Facebook has asked major US banks to share customer data to allow it to develop new services on the social network’s Messenger texting platform, a banking source told AFP on Monday (Aug 6).
Facebook had discussions with Chase, JPMorgan, Citibank, and Wells Fargo several months ago, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.
The Silicon Valley-based social network also contacted US Bancorp, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.
Facebook, which has come under intense criticism for sharing user data with many app developers, was interested in information including bank card transactions, checking account balances, and where purchases were made, according to the source.
Facebook confirmed the effort in a statement to AFP, but said that it is not asking financial institutions for transaction data.
“Like many online companies with commerce businesses, we partner with banks and credit card companies to offer services like customer chat or account management,” Facebook said.
The goal was to create new ways for Messenger to be woven into, and facilitate, interactions between banks and customers, according to the reports. The smartphone texting service boasts 1.3 billion users.
“The idea is that messaging with a bank can be better than waiting on hold over the phone – and it’s completely opt-in,” the statement said.
Citigroup declined to comment regarding any possible discussions with Facebook about Messenger.
“While we regularly have conversations about potential partnerships, safeguarding the security and privacy of our customers’ data and providing customer choice are paramount in everything we do,” Citigroup told AFP by email.
JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman Patricia Wexler directed AFP to a statement given to the Wall Street Journal saying, “We don’t share our customers’ off-platform transaction data with these platforms and have had to say ‘No’ to some things as a result.”
Wells Fargo decline to address the news.
PRIVACY WORRIES
Messenger can be used by businesses to help people keep track of account information such as balances, receipts, or shipping dates, according to the social network.
“We’re not using this information beyond enabling these types of experiences – not for advertising or anything else,” Facebook explained in its statement.
“A critical part of these partnerships is keeping people’s information safe and secure.”
But word Facebook is fishing for financial information comes amid concerns it has not vigilantly guarded private information.
Facebook acknowledged last month that it was facing multiple inquiries from US and British regulators about a scandal involving the British consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
In Facebook’s worst ever public relations disaster, it admitted that up to 87 million users may have had their data hijacked by Cambridge Analytica, which was working for US President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in May he was rolling out privacy controls demanded by European regulators to Facebook users worldwide because “everyone cares about privacy.”
The social network is now looking at cooler growth following a years-long breakneck pace. Shares in Facebook plummeted last week, wiping out some US$100 billion, after the firm missed quarterly revenue forecasts and warned growth would be far weaker than previously estimated.
Shares in the social network have regained some ground, and rose 4.4 per cent to close at US$185.69 on Monday.
Forbes Vietnam has released its third annual list of the 40 most valuable brands in Vietnam, putting their total value at $8.1 billion.
The value is 50 percent up from last year. Dairy giant Vinamilk and military-run telecom firm Viettel remain the top two as they were in the two previous years.
Forbes estimates Vinamilk’s brand value at $2.28 billion, much higher than the $1.7 billion last year, and Viettel’s at $1.39 billion – Vnexpress reported.
According to Vnexpress, commodity brands accounted for the majority of this year’s list, followed by finance and banking and technology.
The four new faces on this year’s list, which was selected from 80 brands, were Quang Ngai Sugar Joint Stock Company, Petrolimex, Saigon Tourist and agricultural group Loc Troi.
Forbes compiled the list by looking at brands’ incomes before and after tax and loans based on their financial reports and data on the stock market
According to Dtinews, the Ministry of Transport has proposed a new regulation on taxi management in which Grab Car is not listed as a local taxi service but e-contracted passenger transportation.
The ministry has submitted a revised draft to replace Resolution 86 on business and conditions for automobile transportation. The revised resolution hasn’t been welcomed by the taxi associations though. Nguyen Cong Hung, head of Hanoi Taxi Association, said Grab Car should be considered a taxi service and must follow all the rules such as installing taxi signs to differentiate them from other cars.
The ministry disagreed with taxi associations’ proposal to consider all transportation services with cars that have less than nine seats to be taxi service. According to the ministry, a taxi firm must install the taxi signs for their cars and can use both traditional meter clock or pre-determined prices with an online app or both. Uber and Grab are classified as contracted cars and the information about their contracts must be sent to the local Department of Transport.
In order to maintain a fair market, the ministry said taxi cars must have less than nine seats and an expiry date of 12 years. Meanwhile, only firms or co-operatives with business licenses are allowed to operate with cars that have less than nine seats. The cars must also have an expiry date of 12 years and firms and co-operatives are banned from modifying larger cars for business. This is also aimed to deal with various complaints about unfairness after two years piloting the e-contracted passenger transportation for the regular taxi service and the e-contracted passenger transportation have a similar operating model.
The ministry also proposed the prime minister new regulations about management responsibilities of individuals and agencies as well as plans to encourage more firms to use high technology in transportation to save cost.
A total of 866 transportation firms with more than 36,000 vehicles have participated in the pilot project of applying science and technology to support management and connect passenger services of contracted cars in the last two years. There are 506 firms, three software providers and 21,600 vehicles in HCM City. Hanoi has 354 firms, seven software providers and over 15,000 vehicles.
The World Health Organization has called on Vietnam to tackle excessive drinking with strong measures.
In a letter delivered to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recently, WHO experts said the high consumption of beer and alcohol in Vietnam was imposing a heavy burden on the country in the form of non-contagious diseases.
According to VnExpress, It expressed WHO’s support for a draft law on preventing adverse impacts of alcohol consumption that will be reviewed by lawmakers this October.
Shin Young-soo, WHO’s regional director for the Western Pacific region, said beer consumption among Vietnamese had reached an alarming rate. He said a Vietnamese adult above 15 years drinks 8.3 liters of pure alcohol per year on average, much higher than in China (7.2 liters), Cambodia (6.7), the Philippines (6.6) and Singapore (two liters).
A study jointly conducted by Vietnam’s Ministry of Health and WHO in 2016 showed that 77 percent of Vietnamese men drink liquor and beer, and nearly half of them drink at hazardous levels.
Nguyen Phuong Nam, a WHO official, said nearly 67 percent of the 1,840 traffic accident victims covered in the study had high concentrations of alcohol in their blood, and 45 percent had driven after drinking for two hours or more.
The letter asked the Vietnamese government to tighten controls over the production, sales and advertising of beer and alcoholic beverage to discourage drinking and protect consumers’ health.
The government should adopt tough measures to curb drinking by raising the prices of liquor and beer, restricting selling points, limiting the sale of alcoholic drinks at night and narrowing the legal drinking age, the letter said.
It said beer promotions and advertisements had negative impacts on young people. Recently, Vietnam’s Health Ministry proposed an advertisement ban on beer on TV and social networks as part of the draft law, as also restricting the sale of alcohol at night, specifically after 10 p.m.
Vietnam is famous for its beer drinking culture. It is widely believed that business deals in Vietnam tend to go more smoothly over a few drinks at the negotiating table. Vietnam is the biggest beer market in Southeast Asia, consuming nearly four billion liters last year.
The country spends on average $3.4 billion on alcohol each year, or 3 percent of the government’s budget revenue, according to official data. The figure translates to $300 per capita, while spending on health averages $113 per person, according to the Health Ministry.
As many as 40 percent of traffic accidents in Vietnam are linked to excessive drinking, according to the WHO, which it says is an alarming rate for a country where road crashes kill a person every hour, on average.
An international marathon will be held here on January 13, 2019 with runners from nearly 50 countries and regions participating. According to the city’s municipal Department of Culture and Sports, thousands of runners will compete in four categories of 42km, 21km, 10km and 5km. Children are invited to run for a distance of 1km. The marathon is expected to help promote tourism in Ho Chi Minh City as well as in Vietnam.
A court in Vietnam handed lengthy prison terms on Monday to several former bankers accused of mismanagement, amid a crackdown on corruption in the communist-ruled country – Reported by Reuters.
In the early 2010s, Vietnam’s banking system was rocked by a string of mismanagement scandals and under-regulated lending, and is still reeling from nonperforming loans.
Pham Cong Danh, former chairman of Vietnam Construction Bank, privately owned until a central bank takeover, received a 20-year prison sentence, while its former chief executive, Phan Thanh Mai, got 10 years, the Ministry of Public Security said.
They were convicted of “deliberate violation of state regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences” at the end of a two-week trial by a court in Ho Chi Minh City, the ministry said on its official website.
“The violations of Danh and his accomplices caused damage of 6.1 trillion dong to the Vietnam Construction Bank, leaving adverse impacts on the banking system,” the VnExpress online newspaper cited the jury as saying. The figure is equivalent to nearly $262 million.
The court also sentenced Tram Be, former deputy chairman of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank, to four years in prison on the same charges, police said in the statement.
Terms ranging from two years of probation to 10 years in prison were also handed to 43 accomplices, it added.
Danh, 53, was sentenced in 2016 to 30 years in prison in a separate trial, accused of illegally withdrawing more than $400 million from the bank.
Authorities have since stepped up their graft crackdown, leading to the arrests of dozens of high-profile business figures and officials.
Last month, a former deputy governor of the central bank was jailed for three years, the most senior banking official put on trial in the crackdown.
Dang Thanh Binh, 64, and four accomplices were accused of “lack of responsibility”, leading to losses at Vietnam Construction Bank.
Head over to any of these weird cafés in Hanoi to enjoy a delicious cup of Vietnamese coffee like you have never done before in a review of Piumi Rajapaksha from Culture Trip :
LUONG SON QUAN
Cafe, Restaurant, Vietnamese, $$$
Long Son Quan is more of a restaurant for the locals, but it can function as a wonderfully weird café. The venue is unique: a large countryside-looking space, set within concrete walls. You can get from one table to the other through stone paths, dine inside a hut, sit by a waterfall or on straw mats on the floor. Choose an area that appeals to you or one that makes a great Instagram shot, and spend an evening reading a book while you are shielded from the blazing hot Hanoian sun. There are set menus designed for various amounts of diners, so take your friends with you. It is great for groups.
Normally, you would be calling an exterminator to get rid of the animals you find in Pet Café, but here, you pay to have them crawl all over your face and hair. If you are an animal lover, then this café is for you, but you have to love more than just the cute and cuddly kinds of animals. You have to love the icky, slimy, creepy and crawlies. Enjoy a nice cup of warm coffee while sharing your couch with pythons, snakes, lizards, porcupines, sugar gliders, squirrels and even spiders. Don’t worry, they won’t ask to share your drink, but we cannot guarantee that they won’t get a little too close.
Conveniently located in the Old Quarter, Puku Café is a favorite among locals, expats and visitors to Hanoi. It is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, so it is a great stop for those arriving from Sapa on the overnight train that reaches the city at 4:30 a.m. Since you probably cannot check into your hotel this early, grab a table, enjoy some delicious drinks and grub and plug your phone in for charging. Be warned, music plays as early as 5:00 a.m., but we suppose that is how the staff stay awake during the ungodly hours. There are special monthly community events held here such as talk shows, sports game nights, movie and acoustic nights.
NOLA CAFÉ
Cafe, Vietnamese, $$$
Nola Café is a charming vintage café that is hidden in an old house in the Old Quarter. Go through a broken-looking hallway, step inside and you will discover three floors of artfully decorated space with quirky furniture. There is a small courtyard in the center full of sunshine, a knight in semi-shining armor and decorations made up of old coke bottles, but the coolest is the rooftop seating area covered by pretty colorful umbrellas. You won’t get wet in the rain up there!
Cookie Jar is for the young and trendy and serves a mix of traditional Vietnamese coffee, along with fast food and yummy desserts. The venue has stumpy wooden tables surrounded by wicker mats on the floor for you to sit on. Chat up the vivacious owner, Trang, and you will realize that a lot of her personality shines through the décor. Every Wednesday there is a live music show.
CHILLOUT
Cafe, Vietnamese, $$$
If you’re looking for a classy venue with polished décor, then turn away. Chillout is a great place to do exactly what the name suggests. The design, ambiance and music promote that kind of lazy attitude. Oh, and there is shisha. The décor is rather mismatched. You can almost imagine the owner walking around a day before the opening and saying, “Hey, how about a sofa there? You know what? A piano here would be good. Can we afford that?” And then it all just came together magically! There are weekly live music shows and guitars lying around, so if you play…
CAFÉ NHA SAN
Cafe, Restaurant, Vietnamese, $$$
Walk through a small, randomly decorated courtyard (Buddha statues and kitchen pots?) into a beautiful, abandoned-looking wooden warehouse with high ceilings, an interesting assortment of seating and a loft on the second floor. If you’re in Hanoi on a cold day, make sure you wear a few layers before you head out here, as there isn’t much insulation. There are also many power outlets around, making this the ideal place to kick back, relax, order a cup of coffee and get some work done without being disturbed.
Manzi Artspace is a favorite work spot among expats in Hanoi because of the clean, tranquil and motivating ambiance created by the decor. Doubling as an art gallery and an events location, this café is more for book lovers, and there is a free book exchange box out front. The drinks are equally wonderful, and on a hot day, you should try their watermelon mint juice while pondering the meaning behind the art pieces that surround you.
CONG CAPHE
Cafe, Vietnamese, $$$
Cong Caphe is a popular local coffee chain that has taken the country by storm with its rustic, military chic decor. Communist propaganda adorn the walls, and the furniture is colored in army green and decorated with floral patterns. Not only that, but the staff are also dressed to fit the theme, in army-inspired attire. Many Cong Caphes dot the streets of Hanoi, which makes it that much easier for you to try their delicious specialty: iced coconut coffee.
Pho Co is located in the most popular street in the old quarter of Hanoi—Hang Gai (silk street)—yet it is easy to miss or get lost while trying to find. This ancient house (typical long house) comes with an ancient soul inside. A tiny alleyway behind a souvenir shop will lead you into a shared house with each room full of ancient furniture, decorated with sophisticated wooden carvings and black and white photos from the last century on the walls. You will need to order a drink before you are allowed to head up and sit by the gorgeous view of Hoan Kiem Lake. There is even egg coffee! But even better is the resident fat cat, a real-life Garfield who is just as lazy.
Analysts and real estate insiders have been insisting this year that there is no bubble, but some remain skeptical. Reflecting on previous bubbles in 2008 and 2010, Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA), said a bubble was highly unlikely in the current situation.
Recalling the aftermath of those years, when many people were forced to sell properties at 50 percent of the price they paid, he said, “There is no possibility of such a realty bubble in 2018.”
Professor Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said the market situation now was completely different.
“In 2007, land prices in all segments, including agricultural land, rose every week whereas prices rising in a steady manner now, and have actually decreased in some segments,” Vo noted.
Ministry of Construction data puts current property inventory value in the country at VND24 trillion ($1.29 billion), down 81.3 percent from the peak in early 2013. This includes VND5.2 trillion ($231 million) in Hanoi and VND4.5 trillion ($200 million) in Ho Chi Minh City.
Nguyen Trong Ninh, director of the ministry’s department of housing management and real estate market, said at a press conference on July 27 that the market would not change much until the end of this year, and so people don’t have to worry about “any bubble.”
The market is determined by factors such as economic growth, urbanization, monetary policy, forex movements, and tax policies, and none of these would change much during the second half, he added.
In the first half of the year, land prices in the country rose rapidly, especially in three hotspots, Van Dong (Quang Ninh), Phu Quoc (Kien Giang) and Van Phong (Khanh Hoa).
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are planned in these localities with ambitious investment policies, causing people to fear the build-up of a bubble. But the local governments have acted decisively to nip this tendency in the bud, bringing down the so-called fever and forcing many real estate agents to cease their activities there.
Ninh said the market was “healthy” now and there was “no crisis.”
Su Ngoc Khuong, investment director at Savills Vietnam, also told Vnexpress that there was “no fever” and price increases in Hanoi, HCMC and Da Nang were understandable, given rapid population growth and growing incomes in these cities.
For instance, HCMC population increases by around 500,000 every year, including 250,000 immigrants, while the annual supply of apartments is only 10,000, which is just 5-10 percent of the housing demand, Khuong pointed out.
Do Thu Hang, associate director, research and consulting, Savills Vietnam, told local media, “We don’t see any crisis now.”
Better safe than sorry
Nguyen Xuan Quang, chairman of housing developer Nam Long Investment, told VnExpress he still feared a bubble, but added that his company was prepared to deal with it. There was a downward trend in property transactions in the second quarter, so it is too early to be optimistic about the market, he said.
Senior economist Nguyen Tri Hieu argued that there was the possibility of a bubble in the property market, explaining it was risky if land prices increased by 50 per cent in a year.
If the rate climbs to 70-100 per cent, the market would be in dangerous territory with the risk of the bubble bursting sometime next year, he said.
Quang of Nam Long Investment reiterated that his company was well prepared for the worst case scenario of a bubble bursting. He said the company has three weapons to protect itself: product diversity, a war chest of VND2.6 trillion ($115.5 million) and good income from commercial real estate. “This was strong enough to cope with any crisis that may arise,” he said.
Most importantly, with enough land for its needs for the next five years, the company would be unscathed if a land “fever” breaks out, he added.
Lights. Neon lights. Flashing neon lights. In Ho Chi Minh City, there’s a street for that. One of the most odd yet strangely endearing aspects of Vietnam’s largest urban center is the number of shops and storefronts that line the boulevards, alleyways and meandering streets across the city selling essentially the same exact thing – reported by Sam Roth from Culture Trip
Sport Street
Sporting goods can be found throughout the city, yet for the best deals and most fun head to Huyền Trân Công Chúa which cuts between athletic fields and basketball courts just behind the Reunification Palace. Over a dozen similar shops sell everything from exercise equipment and hula hoops to soccer balls, dart boards, and tennis rackets. Most items are sold at the same price, yet it’s worth haggling as you’ll most likely find a better deal by putting your time in.
Drills, adapters, converters, strange untranslatable mechanical things, larger strange untranslatable mechanical things? If you’re in need of need of anything electronics related, head to Yersin Street in District 1. Named after the famous French/Swiss physician who spent a large portion of his life in Vietnam, this short, centrally located street is a do-it-yourselfer’s playground.
Similar to Yersin Street, yet larger in size, Nhật Tảo Market, which encompasses parts of both Nhật Tảo and Lý Thường Kiệt, is a never-ending labyrinth of tools, electronics and spare parts. It’s a place where piles of secondhand resistors and transistors lie next to stacks of used camera lenses. For the electronic aficionados who couldn’t find that particular part in Yersin, this District 10 maze should do the trick. Just be prepared to put in the time to search through thousands upon thousands of items.
In a concrete mecca like Saigon, green space is as valuable as gold. No house or apartment feels complete without plants or flowers to liven spirits and provide some separation from the sprawl. There are a few different areas in the city heavy on vegetation, but the best of the best lie in District 7 on Nguyễn Hữu Thọ street. Nearly a dozen shops overrun with flowers, potted plants, indoor plants, outdoor plants, big plants, small plants and everything in between sit beside each other. Even if you’re not in the market, the amount of green in this small area is refreshing.
Snaking from north to south down to Saigon’s backpacker district, Nam Quốc Cang is home to nearly 100 different shops and vendors specializing in custom signs and trophies. Giant football cups stand next to metal and plastic placards. Door plates, desk plates, name tags and name plates fill glass cases all along the narrow winding street. For those staying in central Saigon, it’s worth the trip even if you’re not in need of an eight-foot trophy.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has ordered online shopping sites to remove all the maps and toys with images of China’s nine-dash line on the East Sea.
Do Minh, a local in Hanoi’s Cau Giay District, said she ordered a toy for her child from Shopee. The toy is a world map and the children can put national flags on different countries. Minh said the toy cost VND189,000 (USD7.56) but she soon noticed a problem. The toy only has English and Chinese instructions as it was made in China. Moreover, on the map there is a nine-dash line that includes the Spratly and Paracel Islands.
The product is sold by a seller with a registered business licence in Bac Kan Province and has their own website, dochoigiaoducsom.com.
Lai Viet Anh, deputy head of the E-commerce and Information Technology Agency said they had received the information. It is impossible to see the content of the product online. Consumers will only notice the nine-dash line upon purchasing the toy. The agency has ordered Shopee as well as other shopping sites to check, remove products with similar violations and report back by August 15.
“We’ve asked them to remove the product first and will work with the market management agencies to check the supply and deal with this problem,” Anh said.
Hanoi Market Management Board and the E-commerce and Information Technology Agency seized and inspected 30 boxes and two bags of toys. Bac Kan Department of Industry and Trade was ordered to check the products on dochoigiaoducsom.com. This website has its business licence registered in Bac Kan but actually operates in Hanoi. The E-commerce and Information Technology Agency has taken down this website.
Shopee said they would take responsibility and had carried out an inspection in the system to take down the toy as well as similar products. They also issued a recall order and compensate 17 customers who bought the product. All sellers on Shopee were warned that products or their accounts will be taken down if committing a similar violation.
Shopee is an e-commerce platform headquartered in Singapore under Sea Group, or Garena. Tran Tuan Anh, CEO of Shopee in Vietnam, said since Shopee was a consumer to consumer platform, the sellers must take responsibility for their products.
“We’ve actively worked with related agencies and customers to deal with this case,” Anh said.
There are new names among the ten most valuable brands in Vietnam in 2018, while FPT and Vietinbank fell down a couple of steps.
Forbes Vietnam has published the list of the 40 most valuable brands in Vietnam in 2018. Accordingly, these 40 brands are valued at $8.1 billion, up 30 per cent on-year.
Enterprises in the top ten operate in real estate, telecommunications, banking, and consumer goods.
This year, Vietnam saw decreases in the position of Vingroup, FPT, and Vietinbank. Notably, Vingroup, which is valued at $307.2 million, decreased from the third position in 2017 to the seventh position this year.
Besides, FPT fell from sixth to tenth this year, with the valuation of $169 million, and Vietinbank was knocked out from the top ten to the 11th position, with the valuation of $153.6 million.
Despite Vingroup’s fall, its residential property arm called Vinhomes appeared in the top ten for the first time, at the fifth position with $384 million.
Along with Vinhomes, state-owned Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and Vinaphone made it to the top ten for the first time, with the valuation of $416 million and $308 million, respectively, replacing BIDV and Truong Hai Auto.
The other brands in the top ten are Vinamilk ($2.28 billion), the country’s biggest brewery Sabeco ($393 million), food and beverages producer Masan Consumer ($238 million), and Vietcombank ($177.9).
Forbes compiled the list by looking at the brands’ incomes before and after tax, based on their financial reports and data from the stock market.
The HCM City administration has asked the Department of Planning and Architecture to work with agencies to propose adjustments to resettlement areas in the Thu Thiem new urban area.
The request came after Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved the Government’s inspection of the 160-ha resettlement area in the Thu Thiem project in the city’s District 2.
Speaking at a recent meeting on the new urban area, Nguyen Thanh Phong, chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, asked the Construction Department to allow 3,790 out of 12,500 resettled apartments to be converted to commercial housing units. Previously, all of the apartments had to be for resettled households.
He also asked the departments of Finance and Natural Resources and Environment to reassess the value of the 3,790 resettled apartments and organise another auction for them.
No investors showed any interest in bidding for the 3,790 apartments when they were put up for the auction by the city government in February.
Regarding the proposal to build a walking bridge across Sai Gon River, which would connect District 1 and Thu Thiem new urban area, under a Build-Transfer (BT) investment model, Phong said the Đại Quang Minh Real Estate Investment Joint Stock Company should submit at least three options for the bridge construction.
For the Thu Thiem 2 Bridge project (under the BT model), Phong asked the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to work with agencies to prepare a draft of the project for the city government.
The city authorities will then ask the Ministry of Defense to direct Ba Son One Member Company Limited and Naval Region 2 Command to hand over land for the bridge to investors.
For the smart complex project, Phong has agreed with the city’s Council for Architecture and Planning that the maximum height of the complex should be from 50 to 60 floors and that the ground floor should remain at 120,000 square metres.
In addition, Phong has assigned the city’s Department of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to help De Vuong Company with procedures to develop the Observation Tower complex.
For the Thu Thiem 4 Bridge, the chairman of the city has asked the Department of Planning and Investment to publicise information about the project and call for investors under the form of public-private partnerships (PPP).
The only company that has expressed interest in the bridge project is the joint venture Phát Đạt Company – Company 620 – Company 168 – IPC Company. If no other company shows interest within a certain period of time, the company can go ahead with the project, Phong said.
He has asked the company to conduct a pre-feasibility study.
To make way for the bridge project, the Department of Planning and Investment has been told to proceed with the relocation of Tân Thuận Port in District 7.
In addition, the chairman has asked Thu Thiem Investment and Construction Authority to work with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to proceed with land allocation or land lease to Sài Gòn Development One Member Limited Liability Company for partial payment of the Tân Sơn Nhất – Bình Lợi – Outer Ring Road construction project.
Covering a total area of 657ha, the Thu Thiem new urban area is located on Thu Thiem peninsula in HCM City’s District 2, which faces downtown District 1 across the Sài Gòn River.
Approved by the Government in 1996, the proposed financial district and mixed-use urban area of HCM City is set to become the largest inner-city development in Southeast Asia.
To develop such a project, it has taken more than 10 years to complete site clearance of most of Thu Thiem peninsula, with nearly 15,000 households already resettled.
More than 99 per cent of land in the proposed area has been cleared.
More than 1,700 households in three remote communes in the mountainous province of Lai Chau are temporarily isolated due to prolonged heavy rains.
Heavy rains in the past week caused serious landslides along the roads connecting Khong Lao and Si Lo Lau communes in Phong Tho District, making three communes of Vang Ma Chai, Ma Ly Chai and Si Lo Lau inaccessible.
Besides efforts to search for the six missing people from Vang Ma Chai Commune, the district’s authority is mobilising all forces including militiamen, police, border soldiers, and defence force and necessary facilities to soon clear the damaged traffic route.
Initial statistics from Phong Tho District’s People’s Committee showed hundreds of landslides occurred during the flooding, with more than 100,000cu.m of rock, soil, and other earth materials.
“Traveling through the route is so challenging. We expect the State to soon use machines to clear the rocks and soil to facilitate our movement,” said Cheo San May in Vang Ma Chai Commune.
Another resident in the commune, Cheo San Sieu, added: “I have never seen so many landslides in the road for years. It is hard for the old people and children. Landslides seem to keep going in certain areas.”
Chairman of Phong Tho District’s People’s Committee, Tran Van Que said damage to the roads in the district as a result of the rain and flooding was substantial, meaning repairs were quite difficult and costly.
“Goods and other essential commodities for local people are in good stock. We also assigned relevant authorities to monitor the market price in the area to avoid the possibility of a price hike,” Que said.
In another development, landslides occurring at Km74 in the National Highway 4H running through the nearby Dien Bien Province early Saturday also made stopped traffic for nearly 30 hours, according to Vietnam News Agency.
“Traffic congestion is serious. Roads were temporarily opened at 8:30am on August 5,” the Director of Land Road Company II, Lương Thanh Tùng, said.
“Lorries and passenger buses were helped by specialised excavators and bulldozers to get through, whilst four-seat automobiles couldn’t move,” he added.
Yesterday morning saw landslides on another section of the National Highway 4H in Nam Po District’s Cha Nua Commune.
It also reported landslides took place on National Highway 12 linking Dien Bien and Lai Chau provinces, causing traffic jams for hours.
Flood water release
Due to an increased volume of water flooding to Hoa Binh River, the Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant was requested to open one floodgate at 8am yesterday.
It said one hour before the flood water release, the water level upstream measured 106.14m, the water level downstream was 13.43m while the flow to the lake was 1,577cu.m/s, and the total discharge volume was 3,358cu.m/s.
Ninety minutes after the flood water release, the water level downstream was 14.7m.
Heavy rain in the forecast
Heavy rain, storm and strong gusts are forecast in the South China Sea (East Sea) today due to the tropical low pressure system, the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecast warned yesterday.
As a result of the intertropical convergence zone combined with enhanced southwestern, winds with gusts of level 5 (29-38km/h), level 6 (39-49km/h) or event level 8 (62-74km/h) were reported in the southern South China Sea and sea areas from Binh Thuan to Ca Mau on Sunday night and Monday.
Strong winds and cyclones are expected today off the coast of the central and southern regions, including the Truong Sa (Spratly).
Archipelago, and sea areas from Binh Thuan to Ca Mau, Ca Mau to Kien Giang and in the Gulf of Thailand.
Experts earlier this year all predicted that there would be a high number of M&A deals in the banking sector this year. However, this has not occurred.
One of the most highly expected M&A deals is the merger of PG Bank with HD Bank. A representative of HD Bank said the merger would be completed in August, while HD Bank after the merger will restructure and prepare for the establishment of a finance leasing company, overseas remittance service company and insurance company.
At Saigon Bank, the biggest shareholder of the bank, the HCMC Communist Party Committee, has divested 18 percent of its shares in the bank and is considering divesting all shares.
There is no information about which M&A deal will come next.
Experts earlier this year predicted there would be a high number of M&A deals this year. Shareholders’ meetings of many banks, including Military Bank, LienViet Post Bank and VP Bank, also discussed M&A plans.
But the M&A market has been quiet for two years. One of the reasons, according to experts, is the lack of financially capable Vietnamese investors.
Bank M&A activities have experienced two major stages – the first, occurring before the restructuring period (1990-2000), and the second, during restructuring, from 2011 to now.
In the first stage, many joint stock banks were established by merging with credit co-operatives on the verge of bankruptcy. In the second stage, a lot of deals were made, in which Vietnam’s banks sold shares to foreign institutions or domestic investors.
In 2011, the Vietnamese banking system comprised 52 commercial banks, 51 foreign bank branches, 31 non-bank credit institutions, one central credit fund, a network of local credit funds, and some small-scale financial institutions.
In 2011-2016, Vietnam witnessed seven bank M&A deals with participation of 16 commercial banks, which resulted in a decrease of 10 banks.
In 2016, there was no successful M&A deal. Only TP Bank succeeded in attracting foreign capital as IFC poured $18.3 million into the bank through buying preferential shares to acquire 4.9 percent of TP Bank shares.
In 2017, Vinaconex-Viettel Finance Company (VVF) officially merged with SHB Bank. The failure of the plan to merge PG Bank with VietinBank was announced by VietinBank on April 21, 2018.
Analysts say there are too many commercial banks in Vietnam and it is necessary to cut the number. M&A is a good way to do this. The biggest advantage of M&A is that it saves money. The State does not have to spend a lot to repair the damage and stabilize the finance market.
