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New policy may cause chaos in the textbook market

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Experts have warned that the ‘one curriculum, many sets of textbooks’ policy may cause chaos in the textbook market.

A movement to boycott the ‘Tieng Viet 1 – Cong nghe giao duc’ textbook (Vietnamese language for first graders, compiled in accordance with the new education technology program) started just before the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) approved the new education program.

Under the program, MOET will be the only agency which sets curricula for every grade, while there will be many sets of textbooks to be compiled by different groups of authors. The new program is scheduled to begin from the 2019-2020 academic year.

Once the ‘one curriculum, many sets of textbooks’ policy is implemented, healthy competition is the prerequisite to have a healthy textbook market.

Analysts say that groups of textbook compilers and publishers are trying to launch an unhealthy competition to eliminate rivals.

The Vietnam Education Publishing House, now the only textbook publisher in Vietnam, is believed to pocket big profit with 100 million textbook copies printed every year. Parents have to pay VND1 trillion each year for textbooks.

A high school teacher in Hanoi affirmed that some groups of authors have been compiling new textbooks, even though the MOET still has not publicized the curricula and formal learning subjects.

Analysts warned that as there would be many textbook compilers and publishers, it would be difficult to control the market.

According to Nguyen Quoc Vuong, a researcher, there are principles that need to be observed.

The textbook inspection council must be completely independent and transparent with members who do not have relations with publishers. The members of the council must not be textbook compilers or officials who have the right to decide which textbooks to use.

Some experts, agreeing with Vuong, warned that if the phases of the textbook compilation and distribution cannot be separated, the textbook market will become chaotic as it is cornered by groups of interests.

Textbook compilers, publishing houses and schools could collude with each other. Textbook suppliers may pay under-the-table money to headmasters of schools to persuade the headmaster to choose their textbooks for the schools.

Vuong said there must be a transparent mechanism about who will have the right to choose textbooks. They could be headmasters, parents, teachers or local councils, but the selection process must be carried out in a transparent way.

According to a report on Vietnamnet

Late President “loved and respected by many”

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President Tran Dai Quang signed a letter to Vietnamese children on the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival. He did not know that it would be his last signature.

He was admitted to the military hospital on the afternoon of the same day. He went into a coma at around 5pm and never woke up.

On the previous day, he had two receptions: at 3:30pm, he hosted Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court of China Zhou Qiang. At 4:30pm, he met with heads of delegations to the 14th Assembly of the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI 14).

“In the first meeting, he looked paler than on most days, but he still smiled when talking to the guest. But as he walked into the second meeting, he couldn’t hide his tiredness,” said Dương Dũng, who was the Vietnam News Agency reporter who had been exclusively covering the President’s activities for the past 29 months.

Nguyễn Quốc Triệu, former health minister and head of a national committee in charge of leaders’ health, told media that Quang was afflicted by a serious disease for which doctors have found no cure yet. The president fell sick in July 2017 and had traveled to Japan six times for treatment.

President Quang was born in 1956 in Quang Thiện Commune, Kim Sơn District, Ninh Bình Province, about 100km south of Hà Nội.

In the eyes of people in his hometown, the late President was a tough person.

Cao Hoàng Đảng, 63, President Quang’s childhood friend, said although the State leader was born into a poor family, he never complained about it.

“His father died early so their family life was harder than others’. After school, he would rush to the fields to work,” Đảng said.

Later on, Quang gained success in his studies and career, holding high-ranking positions, but he was still a simple person that local residents had known for a long time, Đảng said.

Vũ Xuân Sinh, principle of the Kim Sơn B High School in Kim Sơn District, said the late President had paid great attention to encouraging local students.

“In 2014, when he was the Minister of Public Security, he came to visit the school and found out our school facilities were degraded. He then donated funds himself and asked many other philanthropists to donate to the upgrading of the school,” Sinh said.

Lê Tiến Toàn, a teacher at the Kim Sơn B High School, said he was touched by how his old student treated him.

Toàn recently had a heart attack and had to be hospitalised in Hà Nội’s Bạch Mai Hospital. Worried about his health when the procedure was complicated, his daughter contacted the President and asked for help.

“Quang helped me a lot with the procedures and even gave me some gift. He was such a loving person and I am so proud to have a student like him,” Toàn said.

“Simple” and “down-to-earth” were also the words that many people who knew the leader would use to describe him. Dương Dũng, Vietnam News Agency reporter, said that President Quang was an open, friendly and caring person, contradicting Dũng’s initial expectations for how a head of state would behave.

“He would always find time to talk to us in between activities and sometimes even joked and called us his comrades,” Dũng said.

But President Quang was also a tough and confident person when it came to State activities, according to Trần Việt Thái, Deputy Director of the Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies under the Diplomatic Academy of Việt Nam.

“He paid a lot of attention to the country’s foreign affairs, and he was a leader with a strategic vision and a confident and decisive manner,” Thái said.

Late President Quang made a good impression on international friends when he successfully hosted many diplomatic activities last year when Việt Nam hosted the Asia Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) 2017, Thái said.

“I was mostly impressed with his manner and stamina when hosting foreign heads of states from the United States, Russia and China. He was so confident yet flexible when receiving US President Donald Trump and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and President of China Xi Jinping,” he said.

Thái also recalled how hard President Quang worked during the 2017 event, when he had to travel back and forth continuously from the capital to Đà Nẵng.

“He always put great efforts in the things he did and worked tirelessly until the last minute. He directly chaired and organised many important diplomatic activities during this event and greatly contributed to the success of the summit,” Thái said.

“He was also loved and respected by so many people working in the diplomatic sector for his down-to-earth and caring character,” Thái said.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Cambodia Vũ Quang Minh also shared his memories of the late President on his Facebook page.

Minh said that in a working session with a Vietnamese delegation from the Ministry of Defense, Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen said that President Quang was one of the soldiers who volunteered to come and fight with his Cambodian comrades in 1979 to push the Khmer Rouge from Phnom Penh.

And President Quang was also remembered by the Cambodia Prime Minister for having help cut his hair five times, according to Ambassador Vũ Quang Minh.

The President graduated from the People’s Police University and the School of Foreign Languages under the Ministry of Home Affairs, now the Ministry of Public Security.

He served as Deputy Minister of Public Security from 2006 to August 2011, and Minister from August 2011 to March 2016.

He assumed office as the country’s President on April 2, 2016.

President Quang will be buried in his home village in northern Ninh Bình Province after a State funeral in Hà Nội.

Source: VNS

HCM City: multi-million dollar port in danger of closure

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Since June 2017, the Saigon Premier Container Terminal (SCPT) in Nha Be district has not received any large-tonnage container vessel. The thirst for goods is causing the multi-million dollar port to incur big losses.

The Soai Rap passage has suffered from sedimentation and the water depth cannot reach – 9.5 meters to receive large vessels.

Doan Hong Tam, deputy general director on July 24, confirmed that as the port has needed container goods for one year, SCPT is facing big difficulties.

In the entire 2017, the port only received small vessels with the cargo capacity of 34,000 cars, while the number of cars arrived in the first six months of 2018 was equal to 20 percent of the same period last year.

SPCT is developed by the joint venture between Dubai Ports World (DP World) and Tan Thuan Industry Development capitalized at $410 million ($250 million in the first phase). It became operational in 2010 with the capacity of 1.5 million TEU per annum.

When programming the development of ports in Hiep Phuoc area, HCMC and ministries had to spend VND300-400 billion to dredge the Soai Rap passage every year to ensure the water depth of – 9.5 meters for large vessels to dock at the Hiep Phuoc port area.

“Because of the passage sedimentation, we cannot receive container goods, but can only receive import cars, carried in small-tonnage vessels,” Tam said.

Besides SPCT, the Hiep Phuoc area also accommodates other ports, namely Tan Cang Hiep Phuoc, Saigon-Hiep Phuoc and specialized ports for the Hiep Phuoc Industrial Zone.

The situation became serious when NYK’s Castor Leader, which was carrying cars, was caught in a shoal for six hours on the way to SPCT.

Since March 2018, the cargo vessel going in/out of the ports in Hiep Phuoc area with the draft of over 7.5 meters have to shift to the Saigon-Vung Tau passage (Long Tau River) which is narrow.

Also according to SPCT, shipping lines earlier this year requested SPCT to provide information about the current situation and the plan to dredge Soai Rap passage.

However, SPCT cannot give an answer because it is the state’s responsibility to dredge passages, not port owners.

The operation of SPCT depends on the maintenance and dredging of Soai Rap, work which depends on planning by state agencies.

Sources said that the annual passage dredging is carried out with money from the state budget. To speed up the work, HCMC local authorities proposed to advance VND300 billion from the local budget in previous years and VND400 billion this year to carry out the dredging soon so as to save the ports in Hiep Phuoc area.

Kim Chi report on VNN

Where has the money gone after landmark stock issuances?

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While M&A is a popular strategy to mobilise capital, the outcomes of these deals get far less attention a couple of years down the road. Khac Lam delves into the most eminent cases in the Vietnamese stock market.

DNP: Continuously engaging into M&As of water and plastic sector companies

Dong Nai Plastic JSC (ticker DNP) is one of the businesses most active on the M&A scene in the past years.

Within four years, its charter capital increased 25-fold from VND34 billion to VND880 billion, through three stock issuances to existing shareholders, two private placements, and one stock distribution to the company’s employees under the employee stock option plan (ESOP), besides several rounds of dividend and bonus payments in the form of stocks.

Amid rapid capital hikes in the past four years, DNP has been actively engaged in a string of M&A deals with businesses in the water and plastics fields.

By the end of June 2018, besides its Dong Nai Plastic Plant, the company possesses two other businesses, Tan Phu Plastic where it holds a 72.65 per cent stake and Dong Nai Mien Trung Plastic where it holds 99.33 per cent.

In the field of water, DNP possesses more than 10 member and affiliated companies, such as Binh Hiep JSC where it holds 53.06 per cent, Dong Tam Water Refinery Plant (39.5 per cent), Long An Water Supply and Sewerage JSC (30.94 per cent), and Can Tho Water Supply and Sewerage JSC (16.89 per cent).

In the first half of this year, DNP injected a total of VND109 billion ($4.8 million) into four water affiliates.

It also pumped nearly VND296 billion ($13 million) into two water plant projects in Bac Giang and Long An province.

Amid rapid investment expansion, DNP’s after-profit figures have also witnessed constant increases, from VND22 billion ($973,450) in 2014 to VND45 billion ($2 million) in 2015 and VND86.3 billion ($3.8 million) in 2016.

Last year, the company’s profit could not follow this upward trend, slightly falling to VND83.3 billion ($3.68 million) and in the first six months of this year, DNP only reported VND29.7 billion ($1.3 million) in profits, half of the same period last year.

VRC: ADEC acquisition
In September and October 2017, VRC Real Estate and Investment JSC (VRC) sold 35.5 million shares in two deals (10.15 million stocks to existing shareholders and 25.34 million stocks to strategic investors), raising its charter capital by 3.4 times from VND145 billion ($6.4 million) to VND500 billion ($22 million).

VRC planned to reap VND390 billion ($17.2 million) from the share sale, VND345 billion ($15.3 million) of which will be used to buy a 65 per cent stake in ADEC JSC, a real estate firm, with the maximum share price of VND24,000 ($1.06), while VND44.5 billion ($1.96 million) will be used to supplement the company’s working capital.

It is noteworthy that several months before VRC’s plan for charter capital increase and to acquire ADEC was unveiled, in early May 2017 VRC’s general director and chairwoman Nguyen Ngoc Quynh Nhu was appointed to become ADEC’s general director cum chairwoman.

In October 17, 2017, the company finalised two VRC stock issuance deals, and two days later it bought 13.3 million ADEC shares at a price level close to the set price, at VND319.7 billion ($14.1 million).

The 13.3 million shares equalled 60.06 per cent of ADEC’s charter capital.

The proposed VND24,000 is twice ADEC’s book price at the end of 2016, when the company reported VND221 billion ($9.7 million) in charter capital and VND348 billion ($15.3 million) in total asset value.

Compared to other listed real estate tickers, this price level was deemed high as ADEC incurred more than VND8 billion ($354,000) in losses in 2015 and only posted VND5 million ($220) in after-tax profit in 2016.

Also in late 2016, the company had used the money left from stock issuances to raise its capital contribution in VRC Saigon Limited, its member unit, which was founded in June 2016.

In the second quarter of this year, VRC, however, transferred 15 per cent of its capital contribution in VRC Saigon Limited to another firm.

The capital transfer was the main reason doubling VRC’s first half profit on-year. The shareholders, however, are dubious about the efficiency of VRC’s investment in ADEC.

HKB: Using proposed supplemental capital to feed two M&A deals
Hanoi-Kinh Bac Agriculture and Food JSC (ticker HKB) sold 30 million shares (1.5 times the volume of the number of stocks currently in circulation) to existing shareholders in March 2016. Initially, the company envisaged using the raised capital volume of VND300 billion ($13.2 million) to supplement its working capital.

Shortly after that, in May 2016, HKB announced two investment deals worth VND220 million ($9.7 million) and VND80 billion ($3.5 million) into Lumex Vietnam and Hung Loc Phat Gia Lai Agriculture JSC.

Then in October 2016, HKB pumped VND110 billion ($4.8 million) into Lumex Vietnam. In total, HKB now holds 83.42 per cent in Lumex Vietnam and 88.89 per cent in Hung Loc Phat Gia Lai JSC.

These two investment deals equalled 70 per cent of HKB’s equity by the end of 2016. The company, however, has published limited information about these two target companies to shareholders.

In the last two years, HKB saw continual decreases in its revenue and profit figures, with the most recent five quarters in the red. The company’s ticker took a plunge from more than VND30,000 ($1.3) in mid-2016 to a mere VND1,400 ($0.06) on September 21, 2018.

Source: VIR

Deloitte Vietnam named among best companies to work for in Asia

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HR Asia’s “Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2018” awards ceremony held in HCMC on September 14.

Deloitte Vietnam was recognized as one of 27 “Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2018” by HR Asia magazine, one of the region’s leading publications for human resources (HR) professionals, at a ceremony on September 14 in Ho Chi Minh City.

This is the first time Vietnamese businesses have been included in the awards, by HR Asia magazine’s Vietnam chapter, and Deloitte Vietnam is the only firm among the Big 4 in Vietnam to be honored.

“Vietnam has been developing rapidly in the past decade, with many new local as well as multinational companies setting up businesses, widening employees’ choices,” Ms. Tran Thuy Trang, HR and Learning Director at Deloitte Vietnam, said at the ceremony. “Being chosen as an employer of choice shows that Deloitte has succeeded in creating a workplace environment that fosters equality, professionalism, and the well-being of all employees.”

Winners of the award were selected from a pool of 130 nominees in 24 industries and were based on the results of a survey with employees that assessed the company’s workplace environment, HR practices, employee engagement, and job satisfaction. Vietnam had 27 companies on the list.

To be qualified, nominees had to meet all requirements of HR Asia, such as successfully completing the HR Asia Employee Input Survey™ (EIS) and the HR Asia Workplace and Employee Engagement Survey™ (WEES), which gauge a company’s employee turnover rate, employee growth rate, and workplace accident rate, among other matters. Deloitte Vietnam earned high scores in all three criteria.

A pioneer in the Advisory and Audit industry with almost 27 years of experience in Vietnam, Deloitte Vietnam is part of the global Deloitte network, one of the four largest professional services organizations in the world.

Deloitte Vietnam delivers value-added services in Risk Advisory, Financial Advisory, Tax, Audit & Assurance, and Professional Training to both the private and public sectors across a wide range of industries. It currently has more 900 professionals working at two offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Considering talent as the most valuable asset, Deloitte Vietnam’s HR strategy focuses on delivering long-term values to employees through providing a professional working environment, attractive remuneration policies, and the conditions and opportunities for individuals to develop their own abilities.

The “Best Companies to Work for in Asia Awards” is one of the most prestigious HR awards and organized by HR Asia magazine, the most authoritative publication for HR professionals in Asia. The award has been organized for several years and covered 12 markets in the region this year, recognizing world-class corporations with high levels of employee engagement and excellent workplace cultures.

Source: Vneconomictimes

Where are Viber, LINE when the battle becomes fierce?

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Viber has been taking care of loyal customers, while LINE has set up an office and plans a return to Vietnam.

Grab is striving to become a ‘super app’ which not only allows users to hail taxis, but also makes payments and has other services. Zalo, a messaging app, has developed e-wallet, while Foody’s Now is planning to jump into the passenger transport market.

The race of the apps has raised questions about the fates of Viber and LINE, two apps familiar to nearly all Vietnamese before 2015. Viber once held 60 percent of market shares with 63 million users.

Their names have been less mentioned recently as more apps have appeared in Vietnam.

However, analysts believe that the ‘big guys’ won’t miss the Vietnamese market, the third largest populous market in Southeast Asia, which is the destination for many apps.

Viber recently has updated enhancements to help users improve their experience. The message transfer speed has increased by two times, while the interface for text and image display has been improved.

It has also declared end-to-end message content encryption, affirming that the content is secured by a third party and Viber itself cannot read the users’ messages.

Viber is considered less known than Messenger and WhatsApp. However, recent reports show that the number of Viber users has been increasing steadily in many areas in the world.

Analysts commented that with the updates, Viber focuses on taking care of loyal clients who use Viber as a messaging app, rather than thinking of developing new services.

Also from Japan, LINE is making heavier investments than Viber in Vietnam. LINE Vietnam’s headquarters is in HCMC which is built as a LINE global product development center (Tech Hub). The task of the center is attracting IT talents to build new strategic products.

Just days ago, LINE held a meeting with 50 IT developers in HCMC and it plans to organize four more events by the end of the year.

Luu Quynh Anh from LINE said the company plans to employ 60 more workers next year. LINE is not only a messaging app, but it also has many other products including LINE Today, Blockchain, LINE Pay, B612, LINE LIVE, Live Quiz Show and Games.

“In Vietnam, we are still learning users’ responses to improve the messaging app to serve Vietnamese in the best way,” Anh said.

However, Anh revealed that the messaging app is not the top priority for LINE when approaching Vietnamese users. LINE is preparing for a news website specifically developed by the company for the Vietnamese market.

According to a report on Vietnamnet

Foreign investors eye to e-wallet market

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Foreign investors have poured into Viet Nam’s e-wallet sector as they see huge growth potential in the market in the wake of the Government’s plan to reduce cash payments to below 10 per cent of the total payment transaction by 2020.

The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) licensed 27 non-bank institutions to provide intermediary payment services by the end of August, of which 20 offered e-wallets, including well-known names such as MoMo, Bankplus, Vi Viet, VTC Pay, WePay, Vimo, Ngan Luong and Payoo.

Most of the institutions have foreign investments, such as South Korea’s UTC Investment holding a 65 per cent stake in VNPT Epay, NTT Data holding 64 per cent in Payoo, Hong Kong’s Champion Crest holding 51 per cent of Amigo Technologies JSC, Thailand’s True Money owing 90 per cent of 1Pay and MOL Accessportal holding 50 per cent of Ngan Luong.

With the foreign investment capital, most e-wallet providers currently offer free or low-cost e-wallets in order to attract users. This explains why the transaction value via e-wallets has increased sharply in the recent time.

Though there is no official report from the SBV about the number of Vietnamese e-wallet users, service providers estimate that 10 million people in Viet Nam are using e-wallets, which is a modest figure compared with the great potential of the market.

Customers are also attracted to the payment method because it allows them to use mobile applications to quickly pay for goods and services in just a few seconds.

Despite the incentive policies of intermediary payment service providers, banks have not yet taken advantage of their potential strengths in e-payment.

Statistics of the Vietnam Card Association shows that there are currently 132 million ATM cards issued by banks. However, experts said that this number does not indicate that banks have been able to dominate the payment market of more than 90 million people, as the number of customers using ATM cards to pay online is even less than the 10 million that use e-wallets.

Banking expert Nguyen Tri Hieu said that similar to bank cards, the fees for e-wallets include fees for annual maintenance, money transfer, withdrawal, online payment, wallet management, transaction confirmation and balance information, which are similar to banks’.

Nevertheless, while banks charge most of these fees, most intermediary payment businesses accept losses in the first phase of operation as part of a long-term business strategy, Hieu said, adding that they had made thorough calculations to grasp the market.

If payment companies are able to attract more users, they could earn bigger benefits than the fees they could collect from services.

When the companies have a certain number of customers, they will then consider charging fees, Hieu said, warning that if banks don’t change their strategy, they will lose their share of the home market.

According to a report on VNS

Competition in ride hailing market enters new period

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After the departure of Uber, the battle in the ride hailing market has heated up with the participation of many newcomers.

Joining the market, FastGo and Go-Viet applied two major tactics – offering ‘next-to-nothing fee’ and using the motto ‘Vietnamese use Vietnamese apps’, Vietnamnet reported.

Go-Viet bears the management hallmark of Go-Jek and its Malaysian origin, but the brand still tries to win Vietnamese hearts by saying ‘buy Vietnamese’.

Meanwhile, its promotion campaign under which passengers only paid VND5,000 for trips less than 8 kilometers, caught special attention from the public.

After the departure of Uber, the battle in the ride hailing market has heated up with the participation of many newcomers.

The marketing formula proved to be effective. Nadiem Makarim, CEO of Go-Jek, said that Go-Viet has 35 percent of the motorbike hailing market share in HCM City, and the app has got 1.5 million downloads after six weeks of launching.

Meanwhile, the figure has raised doubts among analysts who commented that the figure is unbelievably high, and this could be just a ‘skill’ used by the brand to attract more drivers and investments.

FastGo, belonging to NextTech Group of Technopreneurs, has also been making every effort to attract customers.

By introducing its partner, the new strategic investor VinaCapital Ventures, FastGo wants to position itself as an e-hailing app developed by Vietnamese and supported by well-known financier.

While newcomers are running sale promotion campaigns, Grab is silently showing the firm stuff of a ‘giant’. While its rivals declare they have gained large market share and shown figures, Grab has not provided any figure, but affirms its market share is stable.

The app which dislodged Uber from Southeast Asia is carrying out community activities, upgrading services and running programs to increase customer experience on a technology platform that allows customers to use many types of services.

While its rivals state they have attracted thousands of drivers, Grab continues tightening management to heighten service quality. It permanently locks accounts of partners violating Grab’s code of conduct to ensure the safety of users.

While other apps do not care if their drivers serve 2-3 apps at the same time, Grab requests its drivers to use Grab only to ensure supply and service quality.

FastGo, after three months of operation, announced that it has 15,000 drivers and 50,000 registered customers in Hanoi and HCM City.

According to the General Department of Taxation (GDT), by October 2017, Grab had taken a loss in Vietnam. The company with VND20 billion in legal capital had incurred a loss of VND1 billion.

Traffic ban for state president funeral

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Hanoi will ban traffic from many streets during the two-day funeral of State President Tran Dai Quang.

According to Dtinews, the ban will be applied from 6 am to 10 pm on September 26 and from 6 am to 12 pm on September 27.

Trucks and lorries over half a tonne and passenger buses with over 25 seats will be banned from many main streets including Ly Thuong Kiet, Hai Ba Trung and Tran Hung Dao. Vehicles will be completely banned on some streets around the National Funeral Home such as Tang Bat Ho, Hang Chuoi, Han Thuyen and Tran Thanh Tong.

Traffic flow will be limited on many main streets in Hanoi on September 27 such as Kim Ma, Nguy Nhu Kon Tum, Khuat Duy Tien and Nguyen Tuan. The police in Hanoi asked drivers to follow traffic rules and traffic police’s directives.

People from other provinces who come to Hanoi to pay tribute to State President Tran Dai Quang are advised to find a parking lot and walk to the funeral home.

From 7 am to 12 pm on September 27, those who want to travel from Hanoi to Ninh Binh were advised to go to the old National Highway 1A. Vehicles from southern to northern areas should use Thanh Tri Bridge-Highway 5-Ly Son-Truong Sa-Hoang Sa-Vo Van Kiet route.

I quit London for Vietnam – here’s how I live on £15,000 as a freelancer

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Monthly income:

Income from freelancing: £1,132 net, est.

Total: £1,132 net (£15,000 gross a year).

Regular monthly outgoings:

Rent: £200 (room in a homestay in Ho Chi Minh City, inc. cleaner)
Food shopping: £45
Eating out, and socialising: £240
Motorcycle hire: £38
Fuel: £10
Storage fee in London: £29.15
Yoga membership: £26
Contact lens subscription: £13
Skype subscription: £13
Phone credit: £8
Cosmetics and supplements: £10
Visa: £9 (avg.)
Laundry: £7 (wash and press once a week)
Netflix subscription: £6
NUJ freelance membership: £5
WWF donation: £5
Haircut: £2
Travel/holidays: £100 (avg.)
SIPP (pension) savings: £65
Other savings: £300

Total: £1,131.15 (excluding savings: £766.15)

Amount left: +£0.85.

——————————

I moved to Ho Chi Minh City in March, having lived here briefly in 2017. The first stay was somewhat of a trial run, and once I got back to the UK the benefits of life here became clear. So I tied up some lose ends – including giving most of my stuff away – and headed back.

As you can see, the main attraction is the extremely low cost of living. Excluding what I save into my pension and savings account each month, my entire monthly expenditure is less than the rent for my old flatshare in Tooting, which was £750 per month.

This means I can work less than I had to London, where I needed to hustle for at least £1,500 a month (net) just to pay the bills, get to work and eat. As such I’ve been able to spend time on a creative project here, which is coming along nicely – if not slower than I’d hoped.

Wifi in Vietnam is usually excellent – even in the mountains – and so I can work remotely easily, conducting interviews over Skype. I pay £13 a month for 400 minutes of calls to the UK and for my own UK phone number.

Sunshine on tap

Of course the other major benefit to living here is the weather: daily sunshine doesn’t get old. This means I spend almost nothing on clothes, make-up, hair etc – less being more in all three categories in 32-degree heat. The local barber cuts my hair for me, which costs around £2.

I rent a room in a family home, which has a huge balcony and ample room to roll out my yoga mat. The bathroom is shared with two other guests and the £198-a-month rent includes use of the kitchen and cleaning. I take my laundry to a place nearby, where they wash and press it for me for around £1.60 per load.

There are lots of cultural and art events going on in the city, which I go to regularly – from exhibitions and workshops to markets and live music festivals. I also do yoga at a Sivananda studio three times a week, which costs £26 per month.

Food is a highlight of life in Vietnam and I spend the majority of my money on eating out and socialising. Street food is everywhere and incredibly cheap: from 50p for a fully loaded sandwich, or ‘Banh Mi,’ to £6 for all you can eat BBQ washed down with 75p bottles of ice-cold Bia Saigon.

I still tend to eat a Western breakfast of oats, fruit and soy milk at home, though, and I also make my own salads for dinner during the week. My average weekly spend in the supermarket is around £10, although occasionally I’ll spend a little more at a fancy foreign grocer for some wholegrain bread or imported cheese.

Some basic things are tricky to get here; shoes, for example. I’m a UK size 6, which relegates me to men’s trainers. Most face and body creams also have skin-whitening agents in too, so I stick to Johnsons baby lotion. All of this equals a great way to save money, however.

Sticking to a weekly budget

I tend to escape the city – whose frenetic energy is comparable to a teenager on amphetamines raving to trance – every few weeks. I’ll either take a bus for two hours to the beach at Vung Tau, or for six hours to the pine forests in Dalat. Tickets cost between £3 and £8 each way. I am also going on a long holiday to Bali in Indonesia soon.

I keep track of all my spending in notes on my phone, and stick to a weekly budget. I got into this habit last year and it’s helped me to finally take control of my spending. In London I did a lot of ‘magical thinking’ to justify living beyond my means: now if I spend it, it gets written down and counted.

I use a Creation credit card to withdraw cash and make card payments fee free, which I clear at the end of every month. I get paid in pounds into a UK bank account, which makes this easier. For foreigners earning in Vietnamese Dong, moving money abroad can be expensive and difficult.

Of course it’s not all sunshine and lollipops living in a developing country. Driving and crossing the road is a daily trial where the only rule is: there are no rules, while God forbid you need a doctor as that costs around £50 a visit for foreigners.

However, for the first time in my adult life I’m living debt free; I don’t lose sleep over how I’m going to make the rent or buy food; I’ve got time to pursue other interests and I have actual cash money in a savings account.

And that is pretty nice.

According to a report on inews

Google quietly started logging people into Chrome without their consent

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For years, Google has given users of its Chrome browser the option of surfing the web without logging in.

But a security expert says Google quietly changed its requirements so that when a user logs in to a Google service such as Gmail, Chrome will automatically sign into their account.

Google tucked the new login requirements into the latest Chrome update without notifying users, Matthew Green, a cryptography expert who teaches at Johns Hopkins University, said in a blog post on Sunday.

The blog post, titled “Why I’m done with Chrome,” began generating debate on Sunday evening and appeared to send Chrome’s managers into damage control.

By being logged in, Chrome users could unwittingly send their browser data to Google, according to Green. He added that Chrome managers told him that just being logged into Chrome didn’t mean a user’s browsing information would be sent to Google — they would still need to activate the “sync” feature before a data transfer could occur.

This is where Green, who said he quit using Chrome because of the change, reserved some of his harshest criticism of Google. He called the Chrome sync-consent page a “dark pattern,” a term describing a user interface designed to deceive or mislead people.

“Now that I’m forced to log into Chrome,” Green wrote, “I’m faced with a brand new menu I’ve never seen before.” He suggested it could lead users to mistakenly consent to the sync, adding that before the login change, Chrome users had to key in their credentials to log in and then could consent. Now, users are a single — possibly accidental — click away from turning over their browsing history to Google, Green said.

Google referred Business Insider to a series of tweets posted early on Monday from Adrienne Porter Felt, a Chrome engineer and manager. In one tweet, she confirmed that Google had changed the login procedures. She also stressed that though users are logged in to Chrome, they must still consent to a sync before their data could be transferred to Google.

Green said it was “nuts” for Google to suggest users are safe because of the sync-consent page.

Green wrote: “If you didn’t respect my lack of consent on the biggest user-facing privacy option in Chrome (and didn’t even notify me that you had stopped respecting it!) why should I trust any other consent option you give me?”

According to a report on Business Insider

Phu Quoc eyes 2.5 million visitors this year

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The resort island of Phu Quoc in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang expects to welcome about 2.5 million tourist arrivals in 2018, up 25 percent from last year.

Since 2015, the island has received more than 4.7 million tourist arrivals, 20.5 percent of which were foreigners. Earnings from tourism grew 42.5 percent annually in average.

According to Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Phu Quoc island district Pham Van Nghiep, Phu Quoc International Airport now has eight airlines operating 12 direct international flights to China, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Thailand and four domestic routes to Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Hai Phong.

The lodging services in the island have rapidly expanded to serve the increasing demand of visitors. The island now has more than 600 hotels and other accommodations, offering about 12,000 rooms, of which 10 are rated 3 – 4 star hotels and five rated 5-star

Phu Quoc is very famous for pearl farming, fish sauce, pepper and “ruou sim”, a wine made from sim fruit or Rose Myrtle. A variety of tours are provided for travellers, such as scuba diving, coral reef snorkeling, fishing and tours to visit traditional fish sauce making establishments, pearl farms, Ham Ninh fishing village, Phu Quoc National Park, pristine beaches and many more.

In addition, Nghiep attributed the success of the local tourism industry to new luxurious tourism services, including 500-hectare Vinpearl Safari Phu Quoc – the first-ever and largest safari park in Vietnam, Vinpearl Resort & Villas, Vinpearl Land and Vincharm Spa. Earlier this year, the world’s longest sea cable car route was launched in the island, connecting An Thoi town and Hon Thom island, he said.

Phu Quoc was once a sleepy area of around 100,000 people. In recent years, however, the 567sq.m island has become a tourist mecca for thousands of visitors from around the world.

Located 46km from the mainland, the island can be reached by air from HCM City within one hour and from Hanoi within two hours.

In September, it was named by CNN among the top five up-and-coming Asia Pacific destinations to visit this fall.

According to CNN, for those planning their first trip to the Asia-Pacific region, major destinations usually top the list, such as Shanghai and Hong Kong (China), Tokyo (Japan) and Singapore.

“If you’re dreaming of a beach getaway in Asia this fall, Phu Quoc in Vietnam should be a top contender. For starters, the dry season begins in November and runs till April,” CNN wrote on its website.

Formerly a prison island during French colonial times, Phu Quoc’s photogenic setting and clear waters caught the attention of international brands like JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay, which debuted its Bill Bensley-designed resort late last year.

There’s plenty to do aside from lounging and snorkeling around Ong Lang Beach.

The Phu Quoc Prison Museum offers a peek into the island’s dark history while the Phu Quoc National Park and Suoi Tranh Waterfall will spoil nature lovers, it added.

According to a report on VNA

Viettel Global listing 2.24 billion plus shares

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More than 2.24 billion Viettel Global shares will make their debut on Hanoi’s unlisted public company market, UPCoM, on Tuesday.

The shares of Viettel Global Investment Joint Stock Company, with the sticker VGI, will be traded on the UPCoM at a floor price of VND15,000 ($0.65) per unit.

Viettel Global will become the largest firm on the UPCoM with market capitalization of VND33.6 trillion ($1.44 billion).

Established in late 2007 with chartered capital of VND960 billion ($41.18 million) as a unit of Viettel Group, Viettel Global covers the military group’s overseas investments.

Viettel Group holds 98.68 percent of the stake in Viettel Global.

At a general meeting in June, shareholders of Viettel Global approved a plan to increase its chartered capital to VND30.4 trillion ($1.3 billion).

In 2017, Viettel Global served nearly 40 million international customers, a growth of 13 percent from the previous year.

To date, Viettel Global makes profits in eight of the ten markets that it operates in. The eight markets are Cambodia, Laos, Timor Leste, Mozambique, Burundi, Haiti, Peru, and Cameroon. It entered Tanzania two years ago and Myanmar just this month.

Viettel Global plans to enter several new markets, mainly in ASEAN.

For this year, the company targets increasing its subscriber numbers by 10-15 per cent, bringing the cumulative population of its markets to 400 – 500 million and rank among the top 10 global telecom companies.

Viettel Global announced consolidated revenues of over VND19 trillion ($810 million) for 2017, an increase of 24 per cent year-on-year, and a net profit of VND27 billion ($1.16 million).

According to a report on VnExpress

French photographer issues book about pagodas in VN

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French photographer, journalist and publisher Nicolas Cornet on Friday (June 1) released a photo book on pagodas in Vietnam in HCM City.

The 250-page book Vietnam Pagodas in English and French includes hundreds of photos of 31 pagodas and temples taken over the last three years.

Cornet began his journey from northern to southern Vietnam in 2014 to discover Vietnam’s major pagodas, temples and places of worship.

He took more than 20,000 pictures, and visited nearly 100 pagodas and temples.

“I decided to make the book to show the beautiful heritage of Vietnam’s pagodas, and to allow the next generation to remember this heritage. I wanted my children, whose mother was Vietnamese, as well as my Vietnamese friends’children, to be able to have memories about that,” said Cornet.

Published by the Viet Nam News Agency Publishing House, the book consists of five chapters, featuring traditional pagoda architecture, artistic details, daily life of monks and people gathering for worship, and ceremonies.

The first and second chapters are about the beginning of Buddhism in Vietnam and its old pagodas and temples in the North.

The third chapter centres on Hue and the central region. Hue is considered a Buddhism centre in Vietnam, with many famous monks coming from the region.

The fourth chapter introduces pagodas and Chinese temples in HCM City, and the last chapter highlights Khmer pagodas in Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.

A collection of 49 photos in the book are on display at the Vietnam: Pagoda Legacy of Faith exhibition from June 1 to June 10, which opened at the HCM City Fine Arts Museum on Friday.

Cornet has been dividing his time between Europe and Asia for over 30 years.

He has collaborated with major European newspaper and magazines such as L’Espresso, Mare and Le Monde, and film crews and TV documentaries.

Cornet has published six photo books on Vietnam and South East Asia and plans to release a new book on Vietnamese cuisine next year.

As an art director and curator, Cornet has organised several photo exhibitions and events in France, Germany, Switzerland, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, and conducted photo workshops and photojournalism courses.

Vietnam Pagodas is available at Nam Phong Book Shop, Tri Books, and Art Book in District 1. It will be released in Hanoi later this month.

Cornet will hold a book signing at the museum at 97A Pho Duc Chinh Street in District 1 on June 2,3, 9 and 10.

According to a report on VNS