Vietnam Insider - Page 1298 of 1523

One dead, dozens injured as the BMW car slammed into motorbikes

Advertisements

A BMW car slammed into several motorbikes at an intersection in Saigon Sunday night, killing one person and injuring dozens of others.

Nguyen Thi Nga, 46, was reportedly speeding on Dien Bien Phu Street and approaching the Saigon Bridge when she lost control and crashed into least six motorbikes waiting at the traffic light at the Hang Xanh intersection.

The car only came to a halt after ramming a taxi.

A motorbike driver, whose identity has not been disclosed, was killed on the spot while many others were hospitalized with injuries.

“I saw a middle-aged woman stepping out of the BMW car after the accident; she looked scared,” an eyewitness said.

She told the police she had drunk beer at a restaurant in District 1.

The police said on the way back home she became drowsy and lost control, resulting in the deadly accident.

Her alcohol test result was 0.94 miligrams per liter of breath. “The level showed that the driver had use a lot of alcohol and lost control,” a police officer said. Nga has been held for investigation.

Victims and witnesses recalled the incident in shock, some saying the crash was as loud as “a bomb blast.”

“It was like a war zone, motorbikes and people were lying all over the place,” said Thao, who was injured from the accident. She said the dead victim was dragged by the car for around 20 meters.

Traffic was blocked in the area until 1:30 a.m. Monday.

Road crashes are a common cause of death in Vietnam, killing almost one person every hour on average, according to official figures.

Flouting road safety norms and causing deaths is punishable by up to 15 years in jail.

According to a report on VnExpress

Shopee has beat Lazada to become the top e-commerce platform in Vietnam

Advertisements

Q3, 2018 Shopee becomes top e-commerce player in Vietnam by traffic

The competition was growing fierce in Vietnam’s e-commerce market, which is expected to reach US$10 billion by 2022.

According to a report by Iprice Insight, Shopee has beat Lazada to become the top e-commerce platform by traffic in the third quarter of this year, according to the Map of E-commerce in Vietnam recently. Statistics showed that Shopee had a monthly average traffic of 34.5 million in the quarter. It was closely followed by Lazada with a monthly average traffic of 30.2 million.

This is the first time Lazada has lost the top position since the second quarter of 2017.Other players in the top five included Tiki with 29.4 million traffic per month, Sendo with 20.7 million and Adayroi with 5.3 million.The top four, including Shopee, Lazada, Tiki and Sendo all received foreign funding.The competition was growing fierce in Vietnam’s e-commerce market, which is anticipated to reach US$10 billion by 2022.

The ranking was forecast to see significant changes in the last quarter of this year when e-commerce platforms would offer more promotion and discount programmes to stimulate shopping as the year-end approaches.

Iprice Insight is run by iPrice Group, a price comparison platform in seven markets, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Vietnam to launch the first ethical elephant experience

Advertisements

In a move that will delight animal-lovers, Vietnam has decided to ditch elephant rides in favor of the country’s first ethical elephant experience at one of its national parks.

The Yok Don National Park in Đắk Lắk of Vietnam is now running ethical elephant tours where tourists can come and observe the park’s four elephants from a distance as they roam freely around the forest. Animals Asia, who work for long-term change in the treatment of animals in China and Vietnam, praised the move saying “exploitation has been replaced with respect.”

According to a report by ANNEMARIE MCCARTHY on Lonely Planet. The move is a huge step for the park. Until very recently, elephants were kept in chains and being used to bring tourists on rides that could last the entire day. This also prevented them from engaging in their natural behavior, such as foraging, touching each other or drinking water when they needed to.

In order to facilitate the transition, UK charity Olsen Animal Trust has provided funding to ensure that elephant owners will not lose out on their current livelihoods, with the hope that this more ethical approach will have long-term dividends for locals, the environment and the animals.

Visitors can watch the elephants from a distance. Photo by Animals Asia

Already, there is a positive change in the elephants’ behavior. Dionne Slagter from Animals Asia explained that “in the wild, elephants spend up to 18 hours a day foraging and this is exactly how Yok Don’s elephants now spend the majority of their time. They all look so much healthier and are increasingly confident in how far they roam.”

As awareness grows about the negative impact of riding elephants, more ethical experiences have replaced the rides in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos but Vietnam has been lagging behind on conservation. As a consequence, their elephant population has been in steep decline and there are estimated to be less than 100 wild elephants left in the country, down from 2000 in 1990. 80 more elephants are estimated to be in captivity, most providing rides for tourists.

The elephants now have the freedom to forage and go for water whenever they like. Photo by Animals Asia

The park has signed on to this eco-tourism initiative until April 2023 and Animals Asia hopes that it will become profitable by that time, encouraging other elephant facilities around the country to follow their example. There are believed to be 40 captive elephants in the Dak Lak province where the park is located.

So far, early feedback from the first few tours has been encouraging and will help the park grow and evolve their offering over time.

Vietjet, Japan Airlines announce codeshare flights

Advertisements

Vietjet and Japan Airlines (JAL) will begin their codeshare flights next week, with one international service and three domestic ones available for booking, the two airlines said Friday in a joint press release.

The carriers signed an MOU for commercial cooperation last year and will start offering on Tuesday codeshare flights operated by no-frills Vietjet to domestic destinations in Vietnam and to Osaka in Japan.

The codeshare routes include Ho Chi Minh City-Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City-Da Nang, Hanoi-Da Nang, and Hanoi-Osaka (Kansai).

Codeshare flights are available for travel from October 28. The Hanoi-Osaka route specifically inaugurates operation on November 8.

A codeshare is an agreement between two airlines in which one markets the other’s flights using its own code so as to be able to offer more destination options.

According to a codeshare agreement, airlines carry flyers whose tickets have been issued by another carrier, which is meant to provide passengers with a wider choice of destinations than any individual airline might offer on its own.

Vietjet and Japan Airlines said they would also aim to expand their codeshare routes in the near future, including other flight services between Japan and Vietnam as well as JAL’s domestic flights and Vietjet’s domestic flights.

Vietjet is the largest domestic airline in Vietnam with an expanding flight network across the country and Asia.

Currently, Vietjet operates 60 A320, A321 aircraft with more than 385 flights daily, carrying over 65 million passengers to date, with 101 routes covering destinations across Vietnam and Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, mainland China, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia and Cambodia.

Japan Airlines was founded in 1951 and became the first international airline in Japan.

The carrier now reaches 349 airports in 54 countries and regions together with its codeshare partners with a modern fleet of 230 aircraft.

According to a report on Tuoi Tre News

Vietnam’s program connects college students’ startup ideas with investors

Advertisements

The most outstanding startup projects from the CiC Startup Idea 2018 competition have presented their ideas in the Finding Investors CiC 2018 program.

The program was run by the Innovative Entrepreneurship Center (IEC) of the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City on October 17.

Through the program, the organizing committee hoped to encourage investment so as to support potential projects.

Competitive platform

The CiC Startup Idea 2018 was one of the greatest challenges the students had faced so far.

After approaching over 300,000 students of 35 colleges and community colleges in southern Vietnam, the competition was joined by 130 different startup projects and 300 students.

Having gone through three elimination rounds, as well as several boot camps, skill-building programs, and workshops, six groups were selected the most outstanding.

These groups were then allowed to participate in the Finding Investors CiC 2018 program, where the students had to provide a persuasive presentation in order to convince the most demanding CEOs and boards of the investing companies.

The program held by IEC resembles the recently recognized show Shark Tank, where potential startup projects are also presented to investors so as to receive the funding necessary for development.

The Finding Investors CiC 2018 allowed the contestants to present their projects within five minutes and state the funding necessary for their development.

After the presentation, the young students had to answer the most challenging questions posed by the investors.

Based on the information, the CEOs would decide whether a project was worth funding.

Even though it might appear as a standard procedure, as the students are young and inexperienced, this was a challenging task for them, especially when the questions were from more experienced professionals.

Valuable opportunity

The six participating groups had different ideas, all of which were innovative and intriguing, such as low-cost houses for all environments, smart helmets for motorbikes, and smart college environments combined with technology, among others.

As a result, four out of six projects were sponsored with different amounts.

iNut Platform received the highest funding of VND625 million (US$26,700) for 2.5 percent of the share for their project of developing IoT (Internet of Things) applications.

Three other projects were provided with the same amount of VND300 million ($12,800) for different percentages of their funds needed to develop smart colleges, online training programs, and low-cost houses.

According to a report on Tuoi Tre News

Motorbike market gears up with new technologies

Advertisements

Having expanded by 13 times in the last 20 years, the domestic motorbike market remains hot with new models equipped with the most advanced technologies launched eve

Honda Vietnam in early October marketed Honda PCX Hybrid, with advanced technology.

The product is equipped with gasoline engine with a capacity of 150cc that provides power and a motor that acts as supporting power.

The combination brings two outstanding features: higher performance and lower fuel consumption (lower by 2 percent compared with the previous-generation version).

Prior to that, in September, Honda Vietnam equipped Vision with Smart Key system after it integrated the system into SH, SH Mode and Air Blade models.

Smart Key allows users to turn on/off with wireless connection and find their cars in parking lots more easily. Traditional lock and key have been replaced with a rotary knob and a compact FOB control unit.

Piaggio Vietnam also pioneered in the technology race when launching models priced at up to hundreds of million of dong.

Its Vespa Sei Giorni model is equipped with technology which connects a smartphone with the scooter. The software installed on smartphone shows details about the status of engine, torque, acceleration capability, average velocity, average fuel consumption, positioning (GPS) and battery level.

The two models introduced in early 2018, Vespa Sprint and Medley ABS 2018, are equipped with automotive technologies such as electronic fuel injection engines, ABS brakes, anti-theft magnetic locking system, and additional safety features.

The technology race began when Piaggio Vietnam marketed the next-generation Liberty in late 2015. With a new design, the scooter model also has an ABS brake. ABS was later used for other models, including Medley, Vespa Primavera and Vespa Sprint.

Honda, of Japan, introduced ABS brake system when it launched SH model. The system has been integrated in recently marketed models.

In general, ABS brakes, which previously were installed on cars and high-cylinder capacity motorbikes only, has been used by large manufacturers for popular models as well.

Newly introduced models also utilize LED technology which make bulbs more durable and consume less fuel.

Idling Stop, Smart Key, ABS brake and electronic petrol injection have become more popular as the technologies have been used on nearly all motorbike models.

High technologies allow automobile manufacturers to boost sales. According to Honda Motor, in 2017, it sold 19.6 million products, an increase of 10 percent compared with 2016 thanks to the growth of the Indian, Thai and Vietnamese markets.

According to a report on Vietnamnet

Shopee becomes top e-commerce player in Vietnam by traffic in Q3

Advertisements

The competition was growing fierce in Vietnam’s e-commerce market, which is anticipated to reach US$10 billion by 2022.

Shopee has beat Lazada to become the top e-commerce platform by traffic in the third quarter of this year, according to the Map of E-commerce in Vietnam recently published by Iprice Insight.

Statistics showed that Shopee had a monthly average traffic of 34.5 million in the quarter.It was closely followed by Lazada with a monthly average traffic of 30.2 million.

The top four, including Shopee, Lazada, Tiki and Sendo all received foreign funding.The competition was growing fierce in Vietnam’s e-commerce market, which is anticipated to reach US$10 billion by 2022.

Iprice Insight is run by iPrime Group, a price comparison platform in seven markets, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

According to a report on The Nation

Buying a new car is ‘the single worst financial decision’

Advertisements

A brand new car looks and smells good — but it’s never worth the price, says self-made millionaire and bestselling author David Bach.

“Nothing you will do in your lifetime, realistically, will waste more money than buying a new car,” he tells CNBC Make It. “It’s the single worst financial decision millennials will ever make.”

That’s because the moment you drive it off the lot, the vehicle starts to depreciate: Your car’s value typically decreases 20 to 30 percent by the end of the first year and, in five years, it can lose 60 percent or more of its initial value.

To make matters worse, “most people borrow money to buy that car,” says Bach. “Why would you borrow money to buy an asset that immediately goes down in value by 30 percent?”

The good news is, you can get a shiny, nice-smelling car without breaking the bank, Bach says: “Buy a car that’s coming off of a two- to three-year lease, because that car is almost brand new and you can buy it at that 30 percent discount.”

A car coming off lease is typically in very good condition and doesn’t have many miles on it. Because it’s not pristine, though, you can buy it for a fraction of what it would cost to buy it new.

If you’re still not convinced, Bach recommends thinking about how much a new car will cost you over the long run: “Here’s how the car companies get you: They want you to focus on monthly payments. And they’ll get those monthly payments down to you where you can afford it.

“Don’t think about monthly payments. Think about annual payments. Think about the entire term of the loan.”

He continues: “If you’re spending $500 a month for that car, well, that’s $6,000 a year, not including the car insurance or the gas. That could be two months or three months of your income. Run the numbers and then ask yourself: Do you really need a car that nice or could you buy a car that’s less expensive — maybe a little older — but still looks good and still runs?”

Bach isn’t the only money expert who feels this way. Personal finance expert and star of ABC’s “Shark Tank” Kevin O’Leary also warns against buying a new car.

“I use my phone to call Uber or Lyft, and they take me around the city. I save a fortune. I feel good about it,” O’Leary says. “I hate cars.”

And Suze Orman, who keeps her cars for 12 years or more, says to buy used and choose a model that you can afford over one that looks impressive. “One of the best ways to build financial security is to spend the least amount possible on a car that meets your needs,” she wrote in a 2017 blog post. “Forget about the bells and whistles you want. Paying less helps you pay off the car faster.”

According to a report on CNBC

Smoking in film largely banned

Advertisements

Newly-issued Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Circular 25 has ordered firms and artists to limit smoking scenes in films and plays.

The new circular bans actors from smoking on screen in films for general audience unless the purpose is criticism. Smoking scenes are banned in works for children or to praise individuals and organisations that become successful from cigarettes.

Cigarettes can still be used for artistic purposes or to be historically accurate, however, actors must not smoke for real. If there are many smoking scenes in a film, it must be rated or gives audiences warnings about smoking.

Vietnamese spend approximately VND31trn (USD1.24m) on tobacco and VND24trn go into treatments for just five out of 25 tobacco-related illnesses every year.

The circular will take effect from November 25.

Source: Dtinews

Concerns over low-quality language centres raised

Advertisements

Many experts have raised concerns about the quality of language centres in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Education and Training has issued Circular 31 about operational regulations of computer and language centres to replace Circular 3 issued in 2011. Provincial authorities are responsible for directing departments of education and training to work with localities to inspect the centres.

The departments must publicise the list of all active computer and language centres in the area including commitments about quality, their establishment dates and locations for public monitoring.

Nguyen Lam Giang, regional manager in Southeast Asia of Waikato University from New Zealand, said mostly small and unlicensed language centres were substandard. Giang also said that the authorities often asked the centres to submit their teacher list before issuing licenses. But in reality, many there is a high turnover of teachers employed in these centres.

“Major language centres are very strict when training and hiring teachers. For example, the teachers must have Celta, Tesol or Delta certificates in order to teach English in another country. Small centres don’t have the resources and qualified teachers are not that many and most will work at big centres,” she said.

According to Giang, the authorities face difficulties in management due to the sheer number of language centres in a crowded and large area. The students are confused at the huge amount of information from relatives and the internet.

Le Thi Chinh from Hanoi Foreign Language Specialised School said reputable centres could help students find scholarships to study overseas. The teaching quality at small centres was a big question mark since students can go and leave classes whenever they want.

Lax management will lead to falling standards and scandals and students will be the ones receiving the bad end. For example, recently, Nguyen Tien Dung, chairman of Langmaster English Centre, issued a public apology after it was discovered that the centre had been reproducing teaching programmes and methods from various sources without credit.

Pham Xuan Tien, deputy director of Hanoi Department of Education and Training, also said that they had detected several cases in which the language centres replaced teachers and failed to notify the authorities.

“In principle, the centres must publicise the information about their teachers or they can provide the list to their students only,” he said.

Thanh Huong from Hanoi’s Ba Dinh District, said it took her months to research and test the centres for her children since there were no known official standards.

“First I went to reputable centres and asked them to provide some licenses and teachers’ certificates. Then I tried to take the courses myself to find out about their strong points such as grammar or communication skills and find the most suitable ones for my children,” she said.

Source: Dtinews

Canon introduces large format printer series for SMEs

Advertisements

Four new printers launched among brand’s flagship technologies packed in slim body designs.

Canon, one of the world’s leading corporations in imaging technology, last week unveiled four new large format printers at an event entitled “Canon Ignite – Explosion of Future Technology” in Ho Chi Minh City.

They include the 24-inch imagePROGRAF TM-5200 and imagePROGRAF TM-5205 and the 36-inch imagePROGRAF TM-5300 and imagePROGRAF TM-5305 models.

All belong to the company’s imagePROGRAF TM line designed specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a key segment in Vietnam. Indeed, according to the Japan External Trade Organization, in Vietnam, enterprises with total revenues below $8.6 million account for more than 95 per cent of the country’s total and contribute 49 per cent of national GDP.

The segment is set to revel in the advanced technologies the TM Series offers, which includes advanced power and cost management and security features normally reserved for enterprise-grade printing solutions. The TM Series packs all of this power within a perfect-size printer, ideal for smaller offices where space is frequently at a premium.

Specifically, business and education industries and design, construction and production companies that require the highest printing quality and speed will be vital target segments for the product line. Equipped with LUCIA TD 5-colour pigment inks and operating at only 44 decibels (dB), TM printers will bring industry-leading experience to users and empower higher productivity with less distracting-noise in the workplace.

“The TM Series is an exciting addition to our Vietnam business offering,” said Mr. Hiroshi Yokota, Canon Marketing Vietnam’s President and CEO. “The SME segment is a driving force in Vietnam’s economic growth, and an area in which Canon has been able to always delight Vietnam with products that meet exceed the price, space and performance requirements of the entrepreneurs that lead these businesses.”

“Today, customers in many business and public-sector environments want to produce high quality large format prints on demand and need to keep external costs down,” said Mr. Pieter Kraan, Canon’s Head Regional Wide Format Printing Division, General Manager. “From that, we identified an opportunity to create a product optimized for businesses with lower print volumes who can still benefit from having their own large format inkjet printer. With high configuration and incredible speed, these printers make it easy to produce high-quality, true-color prints at the best cost and minimal noise.”

Khanh Chi report on Vneconomictimes

VDSC’s Weekly Market Recap: Netland, DRC, IT outsourcing trends, CHP, HAH

Advertisements

Though we were expecting a good week for Vietnamese equities, after last Friday’s bounce back, things turned ugly on the back of negative news from US stock markets and headwinds in Asia. The VNIndex closed the week at 958.36 pts, down 1.2% WoW. Similarly, the HNXIndex dropped 1.5% to 108.1 pts.

Both indices are under pressure from the short-term downtrend of US equities since earlier this month. October’s been tough on markets…the Dow and S&P have pulled back more than 4%, while the Nasdaq is down nearly 7% this month. In Vietnam, the VNIndex has lost 5.4% while the HNXIndex has shed 6.4% this month.

The market has dropped below our target range of 960-1040, increasing the risk the VNIndex retests its 900 level given the situation in global markets.

An interesting thing happening this week is the VNIndex went down while the market welcomed 3rd Quarter & 9-month financial disclosures. Positive financial news from some bellwether stocks did little to cheer up investors.

The O&G sector, has been particularly hit hard because of global oil prices losing 10% since 3rd October. GAS, the biggest loser in the sector, suffered 6.6% decline this week. Other large caps in the sector had relatively slighter loses; POW (-4%) and OIL (-1.8%), PVT (-1.1%), PVS (-0.5%), while PVD bucked the trend and gained 2.5% this week.

The downtrend of the VNIndex is happening while liquidity seems to be drying up. The average trading value of the HOSE is just around VND3,670 billion (USD159.6mn), down ~31% WoW. However, foreigners turned net buyers for the week, injecting VND313bn (USD13.6mn) of the Vietnamese equities trading emerged as a good point for local investors, with their estimated net buying value of for 5 days this week.

Finally, according to recent news, the European Commission agreed to submit the EVFTA to the European Council to seek its approval for the signing of the deal slated for late 2018. I think this is a very positive news for the stock market and it should help support Vietnamese equities in the near future.

Rong Viet Securities Equity Research Summary

Analyst Pinboard

The revolution of Netland

· The structure of Netland’s shareholder is very concentrated, with high percentage of members from BOD. In coming time, there are more participation of Japanese investors in the company.
Residential segment
· After succeed in launching Queen Pearl project, Netland is active in acquiring other land bank.
· According to management’ plan, major profit in residential segment in 2019 will come from under-developed projects.
Brokerage services
· Danh Khoi (DKR) is one of top broker companies in the South. In term of brokerage market share, DKR accounts for approximately 4.5% in 2017.
· In general, DKR mostly distributes Netland’s real estate projects.
Analyst’s view
· The strategy to co-operate with the Japanese partners can be considered as a “certificate” as well as financial resources to help Netland quickly leverage its scale rapidly in this period.
· However, it will take time for the company to prove its ability to transform that into real ‘money’.

Danang Rubber JSC (HoSE: DRC) – Update on 3Q18

· Revenue in 3Q18 continued to improve slightly , meanwhile, sales volume of bias tires slumped. We anticipate that earnings in 3Q18 would witness a noticeable fall compared to 2Q18.
· Revenue is estimated to grow slightly due to improvement in radial tire sales volume, estimated revenue at VND935bn (+6.5% YoY).
· PBT is estimated to improve from a low base in 3Q17, rising by about 26.3% YoY to VND40bn from a low base in 3Q17 last year. However, compared to 2Q18, PBT in 3Q18 is down 41.4% QoQ.
2018 outlook
· DRC is now working with an advisor to value this land lot, and will hold an auction to transfer the LUR. We then expect that the company will be able to book some one-off gain within this year.
· Revenue and NPAT are estimated to reach VND3.647tn (-0.6% YoY) and VND165.6bn (2.4% YoY), respectively. We forecast that 2018 revenue of radial and bias tire products will come in at VND1.38tn (+9% YoY) and VND1.426tn (-9%), respectively. DRC targets price at VND 24,300/share.

Is Vietnam going to benefit from the global IT outsourcing trend?

· According to Gartner (April 2018), worldwide IT spending is projected to be USD3.7tn in 2018, an increase of 6.2% from 2017.
· The demand for IT outsourcing is expected at USD 90 bn annually and to grow at a CAGR of 4.4% during the period 2018-2022, mostly from developed countries with high labor cost.
· FPT is currently the largest IT outsourcing company in Vietnam. It employs over 10% of the domestic software engineers and is considered to benefit the most from this global trend.
· The main IT outsourcing challenge for the country’s IT firms is adapting to develop a skilled team that can work abroad. It is a challenge in training and communication.
· Success requires establishing smart communication protocols so that despite time and distance, teams are working fluidly and smartly together.
· Despite that the overall IT outsourcing market is very promising, Vietnamese firms still have to work more to enter Western markets.

Central Hydropower JSC (HoSE: CHP) – Unusual Hydrological Conditions Led to Poor Performance in 3Q 2018

· Even though we expect a certain recovery in performance in 4Q18, the outlook for hydrological conditions in early 2019 will remain tough.
· Unfavorable hydrological conditions make sales volume decline amid rising selling prices
· Business performance is expected to improve in 4Q 2018. The revenue and NPAT in 4Q18 would be VND 350 billion (+27% YoY) and VND 214 billion (+47% YoY), respectively.
· Update on progress of the Cu Jut solar power project: CHP is having trouble in financing the Cu Jut project despite its strong financial health. Currently, the company is in negotiation with a Singaporean bank.
· We remain bullish on the prospect of the company in the long-term. We still keep our target price at VND29,000/share.

Hai An Transport & Stevedoring JSC (HoSE: HAH) – Business Update

Port segment
· HAH’s port operations are having a tough time because the firm is losing market share to the downstream ports in Haiphong.
· Given the increasing domestic container volume in the throughput structure of Hai An Port, the profit margin will be even lower if the draft circular approved.
Seaborne container transportation
· Aiming to increase its market share, HAH has just bought a 1,100 TEU vessel which will be received in November.
· This fleet is running 2 services: Domestic service & International service
· Customers of the domestic transportation business are (1) manufacturing companies, (2) freight forwarders and (3) seasonal agri-products traders.
· However, this business is always exposed to fuel prices, which has eroded GPM lately.
Logistics center
· With intension to complete the logistics value chain, in 3Q17, HAH signed a contract to cooperate with Korean logistics firm, Pantos Holdings. The construction plan for the second phase is expected to start in 2Q19.
· Besides, HAH also plans to open another 31ha logistics centre in Cai Mep, Vung Tau.

Young mother admits throwing newborn son out of window

Advertisements

A 21-year-old student in Hanoi has admitted that she had thrown her newborn son who she said died at birth from a toilet window at an apartment in the area.

According to Dtinews, the young woman who comes from the central province of Quang Binh is now a fourth-year student at a university in Hanoi at first denied relations with the dead baby boy who was found falling to dead in the yard of the HH2 apartment building in Linh Dam Urban Area on Thursday evening, but then she admitted her act.

Police summoned her and two other suspects at an apartment on the 31st floor. She was weak and is being treated at a local hospital.

The woman told police in Hoang Mai District that she gave birth at the apartment and found that the baby was dead. So she threw it from the toilet window. The two other people in the apartment didn’t know about this.

Police said that they had released the two after finding that they weren’t involved in the incident.

Five Vietnamese nationals plead guilty to roles in $2.8 million Maitland cannabis operation

Advertisements

FIVE Vietnamese nationals, including two men who were in Australia illegally, have pleaded guilty to their roles in a sophisticated $2.8 million cannabis operation, during which hundreds of cannabis plants were being grown inside six suburban Maitland homes.

According to a report by SAM RIGNEY on The Herald, four members of the drug syndicate – Vuong Luu Quoc, Anh Quang Pham, Tuan Dac Trinh and Kim Phuong – appeared in Newcastle Local Court via audio visual link from Sydney jails on Wednesday where they admitted to “crop sitting” hundreds of cannabis plants at homes in Tenambit, Heddon Greta and Morpeth in February this year.

A fifth syndicate member, 23-year-old Anh Thy Vu, who is the wife of Quoc, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to concealing a serious indictable offence after the DPP withdrew a charge of cultivating a commercial quantity of a prohibited plant.

Vu, who spent nine days in custody before she was granted bail, was living at one of the Tenambit drug houses with Quoc, but was not involved in cultivating the cannabis, according to an agreed statement of facts.

Magistrate Robert Stone placed her on a two-year community corrections order, the new equivalent to a good behaviour bond, and made an order that she not associate with Quoc, who is likely to be deported when he is ultimately eligible for parole, for 12 months.

Quoc pleaded guilty to two counts of cultivating a commercial quantity of a prohibited plant relating to 150 cannabis crops uncovered in a home in Crofton Avenue, Tenambit and another 174 plants found in a home at Jacob Place, Tenambit during six simultaneous raids on February 14.

Pham, who was found inside the Jacob Place home, pleaded guilty to cultivating a commercial quantity of a prohibited plant.

The four men will appear in Newcastle District Court next week to get sentence dates.

SOPHISTICATED: The houses had false walls and electrical, ventilation and watering systems installed.

It was a sophisticated and large-scale operation.

Almost every room in all six homes was full of cannabis plants, lamp shades, fans, powerboards and transformers. At least two houses had false walls and power had been bypassed before reaching the meter box. And police said there was a sophisticated electrical, ventilation and watering system installed in the premises, which included ducting, plumbing, irrigation pumps and charcoal filters in ceilings.

Vietnam ranked 77th out of 140 countries in the latest Global Competitiveness Index

Advertisements

Vietnam fell three places from the ranking of previous year.

This year, World Economic Forum (WEF) used a new methodology to fully capture the dynamics of the global economy in the Fourth Industrial Revolution; many of the factors that will have the greatest impact on driving future competition have never been the focus of major policy decisions in the past. These factors include idea generation, entrepreneurial culture, openness and agility. Under the new method, Vietnam received 58.1 points.

According to a report on VNS, Vietnam was ranked the sixth most competitive economy in Southeast Asia.

Within the region, Vietnam was behind neighbors Singapore (second), Malaysia (25th), Thailand (38th), Indonesia (45th) and the Philippines (56th), but ahead of Brunei Darussalam (62nd), Cambodia (110th) and Laos (112th).

The Global Competitiveness Index ranks countries based on 12 key pillars. Vietnam’s “health” dimension was evaluated highest at 81 points. (Photo: WEF)

The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) is based on 12 pillars: institutions, infrastructure, information and communication technology adoption, macroeconomic stability, health, skills, product market, labour market, financial system, market size, business dynamism and innovation capacity.

Of these 12 areas, Vietnam’s health dimension was evaluated highest at 81 points, ranked 68th out of 140. Market size reached 71 points, ranked 29th, and macroeconomic stability reached 75 points, ranked 64th.

The country was ranked lowest in product market at 102nd, business dynamism at 101st and skills at 97th.

In the remaining categories, institutions ranked 94th and information and communication technology adoption ranked 95th. Creative capacity reached the lowest score with just 33 points but still ranked 82nd out of 140 countries.

The US topped this year’s WEF Global Competitiveness Report. Singapore was in second place, with Germany in the third spot.