The first goal of Vietnam – the AFF Suzuki Cup champions – is to qualify for the knockout stages at the AFC Asian Cup 2019, coach Park Hang-Seo said in a recent interview to Tasnim News Agency of Iran.
Vietnam are pooled with Iran, Iraq and Yemen in Group D of the AFC Asian Cup which will begin in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on January 5.
The Golden Dragons will open their campaign against Iraq on January 8.
Vietnam will face Asian heavyweights Iran on January 12 before wrapping up their group stage commitments with a match against Asian Cup debutants Yemen on January 16.
“After winning the AFF Suzuki Cup, the fans’ expectations are high at the Asian Cup. The first goal of the Vietnamese team is to qualify for the next round,” the Korean tactician said.
“To advance to the Round of 16, you have to earn at least four points. It’s very difficult to beat Iran but we will progress if we can overcome Yemen and Iraq,” he added.
The State Bank of Vietnam is targeting a 14 percent increase in banks’ total lending in 2019, in line with the credit growth seen previous year, state media reported on Monday, Jan 07.
New loans will be funnelled to prioritized sectors, the central bank’s deputy governor Nguyen Thi Hong as saying, referring to areas such as manufacturing, agriculture and small and medium enterprises, BizLIVE – an online newspaper cited.
Deputy Governor of State Bank of Viet Nam Nguyen Thi Hong. — Photo SBV
According to a report on Reuters, Vietnam’s economic growth traditionally relies heavily on increased credit, though the authorities have been trying to reduce this reliance.
The ratio of bad debt on total loans stood at 1.89 percent at the end of last year, down from 1.99 percent at end-2017, it added.
Despite being seen as a potential blockchain development nation, Vietnam lacks a proper legal framework which may prevent the country maximise benefits from the emerging industry.
Vietnamese business man Vuong Quang Long runs Tomochain but is headquartered in Singapore because he said the government there has better policies to attract international investment.
“When it came to initial coin offering (ICO), Tomochain needed lawyers understanding the country where the company is headquartered and registered. We could not find that in Vietnam,” Long told baodautu.vn.
He said he expects Vietnam to soon develop a legal framework that allows local firms to draw foreign investment and develop their business.
Long suggested government agencies recognise the valuation of digital assets, set up a cross-sector committee to track the development of the industry and issue policies on the establishment of an investment pool.
A large number of Vietnamese people are not fully aware of blockchain and crytocurrency bitcoin and often mistake them, according to Nguyen Van Vung, founder of tech firm Bigbom.
Blockchain tech experts said the use of technology could help users save 30-50 percent of their expenses as those apps would help them improve the quality of production and transparency in finance and management.
For example, if Uber and its partner drivers run the app on blockchain technologies, it would be easier for regulators to monitor the market and the information of both drivers and trips would be more transparent.
QNET is developing a system to manage lending portfolios for commercial banks, according to the firm’s head of blockchain development centre Dang Minh Tuan.
“When developing the programme, we have to make sure each portfolio is unique, and no one is authorised to edit the profile,” Tuan said.
“So the banking system’s transparency is guaranteed and it minimises the chance of risks such as a lending profile is used at different banks or a banker can switch the profile for one another for illegal transactions.”
But there is plenty of room for the industry in other countries to further develop, even though applications are still in the early stage. Japan issued a law on payment services, which was amended in 2016, saying digital currencies are considered payment instruments for necessities, not large-scale deals.
That may be the reasons why Vietnamese lawmakers have remained hesitant developing a legal framework that suits the needs of the companies using blockchain technologies and applications.
Nguyen Thanh Tu, Director of the Economic and Civil Legislation at the Ministry of Justice, said the ministry started developing a regulation on cryptocurrency management in 2016-2017. The ministry is reviewing all digital assets and legal practices to propose the best solutions to the Prime Minister.
Long at Tomochain said the issue of digital assets was determined by the market, not the regulator. This is a trend and if Vietnam fully develops its own legal framework to support blockchain firms, the industry will grow strongly and attract big support from the private sector in both local and international markets.
Vietnam will enhance its telecommunications infrastructure, expand its broadband network and develop 5G mobile connectivity this year.
The latter is a key component of the Government’s Resolution 01, in which the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) will grant test 5G frequencies to operators this year and expand them in 2020.
Head of the Policy and Planning Division under the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Authority of Communications Tran Tuan Anh said Vietnam defined 5G as network infrastructure for all sectors of the economy, not just for communication. It would be expanded, raising the working capacity of all sectors based on radiocommunication infrastructure.
Under the vision of Qualcomm, Nokia, Samsung and other companies developing 5G services and technology, the 5G mobile network will boost self-driving cars, IoT and cloud computing.
Anh told enternews.vn that there were currently very few terminals supporting 5G networks, so this technology did not yet have the capability to reach everyone. With the needs of users today, 4G still met their demands.
“The implementation of 5G in Vietnam will depend on the role of network operators and ICT enterprises. Vietnam also needs to build research centres on technology for 5G, in addition to corresponding legal documents,” Anh said.
Worldwide, there are 18 5G networks deployed by more than 20 suppliers. There are also 134 5G networks being tested in 62 countries around the world. By 2019, the world will officially adopt 5G standard at the World Radiocommunication Conference of the ITU, a specialised UN agency for information and communication technologies.
The Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group is aggressively completing work to prepare infrastructure and human resources for 5G technology with the expectation of becoming the first operator in Vietnam to deploy a 5G network.
With a number of positive results in preparing 5G, Viettel aims to complete a 5G broadcasting station version 1 in 2019, test 5G station network by 2020 and be ready to trade in 2021.
Viettel Deputy General Director Cao Duc Thang said Viettel was ready to participate in the 5G test in 2019.
“We hope that there will be information on frequencies soon for Viettel and other operators to prepare appropriate design and equipment, in order to meet the frequency that the MIC is expected to use for 5G,” said Thang.
In an interview with ictnews.vn, CEO of Huawei Vietnam Fan Jun said that Vietnam was the most dynamic emerging market in Southeast Asia.
He said the Prime Minister and Minister of MIC had repeatedly mentioned the development of 5G in Vietnam, and Vietnamese operators were willing to test 5G.
He said the realisation of 5G required four basic conditions including national industry policy, frequency planning, preparation of application infrastructure and training of talents.
These four basic conditions are indispensable. Different areas will have different difficulties and challenges, thus it’s necessary to have the participation of many parties working together, he added.
In this regard, Jun said his firm was ready to strengthen dialogue with the Government and other network operators and partners related to 5G to promote the development of the technology in Vietnam.
The Hanoi ranked 3rd while Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) ranked 8th among the world’s 20 most dynamic cities by World Economic Forum.
Although momentum in the global economy appears to have peaked, there are still many cities in the world where real estate and economic growth continue to be robust.
According to a report by At the time when the World Economic Forum is examining globalization 4.0, JLL’s City Momentum Index, now in its sixth iteration, focuses on momentum for the world’s most commercially active cities.
Tracking a range of socioeconomic and commercial real-estate indicators to identify attributes for success over the short term, the City Momentum Index ranked 131 major established and emerging business hubs across the globe to identify the urban economies and real-estate markets that are currently undergoing the most rapid expansion.
This year’s rankings find the fastest urban growth continuing to shift away from the West to the East. Asia Pacific is home to 19 of the top 20 cities in this year’s index, and overall, Indian and Chinese cities dominate the rankings, accounting for three-quarters of the top 20, following by Vietnam with 2 cities.
Only one city outside of Asia Pacific, Nairobi, ranks in the top 20 most dynamic cities in the globe – and even in Nairobi there is a strong Asian influence, with significant amounts of investment from China, particularly focused on infrastructure projects.
JLL City Momentum Index 2018: The world’s top 20 most dynamic cities
Strong growth brings great opportunities for economic and social development, but equally creates challenges that emerging markets must address to ensure that short-term growth transitions into longer-term momentum.
Cities that are growing rapidly tend to punch above their weight in attracting companies and people; however, this can often lead to social inequality, congestion and environmental degradation.
Different cities take different development paths, but we know that the provision of smart, efficient and productive real estate and increased transparency are key factors in driving the long-term, sustainable growth they seek.
Real estate is pivotal to sustainable momentum
Regeneration projects can dramatically transform the trajectory of a rapidly growing city. New neighborhoods and mixed-use developments can help nurture new businesses and improve lives. In parallel, large-scale infrastructure projects can combat problems such as congestion, while smart technology embedded within a city’s infrastructure can help improve the flow of people.
Saigon, Vietnam, which ranked 8th among the world’s 20 most dynamic cities
Nairobi (ranked 6th in the index) is projected to have one of the fastest-growing populations in the world over the next five years. The authorities there are turning to smart technologies to help cope with overcrowding, traffic congestion and inefficiency in transportation around the city.
Technological innovation in the form of greener and smarter buildings plays an important role in answering the environmental challenges brought about by rapid growth. The Chinese city of Xi’an, (ranked 9th) struggles with severe air pollution, a common plight for developing cities. The installation of an innovative 100-metre-tall air purifying tower to reduce smog and improve air quality is one of the developments helping the city meet the challenges of growth.
Strong growth and rapid urbanization can lead to many challenges, but through thoughtful and innovative development many of these challenges can be met.
Increase transparency to bring foreign direct investment
Sustainable long-term momentum and a maturing economy require long-term foreign direct investment, and this comes when investors can see transparent governance in markets – including real estate.
India’s fastest-growing cities have been successful over recent years in attracting high levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), with structural reforms, including the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016, encouraging more real-estate investment from foreign buyers.
A similar story is playing out in Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, which are both on the cusp of joining the ranks of the world’s ‘Transparent’ real-estate markets according to JLL’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index 2018, published earlier this year.
Transparency is vital in securing the long-term investment that leads to sustainable growth. By working with city governments, the private sector can help lead this change and bring benefits not only to the real-estate market but also to the wider commerciality of a city.
Against a backdrop of rapid change, the World Economic Forum will examine globalization 4.0 and the Fourth Industrial Revolution with a definitive call to make global growth inclusive and sustainable. For growth to be both sustainable and inclusive, it must be long-term. The City Momentum Index shows how businesses and governments can work together to make this happen.
Vietnam closed 2018 almost spot on its target accumulating 15,497,791 international visitors that represented an increase of 19.9% over 2017.
According to data collected by the Government Statistics Organization, December 2018 closed with an estimated 1,374,235 arrivals, up 7.7% over the same month of previous year.
The official target for the year was set at 15.5 million.
Arrivals data confirmed the dominance of Asia credited with Vietnam’s four top markets. The region supplied 12,075,466 visits, led by China totaling 4,966,468 visits and representing a substantial climb of 23.9%.
Only second placed Korea achieved a stronger growth rate of 44.3% on a respectable score of 3,485,406 visits.
The other two were Japan in third place with 826,674 visits representing an improvement of just 3.6% and Taiwan with 714,112 visits, up 15.9%
In fifth place, the USA supplied 687,226 visits an increase of 11.9%, the only market outside of Asia in the top five suppliers.
Russia was a notable high ranker in sixth place with 606,6387 visits, up 5.7%, just ahead of Malaysia that supplied 540,119 visits up 12.4%.
Travel from Malaysia increased to Vietnam following new services introduced by the AirAsia group.
Vietnam is hosting the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Halong Bay, 14 to 18 January, which should boost travel bookings due to a strong delegation of travel buyers from Europe.
It is also understood that Hong Kong will be a prime target for promotions this year. The market is underperforming with just 60,208 visits in 2018, but the growth rate of 30.4% was described as encouraging.
Another encouraging market is Finland with 22,785 visits in 2018 representing an improvement of 24.9%.
On the downside, neighbors with land borders, Cambodia and Laos, both recorded declines in travel to Vietnam in 2018. Registering 202,954 visits, Cambodia was down 8.8%, while Laos supplying 120,009 visits declined by 15.2%. They were only two markets that deteriorated.
In 2018, the automobile market was affected by Decree 116, which regulates manufacture, assembly and importing of cars.
1.Contrary to all predictions that the car prices would drop from January 1, 2018, when the import tariffs on ASEAN sourced products are cut to zero percent, car imports will not arrive in Vietnam in the first two months of the year because of the strict requirements stipulated in Decree 116 and Circular 03.
Only in March did the first imports begin arriving in Vietnam as only a few enterprises could satisfy the requirements.
2. The car import prices fluctuated in 2018 with the price gap of up to VND100 million.
In early 2018, Honda announced the price increase of Honda CR-V from VND1.136 billion to VND1.256 billion. It explained that the cars were imported in late 2017 and still bore the import tariff of 30 percent.
Even in the second half of 2018, when more enterprises could satisfy Decree 116, scarcity still existed which pushed prices up. The price of Honda CR-V alone rose three times and decreased one time in 2018.
3. Some models saw sales at zero. No Toyota Fortuner was sold in the months from March to July. In January and February, only three products were sold.
Similarly, Toyota Yaris, a favorite of Vietnamese, also reported zero sales in the months from February to July. When the supply resumed in August, 330 products were sold.
As for pick-ups, Toyota Hilux and Ford Rangers were also in short supply at times.
4. VinFast officially presented itself before the public in 2018. In late June 2018, VinFast announced the takeover of GM Vietnam.
The Vietnamese manufacturer also took authorized sale agents of Chevrolet, becoming the exclusive distributor of products and services bearing Chevrolet brand in the Vietnamese market.
With the deal, the US manufacturer became the technological partner of VinFast. VinFast can take full advantage of GM’s existing facilities to make small cars. The 22 Chevrolet sale agents will be a part of VinFast’s distribution network.
5. On November 20, VinFast officially introduced its first car models Lux A 2.0 and Lux SA 2.0 at Thong Nhat Park in Hanoi.
It also marketed the small model Fadil and smart electric motorbike Klara.
VinFast’s products are made in its 335 hectare factory in Hai Phong City.
VinFast’s cars are the first Vietnam-made automobile products. Vinaxuki, a 100 percent Vietnamese owned enterprise, also cherished the ‘made in Vietnam car’ dream, but it failed.
Two traffic accidents Sunday afternoon in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City killed three people and injured as many.
A five-seater Ford on the way to Thanh Oai District south of Hanoi center hit a taxi which was turning around and then crashed into three motorbikes which were going in the same direction.
Two of the four people on the motorbikes that were hit died on the way to the hospital. The deceased were a husband and wife, local authorities said. The other two are being treated at the local hospital.
The back of the taxi was distorted after the impact
In another accident in HCMC the same afternoon, a truck fell on three people on two motorbikes on route 22 from HCMC to the northwest province of Tay Ninh, killing one person immediately.
The other two victims were seriously injured and are being treated at a nearby hospital. All three victims are relatives.
The accident happened as the truck crossed the An Ha Bridge in Cu Chi District. The driver slammed the brake as he saw the motorbike drivers crossing, causing the truck to fall.
Local authorities had to use the crane to lift up the truck, which was carrying sand, to retrieve one crushed body. The two motorbikes were also crushed.
ocal residents said that motorbike drivers often cross the road at this area to save time. Five motorbikes were crossing the road at the time of the accident but only the first two motorbikes were hit.
The accident caused a traffic jam two kilometers long on the route.
Road crashes are a leading cause of deaths in Vietnam, killing almost one person every hour, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee. The country targets reducing road accident deaths to below 20 a day, or 7,300 a year.
Police in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang confirmed that they are investigating the death of a deaf and mute man who had been reported being beaten by a foreigner this week.
Da Nang police units are carrying out their investigation, Colonel Tran Phuoc, chief of Hai Chau District police, said.
Regarding the purported involvement of the foreigner, Col. Chan said police would announce whether it was true when they finish their probe, without elaborating.
The death of Le Ngoc Chan, the 36-year-old man in question, has gone viral on Facebook, with thousands of shares and demands that whoever killed the man be brought to justice.
Reports said that multiple people from Golden Pine Pub and Simple Man Pub on Bach Dang Street, Hai Chau District were involved in a fight in the small hours of January 1.
Chan, who was deaf and mute and working for Golden Pine, was injured and taken to the hospital for emergency treatment.
He hailed from Dai Loc District, located in the central province of Quang Nam.
Chan passed away at the hospital on January 5, survived by his pregnant wife and their child.
Initial information showed that Chan was repeatedly beaten in the head by the foreigner during the fight.
Saigon authorities busted a fake condom production facility at a private house Saturday and found hundreds of thousands of condoms and lubricants. A raid by Saigon’s market management agency on the house in Dong Hung Thuan 23 Road, District 12, found over 120,000 condoms and lubricants meant to be packaged as popular brands and over 60kg of raw materials to make them.
House owner Truong Chi Thanh, 28, who admitted to carrying the operations for over a month, said he bought raw materials from Kim Bien market in District 5, produced fake condoms and lubricants and packaged them as Durex, OK or Sure to sell them.
It’s not clear whether they would sell the items in the market directly or to middlemen.
A raid on a house in Hoc Mon District last August also uncovered production of fake condoms.
They were meant to be packaged as some world-famous brands and distributed in the market. The workers said they produced thousands of cartons every day based on orders.
No more details have been released by authorities.
Below is a clip on the raid last August in Hoc Mon District.
Vietnam make their first appearance in the AFC Asian Cup after a gap of 12 years and we thought it an opportune moment to take a look at how an all-time Vietnamese dream team will look like!
Vietnam’s previous appearance in the Asian Cup came in the 2007 edition when the continental championship was held across Southeast Asia and they did not disappoint reaching the quarterfinals of the competitions.
However, they have failed to make it to the grand stage until the latest edition of the tournament set to kick off in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday (January 5).
And they head into the tournament high on confidence having won just their second regional football title defeating Malaysia 3-2 on aggregate in the final of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 last month.
So, here FOX Sports Vietnam’s Ty Dang lists out Vietnam’s all-time dream 11.
GOALKEEPER
DUONG HONG SON
Without doubt, Hong Son is one of the best goalkeepers in Vietnamese football history. Standing only 1.76 metres high, he was once disregarded as a defender and midfielder. But, Hong Son made up for the lack of stature with fast reflexes and excellent judgement to make himself one of the best goalkeepers in business and played an important role in the Golden Dragons winning their maiden AFF Suzuki Cup title back in 2008. He is also one of the two goalkeepers to win the Vietnamese Golden Ball.
DEFENDERS
CB: VU NHU THANH
With his natural talent and resilience, Vu Nhu Thanh has affirmed himself as one of the leading central defenders in Vietnamese football history. With a clever and modern play style, the centre-back was the mainstay of Vietnam’s backline that reached the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup in 2007 and then went on to win the AFF Cup in 2008.
CB: QUE NGOC HAI
From being a talented but impulsive youngster and often making mistakes, Que Ngoc Hai has gone through an amazing journey become the leader of the national team that won the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018. His reckless tackle on Tran Anh Khoa in 2015 seemed to have brought curtains down on Ngoc Hai’s rising career, but since then, the Vietnamese football fans have witnessed the ceaseless maturity from the centre-back.
CB: DO KHAI
Although playing a short career, Do Khai was one of the best defenders Vietnam have produced. Being a part of Vietnam’s golden generation along with Nguyen Hong Son, Le Huynh Duc and Van Sy Hung, Do Khai was a defensive rock for both his club and country before an injury cut short his promising career.
RWB: TRAN CONG MINH
Tran Cong Minh is considered one of the best wing backs in Vietnamese football and was a mainstay in the Golden Dragons squad from 1995 to 2000.
Tran Cong Minh’s outstanding talent was confirmed by the title of Vietnam Golden Ball in 1999. Until now, he is the first and only defender to win this noble individual title. .
LWB: HUYNH QUANG THANH
It is impossible not to mention the legendary Huynh Quang Thanh when we take a look at the best wing back in Vietnam’s history. He is a rare player who can play well on both the right and left backs and is known for his physicality on the pitch. Quang Thanh was also a member of Vietnam’s 2008 AFF Cup triumph and also scored against UAE in the Asian Cup 2007 helping the team reach the quarterfinals.
MIDFIELDERS
CM: NGUYEN MINH PHUONG
Nguyen Minh Phuong is considered the most talented midfielder of Vietnamese football. He possesses all the qualities of a leader at the middle of the park — a calm playing style, the ability to dictate matches, launch sharp attacks, good tactical vision and of course, a fine eye for goal. He too played a key role in Vietnam’s 2008 regional glory.
CM: LE QUOC VUONG
Although his career was marred with controversies, it is undeniable that Le Quoc Vuong was one of the best midfielders of his generation. The midfielder, born in 1982, was nominated for the Vietnamese Golden Ball as an ode to his exceptional skills with the ball.
FORWARDS
RF: NGUYEN QUANG HAI
The latest sensation in Vietnamese football, Quang Hai is the youngest player in the Dream Team at 21 but has already halted Vietnam win the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 and also luted the Golden Ball award last month.He has become an indispensable pillar of the Vietnamese team. The Hanoi FC attacker also played a key role in the AFC U23 Championship earlier last year when Vietnam finished runners-up.
LF: LE CONG VINH
It is impossible not to remember the name Le Cong Vinh when it comes to Vietnam’s greatest players. He wasn’t born much of a natural talent, but CV9 with hard work gradually asserted himself and become the top scorer in Vietnamese football history with 51 international goals. He guided Vietnam to the 2008 AFF Suzuki Cup triumph with his goals.
CF: LE HUYNH DUC
Together with teammate Nguyen Hong Son, Le Huynh Duc was the most prominent face of Vietnam’s golden generation. With technical ability and speed, it can be said that Huynh Duc is the best striker in the history of Vietnamese football. In his career as a player, the striker born in 1972 won numerous individual and collective honours.
Vietnam will lack from 70,000 to 90,000 information and technology (IT) workers this year despite increasing salary and welfare, according to a TopDev, a recruitment network and ecosystem in mobile and IT, reports on the IT market in Vietnam.
Many start-ups have developed projects related to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the last five years in Vietnam, which has created extraordinary value for the technology industry.
Thanks to this, the salary of AI engineers is expected to increase sharply in the coming years. However, human resources are an issue for many businesses.
Although they offer salaries of 500 million VND (about 21,600 USD), per year many businesses said they could not find suitable personnel.
Recruitment depends heavily on unofficial relationships. According to TopDev’s statistics, up to 58 percent of employers seek candidates through referral recruitment and only 51 percent of employers recruit through official channels.
The rapid development of many new technology trends has opened up better opportunities for programmers in Vietnam, but also causes many obstacles for employers without proper recruitment methods.
Now many businesses are looking to new recruitment methods with a longer-term vision such as employer branding to create influence and spread their image to applicants.
One of the solutions to enhance IT human resources in general and AI in particular is the combination of university training and enterprise recruitment.
Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep (Business Forum) quoted Duong Trong Tan, an expert in the field of IT, as saying that in the era of rapid change like today, if a school was not associated with enterprises to improve their training programme and put in new content that businesses need or new technology, they could hardly keep up with the pace of economic changes.
After Facebook launched a campaign to clear up fake accounts, many KOL (key opinion leaders) have suffered as the number of interactions has sharply decreased.
“All the like packages I sold to new stars last week could not activate and I have to refund money to sellers, totaling tens of million of dong,” complained K. Huy, who specializes in providing ‘Facebook make-up service’.
Not only Huy, but all the virtual nick systems which provide fake interactions on Facebook did not work last week.
According to Huy, on December 13, Facebook logged out many suspected accounts in Vietnam.
With the move, access tokens no longer exist. Tokens are collected by service providers when users run third-party apps. As all tokens have been lost, Facebook make-up service providers cannot control accounts and ‘order’ the accounts to give ‘likes’.
The number of interactions such as likes, comments and video watching, is one of the indicators that measure the value of celebrities. It is also a figure that business brands will refer to when paying for advertisements. The higher number of interactions that KOLs have, the more famous they are.
In many cases, some video clips posted on Facebook personal pages have the number of views that are only 25 percent of the number of likes. This means that at least 75 percent of likes are fake.
“Brands and advertisers all know about the make-up service. However, they have their own solutions to measure the real numbers of interactions,” said Thanh Hung in Tan Binh district, an ad service provider.
T.N, 24, is a fitness trainer in HCM City. She also sometimes advertises for functional food shops that target bodybuilders. Her real number of interactions is 400-700 for each post.
T.N admitted that to embellish the personal page, she bought a fake like package from a service provider (VND3 million for each post which has 300 likes at least). On average, she has 10-20 posts each day.
However, she complained that the service was interrupted recently and that service providers said the system was in maintenance.
The move taken by Facebook shows its efforts to eliminate fake accounts and interactions. However, it has affected authentic accounts as well.
Some Facebook users complained that they could not give likes and make comments for seven days. Facebook explained that the social network had discovered unusual activities of the accounts.
Binh Minh in Go Vap district complained that errors have occurred on Facebook regularly for several months. His accounts often log out suddenly and some functions are inactive.
The HCM City People’s Committee and the Consulate General of the UK in the city on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on co-operation in implementing the future global city programme.
Its aim is to turn the city into a smart city, in the 2019-22 period.
The signing ceremony, held in HCM City, was attended by Vice Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee Tran Vinh Tuyen and UK Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field.
Under the MoU, the two sides will launch a project to apply smart tickets in public transportation vehicles in the city and develop a geographical information system for the drainage network.
At a meeting with the UK official prior to the signing, Tuyen thanked the UK Consulate General in the city for promoting the partnership, especially in co-operation programmes supported by the UK’s Commonwealth Fund.
He said HCM City is calling for investment in sub-projects of a project to develop smart city, and hopes to gather financial support and consultations from the UK.
The city is also implementing technological solution packages to deal with urgent matters in transport, health care, and urban environment, he said, expressing his hope to learn from the UK’s experience.
Praising education and training in the UK, the city official proposed Field help encourage UK universities to collaborate with their peers in Vietnam and increase scholarships for students.
Field showed his impression at the development of the city, reaffirming the UK Government’s wish to strengthen affiliation with Vietnam and HCM City, especially in trade, investment and people-to-people exchange.
He said the British Business Group in Vietnam based in HCM City is a good linkage for the UK and the city to promote their bilateral trade and investment ties.
Congratulating the city on finishing the first phase of the smart city project, he pledged the UK will continue to work with the city in the field, especially in technological solutions to responding to flooding and smart urban transportation.
He expressed his hope that HCM City will make it easy for the British Business Group in Vietnam to set up a centre to support small- and medium-sized enterprises and start-up firms of the UK to invest in the city.
With a 10-year high growth rate of 7.02 percent in 2018 and macroeconomic stability, Vietnam is expected to continue to be an attractive stock market in 2019.
2018 was a year of full ups and downs for securities investors. After becoming one of the fastest growing markets in 2017, the stock index continued gearing up in the first months of 2018, exceeding the historic peak of 1,170 points on March 21.
The VN Index later climbed to the new peak of 1,204 points on April 9.
However, the bullish market was then followed by a succession of correction days in May. The downward trend continued in the second quarter, and the third and early fourth quarters, before falling to the lowest ever 880 points on October 30.
Not only small investors, but investment funds and institutional investors also suffered from misleading investments.
On December 21, the VN Index closed at 912 points, a decrease of 72 points compared with earlier this year, or 7.3 percent. However, compared with the peak of 1,204 points, the VN Index dropped by 24.2 percent.
The downward trend was seen in nearly all markets over the globe. The Chinese market, for example, fell so dramatically that it needed the government’s intervention.
The biggest positive factor in Vietnam was that, while other emerging and developing markets had to face foreign capital outflow, Vietnam still saw net capital inflow.
A report from the General Statistics Office (GSO) showed that the foreign portfolio investment capital to Vietnam in the first 11 months reached $7.64 billion, a sharp rise of 44.4 percent in comparison with the same period of 2017.
Meanwhile, the net purchase of foreign investors as of December 21, 2018 had reached VND43 trillion. In the last trading session of 2018, foreign investors’ net purchase was reported at VND500 billion.
The decision by FTSE Russel to add Vietnam to the watchlist to upgrade from frontier to emerging market in late September was an important milestone for Vietnam in 2018.
The last trading session of 2018 closed with the VN Index falling by 9.3 percent compared with earlier in the year.
However, analysts say there are reasons to be optimistic about investment opportunities in 2019.
The latest report of the National Finance Supervision Council showed optimistic prospects about the economy with the exchange rate stability, reasonable inflation rate of below 4 percent, and predicted high GDP growth rate of 7 percent.
