VietNamNet Bridge - 2017 was the year the government demonstrated strong determination to support the development of enterprises. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired many meetings and dialogues with businesses to help settle their difficulties and arouse the entrepreneurial spirit.

Vingroup rekindles ‘made-in-Vietnam car’ dream with VinFast project

Vingroup, a real estate development conglomerate with powerful financial capability, in June 2017 announced a project on developing Vietnamese branded sedans. 

Three months later, VinFast, the automobile manufacturing complex, was set up in Dinh Vu – Cat Hai EZ in Hai Phong City. It is hoped to become the leading manufacturer in South East Asia with the capacity of 500,000 products a year by 2025. Its major products will be automobiles using internal combustion engines, electric cars using electric motors and environmentally-friendly motorbikes.

Khaisilk – from the two-label silk scarf to 30-year fraud case

Khaisilk admitted he had been selling Chinese scarves since 1990s

Khaisilk in Vietnam is known as a manufacturer and supplier of traditional high-end Vietnamese silk. Khaisilk products were favored by both Vietnamese and foreign travellers.

Its fraud was discovered in October 2017, when a company bought 60 silk scarves from Khaisilk and discovered one scarf which had two labels, one ‘made in China’ and one ‘Khaisilk Made in Vietnam’.

On October 25, Hoang Khai, the owner of Khaisilk officially admitted that he had been selling ‘made-in-China’ scarves together with ‘made-in-Vietnam’ products since 1990s and apologized. 

Khai affirmed that the products were made in China, but were made of 100 percent silk.

However, MOIT later discovered that some Khaisilk products did not contain silk material.

Vingroup, a real estate development conglomerate with powerful financial capability, in June 2017 announced a project on developing Vietnamese branded sedans.

Conglomerates enter the bourse

Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet listed 1.7 billion shares on the bourse in the first two months of 2017. The former’s capitalization value reached VND50 trillion, while the latter’s was VND65 trillion.

In early April, Petrolimex put 1.3 billion into transactions on the bourse.

VP Bank was the only bank listing shares on the bourse in 2017. Its capitalization value reached VND60 trillion.

The listing helped the VN Index increase significantly in 2017 from 665 points to 965 points.

Vietnam’s first female dollar billionaire

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of Vietjet and a businesswoman who has invested in many business fields, is the country’s first female billionaire.

The first Vietnamese dollar billionaire, Pham Nhat Vuong, was recognized in March 2013. According to Forbes, Thao has $1.2 billion in stock assets.

The battle between traditional taxi firms and Uber/Grab

Ho Huy, president of Mai Linh, a big taxi firm, accused Uber and Grab of destroying urban transport order, causing traffic jams and pointed out that the state had failed to collect tax from them.