Two men were arrested on Monday by HCM City police in a stabbing incident on Sunday evening which killed two men who were part of a team of volunteer “knights” who protect local residents. Three other men were injured.
Nguyen Tan Tai, 24, from District 12, and Nguyen Hoang Chau Phu, 24, from Hoc Mon District were arrested by HCM City police on Monday, the city Police Department announced at a press conference yesterday.
Nguyen Tan Tai, 24, from District 12. – VNA/VNS Photo
Police said the suspects were taken to the police station and admitted to attacking the men with their knives.
A camera that recorded the incident showed Tai stabbing five of the so-called “street knights” within 13 seconds at the District 3 location.
On Sunday night, Phu and Tai were attempting to steal a Honda SH scooter on Cach Mang Thang 8 Street in District 3 when they were detected by a team of seven “street knights”.
After being besieged by the team, the suspects took out knives and aggressively fought back.
Two members of the volunteer team, Nguyen Hoang Nam, a 29-year-old truck driver, and Nguyen Van Thoi, a 42-year-old motorbike taxi driver, died immediately after being stabbed.
Tran Van Hoang, 47, who founded the Tan Binh District Knights, the volunteer robber-hunter group, had captured more than 500 thieves over a 20-year period; Nguyen Duc Huy, 22, and Dinh Phu Quy, 22, are still in intensive care at a hospital in HCM City.
The secretary of the city’s Party Committee, Nguyen Thien Nhan, and a delegation of officials visited the injured volunteers at the hospital on Monday.
After the incident, the Government Office sent an official letter from Deputy Prime Minister Trương Hoa Binh instructing the police to arrest the three men involved in the incident and give strict punishment.
Major General Phan Anh Minh, deputy director of the HCM City Police Department, said the HCM City People’s Committee would pay all expenditures for funerals and hospital fees for the deceased “street knights” and would take care of their relatives, especially the elderly and children under 18 years old.
“To honour their sacrifice, HCM City Police are completing procedures to give the title of martyr to two of the deceased street knights,” he added.
If a Harley Davidson is said to throb to the rhythm of the human heartbeat, then the guttural barking of a classic Russian Ural motorbike is probably what a coronary feels like.
The analogy came to mind as I rattled through the clogged arteries of Hanoi’s Old Quarter in the sidecar of a 50-year-old Iron Curtain motorbike.
Perhaps it’s something to do with the shape of Vietnam — a sinuous, serpentine country, snaking 1,000 miles down the eastern seaboard of Indochina — that makes imaginative transportation such a fascination in the country.
I’d started my journey in an infinitely more leisurely style — with a seaplane flight to mystical Halong Bay and a few days exploring that intriguing archipelago in a Vietnamese junk.
Now I was back in Hanoi and quickly falling in love with the bustling Old Town.
Guided jeep tours visit the tangled alleys and lakeside roads of Old Hanoi. Photo: Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Local guide Cuong Phung — who’d led the likes of Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman on motorbike tours of Vietnam — had spent the morning showing me his enchanting city from the 360-degree vantage point of an open-top American military Jeep.
Now he was revving his old Ural motorbike down towards Hanoi’s railway station (still signposted Ga Hà Nội from the French) with my kitbag stuffed between my knees in the well of the sidecar.
I had more than 1,000 miles to travel from the traditional northern capital down to the colorful metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City and had been looking forward to the first leg of a 14-hour rail trip down to Hoi An on the legendary Reunification Express.
It’s one of the world’s most evocative rail journeys, but accommodation is basic and notorious shared washrooms tend to dissuade all but the most dedicated rail fans from making this trip.
I spent a night swaying in the upper bunk and was pleased when the rising sun brought with it a view of the gleaming waves of the South China Sea and the promise of an invigorating surf session at Danang’s China Beach.
‘That’s not a boat, it’s a basket’ Danang was once a major American base and a “rest and recuperation” center for frontline GIs, including a handful of Californians who pioneered surfing in this area.
Although the waves are far from Golden State quality, the chance to ride a few cruising China Beach breakers was irresistible.
Basket-like trungs are said to have been designed to circument a French tax on boats. Photo: Mark Eveleigh, CNN
“Charlie don’t surf!” yells Robert Duvall in Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic movie “Apocalypse Now.”
But in fact, Vietnamese fishermen have been surfing these waves since long before it was ever called China Beach.
And, what’s more, they surf them in simple circular boats known as “trung,” which, with neither bow nor stern, might be the world’s most basic rowing boats.
Battling out to sea, crouched in the belly of one of these boats, I soon realized that steering a trung takes a level of skill that surpasses the mere handling of a Californian Malibu board.
Often considered an ancient version of the medieval coracle, the Vietnamese trung was actually a trick to circumvent a French tax on boats: “That’s not a boat,” they’d say, “it’s a basket!”
As befits a country with more than 2,000 miles of coastline, Vietnam has an endless variety of boats. By sunset I was drifting slowly down the Thu Bon River in the ancient city of Hoi An (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) amid an entire fleet of eagle-eyed sampans.
The people of Hoi An believe that their boats avoid collision primarily because of the eyes painted on their bows, but the shrewd skill of the cigar-puffing old woman who manned the oars certainly played a large part in maneuvering safely along the busy ribbon of gilded water as darkness fell on the ancient town.
With its creaking cycle-trishaws and alleyways strung with Chinese lanterns, Hoi An could be the most picturesque spot in all of Indochina.
From the riviera to the rice basket
Travel in Vietnam is often about powerful contrasts, and the next morning I hauled my kitbag out of a trishaw and onto a long-distance sleeper bus where I slid into one of a series of molded cubbyholes that allowed each passenger to lie stretched almost horizontal.
We gazed out of the low-level windows or dozed, slotted in line like hibernating astronauts, through much of the 10-hour journey to Cam Ranh Bay.
Moped taxis are a popular transport option in Vietnam. Photo: Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Cam Ranh is an up-and-coming luxury resort area that sees itself as the Vietnamese Riviera. A great stretch of gleaming white sand is fast becoming the setting for some of the country’s top luxury hotels.
The Anam is one of the finest, with sprawling lawns leading down to the crystal sands and suites decorated with original paintings by local artists. The area itself has little to offer culturally, but the idyllic serenity of The Anam offered a perfect spell of R&R as I prepared myself for the sensory overload of Ho Chi Minh City.
Although I’m now in the south, my Vietnamese overland trip is far from over. The great watery sprawl of the Mekong Delta lures me onward with dreams of peaceful afternoons cycling along riverside paths and more waterborne adventure among the 15,666 square miles of Vietnamese down-country bayous that are known as the rice-basket of Vietnam.
It’s only when I check out of the pretty little Ma Maison Boutique Hotel (656/52 Cach Mang Thang 8 Street, Ward 11, District 3; (84-8) 3846 0263) in old Ho Chi Minh City to head for the rendezvous for my Mekong visit that I discover what is surely the most charmingly named of all Vietnam’s countless forms of transport.
Apparently, the moped taxis that had already shuttled me through half a dozen cities down the length of the country are known here as Honda Om.
“Om” means “hug” in Vietnamese and these vehicles are named for the apparent affection of a passenger clinging to the back of the rider as he darts through the swarming traffic with the daring of a Mig pilot.
This might be one of Asia’s most diverse countries, but it seemed to me that the humble “Honda hug” could be a unifying symbol of modern Vietnam.
Asia experts Backyard Travel offer 9-day overland tours from US$1,105 per person, including Mekong Delta and Halong Bay, and taking in the main sights between Saigon and Hanoi.
If a Harley Davidson is said to throb to the rhythm of the human heartbeat, then the guttural barking of a classic Russian Ural motorbike is probably what a coronary feels like.
The analogy came to mind as I rattled through the clogged arteries of Hanoi’s Old Quarter in the sidecar of a 50-year-old Iron Curtain motorbike.
Perhaps it’s something to do with the shape of Vietnam — a sinuous, serpentine country, snaking 1,000 miles down the eastern seaboard of Indochina — that makes imaginative transportation such a fascination in the country.
I’d started my journey in an infinitely more leisurely style — with a seaplane flight to mystical Halong Bay and a few days exploring that intriguing archipelago in a Vietnamese junk.
Now I was back in Hanoi and quickly falling in love with the bustling Old Town.
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Local guide Cuong Phung — who’d led the likes of Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman on motorbike tours of Vietnam — had spent the morning showing me his enchanting city from the 360-degree vantage point of an open-top American military Jeep.
Now he was revving his old Ural motorbike down towards Hanoi’s railway station (still signposted Ga Hà Nội from the French) with my kitbag stuffed between my knees in the well of the sidecar.
I had more than 1,000 miles to travel from the traditional northern capital down to the colorful metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City and had been looking forward to the first leg of a 14-hour rail trip down to Hoi An on the legendary Reunification Express.
It’s one of the world’s most evocative rail journeys, but accommodation is basic and notorious shared washrooms tend to dissuade all but the most dedicated rail fans from making this trip.
I spent a night swaying in the upper bunk and was pleased when the rising sun brought with it a view of the gleaming waves of the South China Sea and the promise of an invigorating surf session at Danang’s China Beach.
‘That’s not a boat, it’s a basket’
Danang was once a major American base and a “rest and recuperation” center for frontline GIs, including a handful of Californians who pioneered surfing in this area.
Although the waves are far from Golden State quality, the chance to ride a few cruising China Beach breakers was irresistible.
“Charlie don’t surf!” yells Robert Duvall in Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic movie “Apocalypse Now.”
But in fact, Vietnamese fishermen have been surfing these waves since long before it was ever called China Beach.
And, what’s more, they surf them in simple circular boats known as “trung,” which, with neither bow nor stern, might be the world’s most basic rowing boats.
Battling out to sea, crouched in the belly of one of these boats, I soon realized that steering a trung takes a level of skill that surpasses the mere handling of a Californian Malibu board.
Often considered an ancient version of the medieval coracle, the Vietnamese trung was actually a trick to circumvent a French tax on boats: “That’s not a boat,” they’d say, “it’s a basket!”
As befits a country with more than 2,000 miles of coastline, Vietnam has an endless variety of boats. By sunset I was drifting slowly down the Thu Bon River in the ancient city of Hoi An (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) amid an entire fleet of eagle-eyed sampans.
The people of Hoi An believe that their boats avoid collision primarily because of the eyes painted on their bows, but the shrewd skill of the cigar-puffing old woman who manned the oars certainly played a large part in maneuvering safely along the busy ribbon of gilded water as darkness fell on the ancient town.
With its creaking cycle-trishaws and alleyways strung with Chinese lanterns, Hoi An could be the most picturesque spot in all of Indochina.
From the riviera to the rice basket
Travel in Vietnam is often about powerful contrasts, and the next morning I hauled my kitbag out of a trishaw and onto a long-distance sleeper bus where I slid into one of a series of molded cubbyholes that allowed each passenger to lie stretched almost horizontal.
We gazed out of the low-level windows or dozed, slotted in line like hibernating astronauts, through much of the 10-hour journey to Cam Ranh Bay.
Moped taxis are a popular transport option in Vietnam. Mark Eveleigh, CNN
Cam Ranh is an up-and-coming luxury resort area that sees itself as the Vietnamese Riviera. A great stretch of gleaming white sand is fast becoming the setting for some of the country’s top luxury hotels.
The Anam is one of the finest, with sprawling lawns leading down to the crystal sands and suites decorated with original paintings by local artists. The area itself has little to offer culturally, but the idyllic serenity of The Anam offered a perfect spell of R&R as I prepared myself for the sensory overload of Ho Chi Minh City.
Although I’m now in the south, my Vietnamese overland trip is far from over. The great watery sprawl of the Mekong Delta lures me onward with dreams of peaceful afternoons cycling along riverside paths and more waterborne adventure among the 15,666 square miles of Vietnamese down-country bayous that are known as the rice-basket of Vietnam.
It’s only when I check out of the pretty little Ma Maison Boutique Hotel (656/52 Cach Mang Thang 8 Street, Ward 11, District 3; (84-8) 3846 0263) in old Ho Chi Minh City to head for the rendezvous for my Mekong visit that I discover what is surely the most charmingly named of all Vietnam’s countless forms of transport.
Apparently, the moped taxis that had already shuttled me through half a dozen cities down the length of the country are known here as Honda Om.
“Om” means “hug” in Vietnamese and these vehicles are named for the apparent affection of a passenger clinging to the back of the rider as he darts through the swarming traffic with the daring of a Mig pilot.
This might be one of Asia’s most diverse countries, but it seemed to me that the humble “Honda hug” could be a unifying symbol of modern Vietnam.
Asia experts Backyard Travel offer 9-day overland tours from US$1,105 per person, including Mekong Delta and Halong Bay, and taking in the main sights between Saigon and Hanoi.
By Mark Eveleigh, This article appeared in the CNN
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are central to Vietnam’s economic growth, providing significant contributions to job creation, export promotion and poverty reduction.
However, despite accounting for some 98 percent of the country’s enterprises, 40 percent of GDP and 50 percent of employment, the performance of SMEs is still constrained by many factors, both internal and external, such as shortage of qualified human resources and limited access to technology, as well as administrative hurdles. An article on lexology.com mentioned
Despite the obstacles, the number of SMEs continues to grow, adding around 100,000 in 2016, thanks to government reforms. For this trend to continue, and to meet the goal of one million enterprises by 2020, changes are needed to smooth the entry of firms to the market and help startups to grow. Here are three steps to ensure the sustainable development of smaller firms in Vietnam:
Improve access to credit
Among the detrimental external factors, lack of access to credit is considered the primary obstacle preventing the growth of SMEs. Up until now, banks providing commercial loans have allocated their resources to larger firms rather than smaller enterprises, citing higher default risks, lack of financial transparency and lack of assets as factors in the decision.
Complex banking procedures and a shortage of appropriate loan packages for SMEs compound the problem.
According to the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business 2018’ report, Vietnam ranked 68 out of 190 economies – jumping 14 places against the previous year. The country ranked 29 out of 190 economies in terms of their access to credit. In terms of both score and ranking, Vietnam measured well above the average for OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) members and East Asia-Pacific countries.
The World Bank attributed the country’s position to its legal framework regarding the expansion of collateral assets and the completion of the credit information system from 2008 to 2017. Specifically, the Civil Law 2015, which came into effect on January 1, 2017, has expanded the scope of assets to be used as mortgages, which helps improve access to credit and puts businesses and investors in a better position.
Despite the positive figures, a large number of enterprises still find it cumbersome to access bank credit and are often denied.
Therefore, one of the most important measures to support SMEs is to improve their access to loans. Diversified capital raising channels and a credit market for SMEs, with appropriate lending packages based on demand, could help to decrease the dependency on banks. In return, small firms should work on improving transparency to reduce risks.
Link up to global supply chains
As of 2017, only 21 percent of Vietnamese SMEs were participating in global supply chains, much lower than neighbours like Thailand and Malaysia, sitting at 30 percent and 46 percent, respectively. Integrating further with global supply chains in terms of procurement, operations and sales will allow firms to manage competition, reduce risks and cut costs.
Slow progress in dismantling state-owned enterprises, sluggish productivity and an uncompetitive private sector result in a shortage of private medium-sized enterprises. This ‘middle segment’ needs to link up with well-managed supply chains to dominate markets, gain trust from customers and expand business strategies. Vietnamese firms have struggled to join big markets and are left out of crucial supply chains.
This situation can change. As a member of APEC, ASEAN and the WTO, Vietnam holds a critical position politically and geographically. Vietnam’s proximity to southern China, home to many production networks, also gives it a competitive edge. Taking advantage of these trade opportunities, as well as coming digital and e-commerce trends, would help to streamline the country’s supply chains and build a more dynamic private sector.
Cut red tape
A survey released last year by the Vietnam Private Sector Forum showed that 44 percent of enterprises said they had missed market opportunities because of legal barriers and restrictions.
In an effort to simplify and remove barriers to businesses, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has moved to cut business and investment red tape in half. Such a move is designed to make administrative procedures easier for the private sector, and especially small and medium enterprises. The country’s business environment has been gradually changing as the government moves to develop the private sector.
This is a step in the right direction, however, the results are neither meeting the expectations of enterprises, nor government targets. Vietnam’s administrative environment has long been criticised for being too complicated and creating unnecessary barriers for businesses. Analysts often complain that the many conditions and regulations in the country do not meet international standards, such as requirements on minimum or legal capital or human resources rules.
The World Bank suggested that the country needs to do better at supporting early-stage businesses, particularly in dealing with construction permits, registering property and enforcing contracts.
These are just some of the obstacles standing in the way of Vietnam’s smaller businesses. With the Law on Support for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME Law, 04/2017/QH14) coming into force at the start of 2018, it is hoped that the challenges detailed above will be addressed. A dynamic, competitive and innovative private sector, in which SMEs play a leading role, is a solid guarantee of Vietnam’s future prosperity and growth. The government has shown a desire to help the country’s fledgling firms, now is the time to put words into action.
Vietnam’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 6.81 per cent last year, marking its highest growth rate in a decade. The country continues to impress, with the economy growing by 7.38 percent in the first quarter of 2018 – one of the fastest rates in Asia – and total growth is expected to be in the region of 6.7-6.8 percent for the year. It could even hit 7.1 percent, according to the Asian Development Bank.
Looking ahead, the Vietnamese Government is seeking to maintain the country’s good growth until at least 2020, with the Prime Minister encouraging private companies – currently accounting for 43 per cent of GDP – to grow and increasing investment into rural areas. Lexology.com reported.
There’s much to celebrate about Vietnam’s growth over the last few years, and many investors have already taken note and got in on the action. For those still on the fence, here’s just three reasons why a bet on the country’s economy may pay off handsomely.
Switched on to electronics
Other countries in the region tend to export raw materials or components to China, where they are assembled into other products. Vietnam exports mainly finished goods.
One such producer, the Samsung Electronics factory in Thai Nguyen, in northern Vietnam, employs more than 60,000 people and produces more mobile phones than any other facility in the world. Samsung Electronics’ combined factories in Vietnam produce almost a third of the firm’s global output. So far, the company has invested a cumulative US$17 billion in the country.
The relationship has been mutually beneficial, helping to make Vietnam the second-biggest exporter of smartphones in the world, after China. Samsung alone accounted for almost a quarter of Vietnam’s total exports of US$214 billion last year.
The company’s presence in Vietnam will not stop there, with co-CEO, Koh Dong-jin, recently informing the Prime Minister of plans to expand production and open further plants.
Samsung isn’t alone in Vietnam’s exciting electronics landscape. The export turnover of electronics and household electrical appliances accounted for 28.9 percent of total export turnover. Mobile phones & components, cameras and other machinery brought in revenue of US$61.8 billion, an increase of US$14.45 billion compared to the year before.
An international mindset
Vietnam received FDI worth 8 percent of GDP last year — more than double the rate of comparable economies in the region. Foreign-owned firms now account for nearly 20 percent of the country’s output. They have grown more than twice as fast as state-owned enterprises over the past decade, despite the country’s nominally communist government.
In contrast to China, a large rival in the cheap manufacturing stakes, Vietnam is liberalising its economy to welcome foreign industry. In 2015 the government opened 50 industries to foreign competition and cut regulations in hundreds more. It sold a majority stake in the biggest state-owned brewer, Sabeco, to a foreign firm last year. Similar sales are expected in the coming months.
Vietnam’s enthusiasm for free-trade deals has made it especially alluring to foreign investors. It is a founding member of the Trans Pacific Partnership, a multilateral trade agreement that includes Australia, Canada and Japan, among others. Although the agreement fell apart without US support, it was quickly repurposed and renamed. A significant trade pact with the European Union is also on the horizon. The deal signed with South Korea a few years ago has made it South Korea’s fourth-biggest trading partner.
Fertile ground for start-ups
The government has put forward a number of regulations and programmes to support start-ups, especially innovative ones, including Decree 38/2018/ND-CP (Decree 38) on innovative start-up investment. Decree 38 identifies and recognises innovative start-up investment activities as a business, and cements the legal status of innovative start-up companies and funds.
The decree is expected to provide a legal basis for private investors when jointly contributing capital to establish a creative start-up fund and streamline capital flows for creative start-up activities.
According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the country boasts a strong entrepreneurial drive and ranks among the 20 economies with leading entrepreneurial spirit.
Up to US$291 million was poured into Vietnamese start-ups last year, a year-on-year increase of 42 percent. However, this figure lags behind the region as whole, which saw investment of US$7.86 billion. The number of M&A deals remains small and no startup has yet made an IPO. Clearly, there is still a lot of room for growth in this sector.
The great potential hasn’t gone unnoticed and the government has recognised the tremendous importance that the start-up movement has to the economy and accelerated its development.
As well as a young, cheap and plentiful supply of workers, the Vietnamese economy possesses a dynamism unlike others in the region. Nurturing such domestic entrepreneurship is the key to sustainable growth. The Vietnamese government has already set out ambitions of creating a vibrant ‘start-up nation’, with a million new enterprises being born by 2020.
These are just a few of the reasons why smart investors should be seriously considering Vietnam as their next investment destination. In addition to the above, economic growth will be driven by manufacturing and export expansion, rising domestic consumption, strong investment fueled by foreign investors and domestic firms, and an improving agriculture sector. These is an abundance of optimism over the country’s future, and the signs are that this year Vietnam will be one of the strongest performers in the region.
Rosneft Vietnam B.V. has started drillling of LD-3P (Lan Do field) production well as part of Block 06.1 development. Rosneft acts as an operator of this project which proves high level of its competencies in implementation of complex offshore drilling programs that are technically challenging.
According to a report by worldoil.com, target depth of the well is about 1,200 m along the wellbore, sea depth at the drilling site is around 160 m. As estimated, Lan Do field has initial natural gas reserves of 23 Bcm. Underwater infrastructure objects will be built and connected to operating offshore objects of Block 06.1 (Lan Tay platform) in order to develop additional reserves of the field. Processed gas and natural gas liquid are delivered from the platform to the shore by the two-phase Nam Con Son pipeline that is 370 km long. It is the longest two-phase pipeline in Southeast Asia. Due to the two-phase technology gas and gas condensate are delivered to the onshore processing facility simultaneously.
Apart from that during 2018 Rosneft is also planning to perform sidetracking of previously drilled PLD-1P exploration well on Phong Lan Dai field (Wild Orchid), which is also located within Block 06.1. Target depth of the well is 1,300 m. As a result, the well will be reclassified as a production well.
Wild Orchid field was discovered during drilling campaign of 2016 when Rosneft was engaged as an operator of an international offshore drilling project for the first time.The field revealed commercial gas reserves of 3.4 Bcm.
Offshore infrastructure objects are being constructed on Lan Tay platform in order to deliver gas and natural gas liquids from Wild Orhid field.
Drilling on Lan Do and Phong Lan Dai will be carried out using Japanese drilling equipment Hakuryu-5 made by Japanese company Japan Drilling Co., Ltd. (JDC).
Block 06.1 production wells will be connected to existing infrastructure objects which will provide synergy between two projects, help to speed up wells commissioning and maximize effectiveness of Block 06.1 fields development in Vietnam.
Under Vietnam offshore projects Rosneft implements the most advanced technologies available on the market.
In 2017 about 9% of Vietnam energy needs were covered by gas produced by the Company.
The HCM City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank) is offering an attractive credit package with 6 per cent interest for the first two months or 8.5 per cent for the first six months for doing business and agriculture.
The rates will be applicable only for loans approved by June 30 and disbursed by July 31, and will be fully secured by property.
Borrowers will also be issued credit cards with a maximum limit of VNĐ500 million (US$21,929).
At the end of last year, the lender’s total outstanding loans were nearly VNĐ110 trillion after increasing by 27 per cent.
Several banks in Vietnam have warned customers about the danger of losing their bank accounts when logging into fake banking websites.
According to the latest report from Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), the bank has found many links imitating the bank’s official site such as mail.www-vietcombank.com.vn; www-vietcombank.com.vn; http://www.www-vietcombank.com.vn.
The bank also alerted customers to the fake link to homebank 247 which is quite similar to the bank’s internet banking interface.
A security staff of a major bank in Hanoi said that hackers can easily take banking card owners’ private information such as account number, PIN code or even CVV/CVC numbers at the back of the cards when they log in fake sites.
The fraudulent websites often have domain names and interfaces which are almost identical to the official ones.
Earlier, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) also uncovered homebank 247 which was imitating BIDV’s official link.
Experts said that website fraud affecting banking websites had tended to be on the rise in Vietnam in recent years. To prevent the risks, banks have advised customers to be more careful when logging into banking sites.
In case, customers doubt that they may have logged in fake sites, they need to change their passwords immediately and contact banks for urgent help. Customers should not lend other people to borrow their banking cards and keep the cards carefully and frequently change their PIN code.
Hanoi will launch open-top double-decker bus tour service later this month.
The Hanoi Department of Transport has issued a decision to approve the open-top double-decker bus tour route.
The route will have 13 stops, including one located near Hoan Kiem Lake to provide tourism information for visitors. Initially, three buses will be used for the route.
There will be different kinds of tickets for customers to choose such as tickets for one day for two days.
Information about Hanoi’s landscapes and historical sites to serve travellers have been submitted to Hanoi authorities for consideration.
The municipal People’s Committee has asked municipal management agencies to trim trees and adjust electric wires for the operation of the tour service.
Earlier in June last year, Hanoi piloted this bus tour service in the city-centre area. However, one month later, the Ministry of Transport asked Hanoi and localities nationwide to halt this to wait for the government’s instruction.
Tiki’s consecutive losses raise the question whether these are still planned losses or are a result of losing the e-commerce race to competition.
Tiki was established in 2010 as a startup e-bookstore but has since diversified operations to sell phones, tablets, digital devices, electrical appliances, toys, and souvenirs.
In August 2013, Tiki signed a strategic partnership with Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation and became the first e-commerce company in Vietnam to receive investment from the Japanese company.
Under the partnership, Sumitomo would hold a 30 per cent stake in Tiki to become its second strategic investor, after Japanese investment fund CyberAgent Ventures (15 per cent).
In May 2016, VNG Corporation, Vietnam’s top provider of Internet content, completed a VND383-billion ($17.02 million) deal to acquire a 38 per cent stake in Tiki. Accordingly, VNG spent VND104,000 ($4.57) per share, with the expectation to acquire benefits from one of the largest e-commercial platforms in Vietnam.
With backing from Japanese investors Sumitomo Corporation and CyberAgent Ventures, which own a combined stake of 45 per cent, in collaboration with the investment from VNG, Tiki was expected to become a heavyweight in the e-commerce sector in the country. However, the firm has been reporting losses for two consecutive years now.
Notably, according to the financial statement of VNG Corporation, a shareholder of Tiki, in 2017 Tiki reported a loss of VND282 billion ($12.38 million), triple its charter capital and seven times higher than the loss in 2016. Hence, Tiki’s total losses two years after receiving investment from VNG were VND320 billion ($14.05 million).
Tiki CEO Tran Ngoc Thai Son stated that the losses are a part of the firm’s long-term development plan. Tiki is expanding its scale of operations via investing in infrastructure, warehouses, human resources, and technology.
In reality, according to the statistics of Euromonitor, Tiki ranked sixth among the online shopping sites of Vietnam in 2017 with the visitor volume of 15.08 million. However, according to customers, there is a painful lack of transparency in Tiki’s promotion programmes. Notably, the firm often increases selling price quietly to then provide discounts at the original price.
Earlier this year, Tiki received $54 million in Series C investment made by Chinese internet giant JD.com and South Korea’s STIC Investments. The additional capital is expected help Tiki to consolidate its market presence.
At present, the Vietnamese e-commerce sector holds great potential but is also a playground ruled by strict competition by numerous heavyweights.
The fierce competition was shown after a series of e-commerce floors had to shut down because of big losses. Beyeu, Deca, and Lingo left the market after long struggles to survive.
According to industry insiders, companies need to allocate enormous expenses for their e-commerce business from sales and marketing to warehousing and logistics, so it can easily eat up profits. Also, many platforms suffered losses from special discount offers and promotion campaigns to snag new customers.
At present, it is still early to conclude that the consecutive losses of Tiki is a show of weakness, however, Beyeu, Deca, and Lingo are signals that the market is not for players lacking financial potential or methodical development strategies.
Many travel firms, after making heavy investments in online tourism, are earning increasingly high revenue.
Nguyen Duy Vi, marketing and media director of Vietnam Adventure Tours (tugo.com.vn), said when setting up Tugo four years ago, the founder of the firm could see many problems in the traditional tourism model, especially in marketing the staff.
The traditional firms have to spend big money on marketing, but could not measure the effects of the marketing campaigns. To access more clients, the firms have set up more offices and increased the number of workers, leading to higher operation costs.
Therefore, Tugo decided to use technology to fix the problems of the traditional tourism model. Vi said that the company’s business performance wouldn’t be good if it did not develop online booking services.
Online tourism has made a great contribution to the revenue growth of Saigontourist. Vo Anh Tai, CEO of Saigontourist, said revenue from travel was VND4.25 trillion in 2017 and from online tourism in the last 10 months VND130 billion.
The traditional firms have to spend big money on marketing, but could not measure the effects of the marketing campaigns. To access more clients, the firms have set up more offices and increased the number of workers, leading to higher operation costs.
The statistics shown at the 2018 Vietnam Online Tourism Forum (VOTF) showed that some tourism companies were gaining high growth rates even among stiff competition in the market because they can attract high numbers of tourists through online sales.
Le Tuan Anh, deputy director of the VNAT’s International Cooperation Department, said 71 percent of foreign travelers to Vietnam in 2018 checked information about the destinations on internet, and 64 percent booked services online for their trips to Vietnam.
He cited Google’s Consumer Barometer in 2016 as saying that the number of smartphone users in Vietnam was just equal to 72 percent of the US, but 48 percent of Vietnamese used smartphones to look for hotels, while the figure was 18 percent in the US.
While 42 percent of Vietnamese searched for tourism information at the destination, only 25 percent of Americans did. Around 37 percent of Vietnamese searched for information about flights, but the proportion was 18 percent for Americans.
At the forum, Truong Sy Vinh, deputy director of the Tourism Development Research Institute, said Google and Temasek Holdings predicted a sharp increase in the value of the SE Asian online tourism market from $21.6 billion in 2015 to $89.6 billion by 2025. Of this, Vietnam’s online tourism accounted for 10 percent, or $9 billion.
Euromonitor International predicted that revenue from online tour sales would maintain a 12 percent growth rate in 2015-2020.
Vietnam’s online tourism grew by 50 percent in 2017, according to the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), twice as much as the growth rate of the entire e-commerce sector.
A group of Chinese tourists were asked to change their T-shirts after authorities in the central coastal city of Nha Trang complained they displayed the illicit ‘nine-dash line’ map that suggests Chinese territorial claims in the East Vietnam Sea on them.
Head of the Security Police Department at Cam Ranh International Airport, Nguyen Van Quan, said that the tourists arrived at the airport on the evening of May 13.
“After completing immigration procedures, the tourists went out to wait for buses to Nha Trang,” Quan said.
“They took off their coats and only wore the T-shirts. And we saw the T-shirts. We immediately asked them to change their clothes and confiscated all their T-shirts.”
The Chinese tourists were travelling to Vietnam on a tour operated by Aladdin Co. Ltd.
A representative from the tour company said it was not until the Chinese tourists had passed immigration that the company’s tour guide realised their clothes featured the map.
“We asked them to get changed and confiscated all the T-shirts at the airport to be handed over to the authorities,” Aladdin’s representative said.
Quan said they were working closely with officers from the Khanh Hoa police department and security personnel at the airport to ‘investigate’ the incident.
The ‘nine-dash line,’ is a widely-rejected cow tongue-shaped line illegally created by China to claim its sovereignty over about 80 percent of the East Vietnam Sea, including the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos.
Mirae Asset Life Insurance, a South Korean insurer, has launched a merged entity with Prevoir Vietnam Life Insurance.
The dongA.com – a South Korean news channel reported, the South Korean life insurance company announced Monday that it had held a launching ceremony on Friday for its merged entity with Prevoir Vietnam Life, whereby changing the name of the Vietnamese firm to “Mirae Asset Prevoir Life Insurance.”
In July 2017, the South Korean insurer bought a 50 percent stage of Prevoir Vietnam Life Insurance, the tenth largest insurer in Vietnam, for 1.1 trillion VND (about 51.7 billion Korean won). Having completed the payment over the past 10 months, Mirae Asset has decided to change the name of its Vietnamese entity and participate in management in earnest.
Mirae Asset Prevoir Life Insurance has boasted a steady growth, posting the largest premium income in Vietnam for the past four years. Currently, the Vietnamese headquarters are focusing on bancassurance in collaboration with seven local banks, with an exclusive alliance with NCB, a large-sized bank in Vietnam.
Mirae Asset management established a local office in Vietnam in 2006 as the first South Korean asset management company to do so, and since then, Mirae Asset Financial Group has expanded its financial territory, branching out into securities business, asset management, finance, as well as insurance.
Vietnam won a sovereign rating upgrade from Fitch Ratings on rising foreign-exchange reserves and strong economic growth.
Bloomberg reported, the rating on the nation’s long-term, foreign currency-denominated debt was raised one level to BB, with a stable outlook, Fitch said in a statement on Tuesday. The upgrade puts Vietnam at the second-highest speculative grade and on par with Costa Rica.
Vietnam’s government has committed to containing debt and reforming its state-owned enterprises, boosting its track record of policy making. The economy will probably expand 6.7 percent in 2018, making it among the fastest-growing economies in the Asia-Pacific region, and fastest among BB rated peers, Fitch said.
Reserves are forecast to climb to about $66 billion by the end of this year from $49 billion in 2017, while general government debt is likely to decline to below 50 percent of gross domestic product by 2019, according to Fitch calculations.
From treating cancer and erectile dysfunction to managing hangovers, the horns of endangered wild rhinoceros are widely used as a medical cure-all in parts of Asia. A new Danish-Vietnamese study from the University of Copenhagen uncovers new reasons for why Vietnamese consumers buy illegal rhino horn. This knowledge can now be used in campaigns to save endangered rhinoceros.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that 1,054 rhino were killed by poachers in South Africa in 2016 and the worldwide number of rhinos remaining is estimated to be 30.000. Eurekalert.org reported
A new study conducted by the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen and the Vietnamese office of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has found a shift in values driving illegal procurement of horn from endangered rhinos. Powdered horn is believed to have healing properties and can fetch up to 500,000 kroner per kilo (€67,000). The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that 1,054 rhino were killed by poachers in South Africa in 2016 and the worldwide number of rhinos remaining is estimated to be 30.000.
Until now, the prevailing wisdom has been that consumers seek out rhinoceros horn for medical and health-related reasons, such as cancer treatments, hangovers and other ailments. The new study reveals more.
“For us, the surprising trend is that horn is increasingly being used as a symbolic gesture to console terminally ill family members. The horns are intended to provide the ill with a final source of pleasure and to demonstrate that their families have done everything possible to help them,” explains Associate Professor Martin R. Nielsen of the Department of Food and Resource Economics. Along with colleague Dang Vu Hoai Nam of GIZ, Nielsen conducted in-depth interviews with 30 recent purchasers of rhino horn in Hanoi and Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam.
The information gained by the study can be used by public authorities and organisations working to reduce the illegal trade in rhinoceros horn by improving their understanding of consumers and will be an important aspect of future campaigns aimed at reducing demand.
“Understanding the motivation of horn buyers is vital for addressing this problem. Among other things, our results demonstrate that the nature of demand changes over time. As a result, we must continually rethink strategies to curb the trade in rhinoceros horn,” says Martin R. Nielsen.
Hangovers and a lack of respect for the rule of law
Besides using horn to console terminally ill family members, the 30 Vietnamese interviewed also used horn for treating hangovers and as a status symbol in business relations. The study also found that buyers are mainly interested in horn sourced from wild rhinos and willing to pay a premium for wild rather than farmed animal horn. Consequently, the researchers believe that a legal, controlled trade of farmed rhino would most likely not serve to reduce poaching.
“The study suggests that information about the decline of rhinoceros populations and awareness about hunting being controlled by organised crime does not affect consumer demand. Dealing with the problem requires other strategies,” explains Martin R. Nielsen.
The rhino horn trade is among one of the most organised forms of environmental crime, and the number of rhinos killed by poachers has increased markedly since 2008. Because Vietnam is the country with the greatest demand for rhinoceros horn, it also bears the brunt of the blame for poaching.
The majority of remaining wild rhinoceros live in South Africa, where the population of white rhinoceros is estimated to be between 19,000 and 21,000.
###
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
