03 Aug 2018 Intellasia Finance Vietnam - HKBAV Aug... · finance & business news FINANCE Reference...

3 August 2018

finance & business news

FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Reference exchange rate rises again 2Bank rates surpass most predictions 2SBV's forex policy aimed for macroeconomic stability 3Cryptocurrency management regulations yet to be issued 3Financial leasing significant to mobilise capital 4When will debt trading market be formed? 5Getting ahead of consumers' spending openness 6Banks benefit after paving way for insurance to

access customers 7How are the parent banks in the last 6 months? 8Tra Vinh supports SMEs with loans 9HDBank, Vietjet Air launch promotion campaign 10PTI aims to achieve sales of $171.8 million by the end of 2018 10Vietnam feels heat of US-China trade war 11New momentum for economic growth needed: PM 11Vietnam jumps 25 levels in WB's logistics performance index 12Vietnam inflation forecast to exceed central bank's

4pct target: HSBC 13Hanoi takes lead in FDI attraction 14Vietnam PM asks for criteria to assess economic reform 14Vietnam exports timber products to 120 countries, territories 15Vietnam shrimp exports sluggish, but to recover along

with prices 15Shrimp, abalone to be under US import monitor

from December 31 16Vietnamese steel exporters warned of possible 25pct tax 16Vietnam's tea exports fall 6.9pct in revenue 17Vietnamese tea finds flavour of growth in new world tastes 17VN businesses need to learn how to deal with anti-dumping

lawsuits: experts 18Vietnam, Thailand discuss ways to achieve 20

billion USD in trade 19CPTPP, EVFTA help Vietnam's garment-textile lure investment 20HCM City to equitise many public service firms in 2019 20Economic policies will remain stable: PM 21Tax investigation removed from draft tax management law 22MoF draft law gives taxpayer interests a nod 23Vietnam, Croatia sign double taxation avoidance agreement 23Procedures get cut to boost trade 24Smart city building helps improve economic efficiency: Architect 25Tay Ninh encourages safe and high-quality farming 26

Hanoi advised to replan urban zoning to ease traffic pressure 26Vietnam's online tourism to thrive 27The cost for advertising in Vietnam is two low compared

to other countries 29Many sugar mills face uncertain future 30Private capital to flow into aviation infrastructure projects 30Real estate inventories fall sharply 31Gas-to-power projects attract global energy giants 32Investors run away from condotel projects 32Vietnam attractive destination of Chinese enterprises 33VN, Japan firms seek connection in agro-fishery, food trade 34

BIZ NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Business Briefs 03 August 2018 34Indexes on both markets recover slightly 35VN stocks rebound on bottom-fishing 36Stock market briefs 36HNX sells 15.77 trillion VND worth of bonds in July 37SOEs urged to list on stock market 37EVN Finance to debut 250 million shares on UPCoM,

valued at $133 million 38Foreign investors bail on Vinalines sale 38Cyber attacks target accounts of enterprise leaders 39HCM City wants joint scheme with ministry to build Ring Road 3 40Public transport centre seeks to resume minibus service in

HCM City 40HCM City urges speedier work on bridges to Thu Thiem 41Vina Chuoi receives funding of more than VND2 billion 41Indonesian ride-hailing Go-Jek extends testing services in Vietnam42Airbus backs Vietnam's space industry development 43Origin scandal undoes consumer trust in Con Cung 43VND4.1bn tax arrears bill for man profiting from online business 44Imported Ford Ranger recalled for fixing faulty 45CapitaLand Vietnam organises picnic for underprivileged children 45Vietbuild expo opens in Can Tho City 46

FINANCE
FINANCEReference exchange rate rises again
03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| VNA

The State Bank adjusted the daily reference exchange rate for August 3 up 10 VND from the previous day to 22,676 VND/USD.With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial

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Vietnam finance & business 3 August 2018

banks during the day is 23,355 VND/USD and the floor rate 21,997 VND/USD.The opening hour rates at commercial banks saw mixed changes from August 2.Vietcombank raised both rates by 5 VND, listing the buying rate at 23,250 VND/USD and the selling rate at 23,330 VND/USD.Meanwhile, both the rates at BIDV were adjusted down 10 VND to 23,240 VND/USD (buying) and 23,320 VND/USD (selling).The rates listed at Techcombank also went down by 15 VND to 23,210 VND/USD (buy-ing) and 23,320 VND/USD (selling).The reference exchange rate was on a rising trend on the first two days of the week from July 30 to August 3. It stood unchanged on Wednesday and went down on the next day before rising again on the last day of the week. Overall, the reference ex-change rate has gained 17 VND during the week.The rates listed at commercial banks saw mixed changes but overall, the rates on Fri-day showed increases ranging from 20 to 50 VND compared to the beginning of the week.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/reference-exchange-rate-rises-again/135790.vnp

Bank rates surpass most predictions

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| TRI THUC TRE

On 1st August, the central rate of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) was quoted at 22,669 dong (the ceiling exchange rate was 23,349 dong) and the SBV's exchange rate was 22,700-23,299 (buy-sell). At commercial banks, the highest selling price of US dollar on 2nd August was 23,345 dong, only four dong to the ceiling price, the purchase price was around 23,250 dong. On the free market, the US dollar's price was traded around 23,450 dong.Compared to the beginning of the year, the central rate has risen by approximately 1.1 percent while the price of US dollar's quoted by commercial banks has risen by 2.6%, the same as on the free market.The increase of exchange rates was explained by many factors, but mainly due to the impact of the US dollar's appreciation around the world, the devaluation of the Chi-nese yuan and partly due to psychological elements. SBV said that the appreciation of US dollar is appropriate for domestic and international markets.Earlier when the exchange rate increased sharply from late June to early July, many popular experts and financial institutions forecasted that exchange rate would rise but slightly, such as MB Securities Joint Stock Company (MBS) and Hochiminh Securities Corporation (HSC) forecasted an increase by one to two percents. Nguyen Tri Hieu predicted an increase of one to three percents (he had forecasted one to two percents in the beginning of the year but then adjusted to three percents in June). At the begin-ning of this year, there were many forecasts. For example, the National Financial Su-pervisory Commission (NFSC) predicted an increase of 1.5 to two percents, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) forecasted exchange rate to rise to 23,000 dong, etc.The forecasts were based on the fact that the SBV would intervene to stabilise the ex-change rate when foreign exchange reserves are abundant, constantly rising, and cur-rently at a current record high. In addition, the exchange rate policy will also aim to maintain the macro-economy and support export activities. In fact, the exchange rate has increased by more than two percent from June till now, 2.6 percent in total since the beginning of the year, and far exceeded all forecasts.Although the exchange rate has risen sharply, there are two opposing views on this ad-justment. An expert group opines that exchange rate should be allowed to fluctuate with the market since SBV cannot intervene by selling foreign exchange reserves to support exchange rates, instead should try to be familiar with strong US dollar. Anoth-er suggestion says that the devaluation of the dong must be very careful, otherwise the economy will be affected.

Intellasia 3 August 2018 2 / 46

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SBV's forex policy aimed for macroeconomic stability

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| VNS

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)'s exchange rate policy was aimed at ensuring macr-oeconomic stability, not just export growth, said Nguyen Thi Hong, the bank's deputy governor.Hong made the statement following suggestions that the dong should be further weakened against the US dollar to support the country's exports, especially given the recent devaluation of the Chinese yuan.According to Hong, the SBV had been monitoring several currencies as well as the yuan to set its daily reference exchange rates.Besides managing the forex market based on the daily reference rate, Hong said that SBV was also looking at other factors such as interest rates and liquidity, as well as fis-cal policies to ensure the country meets its macroeconomic targets.The SBV reported that by August 1, the central bank's daily reference exchange rate of the dollar against the dong had risen by 1.1 per cent compared to the end of last year, while with the current trading band of +/- 3 per cent, the inter-bank rate was up 2.5 per cent.The rise was under control and in line with other currencies in the region and the world, Hong said.On August 2, the SBV announced a daily reference exchange rate of VND22,666 per dollar, down VND3 against the previous day.The ceiling rate applied for commercial banks during the day was from VND23,345-21,987.Opening hour rates at commercial banks saw slight fluctuations.The rates listed at Vietcombank remained unchanged compared to Wednesday at VND23,245 for buying and VND23,325 for selling.BIDV added VND10 to both rates, buying the greenback at VND23,250 per dollar and selling at VND23,330.Meanwhile, Techcombank listed the buying rate at VND23,225, down VND5, and sell-ing rate at VND23,335, up VND5.http://bizhub.vn/banking/sbvs-forex-policy-aimed-for-macroeconomic-stability_297491.html

Cryptocurrency management regulations yet to be issued

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

Vietnam has yet to issue specific regulations on managing digital assets and cryptocur-rencies despite busy online trading, news website Vietnamplus cited Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy governor of State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), as saying.At a press conference following the monthly cabinet meeting, Hong said that the prime minister had approved a plan on August 21 last year to formulate a legal framework to manage cryptocurrencies and digital assets and assigned the Ministry of Justice to execute the plan.Digital currencies, such as e-wallets and prepaid bank cards, are being managed in line with the Law on Electronic Transactions and the government's Decree 110 on non-cash payments, she noted.Deputy minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said the ministry has prepared solutions to manage the import of cryptocurrency mining machines.According to the government's Decree 69, detailing the implementation of some arti-cles of the Law on Foreign Trade Management, computers designed for mining crypto-currencies are not subject to import bans.Under the current Vietnamese law, cryptocurrencies are considered illegal in the coun-try.Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, under the prime minister's direction, has coordinated with the Ministries of Finance and Justice and the central bank to pro-pose banning the import of these machines.At the press conference, representatives of other ministries and agencies also an-swered questions about problems that have raised public concern.Hai warned of the possible influx of Chinese goods into Vietnam which might then be


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shipped to the United States to enjoy lower tariffs. The government has issued Decree 31/2018 to tighten the management of the origins of commodities, he added.The ministry has also issued Circular 05 guiding the implementation of Decree 31, which took effect on March 8.As for the listing of enterprises on the stock market, deputy minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai noted that the ministry in August last year had publicised the list of equitised State-owned enterprises (SOEs) that were reluctant to be listed on the local bourse. Only 150 out of 750 equitised firms have listed their shares on the local stock markets.At a recent meeting of the Steering Committee for Enterprise Reform and Develop-ment on the equitisation of SOEs in the first half of the year, deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue, head of the committee, asked the ministries and agencies to acceler-ate the listing of SOEs under their management.Talking about the foreign exchange rate, SBV deputy governor Hong said the inter-bank exchange rate on August 1 increased by 2.5 percent over the rate last year, which remained under control.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61710/cryptocurrency-management-regulations-yet-to-be-issued.html

Financial leasing significant to mobilise capital


Financial leasing is an effective solution to solving medium- and long-term capital shortages for local businesses, head a conference held by the BIDV-SuMi TRUST Leas-ing (BSL) in HCM City on August 1.Financial leasing is an alternative way of financing whereby a licensed leasing firm purchases an asset on behalf of its customer in return for an agreed series of payments, which usually include interest.This kind of credit has become popular globally, with total revenue of up to 1 trillion USD per year. In Japan, the annual figure is some 50 billion USD.However, revenue from financial leasing in Vietnam was just 8.6 trillion VND (369.8 million USD) by the end of the second quarter in 2018.According to Can Van Luc, Chief Economist of the Joint Stock Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), there will be huge demand for machines, equipment and vehicles in the next two years as stable growth has been forecast for the Vietnam-ese economy, with GDP growth expected to exceed 6.5 percent during the period.With banks limiting short-term capital for medium- and long-term loans, and small and medium enterprises short of mortgageable assets, financial leasing is an important solution helping local firms overcome capital barriers, Luc said.BSL general director Nguyen Thieu Son said financial leasing mobilises resources for sustainable development. It also settles problems of money balance, capital restructur-ing and effective use of capital.Vietnam's financial and banking sector has been developing rapidly, with 91 commer-cial banks, 27 financial and financial leasing firms and 1,100 credit institutions. Finan-cial leasing has grown in stature as a channel to inject capital for local companies.Fujita Takeshi, BSL deputy general director, gave a bright outlook for the Vietnamese financial leasing market, due to expected overall economic growth.The BLS has designed financial leasing models to serve demands of companies, con-tributing to the development of businesses and the financial market, he added.It is a joint venture between the BIDV and Sumitomoto Mitsui Trust Bank, the first fi-nancial leasing joint venture between a Vietnamese bank and a foreign financial insti-tution in Vietnam.With a chartered capital of 900 billion VND (38.7 million USD), the venture is expected to attract more than 3,200 Japanese firms operating in Vietnam that have been using financial leasing services and other locally-based firms.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/financial-leasing-significant-to-mobilise-capital/135738.vnp


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When will debt trading market be formed?

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| THOI BAO NGAN HANG

The Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) has recently celebrated 5th anni-versary of its founding and operation. As announced by VAMC, the bad debt ratios processed through VAMC by June 30th 2018 reached 310.517 trillion dong of debt prin-cipal on balance sheets, estimated at over 40 percent of the total settled bad debts. VAMC has coordinated with credit institutions (CIs) to recover nearly 100 trillion dong. However, the number of successful direct auctions of the bad debts purchased by VAMC is very modest.The achievements of VAMC throughout the past five years are undeniable, but the most concerning issue of the company in the near future is to trade bad debts at market prices the solution which is considered to solve the root of the bad debt problem.According to Decision 618/QD-NHNN issued by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on April 12th 2016, VAMC is allowed to trade bad debts at market prices. Implementing this decision, VAMC has acquired bad debts at a total value of debt principal of about 2,938.6 billion dong. The purchase value of those debts was 3,141.07 billion dong. By June 30th 2018, the market value of the debt purchase was 3.524 trillion dong.In terms of sales, the first bad debt purchased and auctioned successfully by VAMC was a bad debt of Viet Thuan Thanh Company Limited. VAMC earned 301 billion dong, 1.6 billion dong higher than the starting price. The profit of this deal is not sig-nificant, because under the agreement, VAMC must share with Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) the bank that initially sold this debt to VAMC. However, it is a very meaningful deal, because it can be con-sidered a trial for both VAMC and CIs as well as investors when participating in trad-ing bad debts at market prices, with the expectation that the debt trading market will gradually be formed and become more exciting in the near future."Debt trading market" phrase has appeared for quite a long time with concerns of many people in financial and banking world. However, it is now still a plan and an ex-pectation.Thus, when VAMC's Chair of the Member Board Nguyen Tien Dong disclosed to re-porter of Thoi bao Ngan hang that VAMC is deploying a debt trading software on the basis of supplementing information and building database on bad debts, new hopes have been given as this is the foundation to form a bad debt trading market in the fu-ture.So what factors are needed to establish and run the debt trading market? According to Dong, they are goods (debts in general, not necessary bad debts), buyers, sellers, man-agers, and most importantly a mechanism for managing and operating the market.Among those factors, what do we have? We have goods (bad debts, and later may be extended to debts in general), buyers, and sellers (VAMC, CIS, investors, and later may be expanded, even including foreign investors). Thus, we are in short of a legal framework for the market and the regulators. The problem is whether it is necessary to have a new market in order to set up a management board and a legal framework or a legal framework should be built first in order to operate the market.According to Dong, to avoid this concern, they decided to form the market first and then the legal framework.To establish the market, according to VAMC's way, information must be transparent first. Whoever has the goods may "show" on a website. Interested people can grasp the basic information of the debt, current price of the debt (principal, interests, etc.), price as assessed by the price appraiser, offer price of seller, etc.Dong affirmed that the trade of bad debts at market prices helps the settlement of bad debts be more substantial and effective on the principle of preserving capital and en-suring efficiency, etc. VAMC aims to take control of the bad debt trading market of the banking sector, then expand it to the entire economy. To achieve the goal. VAMC needs resources in terms of capital, technology, assets, and especially legal resources.A centre for trading bad debts of the banking sector may soon be established in the fu-ture. However, in order to have the participation of foreign investors, there is a lot to do. Therefore, if only VAMC and the banking sector make efforts without the joint ef-


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forts of relevant industries and ministries, it is unknown when this playground can be put into operation.

Getting ahead of consumers' spending openness

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| THOI BAO NGAN HANG

In the recent years, the spending of people has been following an upward trend. According to a survey of Nielsen, the consumer confidence index in the first quarter (Q1) 2018 in Southeast Asia was very optimistic, rising by two points from 119 points in Q4 2017 to 121 points. In which, Vietnam is among the top three countries recording the highest points and among the top five countries having leading confidence indexes in the world.Along with that, the consumption trend of Vietnamese has been gradually changing. Instead of saving enough money to buy a product in need, many people are looking to purchase the product and pay for it by the money accumulated later on. At the same time, the development of modern retail system, in chain model in replacement of sep-arate traditional stores also makes it easy for consumer financial service providers to reach large number of borrowers.As said by Mai Ngoc Minh from HCM City, with the boom of consumer instalment loans young people like her no longer have to be worried when buying items of which the value is two to three times higher than monthly income as before, but willing to borrow instalment loans to own the item immediately.Basically, it can be seen that consumers' confidence is based on economic growth. Ac-cordingly, in terms of spending, Vietnamese consumers are willing to spend more on high value items with the aim to improve the quality of life such as shopping, travel-ling, buying new technology products, entertainment, housing renovation, etc. Thanks to the open spending trend of people, CIs have the opportunities to promote their strength in financial retail.All of the above factors blended together to create a strong wave in retail among CIs in the recent time which has significantly boosted the consumer credit growth. Accord-ingly, at many commercial banks, the proportion of lending to individual customers in total outstanding loans has constantly been rising. Typically, at Military Commer-cial Joint Stock Bank (MB), personal loans by the end of Q2 2018 grew by 17.3 percent compared to the beginning of the year, reaching 70.513 trillion dong, contributing 34.4 percent into the bank's total outstanding loans (it was 30.3 percent in Q2 2017). In the first six months of 2018, the outstanding personal loans of Vietnam International Com-mercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) were among the highest numbers in the system. VIB ranked the first in new disbursement of auto loans with over 30 percent market share; as well as in personal home loans with growth rate reaching 78%, mainly focusing on home loans with land use right certificates ("red" books) and house ownership certifi-cates ("pink" books), and home repair loans, etc.In terms of data, the growth rate of personal lending segment is not significant. How-ever, currently, among about 95 million people, over 30 million of them have average income of less than 10 million dong per month and have demand for financial credit. Nevertheless, over the past 10 years, the retail finance industry has served only about 10 million customers. And in such fertile land, many banks have announced to strive to become the leading retail bank in the system and have tried to boosted consumer loans. This orientation is becoming the main target of banks in this period. The dong lending rates in this segment are maintained at six to nine percent per annum on short terms and nine percent to 11 percent per annum on medium and long terms.In general, the consumer borrowing opportunities of people will be expanded in the near future. All consumer credit needs will be met in various forms. This is a positive sign of the economy because the increase of consumption will stimulate all corners of the economy to develop. However, even if banks loosen the doors, according to many financial experts, consumers should not tend to be overly optimistic in borrowing con-sumer loans and should consider their future income instead of being willing to bor-row more for spending at the present time. If this is done well, borrowers of personal loans will not have to worry about the repayment ability and will score good points with banks on other transactions.


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Banks benefit after paving way for insurance to access customers

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| INFONET

In addition to the normal distribution contracts, many insurance companies and banks have signed exclusive distribution contracts with quite long tenors.Insurance companies compete for market shares and opportunities for banksCooperation between banking and insurance (bancassurance) is where insurance com-panies distribute their products to customers of banks.Due to the increasing demand for integrated financial products, bancassurance has be-come an inevitable trend to enhance customers' experiences.According to the Vietnam Insurance Association (IAV), the growth potential of the in-surance market in Vietnam is still very large as the current market penetration rate is only two percent of GDP, while the average GDP growth in the next five years will still be maintained high at 6.4-6.5 percent per annum (pa).The size of the market is small with total premium income in 2017 of 105.611 trillion dong, equivalent to $4.64 million, but the number of companies in this business was up to 30 non-life insurance companies and 18 life insurance companies, along with 14 insurance brokers and two reinsurers.Therefore, the competition in the insurance industry in Vietnam is very severe.It is this fierce competition for market shares that has stipulated insurance companies to expand their bancassurance channel in the past three years.In addition to the normal distribution contracts, many insurance companies and banks have signed exclusive distribution contracts with quite long terms.Typical cases include contracts of the joint ventures between Prudential and Vietnam International Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VIB) (15 years), Chubb Life Vietnam and Vietnam Asia Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VietABank) (10 years), Dai-ichi Life and Sai Gon Thuong Tin Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Sacombank) (20 years), Manulife and Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) (15 years), AIA and Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial (VPBank) (15 years).Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) is also via Credit Suisse searching for insurance distributors across its network. The contract is expected to have a tenor of at least 10 years with value of $1 billion.For banks, bancassurance broadens the portfolio of products and services available to customers but does not require additional capital. The level of overall risk is also un-changed compared to when a new credit product is deployed.Insurance products that are sold concurrently with loans also help banks mitigate the risk of losing capital as insurance companies pay in the event of death or permanent disability.In addition, the development of the bancassurance channel also helps banks to in-crease their income from services, reduce their reliance on credit, and stabilise banks' earnings during periods of hard times for credit.The fact that bancassurance revenue from agent commission fees (recognised in Trust and Agency Income) paid by insurance companies is contributing significantly to the banks' revenue.According to statistics of Viet Dragon Securities Company (VDSC), in 2017 many banks will announce profitable results of "income from trust services and agents", for examples:"Income from trust services and agents" of Techcombank reached 1.582 trillion dong, an increase of 2,493 percent compared to 2016; VPBank reached 2.206 trillion dong, up 46%; SHB reached 1.243 trillion dong, up 1.258%; Hochiminh Development (HDBank) reached 153 trillion dong, up 537 percent year over year (y-o-y).What do insurance companies get and lose?According to VDSC's analysis, in addition to utilising the bank's distribution network, insurance companies also have access to the bank's vast customer database that ban-cassurance offers.This source of customer data will support insurance companies in research and devel-opment of new products, more suitable to customers' demand and for risk manage-ment.


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However, the bancassurance model also makes insurance companies accept the trade off. Despite of no official statistics, VDSC did a survey through insurance companies. The results showed that the coverage rates of bancassurance insurance products are of-ten very low, often below one percent.Though, due to fierce competition in the insurance market, there are cases where in-surance companies breach the rule to make premium payment to banks more than the limit of 20 percent of their premiums through various different fees.As a consequence, although bancassurance sales have increased sharply (up 30 percent in 2017) and its portion of premium income increases from five percent in 2012 to ap-proximately 10 percent in 2017, profitability was very low even loss due to very high combined rate of 99 percent or more.Due to upfront charges (exclusive bank fees paid in the first year) are prepaid expens-es, they should be excluded from the total asset when calculating the solvency margin. This will put pressure of large capital raising on insurance companies.Another point to note, according to the agreements between the insurance companies and the banks, all insured objects related to banking services are classified into bancas-surance customers.Consequently, when the deal is signed, the agent channel's customers who are using the bank's credit products become customers of bancassurance channel.Accordingly, all the effort, time and money spent by insurance agents to and maintain the relationship with the existing customer become useless. This has caused many in-surance agents to become discouraged and want to quit because of declining income.

How are the parent banks in the last 6 months?

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| TRI THUC TRE

Normally, the parent banks are the largest contributors to banks' profit, accounting for over 90 percent of the consolidated results. In the first six months of 2018, 12 banks re-corded combined pre-tax profit of 41.047 trillion dong, of which, parent banks made a profit of 37.322 trillion dong, contributing 91 percent to the total consolidated profit. This contribution was only slightly lower in the first half of 2017, at 89%.In the first two quarters of 2018, the parent bank of Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) parent bank earned a profit of 7.721 trillion dong, accounting for 96 percent of the consolidated pre-tax profit of the bank, i.e. more than a dozen other subsidiaries and joint ventures contributed only 296 billion dong. The contribution rate of parent banks was almost 100 percent at VIB and Eximbank (99%).It is noticed that the growth of parent banks is relatively steady, while results in sub-sidiaries are very unstable. For example, in Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank), it is estimated that in the first six months of 2018, its subsidiaries had a profit of 160 billion dong, only a quarter of the figure achieved in the same period last year. Meanwhile, profit of the parent bank still grew at 23 percent reached 5.106 trillion dong.In a special case at Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial (VPBank), the single fi-nancial statement recorded in the first six months of 2018, the parent bank had a pre-tax profit of 5.037 trillion dong, higher than the profit of the consolidated bank (4,436 trillion dong). The difference was due to the fact that in the period, the parent bank re-ceived interest income from FE Credit and VPBank AMC up to nearly 2,855 trillion dong from the previous year which was recognised in the item of contributed capital contribution.Excluding this transfer, parent company's pre-tax profit for the first half was estimated at 2.808 trillion dong, accounting for 64 percent of the consolidated pre-tax profit of the consolidated result. This also coincides with information given by VPBank that FE Credit contributed 36 percent of profit (about 1.597 trillion dong) in the last two quar-ters.Previously, the contribution of VPBank's parent bank was only 50 percent and the oth-er half was contributed by Fe Credit. The shares of parent bank soared to 64 percent in the first half came from a 44 percent increase in parent bank's profit while Fe Credit's


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profit increased by only 26%. Kalidas Ghose, Fe Credit's chief executive, said the slow-down of FE Credit was due to the company's adjustments to a number of targeted bor-rowers.Apart from VPBank, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), Sai-gon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB), Hochiminh Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank) and Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB) recorded relatively high proportion of contribution from subsidiaries (over 10%) in the first half of this year.At BIDV, the parent bank spent more than 9.8 trillion dong for provisions, leaving only 4.436 trillion dong in pre-tax profit. However, thanks to the subsidiaries' contribution of up to 601 billion dong, the bank still earned more than five trillion dong of consoli-dated pre-tax profit. BIDV has about 11 subsidiaries, and is one of the banks owns the largest number of members and subsidiaries in Vietnam.The member companies of MB are increasingly contributing more profits. In the first six months of 2018, the parent bank earned a profit of 3.516 trillion dong, up 47 percent year over year. However, the growth rate of subsidiaries was even stronger, rising 2.2 times to 313 billion dong, of which MBS contributed 138 billion dong, increased 10 times compared to the same period last year. In many instances, the bank's leader said that a lot of expectation is put on subsidiaries such as MCredit, MB Ageas Life.

Tra Vinh supports SMEs with loans


Authorities in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Tra Vinh have pledged to provide enterprises, mostly small- and medium-sized, better access to preferential loans.Under the guidance of the provincial People's Committee, leaders of State agencies in the province on August 2 held a dialogue with local businesses in order to resolve their difficulties.As many as 2,071 enterprises are operating in the province with a total investment of nearly VND25.6 trillion (US$1.1 billion), creating jobs for more than 87,000 people, ac-cording to a report of Tra Vinh Province's Business Association.The businesses have difficulties in accessing preferential loans, applying science and technology in production, as well as marketing and expanding markets in the province and abroad.Most businesses want the province to help them access preferential loans to invest in modern equipment.Le Van Hai, deputy director of the State Bank of Vietnam's Tra Vinh Province branch, said that SMEs would be given priority to loans for production from credit institutions.Accordingly, SMEs are entitled to preferential interest rates under Decision No 1425/QD-NHNN of the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam.Businesses can contact branches or transaction offices of credit institutions in the area for guidance about procedures for loan access, he said.In addition, credit institutions may provide loans to businesses through a credit guar-antee from the Tra Vinh Development Investment Fund.According to the policy of the central bank, credit institutions will give priority to SMEs in the fields of agriculture and rural areas, production and trade of exports, and to support industries as well as for businesses that apply high-tech in their production.Credit institutions have simplified loan procedures, and publicised information and procedures related to loans and interest rates to ensure transparency, according to Hai.In addition, representatives of Hong Viet Garment Co Ltd in Chau Thanh District, rec-ommended that the province support the company in labour recruitment and training to ensure high quality human resource of the enterprise.Duong Quang Ngoc, deputy director of the province's Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the company could contact the department's Employment Service Centre for help in recruitment of highly skilled labour.The meeting was attended by leaders of departments of Planning and Investment, In-dustry and Trade, Natural Resources and Environment, and the Taxation Department.


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The aim was to answer questions related to procedures and conditions of preferential policies in the province.http://bizhub.vn/news/tra-vinh-supports-smes-with-loans_297503.html

HDBank, Vietjet Air launch promotion campaign


HDBank is working with Vietjet Air for a promotion campaign targeting people buy-ing flight tickets.Customers booking Vietjet Air tickets using the "Pay later" service on HDBank's eBanking system, and if the fare is at least VND1 million (US$42.75), are entitled to a 20 per cent refund (up to VND500,000).Total refunds worth VND180 million ($7,694.2) are available.Every week two customers with the highest total spending will get vouchers for inter-national return trips worth around VND9.4 million ($401.2).HDBank is also running a campaign until September 30 in which customers using HD-Bank Vietjet Air co-branded credit cards to pay for tickets on the Vietjet Air website for the first time are also entitled to 20 per cent refunds and up to VND500,000 ($21.37).They also get 3 per cent cash back, up to VND1 million ($42.75), on their total monthly spending.http://bizhub.vn/corporate-news/hdbank-vietjet-air-launch-promotion-campaign_297497.html

PTI aims to achieve sales of $171.8 million by the end of 2018

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

At its 20th anniversary, PTI said that by mid-July, its revenue was VND2.1 trillion ($90.2 million).* Insurance premiums exceed $2bn in 1H* Insurance company revenues soar* Minimum wage to increase, insurance payments may decreaseThe Post and Telecommunication Joint Stock Insurance Corporation (PTI) aims to achieve sales of VND4 trillion ($171.8 million) by the end of 2018 in order to reach VND10 trillion ($429.5 million) by 2025, which would account for 10.5 percent of the non-life insurance market in Vietnam.At its 20th anniversary, PTI said that by mid-July, its revenue was VND2.1 trillion ($90.2 million), up 25 per cent year-on-year.PTI's revenue has been continuously increasing over the years. In 2011, PTI reached VND1 trillion ($42.9 million) in revenue for the first time and then doubled to VND2 trillion ($85.9 million) in 2015.In 2017, PTI achieved revenue of VND3 trillion ($128.9 million) which accounts for 8 per cent of the market share and ranks them third in the non-life insurance market in Vietnam. PTI is currently the number two market for motor vehicle insurance and the leader in online insurance.At the event, PTI was awarded the Labour Medal by the State for their performance and contributions in the insurance finance sector.PTI has 47 member units, more than 100 transaction offices, 400 assessors, payment guarantee on 600 linked garages, 10,800 post offices, and nearly 13,000 distribution agents nationwide.PTI was founded on August 1, 1998, and has three major shareholders, namely South Korea-based Dongbu Insurance Co., Ltd (37.32 per cent), Vietnam Post Corporation (22 per cent), and VNDIRECT Securities Corporation (22 per cent).PTI offers customers a wide range of practical and superior products and services.They provide both individual and institutional customers with over 100 insurance products grouped in four main product categories namely Motor Vehicle Insurance, Personal Insurance, Property & Engineering Insurance, and Marine Insurance.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/pti-aims-to-achieve-sales-of-171-8 million-by-the-end-of-2018


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Vietnam feels heat of US-China trade war

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| HANOI TIMES

Vietnam may find itself in the middle of a trade war between the US and China.Vietnam is feeling the heat of a trade war, as more Chinese products are faking Viet-namese origins in a bid to enjoy preferential rates when exporting to the US, according to Do Thang Hai, vice minister of Industry and Trade."Under this circumstance, we should look at the worst scenario that may happen to Vi-etnam," Hai stated at a press meeting following a monthly cabinet gathering on Au-gust 1.Hai also pointed to a possibility of American goods, especially beef and other high quality foods, going through a similar way to be exported to China.According to Hai, the government has been aware of the situation and issued Decree No.31 on March, which sets forth origin of exported and imported goods. The decree is applied to traders and other entities relevant to origin of goods.In May, the US slapped steep import duties on steel products from Vietnam that orig-inated in China after finding they evaded US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy orders.Specifically, US customs authorities will collect anti-dumping duties of 199.76 percent and countervailing duties of 256.44 percent on imports of cold-rolled steel produced in Vietnam using Chinese-origin substrate, the Commerce Department said in a state-ment.Corrosion-resistant steel from Vietnam faces anti-dumping duties of 199.43 percent and anti-subsidy duties of 39.05%, it said.Trade war places Vietnam's economy at riskIn a conference in July, economist Pham Chi Lan expressed concern over US-bound product made in China going through Vietnam to evade import tariffs. "Capital in-flows to Vietnam in the near future may become unpredictable, as Chinese investors will aim at Vietnam as an indirect route to the US."Nguyen Duc Thanh, director of the Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Re-search (VEPR), said a trade war between the US and China will lead to the Chinese yuan (CNY)'s depreciation and cause a negative impact on Vietnam's economy.A high trade-to-GDP ratio of 190 percent makes the Vietnamese economy more vul-nerable to a potential global recession caused by an ongoing trade war between the US and China, Thanh said.Thanh warned Vietnam could face a wave of Chinese goods flooding its domestic mar-ket, so plans are needed to prevent negative impacts on domestic enterprises.Taking into account Fed's decision to hike interest rates and Chinese yuan (CNY)'s de-preciation, Thanh suggested the Vietnamese central bank devaluate the dong, but at a more moderate pace than the CNY against the USD.As the country mainly imports material inputs from China for processing and export, such devaluation would place Vietnamese importers at an advantage over the Chinese market and exporters.In this scenario, Vietnam can take advantage of both China and the US to improve pro-duction and trade balance, he said.Echoing Thanh's view, finance-banking expert Hieu warned CNY's depreciation would cause Vietnam's trade deficit with China to widen, which is already at the high-est level among Vietnam's trading partners, second only to South Korea."If the trade war continues to escalate and China retaliates the US by depreciating the CNY further, Vietnam will be in real trouble," Hieu added.http://www.hanoitimes.vn/economy/2018/08/81e0caba/vietnam-feels-heat-of-us-chi-na-trade-war/

New momentum for economic growth needed: PM


Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has tasked the national steering committee on eco-nomic restructuring and growth model reform with seeking ways to create new mo-mentum for the national economy.The PM made the request at the first meeting of the committee in Hanoi on August 2 that aims to review the implementation of the government's action programme on re-


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alising resolutions on growth model reform adopted by the Party Central Committee and the National Assembly over the past one and a half years.PM Phuc, who heads the committee, highlighted the important role played by institu-tions, policies and laws; the economic sector; international economic integration, espe-cially free trade agreements; and science-technology, particularly the fourth industrial revolution, in economic restructuring.Ministries, agencies and localities should change their viewpoints and actions, thus creating breakthroughs to improve productivity, quality, efficiency and competitive-ness, he said, describing this as a decisive factor to make the national economy develop sustainably and avoid lagging behind.The PM also emphasized the need to focus on revamping State management compre-hensively and continue efforts in building the government that works effectively.Growth quality has been improved over the past time, with contributions of the total factor productivity (TFP) increasing from 33 percent during 2011-2015 to 40.68 percent in 2016 and 45.19 percent last year, he said.However, the leader pointed out that shortcomings in mechanisms, policies and laws have hindered the implementation of economic restructuring and growth model re-form solutions.Stressing the significant role of the State and market in economic restructuring, PM Phuc said it is necessary to complete the socialist-oriented market economy mecha-nism.Speaking at the working session, members of the committee suggested facilitating on-going key projects in order to soon put them into operation, creating impulses for eco-nomic growth.Nguyen Dinh Cung, head of the Central Institute for Economic Management, pro-posed seeking new driving forces right in the domestic economy, explaining that if Ha-noi, HCM City and the central city of Da Nang grow 1 percent each, the national economy would expand by 0.5 percent.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/new-momentum-for-economic-growth-needed-pm/135761.vnp

Vietnam jumps 25 levels in WB's logistics performance index


Vietnam's position in the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) in 2018 rose 25 levels com-pared to two years ago, jumping to the 39th among 160 surveyed countries, according to the latest report from the World Bank (WB).This is the best result of Vietnam since 2007 when the WB announced the ranking for the first time.Representatives from the Ministry of Transport attributed the result to the improve-ment of the two indicators of "Logistics Competence" (up 29 levels) and "Tracking and Tracing" (up 41 levels).The report states that among the lower-middle income countries, large economies such as India and Indonesia, as well as emerging economies such as Vietnam and Cote d'Ivoire, stand out as top performers by showing a significant jump to a higher rank.The top five logistics performers this year are Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Austria and Japan.Among Vietnam's neighbouring countries, Thailand is still ahead, ranking 32nd.The LPI is the world's logistics performance index released by the WB every two years. It is a unique benchmarking tool, providing the same measure for more than 160 coun-tries.It measures performance on trade logistics within a country based on six indicators, namely the efficiency of customs and border management clearance; the quality of trade and transport-related infrastructure; the ease of arranging international ship-ments with competitive price; the competence and quality of logistics services; the abil-ity to track and trace consignments; and the frequency with which shipments reach consignees within the scheduled or expected delivery time.The LPI is a crucial part of global efforts to better understand logistics performance in


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the context of increasingly complex supply chains.Thanks to the ranking, enterprises can get insight into logistics systems of each coun-try, thus calculating the efficiency for their investment and businessIn 2016, Vietnam ranked 64th out of the 160 countries in the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index and fourth in Asean after Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.Vietnamese firms mainly provide domestic logistics services such as transport service, airport, seaport and warehouse services and cargo handlng services.Few firms provide international logistics services through acting as agents for foreign enterprises.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-jumps-25-levels-in-wbs-logistics-performance-in-dex/135730.vnp

Vietnam inflation forecast to exceed central bank's 4pct target: HSBC

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| HANOI TIMES

HSBC expected the SBV to react proactively, hiking its policy rate moderately by 25 ba-sic points in the third quarter this year to curb inflationary pressures and inflation ex-pectations.Vietnam's headline inflation rose 4.5 percent year-on-year in July, remaining well-above the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)'s 4 percent target, which is expected to remain above the target for the remainder of the year and well into next year, stated HSBC.This is unless the government imposes additional measures to curb prices that may, eventually, hurt its budget, said HSBC in its latest research sent to Hanoitimes.The downside risks to inflation in Vietnam are if the government continues to roll back its reforms to liberalise healthcare costs and/or imposes additional subsidies to certain goods and services, both of which may lead to a wider government budget deficit and, ultimately, higher public debt.However, HSBC believed this would be counter-productive, given recent positive de-velopments on the fiscal front and potentially bad repercussions if the government were to breach its public debt- to-GDP limit of 65%.HSBC expected the SBV to react proactively, hiking its policy rate moderately by 25 ba-sic points sometime in the third quarter to curb inflationary pressures and inflation ex-pectations.The research pointed to just one hike is an acknowledgement that the government is concurrently implementing administrative controls to curb inflation, while the SBV also wants to ensure that credit growth does not fall significantly below its current 17 percent year-on-year growth target. HSBC believed these factors will ultimately pre-vent the need for the SBV to tighten monetary policy aggressively.Nevertheless, administrative measures alone are enough to curb inflation and inflation expectations in the near term. For one, upside risks to inflation persist, given the rapid VND depreciation in recent weeks, which the research expected to translate to higher domestic prices. In fact, it is estimated that Vietnam's foreign exchange (FX) pass-through is the highest in Asean, with 100bp of currency depreciation associated with approximately a 0.25 percentage points increase in Vietnam's headline consumer price index (CPI).This is due to the fact that Vietnam is one of the most trade open economies in the re-gion, with imports at around 90 percent of GDP, which is only second to Singapore, where headline import data reflect the country's role as a trans-shipment hub.Recent history also shows that periods of rapid VND depreciation have been associat-ed with high domestic inflation, which may result in higher inflation expectations.This is a situation that the country must aim to avoid, according to HSBC, given mul-tiple bouts of 'runaway' inflation in its recent history. A policy rate hike from the SBV, therefore, would not only be a necessary supplement to administrative measures but also help anchor inflation expectations in the near to medium term.http://www.hanoitimes.vn/economy/2018/08/81E0CABE/vietnam-inflation-forecast-to-exceed-c-bank-s-4-target-hsbc/


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Hanoi takes lead in FDI attraction


Hanoi lured more than 6.17 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first seven months of 2018, making it the leading FDI attractor of the country, accounting for 26.9 percent of total FDI commitments in the period.According to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Hanoi was followed by HCM City with 4.69 billion USD and the southern province of Ba RiaVung Tau with 2.15 billion USD in FDI, which make up 17.9 percent and 9.4 percent of the country's total FDI attraction, respectively.Several large projects helped lift Hanoi to the top position.Among them are the 4.1 billion-USD smart-city project invested by Japan's Sumitomo Corporation in Dong Anh district and Lotte Mall Hanoi with a total registered capital of 600 million USD invested by the giant Lotte Group of the Republic of Korea (RoK) which aims to build a complex comprising of a shopping mall, hotel, offices and apart-ments.At the conference "Hanoi 2018Investment cooperation and Development", municipal authorities also handed over investment licences to 71 projects worth a total 400 trillion VND (nearly 20 billion USD), including 11 FDI projects worth 130 trillion VND (5.43 billion USD).The municipal Statistics Department said during the period, the foreign invested sec-tor maintained its growth momentum with revenues hitting nearly 14.8 trillion VND, or 48.3 percent of the yearly target, up 3.6 percent year-on-year.Statistics from the Foreign Investment Agency said foreign investors poured capital into 17 sectors during the last seven months, with the processing and manufacturing industry attracting the most at 9.63 billion USD, 41.95 percent of total registered capi-tal.Real estate was the second largest attractor with 5.6 billion USD, or 24.4 percent of the total investment, followed by the retail and wholesale sector with 1.69 billion USD, 7.4 percent of the total.As many as 96 countries and territories had investment projects in Vietnam in the pe-riod. Japan led with 6.88 billion USD worth of investment, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the total investment poured into the country.The RoK came second with total registered capital of 5.46 billion USD and third was Singapore with 2.73 billion USD, making up 23.8 percent and 11.9 percent of total in-vestment, respectively.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hanoi-takes-lead-in-fdi-attraction/135742.vnp

Vietnam PM asks for criteria to assess economic reform

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| NDO

Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked for a set of criteria to evaluate the eco-nomic restructuring effort during the 2016-2020 period in order to make Vietnam's eco-nomic growth more sustainable.At a government meeting on August 2, the PM warned that if the economy is not re-structured, Vietnam will continue falling behind.The meeting was held to review one and a half years of the implementation of a gov-ernment action programme, known as Resolution 27, on measures to restructure the economy and renew the growth model.PM Phuc stated that recent efforts have brought about certain results but significant challenges remain, as the economic growth model has shown little change, alongside slow public investment disbursement and sluggish agricultural reform.According to the cabinet leader, economic restructuring must bring into play the role of both the state and the market, noting that the government's mission is to fine-tune the market mechanism.PM Phuc emphasized that institutions and policies are the lever to make reform suc-cessful.According to Dr Nguyen Dinh Cung, an economic advisor to the PM, if Vietnam could achieve its restructuring targets, the economy would grow by up to 7.5 percent or higher annually until 2025.


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He suggested looking for new growth drivers within the domestic economy by foster-ing the three engines of Hanoi, HCM City and Da Nang, which could add 0.5 percent-age points to the overall growth if their economies grow by an additional 1 percentage point.Other officials also agreed that if growth continued to be based on old drivers, there would be no breakthroughs.The chair of Da Nang underlined the leadership's strong determination which has been translated into an action plan and inspiration for the business community as a factor to promote the economic restructuring efforts.For his part, State Bank Governor, Le Minh Hung, stated that macroeconomic stability is of utmost importance when undertaking economic reform, adding that it is also nec-essary to attract social investment and develop the capital market.http://en.nhandan.org.vn/business/item/6457302-vietnam-pm-asks-for-criteria-to-as-sess-economic-reform.html

Vietnam exports timber products to 120 countries, territories


Vietnam has exported timber products directly to 120 countries and territories instead of having to go through a transit market like China's Taiwan, Singapore and the Re-public of Korea (RoK) to export to the third country.The US, China, Japan and the RoK are the four largest importers of Vietnam's timber goods, accounting for 78.5 percent of the country's total export value of those products.Other markets with strong growth are Malaysia, France and Australia.Wood and timber products ran a trade surplus of 3.52 billion USD in the period, with imports of those products standing at 1.24 billion USD, a slight increase of 0.4 percent compared to the same period last year.According to the Vietnam Administration of Forestry under the Ministry of Agricul-ture and Rural Development, main forestry products in January-July were estimated to earn the country over 5 billion USD, fulfilling nearly 56 percent of the yearly target and making up 22.6 percent of the total export turnover of the agriculture sector.The forestry sector recorded a trade surplus of 3.77 billion USD in the reviewed period.The export value of main forestry products continued to maintain a year-on-year av-erage growth of over 14 percent.The export turnover of wood and timber products is expected to increase in the re-maining months of this year in line with consumption habits.In addition, Vietnam and the European Union (EU) are completing legal procedures to approve the signing of the voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) on Forest Law En-forcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT).By mid-July 2018, the European Commission (EC) approved the content of the agree-ment and agreed to submit it to the EU Council of ministers for official signing.The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has submitted the document to the government for signing.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-exports-timber-products-to-120-countries-territo-ries/135784.vnp

Vietnam shrimp exports sluggish, but to recover along with prices

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| VN EXPRESS

Vietnam's shrimp exports last April were worth only $275.2, a 0.4 percent drop year-on-year, according to VASEP.Foreign markets still have a lot of imported shrimp in stock and would not buy more now, which explains the lack of demand for Vietnamese shrimp, local newspaper Tuoi Tre quoted Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP ), as saying.Vo Thanh Sang, a shrimp farmer in the southern Soc Trang Province, said he recently sold his harvest for VND70,000 ($3) per kilogram, the lowest price in 10 years."Each pond has four to five tonnes of shrimp. So if I sell my shrimp at the current price, I will lose VND40-50 million. I cannot afford that.""In addition, many Vietnamese shrimp exporters have begun to sign large orders for


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the holidays at the end of 2018 so shrimp prices are expected to increase again in Au-gust and September this year," Undercurrent News, an independent seafood business news outlet, quoted VASEP as saying.There would not be excess supply in the market in upcoming quarters because other shrimp producing countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Thailand have over-har-vested, it said.Though exports dropped in April it said they were worth $1 billion in the first four months, a 14 percent year-on-year jump.Exports were higher to South Korea (by 34.4 percent), Australia (26), the US (1.4), the E.U. (11), and China (4).Last year shrimp exports had been worth $3.85 billion, an increase of 22 percent.Vietnam is the world's third-largest exporter, and it targets exports of $10 billion by 2025.https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/vietnam-shrimp-exports-sluggish-but-to-re-cover-along-with-prices-3786530.html

Shrimp, abalone to be under US import monitor from December 31


With the US tightening import rules for shrimp and abalone at the end of this year, Vi-etnamese processors and exporters need to start preparing data now, an American ex-pert has said.Speaking at a seminar co-hosted by the directorate of Fisheries, the US Embassy in Vi-etnam and the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP) in HCM City on August 1, Celeste Leroux, an expert from the National Oceanic and At-mospheric Administration (NOAA), urged Vietnamese producers and exporters to work with US importers to provide information as required.From December 31, shrimp and abalone imports will be subject to mandatory compli-ance under the US Seafood Import Monitoring Programme (SIMP).The programme requires importers to keep records from harvest to the point of entry to the US for fish and fish products particularly vulnerable to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing or seafood fraud.Thirteen species, namely abalone, Atlantic cod, blue crab (Atlantic), dolphin fish (Mahi Mahi), grouper, king crab (red), Pacific cod, red snapper, sea cucumber, shark, shrimp, swordfish and tuna, are identified as particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing and fraud.VASEP general Secretary Truong Dinh Hoe said a long time ago, Vietnamese seafood exporters established programmes to trace the origin of their products when exporting to the US and EU."The issue is how we systematise and standardise the information we need to provide and keep standardised records to maintain our exports to the US", he said.In the near future, VASEP will work with the directorate of Fisheries and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to support businesses so seafood exports to the US are uninterrupted.Among the 13 species under SIMP supervision, shrimp is the hardest hit. Each year, shrimp exports to the US are valued at 500 million 1 billion USD, or more than half of the total seafood shipment of about 1.5 billion USD to the market.The US is one of the largest seafood importers worldwide with a value of roughly 96 billion USD.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/shrimp-abalone-to-be-under-us-import-monitor-from-de-cember-31/135734.vnp

Vietnamese steel exporters warned of possible 25pct tax

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGONTIMES

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has announced that a steep tariff is likely to be im-posed by the European Commission (EC) on steel imports from Vietnam.The ministry made the prior announcement to help steel firms cope with tough times ahead, reported Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper.As the EC has issued a regulation to apply temporary safeguard measures, imposing quotas on 23 of 28 types of imported steel products, those firms whose steel exports


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exceed the allowed quota will have to pay an additional 25 percent tariff.Three of Vietnam's 23 steel products---non-alloy and other alloy cold-rolled sheets, metallic coated sheets and stainless cold-rolled sheets and strips---are subject to export quotas, while 20 other types of products shipped to the European Union are temporar-ily exempted from the quota regime, meaning they are not subject to the 25 percent tar-iff.However, Vietnam will face protectionist charges after February 3, 2019, if the coun-try's steel exports exceed quotas by 3 percent following the EC's temporary protective measures.The Trade Defense Department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade will announce the quantity of steel bound for the European Union so that Vietnam's steel enterprises and the relevant agencies can control and limit exports appropriately to avoid addi-tional duties.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61683/vietnamese-steel-exporters-warned-of-possi-ble-25-tax.html

Vietnam's tea exports fall 6.9pct in revenue


Vietnam's tea exports as of mid-July dropped 11 percent year-on-year in volume to 61,530 tonnes, and 6.9 percent in value to 99.94 million USD, according to statistics from the general Department of Vietnam Customs.Pakistan was the largest consumption market of Vietnamese tea as it bought 13,400 tonnes worth 29.94 million USD, up 10.8 percent in quantity and 22.3 percent in value compared to the same time last year.Exports to the US, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Germany and the Philippines also rose.Notably, Vietnamese tea export growth in the US was higher than that of other export-ers like China, Argentina, Japan, India and Canada.Vietnamese tea only occupied 2 percent in the US's total tea imports, up from the mar-ket share of 1.6 percent recorded last year.A fall in tea exports in recent times has put pressure on the tea industry to enhance product quality amid rapid international integration and fierce competition.To increase Vietnamese tea value, producers and exporters must work to develop a value chain and pay attention to food hygiene and safety, said a representative from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Processing and Market Develop-ment Authority.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnams-tea-exports-fall-69-percent-in-revenue/135741.vnp

Vietnamese tea finds flavour of growth in new world tastes

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| VOV

While Vietnam's tea industry is known around the world, in reality, Vietnam only re-ally exports tea to easy markets like Pakistan and China, while its shares in more strin-gent markets such as the EU and US are quite modest.Vietnam shipped 13,000 tonnes of tea worth $23 million in June, bringing the total tea exports in six months to 58,000 tonnes, worth $94 million, down 8.7 percent in volume and 3.4 percent in value against the corresponding period last year.According to the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority (AgroTrade) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the key export markets for Vietnamese tea in the period were Pakistan, Taiwan, Russia, China, Indonesia and the US.The Taiwanese market boasted the highest growth (up 12.7%), followed by the US, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia.The average export price also grew by 5.8 percent compared to the same period last year.Saturation of the world marketNguyen Quoc Toan, head of AgroTrade, says the world market has reached saturation point, which is one of the main causes of the recent decline in the volume of Vietnam-ese tea exports. However, the average price of exports has gone up, showing that the


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value of Vietnamese tea is still rising on the international market.A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) on the reality of the global tea industry and the medium-term forecast to 2024 shows that the value of the global tea market increased from $13.85 billion in 2015 to $15.21 billion in 2017 and is forecast to reach $21.33 billion in 2024.In the general picture, the global tea trade saw an average annual rate of growth of 4 percent over the past three years.China's production accounted for a significant proportion of the growth in the interna-tional tea trade, making up 38 percent of the global output. While there has been an increase in production, world demand is falling, leading the global transaction volume to drop to 5 million tonnes per year.Intensive investment in processing technologiesTea has many health benefits but overuse of tea may bring about certain negative side effects. World research shows that drinking too much green tea can increase the risk of developing lung, rectum and oesophageal cancers. In addition, tea may cause some problems such as high blood pressure, chronic insomnia, anxiety and stomachache.As consumer demand has evolved, the world's leading tea exporters have followed, shifting from traditional tea products to modern drink blends to reduce the side effects or producing high-grade tea which has fewer harmful side effects. The wider presence of tea products with new flavors such as lemon, mint, and chocolate has offered the tea market a facelift at a time when it was growing tired.Producers invested in an advertisement campaign to promote the health benefits of traditional tea which has helped to boost the global market share of high-grade tea.Customers' tastes are changing, while top-quality tea is much sought after by custom-ers in big tea production countries, where low cost teas dominate the market. In many countries the price of export tea is higher than it previously has been thanks to inno-vation in tea products.At present, the price of high-grade tea stands at $5 per kilo in Sri Lanka and $4.5 per kilo in India, while the price of traditional tea in India ranges from $2 to $2.5 per kilo.Vietnam is the world's seventh largest tea producer and the world's fifth largest tea ex-porter, with more than 500 production and processing units with an annual capacity of more than 500,000 tonnes of dried tea. However, the price of Vietnamese tea is roughly equivalent to half the world's average price.Experts say Vietnamese tea products are failing to adequately satisfy the standards for food, pesticide residues, and heavy metals. Pakistan put forth strict hygiene and safety rules, requiring that exporters present an Aflatoxin certificate, resulting in a decrease in the volume of sales to the country.To increase tea exports in the near futures, AgroTrade advises producers and export-ers to make smart investments in developing the chain of value and to focus their at-tention on meeting food hygiene and safety standards to improve the image of Vietnamese tea.Businesses will need to make further investments in intensive processing technologies and novel drink flavours to broaden their product range while reducing caffeine con-tent and lessening harmful side-effects to keep pace with the changing world of cus-tomers' tastes.https://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnamese-tea-finds-flavour-of-growth-in-new-world-tastes-379999.vov

VN businesses need to learn how to deal with anti-dumping lawsuits: experts

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

Vietnam's products overseas, especially in the US, have been facing more anti-dump-ing lawsuits in recent years.At least 99 percent of the lawsuits were filed by manufacturers in importing countries.To date, Vietnam has been the defendant in 78 anti-dumping lawsuits, 12 anti-counter-vailing cases and 17 anti-dumping duty avoidance cases.The report released at a workshop on trade remedies held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in late June 2018 showed that of 78 anti-dumping in-


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vestigation cases, 20 percent were raised by the US. Regarding anti-countervailing lawsuits, half of the cases were also raised in the US. The other plaintiffs were India, Turkey, Australia and the EU.Thirty-seven out of 78 anti-dumping and three-fourths of anti-countervailing lawsuits were related to steel products.The other products that also coped with many anti-dumping lawsuits were yarn and weaving. Vietnam exports some kinds of yarn products which it does not use when making garment exports.The products are mostly exported to Turkey and India, two markets that filed most of the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy lawsuits. Of the 78 anti-dumping cases, only four were related to farm and seafood products.As for the anti-dumping duty avoidance lawsuits, Nguyen Thi Thu Trang from VCCI said 16 out of 17 cases originated from China.This means that Chinese products were levied anti-dumping duties, but import coun-tries doubted that Chinese products were brought to Vietnam before they are shipped to import countries in an attempt to avoid duties.Chu Thang Trung, deputy head of the Trade Remedies Department, commented that the appeal lodged by several branches and enterprises was ineffective because of the lack of experience to deal with foreign rivals.This is attributed to the enterprises' limited knowledge about trade remedies, the lack of experience in appeals, the absence of strategy and professionalism, and lack of strong determination.The problem lies in Vietnam's enterprises' weak financial capability, while the cost of appeals is very high. In most cases, enterprises need to hire experienced lawyers from the countries initiating the investigations.Trung warned that the number of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy lawsuits is on the rise because import countries tend to install technical barriers to restrict imports when the tariffs have been cut in accordance with FTAs.He said Vietnamese enterprises need to protect themselves by equipping with basic knowledge about the laws.He also urged enterprises to diversify export markets, seek new markets, diversify products and avoid the overly hot development in exports of some certain products to some certain markets.Trang of VCCI also thinks that Vietnamese enterprises need to prepare themselves for lawsuits as soon as possible, because anti-dumping lawsuits only last for short time, while technical requirements are very complicated.Chinese products were levied anti-dumping duties, but import countries doubted that Chinese products were brought to Vietnam before they are shipped to import coun-tries in an attempt to avoid duties.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/205900/vn-businesses-need-to-learn-how-to-deal-with-anti-dumping-lawsuits--experts.html

Vietnam, Thailand discuss ways to achieve 20 billion USD in trade


The third meeting of the Vietnam-Thailand Joint Trade Committee opened on August 2 in Hanoi to enhance bilateral economic and trade cooperation.The two-day event is co-chaired by minister of Industry and Trade (MoIT) Tran Tuan Anh and Thai Commerce minister Sontirat Sontijirawong.At the meeting, the two sides will review economic and trade cooperation of the na-tions since the previous meeting in 2015, as well as discuss plans to bring two-way trade to 20 billion USD in 2020 and ensure a more balanced trade in the time to come.Measures to address obstacles in export-import activities are high on the agenda.The meeting will also talk about ways to promote collaboration in related areas, in-cluding trade facilitation, agriculture, transport connectivity, customs, banking, in-vestment, labour, intellectual property, regional and sub-regional cooperation.Thailand is currently Vietnam's largest trade partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), according to the Department of Asia-Africa Markets under the MoIT.


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Last year, VietnamThailand trade rose to 15.3 billion USD from 11.5 billion USD in 2015, recording an average growth rate of 15.5 percent per year.As of the beginning of July 2018, bilateral trade reached around eight billion USD, a rise of 14.7 percent year-on-year. Vietnam's export revenue to Thailand hit 2.7 billion USD in the period, while its import stood at 5.3 billion USD.Thailand's statistics showed Vietnam is the second largest trading partner of Thailand in Asean, after Malaysia.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-thailand-discuss-ways-to-achieve-20 billion-usd-in-trade/135768.vnp

CPTPP, EVFTA help Vietnam's garment-textile lure investment


Free trade agreements, particularly the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), are the driving force to attract big investments in Vietnam's garment-textile industry.The statement was made by Chair of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association Vu Duc Gaing at a conference held in HCM City on August 2 highlighting the impacts of the CPTPP and EVFTA on the garment-textile sector.According to Giang, although the two agreements have yet come into force, they have created great attraction to foreign investors.In the first six months of 2018, Vietnam lured 2.8 billion USD in foreign direct invest-ment (FDI) in garment-textile, bringing the total FDI in the sector to nearly 17.5 billion USD.A considerable number of large-scale projects were carried out in the first half of the year including a German-invested sheep wool yarn spinning plant in the Central Highlands city of Da Lat and an US-invested yarn production plant in the southern province of Dong Nai.Many Vietnamese firms have invested in material production projects, which are the key to solving the country's dependence on importing garment-textile materials in the coming years as well as helping Vietnam reduce production cost and increase compet-itiveness, Giang said.Apart from drawing investment, CPTPP and EVFTA have helped change the structure of export markets of Vietnamese garment-textile products in recent years, he added.Previously, many businesses from Canada, Australia and New Zealand just focused on the Chinese market, but now they have studied Vietnamese garment-textile prod-ucts with the signing of specific orders, he noted.Vuong Duc Anh from the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Import-Export Depart-ment, said there are huge opportunities for the garment-textile sector once the CPTPP and EVFTA take into effect.However, to optimise benefits from the agreements, Vietnamese firms have to over-come some challenges such as the competitive pressure from FDI companies and the strict rules of origin, he said.Besides proactively approaching to new markets, local businesses should pay more at-tention to the origin of products and improving quality to secure orders and maintain long-term partnership with foreign enterprises, he suggested.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/cptpp-evfta-help-vietnams-garmenttextile-lure-invest-ment/135766.vnp

HCM City to equitise many public service firms in 2019


Many State-owned public utility companies in HCM City are set to be equitised in 2019.The office of the municipal People's Committee said on August 2 that the committee had assigned the city's board for State-owned enterprise (SOE) management reform to perfect the plan for SOE re-organisation and reform in the 2018-2020 period.Accordingly, the businesses subject to equitisation next year are the public service companies of the districts of 7, 8, 9, Binh Thanh, Go Vap and Nha Be, along with the


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Liksin Industry Printing Packaging Corporation and the Saigon Jewellery Co. LtdMeanwhile, the HCM City Irrigation Management Company has been included in the list of firms the city asked the government to exclude from equitisation.At the proposal of the board for SOE management reform, the municipal People's Committee also agreed to keep 100 percent of State capital at the Saigon Water Corpo-ration.The southern city is accelerating procedures and approval of plans on equitisation and divestment of State capital from 39 businesses.The board attributed the slow equitisation pace to the fact that HCM City is the biggest city of Vietnam, so equitisation and divestment need to be conducted carefully and take into account long-term development orientations.It added that the businesses had completed asset assessment pending approval of eq-uitisation plans, and once receiving approval, they expected to complete equitisation within 2018 and 2019.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hcm-city-to-equitise-many-public-service-firms-in-2019/135776.vnp

Economic policies will remain stable: PM


The government will keep economic and financial policies stable this year, including the environment protection tax on fuels, prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc was cited as saying by the government news website on August 1.At a monthly Cabinet meeting, PM Phuc noted that the value-added tax law as well as the prices of electricity and healthcare services will remain unchanged.According to him, the country should keep the US dollar-dong exchange rate fluctuat-ing within a band of 2 percent compared with the rate last year. There will be no amendments to monetary policy either, he confirmed.Regarding the country's socioeconomic development, the government leader stressed that four macroeconomic targets have been achieved: robust gross domestic product growth, price stability, a reduction in unemployment and trade surplus. The country's unemployment rate has dropped to a record low of 2.2%.He also noted that the economy has grown strongly since the second quarter, thanks to institutional reforms, the government's direction, deeper global integration and an increase in labour productivity.However, multiple challenges were also pinpointed, such as the impacts of the US-China trade war and natural disasters.PM Phuc emphasized the need to maintain the driving forces of Vietnam's economic development not only this year but also in the coming years, adding that the country should continue to stabilise its macroeconomy, control inflation, enhance the confi-dence of enterprises, protect the environment and ensure social order and security.He ordered Cabinet members to urgently fulfill their duties, while requesting minis-ters and provincial chairpersons to prepare detailed plans to accomplish tasks as-signed by the government, thus contributing to the country's overall development.The PM also urged the ministries to speed up the disbursement of public investment capital. He blamed project delays on the slow capital disbursement.Therefore, the government will hold a meeting this month to discuss draft laws, in-cluding the draft law on public investment.The equitisation of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) remains slow, so he assigned the government's working group to urge localities to quickly restructure the SOEs under their management.He also called for the prevention of the influx of low-quality technological products into Vietnam.Regarding the imported scrap backlog at ports, he said that the government had as-signed the Ministry of Transport to coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to promptly classify and address containers of secondhand products abandoned at ports.The Ministry of Public Security will need to clarify the origin of these containers and


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impose strict penalties on those illegally importing waste into the country.Regarding solutions to deal with natural disasters, he said that the relevant ministries need to provide accurate forecasts, relocate households in areas prone to landslides and floods to safer places, ensure safety in areas surrounding reservoirs and penalise those involved in deforestation.Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport has been assigned to take steps to ensure traffic safety following a recent spate of serious road accidents.The leader also talked about the large-scale corruption in the national examination. He asked the Ministry of Education and Training to improve its administrative system and the Ministry of Public Security to continue its investigations and impose heavy sanctions on the violators.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61702/economic-policies-will-remain-stable-pm.html

Tax investigation removed from draft tax management law


Regulations on tax investigation, which were included in the draft of the tax manage-ment law last year, have now been removed from the latest version.When the Ministry of Finance proposed assigning tax investigation duties to the tax authority last November, many enterprises, experts and lawyers voiced their concerns.The Ministry of Finance wanted the tax authority to have the power to demand that agencies, organisations and individuals provide information and materials to facilitate inspections and investigations into violations of tax regulations and tax evasion.Besides this, in the previous proposal, if there is evidence of violations, heads of in-spection teams should be able to seal goods, storehouses and documents and take vi-olators into custody. The general Department of Customs argued for the need for such a function of the tax authority.However, according to enterprises and experts, the proposal lacked a legal basis and could have serious implications, including abuse of authority by the taxman.Upon opposition, this content was excluded from the draft law's most recent revision.Regarding tax management for ecommerce transactions, cross-border express goods worth VND1 million per shipment or more are subject to value added tax and personal income tax. Taxes are not imposed on goods with a value below VND1 million per shipment as in the previous draft.According to the Ministry of Finance, to make payments easy for taxpayers, prevent negative implications for ecommerce and expand the tax base, specific regulations and tax management measures are needed for this new business model.New contents introduced to the draft law include building a database; providing elec-tronic tax services widely; and specifying the responsibilities of ministries, agencies and organisations with regard to ecommerce.One notable inclusion in the draft law is that commercial banks are responsible for de-ducting and paying the required taxes on behalf of organisations and individuals over-seas for ecommerce activities that generate an income in Vietnam.The central bank must coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to develop a national ecommerce payment system and to establish mechanisms to manage and oversee pay-ment transactions related to cross-border ecommerce activities.Also, the Ministry of Industry and Trade must work with the Ministry of Finance on tax management, supplying related information to manage the taxes of traders, organ-isations and individuals active in ecommerce.The draft law on tax management will replace the 2006 law. Since the release of its first draft last November, the Ministry of Finance has received multiple comments from ministries and agencies. The draft law is expected to go before the National Assembly at the sixth sitting scheduled for later this year and approved at the seventh sitting set for next year.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61685/tax-investigation-removed-from-draft-tax-management-law.html


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MoF draft law gives taxpayer interests a nod


Taxpayers will have the right to know the time limit for tax refunds and non-refunda-ble tax amount with legal grounds, according to a draft revision for the Law on Tax Management.This is one of many provisions to support taxpayers proposed by the Ministry of Fi-nance in the draft law, aiming to enhance the tax sector's efficiency with clear tax pol-icies, simple tax procedures, quality human resources and modern information technology as well as bringing the sector in line with international practices.According to the draft law, the taxpayers will be assisted and guided through tax pay-ments as well as being provided with information and documents relevant to taxation.The taxpayers will be compensated for damage caused by the tax administration agen-cy under the provisions of the law. Late payment will not incur penalties in cases tax-payers complied with the documents of tax administration agencies.At the same time, they will be consulted to see and print all taxpayers' electronic in-voices sent to the e-portal of the tax administration agency according to the provisions of this law and regulations on e-transactions. They are allowed to use electronic invoic-es in transactions with tax administration agencies and relevant agencies and organi-sations.According to a draft report by minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung, administrative re-forms in State management activities, including tax management procedures, has achieved positive results.He said the reform in tax management procedures had contributed to saving time and procedure costs, raising competitiveness for businesses as well as attracting foreign in-vestment in Vietnam.The ministry has reviewed and cut 63 tax procedures and simplified 262 administra-tive procedures, reducing the tax payment time to 420 hours from 537 hours, equiva-lent to reducing costs by more than VND7 trillion (US$300 million) per year for taxpayers.According to a report by the World Bank published in October 2017, Vietnam's 2018 Doing Business ranking is 68th out of 190 countries and territories, an increase of 14 places compared to the previous year (Asean 5 Group). In terms of paying taxes, the country's ranking is 86th out of 190 countries and territories, up 81 positions over the previous year.The positive results in tax management need to be strengthened and developed by law, Dung said in the report.http://bizhub.vn/news/mof-draft-law-gives-taxpayer-interests-a-nod_297502.html

Vietnam, Croatia sign double taxation avoidance agreement


Vietnamese deputy minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan and Croatian minister of Finance Zdravko Mari have signed an agreement on the Avoidance of Double Taxa-tion and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income.Croatia is one of the two most economically developed countries of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Its economic development mainly relies on key sectors such as tourism, shipbuilding, machinery production, oil exploitation and refinery, and construction materials. Tourism is a key foreign currency earner for the European na-tion, generating $8-9 billion per yearThere has been significant progress made in cooperative relations between Vietnam and Croatia in recent years. Their annual bilateral trade has swelled by more than 20 percent since 2013 and reached nearly $80 million in 2016, showing the potential for further cooperation in trade and investment between the two countries.At the signing ceremony, Finance minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan highlighted the sign-ing of the deal as a demonstration of closer cooperation and sound friendship between Vietnam and Croatia and marks a new step in their bilateral ties. The signed agreement will contribute to creating a clear and stable legal environment in line with internation-al standards, which will facilitate the investment activities of the two nations' business-es.


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The Croatian minister of Finance, Zdravko Mari, expressed his belief that the agree-ment would act as a kick-start for both sides in establishing closer ties, while bringing mutual benefits and prosperity in the near future.https://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnam-croatia-sign-double-taxation-avoidance-agreement-380398.vov

Procedures get cut to boost trade


In an effort to improve the business environment, the Vietnamese government is accel-erating the implementation of the National Single Window and the Asean Single Win-dow to boost trade within Asean.An action plan anchored by a new decree is expected to include more effective and practical solutions, especially concerning the management of import-export goods, strengthening both import-export activities.Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized at last week's national conference on promoting the National Single Window (NSW) and Asean Single Window (ASW) and facilitating trade that the ratio of goods subject to specialised examination should be reduced to under 15 per cent, with examination methods and criteria made more trans-parent by issuing evaluation standards.According to the general Department of Customs, 82,760 goods were subject to spe-cialised inspections in the second quarter of 2015. This number went down slightly to 78,390 in the first quarter of this year.According to a World Bank report released last year, Vietnam's customs clearance time was cut by three hours to 55 hours for exports and by six hours to 56 hours for imports. The costs for customs clearance procedures were also reduced by $19 per batch. How-ever, the procedures are still overlapping, while the information-sharing capacity among management agencies is low.The ASW for customs clearance will connect and integrate the National Single Win-dows of Asean members to expedite the electronic exchange of customs data that trad-ers can use to obtain customs clearances, permits, and other documentation for trade within Asean.ASW provides a secure IT architecture and legal framework that will allow trade, transport, and commercial data to be exchanged electronically among government agencies or the trading community. This will expedite the cargo clearance process, re-duce costs and time of doing business, and enhance trade efficiency and competitive-ness.The implementation of the fully-fledged ASW pilot project component 2 has begun in stages since April 2015. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam have already tested the ATIGA Form D, using the ASW-enabling architecture. The Protocol on the Legal Framework to Carry out the ASW was signed in September 2015 by the Asean finance ministers. Member states are currently in the process of undertaking their respective domestic ratification.Nguyen Cong Binh, deputy general director of the general Department of Customs, said that 11 ministries have so far applied 53 administrative procedures for 22,000 en-terprises through the NSW. The number of procedures carried out through the NSW will be raised to 196 this year, accounting for 78 per cent of the target of 251 procedures by 2020.Meanwhile, the government also assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to develop policies to manage the e-commerce transactions of imports and exports; the Ministry of Transport to create policies to build links between the government and lo-gistics enterprises; and the State Bank of Vietnam to support e-commerce transactions.By 2020, the MoIT will have to complete the nationwide expansion of administrative procedures related to the management of import-export activities through the NSW.Deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan said that his ministry has launched an action plan to promote the NSW and ASW, focusing on ad-ministrative procedures for exports, imports, temporary imports for export, tempo-rary exports for import, and goods in transit. The Ministry of Transport reported it has


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applied 52 procedures through the NSW this month and will complete its plan to make its administrative procedures available for the NSW in November.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/206245/procedures-get-cut-to-boost-trade.html

Smart city building helps improve economic efficiency: Architect

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| HANOITIMES

Smart urban development helps accelerate economic development, facilitates interna-tional integration, and is on-trend in the era of information technology.Improving economic efficiencyIn large cities like Hanoi, HCM City and Da Nang, applying smart technology solu-tions can bring high economic efficiency for the most pressing demands such as infra-structure and transport management, flood and environment management, administrative management and e-government, said architect Ngo Vietnam Son from the Vietnam Association of Architects.Hanoi, HCM City and Da Nang are Vietnam's three largest urban centers and the lead-ing cities for researching and developing smart urban networks.Smart cities are commonly associated with information technology (IT), communica-tions and equipment network connected via the internet as a basis for building livable cities, with sustainable planning, effective transparent and highly-urbanised manage-ment in all aspects.The development trend of a smart urban area now focuses on a number of options, such as building e-government, urban management, transportation, infrastructure, en-vironment, energy saving, healthcare, security, education, telecommunications and so on.Building e-government helps solve all administrative procedures in all fields of socio-economic life, Son said.To do this, it is necessary to well organise management and use smart technology on the basis of group collaboration, participants in management work and residents must know the use of smart applications, and the collaboration among urban management groups to bring about high efficiency in the operation, Son added.Especially, to form a smart city, it is necessary to address solve urban issues in a multi-disciplinary way. For instance, it is possible to combine meteorological and traffic in-formation to help forecast time and location of possible storms and floods, the possibility of traffic congestion along roads, and the guidelines needed to respond to the situations, Son stressed.Be aware of technology raceThe application of science and technology to develop a smart city is considered an in-dispensable trend in globalisation. However, architect Ngo Vietnam Son warns that with the current pace of development, science and technology often have shorter life cycles and become increasingly cheaper.It is not necessary to race for technological solutions to develop a smart city does, while short-term and long-term economic assessment is required to choose suitable technol-ogy solutions, Son said.In order to ensure the success and high economic efficiency in smart urban construc-tion process, the government should select technological solutions that have been suc-cessfully applied, Son affirmed.Smart urban development is focused on human resources, followed by management expertise and technology. However, the use of technology also needs to improve the value of community life and urban identity, instead of making the city become me-chanical and inanimate.In order to do so, attention should be paid to the socio-economic status, living and working needs of the city's residents, in order to form diverse living and working com-munities, with the support of various levels of applying smart technology in different communities, Son added.http://www.hanoitimes.vn/news/viet-nam/2018/08/81E0CAB7/smart-city-building-helps-improve-economic-efficiency-architect/


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Tay Ninh encourages safe and high-quality farming


Tay Ninh will zone around 17,000ha of land to orient farmers and solicit investments by enterprises in producing safe and high-quality agricultural products, according to the province People's Committee.Tran Van Chien, its vice chair, said growing fruits trees with high economic value such as durian, pomelo, longan and custard apple, and vegetables and producing quality seedlings would be a priority.The province would earmark funds for developing irrigation and drainage systems and adopt a number of preferential policies to encourage a shift to high-value plants, he said.According to the local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, after five years of implementing the government's decision to restructure the agricultural sector to improve value addition and ensure sustainable development, the province's agri-cultural sector has achieved remarkable changes.Its agricultural, forestry and fisheries production has increased significantly and qual-ity has greatly improved, it said.Last year it was worth nearly VND26 billion (US$1.1 million), a 9.8 per cent increase from 2013, and helped improve the incomes and living standards of farmers.The province has switched from traditional crops yielding low incomes to fruit trees, it said.The area under low-value rice crops has reduced by 8,100ha to 147,800ha in the period, while the area under sugarcane and rubber has also shrunk significantly.The area under cassava has increased from 45,658ha to 55,940ha and fruit orchards from 15,610ha to 20,212ha, with the latter mainly being fruits appropriate for local weather and soil conditions such as longan, custard apple, grapefruit, durian, mango, banana and jackfruit, which offer three or four times the value addition of other tradi-tional crops.The livestock sector has developed rapidly with the air-conditioned ventilated, large-scale, and closed breeding farm models growing significantly.Livestock and poultry breeding farms following concentrated industrial and semi-in-dustrial models account for over 60 per cent of the total of 1,349 farms in the province.The livestock sector, besides focusing on the domestic market, has also begun to ex-port.The province pays close attention to developing safe agriculture, and more than 5 per cent of farm produce and animal products such as rice, vegetables, melons, fruit trees, chicken and pig meet VietGap and GlobalGap standards, bringing higher profits to farmers and enterprises, the department said.Linkages between farmers and enterprises within and outside the province have de-veloped strongly, with consumption of 1,500ha of rice, over 15,000ha of sugarcane, nearly six million poultry birds and over two million pigs and dairy products from nearly 2,000 cows guaranteed annually.The province earned $13.3 billion from exports in the past five years, of which agricul-tural exports accounted for $2.6 billion.http://bizhub.vn/news/tay-ninh-encourages-safe-and-high-quality-farming_297499.html

Hanoi advised to replan urban zoning to ease traffic pressure


Traffic congestion is one of the biggest challenges facing Hanoi, especially in the inner city.Hanoi should focus on strategic planning, including redesigning urban zoning to give more space available for traffic which has become much heavier since the city's admin-istrative boundary expansion ten years ago, experts have said.Transport expert Nguyen Manh Thang analysed that when the boundaries were ex-panded, Hanoi's land fund becomes larger, but the population and means of transport also swell.Ten years after the expansion of administrative boundaries, Hanoi's area has increased


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more than three times, its population has exceeded seven million and there are nearly six million means of transport in circulation in the city. Besides, a large number of mi-grants and vehicles from neighbouring provinces add pressure on the city's road net-work.Land, human resources, economy are the conditions to rearrange the space, urban ar-chitecture, traffic development, but the results are still limited. Meanwhile, the impact of population growth and transportation growth has become a headache in Hanoi, said Thang.Given narrower land fund, Hanoi needs to aim to develop underground space and stretch the traffic density outside the city's centre to reduce traffic pressure, Phan Truong Thanh, an expert in urban management, suggested.To radically solve the traffic jam problem, Hanoi should combine the two groups of "hard" and "soft" solutions, Thanh said."Soft" solution is to use both administrative and economic measures to curb the rise and gradually reduce the use of personal vehicles, while encouraging dwellers to use public transport, Thanh added.Restriction of personal vehicles not only helps increase the traffic space, but also limits traffic congestion and protects the environment, Thanh emphasized.In addition, there should be solutions to redesign the overall architecture, expand the traffic space through the reduction of urban density by encouraging people to move to the suburds, Thanh said.Thanh identified that Hanoi can exploit urban land fund for transport in two direc-tions. Firstly, for the inner areas, the city should focus on exploiting underground space with investment, construction of subway lines, underground parking lots. Sec-ondly, Hanoi should quickly complete the relocation of some headquarters of agen-cies, departments, schools, hospitals out of the city centre.Many experts also noted that the city needs to quickly establish satellite towns with technical and transport infrastructure that is capable of meeting trade, internal and in-ter-regional connectivity.These satellite towns play important role in both even distribution of population den-sity and transport load reduction. They also have stimulated synchronism and parallel development between the inner and outskirts of Hanoi, according to experts.After the ten-year expansion, Hanoi has made strong breakthroughs, reaching the scale of a civilised and modern city. However, to sustainably develop, it is necessary to inevitably solve the issue of traffic jam, expand the traffic space, connect well from inside to outside, contribute to boosting socio-economic efficiency, experts stressed.http://www.hanoitimes.vn/social-affair/2018/08/81E0CABB/hanoi-advised-to-replan-urban-zoning-to-ease-traffic-pressure/

Vietnam's online tourism to thrive


Bow Thunyarat, a traveler from Bangkok, Thailand, never expected her trip to Viet-nam last January to start so easily.In the modern world it just took a few clicks online and a whole world of hospitality choices appeared before her eyes.She is one of the 71 per cent of the 13 million visitors to Vietnam last year to arrange all her travel online.These are the figures released in a survey on tourists carried out by Vietnam E-com-merce Association (VECOM).But the results also reveal as most of the online booking agents are based outside of Vietnam, local businesses need support to keep up."We had never experienced Airbnb abroad together so we just want to try. Staying overnight with friends in one room seemed to be fun," she told Vietnam News."In Sapa, as there was no Airbnb, so we chose a hotel with a beautiful mountain view through booking.com," she said.Arriving in the nation's capital, she booked a homestay in Hanoi via airbnb.com.Detailed information was what Bow embraced the most.


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Even simple things like a hairdryer in the room helped her choose where to stay.Among nearly 13 million tourists visiting Vietnam last year, Bow obviously was not the only one using Internet as a nifty gadget for preparing.Google and the Singaporean Temasek Holdings firm predict the industry's sharp de-velopment in Southeast Asian, from $21.6 billion in 2015 to 89.6 billion by 2025.With 50 million people having access to the internet in Vietnam, accounting for more than a half of its population, the country's share is about 10 per cent, approximately $9 billion.But 80 per cent of the market share is taken up by international websites such as ago-da.com, booking.com, traveloka.com and expedia.com, according to the survey.These platforms enable Vietnam's tourism enterprises, mostly small and medium ones, to approach potential customers and to compete with foreign companies in a fairer playground.About ten Vietnamese companies have joined the game including ivivu.com, my-tour.vn, chudu24.com or tripi.vn. In reality, their efforts have only satisfied 20 per cent of the domestic demands.As international businesses have exploited the market for more than 20 years and achieved the worldwide reputation, domestic companies need the support of capital and policies to keep up with them in this competition and make a breakthrough to gain more market shares.Game changersTran Vu Binh owns a homestay on Hanoi's flagship street of Trang Tien. Graduating from hospitality college in Switzerland, he dreams to operate a stay on his own. Airb-nb.com is a magic wand making his wish come true."If not airbnb, there are still several other platforms where you can share information of your stay services. These platforms encourage people to travel more while reducing the cost of accommodation and travel in the same way ride-sharing services like Grab or Uber do," Binh said.According to AirDNA, a market survey site of Airbnb data and insights there are near-ly 5,300 active homestays in Hanoi and other Northern provinces listed on Airbnb with the occupancy rate of 62 per cent, as of December 2017,Binh's homestay, for instance, welcomes mostly tourists from Western countries, ac-counting for 70 per cent."Low prices, close connection with accommodation providers and essential utilities are unique selling points of homestaying," Binh explained."We target young people who want to explore more with limited budget. Our direct rivals are hostels and small hotels. We create pressure, forcing them to improve their quality and offer more seasonable prices," he added.The emerging trend of online tourism becomes a momentum for Vietnam's agencies to change.Last month, Vietnam Tourism Agency officially launched the new tourism promotion website at Vietnam.travel.Dinh Ngoc Duc, head of the agency's department of tourism market, said the website provided not only information of local beauty spots but also offered virtual reality ex-periences giving tourists first-hand experiences with their destinations.Since November 2017, visitors to the central coastal city of Da Nang have been able to easily access all tourism-related information via a smartphone-based app called Dan-ang Fantasticity, which incorporates a smart chatbot.Nguyen Cong Hoan, deputy director of HaNoi Redtours agency said besides promot-ing tour packages, they paid attention to tighten privacy for customers paying online.Regarding policies, tourism is among prioritised economic fields in the wave of Indus-try 4.0, said prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in May, 2017. From 2017, citizens of 40 countries and territories can get e-visas to Vietnam."Distances between customers and services providers in tourism may be very far. In-novations help to shorten this gap, approach more potential customers and save pro-motion costs," he said.


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As travelling connects people and lands, technology is becoming a middleman bring-ing tourists and agencies closer.http://bizhub.vn/news/viet-nams-online-tourism-to-thrive_297471.html

The cost for advertising in Vietnam is two low compared to other countries

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMICTIMES

A forum will be organised to discuss online marketing and advertising and other re-lated matters.* Enterprise spending on mobile advertising to hit $220 mn by 2020.* Enterprises moving to social networks for advertising* HCM City to launch advertising on 2,000 busesThe cost of advertising in Vietnam is too low compared to other countries around the world according to Nguyen Dung, vice President of Vietnam E-commercial Associa-tion (VECOM) at the press conference on August 1."For example, an American brand pays $2 for an advertisement, but in Vietnam, it only pays $0.2 to $ 0.5. One of the reasons for this is that the viewer of the ad and the audi-ence is not accurate, which leads to distrust. Currently, images of Vietnam's online ad-vertising in the eyes of the world aren't beautiful, and the cost of advertising in the Vietnamese market is too low," Nguyen Dung said.Another remarkable piece of information that was shared by Nguyen Dung is that Vi-etnam was listed as one of the top three non-transparent online advertisers. "Con Cung" is a typical example of products that are not what they're advertised.In order to contribute to limiting the current status quo, the content of the solution for online marketing transparency will be addressed at the first session of the 2018 Online Marketing Forum.In addition, Online Marketing Forum 2018 will focus on exploring the latest trends as well as the potential to help expand the online marketing sector to increase the market share of Vietnamese businesses.According to Tran Van Trong, Head of VECOM's Office, the main parts of the 2018 On-line Marketing Forum are four sessions: "Marketing Market Overview", discussing the trends of online marketing in the world, the experience of modern consumers; "Hu-man or Robot," sharing information on artificial intelligence applications (AI) in online marketing and effectively exploiting the chatbox; "Data-driven Marketing" with data-driven marketing experience to retain customers and integrating voice recognition to attract customers; and finally "Marketing O2Ofrom strategy to planning" which dis-cusses smart advertising and multi-channel marketing shifts."This is an opportunity to exchange information and drive business solutions and op-portunities in the field of online marketing to support e-commerce businesses and identify online marketing strategies. In addition, it helps increase the efficiency of on-line marketing, but also contributes to expanding the market of online marketing and improving the market share of enterprises, "said Tran Van Trong.In the afternoon of August 1, in Vietnam, VECOM held a press conference and an-nounced that Online Marketing Forum 2018 will take place on August 15 in HCM City and August 17 in Hanoi with theme "Human or Robot. Me" It's expected that each event will attract more than 1,000 participants.The growth rate of Vietnam's e-commerce in 2017 is 25 per cent higher than the previ-ous year. This growth is expected to continue in 2018.The market also recorded impressive growth over the past year. In the online retail sec-tor, the sales growth rate of 2017 reached 35 per cent. Some large-scale delivery enter-prises even saw revenue growths of 62 to 200 per cent.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/vietnam-today/the-cost-for-advertising-in-viet-nam-is-two-low-compared-to-other-countries

Many sugar mills face uncertain future


While the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) has been delayed until 2020, the future of the local sugar industry, with several sugar mills facing closure, remains un-certain, officials said.


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When the programme to boost sugar production to one million tonnes kicked off in 1995 to generate income for and build close relations with farmers, promote local eco-nomic development and boost national modernisation, localities raced to build sugar mills.However, the programme was not executed systematically and did not focus on pro-duction efficiency. Many sugar mills were recently forced to close due to a lack of ef-fective technology or planting areas for raw materials.While farmers are normally able to sell their sugarcane to sugar mills, a number of farmers saw their sugarcane crops left untouched due to the closure of multiple mills.Dozens of farming households in Cu Lao Dung District, Soc Trang Province, gathered at Soc Trang Sugar Joint Stock Company to ask for debt payments. NIVL Sugar Joint Stock Company in Long An Province, which still owes more than VND100 billion, had to buy sugarcane and pay the farmers in sugar.Despite these difficulties, capable companies have managed to invest in sugarcane planting areas, while many other sugar mills have still managed to meet their financial targets and maintain their consumption of sugarcane.This has highlighted the fact that companies with clear visions and strong financial ca-pabilities can stand firm in the sugar industry. Meanwhile, companies with outdated technologies, low productivity, small planting areas and poor financial capabilities have struggled to survive.Smuggled sugar is regarded as the main source of difficulties faced by sugar mills. Even if the sugar industry works toward enhancing productivity, lowering production costs and narrowing the price gap with sugar smuggled in from Thailand, the fight against sugar smuggling will continue.According to an executive of Thanh Thanh Cong, a major player in the sugar industry, when the ATIGA comes into force, at least 20 sugar mills will face closure. This will have a considerable impact on those involved, including 33,000 farming households and 1.5 million labourers in the industry.While the likelihood of closures is high, there is no satisfactory answer for sugar farm-ers, who are now uncertain about what crops to grow. Therefore, a policy to support the conversion of crops on sugarcane farmland should be taken into account going for-ward.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61684/many-sugar-mills-face-uncertain-future.html

Private capital to flow into aviation infrastructure projects


Many private investors are willing to pour money into aviation infrastructure, though the business field requires huge capital and a long time to recover capital.According to IATA (The International Air Transport Association), Vietnam will be-come the fifth fastest-growing aviation market in terms of international passengers and cargo to be transported. With a population of approximately 100 million, the do-mestic aviation market will witness average growth rate of 15 percent in the time to come.Economists say Vietnam needs 10 air carriers to satisfy demand and create a healthy market.Meanwhile, Vietnam's aviation infrastructure is getting overloaded and the presence of new airlines will put pressure on airport infrastructure.According to Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the airports of Noi Bai in Hanoi, Tan Son Nhat in HCM City, Cam Ranh in Khanh Hoa, Cat Bi in Hai Phong, Phu Quoc in Kien Giang and Lien Khuong in Lam Dong are all running beyond the designed ca-pacity.If Vietnam cannot solve the problems related to infrastructure, the aviation industry will not be able to develop.Vietnam now has 21 airports with total capacity of 70 million passengers a year. The figure is just equal to the capacity of KLIA 1 and KLIA 2 in Malaysia in total (75 million passengers) and a little bit higher than Changi in Singapore (50 million passengers).Foreign travellers complain they have to take two flights to get to Quy Nhon, Quang


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Ninh, Quang Binh, Thanh Hoa and Phu Quoc. They have to fly to Hanoi and HCM City and then wait hours for the next flights to the destination.To satisfy high travel demand, Vietnam plans to have 26 airports by 2020 with total in-vestment capital of $10.5 billion. It is now implementing 11 projects, of which seven will be completed in the next three years.Analysts believe that as the state's resources remain limited, private investment is a good solution.According to CAAV (Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam), there are five airport projects with capital contribution from private investors now under implementation.These include the Van Don International Airport, the terminal for international travel-lers of Cam Ranh Airport, and Phan Thiet, Cat Bi and Chu Lai Airports.Van Don is the first privately invested airport in Vietnam. The other 21 operating air-ports are under ACV's management.Tran Dinh Thien, head of the Vietnam Economics Institute, praised the effectiveness of private investment in the field.IPP, a private investor, initially planned to build Cam Ranh Airport within 36 months, but it needed only two-thirds of that time to finish construction.https://english.vov.vn/investment/private-capital-to-flow-into-aviation-infrastruc-ture-projects-380372.vov

Real estate inventories fall sharply

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| NGUOI LAO DONG

As of 20th June, the total value of real estate inventory was only about 24.072 trillion dong, reduced by nearly 700 billion dong compared with the first quarter of 2018.That information was released by the Department of Housing Management and Real Estate Market, and the Ministry of Construction in the latest report on the property market in the first six months of 2018. Accordingly, in the first two quarters of 2018, the real estate market continued to grow steadily when increasing 4.12 percent over the same period last year. The number of newly registered real estate companies was about 3.300, up 44.2 percent year over year.The real estate market has attracted about $4.9 billion of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) capital. Total capital invested in real estate projects was about $3.5-4 quadrillion dong. As of 20th June, the total value of real estate inventory was about 24.072 trillion dong, dropped by 104.476 trillion dong compared to the peak of the first quarter of 2013 and declined nearly 700 billion dong compared with the first quarter of 2018. Real estate outstanding loans were about 6-8 percent of total loans and are currently in the safe range.According to the Department of Housing Management and Real Estate Market, the market is showing signs of slowdown in some medium and high-end segments. Mean-while, the cheap, popular and individual housing segment tends to increase slightly due to high demand and limited supply. Nguyen Trong Ninh, director of the Department of Housing Management and Real Estate Market, said that from the end of 2018, the real estate market has not had any dramatic change, and basically remained stable, so "bubble" situation is not possible.However, Ninh also warned about the situation of land fever in some localities since some people used the policy of establishing special economic zones and some large in-vestment projects such as Long Thanh airport, HCM City's metro lines, highways, etc. to spread fake news in order to blow up prices.Thanks to the people's openness in spending trend, credit institutions are having op-portunities to develop their strengths in financial retail.

Gas-to-power projects attract global energy giants


Giant corporations from the US, Switzerland and France are rushing into Vietnam to invest in promising liquefied natural gas-to-power projects, raising the question whether Vietnam's gas sources and infrastructure will be up to the task of meeting the demand.


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Within just one year, a series of corporations such as AES, EDF, and Energy Capital Vi-etnam expressed their expansion strategies in Vietnam, boasting gas-to-power projects worth billions of dollars.In a meeting with prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc last week, US-based Energy Cap-ital Vietnam reaffirmed its plan on the construction of a $4 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fuelled power plant, for which the company signed a memorandum of under-standing with the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu in May this year. It is scheduled to start operation in late 2021 with the capacity of 1,000 megawatts ( MW) in the first phase and offering a competitive tariff of 7 UScents per kWh, even lower than the cur-rent level of 7.8 cents for wind power projects and 9.35 cents for solar farms in the country.This timeline would see the plant become operational slightly sooner than Vietnam's state-owned oil and gas group PetroVietnam's two 750MW combined-cycle gas tur-bine power plants Mien Trung I and II, which use natural gas extracted from the Blue Whale gas field, the largest of its kind in Vietnam with the estimated of 150 billion cu-bic metres of reserves. Located in the central province of Quang Nam, the two power plants will expectedly begin operations by 2023 and 2024, respectively.The list of the proposed gas-to-power projects in Vietnam includes the US' AES that has invested in the $2.1 billion Mong Duong 2 thermal power plant in the northern province of Quang Ninh, and looking to invest in the Son My 2 gas-fired power plant in the central province of Binh Thuan. The Son My 1 gas-fired power plant in Binh Thuan is also on the radar of France's EDF. Meanwhile, Switzerland-based Astra Transcor Energy's AOT Energy is seeking cooperation with PetroVietnam to build a $650 million LNG complex.Gavin Smith, vice chair of the EuroCham Green Growth Sector Committee, said that the energy security that Vietnam has enjoyed will be extended with the growth of the local gas supply, which is the natural partner of renewable energy, as well as greater energy efficiency. Gas is a flexible base-load power source with much lower emissions than imported coal and is abundant close to home, Smith said.According to Ban Viet Securities, the supply of gas will grow during 2021-2025 due to the number of large gas fields put into operation as well as increased LNG imports for Nhon Trach 3 and 4 power plants, also invested by PetroVietnam, starting to operate from 2021.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/206244/gas-to-power-projects-attract-glo-bal-energy-giants.html

Investors run away from condotel projects


The anticipated oversupply and unclear legal status have prompted many investors to give up investments in condotel projects.Nguyen Xuan Hai, an investor in Hanoi, told reporters that he is selling nearly 10 con-dotels at projects in Da Nang, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc.In late 2016, he bought over 10 condotels at five large projects. Two years have elapsed, but the projects are not operational and the expected profits are not as high as he had thought."I decided to sell two-thirds of my investments to get capital back for other investment deals," he said.Ads for condotel sales have appeared everywhere. A real estate broker said he wanted to sell a 45 square metre condotel in Phu Quoc at VND2.5 billion (the buy price shown in the contract is VND3.3 billion), but complained that he has not found any buyer over the last three months.A series of condotels on Le Thanh Ton street in Nha Trang City are on sale at prices lower by VND50-100 million than the original prices. However, very few successful transactions have been reported.Even the Da Nang condotel project, which was very 'hot' when it was opened for sale by primary investors, now is not selling.Pham Ngoc Vu, director of Dat Pho Real Estate Trading Floor, said since the fourth


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quarter of 2017, condotel owners have found it difficult to transfer condotels because of weak liquidity.Vu said there are many more sales than purchase offers. In the past, condotels sold like hot cakes as primary investors committed high profits of 10-15 percent per annum.But buyers have realised that it is difficult to lease condotels, while business authori-sation cannot bring satisfactory profits.Meanwhile, the prices of condotels have not escalated as expected and it is difficult to transfer condotels because of the unclear legal status. As the profit cannot cover bank loan interest rates, investors have had to sell condotels at a loss."Buyers all want to affirm their ownership over condotels, so they always ask the sell-ers to commit to provide an ownership certificate. But no seller dares to make such commitment," he explained.The latest report by DKRA, a market analysis firm, also said the resort real estate mar-ket declined sharply in the second quarter of the year because of the sharp fall in de-mand.About 2,000 condotels were launched into the market, but sales were just equal to one-third of that in the previous quarter. In Da Nang, only 9 percent of products were sold, which means an inventory level of 91 percent. In Binh Dinh and Khanh Hoa, sales were between 22-26 percent."The prices of condotels have not escalated as expected and it is difficult to transfer condotels because of the unclear legal status. As the profit cannot cover bank loan in-terest rates, investors have had to sell condotels at a loss."http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/205955/investors-run-away-from-condo-tel-projects.html

Vietnam attractive destination of Chinese enterprises


Chinese enterprises are eyeing to expand their business and investment in the Associ-ation of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), in which Vietnam is considered one of the most attractive destinations.The statement was made by Guo Chuan Wei, director in charge of trade and invest-ment at the Asean-China Centre (ACC) at the Vietnam-China Trade Forum held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry HCM City chapter, the ACC, and the Department of Commerce of China's Jilin province on August 2.Guo said that China is an economy with strong production capacity, and its enterpris-es are constantly expanding their presence abroad. Meanwhile, Vietnam has an im-pressive economic growth in Southeast Asia. In addition, the two countries hold a lot of advantages complementary to each other and have geological positions favourable to trade exchange.They are the reasons why Chinese firms want to expand cooperation with Vietnam, he added.Secretary of Jilin's provincial Party Committee Ba Yin Chao Lu told participants that Chinese firms in general and those in Jilin in particular have been expanding trade and investment activities in Vietnam, with attention paid to potential areas of automobile manufacturing and assembly, and farm produce import and export.He said Jilin will encourage its big companies to do business in Vietnam while inviting Vietnamese firms to invest in the province.VCCI deputy Chair Vo Tan Thanh highlighted the fact that China is currently one of the largest and potential markets of Vietnam.Last year, two-way trade exceeded 93.6 billion USD, accounting for 22 percent of Viet-nam's total foreign trade. The bilateral trade value reached 38.7 billion USD in the first five months of 2018 and is likely to surpass 100 billion USD for the first time this year.As of April, China ranked seventh out of 126 nations and territories investing in Viet-nam with nearly 1,900 projects worth over 12.5 billion USD.Seen from the local aspect, Nguyen Huynh Trang, deputy director of HCM City's De-partment of Industry and Trade, said that as of July, China ranked 19th among 98 na-tions and territories pouring capital into the city with 126 projects and total investment


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capital of nearly 158 million USD. The city's exports to and imports from China both recorded a year-on-year rise of 15 percent in the first half of this year.According to Trang, there remains a lot of potential for cooperation between the city and Chinese localities, including Jilin.Intensifying exchanges between businesses, and trade and investment promotion will create good opportunities for the two sides' enterprises to establish long-term and ef-fective cooperation, she added.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-attractive-destination-of-chinese-enterprises/135758.vnp

VN, Japan firms seek connection in agro-fishery, food trade


A business networking programme for Vietnamese and Japanese businesses in agro-fishery and food sectors took place in Hanoi on August 2.Organised by the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), the event attracted 32 Japanese firms which produce seafood (oyster and fish), children's food, and supple-ment products, among others. The Japanese companies aimed to expand their pres-ence in a dynamic market with high demand for the quantity and quality of food products like Vietnam.The event featured the display of Japanese products to help Vietnamese buyers get more information, thus facilitating trade of goods.A JETRO representative said the programme consists of a connection area for new im-porters and distributors seeking partnerships and an expansion area for veteran firms wanting to expand their business network.Last year, a similar programme drew the participation of more than 300 Vietnamese buyers, with many contracts signed.According to JETRO, Vietnam is a potential destination for Japanese food products. Vi-etnamese consumers' increasing awareness of food safety has increased their demand for Japanese products which hold good reputation for quality and food safety stand-ards.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vn-japan-firms-seek-connection-in-agrofishery-food-trade/135755.vnp

BUSINESSBIZ NEWSBusiness Briefs 03 August 2018

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA|

* Mobile World Investment Group (MWG) has released its business results in the first half of2018, with revenue and after-tax profit soaring 43 percent and 44 percent year-on-year to VND44.6 trillion and VND1.5 trillion, respectively. According to Viet Cap-ital Securities Company, the stellar performance was mainly driven by the Dienmayx-anh consumer electronics segment, new store openings and contributions from stores opened in 2017. Meanwhile, Thegioididong (mobile phones) posted single-digit reve-nue growth asMWG continued to convert high-performing mobile stores to consumer electronics stores.* MB Capital has offloaded 1.3 million shares of Vietnam Electrical Equipment Com-pany (GEX) to reduce its ownership from 8.1 percent to 7.7%. HCM CityLe Viet Hai, chair and general director ofHoa Binh Construction Company (HBC), will be buying 270,000 shares of the firm to spur his holdings to 17.6%, equivalent to 34.3 million shares. Currently, Hai is holding over 34 million shares at HBC.* Truong Giang Construction and Investment Company (TGG) has announced August 9 as the ex-dividend date for shareholders to receive a 2017 share dividend at 5%.* Halcom Vietnam Company (HID) has decided to spend VND144 billion establishing Can Tho Urban Development Company, securing a 96 percent stake in the latter.* Coteccons Construction Company (CTD) has chosen August 14 as the record date to pay a 2017 dividend in cash for shareholders at 50%. Payment will be made on August 24.* Sai Gon Thuong Tin Real Estate Company (SCR) said its net profit jumped 3-fold


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SVietnam finance & business 3 August 2018

year-on-year to over VND187 billion in the second quarter of this year. Its revenue rocketed 3.77-fold to around VNDI trillion in the quarter. This year, the real estate firm has handed over 791 products from several projects in HCM City such as Iarnona Home Resort, Charmington La Point, Iarnona City, and Iamona Golden Silk.* Phuc Hung Holdings Construction Company (PH C) will move its listing of 50 mil-lion shares to the Hochiminh Stock Exchange from the Hanoi Stock Exchange in Au-gust. In 2018, the construction firm plans to issue 4.2 million shares for its existing shareholders at a 5-for-l ratio at the price of VNDlO,OOO each.

Indexes on both markets recover slightly


Having encountered a slight correction on Wednesday, the VN Index of the Hochim-inh Stock Exchange made a modest improvement on Thursday, while its northern counterpart also experienced the same move.With 110 stocks rising and 165 others sliding, the VN Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange managed a modest rise of 0.78 point, or 0.08 percent at 953.55. There were over 212.4 million shares worth some VND4.3 trillion changing hands on the southern bourse, up 5 percent and down 3 percent against the previous day.The put-through market was active with 38 million shares valued at around VND556 billion, in which retailer VRE saw 3.34 million shares traded with a total value of VND135 billion. Lender TCB and real estate provider NVL also performed well, with 3.1 million and 1.2 million shares changing hands worth VND93.5 billion and VND80.3 billion, respectively.Various blue chips and large caps made turnarounds. Having dropped 0.9 percent at VND27,550 per share on Wednesday, lender TCB rose sharply by 3.4 percent to VND28,500 per share. VCB as another lender added 0.7 percent at VND59,000.Securities firm SSI, jewellery trader PNJ, and low-cost carrier VJC also gained 1.2%, 1.6 percent and 2.1 percent respectively at VND29,350, VND95,500 and VND146,000.Among top heavyweights, leading gas firm GAS was one of the active contributors to the southern index's recovery, gaining 2.1 percent at VND91,000.On the other hand, dairy products firm VNM was the biggest drag on the southern bourse, as the firm dropped 1.1 percent to VND165,000 per share. Besides, lenders BID, CTG, MBB, STB, VPB, HDB and TPB suffered declines between 0.4 percent and 1 per-cent while EIB remained unchanged.Among VN30 stocks, the lender STB was the volume leader with more than 7.5 million shares exchanged. Property developers FLC and HAG were the most active with over 27.6 and 15.5 million shares changing hands respectively, but they slumped 2.8 percent and 0.3 percent at VND6,900 and VND16,900 a share.Notably, gasoline trader TDG went up to the ceiling price at VND10,250 or 7 percent on matching volume of over 2.3 million shares after its four-day losing streak.Meanwhile, the HNX-Index of the Hanoi Stock Exchange, like the southern counter-part, inched up 0.09 point or 0.09 percent against the previous day at 105.65. There were over 36.7 million shares worth some VND534.5 billion changing hands on the northern bourse, down 22 percent and 13 percent versus Wednesday, respectively.The local put-through market saw over 3.7 million shares worth about VND27.1 billion exchanged, including a staggering 3.6 million shares worth nearly VND26 billion of lender NVB.Petroleum firm PVS was the most heavily traded stock on the Hanoi bourse with over 9.1 million shares. Its value edged up 2.8 percent at VND18,300 per share.Foreigners stayed on the selling side for the fourth consecutive session, net selling VND817.8 billion worth of shares on the HCM City market. The investors, meanwhile, net sold VND28.3 billion on the Hanoi exchange.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61709/indexes-on-both-markets-recover-slight-ly.html

VN stocks rebound on bottom-fishing


Vietnamese shares bounced back on Thursday after tumbling in the morning session,


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thanks to active bottom-fishing demand in the closing minutes.The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.08 per cent to close at 953.55 points, reversing from its loss of 0.38 per cent in the previous session.The minor HNX Index on the Ha Ni Stock Exchange rose 0.09 per cent to end at 105.65 points after having decreased by 0.56 per cent on Wednesday.More than 253 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VN4.9 trillion (US$212 million).The market trading condition was negative with 188 gaining stocks against 236 declin-ing, while 318 other stocks were unchanged.Mining, retail and construction stocks recorded the highest growth rates on Thursday to bolster the market's rise, data on vietstock.vn showed.The capital inflow resulted in 8 of the 20 sectors seeing recovery, according to the web-site.The large-cap VN30 Index was down 0.15 per cent to 937.86 points, with 13 gainers and 15 losers.Late bottom purchasing helped many blue-chips gain ground, including FPT Corpo-ration (FPT), KIDO Group (KDC), Vienam National Petroleum Group (PLX), Phu Nhuan Jewellery Joint Stock Company (PNJ), Sai Gon Securities Incorporation (SSI) and budget carrier Vietjet (VJC).Remarkably, oil stocks played a leading role in the market during the session with PetroVietnam Gas JSC increasing by 2.6 per cent, PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) climbing by 2.8 per cent and Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) rising by 3.5 per cent.According to BIDV Securities Company (BSC), the stock market shook sharply in the morning session. However, the strong buying demand occurred in the middle of the afternoon session and especially at the end of the session, helping the indexes recover.The market experienced volatility on Thursday as ETFs continued to restructure their portfolio and fears again increased over the US-China trade war.Bao Viet Securities Company said in its daily report that Asian stock markets tumbled on Thursday after the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman warned that Beijing will fight back after the US increased tariffs on Chinese goods.As mentioned in the August 1 report, the Trump administration has considered raising the tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 per cent, from 10 per cent."Overall, we believe that factors relating to the US-China trade war will remain major risks to world stock markets and particularly the Vietnamese stock market," BVSC said.The next session will experience consolidation and recovery, investors should keep watching and wait for clear signals from the market, BSC said.The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) was down 0.23 per cent to finish at 50.18 points. It had fallen 0.36 per cent on Wednesday.https://vietnamnews.vn/economy/463084/vn-stocks-rebound-on-bottom-fish-ing.html#zVv0VB34QHfRUbYj.97

Stock market briefs 03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGONTIMES

Thang Long Investment Group JSC (TIG), a Vietnamese company holding a 45 percent stake in Hyundai Electronics LLC, said its consolidated net profit rocketed over 35-fold year-on-year to VND11.93 billion in the second quarter of this year. Its net revenue jumped 60.82 percent year-on-year to VND73.76 billion in the quarter, TIG said in its quarterly financial statements. In quarter two, TIG's financial revenue soared 69.36 percent year-on-year to VND8.07 billion. In the first half of this year, TIG earned a con-solidated net profit of VND26.34 billion on net revenue of VND131.44 billion, up 64.8 percent and 45.71 percent year-on-year, respectively.HCM City Gia Lai Coffee Joint Stock Company successfully sold 6.48 million shares, equivalent to 44.17 percent of its chartered capital. As many as 38 individual investors purchased the company's shares worth a combined VND71.5 billion, averaging out at VND11,029 per share.


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HCM City The Hochiminh Stock Exchange has put An Truong An JSC (ATG) into the warning list from August 6. The company violated the regulations on disclosure of in-formation on the stock market four times within one year.HCM City Building Materials Corporation No.1 (FICO) on August 2 started trading over 127 million shares on the market for unlisted public enterprises, or UPCoM. Each share has a reference price of VND12,100.HCM City DRH Holdings JSC (DRH) on August 2 was allowed to issue 9.7 million shares to take the total outstanding volume to over 58.7 million to spur its capital.HCM City Ba Ria-Vung Tau House Development JSC (HDC) will issue more than 5.3 million shares on August 10 to make the 2017 dividend payment. The firm will then have over 50.4 million oustanding shares.HCM City Tran Quoc Hung, head of the Board of the Supervisory from DHG Phar-maceutical JSC (DHG) will be selling 10,000 shares via matching and put-through transactions from August 7 to September 5.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61708/stock-market-briefs.html

HNX sells 15.77 trillion VND worth of bonds in July


The Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) sold 15.77 trillion VND (677.4 million USD) worth of bonds during 33 auctions held in July, down 6.9 percent from June.Of the amount, the State Treasury raised 15.42 trillion VND and the Bank for Social Policies raised 350 billion VND.The interest rates of successfully bid 5-year bonds ranged from 3.45 4.1 percent per an-num, while those for 7-year bonds were from 3.85-3.9 percent per annum.Ten-year bonds fetched annual interest rates of 4.4-4.8 percent, and 15-year bonds fetched 4.7-4.78 percent per annum.The annual interest rate for successfully bid 20-year bonds was 5.22 percent, and that for 30-year bonds was 5.42 percent.In general, the interest rates showed increases for bonds of all terms compared to those sold in June.On the secondary G-bond market, the total volume of G-bonds sold by the outright method exceeded 554.6 million, worth more than 62.4 trillion VND, down 42.3 percent month-on-month.Meanwhile, trading volume through repurchase agreements (repos) reached over 902 billion bonds valued at more than 92.5 trillion VND, up 39.7 percent from June.Foreign investors made outright purchases of more than 2.18 trillion VND and out-right sales of over 6.42 trillion VND. They did not conduct any repo transaction during July.https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hnx-sells-1577 trillion-vnd-worth-of-bonds-in-Jul/135780.vnp

SOEs urged to list on stock market


Only 150 of nearly 750 State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have listed on the stock market, said deputy minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai.Speaking at the monthly government press conference in Hanoi on Wednesday, Mai said the ministry had announced the names of 747 SOEs that had not yet registered transactions and listed on the stock market in August last year."We will also coordinate with ministries, sectors and localities to accelerate the equi-tised enterprises in quickly listing on the stock market," said Mai.In a meeting to review SOE restructuring in the first half of 2018 and launch tasks for the second half of the year held in Hanoi last week, deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue said Hanoi and HCM City were two localities with many businesses that had not been equitised. In addition, ministries also had few equitised enterprises.Hue, who is also head of the government Steering Committee on Corporate Renova-tion and Development, requested the government Office to urge groups and corpora-tions to report difficulties and shortcomings in equitisation, divestment and reorganisation of the SoEs, which will be sent to the government at the forthcoming


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national conference on SOEs chaired by the prime minister.Hue also asked corporations to review the list of handovers to the State Capital Invest-ment Corporation (SCIC) in the spirit that all ministries and localities will hand over all equitised enterprises to the SCIC.He also asked the Ministry of Finance to publicise equitised SOEs that have not listed on the stock market in time. The ministry needed to soon complete the draft decision of the prime minister on the procedures for handing over groups or corporations to the SCIC.http://bizhub.vn/markets/soes-urged-to-list-on-stock-market_297495.html

EVN Finance to debut 250 million shares on UPCoM, valued at $133 million


EVN Finance Joint Stock Company will debut 250 million shares on the Unlisted Pub-lic Company Market (UPCoM) on August 7, coded EVG, with a reference price of VND12,200 (US$0.53) per share.At this price, the company is valued at VND3.05 trillion ($132.6 million).The financial arm of the Vietnam Electricity (EVN) was formed in September 2008 with charter capital of VND2.5 trillion. It is the second largest financial institutions (apart from banks) in the market after FE Credit, the consumer finance arm of VPBank.EVN Finance operates in capital mobilisation, credit and investment, inter-bank mar-ket trading and services.An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank is the largest stakeholder with 8.4 per cent, fol-lowed by EVN with a holding of 7.5 per cent. Foreign investors hold only 0.03 per cent.The firm's net profit has been rising since 2013, and it posted post-tax profit of VND180.4 billion in 2017, a 9-per-cent year-on-year increase.In the first six months of 2018, it announced a pre-tax profit of VND102.6 billion, down 19 per cent against the same period of last year. The earning per share (EPS) ratio was VND331.As of June 2018, its total assets were worth VND18.7 trillion, including VND3.9 trillion in deposits at other financial institutions, VND8.7 trillion in loans to customers and VND4.95 trillion in securities investments.http://bizhub.vn/markets/evn-finance-to-debut-250 million-shares-on-upcom-valued-at-133 million_297496.html

Foreign investors bail on Vinalines sale


Despite interest from many international corporations ahead of the equitisation, the long-awaited race to become a strategic investor in state-run shipping giant Vinalines turned out to be less fierce than expected, with only one South Korean conglomerate registering for the deal.A source of Vinalines told VIR that only one investor, named as one of the largest con-glomerates in South Korea, had submitted the registration document to buy a 14.8-per-cent stake in the company at the close of registration on July 12.The potential investor was said to have entered the Vietnamese market in the early 2000s. Its core business lines include shipping and logistics."We have submitted the document for consideration of the potential investor's capac-ity to meet the criteria to the Ministry of Transport (MoT). The result should be an-nounced soon," the source said.The registration result means that many potential foreign investors, including Belgian firm Rent-A-Port and those from Japan, the US, and South Korea, did not join the race, which was expected to become one of the hottest mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals in the Vietnamese shipping industry in 2018.It is notable that in the middle of last year, Rent-A-Port signed a memorandum of un-derstanding (MoU) with Vinalines in the hope of acquiring 10 per cent of the latter's charter capital upon its equitisation. At that time, many expected that this agreement would come to fruition.Following the equitisation plan approved by the prime minister on June 20, Vinalines will have the charter capital of VND14.046 trillion ($624.26 million) after it is equitised.


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The state will hold 65 per cent of the company's charter capital, while strategic inves-tors can acquire 14.8 per cent and the remaining 20 per cent will be sold at the initial public offering (IPO) in September.The Vietnamese shipping giant is now counting the days until it receives the result from the MoT, hoping that the registered investor can meet the criteria, all the while preparing for the upcoming IPO.The highlighted criteria include those requiring investors to have the necessary finan-cial capacity, profitable business results in the last two years from the registration date, and no accumulated losses.What is more, investors who operate in the same business line must have the charter capital of at least VND1 trillion ($44.24 million), while the threshold for those in a dif-ferent business line is doubled. Investment funds are required to have at least VND2 trillion ($88.49 million) worth of total assets.As proposed in July, Vinalines wants to auction off 20 per cent of its stake, nearly 281 million shares, on the Hanoi Stock Exchange in the first week of September, at a start-ing price of VND10,000 ($0.44) per share under the ticker name of MVN.The IPO's result is as yet uncertain, but it is expected to garner interest from domestic and foreign investors thanks to Vinalines' improved business performance in recent yearsit made profits in the 2015-2017 period after years of suffering lossesand its ad-vantages in shipping, ports, and logistics.According to the MoT, seaports are now the most attractive segment for foreign inves-tors in the Vietnamese transport sector, thanks to the ability to control revenue sources, while logistics is attracting international logistics giants who are investing in Vietnam in anticipation of growing trade and loosened regulations in accordance to the coun-try's World Trade Organisation (WTO) commitments.Vinalines currently owns a fleet of 82 ships with a total load of 1.87 million deepwater tonnage, accounting for around 25 per cent of Vietnam's national shipping fleet, and contribute 37 per cent of Vinalines' total revenues.The company is also famous for logistics services in Vietnam, with a wide network of warehouses and modern inland container depots in cities and provinces, and along-side the country's influential seaports. Logistics services make up 27 per cent of Vina-lines' total revenues.In addition, Vinalines operates 15 seaports with a total capacity of 75 million tonnes a year, accounting for 23.53 per cent of the country's total number of piers and 30.37 per cent of the country's total length of piers. Vinalines' seaports are located in strategically important locations for trade in goods as well as for regional economic development.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/206239/foreign-investors-bail-on-vina-lines-sale.html

Cyber attacks target accounts of enterprise leaders


Hackers tend to attack the information technology (IT) systems of enterprises by ex-ploiting the vulnerabilities in their email and security systems, especially targeting leaders' accounts, heard participants at a seminar held by Trend Micro, an information security and network safety company, in HCM City on August 1.Speaking at the seminar, themed "Effective Network Security Strategies for Vietnam-ese Enterprises," a representative of Trend Micro said that ransomware is emerging strongly, and firms' email systems have become the most common target of cyber at-tacks.The latest report by Trend Micro shows that cyber criminals carry out Advanced Per-sistent Threat (APT) attacks using ransomware worms and mainly hack directors' and chairmen's accounts, followed by an attack on the entire system.Dhanya Thakkar, deputy general director of Trend Micro in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, said three types of cyber attacks---spreading ransomware worms, attacking via loopholes in security systems and APT---are the most popular.Network security experts asserted that APT attacks are becoming more frequent, and multiple attacks are being carried out in a subtle manner. An APT attack is likely to be


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carried out via email attachments containing ransomware, aimed at stealing users' per-sonal data.Trend Micro also pointed out that hackers attack companies' IT systems through their leaders' accounts that were previously hacked. The accounts, therefore, should be up-graded and set up with security software, the company recommended, adding that it is necessary to tighten security for financial transactions.Various enterprises have fallen prey to cyber criminals' Business Email Compromise scams, which focus on the finance and commerce sectors.A research group of Trend Micro highlighted that Vietnam is listed among the top 10 countries in the world affected by ransomware targeting internet banking activities.Statistics from Trend Micro indicate that cyber criminals have been strengthening their cyber attacks, using ransomware with numerous variables and different scams in the first few months of 2018. The company said that ransomware attacks in Vietnam ac-count for 8 percent of the global total.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61703/cyber-attacks-target-accounts-of-enterprise-leaders.html

HCM City wants joint scheme with ministry to build Ring Road 3


The HCM City government has proposed a joint scheme with the Ministry of Trans-port to finance Ring Road No. 3, which will connect the city with neighbouring prov-inces, according to the municipal Department of Transport.In particular, the transport ministry will call for investment capital for sections located in the provinces and bridges linking to HCM City, while the city will be in charge of tapping the municipal budget or other sources under the private-public partnership (PPP) format for advanced funding to support sections located within the city.The city will then have these funds reimbursed from the central State budget, includ-ing the land fund for the build-transfer project.Ring Road No.3, which stretches nearly 90 kilometers, was designed as a Grade-A ex-pressway, with a allowed maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour. It starts from a section of Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway in Nhon Trach, Dong Nai Province, passes through Binh Duong, HCM City, Long An, and ends in Ben Luc.The project comprises four sections, with section one running from Nhon Trach to Tan Van in Dong Nai Province measuring 34.3 kilometers in length. Although its feasibility study has already been approved by the transport ministry, work on this section has yet to begin; a few obstacles kept it from starting on schedule in 2006.The second section, with a total length of 16.7 kilometers, running from Tan Van in Dong Nai to Binh Chuan in Binh Duong Province, has been put into operation. The third section, Binh Chuan-National Highway 22, is 19 kilometers long, while the re-maining National Highway 22-Ben Luc section is 28 kilometers long.The ring road project cost an estimated VND55.8 trillion, or roughly $2.4 billion, ex-cluding costs for overpasses, and was financially backed by the State budget, govern-ment bonds and official development assistance loans.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61686/hcmc-wants-joint-scheme-with-ministry-to-build-ring-road-3.html

Public transport centre seeks to resume minibus service in HCM City


The HCM City Public Passenger Transport Management and Operation centre plans to propose the municipal Department of Transport resume minibus services to trans-port passengers from narrow alleys to wider streets so that they can take buses, stated Tran Chi Trung, director of the centre.On July 31, Trung noted that more than 46 percent of alleys in HCM City are less than six meters wide, with 85 percent of the city residents living in alleys. Therefore, mini-bus lines will help locals commute.If the proposal is approved, the centre will launch 30 minibus lines, comprising 200-250 12-seater minibuses. These vehicles can run on four- to six-metre-wide alleys, will be designed to feature the characteristics of HCM City and will be equipped with spe-


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cial hooters with a lower-pitch honking device.Commuters will have to walk for only 200 meters to catch the minibuses, which will be piloted in Districts 1, 10 and Tan Binh next year if the scheme gets nod.This will mark the second attempt at piloting minibuses in HCM City. In the previous attempt, cooperatives decided not to run the programme due to the small number of passengers and the lack of support policies.In addition, residents preferred to travel by motorcycle owing to the long distances be-tween alleys and bus stations.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61699/public-transport-centre-seeks-to-resume-min-ibus-service-in-hcmc.html

HCM City urges speedier work on bridges to Thu Thiem


The HCM City government has assigned relevant agencies and departments to work with investors to speed up work on Thu Thiem 2 and Thu Thiem 4 bridges, Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper reported.HCM City Chair Nguyen Thanh Phong has given approval to the investor Dai Quang Minh Real Estate Investment Company for an extension of two months to flesh out a plan for building pedestrian bridges spanning the Saigon River under the build-oper-ate (BT) format.To put the pedestrian bridge projects on the fast track, the HCM City chair has as-signed the HCM City Department of Planning and Architecture to support Dai Quang Minh Company in coming up with at least three plans for pedestrian bridge construc-tion.In addition, Phong asked the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to collaborate with relevant agencies to draw up a document proposing an urgent site handover to start Thu Thiem 2 bridge construction as scheduled. The 852-metre-long Thu Thiem 2 Bridge will stretch from the intersection of Le Duan and Dinh Tien Hoang streets to that of Ton Duc Thang and Nguyen Huu Canh streetsall in District 1before passing through Ba Son Shipyard to connect with District 2.The Department of Natural Resources and Environment was required to carry out land valuations for compensation and support the Thu Thiem 2 Bridge project while the Department of Transport is in charge of urging relevant agencies to make sugges-tions for technical design and cost estimates of construction components executed un-der the BT format.As for the project of Thu Thiem 4 Bridge, a 2.16-kilometer bridge expected to connect District 2 and District 7 when in place, the Department of Planning and Investment is responsible for publicising the project, which will be implemented under the public-private partnership (PPP), to attract investors. Investors may register for participation in the project and conducting a pre-feasibility study.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61689/hcmc-urges-speedier-work-on-bridges-to-thu-thiem.html

Vina Chuoi receives funding of more than VND2 billion


Vina Chuoi, a startup specialising in foods and beverages made from bananas, re-ceived funding of VND2.3 billion (US$98,900) from two investors on reality TV show Shark Tank, which was broadcast on the evening of August 1 on the VTV3 channel.Shark Dung Nguyen, investment director and head of the Vietnam and Thailand offic-es of CyberAgent Ventures, Inc., and Shark Viet, chair and general director of Infra-structure Investment and Transportation Construction JSC (Intracom), jointly invested in Vina Chuoi in exchange for a 51 percent stake in the startup, offering to solve its fi-nancial crunch. The investors will consider putting in an additional VND1.3 billion based on the startup's business performance.In addition, Shark Nguyen will assign supervisors to follow up on the operations and expenses of Vina Chuoi. Once the business becomes successful, Shark Dung will hand over complete ownership to founder Pham Nhu Can.Vina Chuoi has two selling points in central District 1 in HCM City and simultaneous-


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ly operates an online business by cooperating with the online food sales channel of Foody. Its revenue in the first half of the year exceeded VND950 million, of which the profit accounted for 47.5%. The company sells some 450 bananas every day.Can has high hopes for his thriving business, stating that the additional funding will help the company open more stores and optimise its food-processing systems, such as frying banana cakes or making banana smoothies. The startup reportedly has its own secrets regarding flour-mixing technique. Its black Siamese bananas are imported from Tien Giang, while the frying machinery was bought overseas.In the same episode of the show, another project, named Tokai, received VND12 bil-lion from Shark Viet in exchange for a 51 percent stake. The startup will offer houses on lease and exploit abandoned houses, also known as "ghost houses," in Japan.Tokai founder Ha Canh targeted VND15 billion in revenue in the first year of opera-tions, VND28 billion in the second year and VND46 billion in the third. She noted that in the first four years of business, Tokai will offer 70 rental houses to Vietnamese peo-ple travelling to Japan, adding that she expected the annual profit to reach 25%.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61707/vina-chuoi-receives-funding-of-more-than-vnd2 billion.html

Indonesian ride-hailing Go-Jek extends testing services in Vietnam


After the testing, Go-Viet is scheduled to launch officially on September 5 in Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and other provinces/cities in Vietnam.Indonesian ride-hailing Go-Jek, through its local brand Go-Viet, extended its testing services to 12 districts of HCM City on August 1, local media reported.On July 18, Go-Jek implemented a five-day tests for two of its services, Go-Bike and Go-Send in some districts of the city.After the testing, Go-Viet is scheduled to launch officially on September 5 in Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and other provinces/cities in Vietnam.Go-Jek is expected to be a direct competitor to Grab, which has raised concern over its alleged monopoly status in Southeast Asia's ride-hailing market following its acquisi-tion of Uber's operation in the region on March 26.Go-Jek's strategy is to combine the world-class technology developed by Go-Jek, with the in-depth market knowledge and expertise of the local teams, to create local busi-nesses that really understand consumers, Go-Jek CEO and founder Nadiem Makarim told Nikkei.According to Nguyen Vu Duc, CEO and co-founder of Go Viet, the company is expect-ed to meet the travel demand of the Vietnamese customers and provide a stable in-come for tens of thousands of drivers in the local market through advanced technology, which is tailor-made for the Vietnam's market.With the aim of becoming the largest multi-service platform in Vietnam, Go-Viet will start with the service of transport and goods delivery first, then food delivery, e-pay-ment and other services, Duc added.In May, Go-Jek announced its decision to invest about $500 million to move into four new markets in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.The company is expected to provide technological support and expertise to local founding teams in each of the four markets, while those local companies would deter-mine their own brands and identities.The company's services are used in 50 cities across Indonesia and it is backed by well-known investors like Singapore's Temasek Holdings and Chinese tech giant Tencent.http://www.hanoitimes.vn/economy/2018/08/81E0CAC4/indonesian-ride-hailing-go-jek-extends-testing-services-in-vietnam/

Airbus backs Vietnam's space industry development


Airbus will work with Vietnam to develop the country's space sector following a re-cent letter of intent inked between the company and the Ministry of Science and Tech-nology.Potential areas of bilateral collaboration included the exchange of information on is-


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sues related to Earth observation, organising and participating in scientific and tech-nological events, and research into satellite technology, Airbus said in a statement."Airbus and Vietnam are already partners via the VNREDSat-1 satellite. This agree-ment will allow us to continue working together on topics related to Earth observation and satellite technology, helping to strengthen our close relationship," said Nicolas Chamussy, head of Airbus Space Systems.In 2010, Airbus won a contract to develop, manufacture and launch Vietnam's first Earth observation satellite. The VNREDSat-1 was successfully launched in May 2013, enabling the country to better monitor and study the effects of climate change, predict and take measures to prevent natural disasters, and optimise the management of its natural resources.The European manufacturer is also developing its industrial presence in the country, where several local firms supply aerostructures and components across the Airbus civ-il aircraft product line. This helps generate full-time employment for 550 highly skilled Vietnamese workers.In education, the company is supporting the development of two new degree pro-grammes at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi, helping Vietnam meet its growing requirements for aerospace engineers and professionals.http://bizhub.vn/news/airbus-backs-viet-nams-space-industry-development_297489.html

Origin scandal undoes consumer trust in Con Cung

03/AUG/2018 INTELLASIA| VIR

Con Cung JSC is set to be sued by one of its customers due to alleged evidence of false advertising of their products, as the domestic retailer of maternal and baby products, with DAIWA-SSIAM Vietnam Growth Fund II being the largest shareholder, is in the midst of a scandal concerning its product origin.In a scenario similar to Khaisilk's, a once iconic domestic silk brand, consumers in Vi-etnam are calling for Con Cung, which specialises in importing Thai products and dis-tribute them in Vietnam, to be investigated to determine where its products truly originate. Khaisilk, accused of using Chinese materials in its products, contrary to its commitment to using domestic silk, has experienced a severe impact on its reputation. As a result, a number of Khaisilk stores in Hanoi and HCM City were closed without a timeline to open again.On May 22, after buying seven baby products in a Con Cung store in HCM City's Tan Binh district, Truong Dinh Cong Vinh discovered that an original tag of the VND329,000 ($14.50) pink suit coded CF-G127011 was removed and replaced by a CF (Con Cung Fashion) tag indicating "Made in Thailand".Vinh called for the firm to clarify the issue, but instead of clearly explaining the origin of the items, Con Cung apologised and gave him a VND1 million ($44.24) voucher. Due to his dissatisfaction in the firm's handling of the issue, Vinh sent a letter of com-plaint to the Vietnam Competition Authority."I do not mind the firm's apologies and compensation," said Vinh. "I just want the firm to clarify the issue related to the quality of the goods and the legal documents to prove the word 'quality', as is the firm's commitment."On the evening of July 26, Con Cung released a statement detailing information related to the origin of the CF-G127011 product. This information included bills, the process used in offering the product to the market, and a letter which confirmed the manufac-turer's mistake in tags placed on the product batch.Con Cung made no mention of its other products which have been confiscated by the local authorities.Nguyen Duy Hung, CEO of SSI Asset Management (SIAM), the largest shareholder in Con Cung, expressed his opinion about Con Cung's products, saying, "Goods with re-placed tags are fake goods. Consumers buying fake goods is unacceptable," Hung posted on his Facebook account. "The only way to resolve the problem is for Con Cung to make public all its steps before offering its goods on the market."Since receiving the March 2017 investment from DAIWA-SSIAM Vietnam Growth


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Fund II, a joint-venture fund between Japan-based Daiwa Securities Corporation and Vietnam's SSI Asset Management Limited (SSIAM), Con Cung has developed rapidly, opening 130 stores within the last year. Currently, the total number of Con Cung stores across the country is 346.Over the past few days, Con Cung's Facebook page has recorded many comments re-lated to the belief in product safety. The majority of them expressed disappointment with Con Cung, as well as worry that the products will negatively affect people's chil-dren in some ways.Hong Nguyen commented, "Con Cung's goods are expensive. I've bought lots of stuff for the coming baby. Currently, I'm furious."Phuong Linh followed up by saying, "I bought milk for my babies. Right now, Con Cung makes me very worried. Being a mother, I'm very confused."Huynh Loan posted on Con Cung's page, "I have bought only Con Cung stuff for my two kids for over six years. An issue like that leaves me with no safe options."On July 24, deputy minister of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An signed decision No.2611/QD-BCT to establish an inspection team to investigate all Con Cung stores across the country. This came after the Market Management Department's preliminary inspection of some of its stores in Hanoi and HCM City over the previous few days.The inspection will last for 10 days from the time it was signed and applies to Con Cung's business activities since January 2017.Previously, the HCM City Market Management Department had inspected 70 Con Cung stores in the second city and confiscated over 5,000 products worth VND500 mil-lion ($22,123) in order to ascertain their origin. The department's inspection results will soon be released.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/206240/origin-scandal-undoes-consumer-trust-in-con-cung.html

VND4.1bn tax arrears bill for man profiting from online business


Nguyen Nam Binh, vice head of HCM City Department of Taxation, said on August 1 that they had collected VND4.1bn (USD164,000) in tax arrears and fines from a local man that earned VND41bn from Facebook and Google ads.The man is a programmer whose game has been viewed and downloaded on Face-book, Google and YouTube. He earned over VND41bn (USD1.6m) from ads in 2016 and 2017 but didn't make any declarations or pay taxes.He promised to VND3bn in tax arrears and a VND1.1bn (USD44,000) administrative fine. The tax arrears were detected when the Department of Taxation ordered banks to check on incomes from Google, Facebook and YouTube that haven't deduced taxes. Binh said they would continue checking other cases of huge online incomes.Another individual in HCM City also earned VND30bn online but hasn't paid taxes. The Department of Taxation said he was no longer living at the HCM City address so the case was transferred to the Department of Taxation in Quang Nam where the indi-vidual originally came from.Binh said the Law on Tax Administration required all businesspeople to pay tax. He went on to say that both Facebook, Google, YouTube as well as local individuals and firms that use the services hadn't fully complied with the tax regulations.The authorities will zero in on Facebook accounts that are the most active and have large incomes. Those who earn less than VND100m (USD4,400) a year online must pay a business licence tax. Those with over VND100m of annual incomes must pay addi-tional VAT and personal income tax.According to the Department of Taxation, Facebook, Google and YouTube incomes at four banks are in the range of VND500bn (USD20m).Last year, the Taxation Department has collected VND9.1bn (USD400,100) in tax ar-rears from a Facebook account that sells cosmetics online.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/206210/vnd4-1bn-tax-arrears-bill-for-man-profiting-from-online-business.html


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Imported Ford Ranger recalled for fixing faulty


The Vietnam Register (VR) has announced a large-scale recall of more than 2,500 im-ported Ford Rangers to check and fix faulty gearshift cables.All Ford Rangers manufactured by Thailand's Auto Alliance Co., Ltd with 2.2l engines and MT gearboxes produced in 2015 are being recalled.VR said that on some affected cars, the gear shift cable could move out of position and hit the propeller shaft which damaged the cables, resulting in a hard gear shift or loss of drive.Customers should bring their cars to Ford dealerships to check and fix the error. The free repair work would take an estimated two hours.Ford Rangers used to be the best selling pick-ups in the country, but are now facing import difficulties due to requirements of the government's Decree 116/2017/ND-CP, that stipulates the conditions for production, assembly, import and business of auto-mobile warranty and maintenance services issued on October 17 last year.In the second half of this year, only a small number of the vehicles are expected to be put on the Vietnamese market. The Ranger 2.0 will be released at the end of this year.http://bizhub.vn/wheels/imported-ford-ranger-recalled-for-fixing-faulty_297492.html

CapitaLand Vietnam organises picnic for underprivileged children


CapitaLand Vietnam organised a picnic at Dam Sen Water Park on July 31 for 70 street children from the Rosary Centre, a local charity that supports underprivileged chil-dren in HCM City.CapitaLand Vietnam carried out this activity for the children to enjoy a fun day out-doors before they began their evening school term.These children, who are mostly orphans and from poor families, are considered one of the most underprivileged in Vietnam. Leading their lives in harsh conditions, these children have to work extra hard to support themselves and, in many cases, their par-ents or relatives too. While other children at their age enjoy food and toys, these chil-dren must work for their basic needs by selling lottery tickets and balloons, and collecting bottles and cans."Everyone deserves some fun and I am glad that we brought joy and smiles to the faces of these precocious children as they enjoyed simple fun-filled activities such as out-door games and swimming at the water park," Chen Lian Pang, CEO of CapitaLand Vietnam said.Besides sponsoring the park entry fees for the children and caretakers of the Rosary Centre, CapitaLand Vietnam sponsored breakfast and lunch as well as a goodie bag containing daily necessities such as notebooks, rice, instant noodles, cakes and milk for the children to enjoy with their families.CapitaLand Vietnam has been actively involved in helping the community, and organ-ising this picnic for the children of the Rosary Centre in HCM City is just one of Capi-taLand Vietnam's CSR activities.CapitaLand has now built three CapitaLand Hope Schools in Vietnam that provide quality education to about 650 underprivileged students each year, in Phu Tho, Long An and Hung Yen provinces. Other CSR initiatives include blood donation drives, first-aid training, books donation and festive activities for underprivileged children.As a group, CapitaLand contributes up to 0.5 percent of its net operating profit annu-ally to the CapitaLand Hope Foundation, its philanthropic arm, to promote the social growth and development of underprivileged children with respect to their education, healthcare and shelter needs.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/61682/capitaland-vietnam-organises-picnic-for-un-derprivileged-children.html

Vietbuild expo opens in Can Tho City


The Vietbuild Can Tho 2018 International Exhibition, a showcase for domestic and for-eign construction businesses, opened its doors on August 2 in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.


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According to the organisers, this year's exhibition features more than 200 companies operating in the fields of construction and interior and exterior design. Among the par-ticipants are 178 domestic businesses, 29 joint ventures and foreign groups from the US, Germany, the UK, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and China.On show are a range of products such as building materials, home decor, paint, solar energy and water treatment machines. The event is also showcasing green materials for buildings in the Mekong Delta.Speaking at the opening ceremony, Nguyen Tran Nam, chair of the Vietnam Real Es-tate Association, said Vietbuild Can Tho 2018 provided opportunities for entrepre-neurs, architects, construction contractors, real estate trading floors and homebuyers.Vietbuild Can Tho 2018 will also feature a workshop on environmental protection in cement production and a business forum.The exhibition will run until August 6 at Can Tho International Exhibition Fair Centre.http://bizhub.vn/news/vietbuild-expo-opens-in-can-tho-city_297490.html

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