Surpassing 30 other pairs of twinned cities, Hoi An in Vietnam’s central province of Quang Nam, and Wernigerode of Germany, won the National German Sustainability Award 2019.

 Another cold front arrived earlier on December 11, plunging the northern region into the coldest days so far this winter and bringing rainfall to central Vietnam after disastrous downpours over the weekend.

 Heavy downpours and subsequent floods have wreaked havoc in central Vietnam, leading to the deaths of five local residents and the disappearance of four residents, according to the latest report released on December 12.

The textile & garment export turnover in the first 10 months of the year reached $25.15 billion, an increase of 17.1 percent compared with the same period last year, partly due to the trade war between the US and China.

Businesses and training establishments are blaming each other for the problems in IT human resources development. But the lack of cooperation between them is contributing to the problem. 

VietNamNet Bridge - The VND66 billion Ba Lai Dam in Ben Tre province helps prevent saltwater from going to the upper course, the freshwater area, but is now creating problems that need VND900 billion to fix.

VietNamNet Bridge - Sabeco, the biggest Vietnamese brewer, has fallen into Thai hands, while Carlsberg is stepping up the process to become a controlling stakeholder in Habeco. 

 The list of top 500 largest enterprises in Vietnam (VNR500) has been unveiled, showing that Vietnam’s private sector continued to post strong growth with the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) among private firms rising significantly.

VietNamNet Bridge - Great benefits for Vietnamese enterprises from the US-China trade war are possible, but enterprises have been warned they may face risks without thorough preparations.

VietNamNet Bridge - The daring business plans in traditional craft villages have attracted billions of dong worth of capital.

VietNamNet Bridge - Facebook remains the social network dominant in Vietnam with 60 million users a month. 

Le QuocToan, an art teacher at Ly Thuong Kiet Primary & Secondary School in Soc Trang, thought he could make ecologically friendly handbags after visiting a craft village famous for its water hyacinth products.

VietNamNet Bridge - Studies all show an imbalance between labor market demand and schools’ labor supply.  

 The local real estate market is projected to continue growing steadily in 2019 following a year of robust economic growth, according to experts at the Vietnam Real Estate Summit 2018, held by property platform batdongsan.com.vn in HCMC last week.

VietNamNet Bridge - More than 90 percent of the beer market share is now in the hands of the ‘big four’ – Sabeco, Habeco, Heineken and Carlsberg. 

The Investigation Police Agency has started legal proceedings against the temporarily detained former General Director Truong Van Tuyen and Deputy General Director Pham Thanh Son of Vinashin.

The official visit to the Republic of Korea (RoK) made by National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan from December 4-7 was described by Korean leaders as an important milestone in the fine Vietnam-RoK relations.

 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved a master plan on use of information technology in promoting tourism from 2018 – 2020, with a vision to 2025.

 The Vietnamese delivery market, especially food, is at a year long high with many new businesses and services profiting.

In a bid to lure more qualified workers, the Vietnamese Government has announced some reforms in administrative procedures in providing work permits for foreigners, many of which are positive developments.