Nguyen Quang Hai is the first Vietnamese player to make it onto the list, alongside the likes of Ronaldo and Messi.
Rising Vietnamese football star Nguyen Quang Hai has been named among the 500 most important players on the globe by World Soccer, an English football magazine.
Hai, who plays for Hanoi FC, is the first Vietnamese player ever to make it onto the list, and stands aside legends such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Hai was part of Vietnam’s U23 team that shook the nation after battling all their way to the final of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship in China back in January. The team captured the hearts of Vietnamese fans before falling in the last minutes of extra time against Uzbekistan. Their valiant efforts throughout the championship united the entire nation, and the players shook social media and were welcomed with a rockstar return from China.
The 21-year-old superstar scored five goals for his country during the championship, putting him in the spotlight as one of Vietnam’s top young talents. One of his show-stopping efforts in the final was voted Goal of the Championship on AFC’s official website back in February.
Vietnamese football has been on a roll lately, and the national team have qualified for the finals of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
Latitude Tree Holdings Bhd’s major operating subsidiary in Vietnam sustained damages totalling US$5.5mil (RM21.45mil) due to a fire early Thursday.
The furniture maker said one factory belonging to its indirect unit RK Resources Co. Ltd in Binh Duong province was affected by a fire which started at 12.30am. It was put out at 7am.
The affected building houses the assembly and packing line, inventories of work-in-progress and finished goods.
Latitude Tree said RK Resources’ other plants were not affected and production was running as normal.
It said the estimated loss caused by the fire was US$5.50mil of which US$3mil was due to loss on inventories, US$2mil on building and US$500,000 on machinery.
“The fire department and insurance representatives are still conducting investigation to ascertain the cause of the fire. All the assets are adequately covered by insurance. Sufficient insurance coverage has been taken for consequential business loss,” it said.
Latitude Tree said RK Resources was assessing the operational and financial impact from the fire.
“RK Resources has also commenced discussion with affected customers to reschedule shipments of finished goods and plans to increase production hours by additional overtime to replenish destroyed finished goods,” it said.
Real estate experts believe that selling condotels can bring huge profits to investors and savings in fees that apartment developers usually pay.
The first condotels appeared in Vietnam several years ago and have been developing very rapidly since then. According to the Ministry of Construction (MOC), there are 148 ongoing condotel projects developed by 52 investors. It is expected that 27,000-29,000 condotels will be launched into the market in 2017-2019.
Despite the existence of numerous products, condotels have not been recognized by the law. Condotels remain out of the management of state agencies.
However, in the last six months, ministries and branches have urged to legalize condotels. At the same time, condotel developers have been repeatedly organizing workshops to lobby policymakers for recognizing condotels as a new type of housing.
The investors have proposed creating standards for condotels and grant land use right certificates for an indefinite time.
Lawyer Bui Sinh Quyen from the Hanoi Bar Association, said that condotel development is just a new ‘phenomenon’ and ‘there is no need to run after every phenomenon’, because this will only benefit investors.
Many investors, when advertising condotels, give unclear information which does not coincide with the purpose of projects approved by state management agencies. This has led to misunderstandings among buyers not knowledgeable about the law.
According to Quyen, resort tourism projects must be seen as production and business projects, not as housing. The decisions on allocating and leasing land for project implementation show clearly the purposes and land use duration.
The 2013 Land Law stipulates that the duration can be no more than 70 years in difficult areas and 50 years in other areas.
Le Hoang Chau, chair of the HCM City Real Estate Association (HoREA), said investors repeatedly urged to recognize condotels because local authorities called for investments and created favorable conditions in land access and administrative procedures to attract investments in condotel projects.
Condotels are sold by primary investors at VND25-55 million per square meter, or VND1-3 billion for each condotel. The prices, according to Chau, are equal to prices of mid- and high-end apartments in HCM City.
There are still no required standards for design, functions and fire prevention and fighting set specifically for condotels. An architect said that condotels were like hotel rooms, but with a kitchen and more bedrooms.
The condotel market is forecast to remain attractive to investors in 2018, with increasing amounts of capital poured into the segment.
But they might still have to provide Vietnamese users’ information when required for ‘national security.’
Vietnam has made a u-turn on a draft bill that would have required foreign companies such as Facebook and Google to install servers in the country.
The draft was submitted by the Ministry of Public Security last year over national security concerns, but faced strong opposition from international organizations and companies.
The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the bill went against the commitments Vietnam had made when it joined the World Trade Organization and EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.
A joint letter sent by the U.S., Australian, Canadian embassies and the European Union in August 2017 also voiced strong concerns over the bill, saying it went against the trade commitments Vietnam had made.
This opposition prompted a meeting on Wednesday between the National Defense Committee (CNDC) and Diplomatic Committee, which concluded that foreign companies do not need to install servers in Vietnam.
However, authorities decided that a clause in the bill stating that foreign businesses should have representative offices in Vietnam and that they should store Vietnamese users’ data should remain.
The CNDC said these requirements would help if there is a cross-border internet security breach involving Vietnamese users, while providing a way of removing any information posted against the Communist Party or governement.
Tax concerns were also raised at the meeting regarding Facebook and Google, as for the last two years, the country has only collected VND120 billion ($5.2 million) in tax because the companies do not have representative offices in Vietnam, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Due to the lack of representative offices for Facebook and Google, Vietnam’s tax authorities can only charge Vietnamese advertising agencies and businesses that use the two digital giants’ services.
Facebook announced last year that it will change to a local selling structure from using a tax avoidance method which involves routing sales through Ireland. The new form of operation is believed to “provide more transparency to governments and policy makers around the world who have called for greater visibility over the revenue associated with locally supported sales in their countries,” its CFO said in a press release.
The company plans to have all its offices in place in the first six months of 2019.
The so-called zero-dong tours with Chinese tourists continue despite great efforts by local authorities to stop them.
After a short period of interruption, zero-dong tours have resumed. “You can meet Chinese travelers everywhere in Quang Ninh, from old to young people, from healthy to disabled,” said N.V.T, a tour guide.
The Tuan Chau Tourism Port in Ha Long was full with Chinese travelers recently, though it was very early in the morning. About 100 45-seat coaches were seen in the coach area, ready to serve travelers.
Everything at the port seemed to be set up to serve Chinese. Signboards and billboards were all written in Chinese. The boards hung over the shops were in Chinese. The shops sell Vietnam-made products such as agarwood and pearl.
According to the Quang Ninh Inland Waterway Port Authorities, about 600 ships are licensed to visit Ha Long Bay each day, and 70 percent of visitors have Chinese nationality.
“It is understandable,” T said. “Most Chinese travelers to Quang Ninh book zero-dong tours. Only a few Chinese come on cruises. To save money, travelers can go by land from the Mong Cai Border Gate.”
Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh is an ideal destination used by travel firms for low-cost tours.
It is estimated that Quang Ninh receives tens of thousands of Chinese travelers a day.
Most of them enter Vietnam through the Mong Cai International Border Gate. They are carried inland on 45-seat buses. Each tour lasts two days and one night, or three days and two nights.
Most of them enter Vietnam through the Mong Cai International Border Gate. They are carried inland on 45-seat buses. Each tour lasts two days and one night, or three days and two nights.
When Chinese arrive in Ha Long City, they stay in low-cost guesthouses with the rate of VND200,000-300,000 per head. Each room may contain 5-6 travelers. Travelers are served spare meals with little fish and meat, and have to pay additional money if they order seafood.
Because of the high number of travelers, the excursion points in Ha Long Bay are usually overloaded. When reporters set foot on Titov Island, they saw many travelers jostling in a small area at the harbor.
Other excursion points in Ha Long such as Sung Sot, Thien Cung and Luon Caves are also full of visitors. Travelers sometimes have to queue up for several hours to be able to enter the caves.
After lunchtime, when travelers have spare meals or banh my (bread) and water, travelers are led to go shopping. The shops serve Chinese travelers.
Travelers have to wear name tags to be able to enter the shops. Many shops like these were forced to shut down one year ago. However, many others have opened since then.
Vietnamese photographers Nguyen Huu Thong and Tran Tuan Viet have emerged triumphant at the 15th annual Smithsonian Photo Contest.
Nguyen Huu Thong from Bac Giang province stood out from 60 finalists competing in the contest to win the Grand Prize worth US$2,500, for his photo ‘Bua Sang Tai Cho Phien’ (Breakfast at the Weekly Market).
Thong revealed that the photo was taken accidentally in the morning at a rural market in the northern province of Ha Giang during the Tet (traditional lunar New Year) festival 2017.
Sharing the background of the photo, Thong explained that in northern Vietnam, people come to the weekly market to exchange goods and culture. They usually wake up very early to go to the market and have breakfast there.
Photo ‘Lam Huong’ (Making Incense) by Tran Tuan Viet won the Travel category of the contest
Meanwhile, the photo ‘Lam Huong’ (Making Incense) by Tran Tuan Viet from Hanoi won the contest’s Travel category. The photo captured decoratively dyed bundles of incense drying in Quang Phu Cau village, Ung Hoa district in Hanoi.
Viet’s photo is one of the most-viewed images in the history of the photo contest, with more than 50,000 views so far.
The two winning photos were among more than 48,000 entries submitted by photographers from 155 countries and territories from around the world, in six categories: The natural world, The American experience, Travel, People, Altered Images, and Mobile.
Keeping people safe is one of society’s most important responsibilities. Safety is about the commitment to doing the right things to protect people, families and communities whether they are in public, on the roads, at work or simply going about their daily lives at home. VietNamNet Bridge would like to introduce an article by safety expert David Wroth, who is Director of Data Science of the Underwriters Laboratories (UL), which makes the annual UL Safety Index.
Each year, our organization conducts a global analysis of safety performance, and as a result we have a good indicator of which countries are the best at keeping their citizens safe, which are the most challenged, and which are making progress or falling behind.
The UL Safety Index™ is based on data-science and algorithms, and it is designed to help policy makers, leaders and civic organizations make decisions that will help keep their citizens safe. The type of safety we focus on measuring is preventable. This would include any type of unintentional accident but excludes injuries or deaths related to disease, crime or violence.
In Vietnam, we are pleased to report that safety on a national level is improving, and the country now ranks amongst the middle tier of Southeast Asian nations for safety performance. Safety doesn’t happen by accident, and this is clearly the case in Vietnam, where policy makers and leaders have taken multi-faceted steps to improve the country’s overall safety performance.
According to our 2017 UL Safety Index, Vietnam’s Safety Index score is 66 (on a scale of 0-100) and ranks fifth amongst the 11 countries in Southeast Asia. This marks an improvement for Vietnam of four points, up from 62 a year ago.
How did Vietnam get better with safety performance?
In the weeks ahead, as we formally launch the UL Safety Index in Vietnam, we will share specifics about what Vietnam has done very well at, and also highlight areas in which Vietnam can do better to further improve safety performance.
In general, the UL Safety Index points to a few indicators that Vietnam has improved upon. Firstly, Vietnam’s strong progress in upgrading its educational institutions has positively impacted the country’s overall safety landscape. As education is a key driver of safety awareness, the level of safety in the country has also improved alongside heightened education levels. Efforts by the Vietnamese government to improve education, such as the recent Higher Education Renovation Project to upgrade the education system and competitiveness, have contributed to this accomplishment.
Economic growth also drives improvements in safety. As one of fastest-growing economies in the world, Vietnam has more potential and resources to make investments in robust infrastructure and programs to keep people safe. Economic growth also empowers Vietnamese citizens with greater ability and opportunities to buy higher quality and safer products.
While there has been great progress made in Vietnam’s safety performance, there are also some areas for improvement for the country. Road safety remains a well-publicized source of serious injury and death in Vietnam, and taking strong measures to reduce threats of drink-driving would be a good initial step to improve traffic safety. Another area of needed improvement in Vietnam is water safety. Vietnam ranks in the lower tier for drowning deaths in Southeast Asia, and there are intervention programs from countries such as Japan and Korea that could be applied to reduce these numbers. In addition, Vietnam has a high incidence of injuries and deaths caused by falls, which may be attributed to the country’s aging population. Better support for older citizens will help to reduce these figures.
Overall, people in Vietnam are living safer lives. Vietnam may not yet be as safe as countries at the top of the Index, such as Norway, the Netherlands, and in Asia Pacific, Australia and Singapore, but it is far safer than countries at the bottom tier of the Index.
The best evidence for Vietnam’s growing capacity for safety is the increased life expectancy of its citizens, which has risen from 70 years in 1990 to 76 years today. While there is still much for Vietnam to accomplish before it can climb into the upper ranks of the world’s safest societies, we should recognize that the country’s annual progress is significant, and that it has even become an Asia-Pacific leader in categories such as fire safety. Vietnam’s safety performance for fire, heat and hot substance injuries is second in the region and is in the top fifteen in the world.
Vietnam is showing us that a safer society doesn’t happen by accident. The country’s policymakers are taking clear steps to improve safety performance each and every year, and the results have been positive and encouraging.
TrueMoney Vietnam (“TrueMoney”), part of Southeast Asian Fintech company Ascend Money, has obtained the Intermediary Payment Services License from the State Bank of Vietnam to operate digital financial services in e-money, e-payment, wireless transfers, and payment gateways.
TrueMoney is processing over one million transactions per month, with 500,000 customers a month transacting with TrueMoney agents and TrueMoney Wallet.
Tanyapong Thamavaranukupt, President of Ascend Money, said, “Winning the license to operate digital financial services cements our presence in Vietnam, an important market for Ascend in our expansion throughout Southeast Asia. This means TrueMoney is now able to deploy a broad range of safe, affordable and convenient digital money solutions to Vietnam’s population of 90 million. In particular we hope to provide equal access to financial services for the unbanked.”
Consumers can now use TrueMoney Wallet to make online purchases, pay bills and top up their pre-paid mobile and gaming cards, as well as to transfer money from their bank accounts to the digital wallet and from their wallet to other wallets. Offline and online merchants can use TrueMoney’s system as a payment gateway. Companies will soon be able to disburse payroll to their employees via TrueMoney Wallet.
TrueMoney has a network of over 5,000 agents across 40 provinces in Vietnam. Agents are small business owners who conduct financial services for customers, enabling the largely underserved Vietnamese population to access fast and easy services such as top-up and bill payment near their location. TrueMoney Vietnam will soon offer additional financial services such as loans and insurance, in the second quarter of 2018.
Vietnam has one of the lowest banking penetration rates in the region, with only one third of the population having an account with a formal financial provider, compared to the regional average of 69%.
“While Vietnam has the potential to surpass China in GDP growth by 2020, the country urgently needs to connect its people and businesses to financial services, to reap the benefits of inclusive growth. As Southeast Asia’s fastest growing mobile commerce market, as well as one of its largest unbanked populations, Vietnam poses a key opportunity for TrueMoney to innovate and scale,” Tanyapong continued.
TrueMoney, an e-payment and financial services provider for digital and unbanked consumers, is the only Fintech company with e-money licenses to operate financial services in Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, and Vietnam. Across Southeast Asia, Ascend Money has reached over 35 million customers in 2017 and aims to reach 100 million customers by 2020.
Vietnam, along with the Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar, has been identified by the World Bank as among the top 25 countries to focus strategic efforts on financial inclusion. According to the World Bank, in 2014 Vietnam had the lowest credit card usage in Southeast Asia, and only 50 per cent of the debit cards in circulation were in use.
Tanyapong added, “The blurred lines between the unbanked and the underbanked—those with formal access but limited engagement—points to the need for not just access to bank accounts, but the regular use of banking in the daily lives of the population. This means that digital financial services can reach a much larger segment of the population if delivered through a comprehensive platform—addressing not just the need for a digital wallet, but also broader daily needs of merchants and users to transition from offline to online payment methods seamlessly. By strengthening the overall prevalence and convenience of e-money in daily life, Ascend Money plays a leading role in unlocking the potential of the digital economy in Southeast Asia for digital consumers and the underbanked alike.”
Vietnam is the second country in the region to launch TrueMoney Wallet after Thailand. Following the successful roll-out of TrueMoney Wallet across Thailand in major retail outlets such as 7-Eleven convenience stores, with almost 10,000 branches nationwide, Ascend has continued to expand in markets that are among the region’s lowest in financial inclusion rates.
TrueMoney Wallet was officially launched in Vietnam this year during the Lunar New Year with the TrueGift campaign, in which celebrities and users sent virtual red packets (hongbao) to their fans and friends to celebrate the special holiday.
The Asian Development Bank estimates that bringing digital financial services to Southeast Asia’s unbanked population can boost the GDP of economies by as much as 6%.
22 international channels bit the dust on Sunday, sparking uproar from clients.
Vietnam’s trade ministry has asked a local cable network company to explain why it has cut off 22 foreign channels after a backlash from disgruntled customers.
The Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA), under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, has asked VTVCab to account for its decision to remove 22 foreign channels from its broadcasting service on Sunday without notifying customers. Among the removed were HBO, BBC Earth, Discovery, Animal Planet, National Geographic and Disney Channel.
Bui Huy Nam, director of VTVCab, said the switch was part of VTVCab’s content strategy to adapt its programs on multiple platforms.
“We’ve researched our customers’ tastes and received valuable feedback for our updated programs,” he said.
The company’s move has been slammed by angry customers.
“I didn’t receive any notification from VTVCab regarding the change,” said Tuyet Loan, a customer from Hanoi. “I signed the contract. If there’s any alteration to the list of programs, the company is supposed to inform and explain it to me,” she said, as reported by Thanh Nien.
“If VTVCab has violated consumer rights, we will take action in accordance with Vietnamese law,” the VCA said.
This isn’t the first time customers have had beef with the cable company. Just last June, VTVCab suspended broadcasts of several foreign sports channels, saying it was trying to give more airtime to local channels.
VinaCapital‘s flagship fund Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF) has picked up a minority stake in real estate brokerage firm CenLand for $10 million.
“Vietnam’s real estate market continues to grow, and yet the brokerage business remains relatively undeveloped. CenLand is already the top broker in the north, with the majority of its business in primary sales… We look forward to the company broadening its presence in the secondary market, where opportunities are expected to grow, and to more fully develop and utilise digital sales channels,” said VOF managing director Andy Ho.
The terms of investment include downside protections and performance commitments typical of VOF private equity deals, as well as a commitment to list by the third quarter of 2018, Ho noted.
Founded in 2002, CenLand is one of the top five real estate brokerage companies in Vietnam. In 2017, the company sold more than 11,500 units, thanks in part to its relationships with key Vietnamese developers such as Khang Dien House, Sovico, and Trung Thuy Group.
The company’s revenue reached $48 million in 2017 while profit after tax stood at $11 million. This year, CenLand expects revenue to rise to $61 million on the back of forecasted sales of more than 16,000 units in 71 projects throughout the country.
Since the beginning of the year, VOF has made multiple investments in businesses benefiting from strong domestic growth. Last month, it invested $10 million in Ricons Construction Investment JSC, a subsidiary of the country’s leading developer Cotec Construction Joint Stock Company (CotecCons). In February, VOF invested $32.5 million to acquire a significant minority stake in Ba Huan JSC, the country’s leading eggs and poultry meat producer.
VinaCapital’s flagship fund earlier also invested approximately $45 million into two subsidiaries of PetroVietnam – PV Power and Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical (BSR) – as part of their initial public offerings (IPOs) conducted in January.
Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (or VIB) concluded its AGSM 2018 successfully with presence of shareholders, holding 486m of stocks, accounting for more than 91.7 per cent of total voting shares, independent auditing company and representative of the State Bank. All proposals were passed by the shareholders present at the meeting.
VIB’s reports on 2017 performance and 2018 plan are approved absolutely by all shareholders entitled to vote at the meeting.
Relating to the approsal of profit appropriation and treasury plan 2017, shareholders approved the proposal of 36% dividend payment, including 5% and 31% payment by cash and stocks, respectively. The stock dividend depends on offering and issuing new shares to investors in form of private placement up to 10% of charter capital before granting treasury stocks to employees under ESOP. The Board of Directors (or BOD) will submit to the State Bank of Vietnam for approval before implementing 2017 profit appropriation and dividend payment.
The shareholders also approved the proposal of using nearly 2m of treasury stocks to grant ESOP stocks to staffs that had good contributions to the development of the Bank, and the proposal of selling remaining treasury shares to investors and/or distributing a part or the whole remaining treasury shares to shareholders.
Relating to 2018 business plan, the shareholders approved targets of gaining VND2,005-billion profit, up 43% year-on-year, and 22% increase of total assets to VND150 trillion. In addition, VIB plans to have its chatered capital up 43.5% to VND8,100 billion by offering and issuing new shares to investors in form of private placement up to 10% of charter capital, issuing bonus shares by using reserves and retained earnings.
The shareholders also approved the Bank’s plan to debut on HCMC bourse within this year and relocate the headquarter to Ho Chi Minh City from Hanoi. Besides maintaining the Bank’s scale and strength in Hanoi and the North, a successful relocation to Ho Chi Minh City will enable VIB to be a financial institution with excellent balance of business sphere.
In addition, the shareholders passed the proposal of dismissing Mr Michael John Venter, board member, and replacing by Michael John Murphy for the seventh term of office (2016-2019). Other reports of Board of Supervisors (or BOS) and remuneration report of the BOD and BOS were also approved.
“In order to finish the duties, we will be consistent with long-term targets and strategies, including creating outstanding products, safe and high-quality bank and investing in human development. We are doing our best to support the development of community, contribute responsibly and positively to the robust and transparent finance and banking industry in Vietnam,” said Mr Dang Khac Vy, Chairman of the Board of Directors in VIB.
The proposed hike has raised concerns over aggravated costs for businesses and consumers.
Vietnam is planning to raise fuel taxes from July to reduce pollution and pay off public debt, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday.
Vietnam will raise the environment tax on gasoline by 33.3 percent to VND4,000 ($0.18) per liter, the ministry said on its website. Taxes on diesel, coal and lubricants will also increase, but the ministry did not indicate by how much.
“The planned tax hike is part of a move to restructure the state budget with the aim of ensuring the safety and stability of the national finance system,” Deputy Finance Minister Vu Thi Mai said in the statement.
The tax hike is also part of Vietnam’s strategy to limit products that cause pollution, the ministry said.
As Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy, Vietnam is facing a pollution problem. The capital, Hanoi, enjoyed little more than one month of clean air last year, according to a January report by the Green Innovation and Development Center.
The government is aiming to keep its public debt below 65 percent of its gross domestic product, and the new tax will be used to pay that debt, she said.
However, there are concerns that the higher tax will raise costs for businesses and consumers.
“This will definitely hit businesses with higher input costs, leaving them less competitive,” said Hanoi-based economist Cao Si Kiem, a former governor of the State Bank of Vietnam.
The statement also said the tax hike will compensate for a decline in import and export tax revenues as Vietnam integrates further into the global market.
The country has signed around a dozen free trade agreements that will remove or reduce taxes on imports.
If approved by the government, the tax increase will raise inflation by 0.11 to 0.15 percent 2018, Mai said. Vietnam has set an inflation target of 4 percent for this year.
“The tax hike will result in higher input costs for enterprises, with those operating in the transport and logistics industry being hurt first,” said Can Van Luc, an economist with the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam.
“But it’s necessary to combat environmental pollution for sustainable growth in Vietnam”.
Three people were shot in an armed attack on YouTube’s headquarters Tuesday.
San Bruno police on Tuesday night identified the suspected shooter as 39-year-old Nasim Aghdam of San Diego.
A law-enforcement source confirmed to Business Insider that the suspected shooter opened fire with a handgun.
Aghdam died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.
The wounded were taken to hospitals. The dead woman was found inside the YouTube building. Two of the shooting victims were discovered at “an adjacent business,” police said.
At least one website and multiple social-media accounts allegedly connected to Aghdam showed that the woman frequently criticized YouTube over its decision to demonetize some channels, and she expressed grievances about a reduction in viewership on her videos.
Multiple YouTube channels, as well as Instagram and Facebook accounts allegedly connected to Aghdam had been taken down by Tuesday night. The website remained active.
But the suspected shooter’s motive still remains unclear. In the hours directly following the shooting, one law enforcement source told Business Insider police initially believed the shooter knew one of the victims. But this was later contradicted by a statement by the San Bruno Police Department, which said it was still investigating a motive: “At this time there is no evidence that the shooter knew the victims of this shooting or that individuals were specifically targeted.”
The suspected shooter was not known to the FBI and is not believed to be a YouTube employee. Investigators said they do not believe the shooting was connected to YouTube’s recent ban on firearm-related videos.
A chaotic scene in San Bruno
Employees of YouTube, the Google-owned video website, described scenes of panic as the sound of gunshots rang throughout the building.
“We were sitting in a meeting and then we heard people running because it was rumbling the floor. First thought was earthquake,” YouTube employee Todd Sherman said in a tweet as the incident was unfolding.
Police said they received calls about a shooting shortly before 1 p.m. A little more than an hour later police told Business Insider reporters there was an active-shooter situation and would not let anyone leave the parking lot.
Police arrived on campus within five minutes of the shooting, according to local law enforcement.Melia Robinson Business Insider
“No one can leave. Thank you. There is a suspect outstanding. You guys are in a safe space,” the officer said.
Google “advised all those who are currently at the [San Bruno office] to continue to shelter in place until further notice,” in a tweet from its official Twitter account at 2:33 p.m.
The company also said it had provided employees with a helpline. It was not immediately clear how many people were injured in total.
San Francisco General Hospital spokesman Brent Andrew said the hospital had received three patients, including a 36-year-old man in critical condition and a 32-year-old woman with serious injuries, and a 27-year-old woman in fair condition.
Early reports indicated that Stanford Hospital was expecting several patients from the shooting, but Business Insider has confirmed with spokesperson Lisa Kim who said the medical facility had not treated any victims associated with the incident.
Skye Gould/Business Insider
While the identity of the shooter has yet to be officially confirmed, there have been varying and conflicting reports about the shooter’s appearance.
AJPlus executive producer Ethar El-Katatney shared screenshots of what she says is from a WhatsApp group message with someone who works at YouTube, who reported that they were “in a courtyard at work eating and some guy with a gun and full body armor starting firing.” The local ABC News affiliate KGO-TV cited a police source who said that the shooter was a white female adult, which appeared to be in line with the report of a woman who died from self-inflicted wounds.
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki was seen leaving the building after the shooting.Melia Robinson Business Insider
Police were patting down groups of employees and holding them in a parking lot. A police officer asked the group how many had witnessed the incident, and approximately 15 people raised their hands. The police then separated those people from the rest of the group to ask them questions.
One YouTuber, Vadim Lavrusik, tweeted that he had “heard shots and saw people running,” and that he was now “barricaded inside a room with coworkers.”
Another YouTuber reported seeing police “surrounding” the building.
YouTube product manager Todd Sherman tweeted that he was in a meeting when he heard the rumble of people running in the building and that someone in the building told him there was “a person with a gun.” He also said he saw blood drips on the floor and stairs on his way out of the building, and that “someone else said that the person shot out the back doors and then shot themselves.”
YouTube was expected to hold a press conference later. YouTube parent company Google said through its official communications Twitter account that, “RE: YouTube situation, we are coordinating with authorities and will provide official information here from Google and YouTubers as it becomes available.”
San Bruno Police said on Twitter that there was “police activity” at the address and advised people to avoid the area.
Grab will have to be responsible for paying Uber’s tax arrears according to a Vietnamese tax official.
Deputy head of the Inspection Department under the General Department of Taxation, Dang Duy Khanh told Dtinews on Wednesday that they will work with Grab about the debt of VND53.3 billion (USD2.33 million) in tax arrears that HCM City Taxation Department has been asking Uber to pay.
“We’ll see the terms of the purchase contract between Uber and Grab, but Grab should be responsible for paying taxation while operating in Vietnam,” Khanh noted.
“Grab will not only be asked to pay the tax arrears for Uber but also to report and pay tax on the purchase contract,” Khanh said.
Although the deal was carried out outside Vietnam, Khanh is confident that they can get the tax of this purchase.
“We had successfully collected taxes from similar transfer cases including the transferring of Big C from French Casino Group to Thai Central Group in 2016,” Duy said. “The Central Group paid the tax of 2 trillion (USD 88.14 million) at that time.
Earlier, speaking with the media on the sidelines of a regular government press conference in March, deputy minister of Finance, Vu Thi Mai stressed that after the merger, the new enterprise would take on all the tax responsibilities.
The HCM City Taxation Department last year sent a notice to Uber that it had to pay VND66.68 billion (USD2.94 million) in tax arrears by December 23, but the company only paid VND13.3 billion (USD586,000).
Uber B.V. then filed a complaint against the General Department of Taxation and the Ministry of Finance on the grounds that it had fulfilled its tax obligations under a double taxation avoidance agreement signed between Vietnam and the Netherlands.
But the MoF said Uber B.V. was not entitled to a tax exemption under the agreement since it generates its income in Vietnam through a network of local partner drivers.
The tax department then asked five banks – Vietcombank, Eximbank, Sacombank, ACB, and VietinBank – to appropriate fares paid to Uber through bank accounts and send them instead to Uber International Holding B.V. The seizure would be done between January 1 and 10.
Uber then decided to take the department to court but the HCM City People’s Court blocked Uber B.V’s legal action.
Uber announced the sale of its Southeast Asian business to rival Singapore-based Grab on March 26 for a 27.5 percent stake.
Property developer Vingroup on April 3 signed a strategic cooperation agreement with US-based Cornell University and Pennsylvania State University.
Under the framework of the agreement, the developer’s VinUni University (VinUni) and Cornell will comprehensively work together in developing strategy and brand, and building an overall university management system.
Cornell will help VinUni in various activities such as infrastructure assessment, human resource recruitment and designing education programmes. The US university will also support VinUni with research cooperation and the evaluation of its first graduates from business and technology education classes.
Meanwhile, as a leading clinical hospital system in the US, Pennsylvania State will support VinUni in recruitment and developing the professional abilities of lectures and students in the field of health sciences.
Pennsylvania State will work directly with VinUni and Vinmec Medical System to develop training programmes for physicians and clinical residents and will develop a bachelor of science in nursing programme following local and international requirements and standards.
It will also collaborate with Vinmec in developing and training clinical lecturers, improving the quality of and expanding health specialty services and building a practical facility model for VinUni’s health faculty.
[Vingroup to take part in higher education]
Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Van Phuc said the cooperation between VinUni and world’s leading universities is expected to raise Vietnam’s higher education on par with international standards and develop high-quality lecturers.
The VinUni University is based in Hanoi. The construction of the campus is expected to begin this year. The first batch of students will be enrolled in 2020.
VinUni will focus on education and training in three key areas including business, technology and health sciences. VinUni is also geared to meet the world-class standards and rankings of higher education watchdogs, such as Quacquarelli Symonds and Times Higher Education.
