increasing local and overseas demands for entertainment and relaxation. Additionally, a modern yacht port system will be constructed to connect with domestic and international yacht ports.The total investment of the project has not been disclosed and Tuan Chau Group will have to complete the procedures for obtaining investment licenses from local authori-ties. If the project is implemented as planned, this will be one of the largest resort prop-erty projects in Vung Tau.Last year, Tuan Chau Group proposed to invest in a boulevard along Saigon River with a length of 61 km, linking Ben Suc Bridge (Cu Chi district) along the Sai Gon River to district 1, HCM City. In addition, the group plans to invest in several big projects in Can Gio and Cu Chi districts. However, these projects have not been implemented yet.http://www.hanoitimes.vn/investment/on-going-projects/2018/03/81E0C30C/tuan-chau-group-to-invest-in-vung-tau-mega-project/

Silk Path Hotels Resorts opens French chateau-inspired resort in Sa Pa


The 5-star Silk Path Grand Resort & Spa Sapa has officially opened its doors to wel-come tourists to Sa Pa the famous tourist magnet in the northern province of Lao Cai.Located on the hill slope with a breathtaking view of the marvelous Hoang Lien Son mountain range, the charming resort's design was inspired by the splendour of a French chateau, reflecting the classy architecture style which has been blended perfect-ly with vivid decorative ethnic patterns.Spread over two hectares, the property features 152 rooms divided into 10 categories, including Classic Room, Junior Suites, Executive Suite, Ambassador Suite, President Suite, Duplex Room and Bungalows. The accommodation at the resort is celebrated with thoughtful designs and decor providing spacious layouts, luxurious bathrooms and indulgent bedding. Every room boasts a balcony and some a large terrace.While staying in the luxury resort, guests can enjoy gastronomical journeys. At the cas-ual all-day dining Samu Restaurant, they can stay warm inside the elegantly furnished venue or sit outside by the garden area, breathing in the pristine breeze while the chefs prepare their meals. The Olivio, with the Napoleon-theme interior design, offers a re-fined Italian menu paired with the finest wines.Situated at the pinnacle of Indochina's highest summit, Cafe 1500 transports guests to an unfamiliar yet cozy feeling while enjoying a range of drinks and delicacies.The luxury Chi Spa was created with rejuvenation in mind, where guests can begin their personal journey to physical and spiritual harmony. The spa is a perfect oasis for head-to-toe pampering in an irresistible cold bath or a traditional herbal bath followed by a massage or professional therapy treatments.Speaking at the grand opening, the Silk Path Grand Resort & Spa Sapa's managing di-


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rector Steve Tan said: "Having taken care in every step, from the designing process, to building and operating, we at the Silk Path Grand Resort & Spa Sapa always try our best to perfect our service as well as to care for every single small detail, aiming to offer our guests memorable experiences during their stay with us."He also said that the Silk Path Grand Resort & Spa is the debut of a 5-star real estate collection, which is invested and managed by the hospitality brand Silk Path Hotels & Resorts."With the launching of this luxury resort, our brand wants to solidify our reputation in the hospitality industry, especially in the delivery of international standard resort products and services," he said.http://bizhub.vn/property/silk-path-hotels-resorts-opens-french-chateau-inspired-re-sort-in-sa-pa_293133.html

ILDC wants to develop $6 billion deep seaport complex in Soc Trang


International Local Development Consortium (ILDC) from France intends to develop a $6 billion deep seaport complex in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam.This was announced by Tran Van Chuyen, Chair of the Soc Trang People's Committee at the working session with minister of Transport Nguyen Van The organised on March 12.According to Chuyen, the province received numerous planning documents from in-vestors proposing to develop the deep seaport in the province. ILDC's plan is one of the most feasible of the received documents.Notably, ILDC's complex would have numerous components, including a 4,000-hec-tare seaport with the capacity to welcome 200,000dwt ships, a 1,500ha urban and in-dustrial area, a service area, and other infrastructure.The investor affirmed conducting the survey, building the detailed design, and com-pleting the investment procedure within 18 months of receiving the in-principle ap-proval from the local authorities. ILDC promised to take the seaport of the complex into operation by 2026 to exploit domestic routes.The project is necessary to deal with the overload at existing ports along the Hau River. Besides, the creation of a deep-water port in the Mekong Delta would provide a short-cut to ship products made in the region to domestic and international destinations.The seaport was added to the list of projects to be funded by official development as-sistance (ODA) or executed in form of build-operate-transfer (BOT) and public-private partnership (PPP) projects.Compared to other locations in the Mekong River Delta, Soc Trang possesses huge po-tential for seaport and shipping development as well as waterway transport.It features a 72 kilometre coastal stretch and 3,000km of waterways with three estuaries facing the East Sea, comprising of Dinh An, Tran De, and My Thanh, of which Dinh An and My Thanh are among the Mekong River Delta's most vital gateways to the East Sea.ILDC is a developer and builder of ecological, urban and industrial projects. The cor-poration consists of over 30 leading international companies with expertise in ecolog-ical, urban, and industrial development.http://www.vir.com.vn/ildc-wants-to-develop-6 billion-deep-seaport-complex-in-soc-trang-57147.html

Spotify challenges Apple Music in Vietnam's streaming market


Spotify arrives in Vietnam more than two years later than its competitorSweden-based music, podcast, and video streaming service Spotify has become avail-able to users in Vietnam since Monday, in its expansion to 64 markets worldwide.Limited songs and features are available for free with advertisements, while additional features such as improved streaming quality and downloads are offered via paid sub-scriptions.In Vietnam, customers can upgrade to a premium account for VND59,000 (US$2.60) a month, after a 30-day free trial.


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Vietnam was among three countries involved in Spotify's market expansion on Mon-day, which also saw the Swedish company expanding its reach to South Africa and Is-rael.The combined population of the three countries is approximately 160 million, making it Spotify's biggest international expansion since it became available in Thailand in Au-gust last year, Music Business Worldwide reported.Monthly premium subscriptions in South Africa and Israel cost $5.08 and $5.78, re-spectively.Spotify's arrival in Vietnam marks another entrance by a global streaming service into the country of close to 95 million people, after Apple Music and Netflix.Apple Music, a music and video streaming service developed by US tech giant Apple Inc., was launched in Vietnam in June 2015, offering three months of free trial to new subscribers and a monthly subscription of $2.99 in following months.Spotify expects competition from Vietnamese music streaming service Zing MP3, which has built up an active user base of millions since its launch in 2007.Vietnamese pop singer My Tam, who in January became Vietnam's first artist to be list-ed on Billboard's World Albums chart thanks to flying-colors sales of her ninth studio album 'Tam 9,' also breaks with tradition in making her latest songs available for streaming on Spotify.My Tam has been a known opponent of free music streaming sites such as Zing MP3, refusing to make her music available on such platforms and fighting for artists' rights to be paid for their works.Spotify counted 159 million monthly active users at the end of 2017, including 71 mil-lion premium subscribers, according to the company's recent F-1 filing with the US Se-curities and Exchange Commission (SEC).The Swedish company is planning to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange in the week of April 2 at an established valuation of higher than $20 million, according to Bloomberg.https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/business/20180313/spotify-challenges-apple-music-in-vietnams-streaming-market/44516.html

Exerting influence 14/MAR/2018 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Starbucks' arrival in Vietnam marked a change in the way coffee is made and served in the country.At around 9am, seven days a week, it can be hard to find a vacant seat at Starbucks Indochina Plaza Hanoi. While on weekdays its clientele is predominantly business-people and some university professors and students, on weekends it's families, friends, and young students getting together to enjoy high quality Arabica coffee from around the world, handcrafted Starbucks beverages, and great food in an unparalleled environment that all can enjoy.February 1 marked five years since Starbucks opened its first flagship store, and the global icon now boasts 34 stores in Vietnam, in HCM City, Hanoi, Hai Phong, and, most recently, Da Nang. While its success can indeed be measured by store numbers, it can also be said that the arrival of Starbucks Coffee changed the dynamic of the coun-try's coffee industry. "Five years ago, most people were excited to see Starbucks arriv-ing in Vietnam and were mostly curious about what it is," said Patricia Marques, general manager of Starbucks Vietnam. "Now, our customers know the brand, know our products, and, more importantly, they know our partners. We have been well re-ceived, as proven by our strong business performance and expansion."From simple to enormous change"Vietnam is such a big country, not only in terms of population but also geographical-ly. So, there are enormous opportunities for us to continue our growth without any need to rush. Vietnam has such a young population and I know they are the future cus-tomers of Starbucks."Patricia Marques, general manager of Starbucks Vietnam.Marques recalled that when the first store opened in February 2013, it was the only cof-


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fee shop that stayed open during Tet (the Lunar New Year). The store was only closed for 24 hours, from noon of the last day of the old year to noon on the first day of the new year, because she believed that her partners (as Starbucks call their staff) needed to have a traditional Tet holiday and spend time with their families. Other coffee shops then recognised there was a need to serve customers during Tet. "That is a little sample of how things are changing," she told VET.Other changes have been more subtle, like the practice of customers ordering and pay-ing for their drinks at the counter, waiting until they are prepared, and then taking them to the office or to school, which was almost unheard of in Vietnam back then. Now, though, Marques can rightly point out that almost all coffee chains use the same practice as Starbucks and that the take-away side of the business is growing.The way Starbucks develops its partners is also different. Training programmes are lengthy and ongoing, providing a choice for many young Vietnamese to start working as a barista and then establish a long-term career at the organisation. Five years ago, Marques remembered, when trainees were being instructed on taking customers' names and writing it on the cups, to make sure the right drink went to the right cus-tomer, many trainees were skeptical about such a system and told her that customers would neither understand nor accept it. Today, though, customers are often surprised when partners not only remember their name but also their favourite drink.One partner at Starbucks Indochina Plaza Hanoi who has been working for the store for four years from the beginning, told VET: "Having a job at Starbucks is a privilege, where I'm trained well and learn in a good working environment." They not only learned their daily tasks and routines but Starbucks puts behind plenty of resources for coffee knowledge as well as barista skills, promoting Coffee Masters and Barista Champions, encouraging and supporting them for local and international Barista Competitions. "To me, Starbucks would not be here today without our partners," Marques said. "They are the ones bringing the Starbucks experience to customers, making customers' favourite coffee every day."Another change that has made Starbucks successful in Vietnam is how it meets cus-tomer needs. They have tried hard to gain a presence in local neighbourhoods to pro-vide convenience for customers when buying coffee. The brand never ceases innovating, to bring freshness and a degree of excitement to customers. Innovation is not just about products; it's also about changes in store design and the environment. "The store is unique in every location but still a Starbucks space, where customers feel comfortable," she said. "This is also one of the strengths of Starbucks, providing a re-laxed place for customers that can be used to study, hold business meetings, or meet with friends and family." There are many new ideas Starbucks plans to bring to cus-tomers in the future and this is one of its strength in bolstering return customer num-bers.The biggest change that made all Starbucks' partners feel proud and excited was when the Starbucks Reserve Vietnam Da Lat whole-bean coffee was first introduced in early 2016, which has returned early this year and been widely welcomed by customers and partners. The limited-quantity coffee is again available in all Starbucks stores through-out Vietnam from January 5. Marques remembered that in 2013 there were only couple of international brands in Vietnam and on the domestic side, no one had Arabica be-cause Robusta dominated. She now sees the potential of Arabica because she visits Da Lat every year. "I see how much more interest there is from farmers about turning to Arabica because there is demand, and I think it's a great opportunity to showcase Da Lat coffee to the world," she said. Starbucks has worked with farmers in introducing the Da Lat brand. "After the first launch of Starbucks Reserve Vietnam Da Lat in 2016, we were very happy that customers loved the coffee and it made the name of Cau Dat in Da Lat become so popular," she said with evident pride. "We expect this year will be the same, because the coffee crop is even better." Introducing Da Lat coffee to the world is one of the more interesting features of Starbucks' journey in Vietnam. Partners and customers both rejoiced when the news of this loved coffee's arrival to Vietnam was announced.


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Consistent in VietnamFive years on, Starbucks is pleased to have staked out a presence in Vietnam as a pre-mium coffee house. The competition is quite intense these days, especially in the cof-fee-restaurant business and between international and local brands. The arrival of Starbucks elevated market standards and was when many others decided to invest and compete for market share. Marques, however, sees one key differentiator that has made Starbucks so unique: consistency. "We are consistent in introducing new flavors, building great stores, providing excellent service, and customising coffee for our cus-tomers," she said. "I believe this is what makes us different."She added that over the next few years it will continue to work hard and never cease its innovation in quality and consistency. It will also continue its sterling efforts in so-cial responsibility. Over the past five years, Starbucks' managers and partners have been involved in many social responsibility efforts, including painting schools in Da Lat and supporting Room to Read's literacy programme, which seeks to transform the lives of children by developing literacy skills and the habit of reading among primary school students, to name just a few.Starbucks Vietnam is working on something new. Marques disclosed to VET that her next major effort will be focused on supporting recycling. "There is a lot of recycling in Vietnam, but no organised system for treatment," she explained. "I hope we can work closely with the community to develop a system for recycling plastics, paper and card-board. That is my plan for the next few years."Of course, the brand will also continue to grow. "Vietnam is such a big country, not only in terms of population but also geographically," she said. "So, there are enormous opportunities for us to continue our growth without need to rush. Vietnam has such a young population and I know they are the future customers of Starbucks."Marques is looking forward to the next five years. It has been an interesting journey. "We are interested in making this a long and wonderful journey, for our partners and our customers, so that wherever you happen to be in the country you will know that just around the next corner you will find a Starbucks, with our wonderful local baris-tas, ready to prepare your favourite drink over and over again," she said.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/196752/exerting-influence.html

Jail terms declared in Da River water pipelines ruptures


The Hanoi People's Court on March 13 declared jail terms to nine defendants involved in the 18 successive ruptures of the Da River water pipelines following the trial lasting more than one week.They were charged with violating regulations on construction, causing serious conse-quences in accordance with Article 229, the Criminal Code 1999.A 24-month jail term was given to Hoang The Trung (former director of the manage-ment board of the Da River water supply system investment and construction project) and Tran Cao Bang (former director of the Vinaconex Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyester Pipe JSC).A 20-month imprisonment sentence was handed down on Nguyen Van Khai (former deputy director of the management board of the Da River water supply system invest-ment and construction project), Vu Thanh Hai (former head of the production divi-sion, former workshop foreman, and former deputy director of the Vinaconex Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyester Pipe JSC), and Do Dinh Tri (former official of the Vietnam Water, Sanitation and Environment JSC (VIWASE) under the Ministry of Construc-tion, and former chief of the consultant and monitoring team at the Da River water supply project).Truong Tran Hien (former head of the materials and equipment division of the man-agement board) was jailed for 16 months.Meanwhile, Hoang Quoc Thong (former official of VIWASE, former overseer at the Da River water supply project) and Nguyen Bien Hung (former official of VIWASE, former deputy head of the consultant and monitoring team) got 16 months' probation.12 months' probation was given to Bui Minh Quan (Deputy director of the equipment


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construction and business company under the VIWASE, former overseer at the Da River water supply project).According to the indictment of the Supreme People's Procuracy, the Da River water supply project, invested by the Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Joint Stock Corporation (Vinaconex), was built from 2004 to April 2009.From February 4, 2012 to October 2, 2016, 23 fiberglass-reinforced composite pipelines were broken for 18 times, forcing the Vinaconex Water Supply company the operator of the pipeline system to spend more than 16.6 billion VND (732,000 USD) to fix the broken lines.The broken pipelines halted the supply of more than 1.74 million cu.m. of water to 177,000 households in Hanoi for a total of 386 hours.The inspection conclusion on April 15, 2015 confirmed that the ruptures were caused by violations in the pipeline production process and the management and monitoring of the pipeline construction.During the investigation, the police agency for investigation under the Ministry of Public Security also launched criminal proceedings against seven persons for the charge of violating construction regulations causing serious consequences. They were Phi Thai Binh (Chair of the Vinaconex board of directors), Nguyen Van Tuan (member of the board of directors and general director of Vinaconex), Hoang Hop Thuong, Vu Dinh Cham and To Ngoc Thanh (members of the board of directors), Lai Van Bich (Di-rector of the project management board), and Nguyen Duc Luu (head of the invest-ment division of Vinaconex).They allegedly decided to change the pipeline material from ductile iron to fiberglass-reinforced composite when they had not verified the effectiveness of the change. They also allegedly assigned the Vinaconex Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyester Pipe JSC to produce and supply pipelines to the project when the firm had just been established and not had enough capacity to carry out the work.However, inspectors of the Construction Ministry said on September 30, 2016 that the change of material did not cause the ruptures, and the assignment of the work to the Vinaconex Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyester Pipe JSC was in line with the accused' s competence and the project investment format.On December 14, 2017 the Supreme People's Procuracy overturned the criminal pro-ceedings against the seven abovementioned persons.http://dtinews.vn/en/news/017004/55577/-jail-terms-declared-in-da-river-water-pipe-lines-ruptures.html

Tech bosses of multi million-dollar gambling ring arrested14/Mar/2018 Intellasia| VIRTwo technology officers from VTC Online and CNC were arrested for running a multi million-dollar gambling line under the wings of former C50 director general.The investigation agency has arrested two technology officers for running a multi mil-lion-dollar gambling ring that involved Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former director general of the Ministry of Public Security's High-Technology Department (C50), who has just been arrested a few days ago.The arrested duo include Phan Sao Nam, founder and former chair of VTC Online, and Nguyen Van Duong, chair of high-tech security development company CNC, the mas-terminds behind a huge gambling ring.This operation was based in Phu Tho province and nearly 70 people have been arrest-ed for involvement since August 2017. The local police said that Nam and Duong had been operating tech businesses and importing technical devices before they switched to online gambling. They set up a system where players can bet money via an online game using cards issued by CNC.The investigation found that there are around eight million frequent users on this trans-national gambling site. The police has seized more than VND1 trillion ($44 mil-lion) so far and suspect that a further $3.6 million has been transferred overseas.Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former chief of the cyber-crime unit, had failed to shut down the


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syndicate after discovering it, and instead offered his protection. Hoa was director general of the C50 from 2009, after long years of working in the economic crime unit. He was suspended in late 2017 for his involvement in the crime ring.According to Article 249 of the Penal Code, organising gambling or running gambling dens is punishable with up to 10 years of imprisonment.http://www.vir.com.vn/tech-bosses-of-multi million-dollar-gambling-ring-arrested-57153.html

Binh Duong to host World Technopolis Association 2018 events


Southern province to host a series of events during October to push up investment.The southern province of Binh Duong announced that it will host two events of the World Technopolis Association (WTA) in Octoberthe 11th WTA general Assembly & Hi-tech Fair and the 2018 Global Innovation Forumat a memorandum of understand-ing (MoU) signing ceremony on March 12, as its capital, Binh Duong city, has recently become a member of the association.The province also granted investment certificates at the ceremony to 18 local and for-eign investors in the first phase as well as a land lease agreement between Becamex IDC and the Far Eastern Group for project expansion at the Bau Bang Industrial Park."Membership of the WTA and the construction of a smart city will be driving forces to overcome obstacles and turn the city into a modern, sustainable urban area," Tran Thanh Liem, Chair of the Provincial People's Committee, told the MoU signing cere-mony."I am very honored to welcome Binh Duong city as an official member of the WTA, which was established by Daejeon Metropolitan City in 1998 with the purpose of con-necting the advancement of science and technology with regional innovation for de-velopment," said Lee Taek Ku, director general of Planning and Coordination in South Korea's Daejeon city."It is meaningful for Binh Duong to become an official member of the WTA, which has 105 members, including cities, research institutes, and universities from 47 nations around the world," Kang Byung Joo, Secretary general of the WTA, told the ceremony.Binh Duong ranks second nationwide in terms of FDI attraction, behind only HCM City, with total registered capital of around $29 billion, or 9.5 per cent of Vietnam's to-tal investment capital.In the first two months of this year it continued to attract investors, bringing in $435 million worth of FDI, including 31 new projects with capital of $233.9 million, 13 exist-ing projects adding $141.5 million to registered capital, and 18 foreign investors con-tributing capital or purchasing shares totalling $59.6 million.Last year the province's Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) grew at 9.15 per cent; its highest rate ever. Exports grew 17.6 per cent to $28.5 billion.The province now has 31,548 domestic enterprises with registered capital of nearly $11 billion and 3,075 valid foreign projects worth some $29 billion.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/binh-duong-to-host-world-technopolis-association-2018-events

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