Vietnam Insider - Page 1409 of 1523

North Korea ready to talk ‘at any time’ with Donald Trump

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North Korea has said it is still willing to talk “at any time in any form” after US President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled his meeting with Kim Jong-un.

Vice-foreign minister Kim Kye-gwan said Mr Trump’s decision was “extremely regrettable”.

President Trump blamed the North’s “open hostility” for the cancellation.

The summit would have been the first time a sitting US president had met a North Korean leader.

The details of the meeting in Singapore on 12 June were unclear. But talks would have focused on ways of denuclearising the Korean peninsula and reducing tensions.

Just hours before Mr Trump’s announcement, North Korea said it carried out its promise to dismantle tunnels at its only nuclear test site.

Mr Trump announced the cancellation in the form of a letter personally addressed to Mr Kim.

A senior administration official in the US later gave further details, saying North Korea had shown “a profound lack of good faith”.

There were a series of “broken promises” from Pyongyang, the official told reporters, including when the White House sent the deputy chief of staff to Singapore to meet North Korean diplomats ahead of the summit.

“The North Koreans didn’t show up. They simply stood us up.”

The official also said President Trump had “dictated every word” of his letter to Kim Jong-un.

What did Mr Trump’s letter say?

Mr Trump said he had been “very much looking forward” to meeting Mr Kim.

“Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have the long-planned meeting,” Mr Trump said in a letter to Mr Kim.

“You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used,” he added.

But he called the meeting a “missed opportunity”, saying “someday, I look very much forward to meeting you”.

In a later statement at the White House, Mr Trump said the step was a “tremendous setback for North Korea and the world”, adding the US military was “ready if necessary” to respond to any “reckless” act from North Korea.

What was he referring to?

Mr Trump was apparently responding to statements from a senior North Korean diplomat attacking his administration and casting doubt over the meeting.

Choe Son-hui had said the suggestions from US Vice-President Mike Pence that North Korea “may end like Libya” was “stupid”.

Ms Choe, who has been involved in several diplomatic interactions with the US over the past decade, said the North would not “beg” for dialogue and warned of a “nuclear showdown” if diplomacy failed.

A White House official quoted by Reuters described the comments about Mr Pence as the “last straw”. They stressed, however, there was a “backdoor that’s open still”.

References to Libya have angered North Korea. There, former leader Colonel Gaddafi gave up his nascent nuclear programme only for him to be killed by Western-backed rebels a few years later.

North Korea says that, unlike Libya, it is a fully fledged nuclear state. It is insistent it will not engage in any peace process that jeopardises its leadership or its survival as a state.

What’s the reaction been?

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he was “very perplexed” and that it was “very regrettable” that the summit was not going ahead.

He was not informed of the decision before Mr Trump’s announcement, reports said.

It was South Korean officials who first informed the US earlier this year that Mr Kim was prepared to discuss potential nuclear disarmament.

In April, the leaders of both Koreas had a historic meeting at the border,promising to end hostilities and work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the US and North Korea should not give up, saying “nerves of steel” were required.

In the US, Republican Senator Tom Cotton praised President Trump for “seeing through Kim Jong-un’s fraud”. But Democratic Senator Brian Schatz said the move was what happened “when amateurs are combined with warmongers”.

Source: BBC

Hanoi prepares for potential catastrophes caused by Chinese nuclear plants

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A street in Hanoi is seriously flooded due to heavy rain in late 2008. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Hanoi authorities have launched preparations to mitigate the consequences of hypothetical radioactive leakage from Chinese nuclear plants, as well as other potential disasters such as dam failure, explosions, and urban railway accidents.

The municipal People’s Committee stated that disaster could strike the city if problems occur at any of three nuclear power plants in southeast China, including Fangchenggang in Guangxi, Changjiang in Hainan Province, and Yangjiang in Guangdong Province.

All are located within 500 kilometers of the Vietnamese capital.

In such a scenario, Hanoi and other northern Vietnam provinces would be severely impacted by the resulting air and water contamination.

The city’s administration has tasked the Department of Science and Technology, in coordination with relevant agencies, with establishing detailed scenarios of these disasters and preparing measures to prevent and minimize their consequences.

The request was submitted as part of a recently approved plan on envisaging, controlling, and mitigating the risk of large scale disaster in the Vietnamese capital.

According to experts, if certain dams broke, water levels in the Red River exceed 11.5 meters and cause serious flooding throughout the region, putting million of lives at risk.

In 1971, continuous downpours caused the Red River to reach 14.3 meters, resulting in the failure of three dams. Some 100,000 people lost their lives and over 2.7 million citizens suffered heavy financial damage in the disaster.

Extreme rainfall also inundated many areas of Hanoi in 2008, causing VND3 trillion (US$132 million) in damages.

The Hanoi People’s Committee also identified risks of fire, explosion, and collapse at degraded apartment buildings in the city.

Regarding the city’s urban railway system, a serious error could easily result in a high death toll.

Potential disasters may also occur at places and events with large crowds.

Efforts will be exerted to improve forecast ability and capacity of local search and rescue units.

By Duy Khang, Source: Tuoi Tre News

Vietnam active on sidelines of World Health Assembly in Geneva

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Deputy Health Minister Le Quang Cuong and a Vietnamese Health Ministry delegation had working sessions with foreign partners on the sidelines of the 71st World Health Assembly held in Geneva, Switzerland from May 21-26.

During a working session with the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Republic of Korea, both sides agreed to complete bilateral health care cooperation documents scheduled for signing during the upcoming visit by the RoK Minister of Health and Welfare.

The RoK side also pledged to share experience in granting vocational licenses to Vietnamese medical officials.

In another working session, Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Global Tuberculosis Programme Tereza Kasaeva lauded Vietnam’s achievements in tuberculosis prevention.

She wished Vietnam would share its experience with countries hit by the disease and attend the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending Tuberculosis between now and 2030, scheduled for this September in New York.

The Deputy Health Minister also attended a ministerial meeting on ending malaria in the Greater Mekong Sub-region initiated by China and Sri Lanka. Ministers adopted a statement calling for actions to eliminate malaria in the region between now and 2030.

Director of the Health Ministry’s International Cooperation Department Tran Thi Giang Huong met with representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), discussing the IAEA’s support to Vietnam from 2020-2021, including in human resources training, early cancer diagnosis and radiotherapies.

The IAEA and WHO working delegations will arrive in Vietnam in the near future to build a cooperation programme on cancer prevention in the country.

Director of the US’s Resolve to Save Lives Initiative Tom Frieden unveiled a plan to work with Vietnamese partners to build a project on fighting high blood pressure in several Vietnamese cities and provinces.

The initiative’s delegation plans to arrive in Vietnam this July. The project has been successfully piloted in China, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

The Vietnamese Health Ministry delegation met their Thai counterparts to discuss Vietnam’s plan to host the 10th Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health Conference slated for this November.

On the sidelines of the World Health Assembly, Vietnam co-sponsored the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Sweden’s initiative to hold an event on antibiotic resistance, during which Huong shared Vietnam’s efforts in fighting antibiotic resistance.

Director of the National Lung Hospital Nguyen Viet Nhung joined an executive board of a sideline event on looking to end tuberculosis to achieve all-population health care coverage initiated by South Africa and Russia.

The Vietnamese delegation made active contributions to the World Health Assembly’s agenda, proving the country’s responsibility and heightened role in the most important forum on global health care, raising developing countries’ voice in building and planning global health care policies.

Source: VNA

Manpower export: benefits, risks

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Vietnam exports laborers to help youth get a good job and to improve the professional qualifications of Vietnamese workers.

Nguyen Van Trung, born in 1996, has been working as metal stamping worker in Japan for two years. He works six days per week at a factory. On weekends, he sells laptops online to earn extra money.

After two years of working, he has remitted over VND200 million to his parents.

Trung, like millions of exported workers, try to earn as much money as they can during their stay overseas to earn a living and help family members.

Nguyen Duc Thanh, director of VEPR (Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research) said as they have to pay a lot to be able to go abroad, workers have to make every effort to make money to cover expenses and pay debts.

A survey found that workers have to pay about $5,300 to work in Japan, which is lower than Taiwan and South Korea, but still a big amount for the poor. Before going to Japan, each worker had to borrow $4,660, or VND100 million.

“They spend all their time working hard to earn as much money as possible. They don’t have time to practice foreign language skills, professional skills or learn something,” Thanh explained.

When asked what he learned during his two-year stay in Japan, Trung said “endurance, patience and tolerance”. And he gave a negative answer when asked about his working skills and qualifications.

Besides money, foreign language skills and discipline, Vietnamese export workers can obtain qualifications through practice. However, as analysts say, the qualifications and working skills are low.

VnExpress cited a report showing that 50 percent of 500,000 Vietnamese working in foreign countries are untrained workers with low skills. The remaining workers have qualifications, but most of them have only short-term three-month training.

Labor force wasted

A survey of 112 workers in Ha Nam conducted by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and VEPR found that 61 percent of Vietnamese choose jobs which have no relation to their jobs they once took in Japan during an internship period.

A welding worker, for example, after a period of working in Japan, would have enough capital to open a shop to trade or buy a car to carry passengers in Vietnam.

Trung said he plans to open a business after returning to Vietnam, and his friends do as well. They do not plan to apply for jobs at Japanese-invested factories in Vietnam.

By Thanh Lich

Source: VietNamNet

P2P lending feared to trigger black credit

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Peer to Peer Lending (P2P), under which lenders and borrowers connect via apps, has been developing rapidly in Vietnam.

Nguyen Thi Thinh, 20, a petty merchant in HCMC, said she borrowed money this way recently.

“I needed tens of millions of dong and I decided to use P2P lending service because of its convenience: no collateral is required, while you can get disbursement several hours after you contact lenders,” she said.

Asked how Thinh could contact the lender, she showed the URLs of tens of websites, namely tima.vn, doctordong.vn, huydong.com, canvaytien.info, SHA and Mobivi.

After registering to borrow money on Tima.vn, a reporter, who acted as a borrower, was told to send some necessary documents via Zalo or Facebook. He was informed that he would have to pay the interest rate of 18 percent per annum to the company, not including the consultancy fee.

The reporter, when contacting vaymuon.vn, was told that he would have to pay the interest rate of 1.5 percent per month, plus the fee of VND2,000 a day for every VND1 million worth of loan, and the interest rate and fee may change at different moments.

The borrower was also warned that if he cannot pay debts, the lenders will be able to take necessary measures to collect debts – making public about the debt, selling the debt to third parties or suing before the civil court.

Under current laws, only credit institutions have the right to mobilize and lend capital. This means that P2P is still outlawed. The State Bank has not licensed any company in the field.

Nguyen Tri Hieu, a banking expert, said P2P companies are not credit institutions, so they do not have to be put under the control of the State Bank of Vietnam.

However, they carry out activities of mobilizing and lending capital, as currency brokers, and must be put under professional control by the State Bank of Vietnam.

The businesses which act as intermediaries connecting lenders and borrowers argue that they don’t keep money, don’t trade money, and don’t get involved in the disbursement process.

They just need to have business registration in accordance with the Enterprise Law and follow the regulations on financing and credit.

However, an analyst warned that the risks in this field are very high as it is not under the state’s control.

Local newspapers reported that Le Thi Minh in Tan Phu district, HCMC, fell into the trap of a usury ring. She borrowed VND18 million at the interest rate of 2.99 percent per month and though she paid debts for seven months, she still owes VND14 million.

US$1=VND22,000

HCM City seeks to persuade HIV patients to persist with treatment

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A campaign called Undetectable = Untransmittable was launched on Wednesday in HCM City to persuade people living with HIV to take antiretrovirals as prescribed by doctors to reduce the virus load in their body to undetectable levels so that they do not transmit it to their sexual partners.

The campaign seeks to improve public awareness of early HIV tests and ARV therapy, and reduce discrimination against people with HIV.
Proper treatment will help them live longer and have children, according to health experts.

According to Dr Tieu Thi Thu Van, head of the HCM City HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Centre, though ARV therapy does not cure HIV/AIDS, it helps people with HIV reach and maintain an undetectable viral load, which makes the risk of passing the virus negligible.
So health officials should counsel people with HIV and ensure they take treatment, she said.

A young person gets an HIV test at a medical camp in HCM City. Photo: Gia Loc

The campaign ending on September 30 is being carried out by the HCM City HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Centre in co-operation with the Vietnam-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Viet Nam Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.

It is receiving technical assistance from the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam, a collaboration between the Harvard Medical School and two of its affiliated teaching hospitals, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Source: VNS

Retailers keen to expand supply of organic foods

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To meet the growing demand for organic foods, retailers are scouring for producers and also planning to invest in organic agriculture themselves.

Vinamit Joint Stock Company has recently begun to sell a range of organic farm produce through Big C supermarkets.

Nguyễn Lâm Viên, general director of Vinamit, said this is part of their co-operation to promote sales of organic produce.

The company supplies 15 different vegetables, five to six fruit varieties and organic rice to six Big C supermarkets in HCM City now, but in future plans to distribute to all Big C stores in the country, he said.

It also plans to supply temperate vegetables and fruits and organic pork and chicken in future, he said.

Viên said the company also supplies some organic vegetables to Co.opmart under the Co.op Organic brand.

Vinamit sells a total of 300-500kg of vegetables a day. If demand increases, it plans to increase output accordingly, he said.

A Big C spokesperson said the supermarket also sells organic vegetables and fruits supplied by other distributors and the number of suppliers in the market is rising steeply.

“Big C would to like to tie up with producers who have international organic certificates.”

Last year, Saigon Co.op began distributing four groups of organic products meeting international standards – rice, vegetables, basa fish fillet and black tiger shrimp – under its Co.op Organic brand name in HCM City.

The company has a 300ha organic farm in Cà Mau Province whose produce is certified by the USDA, JAS of Japan and the EU.

Phạm Trung Kiên, deputy general director of Saigon Co.op, said there is great demand for organic products.

The entry of more players would make the market more competitive, and consumers would benefit, he said.

Saigon Co.op is looking for more suppliers, including overseas, to diversify supply, he said.

Đoàn Diệp Bình, head of PR and events at LOTTE Mart Vietnam, said: “Demand for organic products is expected to increase because demand for safe and high-quality food products is on the rise.

“Lotte Mart stores are selling many organic products, including OrgaGro organic rice. We plan to expand the list of organic items.”

A recent survey by the High Quality Vietnamese Product Business Association found that food safety continues to be a major concern for Vietnamese consumers and they are willing to pay for products that are good for their health.

Vũ Kim Hạnh, chairwoman of the association, said organic foods have become very popular in Việt Nam. A study of organic producers estimated the current market capacity at VNĐ3.5 trillion (US$153.5 million) a year.

Source: VietNamNews

Pros and cons of living in Vietnam as an expat

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I’ve been living in Vietnam a while now, relatively speaking. Longer than I expected, in fact. When I tell anybody new to town how long I’ve been here for, they always raise their eyebrows and give me a suspicious look, just as I used to do when I first arrived.

I never planned to still be here (over 6 years and counting…), though I have some friends who’ve stayed much longer. The first year here felt very long indeed. I did what most single foreign men do when they arrive in Vietnam. I became a sort of ‘playboy’. I thought it was cool then, but now I’m ashamed of that behavior, although it was a difficult habit to break.

Vietnamese women can be very beautiful but are not perhaps accustomed to the ‘ways of the west’, so it can be easy to take advantage of this situation. However, once I saw some other foreign men, who were typically quite charmless and unattractive, doing the same thing, I immediately stopped and threw myself into the gym instead.

But I wasn’t completely saved from that selfish lifestyle until I met my girlfriend. We made each other really laugh a lot, which is quite unusual I think with the culture barrier. Luckily her English was quite good too, because my Vietnamese skills are so horrible. I learn languages quite easily, and have never struggled anywhere else. But Vietnamese is so utterly dependent on accurate tone, it drove me mad (I often say beware of anybody fluent in Vietnamese, they must be either perverts or spies!). I even started to suspect, in my expat paranoia, that locals were pretending to misunderstand my words just to annoy me!

Expats often complain about Vietnam and the way it’s different from their home countries. But it obviously makes life easier to just accept any differences and remember the many positives (no country is perfect anyway). You only need one type of wardrobe in Vietnam, there is much less crime, it is cheaper (unless you shop at Vincom Center or something), scenic, and the cities have a frantic yet laid back atmosphere that I feel is unique to Asia, if not the world (and I’ve travelled most of it).

Zooming around on a motorbike can be dangerous but I’ve seen more accidents in England than here and it gives a real sense of freedom. Ho Chi Minh City in particular has a ‘small town’ feel (even though it’s huge) which I love. It’s like a friendly village but with millions of people you can bump into. My friend once likened hanging out here to being in prison (but in a good way), in that “nothing ever happens, but anything can happen!” I want to.

Being an expat, it’s easier to make a good life for yourself in Vietnam. I have almost too many friends, a nice apartment, a good job (I’m a ‘travelling teacher’, rather than a ‘teaching traveller’), lots of hobbies and everything feels quite easy. However, one thing I probably lack, and it’s a big thing, is a strong local connection. Even after all this time, I find the cultural divide quite exhausting to overcome, at least compared to other countries I’ve stayed in. I have very few Vietnamese friends and I am now living the lifestyle I used to frown upon, that of the ‘expat bubble’. Can I just blame my battle with the language for this?

But as far as bubbles go, it’s a great existence, and I have Vietnam to thank for that.
To be honest, one of the only things I truly dislike about life here is some of the expats! That might appear somewhat ironic, but the neo-colonial attitude of some foreigners here angers me, especially as many of them were clearly not ‘cool’ in any way before they came out here. Now suddenly they can be seen strutting about, taking advantage of local hospitality and often looking down on a culture that they don’t even try to understand.

Perhaps it is a feature of expat life to become more selfish or disconnected from ‘reality’, as most foreigners living here are away from family and other responsibilities or restrictions of home. It can take some effort to ‘give a little back’ and not just always be ‘taking’ from Vietnamese society, but in my own personal experience anything I have tried has been well worth it. Skyping my critical mother once a week has also helped keep my feet on the ground a little more!

Vietnam deserves the respect of every visitor and we shouldn’t forget that we are guests in this beautiful place. This country has overcome the most incredible hardship after the apocalyptic American war. To think how far it has come in just a short time, with such a friendly population (especially in the countryside), well, it makes me wonder if some other nations could have recovered so well by comparison.

By Pete Jones | Source: Tuoitrenews

HCM City boosts development of supporting industry

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HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City is enacting policies to aid businesses in the supporting industry by encouraging investment, networking between firms and banks, and creating special zones.

The municipal People’s Committee has approved 15 investment projects related to the mechanical, plastic and food industries, with total investment of 938 billion VND (41.3 million USD), 581 billion VND of which would be supported by the government in the form of paid interest on loans, according to the municipal Department of Industry and Trade.

A city multi-disciplinary team has also appraised nine projects, at a total of 943 billion VND (41.5 million USD). Two of them have been approved by the city.

The HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (HEPZA) is working with related authorities to form supporting-industry zones in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Zone and Le Minh Xuan 3 Industrial Zone.

Nguyen Phuong Dong, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, said that to provide space for businesses to operate, HEPZA was also building factories at Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone and Linh Trung 1 Export Processing Zone.

Factories in the former are already being rented, while those in the latter are expected to start construction within this month.

In addition, the Department of Industry and Trade is working with the State Bank of Vietnam – HCM City Branch to connect banks with businesses and encourage credit unions and financial institutions to offer credit packages to businesses in the supporting industry.

Also, in accordance with Circular 29/2018/TT-BTC issued by the Ministry of Finance to manage funding for supporting industry development, nation-wide cities and provinces including HCM City can use state funds to provide financial aid to companies and organisations so they can organise exhibitions and conferences on attracting investment.

Accordingly, the companies and organisations in the city would be given up to 70 percent of the total costs for such activities, or up to 12 million VND per participant, as well as help in promotion and brand registration, up to 50 million VND per brand.

Also, according to the circular, the costs for sending business delegations to events in other countries will also be covered up to 70 million VND per participant, depending on the country.

In addition, the costs for appraisal, counselling and certification for businesses in the supporting industry would be fully covered by the State Budget.

All of these efforts are part of HCM City’s plan to develop its supporting industry. The city targets meeting 45 percent of national demand for manufactured inputs by 2020 and 65 percent by 2025.

The supporting industry has not grown as quickly as others, affecting the city’s economic development as a whole.-VNA

Source: VietnamPlus

Vietnamese firms lack brand strategy: survey

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Vietnamese businesses lack a proper strategy to build brands, a survey by British brand consultant Mibrand has found.

According to a report by VNS, an online survey last month of 200 small and medium-sized firms in Ha Noi and HCM City in many sectors like IT, finance and banking, retail, insurance, healthcare, and dining services found most of them building their brands by themselves but without having the tools for it.

Among the biggest problems Vietnamese firms face when building brands are the lack of an instruction toolkit and standard methods to assess outcomes, Phung Thai Duong of Mibrand said.

Some companies do hire a professional agency or consultancy to help with the branding, but face challenges like high fees, the outside experts not having a thorough understanding of the company’s situation, and inability to evaluate the outcomes since they are not provided the tools for it, he said.

“Businesses should only hire an agency for branding once they have scaled up. For newly established businesses and start-ups, it is not a good choice.”

Nearly 90 per cent of the firms in the survey said they were in need of a branding strategy but developing it was not an easy task.

The reasons include not all members of the management understanding the significance of branding and the marketing team’s lack of practical experience in developing a long-term plan for branding, making it hard to persuade the management to spend money on marketing activities.

An executive from Golden Path Academics Viet Nam, which operates in the education sector, said when the company was established in 2011 its marketing and communication activities were done “quite simply” without any strategies making it hard to find customers.

It had also lacked expert branding strategists, the executive said.

Lai Tien Manh, director of Mibrand, said to have an effective long-term branding plan businesses need to position and reposition their brands, acquire branding experts, and constantly improve branding behaviours based on assessing and measuring the effectiveness of communication and marketing activities.

He said the last task can now be done with the help of Branding 4.0 Toolkit and Brand Beat Score developed by his company.

“These tools offer a solution to companies for building and managing brands. They also help companies address challenges related to communications such as helping them develop ideas for long-term communications strategies.”

Companies should develop a branding strategy that meets the needs of their target consumers and business activities and also helps improve the marketing team’s capacity, he added.

Vietnam to grant casino license to Laguna Lăng Cô

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The Laguna Lăng Cô integrated resort in central Vietnam is expected to have a casino by 2022, after being awarded the first casino license to be issued by the Vietnamese government in 10 years.

At the recent Vietnam-Singapore Business Forum 2018 in Singapore presided by the Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the license was presented by chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Cao to executive chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings Ho Kwon Ping. TTG Asia reported

This license issuance kicks off the second phase of development at the Banyan Tree-operated resort. Said Ho: “Many hotel investors and development funds have been awaiting the casino license and the selection of a casino operator before finalizing their investment into (the property’s second phase).”

The five-year-old property is undergoing an expansion from 2018 to 2022, expected to see investment capital increase from US$875 million to US$2 billion.

Laguna Lăng Cô’s first phase of development, with an investment value of US$285 million, comprises both Banyan Tree and Angsana hotels, a 18-hole championship golf course designed by Nick Faldo, luxury private villas and residences, convention facilities, recreational activities and beachfront land for six more hotels, part of a 280ha project.

Int’l news channel France 24 expands presence in Việt Nam

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International news channel France 24 has strengthened its presence in Việt Nam, after gaining new distribution agreements with five operators in Việt Nam.

Thanks to these agreements with VTVCab, Viettel, HTV-TMS, Clip TV and K+, the channel has expanded the broadcast of France 24 in English across the country considerably, reaching an additional 2.2 million households.

Since November 2016 the channel has been available through FPT Telecom and the VNPT Media Corporation. The channel is now available in 3.75 million households in Việt Nam, representing some 27 per cent of Vietnamese households equipped with a television set.

To celebrate its expansion, the channel will broadcast a special programme about Viet Nam worldwide today. At 11.45am, on the exclusive Focus programme, a five-minute report entitled Vietnam Becoming a Major Player in Asian Football will be presented.

Following the news bulletins the channel will show two reports about the country: The Vietnamese E-commerce Boom, and Réhahn Croquevielle, Vietnam Through the Lens. The latter is about a French photographer living in Việt Nam, who opened the “Precious Heritage Art Gallery” in Hội An, showcasing his photos of the country’s 54 ethnicities.

Speaking at a press conference on May 23 in Hà Nội about France 24’s expansion, Chairwoman and CEO of France Médias Monde, Marie-Christine Saragosse, said: “With a presence in 183 countries on five continents, and more than 62 million viewers, we hope the special Vietnamese programme will introduce more about Việt Nam to those who do not know much about your country.”

Also attending the event, director of France 24, Marc Saikali, said that the channel will focus on producing more programmes to attract Vietnamese viewers.

“We will also produce more reports and increase the broadcasting time of programmes about Việt Nam. We will definitely enhance the presence of our reporters in Việt Nam as well,” he said.

From its newsroom in Paris, France 24 gives a different perspective on global affairs all over the world. With 35 nationalities including Vietnamese working in the newsroom and 160 correspondent bureaus all over the world, the expression of diversity, confrontation of viewpoints and debate are central to the channel’s programming.

Alongside the broadcast of FranSce 24 in English, the channel plans to broadcast its French programmes in Việt Nam in the near future.

Source: VNS

Made-in-Vietnam woodwork conquering international premium markets

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Vietnamese woodwork is making a mark worldwide, from furniture in five-star resorts to first class flights.

With high quality and reasonable price, made-in-Vietnam woodwork has made its presence felt in luxury interior design projects worldwide.

Last year, a team of 70 workers from Vietnam of design and construction company AA Corp were sent to the Caribbean to construct the interior of the luxury Park Hyatt St. Kitts resort. The $16 million project included components on interior design, millwork and loose furniture.

Dubai based airline Emirates, the largest in the Middle East, also used Vietnamese-made woodwork for the interior of their first class cabins.

“The U.S., Japan, Dubai, Singapore, Myanmar and Laos all have premium constructions with signature material from Vietnam,” said Nguyen Quoc Khanh, chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA).

Premium hotel and resort corporations in the world such as Starwood, Accor, IHG, Marriott, Hilton and Fairmont all want to select Vietnamese businesses to design and construct the interior of their buildings, Khanh said, adding that these companies like made-in-Vietnam wood products because of their high quality and reasonable prices.

With world class craftsmanship, Vietnamese wood businesses can now offer complete five-star woodwork instead of just selling individual products, said Nguyen Chanh Phuong, CEO of Danh Moc Limited Company, which designs kitchens.

Approaching the high-end segment of the market is what local businesses have been aiming for years, Phuong said, adding that with improved customer service and advertising, Vietnam can penetrate even further into the premium market.

Vietnamese wood companies also need to thrive to achieve better product value instead of running after revenue goals and export targets, said Tran Viet Tien, CEO of Lavanto Home Décor, which manufactures a variety of home products.

Businesses also need to invest more in automation, human resources and design to reach new heights, Tien said.

Vietnam is currently world’s top five exporter of wood, behind China, Germany, Italy and Poland. Last year, Vietnam exported $8 billion worth of wood and forest products and the country aims to reach a $9 billion target this year.

Source: VNexpress

Long fall of Vietnam’s once iconic milk brand

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Four months after returning to trade on the stock market, once famous milk brand Hanoimilk once again faces the risk of compulsory delisting for being late with its audited financial reports.

According to the Hanoi Stock Exchange’s document sent to Hanoi Milk JSC (Hanoimilk, code: HNM) on May 14, the company has been delaying submitting its audited financial reports during the past three years (2015-2017). Last July, the trading of the company shares was suspended for similar reasons.

The document also stated that Hanoimilk may be delisted from the stock exchange in accordance with the government’s Decree No.58/2012/ND-CP on detailed regulations and guidelines for the implementation and amending some articles of the Law on Securities.

Talking about the risk of compulsory delisting, Hanoimilk’s representative said: “We are working with the Hanoi Stock Exchange to resolve this issue.”

After this information was published, Hanoimilk’s stock fell sharply. As of May 23, 2018, the company’s stock was at VND2,700.

Hanoimilk used to be one of Vietnam’s leading milk brands with the capacity of 40 million litres of milk per year. Newswire vnexpress.vn stated that according to a non-official report, the firm once made up 28 per cent of the pasteurised milk market for children and 9 per cent of the domestic milk market.

After focusing on the IZZI pasteurised yogurt brand, Hanoimilk even planned to diversify its products, including powdered milk, condensed milk, and fruit juice, to compete with other domestic and foreign milk enterprises. In addition, the company wanted to utilise the plan’s success to enter a joint venture, franchise, and lease the brand.

At its annual shareholders’ meeting two years ago, Hanoimilk still had the ambition to maintain its position as one of the top three milk enterprises in Vietnam and a leading nutritional product manufacturer for children.

However, after more than 10 years of being listed on the stock exchange, Hanoimilk has produced the opposite results by commonly reporting falling profits due to bad sales.

Hanoimilk’s annual shareholders’ meeting in 2018 will be held on June 30. Falling sales and issues related to the Hanoi Stock Exchange may be the main content of the meeting.

Regarding its bad sales, the representative also told that Hanoimilk is overcoming this difficulty.

Newswire vnexpress.vn quoted Hanoimilk’s leaders as saying that negative growth was a result of external factors such as the fierce competition between milk companies. In addition, its limited financial potential has affected marketing and promotion activities, which in turn curbed revenue.

Founded in 2001 and officially coming into operation in 2003, Hanoimilk JSC used to be one of Vietnam’s leading dairy enterprises with branded dairy products IZZI, Yotuti, and Hanoimilk 100 per cent fresh milk.

Source: VIR

Close quarters: Vietnam’s downtown dwellers cling to tiny plots

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Pham Quoc Cong walks two kilometres to use the bathroom because his 2.2 meters-squared house isn’t big enough to have one.

But, he says, it’s a price worth paying to be able to live on a prized plot in downtown Ho Chi Minh City where he can readily find work.

He lives with six relatives in a closet-sized space bursting with clothing, toys, a fridge, a bunk bed, a rice cooker, papers, groceries, toilet paper and other household items.

That leaves little room for sleeping so he spends most nights outdoors on a cardboard-lined lounge chair, which can be tricky in bad weather.

“It’s really hard during the rainy season to find a dry place. If I can’t, I just sleep standing up the whole night,” said the 49-year-old manual labourer who has lived in the one-room home since 1975.

The ‘micro-house’ dwellings are dotted throughout Vietnam’s bustling southern hub, occupied by families clinging to tiny plots of land in a city developing at breakneck pace.

Tucked away in winding alleys, nestled under new condo developments or sandwiched between street food stalls and shops, they are easily missed by the unattentive passerby.

But Cong says his home in the vibrant District 3 neighbourhood could sell for as much as $22,000 thanks to rising land prices.

Even so, like many others living in micro-houses, he says he wouldn’t swap his prime location for a few extra metres of space.

“We’re used to this area. If we move elsewhere we can’t do business,” said Cong, whose sisters and niece make a living as vendors in the city centre.

‘Rather die than move’

Many of the mini-homes sprung up as larger housing plots that were whittled down by new, wider roads and other developments in the city.

Some may have started out on rice paddies during the period of French rule and ended up as squatter land, said Mel Schenck, an American who is writing a book about modernist architecture in Ho Chi Minh City.

There is no data on how many micro-houses exist today, and Schenck says they may eventually disappear from the rapidly transforming city.

“There’s constant change going on, and I think in the long term that’s a good thing, so if some of these disappear then that’s what happens,” he told AFP, while acknowledging their “picturesque value”.

Land disputes are routine in the city, with downtown dwellers accusing city officials of underpaying for plots that are then sold on to developers for hefty sums.

That worries Nguyen Van Truong, who lives with five relatives in his 6.7-square-metre plot underneath a luxury highrise condo.

The 62-year-old supports his family doing odd jobs in the area but doesn’t earn enough to buy a larger house in a more affordable part of town. He lives in fear that the government could force him out.

“I don’t think we’d get that much compensation because the house is too small. We don’t know where to go,” he said, hanging his clothes outside the small space packed with belongings.

“If given the choice… to move elsewhere or remain in this tiny house, I’ll choose to stay. I’d rather die than be forced to leave this spot.”

Source: Asiaone