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Banks won’t get higher credit limits

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The State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) will not adjust upward credit growth limits for commercial banks, except in some special cases, for the rest of the year, SBV Governor Lê Minh Hưng said.

The special cases are banks that have been required by the SBV to support ailing credit institutions in their restructuring in 2018, Hưng said.

According to current regulations, SBV sets a credit growth limit for each commercial bank depending on the bank’s health at the beginning of the year. This is done to control credit growth for the entire banking system and to support Government targets.

Earlier, many banks said they were hoping for higher credit limits as they had already used up most, if not all, of their assigned quota for the year.

The central bank’s target this year was to expand lending by a maximum of 17 per cent, lower than the 18.17 per cent recorded last year.

Experts believed that the credit slowdown would allow banks to pay more attention to credit quality and credit risk management.

To control the credit quality, SBV also required banks to focus their lending on production, business and priority sectors such as agriculture businesses, firms producing goods for export, small- and medium-sized enterprises, enterprises operating in auxiliary industries and hi-tech enterprises including startups.

They must strictly control lending to sectors with high potential risks such as real estate, securities, consumption, build-operate-transfer (BOT) and build-transfer (BT) projects to promptly detect any problems. — VNS

Japan arrests three Vietnamese nationals after massive shoplifting haul

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A shopper (L) checks items inside a shoes shop in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Reuters/Issei Kato

Japanese police have arrested three Vietnamese nationals after discovering 1,700 stolen items in a house in Saitama Prefecture.

The three arrested persons are all unemployed. One of them has been identified as Pham Trong Ha, 26, Japan’s Sankei newspaper reported on Monday.

Police from Ishikawa Prefecture busted the trio following the discovery of the 1,700 shoplifted items, about 300 of which were medicines and cosmetics, in Ha’s house in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture.

The goods are suspected to have been shoplifted by several Vietnamese groups before being stored in Ha’s house, from where they would be shipped to Vietnam for sale.

Ha’s criminal activities were uncovered following statements by another unnamed Vietnamese shoplifter that Ishikawa Prefecture Police had arrested in May, the Sankei report said.

Ha has confessed to knowing that the items stored in his house were most likely stolen goods.

Vietnamese expats in Japan have committed more crimes than any other foreign non-permanent residents living in the country last year, according to Kyodo News.

Police recorded 5,140 crimes committed by Vietnamese people in 2017, up from 3,177 the year before, accounting for 30.2 percent of the total number of crimes committed by foreign nationals.

Shoplifting was the dominant crime, with 2,037 cases, while burglary jumped to 325 in 2017 from just 12 the previous year.

Vietnamese have surpassed Brazilians to become the fourth biggest minority group in Japan after the number of non-permanent residents in the country grew more than six-fold between 2008 and 2017, when it reached about 260,000 – Vnexpress reported.

Little Saigon or Viet Town? Debate Over Naming Cultural District in Boston Neighborhood

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A group is trying to bring cultural district status to historic Fields Corner in Dorchester, hoping to rename it ‘Little Saigon’ or ‘Viet Town’ to reflect Vietnamese roots

Khang Nguyen, a major voice serving the Vietnamese in one of Boston’s largest neighborhoods, is part of a group trying to bring cultural district status to Dorchester, which means it could be officially called “Little Saigon” or “Viet Town.” Jonathan Choe and Kaitlin McKinley Becker reported on NECN.

There’s a name debate going on in one of Boston’s largest neighborhoods.

A group is trying to bring cultural district status to the historic Fields Corner, considered to be one of the most ethnically diverse areas in Dorchester.

Khang Nguyen is a major voice serving this emerging inter-generational community through his weekly online videos. He’s also vice president of the Vietnamese-American Civic Association of Massachusetts where he helps many refugees and immigrants who fled the tiny Southeast Asian country after the war.

By his organization’s estimates, there are now nearly 5,000 Vietnamese living in Dorchester alone, and more than 100 establishments, including restaurants, grocery stores, a senior center, and a cosmetology school, are all owned and operated by Vietnamese entrepreneurs.

Nguyen says it’s now time for the Fields Corner commercial district to reflect this majority.

“We want the name, that will prove it is current to this situation,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen is part of the working group trying to bring cultural district status to the area, which means it could officially be called “Little Saigon” or possibly “Viet Town” to reflect his people’s roots.

“Just to be clear, we are not renaming Fields Corner or everything that says Dorchester,” said Boston City Councilor at-large Michelle Wu, who is helping all the community stakeholders navigate through this process that is now getting a bit complicated. “We just saw it the year before in Jamaica Plain with a district now called Boston’s Latin Quarter.”

But not everyone agrees with the proposed name change to reflect Vietnamese roots.

Candice Gartley, who leads the All Dorchester Sports League, a non-profit serving the part of Fields Corner that isn’t of a Vietnamese majority, says, “Many of our kids come from Geneva Avenue. African Americans, Cape Verdeans.”

After flooding, Vietnamese diocese urges aid for victims

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In this photo taken on July 22, 2018, a village is submerged in flood water in the suburb of Hanoi, Vietnam. Flooding triggered by tropical storm Son Tinh has killed at least 20 people and left over a dozen missing in northern Vietnam.(Credit: Vietnam News Agency via AP.)

Heavy rains have caused flooding in northern and north-central Vietnam, and officials of the local Church are encouraging aid for those affected. The Crux reported.

Father Paul Nguyễn Quốc Anh, director of Caritas in the Diocese of Hưng Hóa, has challenged laity and religious to buy food, water, and medicine for the flood and landside victims, “for Catholics and non-Catholics,” AsiaNews reported.

Continuous rains from July 23 – Aug. 6 have led to flooding around Sơn Tây which has killed at least 28 people. Eleven people are missing, buildings, roads and bridges have collapsed, and agriculture has been severely affected.

Hà Văn Huyên, the leader of a village in the Yên Bái province, recalled the devastating moment of a flash flood.

“At first I saw that the flow of water was very small,” he told AsiaNews. “Then, the water started flowing in waves. Five minutes later, the water rose more and more. When I saw the danger, I screamed for people to escape. After only an hour, this huge flood appeared, about ten metres high and wiped out many houses.”

Also damaged in the flood was the Sùng Đô chapel in the Nghĩa Lộ District. The church’s pastor, Father Joseph Nguyễn Trọng Dưỡng, described the damages to his parishioners, which is largely made up of H’Mông people.

“About 20 families have lost their homes and their rice paddies. The family of Mr Cứ A Chu, who has 13 children, lost home, rice field and gardens. People have little rice left to eat and unclean spring water to drink.”

On July 27, Auxiliary Bishop Alsphonse Nguyễn Hữu Long of Hưng Hóa visited the small mountain community of Sùng and the missionary area in Tả Phời. The areas are notably poor and remote. The bishop encouraged the residents to persevere during this difficult time.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 prices leaked after getting listed in Vietnam

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It seems that the leaks of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 won’t end till before the launch. In the latest leak just hours before the Unpacked event that is taking place today, the company itself has spilt the beans and revealed the price of the phone.

According to a report on Firstpost.com, with most of the alleged specifications of the device being out due to the various leaks, we probably can expect what the phone would be like.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Image: Tech2

Also, the Galaxy Note 9 has been flaunted through teasers by the company itself.Galaxy Note 9 was spotted being listed for pre-order in Vietnam which showed off the device’s price as well as some gifts like a complementary pair of premium AKG N60NC wireless headphones that are bundled with it. But these pre-order gifts might differ from region to region.

Leaked prices of the Galaxy Note 9. Image: Phone Arena

The screenshots of the listings have been taken out by Phone Arena, but the pre-order page has vanished just before the launch. No surprises there!

These listings show the 128 GB and 512 GB variants of the smartphone as per the screenshots. Also, Slashleaks has locked down the leak pre-order page, but still it hasn’t been completely taken off.

Leaked prices of the Galaxy Note 9. Image: Phone Arena

These screenshots reveal that the Galaxy Note 9 is priced at VND 2,50,00,000 which comes to roughly Rs 73,700 for the 128 GB internal storage variant. The 512 GB variant is priced at VND 2,94,90,000 which comes to about Rs 87,000.

The prices seem to fall in line with the previous rumours, even though prices in all the markets differ.

As per the report in PhoneArena, along with the all-new S Pen, the device is said to be packed with a free fast charge wireless charging stand, USB C to HDMI adapter for DeX support, clear view cover and a JBL Inspire 700 wireless sports headphones. But as mentioned before these might differ for different regions.

Now to get the official details you can check out the Unpacked event on Twitter, Facebook or visit the Samsung Newsroom.

Ten-digit phone numbers not affected by network code shift

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Cell phone subscribers with 10-digit phone numbers will reportedly not be affected by the coming two network code shifts in mid-September of this year and July of next year, officials said.

According to a report on SGT, The Ministry of Information and Communications had previously launched a plan to switch mobile subscribers from 11-digit phone numbers to 10-digit ones, which will take effect on September 15. Subscribers with 11-digit phone numbers for human-to-human (H2H) communication will have their numbers converted to 10-digit ones, with new network codes dependent on the carrier they register with.

Meanwhile, current subscribers with 10-digit phone numbers will see no changes during the second network code shift and will continue using machine-to-machine (M2M) communication between July 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019.

In particular, users who insert 10-digit SIM cards into smart connecting devices, such as power meters and car black boxes, will shift to using the new M2M network code. In the second shift, mobile carriers will work with their customers to recall their 10-digit phone numbers and concurrently apply the prefix 1x for M2M subscribers.

The 10-digit mobile phone numbers beginning with 09x will be offered to H2H human users only, which means the numbers will be used by humans, not machines.

In the coming time, local mobile network carriers VinaPhone, MobiFone and Viettel will establish systems for managing M2M subscribers only, with the aim of helping customers take the initiative to supervise the operations of SIM cards inserted into M2M devices, including measurement and navigation devices.

According to the Telecom Department under the ministry, after local carriers switch 11-digit numbers to 10-digit ones, mobile phone numbers with the prefix 01x will then be applied to M2M subscribers.

M2M subscribers refer to devices used for transmitting and receiving data and text messages, while H2H subscribers are customers who register for mobile subscriptions for daily human communication.

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DHL eCommerce and DHL Express in Vietnam Advances Efforts to Combat Illegal Wildlife Trade

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In order to help combat the shipping and transport of illegal wildlife products, TRAFFIC, through the USAID-funded Wildlife Trafficking Response, Assessment and Priority Setting (Wildlife TRAPS) Project, delivered a capacity building workshop today for staff at DHL eCommerce and DHL Express in Viet Nam to learn how they can play a key role in helping prevent the trafficking of wildlife – Reported by Traffic News.

The workshop covered the local and global implications of wildlife trafficking crimes, the role of the CITES convention in regulating the international wildlife trade, common wildlife trafficking trade routes, the modes and methods used by wildlife traffickers for shipping illegal products, and risks to the transport and logistics sector. During the workshop, participants discussed potential vulnerable points along their supply chains in Viet Nam and ways to strengthen their company’s operations, staff and customers’ awareness, and reporting mechanisms for wildlife trafficking. Last October, TRAFFIC and DHL convened another workshop for DHL staff in Ho Chi Minh.

It has become critically important for DHL to work together as a Group to identify the smuggling of live animals and their parts and derivatives through cargo, post and express channels, and to ascertain actions to reduce these risks. Our cohesive effort towards cutting off transportation links of these products to buyers is a small but important step towards ending illegal wildlife trade on a global scale

“This training is useful as we know that wildlife is transported [through courier companies]. We want our staff to know how to check shipments for animals. This is really important for our day to day work.” – Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, Central Hub Manager, North, DHL eCommerce Viet Nam

Following the workshop, staff were awarded certificates of participation along with informational resources for further learning. In the coming months, TRAFFIC will continue to provide technical guidance to DHL in Viet Nam to support the implementation of those action points identified during the event.

“Criminal networks take advantage of the connectivity and ease of online marketplaces and commercial transport supply chains to smuggle illegal wildlife and DHL in Viet Nam is setting in motion strategies to protect themselves from this to happen through their business. The Deutsche Post DHL Group is already a signatory of the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce Buckingham Palace Declaration, so this workshop could be seen as another practical step in helping to implement those high-level commitments” said TRAFFIC’s Monica Zavagli, Wildlife TRAPS Senior Project Officer.

Viet Nam ranks fourth in wildlife trafficking instances through the air transport sector[1] globally, and is the second most common destination (after China) for the trafficking of rhino horns. In recent years, Viet Nam has been on the front lines of many large-scale illegal wildlife seizures, intercepting shipments of rhino horn, ivory, leopard skins, and pangolin scales, among other commonly traded wildlife products.

This was the second workshop in the past month between TRAFFIC and DHL around strengthening in-country supply chains against wildlife trafficking. The first was held with staff in Bangkok, Thailand in late July, and also focused on local capacity building.

Many in the transportation sector are recognising the need to take action against wildlife trafficking. Recently, Etihad developed a new 20-minute online module designed to inform its employees of the business risks associated with the illegal wildlife trade and ways to prevent them. In addition, the USAID Reducing Opportunities for Unlawful Transport of Endangered Species (ROUTES) Partnership has conducted trainings across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia to train airport and airline employees in key wildlife trafficking hubs.

Continue reading “DHL eCommerce and DHL Express in Vietnam Advances Efforts to Combat Illegal Wildlife Trade”

Difficult question for VN Central Bank: Curbing interest, inflation rate

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The government of Vietnam wants to keep the interest rate low and stable in order to encourage economic sectors to expand business, thus helping economic growth.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had to sell more than $2 billion last week. The move, as analysts commented, shows that foreign capital flow in the market is getting weaker.

Foreign portfolio investment is believed to be the major driving force which helped keep the dong/dollar exchange rate stable in 2017 and the first half of 2018.

However, US policies have prompted international investors to withdraw capital from emerging markets.

Analysts stressed that the rapid depreciation of the dong in recent days must not be entirely blamed on foreign capital flow or foreign currency supply-demand imbalance. This was mostly caused by the expectations of the national economy.

The expectations come from outside factors. The China-US trade war is likely to spread and turn into a currency war. The US FED continues its policy on raising the interest rate which may last to 2019 and even to 2020. As a result, many currencies have depreciated sharply against the greenback.

Vietnam’s businesses fear that the fluctuations would have a big impact on the value of the dong in the future. And they have every reason to worry, based on the dong valuation by SBV on a basket of eight currencies, including Euro, Japanese JPY, Chinese CNY, Thai THB, Taiwanese TWD, Korean KRW, Singaporean SGD and US dollar.

To protect themselves, businesses have been implementing hedging operations by buying foreign currencies forward in order to satisfy demand for payment obligations in the future.

Interest rate under pressure

The central bank’s sale of $2 billion means that VND46 trillion was withdrawn from the banking system last week. The interbank interest rate immediately soared by 2 percent over the week before.

In principle, the demand for cash in the national economy tends to increase rapidly toward the final months of the year. Therefore, dong withdrawal from circulation would affect banks’ liquidity.

Meanwhile, the CPI (consumer price index) is under pressure to increase in upcoming months.

The interbank interest rate hike, plus the pressure on inflation, will both force commercial banks to raise the deposit interest rates to mobilize more capital.

VP Bank and Eximbank were the first banks to lift their deposit interest rates, though the increases were not that high.

According to a report on Vietnamnet

Vietnam e-commerce market growing fast

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Vietnam is one of the most attractive eCommerce markets in the region for investors. With an explosive 33% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past two years, Vietnam ranks high among the fastest-growing eCommerce markets in the region.

Frost & Sullivan forecast that the eCommerce market in Vietnam will reach a value of $3.7 billion by 2030. The year 2017 alone was a flourishing year for Vietnam’s eCommerce market with millions of dollars in investment capital poured in from foreign investors.

To explore the investment landscape in Vietnam, iPrice has collaborated with Cento Ventures to analyze the pattern of eCommerce investment in Vietnam. The report revealed the following findings about Vietnam’s eCommerce scene:

The big 6 behind Vietnam’s eCommerce funding

The largest investors in Vietnam’s eCommerce market include tech giants, venture capital firms and investment companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, Temasek Holdings, Dragon Capital, CyberAgent Ventures and IDG Ventures Vietnam.

Alibaba, Tencent, and Temasek started investing in Vietnam’s eCommerce market only in recent years, while both Dragon Capital and IDG Ventures Vietnam have been seeding investments since the early beginnings.

JD.com, owned by Tencent, the largest Internet company in China, recently completed its large-scale investment in Tiki.vn and became the largest shareholder of Tiki in January 2018. Although the exact figures were not disclosed by both parties, local media estimated it to be $44 million.

Besides Tiki.vn, Tencent also expanded its stake in Vietnam’s largest digital content company and the only billion-dollar startup in Vietnam – VNG. The amount of investment is confidential, but according to a credible news source, Tencent is now VNG’s largest foreign shareholder.

In addition, Singapore-based Sea Limited (Garena) has entered the Vietnamese market via Shopee, the mobile-first marketplace platform. The largest shareholder of Sea Limited, which operates Shopee, is also Tencent.

Lazada is backed by two giants – Alibaba, the Chinese multinational eCommerce and technology conglomerate, and Temasek Holdings, the global investment company owned by the government of Singapore.

In November 2014, Lazada made a funding announcement worth $249 million from Temasek Holdings. In June 2017, China’s Alibaba invested $1 billion in Lazada and increased its total stake to 83%.

Prior to investing in Lazada, Temasek also invested in FPT Corporation, an internet corporation which owns Sendo and FPT Shop. As of July 2018, Sendo has become one of the most popular eCommerce sites in Vietnam in terms of web traffic, according to SimilarWeb.

The report also revealed that Vietnam is a hotspot for investors from around the world. The burgeoning eCommerce market in Vietnam has attracted major investors from Japan, Germany, the United States, Korea, China, and Singapore.

With six companies invested in Vietnam’s eCommerce market (BEENOS, CyberAgent Ventures, econtext Asia, SBI Holdings, Sumitomo Corporation, Trancosmos), Japan tops the list of foreign countries with the highest number of investors in Vietnam. In 2017, Japan invested a total of $9.1 billion in Vietnam, taking over Korea ($8.5 billion) and ranked as the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) country in Vietnam.

Germany and the US are two countries outside of Asia that are actively invested in Vietnam’s eCommerce market.

In 2012, Intel Capital, the investment arm of the computer processor juggernaut, revealed that it had invested a combined $17 million in two Internet companies in Southeast Asia, with one of them being VC Corp, the Internet content firm in Vietnam. VC Corp has since been known as the parent company of several eCommerce platforms: Mua Re, Enbac, Mua Chung, Rong Bay. Over the years, the list of US investors continued to grow, with firms such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Summit Partners allocating capital to the Vietnamese eCommerce industry.

Deutsche Bank and Rocket Internet are among the most prolific German investors in Vietnam. After selling several start-ups like Easy Taxi, Foodpanda, and Zalora to its competitors, Rocket Internet’s strongest presence in Vietnam remained with its investment in Lazada. Deutsche Bank, on the other hand, had become one of the largest shareholders of FPT Corporation since 2007. The German investment bank and financial services company later went on to increase its share in FPT in June 2011.

According to a report on EnterpriseInnovation

East Sea low pressure system concerns forecasters

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A low pressure system in the East Sea has forecasters concerned due to its unpredictable development.

The low pressure system remains weak but is likely to strengthen into a tropical depression, heading towards the Hoang Sa archipelago and Hainan Island (China) in the next 24-48 hours – Vietnamnet reported

At 7am on August 7, a tropical convergence strip was positioned at 15.8 degrees north, 114.8 degrees east, about 270km-370km southeast of the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago, according to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.

The low pressure system is proving problematic for meteorologists to predict its direction of movement but for the next 24 hours, it is not likely to cause strong winds or bring heavy rains to northern provinces.

Due to the effects of the low pressure system, heavy showers and thunderstorms will affect the East Sea area on August 7, including the Hoang Sa archipelago.

The confluence of the tropical convergence strip and south western monsoon will cause rough seas and strong winds in the coastal areas from Binh Thuan to Ca Mau. Thundershowers, gales and tornadoes are likely to hit coastal areas from Binh Thuan to Ca Mau, Kien Giang and the Gulf of Thailand.

Chinese men arrested for Quang Ninh petrol station theft

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One of the Chinese men, Ding Ning Shan, at the police station

Two Chinese men have been arrested after attacking a female staff member in an attempted theft at a petrol station in the northern province of Quang Ninh – Dtinews reported.

At around 10 pm on August 7, after fishing the working shift at the petrol station at Hai Tien Commune, Mong Cai City, Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, a staff member from the ASEAN Company came to the firm’s office to drop off the money she collected from petrol sales.

Then suddenly, the two men rushed to tie her hands and muffle her mouth. After hearing the scuffle colleagues from the petrol station and nearby people attempted to arrest the men.

The two men tried to escape. However, one of them was initially detained by police, while the other stole a car at the company’s offices which he rammed into the police to save his accomplice and then two fled.
They escaped onto the Hai Yen Industrial Park for some kilometres and then were found in a nearby field before being arrested. The police confiscated knives, gloves and drills from them.

The two then were identified as Ding Shi Jie, 30, and Ding Ning Shan, 36 who were both from China. They told the police that they entered Vietnam through Mong Cai Border Gate at 11am on August 7

It won’t be easy to lure foreign capital in H2: experts

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Foreign portfolio investment (FPI) will no longer be the main driver to attract foreign capital to Vietnam in the second half of 2018 as it was in the first six months of the year.

The State Bank (SBV) Governor at the online government dialogue on July 2 said SBV bought over $11 billion in the first half of 2018, raising national total forex reserves to $63.5 billion.

The huge net purchase of $11 billion just in the first six months of the year, which was close to the $13 billion net purchase value in 2017, is believed to have upset the finance market.

The government bond yield has dropped to a record low, 3 percent per annum for 5-year bonds, nearly equal to that of the US government bond yield. This is attributed to high liquidity with cash surplus reaching VND300 trillion.

SBV had to lower the dollar buy price twice because of the high foreign currency supply. The huge foreign capital flow has led to the VN Index rising by 20 percent within the first quarter of 2018. With the growth rate of 48 percent in 2017, Vietnam is considered the fastest growing stock market in the world.

Analysts believe that FPI was the major driving force of the foreign capital flow. Foreign investors poured multi-billions of dollars into Vietnam businesses.

In May, Vinhomes sold $2 billion worth of shares to foreign investors. Another well-known investment deal was the one in which foreign investors spent $1.3 billion to acquire 257 million Techcombank shares.

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), in the first six months of 2018, foreign investors invested $4.1 billion in Vietnam businesses, a sharp increase of 82.4 percent in comparison with the same period last year.

Vietnam could also attract foreign capital through foreign direct investment (FDI) with $8.4 billion worth of FDI pledged in the first half of the year. Vietnam’s trade balance saw a surplus of $3.3 billion during the same time.

However, analysts warned that though Vietnam’s total balance had a surplus of $9 billion in the first half of the year, the deficit may come back in the second half.

They also affirmed that FPI will no longer be the main driver to attract foreign capital in the second half. The anticipated interest rate hike in the US, plus the worry about the slowdown in the global economy, both have driven cash flow to the US.

In Vietnam, foreign investors continued to be net sellers in May, June and the first half of July. Meanwhile, the share sales planned by Genco 3, Binh Son Refinery, PV Oil and BIDV will not be organized in the near future.

Source: VNN

Eximbank receives Operational Excellence Award from Wells Fargo

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Wells Fargo, one of the top three US banks, honoured Eximbank with the Operational Excellence Award.

This award was handed over personally by Charles Kohler, deputy head of Global Payment Services at Wells Fargo, to Eximbank’s deputy CEO Nguyen Huong Minh. Minh Trang reported on VIR.

This award is granted by Wells Fargo to its correspondent banks, who had over 90 per cent of their SWIFT messages sent through to Wells Fargo for money transfer (at Eximbank, the percentage was 95 per cent). Once the SWIFT messages are received by Wells Fargo, the requests will be processed and the funds can be transferred to the receiver’s bank account in less than one minute.

The award, as such, is a recognition and affirmation of the speed and quality improvements in payment processing operations and that Eximbank have managed to keep up with international standards and customer’s demands.

This is the eighth year in a row that Eximbank has been granted this award for its high rate of SWIFT messages, not only from Wells Fargo, but also from other international banks like BNY Mellon that recognised the SWIFT message ratio of over 97 per cent for the period of 2015-2017, as well as HSBC and JP Morgan Chase at 99 per cent and 98 per cent, respectively.

“It is an honour to be viewed by Wells Fargo as one of the banks that provide high-quality and well-performing payment services. With our efforts to align with international standards, we are committed to continuously improve international settlement service quality, aiming at realistic values and interests for our customers and partners,” said Minh.

Eximbank is known for its quality international settlement services and this award represents strong operational support and partnership from its correspondent banks. Looking at the mutual achievements gained over the last 20 years, Eximbank and Wells Fargo believe that their partnership will strengthen over time, thus bringing about more benefits to customers.

Eximbank, with more than 29 years in operation, is one of the fastest growing financial institutions that offers prestigious and quality products and services based on its cutting-edge technology platforms. The bank is continuously enhancing its competition capabilities to achieve its strategic sustainable development targets that embrace innovation as the core to create more values for its corporate and individual customers, thus realising its future expectations.

Vietnamese ride-hailing app to debut in HCM City

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The ride-hailing application FastGo will debut in Ho Chi Minh City this month, giving another choice of travel and payment methods for customers of the city.

According to a report on VietnamNet, the app, developed by NextTech Group, was launched in Hanoi from June with similar operation method to Uber and Grab.

In addition, FastBike for motorcycle taxi service will be started in the coming time, following the success of FastGo.

After one month of operation in Hanoi, more than 5,000 taxis and private cars registered to work with FastGo. More than 10,000 ride-hailing calls were made, serving nearly 12,000 passengers who installed the app.

CEO of FastGo Vietnam Nguyen Huu Tuat said in the fourth industrial revolution, apps need to be developed in advanced technology platform to benefit customers.

At present, the Vietnamese business has exempted the commission rate for drivers.

FastGo has kept its prices at a stable level, without raising the rates in unfavourable weather or time. Besides, it has launched various promotions to attract more visitors.

It also targets to encourage non-cash payment and expand its services in line with the development of digital economy, thus transferring the traditional business model to a more advanced one.

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Vietnam investment: hectic M&A in 2018

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There is massive interest among foreign investors at the moment.
At the Savills Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh offices, we see many investor groups every day, mostly new entrants, who are keen to explore opportunities.

This interest is mainly coming from the region – Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore – though U.S., European and global funds are also investigating a lot.

In the first half of the year, the Vietnamese economy grew at over 7 percent year-on-year, the highest rate in seven years.

All commercial and residential sectors are targets. The latter is still very hot across the country; large investor groups, particularly Chinese and Japanese, are investing heavily in large new urban areas.

One major example, which accounted for a huge chunk of the FDI in the first half of the year, is the SmartCity project in Hanoi, a 271ha modern residential and commercial township jointly developed by four local investors and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation.

The first phase is planned to commence in the third quarter of this year and is to be developed by a Sumitomo–BRG Group joint venture.

The second quarter also saw the notable IPO of Vinhomes JSC, the residential property development unit of Vingroup, drawing strong interest from domestic and foreign investors, including GIC, which acquired a 5.74 percent stake as Vinhomes’ cornerstone investor.

Most of the investor interest comes from funds which are not looking to develop themselves and so are looking to acquire operating cash-generating assets – office properties, retail malls, four- and five–star hotels.

Occupancy rates in the office sector in Hanoi are very high and rental rates are rising. High-quality assets rarely come on the market though.

There are often challenges in Vietnam in completing transactions, particularly between foreign buyers and domestic sellers.

Singaporeans and Japanese have been active buyers, especially in the office sector. The quality of the office stock is continuing to improve and we are starting to see more and more investment-grade assets across the country that global institutional investors can seriously look at.

However, supply still remains an issue and transaction volumes are still relatively low.

The hotel market is also performing extremely well and so investors are desperate to get access to these assets. International arrivals continue to rise by 30 percent and domestic travel continues to boom.

Several key domestic groups have emerged to dominate ownership of both domestic and internationally managed five-star properties in Vietnam, and so it can be challenging for foreign investors to get access to these types of properties.

These domestic groups are very well funded, have aggressive expansion plans, and are able to secure transactions. Savills is currently due to market a few key exciting hotel opportunities on a confidential basis.

The Ho Chi Minh City M&A real estate market has also been very active. Frasers Property entered into a conditional share purchase agreement to acquire 75 percent of Phu An Khang Real Estate, which owns a mixed-use development plot in District 2, for around $18 million in April.

The city’s residential sector is still the focus of local players.

Xuan Mai Corporation successfully acquired Eco-Green Saigon, a 14-ha project in District 7.

Nam Long Group continued its collaboration with Japanese investors Hankyu Hanshin Properties Corporation and Nishi Nippon Railroad to develop Akari City, an 8.8-ha residential project in Binh Tan District.

Nam Long also kicked off its key project, Waterpoint township in Long An Province, in June. Spread over 355 ha, Waterpoint consists of townhouses, villas, high-rise apartments, a mixed-use complex, a hospital, and education and sports facilities.

In the central region, Danang in particular, due to the growth of tourism, significant investment flows are being directed into the resort and hospitality sector.

Most M&A activities however involve domestic investors.

A noticeable trend is how the market is moving away from condominium and condotel projects toward landed residential developments with infrastructure.

Looking at the future we expect more deals in 2018 and 2019 at the asset, portfolio, and corporate investment levels. The large number of IPO valuations on which Savills Vietnam is working demonstrates investors’ interest in the property market.

With the promising prospects offered by many of the real estate segments in Vietnam, it is expected that investment flows will be directed into a wider variety of sectors, including opportunity assets like industrial and logistics properties.

Matthew Powell report on Vnexpress