An annual report on foreign investment in Vietnam, the first of its kind, was released at a ceremony in Hanoi on May 12.

The report was published by the Science and Technics Publishing House in coordination with the compiling council of the annual report on foreign investment in Vietnam.

It is expected to give an insight into foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam and issues that need to be tackled so as to raise the efficiency of FDI attraction and to serve socio-economic development, said Dr. Phan Huu Thang, former head of the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and chairman of the compiling council.

The report also analysed regional and global FDI trends over the past three years, as well as opportunities and challenges to Vietnam in this regard, and gave recommendations to improve the efficiency of State management over foreign investment.

Associate Prof. Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, member of the Government’s advisory group and former Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics (VIE), noted that the report has satisfied a pressing need of Vietnam’s development process, and helped the world understand more about the country.

Vietjet expands Northeast Asian flight network with three new routes

Vietjet will open two direct routes connecting Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi to Japan’s third and fourth biggest cities, Nagoya and Fukuoka, in early July.

The airline’s first service from Bangkok to Fukuoka will also be launched in mid-July.

The thrice weekly service between Hanoi and Fukuoka will operate from July 2, 2022 on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The Hanoi – Nagoya route will commence from July 3, 2022 with four weekly flights on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The Bangkok-Fukuoka will operate three flights a week from July 15 on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.

Passengers can reserve air tickets for flights between Hanoi and Fukuoka/Nagoya with fares as low as 384,000 VND (17 USD) from now. The Bangkok – Fukuoka service can be booked with super saving fares from 299 THB (9 USD) within May 16-20, 2022.

Vietnam Medipharm Expo 2022 opens in Hanoi

The 29th Vietnam International Medical, Hospital and Pharmaceutical Exhibition (Vietnam Medipharm Expo 2022) opened at the Hanoi International Exhibition Centre on May 11.

Some 150 foreign and domestic exhibitors, including those from Japan, the Republic of Korea, mainland China, Taiwan (China), Australia, the US, Belarus and the Czech Republic are participating to the four-day expo - the first pharmaceutical and medical event in the capital in two years, due to the pandemic.

The event also helped to connect the State management agencies with scientists and businesses while enhancing links among businesses, hospitals and customers, Quy said during the opening ceremony.

Two forums discussing the domestic medical equipment market and preventive healthcare services will be held on the sidelines of the expo. Another conference on applying traditional medicine in caring for and improving people's health will be also included. 

Co-organised by the Vietnam Medical Import-Export JSC, in collaboration with the Vietnam Advertisement and Fair Exhibition JSC, the previous edition attracted 60 foreign and domestic exhibitors.

Rice exports to EU quadruple in Q1

Vietnam exported 22,500 tonnes of rice to the EU for nearly 18 million USD in the first quarter of 2022, roughly a four-fold increase in both volume and value compared to the same period last year thanks to preferential tariffs enjoyed under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

In the first four months of this year, over 30,000 tonnes of Vietnamese rice were shipped to EU nations, earning the country some 23 million USD, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Agency of Foreign Trade.

Italy rose to the top of EU importers, with spending on Vietnamese rice surging 26-fold year-on-year. Other major buyers included Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Under the EVFTA, the EU is committed to purchasing 80,000 tonnes of rice annually from Vietnam, which will enjoy zero duties in 3-5 years.

The shipments include 30,000 tonnes of milled rice, 20,000 tonnes of unmilled rice and 30,000 tonnes of fragrant rice.

Vingroup aims for over 6 billion USD of revenue in 2022

Vietnamese multi-sector corporation Vingroup aims for net revenue of about 140 trillion VND (6.06 billion USD) this year, an increase of 11.4 percent year on year and after-tax profit of about 6 trillion VND (260 million USD), heard the firm’s annual stakeholders’ meeting held on May 11.

Vingroup plans to use all of its profit to invest in production and business activities.

According to Vingroup Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong, from now until 2026, the firm will provide about 600,000 electric vehicles to the US market.

This year, VinFast, a member of Vingroup will introduce smart electric vehicles to the global market, and officially receive orders for three models of VF5, VF8 and VF9.

At the same time, VinFast will continue to deliver VFe34 vehicles to customers in Vietnam and prepare for the delivery of VF8 and VF9 to markets around the world from the end of the year. Along with maintaining its position in the domestic market, VinFast aims to build its trademark in international markets in the US, Canada and Europe, said Vuong.

Vietnam striving to promote women’s economic empowerment

More than 150 delegates from ministries, international organisations, research institutions, business associations, enterprises, and women entrepreneurs nationwide shared experience and called for initiatives and efforts for women’s economic empowerment in Vietnam, at a conference in Hanoi on May 10.

The conference “WeEmpowerAsia Journey” was organised by the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (VWEC) under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women). It came within the framework of the programme WeEmpowerAsia funded by the European Union (EU).

A hybrid event (physical and virtual) aiming to share successful results and lessons after three years of implementation (2019-2022) in Vietnam, it provided authorities and enterprises with information and experience to replicate initiatives on women’s economic empowerment and promote equal employment, income and a decent working environment for sustainable businesses and society.

The programme “Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women at Work in Asia” (WeEmpowerAsia) is a collaborative effort between UN Women and the EU, funded under its Partnership Instrument, implemented 2019-2022, in partnership with Vietnam Women Entrepreneur Council, Agency for Enterprise Development, Assistance Centre for SMEs in the North of Ministry of Planning and Investment, Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs of Ministry of Labour-Invalid and Social Affairs, and Vietnam Women's Academy of Viet Nam Women’s Union. 

Vietnam's economic recovery gains momentum despite global uncertainties

Vietnam’s economic recovery is gaining momentum despite heightened global uncertainty relating to issues such as the protracted war in Ukraine, higher commodity prices, and tightening global financial conditions, according to the World Bank (WB).

The assessment was released as part of the May edition of the WB’s monthly Vietnam Macro Monitoring.

According to the report, after peaking in March the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases declined rapidly in April, whilst mobility and economic activities continued to recover as industrial production and retail sales grew at their pre-COVID rates of 9.4% on-year and 12.1% on-year, respectively.

While export growth accelerated, import growth plateaued, duly reflecting supply chain disruptions caused by the impact of China’s continued zero-COVID policy. Amid heightened global uncertainty, FDI commitments slowed for the third consecutive month, while FDI disbursement remained strong.

Furthermore, CPI inflation rose slightly from 2.4% in March to 2.6% in April, whilst core inflation climbed to 1.5%, a 17-month high and partly reflecting the recovering demand that was buoyed by consumer expenditure associated with the two national holidays.

Despite the acceleration of credit growth to reach a new high of 16.4% on-year, overnight interbank interest rates dropped to 1.37% as of the end of April, far below the 2.5% discount rate offered by the State Bank of Vietnam, indicating excessive liquidity within the domestic market.

Most locally manufactured Vinfast EVs for sale in US

About 600,000 out of 750 electric vehicles bearing the VinFast brand to be sold in the United States will be manufactured in Vietnam, revealed Pham Nhat Vuong, chairman of Vingroup, the parent company of VinFast.

The remaining 150,000 EVs will be manufactured in its plant to take shape in North Carolina, the US, the executive said at an annual shareholders meeting held on May 11.

Vuong said Vinfast plans to market 17,000 EVs in the US this year, and pre-orders for the cars have now reached over 4,000.

He admitted that fierce competition is a great challenge in the US market, and Vingroup will focus on three main factors in order to gain a firm foothold there. These plans include releasing high-quality products and services at reasonable prices with a battery leasing strategy, in addition to good after-sales service.

The chairman went on to outline that the localisation rate of Vinfast has reached 60%, and the group has set a target of raising the rate to 80% in the coming time.

According to the CEO, the demand for electric vehicles is currently rising across the world, while supply remains limited. Therefore, this is a golden opportunity to dominate the electric car market and build a truly global electric car brand, he stated.

Discovery helps promote Vietnamese tourism abroad

Ha Van Sieu, vice chairman of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) received Andrew White, head of global growth and international ad sales at Discovery Inc., in Hanoi on May 10 to discuss the possibility of popularizing Vietnam’s tourism abroad.

White briefed his host on the profile of Discovery Inc. - an American multinational mass media television conglomerate based in New York.

The group broadcasts programmes in over 220 countries and territories worldwide and boasts many famous channels, including the Discovery Channel, Food Network, Travel Channel, Animal Planet, Science Channel, and Discovery Kids.

With a strong brand, White expressed the group’s desire to co-operate alongside the VNAT in promoting images of Vietnamese tourism to the wider world.

For his part, Sieu welcomed White’s proposal, saying Vietnam’s tourism sector has grown rapidly in recent times, receiving 18 million international visitors in 2019, and the figure is set to rise to 50 million by 2030.

He pointed out that the local tourism industry has set the goal of developing the Vietnamese brand to boast unique and competitive tourism products.

Efforts to position Vietnam as an attractive tourist destination will be based on key brand values ​​and typical tourism products, such as heritage tourism, marine tourism, ecotourism, and golf tourism, he noted.

Through product diversification and fresh methods of communication, the local tourism industry is expected to bring real experiences and high-quality services for tourists, Sieu said.

He suggested that after the meeting the two sides continue to discuss co-operation plans in detail relating to deploying a relevant marketing strategy and telling Vietnamese stories to the rest of the world.

Crop failures push up pepper imports
     
Crop failures have dented pepper production, leading to an increase of nearly 7 per cent in pepper imports in the first four months.

Specifically, Viet Nam imported 12,105 tonnes of pepper during the period, of which 10,456 tonnes was black pepper and 1,649 tonnes white pepper.

Cambodia became the largest pepper exporter to Viet Nam with 4,709 tonnes. Brazil came next with 3,915 tonnes and Indonesia next with 1,855 tonnes.

Indonesia was also the largest supplier of white pepper to the country with 1,493 tonnes.

According to the Viet Nam Pepper Association (VPA), mounting pepper import can be attributed to recent crop failures, which drove domestic pepper production down to 165,000-175,000 tonnes, 10-15 per cent less than last year.

The contracting production left Vietnamese firms no choice but to purchase foreign peppers to make up for the shortfall, driving up pepper imports.

EU doors open wider for Vietnamese wood, furniture
     
Viet Nam has ample opportunities to boost exports of wooden products and furniture to the EU market in the post pandemic period, experts say.

Speaking at a seminar organised on Tuesday by the HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC), its deputy director Nguyen Tuan said the EU was among the top 15 importers of wooden furniture, handicrafts and interior and exterior decoration products from Viet Nam.

As of 2020, Germany remained Viet Nam’s leading European importer of interior and exterior wood products with 22 per cent of imports, followed by the Netherlands (13 per cent), the UK (12 per cent) and France (11 per cent), Italy (4.6 per cent) and Belgium (4.5 per cent).

However, the pandemic has strongly impacted economies around the world, including the EU, affecting exports to this major market.

Furthermore, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has triggered an economic crisis in the EU, directly affecting people’s lives, changing tastes, needs and trends in shopping and consumption of the products.

Christine Le, senior business development manager at Bureau Veritas, said it was important to comply with quality and sustainability requirements to export to the EU market.

IFC and HDBank scale up finance for SMEs

On May 11, the IFC and Ho Chi Minh City Development JSC Bank (HDBank) signed an MoU to become strategic partners, supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to scale up finance and participate in global supply chains, including high-tech agriculture.

The event took place during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit to the US leading the Vietnamese delegation to attend the US-ASEAN Special Summit in Washington DC.

This cooperation is expected to help HDBank build its supply chain finance (SCF) portfolio to $1 billion in the next 3 years. It is currently active in construction materials, agribusinesses, fast-moving consumer goods, and petroleum distribution.

The IFC will assist HDBank to design an SCF strategy for the agricultural sector, broaden its SCF products – especially supplier and distributor financing – and bring onboard anchor firms along with their suppliers and distributors.

Previously, on April 14, the IFC granted HDBank a trade finance limit of $40 million within the framework of the Global Trade Finance Program to enhance payment risk guarantee capacity for domestic enterprises.

Vietcombank and MB will take part in reconstructing CBank and Ocean Bank

Vietcombank and MB would participate in the reorganisation of two weak banks, Construction Bank (CBank) and Ocean Bank, as a part of the forcible transfer controlled by the government.

The government has just organised a new scheme for restructuring credit institutions in conjunction with dealing with bad debt during the 2016-2020 period, as well as the development for the next four years.

After the forcible transfer, these two weak credit institutions would operate in the form of a one-member limited liability bank, in which Vietcombank and MB possess all of the charter capital. The two weak banks will also be independent legal entities, with separate financial statements.

Moreover, Vietcombank and MB will engage in the administration, management, and operation of the two weak banks.

Market watchdogs believe that the fresh move could further broaden Vietcombank and MB’s credit line, which is an upbeat signal for the two commercial banks.

Vietnam attracting high-level overseas Vietnamese, foreign human resources

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam yesterday signed Decision No.569/QD-TTg on the strategy for scientific-technological development and innovation until 2030. Accordingly, the Government introduces policies and mechanisms for financial support and facilitation of immigration procedures and labor permit registration. This is to attract more high-level overseas Vietnamese, foreign human resources to domestic scientific activities.

The strategy signals that science, technology, and innovation all play important roles in developing key industries in Vietnam, with a focus on processing and manufacturing industries (to reach the proportion of at least 45 percent), in order to restructure the national economy to be more modern in 2030; in the active participation of Vietnam in Industry 4.0.

Therefore, the Government has planned to build a system of national, regional, and sectoral innovative centers, startup support centers that connect to hi-tech zones, residential areas, financial centers, venture capital funds, universities, and research institutes in order to form innovative clusters.

Another key mission in the strategy is to develop capable scientific human resources with a high level of innovation; enhance their computer and foreign language skills. This should be achieved at an early schooling stage via the participation in practical projects at school, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) training. Proper career guidance and counseling on science pursuance at school and university should also be taken care of.

In addition, the Government emphasizes on building highly qualified scientific human resources, including leading scientists that can match the level of their counterparts in developed nations.

This is fulfilled via further training of the scientific human resources of prioritized fields in countries of advanced scientific level; the introduction of policies and mechanisms to financially support and facilitate immigration as well as labor permit procedures for overseas Vietnamese or foreigners who participate in domestic scientific activities; and the development of a network to connect talented overseas Vietnamese scientists.

Simultaneously, there must be a policy to send Vietnamese laborers to multi-national corporations, foreign startups for experience gaining before returning to work in the country. Outdated policies must be amended to create favorable conditions for lectures and researchers to regularly join in scientific-technological and innovative activities in businesses.

Violating telecoms enterprises may be suspended from developing new subscribers

Decree No.14/2022/ND-CP has added more punishments to reduce the number of law breaking cases, including the content to ‘suspend violating telecoms companies from developing new subscribers’. This is the announcement of the Inspectorate of the Information and Communications Ministry in a recent online meeting about administrative sanctions in telecoms and radio frequencies fields.

Accordingly, besides suffering the main punishment forms, law-breaking telecoms businesses might even receive this harsher sanction instead of the use-to-be suspension from operation or service provision.

The Inspectorate stated that this additional content acts as a deterrent to improve the responsibility of all current telecoms companies, a tool to stop spam SIMs or messages, and scam SMS.

Since Decree No.15/2020/ND-CP only imposes mild punishments for illegal collection and use of sensitive personal information of telecoms service subscribers stored online, it cannot fulfill its deterrent mission. Therefore, Decree No.14/2022/ND-CP has doubled the fine for this crime to VND40-60 million (US$1,700-2,600).

Banks raise interest rates on savings accounts

In the early days of May 2022, many banks have raised their savings interest rates by about 0.1 percent-0.5 percent per year compared to April, especially online savings rates have increased by up to 0.7 percent per annum.

It is noted that commercial banks are listing quite high deposit rates such as ACB, MSB, and VietCapital Bank with the highest interest rates ranging from 7 percent-7.1 percent per annum.
Amongst banks, Nam A Bank has the highest rate with 7.4 percent per annum and Techcombank offers 7.8 percent per annum.

Experts said that the trend of savings interest rates from now to the end of 2022 is likely to continue to increase due to inflationary pressure and people tend to shift investment channels from securities, and real estate to deposit savings as a hedge. Moreover, deposit saving is more stable than other different channels of investment.

In addition, the increase in deposit interest rates is aimed at attracting people's idle money to meet the forecast increase in capital demand from now until the end of the year.

Online shopping growing fast in Vietnam

In Vietnam, up to 85 percent of consumers spend more on online shopping since the outbreaks of the coronavirus pandemic.

This information was released at the Vietnam Online Business Forum (VOBF 2022) which has just been held in Ho Chi Minh City with the participation of hundreds of domestic and foreign e-commerce communities.

As internet access and adoption are rapidly increasing nationwide, the number of digital buyers keeps climbing. According to the speakers at the forum, the coronavirus pandemic continued to have a significant influence on e-commerce and online consumer behavior, and people's choice of health care products tends to increase. Notably, the trend of digital multi-channel shopping has experienced remarkable growth, especially amongst consumers recovering from the epidemic. During the pandemic, e-commerce is the bridge to accelerate the speed of digital transformation, connecting the disruption of the market.

Up to 85 percent of Vietnamese consumers have preferred online shopping since the outbreaks of the coronavirus pandemic. A survey on online shopping behavior conducted by e-commerce firm Lazada in cooperation with market research partner Milieu Insight recently revealed that 81 percent of Vietnamese people said that they consider online shopping an integral part of every day. The survey has also shown the percentage of online shoppers at least once a week.

In particular, consumers in Vietnam are giving a lot of preference to domestic brands when 52 percent of Vietnamese respondents said that they prefer to choose Vietnamese brands. According to the e-commerce business overview report in the first half of 2022, extracted from Metric.vn's data platform, in the context of Vietnam's e-commerce in the post-Covid-19 era is developing rapidly, Vietnam has become the second largest e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, just after Indonesia.

Trade ministry proposes special mechanism for steel industry

The majority of local steel producers are using obsolete technologies, which required special mechanisms to support the sector development for higher competitiveness and production capacity.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) stressed the view in a report submitted to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, noting an imbalance between the upstream and downstream of the steel industry in the 2016-2021 period.

According to the MoIT, the production of steel products such as galvanized steel sheets, steel pipe, alloy steel, or hot-rolled coil (HRC) is still dependent on imported materials.

At present, the domestic production capacity of steel billet is estimated at 27 million tons per year, of which that of  HRC is   7-8 million tons, but the sector has to import around 18 million tons of iron ore, and 6-6.5 million tons of steel scrap for production.

The ministry also pointed out the existence of low-capacity steel plants using obsolete technologies with high environmental risks.

Meanwhile, the steel industry remains key in providing input materials for manufacturing and processing sectors of mechanism, automobile, defense ministry, mining, and electricity, for which a clear strategy is essential for their development.

The total demand for steel in Vietnam’s manufacturing sector by 2030 would be $310 billion, which remains a huge market for the local steel industry, especially machine steel or high-quality carbon steel.

In its proposal, the MoIT called for the development of a large-scale steel complex focusing on the production of steel products of high demand.

IFC aids Vietnam’s transition to low-carbon economic growth model

IFC is stepping up its support to the government of Vietnam to promote sustainable finance and spur private sector participation, supporting the country’s climate goals and driving sustainable growth.

The latest IFC support comes in the wake of new Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the State Bank of Vietnam to leverage private sector innovation and finance in the country’s transition to a green, resilient, and low-carbon economy.

The MoUs were exchanged between signatories in Washington in the presence of Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, who is in the US to attend the US-ASEAN Special Summit.

As a driving force behind Vietnam’s COP26 agenda, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will partner with IFC to create a conducive environment for private sector climate investment.

Building on its ongoing support to the ministry to develop green project criteria, IFC will also help develop and implement a policy and regulatory framework with an initial focus on key areas, including green procurement, green taxonomy, and waste management, especially plastic recycling and e-waste, among others.

Source: VNA/SGT/VNS/VOV/Dtinews/SGGP/VGP/Hanoitimes