Chill out and be yourself at this chaotic space in southern Vietnam.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word “bohemian” as “a person (such as a writer or an artist) living an unconventional life usually in a colony with others.”
Bohemians do not want to conform to any establishment of political or social viewpoints. Often thought of as outsiders, Bohemians just want to be treated as creative individuals who lead free and unorthodox lives.
This philosophy has been successfully adopted at a café named Bohémiens in the port city of Vung Tau, southern Vietnam. The coffee shop’s chaotic artistic design full of irrelevant elements offers an escape for those who want a place where they can fit in, just the way they are.
The shop captures people’s attention with colorful graffiti, different sized chairs and plants growing out of old tires.
The limited space is filled with paintings, pictures and repainted window shutters.
The balcony offers a relaxing atmosphere with green plants enjoying the sunlight.
The second floor is painted yellow and customers can sit on Japanese-style mats around small tables.
The room is filled with items that bring a feeling of nostalgia such as an old sewing machine, an old TV and weighing scales often used by street vendors.
An old transformer also makes up part of the decor.
Bohémiens cafe offer drinks at affordable prices starting from VND15,000 ($0.6).
Through their user data business, Facebook and Google in 2017 embraced a quarter of the $100-billion global online advertising market, according to statistics of data analytics company Experian.
Facebook’s algorithms can draw up an accurate picture of billions of people’s hobbies and consumption habits. This also helps Facebook attract a huge number of businesses to advertise on the platform.
With an average of 68 “likes” per user, Facebook can easily tell users’ political orientations and hobbies, and 150 “likes” are apparently enough for Facebook to understand users’ personality better than their parents. Furthermore, with over 300 “likes,” Facebook knows users better than their partners, according to the investigation of US-based Vice Media LLC, a company specialised in digital media and broadcasting.
“Facebook is free, but we have to pay with our own information,” said Viviane Reding, member of the European Parliament.
In Vietnam, the public trading of Facebook user data is nothing new, especially since Facebook has become popular in the country.
Vietnam is the ninth hardest hit country by the Facebook data leak scandal
All Vietnamese users’ information is commonly up for sale on webpages and forums for advertising and marketing products.
According to Facebook’s latest announcement, Vietnam remains the ninth country in terms of the number of users’ data leaked, with nearly 430,000 users.
In addition, the total number of people’s personal information leak in the recent Facebook scandal hit 87 million, with the US in the lead with over 70 million people.
Korean-backed Shinhan Bank Vietnam Ltd. today announced coach Park Hang Seo and U23 captain, Luong Xuan Truong to be the brand ambassadors of Shinhan Bank in 2018.
After U23 Vietnam’s excellent performance in the recent Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Champions Finale, coach Park Hang Seo and Luong Xuan Truong have become the icons of inspiration, evoking the determination to follow the passion and dreams in Vietnamese football fans.
Having coach Park Hang Seo and Luong Xuan Truong as its brand ambassadors, Shinhan Bank wishes to continue spreading this positive attitude for life “Dare to set big goals and be committed till the very end, your efforts will be paid off. Shinhan Bank commits to accompany the valued customers in the journey to achieve their next big goals”.
That is the underlying message Shinhan Bank would like to deliver to its customers through this campaign.
Korean coach Park Hang Seo has led the National Football Team, U23 Football Team and Vietnam National Olympic Team since October 2017.
He was highly respected for his tactical skills and talent ability in using players smartly on the field. This was significant contribution to bringing U23 Vietnam the glorious runner-up position in AFC Cup after just three months taking the role as a coach.
Coach Park Hang Seo also receives overflowing love and admiration from the media and football lovers in Vietnam for his resolute leadership on the field but open and friendly style in everyday life.
Being a valued and loyal customer of Shinhan Bank in Korea, coach Park Hang Seo now is very eager with his new role with Shinhan Bank Vietnam.
He shared, “To me, Shinhan Bank is not only a reliable financial partner from Korea, but also a hometown fellow who accompanies me in many of my activities in Vietnam. Taking the role as the brand ambassador for Shinhan Bank, I hope to promote the Korean values and positive inspirations to the Vietnamese people.”
Together with the miraculous achievement of U23 Vietnam, Luong Xuan Truong also left strong impression as a capable captain with immense talents and consistent performance.
His audacious fighting spirit and determination have become “catalysts” that inspire the historic and captivating performance of U23 Vietnam.
Coming from Hoang Anh Gia Lai – Arsenal Football Academy (JMC), and having two years playing for Incheon United and Gangwon Football Club in Korea, Xuan Truong has embraced a bold playing style with discipline and positive attitude to face challenges head on.
In his role as the brand ambassador of Shinhan Bank for two consecutive years, Xuan Truong wishes to inspire Shinhan’s young customers to have determination and commitment to achieve their big goals in life.
“As a leading bank in Korea, Shinhan Bank is an entrusted banker for our strong, transparent and reliable financial strength; as well as our constant efforts to improve the banking quality,” said Shinhan Bank Vietnam CEO Shin Dong Min. “Meanwhile, coach Park Hang Seo and captain Luong Xuan Truong are highly respected by Vietnamese football lovers for their fighting spirit and strong commitment for their big goals, which inspire and create a solid foundation for the team to make their historic achievement. These are the common values that connect us in this collaboration.”
Together with choosing brand ambassadors to inspire positive lifestyle for the customers, Shinhan Bank is constantly striving to launch new financial products and services, as well as expand its existing network in Vietnam to serve customers even better.
Within April 2018, Shinhan Bank has launched simultaneously four new branches and transaction offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, bringing the total number of branches and transaction offices to 30 across the country.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) wants the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to instruct commercial banks to withhold taxes from transactions with Facebook and Google, but SBV said it is not authorized to do so.
MOF has vowed to collect tax from Google’s and Facebook’s earnings in Vietnam, and is drafting a regulation on tax management over e-commerce activities.
Under the draft regulation, cross-border services must make payments via the national payment portal NAPAS. This will allow taxation agencies to control revenue from services to collect taxes.
The tax payments will be carried out under the withholding mode. Tax amounts will be deducted from revenue when making payments via NAPAS.
SBV’s Governor Le Minh Hung said MOF has the legal right to issue regulations, guide tax declarations, and report and collect tax. SBV doesn’t have the right or skills in this field.
Under current laws, credit institutions can deduct customers’ money only if they have consent from customers or receive instructions from agencies, he said.
MOF needs to release legal documents with detailed guidance on the issue, he added.
Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc believes that MOF’s idea is a good solution allowing it to collect tax from Facebook and Google, which remains an impossible mission at this time.
However, Duc said that MOF would try to differentiate the nature of payment transactions via banks.
In many cases, payments are made for goods purchases, not for ads on Google and Facebook. If the nature of the transactions cannot be clarified, this will lead to overlapping taxation.
Lawyer Tran Xoa from Minh Dang Quang Law Firm, said that it is not feasible to ask banks to deduct money from customers’ accounts when making cross-border transactions.
If remitting money via banks, individuals will have to prove the legal purposes of the transactions. But internet banking remittances via cards to pay for goods and services have no limit.
No official report about the amount of taxes that Google and Facebook have evaded in Vietnam exists, but experts say it is huge.
Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam cited official reports as saying that 67 percent of Vietnamese use the internet, with 60 percent using social networks.
Foreign social networks account for 95 percent of market share, search engines 98 percent and e-commerce 80 percent.
The revenue from ads that foreign companies, especially Facebook and YouTube, can collect is estimated to amount to 80 percent of total revenue. In 2017, they earned $320 million from the service.
Sending their portraits to network operators may help subscribers in Vietnam prevent their accounts from being blocked as a new decree on mobile phone user registration takes effect later this month.
Mobile phone users in the Southeast Asian country have been notified via text message that they need to add a portrait to their account registration, or risk having it disabled in the next two weeks.
Under Government Decree 49, coming into effect on April 24, all mobile subscribers have to register for an account with accurate information, including their name, ID number and a portrait.
While users have long been required to register for a mobile account using their real personal information, the photo requirement is meant to put an even tighter control on the use of improperly-registered SIM cards to spread spam messages, according to regulators.
After April 24, any account without the proper registration information will be blocked from making phone calls or sending messages.
Mobile carriers in Vietnam have rushed to notify their customers of the new rules, when the deadline is only a fortnight away.
Users are supposed to physically visit transaction spots of their own carriers to take the photo, as online submission is not allowed.
New SIM cards of different mobile carriers are seen in this photo taken in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre
“Customers are advised to visit our transaction locations countrywide for support,” a representative of military-run Viettel told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
“An accurate account registration will help customers protect their mobile phone numbers and allow the network carriers to better manage their data and fight against improperly-registered SIM cards.”
Viettel has trained its employees to help subscribers with the photo taking task, and also pledged to send mobile working teams to public places or remote areas to help customers there, according to the representative.
A Vinaphone representative also confirmed to Tuoi Tre the company has sent messages to customers to brief them on the new rules and suggest that they visit the nearest stores to complete registration.
Vinaphone users are advised to compose a new text message with the content “TTTB” and send it to 1414 to check if their accounts are properly registered.
Only users who receive this message need to pay attention to the new rules
A Vinaphone call center employee told Tuoi Tre News on Monday that only subscribers who receive the reminder message should be worried about their account registration.
“If you don’t receive this message, it means your account is adequately registered and you don’t need to take any further step,” she said.
Asked how Government Decree 49 will affect foreign subscribers who reside in Vietnam, the Vinaphone employee told Tuoi Tre News that they are supposed to register using information on their passport, and “have to take the photo as per regulations.”
Worries remain
The requirement that mobile phone users have to submit their portrait was first introduced in 2017, sparking widespread concerns among subscribers.
“I don’t know why the mobile carrier needs that extra photo when I have already submitted a scanned copy of my ID card, which includes my photo, during registration?” a user named Bui Van Hoa questioned.
People have criticized that it is a waste of time for them to skip work to visit transaction spots of the mobile companies to have their photos taken.
“This is so low-tech as we will have to queue in line for our turns, which we obviously don’t have time to do,” Hoa said.
“Won’t mobile carriers allow subscribers to do the photo submission online?”
Hai Ha, another subscriber, said that mobile carriers should not worry that subscribers will send fake photos if they are allowed to do it on the Internet.
“For their own rights and interests, I believe users will upload their genuine photos to complete registration,” she said.
Bui Hoai Vu, a subscriber in Ho Chi Minh City, doubted that the new step will improve protection for mobile users.
“Even when people are required to register for a new SIM card with accurate information, such nuisances as spam text messages or improperly registered SIMs remain rife,” he said.
Since 1989, Operation Smile has transformed the lives of more than 40,000 children and teenagers in Vietnam by bringing back the smiles to their faces, but there are so many more to be helped. In 2018, the organization is targeting to bring 3,000 new smiles to Vietnamese children with facial deformities.
To raise funds to help even more children smile for the first time, Operation Smile Vietnam is holding their Charity Auction and Gala called “Summer of Love” on May 19th at Sheraton Saigon Hotel. Most corrective operations only take 45 minutes and cost as little as VND 7 million, but many families are unable to cover the costs . With Operation Smile relies on support from dedicated philanthropists who want to help end this cycle of suffering. With sponsorship packages from VND4 million or just donate the artworks and precious objects, anyone can help provide often life saving surgery to under-privileged children in Vietnam.
Operation Smile Vietnam’s “Summer of Love” Charity Auction and Gala takes place from 06:30PM, on May 19th at Sheraton Saigon Hotel. For more information on reservations and sponsorship packages, artworks and precious objects donation, please contact: giang.tran@operationsmile.org , or call Direct Line: +84 28 2222 1008. Visit the official fanpage at https://www.facebook.com/operationsmilevietnam
Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has reduced its ownership in Vietnam’s budget airline VietJet Air (VJC) to 4.97 per cent and is no longer a major shareholder of the carrier.
In a disclosure to Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, GIC said it sold 265,900 shares of VJC to bring down its stake from 5.03 per cent earlier.
Meanwhile, Sovico Holdings, 52 per cent owned by VietJet Air CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, registered last month to buy additional 13.67 million shares of the low-cost airline.
If successful, Sovico will increase its holding from 4.56 per cent currently to 7.59 per cent. Going by the current stock price of VND203,000 ($8.98), Sovico is expected to spend approximately VND2.8 trillion ($123.2 million) to up its ownership in the airline.
Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao directly owns 39.6 million shares, equivalent to an 8.76 per cent stake, in the airline. Sunflower Sunny Investment Company Limited, wholly-owned by Thao, currently is the largest shareholder of VietJet Air with 129 million shares, equivalent to a 28.57 per cent stake.
HD Bank, of which Thao is the permanent vice-chairman, also owns a 5 per cent stake in the carrier. VietJet’s $170-million IPO, which attracted buyers like BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, was Vietnam’s first internationally marketed and at that time, its largest initial public offering. GIC was the only foreign major shareholder in the company at that time. Local legislation defines a major shareholder as one with at least 5 per cent stake and voting rights.
The low-cost carrier’s total net revenue in 2017 stood at nearly VND42.258 trillion ($1.8 billion), a year-on-year increase of 53.7 per cent. Its pre-tax profit was approximately VND4.755 billion ($211.3 million), up 75.9 per cent year on year.
Forest destruction at Van Phong Bay in the south-central coastal province of Khanh Hoa has become rampant following the government’s approval of the Bac Van Phong Special Economic Zone according to local authorities.
Addressing a meeting on April 6, vice chairman of Van Ninh District People’s Committee, Tran Ngoc Khiem said that they have set up an inspection team to prevent forest destruction on local islands following news that dozens of hectares of forests have been destroyed.
“We’re also trying to recover the land illegally taken from forests,” Khiem stressed.
It is said that land prices in Van Ninh District have soared after the government allowed Khanh Hoa Province to develop the master plan for Bac Van Phong Special Economic Zone late last year.
An anonymous leader in Van Gia Town said that they are seeing more people from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City coming to buy land in the area.
“Land plots along the beaches in Van Gia Town are now priced at as high as VND100 million (USD4,407) per square metre,” he said.
More real estate agents have been set up to serve the market and there are 15 agents operating in the small Van Gia Town now, the official added.
According to the district’s vice chairman Tran Ngoc Khiem, the land fever has been reported over the last few months in some communes including Van Thanh, Van Thang and Van Gia Town.
“We have instructed leaders of these communes to intensify land management in the area to prevent illegal transactions,” Khiem said.
Van Phong Bay covers 150,000 ha including 80,000 hectares water surface and 70,000 hectares of coastal land. It has been described as one of the best natural bays in Southeast Asia and has the potential to become an international transit hub.
Last August, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved a proposal to allow Khanh Hoa Province to develop the master plan for Bac Van Phong Special Administrative-Economic Zone.
According to the Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee, they are planning to build the Bac Van Phong Special Administrative-Economic Zone on the whole area of Van Ninh District. The zone is expect to cover around 111,000 hectares with one town and 12 communes and a population of over 131,000 people.
Moody’s Investors Services -Global credit rating firm – has upgraded Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank: VPB)’s baseline credit assessment from B3 to B2, and its counterparty risk assessment from B2 to B1.
In addition, Moody’s kept VPBank’s rating on long-term foreign-currency deposit unchanged at B2, while raising its outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘positive’.
This was the second consecutive year Moody’s has assigned a positive assessment for VPBank’s ratings.
The baseline credit assessment reflects the bank’s sound credit profile, as well as its probability of a bank’s standalone failure, absent external support. This rating is based upon macroeconomic, financial and asset quality factors.
The counterparty risk assessment evaluates the risk of a partner engaging with that bank.
The Moody’s upgrade took into consideration VPBank’s significant improvement in financial strength, operating efficiency, profitability, as well as growth potential.
VPBank’s return on assets (ROA) ratio increased from 1.7 per cent in 2016 to 2.3 per cent in 2017, outperforming many other Vietnamese banks. Its pre-provision operating profit jumped by 56 to 57 per cent in the past two years.
Moody’s praised the bank’s expansion in business scale and its leading position in the consumer finance market, which has generated high profit margins and contributed to VPBank’s strong earnings.
It reported a record revenue and profit in 2017, with VNĐ25.03 trillion (US$1.1 billion) in total revenue and VNĐ8.13 trillion in pre-tax profits, up 48 per cent and 65 per cent against 2016, respectively.
Also, the lender’s charter capital climbed from VNĐ9.18 trillion to over VNĐ15.7 trillion.
The risk-weighted asset (RWA) rose from 8.5 per cent in 2016 to 12.1 per cent by the end of 2017. This improvement is attributed to additional share issues, stock dividends and bonus shares, increasing retained earnings and reducing average loan growth to 26 per cent, from 41 per cent, in the 2013-16 period.
VPBank is one of the top five commercial joint stock banks, in terms of lending and mobilising deposits.
The heat in Ho Chi Minh City these days is almost too intense to bear.
Having returned 52 percent in 2017, Vietnam is on track to be Asia’s best-performing market for a second year in a row. The Vietnam Stock Index is already up 22 percent. Since January, foreigners have purchased more than $440 million of local shares, after scooping up a record $1 billion last year.
There are many things to like about Vietnam. In the first quarter, its economy expanded by 7.4 percent, the fastest pace in a decade. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump is too busy picking tariff fights with China to bother with the frontier nation, whose government is targeting double-digit export growth this year.
Foreigners are also keen to own meaningful stakes in Vietnam’s key beverage, oil and financial firms. Laden with public debt, Hanoi is hungry for extra cash. Authorities gained about $4.8 billion last year via a stake sale in Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp.; this year the government plans to sell 6.5 times more shares than it offered in 2017, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in January.
Speculators are rife, and some are trying to get ahead of passive funds that follow the MSCI country indexes. Vietnam now boasts better liquidity than the Philippines, which is classified as an emerging market. Traders say it should be poised for inclusion in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which is tracked by funds with more than $1.6 trillion in assets under management.
Even if that doesn’t happen, Vietnam may receive more international inflows if some of its peers get a boost. Argentina is already on MSCI Inc.’s watch list for a potential reclassification from frontier to emerging market, while rival index compiler FTSE Russell classified Kuwait as an emerging market last year. Vietnam is currently the third-largest country in the MSCI Frontier Markets Index.
But for investors, this can be a dangerous game. The 15 stocks on the MSCI Vietnam Index, which should benefit the most should this bet pay off, are very pricey. The gauge trades at 30.5 times 12-month trailing earnings; the broader Vietnam Stock Index is at a more reasonable 21 times.
Vietnam’s stock market is also becoming less insulated from macroeconomic events, reducing the appeal of portfolio diversification for global fund managers. Earlier this year, the correlation of weekly returns between Vietnamese and U.S. stocks shot up to 67 percent, a sharp reversal from a relationship that at times has been negative. In other words, if the U.S. catches a bad cold, Vietnam starts sneezing.
Pakistan provides a timely warning. For at least a year-and-a-half before its May 2017 upgrade by MSCI to emerging-markets status, speculators piled in, only to have the Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index tumble ahead of the official inclusion date.
To be sure, Vietnam is in much better shape than Pakistan, as I have argued before. But at such elevated levels, it’s easy to find reasons to sell. A GDP miss, an inflation uptick, and Ho Chi Minh City could turn cold real quick.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Gadfly columnist covering Asian markets. She previously wrote on markets for Barron’s, following a career as an investment banker, and is a CFA charterholder.
To contact the author of this story: Shuli Ren in Hong Kong at sren38@bloomberg.net.
Grab’s acquisition of Uber opens the door for Vietnamese businesses to enter the ride-sharing market, said Khuat Viet Hung, vice chairman of the Vietnam National Safety Traffic Committee.
Speaking at a seminar titled “Grab’s acquisition of Uber: What are the opportunities for Vietnamese companies?” held in Hanoi on Friday, Hung noted that Uber was unknown seven and eight years ago, and that when Uber entered Vietnam, no one had heard of Grab.
“When there appears a ‘giant’ in the market, we often feel anxious, but I think that Grab buying Uber is really an opportunity for Vietnamese businesses,” he said.
Grab has officially announced that it has completed the acquisition of Uber’s business in Southeast Asia.
After the merger, Uber will hold a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab, while Uber’s CEO will join Grab’s management board.
Uber emailed an official announcement to all its customers about the transfer of the entire customer system in Vietnam to Grab beginning on April 8 and recommended customers download the Grab application.
Grab’s success in Southeast Asia is a lively example for businesses in the region, including in Vietnam, Hung said.
“There are no opportunities without challenges, but I think the current chances are clearer now. The story of Grab really encourages the creativity of Vietnamese enterprises in conquering the local market and even reaching out to other countries,” said Hung.
Nguyen Cong Hung, chairman of the Hanoi Taxi Association, said that before entering Vietnam, Uber and Grab studied the country’s laws to find loopholes to increase their advantages.
“Grab and Uber used huge capital to take over the market. Initially, they created applications to attract consumers with big promotional programmes, which traditional taxis could not afford because they have to pay higher taxes,” said the chairman.
He also said that as soon as Uber and Grab arrived in Vietnam, traditional taxis have learned the technology and created their own car-hailing applications and acknowledged it is also the responsibility of Vietnamese traditional taxi businesses to meet competition with innovation.
The chairman said that the association has proposed to build a taxi booking centre of the Hanoi Taxi Association and is ordering a software company to design it.
This would be a common platform for all taxi firms in Hanoi, helping everyone who comes to Hanoi choose taxies depending on the brand or price displayed.
The association wants to create equality and fairness in business and the basis of evaluation is the quality of service, the chairman said.
Vinhomes JSC, an arm of the real estate conglomerate Vingroup, has registered to list nearly 2.7 billion shares on the HCM Stock Exchange (HOSE).
HOSE announced receiving the listing registration documents for the shares of Vinhomes on April 2.
Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI) will be the listing advisor for Vinhomes, according to HOSE.
Vinhomes operates in the high-end residential property segment, offering luxury serviced apartments and villas developed by Vingroup JSC.
According to HOSE, Vinhomes has chartered capital of nearly VND26.8 trillion (US$1.2 billion). As of February 8, Vingroup owned 69.67 per cent of Vinhomes’ charter capital.
Vingroup is a multi-disciplinary business group, operating in the segments of real estate, retail, hotel and leisure services, education, healthcare and heavy industry. Real estate is the core business of this corporation.
Vingroup shares, listed on HOSE under the code VIC, hit a new peak of VND127,500 on April 4. On the same day, the market capitalisation of the group reached $14.7 billion.
Commercial real estate contributed nearly 70 per cent of Vingroup’s total revenue of more than VND90 trillion in 2017.
According to Vingroup, revenue earned from the real estate segment increased sharply in the past year, by more than 33 per cent, thanks to the completion and handing over of property assets for projects such as Park Hill, Vinpearl Phu Quoc, Vinpearl Nha Trang, Vinhomes Central Park and Vinhomes Riverside – The Harmony.
Vingroup has developed real estate projects in many provinces and cities across the country. However, the projects under the banner of this corporation are mainly located in Ha Noi, such as Royal City, Times City and Park Hill, and in HCM City, such as Vinhomes Central Park and Vinhomes Golden River.
Previously, in November 2017, Vingroup also submitted the listing registration documents for the shares of its retail arm Vincom Retail (VRE) to HOSE, with a total listed volume of 1.9 billion shares.
Vincom Retail is the largest mall operator in Viet Nam, with a total area of some 1.2 million sq. m by the end of 2017.
Vietnam’s e-commerce is valued at USD5bn and may reach USD10bn in the next four years, according to the Vietnam E-commerce Association (Vecom)
According to Vecom, Vietnam experienced over 25% growth in e-commerce last year and may have the same growth for 2018-2020 period. Revenue growth of retail e-commerce alone last year was 35%. The revenue growth rate of many delivery companies was from 62% to 200%.
Statistics from the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam show that the number of domestic transactions had a growth rate of 50% last year and growth rate of the total values was 75%. The affiliate marketing also experienced impressive growth as high as 200%.
A recent survey by the BSA centre showed that more people are shopping online, especially young people who are familiar with numerous shopping sites such as Lazada, Shopee and Tiki. Only 0.9% of asked people chose online shopping last year but the figure went up to 2.7% in the 2018 survey.
According to Nielsen, 23 million Vietnamese people often go online shopping and this number will continue to rise.
Vietnam still has many potential markets. Two biggest cities which are Hanoi and HCM City have 154,221 and 159,379 websites with .vn domain respectively. Other cities have much fewer websites. Danang has 7,685 and Thanh Hoa has 3,324 websites.
Nguyen Ngoc Dung, Vice President of Vecom, said it was because citizens in Hanoi and HCM City can access the internet and online-shopping more easily.
Dang Thuy Ha, Director of Consumer Insight of Nielsen Vietnam, said many people were still worried about the quality of the products and delivery time. The interfaces of many websites are also not user-friendly.
Both Alibaba and Amazon have launched their services in Vietnam, showing a positive to the customers and the developing market. However, domestic companies must also shape up for competition.
“The sellers must be honest when advertising. The websites must look beautiful. They must be user-friendly and easy to use to keep customers,” she said.
The third Taste of Australia, an annual event that promotes Australian food and beverages, has begun and this year also marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. We speak with Australia’s Assistant Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Mark Coulton.
After 45 years of relations, what is the status of trade, investment and tourism between the two nations?
I believe that we as two nations are as close together as we have ever been. After 45 years of diplomatic relations, we are now parts of ASEAN, we are part of the TPP11, but we also got our own strategic partnership signed by Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc in Australia two weeks ago. Our trade is growing, the number of students from either country going either way is at a high level. I think the two countries have become close friends over the years. Three hundred thousand people in Australia have direct Vietnamese heritage; we have these direct family links.
Tourism from Australia is growing rapidly. People I talked to who visited Việt Nam are very excited and enthusiastic about the Vietnamese holiday experience. Việt Nam has a really solid reputation in Australia as a tourist destination. We would like to see more as Việt Nam’s economy grows and more Vietnamese have higher incomes and can travel more. We encourage international tourists to go not to just big cities but also regional Australia. We have more work to do, but I think there is great potential.
We are seeing investment now. From my short visit over the last couple of days I see that there is a belief that there could be more investment from Australia. Australia has already had many successful companies doing businesses in Việt Nam. They are very fast-developed companies that are employing lots of local people. There is a lot more we can do to encourage Australian companies to invest here. It would be beneficial for both.
I am very comfortable here. Our relationship has matured, we are now not only partners but also friends. When people trust each other, that is a great basis for building trade and security. As we have seen in the last couple of weeks the trade relationship between countries like China and the US has been quite volatile. It is important that Việt Nam and Australia are seen as sensible trading nations and an example of a relationship built on trust.
Can you comment on the future of Vietnamese markets for Australian products?
Last night I was at the Taste of Australia gala, it was interesting to see a lot of Vietnamese dishes made with Australian produce. That is our strength: we can produce a lot of high-quality produce and high quality wheat or cotton. There is a real opportunity to grow those markets too.
Vietnamese fruits like longan and lychee are coming to Australia. How can more fruits enter Australia?
We are working on those fruits at the moment. Australia doesn’t have a lot of diseases that other countries have. We are very particular about the process that we put in place for imports. Longans are going through risk assessment. Hopefully for both of us these fruits can be imported and pose no risk to Australia.
Taste of Australia is an annual Việt Nam-wide celebration that promotes Australian food, beverages, culture and design to Vietnamese industry and consumers through a range of business, trade and public events. It highlights Australia’s vibrant culinary culture, world-class culinary education, and innovative agricultural expertise and the country’s reputation as a supplier of high-quality, safe and sustainable food and beverages.
Taste of Australia is a partnership between the Australian Government and producers, distributors, retailers, restaurants and organisations in both Việt Nam and Australia that showcases the best Australia has to offer.
The event, led by Vietnamese-Australian celebrity chef Luke Nguyen, takes place across Việt Nam’s major cities including HCM City, Hà Nội, Nha Trang and Danang from early April until the 22nd.
The e-commerce market has taken off in Vietnam thanks to booming internet usage and smartphone ownership, along with massive investments from key retail players, local media reported.
Vietnam is one of the world’s fastest growing e-commerce countries, according to Lai Viet Anh, Deputy Director of Vietnam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency (Vecita) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The country’s e-commerce is growing 35 percent per year, 2.5 times faster than Japan, he said.
The number of Vietnamese businesses capable of taking advantage of the internet and technology has grown 2.1 times faster than those with less use of the internet.
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that spend more than 30 percent of their budget on technological innovation are growing nine times faster than those spending less than 10 percent of their budget.
Vietnam’s e-commerce retail sales growth in the 2016-20 period is estimated at 20 percent per year, and the country’s total retail e-commerce sales is expected to reach 10 billion USD by 2020, Anh said.
However, e-commerce has faced several barriers deterring its sustainable development, including low consumer trust in products and services, and worries over online payment security.
In addition, most Vietnamese e-commerce websites provide only basic services, such as information about products and modes of payment. Services such as digital marketing optimisation and connecting online with offline sales need to be added.
Logistics is expected to be a game changer for the Vietnamese e-commerce market in 2018 as new entrants are coming in, and existing operators are expanding to improve their delivery services.
According to Kantar Worldpanel, a global expert in shoppers’ behaviour, the percentage of e-commerce shoppers grew from 5.4 percent to 8.8 percent in the largest four cities last year alone.
In light of this trend, many foreign logistics providers and e-commerce operators are making efforts not to miss an opportunity to provide e-logistics and meet the rapidly growing demand.
As e-commerce is growing at a robust pace, logistics providers have to come up with new business models to deal with a soaring number of frequent and small-size orders. They are investing in technology and infrastructure to counter the challenges from traffic congestion to failed deliveries, as well as the higher logistical costs in rural areas.
These dynamics will fuel some of 2018’s most important trends including customer collection points, designed for customers to receive an order from a designated collection point. Such collection points allow customers to pick up their orders at any time, without being required to wait at home.
DHL eCommerce launched a nationwide network of service points in Vietnam last November, with a plan to expand up to over 1,000 outlets by the end of next year. Similar to the concept of customer collection points, the firm uses the shop-in-shop model by opening DHL eCommerce counters in grocery stores, minimarts, and coffee shops.
Giao Hang Nhanh Company (GHN) also plans to extend its network of customer collection points in local shops, convenience stores and buildings. The last-mile delivery startup plans to reach 1,500 outlets by the end of 2018.
In the third quarter of 2017, Lazada launched its first automated sorting centre in HCM City, with its second centre was opened in the first quarter of 2018 in Hanoi. Lazada will also upgrade its existing sorting centre next year, tripling its sorting capacity.
