finance & business news 27 November

FINANCE ...... 1 Vietnam, Slovakia promote trade, investment cooperation 35 Reference exchange rate goes up 1 VND at week's beginning 1 Vietnam's images, potentials spotlighted in Romania 36 Pressure on exchange rate more likely when Fed raises interest Vietnam and Poland set to tighten trade and investment rates 1 cooperation 36 Many banks have increased interest rates 3 BIZ NEWS...... 37 Bad debt reduction remains insubstantial 4 Business Briefs 27 November, 2017 37 NPLs in property drop significantly 5 VN Index concludes winning week 38 Why are banks simultaneously divesting? 5 Market rally loses steam 39 Fintech a tool to boost integration: Asean meet 6 Investors warned of a likely correction 39 Foreign investors internally transfer 3 million VPBank shares 8 In new scheme, Song Da Corp IPO to offer 220m shares 40 Government reports: economy sees quality improvements 8 Online shopping platforms stir up Black Friday fever 41 Fitch forecasts high economic growth rate for Vietnam 9 Vietnam among countries hardest-hit by cyber crime 42 Vietnam to lose over 110 trillion dong due to free trade in Great expectations 43 next 3 years 10 Proptech to alter real estate industry 45 National Assembly wrapped up with big laws 10 HN, HCM City asked to report apartment disputes 46 Law on public debt management passed 11 Few enterprises keen on information security outsourcing 46 Vietnam urged to strengthen land, copyright laws 12 Farmers create innovative machines to save time, costs 46 Obstacles to SOE equitisation addressed 13 Nearly 20,000 tour guides are in danger of losing jobs 47 Vietnam sees bright future for apparel exports to Apec 13 Vietnam city proposes subsidising airlines flying to local airport 48 China makes up three-fourths of Vietnam's vegetable, fruit Vietnam scours for investors for major state-owned brewer 49 exports 14 Work starts on $19m area in Binh Duong 50 HCM City exports to top 35 billion USD in 2017 15 Formosa exceeds emission limit after raising capacity for Belgium to spur agricultural exports to Vietnam 16 evaluation: Vietnam ministry 50 Vietnam's fruit imports from Korea surge 16 First cashier-free convenience store appears in HCM City 51 Wooden product exporters regain growth momentum 17 NA approves $1b for airport land clearance 51 VN needs tech updates to remain competitive: experts 18 Construction on cement grinding station begins in Ha Giang 52 MoIT aims to improve business climate 19 Trung Nguyen opens Shanghai office 52 Beverage sector faces severe glut 21 Ecopark's super-luxury precinct makes debut 52 VN's retail sales to touch over $1.9 trillion 21 Concern over Vinawaco capital loss 53 Logistics industry looks towards impending growth 22 Samsung rejects INGO report on worker mistreatment 53 VN fashion industry faces threat of takeover by foreign brands 24 Vietnam's real estate tycoon catapulted into world's 500 Local agricultural products need more support 26 richest list 54 Food processing industry has ample space for development 27 Feeling of tranquility 55 Transport sector speeds up for 4.0 28 Update needed 56 Sports betting -- a potential sector for investment 29 Second EuroCham Central Vietnam Business Forum Real estate in the last months of the year: Which projects are successfully hosted in Danang 57 stirring up the market? 30 Workshop discusses sustainable irrigation development 58 Investors rush to pour money into hotels 31 TechDemo 2017 starts off with stellar success 59 Money well spent 31 Three deals inked on day one of agriculture fair 59 Vietnam promotes Vietnamese brands in RoK 34 Furnishings on display in HCM City 60 Italian firms seek investment opportunities in Vietnam 34 Festival promotes Bac Giang fruit industry 60 India, VN textiles eye cooperation 35 FINANCE FINANCE Reference exchange 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA rate goes up 1 VND at The State Bank of Vietnam set its reference VND/USD exchange rate at 22,431 VND/USD week's beginning on the morning of November 27, up by 1 VND from the end of last week. With the current +/- 3 percent VND/USD trading band, the ceiling exchange rate is 23,097 VND per USD and the floor rate is 21,760 VND per USD. Major commercial banks kept their changes stable.

Intellasia Tel: +844 2213 2244 No. 21, lane 173/63/17, Ngoc Ha Ward, Ba Dinh Dist, Hanoi Fax: +844 3759 2034 © All Rights Reserved Email: [email protected] Websites: www.Intellasia.Net www.TriTueAChau.com Vietnam finance & business 27 November Vietcombank and Vietinbank offered 22,690 VND (buying) and 22,760 VND (selling), per USD, unchanged from the end of last week. BIDV also retained its buying rate at 22,690 VND and its selling rate at 22,760 VND, per USD, unchanged from the end of last week. https://en.vietnamplus.vn/reference-exchange-rate-goes-up-1-vnd-at-weeks-begin- ning/122340.vnp

Pressure on exchange 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| DTCK rate more likely when Dong is assessed to be the most stable currency in the region over the last period. How- Fed raises interest ever, banking experts said it is still necessary to be cautious with exchange rate pres- rates sure when the U.S Federal Reserve (Fed) is expected to raise interest rates next month. *Liquidity, US dollar interest rate continue to be stable The dong/US dollar exchange rate in October was almost unchanged when it was ad- justed to increase one point only compared to the end of September, the lowest month- ly change from the beginning of the year. Thus, since the beginning of this year, this index has increased 312 points. At the same time, in October, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had adjustments related to foreign currency purchase policy (slightly reducing buying rate by 15 points and purchasing foreign currency following three terms including on-spot, one-week and two-week terms), helping to clear the "stagnant" foreign currency on the status of the banking system. Monetary director of a bank said it is estimated that the State Bank FINANCE purchased a large amount of foreign currency i.e. about $1.3-$1.4 billion in October. A senior leader of BIDV said liquidity in foreign currency market in November still re- mains stable. Interest rates are in horizontal trend, ranging around 1.3-1.4 percent/an- num for overnight to one-week term. The main factors influencing this development include: foreign currency deposits fore- casted to still increase relatively well amidst abundant foreign currency supply. Mean- while, foreign currency credit is showing weak growth in 2-3 recent months and is forecasted not to grow strongly as the State Bank requires commercial banks to strictly control foreign currency lending operations in the capital balance. Therefore, the dif- ference between capital mobilisation and foreign currency credit remains high. It is forecasted that the foreign currency will have the most stable November in three recent years. As per the assessment of BIDV, the factors supporting the stability of ex- change rate remained quite strong at this time. First, the cash flow from FDI disburse- ment is forecasted to remain positive in November given positive economic situation in Vietnam and the government's emphasis on improving business environment to at- tract foreign capital flow, promoting the domestic economic development. It is forecasted that the FDI disbursement in November is equivalent to October, at about $1.6-1.8 billion. Notably, in November, the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) plans to sell 3.33 percent of the chartered capital of Vietnam Dairy JSC (Vinamilk), equal to about $300 million. Second, the trade balance is more likely to continue having surplus in November. Al- though import demand of domestic businesses may increase to meet the demand for production and business at the end of the year, exports of foreign businesses will grow well. Accordingly, the trade balance may run a surplus of about $300 million. Third, SBV continues to regulate in a flexible, positive manner, limiting speculative be- haviours as well as stabilising the market during periods of high volatility. A senior leader of TPBank said last week alone, SBV purchased more than $600 million from credit organisations. *Caution needed A BIDV's study shows that the interbank US dollar in November suffers from both in- creasing and decreasing factors. Of which, the support factor of market liquidity still dominates the trend. Specifically, the foreign currency supply maintains the stability when the difference in capital mobilisation-foreign currency credit in this period slightly expanded by about $0.2 billion, as the capital mobilisation continues growing faster than foreign currency credit. At the same time, LIBOR interest rate in the international market continued to increase slightly by about 0.05 percent-0.2 percent for terms of three months and above after the meeting of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) on September 15 due to the expectation on in- terest rate increase in the meeting in December. "The pressure on US dollar interbank interest rates will come from the rising trend of the international US dollar interest rate which is forecasted to continue rising in No- vember as Fed's likelihood to raise basis interest rate in the December meeting has

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swelled to 82 percent compared to 70 percent at the end of September 2017", BIDV's study forecasted. Standard Chartered predicts that Fed will raise interest rates by 25 basis points in De- cember 2017 and that gold price is more likely to face downside risks in the short term. An economic expert said that some factors are still likely to create increased risks for exchange rate, though it is not worth worrying. For example, DXY index is expected to increase in November as Fed's expected interest rate hike nearly approaches. The DXY index that measures the overall strength of US dollar in the month rose about 1.6 percent to 94.8 and is expected to continue rising when Fed increases interest rate in this December as well as the US government implements the fiscal loosening pack- ing through tax reduction. The US dollar increase in the international market puts indirect pressure on US dollar/ dong exchange rate in the domestic market. Besides, interest rate in US dollar contin- ues to be higher than that dong in short terms i.e. overnight, one week, reducing hold- ing costs. Meanwhile, the exchange rate increase in the free market by 50-80 dong also FINANCE puts pressure on US dollar/dong exchange rate in the interbank market. "Besides, if US dollar price in the international market increases sharply, the difference between domestic and international gold prices may be widen, putting pressure on ex- change rate in the free market. In addition, market psychology factor also tends to be more cautious at the end of the year", said the economic expert. Right in the week from November 13-17, BIDV's study forecasted that the US dollar will increase again when Fed's interest rate increase will happen in the December meeting. Meanwhile, euro and JPY may decrease slightly again due to pressure from strengthening US dollar as well as the interest difference which causes the US dollar to become more attractive. Lending rates in US dollar on November 20 increased slightly for one-week term, and went sideways in longer terms. Specifically, one-week term increased 0.1 percent to 1.6 percent/annum; two-week term went sideway at 1.7 percent/annum; three-week term was 1.8 percent/annum and one-month term was 2 percent/annum. The US dollar interest rate remained high at 1.2-1.5 percent/annum for one-day to 1- week terms; 1.6-2.1 percent/annum for 2-week to 1-month terms. The US dollar interest rate in some foreign institutions popularly stood at 1.9 percent/annum for one-month; 2.2 percent/annum for 3-month; 2.6 percent/annum for one-year; 4.5 percent-4.6 per- cent/annum for 3-year; 4.7-4.75 percent/annum for 5-year.

Many banks have 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| DTCK increased interest The availability of idle money is still good, although savings rates are not as high as rates before. However, due to the clear distinction among banks, the competition for market share of savings deposits has become hotter. Remarkably, for long term deposits, not only small banks raised interest rates to attract idle money but large banks also took part in, although the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) plans to extend the time to apply short-term capital ratio for medium and long-term loans from 50 percent to 40 percent by one more year, starting in 2019, instead of early 2018. In fact, the ratio of short-term capital for medium and long-term loans in some banks is close to the ceiling stipulated in Circular 06/2017/TT-NHNN. Therefore, savings interest rate is forecasted to be difficult to reduce or even increase, although the government has asked banks to further reduce output rate, especially me- dium and long term capital. VietinBank, BIDV have raised deposit rates. The 6-9 month interest rates in Vietinbank increased from 5.5-5.7 percent per annum to 5.8 percent per annum while interest rate for 12-month term rose from 6.5 percent per annum to 6.8 percent per annum. At BIDV, the 3-month term interest rate was raised from 4.8 percent per annum to 5.2 percent per annum, and deposits from 13-month and above had the interest rate of 6.9 percent per annum. Especially, in small scale banks, the competition to increase liquidity is increasingly hot. Not only "anchoring" deposit rates at high level i.e. 8-8.2 percent per annum for

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long term of 15 months or more such as Viet Capital Bank, VietA Bank, etc., many banks also launch promotions and incentives programmes to increase utility for cus- tomers to attract deposits. For example, opening savings book at CBBank, with only 10 million dong, depositors have the opportunity to win a Camry 2.0; Vietbank spends 7.2 billion dong to donate 24,000 presents to individuals; or Sacombank's depositors have chance to win an apart- ment worth 2.5 billion dong when depositing. In the interbank market, in the past three weeks, interest rates have risen and hit the highest level in nearly four months. SBV had to pump money into the system, at 26 tril- lion dong from November 6 to November 11, the highest level since February 2017. This year's credit growth target is more than 20 percent, but by the end of October, credit of the entire sector has just swelled 13.6 percent, or there remains nearly seven percent room. This is a large room for banks to accelerate lending in the last two months of the year, so it is understandable that banks take advantage of idle money. TS. Nguyen Tri Hieu, finance and banking expert said that liquidity is showing signs FINANCE of temporary tensions but this is normal at the end of the year. On the other hand, the deposit growth rate over the last period is slower than lending, so banks have to strengthen the capital mobilisation. According to the latest report of the National Financial Supervisory Commission, in the first 10 months of 2017, the capital mobilisation decreased compared to the same period last year. At the end of October, customer deposits increased 11.5 percent from the beginning of the year but outstanding credit was higher. In particular, state-owned banks had the highest deposit growth rate, although they did not have high deposit rates compared to the banking system. Even at Vietcombank, despite the move to reduce deposit rates, the idle source of mon- ey to this bank still increased. At the end of September, the deposit into Vietcombank swelled more than 97.5 trillion dong compared to the beginning of the year, reaching over 668 trillion dong. Dr Tran Dinh Thien, director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, said that the re- maining balance to increase outstanding loans in the remaining two months of fiscal year 2017 is quite large, causing banks to raise mobilisation, but there should not pro- mote credit growth and pursue goals, but consider the capital absorption of the econ- omy. According to Dr Thien, the policy and direction of the government is to lower lending rates so that businesses can access capital, but we cannot encourage the interest rate reduction just to help businesses, but must have solutions to promote economic growth. In fact, there was a time when credit growth was "hot" and the credit-based economic growth led to a "bubble", leaving high bad debt that the banking sector has been struggling to cope with.

Bad debt reduction 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| NDH remains insubstantial Answering questions at the fourth session of the 14th National Assembly, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Le Minh Hung said that the total debts including po- tential debts that can become bad debts, bad debts on balance sheets, and the bad debts sold to Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) which are unsettled as of late September 2017 was 566 trillion dong, down compared to the 600 trillion dong record- ed in late 2016. The bad debt ratio as of late September 2017 was 8.61 percent, also less than the 1.08 percent recorded in late 2016. Further analysis of the above information shows some noteworthy points about the bad debt situation and settlement in the recent time. Firstly, if comparing the total bad debts reported by SBV's Governor Hung with the number revealed by SBV's former Governor Nguyen Van Binh in September 2014 which was about 500 trillion dong, it can be seen that the total bad debts have actually risen sharply by 20 percent, at least until December 2016, before declining in 2017. There are two possibilities. Firstly, the bad debt number revealed in 2014 may have been inaccurate and incomplete. This possibility cannot be undeniable as at that time,

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SBV had inconsistences in the number of bad debts, and the agency had to rectify with a much higher number of bad debts than the previous time. The second possibility, if the first one is not true, is that the settlement of bad debts at least from 2012 to 2016 had been unsuccessful, if not to say the opposite, because the actual bad debts strongly increased instead of decreasing as expected. The second notable point about Hung's reported number on bad debts is that although the total bad debts have fallen this year (calculated until September), the bad debts on balance sheets have gone up. In particular, the on-balance sheet bad debts have risen by 5 percent compared to December 2016, from 146.429 trillion dong to 153.826 trillion dong. There may be some explanations that the increase of bad debts on balance sheets may partly due to the sharp increase of credit (total outstanding) by 10.44 percent, which resulted in new bad debts on the balance sheets. However, the growth rate of the bad debts on balance sheet, which is only half of the credit growth, is still an abnormality. This now shows two possibilities. FINANCE The first possibility is that the credit growth has to pay such a high price that signifi- cantly pulls up the number of bad debts (on balance sheets). Thus, a serious question must be raised, which is whether to try and/or maintain such high credit growth rate as current. The second possibility is related to the increase of the bad debts on balance sheets. In addition to the existence of the first possibility, the increase of on-balance sheet bad debts is also due to the reason that a part of the outstanding loans in the past should have been classified as bad debts but was hidden and classified as normal debts and they now cannot be hidden anymore. The lesson drawn from this is that in order to successfully handle bad debts, honesty and transparency are the top priorities, and good and unreal numbers should not be given due to any "award just for show" or po- litical motivation. Another noteworthy point is that the sharp fall of potential bad debts (mainly loan guarantee agreements, L/C commitments and other guarantees) by up to 25.397 trillion dong compared to late 2016, accounting for a large proportion of the total 34 trillion dong reduction of bad debts until September 2017 compared to late 2016. This reduc- tion is even much larger than many bad debt items which were handled by VAMC in 2017 (16 trillion dong). In sum, behind the "pretty numbers" of bad debt ratios reported by SBV may be a very different reality which raises a lot of thought and requires corresponding actions of rel- evant parties.

NPLs in property drop 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS significantly The ratio of non-performing loans in the real estate sector has dropped significantly since 2013, according to the State Bank of Vietnam's Credit Department of Economic Sectors. Statistics showed that real estate NPLs dropped from 7.05 per cent in 2013 to 4.06 per cent as of July 31. Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Le Minh Hung at a recent hearing of the Na- tional Assembly said lending for the real estate sector accounted for 7.1 per cent in the first 10 months of this year, compared with 10 per cent last year. The central bank would continue to control credit flow into the property sector. http://bizhub.vn/banking/npls-in-property-drop-significantly_290359.html

Why are banks 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| DIEN DAN DOANH NGHIEP simultaneously The Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) has announced divesting? the capital sale at affiliated companies. Accordingly, the bank sells capital at Vietnam Agribank Gold Corporation (AJC) through the auction of more than 12.6 million AJC shares at the starting price of 13,900 dong each; Vietnam Agriculture Tourism Trading JSC and Agribank Financial Leasing Company No.1 (ALCI). Vietcombank Chair Nghiem Xuan Thanh said this bank is also actively implementing

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capital divestment plan at banks, finance companies under the regulation of the State. On November 20, Vietcombank successfully divested entirely from Saigonbank and Cement Finance Company (CFC). As per information from Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietcombank offered for sale more than 13.2 million shares of SaigonBank to the public at the starting price of 12,550 dong per share. As many as 20 investors participated with the registered purchase volume to be four times higher than the amount offered for sale with the highest bid price amounting to 20,100 dong per share. As a result, Vietcombank sold all shares in Saigonbank at the highest price and earned a difference of more than 266 billion dong from the value at the starting price of 100 billion dong. In addition, this bank attained 76 billion dong from the share sale at CFC with the selling price to be five dong higher than the starting price when the successful average winning price was 11,554 dong per share. Besides, BIDV leaders also said this bank is continuing to divest from businesses in dif- ferent sectors. Over the last few years, BIDV has been one of the banks that actively im- FINANCE plemented the capital divestment. Or on November 21, Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) said the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank) successfully sold four million SSG-coded shares of PetroViet- nam SSG Real Estate JSC (PV-SSG) by auction method. There were five investors par- ticipating in the auction including one institutional investor and four individual investors. The total volume of shares registered to buy was 4.26 million units. The suc- cessful bid price was 10,640 dong per share, a bit higher than the starting price at 10,638 dong each. As a result, institutional investor successfully purchased the entire auc- tioned shares. The total value of shares sold was 42.56 billion dong. The capital withdrawal of banks was primarily intended to comply with Circular No.36 of the State Bank on limits and safety ratios in the operation of credit organisa- tions, and foreign bank branches. Probably, the capital divestment would have had to take place sooner but there was delay. According to some experts, the slower capital withdrawal than the plan was be- cause of the overall situation of the economy but not just the banking sector. At that time, banks were in the restructuring stage, and some banks offered to sell off their non-core investment but could not find buyers. Moreover, in the context of difficult business environment at that time, "haste would make waste". However, now it can be more appropriate to carry out the non-core divestment when the macroeconomic situ- ation gets better, the health of the banking system is also improved in the eyes of in- vestors. In addition, it can be seen that the investment effectiveness of banks' capital contribu- tions to divested businesses is also not good. For example, at PV-SSG, the profit in two recent years was very modest, with this year's profit to be higher than the previous year. In 2016, PV-SSG's profit decreased nearly half, from 58 million dong in 2015 to 30 million dong. The net revenue was modest at three billion dong. Similarly, at Cement Finance Company (CFC), for many consecutive years, sharehold- ers have not received dividend payment. Although the after-tax profit in the first six months of 2017 was nearly equal to that in the entire year 2016. However, Saigonbank's issue of common concern was bad debt. As of September 30, 2017, doubtful debt and potentially irrecoverable debt of Saigonbank was higher than the end of 2016, causing the NPL ratio to increase from 2.63 percent to 2.75 percent, quite close to the ceiling rate of three percent as per the regulation of the State Bank. However, every business, after divesting, in spite of not having high investment effi- ciency will have suitable change in business strategy to develop. As for banks, when the operation at businesses has not been effective, the capital divestment is necessary. It can be seen that the efforts of banks in the capital divestment from credit organisa- tions are assessed by banking experts to have accelerated the roadmap on implemen- tation of the Scheme 1058 on restructuring of credit organisations along with the bad debt settlement. The State Bank has been directing and solving violations in cross- ownership through many measures such as requesting the share transfer and capital

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divestment from credit organisations to help banking system operate more healthily and transparently.

Fintech a tool to boost 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS integration: Asean Financial technology (fintech) should be used to strengthen regional integration and meet promote inclusive and sustainable development, speakers said at the 47th Asean Bank- ing Council Meeting in Da Nang on Friday. Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), said Asean members should seek new opportunities and linkages in finance and banking. She also called for strong connections between the private sector and governments, as also commercial banks with businesses in Asean. Banking systems in the region should strongly boost financial integration and build ef- fective links with businesses for solidarity and prolonged cooperation to realise the 2025 Asean Economic Community vision, she said.

FINANCE Asean central bank governors had contributed a lot to financial integration in the re- gion through the Asean Banking Integration Framework (ABIF) initiative, she added. Hong said the initiative helped boost the introduction of commercial banks into the Asean financial market and facilitated negotiations of Qualified Asean Banks (QABs). She hoped Asean banks would take full advantage of technology to generate maxi- mum benefit and make the banking system secure. "Asean Banking now plays a very important role in boosting economic growth, while ensuring well-managed operations and sustainable development of the banking sys- tem in coping with risks," Hong said. "We need to restructure our banking system to provide better services with modern and updated technology applications in the context of the Internet boom and the Fourth Revolution. "The growth of financial technology (fintech) has helped create new services and sup- ported trans-border payments among partners," she said. But fintech had also created pressure and tough competition among bankers, she add- ed. Hong said SBV and other central banks in the region had shared experiences in fintech management. Faid Raham, Chair of Asean Bankers Association (ABA), said many follow-up events and activities had been carried out by national bank associations since the last meeting in Bangkok. These enabled and strengthened the role of Asean banks in the Asean Economic Com- munity, he said. He highly appreciated efforts made by Vietnam to successfully host the 47th Asean Banking Association meeting. Asean Secretary-General Le Luong Minh said: "Integration in the financial sector is en- visaged under the first characteristic of Asean Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025 a highly integrated and cohesive economy which aims to facilitate the seamless movement of goods, services, investment, capital and skilled labour within Asean to enhance trade and production networks as well as to establish a more unified market for firms and consumers in the region. "Under the AEC Blueprint 2025, Asean has developed the Asean Strategic Action Plan 2016 2025 for Financial Integration, highlighting three key pillars: financial integration, financial inclusion, and financial stability." He said "the establishment of Qualified Asean Banks (QABs) is a critical milestone for Asean toward achieving greater financial and economic integration". Asean now ranks as the world's 6th largest economy, with a current combined GDP of approximately $2.6 trillion, and the third largest market with a combined population of 640 million people. Minh also noted: "The implementation of the Asean Banking Integration Framework and Asean Financial Inclusion Framework has taken into account the diversity of eco- nomic structures and levels of development across the Asean Member States.

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"We are committed to an Asean payment system that is safe, innovative, competitive, efficient and more interconnected as specified in the 2016-2025 Strategic Action Plan 2016-2025 for Financial Integration. Asean is also aiming to achieve international standards by adopting ISO 20022 as a preparation for the domestic payment systems for bilateral/ multilateral linkages within Asean by 2025." Nation's contribution Chair of the Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA), Phan Duc Tu, said it's the third time that Vietnam was hosting the Asean Banking Council after 2000 and 2007. Tu said this meeting was focused on sustainable development, inclusion, updated technology application and human resource training in finance sector. He said ABIF also offered three stages of development including an Asean common market for banking between 2015-2020. Members had been negotiating bilateral QABs before they were recognised by the bloc, he said, citing the examples of Philippines- Malaysia, Indonesia-Malaysia, and Thailand-Malaysia. Tu said Vietnamese commercial banks had improved their management mechanisms FINANCE and expanded their presence abroad. Ten Vietnamese commercial banks had been selected for applying Basel II (second of the Basel Accords, recommendations on banking laws and regulations issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision) in early 2018, he added. VNBA general secretary Nguyen Toan Thang said ABA had agreed to two proposals made by Vietnam in the agenda of Cooperation in Finance, Investment and Trade (COFIT): financial inclusion and bank credit for Micro- Small and Medium sized en- terprises (MSMEs). Vietnam and ABA co-hosted a seminar on digital infrastructure development for banks and boosting cooperation with the Singapore Banks Association for sharing ex- periences in management and personel training. The 47th Asean Banking Council Meeting, an annual event, gathered 200 participants from the member nations of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Brunei will host the next meeting. http://bizhub.vn/banking/fintech-a-tool-to-boost-integration-asean-meet_290354.html

Foreign investors 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| NDH internally transfer 3 The Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) has announced that it has transferred own- million VPBank ership of three million shares of Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VP- shares Bank, code: VPB) to two organisations, which are Arjuna Fund PTE.LTD and Ashoka PTE.LTD. On the other side, up to eight organisations transferred three million VPB shares. The effective date of the transfer of ownership is November 22nd 2017. VPBank now has no room left for foreign investors as its foreign ownership limit has reached 30 percent. Regarding business activities, the bank's pre-tax profit in the first nine months reached 5.635 trillion dong, up by 79 percent compared to the same period of 2016, completing 78 percent of the annual plan. On the stock market, VPB shares recorded 10.5 percent growth in price in the last month, with average trading volume reaching one million units per session. VPB is currently traded at 40,000 dong per share.

Government reports: 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR economy sees quality Vietnam's economic growth quality has seen significant improvements recently, elic- improvements iting great praise from international organisations. Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told the National Assembly that, "Vietnam's growth quality has seen big improvements, maintaining a good growth rate for a long time, with the annual 6.07 per cent in the 2011-2015 period. It is expected that the rate will be 6.7 per cent this year." He continued, "The most positive indicator is that labour productivity has risen, mean- ing that the quality of economic growth has improved. To illustrate, labour productiv-

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ity rose by 5.29 per cent last year and 5.87 per cent this year, while the total-factor productivity (TFP) was 40.68 per cent last year and 44.13 per cent this year. The incre- mental capital-output ratio (ICOR) also decreased, at 6.41 per cent last year, and 6.27 per cent this year. This is quite remarkable." TFP is a measure of the efficiency of all inputs in a production process. Increases in TFP usually result from technological innovation or improvements. Meanwhile, ICOR tells how much additional capital would be required to produce the next unit of produc- tion. The prime minister added that the country's total export turnover this year will likely hit a record of $210 billion, up 21 per cent against last year, three times higher than the initial target. "This also reflects the economy's improved growth quality, because our products are in wider use by the local and international markets," Phuc stressed. "I would say to you that we need to boost the quality of growth, though growth rate is also extremely im- portant. Quality and quantity must go hand-in-hand for the Vietnamese economy." FINANCE The National Assembly has adopted a resolution on Vietnam's socioeconomic devel- opment for 2018, with the economy targeted to grow by 6.5-6.7 per cent (see box for other goals). Vietnam's improved growth quality has also received commendation from several in- ternational organisations. Spain-based FocusEconomics, which provides economic data around the world, said in a report released last week that Vietnam's GDP is expected to expand by 6.5 per cent in 2018 and 2019 alike. "Recent data indicates the economy remains on a solid trajectory. The economy is pro- jected to continue along this robust growth trajectory for the remainder of the year and into 2018, buoyed by resilient performance in exports, as new factories funded by for- eign investment open, and a flourishing influx of foreign direct investment (FDI), fuelled by more attractive investment opportunities," said the report. In this year's first ten months, total newly-registered FDI, expanded FDI, and FDI from capital contributions and stake purchases reached $28.24 billion, up 37.4 per cent year- on-year. According to the World Bank, Vietnam is now one of the most dynamic emerging countries in the East Asia region and enjoys strong economic growth. "The country's medium-term outlook remains favourable, with GDP expanding by 6 per cent in 2016, while the country's fundamental drivers of growth -- resilient domes- tic demand and export-oriented manufacturing -- remain in force," the World Bank said. The bank forecast that Vietnam will grow by 6.3 per cent this year and 6.4 per cent in 2018 and 2019. In the bank's "Doing Business 2018" report released earlier this month, Vietnam's busi- ness climate index rose by 14 ranks, a marked improvement over recent years. The country has "implemented the most reforms in the past 15 years, with 39 reforms. Today, an entrepreneur in HCM City spends 22 days and 6.5 per cent income per cap- ita registering a new company, compared to 61 days and 31.9 per cent in 2003." Under the report, Vietnam's business climate index rose to 68th out of 190 economies surveyed, from last year's 82nd. Eric Sidgwick, country director for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Vietnam, also stated that the Vietnamese economy "continues to perform well, driven by its twin engines of export-orientated manufacturing and rising domestic consumption." Manufacturing expanded by a record 22.3 per cent year-on-year in this year's first ten months as new foreign-invested factories ramped up production, while the services sector continued to pick up speed as a result of rising retail trade, growing bank lend- ing, and a 28.1-per-cent jump in tourism arrivals. "Other economic indicators also point to strong growth next year. The manufacturing purchasing managers' index continues on its rising trend. New orders have been con- tinuously rising since December 2015 to signal improving business conditions for

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manufacturers," an ADB report said. http://english.vov.vn/economy/government-reports-economy-sees-quality-improve- ments-363334.vov

Fitch forecasts high 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV economic growth rate Vietnam will be one of the Asean countries to achieve a high economic growth rate in for Vietnam the years to come, according to a recently-released report by Fitch,a credit rating agen- cy which is dual-headquartered in New York and and London. Fitch said Vietnam's growth will be supported by a stable political environment, grow- ing reform momentum, an improving business environment, and the manufacturing sector benefiting from multinational companies relocating in Vietnam for lower pro- duction costs. Fitch predicted that Myanmar is also one of the growth-out performers in Asean, whose economic prospects look bright thanks to greater regional integration, better

FINANCE transport connectivity, and continued reform momentum. http://english.vov.vn/economy/fitch-forecasts-high-economic-growth-rate-for-viet- nam-363312.vov

Vietnam to lose over 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| DAN TRI 110 trillion dong due The Ministry of Finance (MOF) estimated that with 10 new generation bilateral and to free trade in next 3 multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), in which there are free trade mechanisms years and elimination of multiple tariff barriers, Vietnam's state budget may lose over 110 trillion dong in the next three years, estimated to be respectively 30.150 trillion dong in 2018, 36.340 trillion dong in 2019, and 43.965 trillion dong in 2020. Year 2018 is an important transitional year of the elimination of tariff barriers for many commodities imported from Asean countries, as over 90 percent of the goods under the Asean trade agreement (ATIGA) will bear 0 percent tariff. The strongest tax reduc- tion is applied to some items with large tax revenues such as auto (30 percent to 0 per- cent), components and spare parts (5 percent, 20 percent to 0 percent), steel (5 percent to 0 percent), and agricultural products, tobacco, and alcohol, etc. In addition, with the signing of AseanChina trade agreements (ACFTA), and Asean South Korea trade agreements (AKFTA), over 400 commodity lines with current tariffs of 5 percent, 7 percent, and 10 percent will be 0 percent in 2018. These two countries are the current largest exporters to Vietnam. According to statistics of the general Department of Customs, Vietnam records very large import turnover from three main partners, including China, South Korea, and Asean countries. The import turnover from China has been improved in the direction of reducing the proportion in import value and trade deficit ratio. However, in replace for the reduction of import turnover with China, Vietnam has raised imports from South Korea and Asean countries. The trade deficit ratios at these market have also increased. The main goods Vietnam imports from South Korea in- clude machinery, electronic components, and automobiles; while main goods import- ed from Asean countries are machinery, construction materials, consumer goods, automobiles and automobile components, and electronics, etc. According to the MOF, Vietnam has signed 10 FTAs. The implementation of commit- ments on tariffs aims to attract and contributes to increase foreign investment and cut costs, while helping increase state budget revenues from domestic taxes such as cor- porate income tax, land tax, value added tax, and personal income tax, etc. In the immediate future, the implementation of FTA commitments will lead to a fall in revenue from import tariffs, affecting the overall state budget revenue. This puts great pressure on the structure of budget spending, in particular new tax revenues may arise, increasing the burden on domestic sectors if it is not controlled. The 10 FTAs that Vietnam has joint include Asean, Asean China, Asean South Korea, Asean Australia New Zealand, Asean India, Asean Japan, Vietnam Japan, Vietnam Chile, Vietnam South Korea, and Vietnam Eurasia Economic Coalition). In the coming time, Vietnam may deeply participate in some new generation and in-

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terregional FTAs such as RCEP Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the "new version" of Trans-Pacific partnership (TPP) which is the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP) with 11 old TPP mem- bers, except the US.

National Assembly 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR wrapped up with big The fourth session of the 14th National Assembly has been rounded off this afternoon, laws with major measures discussed and taken for the country's bigger growth. National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan stated that during the 26-day session the National Assembly has considered and ratified six bills and ten resolutions, as well as reviewed nine bills. "The session was a big success, with National Assembly members having made posi- tive and responsible contributions to the session's discussions," Ngan said. "All dis- cussed laws will continue being considered carefully, so that they will have the best

FINANCE quality and meet all new requirements of the country's socioeconomic development." During the session, the National Assembly reviewed, debated, and gave opinions on a number of reports regarding the socioeconomic situation of 2017 and objectives of so- cioeconomic development for 2018, as well as the implementation of the 2017 national budget allocation. Q&A activities were also conducted transparently, democratically, and constructively. The legislature also passed a hallmark resolution on Vietnam's socioeconomic devel- opment for 2018, with the targeted economic growth of 6.5-6.7 per cent. The economy grew by 6.41 per cent in this year's first nine months, higher than the 5.99 per cent in last year's corresponding period. The rate hit 7.46 per cent -- from 6.28 per cent -- in the second quarter and 5.15 per cent in the first quarter. It is expected that the economy will grow 6.7 per cent this year, reaching the National Assembly's target set earlier. According to the government, the economy is likely to reach its 6.7 per cent growth tar- get, thanks to strong growth in the economy's key sectors this year, including the agro- forestry-fishery (up 3 per cent -- a fourfold increase against 2016 to hit a record $35 bil- lion in export turnover), industry and construction (up 7.17 per cent), and services sec- tors (up 7.25 per cent -- the highest rise since 2008). Of the industrial sector's growth, the manufacturing and processing sector is expected to rise by a record rate of 12.8 per cent year-on-year. However, this year, if the mining sector had not suffered from an estimated decrease of 5.9 per cent, the whole economy would surely grow by 7.24 per cent, the govern- ment said. Notably, among the many laws approved, the legislature adopted the Law on Public Debt Management, which will help the country to control public debt more effectively. Responding to National Assembly members' anxiety about the country's financial se- curity, deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue reassured them by announcing that the public debt situation "is getting better." "The public debt rate is 62.6 per cent of the GDP now, with the government's debt be- ing 51.8 per cent of the GDP, both lower than the respective permissible limits of 54 and 65 per cent set by the National Assembly," Hue announced. "The government and the prime minister have made thorough calculations, and see that the public debt cap is just one factor. The most important thing is our ability to re- pay the debt," Hue said. In addition, the National Assembly also adopted the long-awaited Law on Planning, which is compiled by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, making it more con- venient for the government to control the planning of many sectors and products, where there are overlapped control mechanisms at the moment. The law will adjust a total of 190 articles in 25 existing laws, and cover 38 types of na- tional-level sectoral planning -- such as road, railway, seaport, airport, waterway in- frastructure, electricity, energy, information and communication, and gas and petrol supply.

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Product-level and sector-level planning will be integrated into master planning at all levels. http://www.vir.com.vn/national-assembly-wrapped-up-with-big-laws.html

Law on public debt 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES management passed The draft Law on Public Debt Management regulating the use of loans, debt payment and public debt management was passed by the National Assembly on November 23, with more than 85 percent of the vote. Public debts as defined by the law include government debts, government-guaranteed debts and debts of local governments. The law applies to organisations and individuals involved in the borrowing and use of loans, debt payment and public debt management, according to Lao Dong online newspaper. The government comprehensively manages public debts and monitors the operations

FINANCE of agencies, organisations and individuals involved in public debt management. The government will also have to ensure public debt safety, financial sustainability and macro-economic stability. Proposal, evaluation and approval of loans, loan negotiations and signings, and allo- cations and use of loans must be done in an effective and proper way. Loans for financ- ing the State budget deficit must be used for development investment only. Borrowers must be responsible for fully fulfilling their debt obligations. Official devel- opment assistance (ODA) loans, concessional loans of foreign donors and govern- ment-guaranteed loans cannot be used for State budget allocation. Properness, publicity and transparency in public debt management must be ensured and closely monitored. The law also clarifies the roles and responsibilities of agencies, organisations and indi- viduals involved in public debt management. The NA, People's Councils and Vietnam Fatherland Front will supervise the execution of the Public Debt Management Law. The law will become effective on July 1, 2018. english.thesaigontimes.vn/57202/Law-on-public-debt-management-passed.html

Vietnam urged to 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA strengthen land, Vietnam should strengthen land and copyright laws to give enterprises more flexibil- copyright laws ity and to enhance asset security, experts said at an award ceremony in Hanoi on No- vember 23 for the country's 500 most profitable firms. According to the announcement of the Vietnam Earnings Insight 2017 report at the cer- emony, Vietnam's business environment has been favourable, with access to capital, tax system and inflation control improving in the first three quarters of the year. The research conducted by Vietnam Report Company on the Profit 500 Ranking List showed that more than 90 percent of firms rated the business environment as good or very good. The issues that businesses still face are land access, skilled labour supply and infra- structure. "The great challenges for Vietnamese businesses are asset security, property rights and anti-trust," the report said. Besides, under the circumstance that the increasing number of new entrants and for- eign competitors has entered the domestic market, the market share of large firms could decline unless they reach new customers on the world market. The Vietnam Earnings Insight 2017 report also collected opinions from experts saying that the country's securities market experienced better performance than ever, with a growth rate of 26.4 percent in the first 10 months of the year. It helped the overall port- folio value of investors expand at the most significant rate in the past six years. Therefore, the performance in the Vietnamese market is more attractive than that of the Philippines at a similar level of capitalisation and turnover, and significantly more attractive than Thailand as Thailand's economic growth has been gloomy recently, the

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report said. The country's stable macro-economy, better monetary policies and favourable invest- ment environment, together with the growth of the middle-class, would enhance re- turn on investment (ROI) and return on equity (ROE), which would be pre-conditions for further growth. The Profit 500 ranking aims to honour Vietnamese firms with high profitability and potential to become key pillars for the country's future development. These firms have also contributed to promoting Vietnam's brand name in the international business community. Viettel Group topped the list of Vietnam's most profitable firms, followed by Samsung Electronics Vietnam Co Ltd, Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk), and PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation. Also on the list are Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vi- etinbank), Truong Hai Auto Corporation, Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of FINANCE Vietnam (Vietcombank), Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Develop- ment of Vietnam (BIDV) and Hoa Phat Group. The Vietnam Report Company conducted independent assessments based on the cri- teria of return on total assets, return on equity, return on revenue, pre-tax profit and revenue. In addition, it also determined businesses' reputation in the media. http://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnam-urged-to-strengthen-land-copyright-laws- 363273.vov

Obstacles to SOE 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES equitisation addressed The government has issued Resolution No.121/NQ-CP detailing solutions to short- comings and difficulties in transforming State-owned enterprises (SOE) into joint- stock concerns, the government news website reports. To meet the 2017 equitisation schedule approved by the prime minister, the govern- ment allows SOEs to go public in line with the government's Decree 59/2011/ND-CP dated July 18, 2011 until Decree 126/2017/ND-CP takes effect. Those entities that have announced their corporate value but their equitisation plans cannot be finalised before January 1, 2018, and those whose equitisation plans have been approved but their land use plans have not been passed can continue the process as required by government Decree No.59. However, their land use plans must be approved before they obtain a business regis- tration certificate for the first time as a joint stock company. Decree No.126, issued on November 16, 2017, will take effect on January 1, 2018. It amends and adds some regulations on forms of equitisation, initial public offering, rights and duties of equitised companies, corporate evaluation and policies for labour- ers in the equitisation process. http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57208/Obstacles-to-SOE-equitisation-ad- dressed.html

Vietnam sees bright 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV future for apparel Major countries, which are member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Coopera- exports to Apec tion (Apec), have become key markets for Vietnam's garment and textile products, and are forecast to making up between 74 percent-75 percent of the country's total apparel export turnover in the near future. In 2016, Vietnam's textile and apparel exports reached $28 billion, standing at below 6 percent, is now projected to achieve 10 percent growth as set for this year's target. In eight months leading up to September, the clothing industry grossed $23 billion in export turnover, including yarn exports at $2.6 billion, materials and non-woven fab- rics at $1.1 billion and clothes at $19.6 billion. Apec among top five $ billion market To fulfil the export target of $31 billion for 2017 set by the government, another $ 8 bil- lion is needed before the year ends. With the average growth rate in August and Sep-

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tember, this year's targeted export turnover of $31.2-31.3 billion is achievable, enjoying 10 percent-11 percent growth when compared to one year earlier, says Le Tien Truong, general director of Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex). The textile and apparel industry continues to maintain high export turnover, just be- hind the telephone production industry. Truong notes that the Vietnamese clothing industry has experienced exponential growth in key markets. Of the five main destination markets for Vietnamese clothing goods, four are Apec members (the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea and China) and the other is the EU. These four nations combine to make up 70 percent of Vietnam's apparel and textile ex- port turnover contributing remarkably to its export growth in 2017. Exports to the US market have so far grew by 6.5 percent and are expected to reach roughly $13 billion this year, making up 13-13.5 percent of market shares in the US. Exports to Europe and Japan have posted slower growth at 4-4.5 percent. Meanwhile, export growth was at 14.5 percent in Europe and 12 percent in Japan. Exports to the FINANCE Korean market are expected to hit nearly $2 billion this year. Apart from the foresaid four markets, China is seen as a lucrative market for Vietnam. In the first eight months of the year, apparel and textile exports to China rose 30 per- cent to $670 million. Although Vietnam primarily imports raw materials from China, about $6 billion worth of fibres, the country sees significant growth in its export turn- over to this vast market. Vietnam has also recorded a staggering growth rate of 90 percent to nations within the Eurasian Economic Union and Russia, also a member of Apec. Export turnover to the Russian market will likely exceed $200 million this year making it among the top 10 markets with the most Vietnam has exported apparel products to. Seizing opportunities to develop profitable markets According to Truong, out of the world's five largest apparel exporters-China India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Turkey, Vietnam has achieved the highest growth in the context that the global market is still facing tough competition this year. The outsourcing costs for the apparel industry remain low due to lower absolute price in $ and the global aggregate demands have not increased. Therefore, to increase ex- port turnover, it is essential to seek new customers and new market shares. This is proving to be a thorny issue for export businesses. Pham Xuan Hong, the President of HCM City's Association of Garment, Textile, Em- broidery and Knitting (Agtek) is in agreement. He says that despite facing difficulties, Vietnam's apparel and textile industry has delivered positive results in 2017 and fore- sees good signals in 2018. However, the sector will encounter hurdles due to the fluctuations of the world market and the internal economics of partner countries. More focus should be focused on developing markets within the Asean, Eurasian Eco- nomic Union and India alongside the traditional markets, Hong states, noting that businesses need to establish links to distribution systems in the countries of residence. Russia is regarded as a potential market for Vietnam over the next 4-5 years, Truong says, while hoping that that this market will become a major destination for Vietnam- ese apparel products, with $1 billion in export turnover. By that time, Apec member economies will become a major market of Vietnam's garments and textiles, constitut- ing 74-75 percent of the country's total export turnover. Vu Duc Giang, Chair of the Vietnam Textile & Apparel Association says that the key import markets are coping with unpredictable fluctuations as trade protectionism is running counter to the trend of WTO trade liberalisation. For the reason, the market expansion should go along with technological develop- ment, particularly the adaption to the fourth industrial revolution and brand name building to bring more goods to the global market, he adds. http://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnam-sees-bright-future-for-apparel-exports-to- apec-363158.vov

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China makes up three- 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| SGT fourths of Vietnam's China spent $2.17 billion importing vegetables and fruits from Vietnam in the first ten vegetable, fruit months of 2017, making up nearly 75.9 percent of Vietnam's total export revenue from exports these products, according to the general Department of Vietnam Customs. Vietnam exported $240 million of vegetables and fruits last month, taking the total to $2.86 billion in the year to end-October, up 42.6 percent year-on-year. Revenue from vegetable and fruit exports exceeded that of Vietnam's key export prod- ucts such as rice, crude oil and coal. Analysts said the target for some $3 billion from vegetable and fruit exports this year is achievable. However, they expressed concern over the Vietnamese vegetable and fruit export sector's increasing dependence on China. A huge volume of vegetables and fruits has been shipped to the neighbouring country, which is an easy but risky market for Vietnam. China accounted for around 30 percent of Vietnam's vegetable and fruit exports in 2014 and the percentage rose to 70 percent

FINANCE last year and nearly 76 percent in the first ten months of this year. Vietnam also reported higher vegetable and fruit exports to choosy markets such as Ja- pan and the US in January-October. Particularly, Japan purchased $104 million of veg- etables and fruits from Vietnam while the US imported $84 million of the products from Vietnam, growing 67.6 percent and 23.2 percent against the year-ago period re- spectively. The UK, South Korea, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia bought a large volume of vegetables and fruits from Vietnam in the period. In a related development, Vietnam spent $120 million importing vegetables and fruits in October, raising the total in the first 10 months to nearly $1.3 billion, surging 92.7 percent year-on-year. Thus, Vietnam had a trade deficit of nearly $1.6 billion in this sector. Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan early this month proposed listing fruits and other farm produce as key export items of Vietnam and is- suing preferential policy to step up exports of such products. Last year, Vietnam exported $2.4 billion of crude oil, $2.15 billion of rice, $3.3 billion of coffee, $7 billion of seafood and $2.45 billion of vegetables and fruits. For the first time, the export value of vegetables and fruits was higher than that of crude oil, Nhan noted. In 2005, export revenue from crude oil was $7.3 billion, 31 times higher than that of vegetables and fruits (US$235 million). Export turnover from vegetables and fruits is expected to reach $10 billion by 2020. Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said Vietnamese vegetables and fruits have been easily exported to other countries. Vietnam has achieved impressive results in the process of finding new markets for these products despite technical barriers. Vietnam has shipped dragon fruit, rambutan, longan and litchi to the US, litchi and mango to Australia, mango and dragon fruit to Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, and fresh fruits to Asean, the European Union, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Canada. The ministry is negotiating to help export shrimp to Australia, pork to China, the Phil- ippines and Singapore, processed chicken to Japan, salted eggs to Hong Kong and Sin- gapore, mango and star apple to the US, mangosteen, grape fruit and custard apple to China, and longan, litchi and rambutan to South Korea and Japan. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/190967/china-makes-up-three-fourths-of- vietnam-s-vegetable--fruit-exports.html

HCM City exports to 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA top 35 billion USD in HCM City is likely to achieve export value of 35.2 billion USD this year, a 15.1 percent 2017 increase from last year, and imports of 43.1 billion USD, a 13.2 percent rise. The city accounts for 72 percent of the Southern Key Economic Zone's total imports and exports and 19.4 percent of Vietnam's. An import-export gateway for the southern region, a lot of the city's imports make their way to neighbouring provinces such as Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Long An, of-

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ten to serve production for exports. The provinces enjoy large trade surplusesBinh Duong 4 billion USD; Dong Nai 2 bil- lion USD; Long An 500 million USD. Pham Thanh Kien, head of the Department of Trade and Industry, said his department is boosting trade promotion in key markets that buy more than 1 billion USD worth of goods such as mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and the Republic of Ko- rea to reduce the trade deficit. It is developing a plan to enhance exports in 2017-2020, he said. The plan would guide policy making for increasing export of high value-added items like computers and parts, software and digital products. https://en.vietnamplus.vn/hcm-city-exports-to-top-35 billion-usd-in-2017/122341.vnp

Belgium to spur 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR agricultural exports to Against the rising export turnover towards Belgium in the past several years, Belgium

FINANCE Vietnam is spurring to break open the market and export agricultural products to Vietnam. At the fourth joint economic commission between Vietnam and Belgium on November 24, 2017, Belgian deputy minister of Foreign Affairs Dirk Achten expressed Belgian in- terest in exporting agricultural products, including beef, veal, and fresh pear, to Viet- nam. A representative of the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade said that related to the fresh pear, a Vietnamese delegation visited Belgium to evaluate the system of dis- ease control in August 2017. As for beef and veal, Vietnam is currently carrying out technical assessments on food and disease safety, as well as review the status of im- ported cows and beef from EU countries. Belgium now ranks sixth out of the 27 members of the EU in two-way trade turnover with Vietnam, having reached $2.44 billion in 2016. Up to the end of September 2017, export turnover between the two countries hit $1.63 billion, up 15.44 per cent over the same period last year and import turnover hit $328 million (down 6.4 per cent). This growing exports and falling imports has been a trend for many years now. How- ever, export goods are still focusing on low added-value segments (agricultural prod- ucts, apparel), while imports involve high added-value items (machinery, pharmaceuticals). According to the Foreign Investment Agency of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, as of November 2017, there were 62 valid Belgian projects in Vietnam with total registered investment capital of $595 million, ranking 29th among the 126 nations and territories investing in Vietnam. Belgian projects focus on real estate, processing and manufacturing, as well as logistics services. The two countries will celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2018. http://www.vir.com.vn/belgium-to-spur-agricultural-exports-to-vietnam.html

Vietnam's fruit 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS imports from Korea Korean exports of pears and apples to Vietnam have soared in the past years, accord- surge ing to the Korea Agriculture Food Trade Association. Korea's pear exports to Vietnam surged by 9,440 times in the 2011-16 period, from $52,000 in 2011 to $4.96 million last year. Its apple exports to Viet Nam also went up by 928.8 per cent in the period, from $66,000 to $679,000. Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar in HCM City on Friday, Cao Thi Quynh Giao, director of Lam Khai Hoan Co.Ltd, said her company imports about two to five con- tainers (each container having a loading capacity of 600kg) of pears and apples from South Korea to distribute to supermarkets in Vietnam. "Many Vietnamese consumers are fond of Korea's pears due to its good quality and reasonable prices," she said. Her company plans to import more pears and Fuji apples from Korea, kiwi from Aus- tralia and gala apple from the US, she said. Ta Minh Thanh, deputy director of Tu Son Supermarket in Chau Doc, An Giang Prov- ince, said the supermarket started to sell Korean pears and apples two and a half years

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ago, with sales of pear very good. "We are here to meet Korean firms as we want to find suppliers of apple/pear gift boxes to serve customers on the occasion of Lunar New Year holiday," he said. Lee Soon Nyung, managing director of Hyun Jin Corporation, said Korea exports about 25,000 tonnes of pears a year, with the US (10,000 tonnes), Taiwan (10,000 tonnes) and Viet Nam (2,000 tonnes) being three biggest export markets. It exports about 3,400 tonnes of apples a year, of which 2,000 tonnes is exported to Tai- wan and 300 tonnes to Viet Nam. As Vietnam does not cultivate pears and apples, many businesses have imported them from other countries to supply in the market. Vietnamese people are fond of Korean fruits, especially apples and pears, he said. "Viet Nam is a very potential market. We want to export more apples and pears as well as other kinds of fruits into Viet Nam." "The business meeting today will help us understand more about requirements of our Vietnamese partners so as we can satisfy their demand." FINANCE Lee Sun Hyung from Gyeong Buk Corporation, said "Viet Nam is an emerging market for Korea's fruits". Many Korean companies as well as his company have prepared high-grade pear and apple gift boxes with nice design, hoping that the products will be consumed well in Vietnam in the future, he said. Organised by the Korea Agriculture Food Trade Association and the Vietnam Cham- ber of Commerce and Industry, the Viet Nam-Korea business seminar attracted seven Korean fresh fruits exporting firms and 15 Vietnamese enterprises. The two sides exchanged information on import-export situation, prices, and quality of products as well as difficulties accounted during the import process. Korean firms talked about ways to improve the problems and propose ways to increase exports in the future. The association said it plans to invite Vietnamese fruit importers to visit South Korea to understand more about the production process of the fruits as well as discuss busi- ness opportunities. Vietnam imported vegetables and fruits worth $1.02 billion in the first eight months of 2017, a year-on-year increase of 94 per cent. Of which, the import value of vegetables was around $200 million, while fruits imports were more than $800 million, double the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Develop- ment. http://bizhub.vn/news/viet-nams-fruit-imports-from-south-korea-surge_290362.html

Wooden product 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES exporters regain Exporters of wooden products regained double-digit growth in the first ten months of growth momentum 2017 after a growth rate of a slight 1.1 percent last year, said Huynh Van Hanh, vice chair of the HCM City Handicraft and Wood Industry Association (HAWA). At the Vietnam International Furniture and Home Accessories Fair 2017 (VIFA Home 2017) which kicked off at Phu Tho Indoor Stadium in HCM City on November 23, Hanh said the high growth rate might be maintained in the final two months of the year. In January-October, Vietnam exported $6.21 billion worth of wood and wooden goods, up 11.2 percent year-on-year, according to the general Department of Vietnam Cus- toms. Local wood enterprises will boost their exports in the rest of the year, so the sector's export revenue may reach $8 billion this year, an increase of 14 percent over last year. Vietnamese wooden goods' quality and designs are highly valued. The country mainly shipped the products to the US (US$2.66 billion), China (US$873 million) and Japan (US$850 million) in the ten-month period. Many firms have opened new factories and invested heavily in advanced technology to improve their production capacity. They have also employed designers to create new products to increase products' value.

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Vietnam annually spends only $68 million importing wooden goods, mainly from Chi- na. Domestic wood enterprises have improved their products' quality and designs, and of- fered good after-sale services and other services to satisfy customers. Local demand for wooden products grows by 5-6 percent a year and most of the prod- ucts are used in high-end hotels and resorts. http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57200/Wooden-product-exporters-regain-growth- momentum-.html

VN needs tech 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS updates to remain Innovative manufacturing is key to increasing productivity and sustainability as Viet- competitive: experts nam confronts the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) challenges, experts say. They said at a roundtable discussion and workshop last Friday that keeping up with the latest trends and technologies was imperative for the economy to remain relevant

FINANCE and competitive. Organised by Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Embassy of Sweden and Business Sweden the Swedish Trade and Investment Council, the event aimed to strengthen collaboration between the two countries by sharing experiences and prac- tices on technological innovations. Swedish Ambassador Pereric Hogberg said that trade and investment between the two countries had been growing steadily, but there was room for further increase. The challenges that Vietnam faces in ensuring sustainable manufacturing and estab- lishing itself as a global hub can be met effectively with expertise and solutions from Swedish companies, he said. Innovation was an important factor in Sweden's success, he added, noting that the country was ranked second in the Global Innovation Index. Deputy director general of Vietnam Industry Agency under Ministry of Industry and Trade, Pham Anh Tuan, said that with the orientation towards industrialisation as the core economic momentum, manufacturing was receiving significant attention from both the government and private sector. Over the past few years, Vietnam has seen a fast growing food and beverage manufac- turing sector. Electronics and automotive components manufacturing were also grow- ing quickly, fueled by major companies like Samsung moving their manufacturing and assembly operations to Vietnam, he said. Staying relevant "However, in order to stay competitive and relevant, Vietnam needs to keep up with the latest trends and technologies in manufacturing," he added. Tuan said that Sweden was considered one of the most sustainable and innovative countries in the world and its companies had a long history of providing world-class manufacturing solutions within assembly tools, packing equipment, automation, dig- italisation and information technology. Sweden is seen as one of the leading nations in applying Industry 4.0. Brian Hull, general director of ABB Vietnam, said that Industry 4.0 did not mean the removal of all existing manufacturing infrastructure and building something new. The matter is to upgrade and improve existing ones, to keep innovating to increase ef- ficiency, productivity and sustainability, according to Hull. "No single company can adapt to Industry 4.0 alone; it requires cooperative work," he added. For example, the ABB uses Microsoft platforms to develop and provide solutions to its clients. In Vietnam, ABB has provided Heineken with medium voltage products, transformers, motor control centres, compact secondary substations, engineering packages, site management and so on. The ABB has provided Vinasoy a food company, with with automated pouch pick and place and box palletting systems that have resulted in greater safety and hygiene, con- sistency and precision in packing and less manpower. The use of robots for various applications in electronics manufacturer including pick

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and place, materials handling and machine handling can generate better quality and reliability, as also locally responsive support combination. Importance of data Alan Fam, Business Line manager, general Industry at Atlas Copco, said that data was the most important factor in Industry 4.0. "Data has to be collected, processed and used to provide smarter and more efficient manufacturing solutions," he said. Fam spoke of manufacturing intelligence a software to gather a corporation's manu- facturing data from many sources for reporting, analysis and communication between enterprise-level and plant-floor systems. He said the software's primary goal was to turn amounts of manufacturing data into real knowledge, driving business productiv- ity. Nguyen Hoang Viet, manager of Technology Department at Thai Nguyen Province- based Song Cong Diesel Company said that the company provided mechanical parts for both domestic and international partners. He said his company was looking for investment and cooperation to improve its man- FINANCE ufacturing technology towards improved productivity and efficiency while meeting domestic and international requirements. Nguyen Chi Hung, deputy director of Hanoi-based Vietnam Automatic Machinery Manufacturing said that many Vietnamese enterprises needed innovations, and his company consulted and provided suitable technologies to its customers. By learning about innovations and new technologies from major manufacturers, his company could become a bridge to connect technology providers with users, he said. Low starting point Earlier on Friday, in his meeting with the Swedish manufacturing delegation, deputy minister of Industry and Trade, Hoang Quoc Vuong, said that Vietnam's readiness for Industry 4.0 was relatively modest because its starting point was low and not much value had been added to its industrial production process. Vietnam wanted to develop its manufacturing sector with "reasonable structure," and use advanced technologies to become more competitive so that it can join the global value chain at least in some industries, Vuong said. He also said that Vietnam had been fostering the application of information technolo- gies in management and operations, considering it a priority in its industrialisation and modernisation process. The country was also paying a lot of attention to preparing its human resources to mas- ter modern technologies and become innovative, he said. He noted that small and medium sized enterprises in Vietnam faced difficulties in ac- cessing credit and acquiring management skills especially in shifting to new modern technologies. http://bizhub.vn/news/vn-needs-tech-updates-to-remain-competitive- experts_290370.html

MoIT aims to improve 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA business climate The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) recently cut 675 business and investment procedures, equivalent to 55.5 percent of total business conditions. This historic decision was the first step of its reforms, said deputy minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh. Minister Tran Tuan Anh, on September 20 signed Decision No 3610a/QD-BCT to cut the large number of administrative procedures and to simplify many business condi- tions under the ministry's management in the 2017-18 period. Khanh told the online forum on its administrative reforms held in Hanoi this week that such reforms would be regularly and continuously implemented in the ministry. State leaders and the business community have hailed the move as the most active and the strongest one among the country's ministries. "The reduction will focus on 16 industries, including important sectors such as petro- leum, logistics, alcohol and tobacco," he said. Specifically, the ministry is considering cutting business conditions in petrol trading

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to ensure supply, while improving competitiveness for the sector. Meanwhile, business conditions would also be removed in the electricity sector to at- tract other firms to invest into the market. Khanh said that after the cutting of procedures, the ministry would focus on post- checkups. In addition, the removal of a large number of administrative procedures is also in accordance with the international commitments, of which Vietnam is a mem- ber. Localities should be given more power in administrative reforms, he said. "The business community was surprised about the cutting. However, the ministry af- firms that we will follow the set targets," Khanh added. Nguyen Dinh Cung, director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), applauded this move, as "unprecedented work" with huge reductions in the number of administrative procedures managed by the ministry. The performance is determined by the specific criteria. However, Cung said people were worried about sub-licences after the cutting, and that some staff could deliberately cause more difficulties for enterprises because they FINANCE could lose their benefits, which they used to gain from taking advantage of the proce- dures. Khanh affirmed that when business conditions were abolished, no place would re- quire additional sub-licences. The deputy minister said by the end of this month, the revised documents of business conditions would be submitted to the government for approval, thus contributing to improving the business environment. https://en.vietnamplus.vn/moit-aims-to-improve-business-climate/122332.vnp

Govt to borrow $300 million to build hi-quality universities 27/Nov/2017 Intellasia| The Saigon Times The government has decided to borrow official development assistance (ODA) loans totalling around $300 million from international financial institutions to develop three hi-quality university towns in the country, Nhan Dan newspaper reports. The government Office on Wednesday issued a notice detailing a conclusion which prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc made at a regular cabinet meeting on a mechanism and special policy to turn Vietnam National University Hanoi, Vietnam National Uni- versity HCM City, and Danang University into leading training and research centers of national and regional scales. The notice states these universities will play a vital role in the national education and training system. Therefore, they should pioneer in innovation, renovation, and im- provement of higher education. The move is to promote the fundamental and comprehensive renewal of the system which can meet the national demand for human resource development, and thus fos- ter sustainable growth in the country. Therefore, the government, in coordination with ministries, agencies and localities, will further create favourable conditions and give priority to developing these univer- sities. In particular, the Ministry of Planning and Investment will team up with the Ministries of Finance, and Education-Training, the three universities, and relevant agencies to draw up plans to build some key and urgent facilities for the three hi-quality univer- sity towns. The PM asked the Ministry of Education and Training to coordinate with relevant min- istries and agencies to instruct the universities to map out restructuring schemes which can identify their missions, visions and goals in order to get higher international rankings. The government leader also requested the governments of Hanoi, Danang, Quang Nam, Binh Duong and HCM City to adopt policies to support these universities to build facilities such as dormitories, bus systems and sport centers. The PM also gave the three universities the go-ahead to set up public-private partner- ship (PPP) projects to develop infrastructure on their campuses.

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They should amend master plans, especially regarding land use, in line with their de- velopment goals and present situations to carry out site clearance and resettlement plans. http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57204/Govt-to-borrow-US$300 million-to-build-hi- quality-universities.html

HCM City needs VND480 trillion for development projects next year 27/Nov/2017 Intellasia| The Saigon Times HCM City will have to raise VND480 trillion (US$21.12 billion) next year to fund its development projects designed to achieve gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth of 8-8.5 percent. According to a public investment plan for 2018 submitted by the HCM City Depart- ment of Planning and Investment to the city government, State-owned enterprises will contribute 18.3 percent, non-State firms 65.7 percent and foreign-invested companies 16 percent. FINANCE The city will focus on boosting economic development, upgrading infrastructure, pro- viding clean water, reducing traffic congestion, coping with inundation, protecting the environment and adapting to climate change. Total investment in the city this year totalled VND370 trillion, up 19 percent over last year. HCM City has offered policy incentives to mobilise capital for these development projects such as demand stimulus packages. As for the city's budget allocation next year, the city will prioritise key projects includ- ing those to ease chronic traffic jams near Tan Son Nhat International Airport and Cat Lai Port. Flood control and environment protection programmes will receive more investment than in 2017. http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57201/HCM City-needs-VND480 trillion-for-devel- opment-projects-next-year.html

Beverage sector faces 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES severe glut Domestic beverage firms have been struggling with a sales slowdown, which is evi- dent in a rise in inventories, heard a seminar in HCM City on November 22. At the seminar on the performance of the beverages market this year and forecasts for next year held by the Vietnam Beer Alcohol Beverage Association (VBA), VBA chair Nguyen Van Viet predicted the oversupply would suppress prices of drinks. In the first eight months of this year, beverage inventories were 62 percent higher than in the same period last year. Viet attributed the modest growth of the sector to the high special consumption tax on beverages, which rose from 55 percent in 2015 to 60 percent this year and could prob- ably surge to 65 percent next year. Delegates at the seminar voiced concerns over the slower development of the sector. Shivam Misra, chair of the Wine & Spirits Sector Committee of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham), said the Vietnamese beverage market holds growth potential but high tax rates have impeded operations of enterprises. He expect- ed the Vietnamese government would issue preferential policy to spur growth in the sector. Truong Quang Thin, vice chair of the Hanoi Anti-counterfeit and Trademark Protec- tion Association, said many legal documents have been issued to reduce beer and al- cohol consumption. Authorities should assess impacts of policies before adopting them. Local enterprises have to compete strongly with each other and with foreign firms. Therefore, VBA chair Viet proposed State agencies early announce new policies to en- terprises so that they can operate efficiently. english.thesaigontimes.vn/57206/Beverage-sector-faces-severe-glut.html

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VN's retail sales to 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS touch over $1.9 trillion The revenue of Vietnam's retail sales market will reach over VND11 quadrillion (US$484.58 billion) by 2025 and nearly VND44 quadrillion ($1.938 trillion) by 2035. This was revealed in the Ministry of Industry and Trade's draft strategy on domestic trade development, which is being publicised for recommendations. According to the draft, the GDP of the domestic trade sector will be more than VND419 trillion by 2020, VND700 trillion by 2025, and VND2.3 quadrillion by 2035, contribut- ing roughly 15.5-16 per cent to Vietnam's GDP by 2030. The annual growth rate (excluding the price factor) of the country's total revenue from retail sales of goods and services for the period from now to 2020 will average at 13 per cent per year, and rise to 14 per cent in 2021-25. The value will reach some VND5.8 quadrillion by 2020, VND11 quadrillion by 2025 and VND44 quadrillion by 2035. Domestic economic sector will account for some 80 per cent of the country's total retail sales revenue by 2020, while the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector will make up

FINANCE about 20 per cent before rising to 70 per cent by 2025. The proportion of modern trade models will be roughly 30 per cent, or nearly VND1.7 quadrillion, by 2020. It will rise to 35 per cent or VND3.8 quadrillion by 2025 and 50 percent or VND22 quadrillion by 2035. Modern trade models such as commodity exchanges, auction centres and franchises will be also developed, and e-commerce will be boosted to have more than 60 per cent of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) participating in e-commerce by 2020 and 80-90 percent by 2035. For the period after 2025, the GDP of the domestic trade sector will reach some VND2.3 quadrillion by 2035, contributing some 15.5-16 percent to Vietnam's GDP by 2030. The annual growth rate of total retail sales of goods and services will average at 14.5 percent per year in the period and reach over VND11 trillion by 2025 and VND44 quadrillion by 2035. The trade system in the country's urban areas will be streamlined to meet the stand- ards of Asean 4 by 2035. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the strategy was drafted based on data during the period from 2011 to 2015 when the GDP growth rate of the domestic trade sector was 9.05 per cent per year. Besides, the ministry also based its strategy on the evaluation and forecast of commercial trends in the domestic and global markets. Vietnam last year was ranked by A.T. Kearney among the world's top 30 retail markets with the best opportunities. The country's retail market last year rose 10.2 per cent over the previous year to VND3.5 quadrillion, according to the General Statistical Office. The market has been an attractive destination for foreign investors thanks to its rela- tively young population, a rapidly expanding middle class and high living standards. Almost 60 per cent of Vietnam's population of roughly 93 million people is under the age of 35, and is becoming better educated and richer. The country's average income last year jumped to $2,200 from a meager $433 in 2000, according to official data. The World Bank forecast that Vietnam's $200 billion economy is likely to grow to a tril- lion dollars by 2035, with more than half of its population, compared to only 11 per cent today, expected to join the ranks of the global middle class with the consumption of $15 a day or more. http://bizhub.vn/news/vns-retail-sales-to-touch-over-19 trillion_290366.html

Logistics industry 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS looks towards As e-commerce forwarding services become more and more active in Vietnam, espe- impending growth cially in the final delivery stage towards the end consumers, market participants now range from large delivery companies to smaller start-ups with a variety of enhanced and expanded services. The high growth rate of the e-commerce industry provides many opportunities for for- eign logistics companies, specifically express delivery services and logistics services for e-commerce that find the country to be a fertile ground for investment. Nonetheless, domestic enterprises with a large market share of the domestic delivery

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market, such as VNPost Express Joint Stock Company (EMS) or Viettel Post Joint Stock Corporation (ViettelPost), still maintain massive service solutions dedicated to E-com- merce. With more than 18,000 postmen and local staff, VNPost has launched its own solutions for online stores from advertising and delivery to customer care. Similarly, Viettel has its own network covering all 713 districts in the country with a ready delivery team of up to thousands. In July 2017, German's Deutsche Post DHL (DHL) launched a domestic delivery serv- ice in Vietnam. Thomas Harris, Managing director of DHL e-commerce Vietnam, said on the company's website that DHL's service would be managed and supported by centres and warehouses located throughout the country. These services are said to be in line with Vietnamese consumers' shopping habits, as by using the service network through DHL e-commerce Portal online, online retailers may designate cash-on-delivery (COD) shipments, while buyers can check and return the goods upon receiving them through the Open-Box-Delivery service, according to FINANCE Harris. Another big name, FedEx Trade Networks, after more than eight years in Vietnam, set up a subsidiary in May 2017 to boost its services in the domestic market. Meanwhile, the United States' United Parcel Service (UPS) made a move to boost serv- ice coverage in provinces across the country. Daryl Tay, managing director of UPS Vietnam, also made a statement on the compa- ny's website that in addition to UPS' existing advantage of having global platforms and networks, the company has conjured up solutions to connect domestic customers with other countries, integrating a technology platform where customers everywhere can have similar experiences. He commented that a recent UPS study found that online shoppers value the smooth flow of a purchase, from start to finish. Accordingly, UPS customers may enjoy the same delivery tools and platforms at every stage, and can constantly monitor the progress of a shipment, allowing them to track their ordering and delivering process, Tay added. Still, one cannot fail to notice how the e-commerce forwarding market has been trans- formed with the participation of thousands of freelance couriers through transport companies using shared platforms such as Grab or Uber. From July 2017, Uber tested the UberShip (now UberDeliver) delivery service in HCM City and Hanoi to great success. UberDeliver's current rates are VND15,000 (US$0.66) for the first two kilometres and VND5,000 ($0.22) for the next kilometre, almost equal to the price of Grab's GrabExpress delivery service. One notable feature of the UberDeliver delivery service is that customers can change their shipping location. The fast-growing domestic delivery market had only five or six companies involved in 2013, which has now expanded to more than 50 enterprises. Strong participation in the market also includes other smaller emerging start-ups, con- sidered to be fast-growing and versatile in business, which include Affordable, Fast Delivery, AhaMove and Tochanh.com, as well as Proship.vn, Shipchung, Giaohangti- etkiem, etc. By making supply chains more predictable, improving transport and logistics, manu- facturers, transportation carriers, logistics service providers and trade regulators can minimise avoidable delays, thereby increasing the output per unit of time, while re- ducing business costs. Such competitiveness enhancements can better position Vietnam to benefit from glo- bal demand, to better serve domestic markets, to attract investment and to generate quality jobs. Transportation and logistics are critical to the everyday functioning of in- vestment and export-led economic models such as that of Vietnam. Charles Brewer, CEO of DHL eCommerce, said in a July 2017 press release that Viet- namese consumers' e-commerce-related spending is expected to grow by 23 per cent, per year from now to 2020, so local online retailers need logistics solutions to expand

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their scale and scope of activities across the country. Brewer says online shoppers are increasingly looking for better options, more conven- ience and greater control over the delivery experience. Currently, many delivery companies in major Vietnamese cities and provinces such as Mobile World, Co.opmart and BigC can deliver goods in just 30 minutes to areas close to the points of sale, which sets an even more competitive requirement for delivery time amongst different companies. Efficient transport and logistics play a significant role in increasing productivity. Ac- cording to a 2016 report by the Vietnam Association of Logistics Service Enterprises (VLA), the logistics industry accounts for 20 to 25 per cent of national GDP and is ex- pected to grow at a rate of around 12 per cent annually in the near future. Domestic businesses and start-ups have quite a number of flexible solutions, which are considered as advantages in business. Considered as a decisive factor for the success of e-commerce, delivery services also attracted retailers themselves to invest in their own delivery system to strengthen the brand image and contribute to reducing costs, FINANCE said the VLA. http://bizhub.vn/news/logistics-industry-looks-towards-impending- growth_290364.html

VN fashion industry 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS faces threat of Early in November NEM Vietnam, the second largest women's apparel maker in the takeover by foreign country, said on its website that it and Stripe International, a Japanese fashion retailer, brands had begun negotiations for the latter to acquire a stake in NEM. According to Hanoitimes, Stripe wants to take over the fashion business of NEM since it owns the NEM women's fashion brand, which has huge potential with 44 stores across the country and its target customers being women aged 20-40. NEM's revenue is expected to rise by 20 per cent this year to $26 million. The newspaper also quoted Yasuhary Ishikawa, the president of Stripe, as saying the acquisition of NEM is part of the company's plans to enter the Vietnamese fashion market. Though NEM has not made an official statement yet on the deal, analysts expressed concern that the fashion industry could possibly be taken over by foreign businesses in the near future. Industry insiders said the worry is not without basis since Vietnamese consumers, par- ticularly young people, love foreign fashion brands. For instance, when Swedish brand H&M opened its first store last September 9, a two- storey 2,200-square-metre flagship at Vincom Dong Khoi in Ho Chi Minh, 4,000 people queued up outside and a total of 10,000 visited on the opening day. When Zara opened its first store in the same mall last year, it reportedly achieved sales of VND 5.5 billion (US$246,000) on the first day. Other popular fashion brands, such as Topshop and Mango have also recently entered the affordable segment in Vietnam, with the former opening four stores. Why exactly are such famous foreign fashion brands interested in the Vietnamese mar- ket? A recent Nielsen survey found that fashion is one of the categories people are most in- terested in, with fashion third behind only food and savings as a destination for peo- ple's money. On average, Vietnamese spend VND100 trillion (US$4.05 billion) on clothing every year. Vietnam has the third largest number of people with a passion for branded clothes in the world after China and India. Data from the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group shows that the apparel industry is growing at a whopping 20 per cent a. The value of the market now is $4.5 billion a year. The entry of famous foreign fashion brands is naturally intensifying the battle over prices, designs and international features. The Vietnam Retail Association said there are more than 200 foreign fashion brands,

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making up more than 60 per cent of the market, selling a range of products from pop- ular to luxury. Some once very famous local brands like Blue, Foci, Viet Thy, Ninomaxx, N&M, Sifa, PT 2000, Sanding, and Dan Chau are seeing their space shrink and have had to down- size. For instance, Thoi Trang Viet Company, which used to be "a phenomenon" in the fash- ion market, has reduced its number of stores from hundreds at one time to just 60 now. Viet Thy has only five stores left, Maxx Style is gone, Blue and PT 200 have to rent spac- es at supermarkets and malls instead of having their own shops on high streets as they used to. Some analysts say this situation is not just due to the consumers' fondness for foreign brands but also domestic players' lack of competiveness. A majority lack deep pockets, talented designers and good management skills and per- sist with outdated marketing strategies. Thus, the domestic players cannot compete with foreign brands either on quality or on price. FINANCE Banks woo foreign investors Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, vice president of the Ho Chi Minh Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank), has revealed that her bank plans to sell 20 per cent stake for $300 million to foreign investors before listing on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange early next year. She said the stakes would be sold to several foreign investors from Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. Vietnam only allows a foreign investor to own a maximum of 5 per cent in a bank. HDBank is now traded on the Over-The-Counter (OTC) market at VND27,000-28,000. For the first nine months of this year the lender reported nearly VND2 trillion (US$88.2 million) in pre-tax profit, three time the profit in the same period last year. Its assets top VND174 trillion ($7.67 billion). For the full year HDBank expects pre-tax profit of VND2.4 trillion ($105.8 million), which is expected to jump to VND3.9 trillion (roughly $172 million) next year. Sai Gon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) also said it was in talks with some banks, investment funds and insurance companies from Norway, Indonesia, Taiwan, and mainland China to identify strategic investors. It hopes to find players from the finance industry so that they can help improve its fi- nancial capacity, speed up its restructuring and bad debt settlement efforts and accel- erate its development. SCB's biggest attraction is that it is the first lender to be allowed by the government to sell a 50 per cent stake to foreign partners, which is expected to bring in at least $700 million. VPBank also plans to sell 5 per cent of its total common stock, the maximum it is al- lowed to under the law, to the World Bank's International Finance Corporation as ap- proved at a shareholders meeting a few months ago. The move is expected to help VPBank, whose foreign shareholding is now at 22.34 per cent, convert its commercial loans into equity. Analysts said the biggest obstacle to banks' efforts to find foreign strategic investors remains Decree No.69/2007/ND-CP, which stipulates a cap on foreign ownership. It limits foreign investment to 30 per cent in case of banks. The limit takes away the attraction foreign investors have for banks since they have lit- tle chance of influencing the management. Many bankers have proposed that the cap be raised to 35-40 per cent. SBV Governor Le Minh Hung has also stressed the need to increase the foreign own- ership cap at banks, saying it encourages lenders to attract investors with deep pock- ets. For banks, increasing their chartered capital is a key task in implementing the high benchmarks of the Basel II Accords in the coming years. Hung said however that increasing the foreign ownership cap is a complicated issue since it has been thoroughly discussed since Vietnam acceded to the World Trade Or-

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ganisation and so needs to be considered carefully before being changed. The government grants special approval for higher foreign ownership on a case-by- case basis. Banks who want to have their foreign ownership caps increased need to seek permis- sion with proper reasons. http://bizhub.vn/business-beat/vn-fashion-industry-faces-threat-of-takeover-by-for- eign-brands_290368.html

Local agricultural 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA products need more Vietnam's agricultural sector should focus on developing the economic value of do- support mestic plant varieties by ensuring their output and protecting branding, instead of im- porting large amounts of other plant varieties. Otherwise, typical and valuable local species will disappear, experts have warned. The warning was made after central Quang Ngai Province's People's Committee

FINANCE agreed in principle with two Japanese businesses to do research and grow Japanese el- ephant garlic as a pilot on Ly Son Island, which has long been known as the kingdom of garlic with distinctive high-nutrient varieties. Specifically, Japan-based Nikken Sekkei Civil Engineering Ltd, in cooperation with CAN Holdings a Japanese company specialising in hi-tech agriculture, proposed to grow elephant garlic on the island and then export it back to Japan. The plant was introduced as a high-yield and high-value crop. About 4-5 tonnes of gar- lic can be harvested per hectare, bringing profit of VND180,000 (US$8) per kilogramme for farmers. Agricultural specialist Le Tien Dung, who is also former head of the Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry's Agricultural Faculty told Tin Phong (Vanguard) newspa- per that the import of another variety of garlic to the island with its small garlic culti- vation area could seriously affect the existence and development of local plants. Dung said Ly Son garlic is a special and distinctive plant that could only be grown in the natural conditions of the island. It took a long time and much effort by local people to select and develop the current variety. He cited "lonely garlic" which has only one clove as an example. This kind of high qual- ity garlic requires special planting techniques and could be sold at the price of between VND1-2 million ($44-88) per kilo. If the imported variety was more productive and easier to cultivate, Ly Son garlic would not be able to compete and would gradually disappear, he said. Ly Son garlic is one of the best varieties with high value that needs to be protected and developed. The problem was all about the protection of typical plants, not about high productivity. To build a trademark for a local agricultural product was much more difficult. Import- ed garlic should be planted in places except for Ly Son Island, Dung stressed. According to the agricultural specialist, there were many lessons about importing plants. Japanese-imported Japonica rice was an example. Although the rice variety has not been tested and accredited by the Ministry of Agri- culture and Rural Development, the plant was planted on tens of thousands of hec- tares in the Mekong Delta region. Many hectares of domestic fragrant varieties such as Tam Xoan, Tam Thom, Lua Hong have been replaced by the imported plant. Domestic-grown peanuts in the central region are another example. Lc giy, a special peanut variety in Tha Thien Hue Province, has disappeared from the crops of local farmers. It is now preserved in the Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry for gene conservation. Lc cuc in Nghe An Province faced the same fate. Many peanut crops of local farmers have been replaced by Chinese-imported varieties. Dung said although the State had policies to restore and re-plant local varieties, not all of the varieties could be re-planted successfully or restored back to their origins. Dng Lien, a garlic farmer on Ly Son Island, said that he did not know anything about the import of garlic to the island and the quality of this variety.

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Lien said the cultivated area on the island was restricted. Each person was given 110 square metres for garlic cultivation and many households had to lease land from other households to expand their crops. If the new imported variety was planted on the island, the area for local products would surely decrease, he added. Nguyen Van Tien, another farmer in An Vinh Commune said he did not want to try a new variety as the problem was not about productivity. "My three sao (1,080 square metres) of garlic field has stable productivity of between 1.5-1.8 tonnes, but the price is not stable as it depends on traders, so my profit is not stable," he said. Tien said stable and long-term output was what he and other farmers expected most. Nguyen Viet Vy, secretariat of the Ly Son Island District said that the warning of the specialist was accurate, and that the provincial authorities need to consider carefully before planting the imported garlic variety on the island. Vy said so far there was no specific information about the pilot project, so the district FINANCE could not give further comment. The district estimates that local farmers plant more than 330 hectares of garlic annually and harvest over 2,000 tonnes, bringing in VND200 billion ($8.8 million) for farmers. In April, 2009, the brand ownership of Ly Son onions and garlic was recognised by the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Vy said the productivity of the plant had slightly reduced in recent years, so the district has reported to the province and asked for help from scientists. The provincial People's Committee said it had planned to build a factory producing garlic oil with Japanese technology to ensure the output of the plant. http://www.vir.com.vn/local-agricultural-products-need-more-support.html

Food processing 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR industry has ample The Vietnamese food processing industry is developing fast, providing many invest- space for development ment opportunities for domestic and foreign investors. There is an abundance of mutually beneficial cooperation opportunities in the food processing industry Steady growth Currently, food processing is one of the priority industries in the nation's development plan, with initiatives to increase yield and the export value of agricultural and proc- essed food products. The Vietnamese food processing industry has been growing steadily at about 7 per cent in the last five years. Annual food consumption value in the country was estimat- ed to make up 15 per cent of the GDP and the quantity also increases by approximately 10 per cent per year, while beverage consumption grows at 6.66 per cent per annum. According to Do Thang Hai, deputy minister of Industry and Trade, Vietnam has abundant raw materials and is able to meet the demand of large-scale food processing enterprises. Vietnam is one of the leading exporters of rice, coffee, pepper, and cashew nuts, among others. "The investment potential of the food processing industry is very big. This is an oppor- tunity for foreign investors to break open the market. All Vietnamese enterprises, or- ganisations, and localities should actively attract foreign investors to invest and cooperate in this sector," Hai emphasized. At the end of October 2017, as many as 128 nations and territories were investing in Vietnam with a total registered capital of $312.91 billion, including $184.4 billion in the processing and manufacturing industry, an equivalent to 59 per cent of the total invest- ment capital in Vietnam. Particularly, there were 295 food processing projects with over $4 billion of registered capital in the first ten months of 2017. A report of Business Monitor International recently forecasted that the growth speed of the food and beverage industry will maintain an annual dual growth of 10.9 per cent in 2017-2019 and consumption demand will focus on food and necessities.

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Investment potential Vietnam is a big and promising market for all types of processed food. As it cuts down on housework, processed food products are becoming more popular, giving rise to deepening demand, both in quantity and diversity. Food production and processing, especially milk, beverages, confectionery, and cook- ing oil, are seen as the most lucrative market segments. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), fresh milk consumption is forecasted to reach 27-28 litres per person per year in 2020; confectionery consumption will increase by 10 per cent per year; cooking oil consumption will hit 17 kilogrammes in 2020 and 20 kil- ogrammes in 2025; beverage consumption will hit 6.8 billion litres in 2020 and 9.1 bil- lion litres in 2025. The potential of this sector lies not only in domestic consumption but also in exports. A diverse range of Vietnamese agricultural products are exported to over 100 nations and territories. Meanwhile, Vietnam has been making leaps and bounds to integrate into the world FINANCE economy through a series of free trade agreements. This creates favourable conditions for food processing businesses to expand their market size, enhance export output, and reduce the import expenses of raw materials, machinery, and equipment -- which will be manifest in product prices and the sector's improved competitiveness. "The Vietnamese food processing industry is oriented to develop based on modern equipment and advanced technology, as well as exploit and use domestic materials as much as possible in order to create diversified products, guarantee quality and food hygiene, develop sustainably, and improve competitiveness," noted Bui Truong Thang, vice director general of the Industry Agency at MoIT. Addtionally, a transparent investment environment, abundant labour force, and the available infrastructure of industrial zones will facilitate foreign enterprises to invest and do business in the country. "Korean enterprises are moving to invest in Southeast Asia, and especially in Vietnam. The number of those paying attention and investing in the local food processing indus- try is increasing," said Nam Sang Kun, a Korean investment promotion professional. In additional to Korea, the food processing industry also needs cooperation and in- vestment from foreign investors not only to enable Vietnamese food products to access bigger markets, but also to support domestic firms to innovate, build new quality standards, and develop Vietnamese food brands across the globe. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/190947/food-processing-industry-has-am- ple-space-for-development.html

Transport sector 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS speeds up for 4.0 The fourth industrial revolution is having a profound impact on every country, indus- try and business, and the transport sector is no different. The Ministry of Transport organised a meeting on the opportunities and challenges the fourth industrial revolution posed for the transport sector in Hanoi on Friday. According to Tran Quang Ha, deputy director of the Science and Technology Depart- ment under the Ministry of Transport, said that the country's transport industry had experienced the second and third industrial revolutions, and would now embrace the fourth. Specifically, the industry has set up high speed road systems and applied in- formation technology and Internet connections in providing transport services such as ticket booking and check-in and automatic charge collection, he said. The appearance of Internet-based transport services such as Uber and Grab and the provision of public services via the Internet are strongly influenced by this revolution, he noted. "However, due to the lack of resources and an overall information technology applica- tion model, applications are just being developed on a narrow scale, without having formed a common and shared database for the whole sector," Ha said. The deputy director also said that the fourth industrial revolution could help save la- bour through technology, however, it could also affect workers by cutting job oppor-

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tunities for cheap labour and change the mode of production through apps like Uber and Grab. Nguyen Ngoc Dong, deputy minister of transport, noted that the beginning of the technology revolution would certainly affect the Vietnamese economy in general and the transportation sector in particular. "Therefore, we must analyse and evaluate in order to manage the industry to keep up with global development," he emphasized. In the future, the deputy minister said that there would be reviews and updates to sup- plement and amend regulations for management in line with actual requirements. The effects of data digitisation and big data storage require the industry to review strategies and planning to make timely adjustments, creating opportunities to leapfrog in the direction of development, he said. "We also need to research new technology applications, digital technology, informa- tion sharing, artificial intelligence and robots to improve operational capacity. At the same time, agencies also need to be proactive in sharing information to serve the work FINANCE of management and operations," he said. Dong also emphasized the preparation of human resources. "The urgent need is to pre- pare and direct skills training and update knowledge," he added. http://bizhub.vn/news/transport-sector-speeds-up-for-40_290358.html

Sports betting -- a 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR potential sector for Many foreign investors jumped on the opportunity when the Vietnamese government investment has completed normative legal documents on the betting business. At the meeting with Nguyen Tu Quynh, Chair of the Bac Ninh People's Committee on the $500 million horse racing track project, Choi Hak Soo, executive director of Korea's Golden Horse, revealed that his company is actively mobilising capital, enhancing per- formance, and completing project documents to submit to the prime minister for ap- proval. It is expected to establish a representative office in Bac Ninh in December 2017. The Golden Horse project's investment strategy was approved by the Bac Ninh Peo- ple's Committee and the Korean company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in April 2017 with the province. The project consists of a horse racing track, an entertainment complex, a resort, and a trading centre in Thuan Thanh district of Bac Ninh, with an area of 400 hectares and a total investment capital of $500 million, creating 5,000-10,000 jobs when it starts oper- ation. In additional to Golden Horse, many foreign investors are planning to open horse rac- ing tracks in Vietnam. A prime example would be Gomax I&D, a Korean investor and its $1.5 billion horse racing track in Vinh Phuc. On December 27, 2016, the MoU on the building complex was signed. Thereby, Gomax I&D will build the largest track in Vietnam. This project includes a racetrack, a 72-hole golf course, a sports entertainment complex, a horse riding and polo club, as well as apartments and villas built on an area of 750 hectares. Of this area, the racetrack will take up 200 hectares and will hold three races per week. SIBC International Ltd from Hong Kong has entered into collaboration with the Can Tho People's Committee to construct a horse racing track and entertainment-tourism complex. It is located nearby Vo Van Kiet Street, with an area of 150ha and expected total investment capital of $500 million (100 per cent foreign-invested). The project consists of five sections: a racetrack and auxiliary area, an entertainment area (for adults and children), resorts, and sport yards. According to the investor, the horse racing track will open three times a week, with 12-16 races per day. In August 2016, Hanoi Tourist in collaboration with Global Consultant Network from Korea established a venture company to build a complex consisting of a hotel, trade, and entertainment centre, a horse racing track, and a golf course in Soc Son with a total investment capital of $500 million. If the Hanoi People's Committee approves, this 5- star project will be carried out as soon as possible. There are a number of foreign investment projects to construct horse racing tracks in

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other provinces, such as Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Duong, and Phu Yen, with total regis- tered investment capital of $100-158 million. Those in Binh Duong and Phu Yen had already received their approval of their investment plans from the local authorities and are expected to be launched in 2019. Related to this sector, the Vietnamese government issued Decree No.06/2017/ND-CP on the business of betting on horse racing, greyhound racing, and international soccer in January 2017. On October 4, 2017, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No.101/2017/TT-BTC to provide guidance on certain articles of government Decree No.06/2017/ND-CP. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/190948/sports-betting-a-potential-sector- for-investment.html

Real estate in the last 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR months of the year: At the end of the year, the real estate market becomes more active as investors flock to

FINANCE Which projects are "premiere" their real estate products. The apartment supply is plentiful and customers stirring up the market? have more choices, but not all projects meet customer demand. Stable apartment market According to a report by Savills Vietnam, in the third quarter of 2017, the number of successful transactions involving the sale of apartments decreased by 17 per cent com- pared with the previous quarter, with some 5,660 apartments sold, even as selling pric- es also decreased in most segments. However, experts predict that in the latter months of the year, especially at the time of the Lunar New Year, the real estate market will see more significant changes as cus- tomers often choose to buy a new house at this time to welcome the New Year, hoping for luck and fortune in their dream home. Therefore, real estate transactions in all segments in the last months of the year see a significant increase against the beginning of the year. That is why the end of the year is always a time when investors race to launch their property products. Many incentive programmes, such as lucky draws and gifting motorcycles, televi- sions, refrigerators, and even cars and overseas tours, are also introduced to attract the attention of customers. Which project will "conquer" the customer? When supply is abundant, homebuyers have more choices. Therefore, projects with reasonable prices, convenient location, full benefits, and attractive incentives receive special attention. Regarding the high-end property market in Hanoi, especially in urban districts such as Thanh Xuan, attention is currently focused on a luxury apartment project recently introduced by TNR Goldseason, called 5 Seasons. 5 Seasons has a golden location right in the heart of Thanh Xuan district, ideally con- nected with many modern infrastructure facilities. In particular, 5 Seasons will enjoy a great advantage after the elevated railway system is put into operation in early 2018. Traffic jams will be significantly reduced and the living conditions of the people in the area will become more convenient. Landlords can, therefore, take advantage of the op- portunities to set higher rental prices in comparison with other places. Nestled in the TNR Goldseason complex, 5 Seasons has inherited a vast green space, with 1,600 square metres of Manhattan Oak. The apartments at 5 Seasons are designed to get as much sunlight as possible. With the desire to introduce the American lifestyle in Vietnam, the owner of 5 Seasons has set up a luxury hotel-standard system for the project. Besides this, future residents of 5 Seasons have the privilege of using nine utilities free for their lifetime -- tropical pools, gym and yoga, sauna and jacuzzi, and recreation room, as well as children's playroom, meeting room, seminar room, library, and mod- ern reading room. In addition, 5 Seasons offers its residents a series of 5-star services, such as reception, round-the-clock security services, free Wi-Fi in the lobby area, laundry, room clean-up, and business services.

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Currently, an apartment with civil work under the 5 Seasons project is priced at $$1.2 billion, while an apartment with complete interior furniture costs $1.6 billion. These prices are considered low for a project in the heart of Thanh Xuan district. More- over, if a customer pays 100 per cent of the apartment value, he/she will receive a dis- count of up to 6.6 percent on the purchase. As revealed by the developer, the volume of transactions in phase one of 5 Seasons was higher than expected. Currently, the project is being constructed up till the eighth floor and is expected to welcome residents in March 2019. http://english.vov.vn/economy/real-estate-in-the-last-months-of-the-year-which- projects-are-stirring-up-the-market-363238.vov

Investors rush to pour 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET money into hotels The increasing number of travellers and government policies to boost tourism devel- opment have prompted investors to build hotels.

FINANCE "On Phu Quoc Island, hotels are seen everywhere. And in Cam Ranh and Da Nang, new hotels are being built. Investors are rushing to pour money into hotels," said Binh, (his name has been changed) one of the best known hoteliers in Vietnam. Binh spent tens of years on managing one of the first international hotels in HCM City and is now an advisor to a large real estate firm in Vietnam. "There is a 'hotel rush' in tourism cities. Those who have idle capital think of building hotels. The reports which say the number of travellers has increased steadily by 20-30 percent have spurred interest among investors," he explained. The 2016 Vietnam tourism annual report showed that Vietnam had 21,000 accommo- dation establishments by the end of last year, an increase of 10.5 percent over the year before. Meanwhile, the number of hotel rooms had increased to 420,000, or 50,000 rooms high- er than 2015, including 91,250 3-5 star rooms. The presence of giant real estate firms such as Sun Group, Vingroup, FLC and Muong Thanh have changed the face of Phu Quoc, Da Nang and Khanh Hoa. Three years ago, there were no 5-star hotels on Phu Quoc. But analysts estimate that there will be 8,000 hotel rooms by the end of the year, even higher than HCM City. VNAT's general director Nguyen Van Tuan said the number of 4-5 star hotels has dou- bled in the last six years, with the number of 5-star hotels now more than 100. Meanwhile, some analysts have warned that the 'hotel rush' will lead to oversupply. They cited the 2016 Vietnam tourism annual report as showing that the average hotel room occupancy rate in 2016 was low, at 57 percent. While the occupancy rate was 70 percent in Quang Nam and Khanh Hoa, the figure was just 35-45 percent in northern mountainous areas, not high enough to bring profit. Nguyen Quy Phuong from VNAT said though Phu Quoc is famous, the occupancy rate is just 50 percent. The analysts noted that many small investors have been following others to build ho- tels, though they don't have business plans. This is why many small hotels in Da Nang have had problems. Because of the oversupply, the occupancy rate in the segment is no more than 50 percent. In some areas, the occupancy rate is just 20-30 percent. Meanwhile, the investment rate is high: more than VND10 billion for a mini hotel covering an area of 100 square me- ters. 4 http://english.vov.vn/economy/investors-rush-to-pour-money-into-hotels-363303.vov

Money well spent 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VN ECONOMIC TIMES Despite higher investment costs, green building developments are being increasingly encouraged given the long-term environmental benefits and cost efficiencies. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development from the United Nation notes that green construction projects are increasing rapidly in number worldwide. The Dodge Data & Analytics' World Green Building Trends 2016 Report revealed that the global green building sector continues to double every three years, with 60 per cent of

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projects going green by 2018, according to surveyed respondents from 70 countries. The higher initial investment is offset by an increase in return on investment as well as reductions in operating costs. Vietnam, as an emerging real estate market in Asia, has been keener making its prop- erty projects "greener" over the last few years. "Despite encountering certain challeng- es in expansion, it can't be denied that green buildings have brought a lot of benefits to developers, end-users, and the national economy, society, and the environment as a whole," said David Jackson, general director of Colliers International Vietnam. "Green" revolution The latest figures from the GreenViet Consultancy Company, a green building con- sultant for more than 50 per cent of all LOTUS projects in Vietnam, show there are now more than 120 green buildings nationwide, of which about 50 have been completed and certified. More than 70 are still in the design or construction process and will re- ceive certification upon completion. Among the 50 certified, some 40 have been built in accordance with international criteria while the remainder have been certified by FINANCE the Green Building Council of Vietnam (VGBC). These figures are up dramatically from the 2010-2011 period, when there were only two in the country, and from the 2012-2013 period, when there were 15. There has been encouraging progress made in green buildings in Vietnam, such as the launch of local ratings systems (LOTUS and EDGE), and the increasing number of certified buildings. Frankly speaking, however, compared to other countries, Vietnam is well behind the 2,100 certified buildings in Singapore and the 700 in Australia. Vietnam has over 30 buildings with LEED certificates, down on the 38 in Bangkok, 89 in Kuala Lumpur, and 56 in Singapore, according to Colliers International. There are a number of green building certifications around the world but in Vietnam the most popular include LEED (US), BREEAM (UK), LOTUS (Vietnam), BCA Green Mark (Singapore), and Green Star (Australia), and certifications in the hospitality sec- tor, such as the Green Globe Standard and EarthCheck. LEED is considered the most common and with the strictest criteria. Jackson said that the green buildings market in Vietnam is still in its early stages of development and it is understandable that many investors, buyers, and local real es- tate brokers have a different understanding about the concept. Despite the minor var- iations in the different rating systems, green buildings should meet standards in being environmentally-responsible and resource-efficient throughout their life-cycle, being designed, built, and operated to cut the overall impact of the building on human health and the natural environment and improve employee productivity and reduce waste, pollution, and environmental degradation. Smart choice In the early stages, the major motivation of developers in following "green and sustain- able" construction came from corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes, were included in brand promotion campaigns, or aimed at minimising operating costs. This may explain why large foreign or multinational companies have led the trend in Viet- nam. Moreover, aware of numerous benefits from green buildings, some major devel- opers have been active and keen on green and sustainable project developments in the real estate market for the last few years. Green certification systems in Vietnam Known as the first office building in Vietnam and one of only a few in Southeast Asia with two energy efficiency certificatesLEED Platinum by the US Green Building Coun- cil (USGBC) and certification from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB)Deutsches Haus HCM City officially opened its doors in early September to welcome tenants after three years of construction. The 26-story building has a favour- able location in the CBD with nearly 40,000 sq m of gross floor area (GFA) and invest- ment of more than $110 million. One of its key features is its double-glazed facadethe latest in German technology. It is the first in Vietnam and the region and emphasizes the need for an energy-saving structure given the country's harsh climatic conditions. By presenting itself as a transparent and inviting building, Deutsches Haus HCM City

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sets a new benchmark and standard in Vietnam in terms of "wellness" for tenants and employees, with a cost-effective design, low-energy consumption, high-quality build- ing materials, and the latest German technologies, coupled with a high degree of sus- tainability, including the installation of solar equipment and panels to generate renewable energy. "The project's strategic location will simultaneously allow tenants to attract and retain talent and take full advantage of future infrastructure develop- ments like the urban railway line," said Elmar Dutt, Marketing and Communications director at Deutsches Haus HCM City. Furthermore, the Ascendas Saigon Bund Company, a joint venture between Ascendas- Singbridge, Asia's leading sustainable urban development and business space solu- tions provider, and Saigon Bund Capital Partners, recently announced the opening of OneHub Saigon, its first integrated business park in Vietnam, by 2020. LEED Silver will be applied in the complex's office towers, especially Office Tower 1, with certifi- cation to be issued by the first quarter of 2019. Located at the Saigon High-Tech Park in HCM City, OneHub Saigon covers a total area of 12 ha and features a variety of FINANCE amenities, including a mixed-use commercial building, seven eco-friendly office tow- ers, two work-office-home-office buildings, and a training centre, with a total GFA of 360,000 sq m. A substantial number of Vietnamese developers are shifting their real estate construc- tion towards green development. The Phuc Khang Corporation was recently among the first in the south to sign a green building development commitment. Diamond Lo- tus Riverside, its first green apartment project, is being built in HCM City's District 8 under LEED criteria and is expected to open early next year. In the hospitality sector, one of Vietnam's leading developers, the FLC Group, broke ground in June for The Coastal Hill, the first hotel project in Vietnam applying LOTUS and LEED's highest criteria. Located within the FLC Quy Nhon complex, the hotel will have 1,500 rooms and is expected to open in mid-2018. Certain barriers The pace of green construction in Vietnam has been marked by quantity as well as quality but project numbers remain modest due to certain difficulties developers face. "Green buildings are a relatively new concept in Vietnam and have only become pop- ular over the last few years, so it is easy to be misunderstood and, sometimes, abused," said Do Huu Nhat Quang, vice Chair of the Green Architecture Club HCM City and co-founder of GreenViet. In his opinion, only when a building is designed, built, and accepted under at least one green building system and certified by the green building council of its host country can it be called a green project. Moreover, "many developers are cautious when invest- ing in projects with green criteria, because of the additional construction costs," he said. "The expense will account for around 2-10 per cent of total investment." Concerns over whether demand for green buildings exists among buyers or tenants also makes many developers more hesitant, he added. Going green is a question of balancing higher short-term investment costs with long- term benefits. "The cost premium for going green in tropical areas like Vietnam is be- tween 1 and 10 per cent of a normal building," said Jackson. "In addition to cost sensi- tivity, other barriers to green building development include a lack of high-technology machinery to build and operate a fully green project, limited skilled human resources, a lack of incentive policies from the government, and low awareness among domestic developers and contractors." Truong Anh Tu, Business Development director at the Phuc Khang Corporation, ac- knowledged that the company outlaid 10-12 per cent more in initial investment capital in its first green project. However, "we will try not to charge our customers more be- cause an apartment price should solely depend on supply and demand factors, which could cause problems for enterprises," he said. The initial investment is unquestionably retrieved over the long run thanks to lower operating costs and potentially higher occupancy rates. "For the office-building seg- ment, the value of a building is reflected in the rental," said Jackson. "For the residen-

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tial segment, buyers will be happy to pay more at first if they can save more later. Investors can take advantage of green construction to promote their corporate image and prestige and increase the market value of the building. So, green construction af- fects rentals in a positive way." http://vneconomictimes.com/article/property/money-well-spent

Vietnam promotes 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VOV5 Vietnamese brands in Vietnam-Republic of Korea trade ties are flourishing with trade revenue growing from RoK $500 million in 1992 to $45 billion in September this year. But the number of Vietnam- ese brands in Korea remains small. Trung Nguyen coffee is the only Vietnamese product widely distributed in the Repub- lic of Korea. Other brands like Trung Thanh chili sauce and Nam Ngu fish sauce are only sold here and there in smaller shops. Do Kim Lang, deputy director of the Trade Promotion Department of the Ministry of

FINANCE Industry and Trade, said Vietnam has 90 enterprises recognised as national brands. But they still pay little attention to promoting their brands globally. Most Vietnamese businesses are small and medium-sized businesses that export products with little added value. Le An Hai, deputy director of the Asian -- African Market Department, urged Viet- namese businesses to learn Korean food safety, product quality, and trademark regis- tration in order to secure a firm foothold in the Korean market. Hai said "We have to export our products through Korean distributors, who have their own standards and requirements in design and packing. Securing a market share in the Korean market depends on the competence of each company." Pham Duy Khuong, director of SB Law, a law firm specialising in intellectual property, said "Domestic enterprises should increase their market study and professional evalu- ation. We need legal experts who will help us check and verify legal issues with our trading partners and whether our trademark and packing meets the host country's standards." http://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnam-promotes-vietnamese-brands-in-rok- 363151.vov

Italian firms seek 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES investment An Italian mission of 80 leading firms and 150 delegates will come to Vietnam next opportunities in week to sound out cooperation prospects and strengthen ties between the two coun- Vietnam tries. The delegation, led by Ivan Scalfarotto, Italian deputy minister of Economic Develop- ment, will participate in Vietnam-Italy trade promotion programmes in Hanoi from November 27 to 28 and in HCM City on November 29. These programmes will be or- ganised by the Italian Trade Commission, the general Confederation of Italian Indus- try, and the Italian Banking Association. There will be roundtables on infrastructure-transportation, power generation-renew- able energy and machinery-technology. Italian deputy minister Ivan Scalfarotto and representatives of the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) will deliver speeches at the Vietnam-Italy Business Forum on November 28. Vietnamese companies which have already cooperated with Italian firms and those are seeking new partners are encouraged to take part in the event, especially a business- to-business (B2B) meeting in Hanoi on November 28 and another in HCM City the next day. Paolo Lemma, head of the Italian Trade Commission in Vietnam, said Vietnam is an important market for Italian footwear, textile and fashion products and services. Ital- ian companies consider Vietnam a potential market in the region and a perfect gate- way to access the Asean market. Visitors can access the website http://vietnamitaly2017.ice.it for information about Ital- ian companies participating in the event.

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Vietnam and Italy achieved two-way trade of over $4.6 billion last year, making Italy the third largest European business partner of Vietnam. The last Italian business mission to Vietnam took place in 2014 with more than 1,000 B2B meetings. http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57203/Italian-firms-seek-investment-opportunities- in-Vietnam.html

India, VN textiles eye 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS cooperation There is a lot of potential for cooperation between Vietnam and India in the textile and garment sector, a Vit Nam -- India business meeting heard in HCM City on Thursday. K Srikar Reddy, the Indian consul general in the city, said Vietnam is among the top five textile and clothing exporting countries along with India. But it has to import a lot of the raw materials, while "India's textile industry has devel- oped a complete product supply chain and India is also one of the suppliers of high-

FINANCE quality materials and fabrics at competitive prices in the world." Cooperation between the two countries would help Vietnamese enterprises diversify their raw material sources and sell high-quality products in the international market, he added. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Association, concurred with him, saying Vietnam has a shortage cotton, fabric and yarn while India has an abundant supply of these products, making them perfect part- ners. The General Statistical Office estimates that Vietnam spent $18.5 billion to import cot- ton, un-spun fibre, fabric and auxiliary materials last year and around $15.5 billion in the first nine months of this year. Vietnam imported all is cotton needs, with the US and India being the largest suppli- ers, besides also importing fabric and yarn from India. Shailesh Martis, joint director of the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, said last year India was the sixth largest supplier of textiles to Vietnam, but only accounted for a 1.83 per cent market share, while China and Korea, the largest suppliers, account- ed for 65.4 per cent. India's export of textiles to Vietnam, especially fabrics, is very low but it is the second biggest supplier of cotton yarn after China, he said. "Vietnam has established itself as one of the leading garment makers to the world, not only to major markets like EU and the US but also to newly emerging large importers China and Korea." India is the world's largest producer of jute and the second largest producer of cotton and silk, and accounts for 22 per cent the world's spindle capacity, he said. "Vietnam needs huge quantities of right-priced, quality woven and knitted fabrics to continue its growth momentum. "India could be an economical source of quality yarns and fabrics to bridge the gap and make Vietnam's garments even more competitive." He also suggested ways to increase bilateral trade, including exchange of technical know-how, trade-related information and demand supply trends for important prod- uct groups on a regular basis. The event attracted nine Indian companies that export cotton, fancy yarns, viscose/ blended yarns, fabrics, staple fibre and others, who are also participating in the Viet- nam International Textile & Garment Industry Exhibition in HCM City from Novem- ber 22 to 25, besides local firms. http://bizhub.vn/news/india-vn-textiles-eye-cooperation_290351.html

Vietnam, Slovakia 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA promote trade, The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Ministry of Economy investment of Slovakia should increase cooperative activities and delegation exchanges to en- cooperation hance trade and investment collaboration between the two countries, said a senior of- ficial.

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Vietnamese minister of the Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh made the remark while holding a reception for Slovakian minister of Economy Peter Ziga in HCM City on No- vember 25. The robust development in bilateral ties have opened up opportunities and potentials for the two countries to step up cooperative activities for mutual benefits in economy, trade and investment, Anh said, adding that although two-way trade revenue has in- creased through years, it still lags behind expectations of both sides. He underlined that Vietnamese and Slovakian enterprises are still holding great poten- tials to cooperate in the fields of information and technology, mining, electronics, man- ufacturing technology and tourism. For his part, Ziga affirmed that Slovakia always cherishes ties with Vietnam and sees the country as a leading partner in Asia, expressing his hope that both sides will reach positive agreements during his visit, making cooperation programmes in economy and trade more effective. He suggested that the two ministries should organise more business forums as well as FINANCE trade and investment promotion conferences while asked leaders of the MoIT to sup- port Slovakian enterprises to study the Vietnamese market. In the past years, Vietnam and Slovakia enjoy a stable increase in two-way trade reve- nue. Vietnam mainly exported footwear, garments and seafood and imported ma- chines, tools and steel spare parts from the European country. By the end of October 2017, Slovakia had nine investment projects worth 250 million USD in Vietnam, ranking 36th out of 128 countries and territories investing in Viet- nam. Meanwhile, Vietnamese IT company FPT has one investment project valued at nearly 500,000 USD in Slovakia. https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-slovakia-promote-trade-investment-cooperation/ 122322.vnp

Vietnam's images, 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA potentials spotlighted Vietnam's achievements in economy, politics and foreign affairs as well as the coun- in Romania try's beauty and people were featured through a photo exhibition and a seminar re- cently held in Bucharest, Romania. The event was organised by the Centre for Indochina Studies under the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in collaboration with the Vietnamese Embassy in Ro- mania. Introducing the country's brilliant successes in various fields after over 30 years of Doi Moi (reform), Vietnamese Ambassador to Romania Tran Thanh Cong highlighted that these achievements have elevated Vietnam's economic and politic position on the in- ternational arena. The successful hosting of the Apec 2017 Economic Leaders' Week is a clear proof for the country's deep integration into the regional and global economy, he stressed. Regarding Vietnam-Romania relations, Cong affirmed that both sides have consider- able potentials, advantages and opportunities to boost cooperative ties, especially in economy. Maritime economy is billed as a key strength of Vietnam with important sea routes through the East Sea, which help promote trade exchanges with foreign countries, in- cluding Romania, he said The ambassador affirmed that Vietnam always creates favourable conditions for Ro- manian investors. Romanian experts spoke highly of Vietnam's political stability and economic achieve- ments as well as its role in the Asia-Pacific region and international forums. Investment opportunities in Vietnam for Romanian investors were on the table as well. Participants said that the opportunities mostly come from Vietnam's preferential pol- icies and traditional relationship between the two countries. https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnams-images-potentials-spotlighted-in-romania/ 122330.vnp

Intellasia 27 November 2017 36 / 61 Vietnam finance & business 27 November

Vietnam and Poland 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR set to tighten trade and Vietnam and Poland are expected to sign several cooperation deals this week to beef investment up their investment and trade ties, which are on an uptrend at the moment. cooperation Polish President Andrzej Duda will pay a state visit to Vietnam during November 27- 30. Duda will have bilateral talks with his counterpart Tran Dai Quang, who invited him to Vietnam, and have meetings with Party general Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The two sides are expected to discuss various issues, with a focus laid on measures to strengthen the two countries' trade and investment cooperation, which is strongly ris- ing, despite the current humble figures. The two countries are expected to sign bilateral cooperation deals in the sectors of ed- ucation and training, investment, environment, finance and banking, and agriculture. During this visit, many Polish businesses will also come to Vietnam to seek investment

FINANCE opportunities in their primary areas of business, such as waste treatment, food processing, green technology, mining and mining equipment manufacturing, medical equipment, and shipbuilding. Polish firms also want to avail themselves of the advantages from the free trade agree- ments that Vietnam has and will ink with foreign nations to boost their exports. A Vietnamese-Polish economic forum will see these businesses meet with Vietnamese partners during the visit, which will also witness the launch of the Poland Investment and Trade Office in HCM City. The Polish government has identified Vietnam as one of the six key markets of Poland. In particular, Vietnam is expected to become a bridge for Polish firms to penetrate the Southeast Asian market of over 630 million people. As of October 2017, Poland had 14 valid investment projects in Vietnam, registered at nearly $183 million. Within 2014-2017, the Polish-Vietnamese investment cooperation doubled, largely focusing on the sectors of real estate (euro Vietnamese Village), processing (VIFON), and services (Halong Plaza). Vietnam currently has only four valid investment projects in Poland, registered with $5.1 million, focusing on the fields of services and foodstuff. These projects include a Vinamilk's $3 million Vinamilk Europe, which specialises in trading agricultural materials and milk products. At present, Poland is Vietnam's largest trading partner in the East-Central European region, while Vietnam is Poland's seventh largest trading partner outside the EU. Bilateral trade turnover rose from $650 million in 2010 to $761 million in 2015 and $790 million last year. In the first nine months of this year, the figure was $730 million. The figure is expected to hit about $1 billion throughout this year. Vietnamese exports to Poland include garments and textiles, aquatic products, rice, coffee, pepper, confectionery, mobile phones, and electronic items, while imports from this nation are powdered milk, pharmaceutical products, fruit, and equipment for the coal and shipbuilding sectors. www.vir.com.vn/vietnam-and-poland-set-to-tighten-trade-and-investment-coopera- tion.html BUSINESS NEWS Business Briefs 27 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA | November, 2017 * The State Securities Commission has given nod to VietinBank to issue VND2.2 trillion worth of inconvertible unsecured bonds. The notes have a face value ofVND10 million each and a tenor of 10 years. The lender will calculate bond yields basing on the aver- age deposit rate of four banks including Vietinlsank, BID\!, Vietcombank and Agrib- ank plus 1.2 percent per annum. * Platium Victory Pte Ltd has registered to buy 6.6 million shares of Refrigeration Elec- trical Engineering Corporation (REE) to raise its ownership from 22.8 percent to 24.9 percent. Earlier, the fund became a major shareholder of Vietnam Dairy Products Company (VNM) for purchasing nearly 51.3 million VNM shares to secure an 8.27 percent stake in the enterprise.

Intellasia 27 November 2017 37 / 61 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam winning week VN Indexconcludes Intellasia USD) were traded in the market, down 5.3 percent in trading volume but up 10.6 per- up10.6 but volume trading in percent 5.3 down market, the in traded were USD) rection forthesestocks. However, ascash stocks inlarge-cap pressure profit-taking ing AccordingTran DucAnh,astockanalyst to cent. dropping around1per- each (CTG), Vietinbank (VCB) and Vietcombank percent and Big losers includedVinGroupdown 2. (VIC), as strong not it was the endofsession, whichprovedthat the Despite dropatthemorning significant tr rose 2.3 percent. (HBC) struction Group Consulting-Trading-Service Construction Corp(DXG)bothhitthedailyli Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corp curities sectors,"BIDV and construction,was moredivided whileGroup) banking inthe thepicture and se- of decreasing ones(187-96), espe "Green color dominated the market with the nu stocks. Notably, however, cashflow began to grad up0.1percentandsteelmaker (VNM), sugar Thanh Tay maker Cong Ninh JSC and Habeco(BHN),eachrising over 3 pe Leading gainers includedand beverage food clined. ninede- and only hereadvanced liquidity and bymarket value shares top 30 largest Large-cap stockscontinuetoprovideenergy clos to percent adding 0.2 Index VN the Sharesconcludedon awinningweek 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA idend in cash forshareholders at 18percent. Technology Corporati * GlobalElectrical Province. in the enterprise. The enterprise willdeve St Joint establish SonMyRenewable Energy 2(T * PowerEngineering ConsultingCompany aninternational Adidas, footwear giant, of supplier biggest the for fibers color producing billion VND80.9 spend will the firm in fourprojects STK planstoinvest tively. 23 and percentofVND2.35 trillion, ris-ing32 target year plan by3percent.In2018, STK toreach likely is revenue VND its while lion * CenturySyntheticFiber (STK) Corporation on November28. payment make the mill has 320.6 PPC Currently, vember 12. paying aninterim dividend * Pha Lai Thermal Power Company (PPC) will spend anestimated VND385billion percentshares,Van Thanowned 20.417.7 million or ments Limited held 11.5milli limit from percentto49percent.At 39.8 * PowerConstructionCompany(PCl)hasgot A total of over 289 million shares worth a shares worth million 289 ofover total A points. to endat 110.83 On theHanoiStockExchange, theHNX-Index rose for athird day, adding 0.59percent divergence may still be seen next week. before, BSC's report said. Securities(BSC)wroteyesterday. Co inareport of VNDl,200 for2017 per share on therecord of VNDl,200 date of No- Real Estate (HQC) rallied 3.5 percent and Hoa Binh Con- Hoa and percent 3.5 (HQC)rallied Real Estate on shares of PC 1, or a 10 percent stake, while chair Trinh stake,whilechairTrinh on shares ofPC1,ora10percent cially in sectors such as such cially insectors e at 935.57 points on November 24. on points e at935.57 November Hoa Phat Group (HPG), up 2.4 percent. 2.4 up (HPG), Group Phat Hoa said Viet Capital Securities Company. Capital saidViet the VietnamEnterpriseInvest- end of2016, on (GLT) will advance a 2017 first round div- round first 2017 advance a (GLT) will on lop renewable energy projects in Binh Thuan lop renewable energyprojectsinBinh the marketmaintained though momentum, rcent; confectionery KidoGroup (KDC)and s a net profit ofVND118.5 billion on revenue ion outstanding shares. Thecompany will worth VND682.7billionnextyear,ofwhich HCM Stock Exchange with the benchmark with theHCM StockExchange flows into mid-cap intomid-cap flows combined 7.3 trillion (REE) and Dat Xanh Real Estate Service & ually spread to small- andmedium-cap tosmall- spread ually ock Company, holdinga51 percent stake 6 percent; Vincom Reta 6 percent;Vincom at Bao Viet Securities Company,increas- companies, such as brewer Sabeco(SAB) triggeredahighrisk ofashort-termcor- has estimated its net profit at VND90 bil- VND90 at netprofit its estimated has percent versus the previous year respec- previous percent versusthe 1.9 trillionin 2017, for the upwardtrend: 18 market's of the mit rise of 7 percent, while Hoang Quan mit rise Quan of 7percent, whileHoang ade, VN Index still increased slightly by approval to raiseits foreignownership toapproval mber of increasing stocks doubling that increasing stocksdoubling mber of V2) will contribute VND 10.2 billion to to 10.2billion VND contribute will V2) (SBT), each up1percent; Vinamilk real estate (exceptfor Vin- and penny stocks, a and pennystocks, VND (320.2 million (320.2 VND surpassing thefull- surpassing 27 November 2017 38 /61 il (VRE), down2.7 27 November 27 BUSINESS steam rallyloses Market finance& business Vietnam likely correction a warnedof Investors Intellasia increaseaccompanied was with better liquidity. we analysts and Both traders per cent since the beginning ofthisyear. Thenorther points. 110.83 ending Fridayat On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index english.thesaigontimes.vn/57215/ over netbought theystill Meanwhile, billion. The investorsstrong Foreigners turnednetsellers onthesouthern shares traded. in a row. The lender the was most liquid per sh 2.5 SHB atVND8,300 increased percent over at 1.9 million shares and 2.6 million shares respectively. andVND25,10 the ceilingpricesofVND11,100 Among heavyweights, oil and gasstock PVC trillion. VND1 volume and value jumping64pe On the Hanoi market, the HNX-Index advanc exchanged. ontheso forliquidity thelead took and share for the eighth consecutivesession. The prop gains with closing before volatility strong underwent FLC stocks, speculative Among million shares exchanged, climbing trad actively the most remained shares. MBB year, sendingitamong the best The bullmarket has been stea closedFriday at centlastweek.It 5 per The VN Index recorded thelargest weekly gain further. percent rise, standing at VND23,700 a share a VND23,700 at rise,standing percent ceilin tokeep toits In contrast, failed CTG rising sessions. consecutive three after at VND47,900 percent lost0.2 while VCB pershare VND25,300 declin BID inwhich onWednesday, rallies a share. Some 2.5 percentatVND80,600 bank In the oil and gas ashareand 2.3 sector, PLXdropped fell atVND60,500 GAS percent ty enterprise VICincreasedamere VNM andconsumer goods producerMSNclosed Mostbluechips retreated after soaring to cent atover 223 million shares butva Tradingvo 933.7. at earlier sus thesession The main index at the end of theday inchedup close. the at 23, butth the sellingpressureonNovember hita10-yearhigh Having at 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vninde value of117 billion VND. Foreign investors were netsellersonbothexchanges, responsible for acombined net transact of cent intermsofthevalue have warnedofalikely correction thisweek to head itwill predict forecasts and week last Investors wereveryexcitedafterthebenc 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS over 940 points, the local stock market then succumbed to then succumbed local stockmarket points, the over 940 ly offloadedproperty stockssuch as NVL, DIG and VIC. re upbeat with the marketdevelopment when the index dy with the VN Index climbing nearly 41 per cent this performing marketsinthe world. rcent and 57 percent at81.9 million shares worth over Market-rally-loses-steam.html x-concludes-winni 0.7 percent at VND76,500 ashare. 0.7percent at VND76,500 2.1 percent at VND24,700 a share. a VND24,700 at percent 2.1 ions compared to theprevioussession. lue shed 15 percent atVND5.4 trillion. VND7.4 billion on the northernbourse.on VND7.4 billion 935.57 points, the peak since December 12, 2008. sinceDecember thepeak points, 935.57 stock on the northern bourse with 28.9 million stock onthenorthernbourse with 28.9 new highs inthemorning phase. Dairy firm hmark VN Index hit an almost decade-high decade-high analmost hmark VNIndexhit lume on the HCM City market rose 6.2 per- rose 6.2 City market the HCM lume on g price but the lender stillended with a4.6 n market index has also expandedover 38.3 ed 1.6 percent at the intraday lowof intraday ed 1.6percentat the erty firm added 1.2 percent at VND6,850 a VND6,850 at percent 1.2 erty firmadded on matchingvolume of e VN Index stillVN efractional managed rise a market with a net selling value of VND57 VND57 of value anetselling with market uthern boursewithover26millionshares after along rally be ye pointsthis 1,000 ed stock in the banking sector with 11.4 11.4 with sector banking the in stock ed and construction firm VGC went up to up and constructionfirm VGCwent stocks also lost steam aftermakingnice lost steam also stocks ed 0.82 percent at 110.18 with trading with trading percentat 110.18 ed 0.82 are after movingflatforthree sessions a slight 1.04 points, or 0.11 points,or0.11 percent, ver- aslight 1.04 0 a share. Thefirmsreported0 a turn- high in the past eight years, picking upover picking years, eight past inthe gained over 2.3per cent fortheweek, at thereference priceswhileproper- ng-week/122296.vnp ar. However, analysts ar. However, 27 November 2017 39 /61 fore the marketgoes nearly five million 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam 220m shares offer to Corp IPO Da scheme, Song In new Intellasia excitement, whichcouldleadto ue, but investors needto remain cautious andavoidcarried being marketaway bythe last happened inthe what "This isexactly it seemed readytosupportthemarket In anotetoitsclients on Friday, VietDragon Se week. this be seen still can divergence a stocks, for these stocks. However, as cash inflow profit-taking pressure The shares offered at the IPO equaloffered 49perce attheIPO The shares soldthe at starting price ofVND11,000(49 cents) USper share. the be heldonDecember25 at The IPOwill website. at its initial public offering (IPO) next m http://bizhub.vn/markets/investors-war continuous rises. money willseek opportunities ingoodstocks The market will need anecessary correction a highstateofexcitement, the greed will lead to higher risk. Saig AccordingDuy Hung,chairof to Nguyen the VN30. ence index VN30, and contracts due March 201 points, 1,036 reaching 2018 dueJune tracts The derivatives market showed thebest expe ket, FiachraMacCana, managing director mar- local of the 'retreating" a leading is valuations current to premium a to pay willing These dealshave electrified investor sentimen through share purchase. com Retailheavy investme and investors thanks tosuccessful mega deals th The localstockmarket isbackedbystrong Necessary correction a stock analyst Anh, to Duc According Tran Investment Co (NBB). Corp(DXG), Construction & Service Estate trade, including Refrigeration Electrical estatereal of thisgroup,especially Many stocks. growth in the weekend session, cash tended to spread tosmall- andmedium-cap Though moneyseemed toreduce inthela cent. inbank, up14per cent; VincomRetail,up13. Viet- cent; per up13.9 Sabeco, cent; per up16.6 Habeco, were gainers biggest The (BID). BIDV and (CTG) Vietinbank like banks big Gas (GAS), Vinamilk (VNM), brewers Sabeco (SAB) andHabeco (BHN), along with (VRE),Ma VincomRetail VinGroup (VIC), including caps, major large on focusing inthe market, torun continued still flow Cash cent invaluecompared totheprevious week. 6.5per and volume per up 10.7 markets, cent in trading inthetwo were traded million) of245.4millionshares An worth average After the IPO, the government willhold51pe sharestoitsempl sell 822,000 The company expects to raise thanVND2.4more trillion ($200 million), or 450 m The State-owned Song DaCorp 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS in large-cap stocks triggered high oyees at preferential prices. oyees atpreferential illion shares, the company said. company the shares, illion nt of Singapore's Jardinent ofSingapore's Cy oration (SongDa) will offer unreasonableaction," it said. when a deep correction takes place. when adeepcorrection ned-of-a-likely-correction_290369.html onth, the company said in a statement on its Engineering Corp (REE) and Dat Xanh Real two sessions. This phenomenon may contin- phenomenonmay sessions. This two shares, hit the daily limit rise on Friday's onFriday's rise limit hit daily the shares, s are alsorunningintomid-capand penny a combined VND5.4 trillion (roughly$237 a combinedVND5.4 rge-cap sector, which slowed downmarket at HCM Securities JSC toldBloomberg. JSC Securities at HCM cash flows from bothdomesticandforeign san Group san Group (MSN), Petrolimex (PLX),PV which pointshigherthantherefer- is 100 Quoc Cuong Gia Lai JSC (QGC) andNBB Lai JSC QuocCuong Gia at Bao Viet Securities Hanoi Stock Exchange. The shares will be shares will Stock Exchange. The Hanoi is month, such as the stockdebutofVin- as month, such is 2 per cent; and Masan Group, up10.6per per cent; 2 nt of itschartercapi nt to return to the balanced state and smart stateandsmart tothe to return balanced ctation ofinvestors,withthefuturecon- t and the fact that foreigninvestorswere that andthefact t instead of pouring into hot instead ofpouringinto stockswith r cent ofthecompany's capital,but re- on Securities Inc, when the market is in Inc, whenthemarketon Securities is curities Conotedas 8 at 991 8 at991 points, 50 trillion from the IPO. Italsoplansto risk of a short-term correction correction ashort-term of risk cle&Carriage inVinamilk nearly 220 million shares 220 nearly Company, increased Company, 27 November 2017 40 /61 tal, which is VND4.5 VND4.5 is which tal, points higher than higher points cash flowisstrong, 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam Friday fever platforms stirupBlack Online shopping Intellasia shortest possibletime, and not waste easily compare prices of the sameproducts Vietnam News th Chi MaiofHanoitold Hoang sumers. The successofe-commerce hasalottodo with More convenient parels. cluding household items and clothing, though Sendo.vn have alsobeen offering many at local e-commercesites like Other well-known to customers. shopping channels, butitistheformer that The Black Friday concept has gonebeyond sale, lasting fromNovember24to27, alsoplans a The company special four-day year's figures. days, Lazadaannounced that it had sold over It is calling its end of the year discount Vietnamese online market. Philippines, IndonesiaandViet Lazada, theonline shopping giant operatin mont of the the beginning day since In Vietnam, many online shoppingwebsites ing Day. fourth on the falls Friday In the Black US, campaign advertising massive a with E-commerce platforms aretryingtoemulate 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS strategic to its capital) charter the cent of prime ministerapproval the secured Song Da duce ittobelow50per cent bythe end of 2019. shares_290367.html http://bizhub.vn/markets/in-new-sche and SouthernPowerInvestment JSC. & Development including theHoBon Hydropower Joint The company also plans to divest from several hydroelectricity companies this year, and factories. involvedalsoisIt insomemajorinfrastructure projects including tunnels,highways the ma is Song DaCorporation year-on-year per cent a declineof42per cent year-on-year. Howeve re SongDaCorp of 2017, In the firsthalf from thepreviousyear. and net profit of the parentcompany was The infrastructurecompany posted consolid trillion. toVND17.7 ing trilli tonearlyVND24.1 debtsamounted tal end of trillion bythe VND31.9 According tothe company's audited 2016fi tor. Therefore, under the latest arrangement, IPO. shares amount of be equaltothe plan would ofsharessoldtothestrate amount The total per cent ofcapital)at its IPO. to VND586 billion. last was to- year. Itsownertrillion last VND7.83 equity and in contractor for most hydropowerin contractorfor projects inVietnam. nam, is also one of the largest e-commerce sites in the in the sites e-commerce largest the of one is also nam, h withaseries ofpromotions. announcingdiscounts. attractive time wandering into different stores." time wandering into reported news website enternews.vn. me-song-da-corp-ipo-to-offer-220m- programme "The Raining Sale". In just three just Raining Sale".In programme "The corded VND9.9trillion incombined revenue, Stock Company,NamMucHydropower JSC investor andoffer84.7 the company would have Friday of November, following Thanksgiv- ofNovember, Friday following tractive promotions for many products in- tractive promotions formany VND359 billion in 2016, billionin2016, down percent VND359 37 on, with short andlong termloansamount- e-commerce sites to include traditional offered by various onl various offeredby hasbeen aggressive more inreachingout g in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the gic investorand at theIPO in theprevious promotion campaign foritsBlack Friday nancial report, it had total assets of assets total report,ithad nancial ated revenuesofVN havebeen preparing for their Black Fri- the famous Black Friday sale in the US intheUS sale Friday Black the famous that Song Da plans to sell at itscomingSong Daplanstosell at that changes inthe purchasing habits ofcon- 1.43 million products, three-foldlast Tiki.vn, Adayroi.com, Shopee.vn and Adayroi.com, Shopee.vn Tiki.vn, in June to sell 135 million shares (30 per million shares(30 135 sell in Juneto r, itssix-monthpost-taxprofitsrose30 at she preferred online. shopping "Ican the most anticipated sales arefromap- 7 million shares (18.82 7 million 27 November 2017 41 /61 D9.97 D9.97 trillion in2016 ine websites within within ine websites no strategic inves- 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam by cybercrime countries hardest-hit Vietnam among Intellasia "We willcontinueto provide customers andse and buyers. growing very fast over the last two years with alot of supportive policies for sellers with many new rivals coming on thescene, contestant, Lazad being aheavyweight Despite process orders fromclient In addition to lowering productprices, L ping thescalesbackintheirfavour. battl the e-commerce as notedearlier,But, competition Stiff future. promising atahighly try looking is population nowa of the 45 percent With inVietnam. sales retail ing for50percentofthetotal and Communications' Department deputy Tien, Minh Hoang said devices," mobile again shows lowawarenessonce "The figure by viruses. Authorities estimate thataround72per cent wages." high paid be hired and must experts development andevennationsocio-economic for "We musthavehuman resources for cyber se prises havedesignated cyber security experts on staff, he revealed. While cyber attackscouldoccur atanytime, formation TechnologyApplication. secret and Office government the of chair tocyber themajorobstacle se peopleis and cyberawareness security of "Low high among attacks. tocyber vulnerable in terms of being nication Union'sGlobalCyber Speakers expressed concern thatinthe late Thursday the Vietnam Info at 2017 as technology progresses and Internetbeco andcybersecu safety information Threats to 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS fever_290355.html http://bizhub.vn/tech/online-shoppi livery within2hoursfor free cent discounts, 50 per riod, including in Tiki.vn planstooffer3,000 pand theirmarket share. Lazada havealso and Shopee nam, toldenternews.vn. the future," TranTuan Anh, Operations an growth rate current At the $4 billion in2016. According tomarket research firm Nielse ketfi willseeincreasingly "As the number ofenterprises involved ine-commerce increases, the e-commerce mar- companies' registeredaccounts was just Department told news website enternews.vn Le Duc AnhoftheMinistryIndustry outdo traditional shopping channels. on receipt, if they are not satisfied. Th key factor inenticing clients. Furthermore, many onlineshopping platforms havealsotr Besides increasingthenumber andimprovin orders of over VND599,000. orders ofover erce competition," Ducsaid. erce s, minimisingthe congesti centives fororders placed duringthe end of the year pe- forced local companies to fight harder to retain and ex- hardertoretain and companies tofight forced local Security Index,Vietnamrank rmation Safety conference. Safety Day rmation ofInformation Security. ng-platforms-stir-up-black-friday- ese factors are helpinge-commerce platforms andTrade'sE-commerce andDigital Economy 1,923. By 2016 itwas10timeshigher. 1,923.By2016 ary general oftheNationalCommittee for In- azada has announced four new centres to ccessing the Internet, the e-commerceindus- ccessing theInternet, n, Vietnam'se-commercerevenuesreached e is heatinge is up,with foreigncompanies tip- delivery for bills over VND111,000 de- and delivery forbillsVND111,000 over some sites allow customers to reject goods toreject goods customers allow somesites d ChiefFinancial dire st edition of the International Telecommu- edition of the st mes increasingly popular, experts said on said experts popular, increasingly mes curity inVietnam,"sa like Vietnam, Shopee which hasbeen , it is set tohit $10 , it is rity are becoming more and more serious and moremorerity are becoming of mobileof devices inVietnaminfected are few Stateoffices, organisations andenter- g the qualityofmerchantsandproducts, of cyber security amongpeople who use ied toreduce delivery times, which is a curity because it has great implications -ranking officials, sy that in 2013, the number of e-commerce ofe-commerce number the that in 2013, llers su better with director of the Mini a has said that it remains on its toes, al security," he said. "Cyber security on seen inpreviouson years. s 101stoutof165nations billion in 2020, in2020, account- billion 27 November 2017 42 /61 ctor ofShopeeViet- id LeManhHa,vice pporting policiesin stem operatingstaff stry ofInformation 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam Great expectations Intellasia to Nguyen HoaCuong, deputy director of the Enterprise Development Department SMEs and 17.26per budget, cent totheState centeconomic toGDP growth,contributing40per force of driving being the Despite where each brought a new and unique mindset onaccessing Apec. brings. Almost2,000members oftheassoci and analys and exchangeinformation rums on memb programmes to call holds other also tion to its members. Inaddition to the Coffee Entrepreneurs Hanoisme programme, active inorganising association tobe the nities from Apec, MacQuocAnh, vice SMEs lackinformationandare notwe Many access Trouble with tage ofthe opportunities Apec presents. vides for small andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs) andhow can they take advan- along raised question with discussed topics, topics, difficulties, and advantages. Inrece (Hanoisme) gather together at the Coffee Entrepreneurs programmetodiscusshot from theHanoi businesses Once amonth, mies. vide aplatformforthemto better connect Vietnamese SMEs share a common wish that 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNECONOMIC TIMES crime_290334.html http://bizhub.vn/tech/viet-nam-am The theme of the conference was "Intellige four importantelemtreone ofthe to take advantage of [by criminals]. We c partners andthepublic.Itmeansmore targ enterprises, authorities, bylocal accessible easily and be will mation transparent is goingtobe "HCM City munications, said: HCM director of Anh Duc,Prof DrDuong ber security inthecontextofthatsmart HCM Citywould pay more attentiontosecu SpeakingTuyen, attheevent,TranVinh vice organisations andenterprises to improve se moreincyber invest should "Enterprises man resources, andmake agency he invest inandcreate and cybersecurity, ty He said related authorities should complete control systems and thesmart city sociation's southern office. "But Dr VoVanKhang,common,"said vicechai still are spam and malware ransomware, like problems security cyber "Traditional hitting Vietnamesedevices, onl secondon InternetofThin interms ofattacks ranked It year. last country any of attacks cyber of number largest the suffered It also cent in2015. was responsible for2.16per cent ofglobalth It stillhasarelatively poor record oftrac top10countriesby cybercrime. hardest-hit the world's According toareport fromcyber securi selves first by investing in cyber security human resources." not waitforprotectionfromaut "We should cybersecurity of the development To improvethe situation, Hasuggested th cyber security for Internet of Things devices, industrial industrial devices, Things of Internet for security cyber y behind China's 17per cent. ents of the smart ents ofthesmart city project." human resources at companies. should get special attention." ong-countries-hardest-hit-by-cyber- ads accountableforcybersecurity. Chair ofHanoisme, acknowledged, prompting ty company Symantec, Vietnamwas among king down the cyber threats it faces: Vietnam it faces: the cyberthreats king down a range of programmes toprovide informa- arangeofprogrammes onsider establishing thecybersecurity cen- a mechanism for andfostering amechanism training hu- their knowledge and acquireexperience."their knowledge withsimilarenterprises inmember econo- City's Departmentand Com- ofInformation at thegovernmentencourageand support Small and Medium Enterprise Association and EnterpriseAssociation Small Medium nt Security inSmart Connected World". nt months, Apec has been one of the most ets forcyber attacksandmore information ation attended a large and ation alarge open forum attended curity and workmore city isgoing project r of the Vietnam Information Security As- is to identify the opportunitiesis toidentify Apec infor- come asmartcitywhere everybitof the legal framework for information for framework safe- legal information the ring information safety and improving cy- horities. Enterprises should protectthem- horities. Enterprises chair of the city People's Committee, said chairofthecityPeople's Committee, the lines of what advantages Apecpro- the linesof what gs deviceswith15per ll prepared to take take to prepared ll reat detections upfrom0.89per detections in reat 2016, still face a host of difficulties, according according of difficulties, face a host still theupcomingApec meetings will pro- ers to participate in Apec discussion fo- participate inApecdiscussion ers to advantage of opportu- advantage of to launchsoon. Assoc 27 November 2017 43 /61 with cybersecurity cent ofsuch attacks 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam Intellasia countries, soconnectivity betweenSMEsin Vietnam andarefoundThe problemSMEs face aren't inother limitedto Apecmember Enhancing connectivity financial services andtake advantag ably. Diversifyingfinancialservices would nancing wouldcreatemore incentivesfor to supporting accessaddition to value chains,whilethefigure in Thailandis that said (VINASME), prises Vi the of Chair vice Nam, Hoai To est. The levelparticipation of by cases. challenges inmany crippling fo ofcapital The lack capacity. istrative transparent business environment, low-qua it difficult tolocate a site for theirbusi value pate inglobal Difficulties inaccessingfinance arethe prises buthold 60 per centofassets. busine large-scale Meanwhile, assets. of total that SMEsaccount for over97per centofal Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG). Thelatest figuresfromMPIshow Ministry ofPlanni under the bers by supporting a$7.5 by supporting bers Canadian governmentfocuses on promotin economy,The the shesaid. in a drivingforceexports,cent are ofits andthan 58per kets. SMEs in Canada contributemore than 40 percent to the country's GDPand more assistance inraisingca needenterprises and SMEsareoften dynamic bu andinnovative connect with SMEs inother countries. Accord launched the online EnterpriseConnectionmembers centretobring togetherandalso Meanwhile, inorder topromoteconnections between SMEs, Hanoismedevelopedand market." the in products put and contracts get tups market haspotential, an ese SMEs andbusinesses access nikone said. "Ithas also set upaClimate has been workingwithAsea "Canada kets. and Apecmember economies to help SMEs Kitnikone, Ambassado H.E. Ping to connect with multinational corporat prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has propos and prevent transferpricingand competition thetaxsystem of thecapacity strengthening The Vietnamese governmenthopes toreceive cooperation from Apec members in markets. international inaccessing tivity commerce helps small businesses andSMEs on how tosupportSMEsimprove their cent oftheregion's population. In recent enterprises and contributing 70 per centof There arenow110million SMEs in Apec ec nearly industrial though 300 LeVanKhuong, Head of the Enterprise De only about 60 per cent," he added. to borrowup to 90 cent per of collateral or projects havepotential.both fo "Somebanks, havebanks collateral,often don't so SMEs Quang Thang, directorofthe HCM City chains despite havingmanycreati million developmentcooperation project between Canada d many have been exploring the market andhelpingstar- exploringhave been the d many Vietnameseglobal valuechainremainsmod- SMEsinthe ng and Investment (MPI) and Chair of the Apec Small and Apecand Chairoftheand Investment (MPI) ng the fund. Canadian businesses believe that the Vietnam- only 21 per cent of Vietnamese only 21percentof zones have been established in credit, according to Nam, expanding supply chainfi- expanding supply Nam, credit, accordingto r of Canada toVietnam, sa e of and grow rapidlywithinApec. etnam Association of Small and Medium Enter- Association ofSmallandMedium etnam ness. Theyalsocontinue to cope with a non- ionsand jointhe r getting underwayandthen are expanding reason why SMEscannotdevelop and partici- pitaland accessing regionalglobal andmar- years, Apec member economies havefocused Institute of EconomicsandManagement. Change Support Fund to helpto VietnameseChange SupportFund the SME community to grow more sustain- togrow community more the SME even 110 per cent, but the actual figure is figure actual but the even 110 per cent, capabilities. Through export value and creating jobsfor54per andcreating value export are afraid to lend tothem even when n toconductdialogue," AmbassadorKit- l enterprises but hold lessthan40percent toencourage businessproductionandfair 30 per cent and in Malaysia 46 per cent.In 46per 30percentandinMalaysia all Apec members is im all Apecmembers also enable them to access appropriate also enablethemtoaccessappropriate onomies, accounting for98per cent ofall g connections with other economic mem- velopment OfficeatMoIT, said thateven lity human resources, and limitedadmin- resources, human lity step into international andregional mar- sses make up about 3per cent ofallenter- reign and local, say it's possible for SMEs for SMEs possible it's say local, and reign improve theircompetitivenessandcrea- ing toAnh,each membercanfindinfor- tax evasionbycertainforeigninvestors. ed setting up a fund to encourage SMEs SMEs encourage a fundto up ed setting t theirmarkets are mostlylocal.These ve ideas, according to according Tran ve ideas, global value chain. SMEs are linked to global arelinkedto SMEs id that microenterprises Vietnam, SMEs still find e-commerce, digital 27 November 2017 44 /61 portant, Anhsaid. 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam estate industry alter real Proptech to Intellasia A report byreal estate andinvestment serv tion inVietnam. Proptechworldafter near has emergedinthe estate industry. is worked, now,propertytechnology (proptech) After financialtechnology(fintech), whic 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS and foreignen mation ondomesticenterprises that $4.8billion, out of $7.8 Recently, a number of developers suchas number of Recently, a helps searchproject information and compare projects. forrealfering virtualrealityinmarketing the applicationofproptech in theirreal es Besides DaiVietGroup,other firms inVietna action procedures would be conductedonline, QuocAnhsaid. prices and choose thebest financial solutions With proptech, customers couldsearch for efficiently.salestechnology wouldalsopromote products to the buyers, their right targeted and adapttoanew generation ofcustomers an propertydevelopers Proptechwould help solve modernchallenges.and and produc to digitaliseservices management Proptech isdefined as technology applied to risks for bothbuyers and sellers. website batdongsan. property information According toNguyen Quoc Anh, deputy di JLL's report said. larity ofmobile phones, alltheconditions potential,accordingto JLL. "With its yo Asia Pacific was leading the investment into 2017. 2013 and between proptech start-ups http://vneconomictimes.com/article/viet flows," he emphasized. ment and ensure security and safetyfor th confidence and the determinationtowork to intentionsAsia-P forthegood healthy and"inclusive" businessenvironment, Enterprises whilethegovernment hasannounc The National Assembly haspassed theLa in SMEs the region. tainable and environmentally-friendlystar competitive edge, promote entrepreneurship and SMEstogain access tonew technologie cess marketsand engage more deeply ingl competitiveness andinnovationof Prime Phuc minister has saidthatin orde economies there are goodexperiences tobe shared." andtech termsofdigitalisation in instance for competitive, more be SMEs help to adopt can agencies sector public that practices faced bySMEsand different ec lo learning a practices. "We are share best to Culture, Communityand Youth,believes th For her part, SimAnn, Singapore's Seniormi directly. make contact and then or capital, billion worthoffunding,wa acific region will only come to fruition if we havethe onomies, and also in terms of what are some of thegoodofin terms some whatare also onomies, and SMEs,itisnecessary to ung population, rapid urbanisation and popu- ung population,rapidurbanisationand nam-today/cfmrhxjn-great-expectations Vingroup, Sun Group and BIM Group made Vingroup, SunGroupand BIMGroup h changed thewayfinancialsector estate projects and Homedy a website which which awebsite estate projectsandHomedy r toachievetheobjective ofenhancing the w onSupportforSmall-andMedium-sized tate business, such as such business, tate are in place for this new sector to grow," to sector in placeforthisnew are nology adoption," she said."Ithink among e free flow of goods, services, and capital and flow ofgoods,services,e free com.vn, proptech would help minimise ices firm, Jones Lang tup eco-systemtopromoteinnovationby obal value chains,enable microenterprises s, improvetheirmanagementcapacityand products tomeet their demands, compare t from each other in terms of the landscape each otherintermsof t from Quoc Anhsaid. Hesaid that applying the rector of Dai VietGroup,whichowns at Apecisagreat platformforeconomies via the internet, build brands and direct nister of State ofTrade ofState and Industry nister realestateinformation, transaction and gether topreserve thepeaceful environ- proptech start-ups, with of with a great deal proptech start-ups, d real estate businesses to make changes changes tomake businesses real estate d ly adecadeatten-and hasstartedto grab andbusiness ethics, and develop asus- m alsoinvested inproptechor hastened to minimise risks. In ts, so as to improve real estate processes estate real improve ts, soasto he said."Anyplanforcooperation with terprises by industry by terprises ed many important policies tobuilda policies ed manyimportant expected toeffect achange in the real s poured intoAsiaPacific cooperateac- tohelpthem Holomia a startup astartup of- Holomia LaSalle (JLL),showed 27 November 2017 45 /61 addition, alltrans- , country, prestige, , country,prestige, 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam to save time,costs to innovative machines create Farmers security outsourcing on information Few enterprises keen disputes to reportapartment HN, HCM City asked Intellasia http://bizhub.vn/tech/proptech-to-al of industry estate real the in applied ing artificialintell as bigdata, technology such property developerCenGroup, VanHung,from Pham Accordingto made accessre because itto market helpthe transparency promotealso online forumthatproptechwould oftherealestate e- the Vietnam Thanh Hung,chairof Nguyen of bothbuyersandfirmsinapplying indispensable trend, butitwasimportanttoimprovetheproptech wasan awareness ty-outsourcing.html http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57207/Few- small and medium enterprises to improve their capacity to deal with cyber attacks. short-term trainingcourses onransomware an Nguyen Trong Huanfrom security firm and 72.5percent regularly update theirsecurity systems. mation security teams. Besides, 75.7 percent alsoshowed 68.9 percent of that The survey security firms. security information executives andin-house In caseofacyber attack thes staff and infrastructure. mediumMeanwhile, firmsthatcannot smalland enterprisesare toletnetwor Most hesitant though thenumber of providers ofsuch service surged 62 percent. However, only 35.1 percent ofthemhaveus as WannaCry.ransomware attackssuch vey of southern enterprises, VNISAfound the VietnamInformationSecurity chair of vice At theVietnam InformationSafetyDay in experts. choseninformat to outsourcethehave them Many southern enterprises havepaid much 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES http://bizhub.vn/property/hn-hcmc-asked-t putes. Previously, theprimeministersaidappropriat shared areas, house ownership certificates progress, servicesfees,maintenance fees and the twomajo in been mountingprojects have From thebeginningofthisyear, disputes totacklethese problems. lutions The tothe thenbe report would pr submitted before the end of thismonth. bu between disputes existing report to City The MinistryofConstructionhasasked th 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS tothe According Asso Vietnam riences oftheir projects. use of virtual reality and au the drought". machinery made agricultural As mostof the machines used in the agricu 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS igence, augmented realityand Internet ofThingswas the be- igence, augmented gmented reality to provide customers with real-lifegmented expe- customers with reality toprovide e firms often inform top their e firmsofteninform by Vietnamese farmers are being viewed as "rain after ciation ofRealEstate Br al estateinformation much easier. ter-real-estate-industry_290353.html proptech tofuelaboom in Vietnam. Kaspersky Vietnam said the companyhas Vietnam, catching up with the global trend. the global catching upwith Vietnam, between buyers and developers at apartment anddevelopersatapartment buyers between HCM CityonNovember23, VoVan Khang, e people's committees ofHanoi and HCM k security firmsgetaccesstotheirdata. k security and selection of the management board. management and selectionofthe that many ofthemwere concerned about ltural sector are imported, innovations in imported,ltural sectorare innovations yers and developers at apartment projects apartment yers anddevelopersat o-report-apartment-d ed outside information security service al- the firms surveyed havetheirown infor- attention toinformation safetybut few of ion protection job, according tosecurity job,ion protection enterprises-keen-on-information-securi- saidhave inform they construction quality, as well as the use of as theuseconstruction quality,aswell teams, instead of working network instead of with teams, r cities, specifically related to projects' projects' to related specifically cities, r ime minister as the basis to carry out so- basis tocarryout the ime ministeras Commerce Association,saidatarecent Commerce Association (VNISA),in asur- saidthat alysis and solutions to cyber attacks for tocyberattacks solutions and alysis e solutions must be raised to tackle dis- tackle to raised be must solutions e afford toinvestininformationsafety okers, thedevelopmentof 27 November 2017 46 /61 isputes_290357.html ation safetypolicy 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam losing jobs guides areindangerof tour 20,000 Nearly Intellasia This problemwillbe solved attheend of via p with partners sional events forthe farmers toadvertise th tobuy these want companies foreign Some techniques. cultivation timeand thatsave simplify farmers The and are inventions ofHat Nghia among Exhibitions afarmer from Giang, Phan Vu Chau vate for one day.ThemachineIboughtfrom farms.ab familyhas many Itcostsme "My it can enough that is small His tool several yearsafterreturning toVietnam. tool in2009, Nghia, whobegan workinginSouthKorea fr helps farmersimprove cultivation. northernTh Dai Nghia,afarmerfrom Tran fertilisatmade for he Other machines andThailand. the Singapore US, including Germany, The machinehasbeenimproved every year Hat's machine, however, could soweightsq people four sow Inatrialrun, could 40. au with an has invented30machines,He table seed-sowing machines. chines, fertilising machines, corn-sowing machines, bean-sowing machines andvege- He invented many kinds ofmachines to se machines. his to make a factory open to Vietnam returnedto later Hat increased his salary The company ple within afew days. heReceiving approval, presentedhis first ma the job. could do that make amachine After atime, he decided tomeet the ma of vegetablesperday. Duringguest worker. histimethere, Hat The bankruptcy, however, opened new doors wh billion VND3 (US$132,000). day failing in2013 after he facedbankruptcy northernPham VanHat,afarmerfromthe can rememberof HaiDuong, province the activities. cultivation simplify and costs, and time The innovations are bringing a new faceto ployed ifthey cannotsatisf Though theyhaveofficialpractice cards, 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIETNAMNET Under thenew law, tour guides must have 1,2018. effect on January costs_290361.html http://bizhub.vn/news/farmers-crea Growtech is seen asakey for farmers to open ture, forestry and fisheries. international exhibitionshowcasing the late fi and farmers time Vietnam, in For thefirst Ag Ministry of It isorganised by the Ministry of Indu December 2. Forestry and Fishery (Growtec Agriculture, The first-ever Vietnam InternationalExhi inHanoi. place take will and fisheries forestry agriculture, riculture andRuralDevelopment. hones or manufacturers. hones or y new requirements in the y newrequirementsin from $1,000 monthly. from$1,000 to $2,500 be used by children or the elderly. te-innovative-machines-to-save-time- Thu District of ThaiBinhProvince. ion cando the workof50 people. stry and Trade, Science and Technology and Trade, Science stry nager and proposed suggestionson how to only one squaremetre withinfive minutes. was responsibleforputtingmanure on100ha freelance tour guides willbecome unem- to-sowing machine replacing a workforce of aworkforce machinereplacing to-sowing bition onMachineries andTechnologies of this month,whenthe out VND250,000 to hireone persontoculti- ai Binh Province, developed amachine that rve cultivation work like auto-sowing ma- tour guide cards and sign labour contracts the agricultural sector because theysavethe agriculturalsector st technologies andinnovationsinagricul- willbeheld 30to h 2017) from November eir goods. They have mostly contracted have mostly eir goods.They products but there havebeen noprofes- shermen will be able to participate in an uare metres inone andahalfminutes. Nghia helps me save alotofmoney," said and hasbeenexportedtomanymarkets, totradeorganic vegetables andlosing many products designed by Vietnamesedesigned by many products chine whichcoulddo the workof25 peo- om decidedtomakeacultivation 2001, om the gate to step into the global thegate market. to step intothe global en he decided to go to Israelenhe decideda as togo 2017 TourismLawwhichtakes biggest exhibition for 27 November 2017 47 /61 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam flying tolocal airport subsidising airlines Vietnam cityproposes Intellasia the airport,the operating whichis below well it to routes new to open airlines foreign and local encourage to expected is subsidy The cent the cost,with the remain normal Specifically, passengers flying from the airp Airport will be subsidised based on ticket price. tothe all According proposal, proval. muni to the The proposalhasbeensubmitted ne opening toairlines subsidy provide Airlines eligible for theplanned subsidy must becommitted tooperating at least three Airport in HCM City. mand, it as sits only180 kilometers away However, airlines havebeen reluctanttoop Can Thois considered theeconomic hub ofthe delta. tegration. Mekong Delta's economyas well as improvin from theformer between20 Tra NocAirport Binh ThuyDistrict, Ca Can Tho's Located in a year. The administration ofacityinsouthern InternationalCan Tho Airportop The is 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| TUOITRE NEWS services. provide to able be to firms travel for work pr legal we are showthat cards "The practice must he why understand not could Tinh, afreelancetourguidewho mostlyserv Tour guides are anxious as theymaylo inVietnam. services illegally to provide many Vietnamesetourguides Asso Tourism A representative oftheDaNang in themarket and negative consequences. Association,Tourism are notundercontrol of it difficulttocontrol.Around19,000 freelanc tour guidesand than 20,000 are more There man- of way the change to necessary is it agement. rapidly, increased has guides tour of number require- the past, the in said becauseof number thements werenotset Department, Travel the of director deputy Thao, Le Pham with travelfirms,they must or be Meanwhile, Le Ha Gia Thanh from the HCM Ci sociation. th means up. This been set not this have as gu orjointour services guide tour provide newTo meetthe requirements, freelancers willhavetoseekjobsatcompanieswhich for freelancetour guides. Nguyen Tuan Quyen, atourism expert,said "It isnoteasy for us tobecome offici plained. The other tour guides are freelancers. Hiring only haveseveral permanenttour guides whowork forthemunderlabourcontracts. by disliked is regulation the new that said Tinh sure if theassociation can protectourinterest," he said. membership to beverycostly obtain "It would travel firms or associations,"he commented. http://www.vir.com.vn/nearly-20000-tour-guides-are-in-danger-of-losing-jobs.html lation isunreasonable. airlines opening new routes act 'sittingguides'andle act as membersoftour guideassociations. al workers of travel firms," he said. ing 30 percent paid forbythecity. 30percent paid ing w routes toitsunmarketable airport. se jobs becausenew regulation. ofthese jobs erating well below its design capacity Vietnam has suggested Vietnam has from the busy Tan SonNhat International ides' association. However, companies such ides' association.However,companies at they have onlyone choicejoiningthe as- tour guides was small. But now, when the s designcapacity of most of them are freelancers, which makes arefreelancers, ofthem most n Tho International Airport wasupgraded Tho International n erate flights totheairport duetolowde- e tour guides in Vietnam, according to the tothe according Vietnam, in guides e tour ort would enjoy an airfareofjust70per- the newregulation will cause difficulties freelancershelpsthem cut costs," he ex- 06 and 2011 06 and2011 with aviewto the boosting actitioners. Noneedto actitioners. cipal People's Council for review and ap- for reviewand Council cipal People's es travellers from South Korea, said he said Korea,es travellers fromSouth anyorganisation.Thishascausedchaos g defense, security and international in- in the tourguides'association. I am not ciation said because of the loosecontrol,because of ciation said by travel firms. "In general, travelfirms ty BarAssociation, to theCanTho International nd a hand toforeignfirms five million passengers using state moneyto state using 27 November 2017 48 /61 said the new regu- thenew said require us to join to us require 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam state-owned brewer investors formajor Vietnamfor scours Intellasia mand soar by 300 percent by percent mand soar since 2002, acco 300 An expanding Vietnamese middle classandyo ica, Europe, the Middle East andAfrica, the report said. su well could volume gains Asia's Southeast marketresearcherEuromonito from 2016-2021, Vietnamforecastis tolead SoutheastAsia average of litresperperson, 42 back guzzling after of beer year litres this Viet that haspredicted The tradeministry Habeco. thegovernmenthasyetto So far, come up and concerns about vested interests, according to Reuters. ability. Butprogress hasbeen slow given th programme totrimstakesstate-owned en in earmarkedThe pairwere forprivatisationalmo cent. for mark percentofthedomestic account 60 The state currently holds an82percent stake in Habeco. Togetherthe two producers cent ofSoutheastAsia's biggest Sabeco and HanoiBeer Alcoholand Beverage 2016. against percent 9.4 up to genera Sabeco is predicted owned firms. ernment'sarm tohelptheministerprime The process isestimated tohelp thestate ea thegovernment said Renewal Development and at divestment state's reporton in its Yet Monday.made publicon be The exactamountofshares theministrywill capital fr state divesting start to and Trade The governmentearlier thismonthpassed a ha Groupare among companiesthat have ex Sing- and PCL Beverage Thai Thailand's and Ltd, Holdings Group Asahi Co.and ings The report quoted sources familiar withtheprocess as saying thatJapan's Kirin Hold- cording to aThursday report byTheWallStreet Journal. are scheduled toorganise road shows in On Friday, Vietnamesegovernmentofficials currently ownsupto90 percent ofstake. biggest brewer Saigon Beer AlcoholBeverage Corp., or Sabeco, where thegovernment on Vietnam hasembarked the processofseek Sabeco. andThaicompanies areamonginve Japanese 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNEXPRESS https://tuoitrenews.vn/new Lunar NewYear travel season. route betweenCanTho The onlyinternational Ha from those toand routes, including domestic predominantly serves it currently airport, international being an Despite pacity. passengersin2017, which 612,000 is onlyab tothe According administrati All routes must be av routes. forinternational weekly two flights and at routes least weekly for domestic flights airlines-flying-to-loc al-airport/42822.html ailable for a period of ailable foraperiod s/business/20171126/vietnam- te VND4.9 trillion ($215.6 milli ($215.6 trillion te VND4.9 on ofCanTho, the airport is expectedtowelcomeover four litresmore in2015. than beer market by litres consumed. litres by market beer noi, Phu Quoc,Con Island and DaNang. Sabeco, the Steering Committee for EnterpriseSabeco, theSteeringCommitteefor London Cityincomingdays, and HCM ac- study and guide theop om Sabeco throughom an auctioninDecember. rding to Euromonitor, which estimates the the estimates which Euromonitor, to rding means an which year, last litres billion 3.8 namese drinkers will consume four billion four billion consume will drinkers namese with volume set to reach 2.3 billion litres litres billion 2.3 settoreach with volume with any specific plan for privatisation at forprivatisation plan specific any with e small stakes onoffer, sizable state control at least years. atleast three rn $3.85 billion, said the committee, a gov- a thecommittee, said billion, rn $3.85 out 20percentof out its maximumca- current et share, withSabeco making up40 per- rpass larger regions,such as NorthAmer- terprises, many ofwhichhavelowprofit- sell andthe starting priceareexpected to plan floatedbytheMinistryof Industry were inSingaporetomeetinvestorsand pressed interest in investing inSabeco. ininvesting interest pressed ing potential investors for the country's stors that haveexpressed interest in JointStock Corp (Habeco) hold 60 per- uthful population have helped beer de- uthful population havehelped and Taipei is only available during the the during available only is Taipei and st a decade ago as part of a nationwide ofanationwide a decade agoaspart st r International said in its July report. report. saidinitsJuly International r will sell 53.59 percent stake at at Sabeco. stake will sell53.59 percent city-proposes-subsidising- on) of net profit this year, profit this of net on) 27 November 2017 49 /61 erations ofstate- 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam ministry evaluation: Vietnam capacityfor raising emission limit after exceeds Formosa in BinhDuongarea Work startson$19m Intellasia http://bizhub.vn/news/work-starts- projectsworth over $5.5billion. 772 theprovince'sleading is Taiwan Currently, nations. would c Taiwanese enterprises that more vestors duringtheiroperations in the loca tocreate continue would authorities Local contributions tolocalsocio-economicdevelopment. the Taiwanesefirms' highly on Liem spoke Thanh In his speech at the ceremony, vicechair of the IZ. in lion, willcoveranareaof80ha tion cluster oftion clusterfirms Taiwanese intheprovin The construction ofthearea is considered the start in forming a concentrated produc- product production. ment consultation, environm These firmsareinvolved inreal estate,factor Ever Young companies. Taiwan four The 13haarea isfinanced by Duong's BauBang Industrial Zone (IZ)lastweek. Formosa'shad exceeded emissions MONR releasedon In astatement Saturday, dents never repeat. and inspectionsby with increased monitoring Formosa has been allowedto continue doin sponsible formassfish deathsalong the ce tary compensation of$500mill Last June, the firm's topexecutivesad steel business of Taiwan's the completion date scheduled for June 2019. completion datescheduled forJune the system is treatment andNOx millionSO2 $100 A violation ofenvir andemissions pany's operations According tothe ministry, responsibleaut level to inspect andevaluatetheemission treatment system. to theco incidents weredue However, such at somepoints. standards emissions wereabovethe Specifically, the sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ni Hung NghiepFormosaHa Taiwanese steel business was once again br The ministry gave theexplanation on Satu Environment (MONRE) has said. company's emissiontreatment system, Vietna in north-central Ha Tinh Province were the re Recent reports ofemissionsexceeding the nam in2016 The steel business was responsible for mass fi 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| TUOITRENEWS Construction ona$19millionpr 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/viet Southeast Asia. in biggest beerconsumer It predictsper-capitaconsum tril worthVND147.2 market was owned-brewer-3675606.html onmental standards. FormosaPlasticsGroup. TinhSteel Co. Ltd, or Formosa ental protection equipment,ental protectionand aluminum electricity ption willreach 40.6 litres ion after wastewater from its factories was foundwastewaterwas re- itsfactories from ion after oduction areabeganinthe since the scandallastyear,farso and havefoundno lion ($6.5 billion) last lion year. ($6.5 billion)last on-19m-area-in-binh-duong_290363.html the permissible amount recently. the permissibleamount mitted wrongdoing and pledged ahefty mone- ese firmsDDKVietnam, hoose BinhDuong as their investment desti- horities havekeptaclosewatch onthecom- lity, Liemsaid, while expressing hishope rday afternoon following rumours thatthe permissible amount at Formosasteel mills nam-scours-for-investo ntral coastofVietna the conditions mostfavourable for thein- the provincial People's Tran Committee mpany raising its capacity above the usual usual above the capacity its raising mpany inging harm toVietnam'senvironment. inging trogen oxides (NOx) levels in Formosa's levels inFormosa's (NOx) trogen oxides g business inVietna source of foreign directinvestmentwith E acknowledged that somereadingson E acknowledged y leasing, industrial infrastructure invest- infrastructure industrial leasing, y ce. The cluster, expect ce. Thecluster, sh deaths along thecentral coast of Viet- sult of a raised capacity to the sult a capacity evaluate of raised m's Ministry ofNaturalResources and local authorities toensuresuchinci- being installed at its steel plants, with investment theirasIZ, aswell inthe this year, making Vietnam the Vietnam year, making this for short, is the Vietnamese Vietnamese the short, is for southern provinceofBinh m twomonths earlier. m regardless, m regardless, though 27 November 2017 50 /61 rs-for-major-state- Yi Xing, T-Star and Xing, Yi ed to cost $200 mil- $200 cost ed to 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam airport land clearance NA approves $1b for appears in HCM City convenience store cashier-free First Intellasia area of Long ThanhAirport, then advertised It wasreported thatpeople boughtagricu airport. The warningcameaftera"virtual" landpric cially inLongPhuoc, An Phuo ownershiwhereor transfer landinareassell The LongThanhDistrict People settlement adequately and accurately, he said. policie publicise also must authorities Local advantage of the government's housing transfers and illegal c and land illegal to speculation, prevent tocarryout measures built, be will airport Phuc asked the People's Committee of the southernprovince of Dong Nai, where the enhanced in the areas surrounding theL On Wednesday, minister prime NguyenXuan Prevent land speculation The landclearanceis scheduled tobe completed by 2021. and20hectaresforacemetery. Binh Sonresettlement areas this, 5,000hectares will be us hectares total of5,399 says a The projectplan from thecollection oflanduse fees and sale of first resettlement apartments. trillion State investment fund formajor na term public investment plan,the NAagreed on using VND15trillion from the VND80 allocate previously trillion VND5 Besides for other themilestone megaprojec The approval, which garnered thesupportofover90percent of delegates, notched an- budget forlandclearanceatthe on Fridayapprov (NA) The NationalAssembly 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS in-HCM City.html http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57209/Firs Thang University in District 7. this Early City. HCM in places busy in od machines meth- the use which payment vending same installing is also The company launch around 10suchwill company operatorKootoro The ofthechain US-based Its customers maypurchase food andbeverages, andeat atthefacility. soft drinks,coffee, instant noodles,icecream andsnacks. such as The automated store on MacThiBuoiStreet in code. Therefore, the store is wi which arealready installed with the Toro wa touch-screen ordering on vending machines canfreelyCustomers enter theToromartstor emerged inHCMCity. out withoutha walk A convenience storewhichletsshoppers walk 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES https://tuoitrenews.vn/new standards tolegalise Formosa's emissions. The ministry also dismissed claims thatit sure no air contaminantsare produced and emitted to the environment. tomake mills its topower cleanfuel use to obliged is the In the company meantime, ter-raising-capacity-for-evaluat ving to wait in lines or chec inlines at ving wait to s/business/20171126/formosa- ed for building the airport, 379 theairport,379 hectares ed forbuilding theLocAn as onstructions. Hewarnedofpe c, LocAn and Binh Soncommunes. thout sales staff and cashiers. landclearancepolicies. ion-vietnam-ministry/42821.html 's Committee recent Long Thanh International Airport. t first t first in June approved 2015. storesinthenext four months. ong Thanh Internationalong Thanh Airport project. d for the project under the 2016-20 medium- the 2016-20 the projectunder d for was drafting anew set of environmental ltural land slots surrounding the planned month, such machines went up at Ton Duc went upatTon such machines month, tional major projects. The rest willcome t-cashier-free-convenience-store-appears- e fever broke out in areas surrounding the e feverbrokeoutinareassurrounding s ofland clearance, compensationandre- p certificateshavenot . Theywillthenuse their smartphones will be cleared to develop the airport. Of theairport. develop be clearedto will llet apptomakeonlinepaymentsviaQR Services Co Ltd told the Daily that the that the Daily Ltd told Co Services e, andchoosetheproducts they needby the land for saleathighpricesonthe ex- in, loaduponthe items they wantand Phuc asked that land management be management land asked that Phuc ed aVND23 trillion (roughly$1billion) District 1 offers a variety of productsoffers of avariety 1 District kout counters to pay has recently topay recently kout counters has ly alsourgedresidents nottobuy, exceeds-emission-limit-af- ople trying to take undue take undue to ople trying 27 November 2017 51 /61 been granted, espe- granted, been 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam debut makes luxury precinct Ecopark's super- Shanghai office Trung Nguyen opens Giang Ha station beginsin cement grinding Construction on Intellasia ha-giang-363253.vov http://english.vov.vn/economy/constructi mand forcement, Ngansaid. to jobs, contributeis expectedtocreate It this year. station is one ofthree investment projects in of theprovincial headNgan, vice Le Van bour safetyand hygiene and environmentalprotection. http://bizhub.vn/corporate-news/trung- worldwide. coff the director.TrungNguyen to cording Alibaba like merce platforms coffee brandwaslaunched.G7productsar The opening ofthe office isalsoan activi isexpected toreach 600 ket value China'san annual coffeeconsumptiongrows $1.6 billion fromthe market. unveiled country, he facility inthe duction onthe Chinesemarket, TrungTo capitalise Ng market. dynamic trade would connect Trung Nguyen keting &business developmentofthecompan At the opening ceremony, Richard Khoo Hye Koon, director oftheinternational mar- Chinahai,week, last vietnamplus.vn reports. The Trung Nguyencoffeegroup put into oper 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS vanced station willproduce ce tobegin in It isexpected operations the Xuyen district. The facility,worthnear Giang. of Ha northern mountainousprovincetonnes inthe ny on November23foracementgrinding The ManhBinhMinhconstruction material co 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA at isestimated total investment The project's strictly puni The district askedcommunes and towns to enhance supervision on construction and approval. rounding the airport project, but their cont re many people and Environment,said sources Truong Minh Phuong, director of LongTh pectation that the landownerswo company to invest in ultra, high-end real es Vihajico's deputy general director, NguyenDu Hung Yen. This isthe second phase of its Ecopark urbantownshipinthenorthern provinceof Arc. Marina and Thursday introduced itsEcoparkGrand Viet Hung Urban Development andInvestment Joint Stock (Vihajico)Company on 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS http://bizhub.vn/news/na-approves-1b- component project. the NA agreed toseparate the land cleara capacity of100 million passen sh violators. ly VND100 billion,ly located is in and Taobaoaswell in gers and five million tonnes of ment inlinewithnational billion CNY (US$91.2 billion)in2020. (US$91.2 billion CNY uld benefitfromthe airport later. for-airport-land-c nguyen-opens-shanghai-office_290365.html third quarter of 2018. Thetechnologically of2018. ad- third quarter ty to mark 14 years since Trung Nguyen's G7 Trung Nguyen's years since 14 mark ty to the local budget, and meet the province's de- the province's local budget, the andmeet Economic ZonesManagement Boardsaidthe on-on-cement-grinding- nce, compensation and resettlement intoa ee products have so far entered 60 markets 60 have sofarentered ee products Re- ofNatural anh District'sDepartment e available on China's mostpopular e-com- station with annual capacity of 700,000 of700,000 capacity annual with station racts were handwritten and lackedofficial , adding that the group , adding aims thegroup capturing that at tate, which will be perfect in the be whichwill pieces 500- tate, perfect Binh Vang Industrial Park to be licensed be licensed to Park Industrial Vang Binh VND336.63 trillion. It trillion. VND336.63 average of 20 percent,anditscoffeemar- of20 average coffee products toabroader Chinese y, location and said strategic Shanghai's uyen plansuyen toopenitsfirstoverseaspro- ation its representative officeinShang- ceremo- groundbreaking a held mpany ng Minh, said it is the right timeforhis it isthe ng Minh,said cently bought or sold land inareassur- bought orsold cently 1,000 local supermarkets, ac- supermarkets, local 1,000 BinhVangIndust standards while ensuring la- learance_290356.html cargo.In June thisyear, 27 November 2017 52 /61 station-begins-in- will have an annual an annual will have 27 November 27 rial Park, Vi rial Park, BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam Vinawacoloss capital Concern over Intellasia https://en.vietnamplus.vn/concern-ov governmentwith a30 stake, percent equal to109.8billion VND. remained ashar transport ministryhas The IPO foran the at shares, offered in itsIPO launched The company 2014. June and hasbeen in1982 founded was Vinawaco ister." "The ministry willreport an th andgroups seek chargesagainstindividuals with deal to solutions seek will ministry The term financialinvestments, he said. Joint Stock Company(Tracimexco), as well other businesses, such as TransportInvest The reportmustcover Vinawaco's loans Friday, Agency reportedon debts its reporton a submit and compile to To sortoutsolutionsforVinawaco,theMi owner-equity capital. sumed payables, to59percentof while bank the total 56 the tripled loans firm's have receivable alsoreportedthat The company resultingthree years inadividendpayout rateforshareholdersonlyof 0.6 percent. and 440 billion VNDinrevenue only 1.8billi meetin the company'sannualshareholders At ment senttothetransportministry. declared non-performingafter being loansby and partners, wh suppliers own shareholders, The situationhasbecome wors said. Tuan VND," billion 30.3 theSt inthe are and debts valuation, counted of Vinawaco, percentholding 30 "The Stateis number actual the thus, prepareditsIPO, it when valuation company inthe were notcovered debts and losses that the said Tuan lion VNDininterest after 22years. City branch 22yearsago.Theloanbegan HCM from Vietcombank's borrowed VND the loanwas 53 billion bank The largest before2013. projects werelaunched that billion VN and 38.2 VND worthofbankloans According tocompany chair Ngo Van Tuan, company. cerns over thechance of the government suff repo has media local USD), million (6.13 VND billion 138 reached which debts, and losses its is company the for problem largest The tothe State Capi transport ministry Joint Stock Corporation (Vinawaco)has not Three years after aninitial public offering 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA http://bizhub.vn/property/ec lion) fortheones covering 630sq.m. forthebillion (US$1.31 million) VND36 Meanwhile,the Marina Arcwill comprise20 companies. leading five bythe world's grounds landscaped are atop lush the villas built all the where in Dubai, one the as such island, palm magnificent the features complex villa Grand The Ecopark ha Ecoparkcomplex,withatotal y issues that are beyond its are beyond y issuesthat citing deputytransportmi citing oparks-super-luxury-precin e for Vinawaco, as the company has been sued by its average 10,100 pershare. VND 10,100 average investment ofnearly$10billion. tal InvestmentCorporation (SCIC). er-vinawaco-capital-loss/122320.vnp 280sq.m ones and VND100 billion ($3.64 mil- billion($3.64 ones andVND100 280sq.m from Vietcombank's HCM Citybranchand (IPO), the Vietnam Waterway Construction Waterway(IPO), theVietnam at 12billion and at generated40bil- VND had nistry of Transport had asked the company nistry ofTransporthadasked ment Cooperation and Import and Export and Importment and Cooperation and losses by September 30, Vietnam News s and inefficient financialinvestmentscon- as the company's receivables and long- and the as receivables company's s mustbe larger than the recorded figures. eholder of the companyon behalf ofthe transferred the State's capital fromthe capital State's the transferred the firm's financial losses and debts, and and debts, losses and financial thefirm's late March 2014, selling ninemillion March late 2014, ate's capital will be reduced to a negative equal to 109.8 billion VND. If those losses If billionVND. to 109.8 equal on VND in post-tax profits the lowest in the lowestprofits on VNDinpost-tax operating as a joint-stock company sinceoperating asajoint-stock company ering losses when selling its stake inthe stake its when selling ering losses the losses and debts included 66 billion D in construction costs for 25 unfinished D inconstruction25 costsfor rted. The problem hasstirredpublic con- high-rise shophouses, with prizes from g held in late July, Vinawacoreported ile itsbank accounts have been frozen local lenders, Vinawacosaidinastate- at hadled tothis si authorisation to the prime min- to theprime authorisation nister Nguyen VanCong. nister ct-makes-debut_290337.html 27 November 2017 53 /61 tuation, Congsaid. 27 November 27 BUSINESS worker mistreatment worker reporton INGO Samsung rejects finance& business Vietnam world's 500richestlist tycoon catapultedinto Vietnam's realestate Intellasia His rise came following the IPO of Vingroup IPO of came followingthe His rise mini prime and former mediamogul ian The owner ofVietnam's realestateconglomera up97positions already in less than afortnight. Just on November 21,Vuong, 49, wasthe 5 morning. vember 25 on No- Forbes magazine by updated list time billionaires thereal to according year, as Vuong iscurrentlywortharou people wealthiest person injust 489th-richest 500 world's the of list Vietnam's richest man PhamNhatVuonghas people. wealthiest the firstVietna become Vuong has Pham Nhat 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNEXPRESS A non-governmental organisation (INGO)report 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES said theywere fatigued anddizzy. Beside and Environment in Development (CGFED IPEN organisationofSweden andtheHanoi-b levels. allowed than sung Electronicsdo Vietnam ment.html english.thesaigontimes.vn/ ics Vietnamand its business operati Such information canleaveanegative im affected. cell phoneswillbe this and increase, will products defective distress. Ifemployeeswo ical curate informationregarding the working en is worriedth it According company, tothe chemicals. to exposed ing used insomeparticularbut measur stages, chemicals,Regardinguse of the Samsung stages, butthecompany ensures suff not depend on this. Operationsatthefactory Whetherthe sit dependson workers standor a musculoskeletalhas centre. medicalch contracts. Thecompanyprovides According toSamsungElectronicsVietnam, solely presented the report with unfounded claims. not visitand IPENdid CGFEDcompany said However, Samsung Electronics Vietnamhas the assemblyprocess. ers workin an environment that useschemic The report also requests additional investigations into theleakagechemicals. of Work- pain. ers suffer from vision problems, runny nose, digestive disorder, jointpain and leg taken ofby them and theirkids care re have from away live but kids have small tothe interviewees report, of the According half nant workers have tostanddoingtheir jobto Workers haveto standwhileworking in8- VND74,500 ($3.28) on November 21. on November ($3.28) VND74,500 shares alsogained almost Vingroup's have the op mall and valuing million $709 nearly raising after everinthe country debut IPO thebiggest as hailed was which 57199/Samsung-rejects-INGO-r a matter amatter of four days. not haveemploymentcontractsand noise there is higher rk in a state of insecurity, productivity will decline and decline will productivity insecurity, of state a rk in nd $4.2billion, almost twice the valuefrom Marchthis erator ataround$3.4billion. ons, the company saidinastatement.ons, the icient time offfor its workers. ster Silvio Berlusconi, 502. who ranks Berlusconi, Silvio ster production andexports of made-in-Vietnam pact on the reputation ofSamsungElectron- increased shot totheworld's value asset him s, miscarriage ispr s, Electronics Vietnam said chemicals were saidElectronics Vietnam 12 hours and dodaynighthours shifts. 12 Preg- at its employees continuously receive inac- continuously receive at itsemployees twice in the pastsixmonths, closingat es were taken to prevent workers from be- from workers prevent to taken were es 43rd richest manin theworld, which was latives living elsewher latives living ) interviewed 45Samsung workers who allofitsemployeeshaveemployment eckups forallemployees onceayearand 's retail unit Vincom vironment, which canleadtopsycholog- the factories and check its viewpoint, but and check its viewpoint, factories the are ofchemicalrisksin but unaware als, refuted such claims inthereport. The nature of their work, and their wages do of theirnaturetheir wages work,and avoidpossiblepay cuts, saidthereport. become the first Vietnamese tocrackthe Vietnamese become thefirst can have two or three shiftsin different ased ResearchcentreforGender, Family mese to crack the list of the world's 500 te Vingroup is now richer than the Ital- the than richer now is Vingroup te said workersattw eport-on-worker-mistreat- evalentworkers. among 27 November 2017 54 /61 earlythismonth, e. In addition, work- o factories of Sam- o factories 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam Feeling of tranquility Intellasia and was recognised byWorl The luxurious five-starThe Anamresort celebr for vacations. wonderful place Vietnam's newest luxury beachfront resort 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNECONOMIC TIMES agriculture, logistics, retail, into rapidly ing one ofVietnam's Vingroup is Vingroup. percent stakeof holds a33.37 He alsoowns93 percent oftheHanoi-bas group.stake inthe According toVingroup's first-half report 500-richest-list-363339.vov http://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnams-rea billion. $78.6 Microsoft co-founderBillGate followed by At the top ofthelistare Amazon's founder Je with 1,131, billion. assets worth $2.1 owner ofVietnamese budget 25 also on November list updates The Forbes has 22projects under construction and another 50 in early development. with atotalareaof over1. shopping malls VincomRetail subsidiary its September, the resort's SweetDreams aLaCarteConcep internet TVswithanarray ofprogrammes, In-room amenities all meet five-star quality vate garden, which also makes it except deep-soak tuband separate rain shower. From the villa's bathroom wecan see a pri- The bathroomisadornedwi more convenient. the bedroomand living room is designed saic floor tiles, creating an atmosphere finishes fromsust hardwood modation is light and aking featuring airy, views seaandgarden and tranquil amazing The villacovers50sqm, with one bedroom A feeling oftranquilitysweptover usass the garden, and ocean, headlands,lush omise the ultimate in Vietna luxurious facilities. resort The reflectedin itsarchitecture, design, andservice standards,whileoffering modern and deliveran experien is to The Anam'sconcept services, ensuring offer superb heights and warm-hearted andever-smiling approach tolife. At TheAnam,we takethis tonew es," said Laubichler-Pichler. "Vietnam charm andwarm-hearted Vietnamese servic Shoe of'NoNews.a philosophy bring No "We UK, Cyprus,Germany,the andMalaysia fortwodecades. came to Laubichler-Pichler first Seasons). claimed hotels and resorts, chiefly The Re unfamiliar totheAustrian native,had has Herbertthen become Laubichler-Pichler, who sands and turquoise waters ofLongBeach, exceptionalis re forluxury Ai CamRanhInternationalcar from minutes by The resort is located on thenorthern partof worldwide to have achieved thestatus. sorts inVietnam.The 12-ha mese craftsmanship andoffe dhotels as "WorldLuxury", ainably-cultivated forests, carrier Vietjet, from position 1,177 on November 21to carrier fromposition on Vietjet, 1,177 November largest realestateconglomerates, and has been expand- has a total of 117 villas and 96 rooms and suites that epit- that villasand96rooms suites of117 atotal has of old-world elegance.old-world Theconnectionbetweenof ese are world-renownedgenuine, fortheirese resort's swimmingand decorative pools. ional among luxurious was managing, operating and renting 41 managing, operatingand was , Vuong was directly holding 27.45 percent percent 27.45 holding directly was , Vuong oon aswe checkedinto our PoolView Villa. ed Vietnam Investment verie Saigon andThe Nam Hai(nowFour Vietnam in 2008, Vietnam in2008, having worked inAustria, 1 million square meters s with $89.4 billion and Buffetwith s with$89.4 Warren stints at the helm of Vietnam's most ac-the helmofVietnam's at stints , The Anam, isahavenof serenityand a education and healthca education standards, including high-speed wi-fi, two two wi-fi, high-speed including standards, -sized bed inthe centre ofthe bedroom, with abackdrop ofjungle-clad mountains. IDD phones, and air-conditioning. Part of guests have anunforgettable experience."guests Cam Ranh Cam Peninsula and is lessthan 20 private poolswith sunbeds.The accom- saw the rise ofNguyen Thi Phuong Thao, and a separate livingroom,aswell e with modern comfortsande withconvenienc- l-estate-tycoon-catapu ce from the old "Indochine"era,whichis ce fromthe ff Bezos with a net worth of $99.6 billion,worth of$99.6 with anet Bezos ff t, its king-sized Sealy mattresses, plush perfectly, to make familytravel even s. No Stress's. andalso blend colonial-era ated its grand opening in April this year this inApril opening its ated grand the resort's general the manager; not arole th stone grey slate and a tiles features rport. It boasts 3,000 palm Itboasts which trees, 3,000 rport. property overlookswhite the and customisedencausticmo- becomingone ofonlysix r picturesque views ofthe resorts inVietnam. 27 November 2017 55 /61 GroupJSC, which (272 acres). It acres).It also (272 re. As of theend re. As lted-into-worlds- 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam Update needed Intellasia http://vneconomictimes.com/article/ Vietnam. in ence foundnowhereelse friendly. Guestsstayingare gu inTheAnam empl teamofmorethan400 a The resorthas ler-Pichler. Laubich- cheer,"said good of plenty and sparkles that everything with year inaugural new products that stand out from others in the market, according to the company's the company's the market,out fromothersto according in that stand new products as na defined Thorakao'sproducts Hao has Lan creased its sales in the past. tional attachmentamongcustomers. It hasn expert, marketing thecompany said ha local Tuan,a Minh Bui level."Similarly, the interaction customer at highest require which mark ingaining suitable nolonger cense is miliar with the trend towardsmodern bran Invest (Holdings) CEO ofLe Chair and "The retu in2016. cent per 35 and then 2010 Hao returneddomesticreco marketand tothe traditional medicinefield for many genera by by Saigonese and wasfounded in the1960s The Lan Hao Cosmetics Limited Company, ket share despite thecompetitionbecoming tougher. and failureinthedomestic marketoverthe producti too muchfocusonresearching put to continued years has for many Thorakao campaigns, marketing large-scale launching brands foreign cosmetics business.Despite the oldwaysofdoing operates under With 60years in thecosmetics business, T communications strategy to Long-standing Vietnamese cosmetics brand 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNECONOMIC TIMES days ayear, we won'tbe welcomingJackFr Cam RanhPeninsula, balmy "At TheAnam,on anarti Year's Eve,winetasting, and New bang, hosting events including gala dinners 23 to1, From December January The will Anam foradults. snorkeling and body-boarding, surfing, to bravo sailing ma. Recreational pursuits and adults,respectively.TheAn Every day at 3pm and 5pm, the 60-seat cinema our stay, we enjoyed ahuge range of recrea centre, atennis court, ayogaroom and deck, swimming pools,aballroom, three spacious including te first class, Other facilitiesare fering freshandlocalNhaTrang seafood. reopened inmi is it The HanoiHousewhen and TheBeac Bar,TheColonial, The Sports culture.thentic sliceofVietnameseOther part of the resort'spopular "Mama'sCooking" its doorstofive mothers ofits staff, whoco fruit, alive cooking station, and fresh popular Vietnamese,As is locatednearthe open-air lobby, offering for breakfast,lunchanddinner. TheIn tions wide rangeof has a The Anam sleep. night's ablissful menugave us low an bed linen,cotton Irish300 thread-count ian, and Western dishes, large offered at the Water Sports ce Sports the Water at offered remain competitive. restaurants and barsthatpr restaurants am is the first resort in Vietnam to boast such toboastsuch a cine- resortinVietnam thefirst is am biz-traveler/feelin juices. Every Wednesday The Indochine opens Corp. "However, the company remainsunfa- st in residenceprogramme,st andmuchmore. restaurants andbarsinclude TheSaigonBar, n treatment rooms at the spa, a3D cinema, horakao hasbecomeknown asabrandthat d goose pil-Anam's downpillowsfrom The ok their favourite specia tions. After succeeding with exports, Lan After Lan tions. succeeding exports, with et access, especially forcosmetics brands, an extensive buffet breakfastthat includes h Club, now renovated and to be renamed d-December as a Vietnamese restaurant of- d-December restaurant as aVietnamese d communications. The view of natural in- communications. Theviewofnatural d , buffets, degustation menus for Christmas whichownsThorakao, was well-known rns are agoodsign," said Le Quoc Vinh, currentmar- its retain expectsto but years tional activities for the family and kids. andkids. family activities for the tional Thorakao needs astronger, modernbrand ost but we will be ce dochine, theresort'ssignaturerestaurant, oyees and its staff are all very helpful and areallveryhelpful staff oyees andits 't made any branding efforts but in- but has 't madeanybrandingefforts sn't focused on brandi conference rooms,arecreation andfitness aranteed to anunforgettable aranteed have experi- a kid's club, a gift shop and more. During and more. shop kid's club,agift a a Vietnamese family whoworkedinthe family Vietnamese a initiative, which gives diners a truly au- screens a wide selection of films for kids on. Ithasseenvarying levels of success rded turnover growth of 20 per cent in turnover growthof20percent rded where we bask in more than 300 sunny where webaskinmorethan sunny 300 celebrate its first festive seasonwith a tural and is trying to lead in creating creating in to lead trying and is tural g-of-tranquility spreads of pastries, bread and ntre rangefromkayakingand ovide guests with great op- ovide guests lebrating abrilliant 27 November 2017 56 /61 ng orbuildingemo- lties for guests as a 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam Danang in hosted successfully Forum Business Central Vietnam Second EuroCham Intellasia this eventhas been organised in the city. Forum) etnam Business Forum (ECV Business http://vneconomictimes.com/ar tomake investor, rather thanafinancial technology inmaterials processing.But,accord Lan Hao is currentlynegotiating with a Japa tributes. ne history over its60-year production quality Vietnamese veryfew which heritage, to lates Thorakao sh is anissue Brand repositioning their marketingstrategies andcreating heavily on brandloyalty."Brands buil must rakao's targetedcustomersare ing to Vinh, however, while thechannelhas developed stronglyinurbanareas, Tho- Lan Haoisnowalsoinvestinginonlinecha the company,according to Tuan. coverage anddisplays as well as promot branding mustbe adopted. Developing sa intheindustry petition toughe will become inVietnambeing million women aged from turnover standing at cosmetics total With it for hard be will it style, old demand inruralareaswillbe moreadvanc better living conditions and access toinform With low. is loyalty brand and trends new by impacted being now is market The rural giants are also turning strongly towardstherural market. inthe and tactics strategies competitive ply cent ofdomestic trade turnover. Lan Haos ven't focused on. Rural areasaccountfor 65 ruralcustomers, at Thorakao's strategy aims not anessentialone." mal requirements ofthe target gy," he said. "I would suggestthat the aesthe efficiency ofpastmarket the "Thorakao should conduct specific market research onitspackaging and design isan But ofthe packaging important part thiswould increaseproduction costslimi and is for Thorakao a weakness Recognising that products." from built but criteria, onscientific based The competitiveness other smalldomestic co its cheapprices. Theseare not factors that customers are stillnostalgicfor Thorakao'sgl cording to Vinh."I haven't seen the differ tachment among customersmakes a difference at- emotional notable, especially not and homogenous relatively is quality product As fo factor important most is the not. Quality the difference or of aware thing iswhetherconsumersare important most price. The in the market effective partly core still is ing, thistime,the at development strategy asthecompanystarted with atradit Lan Hao, deputy director ofBusiness Development Ma laboration with EU-Vietnam Business Netw Business with EU-Vietnam laboration On November 24, European ChamberofCommerce in Vietnam(EuroCham), incol- 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR ing strategies,andthen ing lear to hold on toitsmarkets," Vinh said. ed customersegment, as cosmeticsarealuxury product, in ruralareas. Theonline cosmetics business also relies ticle/business interaction with consumers," he said. and the company also has a strategy of low a breakthrough intermsofbrandstrategy. ional programmes for ional programmes shoppers would help feelings about qualitythroughexperiencing feelings customer experiences, according to Vinh. ence at Thorakao," he VND26 trillion ($1.1 trillion($1.1 bi VND26 les networksinkey locations, increasing increase thecompetitivenessofbrand. ofLanHao based on productsbeing the hould rapidly extend in the market inthemarket and ap- extend hould rapidly ed. "If Thorakao's branding remains inthe remains ed. "IfThorakao'sbranding r themanufacturer butitisn'teverything." nnels toexpanditscustomerbase. Accord- ould seriously consider. Its brand value re- value brand Its consider. seriously ould d anonline community through changing ork (EVBN),hosted Eu r and correct strategies inmarketing and per centofthetotalpopulationand55 mid and long terms, said,as Tuan global tic of the packaging is thanthenor- is higher packaging tic of the 16-39 representing major potential, com- potential, major representing 16-39 an area large foreign cosmetics brands ha- ation reaching levels seen in urban areas, seen inurban levels ation reaching its packaging,said Dung that improving nese partner andexpects tomake use of orious pastwhileothers areinterested in /update-needed smetics have gained is not in quality brands can rely on, Tuan said, and its ional family," said Tuan. "Frankly speak- "Frankly Tuan. said family," ional i Tan Dung. "Quality is the basic value of of value thebasic is "Quality Dung. i Tan t its approach to a number ofconsumers. t itsapproachtoanumber eds into its to incorporated be brand at- 2017 in Danang. This is the second time This isthe inDanang. 2017 ing toVinh, itneedsastrategicpartner tothecompetitivenessofabrand, ac- n strate- and adoptarevised said"Mostcurrent 27 November 2017 57 /61 llion) in 2015 and 20 and llion) in2015 roCham CentralVi- 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam development sustainable irrigation Workshop discusses Intellasia irrigation development. resourceswith theagriculture andseeking reformwhilemobilising for anewimpetus http://english.vov.vn/economy/second-eur areas, to make the initiative a provincialmembers, andthe authoritiesof strategy andcorevalues.We assist inthe re to itiative "Overthe years, wequickly recognisedCentralVietnam thatEuroCham Chapter's in- KPMG Vietnam, said. ronment in Central Vietnam atevents and in pa local with working and relations, investor promotion activities,gional tradeas part such 2015, openedin our Danangofficewas "Since year," he said. am I event,and this of the success py with establis to able being also while provinces, tant projects canaskquestions is a goodexample"ECV BusinessForum of ed and -- building tainable and hospitality, infrastructure,greentechnol ar We 2016. Danang inNovember in sentation repre- chamber ofcommercetolauncha becameforeign first large thewhen we nam to stay.EuroChamrealisedthispromising sa theyarevery that theregionis in business for Europeanbusinesses. Whatwe have Danang and with itCentral Vietnam are a Gellert Horvath, co-chairof EuroCham, hi ordinating activities inthe region. tral Vietnam for the tenureof2018. These the forum,th EuroChamAlso at announced nesses andinvestorsin thearea. lated to the economicoutlookfor Central Viet After Aymar's openingremark, tobetheultimate aim The two platforms project, the Greenbook and the Greenbook website (www.greenbookvietnam.com). tive Member, Committee opened the eventand officially launched EuroCham's new Aymarde Liedekerke Beaufort,CCOof agement, realestatedevelopment, green building,and smart cities. investment including perspective, specific At the event, experts and officials covered with supportSchool, fromKPMG. was co-sponsored bySavillsVietnam,NS economists, governmental offi of fromamultitude 70participants than More According toThang,thesectorneeds to amid climatechange. \ Thang alsohighlightedthe shortcomings in th the agricultural sector. over the pastyears, saying that the sector MARDdeputy minister HoangVan Thang hail towards 2050. jointly organised aworkshopon irrigation The MinistryofAgriculture and Rural 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA successfully-hosted-in -danang-363335.vov gion's socioeconomic development is aperfectfittoKPMG's ucation will remain strong here in the coming years." in thecoming ucation willremainstronghere willworkshoulder-to-sh great success", said Phuc Nguyen. Phuc said success", great cials, mediaorga directly from the investment authorities in cities and Phuc Nguyen,directoratKPMG, delivered contentre- Development (MARD)andthe World Bank BNP Paribas Vietnam and EuroChamExecu- develop amulti-dimens heard from heard nearly50membersdoing our from portal on green business inVietnam. has served well the economy, particularly ghlighted "Outside of HCM City andHanoi, Blue Scope, andGreenShootsInternational h contacts for future partnerships. I am hap- Iam future partnerships. h contactsfor Danang, Quang Nam, and thesurrounding Danang,QuangNam, representatives will be responsiblerepresentatives forco- willbe development withavision development strategy to2030 leading trade and investment destination destination investment trade and leading cross-cutting business ocham-central-vietna practices, tax incentives, local talent man- talent local tax incentives, practices, certain thatitwillcontinueto grow every outlook andthe potential ofCentralViet- tisfied with their growth and they are here they their growthand with tisfied how companies with an interest inimpor- with aninterest companies how ree representatives ofEuroChaminCen- ogy --namelyrenewablesus- energy and publications," Phuc Nguyen, partner of rtners in promoting the investment envi- the investment rtners inpromoting we have made significant progress in re- progress in madesignificant we have icipation inthe Apec's side-lines events, sectors gathered attheevent,including e certain that areas suchas ICT, tourism nam, as well as taxincentivesforbusi- as well nam, e sector aswell e sector ed the irrigationsector'sed achievements nisations, anddiplomats. Theforum oulder with EuroCham, its oulder with m-business-forum- 27 November 2017 58 /61 ional visioninline challengesit facing topics fromasite- 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam fair of agriculture day one Threeon dealsinked off withstellarsuccess TechDemo 2017 starts Intellasia tal aspects,the tal sector needstofocus sure sustainable irrigationin development ment-363275.vov http://english.vov.vn/economy/workshop-dis sands ofkilometres ofdike upgraded, netw the nation'stotal235,000-kilometre canal ofcanalshadbeen Over kilometres 65,000 Ngan Truoi Cam Trang, Ban Mong, TaTrach, andVanPhong. oflargeirrigational to2016, a number 2009 from strategy, development irrigation to outthenational carry partofactivities As Cuong said. natural disasters, andprotecting the en irrigation sectorshouldal The nomic sectors inbuilding,managing, expl He suggested the sectorencourage the partic 363235.vov http://english.vov.vn/economy/techdemo-2 commencement2017. nightofTechDemo Of particular note, 130cont velopment," saidministerAnh. ofscientificapplication andresearchresu ply relations.Additionally, is"This asupportive activity ditions, supportingthe process of technolog local con- intandemwith and supply connect technologydemand helps also The event demonstrate their new technologies andproducts. a is this that emphasized a speechattheevent,ChuNgoc Delivering alternat technologies, supportindustries, curren in specialises TechDemo year's This products. logical than 500technologicalindustri Au Korea, theRepublicof Japan, Russia, attracted morethan200domestic The event seek cooperationopportunities. and organisations and at providingbusinesses aimed also is It level. new to a quality product take as well as productivity labour boost and transfer of technology as well asinno an 24 to 22 lastsfromNovember event The mand inDanang(Techdemo 2017) wa The three-day eventofthe demonstrati 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VIR Pham HungCuong, aseniorexpertfromthe tween farmer Nguyen VanDungfromAnGiang Province andfarmer Nguyen Van co opening day The thirdsigned onthefair's billion. atVND4.6 valued is CoLtd Foodstuff Duc and Thu Company Stock Joint Industry Machinery An Long Co Ltd and ThienPhatFoodProcessingCo wa billion transfer. ThefirstworthVND1.12 According tothe organising committee, tw VND5.7 billion in total. on ThoCity in Can Fair 2017thatopened Individuals and enterprises participating in the Vietnam International Agriculture 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| THE SAIGON TIMES precious opportunityfor orga racts worthVND680billion were successfully signed atthe TechDemo 2017 will support technology transfer and the transfer and technology 2017 willsupport TechDemo , boosting the capacityand so adapt to climate change, contributing to preventing change,contributing toclimate so adapt al processes,technologies, researchresults,andtechno- on enhancing agriculturaladdedvalues. on s kickedoff on November22, 2017. and storm-and flood-proof shelters built. on on connecting technology supplyand de- vironment andwater resource management, stralia, and Taiwan, who introducedmore November 23signed agreements worth over ive energy, andagriculturalengineering. lts, servingthecountry's socio-economic de- vation in regional enterprises in order to order in vation inregionalenterprises oiting andprotecting irrigation works. d was designed topromotetheapplication terms of socio-economic and environmen-terms ofsocio-economic reinforced, accounting for percentof reinforced, accounting 25.7 with the chance to exchange information to exchangeinformation with thechance t key sectors,t keyas such o ofthe three deals are abouttechnology Ltd, whereas the second signedbetween 017-starts-off-with works had been built, including Cua Cua Dat, had including built, been works Anh, minister of ScienceandTechnology,ministerAnh, s signedbyThuanCuongElectronic Scale and 55 foreign organisations from the US,organisationsand 55foreign fromthe ncerns purchases ofpesticide sprayers be- y application, innovation, and transfer. y application,innovation,and ipation of beneficiaries and different eco- and different ipation ofbeneficiaries World Bank sa Vietnam cusses-sustainable-i ork, hundreds ofre ork, nisations and individualsto productivity ofdemand-sup- -stellar-success- automanufacturing 27 November 2017 59 /61 rrigation-develop- servoirs andthou- id in order to en- 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam Giang fruit industry Festival promotesBac City HCM display in Furnishings on Intellasia http://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnam-loca fairuntilThe will November26. run Toannoted. toforeign countries, them ship systems, helping tail It hasalso connected domestic agricultural producers with importers and modern re- Hanoi. ply-consumption chainin Toan said thatthefairhasbecome a key even At ceremony, vice the opening Chair of and quality standards. food safety The festival, held in the centre of Chu town centre ofChu in the festival, held The intheprovince. inagriculture investment and organiser ofthe event, confirmed the festiv Chair of theprovincialPeople'sCommittee, officials. said markets, indomestic consumers for business enterprises to boost tunities clos The fair, organised byCityHa the HCM 23. (VIFA HOME), & homefurnishingfairture Interior decor and furniture products are 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNA fair.html http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57213/Thr foreignfirmswith local more some 300 and high-tech agricult theme ofdeveloping Having products, toNam. according re sector inthe ricultural However, toensuresustainableeconomic production, 90 percent ofrice export tion. Ithas contributed 52 percent ofagri the Mekongregion Delta wasthecentreofth Addressing theopeningceremony, Can Tho Men fromDongThap Province. Thisdealisworth VND15 million. Giang onSaturday, has helped The second festival Luc Nganfruit held 2017, 27/NOV/2017 INTELLASIA| VNS nel. Theproductsatthe250boothsare all has fair theannual year, third its in Now products from55cities with 23, November Royal CityinHanoion open Vietnam LocalSpecialitiesFair2017 The Intellasia| VNA 27/Nov/2017 Vietnam Local Specialties Fair 2017 opens T-BIS http://english.vov.vn/economy/furnishi fairuntilThe will November26. run said. market's demand,Dong the products, thusmeeting It alsohelpsfoster connectivity inthe wide. Dong saidthefair is expect Deputy director of the muni mass media. promoted on have beenintroducedtoevery household near the fairvenue.The event hasbeenalso According toHAWAPresident Nguyen Quoc nearly pavilions, features 500 (HAWA), and provinces nationwide. gion should makeuse oftechnologies tocreate many new ed to connectfurniture enterprises inthe city and nation- cipal DepartmentNguyen Phuongand Trade ofIndustry promote high qualityfruit productsandcreate oppor- s and 75 percent of seafood exports. supply and production chainoflegal wood ngs-on-display-in-h the Hanoi People's CommitteeNguyen Doan the Hanoi including those fromCroatiaand China. ndicraft &WoodIn cultural production, 60percent of seafood become aprestigioustrade promotion chan- being showcased at the 2017 Vietnam furni- being Vietnam showcased at the 2017 selected carefully, ar selected carefully, development amid climate change, theag- in Luc Ngan District, also helped buildval- also Luc NganDistrict, in al had made a contributionto eco-tourism which opened in HCM City onNovember whichopened inHCM ee-deals-inked-on-day-one-of-agriculture- than 450 booths, and lasts until until lasts Monday. than450 booths, and some 200businesses introducing typical Nguyen Thanh Binh, whoisalsothe chief eand fruitproduc- country's rice,seafood in northernmountain province ofBac the vice chair TruongQuangHoaiNamsaid l-specialties-fair-2 e linkswitheachother, as well as with t to help localities' productsjointhesup- localities' t to help ed at the square ofVincom Mega Mall Khanh, discounts offered atthefair ure, the fair attracts the participation of the ure, thefair participation attracts cm-city-363276.vov dustry Association 017-opens-363252.vov e certified andmeet 27 November 2017 60 /61 27 November 27 BUSINESS Vietnam finance& business Vietnam Intellasia had setup a large agricultur Co People's province's Vice chairofthe fore it is sold. ed origintrac stamps affirming product with plant protectionproductsand chemical fert They revealedtheiruse of safe biological perience ofproducinggoodqualityfruitth At theevent,orchardowners fromdifferen and production. ing and protecting the environmentby prom As partofthefestival, several workshopswe products," fruit the highestquality is anoccasiontohonourfarmer "The festival that have won prestige in domestic and world markets. Luc NganDistrict is famousfor avariety of fruit specialties, including the litchi fruits general, inthedirectionofsust ue chainsforsomekey fruit pr pomelo, orange, custard apple and persimm orange, custardapple pomelo, The lower mountainousregion is suitable for for agro-forestryeconomicdevelopment. Accordingfestival organisationboard, to the known in Vietnamandaround the world. isusedfo of the area, Most 30,000ha, about 47,000ha, or the about third largest areainthecountry. End http://bizhub.vn/news/festival-promote has manyhigh-qualityorchards. al production zone with frui oducts of the district in particular, and the province in in province the and particular, in district the of oducts ainable socio-economic development. said the provin said mmittee, DuongVanThai, saidthe province s-bac-giang-fruit- and herbal products inorchards, instead of at meetsfood safety t regionsacross thecountry shared theirex- r planting litchi a fruit that verywell- that is afruit litchi r planting ilisers. The households have been provid- s' achievements in growing andproviding s' achievementsin oting green development in fruit growing growing infruit development green oting on, especiallyLucNg Bac Giang Province has an ideal climate an ideal has Province BacGiang eability that are put on qualified fruit fruit be- eability thatareput on qualified plant- intrading, re held, covering issues growing various fruit trees such as litchi, as trees litchi, such fruit various growing cial official. t planting areas making up making up plantingareas t industry_290371.html and hygienestandards. 27 November 2017 61 /61 an District,which 27 November 27