Vietnam investments

/ June 12, 2021

Vietnam researches production of single-dose Covid-19 vaccine

The names of the Vietnamese enterprise and the U.S. manufacturer have not yet been revealed. The ministry said the Vietnamese company has been negotiating with the U.S. manufacturer about the conditions for the mRNA vaccine technology transfer. The mRNA vaccine has finished its first and second phase clinical trials and requires only a single injection of 5 milligrams with high protection, stored at temperatures of 2-8 degrees Celsius. The factory invested by this Vietnamese company in line with the manufacturer's technology standards will have a capacity of 100-200 million doses per year and is expected to start production from the fourth quarter this year or early 2022. Most current Covid-19 vaccines require two injections, except for American pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, which needs only one. According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), new mRNA vaccines can protect against infectious diseases. This kind of vaccine is proved to have an efficacy of 94.8 percent against Covid-19. The ministry said Vietnamese pharmaceutical firm Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 (Vabiotech) is also in talks with a Japanese partner to soon receive the transfer of vaccine production tech. Vabiotech said it has cooperated with Russia to begin creating vials for Sputnik V this July, with an expected capacity of around five million doses a month. Russia said it too may transfer its vaccine production technology to Vietnam in future. The health ministry has successfully negotiated to get more than 120 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from multiple sources in 2021, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and the Covax facility. Vietnam currently aims to secure 150 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to cover 70 percent of its population by this year. The ministry said it would not only seek multiple sources for Covid-19 vaccines, but also strive to be a part of the tech transfer process so Vietnam could produce …

/ June 11, 2021

Energy mix for Vietnam with LNG-to-power

Guided by Politburo’s Resolution No.55/2020-NQ/TW, the recent draft decision of the Prime Minister to approve the draft Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8) specifies 45 major liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects with total capacity of just over 53,000MW, lining up in the list of power ventures which are of national importance and a development priority from now until 2045. The LNG infrastructure is strongly promoted under PDP8, setting a steady foundation for the growth of such projects and its related businesses in Vietnam. Under Vietnamese laws, a LNG project can be developed in either a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative whereby the investors will cooperate with the state to develop and operate it through signing and performing the PPP contracts; or an independent power producer (IPP) project whereby investors will wholly develop it by themselves. Investment in PPP form For an LNG project to be considered under the PPP form of investment, the total capital must be not less than VND1.5 trillion (approx. $65 million). However, the capital requirements for certain ventures in practice, particularly involving foreign inventors, can be substantially higher, normally around $2.5-3 billion in the past, and now perhaps $5 billion or higher for large-scale LNG projects. Investors of a PPP scheme shall have to sign a PPP contract with the state agency in order to implement the project. Types of PPP project contracts under the Law on PPP are as follows (see red image): The model contracts for each type of PPP project shall be further specified by the government. Generally, basic steps for implementation of a LNG venture in PPP form shall be as follows (see pink image): The time period for the investor to be officially selected as the developer of the PPP project will be substantially long due to the heavy involvement of the government and the sophisticated requirements under the bidding procedures. In return, the investor will be …

/ June 8, 2021

Hanoi to prepare housing development programme for 2021-2030

Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - The Hanoi People’s Committee has issued a decision approving the outline for a task of devising the capital’s housing development programme for 2021-2030 , with vision towards 2040. The programme aims at realising the Resolution of the Hanoi Party Organisation’s 17th Congress for the 2020-2025 tenure and identifying new criteria for the work in line with the local master plan for socio-economic growth to 2030 approved by the Prime Minister. Accordingly, the city will conduct surveys and assessments regarding the current situation of commercial housing, social housing, resettlement housing, official residence and private housing in urban and rural areas. It will set goals for housing development and make forecasts on demand for housing among social welfare beneficiaries. The programme will identify local demand for houses and land areas to build different types of housing in the city and links between housing and urban development, among other things. Hanoi hopes to build a system of suitable solutions to ensure sustainable, modern, and climate change-adaptive housing development, as a basis for the management and implementation of related projects, investment attraction, and the healthy growth of the real estate sector./. VNA …