Attracting foreign investors

Total FDI commitments to Vietnam stood at US$16.7 billion in seven months. Disbursement of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Vietnam rose by 3.8% year-on-year in the January-July period to US$10.5 billion, a report of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment has shown. Production at General Electric in Haiphong. Photo: Le Sang While the actual FDI inflows remain positive, the serious Covid-19 situation led to a 37.9% decline in the number of fresh projects to Vietnam but registered capital rose 7% inter-annually to US$10.13 billion. The report also noted 561 existing projects have been injected an additional US$4.54 billion, down 9.4% in number and 3.7% in the capital. During this period, 2,403 projects had over US$2.05 billion in capital contributed by foreign investors, down 46.1% in the number of projects and 55.8% in value year-on-year. Economists suggested Vietnam’s prospect of FDI attraction would continue …

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Pham Duy Khuong Managing director, ASL LAW This is one of the newer forms of investment that Vietnam did not previously have much experience in implementing, as there were no clear regulations on this form as well as non-transparency and inequity in projects when signing PPP contracts with state agencies. This has caused anxiety among private investors, especially those from outside the country. Thus, the Law on Public-Private Partnership Investment took effect in January with the expectation of attracting more overseas investors and private investment resources in the context of increasingly fierce competition. Indeed, one of the issues that concern investors is the openness and transparency of PPP projects. Previously, since they were referenced in accordance with the Law on Bidding, project information was not transparent and the selection of investors was not public. This led to the fear that investors have been appointed previously to carry out the project without fair …

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Drawing spreads love amid pandemic A drawing with the words “Our family has enough food, please give it to anyone in need” has gone viral on social networks recently. This small but meaningful act spreads a message of love, solidarity, and sharing with Vietnamese people facing difficulties, helping to magnify the determination to win out against the pandemic. The smile on the little girl’s face is also from belief and hope that one day Ho Chi Minh City and the whole country will return to some semblance of normality. The simple but meaningful action has helped ease people’s anxiety about the disease./. Japanese city popularises Vietnam ahead of Paralympic Games Authorities of Kokubunji city, west of Japan’s Tokyo capital city, on July 31 held an event to help local people understand more about Vietnam prior to the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. In an interview with the Vietnam News Agency’s correspondent, Mayor Izawa Kunio said as Japan and Vietnam have been nurturing a …

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Banks cut transaction fees to aid customers amid pandemic Fees of ATM and POS transactions via the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) will be cut by 50-75 percent from August 1. (Photo: VNA) The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has directed credit institutions to reduce some transaction fees from August 1 this year to support customers amid the outbreak of the latest COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, fees of automatic teller machines (ATM), point of sale (POS) and interbank transactions via the SBV’s National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) will be cut from 50-75 percent from August 1 to the end of this year. The move was made after NAPAS announced a reduction of 50-75 percent on its service fees on electronic switching for credit institutions which means that the profits of financial institutions will not be affected by the cut. However, the SBV also expects credit institutions to make a bigger reduction for their customers than that of NAPAS. …

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