New rules to collect and clarify market price data

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Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has drafted a circular on rules and methods of collecting information and reporting market prices of some domestic goods and services.

The move aims to facilitate the synthesis, analysis and projection of commodities prices by central and local agencies, in order to standardise information and gain a better picture of the national inflation situation.

The list of commodities and services subjected to the newly-recommended market price reporting regime includes essential commodities that can represent groups of goods and services relating to food, construction materials, medicines and medical services, transportation, education, entertainment and tourism.

The draft recommends that the Departments of Finance of centrally-run cities and provinces nationwide send monthly, quarterly and annual reports on market prices of commodities in their localities to the MoF’s Price Management Department.

Reports will include information on the evolution of the consumer price index (CPI) calculated within each locality, together with analysis on the status and the causes of the factors affecting CPI.

The reports also evaluate the efficiency of local management and administration of prices, including the price management of some important and essential goods in the locality and the promulgation of legal documents related to commodities’ market prices.

In addition, the reports will also forecast the CPI and the market price situation in the next period.

In case of abnormal fluctuations in prices, the provincial and municipal Department of Finance have to make irregular reports on price fluctuations of some essential goods and services in the locality.

The commodities included in the price report include rice, pork, beef, chicken, fish, shrimp and seasonal vegetables (for food), cement, construction steel, sand, bricks (for construction materials), car fare, bus fare, taxi fare (for transportation services), tuition fees of public kindergartens, public school fees and university fees (for education).

The Ministry of Finance is gathering public comments on this draft by posting the draft in the Ministry’s e-Portal.-VNA

Source: Vietnam Plus

Vietnam stocks market set to continue falling this week

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Vietnamese stocks are forecast to stay on a downward trend this week due to caution among investors and accelerated selling pressure from foreigners, analysts said.

According to VNS’ report, the benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange (HOSE) dropped 2.23 per cent on Friday, or 22 points, to end at 963.90 points, totalling a weekly loss of 7.37 per cent.

The VN-Index hit its lowest level since the beginning of the year while the HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange lost 2.21 per cent to close at 114.49 points on Friday.

The northern market index fell a total 5.6 per cent in the week.

An average of 194.1 million shares were traded in each of the five trading sessions last week, worth VND5.3 trillion (US$232.4 million).

Daily average trading figures last week decreased by 21 per cent in volume and 52 per cent in value compared to the previous week.

According to Đặng Thanh Thế, strategic director of KB Securities Co, if temporarily excluding the transactions volume of Vingroup VIC, the current largest stock by market capitalisation, foreign investors have changed from net buyers to net sellers since April.

“Obviously, this trend has not seemed to stop and completely contrasting with the situation in 2017 and the first quarter of 2018,” Thế told tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn.

“Therefore, there are grounds to conclude that selling pressure from the foreign traders on the key stocks will keep occuring next week, and thus the bearish trend of the market will continue,” he added.

In addition, market liquidity from the beginning of May has fallen sharply compared to the average figure of the period from 2014 to present, even lower when compared with the first quarter of 2018.

This week, markets will likely remain gloomy and the bearish trend will increase stronger and even spread to small- and mid-cap stocks, Thế said.

“At present, net selling pressure of foreign investors is still very strong and steady,” said Nguyễn Trung Du, senior expert at VNDirect Securities Co (VNDS).

The recovery of the market last week was still weak, with just one rebounding session. Therefore, the downward trend is inevitable most stocks and will be oversold, Du told tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn.

According to Nguyễn Ngọc Lan, senior analyst at Agribank Securities Co (Agriseco), the downtrend of the market is developing and there is no sign of a reversal. The short-term market is expected to remain negative.

Foreign investors are still accelerating selling, which seriously affects investors, leading to caution among domestic investors, Lan said.

Investors were quite vulnerable with many failing short-term bottom catches and the market’s quick fall. Investors will keep a close watch on market fluctuations, adopting a wait-and-watch approach with little capital injection.

In addition, many large-cap stocks still have too high valuations and there is still plenty of room for them to fall due to the recent strong increase, she said.

There has also been a lot of negative news related to geo-politics or large listed companies, therefore, investors are more reserved, Lan said.

Two US warships sail near East Sea

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Operation is latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as China’s efforts to limit freedom of navigation in strategic waters

Reuters in Washington reports, two US warships sailed near East Sea islands claimed by China on Sunday, two US officials told Reuters, in a move likely to anger Beijing as Donald Trump seeks its continued cooperation on North Korea.

The operation was the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing’s efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters.

While the operation had been planned months in advance, and similar operations have become routine, it comes at a particularly sensitive time and just days after the Pentagon uninvited China from a major US-hosted naval drill.

The US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Higgins guided-missile destroyer and the Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser, came within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands, among a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbors.

The US vessels carried out maneuvering operations near Tree, Lincoln, Triton and Woody islands in the Paracels, one of the officials said.

Trump’s cancellation of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has put further strain on US-China ties amid a trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

Critics of the operations, known as a “freedom of navigation”, have said that they have little impact on Chinese behavior and are largely symbolic.

The US military has a long-standing position that its operations are carried out throughout the world, including in areas claimed by allies, and that they are separate from political considerations.

Satellite photographs taken on 12 May showed China appeared to have deployed truck-mounted surface-to-air missiles or anti-ship cruise missiles at Woody Island.

Earlier this month, China’s air force landed bombers on disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea as part of a training exercise in the region, triggering concern from Vietnam and the Philippines.

The US military did not directly comment on Sunday’s operation, but said US forces operate in the region on a daily basis.

“We conduct routine and regular Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs), as we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future,” US Pacific fleet said in a statement.

Neither China’s foreign nor defence ministries immediately responded to a request for comment. Pentagon officials have long complained that China has not been candid enough about its rapid military build-up and using East Sea islands to gather intelligence in the region.

In March, a US destroyer carried out a “freedom of navigation” operation close to Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands.

Chinese officials have accused Washington of viewing their country in suspicious, “cold war” terms.

China’s claims in the East Sea, through which about $5tn in shipborne trade passes each year, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. The US has said it would like to see more international participation in freedom-of-navigation operations in the East Sea.

Vietnam to truncate 11-digit mobile phone numbers very soon

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Vietnam plans to shorten 11-digit mobile phone numbers to 10 digits by replacing three-digit carrier prefixes with new two-digit prefixes.

For example, mobile numbers beginning with 166, 122, 199, and 188 will be replaced by those prefixed by either 80, 30, 50, 40, or 70, depending on the carriers. The NDO reports

Mobile numbers currently prefixed by two-digit carrier codes will remain unchanged.

The move, scheduled for September, is part of a wider effort to clean up the disorder in telephone numbering which got underway last year with the rollout of standardised local dialling codes for landline numbers.

The area codes for landline numbers in all provinces and cities are now in the form of 2xx.

The move is part of a wider effort to clean up the disorder in telephone numbering.

Minister of Information and Communications, Truong Minh Tuan told us that, the plan for the mobile phone number prefix change was already a year behind schedule.

He has requested that mobile operators finalise the details of their plans by June 1.

Under the law, subscribers must be notified of any such change 60 days in advance and they can use both the old and new prefixes for a transitional period of 60 days from the date the new codes take effect.

EDAG develops first EV for Vietnam

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The German development service EDAG has received an order from the VinFast company for the complete development of an electric vehicle tailored for the Vietnamese market.

According to a report by electrive.com, The startup owned by the Vietnamese VinGroup is planning to enter the Vietnamese vehicle market with two conventional vehicles and one fully electric city vehicle, before expanding abroad. The EDAG EV is currently in the primary design stage, and a preliminary design sketch has been released.

“We are proud that has chosen to appoint us as the overall engineering part-ner to work on their trendsetting electric vehicle project,” stated Cosimo De Carlo, CEO of the EDAG Group. EDAG’s website also states that their vehicle production and eMobility experience were among the reasons they were chosen as a partner.

VinFast is currently also building their first factory in the coastal city Haiphong in northern Vietnam. They plan to present the first two vehicles at the coming Paris Motor Show in Fall.

By: Chris Randall

Vietnam creates more opportunities for European investors, says PM

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The country has also been encouraging renovation ideas and giving priority to high and environmental-friendly technologies, climate change adaptation, and State-owned enterprise restructuring

Devdiscourse News Desk reports, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Vietnam is working hard to build a constructive and upright government to serve people and businesses, while focusing on completing institutions, improving governance capacity, and bringing more opportunities to all enterprises, including investors from Europe.

Speaking at the “Meet Europe 2018” conference in Hanoi, PM Phuc said Vietnam is striving to rank in ASEAN’s top group and achieve high standards in the business environment, while strictly implementing commitments in intellectual property protection.

The country has also been encouraging renovation ideas and giving priority to high and environmental-friendly technologies, climate change adaptation, and State-owned enterprise restructuring,

He further said that reform measures have been implemented in all 63 cities and provinces where European investors and businesses have been or will be running investment projects.

The Government leader said that European partners are leading foreign investors in Vietnam with a total investment of nearly USD 25 billion, and the country’s biggest provider of non-refundable aid, while two-way trade rose five times in the 2006-2017 period, exceeding 50 billion USD last year.

PM Phuc said that Vietnam and Europe, with supplementary relations, are pinning high hope on stronger and more extensive partnership. The 93-million strong market of Vietnam, with 13 percent of them being middle-class people, has seen increasing purchase power and strong startup movement.

The PM stressed that Vietnam always highly values investment and business operations of more than 2,000 European firms in Vietnam, especially in areas where Vietnam has demand and European firms have advantages such as infrastructure development, seaport, airport, airport, urban transport, energy, electricity, oil and gas, agriculture, tourism, and health.

Miriam Garcia Ferrer, Head of the Economic and Trade Section of the European Union Delegation to Vietnam, said that Vietnam is a leading ASEAN partner and one of the most important markets of the EU, stressing that the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) will contribute to the enhancement of bilateral trade relations.

Foreign funds see profits vanish in market slump

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Volatility on Vietnam’s stock market in the past two months has dragged down the performance of foreign investment funds here.

Việt Nam’s benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange has declined about 18 per cent in the last two months, eating away most of its gains of over 19 per cent in the first quarter of 2018. VNS reports

Since its highest record of 1,204 points on April 9 this year, the VN-Index lost 20 per cent by May 25, closing this week at 963.9 points.

In line with the market downtrend, Pyn Elite Fund, the Finland fund which focused on Vietnamese shares, lost all of its gains since the beginning of this year.

The net asset value (NAV) of Pyn Elite Fund as of May 15 decreased 0.2 per cent against last month, reaching 315.82 euros. Its assets under management were 436 million euros (US$510 million). In April, it also witnessed a monthly decrease of 1.5 per cent.

Investments causing the biggest losses for the fund included mobile retailer Mobile World Group (MWG) with a loss of 11.4 million euros; HCM City Infrastructure Investment JSC (CII), 4 million euros; Tasco JSC (HUT), 3.81 million euros; and Hòa Bình Construction Group JSC (HBC), 3.2 million euros.

Meanwhile, profitable shares were PAN Group (PAN), which earned the fund 10.1 million euros since the beginning of this year, followed by TPBank and Khang Điền House Trading and Investment JSC (KDH), each gaining over six million euros.

According to Pyn Elite Fund, Vietnamese shares are trading at low prices compared to other ASEAN countries, with the average price-to-book (PB) ratio of 1.4 and the price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 17.

The story is much the same at other funds of leading investment management companies such as Dragon Capital and VinaCapital.

Vietnam Enterprise Investment Limited (VEIL), the biggest fund under the management of Dragon Capital, recorded its yearly profit of just 6.94 per cent with NAV of over $1.66 billion as of May 17.

This number was much lower than the 19 per cent growth seen on April 5, which meant the fund lost over 12 per cent of its profit since the start of the year.

VEIL’s investments focused on large-cap stocks such as Military Bank (MBB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Mobile World Group, Vinamilk (VNM), PV Gas (GAS), Hòa Phát Group (HPG) and FPT Corp (FPT), which have all plunged in the recent downtrend.

ACB and MBB, two of the three stocks which made up the highest proportion of the fund’s portfolio, slumped 14.9 per cent and 17.1 per cent, respectively in the past month. MWG decreased only 4 per cent in one month but has lost 21 per cent since the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF) witnessed a monthly decrease of 5.7 per cent by the end of April, reaching more than $1.12 billion. It was a bad result compared with a three-month profit of 11.2 per cent by March-end.

According to VinaCapital, the market downtrend in the past months may stem from profit taking led by institutional investors, after the VN-Index gained 22 per cent in the first quarter and peaked at 1,204 in early April.

“Nevertheless, market fundamentals remain solid with strong earnings growth and long-term economic growth driven by resilient consumer confidence – the current market correction poses an opportunity for selective buying,” the fund wrote in a market commentary this week.

It also noted the possible impact of US-China trade war, general outflow from emerging markets by global investors due to the stronger US dollar and higher long-term rates on the Vietnamese securities market.

How foreign banks perform in Vietnam?

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The number of 100 percent foreign owned banks in Vietnam has increased by twofold in the last two years to nine.

HSBC divested from Techcombank, while Commonwealth Bank transferred the HCMC branch to VIB and BNP Paribas sold its 18.7 percent stake in OCB after one decade of being a shareholder of the bank. Standard Chartered sold all the 8.75 shares of ACB. VietnamNet reports

While many banks withdrew their capital from Vietnam banks, the number of 100 percent foreign owned banks set up in Vietnam has increased recently. In 2016-2017, four more banks were licensed in Vietnam.

There are nine wholly foreign owned banks in Vietnam, HSBC, ANZ, Standard Chartered (UK), Shinhan (South Korea), Hong Leong (Malaysia). Public Bank Berhard (Malaysia), Woori (South Korea, CIMB (Malaysia) and UOB (Singapore).

The total assets of foreign invested banks, including 100 percent foreign owned and joint venture banks, had reached VND954.165 trillion by the end of 2017, while the regulatory capital was VND141.838 trillion and chartered capital VND109.656 trillion.

While Vietnamese banks are struggling to increase their chartered capital so as to meet the requirements on the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) in accordance with Basel II, foreign banks are at ease with the CAR at 29.11 percent, which is three times higher than Vietnamese state-owned banks and 2.5 times higher than private Vietnamese banks.

While Vietnamese banks are struggling to increase their chartered capital so as to meet the requirements on the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) in accordance with Basel II, foreign banks are at ease with the CAR at 29.11 percent, which is three times higher than Vietnamese state-owned banks and 2.5 times higher than private Vietnamese banks.

The latest report by the State Bank of Vietnam showed that, as of the end of the third quarter of 2017, the ROA (return on asset) ratio of foreign-invested banks was 0.74 percent, higher than the 0.46 percent of state-owned banks and 0.5 percent of private banks.

Meanwhile, their ROE (return on equity) was 4.57 percent, lower than the 9.06 percent of state-owned banks and 7.07 percent of private banks.

There is not much information about the performance of foreign banks. HSBC, ANZ and Shinhan Bank release annual finance reports, but these are brief reports with no explanations.

HSBC has had the longest presence in Vietnam with its first office opened in Sai Gon in 1870. It got permission to set up a 100 percent foreign owned bank in 2008.

By the end of 2017, its total assets had reached VND87 trillion, up by 2.4 times after 10 years of establishment, while chartered capital has increased from VND3 trillion to VND7.528 trillion.

HSBC Vietnam reported the pre-tax profits of VND2.2 trillion in 2017, or 24 percent higher than 2016.

ANZ also made a fat profit in 2017 with VND1.335 trillion, a sharp increase of 2.3 times over 2016.

US$1=VND22,000

Việt Nam’s tax system reviewed

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The collection of indirect taxes in Việt Nam is forecast to increase in the future while direct taxes is predicted to account for a smaller proportion, according to a Fair Tax Monitor Index report released by Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR) yesterday.

Associate Professor Nguyễn Đức Thành, VEPR head said the report on tax fairness presents a thorough assessment on the country’s State budget collection and spending.

The report pointed out that direct tax, which includes tax paid by individuals, organisations and property tax, made up less than 35 per cent of tax collection in 2016 compared with 65 per cent of indirect taxes. The indirect taxes include value added tax, export-import tax, special consumption tax and environmental protection tax.

Việt Nam’s percentage of direct tax ranks the second lowest among ASEAN-5 group (Việt Nam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines) and smaller than that of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In contrast, Việt Nam’s indirect taxes rank the second highest in ASEAN-5 group and higher than OECD countries.

Source: Finance Ministry and World Development Indicators

There are fears that low income people will have to pay higher income tax than people who earn more if the trend continues.

The fact that direct taxes account for less and less proportion in the tax system shows that Việt Nam’s collection depends much on consumption taxes, said Associate Professor Vũ Sỹ Cường from Academy of Finance, one of the report’s researchers.

Any proposal of increasing consumption taxes should be considered carefully, he said, warning negative impacts of consumption taxes on the balance between collecting and spending.

According to the report, in 2016, tax collection accounted for nearly 25 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while budget spending over-exceeded collection, making up nearly 29 per cent of GDP.

The research team from VEPR and Oxfam said that Việt Nam is facing difficulties in how to balance State budget collection and spending. Reduced State budget collection from export-import activities and low crude oil price put pressure on State budget.

In 2017, the finance ministry considered increasing value added tax, however, finance experts were worried that this move would increase percentage of indirect taxes and go against tax system fairness.

To cut down on State budget overspending, the report recommended two measures: increasing collection and reducing spending. The Government should tighten regular spending by streamlining its workforce, re-organising its apparatus and cutting spending of organisations.

Public spending fairness has been also reviewed in the report.

Spending on health care sector remains less than on education. Spending on education was reported to account for 18 to 20 per cent of State budget during 2014-16 compared with about 7 per cent for health in 2016.

The report recommended spending on health care should be lifted up combined with health insurance policy.

Spending on agriculture – the sector with the highest number of poor people in Việt Nam – remains very low (only 6 per cent in 2012). Researchers proposed Government construct more roads and irrigation works in rural areas.

Source: VNS

Vietnam proposes beer advertisement ban to curb drinking

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The health ministry wants to clear promotional images of beer from TV and social networks.
Vietnam’s health ministry has proposed an advertisement ban on beer in an attempt to cut consumption in one of the world’s heaviest drinking populations.

The ministry is seeking public opinions for its proposal to impose a ban on beer advertisement, an extension from a current ban on wine advertisement, Tran Thi Trang, deputy head of the ministry’s legal department, said at a meeting on Friday.

Under the proposal, beer and alcoholic beverage companies would be banned from any form of promotions of products with more than 15 percent alcohol. Products with lower alcohol volume would be banned from advertisements in public places, televisions and movies, those which are exposed to children audiences.

“Vietnam has been considered an interesting beer market. But we currently do not have strict regulations to restrict the consumption among children and teenagers, who now have all-time access to beer advertisements,” Trang said.

The ministry also recommended that all beer and wine products not be advertised on social networks, and that alcoholic drinks not allowed to be given as gift to consumers, or used as prize for contests.

The proposal is part of a draft law on preventing adverse affects of alcoholic drinks, which will be reviewed by lawmakers this October. Currently, the advertisement law only prohibits using booze with more than 15 percent alcohol in promotional programs and advertisements. But the ministry said that too much consumption of beer or booze is harmful all the same.

As part of the bill, the ministry has also suggested options aimed to restrict 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 much as 40 percent of traffic accidents in Vietnam are linked to excessive drinking, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), an alarming rate for a country where road crashes kill an average one person every hour.

Source: VNExpress

Huge opportunities for business acquisitions in Vietnam: seminar

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There are huge opportunities across ASEAN for mergers and acquisitions in almost every sector, particularly in Vietnam, though challenges remain like regulatory hassles and how to add value to companies after inking an deal, experts told a seminar on M&A in HCMC, Vietnam on Friday.

According to VNS’ report, M&A activities are increasing across Southeast Asia, capitalising on the investment boom in the emerging markets in the region, Theng Bee Han, president of the Malaysia Business Chamber Vietnam, said.

There were a lot of M&A activities in Vietnam last year, particularly in the real estate sector where transactions amounted to nearly US$1.5 billion, he said.

The deals involved major players from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and mainland China, he added.

“Vietnam, Malaysia and [generally] ASEAN’s wider integration with the global economy offers many new opportunities for M&A.”

Ralf Pilarczyk, head of M&A for ASEAN, Standard Chartered Bank, said last year there were over 4,200 global cross-border M&A transactions valued at over $100 million and they were totally worth $5.1 trillion.

North America and Europe accounted for 76 per cent of the global deals (by value) and the Asia Pacific for 18 per cent, driven by China.

ASEAN accounts for 9 per cent of the world’s population and 2 per cent of global M&A. The bloc saw 116 deals worth $78 billion last year, including four deals in Vietnam valued at $6 billion.

Research by Pilarczyk and Tina Tejwaney, an M&A expert from his bank, found that some of the main drivers for Việt Nam’s M&A deals are its market size with more than 90 million people, strong growth prospects and the Government’s strong efforts to push for State firms’ equitisation.

“Privatisation is an extraordinary programme,” Pilarczyk said.

It provides tremendous opportunities for foreign investors to buy into the Vietnamese economy across various sectors, and Việt Nam would have huge opportunities to develop its capital market and attract foreign investment, he said.

But the country needs to adjust its regulatory framework in the next few years to engage foreign investors better in accessing information and negotiating deals before they invest.

“Bridging ASEAN” was hosted by Standard Chartered Bank in collaboration with the Malaysian Business Chamber Việt Nam and Singapore Business Group.

The seminar attracted more than 100 business executives from Việt Nam and other countries. The bank held a bridging event last May.

E-Invoice Use Rises In Vietnam Ahead Of Mandate

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In Vietnam, eInvoice use is on the rise: The number of firms in the country using eInvoices has skyrocketed from 800 in 2016 to more than 9,000 today. Overall, Vietnamese firms have created more than 600 million eInvoices, VietNamNews reported.

Even so, that number is relatively small compared to the more than a half a million companies in the country. While the country’s General Department of Taxation (GDT) currently allows companies to use either eInvoices or paper invoices, that will soon change: With the exception of small firms, all Vietnamese organizations will have to use eInvoices by 2019. Through the use of eInvoices, the GDT says companies can save time and money while reducing fraud and administrative work. In all, the agency estimated that firms could save about $44 million if they change over from paper invoices to eInvoices.

The news comes as the U.S. government readies for its own eInvoice mandate, meaning the 19 million invoices government agencies pay every year will have to be electronic by the end of fiscal year 2018. At present, about 12 million of those invoices (40 percent) are received in the form of paper.

In a “U.S. Adoption of Electronic Invoicing: Challenges and Opportunities” report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in 2016, government officials noted the role eInvoicing plays in the broader effort to improve the U.S. payments system as outlined in its “Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System” report.

Analysis of the benefits of eInvoicing included in the report points to cost-savings, boosted efficiency and faster payments to suppliers, among other upsides.

“E-Invoicing is an important part of an efficient financial supply chain, optimizing the end-to-end process of B2B transactions, as it links the internal processes of enterprises to payment systems,” the Fed has stated. “As a result, eInvoicing is a vital component of the overall goal of making the end-to-end process (procure-to-pay and order-to-cash) more efficient.”

Australian Foreign Minister to open new bridge in Vietnam

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There are hopes a new bridge over a river in the Mekong Delta will help lift Vietnamese people out of poverty.

Australia contributed $160 million in aid money towards the project, which then prime minister Julia Gillard announced in 2010. 9news.com.au reported

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will travel to Vietnam this weekend to open the Cao Lanh Bridge, in Dong Thap Province alongside Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

“The Cao Lanh Bridge is a visible symbol of the depth of the Australia-Vietnam relationship,” she said.

The bridge is the largest single Australian aid effort in mainland Southeast Asia.

An estimated 170,000 people are expected to use the bridge daily.

She said project will help connect 18 million people with regional markets and drive economic growth.

The Asian Development Bank and Korean government also contributed to the project.

Ms Bishop is also expected to have bilateral meetings with her Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh.

@ AAP

Jury tells Samsung to pay big for copying iPhone design

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A federal court jury on Thursday ordered Samsung to pay Apple $533 million for copying iPhone design features in a patent case dating back seven years.

Jurors tacked on an additional $5 million in damages for a pair of patented functions. The award appeared to be a bit of a victory for Apple, which had argued in court that design was essential to the iPhone.

The case was keenly watched as a precedent for whether design is so important that it could actually be considered the “article of design” even in a product as complex as a smartphone.

“We don’t think it is supported by the evidence,” Samsung attorney John Quinn told US District Court Judge Lucy Koh after the verdict was read in her courtroom in Silicon Valley.

“We have every concern about the determinations about the article of manufacture.”

Quinn declined an offer by the judge to send jurors back for further deliberation, saying Samsung would pursue post-trial motions to address its concerns about the verdict.

Juror Christine Calderon said the panel agreed that one of the design patents — the grid of coloured icons — did represent the whole phone, while the other two at issue in the trial were seen as the display assembly that gave the iPhone its look.

She compared it to the Mona Lisa: “you use the paint, but it is not the article of manufacture.”

“I had to really think about it,” the 26-year-old Calderon, a technical writer, said after Koh dismissed the jury.

“We kind of felt like we ended up at a happy medium.”

Long legal road

The case had been sent back to the district court following a Supreme Court decision to revisit an earlier $400 million damage award.

Apple reasoned in court that design was so integral to the iPhone that it was the “article of manufacture” and worth all the money Samsung made by copying the features.

The lower figure sought by the South Korean consumer electronics titan would have involved treating the design features as components.

The jury had been asked to determine whether design features at issue in the case are worth all profit made from Samsung smartphones that copied them — or whether those features are worth just a fraction because they are components.

Apple argued in court that the iPhone was a “bet-the-company” project at Apple and that design is as much the “article of manufacture” as the device itself.

The three design patents in the case apply to the shape of the iPhone’s black screen with rounded edges and a bezel, and the rows of colorful icons displayed.

Samsung no longer sells the smartphone models at issue in the case.

Two utility patents also involved apply to “bounce-back” and “tap-to-zoom” functions.

An original trial finding that Samsung violated Apple patents preceded a lengthy appellate dueling over whether design features such as rounded edges are worth all the money made from a phone.

Technology vs Style

Samsung challenged the legal precedent that requires the forfeiture of all profits from a product, even if only a single design patent has been infringed.

The US Supreme Court in 2016 overturned the penalty imposed on the South Korean consumer electronics giant.

Justices ruled that Samsung should not be required to forfeit the entire profits from its smartphones for infringement on design components, sending the case back to a lower court.

“Today’s decision flies in the face of a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in favour of Samsung on the scope of design patent damages,” the South Korean company said in response to an AFP inquiry.

“We will consider all options to obtain an outcome that does not hinder creativity and fair competition for all companies and consumers.”

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

The key question of the value of design patents rallied Samsung supporters in the tech sector, and Apple backers in the creative and design communities.

Samsung won the backing of major Silicon Valley and other IT sector giants, including Google, Facebook, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, claiming a strict ruling on design infringement could lead to a surge in litigation.

Apple was supported by big names in fashion and manufacturing. Design professionals, researchers and academics, citing precedents like Coca-Cola’s iconic soda bottle.

The case is one element of a $548 million penalty — knocked down from an original $1 billion jury award — Samsung was ordered to pay for copying iPhone patents.

Trung Nguyen brand is threatened from domestic competition

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Dragged down by the three-year divorce proceedings between the main owners, Vietnam’s famous coffee brand Trung Nguyen not only seems farther away from its dream of dominating the global coffee market but is also at risk of falling from grace on the domestic market.

Rising competitors and more strict competition

Along with Vinacafé and Nestlé, the Vietnamese coffee market welcomed a range of new brands, including Highlands, The Coffee House, and Starbucks.

zing.vn stated that currently the number of Trung Nguyen coffee shops is 60, less than half the number of Highlands stores (150). Furthermore, new coffee brand The Coffee House raised its stores to 80 and has started exporting coffee bought from Cau Dat Farm.

Additionally, the domestic market also saw the entry of a brand that was previously entirely alien to coffee—NutiFood. In 2017, NutiFood announced pouring VND1 trillion ($44 million) into growing coffee plants in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak. This firm is also a strategic shareholder of Phuoc An Coffee JSC, a coffee company in Dak Lak that has an export turnover of $12-15 million per year.

Tran Thanh Hai, chairman of NutiFood’s Board of Management, said that the firm will boost processing and exporting organic coffee, targeting the Japanese and the US markets.

Previously, three years after entering Vietnam, in early 2016, Starbucks officially started offering its Vietnamese “DaLat Blend” in 56 markets. These high-quality coffee beans are sourced from Dalat (Central Highlands province of Lam Dong).

Regarding domestic instant coffee processing segment, Trung Nguyen proves to be more inferior than its long-term competitors Vinacafé and Nestlé.

Since merging with Masan one year ago, Vinacafé’s output has increased by 30 per cent and the firm’s products have been exported to Russia and East European countries. A report released by market research company Nielsen stated that in 2015 Vinacafé led the domestic instant coffee market by holding 41 per cent, equaling the cumulative market shares of Nescafé and Trung Nguyen.

Masan currently owns 68.5 per cent of Vinacafé’s shares and offered to purchase Vinacafé entirely for VND1.7 trillion ($74.9 million).

According to giaithuong.org.vn, a website specialised in national brands, as of November 2017, Vinacafé made up 50 per cent of the domestic instant coffee market.

According to data released by Euromonitor—a global market research company—Vinacafé and Nescafé in 2015 made up 37.5 and 38.3 per cent of the domestic instant coffee market, while Trung Nguyen only took up 4.7 per cent.

Three-year divorce endangers Trung Nguyen
Despite having been a Vietnamese coffee empire, Trung Nguyen is hugely affected by the overlong divorce dispute between chairman Dang Le Nguyen Vu and his wife Le Hoang Diep Thao.

After Thao’s complaint sent to the Binh Duong People’s Court in 2015, Trung Nguyen’s G7 instant coffee products were suddenly pulled from the market due to “equipment maintenance.”

Afterwards, on December 12, 2015, Trung Nguyen announced resuming selling G7 instant coffee products on the market.

Three years after the divorce proceedings started, Trung Nguyen Group has been reporting weak growth.

According to dantri.com.vn, its net sales in 2015 and 2016 were VND3.846 trillion ($169 million) and VND3.813 trillion ($167.9 million), respectively, and its profit was VND809 billion ($35.6 million) and VND768 billion ($33.8 million).

Previously, in 2014, Trung Nguyen Group’s revenue and before-tax profit reached VND4 trillion ($176 million) and VND1.3 trillion ($57.2 million). In fact, this came from the 2012-2014 profits of its main subsidiaries (Trung Nguyen JSC specialised inexporting coffee to aboard markets and Trung Nguyen IC specialised in instant coffee processing ) transferred to the parent company Trung Nguyen Group.

With the slowdown in growth and the fierce competition from old nemeses and newcomers, Trung Nguyen Group has its work cut out for it to balance the damage wrought by the divorce dispute.

Source: VIR

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