Ho Chi Minh City's commercial property market has returned to its growth trajectory from before the COVID-19 pandemic, with positive signals seen in the office market, according to real estate firm CBRE.

In its latest quarterly report, CBRE said that HCM City recorded improved vacancy rates in both central business district (CBD) and non-CBD areas compared to the previous quarter.

The occupancy rate in the third quarter in the central area reached nearly 93.8%, up 1.0 percentage point quarter-on-quarter.

Meanwhile, the vacancy rate of the non-CBD area of HCM City was 11.4%, down 1.2 percentage points quarter-on-quarter. However, compared to the same period last year, the vacancy rate recorded an upward trend of 4.3 percentage points year-on-year in the CBD.

CBRE reported positive growth in the number of leasing inquiries, especially those focusing on categories such as food and service (F&B), fashion & accessories, and lifestyle, which account for nearly 87% of the total number of requested inquiries.

The food and beverage (F&B) sector continues to rank first in the number of total leasing inquiries with a 26% quarter on quarter increase since the beginning of 2022.

In Q3/2022, in the central area of district 1, famous brands such as McLaren, Beverly Hills Polo Club, ViinRiic Galeries De Parfumes, Maestro, De Obelly and Sohee entered the market. In September 2022, Decathlon was also officially opened at Van Hanh Mall, district 10.

Vietnam National Geographical Indication logo revealed

The logo of Vietnam National Geographical Indication was unveiled at a hybrid event held on October 28  by the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IPO Vietnam) under the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO).

The successful building of the Vietnam National Geographical Indication logo will help importers and consumers identify products that represent Vietnam, making them feel secure about the origin and quality of the products, Giang said. It will also control the quantity of products supplied to the market while creating conditions for intellectual property enforcement agencies to detect infringements. The logo will facilitate the promotion of products to the market, especially to foreign ones.

Korea Brand & Entertainment Expo held to promote RoK-Vietnam relations

The Korean Brand & Entertainment Expo 2022 (KBEE 2022) has been held in the capital city of Hanoi, aiming to promote Vietnam – the Republic of Korea (RoK) relations through cultural and commercial exchanges.

The two-day event, which ended on October 28, was organised by the Korea Trade & Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in collaboration with the Vietnam National Trade Fair & Advertising Company (Vinexad).

The exhibition consisted of four main activities: business-matching with trade and investment promotion activities; and experimental programmes with activities such as a home-shopping show for Korean products, a Korean wave make-up demonstration by Korean artists, and a Korean style make-up show.

The event also featured digital technology, smart education products and cultural products like music and movies and Korean K-Pop products as well as golf accessories; industrial cleaning chemicals and construction steel pipes.

KOTRA has prepared biz-matching programmes between 110 businesses from the RoK and more than 500 buyers from Southeast Asia; of which there were some 450 buyers from Vietnam and more than 70 from Southeast Asian countries.

SBV Governor stresses importance of proactive, flexible response to changes

Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Thi Hong has underlined the need for proactive and flexible response to changes to control inflation and stabilise the macro-economy while talking about some issues mentioned by legislators on October 28.

Speaking at the ongoing fourth session of the 15th National Assembly (NA), she said the situation this year has witnessed considerable changes and many more difficulties compared to the Government’s forecast made in late 2021.

Inflation is soaring around the world, with more than 80 countries recording inflation of at least double digits. The US Federal Reserve (FED) has hiked interest rates and is expected to maintain them high. The strong appreciation of the US dollar has led to the depreciation of many other currencies, some of which have lost about 30% of their value. The foreign exchange reserves of many countries have fallen sharply. All such developments have caused great difficulties for central banks in the world, according to Hong.

In Vietnam, recent developments in the corporate bond, real estate, and stock markets have substantially affected monetary and banking activities. Meanwhile, the monetary policy is tasked with many duties to achieve multiple targets. Even when global interest rates have been surging, the SBV was still assigned to reduce the domestic rates by 0.5 - 1% in 2022 and 2023, which is a highly tough task in the current context, she noted.

The Governor emphasised that in the first nine months of 2022, the SBV closely monitored macro-economic changes and took flexible and concerted actions depending on each point of time, thus helping keep the nine-month inflation at 2.73% and the whole-year figure possibly at under 4%, which is much lower than in other countries in the region and the world and also a contributor to this year’s economic growth.

She said Vietnam has been extensively and intensively integrating into the world while the openness of its economy is great, so changes in the global market will have considerable and inevitable impacts on the country’s monetary and forex markets.

Given this, Vietnam should be ready to respond to all changes, Hong went on, adding that it is important to make assessment frequently to identify focuses and objectives for each period of time.

She highlighted the consistent target of controlling inflation, stabilising the macro-economy, and guaranteeing the banking system’s safety to realise socio-economic development goals.

Green bonds a new tool to draw capital

Green bonds are an innovative tool for businesses to mobilise financing from the private sector such as banks, financial institutions, and especially foreign capital.

Green credits and green bonds have widely flourished in developed countries. A report by CBI (Climate Bonds Initiative) showed that the total amount of green bonds issued globally reached 290 billion USD in 2021. The value in 2022 is estimated to reach 450 billion USD and can hit the trillion-dollar mark by 2023.

Vietnam is in need of huge supportive resources to adapt to climate change as well as realise the country's sustainable development goals. After the end of the COP26 Conference in Glasgow, the Prime Minister issued the National Action Plan on Green Growth for the 2021 - 2030 period, the national strategy on climate change to 2050, and at the same time, introduced an overall roadmap to realise the committed climate goals by creating a legal basis, promoting and supporting the business community, sectors and localities with a shared responsibility to reduce net emissions.

According to Pham Thi Thanh Tung, Deputy Director of the Credit Department of Economic Sectors, State Bank of Vietnam, in the 2017-2021 period, Vietnam’s outstanding green credit growth averaged 25% per year. As of June 30, 2022, outstanding loans for green projects reached more than 474 trillion VND, accounting for 4.1% of the total outstanding loans of the whole economy. This number has increased by 7.08% compared to 2021, focusing mainly on renewable energy, clean energy (47%) and green agriculture (32%).

Currently, the scale of global sustainable bonds, including green bonds, totals more than 3 trillion USD. According to the International Climate Credit Organisation's targets, by 2025 the annual issuance value will reach about 5 trillion VND.

ASEAN, partners promote agro-forestry cooperation

The 22rd Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry Plus Three (China, Japan and the Republic of Korea) was held virtually on October 26, during which participants hailed the continuous support and commitments of the three partners in the areas of food, agriculture and forestry.

They commended the progress made in the implementation of the ASEAN Plus Three Cooperation Strategy (APTCS) 2016-2025 in the strategic areas of strengthening food security, sustainable forest management, climate change mitigation and adaptation, animal and plant health and disease control, capacity-building and human resource development, enhancing productivity, quality and marketability of agricultural products, strengthening of information system and knowledge networking and exchange, and research and development.

They called on the three partners to further enhance cooperation on regional activities to promote green, sustainable and circular agriculture, build resilient and sustainable food systems and develop climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, as well as promote public-private partnership, application of smart and digital agriculture, irrigation and water management.

The ministers agreed to convene the 23rd Meeting of AMAF Plus Three in Malaysia in 2023.

Vietnam-RoK trade to hit 100 billion USD by 2023: committee

The trade turnover between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) reached 66.8 billion USD in the first nine months of this year, up 18.2% year-on-year, and the set target of 100 billion USD will be fulfilled by 2023 if the pace is maintained, heard a meeting in Hanoi on October 28.

The MPI reported that the Vietnam-RoK relationship has made progress across spheres over the past years. Since the establishment of the bilateral diplomatic ties 30 years ago, cooperation between the two countries has seen outstanding developments in all fields, bringing interests to both sides and helping promote mutual trust and understanding.

As of September 2022, the RoK had run some 9,438 valid projects worth 80.5 billion USD, ranking first in terms of registered capital and project number in Vietnam, according to Do Van Su, head of the MPI’s Foreign Investment Agency (FIA).

Last year, the RoK was Vietnam’s third biggest trade partner, after China and the US, with two-way trade hitting 78 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 18.2%. The RoK was also Vietnam’s fourth biggest buyer and second biggest supplier, said Nguyen Duy Kien from the MPI’s Asia-Africa Market Department.  

Regarding official development assistance (ODA), Director of the MPI’s External Economic Pham Hoang Mai noted that Vietnam has received about 20% of the RoK’s total ODA.

The East Asian nation’s total assistance to Vietnam has been valued at more than 500 million USD recently, with 90% ODA and 10% non-refundable aid, the official added.

Vietnam will call for more the ODA and preferential loans from the RoK, and suggest the country facilitate Vietnam’s export of some agricultural products and food, and joint efforts to raise the two-way trade to 100 billion USD by 2030 and 150 billion USD by 2050.

Netherlands a gateway for Vietnam to EU market

The Netherlands will be a target market for Vietnam with an aim to further optimise the market’s potential and bring Vietnamese goods deeper to the 27-member European Union (EU), according to experts.

The Netherlands was one of the five markets where Vietnam enjoyed trade surplus in 2021, the second most profitable in the first nine months of this year and the current second largest trade partner of Vietnam among the EU members, Ambassador to the Netherlands Pham Viet Anh said at a recent Vietnam-Netherlands trade promotion conference.

He noted that in the January-September period, despite fluctuations in the world situation, two-way trade still reached nearly 8.3 billion USD, almost equivalent to the total figure recorded in the whole 2021, with Vietnam’s exports rising 40.1% to 7.8 billion USD.

CPTPP helps boost Vietnam-Malaysia trade ties

Malaysia’s ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has opened a great chance for Vietnam and Malaysia to further promote their trade cooperation, especially in export.

Vietnamese businesses will enjoy preferential taxes when exporting their goods to Malaysia from November 29, 2022.

Thanks to Malaysia’s involvement in the trade pact, Vietnam can use raw materials imported from other ASEAN member countries to produce goods for export to three markets where the bloc has not yet signed free trade agreements, namely Canada, Mexico and Peru.

The agreement will also bring more opportunities for Vietnam to use materials from CPTPP members for export to Malaysia and vice versa.

In the first eight months of 2022, Vietnam’s export turnover to Malaysia hit about 3.9 billion USD, up 42.1% higher than the same period last year. Meanwhile, Vietnam spent 6.2 billion USD on imports from Malaysia, up 14.7% year-on-year. 

Vietnam-Russia joint venture welcomes first oil flow from Ca Tam field's second rig

Vietnam-Russia oil and gas joint venture (Vietsovpetro) on October 28 welcomed the first flow of oil pumped up from Ca Tam 2 production platform (CTC-2) at Ca Tam oil field.

The oil field is located at block 09-3/12 on the continental shelf of Vietnam, about 160 km to the southeast of Vung Tau city in the southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau.

It is a small wellhead rig designed, manufactured, installed, and tested by Vietsovpetro. CTC-2 was built for oil and gas exploitation with 12 wells and a total construction weigh of about 2,380 tonnes.

Its construction began on January 22 this year and was completed on August 26. On September 15, its first production well was opened, beginning the drilling. A total of nine wells are planned to be put into operation in 2022 and next year.

MoIT works with central bank to support petroleum enterprises

The Ministry of Industry and Trade will coordinate with the State Bank of Vietnam to remove difficulties for petroleum enterprises in accessing credit guarantee funds in a bid to prevent disruption in the domestic market.

At the National Assembly’s session on 2022 socio-economic performance and the 2023 development plan on Friday, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyễn Hồng Diên said the move was a prerequisite for petroleum businesses to maintain their business and prevent large-scale disruption nationwide.

Minister of Industry and Trade Diên said according to current regulations, petroleum management has been assigned to seven ministries and 63 cities and provinces. So, it is necessary to closely coordinate among these ministries and authorities to manage it well.

He said the ministry has been assigned to manage petroleum supply and demand and operate the system. But in order to do that, the ministry needed the banking industry’s support in credit lending and guarantees for petrol enterprises.

Pointing out the reasons, Minister Diên said apart from global impacts on petroleum prices, petroleum enterprises have difficulties in accessing capital, guaranteeing bank credit, and loan conditions while foreign exchange rates increased.

In the context of scarcity of goods, many costs are incurred, causing losses for enterprises and disruption to the domestic petroleum supply.

In addition to the impacts of natural disasters that slowed down freight during the past two months, another reason, according to Diên, is the recent crackdown on a number of petrol smuggling rings with large quantities, affecting the distribution of petroleum in certain areas.

Diên said in the southern region, there are 146 petroleum distributors, accounting for 44 per cent of the total. However, the ministry’s survey showed that many dealers didn’t purchase petrol although they had signed contracts, leading to the loss of buying opportunities when the market fluctuated.

Most banks expect better business performance in 2022
     
A majority of banks expected their business results to continually improve in Q4 2022, helping them gain profit for the whole year.

According to the latest survey on the sentiment of banks for the fourth quarter of 2022 released by the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) recently, 88.3 per cent of banks expected profitability in 2022, which reflects the strong recovery of the economy.

The survey also revealed that 70.4-75.9 per cent of banks expected improved business performance in the fourth quarter and the whole year. Previously, many banks also announced impressive growth after nine months of 2022.

Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) was the latest bank to announce that it completed more than 90 per cent of the annual plan with consolidated pre-tax profit of VND13.5 trillion, an increase of more than 50 per cent over the same period last year.

Viet Nam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) also reported positive business performance in the first nine months of 2022 with a total revenue of more than VND13.3 trillion, up by 29 per cent year-on-year (yoy), and a non-interest income of more than VND2.4 trillion, contributing 17 per cent to the bank’s total operating income. Thanks to the good control of operating costs, VIB gained more than VND7.8 trillion of pre-tax profit in the period, up by 46 per cent yoy, and its return on equity ratio (ROE) was 30 per cent, among the market leaders.

Nguyen Duc Thach Diem, general director of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank), said when the SBV has implemented monetary tightening policies, Sacombank has applied measures to ensure safe, effective and stable activities. As a result, Sacombank’s pre-tax profit in the first nine months of 2022 reached VND4.44 trillion, completing 84.1 per cent of the yearly plan, and its mobilisation and lending scale both grew positively.

The preliminary business results of many other commercial banks in the first nine months of 2022 also showed positive numbers such as Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) with a pre-tax profit of VND5.92 trillion, up nearly 35 per cent year-on-year; Sai Gon-Ha Noi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) with VND9.03 trillion, up 79 per cent; and Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) with VND4.01 trillion, up 58.7 per cent. 

Van Phong Economic Zone expects to attract billion-dollar projects

By 2024, Van Phong Economic Zone expects to attract 27 large-scale projects, and by 2025, the province is planning to lure an additional large-scale 10 projects. Notably, foreign investors are called to develop the Dam Mon financial and shopping mall with the total investment capital of VND15 trillion ($652.17 million).

By 2024, Van Phong Economic Zone expects to attract 27 large-scale projects, and by 2025, the province is planning to lure an additional large-scale 10 projects.

The province has plans to call investment capital in the Nam Van Phong oil refinery (worth $4.34 billion) and the Nam Van Phong 1 and 2 petrochemical complexes (worth $2.6 billion each).

The Van Phong EZ is designed to have 19 functional subdivisions, 13 of which will cover Van Ninh district, and six in Ninh Hoa township.

At present, the EZ is the production hub of 155 projects with a total registered capital of $4.1 billion. There are 30 foreign-invested enterpries.

Trade turnover of foreign-invested enterprises maintain growth momentum

Foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) acquired $407.21 billion in import-export turnover in the first ten months of 2022, up 14.9 per cent (or $52.92 billion) on year, according to statistics published by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the trade turnover of domestic businesses in the first ten months was $178.23 billion, up 13.4 per cent on-year.

FIEs’ total export value was estimated at $218.7 billion, up 17.5 per cent on year. The figure accounts for 73.8 per cent of the entire nation’s total export revenue. The trade surplus of FIEs from January to October was $30.2 billion.

FIEs’ key export products are phones, computers, electronic products, and spare parts. Notably, the export value of phones and computers of this group accounts for 99.7 per cent of the total export value of these products. Besides this, the export value of electronic products and spare parts makes up 98.32 per cent.

Regarding the import side, FIEs' import value of goods throughout the reviewed period expanded to $188.5 billion, up 12 per cent compared to last year’s corresponding period, accounting for 65.2 per cent of the nation’s total import turnover.

In the first ten months, the country’s total import value hiked by 12.7 per cent on year. Some commodity groups saw a sharp rise, including computers, electronic products and components with an increase of 7.8 per cent, petrol and oil (130.3 per cent), and coal with an increase of 82.2 per cent on-year.

The major importers of computers, phones, and components include the United States, the EU, China, and South Korea.

Orders made to push disbursement of public funds

Three days before the National Assembly (NA) kicked off its fourth session in Hanoi on October 20, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed and enacted Directive No.19/CT-TTg on boosting public investment disbursement.

The directive said that public investment disbursement in the first nine months of this year was VND35 trillion ($1.52 billion) or 16 per cent higher than in the same period last year, meeting 46.7 per cent of the disbursement plan earlier assigned by the prime minister. 

The government wants to see the disbursement rate for this year reach 95-100 per cent of the plan assigned by the prime minister. The total public investment capital for 2022 is about $25.22 billion fixed by the NA.

The General Statistics Office estimates that for every 1 per cent increase in public investments, Vietnam’s GDP can rise 0.06 per cent.

The government has determined that accelerating such disbursement is one of the key political tasks of 2022 and 2023 in order to boost economic growth, and maximise the implementation of socioeconomic development goals, and “must go together with ensuring the quality of works and effectiveness of capital usage”.

“Slow disbursement will continue having negative impacts on the goals for economic growth, and reducing the effectiveness of capital usage,” stated Vu Hong Thanh, chairman of the National Assembly Economic Committee. “Though the government has highlighted three groups of reasons behind the slow disbursement (see box), it is recommended that the government continue proposing specific solutions so that this grey disbursement situation can be solved as soon as possible.”

Since early this year, the government and Prime Minister Chinh have promulgated directive documents and organised three online conferences on disbursement.

At the same time, six working groups have been established, headed by four deputy prime ministers and the ministers of planning and investment and finance.

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