Having its origin from China, Singles’ Day are starting to become the biggest sales period for ecommerce in Vietnam.
A new analysis conducted by online shopping aggregator iPrice reveals an exponential growth of interest in the Singles’ Day sales from Vietnamese consumers this year. By analysing Vietnamese’s search trends on Google, the report detected that interest on the keyword “11.11” began growing steadily on 29th October 2018, nearly two weeks prior to the date itself.
Comparing it to the same period last year also reveals that search interest has increased by 3 times.
iPrice concluded that such a growth in interest shows Vietnamese consumers are now much more familiar with the 11.11 tradition and excitedly look forward to it as an important promotion period of the year.
The same report also goes into comparing the different promotion types offered by big merchants in Vietnam.
The types available identified by iPrice were product discounts, vouchers, flash deals, payment method promotions, free shipping promotions, in-app games, web-based games, and TV game show.
As demonstrated in the comparison chart, merchants in Vietnam are paying more attention to interacting and entertaining their customers rather than just attracting them with discounts. Four out of the five merchants included are organizing some forms of interactive activities.
Thegioididong, who only organized a simple sales campaign for last year 11.11 day, now has a game on their website for their customers.
The most impressive campaign this year however is perhaps Shopee’s upcoming live interactive TV show. The show is expected to feature some of the most popular musical guests in the country as well as a chance for customers to earn discounts by using the merchant’s mobile app during the airtime, a tactic that was applied with huge success by Alibaba in China.
Besides those two, Lazada and Tiki are also focusing on promoting interactive activities on their mobile apps.
According to another research conducted in 2017, even though more Vietnamese consumers tend to surf the ecommerce websites using mobile, only 4 out of 10 end up making purchases on mobile, while the rest will do it on PC. This statistic helps explain why merchants are eager to push for more purchases on mobile.
Regular expenses are too high and many expenditure items are unnecessary: these are comments regularly seen in reports about the state budget.
“There are many overlapping expenditure items. The state budget disburses money for many unnecessary items, which leads to a sharp increase in regular expenses. It’s more than the state budget can bear,” said Le Dang Doanh, an economist.
Doanh said, for example, on the same flight from Hanoi to HCM City, a Vietnamese deputy minister sat in a business class seat, while the leaders of the World Bank, IMF and the ambassadors of the countries that lend money to Vietnam were in economy class seats.
“I was also a passenger on the flight and I flew economy,” Doanh said. “So you can see, developed countries which provide loans to Vietnam practice thrift, while Vietnam, a developing country which is thirsty for capital, doesn’t think of saving money.”
According to Doanh, the laws of other countries set strict regulations about the treatment of officials on business trips.
When officials take long-distance flights which take 5-8 hours, they can book business-class tickets. For short-distance flights, from Hanoi to HCM City, for instance, which takes one hour and 40 minutes, economy class would be reasonable.
The regulations are different in Vietnam. The treatment of officials depends on their positions, not on the distance of flights or importance of the duties. Do Anh said this is an item that Vietnam can cut to save money.
A state official in Hanoi explained that current regulations clearly stipulate the types of cars high-ranking civil servants can use. Higher ranking officials can use more luxurious cars, and the cars allocated to officials now are more expensive than previously, worth billions of dong.
The official agreed with Doanh that the state’s money is being wasted. “Many high-ranking officials only fly business class, and many officials spend state money on their private trips,” he said.
He said that now is the right time to think of reforming state budget management and cut unnecessary expense items.
A report found that regular expenses have decreased in recent years which now account for 63 percent of total expenses instead of 70 percent as seen previously. However, Doanh believes that 63 percent is still a high figure.
The Ministry of Finance, which is drafting the state budget for 2019, estimates that overexpenditures 2019 will be 3.6 percent of GDP, or 0.1 percent lower than 2018.
The nation’s foreign debt is near the ceiling of 50 percent of GDP.
More than 56 percent of banks recruited new workers in Q3, but 26.6 percent said they still lacked workers, while more than 61 percent of banks planned to recruit more workers in the fourth quarter, a report says.
Vietnam will need 1.6 million new workers for the banking sector in the 2016-2020 period, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). It is expected that the banking sector would have 300,000 workers by 2020.
Though the number of workers newly recruited in Q3 was 46 percent higher than the quarter before, banks still lack workers for current operations.
For many years, the banking sector has been struggling with a personnel problem: it has unqualified workers in abundance and lacks high-quality ones.
The problem will become even more serious in the 4.0 industry era. Banks will have difficulties re-training their workforce to satisfy the requirements in new circumstances.
Vietnam’s credit institutions have also been warned that they will face a brain drain, i.e. qualified workers will leave for foreign institutions which offer higher wages and job promotions.
As for future jobs in the banking sector, an expert said the number of officers at transaction points and bank branches will be cut, while the demand for high-quality workers will be increasing.
Bank officers will have to be good at both financial operations and information technology.
A high-quality workforce is a big challenge not only for the banking sector, but also for other industries, since robots will undertake works now implemented by humans.
As AI becomes better, banks will be able to utilize AI in risk portfolio management, client and database management. Capable of adapting, AI for apps is unlimited.
“Modern AI-integrated robots will not only be able to replace humans in doing simple manual works, but also make interactions with clients,” said Pham Anh Tuan, a member of Vietcombank’s board of management.
Labor experts have expressed concern about Vietnam’s slow preparation in human resources for the new industrial revolution.
While other regional economies such as South Korea and Taiwan have moved forward to prepare a high-quality workforce, and universities in the US have begun teaching AI and machine learning in MBA training courses, Vietnam is still at the starting point.
The report released by the Forecast and Statistics Department under the State Bank of Vietnam in July showed that 30 percent of credit institutions said they were lacking workers, and 70 percent planned to enlarge their workforce, while the remaining 30 percent would retain or reduce the workforce compared with the number in late 2017.
Ceremonies held in HCMC and Hanoi on to mark milestone.
ANZ held ceremonies in Ho Chi Minh City on November 7 and in Hanoi on November 8 to mark its 25 years of operating in Vietnam.
Mr. Farhan Faruqui, ANZ Group Executive, International, said that Vietnam is a true Asian success story, emerging from an agriculture-based economy to become one of the region’s fastest-growing economies and most attractive FDI destinations and a major manufacturing hub. “ANZ is proud to be a part of its growth story over the years,” he said.
Mr. Faruqui added that ANZ has an ambition to be the best bank in the world that helps customers move goods and capital around. “At this pivotal juncture, where Vietnam is thriving economically, with our regional network being a key differentiator, ANZ is well-positioned at the center of trade and investment flows connecting Asia, Australia, and the rest of the world for our institutional customers,” he commented.
Ms. Jodi West, ANZ CEO, Vietnam, also noted that ANZ Vietnam wouldn’t have thrived over the last 25 years without the continued support from and partnerships with its clients and the contributions of its staff, many of whom have been with ANZ since its very first days in Vietnam. “I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank them,” she said.
As one of the first foreign banks to arrive in the country, ANZ started as a branch in Hanoi in 1993. It was then granted a banking license to locally incorporate and now has a presence in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Today, ANZ offers a full suite of banking services to large corporates (covering multinational corporates, large local corporates, and Australia / New Zealand home market clients), and financial institutions.
Its award-winning FX, Trade and Cash Management Platforms and its international network make it easier and more efficient for clients to operate in multiple countries.
As the hub in the Greater Mekong Region (GMR), which includes Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, ANZ Vietnam plays a pivotal role in the bank’s wider strategy, connecting customers with each other and with markets across the region.
Late morning and afternoon trade were quite negative on November 9, with continued declines in regional markets significantly affecting investor sentiment and resulting in strong selling pressure.
At the close of trade, the VN-Index had lost 11.99 points (1.29 per cent) to 914.29 points, the HNX-Index 1.53 points (1.46 per cent) to 103.01 points, and the UPCoM-Index 0.46 points (0.89 per cent) to 51.55 points.
Liquidity was still low, however, with a total matching value of over VND3.3 trillion ($141.6 million), with investors unwilling to buy and raise prices.
The number of losers across the market totaled 322 stocks, against 179 that increased.
Foreign investors were net buyers by VND150 billion ($6.4 million) overall; their fifth day of net buying in a row.
GAS, PVS, PVD and PVB as well as banking stocks ACB, BID, CTG, MBB, HCM, VCB and VCI were under selling pressure. Conversely, VHM and BVH did quite well and stemmed the tide.
Negativity appeared at the end of the morning session. Asian stock markets such as Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea all fell sharply, with local investors taking note.
The VN-Index lost 6.91 points (0.75 per cent) to 919.37 points in the morning session, the HNX-Index 0.85 points (0.81 per cent) to 103.69 points, and the UPCoM-Index 0.21 points (0.41 per cent) to 51.79 points. Market liquidity was low, with a matching order value of VND1.6 trillion ($68.6 million).
The Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) has become the first bank in Vietnam to allow cardless cash withdrawals using a QR Code at both its ATMs and Livebank service, according to a report from the Vietnam News Agency.
The news agency quoted the bank as announcing recently that it had completed an update allowing cash withdrawals by QR Code. To use the function, customers need to download QuickPay for iPhone or Android phones, then connect their bank account to QuickPay.
The bank said cash withdrawals by QR Code provide safety, speed and convenience to customers.
In addition to cash withdrawals, the bank’s QR Code can also be used for payments at thousands of shops or vending machines nationwide.
TPBank was also one of the first banks in the country to complete the issuance of domestic chip cards with integrated contactless payment features based on the domestic chip standard of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).
This increases security, as Vietnam has become a focal point of data theft because most domestic cards in the country are magnetic cards that can be copied easily, the news agency noted.
Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) has changed its 12-18 month outlook on the banking system in Vietnam (Ba3 stable) to stable from positive.
Eugene Tarzimanov, a Moody’s Vice President and Senior Credit Officer said that, the growth of economic in Vietnam will remain robust, and the banks’ asset quality will improve, helping to strengthen their profitability.
But asset risks are still evident after years of rapid credit growth, and negative spillovers from the escalating trade tensions between the US and China will see Vietnam vulnerable to slower trade growth, says Rebaca Tan, a Moody’s Analyst.
Moody’s conclusions are contained in its just-released report on Vietnamese banks titled Banking System Outlook – Vietnam:
Economic growth and improving asset quality support stable outlook, and is co-authored by Tarzimanov and Tan.
The stable outlook is based on Moody’s assessment of six drivers: operating environment (stable); asset risk (improving), capital (stable); funding and liquidity (stable); profitability and efficiency (improving); and government support (stable).
With the operating environment, Moody’s says that strong economic growth in Vietnam will support the banks’ operating environment.
Moody’s expects Vietnam’s real GDP growth to remain one of the strongest in ASEAN, at 6.7% in 2018 and 6.5% in 2019, driven by improved economic competitiveness, exports and domestic consumption. Domestic credit growth will moderate to about 16% in 2018 from 20% in 2017, as the Vietnamese government seeks to control inflation in the country to less than 4%.
On asset quality, Moody’s says that Vietnamese banks will show improved asset quality over the next 12-18 months, because strong economic growth will translate into improvements in borrower repayment capabilities and enable the banks to accelerate the write-offs of legacy problem assets.
However, rapid credit growth in recent years can result in a deterioration of asset quality as new loans mature, although this situation is unlikely to occur during Moody’s outlook period of the next 12-18 months.
The banks’ capitalization will prove broadly stable. A moderation in asset growth will ease pressure on the banks’ capitalization, while internal capital generation will continue to improve, along with profitability at most rated banks.
Funding will stay stable as loan growth slows. In particular, Moody’s points out that the banks’ deposit growth has been strong, reducing their reliance on market-sensitive funding sources, such as interbank borrowings. As loan growth moderates to the pace of deposit expansion, the banks’ loan-to-deposit ratios will remain largely stable.
As for profitability, the banks will show better profitability because interest margins will continue to improve, as the banks boost loans in the higher-yielding retail and small and medium-sized enterprise segments. At the same time, credit costs will decline, as more banks resolve their legacy problem assets.
With government support, Moody’s says that the Vietnamese government will continue to support the country’s banks when needed, mainly in the form of liquidity assistance and forbearance from the central bank.
Moody’s rates 16 banks in Vietnam, which together accounted for 61% of total banking system assets at the end of 2017.
Three of the 16 banks JSC Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV, B1 stable, b2), JSC Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank, B1 stable, ba3) and Vietnam JSC Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank, B1 stable, b1); are controlled by the government, while the other 13 are privately owned joint-stock commercial banks.
We have recently seen and heard the deaths of victims of traffic accidents, including accidents. In the framework of the book, we only make recommendations on the liability of the direct cause of the crash. However, liability is not fully covered by the 2005 Civil Code. An unspoken fact remains, and although drivers are unconfirmed, it is presumed to be deadly. There is no need to compensate as much as to nourish the injured and support the children and their loved ones for the rest of their lives.
The author eager would like to express to the lawmakers quickly amended these provisions and quickly introduced heavier penalties and higher liability, as well as ongoing liability for victims and victims’ families. Under the guidance of Resolution No. 03 of the Superior Judges’ Council Resolution No. 03 of 2006, this includes reasonable monthly expenses for the care and treatment of victims and reasonable expenses for regular persons, caring for the victims.
As such, the Superior Judge’s Council also recognizes the liability for damages that sometimes exceeds even the loss of life. Compensation for the victim is sometimes much lower than for the disabled.
Of course, when actions lead to human death, we also need to consider many factors as unintentional or willful, mental, psychological… But as analyzed, human life is priceless. And this invaluable reminder always reminds us that any inattention is worth the price, sometimes with our own lives.
It should also be said that our law does not specify punitive damage. In the common law system in developed countries, the responsibility for compensation for mental losses is enormous. The value of these compensation cases usually amounts to tens of millions of dollars. The punishment of such laws can deter people and punish criminal acts. Unfortunately, in our country, the law only stopped only at hundred million of VND, a number too modest compared to a human life.
Liberty wants to expand Formula One to ‘destination cities’ but it will need to win over teams who want a reduced season
The Vietnam and Formula One might not be the most likely of bedfellows. Yet confirmation that the country’s first grand prix will take place on the streets of Hanoi in 2020 is of little surprise given F1’s global expansion over the past two decades. Giles Richards reported on The Guardian
F1’s owner, Liberty Media, wants new markets to expand their fanbase. Vietnam, like so many other modern F1 venues, is angling for the prestige and worldwide audience that influences investment and tourism long after the chequered flag is waved. It is a simple equation then, but one at which Liberty at least is going to have to really work.
Hanoi will host the inaugural Vietnamese Grand Prix on a 3.458-mile street circuit designed by Herman Tilke’s company, located 12km west of the city centre near the My Dinh National Stadium. It is being backed not by the state but by one of the country’s biggest private businesses, the Vingroup.
The track design is intriguing, combining elements of other circuits including the Nürburgring, Monaco, Suzuka and Sepang. It has been a collaborative process with the F1 motorsport team, headed by Ross Brawn, also involved – an indication that spectacle and the ability to race has been at the heart of the process.
For Liberty, it is the first new circuit they have brought to the calendar since they took over the sport in 2017 and it is unlikely to be a coincidence that it has been announced a week before they reveal their latest financial statements and plans to investors. With the deal done their task is to ensure it is successful and perhaps the first issue they face is just where Hanoi fits in F1’s future.
This season there are 21 races, a number F1 has hosted only once before. Liberty’s aim is to expand the sport – particularly in what they call “destination cities” – and Hanoi fits the bill perfectly, as does Miami, where they are still hoping to stage a race. Las Vegas, Johannesburg’s Kyalami circuit and both Zandvoort and Assen in the Netherlands have also been mooted as potential venues, meaning that if the calendar remains the same there will be 22 races in 2020 and maybe 23 or more thereafter.
A ceremony in Hanoi to announce that the Vietnamese capital will host an F1 race for the first time in 2020. Photograph: Nhac Nguyen/AFP/Getty Images
This is a potential expansion that has been met with almost universal disapproval from the teams. The Red Bull team principal Christian Horner described 21 races as the saturation point. “There’s only so many chapters you can have in a book and I think at some point you go beyond what’s relevant,” he said.
Renault’s managing director Cyril Abiteboul has gone even further, arguing that the calendar should be cut to between 15 and 18 races in order to maintain a sense of occasion. “I appreciate the reason why, commercially we need to grow the calendar, but as far as I’m concerned, I would be for a massive contraction of the sport,” he said.
Liberty will clearly face a struggle to continue adding races in the face of this level of opposition. Yet, as Abiteboul noted, they have a commercial imperative to do so. Race fees are a major source of income to the sport and the owners have been under pressure to lower the costs, especially at European circuits. Spa recently did a deal with a reduced fee and both Silverstone and Monza are attempting to do the same. New venues can alleviate that but fitting Vietnam and potentially others into the schedule will be a far from easy task.
In the long term, and the deal in Vietnam is described as “multi-year”, the new race will perhaps be the greatest indicator yet of just how differently Liberty will operate from Bernie Ecclestone. Under the latter, a remarkable range of venues that had never hosted F1 before were added, including, among others, China, Baku, Abu Dhabi, South Korea, Turkey, India and Singapore. Once the race fees were rolling in, however, Formula One management’s interest diminished.
With no history of competing in or following motorsport, many managed little more than hosting their annual weekend in the sun before disappearing. India lasted three years, South Korea four, Turkey, despite a layout much admired by drivers, seven. At Mokpo in South Korea the vast swathes of empty grandstands sat in judgement on a sport that was entirely failing to make any impression on the country and the track was locked and empty for 51 weeks a year.
This will not work for Liberty, whose aim is to grow revenues by increasing fans, with one of their major revenue streams expected to be earned from pay-to-view streaming. Vietnam is just the sort of market into which they want to sell their service so they have to make sure it does more than simply host a race. Hanoi will be the test of whether they can sway the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people too.
Truong Quang Hoai Nam, deputy chairman of Can Tho city People’s Committee, yesterday afternoon answered press queries about the decision to return 20 diamonds and 19,910 artificial stones to Thao Luc Jewelry Shop in one hundred dollar exchange case.
According to Mr. Nam, while searching the jewelry shop, authorized agencies spotted diamond sale tracking book of Thao Luc Company. From June 1, 2013 to January 30, 2018, Thao Luc sold diamonds worth VND3.3 billion to 30 customers.
In the initial testimony with authorized agencies, Mr. Luc who is owner of the shop, admitted that the shop has the tracking book. Still afterward he changed the statement saying that he sold diamonds to only 11 customers with the total money of VND700 million.
From the statement, Can Tho city took part in investigation and had good reason to affirm that Thao Luc Company did trade diamonds.
Twenty temporarily seized diamonds were found kept in the ground floor of the shop, where is the company’s headquarters without private room of Mr. Luc and his wife.
Explaining the origin of the seized diamonds, Mr. Luc in his initial statement said that the company did outwork and showed five outsourcing orders.
However when the city Police talked to those who signed in the orders, they all denied outsourcing relations with Thao Luc Company. In other meetings with authorized agencies afterwards, Mr. Luc said that the diamonds were purchased without invoices or origin certificates.
In addition, authorized agencies seized 19,910 artificial stones put in the same cupboard where the diamonds were kept. Mr. Luc said that he bought the stones from Hoa Binh market, HCMC without invoices and origin certificates.
From the above working process, Can Tho Police consulted the city People’s Committee on making a decision to penalize the shop for trading unclear origin goods.
After the committee issued the penalty decision, Mr. Luc sent an application to authorized agencies. In the application, he said that the diamonds and artificial stones are assets which he accumulated for many years. They are not for trading so he does not care about invoices.
After verification, authorized agencies found that the business address of Thao Luc Company is also the accommodations of Mr. Luc’s family. So he can storage his private property in the shop.
Finding that a new circumstance able to change to the decision’s content, Can Tho People’s Committee decided to cancel part of the issued penalty decision as per Article 1, Decree 97 and return 20 diamonds ad 19,910 artificial stones to Thao Luc Company.
Vietnamese people spent up to USD4bn on beer in 2017 alone, according to a workshop on November 8 held by the Ministry of Health.
The numbers were announced by Nguyen Huy Quang from the Ministry of Health at a workshop on Vietnam’s international commitments related to the draft law on alcohol harm prevention and the recommendations of non-governmental organisations.
The beer consumption per capita, aged 15 years old and over, increased from 3.8 litres during the 2003-2005 period to 8.3 litres in 2016. Vietnam was the world’s 64th biggest beer-drinking country, 2nd in Southeast Asia and 3rd in Asia, after Japan and China. The beer output increased from 2.8 billion litres in 2012 to over 4 billion litres in 2017.
“Vietnamese are spending USD4bn on beer last year, about 7% of the state revenue,” Quang said.
Quang said beer addiction can cause a huge financial burden on average families besides health issues and is one of the causes of poverty. He admitted that they had faced various pressures while drafting the law on alcohol harm prevention from both public health and economic problems.
“Alcoholic beverage companies contribute VND50trn to the local economy. However, the state also has to spend VND65trn on dealing with the consequences,” he said.
Reports from the Cancer Research Institute show that alcoholic beverage is the main cause of 6 common cancers whose direct and indirect cost reach up to nearly VND26trn. They also warned about other consequences such as domestic violence and social disorder.
The NA Committee on Social Affairs agreed that the authorities must tighten control over advertisements to limit access to the alcoholic beverage.
Vietnam got off to a winning start at the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 in comfortable fashion as they defeated Laos 3-0 at the New Laos National Stadium on Thursday evening.
It took the Vietnamese just 11 minutes to open their account when a left-wing cross by Doan Van Hau found Nguyen Anh Duc before the ball eventually broke to Nguyen Cong Phuong, who made no mistake in dispatching a first-time effort past Saymanolinh Paseuth.
According to a report by Gabriel Tan on Fox Sports Asia, the visitors then doubled their advantage just before halftime when Anh Duc converted on the rebound, after a speculative effort from the edge of the box by Luong Xuan Truong had been tipped onto the bar by Saymanolinh.
And, eight minutes after the hour mark, Nguyen Quang Hai made sure of the victory when he lined up a freekick on the edge of the area, and proceeded to bend a lovely effort around the wall and into the bottom corner.
The victory sees Vietnam go top of Group A following the opening round of matches and they will now have the break of not playing on Match Day 2, before resuming their campaign on November 16 with a home game against Malaysia.
VIETNAM: Dang Van Lam, Do Duy Manh, Tran Dinh Trong, Que Ngoc Hai, Nguyen Trong Hoang, Luong Xuan Truong, Nguyen Quang Hai, Doan Van Hau (Phan Van Duc 46’), Nguyen Van Quyet (Do Hung Dung 63’), Nguyen Cong Phuong, Nguyen Anh Duc (Nguyen Tien Linh 71’).
Office-share company ramps up expansion in Southeast Asia where it sees its future
U.S. co-working space provider WeWork is expanding its business into the Vietnam as it strives to build a presence in the region’s largest economies by year-end.
According to a report by CLIFF VENZON, a Nikkei staff writer, the company revealed on Wednesday announcement of its expansion in Ho Chi Minh City where its first site will be in the E-Town building, near the city’s commercial center. The location will be one of WeWork’s largest in Southeast Asia, with room for more than 1,000 members, said Regional Managing Director Turochas Fuad.
The site, which will open in December, add to the existing offices in Jakarta and Singapore. WeWork expanded to Southeast Asia last year and its network now spans 12 locations with more than 6,000 members.
“The plan is to launch six markets by end of the year,” Fuad said, adding that expansion in Malaysia and Thailand is underway.
WeWork, which has allocated $500 million for its expansion in Southeast Asia and South Korea, will open more locations in Hanoi and other cities in Vietnam within the next year to meet increasing demand for co-working services.
WeWork is banking on the millennial work culture of mobility, the region’s growing number of startups, small- and medium-sized enterprises and multinational companies that require flexibility in choosing offices.
“This (Southeast Asia) is where the longer-term investments are going to be,” Fuad said.
Vietnam’s government has launched in the past few years a number of programs and incentives to support local startup communities and a growing information technology sector, as well as to open more markets to foreign investment. Vietnamese are encouraged to move to the cities to form entrepreneurial communities and establish international connections.
Vietnam is the region’s fastest growing economies and enjoy booming foreign direct investments.
According to a 2017 study by CBRE Research Vietnam, more than 90% of co-working space users in the country are under 35, compared with the global figure of 67%. And 54% of users are founders or employees of startups, while approximately 14% are freelancers and self-employed. These numbers reflect Vietnam’s young demographics and new working styles.
The sharing economy has gained popularity in Vietnam, which ranks highly worldwide in terms of internet access and consumer electronics exports. Growth in online services also stimulates related businesses in the creative and high-tech sectors.
“Our services will minimize the cost of running a working location for businesses and connect members to the world via our ecosystem,” said Fuad.
Vietnam’s co-working spaces have increased at an annual 55% rate over the past five years, with the total area expected to reach 90,000 sq. meters by the end of 2018. There will be 45 locations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, up from just 19 this April, run by dozens of local operators.
Toong leads the market with a 42% share, followed by Up and Circo at 13% each, and Dreamplex with 11%, according to the latest survey by CBRE Research Vietnam.
In April, WeWork spent $400 million to acquire Naked Hub, a China-based co-working space operator that also has locations in Vietnam. Hang Nguyen, WeWork’s community director in Vietnam, told the Nikkei Asian Review the company will incorporate Naked Hub’s facilities and open new ones, seizing the best locations as quickly as possible. WeWork adds eight to 10 locations to its network each month in major cities around the world.
AS DAWN BREAKS in Hanoi the botanical gardens start to fill up. Hundreds of old people come every morning to exercise before the tropical heat makes sport unbearable. Groups of fitness enthusiasts proliferate. Elderly ladies in floral silks do tai chi in a courtyard. In the shade of a tall tree, dozens of ballroom dancers sway to samba music. Others work up a sweat on an outdoor exercise-machine. Tho, an 83-year-old with a neat white moustache, says he comes to walk round the lake every day, rain or shine.
According to a report on The Economist, in the next few decades the gardens will become busier still. Vietnam has a median age of only 26. But it is greying fast. Over-60s make up 12% of the population, a share that is forecast to jump to 21% by 2040, one of the quickest increases in the world (see chart). That is partly because life expectancy has increased from 60 years in 1970 to 76 today, thanks to rising incomes. Growing prosperity has also helped bring down the fertility rate in the same period from about seven children per woman to less than two. In the 1980s the ruling Communist Party started to enforce a one-child policy. Though less strict than China’s, it has hastened the decline.
Demography is changing in similar ways in many Asian countries. But in Vietnam it is happening while the country is still poor. When the share of the population of working age climbed to its highest in South Korea and Japan, annual GDP per person (in real terms, adjusted for purchasing power) stood at $32,585 and $31,718 respectively. Even China managed to reach $9,526. In Vietnam, which hit the same peak in 2013, incomes averaged a mere $5,024. Indonesia and the Philippines are expected to reach the turning-point in the next few decades, with an income level several times higher than Vietnam’s.
This shift brings headaches. First, will the government be able to support millions more Vietnamese in old age? Only the extremely poor and people over 80 (together around 30% of the elderly) get a state pension, which can be as little as a few dollars a week. The most recent survey of the old, in 2011, found that 90% of them had no savings worth the name. Debt was common. Supporting them will become ever more expensive. The IMF predicts that pension costs, at the present rate, could raise government spending as a share of GDP by eight percentage points by 2050. That is faster than in any of the other 12 Asian countries it examined.
The problem is worse in the countryside, where most old folk live. Previously the young cared for their parents in old age. Today they tend to abandon village life to seek their fortune in the city. Surveys suggest that the share of old people living alone is rising, especially in villages. Many work until they die. Around 40% of rural men are still toiling at 75, twice the rate of city-dwellers. In Britain that figure is 3%. Often they do gruelling manual jobs, such as rice farming or fishing.
Providing health care for millions more old people is another worry. Alzheimer’s, heart disease and age-related disability are growing. In the botanical garden Toau, a 78-year-old in a white sports T-shirt, says he is there on doctor’s orders, before taking a pill for his bad heart and joining an exercise group. About a third of over-60s do not have health insurance, which is costly. Many provinces still have no proper geriatric departments in hospitals. Informal health-insurance groups have popped up to fill the gaps. For a fee, members get exercise classes and free check-ups. But few doctors are trained or equipped to treat more serious conditions.
The government is starting to implement policies to reduce the fiscal burden and improve the lot of the elderly. Last year it relaxed the one-child policy. In May it said it would increase the retirement age from 55 to 60 for men and 60 to 62 for women, and reform the pension scheme to provide wider coverage. Next year it plans to begin revamping the health-insurance and social-assistance systems.
But none of that will change the structure of the economy. Usually as countries climb the income ladder they shift from farming to more productive sectors, like services. By this yardstick, Vietnam is lagging behind its neighbours. When the working-age population peaked in 2013, agriculture accounted for 18% of the economy. At the same juncture in China, agriculture was just 10% of GDP. Worse, farmers’ output tends to decline with age, unlike, say, that of managers. This over-reliance on agriculture partly explains why three-quarters of Vietnam’s workers are in jobs where they become less productive as they get older. In Malaysia that is the case for only about half the labour force.
Boosting productivity will be tricky. The government is still wedded to statism. State-owned enterprises dominate many industries. Most university students, meanwhile, waste at least a year learning Marxist and Leninist theory. Many countries in Asia are ageing fast. But growing old before it becomes rich makes Vietnam’s problems all the greater.
By Destitute dotage
This article first appeared on The Economist
Thousand Oaks gunman was a Marine veteran who often visited the site of the shooting
Back in April, officers in Thousand Oaks, California, responded to a disturbance at the home where Ian David Long lived.
According to a report on CNN, Long, a 28-year-old who served in Afghanistan with the Marines, was acting somewhat irate and a little irrationally, according to Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean.
A mental health specialist with the crisis team met with him and felt he might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. But after speaking with him, they decided not to detain him under laws that allow for the temporary detention of people with psychiatric issues.
Seven months later, officers swarmed his home again for a very different reason: a mass shooting.
Long was identified by police on Thursday as the gunman who killed 12 people and injured more than a dozen more in a sudden spree of violence at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks. Authorities have no motive yet.
Authorities have identified a Facebook post believed to have been made by the shooter around the time of the attack, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the ongoing investigation.
In it, the writer says: “I hope people call me insane… (laughing emojis).. wouldn’t that just be a big ball of irony? Yeah.. I’m insane, but the only thing you people do after these shootings is ‘hopes and prayers’.. or ‘keep you in my thoughts’… every time… and wonder why these keep happening…”
When CNN read the post to a friend of Long’s, who did not want to be publicly identified, the friend said, “That does not sound like Ian to me at all. I don’t know what was going through his head when he wrote this. It must have been terrible.”
Shooter began firing outside
Survivors of the shooting said the gunman, dressed in black and wearing glasses, shot a security guard outside and then shot a young woman working at the counter just inside the door before opening fire on others.
One of the victims, Ventura County Sgt. Ron Helus, was fatally shot when he entered the bar and tried to stop the rampaging gunman, Dean said.
Police found Long dead of what Dean said he believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot.
One handgun, a legally purchased .45-caliber Glock, was at the scene. The gunman used an extended magazine in the shooting, Dean said.
He was a frequent visitor to the bar
On Thursday morning, Dean said he did not know of any connection between Long and the Borderline bar.
But Long’s friends told CNN he was there frequently.
Police identified Ian David Long as the gunman in the mass shooting.
“We would go to Borderline together. He really liked it,” said one woman who has been friends with Long for five years and does not want her name made public.
“I would make fun of him, because he would drag me there. Sometimes we’d go there to have a drink, sit and talk, listen to music,” she said.
Borderline, a Western-themed establishment known to regularly host country, salsa and swing dancing nights, was hosting a college country night on Wednesday evening.
“There was a community there. He was a part of that community. The whole bar is line dancing. People do choreographed dances for hours, cowboy boots and hats in the middle of the suburbs of Thousand Oaks,” the friend said.
A person who was a friend of Long’s until their early 20s and who did not want their name revealed publicly similarly said they used to go to Borderline together. The friend expressed shock that Long could be a killer.
“I don’t know what the hell happened. He was always happy. I never thought this would ever come from him. We used to go snowboarding all the time. He was a good guy,” the friend said.
A third friend who did not want to be publicly identified said Long stopped communicating two years ago but said the shooting was unlike him.
“He wasn’t unhinged, he wasn’t violent. He was a sweet guy who served his country and was using his GI Bill to go to college and get a degree to help more people,” the friend said. “Out of our group of friends I thought the highest of him.”
He was in the Marine Corps
The gunman was a corporal in the Marines from August 2008 to March 2013, according to Defense Department records.
He went to Afghanistan from November 2010 to June 2011.
Thomas Burke, a pastor who served with Long in the same US Marine Corps regiment, said Long’s battalion arrived during intense fighting in Helmand province.
But Burke warned against too quickly blaming Long’s actions on trauma experienced during war.
“PTSD doesn’t create homicidal ideation,” Burke said. “We train a generation to be as violent as possible, then we expect them to come home and be OK. It’s not mental illness. It’s that we’re doing something to a generation, and we’re not responding to the needs they have.”
Long posted information about his military service on a special forces forum called ShadowSpear in March 2017.
Under the name “doorkicker03,” Long said he was an infantry machine gunner while in the Marine Corps for 4½ years, and was an instructor in Okinawa in Japan.
Photos: In photos: Mass shooting at California bar People comfort each other near the scene of a mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Californina, early Thursday, November 8. | @ CNNPhotos: In photos: Mass shooting at California bar Matt Wennerstorm, still wearing a blood-stained shirt, talks to members of the media outside the Borderline Bar & Grill. | @ CNNPhotos: In photos: Mass shooting at California bar Police vehicles block an intersection near the shooting in an image from aerial video. | @ CNNPhotos: In photos: Mass shooting at California bar An American Red Cross Disaster Relief vehicle is seen outside the Thousands Oaks Teen Center where people have come for family assistance following the bar shooting. | CNN
Reporting by Eric Levenson, Jose Pagliery and Majlie de Puy Kamp.
Read full article on CNN here
