Vietnamese tourists, guide killed by Egypt roadside bomb

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Three Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian tour guide were killed on Friday (local time) when a roadside bomb blast hit their bus as it travelled close to the Giza pyramids outside Cairo, officials said.

A statement by Egypt’s public prosecutor’s office said 11 other tourists from Vietnam were wounded along with the Egyptian bus driver when the homemade device exploded at 6.15pm (11.15pm on Friday, Hà Nội time).

The improvised explosive device was placed near a wall along the Mariyutiya Street in Al-Haram district near the Giza Pyramids, the statement said.

Armed security personnel quickly deployed to the site and cordoned off the area for inspection.

The white tourist bus could be seen with its windows shattered and surrounded by soot-covered debris.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli was set to visit the injured tourists in hospital after following up with his ministers on the incident, a government statement said.

Madbouli said that the Egyptian tour guide had died in hospital from his wounds.

Egypt’s tourism industry has been struggling to recover from terror attacks and domestic instability that has hit the country in recent years.

In July 2017, two German tourists were stabbed to death by a suspected Islamic militant at the Egyptian Red Sea beach resort of Hurgada.

In October 2015, a bomb claimed by a local affiliate of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group killed 224 people on board a passenger jet carrying Russian tourists over the Sinai peninsula.

The incident dealt a severe blow to Egypt’s tourism industry still reeling from the turmoil set off by the 2011 uprising that forced veteran leader Hosni Mubarak from power.

Egypt has for years been battling an Islamist insurgency in North Sinai, which surged following the 2013 military ouster of president Mohamed Morsi.

Security forces have since February been conducting a major operation focused on the Sinai Peninsula, aimed at wiping out a local ISIS branch.

More than 450 suspected militants and around 30 Egyptian soldiers have been killed since the offensive began, the army said in October.

The Pyramids of Giza are the only surviving structure of the seven wonders of the ancient world and a major tourist draw attracting visitors from across the globe.

– AFP

Criminals using social networks for human organs trading in Vietnam

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Vietnamese Police warn of human organs trading via social networks preferred by criminals, making it difficult for police to catch offenders.

There have been successful cases recently where Hanoi City police have smashed large scale trafficking rings

Notably, in these cases, the “brokers” have taken advantage of social networks, especially Facebook, to introduce and sell kidneys. Brokers hid themselves on cyber accounts in order to trade organs in a sophisticated way.

Their tricky method was to set up closed groups on social networks, even on some public websites to advertise kidneys for sale.

Pages titled “Selling, donate and buying kidney”, “Want to sell kidney” were found on Facebook, according to the city investigation police

For a long time, these social network sites have been constantly posting advertisements for the need of buying kidney. These advertisements noted clearly that people who want to sell kidneys need to do some tests first, including blood type, Hepatitis A, B, and C viruses, HIV, abdominal ultrasound, liver and kidney function tests.

After tests’ result, the kidney sellers-to-be must send to the hidden brokers on these social network sites to check. If tests meet the requirements, the brokers will contact directly to conduct the business.

Social network sites for illegal kidney trading activities have received a large amount of interaction. Many people need to sell kidneys due to their difficult circumstances or debt.

Hà Nội City police on October 15 and 17, discovered two organ and tissue trafficking rings, led by Trần Văn Phương, 29, living at Bắc Giang northern province’s Dương Đức Commune and Dương Văn Lộc, 31, residing at Hải Phòng City.

Tran Van Phuong, an organ and tissue trafficker arrested by Hanoi Police | @ VNA

Those arrested told police they used social networks to approach sellers and buyers. The are currently remanded in custody awaiting court proceedings.

Kidney sellers receive from VNĐ250-320 million (US$10,700-13,700) each kidney while buyers have to pay VNĐ340-450 million ($14,600-19,300) each.

Previously, the city police also arrested Trương Minh Ngọc, 32, residing in Phú Thọ Province. Ngọc and his group used personal Facebook accounts to advertise people who need to sell kidneys. Police agency discovered Ngọc’s ring had been involved in about 40 cases.

Police warned patients and their families need to come to trusted hospitals and medical centres for finding information, registering to receive tissue and organs, waiting for opportunities to receive human kidney transplantation.

In addition to the role of police, the relevant agencies need to strengthen disseminating the law of human organ and tissue donating, encouraging people to donate for humane purposes.

VJA introduces “Dos” and “Don’ts” for journalists when using social networks

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Viet Nam Journalists Association (VJA) on Tuesday announced rules that instruct Vietnamese journalists the “do’s and don’ts” when using social networks.

Those who break the rules, depending on levels of violations, will be disciplined by their employers. In the case of serious violations, offenders will be punished in accordance with VJA’s regulations and Vietnam’s laws and regulations.

According to the newly-announced rules, when creating an account on digital social networks, journalists are called on using the personal account for sharing and providing information helpful to society and the country.

They are urged to comment responsibly over issues that concern people.

Journalists should report to authorised agencies untrue information that goes viral on social networks and leaves a negative impact on the public, country as well as reputation of organisations/individuals.

Journalists are encouraged to detect and verify information on social networks before reporting it.

Besides the four “do’s”, VJA’s rules also point out eight “don’ts” for journalists to follow.

They must not create or remove writings/images/sounds on social network for blackmail or other bad purposes. They must not create writings/images/sounds or share information created by other persons when the information is against Party, State and Government’s policies or against the point of view of the press agencies where they work.

Journalists should not provide under their social network accounts any information that is not verified, causing confusion or losses to socio-economic activities, causing difficulties for Government bodies’ activities.

Information that provokes violence/conflicts or promotes superstition, gender discrimination, racism should not be shared by journalists.

VJA permanent Vice Chairman Ho Quang Loi said the rules on using social networks for Vietnamese journalists elaborated one of ten codes of ethnics for Vietnamese journalists that VJA issued in 2016. The association has about 23,000 members including reporters, editors, and staff working at press agencies, journalism schools or journalism management offices.

“Now is the era of digital social networks where millions of people can join and information is provided multidimensionally, which help readers have more objective and comprehensive views,” Loi said.

However, he added that social networks left negative impacts on press and media, particularly when journalists/reporters relied on information available on social network, and reported unverified information, which violated their professional codes of ethnics, eroded trust put in journalism by readers and negatively affected social stability.

Nguyen Van Hung, 61, of Hanoi said he created a Facebook account two years ago after his friends suggested he should, saying it was a way to keep abreast with news and information available on the social networks.

He said that while visiting pages of newspapers, he also followed famous people including journalists and columnists of the newspaper.

“I learn a lot for what they share,” he said.

“Multidimensional information means that you can read different stories with different views about the same news. You cannot trust everyone. You have to select who to trust,” he said.

According to a report on VNS

Foreign investors hunting for bad debt assets in Vietnam

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Trouble assets in Vietnam are interested by investors from Japan, Korea and China

Minh Tam, HanoiTimes

A rebound of Vietnam’s real estate market and a foreign investment wave into the industry have promoted many foreign investors to seek non-performing loans (NPLs) mortgaged by property assets for purchase and restructuring.

Japan’s Samurai Power, Inc. has recently finalized its US$31 million strategic investment deal in IDS Equity Holdings, a Vietnamese capital investment firm specializing in the acquisitions of small-to-medium-sized businesses.

Founded in 1996, Samurai Power is the parent company of Raysum Co., Ltd., which is a public company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Raysum, founded in 1992, is a pioneer in NPL loan trading in Japan and real estate acquisition of Japan’s state-owned enterprises via securitization. Samurai Power Group has built the largest independent non-performing loan company in Japan.

“After a long and intensive due diligence with IDS Equity Holdings, we realize Samurai Power and IDS share a similar business philosophy and investment goals, in which we get actively involved in supporting the day-to-day operations of investee companies and driving businesses forward,” said Nobuyuki Matsukura, senior executive director of Samurai Power and board member of IDS.

Related topic: Company registration services in Vietnam

Besides Samurai Power Inc., International Finance Corporation (IFC) has also invested US$65 million into Altus Capital Partners in a move to seek to revitalize distressed companies in Southeast Asian market, including Vietnam.

“The investment will support distressed companies in East Asia’s emerging markets with financing to ensure they can meet their financial obligations, regain creditworthiness, and preserve jobs, thereby contributing to sustainable growth,” Altus Capital said.

The market has also seen some other investors from Korea and China, who are also interested in such kind of assets in Vietnam.

Supporting policies

According to analysts, the participation of private investors, especially foreign ones, take an important role in the country’s settlement of NPLs.
Vietnam has also realized the investors’ role in the tough issue as the National Assembly (NA) issued Resolution No. 42/2017/QH at the end of last year, which for the first time allowed private investors, including foreign ones, to participate in debt handling. At the same time, the NA also permitted the transfer of bad debt assets based on the market mechanism.
According to Nguyen Van Du, deputy chief inspector of the central bank, the resolution, which also allows credit institutions and Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) to rapidly repossess collateral if a borrower defaults, had helped the institutions and VAMC manage bad debts more effectively.

As of June 30 this year, credit institutions handled VND138.29 trillion (US$5.9 billion) of bad debt in line with Resolution 42, contributing to reducing the bad debt ratio of credit institutions (exclusive NPLs sold to VAMC) from 2.46 percent on December 31, 2016 to 2.09 percent at the end of June this year.

To speed up the settlement of bad debts, central bank governor Le Minh Hung has recently requested credit institutions to review and provide detailed roadmaps and solutions for settling their bad debts every year until 2022.

Credit institutions are also required to actively look for buyers for the debts they sold to VAMC as the recovery of the debts at the VAMC remains slow and the institutions still have to make significant provisions for the debts.
Hung also asked VAMC to speed up the handling of bad debts and collateral that the company purchased following market-based mechanisms.

According to the development strategy of the banking sector to 2025 approved in August, the central bank targets to reduce the bad debt ratio of the entire banking system from the current 6.6 percent of total outstanding loans to below 3 percent in 2020.

Chinese purchases of housing in Vietnam soars

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Reports about the real estate market in the last two years show a sharp increase in the number of Chinese buyers in Vietnam.

The latest report by CBRE Vietnam found that 31 percent of customers who bought houses in HCM City in the first nine months of 2018 were from China, while the number of Vietnamese buyers accounted for 24 percent.

The number of Chinese purchasing houses in HCM City has been soaring in the last three years. Only 2 percent of buyers in 2016 were Chinese, while the figure was double in 2017.

By the end of September 2018, Chinese jumped from sixth to the first position in the list of biggest buyers, surpassing Vietnam, South Korea and Hong Kong.

South China Morning Post last year reported that investors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China mainland were the leading property buyers in HCM City, where real estate price had increased by twofold within 10 years.

Tram Cao from Sunwah Group also said on Nha Dau Tu that 30 percent of buyers at Sunwah Pearl project were foreigners and most of them from China and Japan.

Local newspapers quoted experts as commenting that there is a ‘strong wave of Chinese flocking to HCM City to buy properties’, warning that this is an ‘abnormal phenomenon’. They said action needs to taken to prevent the excessive buying, or it will be too late.

Australia wants to impose additional taxes on foreigners who buy houses in the country, while New Zealand is considering prohibiting non-resident foreigners to buy houses there.

However, Can Van Luc, a respected economist, thinks there is no need to worry about the Chinese wave of purchasing Vietnam’s properties. He said Chinese are seeking to purchase houses all over the world, not only in Vietnam. Chinese have houses in the US, Canada and Japan.

Le Hoang Chau, chair of the HCM City Real Estate Association (HOREA), questioned the proportion of Chinese buyers reported by CBRE.

He said only several thousand apartments are distributed via CBRE each year, a small figure compared with thousands of transactions in the entire market. He said the figures released by CBRE do not truly reflect the city’s real estate market.

However, he thinks there is no need for concern as the State sets limits on the number of foreigners in every project.

The HCMC Construction Department does not have exact figures about the number of foreign buyers, because real estate developers are not required to report the data.

According to a report on Vietnamnet

Vietnam Finds New Ways to spend and pile up Debt

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At a new Vietnamese restaurant last week, a diner asked to pay by credit card, so the waitress brought out a card reader she’d never used before. After a minute, she wondered why the machine didn’t ask for a PIN, only to learn that it was not required for credit cards, only debit cards.

Small businesses like the eatery are still learning the ropes, because paying by credit remains a new trend in Vietnam. But it is telling that even an enterprise of that small size is adopting point-of-sales machines, a sign that credit and digital transactions are on the rise at all levels of commerce big and small in the country.

This may present a “dao hai luoi,” or a double edge sword. Advancing technology like e-payments can contribute to what is already one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. But at the same time, growing reliance on credit to drive consumption — as in the U.S. consumption-led economy — increases the risk that Vietnamese will take on more loans than they can bear, or live beyond their means.

Credit trends are good and bad

It’s not just Vietnam. This comes at a time of increasing fears around the world that too much debt might trigger the next global recession — from the government bonds held by Italy’s banks, to the borrowing spree of China’s local governments, to the increased U.S. interest rates that make it harder for developing countries to pay back loans denominated in dollars.

In Vietnam, data from payments company Visa in September showed that digital transactions jumped 45 percent from June 2017 to June 2018. The numbers were not broken down into credit versus debit payments, but they are an indication that Vietnamese are using more credit cards.

The overall change is good for Vietnam because it makes it easier to track legitimate business activity, according to Truong Minh Ha, who is head of client relationship management at Visa Vietnam and Laos.

“Not all of the shadow economy is illegal but a lot of it is. Smuggling, money laundering,” she said. “It’s not traced or regulated, so government loses in terms of tax revenue, and businesses can’t compete.”

Vietnamese now favor buying on credit

Credit cards are part of a broader shift across the Southeast Asian country, where it used to be more common to pay cash for large purchases, like houses or motorbikes, and for small ones, like e-commerce products. But now Vietnamese increasingly take out loans to buy those goods.

Lending spiked 39 percent in 2017 at FE Credit, according to credit ratings company Moody’s. It said FE Credit enjoys market share of about half of Vietnam’s consumer finance sector.

“These strengths are partly offset by the company’s exposure to the high credit risk inherent in Vietnam’s rapidly growing unsecured consumer finance market,” Moody’s said in September.

But it added that FE Credit’s loan growth came with weaker asset quality and looser underwriting standards. That means borrowers’ financial situations aren’t as strong, raising their chances of default.

Change is afoot in the micro-loan space, too. Instead of waiting until they can afford a cell phone or washing machine, factory workers now have the option of financing the products against their monthly salaries. As with the payday lenders in the U.S., Vietnamese repay the loans by allowing the lender to lay early claim to a piece of their next paycheck.

Too much credit card use can be risky

They take out these micro-loans using a smartphone app, just one of the many ways financial technology is evolving in Vietnam. But the changes could create a mismatch between FinTech – financial technology – and state oversight.

“A lot of things the government do is right, [like] how to protect the consumer,” said Nguyen Manh Tuong, executive vice chair and president of MoMo e-wallet. “The technology changes so fast that all the regulations [have] a big challenge to catch up. I think we can learn the way China [has a] more modern, advanced FinTech sector, more sandboxes.”

He was referring to regulatory sandboxes, which allow startups to experiment with new ideas with limited legal liability.

Countries must communicate

The challenges go beyond Vietnam, according to Nguyen Huynh Phuong Thao, a certified accountant with the Ho Chi Minh City bar association. She said it’s time for global cooperation to regulate all the new ways people are handling and using money.

“When it comes to transactions involving technology, they have a cross-border nature, and so dialogue among countries is needed,” she said. “Countries need to figure out a way to work hand in hand to come up with consistent regulations.”

According to a report on VOA

VietJet Air will be subjected to special monitoring

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CAAV delves into VietJet after closed runway landing

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) will subject VietJet Air to special monitoring following an incident where an aircraft landed on a closed runway at Nha Trang’s Cam Ranh International Airport. flightglobal.com reports.

In a 25 December statement, the CAAV disclosed that the VietJet Airbus A320 was operating flight VJ689 on the Nha Trang-Ho Chi Minh City route. A few minutes into the flight the crew detected an unspecified “technical warning.”

The crew returned to Nha Trang and landed on a runway that has been completed but which has yet to open.

The flight occurred at midday. Meteorological data suggests that the sky was overcast, but visibility was good. The CAAV did not report any injuries or casualties among the passengers or crew.

According to a report on flightglobal.com, a similar incident occurred on 30 April, when a Vietnam Airlines A321 also landed on the same closed runway, which was then under construction.

In the Vietnam Airlines incident, the aircraft landed incorrectly on what will eventually become runway 02R, as opposed to runway 02, which will become runway 02L. Online pilot forums suggest that the VietJet crew made the same mistake, although the CAAV did not furnish details.

The CAAV has suspended “all VietJet staff involved in the operation of this flight.” In addition, the carrier will be placed under “special monitoring,” and temporarily forbid the introduction of new routes.

A subsequent CAAV statement on 27 December details the authority’s plans to monitor the airline from 28 December to 15 January 2019.

The investigation will examine areas such as flight preparation, ground servicing, maintenance, supplies, and the adherence to manuals. It will also include safety inspections on flights.

Should the agency be satisfied by 15 January, the regime will be lifted. If it is not satisfied VietJet will be subjected to what the CAAV refers to as a “special phase 2 supervision.”

The aircraft involved in the incident appears to bear registration VN-A695. Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that the CFM56-powered aircraft was delivered new October 2008 and is managed by CIT Aerospace. It operated with Cebu Pacific until 2014 at which point it entered service with VietJet.

This is the second recent landing incident involving the carrier. On 29 November a two-week-old VietJet A321neo suffered major damage to its forward undercarriage when landing at Buon Ma Thuot. The Goshawk-managed aircraft is still listed as in storage

Vietnam loses 936 hectares of forest in 2018

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Vietnam has lost over 936 hectares of forest in over 1,700 forest destruction cases this year, said acting head of the Forest Protection and Development Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.


 According to Tung, more than 12,900 forest violations were found so far this year, down 3,500 cases against 2017, including 1,727 forest destruction cases which harmed 936 hectares of forest, down 35% on-year.

Fines were issued for 10,900 forest violations, down 22% on-year.

Despite the lower forest destruction cases, the cases which were prosecuted sharply increased with 363 cases, up 16% against 2017.

Around 16,027 cubic metres of wood were confiscated, contributing VND143 billion (USD62.17 million) to the state budget.

Authorities also seized 4,967 illegal timber transportation incidents, down 25% on-year.

The Forest Protection and Development Department said that 33 provinces proposed reclassifying 122,851 hectares of forest for different usage. Among those, proposals by 22 localities were approved by the prime minister.

The department has tightened control over the origin of timber using modern technologies to ensure quality for export.

Source: Dtinews

Chinese purchases of housing in Vietnam soars

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Reports about the real estate market in the last two years show a sharp increase in the number of Chinese buyers in Vietnam.

The latest report by CBRE Vietnam found that 31 percent of customers who bought houses in HCM City in the first nine months of 2018 were from China, while the number of Vietnamese buyers accounted for 24 percent.

The number of Chinese purchasing houses in HCM City has been soaring in the last three years. Only 2 percent of buyers in 2016 were Chinese, while the figure was double in 2017.

By the end of September 2018, Chinese jumped from sixth to the first position in the list of biggest buyers, surpassing Vietnam, South Korea and Hong Kong.

South China Morning Post last year reported that investors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China mainland were the leading property buyers in HCM City, where real estate price had increased by twofold within 10 years.

Tram Cao from Sunwah Group also said on Nha Dau Tu that 30 percent of buyers at Sunwah Pearl project were foreigners and most of them from China and Japan.

Local newspapers quoted experts as commenting that there is a ‘strong wave of Chinese flocking to HCM City to buy properties’, warning that this is an ‘abnormal phenomenon’. They said action needs to taken to prevent the excessive buying, or it will be too late.

Australia wants to impose additional taxes on foreigners who buy houses in the country, while New Zealand is considering prohibiting non-resident foreigners to buy houses there.

However, Can Van Luc, a respected economist, thinks there is no need to worry about the Chinese wave of purchasing Vietnam’s properties. He said Chinese are seeking to purchase houses all over the world, not only in Vietnam. Chinese have houses in the US, Canada and Japan.

Le Hoang Chau, chair of the HCM City Real Estate Association (HOREA), questioned the proportion of Chinese buyers reported by CBRE.

He said only several thousand apartments are distributed via CBRE each year, a small figure compared with thousands of transactions in the entire market. He said the figures released by CBRE do not truly reflect the city’s real estate market.

However, he thinks there is no need for concern as the State sets limits on the number of foreigners in every project.

The HCMC Construction Department does not have exact figures about the number of foreign buyers, because real estate developers are not required to report the data.

Source: VNN

Vietnam’s economy grows by 7.08% in 2018, highest in 11 years

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The Vietnamese economy grew by 7.08% in 2018, the fastest rate in the past 11 years and beating the target of 6.7%, the General Statistics Office (GSO) has announced.

A breakdown of sectors shows that agriculture grew by 3.76% and contributed 8.7% to GDP growth, while industry and construction expanded by 8.85% and made a 48.6% contribution to the overall growth.

The services sector grew by 7.03% and contributed 42.7%, GSO Director Nguyen Bich Lam said on December 27.

Agriculture’s growth rate was the highest in seven years and came as a result of restructuring efforts in recent years, especially in plant cultivation and aquaculture.

Manufacturing continued to be the main growth driver of the Vietnamese economy, growing by a strong 12.98%, though lower than the figure of 2017 but still higher than during the 2012-2016 period.

Such figures demonstrate that the economy is no longer reliant on the extraction of natural resources when 2018 is the third consecutive year to witness a decline in the mining industry.

Services in 2018 also grew at a faster pace than during the 2012-2016 period with retail, wholesale, financial services, accommodation, catering services and transport all posting decent growth.

According to the GSO, Vietnam’s GDP in the fourth quarter expanded by 7.31% in comparison to the same quarter last year.

The country’s GDP in 2018 was estimated at VND5,535 trillion (US$238 billion), doubling the figure in 2011. The GDP per capita in 2018 rose by US$198 from the previous year to US$2,587.

In 2018 the consumer price index increased by 3.54%, below the target of 4% set by the National Assembly, thanks to the government’s efforts to curb prices.

The GSO said core inflation in 2018, which excludes food, energy and government-regulated goods, rose by 1.48% compared with the previous year.

Headline inflation outpacing core inflation indicates that price increases mainly came from higher food and energy prices and the government’s upward adjustment of medical and educational costs.

In 2019 Vietnam will continue to give priority to macroeconomic stability with inflation targeted at 40%.

Source: NDO

Grab eyes stake in Vinasun, taxi company refuses to play ball

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Grab’s surprise offer to buy a $2.78-million stake in top taxi company Vinasun has failed, with the latter asking to end negotiations.
 The negotiations between the two firms began earlier this month for compensation claimed by Vinasun from the Malaysian ride-hailing firm after the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City yet again adjourned hearing of a suit Vinasun had filed last year.

A Vinasun spokesperson told the court following the latest resumption of the trial Wednesday that his firm had declined the offer since Grab had not made an appropriate offer. “We don’t want to continue the negotiations.”

But Grab does not want the lawsuit to continue.

Its spokesperson said: “We have become very tired during the 17 months of this trial for damages we did not cause. We do not want Vinasun to waste its time on this meaningless lawsuit. We consider the proposal to buy Vinasun’s stake an investment activity, and we expect to cooperate with Vinasun to end the case in a good way.”

Vinasun filed the suit against Grab in June last year, accusing it of abusing the Ministry of Transport’s pilot scheme and committing violations.

It said Grab’s illegal activities were responsible for nearly VND42 billion (nearly $1.8 million) of the VND76 billion ($3.25 million) worth of losses it had suffered in 2016 and the first half of 2017.

The trial began last February, but was adjourned a month later to allow for more evidence to be gathered. Grab had protested against the value of Vinasun’s losses.

Last October prosecutors asked the court to accept Vinasun’s petition for compensation of nearly VND42 billion, rejecting Grab’s claim it was a tech firm and not a taxi company.

Grab responded by writing to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to say that identifying it as a taxi firm would be “a step backward from Industry 4.0.”

The latest draft of a transport ministry decree requires firms offering taxi services to register as taxi firms before they can apply ride-hailing technologies.

This means that Grab and other ride-hailing firms have to register afresh as taxi businesses and comply with legal requirements related to operating licenses, drivers’ profiles and taxes.

Source: Vnexpress

Two tourists die, one injured in Nha Trang boat accident

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Two tourists have died and another left injured when a boat overturned in Nha Trang Bay.

Vice head of the Nha Trang Bay Management Board, Dinh Vinh Tien confirmed on Wednesday evening that the accident occurred at 4 pm near Tri Nguyen Island.

“A group of 23 Chinese tourists were touring the bay by a boat when it suddenly overturned,” Tien said. “Some tourist boats operating near the site rushed in to help rescue the passengers and local rescue forces also arrived soon but two drowned.”

According to reports from local authorities, the victims were identified as a 30-year-old female Chinese tourist, Liu Yuling and a 25-year-old female Vietnamese tourist guide, Ngo Thi Huong. Another Chinese tourist, Liu Zhirui, 4, was injured and being treated at Khanh Hoa Provincial General Hospital.

Director of Khanh Hoa Province’s Department of Transport, Nguyen Van Dan, said that the boat has capacity of 25 passengers and was operated by Phi Long Company.

Initial investigation showed that the boat had a valid operating permit and all the passengers were wearing life jackets,” Dan said. “It did not collide with something. We’re still investigating the cause of the accident.”

A Chinese tourist who joined the tour told Dan Tri/Dtinews on December 26 that as they were going to visit a fishing village, the boat overturned and sank very quickly.

“Some nearby boats and local authorities arrived very soon to save us,” she said.

Covering some 570 square kilometres, Nha Trang Bay has 19 islands with a diverse marine ecosystem.

Source: Dtinews

Search for absconded tourists in Taiwan underway

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Around 150 Vietnamese tourists who were part of an organised tour by an unlicensed tourism company continue to remain missing after they absconded.

On December 21, a group of Vietnamese tourists started the 4-day trip to Taiwan organised by Golden Travel Trade and Tourism Company. On December 24, the tour guide said no one came to the agreed meeting location. A similar situation occurred with three tourist groups who started the trip to Taiwan on December 23 organised by Twin Bright Company who also failed to meet with their guide on December 26.

Taiwanese travel agency, ETholiday, quickly reported the case to Taiwanese Tourism Bureau.

Phan Ngoc Hanh, director of International Holidays Trading Travel Company, said they were only asked by ETholiday to help the tourists to apply for visas and weren’t involved in the organization of the trip. However, HCM City Department of Tourism said they had violated the law when processing tourist visas without arranging any tours or tour guides.

One of the two companies that organised the trips, Twin Bright Company, doesn’t have a licence for organising overseas trips. Golden Travel was only given the licence two months ago.

Ngo Hoai Chung, deputy director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, told Tuoi Tre Online that he suspected that this might be a human trafficking ring for illegal workers. This is the first time such a huge number Vietnamese nationals have tried to disappear in another country.

Chung worried that this case may badly affect the image of Vietnam and visa policy toward Vietnamese citizens. Taiwan has already suspended the granting of tourist group visas for those from Vietnam.

The Taiwanese National Immigration Agency announced that they had found three of the missing people on December 26. The tourists are accused of violating the Human Trafficking Prevention Act, the Immigration Law, and the Employment Services Act.

The agency has set up a task force to investigate and search for the missing people after being informed about the case. They had established contact with one who was previously reported missing, while three others are said to have already left the country.

The tourists arrived in Taiwan under a special programme that allows convenient visa applications for tourist groups from south and southeast asia, if they are organised by supposedly good-quality travel agencies. The Taiwanese authorities said they would revise the programme after this incident.

Source: Dtinews

A new wave of investments in aviation infrastructure in Vietnam

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A significant wave of private investments are flying into aviation infrastructure on the back of improvements in long-term development planning for the sector in Vietnam.

With the master plan to operate 28 airports by 2030, including 15 domestic and 13 international ones, in which Noi Bai, Da Nang, Cam Ranh, Tan Son Nhat and Long Thanh are key international gates, Vietnam is attracting investors to pour money into aviation infrastructure projects.

According to a report on Vietnam News, the Imex Pan-Pacific Trading Group, chaired by Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, has recently sent a document to Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The proposing to join the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) to invest in Passenger Terminal (T3) at Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

This is the second time this year Johnathan has expressed such a desire.

Meanwhile, the real estate developer FLC Group of Trinh Van Quyet is also interested in investing in the aviation sector. The group has received approval in principle from authorities in the central province of Quang Binh to invest in and upgrade Dong Hoi to an international airport.

The provincial People’s Committee said the project would be implemented under a public-private-partnership (PPP) model.

Quang Binh authorities and FLC Group have jointly asked the transport ministry to approve the project, which is expected to raise capacity from 500,000 passengers to ten million by 2020.

One of the typical examples of increased private investment is Van Don International Airport. The airport is the first private one in Vietnam invested in the form of BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer), with investment capital of VND7.5 trillion (USD321.4 million).

The airport is directly invested and operated by Sun Group.

The aviation services at the airport are still managed by the State in accordance with law.

Van Don is approved by the Ministry of Transport (MoT) as an airport of grade 4E (according to ICAO standard code). It is modern with a 3.6km long, 45m wide landing strip and is capable of accommodating large cargo and passenger aircraft. Van Don Airport is scheduled to begin operation this Sunday.

In their latest report, experts from Vietcombank Securities (VCBS) said they witnessed a trend of privatisation in infrastructure investment.

“This trend on one hand reduces pressure on the state budget and improves service quality, on the other hand, it creates a less positive sign for businesses with a large market share in the industry when the market is shared,” said experts fromVCBS.

VCBS experts also assessed that aviation infrastructure had not caught up with the industry’s development. The total passenger transport market of Vietnamese airlines is predicted to increase by an average of 16 per cent per year by 2020 and 8 per cent in the period 2020-30.

The passenger transport volume in 2020 and 2030 is 64 million and 131 million, respectively, according to the transport ministry’s forecast.

Meanwhile, this year witnessed the five biggest airports of Vietnam, Tan Son Nhat, Noi Bai, Da Nang, Cam Ranh and Phu Quoc, all serving passengers exceeding their designed capacity. In particular, Tan Son Nhat Airport exceeded the figure by 40.7 per cent.

“Despite improvements in technology, the process partially meets the increasing number of passengers each year, the expansion and upgrades to these airports is still an indispensable requirement,” VCBS stressed.

According to ACV, in the period 2018-25, there will be 15 key airports that will receive upgrades. Construction works will also be undertaken on Long Thanh International Airport in phase 1 and new passenger terminals for Dien Bien, Na San and Lao Cai airports.

It is expected that the total investment of terminal and apron projects (excluding Long Thành Airport) amounted to more than VNÐ56.7 trillion with capital accumulated from ACV’s business activities. In addition, it needs more than VNÐ20.7 trillion to invest in the airfield projects, with capital accumulated from this area.

In the above projects, investment priority will belong to Tan Son Nhat Airport.

According to Deputy General Director of Vietstar Airlines Luong Hoai Nam, quoted by online newspaper vnexpress.vn at the Vietnam Travel and Tourism Summit held early this month in Hanoi, since 1975, Vietnam has only really built completely and put into operation Phú Quoc Airport and most recently Van Don Airport, the rest are mostly upgraded from military airports with limited land funds, making the ability to expand very slight.

Vietnam has 21 airports, while Thailand has 38. The capacity of all Vietnam’s airports is 75 million passengers per year, which is just one-third of Thailand’s. The combined capacity of all airports in Vietnam is that of Changi Airport of Singapore or Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia.

Ladies Make a Bull Case for Vietnam

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By Shuli Ren, sren38@bloomberg.net

Communist China’s founding father Mao Zedong liked to say “Women hold up half of the sky”. These days, that’s certainly the case in Vietnam.

A high female workforce-participation rate, a vestige of the war, helps the country exploit its demographic dividend. That’s good news for foreign money.

According to Bloomberg, throughout the country, many well-known businesses are run by women. There’s Mai Kieu Lien, who captured the rising middle class’s thirst for protein-rich milk drinks and built Vietnam Dairy Products JSC into a $10 billion empire. Then there’s Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, founder of budget airline VietJet Aviation JSC, who became Vietnam’s first female billionaire – and not just because of its bikini-clad flight attendants. Vietnam’s hourglass Hanoi-to-Ho Chi Minh City geography makes flying an efficient option in a nation that’s yet to build a high-speed rail line between the two megacities.

Riding the consumer-spending wave lifted Cao Thi Ngoc Dung’s Phu Nhuan Jewelry JSC. And if you’re seeking an industrialist, look no further than Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh of Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corp.

At 73 percent, Vietnam’s female labor-participation rate is among the highest in the world. The country’s women are also avid business pioneers: For every male early-stage entrepreneur, there are 1.4 female ones, estimates Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Women contribute 40 percent of the nation’s wealth, nearly on par with China.

There’s a historical reason for this. With so many men killed during the Vietnam War, women had to fill the void. In 1976, there were only 95 men for every 100 women between the ages of 25 and 64. By 1986, when Doi Moi reform launched, women still comprised the majority of society and got a nice ride out of the move toward capitalism. You might say the spirit behind Rosie the Riveter, the symbol of American women who worked in U.S. factories during World War II, is very much alive in Vietnam.

Even as Vietnam recovers from a bruising war and its gender ratio converges back to parity, women aren’t dropping out of the labor force. The government has working moms’ backs: Maternity leave mandated by law is a generous six months.

This is all music to foreign investors’ ears.

Consider why global investors prefer one developing country over another. With fresh memories of the billions of dollars in wealth created in China, many are looking for China 2.0. They’re seeking countries with the right demographics – young, eager workers building manufacturing hubs, and in turn, using fatter pay checks to buy their first cars or designer handbags.

Looking at the overall population, Vietnam is only the world’s 15th largest country, smaller than Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines. But most of its rivals come with demographic dividend discounts. The women labor-force participation rate in Pakistan and Bangladesh, for instance, is a paltry 25 percent and 33 percent, respectively. Taking that into account, the real working age population (between 15 and 64) would be only 37 percent and 45 percent, instead of the official 61 percent and 67 percent.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. When a country starts replicating China’s manufacturing model, it often has to export low value-added products first, such as apparel and shoes. While Vietnam is quickly moving up the ladder into smartphones and semiconductors, the biggest chunk of its exports to the U.S. last year remained textiles. Who stitches clothes and sews shoes? Women.

The strong Rosie culture is one reason why Vietnam is the only emerging Asian nation outside of China that received net foreign portfolio inflows in this bear-market year. Many investors are betting Vietnam will be the big winner as the trade war between the U.S. and China drags on. And even before the sparring started, Chinese companies, such as textile manufacturing giant Shenzhou International Group Holdings Ltd., had already opened factories there.

To be sure, it’s not all blue skies. According to McKinsey Global Institute, the perceived wage gap for similar work is much higher in Vietnam than in neighboring Malaysia or the Philippines. Unfortunately, just like China and India, boys are seen as the better sex – the sex ratio at birth is a stubbornly high 1.10 as women abort female babies. As the middle class becomes wealthier, women may be discouraged by gender income inequality and prefer to stay at home.

For the time being, though, Vietnam is still the hot destination for foreign investments, and it has its strong, capable women to thank.

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