Vietnam business opportunities

Illustrative image. (Photo: SGGP) According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Dung, Chairman of Vietnam E-commerce Association (Vecom), in 2021, despite being heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam's e-commerce still maintained a good growth momentum with an increase of about 20 percent and a scale of $16 billion. Keeping the growth momentum, Vietnam is now one of the countries with the largest e-commerce market size in the region, besides Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. Vietnam's internet economy in 2021 grew by 31 percent compared to 2020 and reached a scale of $21 billion. Of which, the online retail sector enlarged by 53 percent and touched a scale of $13 billion. There are two waves that have contributed to the steady development of e-commerce in Vietnam in 2020 and 2021 and will be the driving force for the next period. The first wave took place during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and the second one from June to September 2021, during the fourth … [Read more...] about Opportunities for e-commerce in Vietnam to boom

Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Hoang Van Loi (R) at the seminar (Photo: VNA) Pretoria (VNA) - Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Hoang Van Loi has led a delegation of Vietnamese representative agencies in South Africa to attend a seminar on ASEAN investment held by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) of South Africa and the Northern Cape provincial government in Kimberley city. This an initiative of the ASEAN Committee in Pretoria and is the first seminar on ASEAN investment organised in a South African locality. It also opened a series of events to explore opportunities for investment and trade cooperation between ASEAN member countries and South Africa in general and the Northern Cape province in particular. In his speech, Ambassador Loi briefed participants on Vietnam’s socio-economic development, major development orientations, as well as potential and opportunities to strengthen economic, trade, investment and tourism … [Read more...] about Vietnam eyes stronger trade, investment cooperation with South Africa

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - Up to 21 percent of Indian firms operating or intending to operate in Southeast Asia plan to expand their business in Vietnam in the next two years, and the ratio is 26 percent among Chinese enterprises , according to a HSBC survey covering more than 1,500 companies from six of the world’s largest economies – all of which have operations in Southeast Asia. Regarding advantages of Vietnam, three out of 10 surveyed companies pointed to skilled workforce, while 27 percent cited competitive wage prices and proven economic resilience in response to the pandemic. Currently, 39 percent of Indian companies stated they were attracted by Vietnam’s infrastructure, while 39 percent of US firms said that they are keen on opportunities to develop and test new products/solutions in the market. Particularly, 49 percent of surveyed firms, mostly from China, India and the US, said that they hope to make use of the EU-Vietnam Free … [Read more...] about Vietnam remains attractive to int’l investors: HSBC

Petrol retail prices in the country have been adjusted many times over the past few months, Photo: Le Toan In Vietnam, gasoline prices continue to increase, and after the adjustment on May 11 by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Ministry of Finance, each litre of E5 RON92 petrol increased by 6.5 US cents to $1.26 per litre while RON95 climbed by 6.7 US cents to $1.30 per litre. On May 17, the price of US WTI crude oil remained at a high level of over $114 per barrel while Brent oil maintained its upward momentum at $114.28 per barrel. Before the next adjustment, which was due on May 21, petrol prices in Vietnam were forecast to continue to increase to higher levels. The ministries first adjusted gasoline prices on January 11 due to a decrease in global supply, production output by Kazakhstan and Libya, and oil inventories of the United States. According to Decree No.95/2021/ND-CP, effective from January, there will be three adjustments each month to the … [Read more...] about Vietnam riding the wave of inflationary unpredictability

Kevin Coppel, Asia-Pacific managing director (left ) and Christine Li, Asia-Pacific head of research for Knight Frank in Singapore When the US-China trade tensions bubbled over in 2018, corporates found it increasingly difficult to carry out business in China due to sourcing uncertainties and rising costs. This trend only worsened in the face of the pandemic and resulting border closures. Businesses responded by pursuing opportunities to set up bases outside of China while still retaining a stake in one of the world’s strongest economies. The China+1 strategy thus emerged. It is based on diversifying its supply base into other countries in order to minimise the risk of disruptions arising from geopolitical tensions, trade wars and tariffs, as well as rising labour costs. These companies are not abandoning China but rather giving themselves options, enjoying the best of what China and other economies have to offer. In pursuit of the China+1 strategy, the spotlight is naturally … [Read more...] about Will Vietnam become a big geopolitical beneficiary?

Kim Højlund Christensen, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam With the return of tourism and trade activities, can you see any movement from business and investment promotion delegations that are going to visit Vietnam? The Vietnamese government’s recent decision to lift entry restrictions and especially to resume the visa-exemption travel programme for countries, including Denmark, is great news and positively welcomed by the Danish business community. Many Danish companies are already planning their visits to Vietnam this month and early next month to meet with their local business partners in person. At present, there are over 130 Danish companies represented in Vietnam. Therefore, there will be a large number of business visitors and delegations from headquarters in Denmark or other locations in the region coming here in the near future to visit their production facilities or to find new investment opportunities. Besides that, we also expect to have trade delegations visit our … [Read more...] about Danish investors pinpointing rising potential of Vietnam’s green energy

The two-day event featured over 40 Vietnamese and Korean producers. — Photo courtesy of KOCCA Vietnam The Korea Creative Content Agency Vietnam Office (KOCCA Vietnam) has launched an online business matching forum to help South Korean content producers enter Viet Nam and deliver their products in the country more effectively. The two-day event, which ended on Thursday, saw the participation of over 40 Vietnamese and Korean producers in the fields of television, fictional characters, AR/VR, games and cartoons. Kim Tae Hyeong, CEO of Korean T2N Media, described the event as a good opportunity for his company to meet with Vietnamese businesses in over-the-top media services and enhance its understanding of the Vietnamese market. Director of KOCCA Vietnam Hong Jeong Yong said his agency would help Korean content companies access Viet Nam after the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring its network with domestic enterprises, connecting content producers from the two countries in the … [Read more...] about KOCCA Vietnam hosts online business matching forum

The survey covers more than 1,500 companies from six of the largest economies in the world, including China, France, Germany, India, the UK and the US – all of which have operations in Southeast Asia. The survey gauges their sentiment on doing business in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on trade, digitalisation, and sustainability. On the advantages side, three out of 10 surveyed companies found Vietnam’s skilled workforce to be the most attractive feature of the market, while 27 per cent of respondents were attracted by the country’s optimistic economic outlook, competitive wage prices, and the resilience demonstrated by Vietnam during the pandemic. It is worth noting that 39 per cent of Indian companies favoured the market thanks to developed infrastructure and 49 per cent favoured Vietnam's supportive government and regulatory environment. About 36 per cent of US companies were very attracted by the opportunity Vietnam affords to test and develop new products and … [Read more...] about Indian investors likely to expand presence in Vietnam

Jointly organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Accounting and Auditing Supervisory Department (AASD) under the Ministry of Finance, the event gathered over 600 delegates from agencies, units, listed businesses, auditing companies and universities. The second event of its kind is within the framework of the technical cooperation project between AASD and JICA  on “strengthening the capacity of the AASD to promote the application of financial reporting standards in Vietnam” funded by the Japanese government. The forum is expected to help agencies of the Government, private sectors and training institutions in Vietnam understand the differences between Vietnamese accounting standards (VAS) and IFRS; as well as promote the exchange of views on the road-map for applying IFRS. Kobayashi Masaya, a representative of JICA  in Vietnam, expressed hope that the policy discussions will be promoted to find the best approach for the application of IFRS in … [Read more...] about Forum promotes application of int’l financial reporting standards in Vietnam

Impressive growth According to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong, in recent years, Vietnam has adopted many mechanisms and policies for innovation, as reflected in the Global Innovation Index (GII), on which Vietnam jumped from 52 nd place (out of 141 countries) in 2015 to 44 th (out of 132) in 2021. It also tops the group of 29 countries with the same income level. The Vietnam Innovation and Technology Investment Report 2021 was jointly released by Vietnam National Innovation Center (NIC) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI) and the venture capital firm Do Ventures, providing an overview of investment in innovation and startups. It reported that 2021 was a record year for venture investment in Vietnam with total investment of US$1.4 billion, compared to the previous record of US$874 million in 2019. Last year also saw the appearance of two new technology “unicorns” - Momo and Sky Mavis. NIC reported that the total number of … [Read more...] about Capital investment in Vietnam’s innovation almost doubles