Toyota remained best-selling carmaker in Vietnam for many years. But, it doesn’t seem to be the most popular car brand in Vietnam
Not only in Vietnam, World Cars Brand Ranking updated at October 2018 with the Top 50 Brands reported. Toyota leadership is undisputed with a safe gap over Volkswagen. Ford is falling down while Nissan and Honda are fighting for the fourth place. Geely is the fastest growing brand in the World.
But, the fact that you will see “Discovery” labeled on many vehicles in Vietnam everyday.
“Discovery” is one of the world’s most versatile off road SUVs by Land Rover, a luxury car brand that specializes in four-wheel-drive vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover.
“Discovery” label
In the U.S, “Discovery” is a pay television channel that is the flagship and namesake television property of Discovery, Inc.
The Discovery ChannelDiscovery on a Chevrolet Spark in VietnamDiscovery on a Ford Fiesta in Hanoi, VietnamDiscovery on a HyundaiOn a Infiniti SUVand even on a Kia Morning
Residents in Saigon were taken by surprise early on Tuesday morning as sudden rain lashed the southern metropolis, throwing life out of gear for a brief period.
Commuters, who were caught unaware of the sudden change in weather condition, had difficult reaching their destinations, while some arrived at their workplace soaked. Tuoi Tre Newspaper reports.
The heavy downpour for half an hour did not leave any part of the city flooded, but resulted in heavy traffic in some areas.
Cloudy weather was observed in several parts in Ho Chi Minh City early in the morning, before it started to rain.
Don’t worry at all if your time is almost covered with rain.
The sudden heavy rain in District 2 caused a slight congestion on the Hanoi Highway section near the Saigon Bridge, as people rushing to work and parents taking their children to school failed to seek shelter.
The rain lasted from 7:30 am to 8:00 am, when it became sunny again.
“The sudden rain in Ho Chi Minh City was the result of an enhanced cold front that also brought about downpours in central Vietnam and temperature drops in the north” said an Official of the Southern Weather Forecast Station.
The rainfall recorded on Tuesday morning was only 40-50mm, he said, adding that it was an unusual rain as southern Vietnam entered the dry season in late November.
According to the Southern Weather Forecast Station, similar unexpected rains were also reported in other southern provinces including Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Long An and Ba Ria-Vung Tau on Tuesday morning.
The station warned that these localities will brace more thunderstorms and strong winds through the rest of the day.
Provinces and cities in central Vietnam from Nghe An to Phu Yen will continue to suffer rains and heavy downpours on Tuesday, whereas provinces along the central coast from Quang Binh to Quang Ngai will see extremely heavy rains with a rainfall of up to 200mm.
Temperatures will remain low in northern Vietnam, with rain and mecury as low as 12 degrees Celcius forecast for Hanoi.
If Malaysia team want to win over Vietnam to achieve a first leg in the 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup final, these 5 things that must happen for Malaysia to beat Vietnam.
According to a report on Goal Malaysia, the stage is set for the first installment of the titanic clash between Malaysia and Vietnam at Bukit Jalil National Stadium that will decide which among these two nations will be crowned AFF champions for only the second time in their history.
The route taken by both team to reach the showpiece final couldn’t be any more stark with Vietnam practically strolling their way to this stage but Malaysia stuttered along the way but eventually warmed up to the task and can now strive to match the efforts of the 2010 team.
Going to Hanoi to play at My Dinh Stadium in the second leg will be a tall order for Harimau Malaya, which is why in order for them to have some measure of hope, Tan Cheng Hoe and his boys will have to strive to take a first leg lead.
1. Goal looks at what needs to happen in order for it to be a successful night for Malaysia.
Against Thailand at the same venue, Malaysia got off to a fantastic start and immediately from the kick off, were putting their opponent on the back foot. That did two things for the team. First of which is that it roused an already boisterous crowd to a whole new level and secondly, it made the opponent timid. Milovan Rajevac explained as much after the match that seeing how the first period of the first half transpired, it made him sat his team deep to defend.
The same could occur on Tuesday, even more so that Park is well-known to be a coach that prioritises not conceding as the foremost important target to achieve in a match. It might even be the case that Park will be looking to “park a bus”, which could well be forced into a deeper position should Malaysia start in a very aggressive manner. Out of the six matches that Vietnam have been involved in thus far, they have only had more possession in two matches which was against Laos and Cambodia, which goes to show the coach’s inclination.
2. Break the resolute 3-man defence
Nguyen Cong Phuong
Park has stuck with his 3-man backline throughout the tournament that sees Que Ngoc Hai and Do Duy Manh to the left and right of Tran Dinh Trong. Both Ngoc Hai and Duy Manh are very physical in their approach and combined, they easily snuffed out Shahrel Fikri in the group stage match played in Hanoi almost a month ago. Dinh Trong acts as the security behind the more aggressive duo, looking to sweep whenever one of his partners slip up.
In the final, Zaquan Adha is expected to start but if he’s to be up front alone, then it is unlikely that he will make much headway as he will constantly be double-teamed whether that is Ngoc Hai and Dinh Trong or Duy Manh and Dinh Trong. Norshahrul Idlan Talaha must be pushed further forward and closer to Zaquan not only to support but to take some numerical advantage away from Vietnam’s defence. The runs from deep of Syamer Kutty Abba may also forced one of the centre backs to come out of their zone and thus cause chaos at the back.
3. Beware of the quick transitions on the counter
This is where Malaysia failed in the first encounter between the two teams in the competition this year. Vietnam used the quick movement off the counter attack to good effect and took advantage of Malaysia’s poor positioning and scored twice using the same tactic. That match saw Vietnam purposely targeting the area between Malaysia’s right back and centre back, with a brand new partnership expected to feature there in the final (Amirul Azhan and Irfan Zakaria), Tan Cheng Hoe will have to drum it into the players to constantly be aware of the space.
The quick transition can also be stopped from the source with the likes of Luong Xuan Truong and Nguyen Quang Hai to be targeted and denied time and space on the ball to spray passes forward. The roles of Syamer Kutty and Akram Mahinan will be crucial for this and their concentration levels must be maintained throughout the 90 minutes to ensure that neither Vietnam players escape their attention.
4. Pray for nerveless display
Like it or not, Cheng Hoe will have to make changes for the final. With Syahmi suspended and both Syazwan Andik and Aidil Zafuan still training separately from the rest of the team on the morning of the day before the match, unless both makes a rapid recovery in 24 hours, their place in the team look to be taken by somebody else. Irfan Zakaria came into the fray against Thailand and produced a jittery performance.
Nazirul Naim also started nervously but improved progressively against Thailand and is less of a worry. The bigger concern would be on Amirul and this final being his first appearance in the competition. However, with Shahrul Saad in the starting XI, playing alongside two of his Perak team mates could help ease Amirul into the thick of things. Vietnam will pounce on the first sign of weakness from Malaysia and it is important that Amirul is provided plenty of support from Mohamadou Sumareh or one of the midfielders.
5. Black and yellow wall must be there
Malaysia Fans
In the 2017 SEA Games final because of ticketing issues and the Malaysia team were robbed of the presence of the Ultras Malaya who have pushed the team on since the start of the tournament. The same ticketing troubles has propped up once again with many complaining that they couldn’t get hold of tickets for the final. One has to hope that the Ultras at least managed to get theirs.
There’s no doubt that their singing and support throughout the semi-final played a big part in helping Malaysia secure a good result against Thailand in the first leg and the same is very much needed against Vietnam. A cacophony of noise is generated by the thousands sitting together in the stands and the aura of it all could have a huge impact on the minds of young Vietnamese players who may not have been in a similar situation before.
Freedom. Independence. Happiness. These words in Vietnam appear on correspondence to and from government agencies, and in posters and signs in meeting rooms across the country.
It is a motto that was used to buoy courage in warfare against foreign powers and to anchor reconstruction pursuits during the post-war phase. But today, whilst these words are visibly prevalent, they may not be sufficient to inspire a dynamic, young population in a changing world. Vietnam seeks allies to navigate not only this external landscape but also to collaborate to fulfill its potential, and that of its role within the region and beyond. Australia can be this partner.
According to a report by Cat Thao Nguyen on The Australian Financial Review, the relationship already has deep roots. In 1973, two years before the fall of Saigon, Australia established an embassy in Hanoi. The US trade and aid embargoes prevented Vietnam from accessing finance from multilateral agencies such as the World Bank as well as US private sector trade. In the midst of this, Australia approved aid support, which was critical.
Vietnam plays a “central” and “vitally important” part in the Indo-Pacific strategy of the U.S. while Hanoi’s success is Washington’s national interest, Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink said at a dialogue in Ho Chi Minh City last week.
“President Trump chose the APEC CEO Summit in Da Nang last year to deliver America’s vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific because Vietnam represents one of the United States’ most important bilateral partnerships,” Ambassador Kritenbrink said on Friday.
“Vietnam’s success is America’s national interest.”
Under the Trump administration, Washington favors a free and open Indo-Pacific where the U.S. and its allies will deploy more resources amid China’s growing dominance.
Vietnam plays a “central, vitally important” part in this strategy, Kritenbrink told Tuoi Tre News at the Indo-Pacific Dialogue – Vietnam 2018.
He quoted a World Bank report on Vietnam being the world’s second-fastest growing economy for the last two decades. This institution also forecasts Vietnam to be the world’s fastest-growing economy for the next two decades.
“It shows how important Vietnam is for the U.S. and for many countries in the world,” the diplomat told Tuoi Tre News.
“It is up to Vietnam to chart a path that embraces market-oriented reforms and private-sector solutions [which] we believe will help it integrate into the global economy and contribute to its long-term economic security.”
Both governments are working with each other to open the markets for U.S. products and services, and level the playing field for foreign investments, he said.
Elaborating on the Indo-Pacific strategy amid doubt over its influence vis-à-vis the Belt and Road Initiative, the ambassador said, “We are not going to follow China’s development model. We are not going to force Vietnam and other countries in the region to take on American debt.”
The Belt and Road Initiative is a strategy adopted by the Chinese government to advance infrastructure development and investments in Europe, Asia and Africa.
In his keynote address at the dialogue, Kritenbrink emphasized Washington’s focus on encouraging strategic cooperation with the region.
Total U.S. investment in the Indo-Pacific is now over US$1.4 trillion — more than that of China, Japan, and South Korea combined.
Instead of pouring state-dominated funding into the region, the U.S. prefers to concentrate on high-quality private-sector investment, Kritenbrink said.
The U.S. considers the role of the private sector so pivotal that it will finance the growth and development needs of the rising economies in the Indo-Pacific region.
He explained that countries which rely on state-dominated funding for development will come up short by crowding out the high-quality private-sector investment their economies need most.
“The United States government is not going to force countries in the region to take on huge government bad debt. The United States government is not going to pour trillions of dollars into investment,” he told Tuoi Tre News.
“[Our] private sector investment is already over a trillion dollars, so I wouldn’t compare Chinese government funds with American government funds. I would compare the cumulative effect of American investment and economic engagement well over a trillion dollars.”
He also expressed his pride in the U.S. private sector’s strong track record in the Indo-Pacific.
The U.S. is said to be the largest source of investment in the region, and the cumulative value of its foreign direct investment reached $940 billion last year – more than double that of 2007.
Unfavorable movements in the region made investors on Vietnam’s stock market more cautious on December 10 and indexes lost ground. One positive was demand, which stemmed the decline.
The VN-Index closed at 955.89 points, down 2.70 points (0.28 per cent), while elsewhere on HSX the VN30-Index finished at 922.82 points, down 6.77 points (0.73 per cent).
On HNX, the HNX-Index closed at 106.82 points, down 0.32 points (0.30 per cent), the HNX30-Index 193.44 points, down 0.91 points (0.47 per cent), and the UPCoM-Index 53.34 points, down 0.44 points (0.82 per cent).
Liquidity on HSX was VND2.8 trillion ($120.2 billion) and on HNX was VND432.8 billion ($18.6 million).
Food and beverage stocks to gain ground included TLG, DQC, BHN, VNM and SAB, by 2.4, 1.9, 1.2, 0.8 and 0.3 per cent, as KDC lost 1.6 per cent and VCF closed at its opening price.
In banking, MSN gained 1.2 per cent and TCB 0.9 per cent, as TPB lost 2.1 per cent, MBB 1.8 per cent, SSI 1.3 per cent, EIB 0.7 per cent, VCB 0.5 per cent, and VPB 0.2 per cent. BID closed at its opening price.
In energy, PVD rose 2.8 per cent, GAS 1.5 per cent, and PLX 0.5 per cent, as NT2 lost 1.7 per cent and PPC 1.3 per cent. PGD closed at its opening price.
The Top 5 shares bought by foreign investors were VNM, BID, KBC, MSN and VSC.
HPG was the largest net sold share on HSX, followed by VIC, VJC, GAS and SSI.
VC3 was the largest net sold share on HNX, followed by PVS, PVB, VGC and PTI.
With MP Logistics as franchise partner, initial focus to be on long-term rentals with chauffeur.
The world’s largest car rental provider, Enterprise Holdings, has announced that its Enterprise Rent-A-Car brand is now available for the first time in Vietnam. The announcement follows the appointment of MP Logistics as Enterprise’s franchise partner last year.
The launch is part of Enterprise Holdings’ goal of expanding access to its car rental services throughout Asia and the Pacific.
The Enterprise Rent-A-Car business in Vietnam will operate from Ho Chi Minh City. The strategy for the first year will be to grow a base of corporate customers by focusing on MP Logistics’ current clients and the employees of multinational companies with operations in Vietnam. The initial emphasis will be on long-term rentals with a chauffeur.
“Customers come to Enterprise for excellent customer service and exceptional value,” said Mr. Peter Smith, Vice President of Global Franchising at Enterprise. “They want the same experience whether they walk into a branch in Ho Chi Minh City, London or Dallas. Enterprise shares many qualities with MP Logistics, including private ownership and a focus on service, which makes it the right choice as a franchise partner. Vietnam is an increasingly important business destination and access to high-quality transport is a vital part of the equation.”
MP Logistics estimates that international customers who live and work in Ho Chi Minh City will typically rent a vehicle from one to five years. The vehicles will be driven by local drivers, which may be necessary for business customers who don’t have experience driving on Vietnamese roads.
As the business grows, coupled with the integration of reservation technology, Enterprise Holdings will look to introduce its other world-leading car rental brands – National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car. It will also expand its services to include short-term, chauffeur-driven options, self-drive rentals, and leisure hire at popular tourist destinations such as Da Nang.
Founded in 1995 by Mr. Minh Phuong Dang, MP Logistics is a family-owned company that specializes in air and ocean freight, warehousing, distribution, project cargo, and inland transportation. The Ho Chi Minh City-headquartered company has experienced rapid and consistent growth and now has more than 1,200 employees and operations in the cities of Da Nang, Hai Phong and the capital, Hanoi.
With a reputation for delivering exceptional customer service throughout the region, the company’s current fleet provides long-term rentals for international business executives who work and live in Vietnam.
“Partnering with the world’s largest rental car organization opens up international opportunities for our business and is a major next step in enabling us to provide the best service to our customers at home and from overseas,” said Mr. Cuong Dang, Vice Chairman of MP Logistics. “It was important to us that Enterprise is a business with strong values underpinned by a commitment to customer service. It is these shared values that will enable us to succeed as we expand our joint business across Southeast Asia.”
Berly D Alvarez, chairman of the Philippines’s Kaunlad Lending Investors Corporation said, Vietnam is among the few Asean member countries to consistently improve its attractiveness to foreign investors due to its growing economy and improving business climate, according to experts.
At the “2018 Horasis Asia Meeting”, held recently in Bình Dương province, Berly D Alvarez said Vietnam’s ability to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) was due to its consistent economic reform, a young and increasingly urbanised population, affordable labour, constant improvements to its business climate, and political stability.
The fact that it hosted the 2017 APEC meetings highlights its regional economic integration and steadily improving business climate, he added.
According to a report on Vietnam News, Vietnam has been attracting investment in infrastructure, including power projects, road and rail construction and renewable energy.
Don Lam, CEO of VinaCapital, said Vietnam’s economy remained strong with 6.6-per-cent growth targeted next year, inflation remaining under control and manufacturing expanding.
“More foreign investment is expected to flow into Vietnam in the coming time,” he said.
Pakpoom Vallisuta, chairman of The Quant Group Corporation, a leading Thai investment banking adviser, told Viet Nam News that Vietnam is expected to achieve 6.8-per-cent economic growth in 2019.
Market reforms also help attract investment, he said.
Phạm Hồng Hải, CEO of HSBC Vietnam, said: “We also see potential trade diversion as US import demand shifts away from China to other Asean markets like Vietnam.”
While this trend is a good sign for the development of the country, it also puts more pressure on the country and businesses to develop infrastructure, he said.
“So improving labour productivity through better education and vocational training, I think, should thus be a priority for the government,” he added.
While it is true that a large portion of the workforce can transition from agriculture, most might move only to low-end manufacturing and there remains a dearth of qualified workers to advance to higher positions, the chief executive explained.
The government has made efforts like improving the quality of primary and secondary education, but more needs to be done.
Improving tertiary education and vocational training, boosting private-sector-led in-house training, and providing lifelong learning opportunities are some of the reforms needed if the country wants to take full advantage of its current demographic “sweet spot” and the possible trade diversion.
Experts recommended that Vietnamese businesses should take advantage of “Industry 4.0”, investing more in technology to enhance their competitiveness.
In addition, policy reforms to attract even more foreign investment are important for future growth and raising the country’s competitiveness, especially in sectors like infrastructure and manufacturing, they said.
Challenges
Vietnam’s business climate still faces numerous challenges like underdeveloped legal framework, relatively high risk of corruption, poor protection of intellectual property rights, and limited availability of skilled and productive workers, according to Alvarez.
The judicial system and infrastructure in Vietnam need improvement, as do higher education and vocational training, he said.
Some companies could put up factories in Vietnam due to the US- China trade war, but the country’s generally low-quality workforce and technological capacity could be a big hurdle, he added.
Pakpoom said that though the US had spread its manufacturing to more countries, and this could benefit them, the global slowdown and market volatility could have a bigger impact than the benefits.
Companies could also prefer a familiar eco-system and abundance of goods rather than just affordable labour, he said.
Vietnam needs to reduce its over-reliance on global value chains by targeting Asean as a source of demand for products in sectors such as agriculture and electronics.
Lam said: “I think the [US-China] trade war will likely lead to increased foreign direct investment in Vietnam as companies look to move manufacturing operations to the country, and we are likely to see continued export growth.”
In the short term Vietnam should benefit, but, ultimately, this sort of tension between the world’s two largest economies is not productive for the global economy and could have ramifications in the longer term if not resolved, he added.
Alvarez said the country should aim for more “high-quality” FDI inflows, focusing on projects that use modern, environmentally friendly technologies and competitive products that could be part of the global production network and value chain.
According to the Vietnam Foreign Investment Agency, the country had attracted US$30.8 billion worth of registered FDI this year, as of November 20.
More than 8bn Tetra Paks are sold every year in Vietnam – and only a few percent are recycled. It’s having a devastating effect on the environment.
It takes 45 minutes to pick up all the milk cartons that have washed up on Long Hai beach overnight. “I feel like all I do is collect them,” says Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tham, gesturing towards the quiet length of sand that fronts her beach house in the south of Vietnam. “I fill about three or four bags every morning, but then there will be a big wave, and when I look back over my shoulder the sand is covered again.”
According to a report by Corinne Redfern on The Guardian, milk cartons aren’t the only rubbish that washes up on her shores; bottles of Coca-Cola float in the shallows next to odd shoes, bin bags and sodden bits of cardboard. Once or twice a year, there’s a dead body. “The milk cartons are the most difficult,” she explains. “I can get rid of everything else. Local waste pickers will buy the plastic and the paper from me, and I call the police for the corpses. Nobody will take the milk cartons from me.”
Milk consumption in Vietnam has almost doubled in the past 10 years, as the dairy industry shifts its focus from “saturated” western markets in favour of Asian expansion and is now valued at $4.1bn (£3.1bn). But one of the biggest beneficiaries of this growth seems to be the dairy industry’s principal packaging supplier, Tetra Pak. Last year, 8.1bn of Tetra Pak’s individual cartons were sold across Vietnam. Yet a comprehensive country-wide recycling programme is yet to be implemented. Now, as cartons pile up on beaches and in landfills up and down the country, that’s having a devastating effect on the environment.
Shop worker Hong An at a Vinamilk store in Ho Chi Minh City | Photographs by Francesco Brembati
When the Guardian asked Tetra Pak who was recycling their waste, the company told us that there were two facilities in the country: Dong Tien plant in Binh Tanh and Thuan An in Binh Duong. Dong Tien invited the Guardian to come and visit. Thuan An declined to comment.
Tetra Pak told the Guardian that they are recycling 18,000 metric tonnes of cartons a year, with 93,000 packs per tonne, which would mean that they are currently recycling about 20% of their output. The principal recycling plant, they said, is Dong Tien.
But during a tour of the Dong Tien plant, kindly laid on by vice director Phan Quyet Tien, the Guardian was told that although at its peak in 2016 the plant was processing 300-400 tonnes of Tetra Pak packaging a month, they now only process 100 tonnes in the same time frame. So at its peak Dong Tien was recycling just 5.5%(over a year) of all the cartons sold in Vietnam. Now, according to its vice director, that has sunk to just over 1%. Quyet Tien was not aware of the partnership between Tetra Pak and the Thuan An recycling plant. To his knowledge, there used to be another plant in Long An which was able to recycle the packaging, but is no longer able to do so.
“Recycling Tetra Pak cartons is possible, but only if you have the right systems and technology in place,” he explains. “In the past, we bought Tetra Pak waste directly from Tetra Pak, and we also bought milk cartons from informal collectors and litter pickers across the country. But the latter has proved financially ineffective, and it was impossible for us to make a profit.
These days, the Dong Tien plant only accepts waste materials sent directly by the Tetra Pak-affiliated dairy companies themselves. “Between 30% and 50% of the product is aluminium and plastic, and the rest is paper,” says Quyet Tien. “But it’s not simply a matter of mashing the cardboard down or melting the plastic – we have to extract each separate layer and treat them all in different ways.” The process still isn’t cost-effective he says, but it’s their social responsibility to do what they can to help the environment – even if it’s not enough. “We’d love to be able to recycle the cartons that people use and throw away afterwards – I’m sure many recycling plants would – but we get very little support from Tetra Pak themselves and we’re not a charity.”
The result? A country festooned with empty milk cartons. You’ll see clusters outside primary schools and nurseries: one million primary school children get a free carton of sweetened milk at school every day, thanks to a Tetra Pak-supported governmental project. A waste education programme is being piloted in 30 kindergartens, but what happens to the five million cartons at the end of each school week still depends on the institution. “We try to use as many cartons as we can for our arts and crafts lessons,” says Phung Thi Dung, 38, who has been working as a primary school teacher in the Ba Ria province for ten years. “But the rest just get thrown away. I’m not sure where they end up.”
On Long Hai beach Ngoc Tham isn’t sure what to do with the cartons she gathers. Once a week she burns them after sending her 14-year-old son, Phuc Thinh, inside and instructing him to close all the windows and doors to prevent the fumes from seeping inside. Her nearest neighbours – an elderly couple whose beach hut is 300m away – often come storming down the sand to complain about the smell.
Those at the country’s “informal waste stations” admit they don’t have the answers either. Le Thi Anh, 75, works alongside her teenage grandson to sort through the sacks of rubbish dropped off by litter pickers from across the region. “In around 2013 the number of milk cartons being brought to us began to increase quite dramatically,” she says. “We bought them at the start, because somebody told us that recycling plants would buy them to make roofing tiles. But when we took them to the factory, they said it was impossible and they sent us away.” In the end, she burned the cartons in an unofficial landfill nearby. “The smoke was so strong I was coughing for a week.”
Thi Anh was right about one thing: Tetra Pak cartons can be made into corrugated roofing tiles – utilising between 95% and 97% of the multi-layered packaging in the process. “On average, we produce 5,000 tiles every month,” says Quyet Tien over at Dong Thien. Unfortunately, they’re also twice as expensive as normal roof tiles. “As a result, we have to manufacture to order, because so few construction companies are willing to pay that price and we don’t want to be left with any excess,” he explains.
The problem may yet worsen. Next May the company will open Vietnam’s first domestic packaging plant on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. Worth $110m, the factory will be capable of producing 20bn cartons a year – foreshadowing a presumed increase in dairy consumption of yet another 50%.
For now, in the absence of any economically viable recycling solutions, Tetra Pak cartons in urban areas of Vietnam are collected by local authority-licensed municipal rubbish collection services, such as Citenco, to be disposed of in large landfill sites across the country. In Ba Ria, the cartons largely end up in a Korean-owned rubbish dump spanning 30 hectares (74 acres) – the largest in the region. There’s no sorting or recycling involved. It’s estimated that between 76%-82% of non-recyclable urban waste in Vietnam ends up in managed landfills. But for those in rural regions, where only 10% of waste is collected by the licensed authorities, the majority ends up dumped by the side of the road or in the sea.
Environmental experts are concerned. Mia MacDonald is the executive director of policy research organisation Brighter Green. “I find it strange and unsettling that so little is known about what happens to Tetra Pak packaging when it’s being distributed in such vast quantities across regions such as Vietnam,” she says. “Tetra Pak appear to have seen the potential for growth in south-east Asia, and are now trying to capitalise on that with small, single-use cartons that are quickly consumed and then thrown away. And the packaging appears benign: it’s not obviously plastic or glass or metal – it presents itself as recyclable. ”
An open-air dump site in La Gi province
“When Tetra Pak came to Vietnam in 1994, drinking milk was almost non-existent,” says the company’s in-country spokesperson, Ta Bao Long. “It was always just sweetened condensed milk … which was given to babies and ill people. We had to educate the customers about the convenience and safety of drinking milk from a portable, disposable carton.”
The company concedes that more needs to be done to develop recycling across Vietnam. “We’ve been proactively working on recycling since 2004, scouting for recyclers and seeking support from the government as well as NGOs. We started working with the first recycler in 2006,” Jason Pelz, regional circular economy director for Tetra Pak told the Guardian. “We agree more needs to be done. Over the past few years we have worked with our partners to build a total recycling capacity of 18,000 metric tonnes per year. The bottleneck is collection and segregation. We will continue to work closely with the government as well as other partners to increase the beverage carton collection and recycling in Vietnam.”
“We would like to strengthen recycling ability by discussing with [a] recycler in the north; which would bring more convenience in transportation and logistics,” says Ly Trang, Tetra Pak’s sustainability manager in Vietnam. “We are always looking for partners in the recycling/waste collection sector, who have the same vision … Waste management, segregation and collection in Vietnam [is not] at a mature stage yet so there is a lot of work to do.” Pelz added: “Recyclables are not sorted by consumers to be collected in different streams, and the collection of recyclables is often done voluntarily by waste pickers based on the value they can sell to the junk shops. This adversely impacts the recycling of most recyclables, because clearly you can’t recycle effectively when the waste is mixed. The Vietnamese government sees the need to build the infrastructure … We fully support the government initiative and are actively doing our part.”
Litter chokes a beach in Binh Thuan province @ Photographs by Francesco Brembati/ the Guardian
“Recycling has to be supported by Tetra Pak and the milk industry, because they’re the ones making huge profits,” says Quyet Tien, adding that the Dong Tien recycling plant needs to upgrade its carton processing technology, but can’t afford it. “If Tetra Pak don’t offer to supply it to us, we will have to drop the programme completely and Tetra Pak can find someone new – or they can try recycling it themselves and see how difficult it is.”
In the last FTSE’s annual review published in September 2018, Vietnam was added to the watch list for possible upgrade to Secondary Emerging Market in the future. In general, a country needs to be on the watch list for at least one year before a possible upgrading announcement and then another year before the official reclassification. Therefore, in an ideal scenario, Vietnam reach this status in September 2020.
Kuwait, China A shares and Saudi Arabia were the newest Secondary Emerging markets. Let’s have a look at their journeys below and see how close Vietnam is to the status.
Figure: FTSE’s upgrading process for Secondary Emerging Market in recent years
Kuwait: after being added to the watch list in September 2008, Kuwait had to wait for ten years before achieving the status in 2018. The outstanding criteria was “Clearing & Settlement – T+2/T+3” which was addressed in May 2017 by the country. See table below for “Quality of Markets Matrix”.
China A shares: increasing accessibility of the China A-share market for international investors was a long-lasting problem for China. It refers to the “formal stock market regulatory authorities actively monitoring the market” criteria which was finally met by the country in early 2018, just before the upgrading announcement from FTSE.
Saudi Arabia: after three years of being on the watch list, the country fulfilled two outstanding criteria which were “settlement – rare incidences of failed trades” and “clearing & settlement – T+2/T+3”. At a result, FTSE announced the upgrade of Saudi Arabia in September 2018.
To sum up, all three countries were added to the FTSE’s watch list even when they were still not meeting all criteria. The upgrading announcement came right after they fulfilled the requirements. Considering that Vietnam was added to the watch list while it had met nine out of nine criteria, we believe if it can maintain these conditions throughout the ongoing review year, Vietnam will be upgraded to Secondary Emerging Market status in 2020.
Whether or not the Christmas rally started early, this week marks the 3rd consecutive week of gains, as the market rallied 3.5% WoW.
Since November 9th the VNIndex has gained 4.9%. Early in the week, investors were celebrating (perhaps too enthusiastically) the news from the Buenos Aires meeting between Tump and Xi. Following Asian markets upward, the VNIndex jumped 2.7% to 951.59 pts on Monday alone. Liquidity improved and we saw total matching value on the HOSE soar up to VND3,531 billion (~USD153.5mn), from an average of VND2,340bn (~USD101.7mn) the previous week. Moreover, cash flow returned to large cap shares driving the VN30 index up 3.01% to 921.72 pts on Monday. Our TA guys believe that this was an important technical indicator showing a highly possible recovery for the Vietnamese stock market.
Sentiment was relatively positive for most of the week, until Thursday’s of Huawei’s CFO arrest in Canada on behalf of the US which spooked investors in early trading. However, despite strong intraday volatility, the VNIndex managed to close only slightly down, to 954.82 pts, -0.24% from Wednesday. This was the smallest decline among Asian markets.
Increasingly local investors are starting to believe that the Vietnamese stocks are uncorrelated to the rest of the world, and that they can follow its upward trail, no matter where global indexes go. That might have been the case since early November.
However, we all know what happens when risk-off sentiment returns and markets move in unison. My point is that investors may want to be cautiously optimistic and look for attractive prices for shares of quality companies that have dropped to more reasonable valuations.
How close is Vietnam to the FTSE’s Secondary Emerging Market status?
In the last FTSE’s annual review published in September 2018, Vietnam was added to the watch list for possible upgrade to Secondary Emerging Market in the future.
Kuwait, China A shares and Saudi Arabia were the newest Secondary Emerging markets.
Kuwait had to wait for ten years before achieving the status in 2018. The outstanding criteria was “Clearing & Settlement – T+2/T+3” addressed in May 2017 by the country.
China A shares: increasing accessibility of the China A-share market for international investors was a long-lasting problem for China.
Saudi Arabia fulfilled “settlement – rare incidences of failed trades” and “clearing & settlement – T+2/T+3”. Hence, FTSE upgraded Saudi Arabia in September 2018.
Considering that Vietnam was added to the watch list while it had met nine out of nine criteria, we believe if it can maintain these conditions throughout the ongoing review year, Vietnam will be upgraded to Secondary Emerging Market status in 2020.
Pharmaceutical – Steady but Slow Progress
We only have a NEUTRAL view on the pharmaceutical industry for 2019 even though the transition progress in hospital channels may somehow speed up.
According to UNFPA, although Vietnam is still a young country, the population entered the “aging phase” in 2017. An aging population means more spending on pensions and healthcare.
Healthcare spending leaning towards the ‘hospital channel’: According to BMI, sales of the Vietnam pharmaceutical market is USD5.3bn of which sales to hospitals account for 70%.
As rising spending for healthcare is only a matter of time, the government needs to control costs. This will also help control inflation of healthcare.
Some domestic manufacturers, namely PME and IMP, won the bid in Tier 1 and Tier 2, typically dominated by foreign drugs. However, the amount has not reached our expectations.
However, winners will be the one who manage to sell the drugs to end-users
Risks
Policy risk is the major issue as the industry is heavily policy dependent.
FTAs coming into effect would lower the imported tax for foreign drugs.
High input price will likely remain due to the environment protection act from China.
FPT Online – New digital media listing on UPCoM
Ever since Yeah1! (HSX: YEG) listed, I’ve been hoping for more digital media stocks to list here. And next Monday December 10th, we’ll have one. FPT Online (UPCoM: FOC) will be FPT Corporation’s fifth subsidiary to list in Vietnam.
FPT Online publishes the online newspapers VnExpress, Ngoi Sao and iOne in Vietnamese and VnExpress International in English. Traffic data for iOne and VnExpress International are unavailable as those websites are sub-domains to VnExpress.
The starting price has been set at VND110,000 (US$4.7) per share, which infers a market cap of VND1.55 trillion (USD66.3 million). At that price, the stock would be trading at 5.8x its 2018E EPS. Expect little liquidity as FPT and its related companies own ~85% of the 14.08 million shares. So there’s a pretty good chance the price will jump to the upper on the first day, and will trade in a similar was as Viettel Post. From market chatter on the OTC, we heard that blocks were changing hands at VND140,000 per share.
This year, FPT Online targets revenue of VND570 billion (USD24.8mn) and after-tax profit of VND267.2 billion (USD11.6mn).
Making late investments in high technology could cause a bank to lag behind, but if a bank goes too fast and customers are not ready, it will suffer losses.
Established in 2008, TP Bank has a limited network of branches and transaction offices. It experienced liquidity shock in 2011, but has become a ‘rising star’ in the banking sector.
What attracts customers most is LiveBank, a digital banking service of the Bank. LiveBank can serve nearly all kinds of banking transactions without tellers.
LiveBank has great advantages over normal ATMs because it allows customers to conduct many kinds of transactions, and over banking officers because it can work 24/7 hours with very high efficiency.
To date, TP Bank has 90 LiveBanks and plans to raise the number to 400 by 2020, which is equal to the number of transaction offices of the banks leading in networks, such as Sacombank, ACB and Eximbank.
In the last few years, banks have launched online transaction channels, such as internet banking and mobile banking. However, the channels work independently and customers need to choose the appropriate channels.
For instance, if customers carry out a transaction on mobile phones and the transaction is suddenly interrupted, they will not be able to continue the transaction on computers or at the counter. They will have to restart the transactions from the very beginning.
However, this inconvenience has been settled by Omni-Channel banking platform at OCB. The bank is also going to build a multi-utility ecosystem based on the omni-channel platform that, with only one banking app, allows customers to shop, book movie ticket, connect to social networks and do other transactions with only ‘one touch’.
For VP Bank, digital banking is an ecosystem of fashion, food, shopping and entertainment that fit youth’s taste. VP Bank’s Yolo app targets young people who have grown with touchscreens and wireless connections.
Military Bank now allows customers to transfer money via Facebook app and communicate with customers via chatbot. At Vietcombank, customers can initiate transactions at a separate transaction space named Digital Lab.
If compared with ebanking, which focuses on some major functions such as money remittance, payment and balance checking, digital banking is a new development as it carries out nearly all banking transactions online.
According to Pham Tien Dung, director of the Payment Department, 94 percent of banks have begun building or implementing digital transformation strategies and only 6 percent still have no general strategies. The investments in IT in general and digital banking in particular are not inexpensive.
Experts say that bad debts will be settled only if there is a debt market, but the market still has not taken shape because of the lack of a legal framework.
Since its establishment, the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) has bought VND280 trillion worth of bad debts with special bonds based on book value. However, the amount of settled debt is VND100 trillion only.
Bad debts moving around
The Q3 finance reports of commercial banks show a worrying problem that the bad debt is on the rise. This is attributed to the rapid increase in outstanding loans. However, analysts pointed out that there is another reason that banks have bought back the bad debts they had sold to VAMC before.
VietinBank, for example, in its biannual report, showed that it bought back all the debts sold before to VAMC. Vietcombank, Techcombank, Military Bank, ACB and VIB also no longer have any bad debt at VAMC.
VAMC is described as a ‘vault’ which keeps banks’ bad debts temporarily. It allows banks to ‘put bad debts aside’ and restore their capability of providing loans. In addition, they only have to make provisions against risks for special bonds than for bad debts.
As banks’ financial capability has improved, they are buying back the debt to accelerate the settlement process.
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, reporting to the National Assembly about the bad debt, said that bad debt figures in banks’ balance sheets is just 2 percent, lower than the 2.56 percent earlier this year.
However, if counting off-balance sheet bad debts and the debts sold to VAMC, the bad debt ratio of the entire banking system would be 6 percent.
Still awaiting legal framework
According to Tran Du Lich, a respected economist, when VAMC bought bad debts from banks with special bonds, this created a a 3-party relation among debtors, banks and VAMC.
That is why if VAMC wants to sell the assets mortgaged for loans, as it needs to reach agreements among three parties. In many cases, the agreements cannot be reached because each party has its own goals.
“If VAMC buys bad debts indefinitely, the debt settlement process will go more smoothly,” he said.
Meanwhile, other experts have repeatedly urged to form up a debt market. Doan Van Thang, an economist, said there must be a debt trading floor.
“Once such a trading floor is set up, debts will be put on sale on the floor and buyers will come,” he said.
Dao Van Hung, director of the Academy for Policy & Development, pointed out that the lack of a legal framework is the biggest problem hindering the development of the debt market in Vietnam.
Vietnamese gymnasts, the Giang brothers have officially set a new world record with their head-balancing act in Italy.
Giang Quoc Co and Giang Quoc Nghiep performed the act in Rome following an invitation from the Guinness World Records organisation. The brothers walked 10 steps in 53.97 seconds while balancing each other with their heads while being blindfolded.
They performed the act on November 15 and had to return to Vietnam immediately afterwards.
“We’ve been waiting after completing the act. We couldn’t reveal much since the performance is exclusively aired by TV8 Channel in Italy per our contract. We only want to say that we always do our best not just for ourselves but also for Vietnam,” Giang Quoc Co said.
The brothers said they felt even more emotional than the performance in Spain where they broke the previous record of most stairs climbed with a person on the head set by Chinese duo Tang Tao and Su Zengxian.
The brothers said they wanted to share the happiness with their families, circus performers and other fans in Vietnam and the world.
According to Nghiep, they were nervous a week before the challenge started and practised every time they got. They found the blindfolded one-minute test nerve-wracking.
The VinTech technology development company’s big data research institute announced on December 6 that it will start a 4.5-million-USD project on building Vietnamese genome data next year.
The project, set to run for five years, will decode genomes of 1,000 people to generate mass data for local and foreign researchers.
The data will aid the early treatment of some diseases and develop treatment methods suitable for each individual.
VinTech is an affiliate of Vietnam’s leading conglomerate Vingroup. It researches and acquires licences from Vietnamese organisations to bring initiatives and technologies to life.
