How about the first time you went to a supermarket in your new country overseas only to discover a favourite food item had a price tag that nearly knocked you off your feet? Or you visited accommodation while apartment hunting that was expensive yet missing what you consider to be basic features? When we move abroad we have to decide which toys, trinkets, and habits we’ll keep in our adoptive country and which we’ll let go. I recently wrote an article about the cost of living for an expat retiree in Vietnam and discovered during research that I was spending money on things out of habit, not need, and that I could save a fair amount by tweaking priorities: How much does it cost an expat retiree to live in Vietnam? - Tuoi Tre... Part of that exercise was a sanity check on where money was going because the cost structure is quite different in Vietnam, so simply converting prices from a foreign currency to Vietnamese dong (VND) only tells part of the story. Some … [Read more...] about Out of sight…
Coffee shop outfits
Shoppers wait in long queues during grand opening of Vietnam’s first Uniqlo store
Shoppers have had to wait for at least an hour to enter Vietnam’s first-ever store of famous Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo following its grand opening in downtown Ho Chi Minh City on Friday. Uniqlo Dong Khoi, located at the Parkson Saigon Tourist Plaza on the corner of Le Thanh Ton and Dong Khoi Streets in District 1, was officially open on Friday morning. The three-story store, which covers a total area of more than 3,000 square meters, welcomed over 2,000 guests on its first day, according to a Uniqlo representative. The number of customers appeared to be even larger on Saturday. According to a local motorbike taxi driver, the waiting line nearly doubled that on Friday. Shoppers wait in front of the store on the morning of December 7, 2019. Photo: Nguyen Tri / Tuoi Tre Nguyen Thi Hong Nhi, a second-year university student, said she had waited more than 45 minutes and was still not able to get inside the venue. A lot of people were still waiting in front of the shop … [Read more...] about Shoppers wait in long queues during grand opening of Vietnam’s first Uniqlo store
German firms see positive outlook
German businesses are seeing Vietnam as an attractive destination for investment (photo: Le Toan) Wolfgang Schmitz-Heinen, CEO of Witte Holding GmbH, visited Vietnam for the first time recently to look for opportunities to start a business here. Witte is a family-run global company in the printing business that specialises in printing secure and self-adhesive labels for various applications including the automotive and electronic industry. “We want to expand abroad more than before and are analysing different countries, and we got the opportunity to join this business delegation organised by the OAV-German Asia-Pacific Business Association to Vietnam. We are impressed from south to north there, and would like to follow this track to see what is possible for us. I have ideas, but we have to check now the circumstances to ensure that everything we have to do is carried out properly, but we will do it fast,” he told VIR. “What I learned in these last few days is that … [Read more...] about German firms see positive outlook
Indian scholar hails Vietnamese President’s upcoming visit
Professor, Dr. Pankaj Jha (R) in an interview with the Vietnam News Agency correspondent. (Source: VNA) New Delhi (VNA) – An Indian scholar has hailed Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang's upcoming visit to India as a significant event given the fact that the Vietnamese President has a very positive attitude towards the bilateral ties and has a fair knowledge about the status of the relationship between the two countries. In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency ahead of President Tran Dai Quang’s visit to India (March 2-4), Professor, Dr. Pankaj Jha, a senior faculty member with Jindal School of International Affairs (JSIA) and is also Editor-in- Chief of the JSIA Journal, said in the last three years, the hyper activism in India-Vietnam relations has manifested itself into opening of new vistas of cooperation between the two sides. This includes areas such as political understanding on areas of critical interest, defence and strategic areas, … [Read more...] about Indian scholar hails Vietnamese President’s upcoming visit
Solving the plastics crisis in Vietnam, Asia
Editor’s note: Aban Marker Kabraji is regional director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Asia and director of the IUCN Regional Hub for Asia - Oceania. Known for its beautiful beaches and coral reefs, Trat Province, on the eastern coast of Thailand, is struggling with a very real problem. Like other coastal areas in the country, the province is being polluted by the daily dumping of waste into the ocean. While there is no shortage of environmental management efforts in Trat, dealing with waste, particularly plastic pollution, remains a big struggle. For long-time village chief Natsini Intaraprasert of the Mairood sub-district, home to one of the province’s giant landfills, waste is the “most challenging problem to manage.” Trat’s waste and plastic woes are not unique, with plastic pollution topping the list of problems affecting the world’s oceans. Every year, the world produces over 300 million tons of plastic, half … [Read more...] about Solving the plastics crisis in Vietnam, Asia