Vietnam Insider

Knight riders to the rescue: Vietnam vigilantes bust crooks

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Vietnam’s “street knight” Nguyen Thanh Hai rides as he patrols on a street in Thu Dau Mot city, Vietnam May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Kham

Vietnam’s “street knights”, hurtling through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, are not your typical medieval warriors.

Their stallions are scooters. They wear rubber flip-flops, not metal boots. And their shining armor is a tracksuit jacket billowing like a cape.

The band of bike-riding unpaid vigilantes chases down petty criminals in Vietnam’s largest city and the neighboring province of Binh Duong, where residents grumble about rising crime and ineffectual policing.

“Whenever there’s a call I show up,” said one of them, Nguyen Thanh Hai, who gets 50 to 100 calls for help every day about robberies, drugs, and even kidnappings. “Even at midnight, when I can barely keep my eyes open.”

Hai, 47, keeps a notebook recording details of the roughly 4,000 criminals he has helped catch and turn over to police during 21 years as a part-time crime fighter, though he gets no monetary reward.

“You don’t think about money when you do this,” he added.

He is among a group of about 30 men in Ho Chi Minh City, and 1,500 in the province, who have modified their bikes with police-like sirens and upgraded engines that can reach speeds of more than 170 kph (106 mph).

Videos of their high-speed chases have gone viral on social media. One shows thieves weaving between trucks and cars along a twisting, suburban highway, with the group in hot pursuit.

“My little son gets so excited when he sees me on YouTube,” said Pham Tan Thanh, a 31-year-old Binh Duong taxi driver who becomes a street knight in his spare time.

“He always asks me when I’m going to go out again.”

The men don’t see themselves as heroes, they said, but they do appreciate the occasional gesture of thanks, with Southeast Asia’s famously pungent-smelling durian fruit being a favorite.

DANGEROUS WORK

Crime is low in Communist-ruled Vietnam, but petty theft and similar minor crimes are a growing problem in urban areas like Ho Chi Minh City, home to 8.6 million people.

Last year, the former Saigon ranked as the third least-safe city worldwide, after Caracas and Karachi, on the Safe Cities Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit, which rates personal security in 60 cities.

Some crime victims, hoping for a faster response, turn to the vigilantes before the police.

“Police have so many jobs, we just can’t blame them,” said one of them, Nguyen Viet Sin, whose father is a policeman. “If everyone shares the effort, society will be much better.”

Police in Ho Chi Minh City are underfunded and lacked training, the U.S. government said in a report on crime and safety last year.

The city’s police department did not immediately comment when contacted by Reuters, but some vigilantes say they work closely with officers.

Barred by law from carrying weapons, many have received police training on legal issues and use martial arts for self-defense, since their work can be dangerous.

Last month, two were stabbed to death in Ho Chi Minh City and three badly injured in clashes with thieves.

Sin described a fight with a suspected thief who cut himself and rubbed his blood into Sin’s wound. After learning that the suspect had HIV, Sin worried he could have been infected.

“I wanted to quit, but after I recovered and could still see clips of robberies on social media, I hit the road again,” he said. “My passion didn’t die.”

“IN MY BLOOD”

After the two deaths, worried families begged some of the vigilantes to stop.

“My fiancée asked me to quit, and I agreed,” said Mai Truong Xuan Huy, a 44-year-old Vietnamese-American who works as a security guard in California.

Vietnamese-American Mai Truong Xuan Huy looks through a binocular while he patrols with his “street knights” team on a street in Thu Dau Mot city, Vietnam May 24, 2018. Picture taken May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Kham

Huy, who left Vietnam in the 1990s, returns to spend his summers fighting crime with the street knights.

“I feel so proud every time I help someone, but it’s also very tiring,” he said at a Binh Duong coffee shop that is an unofficial group headquarters.

“I’ve been peppersprayed and had my head smashed,” he said. “It’s very dangerous and the thieves have more weapons now. It’s no fun.”

His ruminations on leaving the group were interrupted by two people asking for help. Huy and his friends jumped on their bikes.

“I can’t help it,” he said as he sped off. “It’s in my blood.”

(The story is refiled to clarify paragraph 20 to show deaths were last month.)

Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Clarence Fernandez

Source: Reuters

Samsung Pay Expands Partnership With Banks: Customers Win

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The increasing expansion of bank partnership networks is helping Samsung Pay create more positive transformations in Viet Nam’s mobile payment market.

One solution across domestic banks and international financial partners

Recently, Samsung has announced three brand new features on Samsung Pay: availability of the service on Gear S3, ATM cash withdrawals, and a Loyalty Card. By gently tapping the Samsung Gear S3 on POS terminals, users can confirm all purchases for movie tickets, coffee, and other goods, within only 15 seconds.

ATM card holders of Shinhan Bank can also take advantage of the new features by withdrawing cash conveniently through Samsung Pay at ATM stations without the need for a physical card.

They can also free themselves from the abundance of membership cards, royalty cards, and promotional vouchers with Samsung Pay’s capability to add and manage cards.

There are currently 15 banks and three card-switching organisations that have joined Samsung Pay’s mobile payment network, accounting for 75 per cent of the domestic payment card market.

Samsung Pay was able to attract the banks primarily because of its global Samsung brand, but what really sold it to the banks was the innovation that its comprehensive digital payment solution brought to the strongly developing market for digital payments in Viet Nam.

Viet Nam has the potential to push the development of mobile payment solutions, with its population density being among the top three in Southeast Asia, and the high incidence of cellphone ownership in the country at 72 per cent.

Owning multiple cards poses a major inconvenience and security risk, while e-wallet payments are inefficient as users have to deposit cash in advance and go through some complicated procedures to withdraw money from their e- wallets.

Samsung Pay’s utmost and long-term ambition
Samsung Pay is a payment application on Samsung mobile devices, operating based on the financial switching and digital payment infrastructure of the National Payment Corporation of Viet Nam (NAPAS) as well as Visa or MasterCard to connect to the banking system to provide facilities for simple and secure payments almost anywhere.

In some countries such as Canada, France, Belgium, Japan, and Korea, the cashless transaction rate is up to 90 per cent.

In some regional countries, such as China and India, using e-wallets for daily bill payments has become very common. Mastercard hopes to enable mobile payments in stores and make mobile payment with smartphones more accessible in Viet Nam.

“The convergence of traditional commerce and digital commerce is no longer a matter of the future, it is actually happening today,” Arn Vogels, Country Director and Chief Representative of Indochina Mastercard, said.

“Samsung’s mobile devices and wearables are blurring these boundaries as they play an integral role in every aspect of our lives. This year, Samsung Pay will continue expanding its services on international cards such as Visa and Mastercard, including those issued by Vietinbank and Sacombank.”

Samsung is expanding its bank partnership to bring more benefits to its users: simple payments wherever possible, minimising the risk of cash transactions, thus allowing their users to enjoy a modern lifestyle.

Since September 29, 2017, after more than six months of operations, Samsung Pay counts nearly 400,000 registered users and has recorded 500,000 transactions. The total value of transactions made via Samsung Pay in the past 6 months has reached nearly VND 350 billion.

Samsung Pay is committed to reduce cash payments to below 10 per cent in 2020, through its strategic partnership with other banks in Việt Nam.

“We expect Samsung Pay to continue providing mobile experiences that go beyond the capabilities of a mobile phone, becoming a leading mobile payment service,” Mr. Nguyen Quang Hien Huy, Vice President for Mobile Business of Samsung Vina, said. “We will give our best to continue developing and improving Samsung Pay to provide more benefits to Samsung mobile users.”

Source: VNS

Industry bitter about Vietnam tax on sweetened drinks

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Fake and low-quality beverages would thrive, firms say, ignoring health concerns.
A Finance Ministry proposal to slap a 10 percent special consumption tax on sweetened drinks would hurt small and medium businesses, critics say.

Business representatives and some experts say the beverage industry is already taxed heavily, and the latest addition could prove to the last straw.

The tax proposal, first announced last year and expected to take effect in 2019, aims to promote healthier habits by discouraging the consumption of sweetened drinks. The Ministry has cited reports from the World Health Organization, saying overconsumption of sweetened drinks lead to obesity and that a fourth of Vietnam’s population are already obese or overweight adults.

“The tax will help regulate the consumption of sweetened beverages, and it’s also an international norm,” the proposal says.

However, the Vietnam Association of Liquor, Beer and Beverage (VBA) has protested the move, saying the tax could hurt small and medium businesses by promoting circulation of fake products.

“The tax proposal would lead to higher production costs, allowing fake and low-quality products to thrive,” it said in a statement.

Many industry insiders also say they are already paying no less than 10 different types of taxes.

“If this tax proposal passes, we won’t be able to survive,” a Thursday report by the Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted an unnamed vice director of a beverage firm in the southeast province of Binh Duong as saying.

Nguyen Van Viet, president of VBA, suggested an incremental imposition of the tax in order to reduce the burden on businesses.

The industry stand has been backed by several ministries, who rejected the Finance Ministry’s rationale that sweetened drinks contain an unhealthy amount of sugar, warranting a special consumption tax.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said in a statement that imposing a special consumption tax on sweetened drinks because they contain sugar was not a convincing enough reason.

It said the Finance Ministry needs to give clearer explanations for its proposal.

The Trade Ministry statement echoed the argument made last October by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) that a special tax should only be imposed after adequate studies have been made on the drinks’ impacts on consumer health and if the tax could help reduce the risks significantly.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is also against the proposal, which it says could adversely affect the beverage industry and its large workforce.

In Vietnam, special consumption taxes are levied on items and services considered unhealthy or luxurious, like tobacco, liquor and cars.

Many Southeast Asian countries have already imposed taxes on sugary drinks, according to the Finance Ministry. The current rate is 20-25 percent in Thailand, 5-10 percent in Laos and 10 percent in Cambodia.

Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia are considering a similar tax.

Source: Vnexpress

Viettel launches Mytel in Myanmar with heavy promotions

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Viettel Group will introduce international roaming fees for Myanmar when it launches its Mytel mobile phone network in the country on June 9, 2018.

Accordingly, Viettel will charge calling, texting, and data for its international roaming customers in Myanmar at the same rate as in Vietnam.

Notably, calls for Viettel subscribers travelling in Myanmar to other Viettel numbers in Vietnam or Mytel numbers will cost VND2,000 (88 cent) per minute (one seventh of other networks’ rates), texting will be VND500 per message (other networks charge VND5,000-7,000 on average), and data will cost VND200 per MB (95 per cent less than in the past).

Besides, Viettel subscribers travelling to Myanmar will not be charged to receive phone calls.

To mark the grand opening of Mytel in Myanmar, along with Viettel, other members of the Viettel Group, namely Unitel (Laos) and Metfone (Cambodia), will also offer international roaming promotions for Myanmar.

In addition, Mytel will offer the same promotion for international roaming in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

With the new international roaming policy, Viettel becomes the first mobile service provider in the world to charge no international roaming fees in several countries in the region.

Doan Dai Phong, director of Viettel’s International Business Centre, said, “Myanmar is one of the first roaming markets for Vietnam. In the spirit of ‘Roam like home,’ meaning international roaming fees are as cheap as domestic ones, we expect all Viettel subscribers coming to Myanmar to experience our ‘flat world’ in the telecom and mobile services sector.”

Mytel is the brand name of Telecom International Myanmar—a joint venture between Viettel Global, a Viettel subsidiary, and its two partners in Myanmar, Star High Public Company and Myanmar National Telecom Holding Public (MNTH).

Viettel will offer the same promotion for international roaming in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Mytel has the total investment capital of $1.5 billion, accounting for up to 66 per cent of the Vietnamese-registered investment capital in Myanmar.

With the project, Vietnam jumped from the 10th to 7th among 49 countries and territories investing in Myanmar, and is the second largest ASEAN investor in the country (as of the end of May 2018).

Mytel is the 4th mobile phone network in Myanmar, following state-owned MPT, which has a 42 per cent market share, Telenor from Norway (35 per cent), and Ooredoo from Qatar (23 per cent).

Myanmar has been Viettel’s foreign market with the highest economic growth rate, at 7 per cent so far, and the largest population (53 million). Myanmar is Viettel’s strategic international market in 2018. It also has high growth in the telecommunications and IT sectors.

From having the lowest mobile phone usage rate in the world (higher only than North Korea), Myanmar has experienced a stunning growth in per capita mobile phone SIM usage from 10 per cent to 90 per cent in only three years of opening its economy.

The total number of subscribers has risen from 600,000 to over 16 million.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Myanmar could increase its economy’s scale four-fold to $200 billion by 2030.

The IMF also said the finance, banking, energy, telecommunications, and IT sectors offer the most opportunities for foreign investors in terms of both market potential and human resources.

Vietnam pricing attracts tourists

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Vietnam clocked 1,161,114 tourist arrivals in May, up 19.4% over the same period last year.

The official estimate for five months was released by Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Tuesday.

Arrivals for five months, January to May, reached 6,708,428 up 27.6% over the same period last year, mainly on the back of competitive pricing and improved air connectivity.

Asia remains the top supplier with 5,099,239 arrivals for the five months, up 33.2%.

China was the top supplier with 2,153,302 visits up 37%. The second highest supplier, South Korea, delivered 1,441,756 arrivals, up 62.1%.

Japan remains a robust supply market for Vietnam with 344,264 visitors, up 6.6% and Taiwan with 283,550 visits increased 14.5% during the five-month period.

Arrivals from Singapore improved 5.4% to reach 112,818 visits, attributed to more convenient direct flights particularly on low-cost airlines. Arrivals from Malaysia at 220,468 improved 12.5%, again due to an increase in flights.

However, pick-up in Asian market was also attributed to Vietnam’s competitive pricing this year. In the highly lucrative events business market it is out performing Thailand price-wise by around 30%. This has resulted in a significant increase in corporate meetings and incentives through superior bidding against Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Macau.

Outside of Asia, the US outbound travel market supplied 31,665 visits up 15.8%, while visits from Russia clocked 300,747 up 9.2%. There is likely to be decline in travel from Russia during the World Cup weeks.

Source: Ttrweekly

High Profitability And High Volatility In The Vietnamese Stock Market

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Vietnam Equity FVMR Snapshot
that FVMR stands for Fundamentals, Valuation, Momentum, and Risk. Those are the factors that we look at to get an understanding of the market. This Vietnam Equity FVMR Snapshot is a bottom-up aggregate of 74 Vietnamese companies and all forecasted figures are consensus estimates. seekingalpha.com reported

Fundamentals: High profitability in Vietnam
The return on equity (ROE) in Vietnam is expected at 16.2% in 2018CE* and 18.6% in 2019CE*. This is well above the global average at 14.1% and 14.3% for 2018CE* and 2019CE* respectively. The two consumer sectors have the highest ROE in Vietnam at about 25-26% in 2018CE*, while the Energy sector has the lowest at about 10.8%.

Looking at the dividend payout ratio (DPR), Vietnam is below the Global average. Consumer Staples pay out the largest share of profit as dividend. The lowest DPR you find is in the Real Estate and Materials sectors.

Valuation: Vietnam trades above the World
Vietnam trades above the World on price-to-earnings (PE) and price-to-book (PB) for 2018CE*. The Materials sector trades at the lowest PE and PB. If we look at the PEG ratio, though, Materials looks a bit expensive at a 2018CE* PEG ratio of at 2.6. Still, the sector offers the best 2018CE* ROE/PB at 8.8%.

Real Estate trades at the cheapest 2018CE* PEG ratio of 0.6, followed by Consumer Discretionary at 0.9. Health Care and Energy have the highest PEG ratios, and hence appear most expensive on the measure.

As mentioned, Materials offers the most ROE for the PB you pay, while Consumer Staples, Energy, and Real Estate give you the least.

Momentum: EPS growth for Vietnam is slightly below the global average
The 2018CE* EPS growth for Vietnam is slightly below the global average. Real Estate and two consumer sectors have the highest 2018CE* EPS growth expectations. Info Tech and Industrials are expected to see falling earnings.

Central bank approves VPBank’s capital charter hike

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The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has approved the plan of Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) to increase its current charter capital.

VNS reported, the hike from VND15.7 trillion (US$690 million) to VND25.2 trillion was approved at a VPBank shareholder meeting held on March 19, 2018.

The bank’s management board will take responsibility for the capital increase pursuant to current laws and regulations. VPBank was also required to submit a revised application of their charter capital to the central bank.

The document takes effect within 12 months from the date of signing. However, the document will lose its effectivity if the increase in charter capital is not completed in the allowable time.

In the first quarter of the year, VPBank’s total consolidated assets reached over VND284 trillion, representing a 24 per cent year-on-year rise. The bank’s deposit mobilisation and issued valuable papers stood at VND209.9 trillion, up 13 per cent from the same period last year.

Meanwhile, lending rose 24 per cent from the corresponding period last year to VNĐ185.6 trillion.

Vietnam factory output picks up as exports boom

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Vietnamese manufacturing growth picked up again in May amid record export growth, with an industry gauge suggesting the fastest rise in new business since March last year.

According to a report by Financial Times, the latest Nikkei-Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for Vietnam rose to 53.9 in May, from 52.7 in April.

The May reading was the sharpest increase since April 2017 and also marked the thirtieth-straight month the gauge has been above the 50-point mark separating expansion from contraction.

Andrew Harker, principal economist at IHS Markit, which compiles the survey, said:

“A record rise in new export orders is the key highlight … helping to drive growth across the sector. Output price inflation continued to ease as companies often favoured holding down prices to help secure sales rather than passing on sharp rises in input costs.”

By Edward White

Japan, Vietnam leaders meet to seek stronger partnership

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TOKYO (Kyodo) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang met on Thursday to discuss stronger bilateral ties through stepped-up economic and security cooperation and human exchanges.

Japan and Vietnam aim to bolster their “extensive strategic” partnership, with this year marking the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Strengthening cooperation with Vietnam is also seen important as Japan has been promoting its “free and open Indo-Pacific strategy,” a policy that the Abe administration has been pursuing in an apparent bid to counter China’s maritime influence in the region.

Through the meeting between Abe and Quang in Tokyo, Japan also hopes to strengthen economic ties with Vietnam, a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in improving connectivity through infrastructure development, Japanese officials said.

The two countries are planning to promote human and cultural exchanges, with Vietnamese people comprising one of the largest foreign populations in Japan as of 2017.

Quang, who assumed the current post in 2016, is on a visit to Japan as a state guest.

On Wednesday, Emperor Akihito welcomed Quang in what may be his last state banquet before he abdicates next April.

Source: Nikkei Asia

Vietnam manufacturing improves continuously in May

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TOKYO – The Nikkei Vietnam Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, rose to 53.9 in May from 52.7 in April. A reading above 50 signals an improvement, while one below 50 points to a contraction in manufacturing activity.

New orders rose at a sharper rate than in April, helped by a record expansion in new export business. Growth of output and employment also picked up. Business conditions have now strengthened on a monthly basis throughout the past two and a half years.

Andrew Harker, Associate Director at IHS Markit which compiles the survey said “A record rise in new export orders is the key highlight from the latest PMI, helping to drive growth across the sector.” Harker also pointed out output price inflation continued to ease as companies often favored holding down prices to help secure sales rather than passing on sharp rises in input costs.