270717Intellasia Finance Vietnam - HKBAV...HCM City, Lotte Group ink deal to build Thu Thiem Eco...

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27 July 2017 Intellasia No. 21, lane 173/63/17, Ngoc Ha Ward, Ba Dinh Dist, Hanoi © All Rights Reserved Tel: +844 2213 2244 Fax: +844 3759 2034 Email: [email protected] Websites: www.Intellasia.Net www.TriTueAChau.com finance & business news FINANCE Reference exchange rate down 3 VND 27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETBAO The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) announced the daily reference exchange rate for VND/ USD on July 27th 2017 at 22,430 VND per USD, down by 3 VND compared to July 26th 2017. FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Reference exchange rate down 3 VND 1 Overnight and 1-week interbank rates fall to below 1pct due to abundant liquidity 2 Project on credit institution restructuring gets PM's approval 2 Experts discuss VN's financial security 3 How many banks are paying employees more than 20m dong per month? 3 Vietnam expects stronger auditing cooperation with Japan 4 S Korean banks to expand in VN 5 NCB becomes first commercial bank to report losses in Q2/2017 6 BIDV reports 24pct growth in H1 operating income 6 Sacombank achieves $19 million pre-tax profit in H1 7 VIB opens new branches nation-wide 7 ABAC meeting looks into finance, business development issues 8 Agro-forestry-aquatic exports hit 20.45 billion USD in 7 months 8 Vietnam sees feasible 3 billion USD export of fruits, vegetables 9 Vietnam gets $145 billion from 30 years of oil export 10 Exports to Laos see upturn trend 10 EVFTA boosts export-import opportunities between Vietnam and Italy 10 MoIT to auction duty quota for sugar import 11 Finance Ministry refuses to cut coal import tax 12 Ministry gives more information about public investment disbursement 12 PM criticises 13 provincial leaders and ministers for slow disbursement 13 Private capital in healthcare sector helps ease city's budget constraints 13 BSC lowers outlook for oil and gas industry in Q3/2017 14 Government refuses to budge on tight aviation rules 15 Mekong Delta authorities warn about excessive rice stock 16 Real estate inventories drop slightly 16 Vietnamese hospitality wins big 17 FIEs' ups and downs affect Vietnam's economic index 17 VN leatherware makers make a mark 18 Vietnam accounts for about 10pct in Southeast Asia's online travel market 19 Vietnamese firms embrace telework trend 20 Products for mothers and children worth $7 billion, but consumers prefer imports 21 What do real estate billionaires contribute to the economy? 22 Vietnam wishes to further trade ties with Paraguay 22 Indonesian embassy promotes palm oil, paper trade with Vietnam 23 Vietnam-Australia rice cooperation in fine shape 23 Ontario premier to lead 1st ever trade mission to Vietnam 24 PM asks Ha Tinh to become major industrial centre 24 BIZ NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Business Briefs July 27, 2017 25 Market strongly recovers 26 Large-cap stocks lift VN market again 26 Main indexes close higher 27 Foreign currency strongly flows into the market in H2 27 What can be seen through foreign investors' trading on Vietnam's stock market in H1? 28 50 listed firms win best annual report awards 30 Vietnam Azalea Fund sells 75pct of Loc Troi holding 30 Seagoing vessels to be inspected for safety worldwide 31 Vietnam's growing demand for US property 31 HCM City to upgrade downtown sewer system 32 HCM City, Lotte Group ink deal to build Thu Thiem Eco Smart City 32 Lam Dong licenses 10 adventure tour operators 33 Leading US spider silk developer expands footprint into Vietnam 33 Three foreign firms to invest in Hanoi's urban railway network 34 Dragon Capital mulls solar power project in Can Tho 34 Long Thanh Airport lotus design criticised for high cost 35 SBT and BHS merge to compete with Thai sugar 35 Financing issue delays Long Son petrochemical project 36 Internet of Things hackathon to award VND600 million in prizes 37 TTC Sugar receives EU organic certification 37 VNA to operate from Singapore Changi Airport T4 38 HK financial group invests in low-cost multiplexes 38 Bitexco steadfast in pursuing $1.35 billion urban project 39 3 reasons why telco giant Viettel's global expansion is booming 39 LG Electronics gets preferential customs 40 RoK firm seeks investment opportunities in Hau Giang 41 HSBC suffers $75,000 loss due to loose management of staff 41 JW Marriott Hanoi named Vietnam's top ten 5-star hotels 42 International farm, food and agricultural machinery expos open in HCM City 42 Vietnam attends international gifts fair in Singapore 43 HCM City to host export markets forum 43 Urban farming expo opens in HCM City 44 Samsung Sourcing Fair 2017: more opportunities for local firms 44 Taiwan Excellence side by side with IoT revolution at Taiwan Expo 2017 45 VietnamJapan Cultural Exchange Festival in Da Nang on way 46 FINANCE

Transcript of 270717Intellasia Finance Vietnam - HKBAV...HCM City, Lotte Group ink deal to build Thu Thiem Eco...

Page 1: 270717Intellasia Finance Vietnam - HKBAV...HCM City, Lotte Group ink deal to build Thu Thiem Eco Smart City 32 Lam Dong licenses 10 adventure tour operators 33 Leading US spider silk

27 July 2017

finance & business news

FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Reference exchange rate down 3 VND 1Overnight and 1-week interbank rates fall to below 1pct due to

abundant liquidity 2Project on credit institution restructuring gets PM's approval 2Experts discuss VN's financial security 3How many banks are paying employees more than 20m

dong per month? 3Vietnam expects stronger auditing cooperation with Japan 4S Korean banks to expand in VN 5NCB becomes first commercial bank to report losses in Q2/2017 6BIDV reports 24pct growth in H1 operating income 6Sacombank achieves $19 million pre-tax profit in H1 7VIB opens new branches nation-wide 7ABAC meeting looks into finance, business development issues 8Agro-forestry-aquatic exports hit 20.45 billion USD in 7 months 8Vietnam sees feasible 3 billion USD export of fruits, vegetables 9Vietnam gets $145 billion from 30 years of oil export 10Exports to Laos see upturn trend 10EVFTA boosts export-import opportunities between

Vietnam and Italy 10MoIT to auction duty quota for sugar import 11Finance Ministry refuses to cut coal import tax 12Ministry gives more information about public investment

disbursement 12PM criticises 13 provincial leaders and ministers for slow

disbursement 13Private capital in healthcare sector helps ease city's budget

constraints 13BSC lowers outlook for oil and gas industry in Q3/2017 14Government refuses to budge on tight aviation rules 15Mekong Delta authorities warn about excessive rice stock 16Real estate inventories drop slightly 16Vietnamese hospitality wins big 17FIEs' ups and downs affect Vietnam's economic index 17VN leatherware makers make a mark 18Vietnam accounts for about 10pct in Southeast Asia's

online travel market 19Vietnamese firms embrace telework trend 20Products for mothers and children worth $7 billion,

but consumers prefer imports 21What do real estate billionaires contribute to the economy? 22Vietnam wishes to further trade ties with Paraguay 22Indonesian embassy promotes palm oil, paper trade

with Vietnam 23Vietnam-Australia rice cooperation in fine shape 23Ontario premier to lead 1st ever trade mission to Vietnam 24PM asks Ha Tinh to become major industrial centre 24

BIZ NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Business Briefs July 27, 2017 25Market strongly recovers 26Large-cap stocks lift VN market again 26Main indexes close higher 27Foreign currency strongly flows into the market in H2 27What can be seen through foreign investors' trading

on Vietnam's stock market in H1? 2850 listed firms win best annual report awards 30Vietnam Azalea Fund sells 75pct of Loc Troi holding 30Seagoing vessels to be inspected for safety worldwide 31Vietnam's growing demand for US property 31HCM City to upgrade downtown sewer system 32HCM City, Lotte Group ink deal to build Thu Thiem Eco Smart City 32Lam Dong licenses 10 adventure tour operators 33Leading US spider silk developer expands footprint into Vietnam 33Three foreign firms to invest in Hanoi's urban railway network 34Dragon Capital mulls solar power project in Can Tho 34Long Thanh Airport lotus design criticised for high cost 35SBT and BHS merge to compete with Thai sugar 35Financing issue delays Long Son petrochemical project 36Internet of Things hackathon to award VND600 million in prizes 37TTC Sugar receives EU organic certification 37VNA to operate from Singapore Changi Airport T4 38HK financial group invests in low-cost multiplexes 38Bitexco steadfast in pursuing $1.35 billion urban project 393 reasons why telco giant Viettel's global expansion is booming 39LG Electronics gets preferential customs 40RoK firm seeks investment opportunities in Hau Giang 41HSBC suffers $75,000 loss due to loose management of staff 41JW Marriott Hanoi named Vietnam's top ten 5-star hotels 42International farm, food and agricultural machinery expos

open in HCM City 42Vietnam attends international gifts fair in Singapore 43HCM City to host export markets forum 43Urban farming expo opens in HCM City 44Samsung Sourcing Fair 2017: more opportunities for local firms 44Taiwan Excellence side by side with IoT revolution at

Taiwan Expo 2017 45VietnamJapan Cultural Exchange Festival in Da Nang on way 46

Intellasia Tel: +844 2213 2244

FINANCEReference exchange rate down 3 VND

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETBAO

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) announced the daily reference exchange rate for VND/USD on July 27th 2017 at 22,430 VND per USD, down by 3 VND compared to July 26th 2017.

FINANCE

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

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Vietcombank keeps the rates unchanged at 22,695 VND per USD (buying) and 22,765 VND per USD (selling).BIDV also buys and sells USD at the same rates as the day ago, reaching 22,700 VND (buying) and 22,770 VND (selling) per USD.Vietinbank cut both rates by 10 VND, buying at 22,685 VND per USD and selling at 22,765 VND per USD.Meanwhile, Techcombank offers buying rate at 22,680 VND per USD and selling rate at 22,775 VND per USD, up by 5 VND on buying rate compared to July 26th 2017.

Overnight and 1-week interbank rates fall to below 1pct due to abundant liquidity

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| TRI THUC TRE

As per the weekly monetary market report of SSI Retail Research, in the week until July 21, the interbank interest rates continued to fall deeply, showing abundant liquid-ity.Specifically, overnight interest rates hit 0.7 percent, well below the one percent thresh-old for the first time since November 2016 and were equal to the interest rates in the same period last year. Similarly, one-week, one-month and three-month interest rates were also being traded at 0.8 percent, 2.0 percent and 3.5 percent, the lowest level since early 2017.The signal of good liquidity was also shown by the State Bank's first issuance of Treas-ury bills (T-bills) for the first time after four months. In five consecutive sessions, the State Bank issued 37 trillion dong of 7-day tenor T-bills, which was a large amount of money issued in a short time.In particular, the T-bill interest rate dropped sharply after each session, from 1.3 per-cent on the first day of the week to just 0.5 percent on weekdays. The 0.5 percent level was also much lower than the interest rate in same period of 2016 at 1.5 percent-1.75 percent.

Project on credit institution restructuring gets PM's approval

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

The prime minister has issued Decision 1058/QD-TTg approving a project on restruc-turing the system of credit institutions in combination with settling bad debt for the 2016-2020 period.The project aims to restructure credit institutions and settle bad debt on the principles of ensuring the interests of depositors and maintaining the stability and safety of the banking system, and reduce the number of badly performing credit institutions.Overall solutions include completing the legal framework, perfecting policies and mechanisms related to monetary and banks' operations, improving the financial and business administration capacity of credit institutions, and bettering inspections and supervisions over banks' operations.The project stresses the need to improve the capacity of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to make early warning of systematic risks and to prevent the risk of law viola-tions of credit institutions and foreign banks' branches.Inspection work will be reformed on the basis of using new risk control tools and methods.The project also puts forward orientations and measures to restructure commercial banks in which the State holds more than 50 percent of chartered capital, and improve operations of joint stock commercial banks, financial and financial leasing companies.For bad debt settlement measures, the project asks the SBV, ministries, localities, credit institutions, Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC), and organisations and individuals involved to continue implementing the Decision No.843/QD-TTg on set-tling bad debts of the credit institution system.Credit institutions are required to review the quality and recovery possibility of out-standing debts, while continuing to restructure debts.The SBV, ministries and localities are requested to continue implementing measures related to monetary, credit and banking policies and mechanisms, along with solving difficulties for business and production activities, and stimulating consumption.The SBV needs to intensify inspections and supervisions on credit institutions' observ-ance of rules on credit, safe operation and debt classification, while the VAMC focuses on classifying borrowers, mortgage assets and loans, coordinating closely with credit institutions in taking back and restructuring debts and selling debts and guarantee as-sets, and providing financial assistance for borrowers to recover business and produc-tion and complete unfinished projects.The country's system of credit institutions currently includes State-owned banks, joint

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stock banks, finance companies, financial leasing companies, foreign credit institu-tions, cooperative banks, People's credit funds and microfinance institutions.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/project-on-credit-institution-restructuring-gets-pms-ap-proval/115419.vnp

Experts discuss VN's financial security

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

Ensuring financial security is vital to promote economic growth amid rapid globalisa-tion and economic-financial liberalisation, experts said at a forum organised by the In-stitute for Brand and Competitiveness Strategy in Hanoi yesterday.Financial expert Can Van Luc said that Vietnamese financial markets--which include banking, securities and insurance--developed rapidly from 1990's but lacked structur-al balance in and remained small in scale.He cited end-of-March statistics showing that banking and non-banking assets ac-counted for 72.1 per cent of the financial market, bonds 8.2 per cent, insurance 0.8 per cent and securities 18.9 per cent.The financial market was estimated to be equivalent to 250 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of 2016, which is low compared to countries such as Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and China.In addition, Vietnam faces fiscal risks, including rapid increases in public debt to GDP ratio (from 41.6 per cent in 2006 to 63.7 per cent in 2016) and a high budget deficit.Luc said that the Vietnamese commercial bank capital adequacy ratio (CAR)--the ratio of a bank's capital to its risk--is estimated at 11 per cent, still low in the context of quite high credit growth (at around 17-18 per cent per year).Luc said that Vietnam should hasten the restructuring of the State budget, public in-vestment, management of public debt, the restructuring of credit institutions and han-dling of bad debts to mitigate risks.Attention should also be paid to technology-related risks as digital finance and block-chain emerge as new trends, Luc said.Expert Nguyen Dai Lai said that the implementation of Basel 2 in Vietnam remains slow. It will be piloted at 10 commercial banks until 2020 before being applied to the whole system. Meanwhile, many countries move toward Basel 3, instead.Consolidating the risk management system within the commercial bank system is ur-gent not only to successfully carry out Basel 2 but also to develop sustainably, Lai said.According to Nguyen Duc Do, deputy director of the Financial Economic Institute, in the condition of high public debt and bad debt, high interest rates and low inflation are the two biggest risks to financial security of Vietnam because it might undermine the debt payment capacity of both the government and enterprises, resulting in cuts in in-vestment and slow economic growth.Duong Thu Ngoc, a representative from the Department of Monetary and Financial Security under the Ministry of Public Security, said that insider trading and rumours also pose significant financial security threats.Ngoc said these violations happen due to an incomplete legal framework with a lack of deterrent punishments, in addition to weak financial supervisory capacities and un-healthy competition.According to Pham Tuan Anh from the University of Commerce, Vietnamese firms must attach special importance to financial risk management, which is critical to firm's operation efficiency and sustainable development.Enhancing risk management capacity is critical to improving their competitiveness, Tuan Anh said.http://bizhub.vn/banking/experts-discuss-vns-financial-security_287836.html

How many banks are paying employees more than 20m dong per month?

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| NDH

After the first half of the fiscal year, a series of banks, especially small ones, have an-nounced profit results with very strong growth.Some banks such as Sacombank, Eximbank or NCB still have certain difficulties but their business results have improved a lot compared to the same period last year.

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Along with the strong growth in profit, these banks also paid higher salary and bonus-es to their employees.Accordingly, as per the statistics from eight banks that have announced consolidated financial statement in Q2/2017, at present, the average salary of employees in these units have increased compared to the first six months of 2016.The average monthly salary increase of Vietcombank, BIDV and NCB's employees is the highest, reaching four million dong per month. Meanwhile, employees in remain-ing banks have their salaries to be adjusted up by an average of 1-3 million dong per month.Vietcombank, BIDV are still the banks that pay the largest salary and allowance to em-ployees.It January-June, Vietcombank spent as much as 2.494 trillion dong on paying salary and allowance to their employees, up 23 percent year-on-year. On average, each em-ployee at this bank receives 160 million dong in six months, equal to 26.3 million dong per month, up four million dong from the same period last year.As the bank that has the largest number of employees in the group of commercial banks, BIDV has paid the highest salary and allowance for many years now.In the first half of 2017, BIDV continued to be the bank that made the highest salary and allowance payment to employees with 3.501 trillion dong paid to 24,804 employ-ees working. On average, each BIDV staff receives 23.5 million dong salary per month, up nearly four million dong compared to 19.7 million dong in the same period last year.Though it is restructuring following the scheme of the State Bank, Sacombank still pays attention to their employees' income. In January-June, this bank spent as much as 1.601 trillion dong on paying salary and allowance to their employees, up 16 percent year-on-year. On average, each Sacombank employee receives nearly 15 million dong per month, up two million dong.Even, recently, Sacombank Chair Duong Cong Minh and the bank's Board of directors have decided to raise the salary and welfare for more than 17,000 employees across the system since July and made "hot bonus" of one month basic salary to all employees.As a medium-size bank, in the first six months of the year, VIB continued to increase 1.6 million dong of monthly income to their employees to 20.7 million dong per month.More than 4,100 employees in TPBank have also had their average income to increase from 13.6 million dong per month in the first half of the year to 15.7 million dong per month in this year.Meanwhile, in spite of receiving only 12.1 million dong per month, the lowest among banks that published the report, the average income of employees at NCB have im-proved more than four million dong per month compared to the same period last year.NCB is also the bank that has the strongest growth in salary and welfare for their em-ployees in the first six months of 2017, from 55 billion dong in the previous year to 181 billion dong in the first half of this year.

Vietnam expects stronger auditing cooperation with Japan

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

The State Audit Office of Vietnam has proposed its Japanese counterpart share mate-rials for training auditors specialising in information technology, the environment and basic construction, which are the Japanese side's strengths, Vietnamplus news website reports.The proposal was made by Ho Duc Phoc, auditor general of the State Audit Office of Vietnam, while meeting in Hanoi on Monday with Teruhiko Kawato, President of Ja-pan's Board of Audit.Since the audit agencies of the two nations set up ties in 2005, there have been many successful training workshops and meetings between Vietnam and Japan, Phoc said. Thanks to Japan's support, Vietnam will host the 14th Assembly of the Asian Organi-sation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) next year.Phoc expects Japan's Board of Audit will continue to support Vietnam at multilateral international forums.

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In 2016, the State Audit Office of Vietnam did 268 inspections and imposed fines of VND38 trillion on violations of auditing rules. This year, the office has carried out 234 inspections and fines have amounted to VND21 trillion.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/55214/Vietnam-expects-stronger-auditing-coopera-tion-with-Japan.html

S Korean banks to expand in VN

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

In addition to the wave of investments in the banking and finance sector from financial institutions in Japan, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the US, there will be a marked presence of South Korean banks in the Vietnamese market in the near future, observers forecast.The observers, who declined to be named, told Tri thuc tre (Young Intellectual) online newspaper that there could be big deals involving South Korean companies in the fu-ture, following a series of cooperation agreements between South Korean and Viet-namese financial institutions recently.In the middle of July, a major South Korean bank, Daegu, announced that a compre-hensive cooperation agreement had been signed with Vietnam's Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB).Nguyen Dinh Tung, general director of OCB, said Daegu would support OCB in var-ious areas, such as international money transfer, product development, SME services, training exchange programmes on risk management, information technology, and product development in South Korea.Daegu Bank has pledged to provide the best companion programmes to facilitate OCB's growth among the South Korean business community in Vietnam, and to share its experience so that OCB will eventually hold a 50 per cent market share in SME serv-ices in the country.In South Korea, Daegu holds over 50 per cent of the market share in the loans to local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) area.In mid-April, Korea Development Bank (KDB) marked its presence in Vietnam through a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).KDB is the top bank in South Korea in terms of total assets and equity, and ranks 94th in the world. It has a presence in 22 countries.With the State holding around 95 per cent of its charter capital, BIDV, which tops Vi-etnam's commercial banks in total assets, has most room for foreign investors among Vietnam's privatised banks, of up to 30 per cent.Ever since BIDV's shares were listed on the stock market in 2014, its leaders have re-peatedly stated that the bank is looking for foreign strategic partners, and could sell 25 to 30 per cent of its stake. With the cooperation, there is a possibility that the Korean partner may become one of BIDV's strategic shareholders.Besides cooperation agreements, financial institutions from South Korea have also been taking more direct, stronger steps into the Vietnamese financial market.Take the case of Shinhan Bank, which received a licence and became one of the first five banks with 100 per cent foreign capital in Vietnam in 2008.In April this year, Shinhan surpassed its four rivals to acquire the lucrative retail seg-ment of ANZ Vietnam.Previously, after acquiring a 50 per cent stake in Shinhan Vina (a joint venture between the Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam or Vietcombank and Shinhan Bank with 50 per cent stake for both), the bank was renamed Shinhan Bank Vietnam in 2011.ANZ's retail segment serves around 125,000 individual customers in Vietnam and A$320 million in outstanding loans. The handover is underway and expected to be completed before the end of 2017, sources revealed.In November last year, the largest lender by assets in the Republic of Korea Woori Bank also officially set up a wholly foreign-owned bank in Vietnam. The bank's repre-sentatives said that Woori Bank would boost its retail business and target becoming

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the top foreign credit bank in the Vietnamese market.With the advantage of established trade relations, Vietnam's untapped potential and global integration goals will make it an ideal destination for South Korean banks. So Vietnamese banks, though they have been receiving investments, should be well-pre-pared to compete, if they want to survive and grow.While Vietnamese banks are still struggling to lend to FDI firms and have seen very modest results in the area, foreign banks, especially South Korean ones, are showing much stronger initiative in not only providing loans to local enterprises but also to Vi-etnam's huge projects.Most recently, South Korea's Keximbank expressed interest in investing in several metro lines in HCM City and received enthusiastic support from the transport sector. minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia has encouraged Keximbank to invest not only in the metro lines in HCM City, but also in metro projects in Hanoi. In particular, Nghia hopes Keximbank will fund three other transport projects of Tan Van-Nhon Trach, Lo Te-Rach Soi and My Thuan 2 bridge.http://bizhub.vn/banking/s-korean-banks-to-expand-in-vn_287838.html

NCB becomes first commercial bank to report losses in Q2/2017

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNECONOMY

While many commercial banks have announced positive profit growth, the National Citizen Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NCBcoded NVB) reported losses in Q2/2017, ac-cording to the bank's recently released financial statement.In Q2, NCB's income from credit brought about the net profit of more than 245 billion dong. The net interest from investment securities trading reached nearly 50 billion dong. The forex trading also reported more than five billion dong profit.As operating expenses increased more than 16 percent to nearly 230 billion dong, the provisioning cost for credit risk surged 48 percent to more than 37 billion dong, the set-tlements following the bank's restructuring scheme rose 6.4 percent, so NCB reported the pre-tax loss of 3.5 billion dong in Q2/2017higher than the loss in the same period last year.However, in January-June, NCB attained more than eight billion dong profit. This is a relatively modest figure compared to the scale of a bank with the chartered capital of more than three trillion dong.With the 6-month business result, compared to the profit plan of 42 billion dong set for 2017, NCB has completed nearly 20 percent of the year target.As of June 30, 2017, NCB's total assets hit 63.199 trillion dong, down more than eight percent from the beginning of this year. NCB's loans to customers grew 8.8 percent, touching nearly 27.6 trillion dong while customers' deposits swelled 4.4 percent, reach-ing 43.6 trillion dong.As of the end of June 2017, NCB is having more than 608.6 billion dong bad debt, up nearly 62 percent from the beginning of the year. Of which, the irrecoverable debt in-creased more than 50 percent, to 309 billion dong. The non-performing loan (NPL) ra-tio as of the end of February 2017 was 2.21 percent out of the total outstanding loanshigher than the 1.48 percent at the end of 2016.Currently, NVB shares of NCB are being traded on the stock exchange below the par value, at around 7,000 dong per share.

BIDV reports 24pct growth in H1 operating income

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) reported a year-on-year growth of 24 percent in operating income in the first half of 2017.According to the bank's latest financial report for the second quarter of this year, it earned approximately 16.8 trillion VND (739 million USD) in the first six months.Its net profit rose by 37 percent year-on-year to over 14 trillion VND (616.35 million USD), including 1.41 trillion VND (62.04 million USD) in profit from banking services and 303 billion VND (13.33 million USD) in profit from foreign currency activities.The BIDV's pre-tax profit reached 4.05 trillion VND (178.2 million USD), up 24.7 per-cent year-on-year and representing 54 percent of its yearly target. The pre-tax profit in

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the second quarter saw a significant increase of 49 percent to over 1.99 trillion VND (87.56 million USD).As of June 30, the bank's total asset amounted to more than 1,100 trillion VND (48.4 billion USD), an expansion of 9.3 percent from the beginning of this year. It has pro-vided over 807.3 trillion VND (35.52 billion USD) in loans, up 11.56 percent and kept the bad debt at around 1.9 percent.The bank has mobilised over 1,026 trillion VND (54.14 billion USD) in capital, includ-ing more than 811.5 trillion VND (35.7 billion USD) in deposits, up 11.8 percent from the beginning of this year.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/bidv-reports-24-percent-growth-in-h1-operating-income/115433.vnp

Sacombank achieves $19 million pre-tax profit in H1

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) reported pre-tax profit of VND428 billion (US$18.9 million) in the first half of 2017, a year-on-year increase of 70.4 per cent.Total assets of Sacombank reached some VND352.7 trillion, up 7.1 per cent compared with the beginning of the year.Consumer loans and capital mobilised from economic organisations and individuals reached nearly VND212.5 trillion and VND317.5 trillion, up 10.1 per cent and 9.7 per cent, respectively, from the beginning of the year.In addition, other activities also resulted in positive business performance of the bank. In particular, services revenue showed outstanding growth of VND727 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.3 per cent, accounting for 23.4 per cent of total revenue. In the first six months of this year, Sacombank handled bad debts worth VND845 billion.Sacombank will focus on restructuring and is committed to handle VND20 trillion of bad debts until the end of 2017, Duong Cong Minh, chair of Sacombank's board of di-rectors, said.Minh also shared the bank's orientation in the implementation of the restructuring, in-cluding organisational and labour force restructuring with stability as the main aim; focusing on business development on the basis of promoting Sacombank's strengths in network, people, brands, products and business strategies; and rearranging the oper-ation of the transaction network and subsidiaries.At the end of June, Sacombank held its annual shareholder meeting, during which Duong Cong Minh was appointed new chair and Nguyen Duc Thach Diem was made acting general director afterwards.http://bizhub.vn/banking/sacombank-achieves-19 million-pre-tax-profit-in-h1_287795.html

VIB opens new branches nation-wide

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

Vietnam International Bank (VIB) has opened three new branches in the cities of Hue and Can Tho and the Binh Duong Province to expand its business operations nation-wide.The additional branches are eligible to undertake a variety of financial and banking ac-tivities, such as capital mobilisation, lending, payment and others, the bank said in its statement.On the occasion, the bank has launched a gratitude programme in which hundreds of gifts will be offered to customers who make transactions at the new branches.Earlier, VIB also opened more branches to meet customers' increasing demand for fi-nancial services in localities such as Ha Long City, Thai Binh and Vinh Phuc provinces.Over the past six months this year, the bank's total assets witnessed a year-on-year in-crease of 10 per cent to VND115 trillion (over $5 billion).Its credit balance reached VND75.68 trillion during the period, up 15.7 per cent year-on-year, including a lending balance of VND69.2 trillion.Most of the credit growth was contributed by personal loans, which went up by more than 30 per cent, compared with the end of 2016, clearly demonstrating the bank's in-

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tention to focus on the retail segment, VIB said, adding that deposits also saw a yearly growth of 15 per cent.From January to June, the bank's pre-tax profit topped VND380 billion, surging 25 per cent, compared with the same period in 2016, or accounting for 51 per cent of its yearly plan.http://bizhub.vn/banking/vib-opens-new-branches-nation-wide_287817.html

ABAC meeting looks into finance, business development issues

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

Participants in the third meeting of the Apec Business Advisory Council (ABAC III) took part in various roundtable discussions and symposiums on July 25, the event's second working day, focusing on finance and business development in the era of in-novation and digitalisation.Delegations from the 21 Apec economies, including representatives of enterprises, or-ganisations and institutions, shared experience and put forth numerous proposals.Most of them stressed the role of financial resources, public-private partnership and application of digital technologies in supporting business development, promoting in-novation, creativity and trade in goods and services, and investing in long-term infra-structure projects in the future.Speaking at the Apec-Canada Growing Business Partnership Symposium (ABACx), ABAC Vietnam Chair Hoang Van Dung emphasized the massive impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which will generate opportunities for businesses, partic-ularly micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), to engage in global trade, increase their competitiveness, innovate and access markets. The Industry 4.0 will also help them optimise comparative advantages, deal with trade barriers and produce goods at lower expenses.However, there are obstacles hampering MSMEs' access to those chances, he noted.Therefore, ABAC calls for the building of a progressive e-commerce policy framework across the Apec region to boost businesses' access to and application of digital technol-ogies and help them gain comprehensive access to databases in the region and the world.Dung added ABAC also wants to set up programmes on building MSMEs' online and offline e-commerce capacity.At a roundtable discussion on expanding trans-Pacific infrastructure investment op-portunities, participants said many governments are facing financial problems while the infrastructure investment demand is forecast to rise to about 5 trillion USD each year from now to 2030. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates this demand in Asia alone amounts to about 1.7 trillion USD per year. Hence, the private sector will hold an increasing role, helping to meet the infrastructure investment demand.However, to make use of that opportunity, countries, especially the developing ones, will have to handle an array of challenges relating to the public sector's capacity, the bond and insurance markets, investment climate and the ability to pay for infrastruc-ture projects.Donald W. Campbell, Co-Chair of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, said the promotion of long-term infrastructure investment projects through cooperation and creativity is necessary to facilitate the flow of investment capital. It needs the partici-pation of governments, multilateral development banks, private investors and finan-cial institutions.ABAC III is taking place in Canada from July 24 to 28. It is the last meeting before the member economies submit important recommendations to Apec leaders at the Apec Economic Leaders' Meeting, slated for this November in Vietnam.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/abac-meeting-looks-into-finance-business-development-is-sues/115421.vnp

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Agro-forestry-aquatic exports hit 20.45 billion USD in 7 months

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

The export value of agro-forestry-aquatic products reached 20.45 billion USD in the first seven months of this year, up 14.7 percent against the same period last year, re-ported to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.Key farm produce raked in 10.89 billion USD (up 18 percent) while aquatic products earned 4.31 billion USD (up 17.5 percent) and forestry products brought home 4.41 bil-lion USD (up 10.8 percent).Vietnam shipped 3.3 million tonnes of rice worth 1.5 billion USD abroad, up 15.7 per-cent in volume and 13.7 percent in value compared to the Jan-July period of 2016.Meanwhile, coffee and cashew nut exports maintained stable growth in the period thanks to higher prices. The country earned 2.12 billion USD from exporting 937,000 tonnes of coffee and 1.83 billion USD from shipping 186,000 tonnes of cashew nuts.Vegetable and fruit exports witnessed a year-on-year rise of 50 percent in export value to 2.03 billion USD in the reviewed period.The export value of rubber also recorded a strong surge, reaching 1.13 billion USD, 59 percent higher than that in the same period last year.Meanwhile, pepper export turnover suffered an 18 percent fall to 800 million USD due to a 30 percent drop in priceshttp://en.vietnamplus.vn/agroforestryaquatic-exports-hit-2045 billion-usd-in-7-months/115447.vnp

Vietnam sees feasible 3 billion USD export of fruits, vegetables

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

Vietnam's vegetables and fruits by mid-July continued to enjoy a rosy export growth, boding well for the export revenue of 3 billion USD for the whole year as forecast.Latest statistics from the general Department of Vietnam Customs showed that the country pocketed nearly 1.85 billion USD from vegetable and fruit export from the be-ginning of this year to July 15, surging by 45 percent from the same time last year.In addition, consumers' demand for Vietnamese vegetables and fruits will be higher during the Christmas and New Year holidays, auguring well for the country's export revenue goal.Vietnamese vegetables and fruits have been present in 60 markets globally. China, Ja-pan, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and the US were four leading importers, accounting for 85 percent of total vegetable and fruit export value.Shipments to traditional markets witnessed good expansion, including Japan (56 per-cent), China (50 percent), the US (23 percent), the RoK (15 percent) and Thailand (12 percent). Meanwhile, substantial growth was seen in Hong Kong (102 percent), the United Arab Emirates (81 percent), Laos (78.6 percent) and Russia (54.6 percent).However, export revenue suffered stark decline in Cambodia (81.8 percent), Indonesia (53 percent) and the UK (42 percent).Dragon fruit ranked first in export value, accounting for 50 percent of the total fruit ex-port revenue. Binh Thuan province, the country's largest dragon fruit exporter, has paid heed to developing VietGAP dragon fruit cultivation. Nearly 7,700 hectares of land were zoned off for growing dragon fruit in line with VietGAP standards for ex-ports to fastidious markets like the US and the EU.Mangos, litchis and longans are also Vietnam's strategic staples.The Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Devel-opment is making a beeline for bringing litchis to Japan. It will continue negotiations and complete procedures to ship longans to Australia and New Zealand.As the largest litchi growing area, Bac Giang province has exported 15,000 tonnes of litchis to China through three border gates of Lang Son, Lao Cai and Ha Giang. Anoth-er 13 tonnes have just been shipped to Australia while a batch of litchis has entered Thailand, opening big opportunities for the Vietnamese fruit.The first batch of 3.5 tonnes of mangoes from northern Son La province underwent ir-radiation treatment for shipment to Australia. The mangoes, weighing 450-650 grammes each, were purchased by Agricare Vietnam Co., Ltd at the price of 22,000 VND (0.9 USD) per kilogramme.

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According to Lo Minh Hung, vice Chair of the provincial People's Committee, the province has a plan to develop fruit tree cultivation, especially mangoes. Currently, it has some 4,000 hectares of mangoes with total productivity of over 3,000 tonnes.By 2030, 100,000 hectares will be used to grow fruit trees, half of which will be set aside for mango plantation, he added.Le Son Ha from the Plant Protection Department said that mango export to Australia will pave the way for the fruit to enter many new markets. The US, the EU, Japan, the RoK and Australia are prioritised markets for trade promotion, he stressed.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-sees-feasible-3 billion-usd-export-of-fruits-vegeta-bles/115420.vnp

Vietnam gets $145 billion from 30 years of oil export

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

Vietnam has since 1987 exported 355 million tonnes of crude oil worth a total of $145 billion, said Nguyen Sinh Khang, deputy general director of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN).Crude oil output is projected to fall in the near future as Bach Ho, the country's biggest offshore oil field with reserves estimated at 300 million tonnes, has been pumping less oil.In the past seven years Bach Ho field off the coast of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province has been responsible for 100 percent of the crude needs of Dung Quat Oil Refinery in Quang Ngai Province. But it can now meet only 58 percent.Bach Ho has been the key source of revenue for PVN although the State-owned firm has been tapping a couple of oil fields.Vietnam has over the years relied heavily on exploitation of natural resources, espe-cially crude oil, to fuel economic growth. Crude oil contributed 20 percent to the coun-try's gross domestic product (GDP) in the years before 2000 but the percentage dipped to 11 percent in the 2010s and is now a mere 5.6 percent given a steady fall in oil prices and extraction.Dung Quat refinery is able to refine crude oil from different fields such as Azeri in Az-erbaijan, Escravos and Bonny Light in Nigeria, and White Rhinoceros, Black Lion and Magpie in Vietnam, instead of only Bach Ho, to deal with future oil shortages.The refinery can process seven million barrels of 57 different types of crude, up from 2.5 million barrels a day.In the first half of the year, PVN sold 7.48 million tonnes of crude oil out of 13.28 mil-lion tonnes pumped from its operational fields. The crude oil export price may go down from $54.6 a barrel in the first six months to $40-50 in the second half.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/182690/vietnam-gets-us-145 billion-from-30-years-of-oil-export.html

Exports to Laos see upturn trend

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV

Exports to Laos reached $264.7 million in the first half of this year, rising by 13.29 per-cent against the same period last year, according to latest statistics from the general Department of Vietnam Customs.Vietnam's key export items to Laos are petroleum, steel, means of transport and ferti-lisers. Among them, coal saw a skyrocketed growth of more than 16 folds to 50,300 tonnes valued at $4.2 million.Petroleum topped exported products with $50.9 million (up 67.93 percent), trailed by steel with $38 million (down 15.2 percent) and transportation means and tools with $24.6 million (up 9.02 percent).In the period, 52.9 percent of exported products to Laos enjoyed a growth, especially fertilisers (up 94.92 percent), fruits and vegetables (up 78.6 percent) and plastic prod-ucts (up 78.4 percent).http://english.vov.vn/trade/exports-to-laos-see-upturn-trend-355338.vov

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EVFTA boosts export-import opportunities between Vietnam and Italy

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (ICHAM) and Associazione Italiana Commercio Estero (AICE) jointly held a workshop on July 25 to promote import-ex-port activities between Vietnamese and Italian enterprises ahead of the landmark en-forcement of the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)Themed "Doing business with Italy," the event also helped Vietnamese enterprises un-derstand Italian consumption trends, provided information about export-import ac-tivities between the two countries, as well as held trade and investment promotion programmes."Trade between Vietnam and Italy hit over $4 billion in 2016. The countries have op-portunities to further increase the figure, especially as the EVFTA is expected to take effect in early 2018," said Natalia Sanginiti, vice Ambassador of the Italian Embassy in Hanoi.At present, many Vietnamese and Italian enterprises want to boost export-import ac-tivities to meet their demands.According to David Doninotti, secretary general of AICE, with a population of 60.7 million people and GDP growth of $1.85 trillion in 2016, Italy is a potential export and import market for Vietnam.Italy was the world's ninth major exporter, with an export turnover of euro 417.1 bil-lion ($486 billion) in 2016 and the world's 13th major importer with a value of euro 365.5 billion ($425.9 billion) last year.Italy exports machinery, luxury goods, processed food, car engines, shoes and fashion items, while it imports industrial machinery, chemicals, oil, metals, agricultural prod-ucts, and transportation vehicles.Currently, Vietnam is Italy's 15th largest importer and 19th among Italy's export mar-kets.After the 2008 world crisis, the Italian demand for goods has been showing signs of re-covery. Thus, there are more opportunities for Vietnamese firms to export goods to the market.Vietnam is also an attractive market for Italian firms thanks to a growing population, growing technology demand from the industrial sector, steady economic growth, and the EVFTA, said Doninotti.The EVFTA will bring benefits to the two countries' enterprises thanks to the removal of technical barriers to trade, customs and trade facilitation efforts, recognition of san-itary and phytosanitary measures for food, and rules of origin for products made in the EU or Vietnam, among others.For example, almost all EU exports of machinery and appliances will be fully liberal-ised from duties, while around half of EU pharmaceutical exports will be duty free as soon as the FTA enters into force and the rest after seven years.Pham Hoang Hai, ICHAM executive director, said that machinery and pharmaceutical products will be among the major export items to Vietnam in the near future.As planned, ICHAM will organise a similar event in HCM City on July 27.http://www.vir.com.vn/evfta-boosts-export-import-opportunities-between-vietnam-and-italy-50906.html

MoIT to auction duty quota for sugar import

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will hold bids on the right to use duty quo-ta to import 89,500 tonnes of sugar this year.The bidding will take place at 9am in the ministry's meeting room on 23 Ngo Quyen Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi on August 23.The volume includes 44,000 tonnes of raw sugar and 45,500 tonnes of refined sugar.As per a ministry circular on managing import tariff quota for sugar this year, bidders can include traders who supply sugar for food manufacturing and traders supplying raw sugar for the production of refined sugar.The reference price for raw and refined sugar is the same, at VND1.4 million (US$61.5) per tonne.

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The ministry started accepting bidding registrations on Tuesday and will do so till Au-gust 16.This is the second time that the MoIT will auction the use of duty quota to import sug-ar, and follows the Vietnam Sugarcane Association's repeated proposal over the years to open tender instead of assigning it.An auction was held for the first time in September 2016 for duty quota to import 85,000 tonnes of raw and refined sugar. Eleven businesses had won the tender.http://bizhub.vn/news/moit-to-auction-duty-quota-for-sugar-import_287853.html

Finance Ministry refuses to cut coal import tax

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

The Ministry of Finance has proposed increasing import duty on coal instead of reduc-ing it for the Vietnam National CoalMineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) to cope with difficulties, Vietnamnet news website reports.The ministry has proposed the government increase import duty on coal to 3 percent or 5 percent from the current 0 percent. The volume of coal inventories of the group had reached 9.5 million tonnes by May.In a report on solutions to cut taxes for coal submitted to the prime minister, the min-istry said the current tax range is 10-45 percent. Coal exports are subject to 10-15 per-cent tax, the lowest rate regulated by the National Assembly. In addition, adjusting mineral tariffs is under the jurisdiction of the National Assembly.According to Resolution 1269 on environmental protection tariffs of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, tax rates for lignite, anthracite coal and fat coal are VND10,000, VND20,000 and VND10,000 respectively, a very low rate compared to other countries.Coal is subject to a tax of 10-12 percent compared to the maximum 20 percent as stip-ulated in the Natural Resource Tax Law. The tax rate is appropriate to help protect coal resources and ensure electricity production.According to a coal development plan approved by the prime minister, the industry would reduce coal exports and focus on export of coal for which the nation has little demand. Two million tonnes of coal is expected to be shipped overseas in 2017-2020.According to the general Department of Vietnam Customs, Vinacomin and Dong Bac Co Ltd imported about 2.6 million tonnes of coal in 2016 and more than 55 other enter-prises bought 13.3 million tonnes worth over $900 million from Australia, Russia and Indonesia, among others. However, coal prices have increased again and demand for imported coal has fallen since early this year.The ministry has forecast high demand for imported coal in the near future with 11.7 million tonnes in 2017, 40.2 million tonnes in 2020, 70.3 million tonnes in 2025 and 102 million tonnes in 2030.A report of Vinacomin reveals that 2016 was the most difficult year of the group when the industry had to import 12.6 million tonnes of coal. The group said that tariffs on coal exports in recent years have gone up to 10 percent.In 2012-2016, the group had to continuously reduce selling prices of coal. The volume of coal in stock was 8.45 million tonnes by June 30, down nearly one million tonnes ver-sus 2016.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/55222/Finance-Ministry-refuses-to-cut-coal-import-tax.html

Ministry gives more information about public investment disbursement

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

The Ministry of Finance on July 26 provided more information about the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)'s disbursement ratio of planned investment capital sourced from the State budget in 2017.According to the National Assembly's Resolution No. 29/2016/QH14 dated November 14, 2016 on allocating State budget in 2017, the SBV is assigned to disburse 73.38 billion VND (nearly 3.23 million USD).Under Decision No. 2562/QD-TTg dated December 31, 2016 by the prime minister on the allocation of investment capital from the State Budget in 2017, the SBV is allowed

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to disburse a total capital (domestic capital) of 73.38 billion VND (nearly 3.23 million USD), with 7.64 billion VND being allocated in line with regulations and the remain-der, worth 65.73 billion VND, was arranged not in line with regulations.According to a report of the State Treasury, by June 30, the SBV had disbursed 4.29 bil-lion VND, completing only 5.8 percent of the plan.The bank was also requested to work with the Ministry of Planning and Investment to examine the capital amount worth 65.73 billion VND, which was not properly allocat-ed or lack of detail information and data concerning investment purposes, and report-ed the result to authorised agencies.http://english.vov.vn/economy/ministry-gives-more-information-about-public-in-vestment-disbursement-355395.vov

PM criticises 13 provincial leaders and ministers for slow disbursement

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has strictly criticised leaders of 13 heads of prov-inces, ministries and agencies over delayed disbursements for public projects, minister and Chair of the government Office Mai Tien Dung said on July 25.An inspection by the PM's working group led by minister Mai Tien Dung found that these provinces, ministries and agencies had disbursed less than 20 percent of finances required for public projects by June 15.The criticised are the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs, the Ministry of Health, the State Bank of Vietnam, the Committee for Ethnic Af-fairs, the Vietnam News Agency, the Veterans' Union, Hanoi, HCM City, Danang, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc and Tay Ninh.Minister Mai Tien Dung said at a working session with these units on July 25 that one of the government's measures for fuelling economic growth is to disbursement invest-ment capital on schedule. "One of the impediments to economic growth is slow dis-bursement of capital for public investment projects."He noted the government still has to pay interest but loans cannot be disbursed, so the amount of capital that is sitting idle at the State Treasury is a staggering VND120 tril-lion (nearly $5.3 billion).According to Dung, inaction and lax management, coupled with complicated proce-dures, slow site clearance and contractors' poor capacity, are to blame for slow dis-bursements.To avoid criticism, some agencies have had capital disbursed but later deposited it at banks, Dung said, and this means they have achieved a high disbursement ratio but capital has not been injected into projects.The PM requested these 13 units to speed up disbursement of public investment capi-tal. If they do not get the job done by October, their investment capital would be trans-ferred to other units.At the working session, minister Dung asked leaders of these units to give reasons for slow disbursement and take full responsibility before the government if capital dis-bursement remains slow in the near future.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/55229/PM-criticises-13-provincial-leaders-and-min-isters-for-slow-disbursement.html

Private capital in healthcare sector helps ease city's budget constraints

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

Rising private investments in the healthcare sector in HCM City have helped ease the city's budget constraints, as healthcare demand is increasingly huge while financial al-locations for the sector are modest.Numerous investment projects in the city's healthcare sector are being implemented in public-private partnership (PPP) format or funded only by the private sector.Most recently, the HCM City Finance and Investment Company (HFIC), Y Dao Medi-cal Service Consulting Investment Corporation, and District 2 Hospital have struck an agreement to build a high-tech medical examination and treatment facility on the hos-pital's campus.The 100-bed facility, which requires total capital of VND320 billion (US$14.1 million)

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in PPP form will be equipped with modern equipment such as a magnetic resonance imaging system for early and accurate diagnosis of cardiovascular, spinal and intra-abdominal diseases.Meanwhile, the HCM City government in April gave District 3 the go-ahead to operate a private clinic investment scheme on a trial basis. The district government has so far teamed up with other relevant agencies to provide professional medical expertise, in-vestment capital, and well-trained doctors to clinics.As a result, a general clinic of Viet Anh Medical JSC which is situated at a health centre in Ward 11 has been operational since May.The city government has also approved seven city- and district-level hospital projects under PPP mode in 2015 and 2016. They are intended to develop a medical examina-tion and treatment facility at Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital, upgrade Tan Phu District Hospital, and build Saigon general Hospital, and local hospitals of districts 3, 5, and 7.The city has also approved a proposal by the Department of Planning and Investment to allow HFIC manage expenses on its own to develop additional facilities at Chil-dren's Hospital 1.According to the HCM City Department of Health, there are some 80 healthcare projects to be implemented in the city in the 2016-2020 period with huge investment required. However, the city government in a report in mid-May said the State budget could allocate only VND12.5 trillion for healthcare projects in the five-year period, meaning a sizeable amount of investment must come from private sources.The PPP format is also expected to attract more private funds into the city's healthcare sector.HFIC deputy director general Dang Ngoc Thanh said PPP has become an indispensa-ble source of investment for public healthcare facilities. PPP also helps relieve spend-ing pressure on the State budget, and increase incomes of health workers.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/55221/Private-capital-in-healthcare-sector-helps-ease-city percentE2 percent80 percent99s-budget-constraints.html

BSC lowers outlook for oil and gas industry in Q3/2017

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| NDH

BIDV Securities Company (BSC)'s research division has recently issued an analysis re-port on investment strategy as well as outlook of industries in Q3 and the whole year 2017.Regarding the industries' investment strategy in Q3/2017, according to BSC, the simul-taneous reduction of operating interest rates will promote economic growth. Specifi-cally, since July 10, 2017 the State Bank will concurrently lower operating interest rates.Accordingly, refinancing interest rates, rediscount rates, overnight lending rates in in-terbank electronic payment and loans to cover capital shortage in the clearing of the State Bank with other banks decreased 0.25 percent/year. This is considered as a move to reduce costs for credit organisations, thereby lessening lending rates and support-ing businesses.Besides, the State Bank also cut 0.5 percent short-term lending rates in dong of credit organisations for customers in some economic sectors. This decision has a direct im-pact, helping to reduce costs for related businesses.BSC has made noticeable investment themes in Q3. Investment in "OTC listed stocks" (Viettel Post, Viettel Global, Viettel Works, KDF, VCI, HDBank, Viet Thang Garment, Phong Phu Garment, etc.) and "the equitised state-owned enterprises" (Binh Son Re-fining and Petrochemical) will continue to be the story that draws market attention and will become stronger as the equitisation and listing pace will accelerate at the end of Q3 and beginning of Q4/2017.Regarding the investment in "divested or out-of-room stock group" including FPT, NTP, BMP, DIG, SAB, PVI, DHG, DMC, in spite of not defining specific time, the stock prices will also have many changes when relevant information has gradually been re-vealed. From the pharmaceutical industry's development, it is impossible not to un-derestimate the demand from foreign investors with attractive sectors when the room is opened.

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Regarding the "core, industry leading, high dividend retail stock group", when the Q2's business results have gradually been announced, the stocks that prove good growth will continue reaching high price level.Regarding the investment in "infrastructure, free trade agreements and import, ex-port", though TPP was not adopted, the basic developments of textile and garment stock group also showed that the impact of the foreign investment wave and strong growth potential from export markets will have very strong influence on related in-dustries (such as fruits).Except for textiles that have risen quite sharply in price, the group of stocks related to free trade agreements including seaports, industrial zone infrastructure, logistics are also worth noticing at the end of Q3 and Q4.Besides, BSC also pointed out noticeable risks including risks in material prices that would continue affecting the entire market (Petroleum, Rubber, Iron ore, etc.). For oil and gas industry, countries not involving in OPEC's production cutback programme are forecasted to raise their output, thereby neutralising OPEC's cutback efforts.Major elections in Q3 including German Federal Election and the Chinese Communist Party Congress which are important highlights influencing the global economic and political situation should be paid attention to as well.BSC maintained positive ratings on the following sectors real estate, construction, technology, seaport, electricity, rubber, fertiliser, and banking while giving neutral-ised ratings for such sectors as iron, beverage, cement, tiles, plastics, sugarcane, tires, pharmaceuticals, and shipping.BSC lowered the outlook for the oil and gas industry from positive to neutral due to unfavourable developments from oil prices. Among neutral sectors, BSC expected that the transition will come from tiles. The overall prospect of this group is mixed between good and bad, so the opportunity, if available, will not come to the entire stock.For less optimistic sectors, BSC said the fishery sector will still face many difficulties in 2017. BSC is not pessimistic but thinks that investors who are interested in this sector should be more patient.

Government refuses to budge on tight aviation rules

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

The regulations related to aviation transport business licensing shall not be loosened for investors wishing to join the field.The government's cautious approach to aviation business licensing was clearly evi-denced by the recently-enacted Document No.309/TB-VPCP of the government Office.Deputy prime minister Trinh Dinh Dung noted in the document that as aviation is a conditional business which requires enormous capital investments and is also a field with direct impact on national security, external activities, and transport safety, bol-stering investment efficiency and ensuring healthy and sustainable business perform-ance, the licensing process must be prudent."This is to ensure utmost safety and aviation security in all contingencies," Dung stressed.At a recent meeting on the issue, two investors -- Skyviet Aviation JSC and Tan Cang JSC -- submitted applications to the Ministry of Transport (MoT) seeking licences for aviation transport services provision.In the case of Tan Cang JSC, which applied for a licence on general aviation services, Dung assigned MoT to take into account feedback from relevant agencies and guide the investor in completing the necessary procedures for submission to the prime min-ister's consideration.In January 2017, MoT submitted the company's proposal to the prime minister for con-sideration.With the chartered capital of VND100 billion ($4.5 million), Tan Cang JSC plans to use two aircrafts for general aviation services, such as air taxi and geological survey flights.In April 2017, the government announced that the proposal of Vietstar Aviation Com-pany Limited (Vietstar Air) to seek aviation transport business licence will be consid-

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ered only after the building of a passenger terminal and hangar for aircraft parking is completed, pursuant to Tan Son Nhat International Airport's revised planning.MoT is now perfecting the airport's revised planning. In case the scheme was ap-proved by the government in this year's third quarter, it would need two to three years to complete the building of the passenger terminal and parking space for 85 aircrafts.In respect to a recent proposal on aviation transport business provision from Bamboo Airways (under privately-held major property developer FLC Group), industry ex-perts said that it needs more time for the company to provide complete application documents.Bamboo Airways said that it has basically met all requirements and parent company FLC stated its subsidiary has sufficient capital sources to be licensed in the aviation transport.http://www.vir.com.vn/government-refuses-to-budge-on-tight-aviation-rules.html

Mekong Delta authorities warn about excessive rice stock

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

Authorities in the Mekong Delta said farmers might face losses from excessive supply due to overproduction of Japanese rice varieties.Thousands of hectares of Japanese rice has been grown as the rice is suitable for vari-ous types of soil and doesn't attract many pests. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has only tested and agreed to grow this rice in the Red River Delta and northern mountainous areas.Even though the Mekong Delta authorities haven't given permission to mass cultivate this variety, it has been sowed across 43,000 hectares, mostly in Kien Luong, Hon Dat and Giang Thanh districts.Farmer Do Le Huu in Hon Dat District said there were perks that growing traditional rice didn't have. "The output is much higher and I don't have to worry about the mar-ket as I have a contract with a distribution company," he said.While 30,000 hectares of rice are under contract to wholesalers, another 13,000 hectares have been cultivated by the farmers. The authorities worry that the oversupply might cause a price drop as Japanese rice is still new to domestic customers.Nguyen Van Tam, director of Kien Giang Province Department of Agriculture and Ru-ral Development, said, "Because more and more companies are buying Japanese rice farmers in the south have bought the seeds from the northern region to grow on their own. We're waiting for ministerial directives."However, according to the companies, they only buy a specific amount of rice from contracted farmers.Bui Hung Truong, deputy head of Ethnic Affair Department, said farmers weren't used to the new rice so there were still pests. In addition, these areas are often flooded and farmers cannot time the planting process to avoid floods yet.The local authorities advised farmers to grow Japanese rice only under contract.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/182684/mekong-delta-authorities-warn-about-excessive-rice-stock.html

Real estate inventories drop slightly

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

The total value of real estate inventories nationwide has dropped by VND3.68 trillion (US$162 million), or around 12 percent, against late last year to VND27.34 trillion (US$1.2 billion), shows data of the Vietnam Real Estate Association (VNREA).The decline of real estate inventories has slowed recently, which relates mainly to those projects being far from city or town centers and having inadequate infrastruc-ture, according to the Housing and Real Estate Market Management Agency under the Construction Ministry.Residential land lots in stock total more than 3.3 million square meters worth about VND13 trillion, followed by low-rise residential blocks with over 3,400 units worth nearly VND7.3 trillion.There are 3,200 unsold apartment units worth VND4.6 trillion. More than 648,000 square meters of commercial residential land which costs a total of VND2.48 trillion

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remains unsold.Hanoi and HCM City account for about 40 percent of the total value of real estate in-ventories nationwide.Statistics of VNREA indicate the number of transactions in quarter two rose slightly compared to the previous three months. Projects carried out by well-known investors and those having sufficient infrastructure and located adjacent to public transit routes sold well.Data of Hanoi, Danang, Nha Trang, and HCM City-based real estate exchanges under the Vietnam Association of Real Estate Professionals shows that transactions in the April-June period increased by 13.7 percent against quarter one, with medium-end condos taking the lead in Hanoi and HCM City, and land plots in Danang.In the previous quarter, property developers in Hanoi put up over 6,700 new apart-ments for sale, none of them from affordable housing projects.More than 5,400 condos were sold in Hanoi at a total value of about VND11.4 trillion, with the low-cost housing segment making up 55 percent of the total. Their prices inched up 2-3 percent. Notably, residential blocks located at prime locations and equipped with amenities saw their prices rising.VNREA forecast the number of condo transactions in Hanoi could rise later this year, as known developers will market a large number of apartments in the medium seg-ment. Over 20,000 new apartments, half of them in this segment, will be launched in the months to come.Meanwhile, over 9,800 condos in HCM City worth VND25.9 trillion found buyers in the second quarter, with the medium segment representing around 47 percent of the total. VNREA predicted 25,000-27,000 new mid-end apartments will be marketed in HCM City.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/55213/Real-estate-inventories-drop-slightly.html

Vietnamese hospitality wins big

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

Locals being granted permission to gamble at domestic casinos has given Vietnam's growing hospitality industry an added boost, according to JLL experts.The government is allowing Vietnamese locals to gamble at two locationsthe first in Van Don and the other on Phu Quoc Islandas part of a three-year pilot scheme. A third site in Ho Tram is expected to be added to the list.The news has evoked the interest of big international names such as Las Vegas Sands, along with local conglomerates like Sun Group, which is, so far, the only Vietnamese company approved to develop a casino in Van Don. More hotels across the country are installing electronic gaming to boost revenue, according to the real estate services firm's latest report."With Melco Crown Philippines being recognised as the best performing casino stock globally in 2017, it demonstrates that financial success can be achieved with the right planning, and has motivated investors to pursue such opportunities," Frank Sorgio-vanni, head of Research, Hotels and Hospitality JLL APAC, said on the appeal of casi-nos."Vietnam's tourism industry's renaissance has also driven corporate demand for hotels across the country, while visa exemptions, introduction of new direct air routes and improved marketing efforts have boosted appeal for leisure travellers," Sorgiovanni said.Vietnam's gastronomical offerings are proving a further attraction for repeat visitors, especially from Asia, Sorgiovanni said. "The country is fast becoming a 'foodie' desti-nation with a vastly improving food and beverage scene," he added."The outlook for the tourism and accommodation sector is bright with continued mar-keting efforts, improvements in infrastructure and further development of human re-sources and services," Sorgiovanni said."Foreign investors from across the region have shown significant interest in Vietnam over the past 18 months and the country is becoming one of the most talked about mar-kets in the Asia Pacific," he added.

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FIEs' ups and downs affect Vietnam's economic index

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

The Vietnamese economy is so reliant on the foreign-invested economic sector that any change in foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) can affect the economic indexes.Vinh Phuc provincial authorities, for example, are concerned about the decrease in this year's local budget revenue.Hoang Van Noi, head of the provincial taxation agency, said the locality just fulfilled 38 percent of the year's plan on tax collection in the first six months of the year. This was attributed to the fact that Toyota and Honda had stopped manufacturing some car models at their factories in the province.In the first half of the year, the taxation agency collected VND11.6 trillion in tax, a de-crease of 15 percent from the same period last year. The amount of tax from FIEs was VND9.7 trillion, down by 19 percent.Vinh Phuc, near Hanoi, is the location of several production bases for multi-nationals, including Toyota and Honda.The local budget revenue depends on tax amounts collected from enterprises. With satisfactory budget revenue in 2016, Vinh Phuc was one of 13 provinces which contrib-uted money to the central government budget.In Q1, Vietnam saw GDP growing by 5.21 percent compared with the same period last year, the lowest rate in many years. One of the reasons behind this was the trouble with Samsung Galaxy Note 7.The Samsung problems caused a loss of $1 billion, or 0.5 percent of Vietnam's GDP.Since April 2017, as Samsung Vietnam's major operation recovered, which, as reported by Nikkei Asian Review, helped Vietnam recover its GDP growth rate.Nguyen Duc Thanh from VEPR commented that the ups and downs of Samsung will cause Vietnam's economic indexes to change proportionately.Vietnam now has the biggest trade deficit with South Korea, not China. Analysts be-lieve that Samsung's imports are the major reason.Three subsidiaries of Samsung are leading the country in import turnover. Samsung Electronics VietnamThai Nguyen reported import turnover of $14.94 billion, up by 69.7 percent over the last year's same period.Samsung Electronics Vietnam's import turnover was $9.8 billion, while the figure was $6.62 billion for Samsung Display.Vietsovpetro (oil & gas) and CP Vietnam (husbandry), ranked 17th and 18th in top 500 large enterprises in accordance with Vietnam Report 2016, are all FIEs with minimum revenue of $2 billion a year, or 1 percentage point of Vietnam's GDP. Therefore, any changes with them have a big impact on the economy.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/182429/fies--ups-and-downs-affect-viet-nam-s-economic-index.html

VN leatherware makers make a mark

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

Many leading fashion houses have switched from Chinese to Vietnamese makers of leatherware, acknowledging the improved quality of leather craftsmanship in Viet-nam, industry insiders say.The Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO) announced re-cently that Vietnam was the fifth largest exporter of handbags and suitcases in the world, accounting for 5.4 per cent of global supply.The country produces over $3.2 billion worth of handbags, suitcases and backpacks that are exported to 10 major markets. A large number of factories have become trusted producers for major multinational brands.Nguyen Duc Thuan, LEFASO's Chair, said the nation's leather industry has grown by 10 to 15 per cent per year for the past five years, driven significantly by international fashion brands moving their handbag manufacturing facilities to Vietnam.Thuan said a majority of fashion houses have chosen to replace Chinese manufacturers with Vietnamese ones through foreign direct investment.In the first five months of 2017, the US was the largest market for Vietnamese suitcases, backpacks, and handbags worth $555 million, a six per cent increase over the same pe-

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riod in 2016, according to the general Department of Customs.The EU was second, importing goods worth $365 million, up 8.2 per cent year-on-year.Exports to other main markets included Japan at $146.5 million, up 1.7 per cent; China at $57.6 million, down 6.8 per cent; and South Korea at $52.8 million, down 0.4 per cent.Nguyen Minh Phong, Head of the Economic Research Section of the Hanoi Socio-Eco-nomic Development Research Institute, had said in June that bag producers in Viet-nam should diversify their export markets, with emphasis on the US and EU markets.Phong also said that the founding of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 would pose new challenges for Vietnamese leatherware industry. However, he be-lieved the country could turn this into an advantage and expand exports to other Asean markets instead.He recommended that Vietnamese bag makers work together with their counterparts in Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia to create better value chains, cut costs and increase productivity, as materials are more accessible within the AEC than outside.As local bag and suitcase manufacturers mainly perform outsourced tasks for FDI companies, they need to increase investment, expand production scale and improve product quality to gain a foothold in the domestic market.At present, China still reigns as the world's largest producer and exporter of back-packs, suitcases and handbags, churning out more than 40 per cent of total global out-put every year.http://bizhub.vn/news/vn-leatherware-makers-make-a-mark_287833.html

Vietnam accounts for about 10pct in Southeast Asia's online travel market

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THANH NIEN

As per the report of Google's Consumer Barometer in 2016, the ratio of smart phone users in Vietnam is only 72 percent compared with the U.S market, but the ratio of Vi-etnamese people using smart phones to search for hotels amounted to 48 percent, near-ly three times higher than Americans (18 percent).The search for tourism information at the destinations of Vietnamese people was 42 percent, while Americans only accounted for 25 percent.Google and Temasek (under the Singapore government's investment division) also forecast that the online travel market in Southeast Asia will reach $90 billion revenue in 2020; of which Vietnam accounts for about 10 percent, equivalent to $9 billion.Notably, 85 percent of cash flow will be flowing into the hotel booking and air ticket services, creating strong attraction to foreign businesses.The evidence is in Vietnam, the two online room selling sites including Agoda.com and Booking.com are leading the market with more than 7,600 and 6,000 partner hotels respectively.Vietnam has also become the world's third-largest country having people visiting the online room booking site of Traveloka, although this application has just been official-ly launched in Vietnam since March 2016.A travel expert commented: apart from "pleasing" services for travellers such as quick-ness, convenience, cheap price, the global scale Online Travel Agents (OTA), when en-tering Vietnam, also have many advantages of being invested heavily in technology and image promotion."Thanks to abundant financial resources, these companies can be active in the number of rooms sold out on peak occasions by "gathering" hotel rooms having beautiful loca-tions and good services in the year, thereby, optimising advertising cost and attracting users with good prices. At the same time, large number of customers is also the advan-tage of these companies when linking with owners supplying the products, earning high commission", said the expert.Tran Thi Viet Huong, Marketing director of Vietravel Company said such websites as Agoda.com, Booking.com only focus on the hotel segment, do not include package tours, so the quality of the entire tour cannot be comparable to domestic companies."The websites in Vietnam are relatively the same, from tickets to hotel reservations, planning of tour programmes, so the quality of products is better", she said.However, according to Huong, foreign companies have advantages of good technolo-

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gy and large budget for promotional marketing activities.In the opposite corner, Huynh Minh Vu, chief technology officer of OTA Gotadi, said huge spending on marketing, promotion activities causes room price at Agoda or Booking to be always higher than the price offered by domestic businesses."In the hotel sector, travel companies are sourced from wholesalers, so the "original price" is equal. Foreign businesses must add to the room price marketing, advertising costs while these costs of Vietnamese businesses are lower, so we use this to offer many promotional packages, ensuring the cheapest room price for customers. If knowing ways to take advantage, we can turn disadvantages into advantages", said Vu."In order to compete with foreign companies, we need to identify non-budgeting strat-egies because of the inability to confront financially powerful foreign firms. There must choose "guerrilla attacking" method, link among domestic businesses that master technology, take advantage of market intelligence to bring about appropriate prod-ucts, attracting Vietnamese people", Vu emphasized and added, domestic companies are now very active in linking together to take advantage of customers and connect products.Tran Thi Bao Thu, director of marketing and communications at Fiditour company, commented that local tour operators still have certain advantages such as being sup-ported with business law and understanding customers' psychology, having many linking channels to exploit local customers.What need to be done now is to promote sectoral and multisectoral linkages, travel and accommodation, transportation, banking, information technology, etc. to create more outstanding services than the ones on the current market.Along with that is the strong investment in online marketing activities to create multi-dimensional communication channels that interact well with customers. Thu added that professionally trained staff in this field are quite scarce, businesses have to recruit and take a lot of time for training. At the same time, supporting sanctions are also lim-ited.Specifically, the newly applied Tourism Code is also lack of legislations applicable to the field of online commerce. "The State also needs to pay attention and have more pol-icies to support businesses so that domestic businesses are enabled to compete to keep the "home playing field"", she proposed.

Vietnamese firms embrace telework trend

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA|TUOITRE NEWS

As Japan launched a campaign encouraging companies to allow their employees to work from home, some Vietnamese enterprises reveal that they already apply a similar policy, believing that the quality of work is more important than the workplace.The Japanese government's campaign will be observed annually for the next three years, starting on July 24, known as Telework Day, in a bid to reduce congestion ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.According to Japanese media, more than 900 companies participated in the first Tele-work Day on Monday, even though commuters gave mixed responses to the cam-paign.In Vietnam, many tech or tech-based companies already allow employees to work re-motely, even though it is not an official policy.Advocates of the trend say telework will create a friendly and open business culture, and help to retain talent.Work from home, work betterThanh Tam, a specialist working for a media company in HCM City, encourages her employees to work "from anywhere they deem comfortable, even at home.""Work effectiveness is the top priority, no matter where the workplace is," Tam told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper."So my employees can choose where they want to work from."Sharing this view, Thu Ha, an editor of a local news website, said she was able to tele-commute because "my job does not require me to be in the office.""So long as I can get things done, I can just stay at home," she said.

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For some employers in Vietnam, telling their employees not to go to the office is like giving them an incentive or reward.Nghia, a KPMG employee based in HCM City, said his company has had a semi-tele-work programme called "Feel Good Friday" in place for several years.The policy, which runs for one month twice a year, only requires employees to be present at the office on Friday morning, and they can choose wherever they want to work from in the afternoon."On some special occasions, the programme can run longer than usual," Nghia said.The reward has paid off, winning great support from staff and greater productivity, according to Paul Huynh, KPMG head of people, performance and culture for Viet-nam, Cambodia and the Asia-Pacific region.Huynh said the number of employees participating in the programme had doubled, with many realising that they can work effectively without going to the workplace."The programme was initiated to create an opportunity for employees to work from anywhere they want and build up a friendly, open and relaxed business culture," Huynh told Tuoi Tre."The programme has been a real success as many of our partners have asked to adopt the model for their own companies."Vo Quang Hue, CEO of Bosch Vietnam, has told Tuoi Tre the company has allowed its employees to work from home for years and the results have been more positive than expected."Most of the employees are satisfied and productivity significant improves," he said.http://tuoitrenews.vn/business/42138/vietnamese-firms-embrace-telework-trend

Products for mothers and children worth $7 billion, but consumers prefer imports

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

The market of products for mothers and children in Vietnam appears to have huge po-tential, but it is not easy to earn money from it.Located opposite the Hanoi Obstetrics & Gynecology Hospital is Kids Plaza which dis-tributes products for mothers and children.Being a well known brand and located in an advantageous position, each sale at the shop is only between tens of thousands of dong and hundreds of thousands of dong.Bibo Mart's CEO Trinh Lan Phuong who appeared at a recent Forbes Vietnam event, said while the market of consumer goods for mothers and children in Vietnam is worth up to $7 billion a year, it is difficult to conquer the market.After 11 years of operation, Bibo Mart now has 124 shops across the country. It was was valued at $142 million in late 2016.Kids Plaza is a rival of Bibo Mart. Established three years later than Bibo, Kids Plaza now has 72 shops throughout the country. In some areas, where there is Bibo Mart, there is also a Kids Plaza.Con Cung, Shoptretho and TutiCare are also well known names to moth-ers.Soc&Brothers, with five stores in Hanoi and HCM City, is known as a chain spe-cialising in retailing Japanese imports, from diapers, milk, and clothes to consumer electronic products.However, many clients said the chains can only satisfy common needs, while they still meet demand from middle-class clients who want to spend big money on products for children.Oanh, 34, in Hanoi, said she and her husband had an outbound tour before she gave birth, during which she bought many items for the child that she could not find in Vi-etnam."I don't feel secure and satisfied about the products available in the domestic market. At some shops, low-quality Chinese products are sold together with high-quality products," Oanh said.Oanh said she sometimes buy things at Bibo Mart and Kids Plaza. However, she doesn't buy milk from the shops. "I order real foreign products overseas," she said.She also complained that there are not many brands in the Vietnamese market. If mothers want to buy a stroller, they have to go to Combi, Seababy, or Aprica. There

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are many more brands, and the prices are VND80,000-150,000 cheaper.In other countries, Oanh spends VND10 billion on average on each bill. In Vietnam, she spends VND500,000 only on each shopping trip.Phuong of Bibo Mart said to compete with rivals in the market, investors need to make heavy investments. Bibo Mart, for example, has invested millions of dollars on tech-nology and ERP & CRM systems.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/182428/products-for-mothers-and-chil-dren-worth--7 billion--but-consumers-prefer-imports.html

What do real estate billionaires contribute to the economy?

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

The role of real estate billionaires and their contribution to the national economy re-mains a controversial matter.Seven out of 10 of the richest stock millionaires are real estate developers, though their rankings change at times. They include Pham Nhat Vuong, president of Vingroup, with stock asset value of VND30.406 trillion, Trinh Van Quyet VND27.326 trillion and Bui Thanh Nhon VND9.821 trillion.Some economists have pointed out that while the richest billionaires in the US are owners of technology firms such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, the richest Viet-namese stock millionaires are real estate developers.Truong Gia Binh, president of FPT, the largest information technology Vietnamese group, is not in the top 10.Real estate billionaires are sometimes known as 'disgraced heroes' because they do not make big contributions to the knowledge-based economy and the fourth industrial revolution.Pham Chi Lan, an economist, said: "In Vietnam, land belongs to all the population. Therefore, when some individuals exploit the business field and get rich, they raise questions about their wealth."However, Nguyen Minh Phong, also an economist, said though there is no quantita-tive tool to measure the contribution by real estate billionaires to the national economy, great contributions are undeniable.The real estate projects developed by billionaires, which are all large and professional, have helped change the face of cities and provinces and create a well-organised mar-ket.Some economists think that real estate is not the industry on which the economy can be based in the long run, because it does not contribute much to overall growth, and is land and credit-resource intensive.Meanwhile, others think the real estate sector contributes a lot to the economy. Real es-tate is a business chain of many links, from construction and installation to materials and tourism.The European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) in 2016 said that real estate pro-vides the basis for most other business fields, enabling them to develop fully.According to Do Cao Bao, FPT's deputy CEO, the fact that Vietnam has more real es-tate billionaires than technology billionaires is understandable because this is in line with the development of the economy."It is true that the world has entered the 4.0 industrial revolution, but Vietnam econo-my, Vietnamese consumers and Vietnam businesses are just at the level of a 1.5-1.6 in-dustry," he said.To have many wealthy people in technology, Vietnam needs to have more enterprises pioneering in the 4.0 industrial revolution, which create solutions and services, and have a global market.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/182427/what-do-real-estate billionaires-contribute-to-the-economy-.html

Vietnam wishes to further trade ties with Paraguay

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

Vietnam wants to promote relations with Paraguay in various fields, particularly trade and culture, based on the sound political relations between the two countries.

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Vietnamese Ambassador to Argentina and Paraguay Dang Xuan Dung made the con-firmation while meeting with Paraguayan Acting minister of Foreign Affairs Terumi Matsuo De Claverol on July 24 after presenting a copy of President Tran Dai Quang's letter of credentials.The ambassador conveyed an invitation to visit Vietnam from President Tran Dai Quang to Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes.Lauding Vietnam's socio-economic achievements in the past years, De Claverol stressed that Vietnam and the South American country pose huge potentials for coop-eration in multi-faceted fields, especially trade.She shared concern over food security in the context of climate change and expressed the wish to work with Vietnam in the field.The acting minister also reaffirmed Paraguay's support for Vietnam's stance on ad-dressing disputes at sea by peaceful means in line with international laws and the United Nations Charter.On the occasion, Ambassador Dung led a Vietnamese business delegation on a trade promotion trip in Paraguay. The move marks a new step forward in the two countries' trade relations and investment.Vietnam has exported shoes, sport equipment, electronics, rubber, garment, machin-ery and engineering tools to Paraguay while purchasing soybean powder, beef, cereal, tanned leather and steel from the South American country.More than 20 years since establishing diplomatic relations, the two countries have en-joyed robust bilateral cooperation. In the past seven years, two-way trade has aver-aged at 70 million USD per year. Bilateral trade revenue stood at over 75 percent in 2016, a year-on-year increase of 24.9 percent.Last year, Vietnam was the fourth largest importer of Paraguayan beef, following Chile, Russia and Brazilhttp://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-wishes-to-further-trade-ties-with-paraguay/115427.vnp

Indonesian embassy promotes palm oil, paper trade with Vietnam

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

The Indonesian Embassy in Vietnam held a seminar in Hanoi on July 26 with the aim of linking the two countries' businesses in the trade of palm oil and paper.Addressing the event, Ambassador Ibnu Hadi said that the relations between Vietnam and Indonesia have been growing. In 2016, two-way trade reached 5.6 billion USD, he noted, added that the two sides agreed to lift up the figure to 10 billion USD in 2018.Vietnam mostly exported to Indonesia telephones, iron, steel, machineries, equipment, rice, computer, electronics and spare parts, garment, leather and footwear materials, vehicles, plastics and plastic material.The ambassador said that last year, paper was the third largest goods that Indonesia exported to Vietnam with revenue of 181 million USD, followed by animal and plant oil with 161 million USD.In order to beef up the Vietnam-Indonesia cooperation, especially when the Asean Community has been formed and the region has experienced many significant chang-es, the two sides should increase the exchange of information and investment promo-tion as well as the connection among businesses, thus improving the competitiveness of Asean enterprises, he said.Meanwhile, Pham Quoc Manh, public relations official of the Indonesian Embassy said that last year, Indonesia ranked 14th in the worth in terms of export of paper, mostly printing paper, with revenue of 3.2 billion USD.Indonesia is also the world top exporter of palm oil as the country provides 36 million tonnes out of total 56 million tonnes exported by countries around the world, or 62 per-cent, he added.At the event, Indonesian Embassy officials also shared information on cooperation op-portunities in palm oil and paper trade with participating Vietnamese businesses.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/indonesian-embassy-promotes-palm-oil-paper-trade-with-vietnam/115417.vnp

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Vietnam-Australia rice cooperation in fine shape

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Deputy PM tells Australian rice businesses that Vietnam is capable of supplying all types of rice in bulk.Rice cooperation between Vietnam and Australia is growing strongly and will contin-ue to head upwards in the years to come.Deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue, during his visit to the Australia, told a meet-ing with Australian businesses on July 24 that Vietnam can supply all types of rice in bulk to the country.Vietnam's rice exports to Australia reached 220,000 tonnes last year, an increase of 50 per cent compared to 2015 and accounting for 4.5 per cent of all trade with the country. Rob Gordon, CEO of Sunrice, the world's largest rice and food processor, said that some Vietnamese enterprises have exported micronutrient rice to islands in the Pacific Ocean under orders from Sunrice.He also suggested the Vietnam government permit Sunrice to expand its business in Vietnam, transfer technology, and share its experience in rice production in a closed process with Vietnamese enterprises.Deputy PM Hue appreciated Sunrice's goodwill and affirmed that the Vietnamese government would direct the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Ag-riculture and Rural Development to cooperate with the company to support Vietnam-ese rice producers.Besides rice, Australian enterprises are also keen on other sectors in Vietnam such as tourism. Vietnam is becoming a popular holiday destination for many Australians, with 50,000 expected each year in the near future.Vietnam is now Australia's 15th largest trade partner, with two-way trade of over $10 billion, while Australian investment in Vietnam has boomed over recent years. In the first six months of this year, Australian investors invested over $95.7 million in 27 projects in Vietnam (both new projects and additional capital in existing projects).The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) predicted in June that Vietnam would be among the Top 5 countries in terms of rice volumes this year. The five are China (with more than 142 million tonnes), India (over 110 million tonnes), In-donesia, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.Global rice volumes are likely to increase by 0.7 per cent this year compared to last year, to more than 502 million tonnes, according to the Food Potential report published by the FAO, due to policies promoting production in Asia and the recovery of produc-tion in South America and Australia.Vietnam exported nearly 4.9 million tonnes of rice last year worth $2.1 billion, a decline of 25.5 per cent and 20.5 per cent, respectively, against 2015.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/vietnam-today/vietnam-australia-rice-coopera-tion-in-fine-shape

Ontario premier to lead 1st ever trade mission to Vietnam

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne will lead the east-central Canadian province first trade mission ever to Vietnam this November, according to a government news re-lease.The mission to promote Ontario as a key centre for investment and innovation will start in Beijing, China on November 23, then travel to Nanjing, Chongqing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.After which, she along with a contingent of leading Ontario business delegates, will visit Hanoi and HCM City hoping to open new avenues for collaboration with the Southeast Asian country.Ontario, said the news release, has seen commercial trade with Vietnam triple over the last five years to $3 billion.The mission will focus on expanding trade in medical technologies, science and tech-nology, and the agri-foof segments.http://english.vov.vn/economy/ontario-premier-to-lead-1st-ever-trade-mission-to-vi-etnam-355322.vov

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PM asks Ha Tinh to become major industrial centre

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VGP

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc held a working session with authorities of Ha Tinh on July 24 to discuss ways to build the central province into one of the major industrial hubs in the country.Speaking at the event, the PM underscored the importance of Vung Ang Economic Zone, saying that it should be developed into an industrial centre for not only Ha Tinh but also the central region in the near future.He suggested supplementing the provincial master plan, with a focus on Vung Ang Economic Zone, while continuing to improve the business climate, facilitate business-es' land access and save their time and costs.The government leader called for further attention to the support industry, engineer-ing and chemical industries, tourism, disaster and climate change response.He asked Ha Tinh to continue monitoring two furnaces at the Taiwanese-invested For-mosa steel plant and working closely with the Ministry of Natural Resources and En-vironment, ministries and agencies concerned to deal with environment protection violations at the company.Commenting on future tasks, he said the province needs to continue refining mecha-nisms, grasp opportunities and make breakthroughs to improve local livelihoods.Last year, the province's gross regional domestic product grew 5.16 percent, including agriculture (down 3.4 percent), industry and construction (up 10.07 percent), and serv-ices (up 5.8 percent). The total State collections hit over VND3.7 trillion (US$163.6 mil-lion), or 49 percent of the estimate.The industrial production was estimated at VND13.5 trillion (US$589.1 million), up 40.2 percent annually, mostly contributed by manufacturing-engineering and power supply. Several key industries such as electricity, steel, fiber enjoyed higher year-on-year growth.Meanwhile, revenues from lodging, restaurant and tourism services reached VND2.23 billion, up 1.72 percent. The total tourist arrivals to Ha Tinh numbered 820,000, mark-ing a 15.4 percent increase compared to the same period last year. They included 14,500 foreigners, up 11.5 percent annually.http://www.vir.com.vn/pm-asks-ha-tinh-to-become-major-industrial-centre.html

BUSINESSEWS

Business Briefs July 27, 2017

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA |

* The board of directors of HCM City Infrastructure Investment COIJ1pany (CIl) has announced a plan to issue new shares, including a rights issue for existing sharehold-ers who are allowed to buy one new share for every two shares held, and an issuance price ofVND15,OOO per share. cn will also offer 17.7million new shares via a private placement to Rhinos Asset Management Fund with an issuance price at VND26,040 a share, or 4 percent lower than the adjusted market price after the rights issue. The company will ask for shareholder approval at an up-coming extraordinary general meeting. If passed, this will be equivalentto 141 million new shares issued, or 57 percent of the current outstanding volume. The proceeds from the issuances will be used to fund Cll's projects, including property projects in Thu Thiem and build-operate-transfer projects (Hanoi Highway expansion, Binh Trieu 2 road and bridge).* Sao Vang Rubber Company (SRC) made a net profit of VNDll.9 billion in the second quarter of 2017, down 43 percent from VND20.8 billion in the same period last year. The company attributed its net profit fall to the decrease in revenue and the increase in costs of goods and general and administrative expenses. The company generated VND238.7 billion in revenue in April-June, down 4 percent year-on-year. However, costs of goods rose 1 percent to VND193.6 billion while general and administrative ex-penses jumped 20 percent to VND15.7 pillion, said Viet Capital Securities Company.* Seaprodex Refrigeration Industry Corporation (SRF) has got approval to float an ex-tra 8.1 million shares on the HCM City market. After the additional share listing, SRF will raise its total outstanding volume to nearly 32.5 million shares.

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* The Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) plans to auction 37.5 million shares of EVN Finance Corporation (EVNFC), or a 15 percent stake in the enterprise, at the starting price of over VND14,100 each. Established in 2008, EVNFC now has a chartered capital ofVND2.5 trillion. In 2016, the enterprise reported VND165 billion in after-taxprofit, up 23 percent against the previous year. Aside from EVN, ABBank holds 21 mil-lion shares of the company, or an 8.4 percent stake, and Refrigeration Electrical Engi-neering Corporation owns 4.5 million shares, or 1.8 percent.

Market strongly recovers

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

The local stock market made a sharp turnaround on July 25 after a three-day down-trend, lifting the VN Index up 7.53 points, or 0.99 percent, at 767.27.Turnover on the HCM City market also improved strongly with 180.7 million shares worth VND4.3 trillion changing hands, up 13.7 percent and 44 percent against the pre-vious session respectively. The put-through market saw 41.1 million shares valued at VND1.7 trillion traded, including nearly 1.3 trillion worth of shares of gas distributor PGD and VND197 billion worth of shares of hydropower firm VSH.Bank stocks made the most positive movements. Except for VCB that closed at the ref-erence price, BID, the volume leader in the sector with 4.8 million shares, surged nearly 5.7 percent, CTG rose 2.7 percent and STB gained 5.5 percent.MBB went up to the ceiling price of VND22,100 per share on matching volume of 3.6 million shares after announcing positive business results in the second quarter. The lender reported VND2.7 trillion in revenue and VND1.4 trillion in pre-tax profit, soar-ing 47 percent and 44 percent year-on-year respectively.Some medium and small caps also rebounded, in which agricultural firm HNG and property enterprises FLC, HQC and HAR increased around 3.3 percent each.HAI, an agricultural chemical producer, shot up to the ceiling price of VND11,600 a share after plunging to the floor price in the morning, and took the lead for liquidity with nearly 11.3 million shares exchanged. The stock went up to the upper limit for the 12th consecutive session.Nguyen Huu Binh, head of analysis department at Vietnam Investment Securities Company, said that rumours on high margin lending ratio were the main cause of the strong market drop in recent sessions.However, investors still maintain a positive outlook, so the market would resume nor-mal developments soon. Besides, the local market has received cash flow from differ-ent sources this year and margin lending does not play an important role, Binh said on Dau Tu Chung Khoan website.Nguyen Hong Khanh from Sacombank Securities Company observed that many secu-rities companies have applied measures to reduce margin lending at risky stocks. Therefore, the market would not see a crash in the near future.Large caps on the Hanoi market also bounced back. ACB, a pillar stock in the banking sector, hit the intraday high of VND25,100 a share, up 1.6 percent against Monday, and made strong contribution to the recovery.The HNX-Index jumped 0.91 percent at 97.81 but turnover on the northern bourse re-duced to VND476 billion. Bank stock SHB again was the most actively traded stock, adding 1.3 percent to VND7,900 per share with 9.9 million shares exchanged.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/55212/Market-strongly-recovers.html

Large-cap stocks lift VN market again

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

Shares advanced further on Wednesday morning on both local markets as blue chips continued to perform well on positive investor confidence.The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.61 per cent to close at 771.96 points.The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange rose 1.08 per cent to end at 98.87 points.The two indices increased by nearly one per cent each on Tuesday.More than 146.8 million shares were traded on both exchanges, worth nearly VND2.39 trillion (US$106 million).

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According to Vietnam Investment Securities Co (IVS), investor confidence improved following a three-day losing streak, boosting most of the stock market's 20 sectors.Among the 20 sectors, financial-banking stocks posted the highest growth rates, fol-lowed by energy and real estate stocks.All nine listed bank stocks advanced with share prices increasing between 0.5 per cent and 4.2 per cent.Shares of brokerages also posted good gains. such as Bao Viet Securities (BVS), Sai Gon-Hanoi Securities (SHS), FPT Securities (FTS) and HCM City Securities (HCM).Other stocks that made impressive gains on Wednesday morning included PetroViet-nam Gas (GAS), real estate firm Vingroup (VIC) and Tien Phong Plastic JSC (NTP).The afternoon session starts at 1pm.http://bizhub.vn/markets/large-cap-stocks-lift-vn-market-again_287843.html

Main indexes close higher

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

All main indexes on Vietnam's stock market end in positive territory on July 26.All main indexes on Vietnam's stock market gained ground on July 26.On HSX, the VN Index rose 6.61 points (0.86 per cent) and the VN30-Index 7.86 points (1.07 per cent).On HNX, the HNX-Index increased 1.62 points (1.65 per cent), the HNX30-Index 3.43 points (1.91 per cent), and the UPCoM-Index 0.48 points (0.87 per cent).Liquidity on HSX reached VND3.2 trillion ($139 million), 24.3 per cent higher than yes-terday, and on HNX was VND611 billion ($26.5 million), 28.9 per cent higher.The VN Index opened at 769.35 points and reached 768.93 points before ending the morning at 771.96 points. It then closed the day at 773.88 points.In food and beverages, VNM rose 0.8 per cent and KDC 0.5 per cent. TLG lost 1.3 per cent and TAC 1 per cent, while VCF and BBC closed at their opening price.In banking, EIB increased 3 per cent, STB 2.4 per cent, CTG 1.8 per cent, BID and BVH 0.5 per cent, and VCB 0.3 per cent. MSN lost 0.1 per cent as MBB closed at its opening price.In energy, GAS rose 1.3 per cent and PPC 1 per cent, PVD 0.8 per cent, and NT2 0.5 per cent, while PGD fell 1.8 per cent and PLX 0.5 per cent.In construction and real estate, DXG increased 6.9 per cent, QCG and FLC 6 per cent, VIC 1.4 per cent, REE 1.2 per cent, CTD 1 per cent, KBC 0.7 per cent, and ROS 0.6 per cent. HT1 shed 0.8 per cent and NVL 0.1 per cent.On HSX, VNM was the largest net sold share, with VND1.1 trillion ($47 million), fol-lowed by DHG (VND3.3 billion ($143,478)), REE (VND199 million ($86,527)), SBT (VND13.6 million ($591,304)), and ANV (VND360,000 ($15,651)).PVS was the largest net sold share on HNX, with VND46.5 billion ($2.02 million), fol-lowed by SHB (VND8.8 billion ($382,608)), ACB (VND3.3 million ($143,478)), DHT (VND2.3 billion ($10,000)), and VCG (VND1 billion ($43,478)).On UPCoM, foreign investors bought 394,300 shares worth VND15.76 billion ($685,217).They net sold on HSX by VND1.07 trillion ($46.5 million) and on HNX by VND57.9 bil-lion ($2.5 million).http://vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/jbnh78gc-main-indexes-close-higher

Foreign currency strongly flows into the market in H2

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| DTCK

Statistics of the Hochiminh city Stock Exchange (HOSE) showed that in the first half of the year (H1), the buying value of foreign investors reached 56.511 trillion dong, while selling value reached 47.791 trillion dong. Thus, the total net buying value of foreign investors in H1 was over 8.719 trillion dong, while it was 1.811 trillion dong in the same period of 2016. From early July until now, foreign investors continued to net buy more than 494 trillion dong.The net buying trend of foreign investors was also recorded on the Hanoi Stock Ex-change (HNX) in H1 with net buying value of over 218 billion dong. On both the ex-

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changes, the net buying value of foreign investors in H1 2017 reached over nine trillion dong. In addition, on the bond market, foreign investors also net bought 16 trillion dong. This showed that the capital market of Vietnam is still attractive to foreign in-vestors.The total trading value of foreign investors accounted for about 10 percent of the total trading value of the market in H1. Considering the proportion of net buying value on the total market trading value, the proportion of foreign investors fell compared to the same period of 2016 by 15-16 percent. However, in absolute number, the value signif-icantly surged. Specifically, the total trading value on HOSE in H1 2017 reached 454.239 trillion dong, in which foreign investors' value accounted for about 45 trillion dong, up by 50 percent compared to the same period of 2016.Statistics released by Viet Dragon Securities Company showed that foreign investors were the strongest net buyers in the group of basic resources and construction and building materials with net buying value of respectively 584 billion dong and 417 bil-lion dong, followed by banking group. This move of foreign investors not only posi-tively affected the upward momentum of stocks but also was one of the key drivers for the stock market's prosperity in the first half of the year. Moreover, of the list of foreign net buyers, there was the presence of E1VFVN30 with net buying volume of over 8.4 million units of fund certificates, equivalent to a net buying value of about 104 billion dong.According to experts from Viet Dragon Securities Company, the net buying of ETF cer-tificates by foreign investors showed their fairly high confidence in the market. In the context when the foreign room in the blue-chip stocks was not very large and the room expansion takes place slowly, two foreign ETFs have shown ineffective performance. Accordingly, in June, there were the restructuring of these two funds, while VNM ETF was net loaded with 7.3 million USD, FTSE ETF was net withdrawn 2.5 million USD. In H1, VNM ETF net loaded 9.5 million USD, while FTSE ETF was net withdrawn with 37.3 million USD. Overall, through these two funds, foreign investors net withdrew 27.8 million USD in H1 2017, equivalent to about 633 billion dong.In the context when the supply of shares significantly surges in the near future as nu-merous large enterprises are about to be equitised and get listed, Nguyen Duc Hung Linh, director of Analysis and Investment Advisory Division for Saigon Securities Company (SSI) shared that foreign investors strongly acquired new listed shares in the first six months of the year, such as NVL and VJC. According to Linh, this fact shows that when the market has new commodities which are the stocks of large-scale enter-prises, the attention of investors will increase. "We should not be too worried about the imbalance of supply and demand. As long as there are good enterprises, the capital will still flow in", said Linh.Sharing similar point of view, Vu Minh Duc, Head of Analysis Department of Viet Capital Securities Company said that the supplement of quality goods for the market by linking IPOs of state-owned enterprise with listing on stock market; expanding room for foreign investors; and state divestment in some large enterprises have given foreign investors the opportunities to disburse which they could hardly have in the previous years. Duc believed that foreign investors would continue to increase invest-ment in Vietnam's stock market.Director of Eugen Asset Management Kim Hyung Jun also confirmed the willingness to join the stock market of Vietnam at the right time, given the huge potential of the market in the long term. According to Kim Hyung Jun, it is only a matter of time for the Vietnam's stock market to be upgraded to an emerging market. If the liquidity risks and the scale of foreign exchange market as well as information transparency of enter-prises are improved, Vietnam's market will be upgraded to an equivalent level which is in line with the economic growth, and this will strengthen the decision to disburse of foreign investors in the near future.

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What can be seen through foreign investors' trading on Vietnam's stock market in H1?

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| TRI THUC TRE

Nguyen Duc Hung Linh, director of Analysis and Investment Advisory Division for Saigon Securities Company (SSI) has released analysis about the trading activities of foreign investors in the first half of the year (H1). Accordingly, in H1 2017, the liquidity of the entire market increased sharply with 57 percent growth in total trading value compared to the same period of 2016. However, the trading value of foreign investors only rose by 20.3 percent, causing the proportion of trading by foreign investors fell from 13.4 percent to 10.3 percent.The trading of domestic investors has become increasingly dominant. In particular, the proportion of trading made by individual domestic investors accounted for 76 percent, by domestic organisations increased from 6.8 percent in 2016 to 10.9 percent in the first five months of 2017. In reverse, the trading of foreign corporate investors fell from 15.3 percent to 12.3 percent. The proportion of trading made by foreign individual inves-tors remained negligible.Despite holding low proportion, foreign investors have had certain influence on mar-ket sentiment, typically seen in the trading sessions for restructuring portfolio of Ex-change Traded Funds (ETFs). Of the 121 trading sessions, foreigners were net buyers in 92 sessions and only net sellers in 29 sessions. The total net buying value in H1 reached 9.110 trillion dong, the highest level in the last five years. The continuous net buying of foreign investors created excitement on the market. The VN Index increased by 16.8 percent with average trading value of five trillion dong per session in Jun 2017, up by 66 percent compared to the same period of 2016.Food and beverage, construction and building materials, and basic resources were most bought by foreign investors, accounting for up to 95 percent of the market net buying value, respectively reaching 56.2 percent, 22.8 percent, and 16 percent. While food and beverage, and construction and building materials were regularly net bought on a monthly basis, the net buying of basic resources strongly increased from March, after the previous two consecutive months of net selling.Some other sectors also recorded large net buying, including electricity, water and gasoline (452.7 billion dong), banking (440 billion dong), financial services (346 billion dong), industrial services (306.2 billion dong), and petroleum (269.2 billion dong). Re-garding the net selling side, real estate recorded the highest net selling value with 1.080 trillion dong, followed by insurance sector with 121.4 billion dong and chemicals with 295.5 billion dong.The differentiation was very high if looking from the stock perspective, as the net buy-ing was only seen in certain stocks, mostly large cap stocks. Specifically, the net buying value of VNM was 4.343 trillion dong and of SAB was 417.5 billion dong, accounting for respectively 90 percent and 8.6 percent of the net buying value of food and bever-age. This cash flow came from the success acquisition VNM shares by F&N with a total of 34.6 million shares, after F&N bought 78.4 million out of 130.6 million shares of VNM sold via the auction of SCIC in late December 2016.The demand from F&N and positive moves of fundamental factors such as increasing domestic market share, expanding export channels and stable raw material prices were the main drivers that helped VNM become the major contributor of 21.8 points out of the 111.1 points of increase of the VNIndex compared to late 2016. Meanwhile, there were contributions such as ROS with 1.006 trillion dong, CTD with 594 billion dong, CII with 299.1 billion dong, and VGC with 149.6 billion dong, respectively ac-counting for 51.9 percent, 30.6 percent, 15.4 percent, ad 7.7 percent of the net buying value of construction and building material group. Meanwhile, a building material stock were net sold at a value of 253.6 billion dong, and a construction stock were net sold at a value of 115.3 billion dong.ROS shares were mainly bought by two ETFs on their portfolio review periods in March and June 2017. Thus, despite being acquired at large value the stock price was not much supported, and ROS even led to a reduction of 4.2 points of VNIndex in H1.In the group of basic resources, the trading of HPG (1.036 trillion dong), accounted for 81 percent of the total trading value of the group. Foreign investors accelerated the net

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buying of HPG from March (with 442.4 billion dong), the time HPG announced to achieve strong net profit growth in the first quarter of 2017 at 89.2 percent year-on-year. The net buying of HPG in June (504 billion dong) was the highest level in H1, af-ter HPG continued to announce the increase of its consumption market share and in-crease in steel selling price. The consumption market share of HPG grew from 22.2 percent in late 2016 to over 24 percent in late June 2017. In the first week of July 2017, this stock recorded a net buying value of 124.8 billion dong by foreign investors.In the group of petroleum stocks, PLX was a notable stock for being net bought con-stantly from its listing day with a total value of 987.7 billion dong. Excluding PLX, the group of petroleum stocks were net sold at 329.2 billion dong. After VNM, PLX con-tributed 10.7 points to VNIndex in H1.The only group of shares experiencing strong selling was real estate with total value of 1.080 trillion dong, locating in the current real estate developers such as DXG 389.23 billion dong, QCG (276.4 billion dong), VIC (211.4 billion dong), NLG (200.9 billion dong), KDH (129.8 billion dong), and SCR (125.5 billion dong).Finally, SSI's director of Analysis and Investment Division concluded that the cash flows of foreign investors in H1 2017 focused on the stocks with large capitalisation that strongly affected the VNIndex such as VNM, PLX, ROS, and HPG, creating signif-icant increase of net buying value in the first six months of the year. The role of leading the psychology and points of foreign investors was recognised but the purchasing power to support the market liquidity still belonged to domestic investors.

50 listed firms win best annual report awards

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

Some 50 listed companies were honoured at the Best Annual Report Awards during a ceremony in HCM City on July 25.The ceremony, held by the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE), Hanoi Stock Ex-change, Vietnam Investment Review and Dragon Capital Group, also celebrated the 10th year of the awards.The awards have improved awareness of the importance of transparency among listed firms in Vietnam, HOSE deputy director general Le Hai Tra said at the event.Ensuring transparency and protecting the rights of shareholders are not only goals of laws but also of the awards over the past decade, he added.The annual awards aim to encourage the listed firms to provide transparent reports to the public, improve management quality and promote standardised and sustainable development.The winners are the best reports out of 125 finalists selected from 638 listed companies in the qualifying round after consultations with four audit firms.The event saw an increase of 45 percent in the number of reports featuring sustainable development compared to last year while there were 64 reports written in English and six following the International Financial Reporting Standards.http://english.vov.vn/economy/50-listed-firms-win-best-annual-report-awards-355355.vov

Vietnam Azalea Fund sells 75pct of Loc Troi holding

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Remaining 25 percent to be sold before end of September.Mekong Capital announced on July 26 that its Vietnam Azalea Fund (VAF) has com-pleted the sale of 75 per cent of its investment in the Loc Troi Group at VND68,000 ($3) per share, for a total consideration of $9.2 million.This partial divestment resulted in a gross return multiple of 3.50x in US dollars and a gross IRR of approximately 18.6 per cent in US dollars on the shares sold by the Fund over the eight and a half years it held the investment.Since the Fund invested $4.4 million in Loc Troi in December 2008, the group has trans-formed from a distributor of crop protection chemicals into a vertically-integrated ag-riculture company. It successfully listed its shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on July 24, with a value of $174.8 million at the close of the first day of trade.

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"After eight and a half years of partnering together, we appreciate the Chair, Huynh Van Thon, for honoring his commitment to list the company's shares and for helping us to facilitate our exit," said Chris Freund, Partner at Mekong Capital. "I also expect that the listing will bring other benefits to the company and its shareholders."VAF has also entered into an agreement to sell its remaining shares in Loc Troi for VND68,000 each, which will be completed before the end of September. After the com-pletion of this exit, the only remaining investment by VAF will be in Traphaco.The Loc Troi Group, formerly known as the An Giang Plant Protection JSC, was estab-lished in 1993 with a main business line of distributing crop protection chemicals. Its initial area of operations was only in the Mekong Delta. In 1994, it opened a represent-ative office in HCM City and then expanded its business throughout the country.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/vietnam-azalea-fund-sells-75-of-loc-troi-holding

Seagoing vessels to be inspected for safety worldwide

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

Starting from September this year, port authorities worldwide will carry out compre-hensive inspections into foreign vessels to see whether they meet international safety, security and environmental standards.The inspections until November 30 will take place at ports in five regions, namely West Europe -- Northern Atlantic Ocean (Paris-MoU), Asia-Pacific (Tokyo-MoU), Black Sea (Black Sea MoU), Indian Ocean (Indian Ocean MoU) and Latin America (Vina del Mar), according to Vietnam Register.The common marine safety violations of Vietnamese-flagged ships, according to Viet-nam Register, are outdated printed materials, non-notified sea routes, no or not-work-ing signal lights, sirens or voyage data recorders. Violating vessels will be detained by port authorities for repair.Vietnamese vessels mostly operate in the area of Tokyo-MoU where many ships of Vi-etnam were detained in the past, Vietnam Register said. Ship owners must examine their own vessels in advance for any issues that can affect maritime safety and avoid detention.In late 2014, Vietnam's shipping fleet was removed from the Tokyo-MoU blacklist. In the first half of 2017, more than 3 percent of Vietnamese-flagged vessels were detained by Tokyo-MoU, so the Vietnamese ship fleet is now in the white-gray list.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/55219/Seagoing-vessels-to-be-inspected-for-safety-worldwide.html

Vietnam's growing demand for US property

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

Vietnamese people's demand for foreign property, especially in the US, has been in-creasing in recent years. Experts say this increase can be attributed to Vietnam's fast growing economy and Vietnamese people's belief that the US is a good place to live and work.A report by the US National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed that between April 2016 and March 2017, Vietnamese buyers purchased approximately 5,689 residential properties in the US, roughly double of the previous 12-months period.According to the NAR report, it is estimated that Vietnamese buyers spent up to $3 bil-lion on residential properties in the US in 2017. The amount of property purchases made by Vietnamese nationals has been on the rise since 2012-2013. The report also in-dicates that Vietnamese buyers tend to favour properties in California, Florida, and Texas.Explaining why Vietnamese people are buying more property in the US, some real es-tate experts say that in addition to increasing demand, housing prices in markets like the US and Australia are considered fairly affordable to the fast-growing upper-mid-dle class of Vietnam.PricewaterhouseCoopers placed Vietnam among the fastest growing economies in the world, and according to The Wealth Report 2017 by Knight Frank, Vietnam's ultra-wealthy population has the highest growth rate in the world.

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The fast-growing economy also attracts international real estate companies which give Vietnamese better access to foreign real estate markets. The increasing income also al-lows middle and upper-class Vietnamese to buy into what they believe a safer and more secure place to live, work, and invest.Vietnam's population of ultra-high-net-worth individuals has the highest growth rate in the world. Source: Knight FrankVietnamese nationals buying properties in foreign countries, particularly the US, is not a new development. In recent years, many members of the Vietnamese upper-class have been known to buy luxury properties in the US. They include many entrepre-neurs and high-profile stars, such as singer Bang Kieu, Dang Truong, Thanh Thao, and comedian Thuy Nga, among others.Most notable in this list is businessperson Pham Dinh Nguyen, who owns the town of Buford, Wyoming, the smallest town in the US. Nguyen, founder and CEO of PhinDeli Coffee, purchased the town in 2013 for $900,000 and renamed it PhinDeli Town Buford in order to promote his Vietnamese coffee brand in the US.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/182707/vietnam-s-growing-demand-for-us-property.html

HCM City to upgrade downtown sewer system

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

HCM City has asked the prime minister for approval to carry out a sewer system up-grade project in the downtown area, which would cost a total of VND570 billion (US$25.19 million).Of the total capital, VND540 billion would be sourced from by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica).If approval is forthcoming, the city would upgrade four kilometers of deteriorating sewer in districts 1 and 3 and other parts in the city centre to prevent cave-ins, reduce flooding induced by rain and flood tides, and rehabilitate the environment. The project is expected to be implemented from 2017 to 2020.Pipe jacking technology would be used for the project as the traditional method of ex-cavation, plus construction fencing, can affect business and household activities around construction sites, said environmentalists. HCM City Urban Drainage Co Ltd has utilised pipe jacking technology in water drainage projects since 2012.In downtown HCM City, more than 100 kilometers of old sewer under Pasteur, Dong Khoi, Ly Tu Trong, Pho Duc Chinh and Le Cong Kieu streets needs improving.The city has more areas prone to rain-triggered flooding as the sewers are too old to drain water as quickly as before.The city expects to build an additional 6,000 kilometers of sewer as the current 2,500 kilometers can meet only 43 percent of drainage demand.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/55215/HCM City-to-upgrade-downtown-sewer-sys-tem.html

HCM City, Lotte Group ink deal to build Thu Thiem Eco Smart City

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

The HCM City People's Committee and Korean conglomerate Lotte Group on July 25 signed a contract on the construction of the Thu Thiem Eco Smart City in District 2.The 74,420-sq m project in the core of the Thu Thiem New Urban Area will cost VND20.1 trillion (US$884 million) in addition to compensation costs to be paid for use of land.Nguyen Thanh Phong, chair of the city's People's Committee, and Shin Dong Bin, chair of Lotte, attended the signing ceremony.Phong praised the group, which has had many major investments in Vietnam and be-come a well-known brand in the country.He vowed to continue creating favourable conditions for foreign investors, including the Lotte Group, to help them operate effectively and profitably in the city.The Lotte Group, which had been pursuing the project for years, received approval in 2014. Construction will begin as early as next quarter.It will feature a trading-financial-banking centre, hotels, an office tower, and serviced

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and residential buildings on 50,120sq.metres. The remaining area will be used for roads and other infrastructure.Construction on the project, licensed for 50 years, is expected to take six years.Affiliate companies like Lotte Asset Development Co. Ltd, Lotte Shopping Co. Ltd, Hotel Lotte Co. Ltd, and Lotte Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd will participate in the project.Lotte has escrowed around VND2 trillion ($88 million) for fees for six lots of land.The developer is paying for and building some of the infrastructure, which will ease the burden on the city, which is paying off a VND29 trillion ($1.28 billion) loan to de-velop the Thu Thiem peninsula.The interest on the loan is VND2.9 billion a day, according to the city.The 657-ha peninsula is located to the east of the Sai Gon River, and is adjacent to Dis-tricts 1, 7, 9, and Binh Thanh.It is expected to become a hub for culture, entertainment as well as financial and com-mercial services.http://bizhub.vn/news/hcm-city-lotte-group-ink-deal-to-build-thu-thiem-eco-smart-city_287859.html

Lam Dong licenses 10 adventure tour operators

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

The tourism authority of Lam Dong has licensed 10 travel firms to organise adventure tours in the Central Highlands province.The 10 adventure tour operators licensed by Lam Dong Province's Department of Cul-ture, Sports and Tourism are Lam Dong Tourist Company, Saigon-Madagui Compa-ny, Da Lat Branch of Mao Hiem Viet Company, Viet Challenge Tour Company, PTA Venturous Co Ltd, Highlands Sports Co Ltd, Highlands Vacation Co Ltd, Viet Motion Tours Co Ltd, Da Lat Adventure Co Ltd and Tac Ke Xinh Co LtdThe companies, which are all based in Lam Dong, can arrange adventures such as crossing Datanla and Dasar waterfalls by zipline, kayaking on Da Don River in Lam Ha District, boating in Tuyen Lam Lake, and crossing a bamboo bridge.Nguyen Tien Hai, deputy director of the department, said tour guides in charge of ad-venture tours at these companies must have practicing certificates.Those travel companies operating adventure tours in the province without prior per-mission will be fined, Hai said and recommended travellers choose these approved firms.The province has got tough on adventure tours after some fatal accidents. There is no data on adventure tourists but this form of travel has grown popular in the province, said Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, deputy director of Lam Dong Province's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.In the first half of this year, there were 2.4 million tourists coming to Lam Dong, up 11 percent year-on-year.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/55239/Lam-Dong-licenses-10-adventure-tour-opera-tors-.html

Leading US spider silk developer expands footprint into Vietnam

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV

A US leading developer of spider silk based fibres said yesterday (July 25) in a press release that it is expanding its international presence into the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam.Ann Arbor Michigan based Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc. said in the statement that it would locate its headquarters in the heart of Quang Nam province within proximity to mulberry fields and easy access to international air and sea ports.With the location finalised we are now preparing the final documents to obtain ap-provals to begin work with our innovative hybrid transgenic silkworm technology in Vietnam, said COO Jon Rice.Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc. (OTCQB:KBLB) has achieved a series of scientific breakthroughs in the area of spider silk technology with implications for the global textile industry, said the statement.

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It is now expanding its footprint into Vietnam working to commercialise the transgen-ic silkworms to compete in the garment industry silk market for which it claims the Chinese market alone is worth $3-5 billion per annum.http://english.vov.vn/economy/leading-us-spider-silk-developer-expands-footprint-into-vietnam-355332.vov

Three foreign firms to invest in Hanoi's urban railway network

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

As yet unnamed investors to join local counterparts in building capital's rail routes.Three foreign investors and six Vietnamese companies will build urban railway lines in Hanoi as the city revs up its public transport system, Chair of the Hanoi People's Committee, Nguyen Duc Chung, has said.The People's Committee will create optimal conditions for the investors so that projects will be completed quickly and help ease traffic congestion, Chung told a re-cent meeting with voters, though he did not reveal the names of the investors.It was reported earlier this month that the city would allow two foreign companies-Russia's Mosmetrostroy and South Korea's Lotte Groupto join the railway projects. Five Vietnamese companies will also be involved: Vingroup, Xuan Thanh Group, Lung Lo 5, Tan Hoang Minh, and a consortium of Licogi and MIK Group Vietnam.The construction of the railway lines is part of the city's plans to enhance its public transport network and limit personal vehicles in the central business district by 2030. According to the city's master plan for 2030 and vision to 2050, Hanoi will have ten ur-ban railway lines with a combined length of 417.8 km.The city will need over $40 billion for their construction, including $7.5 billion in 2017-2020, $7.6 billion in 2021-2015, $3.5 billion in 2026-2030, and $21.3 billion after 2031. All will be built under the private-public partnership (PPP) model, in which investors can use land to develop urban infrastructure and shopping centers.Hanoi earlier submitted plans to auction 6,000 ha of land to build ten urban railway lines from now to 2030. By the time the railway network is completed, there will be res-idential quarters on both sides of the route. Urban areas and shopping centers will be set up within a radius of 500 meters around railway stations.Do Thi Thu Hang from real estate consultants Savills, said there is no available land in the districts of Cau Giay, Thanh Xuan, Tay Ho, and Dong Da, while potential land plots in the outlying districts of Hoai Duc, Quoc Oai, Dong Anh, Thach That, Ha Dong, and Long Bien are up for grabs.According to a report from CBRE Vietnam, urban railway networks bring a number of benefits, in particular improving the ability of the population to access employment, shopping, and recreation activities. The experience of other countries also suggests that one of the most significant impacts of urban railways is on property values. Rail development brings many noticeable changes to areas around train stations: land pric-es surge, real estate developments boom, and retailers and offices relocate."In theory, a home located near a public mass transit system should command a higher rent or sales price than one that is further away, because good public transport allows those living nearby to more easily travel to and from destinations that are important to them," said CBRE Vietnam's Managing director, Marc Townsend, adding that this has been well proven in other countries, where the premium for home prices in loca-tions close to public transport ranges from 6 per cent to 45 per cent. http://vneconomic-times.com/article/vietnam-today/three-foreign-firms-to-invest-in-hanoi-s-urban-railway-network

Dragon Capital mulls solar power project in Can Tho

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES

Dragon Capital has just indicated its intention to invest at least VND1 trillion, or nearly $45 million, in a solar power project in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, said Gavin Smith, director of clean development at the company.At a meeting between Can Tho authorities and a delegation of Dragon Capital in the city on July 25, Smith said Dragon Capital wants to generate solar power in Can Tho as the investment fund has experiences and finances to do so.

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The project should be developed on 40-45 hectares with a capacity of 40MW in the first phase, which will be followed by the second phase with a capacity of 100MW. The would-be investor suggested kicking off the project at the end of the first quarter of 2018 for completion in 2019.After the first phase, the firm will move to the second phase with a capacity of 100MW, and even the third phase if the city secures land for the company to develop the project.A consulting team of the company will start conducting a feasibility study for the project in August, said Smith.At the meeting, Can Tho vice chairwoman Vo Thi Hong Anh assigned the Depart-ments of Construction, Natural Resources-Environment and Planning-Investment to provide information on land use planning for the investor.Dragon Capital, according to Smith, has successfully carried out solar power projects in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, and has engaged in several small-scale hydropower plants in Vietnam. Specifically, the group has completed a 29- MW solar power plant in Thailand within just a year.The group has invested more than $2 billion in projects in Vietnam, mainly renewable energy projects.http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/55233/Dragon-Capital-mulls-solar-power-project-in-Can-Tho.html

Long Thanh Airport lotus design criticised for high cost

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| DTI NEWS

The winning lotus design for Long Thanh International Airport Terminal has raised concerns that it may prove too costly to carry out.Tran Quang Chau, chair of Vietnam Association on Aviation Science and Technology said the lotus-shaped terminal was chosen because the colour and layout used for each part are harmonious. In addition, people can clearly see that it is designed for large-scale airport and has traditional factors.Lai Xuan Thanh, Chair of the Board of directors of the Airports Corporation of Viet-nam, said the decision was made after receiving public feedback in Hanoi, Da Nang, Dong Nai and HCM City and from associations such as the Vietnam Association of Ar-chitects and the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association.26 experts from ministries, agencies and professional associations led by director gen-eral of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam Dinh Viet Thang also formed an advisory team to vote on the designs. 59.09 percent of the attendants voted for the lotus design.Despite the consensus, there are still concerns the design will mean costs will rise. Curved buildings often have more problems with installing equipment.Moreover, the proposed lotus design is not completed and still need further revise so the cost is undecided. minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia estimated that Long Thanh Airport project would cost USD16bn.Nguyen Thanh Trung, former director of Vietnam Airlines, said, "The airports in de-veloped countries in both Europe and Asia have simple designs. Paying too much at-tention to the design will lead to unnecessary costs."Nguyen Quoc Thong, vice President of the Vietnam Association of Architects, said it was clear that costs would be higher so suggested either trying to make the terminal look as much like a lotus as possible or make it stylised."The chosen design is trying to recreate a real lotus shape and that's not wise. We'll suggest a stylised design instead," he said.The design is not the only thing that can reflect cultural identity. Thong said the cul-tural identity of Vietnam can be introduced via the interior such as a small garden with typical trees in Vietnam inside the airport. Moreover, the huge domes will mean high electric bill so they must consider using sunlight, natural ventilation and reusing wa-ter.http://dtinews.vn/en/news/024/52035/long-thanh-airport-lotus-design-criticised-for-high-cost.html

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SBT and BHS merge to compete with Thai sugar

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET

Thanh Thanh Cong Tay Ninh (SBT) and Bien Hoa (BHS) have decided to merge to pro-tect Vietnam's sugar position in the home market.According to the Vietnam Sugarcane & Sugar Association (VSSA), by mid-May, Viet-nam had produced 1.1 million tonnes of sugar from pressed sugarcane and 210,000 tonnes of sugar refined from raw sugar.China is the biggest consumer of Vietnam sugar, about 800-1,000 tonnes per day. How-ever, the country has cut imports from Vietnam and shifted to Thailand.Vietnam sugar also has to struggle with Thai sugar in the domestic market which has been smuggled into Vietnam or brought to Vietnam under the disguised mode of tem-porary imports for re-export later. The price gap between Thai and Vietnamese sugar has increased from VND500-1,000 per kilo to VND800-1,500 per kilo.In Vietnam, the sugarcane material price is $45-50 per tonne, while it is $30 per tonne in Thailand. Vietnam's sugar is less competitive than other countries, if noting that sugarcane accounts for 75-80 percent of the sugar production cost.Smuggled Thai sugar has caused Vietnamese sugar companies to take losses and forced them to shut down. The companies which still maintain operations are facing big difficulties because of the market narrowing and the big inventory volume.MARD has pointed out the weak points of Vietnam's sugar industry in comparison with Thailand's. The average capacity of a sugar plant in Vietnam is 3,250 tonnes of sugarcane per day, much lower than 7,000-8,000 tonnes in Thailand.In Vietnam, one hectare of growing area brings 65 tonnes of sugarcane, lower than 70 tonnes in Thailand. The CCS ratio in Vietnam's sugarcane is 10 percent, lower than Thailand's 12.9 percent.Under Afta, from 2018, Vietnam will have to open its sugar market to Asean countries. This means that imports from Asean will be taxed 5 percent instead of 80-100 percent like now.As admitting BHS, SBT will become the largest sugar manufacturer holding 30 percent of the domestic market share with the material growing area of 40,000 hectares, ac-counting for 16 percent of the country's total area, and the output of 3.4 million tonnes of sugarcane, amounting to 22 percent.Holding 100 percent of Bien Hoa Sugar, SBT will own a series of other large sugar com-panies including Bien HoaNinh Hoa Sugar, TTC Gia Lai, Phan Rang Sugar, Tanisugar and TTC Attapeu.Before the merger deal was made, SBT and BHS wrapped up a deal on buying HAGL Sugar at VND1.33 trillion.http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/182595/sbt-and-bhs-merge-to-compete-with-thai-sugar.html

Financing issue delays Long Son petrochemical project

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Questions over PetroVietnam providing a loan guarantee the latest setback for oft-de-layed project.The $5.4 billion Long Son petrochemical project in southern Ba Ria Vung Tau province has come to a standstill due to a financing problem, according to Nguyen Vu Truong Son, CEO of the State-owned energy giant the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroViet-nam).Site clearance has been completed and the investors have selected an engineering, pro-curement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project, S&P Global Platts quoted Son as saying.PetroVietnam now holds a 29 per cent stake in the project while Thailand's Siam Ce-ment Group (SCG) holds 71 per cent after acquiring the entire 25 per cent interest of Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) earlier this year for $36 million.The two investors plan to borrow $3.2 billion out of the $5.4 billion from financial in-stitutions, with the remainder being self-financing.SCG has pledged to provide a guarantee for the $3.2 billion package but it asked Petro-Vietnam to issue a commitment to Long Son Petrochemicals guaranteeing the 29 per

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cent portion of the $3.2 billion the Thai partner will borrow on its behalf.Construction of the project cannot begin, however, as PetroVietnam is prohibited by law from providing a loan guarantee for the Long Son Petrochemicals Company, the investor in the project.A State-owned enterprise is prohibited from providing loan guarantees for a subsidi-ary in which it holds less than 51 per cent. Though Long Son is classified as a key project in the oil and gas sector and thus falls under those that may receive government loan guarantees, the government has refused to provide such a guarantee for fears over mounting public debt, according to Son."Construction could begin in August or September if this issue is cleared up," Son said, adding that if things go smoothly, the project, which includes a 1 million tonne ethyl-ene cracker with a flexible gas and naphtha feed, allowing for an olefin capacity of up to 1.6 million tonnes per year, is expected to start in 2021.Licensed in 2008, the complex was initially scheduled to commence construction in 2014 and begin commercial operations in 2017. It has faced several delays due to site clearance and the exit of QPI following a slump in global oil prices in 2014.Amid a recent crackdown on its loss-making projects, PetroVietnam saw after-tax profit for the first half of this year rise to VND13.1 trillion ($576.3 million), equal to 79 per cent of the annual plan, mainly due to a surge in the global crude oil price and an increase in crude oil extraction to support Vietnam's economic growth.The group extracted a total of 7.9 million tonnes of oil in the first half, 141,000 million tonnes higher than the half-year target, with some 970,000 tonnes also coming from abroad, while gas extraction output stood at 5.25 billion cu m.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/business/financing-issue-delays-long-son-petro-chemical-project

Internet of Things hackathon to award VND600 million in prizes

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

The Viettel Telecom Corporation launched its contest "Vietnam Internet of Things Hackathon 2017" on Monday with total prizes of VND600 million (US$26,700).Startups can submit their projects on smart workplaces in agriculture, energy, retail, automation, city, health, business production and security.Creativity, an effective business model and practical application will be the criteria de-termining the winners.The competition kicks off today (27/7) and closes on September 30 with four rounds, including qualifying, training -- consultancy, review and the final round.Fifteen teams will take part in the review round to choose the top four teams with the best projects for the final round to be held in HCM City on September 29 and 30.The championship team will receive a prize of VND150 million ($6,700), of which VND80 million will be in cash ($3,500).In the competition this year, Viettel Telecom Corporation will work together with the winners to build products over a year-long period."Internet of Things applications are a new development trend for startups in Vietnam because of low expenditures," said Tong Viet Trung, general director of Viettel Group."With advantages of infrastructure, project deployment experience and available cap-ital, Viettel is ready to support Vietnamese startups," he added.Competitors can register for the contest at http://vietnamiothackathon.com.http://bizhub.vn/tech/internet-of-things-hackathon-to-award-vnd600 million-in-prizes_287858.html

TTC Sugar receives EU organic certification

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

The TTC Sugar Corporation has received organic certification for its sugarcane and sugar from Control Union Vietnam's managing director Richard de Boer.To invest in organic raw materials that meet global standards, TTC has zoned 62ha out of over 200ha of land in Bien Gioi (Border) Sugarcane Farm in Tay Ninh Province.The Thanh Thanh Cong Tay Ninh Joint Stock Company worked with Control Union and Peterson Consultancy, international inspection and certification organisations, to

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invest in producing the first organic sugar in Vietnam and to assess the certification for meeting global organic standards.In another development, TTC Sugar Corporation and the US's John Deere have signed an agency contract which enables TTC to become an official distribution agent of John Deere agricultural equipment in the Vietnamese market.As one of the key business segments of TTC Group, the sugar segment is active in be-ing innovative and improving productivity, especially in the field of mechanisation in production.In addition to increasing productivity, speeding up the mechanisation in sugarcane cultivation helps TTC Group as well as other sugar companies save labour and pro-duction costs, contributing significantly to improving business efficiency.http://bizhub.vn/corporate-news/ttc-sugar-receives-eu-organic-certification_287857.html

VNA to operate from Singapore Changi Airport T4

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

Vietnam Airlines will move its operations to Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 4, which will open in the future.Following negotiations, Vietnam Airlines said it would be one of nine airlines to oper-ate from T4, including Air Asia Group, Cathay Pacific, Cebu Pacific, Korean Air and Spring Airlines.Vietnam Airlines officially launched its direct route between Hanoi and Singapore on July 1, 1995, with two flights per week.It currently operates 14 flights per week on the HAN-SIN route (from Hanoi) and 21 flights per week on the SGN-SIN route (from HCM City) on A321 aircraft.The modern-looking T4 is inspired by the purple orchid, Singapore's national flower. The image of the orchid appears on the architecture and interiors of the terminal, with some 1,000 tall trees grown at the site.There is a shuttle bus service, with a bus every five minutes, connecting Singapore's T4 and remainder terminals at the airport. With this new terminal, Changi Airport's ca-pacity is enhanced to receive 82 million passengers per year, with 90 seconds per flight on average.http://bizhub.vn/news/vna-to-operate-from-singapore-changi-airport-t4_287851.html

HK financial group invests in low-cost multiplexes

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

Financial group Blue HK from Hong Kong signed an investment agreement with Start-up Beta Media JSC to construct low-cost multiplexes in smaller cities and provinces in Vietnam, according to newswire NDH.According to the agreement, Beta Media is valued at VND600 billion (US$27.5 mil-lion). However, the specific value of the agreement and the stakes to be held by the Hong Kong partner have yet to be disclosed.Previously, Beta Media received investment from Vietnam Investments Group (VIG) -- the investor of Galaxy Cinemas and Galaxy Studios, as well as numerous food brands.Since 2015, with the launch of the Beta Cineplex chain in northern province of Thai Nguyen, Beta Media has built and opened three other cinemas in Bien Hoa city in the southern province of Dong Nai and two in My Dinh and Thanh Xuan districts in Ha-noi. Ticket prices are 60 percent to 65 percent lower than high-end cinemas in major cities.Beta Media general director Bui Quang Minh said that by developing cinema theatres in smaller provinces, the company can avoid the fierce competition with large firms.In 2017, Beta Media plans to open six more multiplexes in the central province of Thanh Hoa, the northern province of Bac Giang, as well as Hanoi, Nha Trang and HCM City, increasing the number of its total multiplexes to 10. The figure is expected to reach 20 by 2018.At present, five leading businesses hold 98 percent of the Vietnamese film distribution market, three of whom are foreign-invested.

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They include CJ CGV with 43 percent, Lotte with 30 percent, Platinum with 10 percent, Galaxy with 9 percent, and BHD with 6 percent.CJ CGV, owner of the CGV cinema chain, now has 38 cinema complexes in Vietnam alone, with 247 projection rooms, an increase of 20 percent over 2015.Lotte Cinema is CJ CGV's biggest rival, holding 30 percent of the market share. Own-ing 29 cinema complexes in the country, Lotte Cinema has a high average growth rate, even higher than CJ CGV's.http://english.vov.vn/economy/hong-kong-financial-group-invests-in-lowcost-multi-plexes-355324.vov

Bitexco steadfast in pursuing $1.35 billion urban project

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

In spite of the withdrawal of joint venture partner Emaar Properties PJSC, Bitexco Group, a leading Vietnamese developer, is still pursuing the development of Binh Quoi-Thanh Da urban area in Binh Thanh district, HCM City.According to newswire Cafef, the HCM City People's Committee has submitted Bitex-co's proposed plans to the prime minister for approval.The project was approved by the HCM City People's Committee to develop a cultural, sports, and tourism centre. In 2004, Saigon Construction Corporation was selected as the project investor. However, in 2007 the city decided to take the project away from this investor due to its lack of financial capacity.In late 2015, Bitexco Group partnered with Emaar Properties PJSC to establish a joint venture to take over the project with an estimated total capital sum of VND30.7 trillion ($1.4 billion).In September 2016, Emaar asked for unprecedented incentives for the project as well as asked the local authorities to calculate the exact compensation and land clearance expenses. However, in October 2016, the foreign investor officially quit the project. Ac-cording to the Land Law, within three years after the project is put into the land use planning, the acquisition of land must be completed or the project will have to be ad-justed or cancelled. Thus, the HCM City Department of Planning and Investment sub-mitted a document to the prime minister to ask for solutions. Before this, Bitexco expressed its development plan to the city's leaders.According to the initial plan, the project would cover a total area of 427 hectares. The construction would be developed in three phases. In the first phase, from 2016 to 2020, the investor would complete site clearance and basic infrastructure. Functional areas will be developed in phase two, from 2021 to 2025, and the whole project is scheduled to be completed in phase three, from 2026 to 2030.Bitexco has a good track record in developing and completing landmark property projects in HCM City, including The Manor condominium complex and the 68-storey Bitexco Financial Tower. It is developing a twin tower complex in the second city that will be home to the first Ritz-Carlton hotel in Vietnam.Its porfolio in Hanoi includes The Manor residential complex and 5-star JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel.http://www.vir.com.vn/bitexco-steadfast-in-pursuing-135 billion-urban-project.html

3 reasons why telco giant Viettel's global expansion is booming

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNEXPRESS

Strong international markets, favourable exchange rates and new services have led to record revenues.Vietnam's military-run telecoms group Viettel said its pre-tax profit from the nine overseas market it currently has a foothold in rose 156 percent on-year to $41 million in the first half of 2017.The huge jump is due to encouraging business climates, new services and strategic projects and favourable exchange rates, according to Viettel Global.Overseas performancesOther than established overseas markets such as Laos, Cambodia and East Timor, which all turned a healthy profit, new markets in Peru, Burundi and Haiti were the top contributors to the company's success.

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During the first six months, total sales in Peru and Burundi increased by 82 percent and 38 percent respectively, exceeding the 29 percent on-year growth recorded in East Timor. Viettel Haiti also bounced back from the strong typhoon in 2016 with 15 percent sales growth in H1.Peru and East Timor were the two most promising markets for Viettel during H1. Pre-tax profit in Peru reached VND405 billion ($18 million), up 132 percent on-year.Meanwhile, the number of subscribers to Telemor, Viettel's carrier in East Timor, jumped 42 percent more than targeted with total sales reached $15 million.Favourable exchange ratesUnlike 2016, favourable exchange rates have contributed to a good start to this year.Stronger currencies in Mozambique and Cameroon, together with strict financial con-trols imposed by their governments, have helped Viettel bag huge profits from these countries.Profits from Peru and Haiti also are expected to gain 3-6 percent thanks to similar con-ditions.If the rates continue to be favourable this year, Viettel can earn huge profits from over-sea markets, especially in Mozambique and Cameroon, where the figure is expected to reach $60-70 million, said Le Dang Dung, general director of Viettel Global (VTG).New services and strategic projectsViettel has developed specific strategies and targets for each of its overseas markets, based on their demographics, economies and political situations, according to Dung. These plans focus on specific goals, but they all aimed at the main target of bagging $250 million in profit from Viettel's nine international markets in 2017.Viettel has expanded its services to please customers of all ages. In Cambodia, the tel-ecoms group, after long periods of being known as "the network of the elderly", has taken steps to attract younger customers who are willing to spend more.By changing the color of the logo, hosting more events, and improving customer care strategies, Metfone, Viettel's Cambodia company, has successfully attracted seven mil-lion subscribers during H1.Viettel's Laos unit Unitel has quickly reached 4 million subscribers, and is the top pro-vider there, while in East Timor, the group is using new frequencies to generate mil-lions of dollars in profit and promote its new 4G data service.Peru is another market benefiting from the new 4G data service. Bitel, Viettel's brand in Peru, has become the largest 4G network in the country with 5,000 residential cent-ers through 3,000 stations. In the first six months of the year, the number of Bitel sub-scribers rose five times to over 2 million.According to Viettel Global, in order to maintain its leading position in most interna-tional markets while creating momentum for the future, the telco is now focusing on new business models such as IT solutions, electronic wallets, population management systems and tax solutions.During the first half, Viettel signed eight big contracts worth more than $17 million. The firm's actual revenue reached nearly $12 million, four times higher than the total profit recorded for the whole of 2016.Viettel has set a target of reaching 50 million international subscribers in 2017, up 35 percent from last year. The military-run telecoms also plans to make $1.4 billion in total revenue from international investments this year, a 29 percent increase.http://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/3-reasons-why-telco-giant-viettel-s-global-ex-pansion-is-booming-3618062.html

LG Electronics gets preferential customs

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

South Korea's LG Electronics Vietnam was granted preferential customs treatment by the general Department of Customs on Monday.Located in Trang Due Industrial Zone, Hai Phong City, LG Electronics Vietnam is an affiliate of Korean conglomerate LG Group. The company has a total investment cap-ital of $1.5 billion, making it the largest foreign-invested firm in the northern port city so far. It focusses on manufacturing and assembling digital devices for automobiles,

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mobile phones, washing machines and air conditioners.In his speech at the event, Ryu Nam Ki from LG Electronics Vietnam vowed that his company would make greater efforts to maintain its certification.Under the general Department of Customs's programme on priority regime of cus-toms, which began in 2011, an estimated 62 enterprises have received preferential treatment so far. The firms, including 11 from South Korea, now account for 27 per cent of the country's annual export turnover.http://bizhub.vn/news/lg-electronics-gets-preferential-customs_287841.html

RoK firm seeks investment opportunities in Hau Giang

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

Information related to investment attraction policies of the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang and opportunities for investors to pour capital into agriculture was intro-duced to a food firm from the Republic of Korea (RoK).At a meeting on July 26 with representatives from the RoK's Dusung Food Co., Ltd, vice Chair of the provincial People's Committee Truong Canh Tuyen detailed the lo-cality's policies on land rental and tax, incentives for enterprises when investing in ag-riculture.Lai Huynh Thu Thao from Dusung said the firm specialises in importing and export-ing seafood and farm produce to the RoK and Japan, and it needs a large area of land for cultivation by machinery.The company plans to invest in the hi-tech agriculture zone, she said, adding that the firm pledges to fully carry out procedures in line with regulations and use local labour-ers for its production.Hau Giang is now calling investment in agriculture and production in the hi-tech ag-riculture zone, which covers an area of 5,200 ha in Long My district. The zone serves production of high-quality rice, freshwater aquaculture products, breeding, and fruits.Investment projects in the zone will be enjoyed preferential policies on land and tax, among others.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/rok-firm-seeks-investment-opportunities-in-hau-giang/115446.vnp

HSBC suffers $75,000 loss due to loose management of staff

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

HSBC Bank (Vietnam) Ltd (HSBC Vietnam) suffered a loss of VND1.7 billion ($74,800) due to its loose management of credit staff, who made fake documents for clients to borrow unsecured consumer loans through credit cards.On July 25, 2017, the Hanoi People's Court opened the first instance hearing of the case of Cao Thi Anh over charges of misappropriation. After the hearing, the court found Anh guilty of forging HSBC Vietnam's stamp and documents and sentenced her to four years in prison.In 2012, Anh was the employee of HSBC Vietnam's credit department. At the time, HSBC Vietnam was implementing a programme of lending unsecured consumer loans for individual clients.Regarding preferential borrowers who work for HSBC Vietnam's corporate clients, their documents should reflect a monthly income of at least VND5 million ($220) and at least one year of employment. Clients did not have to submit their account state-ments, instead, they needed their companies' confirmation about their jobs and in-come.The monthly income of other clients should be at least VND8 million ($352) and they had to submit account statements reflecting their income in the last three months.Anh was responsible for seeking borrowers and helping them finish their documents. The appraisal department will check the documents by calling the clients' companies. In some cases, the appraisal staff checked documents by dealing with other parties be-sides borrowers and their companies. Based on each income level and borrowers' re-quirements, HSBC Vietnam would decide on the loan amount. The maximum amount was ten times the clients' income specified in their documents.Cao Thi Anh admitted that due to pressure to reach the bank's targets, she took advan-

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tage of some of her family and friends with private firms, asking them to confirm the employment status and income in the fake documents.From January to March 2013, Anh helped complete 15 applications for credit cards for individuals who did not meet the requirements to borrow unsecured consumer loans. In particular, she asked her acquaintance in Bien Bac JSC to make six fake documents for her clients to borrow VND915 million ($40,260) in unsecured consumer loans.Similarly, Anh colluded with a friend in Acom Investment Corporation to confirm the fake documents of 13 individuals who were not the real staff of the company, so that these individuals could borrow a total of VND980 billion ($43,120).Up till now, these borrowers have failed to pay off debts, which resulted in a loss of VND1.7 billion ($74,800) for HSBC Vietnam.These clients said that they were not employed at HSBC's corporate partners and their documents to borrow money were supported by Anh. All they had to do was to sign the application forms to apply for credit cards. Cao Thi Anh told them to tell exactly what the documents mentioned when HSBC Vietnam's appraisal staff called them to check.HSBC Vietnam admitted that those falling short of the set targets would be penalised or dismissed. The lawyer of Anh said that her crime was forging the documents of HSBC Vietnam. The uncollected money was considered civil transactions. Regarding civil liabilities, the court allowed HSBC Vietnam to prosecute clients who failed to pay off debts.http://www.vir.com.vn/hsbc-suffers-75000-loss-due-to-loose-management-of-staff.html

JW Marriott Hanoi named Vietnam's top ten 5-star hotels

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi has been recognised as the 1st rank in Top Ten 5-star hotels in Vietnam in a number of prestigious national and global awards.The latest awards win are Best Luxury Hotel Sparegional winner for Spa by JW, Viet-nam Luxury Hotel Restaurant for JW Cafe; Continent French cuisine and Vietnam and Vietnam Luxury Steakhouse/Grill for French Grill by World Luxury Spa & Restaurant Awards; Top Ten 5-star hotels in Vietnam under the ''Vietnam Tourism Awards 2017" by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism; Grand Luxury Hotel of the year 2016- 2017 by the Luxury Travel Guide Awards and "Vietnam Top Trade Award 2016-2017" organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.Mark Wielen, general manager of JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi said, "It is wonderful to see recognition from our guests for the effort of our team since the hotel's opening, four years ago, by delivering professional, timely and engaging service to our guests cre-ates exceptional experiences. A big Thank you all to whom makes this happens. One team one dream, we definitely can make it".JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi is one of the most extensive venues for the MICE market in Vietnam with over 5,000 square metres of flexible meeting and pre-function space on the same floor with separate entrances allow private check-in for groups, 450 spacious guest rooms and six outstanding food and beverage outlets.http://www.vir.com.vn/jw-marriott-hanoi-named-vietnams-top-ten-5-star-ho-tels.html

International farm, food and agricultural machinery expos open in HCM City

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS

Two international exhibitionsVietnam Farm and Food Expo 2017 and Agritech Viet-nam 2017- opened on July 26 in HCM City, featuring nearly 200 booths set up by 120 local and foreign exhibitors.Products on display at the Vietnam Farm and Food Expo include rice, coffee, cashew, fruits and vegetables, organic foods and fine food and drinks as well as herbs, spices and regional specialities.Agritech Vietnam is introducing a wide range of agricultural machinery such as trac-tors, mini tillers, seeders, fertiliser application machines, gardening tools and process-ing and post-harvest preservation technology.

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Biotechnology, greenhouses, water filtration systems, pressure sprayers and other items are also on display.Speaking at the opening ceremony, Nguyen Phuoc Hung, deputy chair of the HCM City Union of Business Associations (HUBA), said that the expos would help produc-ers and traders in the agricultural sector to promote their products and brands as well as exchange information and explore business opportunities.The events also aim to enhance the application of technology in agricultural produc-tion to improve productivity and quality and also seek markets for domestic farm pro-duce, he said.Organised by HUBA in collaboration with Dong Nam Advertising and Commercial Promotion Joint-Stock Company, the expos included a seminar held yesterday on con-sumption linkages for Vinh Long agricultural products.Nguyen Van Liem, deputy director of Vinh Long's Department of Agriculture and Ru-ral Development, said with its favourable land and weather, the province has an abun-dance of fruits and vegetables, with many products being exported, including Nam Roi pomelos, thick-skinned oranges, rambutan, longan and sweet potato.The province expects to introduce its quality products that have food safety and hy-giene certification to international and local enterprises to establish consumption link-ages for its farm produce, he said.The two expos will run until July 28 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre.http://bizhub.vn/news/international-farm-food-and-agricultural-machinery-expos-open-in-hcm-city_287855.html

Vietnam attends international gifts fair in Singapore

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

For the first time, eight Vietnamese businesses are attending the Singapore Gifts and Premiums Fair from July 26-28, with the aim of boosting exports of Vietnamese hand-icrafts and gifts to Singapore and other countries.The firms have been showcasing a range of products, including wool toys, rattan handbags, aloes wood souvenirs, canvas and statues together with silk products, at-tracting many international visitors.They also reached several deals with other foreign businesses which are interested Vi-etnamese products.The event offered a good opportunity for the Vietnamese firms to introduce their prod-ucts, meet with and directly negotiate with foreign partners, distributors and import-ers, said Nguyen Viet Chi, Vietnam's Trade Counsellor in Singapore.She noted that Vietnamese companies can also update with the latest trends of design and packaging at the event to increase exports and better serve customers' demands.The gifts fair, the biggest event held in Singapore, has gathered businesses from 25 countries and territories including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Vi-etnam, Indonesia, China, and Singapore, among others.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-attends-international-gifts-fair-in-singapore/115441.vnp

HCM City to host export markets forum

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA

An export forum on "Market Identification and Risk Management in Export of Viet-namese Enterprises" will be held in HCM City on August 8 to disseminate the latest information, especially about effective ways and solutions to enhance the competitive-ness of domestic firms in key export markets.Delegates will discuss global and regional markets after the US's withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), opportunities and challenges for Vietnamese enter-prises when participating in global value chains, ways to improve the quality and com-petitiveness of Vietnamese products, and the difficulties, risks and risk control techniques when promoting exports.Speakers at the forum will include John Rockhold, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in HCM City, Yasuo Nishitohge, general director of Aeon Vi-etnam, Yuichiro Shiotani, general director of TopValu, and Harry Loh, director of

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United Overseas Bank (UOB).Organised by the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of HCM City, the event will gather around 400 delegates, including government officials, representatives of local and foreign investment and trade promotion agencies, business associations, consuls general, trade counsellors of foreign countries, and executives from local producers of export goods, logistics enterprises, banks and foreign corporations.http://en.vietnamplus.vn/hcm-city-to-host-export-markets-forum/115415.vnp

Urban farming expo opens in HCM City

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV

An urban farming expo held concurrently with an agricultural machinery, equipment, technology and materials exhibition opened today (July 26) in the southern metropolis of HCM City.The events attracted an estimated 120 exhibitors along with hundreds of reps from leading local ag businesses seeking expanded trade and info on the latest technological advances, especially post-harvest techniques.During the events, exhibitors from Japan, Thailand and Germany introduced the latest in cutting-edge machinery and equipment at some 120 pavilions to support the intro-duction of urban farming of fresh fruit and vegetables to the city.http://english.vov.vn/economy/urban-farming-expo-opens-in-hcm-city-355383.vov

Samsung Sourcing Fair 2017: more opportunities for local firms

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

The 4th workshop and exhibition on supporting industriesSamsung Sourcing Fair 2017 was held today in the northern province of Bac Ninh by Samsung Electronics Vi-etnam in association with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to connect domestic com-ponent suppliers to participate in Samsung's global supply chain.Samsung Sourcing Fair 2017 has recorded transformation in quality with the partici-pation and exhibitions of 26 enterprises which are expected to act as core agents to pro-mote the development of supporting industries in Vietnam.15 of the 26 participating enterprises were newcomers with great potential, nominated by the ministries and business associations.Speaking at the event, Samsung Vietnam Complex president Shim Won Hwan said this kind of exhibitions on supporting industries is considered the first official connec-tion between Samsung and Vietnamese enterprises, in a series of activities supporting Vietnamese suppliers."Enthusiastic participation along with the great determination of potential businesses in this 4th event gave us the impetus to continue implementing practical activities to help them improve their production and enhance their competitiveness. They will play a very important role as the core agents to turn individual gains into the general development of the Vietnamese supporting industries," said Hwan.After the event, Samsung plans to provide consultancy services to help these enterpris-es improve their production processes and reach Samsung's standards to supply prod-ucts and components for Samsung Vietnam's plants.Beside these 15 new enterprises, the event is expected to connect five outstanding Tier 2 enterprises with more Tier 1 enterprises and Samsung factories in Vietnam directly, as well as create opportunities for six enterprises to showcase their best performance after finishing the three-month consultation programme with Samsung's Korean ex-perts to reform their production procedures and reach all standards required by Sam-sung's factories in Vietnam.In Samsung's continuous efforts to connect Vietnamese enterprises to its global supply chain, besides Samsung Sourcing Fair, the consultancy programme with Korean ex-perts also helps enterprises in their production improvement process and finalises standards in supplying products and components for Samsung factories.Actual results of enterprises reducing average error ratio by 25 per cent and increasing production capacity by 30 per cent prove the effectiveness and practicality of Sam-sung's business consultancy programmes.Since 2015, 26 Vietnamese businesses have received consultancy and starting from

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2017, Samsung will expand the field of consultation to hi-tech industries to help Viet-namese enterprises produce sophisticated electronic parts in Samsung's global supply chain.After all the efforts to seek out and connect with Vietnamese vendors, the number of Vietnamese enterprises joining Samsung's supply chain has increased dramatically to a total of 215 enterprises (25 Tier-1 vendors and 190 Tier-2 vendors).It is expected that the number of Samsung's Tier-1 vendors will increase to 29 in 2017. In addition, Samsung Vietnam has also recorded a significant breakthrough in raising the localisation rate of products from 35 per cent in 2014 to 57 per cent at present.http://www.vir.com.vn/samsung-sourcing-fair-2017-more-opportunities-for-local-firms.html

Taiwan Excellence side by side with IoT revolution at Taiwan Expo 2017

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR

Today, 66 brands distinguished by the prestigious Taiwan Excellence Award will fea-ture at Taiwan Expo 2017. Taking place during July 26-28 at Saigon Exhibition and Convention centre (SECC), the expo has gathered eight image promotion areas, seven exhibits, 170 booths and 4,000 products.Organised by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), Taiwan Expo 2017 is an ideal opportunity for Vietnamese consumers to have a closer look at Taiwan's breakthrough products and technologies; in which, Taiwan Excellence Expe-riencing Zoneis one of the main attractions.Here, products are on display by 66 leading Taiwanese brands covering multifaceted categories including information communication technology (ICT), home appliances, health care equipment and transportation. Especially, many of which apply the Inter-net of Things (IoT) solutionsthe major platform to produce this expo's theme "Greener Tech, Smarter Life"."By interacting with Taiwan Excellence Award-winning technological products from Taiwan, Vietnamese people will also have more options to enhance their life experi-ences. After visiting the exhibition, I believe that everyone can find for themselves, their friends or relatives an interesting technological item from Taiwan Excellence as a special gift," Dr Mai Liem Truc, former deputy minister of Information and Commu-nications said at the event.On the first day of the event, Taiwan Excellence Conference "IoT for Smart Living" was held to discuss the development potential of this platform in Taiwan and Vietnam, si-multaneously to introduce the latest IoT solutions.Addressing the big picture Internet of Things (IoT) in Taiwan, Raymond Chen, direc-tor of Strategic Marketing Department of TAITRA said, "According to the Internation-al Data Corporation (IDC), IoT marks the beginning of the next worldwide industrial revolution. By 2020, IoT is expected to connect four billion people and generate $7.1 trillion in profits. Taiwan is currently occupying an important position in the global ICT supply chain. Based on the two sides' traditional friendship, I hope that Taiwan and Vietnam will promote cooperation to provide and develop IoT solutions in edu-cation, factory automation, construction or smart home application through this sem-inar."Apart from the exhibition zones and image promotion areas, as well as various confer-ences on ICT, Taiwan Expo 2017 also presents a range of outstanding performances from singer-actor Minh Hangcelebrity endorser of Taiwan Excellence Campaign in Vi-etnam, the Taiwanese band Judy's Harmonica, and the dancing group New Century Culture Arts Groups.Initiated by the Taiwan Bureau of Foreign Trade and organised by TAITRA, Taiwan Excellence Award represents the innovative and technological image of Taiwan's most competitive industries. In 2017, citizens of HCM City will continue to have the chance to be exposed to superior Taiwanese products at Taiwan Excellence's pavilion, on No-vember 8-10, at the 9th Vietnam's leading International Water Supply, Sanitation, Wa-ter Resources and Purification eventVIETWATER, also at Saigon Exhibition and Convention centre (SECC).

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VietnamJapan Cultural Exchange Festival in Da Nang on way

27/JUL/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES

Festival to take place at Han River Port in central city on July 28-30.The VietnamJapan Cultural Exchange Festival 2017 will be held from July 28 to 30 at Han River Port in the central city of Da Nang and aims to strengthen the solidarity and friendship between the two countries and attract international visitors, especially Jap-anese, to the city and Vietnam.Some 150 booths have been designed in the typical festival styles of Vietnam and Japan and will not only introduce and promote products such as technology, electronics, fashion, handicrafts, cosmetics, and food but also have a space for culture, cuisine, tourism, and education exchanges, together with calligraphy performances, a Kimono fashion show, a Japanese tea ceremony, a Japanese speaking contest, film screenings, a Cosplay contest, a Japanese make-up art and beauty contest, and a workshop on Jap-anese tourism in Da Nang.The festival will also bring together a large number of artists from both countries. The highlight is a street performance involving more than 100 artists along Bach Dang Road at the opening ceremony on the night of July 28, bringing together traditional and modern music styles from the two cultures.The Japanese Ambassador in Vietnam will be in attendance, as will local government officials, government officials from Japan, representatives from Japanese organisa-tions and enterprises in Da Nang, and hundreds of university students, artists, arti-sans, and business leaders.Direct flights from Da Nang to Osaka and return, operated by Jetstar Pacific Airlines and starting from September 1, will be also introduced.http://vneconomictimes.com/article/biz-traveler/vietnam-japan-cultural-exchange-festival-in-da-nang-on-way End

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