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Vietnam government not permitted to receive direct foreign loans

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A new decree by the Vietnam Government prohibits local governments from directly borrowing from international lenders, or to guarantee the borrowing of organizations and individuals, along with the issuance of bonds.

Under Decree 93/2018/ND-CP on management of debts of local governments, local governments can receive loans to finance their overspending with projects in medium-term public investment plans to pay off original debts, if approved by municipal or provincial People’s Councils. Lan Nhi, from the SaigonTimes reported.

Local governments’ borrowing must follow regulations as set by the laws on State budget and public debt management. Also, governments needs to ensure a five-year borrowing plan, a three-year debt management program and an annual borrowing plan within the upper cap, as informed by the competent authority, and the outstanding loan cap as stipulated by the law on State budget and the Government’s decrees, concerning special financial and budgetary mechanisms of certain localities.

Prevailing special mechanisms for localities, such as Hanoi and HCMC, allow for capital mobilization of over 30% of capital for annual investments to meet local capital needs and accelerate investments.

Government data reported that outstanding loans by local governments, as of early last year, were VND66.105 trillion, with advances on the State budget making up VND7.48 trillion, municipal bonds VND25.234 trillion and loans from commercial banks reaching VND1.356 trillion.

Regarding local government loans from the Vietnam Development Bank, which were primarily from bonds guaranteed by the Government and from the Government’s foreign loans, they were not included in the calculation of outstanding loans of localities, as they were already in Government-guaranteed debts and foreign loans by the Government, to avoid overlaps.

This year’s planned borrowing by localities has reached over VND21.513 trillion, with VND8.769 trillion in domestic loans and VND12.744 trillion from the Government’s on-lending loans, which is still within the permissible level.

On-lending of ODA, concessional capital specified

The Government has issued Decree 97/2018/ND-CP on on-lending of official development assistance (ODA) loans and foreign concessional loans provided by international donors.

On-lending requirements applied to local governments, enterprises and public non-business units are stipulated in Article 36 of the law on public debt management.

Regarding on-lending ratios assigned to local governments, localities with central budget allocations making up 70% or more of total local budget spending, the ratio is 30% of ODA and concessional loans. However, with localities which have central budget allocations accounting for 50-70% and below 50%, the ratio is kept at 40% and 50%, respectively.

Localities which send off a proportion of their incomes to the central budget fund, except for Hanoi and HCMC, receive an on-lending ratio of 70%. Such a ratio for Hanoi and HCMC is 100%.

The Ministry of Finance provides on-lending ratios of localities for every budgeting period by January 1 of the first year in such periods.

As for public non-business units, those which can cover all regular expenditures and investment costs, the on-lending ratio is 100% of ODA and concessional capital used for investment projects. Meanwhile, the ratio is only 50% for units which can cover all regular expenditures and part of investment costs.

Businesses are eligible to borrow ODA and concessional capital used for investment projects, but the loans cannot exceed 70% of the investment amounts approved by competent authorities.

According to the decree, on-lending rates are as prescribed in Clause 5, Article 34 of the law on public debt management, including the law on public debt management and rates of the Government’s foreign loans, related fees in foreign lending agreements and fees of on-lending management and risk provisions.

Lenders must make sure on-lending loans are used for the correct purposes and are applied effectively, according to decisions on investment approval, project documents and signed on-lending contracts.

Also, borrowers have to pay off loans in full amounts and on time, according to on-lending contracts to the Ministry of Finance or authorized on-lending agencies.

Ha Giang province’s exam cheating scandal revealed

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Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered the Ministry of Public Security to open an investigation into the recent high school exam scandal in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang.

So far, Vu Trong Luong, Deputy Chief of the Examination and Quality Management Division under the provincial Department of Education and Training, has been arraigned for his part in the scandal.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) reported the shocking news at a press conference on July 17, while also confirming more than 300 test results of 114 students would be adjusted.

Following the abnormally high test results in the province, on July 14, an inspection team led by Mai Van Trinh, head of the Authority of Examination and Quality Management under MoET, started re-grading all students’ answer sheets.

The inspection revealed that, bar the literature test, all eight others which were taken as multiple-choice test showed signs of cheating.

A total of 102 maths test results were adjusted, as were 85 in physics, 56 in chemistry, 52 in English, eight in biology, eight in history and three in geography and 52 in English.

Several students ended up with results more than 20 marks higher than they should have received. Some even ended up 29.95 marks better off.

Nguyen Cao Khuong from the Ministry of Public Security said Luong was mainly responsible for scanning answer sheets into a computer then sending the database of results to the MoET.

He then took advantage of his position to download the database of tests to his personal computer.

According to the inspection team, from 12pm to 2.38pm on June 27, Luong was in charge of transferring two boxes of multiple choice answer sheets and a computer to the provincial Department of Education and Training. In only two hours, he broke the seal, pulled answer sheets out and altered answers.

Till now, no other individual has been found to be Luong’s accomplice. However, it seems impossible he could have altered all the answer sheets in the period as it took the inspection team of 10 people eight hours to do the same thing. “We are conducting further investigations,” said Khuong.

He added that the database of the 2017 national high school examination results was still on Luong’s computer, which he voluntarily handed to law enforcement.

Tran Duc Quy, Vice Chairman of the provincial Ha Giang People’s Committee, said they were unable to ensure the examination’s security.

“There are things we cannot control despite our efforts to tighten management. Our limited capacity created loopholes for the fraud to happen,” he said.

“However, we tried to re-grade and announce the real test results for examinees. Ha Giang province’s education sector, however, has learnt a salutary lesson,” he added.

Vu Van Su, Director of the provincial Department of Education and Training, said that they would take responsibility for the incident.

“We worked all night to reach the final conclusion and reveal the real result in the effort to regain the belief of Ha Giang’s people,” he said.

The national high school examination has been held for four years. The result is used to determine if a student graduates from high school and gets into their dream university or not.

Since 2017, the multi-choice form has been applied to all tests except for literature. In 2018, MoET tightened the exam’s security by stamping bags of answer sheets with signatures of supervisors and universities’ representatives.

“What happened in Ha Giang province was terrible but it does not mean we need to change the examination which is approved of by a lot of people. In the years to come, the ministry will come up with solutions to improve it,” said Trinh.

The last examination was taken by 5,400 Ha Giang students. In the top 11 students nationwide with highest scores, the province contributed three. Regarding the physics test, 65 students scored nine or higher, accounting for 67 percent. The abnormal result triggered social uproar.

Source: VNN

Shares rise for four consecutive sessions

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Shares rose for the fourth consecutive session on Tuesday with an improvement of liquidity, largely on the strength of a handful of banking and individual blue-chips.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was up 1.12 per cent to close at 921.27 points. It gained 3.1 per cent during the past four sessions.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange added 1.65 per cent to end at 104.83 points. The index had increased a total of 6.4 per cent over the last four sessions.

Market trading liquidity showed improvement with some 189.3 million shares being traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ4 trillion (US$176 million).

Market trading conditions were quite positive on Tuesday, with 170 declining stocks against 266 gainers, while 304 other stocks remained unchanged.

Cash flow drove up 18 of the 20 sectors on the stock market. Key industries that saw share prices increase included banking-financial, securities, retail and real estate, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The VN30 Index, which tracks the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation, was up 1.26 per cent to end at 915.53 points.

VN30 basket’s three new members of VPBank (VPB), Vincom Retail (VRE) and jewelry producer Phú Nhuận (PNJ) were among the best performers, up at least 4 per cent.

Bank stocks were the darlings of the market on Tuesday, with JSC Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), Techcombank (TCB), Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB) and VPBank (VPB) rising between 1.6 per cent and 6.7 per cent, driving the whole market up.

Two giants in the securities sector, Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM) and VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND), also saw share prices shooting up by 3.4 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively.

Two seafood processors Vĩnh Hoàn Corporation (VHC) and Sao Mai Group Corporation (ASM) unexpectedly closed at the ceiling price, hitting the daily limit rise of 7 per cent.

Two real estate developers, Đất Xanh Group JSC and LDG Investment Joint Stock Company, also hit the daily limit rise of 7 per cent.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) gained 0.25 per cent to finish at 49.42 points. It rose 0.06 per cent on Monday.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company, bottom fishing demand increased sharply at the end of the session, focusing on large-cap stocks.

However, BIDV Securities Company said in its daily report that the market rally on Tuesday was not a very strong recovery signal due to the waiting sentiment for supporting information from Q2 business results, investors should trade carefully.

Source: Vietnamnews

Central bank intervenes to check currency fall

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The dong showed signs of stability on Wednesday, rising slightly against the dollar as the State Bank of Vietnam intervened to increase foreign currency supply.
Local currency exchangers were selling a U.S. dollar for VND23,300 at 1 p.m. Wednesday, down VND50 from the peak of VND23,350 of last week. Their purchase price was VND23,230.

“Demand for USD has considerably decreased, so we’ve lowered the rate,” said a money changer in Disctrict 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

The VND/USD rate has also stabilized in commercial banks. Vietcombank has been trading U.S. dollars at VND23,010-23,080 for the last three days. The corresponding range was VND23,020-23,090 at Eximbank and other local banks.

This is a good sign for foreign currency liquidity, said the vice chairman of a joint stock bank in the South who asked not be named.

“In the last few days, the central bank has been selling dollars to limit fluctuations in the USD/VND exchange rate,” the banker said.

This intervention was one of the reasons behind the increase in the dong’s value against the U.S. dollar, the source added.

Source: Vnexpress

Farmers in Da Nang keep raising fish in river despite ban

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Many farmers have kept cultivating fish in cages along some rivers notorious for mass fish deaths in the central city of Da Nang, although the local government had introduced an aquaculture ban earlier this year.

The central metropolis’ administration began prohibiting fish farming in the Co Co and Han Rivers after fish raised in cages along the waterways died in large numbers in mid-July last year, causing collective losses of billions of dong. (VND1 billion = US$43,000).

The People’s Committee in Ngu Hanh Son District, where the fish deaths happened, later suggested providing financial support to affected farmers.

However, the municipal government rejected this proposal and instead decided to forbid fish farming in the rivers as of January 2018.

Fish farming had first developed in Da Nang in a pilot program along the Co Co and Cam Le Rivers since 2000 but it was discouraged six years later, when authorities required farmers to remove fish cages from the two waterways by 2009.

Now 31 fish cages still exist in the portions of the Co Co and Han Rivers, crossing Ngu Hanh Son District, but they were not included in the original pilot program, a local official said.

At a recent meeting, farmers suggested planning a new area for them to continue keeping fish, but the authorities insisted there are no available places for the activity, according to the same official.

The fish farmers also called for financial help from the local government in having their costly cages dismantled and finding another means of livelihood, the official said, adding that the municipal administration has not taken any action to settle the issue.

Huynh Cu, deputy chairman of the Ngu Hanh Son People’s Committee, said farmers were already aware of the ban and encouraged to do a different job.

“But they have been unwilling to do so because they said they can find no other jobs,” he added.

Cu said that stopping the local fish farming was very difficult since the farmers avoided working with the authorities on multiple occasions.

A resident said it took a long time for the fish to be ready for harvest so farmers can repay large bank loans.

“We only wanted to discuss with the municipal administration the ban and its related problems,” he added.

Source: Tuoitrenews

Ha Long Bay among 100 most beautiful UNESCO World Heritages

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The US newspaper Newsweek has listed Ha Long Bay of Vietnam among the Top 100 most beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which include both natural and man-made wonders.

The US newspaper Newsweek lists Ha Long Bay of Vietnam among the Top 100 most beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Ha Long Bay in the northeastern province of Quang Ninh was placed in the 14th position.

“Ha Long Bay, in the Gulf of Tonkin, includes some 1,600 islands and islets, forming a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars,” the Newsweek described.

“Because of their precipitous nature, most of the islands are uninhabited and unaffected by a human presence. The site’s outstanding scenic beauty is complemented by its great biological interest,” it said.

The Newsweek’s Top 100 most beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sties have been picked out from the UNESCO list of over 1,000 protected places across the globe.

Ha Long Bay, a must-go place for those who spend holidays in Vietnam, which has been twice recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Ha Long Bay has been named one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

The heritage site has become a magnet drawing visitors to Quang Ninh. Last year, the province welcomed a total of 9.87 million tourists, including 4.28 million foreigners.

The province aims to attract over 12 million visitors this year, including 5 million foreigners.

Source: VNA

Irish couple visits Vietnam to find biological parents of adopted daughter

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Thirteen years since their first arrival in Vietnam, a couple from Ireland has now returned for a mission to help their adopted Vietnamese daughter search for her biological parents.

David and Suzanne Doran had their first child in 2001, and later became enthralled by the idea of adopting children.

They started attending adoption conferences, meeting with Irish families that had successfully adopted children from Vietnam, and completing all the paperwork for the major decision.

But it was not until four years later that the good news arrived: a Vietnamese infant who had been abandoned by her own mother after birth was a perfect match.

The baby girl, named Van, had been taken in by the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City after efforts to find her birth mother were in vain.

Van (R) plays with her younger sister Thien as they visit the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

At six months old, Van was brought onto an Ireland-bound flight with her new parents and became an Irish citizen.

Years later, the family would welcome their youngest member, Thien, a Thai ethnic girl from the northern Vietnamese province of Lang Son.

“We knew we could love these children as our own, which we do,” Suzanne said.

“We just wanted to love them and take care of them and make sure they grow up [to become] happy and responsible adults,” she added.

Suzanne would teach herself how to wear ao dai, a traditional Vietnamese gown, which she would don to accompany her adoptive daughters to events organized by the Vietnamese community in Ireland.

She also learnt to cook Vietnamese dishes at home so that the girls would know the taste of food from their birth country.

Suzanne even made the effort to the take her adopted daughters to Vietnamese classes for them to learn their mother tongue.

Inside their house, music CDs, film DVDs, and picture books about Vietnam could be found everywhere as a reminder of the family’s strong connection to the Southeast Asian country.

Suzanne Doran (C) shows her adoptive daughter photos taken of her as a kid during their visit to the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

By the age of 13, Van’s awareness of her Vietnamese roots had grown big enough so she finally asked to know her ‘real’ mother.

“We would find it a very positive thing that [our Vietnam-born daughters] wanted to know where they came from,” Suzanne said.

“Their mother and family are a part of them, and they’re also a part of their mother and family. That’s all part of their story,” she said.

The family has since visited Thien’s hometown in Lang Son Province and the orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City where Van was raised as an infant, activities that bonded them together more strongly than ever before.

Suzanne said it would be up to her kids to decide whether they wanted to live in Vietnam when they grow up, and that her job was only to help them approach the story of their life with happiness.

As she sat down for a conversation with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper at the Go Vap orphanage on an early July day, Van would give her mother hugs and kisses from time to time as if she understood the sacrifices her mother had made to raise her and her younger sister.

When asked whether she wanted to see her biological mother again, Van said she had always been aware of her Vietnamese origin, a fact that is respected by all members of the family.

“So I always want to see my biological parents to know where I come from, whether I have any siblings, and how my birth mother is doing,” Van said.

The 13-year-old girl said the visit to the orphanage where she once lived made her feel like she was already home and realize how lucky she was compared to other kids.

Irish couple Suzanne and David Doran take their three daughters to visit the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

“I don’t know how I can share my luck with other kids,” she said.

On their journey to find Van’s biological parents continues, Suzanne said accompanying the girl was the least she and her husband could do to help their daughter.

“I know life is not a fairy tale that always ends happily ever after, and Van’s story is not that of a princess,” she said.

“I believe that a person, no matter where they grow up, should know their roots and where they come from so that they can know what to do, where to be and in which direction to head for in life,” said David Doran, the girl’s father.

By Tuan Son

Source: Tuoi Tre News

Piracy is the biggest challenge for Vietnam’s OTT market

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OTT (over the top) is a term used to refer to applications and content such as audio and video that are provided on the Internet.

The most typical characteristic is that it serves in an optimal way the people’s entertainment needs with low service fees and many add-one.

In order to provide services at low service fees, OTT television companies have to spend big money on copyright, content production, technology and infrastructure.

Analysts said that FPT Play, Zing TV and VTVgo, the best known OTT TVs in Vietnam, are pouring ‘tons of money’ into investments and incurring losses of billions of dong each year.

OTT television companies have to compete fiercely with each other to obtain the copyright for hot content.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese users only want the content free of charge, while providers of pirated videos try every possible means to dodge the laws.

OTT service providers in Vietnam cannot satisfy all the requirements on copyright for content, because of many reasons.

Some OTT service providers have good telecommunication platforms, but they don’t have experience in content production. Other service providers come from content producing, but they either have dead applications or cannot develop multi-platforms.

VTV, the leader in content production, has had to diversify its content production models. It makes some programs itself, calls for investment from different sources to make others, and buys copyright from other content producers.

Most OTT TV customers don’t care if the programs they watch are copyrighted or pirated. Vietnamese have the habit of watching TV free of charge and demanding high quality of services.

This practice, plus the limited online payment methods (currently, payment can be made with credit cards, game cards or telecom cards), make it more challenging for OTT service providers.

There are no official statistics about the number of units that violate TV copyright and the losses caused by piracy. However, the representative of the Ministry of Information & Communication (MIC) affirmed that piracy on the internet had reached an ‘alarming rate’.

Nguyen Thanh Lam, director of the Department of Radio, Television and E-information, said at Telefilm 2018 that to prevent copyright infringement, it is necessary to restrict cash flow from advertisements.

For example, state agencies need to warn advertisers against cooperating with firms which commit copyright infringement.

Earlier this year, MIC ordered the pull-out of all ads posted on 50 websites, including many OTT TV websites with a high number of views, such as hayhaytv, hdviet and hdtivi.

By Mai Chi

Source: Vietnamnet

Standard Chartered revises up Vietnam’s 2018 growth forecast to 7 percent

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Standard Chartered Bank expects Vietnam’s rapid growth of 7 percent year-on-year in 2018, higher than its previous forecast of 6.8 percent, with all domestic engines firing together.

Manufacturing and construction are likely to remain the fastest-growing sectors

The forecast is highlighted in the bank’s recently published Global Focus report for the third quarter of 2018 entitled “Fattening tail risks”.

“We are positive on Vietnam’s growth medium-term on strong manufacturing activity as FDI inflows to manufacturing remain strong. We believe that Vietnam will remain one of the fastest growing economies in Asia in 2018,” said Chidu Naryanan, Economist, Asia, Standard Chartered Bank.

According to the latest macro-economic research report, FDI inflows are set to remain high in 2018, led by manufacturing which makes up close to 50 percent of inflows.

Disbursed FDI rose to 6.75 billion USD in January-May, higher than the year-ago period.

The bank expects both registered and implemented FDI to be close to 15 billion USD in 2018, unchanged from the previous forecast.

Standard Chartered economists also forecast a mild trade surplus for the rest of the year on strong export growth and slowing import growth.

Electronics exports are likely to remain robust in 2018 on strong demand for components, particularly OLED displays used in mobile devices, and expected to grow by over 20 percent in 2018.

The report also suggests that the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is likely to remain accommodative in the near term to support growth, despite rate hikes from major central banks.

Standard Chartered Bank expects unchanged policy rates in 2018 and a mild devaluation of the Vietnamese currency, the dong (VND).

Specifically, the bank anticipates a mild move higher in USD/VND rate in the quarters ahead and revised up its USD/VND rate forecasts to 22,950 for the end of the third quarter 2018 and 23,000 for the year’s end.

Ha Giang’s exam cheating scandal revealed

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Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered the Ministry of Public Security to open an investigation into the recent high school exam scandal in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang.

So far, Vu Trong Luong, Deputy Chief of the Examination and Quality Management Division under the provincial Department of Education and Training, has been arraigned for his part in the scandal.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) reported the shocking news at a press conference on July 17, while also confirming more than 300 test results of 114 students would be adjusted – Vietnamnews reports.