According to Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh, smart city construction should be people-centred, ensuring that all members of society can benefit while managing information security issues, network security, and personal information.

The Central Economic Commission of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and other ministries to organise the Industry 4.0 Summit 2019 on October 2 and 3 in Hanoi. Themed “Digital Vietnam: Accelerating digital transformation toward sustainable development”, the summit covered key technical topics presented by leading industry speakers in smart manufacturing, smart city, smart energy, banking innovation, and digital economy.

The summit brought together more than 3,500 attendees, including business leaders, professionals, innovators, and C-level decision-makers from key sectors to engage, network, benchmark, and offer insights on upgrading digital capabilities for a powerful 4.0 transformation.

Notably, at the seminar on building a smart city in the process of the national digital transformation, many recommendations were made.

Smart cities are to become the basic driving force of socio-economic development across the country. Currently, the country has more than 830 urban areas with the rate of urbanisation reaching 38.6 per cent.

Economic growth in urban areas reach an average of 12-15 per cent, 1.5-2 times higher than the national average. The whole country has about 30 localities implementing smart city projects, including Ho Chi Minh City.

However, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the current development vision for smart cities is still incomplete. Some localities have just started to deploy basic applications and services for smart cities. Meanwhile, ministries and agencies continue to research and improve the formulation and promulgation of guidelines on mechanisms and policies for smart cities.

At the seminar, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Hung recommended localities should have clear vision and plans for smart city development so that investment can be targeted and harmonised in the future.

On the other hand, during the implementation process, it is necessary for smart cities to be built on a shared platform so that they can share and synchronise functions and oversight where possible, with centralised data and supervision to ensure investment efficiency. The construction of smart cities should also be linked to the development of an e-government.

"It is necessary to consider the development of e-government as the core of building a smart government and smart cities," Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Hung said.

In addition, smart city developers should pay attention to ensure network security right from the beginning when building and deploying a smart city.

“We should select businesses with good capacity for the task. Lastly, we should focus on developing human resources suitable for a smart city. It is indispensable to have leaders with a clear vision and to have qualified human resources to manage and operate smart cities,” said Hung.

Expert highlights four trends of retail sector

Under the influence of the fourth industrial revolution, the local retail sector is changing quickly and following four main trends, heard attendees at a recent seminar in Hanoi.

Speaking at the event, Vu Vinh Phu, an economic expert and former chairman of the Hanoi Supermarkets Association, stated that over the past four or five years, the trend of forming joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions has been flourishing in the retail field, resulting in the emergence of giant retailers.

“They are strong enough to compete with big rivals and have an advantage in terms of input and output goods and the quality of products,” Phu said.

The race will become fiercer, causing small firms with weak management and heavy losses to be merged or go bankrupt, he added.

The trend will continue its upward spiral in the coming months, Phu noted.

The second trend he mentioned was the demand among customers for diverse experiences.

In recent years, some major enterprises have developed shopping and entertainment centers, using digital platforms and users’ smartphones to serve customers.

Single supermarkets and commercial centers serving few segments are facing closure, he remarked.

Besides this, as a founder of the first supermarket in Vietnam and an observer of the retail sector for a decade, Phu stated that the trend of building facilities to purchase agricultural products from many areas and regions is on the rise.

Farm produce, which is varied in Vietnam and widely grown, is being eyed by retailers.

Multichannel sales platforms were also presented as a trend of the retail sector by the economic expert. Phu said that some 70% of Vietnam’s population uses mobile phones, opening up the online sales playground.

The ecommerce sector is still facing several legal bottlenecks. The management of the quality of goods sold online remains loose, reducing shoppers’ confidence in these items. As such, setting up multiple sales platforms is considered a good way to diversify retailers’ services and gain further ground in the retail market.

Credit institutions expect rosy prospects for 2019

Most of credit institutions have expected better business performance for the fourth quarter as well as the whole of 2019, according to a recent survey by the State Bank of Vietnam.

The September survey shows that 82.3 percent of the questioned credit institutions forecast quarterly improvement in their business performance for Q4, and 87.1 percent expected the same for this year compared to 2018. Notably, 28.4 – 29.7 percent of them predicted “much improvement”, compared to 20 – 27.4 percent in the June survey.

Up to 91 percent of the interviewees believed that their pre-tax profit this year will increase from 2018, 3 percent forecast unchanged figures, and 6 percent were worried about a decline.

The mobilised capital across the system is expected to grow 4.39 percent in Q4 and 13.06 percent in 2019, down 0.42 percent from the previous survey’s forecast but still higher than the 12.45-percent pace in 2018.

Credit growth of the whole system is forecast at 4.85 percent for Q4 and 13.61 percent for this year, down 0.72 percent from the expectation in the previous survey and also lower than the 13.88-percent expansion in 2018.

Meanwhile, 79.4 percent of the credit institutions predicted that risks of client groups will remain unchanged, 12.8 percent said risks may rise “slightly”, and 7.8 percent expected they will decrease.

For 2019, 60 percent said risks of client groups will stay stable compared to last year, and another 20 percent expected a fall.

According to the survey, 76.5 percent of the respondents reported improved business performance in Q3 compared to Q2, with 20.6 percent “much improved”.

Sustainable production sought for dragon fruit as China raises import standards

Proper zoning and more investment for processing are among the measures needed to develop sustainable production of dragon fruit in the country, experts have said.

Last year, the country exported more than 1.1 billion USD of dragon fruit, accounting for about 30 per cent of the country’s total fruit and vegetable export value, according to the Vietnam Farmers Association.

Speaking at a recent seminar in the south-central province of Binh Thuan, Nguyen Xuan Đinh, deputy chairman of the association, said that China had begun cultivating dragon fruit and was raising standards for dragon fruit imports.

China is currently the main market for Vietnamese dragon fruit.

Binh Thuan and the Mekong Delta province of Long An and Tien Giang top the country in dragon fruit growing area.

Binh Thuan, the country’s largest dragon fruit producer, has nearly 30,000ha of dragon fruit. Of the figure, nearly 10,000ha are planted under Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) standards and more than 260ha under GlobalGAP standards.

However, the country’s dragon fruit production is largely unsustainable since many farms are small-scale and there is a lack of co-operation among stakeholders and seedling management.

Most dragon fruit growing areas are scattered and few of them use advanced farming techniques. In addition, the quality of seedlings has not been managed properly.

Evaluation of growing areas also needs to be done to identify the variety of dragon fruit suited to each area.

Mai Thanh Phung of the HCM City-based Tropical Agricultural Research and Consultancy Center said that localities should set up zoned growing areas and improve management to ensure sustainability.

Farmers should also establish co-operatives and work together to reach quality standards, and involve other stakeholders so that buyers and outlets can be guaranteed.

More trade promotions and favourable conditions for investment in dried dragon fruit and dragon fruit wine are needed as well.

Up to 80 per cent of the country’s dragon fruit is sold fresh and unprocessed.

The country produces an annual output of 660,000 tonnes of dragon fruit. 

Businesses set to capitalise on RCEP opportunities to bolster exports

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will open plenty of opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises to boost export market expansion and their deeper engagement in the global value chain once the agreement comes into effect.

Following six years of negotiations, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has entered its final stage of talks, with the agreement expected to be signed in 2020.

The RCEP comprises of a total of 16 nations, including all 10 ASEAN member states and their six partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and New Zealand).

The RCEP is regarded as the world’s largest regional trade agreement as it covers a market of 47.4 per cent of the world’s population, accounts for 30 per cent of global gross domestic product, 29.1 per cent of global trade, and 32.5 per cent of global investment flows.

According to Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, the RCEP is expected to create the world’s largest free trade area with the development of regional and global value chains that will contribute to spurring the economic growth of all RCEP members, including Vietnam.

RCEP signatories have pledged to open their doors to goods, services, and investments, simplify custom procedures, set up the rules of origin and remove trade barriers to enhance trade facilitation.

In particularly, amidst the rising trend of trade protectionism in the region and the world, the success of RCEP will contribute to creating a new trade structure in the region, accelerating the globalization and trade facilitation.

Minister Anh stated that in order to achieve a high-quality FTA that balances the interests of all parties involved, Vietnam has been active in discussions and made proposals in multiple fields to resolve internal issues whilst also ensuring the national interests.

Until now, RCEP negotiations have concluded several chapters including economic co-operation, small and medium-sized enterprises, customs procedures, trade facilitation, and government procurement.

These negotiations have significantly narrowed the viewpoints of nations in important fields such as the trade of goods and services, investment, and intellectual property.

With regard to the future prospects of the RECP, economists at a recent seminar titled ‘RCEP agreement – Negotiation Updates and Issues Concerned by Businesses’ said that the RCEP can be considered the world’s largest regional trade agreement with its market size being larger than that of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Countries participating in the RECP represent huge consumption markets that enjoy strong growth, while some nations have yet to set forth high requirements in terms of product quality compared to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

The impending trade pact is expected to provide new opportunities for domestic enterprises to boost exports and expand into new markets in the fields that they hold strengths such as electronics, garment and textiles, footwear, and processed food.

Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Director of the World Trade Organization Center and Integration under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the country’s exports are predicted to undergo slight fluctuations upon joining the RCEP, adding that the biggest advantage for Vietnam is to engage more deeply in the regional and global supply chains.

Trang also pointed out that with regard to the CPTPP, the country has faced an array of difficulties in taking full advantage of tariff incentives on garments and textiles as Vietnamese products must adhere to rules of origin whereby a certain ratio of materials from a product must originate from other CPTPP members. Currently, most of the nation’s supply sources of materials originate from China.

Meanwhile, joining the RCEP will lower the burden of import costs of input materials due to tariff incentives, unified customs procedures, and trade facilitation.

Through the signing of the RCEP, domestic businesses expect that some service markets will become more open, especially logistics and telecommunications services, in addition to having a better e-commerce platform and a more transparent and competitive business climate, she noted

Amidst concerns among businesses about the country’s competitive capacity, Trang claimed that Vietnam is expected to not suffer from high competitive pressure from the opening of market as tariff incentives will not create huge fluctuations. In fact, several of the nation’s tariff lines have been substantially reduced.

Experts have urged enterprises to improve their competitive edge, overcome shortcomings such as a lack of professionalism, inconsistent quality in their products, and inadequacies in production procedures, in order to seize the opportunities presented by the RCEP.

As the RCEP enters the final stages of negotiations, businesses are advised to improve their overall standards ahead of the implementation of the FTAs, apart from giving the earliest feedback on inadequacies to the government’s negotiation team.

If the additional feedback can be given upon the completion of the RCEP, then it will serve to bring practical benefits and reduce the negative impacts on Vietnamese businesses.

HCM City to celebrate, strengthen start-ups, innovation

Thirty innovation and start-up events will be held during the HCM City Innovation, Startup and Entrepreneurship Week (WHISE 2019) from October 15 to 19.

Nguyen Khac Thanh, deputy director of the Department of Science and Technology, said WHISE 2019 would offer a chance for authorities and start-ups to review the city start-up scene.

Based on this, the department and other relevant agencies would advise the People’s Committee to offer more incentives to strengthen the start-up eco-system, he said.

Winners of competitions such as the Creative Idea Contest, Nguyen Tat Thanh University Startup Open Day, AIOT, Smart Cities Contest, and others will be announced at the event.

Nguyen Thi Dieu Hang, director of the Business Start-up Support Centre, said the contests have helped start-ups become “strong” and fit to represent the city in international contests.

Thanh said the city provides funding and technological assistance to start-ups through business incubators, while its many training courses help improve start-up entrepreneurs’ management and financial knowledge.

WHISE will also include a number of workshops and conferences on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and maths) education for students, 3D printing technology and others.

There will be an exhibition featuring products and technologies from Vietnamese and foreign start-ups, which would also serve to attract the interest of investors in the city.

The event will be organized by the city People’s Committee in co-operation with the Finnish embassy in Ha Noi. 

Credit growth expands 8.4 per cent

Credit growth has expanded by 8.4 per cent against the end of 2018 so far this year, the General Statistics Office reported.

The gain was slower than last year when credit rose 9.52 per cent.

Capital mobilised by banks was also moderate, rising by 8.68 per cent compared with 9.15 per cent during the same period last year.

Interest rates remained relatively stable, with the rate of mainly medium- and long-term deposits inching up at some banks that needed capital to meet the central bank’s adequacy ratio regulations.

Interest rates for one-to-six month deposits stood at 4.5-5.5 per cent per year, 5.5-6.8 per cent per year for six-to-12 month deposits, and 6.6-7.5 per cent for 13 months and upwards.

Meanwhile, lending rates averaged 6 to 9 per cent per year for short-term loans and 9 to 11 per cent per year for medium- and long-term loans.

In the first nine months, banks largely met credit demands in the investment, production and business sectors. Notably, banks continued focusing on manufacturing, business borrowers and prioritised industries, as per Government guideline, while loans for risky sectors were under strict control.

The central bank has targeted credit growth of 14 per cent this year, lower than in previous years. Experts have so far hailed the moderate credit growth, saying it was a positive sign for banks' asset quality and capitalisation.

According to Moody’s, tighter credit could lead to rising problem loan ratios. However, lower credit growth encouraged banks to focus on borrowers of better quality, which would improve asset quality in the long term.

Moderate credit growth would also lower pressure on capital, especially for State-owned banks, the rating agency said.

IP occupancy rate hits nearly 75 percent

The occupancy rate at operational industrial parks (IPs) nationwide hits nearly 75 percent, according to the Economic Zone Management Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

In the first nine months of this year, IPs and economic zones in the country attracted 397 foreign-invested projects with newly-registered capital totalling 10.1 billion USD. In the period, the zones also drew 338 domestic investment projects worth a combined 96.9 trillion VND (4.17 billion USD).

Vietnam is now home to 327 industrial parks with a total natural acreage of 96,100 ha. Of them, 256 have been put into operation, and the remaining are in the process of land clearance and construction.

Besides IPs, the country also houses 17 coastal economic zones with total land and water surface area of more than 845,000 ha. In addition, the Ninh Co economic zone in the northern province of Nam Dinh has been designated in the national economic zone planning, but is yet to be built.

Of the 256 operating industrial zones, 224 have built concentrated waste water treatment facilities.

As of the end of September, there were 3.7 million labourers working in IPs and economic zones, around 60 percent of whom are female./.

SSI holds biggest stock-brokering market share

SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) again had the biggest stock-brokering market shares on both Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi stock exchanges in the third quarter of the year.

SSI held a 13.60 percent share on the southern bourse and a 10.37 percent share on the northern exchange.

HCM City Securities Corporation (HSC) and VNDirect Securities Corporation (VNDS) were the two runner-ups on both exchanges.

Locally-present RoK securities firms Mirae Asset (Vietnam) Securities Co Ltd and KIS Securities JSC were present among top 10 securities companies with biggest stock-brokering market shares on both exchanges.

Mirae Asset (Vietnam) Securities ranked fifth on HoSE and KIS Securities ranked tenth. The two firms ranked sixth and ninth on the northern exchange, respectively.

Techcombank Securities JSC (TCBS) held 82.03 percent of the southern bourse’s bond market share – the highest.

The company was followed by Vietcombank Securities Co Ltd (VCBS) (7.69 percent), PetroVietnam Securities JSC (3.23 percent) and Bao Viet Securities JSC (BVSC) (2.22 percent).

VCBS, HSC, BIDV Securities JSC (BSC) and Ban Viet Securities JSC (VCSC) each held more than 10 percent of the government bond market share on the northern exchange with VCBS topping the group.

BVSC and ACB Securities Co Ltd (ACBS) held between 5 percent and 10 percent of the HNX’s government bond market share.

The remaining firms included Sai Gon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS), VPBank Securities JSC (VPS) and VNDS.

VPS was also the firm with the highest market share on the derivatives market.

Meanwhile, on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), Tan Viet Securities JSC (TVSI) gained the top spot with a 10.57 percent market share.

SSI, VNDS, HSC and VPS were among the followers, holding 8.28-9.82 percent of the market share./.

Jan-Sept period sees record number of new firms

Nearly 102,300 new enterprises were established in nine months of this year, a new record so far, with a total registered capital of over 1.29 trillion VND (56.08 million USD), reported the General Statistics Office.

The figures showed increases of 5.9 percent in the number of enterprises and 34 percent in registered capital year-on-year.

The average registered capital of each new firm is 12.6 billion VND, the highest seen so far, demonstrating better health of the newcomers.

Meanwhile, 27,600 firms resumed their operations in the period, up 20 percent year-on-year.

Newly-established firms employed 929,800 workers, up 13.4 percent from the same period last year.

Among the new firms, about 1,500 operated in agro-forestry-fisheries, accounting for 1.5 percent. There were 27,500 in industry and construction and 73,300 in services, accounting for 26.9 percent and 71.6 percent, respectively.

All economic zones saw increases in the number of new businesses, including the Red River Delta up 8 percent, the northern and midland mountainous region 0.1 percent, the north central and coastal central region 5.7 percent, the Central Highlands 13.4 percent, the southeast 5.2 percent and the Mekong River Delta 1.6 percent.

Enterprises that suspended their operations numbered 21,200, down 7.9 percent annually while 28,200 others stopped operation to wait for dissolution.

In order to improve corporate competitiveness, Nguyen Minh Thao, head of the Central Institute for Economic Management’s Business Environment and Competitiveness Department suggested stepping up reform and start-ups, thus contributing to economic growth./.

Coal remains main source of energy in Southeast Asia

Several of the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have adopted clean-energy policies, and yet the use of coal continues to increase in the region.

The energy multinational Wood Mackenzie said in a recent study that coal would remain a major fuel source in Southeast Asia for years to come, its use expected to peak only in 2027.

The Indonesian government has set a target of generating 23 percent of its power from renewable sources but has achieved only 12 percent thus far due to widespread dependence on coal.

Jacqualine Tao, a research associate at Wood Mackenzie, said the reality of rising power demand and affordability issues in the region means that coal’s capacity plateau will only be seen after 2030.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has stated that global demand for coal grew by 0.7 percent for the two years ending in 2018. It has estimated that, in the next 20 years, coal demand will continue to rise due to its affordability and availability.

Southeast Asian nations, India and other developing countries will be the centre of coal demand for the next 25 years, obtaining three-fourths of their energy from it, the IEA believes.

By 2040, the power generated from coal will have risen from the current 35 percent to 40 percent, while the proportion generated from natural gas drops from 30 to 45 percent, it has said.

Countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Pakistan will have to import coal-generated power from other nations, while the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea and China will need less.

However, Wood Mackenzie believes wind and solar power will eventually predominate in Southeast Asia, integrated with coal use to generate 35 percent of power by 2040.

Investment in wind and solar energy will increase by 23 percent between 2019 and 2050, for a combined value of 89 billion USD./.

Ha Nam welcomes over 2 million tourists in nine months

The northern province of Ha Nam welcomed over 2 million tourists in nine months of this year, including 77,000 foreigners, a significant increase from the previous years.

The locality earned revenues of over 520 billion VND (22.6 million USD) during the period.

Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Le Xuan Huy attributed the growth to ecological, spiritual, cultural, rural, medical and green tourism services.

This year, the Tam Chuc spiritual tourism complex has been chosen as a venue for the 16th United Nation Day of Vesak.

The provincial tourism sector set the goal of serving 2.5 – 3 million visitors, including 190,000 foreigners by 2020, and 7.6 million by 2030.

The total tourism revenue will reach 2 trillion VND and around 10.3 trillion VND by 2020 and 2030, respectively, up 10 – 15 percent on average. Up to 21,000 jobs will be created, including more than 8,300 direct jobs.

To such end, the sector will build and popularise Ha Nam tourism trademark, work with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and the Vietnam Tourism Association to join tourism fairs in traditional markets such as Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, and in new markets like Russia, Germany, UK, Canada and India, and welcome famtrip groups to the province./.

Sustainable production sought for dragon fruit as China raises import standards

Proper zoning and more investment for processing are among the measures needed to develop sustainable production of dragon fruit in the country, experts have said.

Last year, the country exported more than US$1.1 billion of dragon fruit, accounting for about 30 per cent of the country’s total fruit and vegetable export value, according to the Việt Nam Farmers Association.

Speaking at a seminar in the south-central province of Bình Thuận earlier this week, Nguyễn Xuân Định, deputy chairman of the association, said that China had begun cultivating dragon fruit and was raising standards for dragon fruit imports.

China is currently the main market for Vietnamese dragon fruit.

“If we do not improve the quality of dragon fruit, production and consumption of the fruit will face problems,” he said.

Bình Thuận and the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Long An and Tiền Giang top the country in dragon fruit growing area.

Bình Thuận, the country’s largest dragon fruit producer, has nearly 30,000ha of dragon fruit. Of the figure, nearly 10,000ha are planted under Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) standards and more than 260ha under GlobalGAP standards.

However, the country’s dragon fruit production is largely unsustainable since many farms are small-scale and there is a lack of co-operation among stakeholders and seedling management.

Most dragon fruit growing areas are scattered and few of them use advanced farming techniques. In addition, the quality of seedlings has not been managed properly.

Evaluation of growing areas also needs to be done to identify the variety of dragon fruit suited to each area.

Mai Thành Phụng of the HCM City-based Tropical Agricultural Research and Consultancy Center said that localities should set up zoned growing areas and improve management to ensure sustainability.

Farmers should also establish co-operatives and work together to reach quality standards, and involve other stakeholders so that buyers and outlets can be guaranteed.

More trade promotions and favourable conditions for investment in dried dragon fruit and dragon fruit wine are needed as well.

Up to 80 per cent of the country’s dragon fruit is sold fresh and unprocessed.

The country produces an annual output of 660,000 tonnes of dragon fruit.

Bac Lieu province works to give its shrimp brands

The Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu will work closely with FLC Group and Viet Uc Group to build and develop brands for local shrimp products under a cooperative deal inked between the provincial People’s Committee and the two corporations on October 3.

The three sides will coordinate to register, manage and protect shrimp brands in Bac Lieu. The Viet Uc Group will help the province to develop its shrimp brands in line with national and international standards, while brand promotion campaigns will be designed and carried out by the locality, the Viet Uc Group and FLC Group, with promotional events held once a year at an FLC resorts or at high-tech shrimp farms owned by the Viet Uc Group.

Bac Lieu province has pledged to create the best conditions for the two businesses and local shrimp producers to develop their business and production value chains. Besides asking for support and advice from competent ministries and branches, the province will work to have local shrimp products labeled with the Vietnam Value tag.

According to Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Duong Thanh Trung, Bac Lieu is the second largest shrimp producer in the country, with more than 135,000 hectares of shrimp breeding and a yield of some 150,000 tonnes per year. The province gains on average 600 million USD from shrimp exports annually.

The province is striving to become the national shrimp hub under the direction of the Prime Minister, he added.

Meanwhile, Director of the Directorate of Fisheries’ Department of Aquaculture Nhu Van Can said the fishery sector contributes about 3 percent of the nation’s GDP. As a key export, Vietnamese shrimp has been sold in more than 90 countries and territories. Last year, the product earned the nation over 3.55 million USD, accounting for 45 percent of the sector’s value.

However, Can said promotions for Vietnamese shrimp are still lagging behind the industry’s potential and development. Thus, he recommended Bac Lieu province and the corporations to develop shrimp brands in tandem with ensuring quality, building rational prices and expanding consumption markets./.

Korean newspaper highlights Vietnam’s economic potential

Korea JoongAng Daily of the Republic of Korea (RoK) has recently run an article highlighting Vietnam’s economic potential.

According to the article, the Vietnamese economy shows potential to grow even faster than the RoK’s thanks to its fortunate timing. With China’s economy saturated, many foreign companies, including Korean businesses, are shrinking their dependency on China, creating opportunities for Vietnam.

Korean companies and those from other countries are rushing to build factories to replace those in China, where labour costs are no longer cheap, it said.

While Samsung Electronics has been making adjustments to its investments in China, it has also been expanding investment in Vietnam.

The changing global value chain due to the ongoing US-China trade war is also speeding up investment into Vietnam. As US companies have been relocating their plants from China, recruitment in Vietnam has been step up to meet the growing number of orders, the article said.

Korean firms’ expanded operations in Vietnam has also helped to improve social and cultural ties between the two countries, the article said, highlighting the increasing number of marriages between Vietnamese and Koreans.

The article said Vietnam could increase its role as the hub of Korean production that can also help Vietnam in developing its own technologies.

Major Korean groups such as Samsung, LG, Hyosung and Kumho, are investing in big production facilities in Vietnam. Hanwha Group made an equity investment of 400 million USD in Vingroup, and SK Group invested 470 million USD in Masan Group in their bets to take advantage of Vietnam’s growth that stands at 6-7 percent annually.

Vietnam is now one of the RoK’s main investment destinations as the flow of Korean capital into the Southeast Asian country reached 50 billion USD as of 2017.

Meanwhile, the RoK has been Vietnam’s second biggest provider of official development assistance (ODA), only after Japan, according to the article./.

Binh Phuoc remains attractive to foreign investors

The southern province of Binh Phuoc has so far this year attracted 224 foreign-invested projects, with over 2.2 billion USD of FDI disbursed.

Vo Dang Khoa, Director of the provincial Centre for Trade and Investment Promotion, said that investors are focusing on many projects in processing, which is a good sign in the locality’s investment attraction.

Notably, an animal feed factory is being built in Becamex Binh Phuoc industrial park at a cost of 157.6 million USD, which is scheduled to be put into operation in April 2020.

Khoa said that the province prioritises projects in support industry and processing, especially cashew processing for export, as well as high technology agriculture.

Alongside, the province has also called for investment to trade, tourism and urban development, he said.

According to the official, the administrative reform of the province has been sped up, creating a smooth investment environment for businesses. He added that currently, the province can process and issue investment licence to businesses within only 24 hours.

In the first nine months of 2019, Binh Phuoc saw the establishment of 829 new firms with a combined registered capital of nearly 9 trillion VND (387 million USD)./.

Value chains help Vietnamese tuna become more competitive

Value chains, which involve fishing, processing and consumption of tuna, have helped Vietnamese tuna products gain competitive edge in more than 200 markets worldwide, according to insiders.

Close linkage between fishermen and businesses

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Directorate of Fisheries, thanks to a project to develop tuna value chain implemented by the ministry in the past five years, the tuna fishing and processing industry has enjoyed impressive achievements.

During 2014-2018, annual tuna output grew by an average 6 percent while tuna export increased by an average 7 percent each year. In the first nine months of 2019, Vietnam shipped over 550 million USD worth of tuna to foreign markets, a year-on-year increase of 16 percent.

Deputy Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries Nguyen Quang Hung said that the country has 25 ports serving tuna fishing vessels and 60 firms processing tuna for exports.

The tuna fishing fleet numbers nearly 48,000 offshore vessels, catching around 170,000 tonnes of tuna each year, or four times higher than the amount recorded in 2014, he added.

Besides making heavy investment in storage facilities, processors and exporters have paid due attention to increasing added value of the fish and promote export of processed tunas like tuna canned in oil, pouched tuna, and tuna fillet.

Vice Director of Binh Dinh province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Van Phuc laid stress on the significance of the close coordination among fishermen, purchasers, processors and exporters, saying it contributes greatly to the success of tuna sector.

Currently, the country has nine tuna value chains, four of which are in Binh Dinh province, two in Phu Yen and three in Khanh Hoa, he said, adding tuna fishermen are equipped with Japanese fishing tools.

Huge potential for tuna export

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said the US and Europe have the largest demands for tuna. A survey by US-based firm Tri Marine, which is now owned by Italy’s Bolton Group showed that canned tuna, which is a key export item of Vietnam, is favoured over other tuna products in the US market.

This trend in the taste of foreign consumers is favourable for Vietnamese exporters.

However, as the world market is certain to fluctuate, Hung suggested the Government and competent ministries, sectors and branches to arrange resources to upgrade specialised fishing ports and developed tuna logistics services so that the tuna industry can maintain its momentum.

In addition, he said research institutes and universities should enhance scientific research and transfer fishing, processing and preserving technologies to fishermen and firms to improve tuna quality./.

Leading steelmaker Hoa Phat posts 32-percent rise in steel export volume

Hoa Phat Group, a leading steel maker in Vietnam, shipped 191,600 tonnes of steel products aboard in the first nine months of 2019, rising 32 percent year on year and accounting for nearly 10 percent of its total sales.

The conglomerate said during the period, it produced nearly 2 million tonnes of construction steel, up 16.1 percent from a year earlier.

In September, it turned out more than 193,000 tonnes of construction steel, equivalent to the output in the previous month.

Aside from complete products, the firm also supplies steel billets for domestic factories. It manufactured 2 million tonnes of steel billets by the end of September.

Hoa Phat targets an output of 2.7 million tonnes of construction steel this year./.

Transactions in derivatives market fall sharply in September

The derivatives market recorded a sharp fall in the number of transactions in September compared to the previous month, according to the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX).

The average number of contracts traded each session was 56,674 in September, down 26.7 percent month on month.

However, the market’s open interest (OI), which is the total number of outstanding derivative contracts that have not been settled, increased 12.29 percent, reaching 19,849 contracts on the last trading day of September. The month’s highest OI, 22,998 contracts, was recorded on September 12.

On September 30, there were 83,981 trading accounts on the derivatives market, up 3.03 percent from August, the HNX said.

Meanwhile, the number of transactions on the five-year Government bond futures contract also declined strongly in September, when there were only 42 contracts traded, equivalent to 36.5 percent of the figure in August.

The OI on this type of derivative product was 10 contracts at the end of September, equivalent to 7.14 percent of that during the last trading session of August, statistics show./.

Demand for air purifiers surges in HCMC

Public concern over air quality has seen demand for air purifiers skyrocket since mid-September in Ho Chi Minh City.

Electronics chain Dien May Xanh, which has 900 outlets in the country, says it sold 1,500 air purifiers last month, up 197 percent year-on-year.

"There is a rising demand for air purifiers as customers are concerned about their health. Some of our models are temporarily out of stock," a representative of the chain said.

Electronics chain Thien Hoa, with 17 outlets in HCMC, said that air purifier orders last month surged 140 percent over August.

Local stores have also reported high sales of air purifiers. Long, manager of an electronics store in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District, estimated that September air purifier sales doubled from August. "We sell 50-70 machines a day, and more customers are coming to ask questions every day."

Another store in HCMC’s District 3 said that they have only two machines left and customers have to wait for a few days for new stock.

Popular air purifiers in Vietnam are Japanese brands like Sharp, Daikin and Hitachi, South Korean ones like Coway, and Sweden’s Electrolux.

Prices vary between VND1.8-30 million ($78-1,297), with VND4-6 million ($173-259) the most popular range as machines in this range cover up to 40 square meters, enough for most homes.

Customers are also willing to pay for machines in the higher price range of VND7-12 million ($303-519), because these can reportedly filter out PM2.5 particulate, defined as superfine particles with 3 percent the diameter of a human hair.

The surge in demand for air purifiers comes as worsening air quality, manifest in Ho Chi Minh City in recent days as a thick haze, has become a matter of great worry for residents. At 9 a.m. on Tuesday HCMC's air quality index (AQI) was measured at an "unhealthy" 159.

Local stores in recent weeks have also recorded a surge in sales of masks, including that of high-end brands costing up to VND1.1 million ($47) each.

Four carriers offer flight safety officers to Vietnam aviation authority

Four airlines have offered their eight flight safety officers to the national aviation authority as more carriers enter the fray.

Vinpearl Air has said that it can send four officers, Bamboo Airways can send two, and Vietravel Airlines and Kite Air, one each. Of the four, Bamboo Airways is the only operating airline, while the remaining have applied for commercial licenses.

The proposal follows information that the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) needs seven more flight safety officers by next year to supervise more aircraft. With the skies getting more crowded as more carriers enter the fray

CAAV now has 49 aviation safety officers, in which only four are working full time. They supervise a total of 256 aircraft, and this number is set to increase to 295 next year.

CAAV said that it is reviewing the proposal, and the flight safety team will increase to 12 people if the new staff meet all required qualifications.

Booming demand for air travel in Vietnam has prompted existing airlines to expand their fleets while new players seek to enter the market.

Private airline Bamboo Airways was the latest to be permitted to increase its fleet from 10 to 30.

National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines plans to invest $3.7 billion in 2021-2025 to get 50 new narrow-body aircraft. It is currently operating 61 narrow-body jets, of which 26 will run out of lease between 2021-2025.

Budget airline Vietjet, which operates 66 Airbus jets, recently ordered 15 new A321XLR jetliners from Airbus, according to Reuters.

As the number of aircraft operated by Vietnamese carriers is estimated to reach 449 in 2025, CAAV estimates it will need to have 86 aviation safety officers then, an increase of 37 from now.

Vietnam now has six airlines: Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, Jetstar Pacific, Vietnam Air Services Company (VASCO), Bamboo Airways and Vietstar Airline, which received permission in July.

Vietravel Airlines, along with KiteAir – a unit of hospitality firm Thien Minh Group, and Vinpearl Air – a unit of conglomerate Vingroup, are vying to be the seventh.

Local airlines served almost 50 million passengers last year, up 10.1 percent from 2017, according to CAAV.

SSI holds biggest market shares, TVSI leads on UPCoM

SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) again had the biggest stock-brokering market shares on both Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi stock exchanges in the third quarter of the year.

SSI held a 13.60 per cent share on the southern bourse and a 10.37 per cent share on the northern exchange.

HCM City Securities Corporation (HSC) and VNDirect Securities Corporation (VNDS) were the two runner-ups on both exchanges.

Locally-present South Korean securities firms Mirae Asset (Vietnam) Securities Co Ltd and KIS Securities JSC were present among top 10 securities companies with biggest stock-brokering market shares on both exchanges.

Mirae Asset (Vietnam) Securities ranked fifth on HoSE and KIS Securities ranked tenth. The two firms ranked sixth and ninth on the northern exchange, respectively.

Techcombank Securities tops HoSE bond market

Techcombank Securities JSC (TCBS) held 82.03 per cent of the southern bourse’s bond market share – the highest.

The company was followed by Vietcombank Securities Co Ltd (VCBS) (7.69 per cent), PetroVietnam Securities JSC (3.23 per cent) and Bao Viet Securities JSC (2.22 per cent).

VCBS, HSC, BIDV Securities JSC (BSC) and Ban Viet Securities JSC (VCSC) each held more than 10 per cent of the government bond market share on the northern exchange with VCBS topping the group.

BVSC and ACB Securities Co Ltd (ACBS) held between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of the HNX’s government bond market share.

The remaining firms included Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities JSC (SHS), VPBank Securities JSC (VPS) and VNDS.

VPS was also the firm with the highest market share on the derivatives market.

TVSI crowns unlisted market

On the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), Tan Viet Securities JSC (TVSI) gained the top spot with a 10.57 per cent market share.

SSI, VNDS, HSC and VPS were among the followers, holding 8.28-9.82 per cent of the market share.