The Ministry of Transport plans to label energy certificates for new motorcycles which are manufactured, assembled and imported to Viet Nam.
This is a key content of a draft circular on energy labelling for motorcycles by the ministry’s Vietnam Register. The labelling is compulsory.
The producers must inform accurately about the vehicle’s fuel consumption according to an agreed measuring method. The volume of fuel consumption will be stated on the energy label on the vehicle to provide customers with this information when they purchase the vehicle. The volume will be registered and announced by the manufacturer, which will be under the inspection and certification of the management agency.
According to statistics, the total number of vehicles registered in police stations as of March 15, 2018 was 3.76 million cars and more than 55.1 million motorcycles nationwide. Motorcycles are the main means of transport in the country, and the annual growth rate is expected to increase by 10 per cent in the coming years.
Energy labelling programme has been implemented in many countries of the world, such as the European Union, the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China and India. In Southeast Asia, Singapore and Thailand are also implementing energy labelling.
In a draft project on motorcycle emissions control, the Ministry of Transport has proposed a roadmap for 2018-20 to complete legal documents and submit to the Government a draft decree on conditions for services of inspection of motorcycle emissions, which will add to the existing decree on administrative sanctions against violations of motorcycle emissions.
According to Prime Minister’s Decision No 04/2017/QD-TTg dated March 9, 2017, which stipulates the list of vehicles and equipment that must be labelled with energy and minimum energy efficiency as well as have a roadmap for energy labelling.
The roadmap for energy labelling for motorcycles is voluntary until December 31, 2019, and compulsory from January 1, 2020.
Bui Danh Lien, former chairman of the Transportation Association of Ha Noi, said that for new vehicles, manufacturers had announced the specifications of the car, including fuel consumption in the relevant technical documents, and they were responsible before the law for these parameters.
Sticking the energy label on fuel consumption is repetitive, unnecessary and wasteful, Lien told nguoilaodong.com.vn.
Nguyen Nam Hung, a resident of HCM City, who owns a seven-seat car and motorcycle, said the amount manufacturers or importers pay for the energy label would be added to the vehicle’s selling price, and as a result, customers would have to pay more for the vehicle.
Meanwhile, former director of the ministry’s transport department Than Van Thanh said energy labelling was the trend. The management body should apply it to locally-assembled vehicles first, and then draw from experience before applying the same rule to imported vehicles.
“This is needed to calculate the time to apply the labelling of energy. It must be in accordance with the economic conditions and the technical management level of our country to make it feasible,” said Thanh. — VNS
Vietnam has been forecast to have the fastest-growing convenience store market in Asia by 2021.
Ho Chi Minh City has proven to be a fertile land for convenience store chains, and many are planning to expand their businesses in Vietnam’s southern commercial hub.
The number of convenience stores in HCMC rose by 5.1 percent on-year in the first quarter of 2018 to over 1,800.
Convenience stores now cover more than 270,000 square meters of floor space in the city, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Vietnam said in its Q1 report on Vietnam’s property market.
The U.S-based real estate service provider said the number of stores in the city will continue to grow to cater for its 13 million inhabitants due to the entry of newcomers.
Vietnam is forecast to be the fastest-growing convenience store market in Asia by 2021 with a growth rate of 37.4 percent, according to new data released last Friday by international grocery research organization IGD, followed by the Philippines and Indonesia.
IGD said it is “forecasting high double-digit compound annual growth over the next four years in Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia based on the performance of the leading convenience store operators in each market.”
On the particularly strong growth tipped for Vietnam, Nick Miles, head of Asia-Pacific at IGD, said: “Convenience stores in Vietnam have become popular destinations for young consumers to shop and hang out, as the stores provide them with an air-conditioned environment, well-organized shelves and seating areas, high quality products and, in some stores, free Wi-Fi. It is also easier to get licenses for stores under 500 square meters, which is why retailers have been expanding to gain market share.”
Foreign chains are currently dominating the local market, making up 70 percent of total convenience stores in Vietnam.
American chain Circle K has around 250 stores, mostly in the country’s two biggest cities, HCMC and Hanoi.
FamilyMart, Japan’s second largest convenience store chain, has a combined 130 stores in Ho Chi Minh City, the nearby resort town of Vung Tau and Binh Duong Province.
Southeast Asian chains Shop&Go and B’s mart are running another 300 stores.
Vinmart, Vietnam’s leading property conglomerate Vingroup’s retail network, plans to open 3,000 convenience stores across the country.
In June last year, Seven & i Holdings, which operates Japan’s biggest convenience store chain 7-Eleven, opened its first outlet in HCMC.
South Korea’s GS Retail also plans to enter the market in the near future with the first outlet bearing its GS25 convenience store brand in HCMC.
Kyodo News quoted a company representative as saying that it plans to open 100 stores in Vietnam within three years and expand that number to 1,000 in the next decade.
Protests over takedown policy add to Facebook’s challenges in fast-growing region
A group of 50 human rights activists and independent media groups in Vietnam have written to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, accusing the social media platform of working with communist authorities to take down content and suspend accounts.
The open letter, released early on Tuesday, adds to a growing wave of controversy Facebook faces in south-east Asia, one of its fastest-growing regions, ahead of a US Congressional hearing at which Mr Zuckerberg is due to testify on Tuesday about data leakage.
The protest from Vietnam came even as civil society groups in Myanmar, who last week accused the social media platform of reacting too slowly to complaints of dangerous hate speech, released a response from Mr Zuckerberg in which he apologised and said Facebook had added dozens more Burmese-speaking reviewers to its staff.
Vietnam’s media and internet operate under censorship, and the country has jailed numerous bloggers and political dissidents. Its army last year announced the creation of Force 47, a 10,000-strong “cyber army”.
The signatories of the letter said “groups of government trolls” were coordinating mass reporting of activists’ accounts, and celebrating when Facebook took them down. The Vietnamese activists said they had been in contact with Facebook representatives “often” to try to ensure content remained online.
“Prior to 2017, your company’s assistance has been fruitful,” the letter to Mr Zuckerberg said. “Since last year, however, the frequency of takedown has increased and Facebook’s assistance has been unhelpful in restoring accounts and content.”
They said that before and during a major trial of Vietnamese human rights activists this month, “many accounts and pages of high-profile citizen journalists were prevented from posting”. A court in Hanoi sentenced six prominent human rights activists to long prison terms.
The letter writers said they were “dismayed” to learn that Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, had met with Truong Minh Tuan, Vietnam’s minister of information, in April 2017 and “reportedly agreed to co-ordinate in the monitoring and removal of content”.
In response, Facebook said that it was “committed to protecting the rights of the people who use Facebook” in keeping with its community standards, and to “enabling people to express themselves freely and safely”.
“We will remove content that violates these standards when we’re made aware of it,” the company said. “There are also times when we may have to remove or restrict access to content because it violates a law in a particular country, even though it doesn’t violate our community standards.”
Facebook also said that it had “a clear and consistent government request process”, which was no different in Vietnam than in the rest of the world.
Vietnam’s ministry of foreign affairs had no immediate comment.
The Vietnamese letter opens a new front of criticism against Facebook in Asia. In Myanmar and Sri Lanka, Facebook has been accused of responding too slowly to hate speech spread on its platform; in the Philippines and Cambodia, activists say it has allowed supporters of leaders with authoritarian tendencies to exploit it.
In Vietnam, however, the activists claim Facebook is working with authorities to prevent “openness and connectivity” in a country where free speech is suppressed.
Separately on Tuesday, six civil society groups that wrote to Mr Zuckerberg last week released a letter in which Facebook’s chief executive apologised “for not being clear about the important role that your organisations play in helping us to understand and respond to Myanmar-related issues”.
The groups complained last week after Mr Zuckerberg addressed in an interview an incident in September in which unknown actors used Facebook’s Messenger platform to send false terrorism warnings to thousands of people in the south-east Asian country.
In his response, dated April 6 and released on Tuesday, Mr Zuckerberg said in addition to employing dozens more Burmese-language reviewers the company was building artificial intelligence to help it better identify “abusive, hateful, or false content even before it is flagged by our community”.
Civil society groups responded by saying that Facebook’s “proposed improvements are nowhere near enough to ensure that Myanmar users are provided with the same standards of care as in the US or Europe”.
“When things go wrong in Myanmar, the consequences can be really serious — potentially disastrous,” the groups said.
India-based EPC firm Sterling and Wilson plans to build 300MW of solar PV plants in Vietnam by mid-2019.
The company said it was in advanced discussions with leading developers in the country for projects requiring investment of US$250 million.
Sterling and Wilson plans to hire local workers to construct and maintain the solar projects and aims to generate employment for nearly 600-700 people during construction and 50 people during the maintenance phase over 20 years.
The firm has already commissioned a 50MW project in the Philippines and is close to commissioning a 60MW project in Bangladesh. Its global portfolio stands at close to 5GW.
Bikesh Ogra, CEO, renewable energy and energy storage, Sterling and Wilson, said: “Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in the world with nearly 8-10% annual increase in power consumption by industries who are the largest consumers of electricity in the country. We are closely working with leading developers to join the larger aim of bringing affordable and clean energy to Vietnamese.”
Last week, Thai power firm Gulf Energy Development said it planned to build a 48MW solar project in Vietnam in partnership with conglomerate Thanh Thanh Cong Group (TTC Group).
On 07/04/2018, Eximbank held the Blood Donation Day at the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion with the message of “Thousand Hearts – One Kindness”.
The “Eximbank’s Blood Donation Day” in 2018 is a succession of the charity programs that Eximbank has carried out over the past years. This is a practically meaningful activity for the sake of the whole social community, contributing a source of blood for emergency care and prevention, especially when the medical industry is scarce of blood reserve.
Along with its business activities, Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) has always been aware of its responsibilities towards the society and community. The Eximbank’s Blood Donation Day program has been a success and all staff of Eximbank in the North Area have donated 150 blood units to the “blood bank” nationwide.
Her first time of blood donation
The country needs about 1,5 million blood units for emergency, treatment and reserve, but the blood supply only meets about 60% of the demand. Blood donation doesn’t have any negative impact on health, but it even helps to lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases, reduce iron overload, and make blood circulation faster. Blood donors are given periodic health checks, issued with certificate and prioritized for blood transfusion at no cost.
With the desire of bringing hope to the patients undergoing treatment at the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, giving them and their families more strength and confidence in the fight against diseases, Eximbank has called for all of its employees to join hearts in helping the patients with the opportunity to live / prolong their life by their own precious blood and kind hearts, and been well responded by staff all over Eximbank’s network.
An Eximbank’s employee is happily donating his blood to the unfortunate people
Apart from the above activity, Eximbank has also granted 30 gifts to the patients with difficult family circumstances who are being treated at the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion with the wish of “Lighting up hopes” that brings warmness, motivation and belief to the patients and their families to win over their diseases.
Through the Eximbank’s Blood Donation Day, we do not only wish to make essential contribution of more blood to the patients who are in need but also to educate and change people’s awareness of their social responsibility and sharing with the community.
The dilapidated Hang Day Stadium will be torn down at the end of the year to make way for a new sports complex.
Hang Day Stadium in Hanoi’s Dong Da District will be rebuilt under a deal signed by Vietnam’s T&T Group, which manages the stadium, and Bouygues Construction, a French firm, on March 27. The project will start at the end of the year at an estimated cost of $307 million, with T&T as the main investor.
The new stadium will be rebuilt to FIFA standards with a capacity of 20,000 people. It will be the second international stadium in Hanoi, after My Dinh Stadium in Tu Liem District.
The new stadium will feature several additional facilities, such as cinemas, event centers, parking basements and convenience stores, as shown in this artist impression.
An artist impression shows people walk on the stadium’s grounds.
An expected aerial view.
New sections for different sports, like basketball, will also be added to the new Hang Day Stadium.
Hang Day Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in the center of Hanoi. The stadium was first established for Hanoi’s École d’Education Physique (Hanoi’s School of Physical Education) in 1934. It was later expanded in 1958. In 2017, it was put under the management of T&T Group, a multi-disciplinary corporation involved in finance, real estate and agriculture. The group owns Hanoi FC who won the V-League in 2016.
Dozens of Uber drivers in Vietnam got together on Sunday outside the company’s office in Hanoi in one last show of solidarity before its planned shutdown the following day.
The drivers wore company uniforms, paraded along multiple streets in the Vietnamese capital, and took group photos during the emotional farewell.
Uber, which has sold its operations in Southeast Asia to rival Grab in return for 27.5 percent of Grab’s shares, shut down its ride-booking application in Vietnam at 12:00 am on Monday.
From April 9, all Uber rides in the country must be made via the Grab app, the company said in emails sent to users weeks earlier.
Bui Ngoc Linh, an Uber driver, smiles as she talks about the company on its last day of operation in Vietnam, April 8, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre
“I’m obviously saddened by Uber’s exit from Vietnam, since it’s my part-time job,” said Bui Ngoc Linh, an Uber driver who took part in Sunday’s parade.
“I have no intention of joining Grab at the moment because I’m still so madly in love with Uber. I will give myself more time to think about it,” she added.
Nguyen Dinh Giang, one of the oldest participants in Sunday’s parade, said he had completed over 8,200 rides for Uber.
“I make more than VND12 million [US$530] a month from partnering with Uber, so of course I’m sad that it is closing soon,” Giang said.
“I will wait and see which of the remaining ride-hailing companies offers the same, or better, benefits before deciding on which one to join,” he added.
Two Grab drivers (wearing green uniforms) film the parade staged by Uber drivers in Hanoi on the last day of the company’s operation in Vietnam, April 8, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre
“We’ve all been heartbroken since Uber made official announcements last month that it would exit Vietnam,” said Nguyen Anh Tuan, an Uber driver who joined Sunday’s parade.
VATO, an emerging player in Vietnam’s ride-booking market, has signed 5,000 new drivers over the past two weeks thanks to Uber’s exit, its CEO Tran Thanh Nam said.
Previously known as Vivu, VATO was rebranded to its current name after a whopping US$100 million investment from local passenger bus operator Phuong Trang.
Mai Linh, a leading taxicab operator that also runs its own app for hailing motorbike rides, would soon launch driver recruitment campaigns at universities in Vietnam to defend itself against Grab’s expansion.
“It’s a feeling of emptiness.”
Uber drivers join a parade in Hanoi on the last day of the company’s operation in Vietnam, April 8, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre
Uber drivers take a group photo outside the Thong Nhat Park in Hanoi after their parade on the last day of the company’s operation in Vietnam, April 8, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre
‘We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake.’
Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg swapped his trademark T-shirt and jeans for a dark suit and a purple tie on Monday as he met U.S. lawmakers to apologize for the social network’s misuse of its members’ data and to head off possible regulation.
His apologies precede two days of congressional hearings this week, where Zuckerberg will be asked how 87 million Facebook users’ data was improperly shared with a political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica.
He will also likely face questions about ads and posts placed by Russian operatives, in what U.S. authorities believe was an attempt to influence the U.S. 2016 election.
“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,” he said in written remarks released by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday. “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry.”
If Zuckerberg does not provide satisfactory answers this week, Congress is more likely to push new laws to strictly regulate Facebook. Anticipating such a move, the company has already said it favors new legislation that would make social networks disclose who is behind political ads, much as TV and radio stations must already do.
Tighter regulation of how Facebook uses its members’ data could affect its ability to attract advertising revenue, its lifeblood. Facebook shares closed up 0.5 percent on Monday. They are still down almost 17 percent from highs hit in January, amid a broader tech selloff, partly because of investor concerns about regulation.
Privacy issues
Zuckerberg traversed Capitol Hill on Monday surrounded by police and trailed by packs of reporters ahead of his scheduled appearance before three congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Zuckerberg held meetings with the top Republican and Democratic senators on the Commerce and Judiciary committees that will question him on Tuesday in a joint meeting. He faces further grilling from the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.
On Monday, he was pictured in one photo showing his mobile device to Senator Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. He did not respond to questions from reporters as he entered and left the building.
Nelson told reporters after the meeting: “The message I wanted to convey to him is that if we don’t rein in the use of social media, none of us are going to have any privacy anymore.”
He met Senator John Thune, the Commerce Committee’s Republican chairman, later in the day. He also met Chuck Grassley, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican chairman, and the leading Democrat on that committee, Dianne Feinstein.
Top of the agenda in this week’s hearings will be Facebook’s dealings with Cambridge Analytica, a London-based company that counts U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign among its past clients, or go-betweens. Cambridge Analytica has disputed Facebook’s estimate of the number of affected users.
Lawmakers are also expected to press Zuckerberg closely on the 2016 election, which he anticipated in his written testimony.
“It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm…” he said. “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.”
Zuckerberg’s testimony said the company was “too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference, and we’re working hard to get better.” He vowed to make improvements, adding it would take time, but he was “committed to getting it right.”
Facebook disclosed in September that Russians under fake names had used the social network to try to influence U.S. voters in the months before and after the 2016 election, writing about inflammatory subjects, setting up events and buying ads.
In February, U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 Russians and three Russian companies with interfering in the election by sowing discord on social media.
The company’s data practices are under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Online information warfare
Zuckerberg said in his testimony that Facebook’s major investments in security “will significantly impact our profitability going forward.”
Facebook has about 15,000 people working on security and content review, rising to more than 20,000 by the end of 2018, Zuckerberg’s testimony said. “Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits,” he said.
As with other Silicon Valley companies, Facebook has been resistant to new laws governing its business, but on Friday it backed proposed legislation requiring social media sites to disclose the identities of buyers of online political campaign ads and introduced a new verification process for people buying “issue” ads, which do not endorse any candidate but have been used to exploit divisive subjects such as gun laws or police shootings.
The steps are designed to deter online information warfare and election meddling that U.S. authorities have accused Russia of pursuing, Zuckerberg said on Friday. Moscow has denied the allegations.
A Facebook official confirmed that the company had hired a team from the law firm WilmerHale and outside consultants to help prepare Zuckerberg for his testimony and how lawmakers may question him.
After setting foot in the automobile manufacturing industry, Vingroup, the leading real estate group in the country, shows ambitions to jump into the $5.3 billion pharmaceutical sector.
Vingroup has just published on its website that it established Vinfa JSC and will spend VND2.2 trillion ($96.5 million) to develop a pharmaceutical manufacturing and research centre in the northern province of Bac Ninh’s Gia Binh district.
Accordingly, the first priority of the centre is studying and manufacturing oriental medicine remedies of Vietnamese origins to serve the domestic market and exports.
Besides, Vinfa will manufacture healthy food, vaccines, and medical equipment meeting international standards.
In addition, it will co-operate with partners from the US, Europe, and Australia to receive advice, technology, and import drugs to distribute in domestically.
Vinfa’s facility will be equipped with the most modern equipment and manufacturing lines in order to optimise the capacity of the centre as well as ensure product quality.
“Investing in the pharmaceutical manufacturing centre is part of the strategy to expand Vingroup’s operations in the medical sector with the aim of building a better life for Vietnamese people,” said Phan Thu Huong, chairwoman of Vinfa’s Board of Directors.
According to the plan, the centre is expected to come into operation in the third quarter of this year.
Vingroup is not the only enterprise setting foot in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector.
In March, at FPT’s annual general shareholders’ meeting, Nguyen Bach Diep, chairman of FPT Retail, announced plans to increase the Long Chau pharmaceutical chain to 400 units by 2022 with an annual average of 100 drugstore openings.
In early 2018, electronics retailer Digiworld mapped out its road to conquer the Vietnamese consumer goods market.
Accordingly, Digiworld JSC plans to boost its presence in the healthcare and consumer goods industries this year. The goal for 2018 is to earn at least VND200 billion ($8.78 million) in gross revenue from these two sectors.
The distributor plans to achieve this target by constantly rolling out new offers throughout 2018. Specifically, in the second quarter, Digiworld will introduce a series of children’s healthcare products that are imported from the US.
In December last year, Tran Kinh Doanh, a member of Mobile World Group (MWG)’s Board of Directors, confirmed that the company acquired Phuc An Khang Pharmacy. Later, MWG’s partnership launched a new brand name—An Khang Pharmacy.
Apple launched a new color for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus on Monday: Red.
A portion of the proceeds goes to fight HIV and AIDS.
It hits stores on Friday.
Apple launched a new color for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus on Monday. Now they come in a metallic red.
Previously, Apple’s iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus models only came in grey, silver, and gold.
The new devices start at $699 for a 64GB iPhone 8. They hit stores on Friday, April 13, and are available for pre-order on Tuesday.
The new iPhones also have one big change over last year’s red iPhone 7: A black front plate, which fans clamored for after last year’s red iPhone 7 model used a white front face.
Apple also launched a new leather iPhone X case in red. It costs $99 and goes on sale tomorrow.
A portion of proceeds from the new red iPhones will go towards grants that fight HIV and AIDS as part of Product Red, which Apple has partnered with since 2006. Apple said it has donated more than $160 million to the charity in a press release.
With his daring pho cocktail inspired by Vietnam’s signature beef noodle soup, Hanoi’s leading hipster bartender Pham Tien Tiep is hoping to elevate the drinking scene in a city better known for its raucous outdoor beer dens.
Though he leaves the meat out of his version of the national dish, the aromatics remain key ingredients: cinnamon, star anise, cardamom and fresh coriander, plus a generous splash of gin and triple sec for good measure.
The cocktail is a departure for denizens of Vietnam’s capital city, where cheap and cheerful open-air “bia hoi” beer markets reign supreme.
Beer is the beverage of choice for most Vietnamese drinkers, who downed 3.4 billion litres of the cold stuff in 2015 compared to 70 million litres of wine and spirits, according to an EU-Vietnam Business Network report.
“It was a bit hard for me to promote this, to beat the bia hoi or rice wine, but we are making it for a different level, it’s more luxury and more elegant,” Tiep told AFP at his cocktail bar, Ne, tucked away in Hanoi’s Old Quarter.
Tiep’s inspiration for the cocktail was his time working in a pho restaurant as a teenager. (Photo: AFP/James Duong)
He developed the cocktail six years ago while working at the French colonial-era Metropole hotel, inspired by his time working in a pho restaurant as a teenager.
Growing up poor, Tiep said there were days his family could barely afford a bowl of the noodle soup, typically made with beef or chicken, always heavy on herbs and fish sauce, and often slurped streetside.
“My life story belongs to street food because during hard times we didn’t have much money, we just had street food,” said Tiep, 30, wearing a denim and leather apron.
The award-winning bartender never imagined he would one day be slinging US$7 cocktails at his packed bar, a moody, slick spot that wouldn’t be out of place in Brooklyn or Berlin.
Tiep’s customers have mostly welcomed his novel take on the national dish.
“There are a lot of restaurants bringing street food to fine dining, so bringing street food to classic cocktail is … a way to bring street food to something new,” businessman Kien Phan told AFP, sipping on a custom-made drink.
Copycat pho cocktails have turned up on menus across Vietnam. (Photo: AFP/James Duong)
In a sign of Tiep’s success, copycat pho cocktails have turned up on menus across Vietnam, where the upscale bars have taken off in recent years – especially in the bustling southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City.
The cocktail scene is not the only domain to be invaded by the soup’s flavours: pho pizza, pho burrito and even pho ice cream have popped up on menus and foodie blogs around the world.
For his part, Tiep promises to keep pushing boundaries in the beverage world: he’s working on a pickle-flavoured tipple, and already serves a fish sauce-based drink called “Under the Bridge”.
Ne bartender Nguyen Tuan Anh hopes the creative cocktails will further boost the popularity of local food: “Through cocktails, we can promote Vietnamese cuisine around the world.”
The island district of Lý Sơn, 30km off the coast of Quảng Ngãi Province, will open a night market for tourists on the island in May
Vice chairwoman of the district’s People’s Committee, Phạm Thị Hương said that the night market will be located in front of Mường Thanh Lý Sơn Hotel in An Vĩnh Commune.
Hương said the market, which will run from 6pm until 10,30pm daily, will host 40 pavilions selling souvenirs, dried seafood and specialties of the island as well as an entertainment centre.
She said a lack of night entertainment and shopping service has hampered tourist attraction.
Last year, Lý Sơn Island and An Bình islet hosted more than 200,000 tourists.
The island has 18 hotels, guesthouses and homestays providing accommodation for 1,000 tourists at present.
The islanders of Lý Sơn offer local cuisine and garlic and onion farming experiences for tourists during a sea trip from Sa Kỳ port in summer.
Islanders harvest onions on Lý Sơn island, off the coast of Quảng Ngãi Province
Lý Sơn and a vast coastal area of Bình Sơn District are being considered as a site for a Global Geo-Park for approval by UNESCO.
It has been well-known as the ‘King of Garlic’ in Vietnam with 21,000 inhabitants, most of whom make their living from farming garlic and spring onions and fishing.
The islands and a vast coastal area of Bình Sơn District may receive Global Geo-Park recognition from UNESCO.
According to archaeologists, Lý Sơn Island is a dormant volcano. The terrain of the island was created from eruptions 25 to 30 million years ago, leaving landscapes with rocks, caves, cliffs, rock arches and a lake.
The island has abundant relics related to the Sa Huỳnh, Champa and Đại Việt (or Great Việt) cultures that existed on the island for thousands of years.
Islanders still preserve the annual Hoàng Sa festival to pay tributes to local men who enlisted in the Hoàng Sa flotilla hundreds of years ago.
The flotilla was set up under the Nguyễn dynasty to patrol the Hoàng Sa (Paracel) and Trường Sa (Spratly) archipelagos and salvage goods from the many wrecks, catch fish and maintain a Vietnamese presence over the area.
The festival, which includes a requiem for those who had died on the sea patrol missions, a procession of four supernatural creatures and the release of lanterns, has been recognised as the National Intangible Heritage.
If you drop into a bar after work in the Western world, most patrons unwind while quietly sipping a drink over subdued conversations with soft music in the background.
I was wandering around central Da Nang early one evening and heard a huge racket coming from a shop – someone won big in the lottery, family squabble, or a crime underway? It was really loud, then I could also hear a lot of clinking bottles and shouting, so as I turned the corner and the shop came into view I realized it was a bar!
Bullseye! Just what I was looking for!
If you drop into a bar after work in the Western world, most patrons unwind while quietly sipping a drink over subdued conversations with soft music in the background.
In Vietnam, the end of the afternoon atmosphere in a local bar is more like a hotly contested football match or a scene from a back room gambling den out of the movies. It’s hopping in all directions!
The customers laugh and roar, hollering out orders to the service crew on the fly. “Hey, bring us some ice and another plate of cold cuts!” The servers sprint around balancing all the orders and serving in record time, not a precious moment to spare.
The clientele was all men – in groups except for me. Sometimes I’ve visited with a local buddy or two but usually alone. Ironically, it’s where I do my best reflecting on life despite the noise and distractions. Also, if I go alone I always meet lots of people – or, better said – lots of people meet me.
The patrons are excited to be out of work with the gang, but also need to get home early, so they drink at a hearty pace and the noise level increased with every passing round of beer.
They usually order beer by the box of 24. Why bother fooling around with a few bottles at a time?
There is no menu or price list posted anywhere, but everyone knows what’s offered and at which price. There is no music nor television, and hardly anyone is looking at a smartphone. Occasionally a phone rings and someone jumps up from a table and sprints into the street away from the din, possibly to offer excuses: “Still working on that report honey, be home soon!”
Most of the staff are on consignment from a local beer company – several young women buzzing around in green uniforms, adding ice cubes to keep the beer chilled, serving food, and schlepping around those boxes of 24.
The patrons are seated in tiny plastic chairs at low tables, like little children in school. At first it seemed odd, but it creates an aura of intimacy and friendship because everyone is clustered around the low-slung table.
Those tiny plastic chairs look innocent enough but can be dangerous, particularly for oversized Westerners like me. One time I leaned back to get something out of my pocket and the rear legs collapsed in an instant – beer bottle catapulted in one direction, glass in another, plate of food yet another, and I ended up on the floor.
Customers and staff rushed over to pick me up off the floor and asked if I was OK. It sure is an easy way to meet new people and never be forgotten! They wanted to call an ambulance until I convinced them all I needed was a replacement for the beer.
I learned a lesson that day and since then put one chair on top of another so I get a double layer of stability.
Random people wander in and out: a cigarette promotion girl wearing a hairband shaped like bunny rabbit ears, several lottery vendors, then a snack vendor toting a basket who gets scolded by the bar owner. He doesn’t like competition in his place.
Featured food includes black preserved eggs, known locally as “bách nhật trứng” (100-day eggs) served with pickled onions, dried shrimp, and spicy chili peppers. The egg comes out smooth, a bit chewy, and rich, perfectly complementing the flavour of beer.
Another favourite is “mực khô,” dried octopus cut into strips. The mực khô stinks up the whole place with an aroma of fish sauce while being heated but don’t let that put you off. It’s about the same texture as a rubber tire, but it’s just right with some chili sauce, so don’t let that put you off either. Just be prepared for extensive gnawing and chewing – if you’re short of time best to skip the mực khô because it’s a long battle to get through it.
The most popular snack served is a plate of cured meats and fermented pork sausage meticulously wrapped and folded in banana leaves and served with raw garlic and a pepper/salt mix. It’s called “nem chua” – sour, pungent, spicy, and therefore delicious with a beer. Beats salted peanuts or chips every time.
And that’s when it usually happens: I order the nem chua, squeeze the head of garlic in my fist, then peel the first garlic toe and pop it in my mouth. By the time I unravel the nem chua from the banana leaves, dip it in the salt and pepper and bite off a chunk, a local has appeared by my side.
Nearby customers are watching me out of the corner of their eyes – very discreetly – but I can feel their glances, my senses now trained.
Is that white guy really going to eat the nem chua?
Damn right I do, as well as the raw garlic, just for good measure.
The customers are business people for the most part, so they’ve learned English in school, but maybe not had many chances to practice. Da Nang is still provincial so there are not that many Westerners in the city center, and practically none that go to the local Happy Hour Beer joints, so it’s a great opportunity to make contact.
This time a man pulled his chair up very close to mine and sat down, then out came the phone equipped with translation software, and away we went. The conversation was spirited yet choppy to say the least, but neither of us cared, it was fun to meet and make contact.
Many of these locals have never been outside Vietnam because international tourism is expensive for the average person, so they are doubly curious about life abroad.
The local man’s eyes widened as I explained that I’ve travelled extensively and lived in many parts of the world, and I see Vietnam is going great places and enjoying increased attention as a destination.
He looked at me in disbelief when I tell him the problem will be that Vietnam will become very popular so the challenge in the future will be to find new and interesting places to visit that are not overrun with foreign tourists. Domestic tourism has also skyrocketed as the living standard constantly inches up in Vietnam.
That’s just what he wanted to hear but I’m not sure he really understood all that progress comes at a cost, there will be pressure on infrastructure, services, and prices as time goes on.
I rhymed off a couple of meaningful statistics such as international tourist arrivals, which were up 25% in 2016 over 2015, and closer to 30% this past year over 2016.
At that rate, they’ll be 20 million foreign visitors annually in just a couple of years.
Things will change in a very big way in Vietnam – there is no way to avoid it if the number of visitors triples within the span of a few short years.
It’s naive to think that things won’t change because there is no way around it, but some traditions don’t die.
I’m quite sure we’ll still be able to enjoy nem chua and a cold beer in those little Happy Hour places in the coming years no matter how much Vietnamese tourism grows.
For many visitors to Tra Que Village, meeting its oldest living couple is a real privilege.
It is not because they rarely come out of their little house near a lagoon – they always show up when tourists stop at their vegetable farm. Rather, both of them are so old it is hard to believe they are still incredibly fit and astonishingly mobile.
Le Van So, 94, is a petite man with long white beard and short grey hair. His wife Nguyen Thi Loi, 88, is a smiley, lean-framed woman with no teeth.
Le Van So, 94, poses with his wife Nguyen Thi Loi, 88, inside their house in Tra Que, a small village on the edge of Hoi An that is known for its organic vegetables. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
They are probably the most popular couple in this small suburban neighbourhood on the banks of De Vong River, if not in the whole city of Hoi An where their portraits can be found on the walls of local restaurants.
Every day Le Van So and Nguyen Thi Loi wear their ‘non-la’ – Vietnamese conical hats – and brave the sun to show eager tourists around their manicured vegetable farm with unflagging energy. Both of them enjoy posing for selfies with visitors, whose presence makes them beam with pride over their produce – a diverse selection of aromatic herbs and fresh green vegetables grown without chemicals for restaurants in the city.
Le Van So, 94, and wife Nguyen Thi Loi, 88, pose for photographs in front of their vegetable farm in Tra Que Village. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
Nguyen Thi Loi and her husband owns an organic vegetable farm in Tra Que Village, a popular tourist attraction on the edge of Hoi An. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
“The vegetables from Tra Que Village taste better than those from other areas,” Le Van So said, while resting on a long wooden armchair next to his wife in their living room. Framed photographs of them laughing and smiling at each other hang on the walls.
“Our village is rich with alluvial soil. That’s why our vegetables are delicious.”
Tra Que Village is known for its high-quality, chemical-free vegetables. A lot of its produce is used in restaurants and households across Hoi An. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
Born to a family of farmers in Tra Que, Le Van So started farming at the age of 10. Like other villagers, he uses a kind of seaweed found in the river and lagoon to fertilise his vegetable beds.
According to the 94-year-old, the seaweed manure gives Tra Que’s vegetables richer aroma and a more distinctive taste compared to those grown elsewhere. Farmers use the seaweed all year round, mixing it with the soil and planting vegetables on top.
“Vegetables from Tra Que Village are the best and our farms are very popular among tourists,” Le Van So said. “Locals’ lives have also improved a lot.”
However, Le Van So and other residents of Tra Que Village did not take up organic vegetable farming until about 20 years ago, when the Vietnamese government redesigned the local landscape for community tourism.
From a rough terrain full of wells and ponds, the area was levelled and distributed to local residents who wanted to participate in the programme. Many families shifted their focus from rice cultivation to organic vegetable farming, which gradually grew into a popular tourist attraction in Hoi An.
An organic vegetable farm in Tra Que Village. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
The village is located about three kilometres away from Hoi An’s city centre and can be accessed by bicycles. Here, visitors can try their hand at farming in a traditional way with local families, take part in cooking classes using organic vegetables from the gardens or simply take a stroll around the cultivation area.
Since its introduction in 2000, community tourism has transformed not only the life of many residents of Tra Que but also their farming method.
Villagers in Tra Que only use natural products in their vegetable cultivation, including seaweed harvested from the river and lagoon. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
“We started using the seaweed as natural fertiliser instead of chemicals. Instead of using chemical pesticides, we spray our vegetables with natural products such as ginger, chili and garlic,” said farmer-turned-restaurant owner Le Van Bay.
“Thanks to the community tourism, vegetables here have become more valuable than before.”
Besides organic farming, the government-backed tourism programme has also brought the residents of Tra Que new business opportunities.
Nguyen Thi Loi in her organic vegetable farm. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
Le Van Bay’s restaurant is one of some 30 eateries that has cropped up in the village over the past two decades. He cooperates with tour agencies and welcomes up to 60 customers on a daily basis. Besides serving them organic Vietnamese food, he also offers a cooking class and foot massage with local herbs.
Income from selling organic vegetables and other tourism businesses has sent his four children to school and ridded his family of poverty.
“Life used to be so tough for us. Now, we’re much better off,” he said.
Across the road, a group of foreign tourists and their Vietnamese tour guide have just arrived at the old couple’s farm.
Le Van So and his wife pose for a selfie with a tourist. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
Spotting the visitors from their living room, Le Van So and Nguyen Thi quickly grab their hats and shuffle outside to greet their guests.
“You’re all very lucky today,” the tour guide said with a big smile on his face. “You get to meet the oldest living couple of Tra Que Village.”
Standing in front of their beautiful vegetable garden, the elderly couple’s faces crease into cheerful smiles as they get ready for selfies with the tourists.
Conglomerate Vingroup has announced its entry into the pharmaceutical industry with its Vinfa brand.
Along with pharmaceutical research, manufacturing, trading and export-import tasks, Vinfa will focus on the preservation, research and development of traditional Oriental medicines with origins in Vietnamese herbs.
Following the success of the Vinmec Medical System and realising the expansion plan in the healthcare sector, Vingroup has established Vinfa Joint Stock Company in the pharmaceutical business, along with an investment to build Vinfa Drug Research and Production Centre in Gia Bình District, Bắc Ninh Province. With a total investment of VNĐ2.2 trillion (US$97.7 million), the project’s first phase will be built in an area of nearly 10ha following international standards, including research, production, logistics and support works, according to Phan Thu Hương, chairman of the Vinfa’s Board of Directors.
With investment from Vingroup, the entire production process at Vinfa will be equipped with the latest and advanced technologies to optimise the efficiency and quality of pharmaceutical products.
The objective of the Vinfa Drug Research and Production Centre is to produce and sell good-quality Oriental and Western medicines to serve the domestic and export markets.
Vinfa will also focus on the production of health food, vaccines and medical equipment of international standards to better meet the high demand for healthcare and treatment of people.
In addition to exploiting the country’s precious herbal resources, Vinfa plans to promote co-operation with prestigious pharmaceutical production industries from the United States, Europe and Australia. The aim is to receive consultancy, technology and technical expertise as well as facilitate the import of raw materials and products.
The group says the operation and quality-control process at Vinfa will have three core criteria: best-quality products, highly skilled and dedicated staff and striving towards professionalism.
“The investment in the pharmaceutical production plant is considered a new step forward for Vingroup’s strategy of expansion in the healthcare sector to realise the mission of ‘Better Life for the Vietnamese’. Through Vinfa, we want to research, produce, import and export the best-quality products while preserving and developing precious medicinal herbs and traditional medicines of the country,” said Hương.
Construction of the drug research centre is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2018.
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According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 80 per cent of the world’s population use traditional medicine, especially herbal products, including developed countries. In Việt Nam, medicines from local herbal plants account for at least 30 per cent. The country has nearly 4,000 of more than 12,000 flora species, many of which are considered rare, such as Ngọc Linh ginseng, Vũ Diệp ginseng, Hoàng Liên Sơn Panax pseudoginseng.
However, despite its abundant source of medicinal herbs, Việt Nam is still in the group of 17 countries that have a developing pharmaceutical industry (pharmerging countries), with nearly 55 per cent of the country’s drug demand being met by imports. Việt Nam especially has to import large quantities of specific drugs that are patented and costly.
In 2016 alone, Việt Nam imported some US$2.5 billion worth of pharmaceutical products, with nearly $200 million worth being imported from France, Germany and the United States.
(According to a report of the Vietnam Industry Research and Consultancy Joint Stock Company).
