Dentons global law firm

As many as 52 large firms of the Unite States, including Boeing, Coca Cola, SpaceX, Netflix, and Apple, have come to Vietnam to seek cooperation opportunities in various fields. Representatives of the US - ASEAN Business Council and US firms at a working session with the Ministry of Planning and Investment. This is the largest US business delegation ever to come to Vietnam at a time when the two countries are celebrating 10 years of their comprehensive partnership. The trip is to show US businesses’ commitment to investing in Vietnam, said Marc Knapper, Ambassador of the US to Vietnam, at a press briefing on March 21. According to the diplomat, Vietnam is a potential market with many business opportunities, especially when bilateral relations are developing positively, with their trade expanding vigorously over the years. Sharing the view, Ted Osius, president & CEO of the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC), noted US firms have a greater interest … [Read more...] about More than 50 US firms sound out investment opportunities in Vietnam

Food scientists unveiled a giant meatball made from lab-grown flesh of an extinct woolly mammoth on Tuesday, saying the protein from the past showed the way for future foods. The glistening meatball was displayed under a glass bell jar by Australian-based cultivated meat firm Vow at the NEMO science museum in the Dutch capital Amsterdam. But the pachydermic polpette is not ready to be eaten just yet, with the thousands-of-years-old protein requiring safety testing before modern humans can tuck in. "We chose woolly mammoth meat because it is a symbol of loss, wiped out by previous climate change," Tim Noakesmith, co-founder of Vow, told AFP at the event. "We face a similar fate if we don't do things differently, including changing practices such as large-scale farming and how we eat." Grown over a period of several weeks, the meat was "cultivated" by scientists who first identified the DNA sequence for mammoth myoglobin, a key protein that gives the meat its flavour. … [Read more...] about Meatball from extinct mammoth unveiled by food tech firm

The event, which runs through March 23 in Hanoi, is taking place in Vietnam for the first time. AeroExpo Hanoi & Vietnam Aviation Forum 2023 promises to create networking opportunities for companies from Hanoi, other localities and countries in the aviation and ancillary industries. Local and foreign visitors attend the AeroExpo Hanoi & Vietnam Aviation Forum 2023 in Hanoi. Photo: Hoai Nam/ The Hanoi Times The three-day international exhibition features 120 booths, including 70 domestic booths, showcasing products and technologies from Hanoi and Vietnamese enterprises in the aviation industry. Speaking at the opening ceremony on March 21 in Hanoi, Acting Director of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade Tran Thi Phuong Lan said the fair is part of a series of 18 global aviation exhibitions to be held in Hanoi in 2023, with the aim of developing a network of high-end production, service and consumption chains in the global aviation industry. … [Read more...] about Aviation fair facilitates cooperation between Hanoi and int’l firms

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, but indicated it was on the verge of pausing further increases in borrowing costs after the recent collapse of two U.S. banks. Fed Chair Jerome Powell sought to reassure investors about the soundness of the banking system, saying that the management of Silicon Valley Bank "failed badly," but that the bank's collapse did not indicate wider weaknesses in the banking system. "These are not weaknesses that are running broadly through the banking system," he said, adding that the takeover of Credit Suisse seemed to have been a positive outcome. The Federal Open Market Committee policy statement also said the U.S. banking system is "sound and resilient." Even so, Wall Street ended sharply lower after Powell told a news conference that officials were still intent on fighting inflation while also eying the extent to which recent bank failures had cooled demand and slowed lending. The … [Read more...] about U.S. Fed delivers small rate hike amid global banking turmoil

FE Credit, Vietnam’s top consumer lending firm, is struggling to collect debts as many borrowers are deliberately defaulting on their loans, said Ho Thi Nhu Ha, deputy CEO. In recent months social media groups that advise people on how to borrow from financial companies without paying are mushrooming with up to hundreds of thousands of members. Many members show each other how to use a pre-registered SIM card, which does not contain the authentic personal information of the subscriber, to borrow loans from different companies, and then disappear without getting caught. Ha said that the current laws do not have high fines for this type of fraud, especially when the defaulted amount is of low value. This is why there is a growing number of cheaters who even charge others a monthly fee to assist them in cheating. Another consumer lender, PTF Vietnam, is also seeing a surge in unpaid loans, as many customers falsely believe that "not paying back a loan is the right of borrowers … [Read more...] about Debt evasion headache for financial firms

Vietnamese businesses have also supported people in the remote areas of Laos to change their farming customs, and get used to hi-tech agricultural production. This has significantly helped stabilize the lives of Lao people . Keo Khounlakhone has been away from her hometown in Attapeu, a province in the southeast of Laos, for almost 10 years. She had to move to Vientian capital, which is nearly 1,000km from her hometown, to make ends meet at a French garment-textile company, with a monthly income of 3 million Kip (about 180 USD). When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, her company had to stop operation. At such difficult time, Keo could not believe that she was able to find a job at a Vietnamese company in her hometown, which offers better supporting policies than her work in Vientaine. The Vietnamese firm owns more than 1,000 hectares of hi-tech organic banana plantations in Xaysettha district, Attapeu province. It is creating clean agricultural products with an annual … [Read more...] about Vietnamese firms improving lives of Lao people

The Speedtest Global Index released recently by Ookla, an American firm that describes itself as a global leader in network and connectivity intelligence, showed Vietnam's fixed broadband network hit a download speed of 91.6 Mbps in February, up nearly 9% from the previous month's 84.18 Mbps, marking the highest speed ever recorded by Vietnam. With such speeds, Vietnam's fixed broadband rose to 39th position last month from the 45th place in January. The mobile Internet speed, however, dropped from 46.66 Mbps in January to 42.67 Mbps last month, resulting in a ranking of 52nd, falling nine places from January. The result is quite similar to what was recorded by the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC) under the Ministry of Information and Communications As measured by the center’s i-Speed tool, the download speed of the mobile network decreased from 40.82 Mbps in January to 36.45 Mbps last month, while that of the fixed network increased from 85.8 Mpbs to 89.73 … [Read more...] about Vietnam’s Internet climbs on global speed rankings despite repeated disruptions

The State Securities Commission in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) organised a training programme on “Gas Inventory and Reporting” for listed companies in Hanoi and HCM City. (Photo courtesy of HoSE) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - In the face of increasing concerns about climate change as well as corporate responsibility in sustainable development, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) said it was considering deducting points of businesses who does not include information on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the annual report period of 2022. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Department under the State Securities Commission, said that in Vietnam, standards, regulations and guidelines are helping information disclosure under ESG (Environment – Society – Governance) become more popular such as the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection, Decree No. 06/2022/ND-CP on mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and protection of the … [Read more...] about Listed firms failing to report emissions may receive penalty points from HoSE

Fed Chair Jerome Powell sought to reassure investors about the soundness of the banking system, saying that the management of Silicon Valley Bank "failed badly," but that the bank's collapse did not indicate wider weaknesses in the banking system. The Federal Open Market Committee policy statement also said the U.S. banking system is "sound and resilient." Even so, Wall Street ended sharply lower after Powell told a news conference that officials were still intent on fighting inflation while also eying the extent to which recent bank failures had cooled demand and slowed lending. The much-anticipated rate hike by the Fed, which had delivered eight previous rate hikes in the past year, sought to balance the risk of rampant inflation with the threat of instability in the banking system. But in a key shift driven by the sudden failures this month of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, the Fed's latest policy statement no longer says that "ongoing increases" in rates will … [Read more...] about US Fed delivers small rate hike amid global banking turmoil

In December, the EU officially approved a directive for companies to pay a minimum tax rate of 15 per cent from 2024. Our neighbouring markets such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong are heading towards the official application of GMT policy from 2024 or 2025. Thomas McClelland - Country tax leader Deloitte Vietnam Countries with foreign investment in Vietnam, like South Korea and Japan, will implement new tax policies or announce a draft tax reform, moving towards the application of the GMT from the fiscal year 2024. The impact of the policy on Vietnam is clear and urgent, and requires the authorities to take timely action before it is too late. Firstly, to protect tax collection, Vietnam could consider the immediate solution of implementing a qualified domestic minimum top-up tax to gain the right to collect the top-up tax rather than the tax going to another country. This mechanism can simply be understood as a domestic mechanism in which the calculation of … [Read more...] about Vietnam must revisit policies to develop implementation of global minimum tax