Vietnam Insider - Page 1231 of 1523

Card skimmers steal money through ATMs at night in Ho Chi Minh City

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Residents across Ho Chi Minh City are reporting unapproved ATM withdrawals from their debit accounts, a situation reminiscent of a spree of thefts in late April 2018.

D.K.Tho, a local worker, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper he had VND8 million (US$344) withdrawn from his account on the night of March 10.

Tho received a total of four text messages from the bank that night, each of which informed that VND2 million ($86) had been withdrawn.

“I still had my card in my wallet. All of my savings was gone in just a couple of minutes,” the victim said.

After receiving a report from Tho, the bank said it would verify the case and would return the lost money if his card information had indeed been stolen by criminals.

D.D.Q., a local university student, faced a similar issue earlier this month.

“The money was stolen about 20 minutes after I withdrew some cash from an ATM booth. I only lost VND1 million [$43], but that’s a lot of money for a student like me,” Q. stated.

The young man added he reported the issue to his bank and was told to wait five to seven working days for the issue to be resolved.

In late April 2018, 12 Agribank cardholders reported unapproved ATM withdrawals over the course of a single night.

An Agribank representative told Tuoi Tre that the criminals had most likely installed skimming devices to steal customers’ information in order to gain access to their money.

A skimming device is a type of card reader which is often disguised to appear as part of the ATM.

The device saves the users’ card number and pin code, which are then used by counterfeiters to make duplicate cards.

Agribank later reimbursed the victims for the stolen money.

In order to combat these types of criminals, lenders in Vietnam have been replacing existing magnetic stripe cards with chip cards.

In early 2016, the State Bank of Vietnam issued a plan that required local commercial banks to make the switch no later than December 31, 2020.

The process, however, has been rather sluggish due to cost concerns.

Source: Tuoitrenews

Vietjet to introduce two new international routes in summer

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Vietjet Air will introduce two new international routes from Ho Chi Minh City to Tokyo (Narita) and from Nha Trang to Busan in South Korea in the summer, with tickets now available.

The two new routes aim to connect the popular tourism cities and meet the travel needs of local people and tourists as well as contribute to promoting regional trade and integration.

The Ho Chi Minh City – Tokyo flights will operate daily from July 12, with a flying time of around six hours per leg. Flights depart Ho Chi Minh City at 12.05am and arrive in Tokyo at 8am. The return flight takes off from Tokyo at 9am and lands in Ho Chi Minh City at 1.05pm (all local times).

The Nha Trang – Busan flights, meanwhile, will operate four days a week from July 16, with a flying time of around four hours and 40 minutes per leg. Flights depart Nha Trang at 11.50pm and arrive at Busan at 6.30am. The return flight takes off from Busan at 8.05am and lands in Nha Trang at 10.45am (all local times).

To celebrate the new routes, Vietjet is offering 670,000 super saving tickets priced from $0 (excluding taxes and fees) on three golden days from March 13 to 15 at http://www.vietjetair.com.

The promotional tickets are available during the golden hours between 12pm and 2pm (GMT+7) and are for all international routes to Tokyo and Osaka in Japan, Seoul, Busan and Daegu in South Korea, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taichung and Tainan in Taiwan (China), Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai in Thailand, Yangon in Myanmar, Siem Reap in Cambodia, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur, as well as all local routes in Thailand. The flying period is from May 14 to December 31 (excluding holidays).

Vietjet Air now operates some 400 flights daily, carrying more than 70 million passengers to date on 108 routes to destinations in Vietnam and internationally such as Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan (China), mainland China, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Cambodia.

With a network comprising 39 domestic routes and 69 international routes, Vietjet’s technical reliability rate stands at 99.64 per cent.

According to a report on VET

Five Vietnamese billionaires make Forbes 2019 list

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Forbes has released its annual list of the world’s billionaires including five billionaires from Vietnam, with two newcomers compared to the 2018 list.

According to the Forbes World’s Billionaires list 2019, the five richest Vietnamese people are Pham Nhat Vuong, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Tran Ba Duong and the two newcomers of Nguyen Dang Quang and Ho Hung Anh.

Pham Nhat Vuong, with a net worth of US$6.6 billion, is ranked 239th among the world’s richest people. This is the seventh year in a row that Pham Nhat Vuong has been named on the famed ranking.

Vuong chairs Vingroup, one of Vietnam’s largest conglomerates with interests in real estate, retail and healthcare among others.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, with a net worth of US$2.3 billion, is ranked 1008th on the list. Thao is Vietnam’s first self-made woman billionaire who launched her budget airline, VietJet Air, in 2011. She also has investments in HD Bank and real estate,including three beach resorts.

Tran Ba Duong, with a net worth of US$1.7 billion, is ranked 1349th among the elite club of billionaires. Duong founded Truong Hai (Thaco) in 1997 which initially sold cars and later started assembling cars for foreign brands such as Kia, Mazda and Peugeot.

Of the two newcomers, Nguyen Dang Quang ranked 1717th with a net worth of US$1.3 billion and Ho Hung Anh ranked 1349th on the list with a net worth of US$1.7 billion..

Ho Hung Anh is chairman of Techcombank and Nguyen Dan Quang is chairman of Masan Group.

According to Forbes, both the number of billionaires and their combined net worth are down compared to the previous year. In 2018, 2,208 people made the list with a combined wealth of US$9.1 trillion, while 2,153 people entered the list this year with a combined wealth of US$8.7 trillion.

According to a report on Nhan Dan

Outage hits Facebook, Instagram users worldwide

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Facebook and Instagram users lost access to the social network’s applications in parts of the world on Wednesday as a result of an outage of undetermined origin.

The California giant which has more than two billion users acknowledged the outage after users noted on Twitter they could not access Facebook or had limited functionality.

“We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing the Facebook family of apps. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” a Facebook statement said on Twitter.

A short time later, Facebook indicated the outage was not related to an attack aimed at overwhelming the network.

“We’re focused on working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, but can confirm that the issue is not related to a DDoS attack,” Facebook said, referring to what is known as a distributed denial of service cyber strike.

According to the website downdetector.com, outages were heaviest in North America and Europe, but some users appeared to be affected in other regions.

Last November, a Facebook outage was attributed to a server problem and a September 2018 outage was said to be the result of “networking issues.”

According to a report on AFP

HCM City tries to rescue ‘golden land’ plots as disputes continue

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Land plots located in advantageous positions in the central area of HCM City are known as ‘golden land’ because they promise huge profits for investors.

In 2007, HCM City authorities released a map of golden land plots, covering an area of 50 hectares, and called on investors to develop large projects there.

However, to date, only four projects on the land plots have been exploited, while the others have been left idle or have changed hands frequently.

To resolve the problem, HCM City authorities have focused on some key projects, including a project at 164 Dong Khoi street, Binh Quoi-Thanh Da urban area and the auction of nine land plots in Thu Thiem.

However, analysts say that it has not been easy to find investors.

The Binh Quoi-Thanh Da urban area project has been pending for 25 years. The complexity of investment procedures have driven efforts to ‘rescue’ the project to a standstill. Investors have shown ‘willingness’, but cannot implement the plan.

Vo Van Hoan, chief Secretariat of the HCM City People’s Committee, mentioned difficulties the project is facing at the 2018 year-end meetings.

Hoan said domestic enterprises were not capable of taking the project and the city had to call for joint ventures with foreign investors.

The foreign investor the committee was eyeing was a Dubai state-owned enterprise with high capability and responsibility. However, there were still questions from the investor. How much is needed for compensation for site clearance? When will clean land be given to the investor? What is the land use fee?

“Foreign investors want transparency,” he said, adding that other foreign investors had also raised similar questions.

The local authorities have now assigned Bitexco as the investor of the project. However, the questions remain unresolved.

Bitexco is also encountering site clearance problems for a project in the Nguyen Cu Trinh area. The investor has received approval from local authorities, but has not received land.

Bitexco is a big real estate developer. Its Bitexco Financial Tower is among the Top 10 most attractive places in HCM City, according to the city’s culture department.

One important golden land plot which needs to be “rescued” this year is located at 164 Dong Khoi. Hong Kong Land and Sumitomo won the bid to develop the project. However, they later gave up the project because of questions about the land-use right fee.

A golden land plot along the main road leading from HCM City to Tan Son Nhat International Airport is also waiting investors.

According to a report on Vietnamnet

Vietnam Ranked Among the Best Countries for Business: Forbes

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Vietnam has been ranked at #84 among the best countries for business, U.K. on Top, U.S. Down in Forbes’ 13th annual look at the Best Countries for Business, which measures countries that are most hospitable to capital investment.

Forbes gauged the Best Countries for Business by rating nations on 15 different factors, including property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape and investor protection. Other metrics included were workforce, infrastructure, market size, quality of life and risk. Each category was equally weighted.

The data is based on published reports from Freedom House, Heritage Foundation, Property Rights Alliance, United Nations, Transparency International, World Bank Group, Marsh & McLennan and World Economic Forum.

Vietnam is a densely populated developing country that has been transitioning since 1986 from the rigidities of a centrally planned, highly agrarian economy to a more industrial and market based economy, and it has raised incomes substantially.

Vietnam exceeded its 2017 GDP growth target of 6.7% with growth of 6.8%, primarily due to unexpected increases in domestic demand, and strong manufacturing exports. Vietnam has a young population, stable political system, commitment to sustainable growth, relatively low inflation, stable currency, strong FDI inflows, and strong manufacturing sector. In addition, the country is committed to continuing its global economic integration.

Vietnam joined the WTO in January 2007 and concluded several free trade agreements in 2015-16, including the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (which the EU has not yet ratified), the Korean Free Trade Agreement, and the Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement.

In 2017, Vietnam successfully chaired the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Conference with its key priorities including inclusive growth, innovation, strengthening small and medium enterprises, food security, and climate change. Seeking to diversify its opportunities, Vietnam also signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Transpacific Partnership in 2018 and continued to pursue the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

To continue its trajectory of strong economic growth, the government acknowledges the need to spark a ‘second wave’ of reforms, including reforming state-owned-enterprises, reducing red tape, increasing business sector transparency, reducing the level of non-performing loans in the banking sector, and increasing financial sector transparency.

Vietnam’s public debt to GDP ratio is nearing the government mandated ceiling of 65%. In 2016, Vietnam cancelled its civilian nuclear energy development program, citing public concerns about safety and the high cost of the program; it faces growing pressure on energy infrastructure.

Overall, the country’s infrastructure fails to meet the needs of an expanding middle class. Vietnam has demonstrated a commitment to sustainable growth over the last several years, but despite the recent speed-up in economic growth the government remains cautious about the risk of external shocks.

Click here for the full list of The Best Countries For Business on Forbes.

If you need any support to start your business in Vietnam, contact GBS – a Business Law Firm in Vietnam at: info@gbs.com.vn, call: +84903189033 or find more information on foreign investment in Vietnam at https://gbs.com.vn

Vietnam Airlines moves Moscow operations

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Move from Domodedovo to Sheremetyevo airport to start from July 2.

Vietnam Airlines announced on March 13 its decision to move its Moscow operations from Domodedovo to Sheremetyevo airport starting from July 2.

The decision was driven by the carrier’s commitment to customer satisfaction as it continues to invest and meet customer expectations throughout every aspect of its business.

Sheremetyevo International Airport is the largest and fastest-growing airport in Russia, with the country’s most modern passenger terminals offering the maximum in customer comfort and excellent transfer services.

The decision will also facilitate Vietnam Airlines’ cooperation and partnership with Russia’s major carrier Aeroflot, as the two airlines plan to begin code-sharing on domestic routes and expand their cooperation across several areas of business.

The move takes this cooperation further towards a solid and mutually-beneficial partnership, offering customers a wider choice of travel options and the world-class quality of the two leading four-star airlines.

Vietnam Airlines will smoothly move its entire operations without any interruption to flights. It will continue to offer three direct Hanoi – Moscow return flights each week, operated on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, arriving at Sheremetyevo at 6.45am and departing for Hanoi at 2.40pm from Terminal D (Moscow time).

Mr. Le Hong Ha, Executive Vice President of Vietnam Airlines, said Vietnam – Russia has been one of its most important routes over the last 25 years. “We have implemented a number of initiatives on this route, including upgrading our service both in the air and on the ground,” he added. “Sheremetyevo airport’s infrastructure will allow Vietnam Airlines’ passengers to experience our four-star certified international service even before they board our Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. We believe this will enable us to fulfill our long-term commercial objectives and reinforce our commitment to upgrading overall service quality.”

Mr. Denis Pashkovsky, Deputy General Director, Commercial Activities, at Sheremetyevo International Airport, said Vietnam Airlines and its passengers will benefit greatly from the advanced airport facilities and wide range of available services, as well as vast route connections with Russian and European destinations on flights conducted by Aeroflot and other airlines in the SkyTeam alliance.

In the 25 years since first opening flights, Aeroflot has ferried more than 1.6 million passengers between Vietnam and Russia.

Vietnam Airlines is a member of the SkyTeam Alliance and Vietnam’s national flag carrier. One of the major carriers in Southeast Asia, it flies 97 routes to 22 domestic and 29 international destinations with an average of 400 flights per day.

It was the first airline in the world to operate both next-generation aircraft – the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350-900 XWB – at the same time.

Source: Vneconomictimes

Vietnam asks Malaysia to free Doan Thi Huong

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Vietnamese Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long has sent a letter to Malaysian Attorney General Tommy Thomas in which he asked the Malaysian side to consider freeing Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong.
Huong and Siti Aisyah from Indonesia were accused of killing a citizen of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Malaysia in February 2017 but the latter was set free by the Malaysian side.

Both Huong and Siti Aisyah were induced in the case, leading to the death of the DPRK citizen.

Earlier on March 12, in a phone talks with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh also asked the Malaysian side to ensure fair trial and free Huong.

Minh affirmed senior leaders and people of Vietnam have paid great attention to the trial process.

Source: Dtinews

Hanoi’s motorbike ban proposal infeasible, experts say

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Some experts have voiced their concerns over Hanoi’s proposals to ban motorbikes on two local streets, saying that it is infeasible.
Director of Hanoi Department of Transport Vu Van Vien confirmed at a meeting on March 11 that motorbikes will be banned on Nguyen Trai and Le Van Luong streets. This is the pilot programme for the motorbike ban in the city centre in 2030.

Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thuy, former director and editor-in-chief of Transport Publishing House said that, “The motorbike ban is infeasible. Why the city did not think of more appropriate ways to ease traffic jams, instead of doing this?”

Up to 70-80% of Vietnamese people use motorbikes, so people have questioned how can they travel when motorbikes are banned. Motorbikes are currently the best mode of transport for people, particularly public transport meets only 10% of demand.

Bui Danh Lien, former chairman of the Hanoi Transport Association, said that at peak hours, many vehicles often ignore traffic regulations, which is among reasons for the city’s congestion. It is necessary to raise public awareness of this.

Le Van Luong and Nguyen Trai are more than 10 kilometres long therefore it would be impossible to prohibit motorbikes there.

Lien added that Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro project which runs over Nguyen Trai Street was expected to become operational this year. So, if motorbikes were banned on Nguyen Trai, where can people have their motorbikes or bicycles to be kept to use the metro service.

It’d better for Hanoi authorities to work out solutions for public transport development. Once public transport is really good, people would actually prefer to use it rather than their own vehicles.

Thuy suggested that it is essential to reduce the construction of high-rise buildings at the city-centre area to mitigate traffic pressure and the city should build satellite urban areas.

Source: Dtinews

SE Asia Stocks-Most rise as amended Brexit deal sharpens risk appetite

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Most Southeast Asian stocks rose on Tuesday, with Vietnam and Singapore leading gains after the European Commission agreed to changes in a Brexit deal, whetting appetite for riskier assets.

Investors, who have long grappled with Britain’s exit from the European Union, caught a break after the European Commission agreed to additional assurances in an updated Brexit deal ahead of a vote in British parliament.

A strong performance on Wall Street coupled with the development in the deal lifted sentiment across broader Asia, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closing 1 percent higher.

Singapore stocks gained 0.7 percent, with Real estate companies like City Developments Ltd and CapitaLand Mall Trust rising 2 percent and 2.1 percent respectively, boosting the benchmark.

Commodities trader Wilmar International Ltd closed 1.3 percent higher and was among top gainers, after signing a deal post market hours on Monday to acquire full control of bread and spreads maker Goodman Fielder.

Vietnam’s index jumped 1.7 percent, its highest closing level in over 5 months, with financial and real estate stocks boosting the index.

Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam added 3.5 percent and Vietnam Technological And Commercial Joint Stock Bank gained 1.9 percent.

Malaysian stocks followed suit, ending 0.4 percent higher. Aluminium manufacturer Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Berhad rose about 2.6 percent.

Philippine stocks edged higher as gains in industrials outweighed weakness in real estate scrips. Conglomerate and index giant SM Investments Corp rose 2.3 percent, while electric utilities provider Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc settled nearly 2 percent higher.

Meanwhile, the country’s January trade data showed that exports slipped 1.7 percent and imports grew about 5.8 percent from a year ago, widening the country’s trade deficit slightly.

Bucking the trend, Indonesia’s index edged lower as material stocks such as paper makers Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper Tbk and Pabrik Kertas Tjiwi Kimia Tbk slipped.

Source: Reuters

Vietnamese woman gets 8 years for selling girl as bride in China

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A court has sentenced a woman to eight years in prison for luring and selling a 13-year-old girl as a bride in China.
Lang Thi Lien, 35, was found guilty of trafficking children by a court in Nghe An Province in central Vietnam on Monday.

Lien went to China in 2013, got married there to a local man and has a child.

In 2016 she visited her hometown in Nghe An’s Con Cuong District and offered to take a neighbor’s daughter, then 13, to work in China. She told the neighbors she needed the girl to babysit her child, promised to pay them VND80 million ($3,400) and a monthly salary for the girl.

Since the girl had dropped out of school and her family was poor, her parents agreed.

In January 2017 Lien took the girl to Quang Ninh Province in northern Vietnam, crossed the border into China and promptly sold her to a man in Hebei Province for VND210 million ($9,000).

She then sent VND80 million to the girl’s parents as promised but told them the girl had got married to a Chinese man without providing any further information.

The girl’s mother asked her friend, who had been to China several times, to find the girl. The woman managed to track down the girl and was bringing her back to Vietnam when Lien confronted them.

She threatened to harm both if the girl’s family failed to pay 110,000 yuan (VND380 million).

The girl and the rescuer’s families complained to the police.

With help from the Chinese police and Blue Dragon, a Hanoi-based non-profit working with street children and trafficking victims, the girl and her rescuer were safely brought back to Vietnam in September 2017.

The Vietnamese police arrested Lien two months later when she visited home.

Vietnam recorded over 3,000 human trafficking cases involving almost 7,000 victims between 2010 and the end of last year, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Some 4,500 traffickers were involved and the victims were mostly women and children from poor and rural areas.

A majority were sold to men seeking brides or just women to bear their children in China, Malaysia and South Korea, or forced into prostitution.

Source: Vnexpress

Tan Son Nhat Airport ranked worst in Vietnam

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Tan Son Nhat International Airport was bottom in term of service quality in a 2018 survey for local airports.

The results of the 2018 survey on passengers’ satisfaction with airport service quality were announced by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, under the Ministry of Transport.

The survey was conducted at six airports in Vietnam including Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi, Danang Airport in Danang City, Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCM City, Cam Ranh Airport in Khanh Hoa Province, Cat Bi Airport in Hai Phong City and Phu Quoc Airport in Kien Giang Province.

On a scale of five, Cat Bi Airport was given 4.56 points for its services. Cam Ranh Airport and Danang Airport followed with 4.31 and 4.23 respectively. Noi Bai Airport was given 4.22 points and 4.04 points for Phu Quoc Airport. Tan Son Nhat Airport was ranked bottom with 3.96.

The ranking was based on criteria including the services in terminals, check-in area, security area, waiting area, immigration area and public transportation.

Tan Son Nhat Airport ranked bottom in most of the categories excluding the waiting area where Phu Quoc ranked bottom.

Cat Bi, Cam Ranh and Danang airports all have new upgrades last year and opened new international terminals. Their staff attitude, wifi signal and waiting area also received high scores.

The 2017 passenger satisfaction survey on airport service quality was conducted at Noi Bai, Danang and Tan Son Nhat airports where Tan Son Nhat was also ranked bottom. Overloading was blamed for Tan Son Nhat’s bad scores. It received up to 38 million passengers while it is designed to serve only 25 million passengers a year.

Source: Dtinews

Vietnam U23 men’s football team has new captain

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Coach Park Hang-seo has appointed midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai to lead the national men’s U23 team at the AFC qualification tournament later this month.
“I will try to motivate my teammates to train harder as we are about to compete in AFC U23 qualification,” Hai said.

The Hanoi FC player said he is not normally a talkative person, but now, wearing the captain armband, he will have to talk more, communicate more in training to make a connection and gain the trust of his teammates.

“Being a captain also means being a motivator and a link between the coach and the players,” Hai said.

Previously, Hai was the captain of U20 Vietnam in the U20 World Cup 2017.

The team will have two vice-captains: midfielder Nguyen Hoang Duc and striker Tran Thanh Son.

The previous captain, midfielder Luong Xuan Truong, is now 24 years old.

Hai has been a key player of Vietnam, in both the youth and national teams. He has always been Park’s first choice for the midfielder role in big tournaments.

The 21-year-old Hanoi player rose to stardom with impressive performance that helped Vietnam win silver at the AFC U23 Championship 2018. He was also with the national Olympics team as they finished fourth at the Asian Games and with the national team as they won the 2018 AFF Cup and made it to the quarterfinals of Asian Cup 2019. He was named best player at the AFF Cup and also voted as one that scored the best goal at Asian Cup.

In the qualification tournament for the 2020 AFC U23 Championship, Vietnam is placed in group K with Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand. Their first game with Brunei will kick off on March 22.

Source: Vnexpress

Vietnamese women probed for selling girls to Chinese men

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Two Nghe An women are being investigated for selling two 15-year-old girls to Chinese men for VND280 million ($12,000).
Ngan Thi Dua, 31, and Vi Thi Hoai Thanh, 39, residents of Tuong Duong District in the north central Nghe An Province, could face charges of human trafficking of people under 16, an offense punishable with seven years to life in jail.

According to the police, five years ago, Dua convinced the two girls, yet to turn 16, to work in China for “high salaries.” Then she contacted Thanh, who took the girls to Quang Ninh Province in northern Vietnam, crossed the border and sold the girls to two Chinese men.

The girls then became “wives” of those two men. Early this year, when one of the girls was allowed by her “husband” to return to Vietnam after five years to visit her family, she reported their abduction to the police. Thanh and Dua were arrested late last month, police said Saturday.

It has been reported that Vietnamese girls and women are often sold to Chinese men who are either old or poor to afford a local wife, and that some poor women are even lured to sell newborns to Chinese persons.

As of going to press, however, there was no information on whether the two girls have borne children for their Chinese “husbands.” Other details of their ordeal have also not been revealed.

Under Vietnamese law, having sexual intercourse with children aged 13-16 is a serious offense punishable with a jail term of up to 15 years.

Data from the Ministry of Public Security said between 2010 and the third quarter of last year, Vietnam recorded over 3,000 human trafficking cases, in which 4,500 traffickers traded almost 7,000 victims, mostly women and children in poor and rural areas.

A majority of them were sold to men seeking wives in China, Malaysia and South Korea, or just to bear children or forced into prostitution. Many of the children were approached through social networks like Facebook and Zalo. Besides financial difficulties of the victims, police officers have said that negligence, easy immigration procedures and gender imbalance in destination countries are responsible for a surge in human trafficking.

Source: Vnexpress

Vietnam’s Yeah1 sells top YouTube multi-channel network two months after acquisition

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Yeah1 Group, the Vietnamese media giant that owns a handful of multi-channel networks (MCN) on YouTube, announced on Monday it had completed a deal to sell a just-acquired MCN, following an incident involving its relation with the Google-owned video-sharing platform.

A California-based MCN for YouTube, ScaleLab has been sold back to its original owner, Brenner Pass Investment, an entity owned by ScaleLab founder and CEO David Brenner, according to Yeah1.

The Vietnamese media giant only acquired the U.S. company two months ago.

The sale of ScaleLab was announced days after it was made known that YouTube will end its content hosting services agreement with Yeah1 Group and its affiliates after March 31, due to violations of channel management policies by SPRINGme, a Thailand-based network of which Yeah1 owns 16.93 percent.

It took Yeah1 only three days to complete the ScaleLab sale on Monday after its board of directors made the decision on March 8, a company representative told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

“Yeah1’s management have taken these actions in order to ensure the best interests for Yeah1’s shareholders, existing ScaleLab influencers, and the broader well-being of the YouTube ecosystem,” Yeah1 said in a statement.

“Yeah1 will have no further interest or involvement in ScaleLab.”

In January, Yeah1 announced it acquired ScaleLab for US$20 million. The sum included an upfront payment of $12 million, and the remaining $8 million was to be cleared later if business targets were achieved.

In Monday’s statement, Yeah1 said ScaleLab was sold back to its original owner for $12 million.

Before the deal announcement, Yeah1 stocks (YEG) continuously plummeted in six consecutive sessions from March 4 to 11, losing a total of VND86,300 ($3.7) per share, a record slide in the local stock market.

As of Monday, YEG stocks lost half of their value in less than nine months. Yeah1 became the first ever Vietnamese entertainment company to list on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, with its stock closing the initial trading day at VND300,000 ($12.9) per share.

Yeah1 stock ended Tuesday’s morning session at VND158,000 ($6.8) a share.

MCNs are third-party service providers that affiliate with multiple YouTube channels to offer services that may include audience development, content programming, creator collaborations, digital rights management, monetization, and sales, according to the video-sharing platform.

Source: Tuoitrenews