The northern and central regions of Vietnam are forecasted to see continued hot weather with temperatures of more than 40 degrees centigrade in days to come.
According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, the heat wave would affect the northern and northern central localities for the next 5-7 days.
Today, April 22, the highest temperature in the northern region was 35-37 degrees centigrade; while, some central localities ranging from Nghe An to Phu Yen experiencing up to 37-39 degrees centigrade or even 40 degrees.
The centre reported that southern localities have still experienced 35-36 degrees centigrade on the average in several days to come.
The centre has warned of forest fires, during hot days in central and northeastern localities.
Le Diep Kieu Trang has been appointed general manager of ride-hailing firm Go-Viet after her predecessor resigned last month.
Trang, formerly country director of Facebook’s operations in Vietnam, said that her new job was unique and interesting.
“I’ve seen how the success of Go-Jek’s multi-service platform has transformed the lives of so many people in Indonesia and want to see the same happen in Vietnam,” she said in a statement issued Monday by Go-Viet, an affiliate of Indonesia’s Go-Jek.
“I can’t think of a more exciting thing to work on in the technology world right now,” said Trang, also known as Christy Le.
Go-Viet said that Trang’s appointment is in alignment with the company’s goal to further strengthen its operations, and demonstrates the importance of the Vietnam market for Indonesian company Go-Jek, as this is its first expansion in Southeast Asia.
Andrew Lee, Go-Jek’s head of international operations, said that Trang was an ideal candidate for the job.
“Christy Le has the perfect combination of deep experience in big tech, as well as an understanding of Vietnam and a desire to improve life for people in the country,” Lee said.
Trang’s successful entrepreneur experience makes her “the ideal person to take Go-Viet forward as we look to sustain the phenomenal growth the company has had so far,” he added.
Trang became the director of Facebook’s operations in Vietnam in March last year and resigned from the position in December, citing “family reasons.”
The appointment of Trang follows the simultaneous resignations last month of former Go-Viet general director Nguyen Vu Duc and deputy general director Nguyen Bao Linh.
Their resignation came amidst increasing competition in Vietnam’s ride-hailing market, with current leader Grab on an expansion spree and new players like Be Group fighting hard for a bigger share of the pie.
Go-Viet, an affiliate of Indonesian Go-Jek Group, has said it has completed millions of trips since it was launched in September last year. The company offers transport and food delivery services.
Budget carrier Vietjet grew phenomenally last year, with around 50 per cent jumps in both revenue and pre-tax profit from its core aviation business.
Vietjet has just announced its 2018 audited financial statement with very upbeat business results.
Accordingly, the carrier posted VND53.577 trillion ($2.33 billion) in revenue and VND5.816 trillion ($252.9 million) in pre-tax profit last year. Bangkokpost reports.
Despite oil price rising by 30 per cent, the company’s revenue and pre-tax profit from aviation transport hit VND33.779 trillion ($1.47 billion) and VND3.045 trillion ($132.4 million), increases of 49.8 and 48.9 per cent on-year.
This attests to Vietjet’s expertise in revenue generation and cost management. It is significant to note that Vietjet’s record growth last year came mostly from its core aviation transport business.
Incremental revenue growth in international passenger transport
Vietjet and the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines hold almost the entirety of the domestic market. Vietjet has posted nearly 20 per cent revenue growth from aviation transport in the domestic market and continued holding the pole position in passenger volumes on domestic routes.
The company also saw impressive growth in international routes. Five years ago, Vietjet only counted VND178 billion ($7.7 million) in international passenger transport revenue, this figure jumped to VND802 billion ($34.9 million) in 2016.
In the past two years, the company posted exponential growth on its international routes, with last year’s international passenger transport revenue nearly doubling against 2017.
Vietjet’s revenue growth on international routes (including from passenger transport and ancillary services; Unit: billion VND)
Accordingly, the company posted VND24.681 trillion ($1.07 billion) in total passenger transport revenue last year. Likewise, the revenue from value-added services which features high profit margins (selling souvenirs, food, and in-flight advertising, among others) amounted to VND8.410 trillion ($365.7 million), a 53.5 per cent jump on-year.
Excelling on international flight against its competitors
According to Vietjet and the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, last year Vietjet performed 118,923 flights, over 21,000 flights more than in 2017, with 34,990 flights to international destinations, a 56.25 per cent jump against 2017.
Vietjet’s growth in flight numbers far surpassed rivals in the domestic market and also exceeded the whole aviation industry’s average growth rate of 9 per cent.
Last year, all other air carriers in the domestic market only increased flight numbers by a combined 4,000 flights in total.
Vietjet’s expanding flight network
Effective cost management has bolstered Vietjet’s competitive capacity in the international market. Its direct operating expenses not including fuel costs (cost per available seat kilometer – CASK ex-fuel) went down by 0.1 per cent last year to 2.38 US cents by virtue of modern fleet and cost-saving measures, besides support for fuel cost optimization from the engine manufacturer.
The average CASK rose by 4-5 per cent in 2018 (Source: IATA), helping Vietjet boost profit on international routes which accounted for more than 60 per cent of the company’s total aviation transport profit last year.
Besides a plethora of options in time schedules and destinations, Vietjet is approaching higher-income passengers with an array of priority services. Passengers on international routes have larger payment capacity for both ticket price and value-added services.
Aside from solid development in its home market, Vietjet aims to push up international route expansion to avail itself of lower fuel cost advantages on the international routes.
The company counts that international routes have surpassed local routes in terms of revenue contribution.
Through increasingly launching flights to developed nations in north-eastern Asia and populous nations with stable development like India, Vietnam aims to reach passenger groups of higher average income, from there raising the proportion of foreign currency income sources in the company’s total money streams.
Vietnam start-up Bamboo Airways has signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the possibility of services from Hanoi to Prague.
The MOU with Prague’s Vaclav Havel International airport was signed during a visit to the Czech Republic by Vietnam’s prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who attended a signing ceremony between the airline and airport officials. GREG WALDRON reports on Global Flight
“Prague International Airport, one of the largest airports in eastern Europe, greatly appreciates Bamboo Airways’ plans and is ready to launch a cooperative program to support the operation of direct flights from Vietnam,” says the airline.
“Under the agreement, Prague International Airport will apply many incentives to Bamboo Airways in licensing the hours of exploitation; market research, research and promotion; policies on storage, landing and passenger service charges in the first years of operation.”
Bamboo says that the Czech transport ministry is also behind the plan, and that 70,000 Vietnamese live in the Czech Republic.
Vietnam’s direct air links to Western Europe are limited to services operated by Vietnam Airlines, Air France, and Edelweiss. Vietnam Airlines serves Frankfurt, Paris Charles De Gaulle, and London Heathrow from both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
Air France operates a Ho Chi Minh City-Paris Charles De Gaulle service, while Edelweiss’s Ho Chi Minh City-Zurich service is operated in during northern winter season.
Bamboo has seven in service aircraft, of which five are A320ceo jets and two are A321neos.
It has firm orders for additional three A320neos and 10 Boeing 787-9s. It indicates that the 787s, which Bamboo has said will be used for long-haul routes, will arrive from July 2020 to December 2021.
The number of MICE travelers to Vietnam has been increasing steadily in the last few years, but Vietnam is still far from becoming an outstanding destination for MICE travelers.
In early January 2019, the World Cardiology Conference organization board for the first time decided to organize the event in Da Nang instead of HCMC, after Da Nang successfully organized the 2017 APEC Summit.
Pham Mai Hoang Loc from Saigontourist confirmed that after APEC Summit, the travel firm got orders from big groups of MICE tourists. “Da Nang is now a hot destination for international MICE travelers,” she said.
Representatives of other travel firms said the same. Previously, Da Nang also attracted MICE tourists, but the tours were only on a small scale. Only after the 2017 APEC Summi did Da Nang become a destination for big events. The number of conferences with thousands of attendees has increased rapidly.
“We suggest a lot of destinations, including Nha Trang, Ha Long, HCMC, Hanoi and Da Nang, but clients choose Da Nang,” said Tran Xuan Hung, chair of Viking, which is organizing an event for 3,500 MICE travelers from Indonesia, who will stay from March 27 to April 11.
Nguyen Duc Quynh, deputy CEO of Ariyana Da Nang, which has a 12,000 square meter international conference, said Ariyana opened in late 2017, but it is running at 50 percent of capacity.
A high number of international events took place there, including events with 4,500 participants and conferences with guests from 150 countries.
“The real capacity is higher than expected,” Quynh said.
A branding expert said that for MICE tourism, important events such as APEC Summit in Da Nang and the US-DPRK Summit in Hanoi offer ‘golden opportunities’ for Vietnam to attract tourists.
A representative of a travel firm said that his firm had been chosen by clients, even though it did not have to attend the international bid, because it was known as one of the key service providers at the US-DPRK Summit.
Reports all show the steady rise in number of MICE tourists in recent years. The operational capacity of conference and exhibition centers is relatively high. In HCMC, there is only one large international exhibition and conference center in district 7, which has been fully booked until the end of the year. Event organizers now find it difficult to organize international exhibition events.
Le Hoang Yen, chair of Global DMC, said the number of Global DMC travelers this year is expected to be 20 percent higher than last year.
Police in southern Vietnam have seized more than a tonne of methamphetamine after uncovering a smuggling operation involving at least two Taiwanese nationals and a Vietnamese man, the third massive bust in a week in the communist state.
Officers discovered two trucks and a parked car — driven by two Taiwanese men — “showing signs of carrying illegal goods” in a Ho Chi Minh City district on April 12, said a police statement released late Friday.
According to AFP, the trucks held “extremely heavy” loudspeakers, which prompted suspicion when police found the drivers lacked legal papers to transport the equipment.
Stashed in the speakers were 600 gold-coloured Chinese tea packets, carrying 606 kilograms (1,336 pounds) of meth.
“Police discovered that each loudspeaker carried 10 tea packets… all of them containing methamphetamine”, the statement said.
Vietnam’s police seize more than a tonne of meth stashed in loudspeakers | Credit: VNExpress
The police traced the trucks’ route, which led them to a Vietnamese man, Bui Nguyen Vu, who had more loudspeakers filled with meth and ketamine.
“In total, the city police confiscated 103 loudspeakers with 1,110.26 kilograms of methamphetamine and 998.68 kilograms of ketamine for domestic consumption and re-export,” the statement said.
“The two Taiwanese men and Bui Nguyen Vu have been arrested for investigation.”
News of the bust comes on the heels of two massive drug hauls in central Nghe An province, where 600 kilograms of meth was discovered stuffed in speaker boxes in the home of an elderly couple and 900 kilograms was found abandoned on the side of a road earlier this week.
Vietnam police seize 900kg of meth found abandoned on roadside in Nghe An Province
Vietnam is both a hub for drug use and a popular thoroughfare for shipments of illicit narcotics, with the number of large-scale hauls increasing in frequency and volume.
Much of the country’s illegal supply floods in from the lawless “Golden Triangle” zone that straddles Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
Though older users in Vietnam have long preferred opium and heroin as their narcotic of choice, younger people are increasingly turning to party drugs such as meth, ketamine and ecstasy.
The one-party state has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. Anyone caught with more than 600 grams (21 ounces) of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine can face the death penalty.
After Techcombank announced its ‘zero-dong service’ policy, in which its clients pay no fee for some kinds of services, other banks have followed the move.
VIB Bank and SeA Bank last week announced exemption of service fees for some kinds of services provided to individual customers, including cash withdrawal from 17,000 ATMs throughout the country, online remittances and inter-network money transfers.
VIB clients, for example, have enjoyed fee exemption for online remittances and cash withdrawal from ATMs since April 8. This will be valid for the first six months of bank accounts’ operation. The fee exemption is also applied to existing VIB payment accounts with the duration of less than six months.
As for existing clients whose bank accounts have been active for more than six months, VIB will continue offering the exemption for the two kinds of services. In addition, they also do not have to pay fee for withdrawing money at the counter, if the average balance of the accounts in the last six months is VND5 million or more.
The free-of-charge transactions of cash withdrawal and money remittance must be for domestic transactions, not international.
Meanwhile, SeABank applies a fee exemption policy to all new and existing clients for SeANet/SeAMobile services. SeANet/SeAMobile service users don’t have to pay fees for money remittances within the network or to other networks.
While some banks began raising service fee in 2018, other banks, though having smaller scale, decided to exempt service fees.
Techcombank is the pioneer in the movement, and has reaped initial success.
In September 2016, Techcombank launched the ‘zero dong E-banking’ program, under which the bank does not collect fees from individual customers’ online money transfer services via F@st I- bank and F@st mobile.
Two years later, in 2018, Techcombank began applying the ‘zero-dong service’ policy to business customers, under which clients using F@st Ebank are exempted from fees for transferring money within the network or to other networks.
Some analysts said that Techcombank, VIB Bank and SeA Bank are ‘swimming against the current’ by offering free services, while other banks have begun collecting fees from more services to increase revenue.
Techcombank’s finance report, however, showed that revenue from payment and cash services since Q4 2016, when it began applying the fee exemption policy, has increased.
Revenue increased by 81 percent, from VND281 billion to VND508 billion, from Q1 2016 to the end of 2018. The net profit of the service increased by 32 percent to VND306 billion.
The fee exemption allows the bank to attract more clients who pay for other services. In the first nine months of 2018, the number of clients increased by 87 percent compared with the same period of the year before.
Techcombank (TCB) and VP Bank (VPB) are now the two biggest private banks in Vietnam, while the families of Ho Hung Anh and Ngo Chi Dung, the biggest shareholders of the banks, are the most richest families in the banking sector.
Of the lists of Vietnamese stock billionaires, Ho Hung Anh, chair of Techcombank, ranked second next to Pham Nhat Vuong, the first Vietnamese dollar billionaire recognized by Forbes. Mai Lan reports on Vietnamnet.
Sources said that in Vietnam’s banking sector, the businessman born in 1970 who started in East Europe is known as a godfather.
At Techcombank, Anh holds 39.30 million TCB shares, a small proportion, just 01.12 percent of total shares. However, his family members are big shareholders of the bank.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, Anh’s wife, and Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam, Anh’s mother, hold 174.130 million shares each, while Ho Anh Minh, Anh’s son, holds 137.95 million and Nguyen Huong Lien, Anh’s sister, 69.63 million shares.
Of the lists of Vietnamese stock billionaires, Ho Hung Anh, chair of Techcombank, ranked second next to Pham Nhat Vuong, the first Vietnamese dollar billionaire recognized by Forbes. | Credit: Forbes
Anh’s family members holds total of 595,160,995 shares, worth VND15.206 trillion, according to the market price on April 1.
Anh and his wife are not only bankers. They are also big shareholders at Masan Group, holding 179 million MSN shares, valued at VND15.782 trillion.
As the owners of Techcombank and Masan, the stock assets held by Ho Hung Anh family are worth VND30.989 trillion, or $1.3 billion.
At Techcombank, Nguyen Canh Son is now deputy chair of the bank, and also chair of EuroWindow.
If calculating the value of TCB shares Son holds, Son, his wife (Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoa) and son (Nguyen Canh Son Tung) have VND2.936 trillion with 114.925 million shares.
However, VP Bank is the ‘emperor that created billionaire families’. Ngo Chi Dung and Bui Hai Quan are two of them.
VP Bank chair Ngo Chi Dung returned to Vietnam after reaping big success in Eastern Europe. Dung holds 113.687 VPB shares, or 4.63 percent of total shares.
His wife, Hoang Anh Minh, holds 125 million VPB shares, while his mother, Vu Thi Quyen, holds 120.7 million.
The three individuals are holding a total of 359.40 million VPB shares, worth VND7.278 trillion in total.
VPBank’s deputy chair Bui Hai Quan, a graduate of Kiev Economics University and his wife, Kim Ngoc Cam Ly, are also big shareholders of the bank with 165.225 million shares, worth VND3.346 trillion.
Lo Bang Giang is another powerful character at VP Bank. Giang, also graduating from a university in Kiev, is holding 3 million shares, but his mother, Ly Thu Ha, and his wife, Nguyen Thu Thuy, together with his sister, Lo Hai Yen Ngoc, are holding more than 111 million shares.
(1) Ngo Chi Dung (2) Bui Hai Quan (3) Lo Bang Quang of VPBank | Credit: VPBank’s Annual Report
Other powerful families in the banking sector are from VIB Bank – Dang Khac Vy, chair of the bank, Dang Van Son, deputy chair, and Do Xuan Hoang, member of the management board.
Dang Khac Vy, Chairman of BOD at VIB | Credit: VIB.com.vn
Next year will see an exciting new addition to the F1 calendar, with the dazzling city of Hanoi set to host the Vietnam Grand Prix. And to mark the 12-month countdown to the event, the race organizers have staged a thrilling kick-off event, giving fans the chance to admire F1 machinery in the flesh.
According to a report on Formula1, based at My Dinh National Stadium Square – a venue which will become part of the official racetrack – the event saw 13-time Grand Prix winner David Coulthard and Red Bull simulator driver Jake Dennis take centre stage as they performed a string of high octane show car runs in a Red Bull Racing RB7 F1 car.
But it wasn’t just displays of speed keeping the 50,000 fans entertained, with Armin Van Buuren, one of the top five DJs in the world, providing a pulsating soundtrack for the event. Formula1 reports.
The event also marked the official launch of ticketing for the inaugural Vietnam Grand Prix, with an initial 5,570 grandstand and general admission tickets being made available to represent the 5570-metre Hanoi Street Circuit.
Vietnam and Thailand lead drive to make Southeast Asia cashless
Singapore and Malaysia fall behind leapfrogging less-developed countries
Governments across Southeast Asia are pushing ahead with efforts to create cashless economies, with less developed countries such as Vietnam and Thailand leapfrogging richer ones like Singapore and Malaysia in electronic payments. Nikkei reports.
Vietnam and Thailand are experiencing a boom in mobile payments as more people use e-wallets to pay for goods and services without going through an intermediary like a bank.
According to Nikkei, Vietnam has been promoting electronic payments since 2008. Only about 40% of Vietnam’s 95 million people have bank accounts, mostly in urban areas, while there are around 120 million mobile phone subscriptions, and the telecoms network covers the entire country.
Local information technology and telecom companies, including Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, Viettel and FPT, have introduced e-wallets and encouraged people to put away their cash. But none had made much headway until recently.
Now things are taking off, with the number of people making mobile payments in stores growing faster in Vietnam than elsewhere in Southeast Asia, according to a recent PwC report. The percentage of consumers in Vietnam using mobile payments increased from 37% in 2018 to 61% in 2019.
“Mobile payment services also are gaining widespread acceptance, especially in emerging regions that have leapfrogged past landline-based telephone systems and gone straight to mobile and smartphones,” the report said.
Payment app Momo, one of the most popular e-wallets in Vietnam, just signed up its 10 millionth customer in November, a tenfold increase compared with just two years ago. The service allows users to pay bills, send money or make purchases at more than 100,000 payment points throughout the country, including Circle K and Ministop shops, two Japanese-owned convenience store chains.
Momo continues to attract funding for its expansion. In January, it held a Series C funding round worth about $100 million, led by global private equity firm Warburg Pincus. In 2016, it secured $28 million from Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered Private Equity.
Another Vietnamese mobile payments startup, ZaloPay, has grown rapidly since its launch in 2017. It relies on a network of 100 million users registered with its parent company VNG, an online entertainment and social media platform. VNG is considered Vietnam’s first unicorn, as unlisted companies valued at $1 billion or more are called.
Even Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC is betting on Vietnam’s mobile payments market. It was the lead investor in a round of financing for Hanoi-based VNPay, according to a report published earlier this month by online news website DealStreetAsia. The report added that the round raised “upwards of $50 million.”
In January the Vietnamese government issued a document asking the central bank to come up with new ways to encourage the use of e-wallets, such as allowing people to add money to their wallets without going through a bank account. It also approved a pilot project that enables money transfers and purchases through mobile phone accounts for small transactions.
Thailand has the largest penetration rate in the region at 67%. Mobile banking is flourishing among Thais, many of whom do not have credit cards or checkbooks. Last March, the country’s four largest banks — Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank and Krung Thai Bank — reduced fees for account holders conducting internet and mobile transactions at any Thai bank. Some smaller banks followed suit.
These trends are in line with the Thai government’s plan to help the country’s cash-driven economy go cashless. More digital payments would generate a record of transactions that could help small and midsize businesses get access to bank loans. They would also discourage bribes and other types of corruption.
More developed countries in the region, such as Singapore and Malaysia, saw lower penetration rates in mobile payments despite government efforts to wean people off cash. Cash and checks still account for 40% of Singapore’s payments, as the city-state has an extensive ATM network. In 2017, there were more than 65 ATMs per 100,000 adults in Singapore, according to the World Bank.
However the government is not giving up. Last year, it announced that it aims to further reduce the use of cash and make Singapore check-free by 2025. Last year, the Association of Banks in Singapore launched PayNow, a service that allows bank account holders to send one another money using mobile phone numbers instead of account numbers.
One of the Old Quarter’s best-restored properties, this traditional merchants’ house is sparsely but beautifully decorated, with rooms set around two courtyards and filled with fine furniture.
Note the high steps between rooms, a traditional design incorporated to stop the flow of bad energy around the property.
There are crafts and trinkets for sale here, including silver jewellery, basketwork and Vietnamese tea sets, and there’s usually a calligrapher or other craftsperson at work too.
The smart home trend that has lately penetrated into Vietnam can be explained by factors such as rapid urbanization and the boom of megacities.
It has also been accelerated by the technological sophistication of consumers. Vietnam leads the world in the growth of smartphone traffic and the rise of millennials and their growing tech-savviness will boost user preference for technology.
Millennials, who tend to be early adopters of new technology, are also the most likely demographic to be interested in smart apartments. Others, such as seniors who live alone, could also find uses for smart technology to improve their lives, such as a smart stove alarm or a medication reminder and daily to-do list.
However, smart home technology in Vietnam is still in its infancy. JLL has recorded five projects launched that applied smart home tech in their apartment products. Most were new developments or still under construction, with those conducting a soft launch including the Alpha King Real Estate Development JSC’s Alpha City Apartment and Centennial and Dreamhouse’s D-Vela.
Therefore, more support from the government is needed to foster the startup culture, making it easier for companies to enter the smart tech market. As more competition enters the market, prices will decrease and the smart home concept will become more accessible. For homes to get truly smart there is a need for wider and better-quality network connectivity in Vietnam.
Mr. Stephen Wyatt, Country Head of JLL Vietnam, said that as the concept of smart homes becomes more widespread, rising interest could encourage more mainstream developers to incorporate smart technology in their new projects. “Although the demand is there, there is one big obstacle to developing smart apartments: the cost,” he added. “Before smart home use becomes mainstream, we believe that the high-end of the market will be where smart home tech grows out from. Small apartments targeted to young families will be another trend in the new supply of smart homes.”
While there is only a very small number of smart apartments being built at present, it is a good way for smaller or newer developers to compete. Developers in Vietnam must put more effort into making smart apartments truly smart, not just use it as a marketing buzzword. They must adapt and catch up with new trends so as not to be left behind by other markets in the region.
Vietnam can become a cybersecurity powerhouse thanks to its world-class cybersecurity human resources and the dream to become a powerful nation, local media quoted Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung as saying.
In 2019, Vietnam will announce a national transition strategy to build a digital economy and society, the head of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) said at the Vietnam Security Summit 2019 in Hanoi on April 17.
Internet security and safety are basic conditions and vital factors for successful implementation of digital national transition, Minister Hung noted.
He stressed that cybersecurity superpower is like military superpower in the real world. In the field of network security, Vietnam has the same starting point with all other countries.
Vietnam should develop network security businesses and products
In order to turn Vietnam into a cybersecurity powerhouse, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said that in 2019, it is necessary to create a network security market in Vietnam. To do this, information technology (IT) investment projects must ensure network safety and security.
Besides, Hung also paid attention to the development of enterprises, products and human resources for safety and security in Vietnam.
The minister required close supervision of cybersecurity, network safety for the Vietnamese government’s agencies and national key infrastructure, strengthening their resilience after being attacked.
Each agency must have at least one unit or enterprise to ensure network safety and security. It aims to ensure that in 2019 state agencies’ network will no longer be hacked, Hung stressed.
At the summit, the minister announced the establishment of a hub to share information in the field of network safety and security of the ASEAN region in Vietnam to enhance international cooperation in this field.
Improvement in cyber security ranking
According to the 2018 report on global network safety and security by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Vietnam ranked 50th out of 175 countries and territories. This is also the third consecutive year Vietnam has been named in the ITU’s reputation ranking.
This result helped Vietnam rank 11th in the Asia-Pacific region and fifth in Southeast Asia in terms of network safety and security. Notably, Vietnam’s ranking climbed 51 places compared to the 101th position in 2017.
According to Deputy Director of MIC’s Information Security Department Hoang Minh Tien, Vietnam’s 50th ranking was a big jump compared to previous years thanks to the active provision of detailed data to ITU by the MIC
Vietnam Airlines pilots have seen a rise in their salary over recent years with the average figure of VND132.5 million (USD5,739) in 2018.
The national carrier Vietnam Airlines has gained the approval of the HCM City Stock Exchange to list its 1.4 billion shares on the southern bourse.
Vietnam Airlines launched its initial public offering (IPO) in 2014. The largest shareholder at the time was the Ministry of Transport with 86% of the capital. In 2016, Japan’s biggest airline ANA Holdings bought an 8.8% stake in Vietnam Airlines for USD108 million.
Last year, the carrier posted a record-high revenue of VND96.8 trillion (USD4.2 billion), up 17% on-year. Its pre-tax profit for 2018 rose 34% on-year to VND3.24 trillion (USD140.9 million).
By late December last year, Vietnam Airlines had 1,118 pilots with 75.67% being Vietnamese pilots.
The average salary of the firm’s pilots in 2008 was estimated at VND132.5 million, up 9% on-year.
Meanwhile, Vietnam Airlines’ flight attendants received a monthly average salary of VND28.9 (USD1,256) million in 2018, up 2.4% on-year.
The salary for staff in other positions, except for those at the board of directors, was VND28.8 million per month, up 19.4% on-year.
Governments across Southeast Asia are pushing ahead with efforts to create cashless economies, with less developed countries such as Vietnam and Thailand leapfrogging richer ones like Singapore and Malaysia in electronic payments.
Vietnam and Thailand are experiencing a boom in mobile payments as more people use e-wallets to pay for goods and services without going through an intermediary like a bank.
Vietnam has been promoting electronic payments since 2008. Only about 40% of Vietnam’s 95 million people have bank accounts, mostly in urban areas, while there are around 120 million mobile phone subscriptions, and the telecoms network covers the entire country.
Local information technology and telecom companies, including Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, Viettel and FPT, have introduced e-wallets and encouraged people to put away their cash. But none had made much headway until recently.
Now things are taking off, with the number of people making mobile payments in stores growing faster in Vietnam than elsewhere in Southeast Asia, according to a recent PwC report. The percentage of consumers in Vietnam using mobile payments increased from 37% in 2018 to 61% in 2019.
“Mobile payment services also are gaining widespread acceptance, especially in emerging regions that have leapfrogged past landline-based telephone systems and gone straight to mobile and smartphones,” the report said.
Payment app Momo, one of the most popular e-wallets in Vietnam, just signed up its 10 millionth customer in November, a tenfold increase compared with just two years ago. The service allows users to pay bills, send money or make purchases at more than 100,000 payment points throughout the country, including Circle K and Ministop shops, two Japanese-owned convenience store chains.
Momo continues to attract funding for its expansion. In January, it held a Series C funding round worth about $100 million, led by global private equity firm Warburg Pincus. In 2016, it secured $28 million from Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered Private Equity.
Another Vietnamese mobile payments startup, ZaloPay, has grown rapidly since its launch in 2017. It relies on a network of 100 million users registered with its parent company VNG, an online entertainment and social media platform. VNG is considered Vietnam’s first unicorn, as unlisted companies valued at $1 billion or more are called.
Even Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC is betting on Vietnam’s mobile payments market. It was the lead investor in a round of financing for Hanoi-based VNPay, according to a report published earlier this month by online news website DealStreetAsia. The report added that the round raised “upwards of $50 million.”
In January the Vietnamese government issued a document asking the central bank to come up with new ways to encourage the use of e-wallets, such as allowing people to add money to their wallets without going through a bank account. It also approved a pilot project that enables money transfers and purchases through mobile phone accounts for small transactions.
Thailand has the largest penetration rate in the region at 67%. Mobile banking is flourishing among Thais, many of whom do not have credit cards or checkbooks. Last March, the country’s four largest banks — Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank and Krung Thai Bank — reduced fees for account holders conducting internet and mobile transactions at any Thai bank. Some smaller banks followed suit.
These trends are in line with the Thai government’s plan to help the country’s cash-driven economy go cashless. More digital payments would generate a record of transactions that could help small and midsize businesses get access to bank loans. They would also discourage bribes and other types of corruption.
More developed countries in the region, such as Singapore and Malaysia, saw lower penetration rates in mobile payments despite government efforts to wean people off cash. Cash and checks still account for 40% of Singapore’s payments, as the city-state has an extensive ATM network. In 2017, there were more than 65 ATMs per 100,000 adults in Singapore, according to the World Bank.
However the government is not giving up. Last year, it announced that it aims to further reduce the use of cash and make Singapore check-free by 2025. Last year, the Association of Banks in Singapore launched PayNow, a service that allows bank account holders to send one another money using mobile phone numbers instead of account numbers.
