With the rise in mobile phone production, imports of the devices in the country also reduced to less than half in 2017-18
India is now the second largest mobile phone producer in the world after China, as per information shared by Indian Cellular Association with Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
“We are happy to inform you that with the strenuous and calibrated efforts of government of India, ICA and FTTF, India has now emerged as the second largest producer of mobile handset by volume,” ICA National President Pankaj Mohindroo said in a letter to both the union ministers on March 28.
ICA referred to data available from market research firm IHS, China’s National Bureau of Statistics and Vietnam General Statistics Office.
According to the data shared by ICA, annual production of mobile phones in India increased from 3 million units in 2014 to 11 million units in 2017.
India replaced Vietnam to become second largest producer of mobile phones in 2017.
With the rise in mobile phone production, imports of the devices in the country also reduced to less than half in 2017-18.
“We are also happy to inform you that our completely build units as percentage of domestic market has now come down from 78 per cent (2014-15) to 18 per cent (2017-18),” Mohindroo said.
The fast track task Force, a body under Ministry of Electronics and IT, has set target to achieve around 500 million mobile phone production in India by 2019, with value estimated to be around USD 46 billion.
The FTTF, which has members from industry and government, has set target to create USD 8 billion component manufacturing as result of growth in mobile phone production and create 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs by 2019.
The body has set the target to export 120 million mobile phone units with an estimated value of USD 1.5 million by the end of next year.
“As long as we bring the right focus on exports, we will be able to achieve these numbers,” Mohindroo said.
There is no law that requires Facebook continue to be the dominant social media app in our lives.
The history of social media is a history of apps that have eventually stagnated and mostly disappeared.
The environment is sending negative signals about engagement, users, advertising, the stock, and regulation.
Investors sense blood in the water. “We are admittedly struggling to identify a catalyst to change the narrative,” Barclays analyst Ross Sandler said recently.
I opened up Facebook the other day and the top post in my news feed was from a friend I haven’t seen in more than 10 years. She was asking if anyone could recommend a doctor in a Southern seaside town 80 miles from where I live. “Does anyone know a good osteopath?” she wrote, “I’m in agony and mine has left the area! Thanks x”
My friend got lots of advice on a new physician, but I breathed a heavy sigh: This isn’t fun. This isn’t what I come here for. This isn’t the vital, exciting, surprising – often enraging – experience that Facebook used to be, when news and people’s reactions to news dominated the news feed.
It was boring.
Yet, this is exactly how Mark Zuckerberg’s wants Facebook to work now. Since he decided at the beginning of this year to dial down posts from news organizations and boost content from friends and family, the content that is increasingly dominating my Facebook – and yours – is hyperlocal, personal, and … trivial.
On his most recent earnings call, Zuckerberg acknowledged the change would have a negative effect on the amount of time people spend with the app. “I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down as a result,” he said. “We estimate that these updates decrease time spent on Facebook by roughly 5% in the fourth quarter.”
Since he uttered those words on January 31, Facebook stock has been in a jagged decline, from $187 per share to $160, down 14%.
It’s premature to talk about “the end of Facebook,” of course. The company has 2 billion users. It is not MySpace.
But there is no law of physics that requires Facebook continue to be the dominant social media app in our lives. In fact, the history of social media is that all these apps eventually experience some sort of decline or stagnation, often as new ones come along but sometimes simply because the masses decide one platform is suddenly uncool, and they move away. TheGlobe.com, Friendster, Path, Livejournal, YikYak, Secret, Tumblr. Twitter and Snapchat have both seen their user-base growth slow.
Is that what we’re looking at now, the end of Facebook, at least as a dominant force in our lives?
Wall Street now expects Facebook to be regulated
The environment contains some severe negatives:
Negative signal on advertisers: In an attempt to rein in some of the outrage around the way Facebook harvests data from users and sells it, Zuckerberg also announced he would end the “Partner Categories” program that allows advertisers to target users based on their own third-party data. It’s likely that Partner Categories was not a big business for Facebook, but nonetheless it still represents a pulling-in of the horns.
Negative signal on engagement: If Zuck’s turn away from news in the news feed further reduces engagement, look for the stock to be punished anew after the next earnings call.
Negative signal on US regulation: Zuckerberg now says he expects to be regulated. “I actually am not sure we shouldn’t be regulated. I think in general technology is an increasingly important trend in the world. I think the question is more what is the right regulation rather than ‘yes or no should we be regulated?'” Wall Street also expects that to happen.
Negative signal on the stock: Zuckerberg’s voting control of the stock – even as he personally sells down his stake in the company – means Facebook is his personal kingdom. It is not a company primarily interested in performing for its investors. And Zuckerberg makes mistakes.
Negative signal on users: #DeleteFacebook became a trend a few days ago. When that trend hit Uber a while back it lost 5% of its market share in weeks.
Again, none of these moves are likely to “kill” Facebook, but they could certainly take the shine off it to an extent that it becomes like email. Something that everyone has, but you try to limit your use of it.
This is the defining issue among stock analysts right now. “We are admittedly struggling to identify a catalyst to change the narrative from regulatory back to innovation,” Barclays analyst Ross Sandler and his team told their clients recently.
Most analysts rate the stock a “buy.” But they hate the story.
“It’s unlikely many users fully comprehend the magnitude of personal data Facebook and others have aggregated”
“A recent survey indicated 79% of consumers in the EU didn’t know that GDPR was coming, but once informed, 82% of them said they plan to take advantage of their new rights (i.e. to see, limit, or erase their data). This, combined with the continued public scrutiny around data privacy speaks to how there is a negative feedback risk that users will choose to materially reduce FB’s access to their data,” Morgan Stanley’s Brian Nowack and team told their clients.
Worse may yet be to come. The Cambridge Analytica scandal is a big deal not because anyone did anything illegal but because most consumers are clueless as to how much data – and therefore power – Facebook has on them. And when they find out they do not like it.
“What users chose to share with Facebook is only a small portion of what the company knows about its users. The company aggregates tons of data, from third-party brokers and ad tech companies (e.g Liveramp), to put together a
startlingly deep picture of users,” says Lloyd Walmsley and his Deutsche Bank team. “It’s unlikely many users fully comprehend the magnitude of personal data Facebook and others have aggregated.”
That could drive further regulation – another negative – against Facebook.
“It is clear that the extent to which data has been collected and the way it has been used is a big surprise to consumers. If anything, this has the potential to be more pernicious either because (a) it drives a consumer backlash against the online players or, worse, (b) it is a catalyst for tighter regulation in the US (perhaps along the lines already on the cusp of being implemented in the EU),” Thomas Singelhurst and the team at Citi told their clients.
Banks are going to new lengths to attract and retain customers with mobile features.
In BI Intelligence’s Mobile Banking Competitive Edge study, 83% of respondents said they use mobile banking. And banks are investing in mobile banking capabilities at unprecedented levels: Bank of America tripled its 2015 mobile banking budget in 2016, and maintained it through 2017, for example. Cutting-edge banking services are “table-stakes to attract and retain customers,” according to Michelle Moore, Head of Digital at Bank of America.
BI Intelligence’s first Mobile Banking Competitive Edge Report identifies which mobile banking and emerging features are most important to consumers when choosing a bank. The study ranks the largest 15 banks and credit unions in the US by whether they offer the mobile features that customers say they care most about. The report helps channel strategists choose which features they should focus their attention on, and lets them see how they compare to rival banks in offering those features.
This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service. This report is exclusively available to enterprise subscribers.
This study uses exclusive data from the BI Insiders Panel (BIIP), an exclusive online community of 17,000 of our readers from all over the world. Designed to be a leading-edge indicator of what’s next in digital, BIIP members tend to be affluent, tech-savvy early adopters. This means that the BIIP community is an especially sensitive indicator of what consumers will buy and adopt, as well as what behaviors, devices, and platforms will be the winners in digital disruption.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
Wells Fargo leads the pack. The bank offers in-demand mobile transfer capabilities, along with competitive features related to security and mobile wallets. USAA follows closely behind in second. Bank of America and Citi are tied for third, and Capital One rounds out the top five.
Mobile transfers are the most in-demand mobile features. Transfers are the most important category of features to consumers when choosing a bank, according to our study. The most in-demand feature in this study, instant transfers, is in this category. Transfers also include bill pay, international transfers, and peer-to-peer (P2P) payments.
Post-Equifax, consumer interest in security tools is high. Security and control was the second most popular category in the study. Gen Xers value several features in this category — such as setting travel notifications and mobile access to ATMs — more than millennials.
Interest in advanced mobile banking account access is poised to jump. The account access section, the third most popular in this study, includes features like biometrics and account aggregation. With Face ID giving customers a new way to log in to banking, interest in the group of features will likely rise.
In spite of lagging adoption, interest in mobile wallets is still healthy. This category weighs not only whether banks support provisioning their cards in each of the popular wallets, but if they offer their own bank-branded wallets. Our study shows consumers rank support of third-party wallets as much more important than banking solutions.
Conversational features have the lowest demand in the study. The voice- or chatbot-based banking tools in the category are desired by only a small fraction of consumers. Instead of using the features to attract new customers, banks are exploring offloading costly transitional conversations with live support staff to AI.
In full, the report:
Shows how 32 mobile features stack up according to how important consumers say they are for choosing a new bank.
Ranks the top 15 banks on whether they offer each of those features.
Analyzes how demographics effect demand for different mobile features.
Provides strategies for banks to best attract and retain customers with mobile features.
The full report is available to BI Intelligence enterprise clients. To learn more about this report, email Senior Account Executive Chris Roth (croth@businessinsider.com). BI Intelligence’s Mobile Banking Competitive Edge study includes: Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Fifth Third, HSBC, Key Bank, Navy Federal Credit Union, PNC, SunTrust, TD, US Bank, and USAA.
Banks in Ho Chi Minh City are raising the bar on real estate loans to stop a property bubble resulting from hiking land prices on the outskirts.
Loans taken out for investment in real estate in District 9 and the rural districts of Can Gio, Cu Chi and Hoc Mon in Ho Chi Minh City – where land prices have gone through the roof in recent months – are subject higher interest rates and stricter loan conditions, according to the local branch of Vietnam’s central bank.
Hien, a resident in Ho Chi Minh City who wanted to borrow VND1 billion (US$44,000) to invest in real estate, said she was only allowed a favorable interest rate of 8.8 percent a year for half of the loan.
The remaining half, she said, would be lent for 10.7 percent a year, with additional binding conditions barring her from paying off the loan early.
“Before, I would be able to take out the entire loan for a favorable interest rate,” Hien said.
Apart from a few major state-owned banks which still provide loans for 8-9 percent a year, most commercial banks in the city have raised interest rates to up to 12.5 percent for lending in commercial real estate.
This number represents a two-percentage-point rise from previous years.
A man introduces a piece of land in District 9, Ho Chi Minh City to a prospective buyer. Photo: Tuoi Tre
According to Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam, lenders have grown more cautious in reviewing loan requests in the real estate sector in view of recent land price hikes in the city’s outlying districts.
Bankers tend to approve loan amounts of around half the property’s value, give or take 20 percentage points, instead of the full amount as before, Minh said.
Some banks even refuse to accept the property bought with borrowed money as collateral, and require the loan taker to put an existing property up for mortgage.
“Investors rely on bank loans, so tightened lending standards would prevent speculative investments into the real estate sector,” said D., an experienced property investor in Ho Chi Minh City.
Nguyen Xuan Loc, general director of Techcomreal, the realty business of Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank), asserted the move is necessary to prevent a land and housing bubble that is forming in the city.
“If banks give out loans carelessly, it would be a huge problem when the market freezes,” Loc said.
Customers carry out transactions at a bank in Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre
$11.46 billion in outstanding loans
Lending in the real estate sector makes up 10.8 percent of Ho Chi Minh City’s total outstanding loans as of Friday, according to Minh, the deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam.
By the end of 2017, the absolute amount of outstanding loans in the southern hub had been VND1.75 quadrillion ($76.83 billion).
This translates to around VND198 trillion ($8.69 billion) in outstanding loans in the real estate sector.
However, there is also an ‘unofficial’ amount of lending used for property purchase being disguised as consumer loans.
According to experts, this constitutes 28.7 percent of consumer loans taken out in the city, equivalent to around VND63.14 trillion ($2.77 billion).
If this number is counted, there are currently around VND261.14 trillion ($11.46 billion) in total outstanding loans in the real estate sector in Ho Chi Minh City.
A newly graduated preschool and primary school teacher receives an average VND3.2 million ($150) a month, far below the income of a taxi motorbike driver or a sidewalk ice tea seller.
A young preschool teacher receives VND3.2 million a month in salary, while a high school teacher or a university lecturer with 18-year experience receives VND8.5 million. A factory worker who finishes high school can earn more money than a teacher finishing university.
There are 39 officers and teachers at the Hoa My Kindergarten in Ha Dong district in Hanoi. On the payroll that the school’s headmaster Tran Thi Thanh Nhan showed to reporters, about 10 teachers had a monthly salary of around VND3 million. Nhan said these are young teachers who have been working for several years.
Duong Cam Nai at Hoa My Kindergarten
A newly graduated preschool and primary school teacher receives an average VND3.2 million a month, far below the income of a taxi motorbike driver or a sidewalk ice tea seller.
Duong Cam Nai is one. She began working there in 2012, after finishing Ha Tay Pedagogical Junior College.
Nai said she had only VND1.6 million in the first month of working. Later, after passing the civil service examination, she got higher wages. After five years of work, she now receives VND3.3 million a month, including allowance.
Nai has to pay VND1 million to pay for her son, who goes to a state-owned primary school. The fuel for motorbike costs her VND100,000 a week. The remaining VND1.9 million is spent on diapers and milk for the second child.
“I have to go to school without breakfast often. And I dare not make mobile calls unless it is very necessary. Luckily, I don’t have to spend much money on clothes, because I wear a uniform at work,” she said.
Nai said teaching at preschool is a hard job. As she has to be present at work at 7.15 am, she has to get up at 5.30 am to prepare breakfast for children before leaving home at 6.30 am. She never gets home sooner than 7 pm.
Nai and her family have been living with parents-in-law. “My husband is a phone repairer. As our income is modest, we still need support from parents,” Nai explained.
Nguyen Thi Hoai, an informatics teacher at a secondary school in Hanoi with 3-year experience, also receives VND3.2 million a month.
Despite the low wage, she has to travel 13 kilometers a day from home to school, where she has to undertake a lot of work – from teaching to organizing events, taking care of students and running the school’s website.
Fire-fighting police in districts throughout HCM City are working with investors and managers of apartment buildings to strengthen fire-prevention measures at all high-rises and apartment buildings in the city, following a fire at the Carina Plaza apartment complex in District 8 that killed 13 people and injured 50 on March 23.
Since March 24, fire-fighting police in Tan Binh District, for example, have been checking fire alarms, emergency sprinkler systems, and other fire-prevention devices at many high-rises.
In Tan Phu District, residents at the Phu Thanh apartment building were informed about a similar check which took place from March 26 to 28. On March 25, firefighting police engaged in fire-prevention and fire-safety training at the building.
On March 24, residents were shown how to escape down the stairs and exist safely during a drill at an older apartment building on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street in District 3.
Tran The Thuan, chairman of the District 1 People’s Committee, said that fire-prevention systems at 161 apartment buildings in the district had recently been checked.
At a press conference yesterday, Colonel Nguyen Minh Thong, chief of the investigative police division’s secretariat, said that the cause of the Carina Plaza fire was from a motorbike parked in the basement, Thong said. No one had noticed the small fire and within slightly more than 13 minutes the fire had quickly spread.
“If this fire had been discovered quickly, a small fire extinguisher could have put it out,” he said.
An initial investigation showed that the apartment complex’s fire alarms and the sprinkler system did not operate.
“Residents only knew about the fire thanks to shouts from others,” Truong Huy Bang, who was living on the 12th floor of the building, told Viet Nam News Agency.
The HCM City Police on March 26 started criminal proceedings in the case of the Carina Paza fire.
City leaders have asked the District 8 People’s Committee to work with the investor of the Carina Plaza apartment complex to provide assistance to victims and residents, including fees for room rentals.
Of 120 fires occurring in the first three months in the city, the Carina Plaza fire was the most severe, according to the city’s People’s Committee report. Of the total number of fires this year, there have been a total of 15 fatalities.
A fire alarm is tested at an apartment building in Tan Binh District. — VNS Photo Chi Cong
Precautions
HCM City Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan has asked fire-fighting police to submit a report on the status of fire-prevention equipment and procedures at the Carina Plaza building.
More fire drills and guidance on how to exit buildings safely should be carried out at the building, he said.
The Ministry of Construction is also working with the city’s Department of Construction to check all apartment buildings in the city and require buildings’ investors to solve all shortcomings.
The ministry has urged developers, builders and partners to follow technical standards for construction of apartment buildings.
Sr Lt Col Nguyen Thanh Huong, acting director of the Fire Fighting and Prevention Police Department, said the department would provide further guidance to residents on rescue methods and ways of escape.
He urged the public to report violations of fire regulations and to call 114 to report a fire.
According to the department’s figures, seven apartment buildings in the city that do not follow fire-safety regulations have people living in them.
Last year, a department report found that several apartment buildings in the city had yet to be checked by the department but investors had continued to allow people to buy apartments before or during construction.
Of the buildings that were checked, the department found that many had fire equipment but they were not used properly, and alarms did not operate, according to the report.
The department noted in its report that it faced challenges because the radius of operation is too wide between fire-fighting police divisions in the city’s 24 districts.
Last year, the city’s total of six firefighting divisions were responsible for managing two districts each, and it took time for fire trucks to access fires, according to the department.
Speaking at a meeting held yesterday, Nguyen Thanh Phong, chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, said that fire-safety activities had been carried out in the city, but effectiveness had been low.
Today, the committee is holding a conference on fire prevention and fighting at apartment buildings and high-rises.
Vo Van Hoan, chief of the committee’s secretariat, said that HCM City Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan had ordered a review and the publication of a list of apartment buildings, to be classified as fire-safe, less safe or unsafe.
“This announcement will help investors pay more attention to fire safety and residents can also take the initiative in improving things,” Hoan added.
Low public awareness
Residents in apartment buildings have a low awareness about fire-prevention regulations and procedures, according to Le Xuan Minh of the fire-fighting police in Tan Phu District.
He said exit doors should not be blocked with stones because smoke can pass through the openings to higher floors, leading to suffocation.
Huong of the Fire Fighting and Prevention Police Department said that suffocation was the cause of death for 11 of the 13 ill-fated victims at the Carina Plaza fire.
An inspection also showed that cigarette ash was found in the buildings’ basement, which had more than 1,500 parked motorbikes and cars.
In other buildings in the city, far too many cars and motorbikes are parked in small spaces, such as in the Phu Thanh Building in Tan Phu District. This can block fire trucks from entering the building grounds, Minh said.
A fire extinguisher is installed at an apartment building in Tan Phu District. — VNS Photo Gia Loc
Rush for fire-prevention devices
After the deadly Carina Plaza fire, many city residents began looking for high-quality face masks, blankets, clothes and drop ladders.
A resident living on the 10th floor of Phu Thanh Building said he did not know where he could purchase high-quality items. He said he also wanted to install a rope-and-pulley system.
A female resident of the Truong Sa B1 apartment building in Binh Thanh District, who declined to be named, said that she would buy drop ladders and look for information about fire prevention on social media.
Other residents are also paying more attention to such devices. Over the last few days, purchases of fire-prevention items rose by 30-40 per cent compared to normal days, according to the Centre for Fire-Prevention Devices.
Minh of the fire-fighting police in Tan Phu District suggested that residents install a rope-and-pulley system if they can afford the cost, which is at least VND10 million (US$438).
However, he said they should ask for guidance from the seller on how the system should be properly installed, and should avoid fake products by doing research about sellers and products.
Lieutenant Colonel Huynh Quang Tuyen, deputy head of the HCM City Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Deparment’s Advising Office.
What are your challenges in checking for fire safety in such locations?
Every year the Fire Fighting and Prevention Police Department can only inspect an apartment building four times and commercial buildings once. The building management has to inspect the fire safety equipment by itself the rest of the year. If we are to do unannounced checks, we would need complaints from residents or orders from higher-ups. Otherwise, before every inspection we have to inform the buildings three days in advance so that usually some would try to cover up their flaws temporarily.
It is, however, difficult to verify that fire fighting and prevention equipment are working properly because at the time of inspection the systems and equipment are still operational, meaning we have no right to order them to replace them.
It is not regulated by law to order apartment developers to replace fire fighting and prevention equipment unless it is out of order.
The problem is most apartment developers install fire fighting and prevention equipment for the sole purpose of dealing with inspections instead of for the safety of the people living in the apartment.
There are constant false fire alarms in some apartments, causing the apartment management as well as residents to gradually lose awareness of the potential risk. They even shut down the fire alarm system. It matters since when a fire does occur, it will have serious consequences.
It is common for most apartment developers to hand over the apartments to buyers for use even before the apartment has been checked for fire fighting and prevention.
However, under the current law on fire fighting and prevention, the above act only attracts a maximum fine of VND80 million (US$3,524). It won’t be subject to further sanctions unless the owners repeat the act with serious consequences.
In addition, we cannot really force them to comply. Earlier we could work with different sectors such as electricity and water to cut off offenders’ power and water supply to force them to comply with the regulations, but now we cannot. Since the maximum penalty is too low, some apartment owners just pay the fine and let residents in. The fine amount is nothing compared to the compensation they have to pay thousands of buyers if their contracts are infringed. Also dealing with violations is not easy since it involves working with other departments and sectors.
What will the fire police do to force apartment developers to be more responsible about fire safety?
Different departments need to work together and propose methods to discipline irresponsible apartment developers. It is also important to educate people about laws regarding fire safety and fire safety-related skills through the media besides not using any buildings without a complete fire safety system.
Vo Van Hoan, chief of the city’s People’s Committee’s secretariat
The city will increase the number of inspections of fire-safety regulations at residential buildings and apartments to raise awareness about fire prevention and fire-fighting among locals and enterprises.
Fire-safety handbooks will be provided to all households in the city, especially in apartment buildings.
Regulations on construction management as well as fire prevention and safety will be publicised, and the city authority will also publicise procedures dealing with the handling of investors who fail to meet fire safety standards.
Working for Uber was the main jobs for many Vietnamese drivers and they are now worried about being unemployed after Grab announced on March 26 that it had acquired Uber’s operation in Southeast Asia.
Many drivers in Vietnam borrowed millions of VND to buy cars to work for Uber and are still in debt. Nguyen Duc Hiep, an Uber driver, said he was paying a monthly installment of VND8.5m (USD372) for a VND365m car. Hiep worked for Grab previously but his account was deleted after he violated a contract term. “I was earning about VND1m a day. But I don’t know what to do now since Grab does not reopen the deleted accounts,” he said.
He may have to find work at traditional taxi firms or sell the car and incur some VND100m (USD4,400) loss.
Driver Bui Quyet from Hanoi said he had received the notification from Uber on March 26. According to Quyet, those had borrowed money to buy cars are worried over the service fee rates. Uber took 20% from drivers while Grab will take 28.36%. Such rate will result in low profits, especially for short trips, and he will not have enough money to pay fuel, maintenance and bank interests.
Meanwhile, Grab taxi motorbike drivers worry about fierce competition among themselves due to the sudden increase of drivers. According to some drivers, the number of people borrowing money to work for Grab and Uber in the future will decrease and the number of part-time drivers will rise.
Nguyen Cong Hung, head of Hanoi Taxi Association, said Grab might monopolise the market after the acquisition.
On March 29, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong said Grab’s acquisition was legal. Talking about the drivers’ call for help, Dong said they were willing to work with drivers and answer their questions.
“When the drivers decide to invest in their cars, they didn’t research thoroughly enough. The government can’t decide for them whether they should buy the cars or not. The role of the authorities is to manage how the cars will run and the fares,” he said.
Uber Technologies sold the business in Southeast Asia for a 27.5% stake in Grab on March 26. Uber also closed all of their offices but hasn’t guided their partners on how to switch to the new app.
A dealer had offered him $446 for the green sea turtle but he turned it down.
A Vietnamese fisherman released a rare turtle back into the ocean on Wednesday after snaring it off the central coast of Ha Tinh Province despite being offered a large sum of money for the creature.
The incident was reported on Thursday by the management committee of Ha Tinh’s fishing ports.
Nguyen Van Truong said a dealer had offered him VND10 million ($446) for the green sea turtle (chelonia mydas), but he had refused. Vietnamese’ average annual income is $2,385.
“Turtles are endangered animals so I want to release it back into the sea and play a part in the conservation of the species,” he said.
Truong received help from local authorities to free the marine creature back into its natural habitat.
This isn’t the first time a rare sea animal has been saved by compassion in Vietnam. In August 2017, fishermen in the central province of Quang Tri released a member of the same turtle species that had become trapped in their net.
The species is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Just recently, four chelonian species in Vietnam were listed among the world’s 25 most endangered tortoises and freshwater turtles. The list was published by the IUCN’s Turtle Conservation Coalition in its quadrennial report.
Vietnam is home to green, hawksbill, loggerhead, leatherback and olive ridley sea turtles, all of which are listed in the country’s Red Book for rare and protected wildlife. The country outlaws the hunting or trade of any of the five species.
These delicate morsels pack a tasty and beautiful punch.
Snails might be considered a bizarre snack in some countries, but in central Vietnam, these tiny, colorful seashells are parts of the local cuisine.
These little snails, or oc ruoc in Vietnamese, are farmed at the end of spring and in early summer. They wash up on the beach naturally, but to catch large quantities, fishermen need to go further out to sea and scrape them from the seabed using nets.
Oc ruoc are popular in coastal provinces such as Quang Nam, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen, from where they are delivered to markets in Ho Chi Minh City. The snails are then boiled with lemongrass, chili and salt. The colorful shells retain their beauty after being boiled, with all the intricate texture.
A can of snails costs 15,000VND ($0.6). Photo by Ngoisao.net
Getting the snails out of their shells is no easy task for beginners. Experienced eaters know that a special tool is required for this delicate work. “It’s best to use a pomelo thorn to pluck the snails out. The thorns give the snails a good smell,” said one vendor.
Oc ruoc taste like the ocean, with their salty, chewy texture. However, like many other Vietnamese dishes, they are not complete without a good dip, usually a mixture of fish sauce, chili, lemongrass and garlic. The unique taste can be easily ruined with sand if the chef doesn’t soak them in water for long enough before boiling. For most people, a cold beer is the finishing element.
Snails need to be picked out with a special tool, usually a pomelo thorn. Photo by Ngoisao.net
Vietnam will place No 103 in April’s world ranking after their 1-1 draw against Jordan at the 2019 Asian Cup qualifier in Amman on Tuesday.
The draw brought Vietnam 38 points for a total of 331 points and helped the team close in on the top 100, a leap of 10 steps forward.
Head coach Park Hang-seo promised to make Vietnam one of the 100 strongest squads in the world when he took charge of the team last October.
With the new ranking, which will be announced on April 12, Vietnam are still No. 1 in the ASEAN, followed by the Philippines and Thailand.
The new position places Vietnam in group three of seeds, together with Iraq, India, Uzbekistan, Qatar and North Korea, at the Asian Cup final next January in the United Arab Emirates.
The Philippines and Thailand also join Vietnam in the UAE tournament, but they are not seeded.
A draw ceremony will be held on April 5 in Dubai. The Cup will be held in eight stadiums across four cities from January 1 to February 1 with the participation of 24 squads.
This will be the second time that Vietnam take part in the continental tournament. Last time, in 2007, the team entered the quarter-finals.
Vertex Ventures, Grab’s first investor, told that the startup will not monopolise the Vietnamese ride-hailing market after its controversial merger with Uber earlier this week.
According to Carmen Yuen, partner at Vertex Ventures, Grab will not become the only player in Vietnam’s booming market for ride-hailing services, even after it merged with Uber, its major competitor in Southeast Asia.
The investor told VIR that a newcomer will soon break into the scene and challenge Grab’s dominant position in the region, including Vietnam.
“I am sure some wealthy investors will back another company and compete with Grab,” said Yuen during the Invest ASEAN 2018 conference held by Maybank Kim Eng in Singapore this week.
Vertex Ventures was the only investor in Grab, formerly GrabTaxi, during a Series A fund-raising round in 2014.
The investor pointed out a similar case in China: Uber’s operations in the country were acquired by major rival Didi Chuxing in 2016 as part of a massive $35-billion deal.
The merger has sparked concerns over the latter acquiring a monopoly over the domestic ride-hailing market. However, in early 2018, the leading consumer buying retail website Meituan has announced its venture into this market, facing off with Didi Chuxing.
According to Carmen Yuen, it is natural for newcomers to want a share in such a fast-growing market like Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam. Just recently, Indonesia’s tech giant Go-jek has announced its expansion into the Philippines and Vietnam, five years after it came to dominate the Indonesian market in a wide range of services, from ride-hailing to delivery and laundry bookings.
The battle between Grab and Go-jek will be an interesting one, as both startups are flush with capital from eager investors in the region. Grab recently partnered with Hyundai Motor after raising $2 billion from Didi Chuxing and SoftBank last year, while Go-jek collected $1.2 billion last month from a dozen investors, including Google and BlackRock.
This week, Grab announced its merger with Uber’s ride-hailing and food delivery business in Southeast Asia. In return, Uber will own a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab and its CEO will become a member of Grab’s board. The merger is still subject to regulations, and Singapore’s competition watchdog said that it will keep an eye on Grab.
The merger, which has been talked about for months, sparked fears of monopoly and fare hikes in Southeast Asia. Uber’s employees, including drivers, are concerned that they may lose their jobs following the acquisition.
In interviews and news releases following the merger, Grab said that it will ensure that rates remain affordable and arrange new positions for Uber’s staff members.
Forbes has released its third annual “30 Under 30 Asia” list, featuring four Vietnamese young people; Nguyen Van Quang Huy, Pham Anh Duc, Luu The Loi, and Victor Tran.
Four Vietnamese men have broken into this year’s 30 Under 30 in Asia, an annual list compiled by Forbes to recognize the most influential people in Asia across various categories.
They are Nguyen Van Quang Huy, Pham Anh Duc, Luu The Loi and Victor Tran.
Huy, 28, from Ho Chi Minh City is named in the enterprise technology category.
Nguyen Van Quang Huy, 28
He is the founder of Holistics Software which provides data infrastructure services and business intelligence for companies. The startup is now operating across Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia. Huy also cofounded the non-profit Grokking Vietnam, which develops a community of programmers and engineers in Vietnam through talks, workshops and training.
Pham Anh Duc is co-founder and CEO of online healthcare discovery and listing platform ViCare.vn, and is named in the healthcare & science category.
Pham Anh Duc in a photo posted on his own Facebook page.
The 29-year-old from Hanoi wants to make healthcare more accessible to all. The website includes information on healthcare facilities, advice on healthcare services and answers to health related questions. The company currently has some 50,000 clinics and around 40,000 doctors.
Luu The Loi and Victor Tran, both 26, co-founders of KyberNetwork, an instant decentralized crypto currency exchange service, are recognized in the finance and venture capital category.
Luu The Loi is a co-founder of KyberNetwork, a pre-coded trading platform which has recently raised US$52 million from more than 21,000 members in over 100 countries
Victor Tran, 26, is another co-founder and CEO of Kyber Network. He is also a lead engineer at SmartPool.
With KyberNetwork, the team aims to protect users from hacking and fraud by providing a secure way for them to convert coins and tokens.
Now in its third year, the annual 30 Under 30 Asia list features 300 young innovators and disruptors across 10 categories from 24 countries across Asia-Pacific – including Azerbaijan and North Korea for the first time.
The list this year “features 300 young innovators and disruptors across 10 categories who are re-inventing their industries and driving change across this diverse region.”
Last year, Forbes honored three Vietnamese entrepreneurs and rapper Suboi, who has been dubbed Vietnam’s “Queen of Hip Hop” by prestigious global news agencies such as The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and CNN.
In 2016, the magazine named seven Vietnamese entrepreneurs and scientists on its annual list.
Facebook has just blocked API, affecting a large number of Vietnamese online businesses utilising the social network as a trading platform.
On March 27, many large fanpages and online services simultaneously announced problems related to applications developed on Facebook and Messenger in Vietnam.
Accordingly, Facebook accounts cannot be logged into temporarily. Almost none of the relevant apps like Facebook Shop and third party apps using application programming interface (API) collecting user data work.
A large number of online sellers are affected due to Facebook’s blocking API
“Vietnamese developers’ applications connected to Facebook and Messenger have stopped working two days ago,” said Nguyen Thanh Tung, a programmer supporting sales websites in Ho Chi Minh City.
Tung also said that all the websites’ features and apps related to Facebook user data are affected.
“Too many people are affected, our group members have to deal with each customer, but cannot do anything,” Tung added.
According to Doan Trung Thong, a representative of an e-commerce enterprise from Hanoi, all online sellers must use tools supporting conversation management on Messenger, interact with customers on Facebook to increase feedback efficiency, then consolidate all orders from comments and guests messages to the fanpage.
“Online sellers have to use Facebook’s default tools that have low efficiency and are not optimised for business,” Thong added.
On March 26, Facebook announced changes related to APIs and third-party applications to all developers using the Messenger platform. The social network is reviewing all APIs to limit the data collected from users.
“Blocking API is a move to reaffirm the apology after the scandal of Cambridge Analytica company breaking into over 50 million users’ personal information. The move of blocking and checking all applications aims to ensure the rights of users,” said Tran Trong Tuyen, general secretary of the Vietnam E-Commerce Association (VECOM).
API currently cannot work in Vietnam
Sharing a similar third party access control issue, in November 2017, Facebook’s fellow social media platform Youtube previously came under fire after paid advertisements were displayed side by side with images of children that drew loads of abusive and lewd comments, causing protests and waves of boycotts among users and advertisers.
While Facebook encountered the API rough patch, multimedia and messaging app Snapchat was reported to provide conditional access to third-party applications to Snapchat’s user data to further personalise advertisements and other features, according to newswire The Verge.
Previously in 2015, the US-based employment social media platform LinkedIn also announced API limitations to a remarkable number of third parties, only allowing individual members to share their professional identity, certification, and professional content, as well as companies to showcase their professional content on their registered company API, which was later reported to curb a tremendous amount of partnership deals among LinkedIn individuals and pro-profit businesses.
In late 2017, media-sharing platform Instagram was hit by scandal when the personal data of high-profile accounts belonging to public figures and influencers was reported to be compromised by hackers, using a technical loophole on the platform’s API to leak and trade email addresses and personal phone numbers.
The VN Index has been increasing sharply since the beginning of the year with capital flowing to finance and banking, real estate, and shares with a high capitalization value.
Last June, Vietnam missed the opportunity to be added to MSCI’s (Morgan Stanley Capital International) list of emerging markets in its assessment period.
Three market rating agencies, namely MSCI, FTSE Russell, S&P Dow Jones, give annual periodic assessments.
The assessment is based on economic development level, political stability, market size and liquidity, market operation efficiency, market access of foreign investors and capital flow capability.
With the sharp price increases in 2017 and the strong rise this year, coupled with lifting of the foreign ownership ceiling and state’s divestment from state-owned enterprises, Vietnam now can satisfy requirements in market scale and liquidity.
Vietnam now has more than three companies which have capital of $1.27 billion and more, transferable capitalization value of $635 million and more, and stock liquidity equal to 15 percent of ATVR (Annualized Traded Value Ratio).
This means that the number of the companies satisfying MSCI standards is higher than required.
An analyst commented that if compared with Pakistan, which was upgraded in June 2017, Vietnam has a larger scale and higher number of listed companies.
Vietnam has also been leading frontier markets in terms of growth with a high growth rate of 50 percent last year.
Market analysts think that Vietnam may be upgraded in June 2020 by MSCI. However, some believe that this may happen sooner, possibly in the assessment period in June 2018.
Meanwhile, a local newspaper quoted Vo Tri Thanh from the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) as saying that Vietnam’s stock market has a 25 percent chance of being upgraded to the “emerging market” status by 2021.
Reports show that the VN Index has increased by 15.2 percent so far this year, while the VN 30 Index has increased by 14.1 percent, of which 28.2 percent increase has been reported for bank shares, 21.7 percent for real estate and 19.3 percent for finance services.
It is still unclear when Vietnam will be upgraded to an emerging market. However, the price increase of shares with big capitalization values (banking, securities, insurance and real estate) which would help increase Vietnam’s proportion in the MSCI index after the upgrade.
Analysts estimate that Vietnam stock market may obtain a 30-40 percent growth rate after the upgrade, which happened with the Arab Emirates, Qatar and Pakistan.
‘If we dare to be pioneers, soon this art will be accepted in Vietnam.’
Makeup artist by day, cross-dresser by night, Betty is among a vanguard of Vietnamese drag queens shaking up Hanoi’s nightlife – and social norms – in a city where such performances remain little known.
In a lime green barely-there mesh dress and towering silver heels, the 22-year-old hopes to bring drag into the mainstream with regular performances in Hanoi, a conservative capital better known for its colonial charm than men in sequined minis.
“If we dare to be pioneers, soon this art will be accepted in Vietnam,” Betty told AFP before a show Saturday that stirred up crowds with renditions of hits by Whitney Houston and Alicia Keys.
In this photograph taken on March 24, 2018, Vietnamese drag queens Pinky (L) and Vanessa (R) prepare for a show at a local bar in Hanoi. Photo by AFP/James Duong
The drag night started as a weekly viewing party for the hit TV series “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and quickly transformed into a show of its own – drawing a handful of men in drag to the stage for punchy lip-sync performances.
Organizer Tamah Lake said it’s the only event of its kind in Hanoi.
“It’s brought it more into the open… I think it’s becoming slightly more mainstream and slightly more well-known,” said Lake, not herself a drag queen, who works as a teacher during the week.
The drag queens who turn out for her Saturday night parties say they have few places to perform in a city where cross-dressing is almost unheard of, unlike in the West where starlets like RuPaul – the drag queen mother – have helped to popularise it.
“In Vietnam there are drag queens that have been active for a long time but have not been acknowledged. This show helps more people know about our art,” said Betty, who started the five-member drag group “Victeam” in Hai Phong, east of Hanoi.
Drag queen Vanessa performs in a show at a bar in Hanoi, one of a vanguard of Vietnamese cross-dressers shaking up the city’s nightlife and social norms. Photo by AFP/James Duong
Vietnam is seen as relatively progressive on LGBT issues – the one-party state decriminalised gay marriage celebrations in 2015, although it stopped short of full legal recognition for same-sex unions – and the government is currently drafting a transgender law to allow legal gender changes.
But cross-dressing can help to boost tolerance, according to Vuong Kha Phong, LGBT rights programme officer at Vietnamese NGO iSEE.
“Drag queens being out there performing helps tremendously in getting people to know and be more comfortable with diversity,” Vuong told AFP.
Though the drag scene is still just emerging in much of Vietnam, cross-dressing has historic roots: the centuries-old ritual of “Hau Dong” requires mediums to dress as the opposite sex to channel spirits.
Still, when it comes to modern cross-dressing, some drag queens face pushback from the community for blurring gender norms.
First-time performer Za Za Zellia hopes the drag show will help to sway conservative attitudes.
“Hanoi is really traditional, they don’t hate (drag) but they don’t approve of it at the same time,” the 25-year-old told AFP, after debuting in a Gatsby-inspired sequined look.
“This just tells people it’s alright, it’s completely normal,” Za Za said after the show, a huge white feather emerging from a wig of thick black curls.
