VDSC Weekly Recap: Vietnam Highlight news

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CPTPP would create fierce competition in the domestic market in 2019.

According to calculations, CPTPP could help Vietnam’s GDP and exports increased by 1.32% and 4.04% to 2035 respectively. In general, the overall implementation of CPTPP is beneficial for Vietnam. If there are larger openings on services, the increase in GDP growth may reach 2.1%.

The textiles and footwear industry would be the sectors rated as having the highest benefit. The export growth rate of the textile and garment industry would increase from 8.3-10.8% due to greater price competitiveness in new markets in CPTPP, while maintaining the main market of the US and EU. Most light and labor-intensive industries still benefit from CPTPP. The agreement could create additional growth for this sector from 4-5% and the increase in exports could reach from 8.7-9.6%.

Due to the impact of CPTPP, the output growth rate of some industries may decrease, including animal husbandry, food processing and insurance services. Animal husbandry is a sector that is heavily affected by CPTPP due to its weak competitiveness. In agriculture, except for rice, the current tariffs of countries with livestock products are not high, so lowering tariffs in CPTPP does not create much export impact. The growth rate of the food processing industry decreased at 0.37% -0.52%. However, it helps to increase exports by 2.18% to 2.35%.

Vietnam macro-economic outlook for 2019 in numbers.

  • GDP growth: GDP in 2018 surged at 7.08%, thanks to contributions from manufacturing and processing. Forecast of GDP growth in 2019 would reach 6.6 – 6.8%.
  • Inflation: The average CPI in 2018 reached 3.54%, under the increasing pressure of gasoline, medical and food prices. CPI in 2019 is forecast at 3.8 – 4.0%.
  • Monetary policy: Monetary policy in 2018 is prudent with M2 growth and credit decline sharply compared to 2017. It is forecasted that in 2019, monetary policy would continue to be carefully controlled by the State Bank, M2 growth and credit are forecast at 11-13% and 13-15% respectively.
  • Exchange rate: VND depreciated by 2.4% in 2018 due to the influence of peripheral factors. The estimated depreciation in 2019 would be about 2.3 -2.5%.

By 2019, competitions in the e-commerce industry would be more intense.

2018 was a vibrant year of e-commerce development in Vietnam. With a number of users of more than 50 million, E-commerce in Vietnam is being highly appreciated in the international arena, located in the three countries with the fastest e-commerce development in the region. As forecast, with the growth rate of over 20% per year, the scale of Vietnam E-commerce market could reach 10 billion USD by the end of 2020.

The highlights of E-commerce 2018 can be summarized in 4 main keys.

  • Firstly, the fierce competition among typical e-commerce exchanges such as Lazada, Shopee, Tiki, Sendo, Adayroi, etc.
  • Second, online advertising was increasingly competitive.
  • Third, non-cash mobile payment had developed strongly, reaching the goal by the end of 2020.
  • Fourth, the war of delivery services among e-commerce transport units.

11 Vietnamese migrants found in Taiwan cargo truck

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11 illegal Vietnamese migrant workers have been caught hiding in a cargo truck in Taiwan’s Taitung County.

The Central News Agency reported Monday that nine of the immigrants were among the 152 who went missing in a dramatic vanishing act last month, citing county police.

The 11 people were discovered when the cargo truck was stopped on Heping Road in Pingnan Township. Police got suspicious on detecting movement under the black tarp that the truck was covered with.

One of the 11 had absconded from his workplace, one woman had entered Taiwan illegally on a tourist visa and the other nine were the aforementioned ‘missing’ tourists. The 11 Vietnamese nationals were not able to provide proper identification documents, local police reported.

They told police they were on their way to do some weeding on a farm when they were detained. They were dressed in farming work clothes with rain boots, police said.

However, initial investigations have revealed that most of the detained people weren’t hired by local farmers, but by brokers who rented land for planting, police said.

Last month, news of the 152 Vietnamese tourists who ‘vanished’ in Taiwan made global headlines, shocking the public and authorities in both Taiwan and Vietnam. They initially went to Taiwan via a special visa program with simplified procedures.

Later investigations showed several of the ‘missing’ tourists were actually looking to stay and work in Taiwan illegally.

In response, Taiwanese authorities temporarily suspended visa applications of the travel agencies responsible for the missing tourists, and shortened the length of visas issued to Vietnamese, among other measures.

As of last Sunday, 70 of the 152 Vietnamese tourists were still at large in Taiwan. Authorities have said they will be deported and banned from re-entry for an unspecified amount of time for violating Taiwan’s Immigration Law.

In recent years, Taiwan has emerged as a promising destination for Vietnamese workers looking for jobs overseas. Last year, Vietnam sent around 65,000 workers to Taiwan, nearly half of all the workers it sent overseas.

Source: Vnexpress

Hanoi, HCMC hotel rooms cheaper only than Singapore’s

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Hotel room rates in Hanoi and HCMC, at around $110 a night, are the second most expensive in Southeast Asia behind only Singapore.
 Real estate services firm CBRE Vietnam said at a recent conference that the performance of the four- and five-star hotel segments was very strong in 2018 due to limited supply but constantly increasing demand.

By the end of the year the average rent in this segment reached $112.6 in Hanoi and $114.1 in HCMC.

High-end rooms in Hanoi number 7,770, of which two thirds are in the five-star category, and their average occupancy rate last year was 78.4 percent.

Most of them are concentrated in the downtown area and Ba Dinh, a central district where most government offices and embassies are located.

CBRE said in recent years sharing economy models like AirBnB have been trending, with AirBnB supply in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City topping 24,000 units compared to 17,500 four- to five-star hotel rooms.

“However, despite the rapid growth of this model, room-sharing has not a clear impact on business in the four-five-star segment.”

As of 2017 there were 118 five-star hotels/resorts in Vietnam, almost twice the number in 2013.

They had an occupancy rate of over 75 percent, 5 percentage points up from 2016, according to global consulting firm Grant Thornton.

Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) statistics show an upsurge in the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam in the last few years. Last year 15.5 million came to the country, a 20 percent rise from 2017.

Source: Vnexpress

Central coast ruined by resort projects

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The central coast is being damaged by too many resort projects.

A large area in Vinh Hai Commune, Thua Thien-Hue Province, eroded and swept away by a huge wave. The locals have to use sandbags and bamboo sticks to create a makeshift dyke.

A coastal section in Vinh Hai Commune is still eroding despite reinforcement. The restaurants by the beach are mostly deserted, a part of the beach in Phu Loc District and the casuarina forest have been damaged by the waves.

The sea already encroached upon the beach restaurants along Hoang Sa and Vo Nguyen Giap streets in Danang City. Several beaches including Sao Bien and Son Thuy are no longer used.

Cua Dai Beach in Quang Nam Province has been heavily damaged for years. In the past day, erosion continued to occur from Hoi An Beach Hotel to Marriott Hoi An Hotel Project. The embankment was damaged and restaurants were empty as five metres of erosion occurred.

Hoi An Chairman Nguyen Van Dung said a 7-km-long beach had eroded because ocean currents had moved differently due to sand dredging projects and random embankments made by various resort projects. “Once we have a comprehensive solution to deal with erosion, the resorts’ embankments must be destroyed and rebuilt,” he said.

Tang Quoc Chinh from the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control said beach erosion in the central coast had become more severe and complicated. There are at least 45 erosion spots on just 80 kilometres of beach. 25 of the spots, such as Cua Dai Beach, are facing so severe erosion that the local lives, belongings and infrastructure can be damaged.

According to Chinh, there are numerous reasons for such severe erosion, from building canals to destroying protected forests. Too many resorts on the beach also prevent accretion of sand. He went on to say that the investors built random erosion control constructions which were not guided by local authorities and worsened the situation.

“There used to a vast casuarina forest and sand dunes along the central coast which kept everything in balance until hotels and resorts sprouted up,” he said.

Ho Duy Diem from the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Basin and Sea Strip added hydropower dams on the Vu Gia-Thu Bon River system to the list. The hydropower dams may be hindering sedimentation downstream and were responsible for severe erosion at Cua Dai Beach.

He also agreed that too many resorts with embankments were ruining the natural balance. He suggested trying to prevent hydropower projects and those affecting the coast.

Source: Dtinews

Bamboo Airways sets launching date on January 16

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Bamboo Airways has set 16 January as its launch date, one week after gaining its air operator’s certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), and sticking to its previous announcement of a mid-January launch.

In a statement, the carrier states it will operate on a hybrid business model, offering economy and business class cabins on its aircraft. Flights will operate out of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to various domestic points in Vietnam. Subsequently, it is looking to operate international services.

Prior to obtaining its AOC from the CAAV, the airline was also approved as an aircraft maintenance organisation, it adds.

Bamboo’s own booking engine indicates that the initial flights will be operated out of Hanoi to seven domestic points. For flights out of Ho Chi Minh City, it will be linked to Hanoi and Quy Nhon.

Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that five Airbus A320 family jets – one A319 and four A320s – will see leases start with the carrier on 15 January 2019. The lease of another A320 will commence on 25 January.

Two A320s and the A319 are managed by Standard Chartered. Dragon Aviation Leasing manages one of the remaining A320s, and Aviation Capital Group another A320. The last A320 is managed by Lithuania’s Small Planet Airlines.

None of the six jets has received a Vietnamese registration. The A319 is equipped with 128 seats in a two-class configuration, with eight in business class and 120 in economy. Three of the A320s have 180 seats in an all-economy configuration. The remaining two A320s have 159 seats in an all-economy configuration.

In addition, three on-order A320neos managed by CDB Aviation are scheduled to start their leases in October 2019.

The airline also has letters of intent for 24 A321neos and 20 Boeing 787-9s.

Cathay Pacific accidentally discounts business-class tickets-again

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After Cathay Pacific accidentally listed some first-class and business tickets at a discount of up to 95% at the start of the month, the airline tweeted a sheepish “#lessonlearnt.“

Except, it would seem, the lesson hadn’t quite sunk in. The Hong Kong-based airline has repeated the blunder, selling business class tickets from Portugal to Hong Kong at about 14% of their usual price. Screenshots obtained by the South China Morning Post show a one-way business class flight from Lisbon to London on a partner airline, followed by a Cathay Pacific flight from London to Hong Kong, listed for sale at just $1,512. 

For comparison, a business class flight January 18 on the same route is now on sale at $10,950.60, while flights in the following months are priced similarly. 

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the airline attributed the unusually low fares to an “input issue” and said they were withdrawn from sale once the error became apparent. “We are looking into the root cause of this incident both internally and externally with our vendors,” the spokesperson said. 

Good news for the keen-eyed passengers who bought the discounted tickets, however: mirroring its response earlier this month, Cathay Pacific will honor the erroneous prices. “For the very small number of customers who have purchased these tickets, we look forward to welcoming you on board to enjoy our premium services,” the spokesperson confirmed. On January 1, the airline inadvertently listed heavily discounted flights between Vietnam and North America. A business-class ticket from Da Nang to New York’s JFK airport, for instance, was offered at $675, compared with a normal price of about $16,000. 

Others found business-class fares from Hanoi to New York for only $1,100, and first-class tickets between Hanoi and Vancouver for just $988. “We made a mistake but we look forward to welcoming you on board with your ticket issued,” the airline tweeted on January 2.

Mekong Delta losing land from subsidence, landslides

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Every year, the southern region loses 300 hectares of land because of subsidence and landslides. The Mekong Delta, for example, is sinking faster than predicted.

The landslides in the Delta have been described as ‘extremely serious’. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Van Thang reported that there are 49 landslide spots with total length of 266 kilometers. In some places, the sea has entered 80 meters into the mainland.

The eastern and western parts of Ca Mau and Kien Giang provinces suffer most from erosion. More seriously, the sedimentation in river systems has been lower than erosion since 2000.

According to the Mekong River Committee, the volume of sediment in Mekong Delta will decrease by 67 percent by 2020. The countries on the upper course of Mekong have built so many hydropower plants and water reservoirs (two large reservoirs built by China alone have capacity of 22 billion cubic meters). Silt is retained at the reservoirs and cannot reach Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

The committee has drawn up a scenario that by 2040 if all hydropower projects arise on Mekong mainstream, the volume of silt that can reach Vietnam will fall to 3 percent.

Scientists have warned about the disintegration of Mekong Delta. In the past, it was consolidated by 145 million tons of sediment. But now, it receives only 40 million tons, and sediment has been taken away by hydropower plants.

The overexploitation of sand is also a danger to Mekong Delta. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that of 40 million tons of silt and sludge, Cambodia exploits 30 million, and Vietnam 10 million tons.

In July 2013, the Norwegian Institute of Geotechnics found that the Mekong Delta subsided 19 – 28 mm per annum, caused by the soft ground and excessive underground water exploitation. If combined with rising sea levels, the Mekong Delta region is likely to sink faster than expected.

In 2016, Vietnam released a prediction that about 35 percent of Mekong Delta’s area may be inundated under water by 2100. However, with the current subsidence rate of 1.5-2 cm per annum and rising sea water levels, the scenario may come sooner than expected.

MARD Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said Vietnam needs to adjust its development policy to fit the new conditions. In the past, rice production was the top priority, while seafood and fruit were in the second and third positions. But in current conditions, seafood must be the top priority, and rice the third.

Source: VNN

Nguyen Cong Tri becomes first Vietnamese designer to showcase collection at New York Fashion Week

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A renowned Vietnamese designer will have his collection featured at the New York Fashion Week (NYFW), one of the ‘Big Four’ fashion weeks in the world, next month in a first for his country.

The official website of the NYFW, which is usually held in February and September of each year as a semi-annual series of events generally lasting seven to nine days, has released a list of designers for its upcoming show in February.

Nguyen Cong Tri, 41, a respected name in the Vietnamese fashion industry, has been invited by the NYFW organizers to introduce his collection at the show taking place between February 6 and 13.

This is the first time a Vietnamese designer has received such an honor.

“Each of his collection is state-of-the-art and a fascinating story to be told,” the NYFW’s official website wrote in the introduction about Tri.

“His work as the Chief Designer for CONG TRI brand provides unique statement designs for women’s day and evening style.”

The introduction went on to highlight some of Tri’s significant achievements, including being the first Vietnamese member of the Asian Couture Federation in 2014.

“Cong Tri Nguyen is globally recognized by fashion and lifestyle publications with an influential celebrity coverage that includes Katy Perry, Gwen Stefani, Rihanna and Jacqueline Fernandez,” the introduction reads.

The collection for the upcoming winter by Tri will be introduced at Spring Studio’s Gallery II at 2:00 pm (New York time) on February 11, according to the NYFW’s schedule.

On this occasion, Tri will also have a chance to cooperate with New York-based Kate Young, one of the most in-demand stylists in Hollywood and fashion who works for Dior, Chanel, Valentino, Victoria’s Secret, for the fashion photography part.

Source: Tuoitrenews

Novaland announces plans for 2019

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Property developer aims to deliver 5,900 condominiums and 2,300 hospitality products this year.

Novaland has recently announced it will continue to focus on the real estate market in Ho Chi Minh City and expects to introduce around 4,400 apartments, townhouses, and villas and endeavor to hand over about 5,900.

It will become active in the hospitality sector with NovaTourism, which has three main product brands – NovaHills, NovaBeach and NovaWorld – and introduce about 2,300 other hospitality real estate products.

This is also part of its plan to realize Phase 2 of its business strategy, with two key areas being real estate and tourism services.

The company’s goal is to coordinate with consultants and professional operators to create excellent destinations for both local and international tourists, to turn these places into tourism – hospitality – entertainment centers of the region, contributing to the imprint of Vietnam on the global travel map.

Novaland also said it will focus on developing destinations with great tourism potential, such as Phu Quoc Island, Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria Vung Tau, Phan Thiet – Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, Cam Ranh – Khanh Hoa, and Quang Nam – Da Nang.

NovaTourism will consist of eight main categories: hospitality, transport, logistics, food culture, modern shopping, entertainment services, travel, and local tourism development.

Brands to be introduced into the market include NovaHills Resort and NovaBeach. NovaHills will consist of projects with a scale of less than 100 ha, located in an area with hilly landscapes, and include a full range of utility services for accommodation, food and shopping for tourists, and entertainment areas. The first project launched is NovaHills Mui Ne Resort & Villas.

NovaBeach, meanwhile, includes projects with a scale of less than 100 ha located in coastal areas and including a full range of accommodation, shopping, and other entertainment. The first project to be launched is NovaBeach Cam Ranh Resort & Villas.

NovaWorld’s recreational and resort complex includes projects over 100 ha, integrating many resort activities with various forms of accommodation such as villas, hotels, second homes, and commercial townhouses with high-class entertainment, theme parks, safari parks, and golf courses, etc. Each part of NovaWorld will follow a main theme and create its own special and unique accents for tourism in selected developed regions.

Preparing for the deployment of tourism services, Novaland focuses on building strategic partnerships with many leading brands in the world and in the country. It has signed a deal with the Hoa Binh Group as a construction contractor for NovaBeach Cam Ranh Resort & Villas and with Ricons JSC as a construction contractor for NovaHills Mui Ne Resort & Villas.

Novaland put into operation Azerai Can Tho Eco Resort and Anantara Mui Ne Resort last year. By the end of 2018, it had developed and delivered around 6,000 real estate products with the right quality and commitment to customers.

Source: Vneconomics

Slow compensation annoys residents living near Hanoi dump

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Dozens of people living near Nam Son Rubbish Dump in Hanoi’s outlying district of Soc Son have gathered to prevent rubbish dumping.
 Nguyen Huu Tien, general director of Hanoi Urban Environment Company (URENCO), said local people started the prevention from the early morning of January 11, blocking hundreds of rubbish trucks from entering the dump.

The blockade has led to rubbish being piled up in the city.

Dong Phuoc An, deputy director of Hanoi Department of Construction, said that it is the sluggish compensation payments for site clearance for the people living near the dump whose land was taken led to the protest.

On Monday, Nguyen The Hung, vice chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee spoke to the affected people.

Earlier, residents living near Nam Son dump, the largest in Hanoi, also blocked rubbish trucks from entering the site as they have been threatened by the serious pollution from the dump.

Nam Son dump, covering 83.5ha, was established in 1999. It receives more than 4,000 tonnes of waste every day.

Bac Son, Nam Son and Hong Ky communes nearby are suffering from severe air and water pollution.

Source: Dtinews

Watsons to open store in HCMC

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Hong Kong-headquartered healthcare and beauty retailer to open store on January 17 at Bitexco Tower.

The Hong Kong-headquartered healthcare and beauty retailer Watsons is to come to Vietnam, according to Inside Retail Asia.

The first Watsons Vietnam store will open on January 17, in the lower floors of Bitexco Tower in Ho Chi Minh City, taking up at least one floor of a two-story space.

A huge sign with the slogan “Look good, Feel great” has been erected outside the space, attracting many Vietnamese youngsters to take selfies and check in on social media.

Watsons Vietnam is a member of the A.S Watsons Group, which was established in Hong Kong in 1841 and is the largest international health and beauty retailer in Asia and Europe, with over 14,300 stores in 26 markets.

Every year, over 4 billion customers and members shopped for its 12 retail brands in stores and online. With over 140,000 employees worldwide, including 12,900 in Hong Kong, the A.S. Watson Group is also a member of the world-renowned multinational conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, which has five core businesses ‐ ports and related services, retail, infrastructure, energy, and telecommunications in over 50 countries and territories. Watsons is Asia’s leading health and beauty retailer, currently operating 6,700 stores and more than 1,500 pharmacies in 12 Asian and European markets, including China (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau), Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Turkey and Ukraine. It continually sets the standard in the health, wellness, and beauty market.

The company promise to customers – Look good, Feel great – is something it makes happen every day by going the extra mile, by bringing smiles to people’s faces, and by providing the best health, wellbeing, beauty and personal care product in stores and online.

Watsons has just celebrated the opening of its 500th store, in Bangkok, Thailand.

Source: Vneconomics

Grab, Now and Zalo have triggered a new battle among super-apps

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While many businesses are still busy developing e-hailing and delivery apps, Grab, Now and Zalo have triggered a new battle among super-apps.

On September 11, Grab announced strategic cooperation with Moca to boost non-cash online payment activities in Vietnam. And just one month later, Grab launched GrabFood service in Hanoi.

“We strive to become a super app in Southeast Asia,” said Tan Hooi Ling, a co-founder of Grab at the September 11 event.

Super app is understood as a ‘powerful app’ with many integrated functions. Customers can order goods and services with a single super-app instead of using different apps to order different services.

An analyst commented that app developers are trying to follow WeChat, a very successful app with the network of over 900 million users.

Great potential

In Vietnam, people would use Grab and Go-Viet if they want transport service and use Now if they want to book food. And they use Shopee and Lazada to do shopping and think of Traveloka if they want to travel.

Grab, Now, Zalo and Go-Viet are the big players.

The biggest advantage of the first three players is the large custom. After five years of operation, Zalo has 100 million users. Grab said two out of every 10 Vietnamese use its service. As for Now, it doesn’t provide exact figures, but has customers from Foody ecosystem.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has announced it will tighten licensing to institutions to provide intermediary payment service, the elementary factor for a super app.

Meanwhile, Zalo has ZaloPay, while Now is cooperating with AirPay, and Grab has joined hands with Moca.

Grab is the player which has made the strongest commitments about becoming a super app.

Nguyen Tuan Anh, CEO of Grab Financial Group Vietnam, stated at a recent event that users can go to offices with GrabCar, avoid traffic jams with GrabBike, send gifts with GrabExpress, and order food with GrabFood.

Zalo and Now show that they have quietly joined the super-app battle by integrating new functions into their existing apps.

HCMC dwellers now can find information about traffic flow, roadblocks, accidents, traffic congestion and current traffic via live images captured by 700 traffic cameras thanks to the HCM City Traffic Portal with the Zalo app.

Go-Viet seems to have no advantage in the war. However, analysts believe it will ‘march forward very quickly’. Go-Viet’s co-founder Nguyen Vu Duc affirmed that besides GoBike, Go-Viet will launch more key products in the ecosystem, including Go-Car, Go-Food and Go-Pay.

According to a report on VnExpress

Seven test positive for drugs in Ho Chi Minh City police inspection of truck drivers

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Police in Ho Chi Minh City have carried out an inspection of multiple trailer truck drivers over the past few days, after which several tested positive for drugs and were slapped with a fine or sent to local rehab centers.

Officers examined 30 drivers and driver assistants of container trucks in Truong Tho Ward, Thu Duc District on Sunday afternoon.

The inspection took place for about two hours, during which they were given a clinical urine test.

The result revealed that four people had consumed drugs before driving.

In one specific case, Nguyen Cong Thien, a 28-year-old truck driver, and his assistant, 19-year-old Le Ngoc Bao, both tested positive for drugs.

Officers also found a machete and several tools commonly used in the consumption of synthetic drugs inside their vehicle.

A similar inspection also took place in the neighborhood on Saturday afternoon, after which three drivers tested positive for narcotics.

Another driver was caught using a fake license.

According to an officer, the drivers who were found using drugs were escorted to the police station to have their identity verified.

Those who have a legitimate place of residence were slapped with a fine and will be subject to regular supervision from local authorities.

The others were sent to a rehabilitation center in Cu Chi District in the same city.

The inspection followed a serious accident in the Mekong Delta province of Long An on January 2, when a container truck crashed into 21 motorbikes stopping at a red light.

Four people were killed and 18 others injured in the crash.

The 32-year-old truck driver later tested positive for heroine and alcohol.

Khuat Viet Hung, vice-chairman of the National Committee for Traffic Safety, said he would ask authorities in all provinces and cities to beef up their management and inspection of container truck and passenger bus drivers regarding the use of drugs and alcohol in the first quarter of this year.

According to a report on Tuoi Tre

Stress, cyberbullying of students: the dark side of the digital era

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One out of every three students is a victim of cyberbullying in Vietnam, according to a study by Tran Van Cong from the University of Education, a member school of the Hanoi National University, and his co-workers.

The survey interviewed 864 secondary and high school students in Hanoi, Nghe An and Thanh Hoa, and found that 32.5 percent of students had experienced cyberbullying at least once.

The average age of the surveyed students was 13.67, with boys accounting for 53.3 percent and girls 46.7 percent.

Cyberbullying includes threatening other students on online forums; slandering friends with fake photos posted on internet; stealing personal information from computers, photos, messages or Facebook; sending threatening comments via email or text messages; and mocking members of groups on forums.

Cong found that regularly victimized students face high problems. They tend to be shy about meeting friends and teachers. The students whose photos are made public refuse to meet and communicate with anyone, and don’t have the heart and mind to study. They always live in fear, and many of them commit suicide.

Tran Thanh Nam, a psychologist from Hanoi National University, said in many cases, cyberbullying causes more serious consequences than traditional bullying.

Nam related a heartrending story. Because one girl regularly received spiteful comments about her appearance, she began thinking of killing herself. At first, she decided to go on diet. Later, she stuck her fingers down her throat after eating. She also cut her hands. Luckily, the behaviors were discovered by her mother who took her to hospital for treatment.

Two years ago, an eighth grader in the province of Khanh Hoa posted that he would burn the school if he received 1,000 likes. He was successful, and friends and relatives urged him to fulfill his promise immediately.

Under pressure from netizens, he had to buy petrol to burn the school. Luckily, his action was discovered and prevented by the school’s security guards. However, the student was burned and suffered shock.

Huynh Van Son from the HCM City University of Education and his co-workers said they were alarmed about the behavior and psychological health of some students.

They reported that three fifths of secondary school students neglected caring for themselves, two fifths had pessimistic thoughts about life, and one third had once hurt themselves.

Son’s research team found that most of the students who injured themselves make excellent or good marks in school.

According to a report on Vietnamnet

Viettel brand valued at over US$3 billion

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Viettel again took first position in the list of the top 50 most valuable brands in Viet Nam in 2018 with a value of more than US$3.1 billion, increasing 24 per cent from the previous year.

The list, released by Brand Finance – a UK-based brand evaluation company, showed that Viettel’s value was equal to the total value of the second and third placed firms on the list.

In the ranking of the 300 most valuable telecom brands in the world, Viettel took 47th position, up one place from 2017 and equal to other telecom providers such as Singtel and Ooredoo, which held the leading position in Singapore and the Middle East, respectively.

Last year was an important year for Viettel, as the group established three new industrial sectors, including electronics and telecommunications, network security and high-tech defence. It was also renamed Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group as well as announcing it would take the lead in the fourth industrial revolution.

Viettel had a successful year expanding its overseas investments. Mytel in Myanmar counted nearly 5 million subscribers after just six months, accounting for 10 per cent of the country’s market share. Myanmar has been the fastest growth market in its history as well as a phenomenon in global telecommunications growth.

The group applied numerous Industry 4.0 technologies in its products and services such as applying blockchain in management of individual healthcare documents, using artificial intelligence (AI) in a system to recognise car number plates and faces, and an AI chatbot to gradually realise its strategy in Industry 4.0.

Viettel also announced to strong investment in research and development of 5G equipment and expected to pilot implementation this year.

The firm was the biggest taxpayer in Viet Nam in 2018 according to the list announced by the General Department of Taxation in August.

According to a report on VNS

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