Vietnam Insider - Page 1462 of 1516

Hanoi bans contract-based vehicles, including Grab and Uber, on multiple streets

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The Department of Transport in Hanoi has officially made a proposal to the municipal People’s Committee, forbidding contract-based vehicles with less than nine seats from traveling on a number of urban streets.

Defined as a means of transport operated on an agreement, in the written form or via a smartphone app, between a licensed passenger transit business and a customer, contract-based vehicles include Uber and Grab cars.

Such vehicles will be prohibited on 11 streets within certain time frames.

During rush hours, from 6:00 am to 9:00 am and between 4:30 pm and 7:00 pm, their two way movement is not allowed on the streets of Giang Vo, Lang Ha, Le Van Luong, and Truong Chinh.

Uber and Grab cars and taxis are also banned the entire day on Phu Doan Street (one direction), Cau Giay Street and Xuan Thuy Street (two directions).

They are prohibited from running on Hang Bai Street between 7:00 pm and midnight on Friday and the weekend.

The proposal is awaiting consent from the People’s Committee but its legal effect has started, said Vu Van Vien, director of the Hanoi Department of Transport.

From January 2018, in a pilot program, the department began planting poles banning contract-based vehicles with less than nine seats between 6:00 am and 9:00 am, and from 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm on many streets.

Vien said that all Grab and Uber cars are required to stick a contract logo on the windscreen, and those failing to have the symbol while running on the designated streets will receive a twofold penalty from police, on the absence of the logo and the forbidden movement.

In the transport authority’s view, the decision shows the capital’s determination to unsnarl clogged urban roads.

The installation of car ban poles applies on a piecemeal basis, which means that they will be removed from the streets with reduced congestion, while roads with serious traffic jams will have more ban poles, according to Vien.

Source: Thai Xuan

VN-Index regains top performing spot in Asia thanks to foreign investors

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Vietnam’s growth forecast is strong enough to have foreign investors paying premiums to buy into the market.

Just a few short weeks after a global equity selloff caused Vietnam to lose its crown as Asia’s best-performing market so far this year, the country is back on top.

These gains may extend, helping the VN-Index surpass its March 2007 peak, as the gauge is forecast to reach 1,210 by the end of 2018, according to a survey of 10 strategists by Bloomberg.

RongViet Securities Corporation in Saigon said in a report that the VN-Index will increase by at least 17 percent this year, and even 67 percent in its best scenario, meaning it could end the year somewhere between 1,170 and 1,640.

Nguyen The Minh, a senior analyst at Saigon Securities Incorporation, was more reserved.

“The VN-Index could reach 1,050 points in the short term, and 1,300 by year-end,” he said.

Foreigners have been net buyers of the country’s shares this month, even as they pulled a combined $14 billion from nine Asian markets tracked by Bloomberg.

“Earnings growth is expected to be better, at around 20 to 25 percent, and not just with the listed companies but also at newly-listed ones,” Bloomberg quoted Thang Uong, who oversees a $1 billion portfolio at Manulife Asset Management (Vietnam) Co. in Ho Chi Minh City, as saying. “We are very bullish this year.”

A swift reversal since Feb. 12 has sent the gauge above levels reached before the selloff, making the nation’s shares more expensive relative to their regional peers. The VN-Index trades at about 20 times 12-month projected earnings, versus a multiple of 14 for the MSCI Frontier Markets Index and 16 for the MSCI Asean Index.

“The expectation is too high, valuation is too high,” Chris Freund, a Ho Chi Minh City-based partner at Mekong Capital, said in a phone interview. “Investors are getting enthusiastic, and eventually something will happen. Investor sentiment will turn from being over-optimistic to the other direction again.”

For now, global investors seem willing to pay premium multiples, given the country’s growth outlook. They’ve bought a net $432 million of local shares since Jan. 1, extending last year’s record inflow of $1 billion.

Bloomberg called Vietnam a “frontier market” in Asia last year, as it was the biggest gainer in percentage terms with a 47 percent gain on the VN-Index. Market capitalization increased by almost double to nearly $150 billion, fueled by state-owned company sales and listings, it said.

Vietnam’s economy grew 6.8 percent in 2017, breaking its own 6.7 percent target which both government officials and economists had considered ambitious.

The country remains one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and has set a goal of expanding another 6.7 percent this year.

Source: VnExpress

Vietnam’s world muay champion slams Canadian fighter for ‘promoting his own image’

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Pierre Francois Flores is back on a mission he says is to restore the credibility of traditional martial arts.

Senior artist in the Chinese self-defense martial art of Wing Chun, Pierre Francois Flores, is in Vietnam for the second time to once again challenge local fighters on what he says is a journey to promote the authenticity of traditional martial arts, after winning two fights last year.

Flores became known across Asia last year after responding to a challenge from Chinese mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Xu Xiao Dong. Xu had issued the challenge to all traditional Chinese martial arts masters following a 10-second victory over a Tai Chi master that went viral.

Xu, a 38-year-old self-taught MMA fighter, said that the traditional martial arts have become outdated and are now only good for keeping the body fit, while freestyle fighting and boxing are more effective when it comes to combat.

In Flores’ invitation on Facebook, he referred to Xu’s fight as a “necessary awakening in the face of a phenomenon that threatens the credibility of martial arts.”

The fight between Xu and Flores never transpired.

In a interview with VnExpress on Wednesday, Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat, who has made history by becoming the first Vietnamese fighter to win the International Federation of Muay Thai Amateur World Championship seven times, spoke differently about Flores’ motivation in Vietnam.

In his latest statement, Flores said Vietnamese people are angry at him because he does not represent the country’s martial arts. What do you think about that?

Flores was not particularly humble when he said that. He is not qualified enough to say that he can represent Vietnamese martial arts. A true martial artist should be humble, even if they have become a great master.

What are your comments on Flores’ victories over Vietnamese fighters Doan Bao Chau and Hoai Linh last year, and his return to Vietnam this year to challenge another local fighter?

I’ve kept an eye on all these events, and I really think that Flores is just trying to promote his own image. There’s always a crew behind him to help him do that. They learn about local fighters and let him hand pick fighters who are weaker than him. More than a few professional fighters in Vietnam have challenged him to a fight, but Flores has not accepted any of them. If he really wants to exchange experience and skills to improve himself and learn more about martial arts, he can do that quietly by himself instead of making a scene in the media and having a crew with him wherever he goes.

From the videos of his recent fights, what is your evaluation of Flores?

I’ll be straight about this and hope people don’t think I’m arrogant. Other fighters in Vietnam also agree that Flores is no master. Frankly, he is at an intermediate level.

We don’t need a master to defeat him, any martial arts athlete in the Vietnamese national team could do it.

So why haven’t you or any other fighters at your level challenged Flores to a fight?

We want to but we’re not allowed. The authorities have not given their permission for any martial arts athletes to fight Flores. We have to follow the rules, especially because Flores did not seek permission for his previous fights here and just does what he wants. If we hurt him in a fight that is not authorized, it would be a big problem because he is a foreigner.

After all, morality is of the highest importance in martial arts.

Source: VnExpress

Internet in Vietnam set to drag after major cable encounters more problems

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The cable is the biggest in Asia but a timeline for repair work has not been revealed.

Internet users in Vietnam may once again be subjected to a slow service following reports that a major submarine cable ruptured on Tuesday morning, an internet supplier told local media on Wednesday.

Local suppliers switched to other cables as soon as they learned of the news to ensure a smooth service for users, according to Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT).

The location of the broken section and a timeline for repair work have not been revealed, according to local media reports.

The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) was launched in January last year and has broken down on at least two occasions.

The cable took four years to build, and runs 10,400 kilometers (6,460 miles) linking Japan with Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The project cost $450 million and has a design capacity of more than 54 Tbps, promising to double internet speeds in Vietnam and ease the reliance on the notorious Asia America Gateway (AAG), which has ruptured or been shut down for maintenance on numerous occasions since 2011.

The 20,000-kilometer AAG encountered problems at least five times in 2017.

Vietnam currently has six submarine cable systems, plus a 120 gigabit channel that runs overland through China.

More than 50 million people in Vietnam, or over half of the country’s population, are online.

With a download speed of 5.46 megabytes per second, Vietnam’s internet speed was ranked 74th out of 189 countries and territories in a global survey of broadband speeds compiled by cable.co.uk, a U.K. broadband, TV, phone and mobile provider, last August.

Vietnam’s average broadband speed was 10 times lower than its Southeast Asian neighbor Singapore, according to the survey.

Source: VnExpress

Global scientists gather in Vietnam to look beyond solar system

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The five-day event is discussing the diversity and wide range of the universe to search for life outside our world.

More than 70 scientists from around the world are in Vietnam for a series of conferences to explore planets outside our eight-strong solar system.

The annual Meeting Vietnam (Rencontres du Vietnam) event opened on Monday at the International Center of Interdisciplinary Science Education in Quy Nhon in the central coastal province of Binh Dinh, with the theme “Exoplanetary Science”.

Scientists from 20 countries at the event said that studies outside the Earth’s solar system have become an active part of astrophysics, which looks into the diversity and wide range of the universe for the purpose of finding life away from the blue planet.

The five-day event will include 10 presentations and multiple discussions between observers in the field. The first two days were open to students.

Professor Guillaume Hébrard from the Paris Institute of Astrophysics (Institut d’astrophysique de Paris), who is chairing the 14th Meeting Vietnam, said scientists will share their latest research to provide new knowledge as well as observation methods for extrasolar planets, Binh Dinh Online reported.

Professor Tran Thanh Van, a leading physicist at France’s National Center for Scientific Research, founded Meeting Vietnam as an association of local and international scientists. It has been organizing international seminars in Quy Nhon since 2000 and became an annual event in 2011, with support from local authorities and Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

Scientists have been holding exoplanetary discussions since 2014.

Source: VnExpress

Something borrowed: grooms and guests for hire in Vietnam

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Kha’s wedding day looked perfect from the outside but she was hiding a dark secret: the 27-year-old was three months pregnant and her husband was fake, hired for a staged wedding to avoid the social stigma of becoming a single mother.

Breaking from tradition in socially conservative Vietnam can come at a high price for the whole family.

“My parents would have been the first to be filled with shame if I was pregnant and without a husband,” Kha, barely showing, told AFP a month after the $1,500 fake marriage, which was quietly paid for by her baby’s father who is married to another woman.

The wedding-guests-for-hire business is growing in Vietnam, where some 70 percent of people over 15 are married, and not just among pregnant women like Kha looking for stand-in husbands.

Young couples are shelling out thousands of dollars to rent parents, aunts, uncles, godparents and friends to appease familial pressure to tie the knot or avoid clashes between in-laws who disapprove of the union.

Kha and her fake husband were never legally married, a formality often overshadowed by lavish wedding parties in Vietnam, but she is forever grateful to him for playing the part in front of her friends and relatives.

“I felt like I was about to drown but I grabbed a life jacket,” said a smiling Kha, whose name has been changed to protect her identity.

Her parents were in on the secret but Kha plans to tell the rest of her family that her ‘husband’ left her, preferring to be a divorced single mother than having a baby out of wedlock.

The wedding-guests-for-hire business is growing in Vietnam — where some 70 percent of people over 15 are married — and not just among pregnant women like Kha looking for stand-in husbands. Photo: AFP

Generation gap

Relationship norms are changing fast among youth in Vietnam, where more than half of the 93 million population is under 30.

More couples opting to live together before marriage or shunning the family home afterwards and renting their own apartments.

Abortions are on the rise too, with as many as 300,000 officially documented last year, but the stigma remains high.

But when it comes to wedding ceremonies, many still feel immense family or social pressure to hew to tradition, especially from ultraconservative elders.

“People don’t have the courage to live true to their hearts, they face traditional habits and customs, cultures and views,” said psychology researcher Nguyen Duy Cuong.

“We should put ourselves in the shoes of those who have no way out,” he said, offering sympathy for those who pay for the actors to avoid causing a family rift.

That’s what led Huong and her boyfriend Quan to stage a fake ceremony.

His family shunned her because she came from a poor province, but Huong’s parents insisted she marry during the year of the rooster on the advice of a fortuneteller.

So the couple hosted a fake wedding in her home province of Nghe An, though they refused to say exactly how much they spent.

Her wedding guests were real, but his father, mother, uncles, aunties, friends were all hired. Despite the charade, Quan says their committment is genuine.

“It was both fake and real,” he told AFP after the traditional ceremony last month, though he is circumspect on how he will handle his parents’ expectations for his future.

The day almost went off without a hitch until a hired uncle got Quan’s childhood neighbourhood wrong in his wedding speech to hundreds of guests.

Still, Quan was relieved when it was all over, though he must still keep the wedding a secret from his real parents.

“It’s good to spend a bit of money and make everyone happy. We settled the headaches in peace,” Quan explained.

Relationship norms are changing fast among youth in Vietnam, where more than half of the 93 million population is under 30. More couples opting to live together before marriage or shunning the family home afterwards and renting their own apartments. Photo: AFP

‘Treating an illness’

Quan and Huong are among hundreds of couples who hired wedding guests from Vinamost, one of a handful of Hanoi companies offering such services for as much as $4,400 for a full package.

Company founder Nguyen Xuan Thien says they’ve staged thousands of weddings over the years, though there are no statistics on how many fake weddings are held annually across Vietnam.

Thien said business has steadily grown with more than 400 guests for hire today from less than a dozen about a decade ago.

But even he has mixed feelings about social pressures that have carved out a market for his business.

“The message to society is that we are very worried. Like a hospital treating illnesses, we are helping brides and their families but we don’t want this to grow,” Thien told AFP, adding that he considers his work a kind of community service and doesn’t make much a profit.

Kha, who is due around April, says her fake marriage finally freed her from her lie.

She said: “Hiding my pregnancy was so exhausting, but now I feel very confident about the present and the future.”

Source: AFP

Resort property awakens to competition

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Sleeping through the hard winter years, the princess of the real estate sector the resort property segment is now awake, for the joy of keen developers and investors. However, the princess is not the sole bachelorette anymore: she is now in a contest with other beauties.

The issues

In line with the objectives of Vietnam’s development strategy for tourism to 2020 with vision to 2030 approved by the prime minister in 2011, by 2020, the country aims to welcome 17-20 million international tourist arrivals and 82 million domestic tourists, increasing accommodation by 580,000 rooms nationwide, 35-40 per cent of which are of three- to five-star standard.

Nevertheless, data by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) shows that during 2011-2017, the number of tourists has continuously increased at a double-digit average growth rate. In 2016, the nation attracted over 10 million international visitors and 62 million domestic tourists, surpassing the annual target. In 2017, Vietnam received more than 13 million international tourists, an increase of nearly 30 per cent on-year. Local tourists, on the other hand, have been estimated at 68 million, 32 million of whom were overnight stay visitors.

According to UNWTO, Vietnam ranked 6th among the Top 10 fastest growing tourist destinations in 2017 and scored first among the Asian countries in terms of tourism development.

In a bid to meet the rising demand for accommodation, overnight stay facilities have seen robust investments recently. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the number of overnight stay facilities for tourists went from 13,756 establishments (256,739 room units) in 2011 to 21,000 establishments (420,000 rooms) in 2016. The number of three- to five-star hotels accounted for 784 establishments with 91,250 rooms. By the end of 2016, Vietnam also had some five villa-style facilities with 337 rooms in operation.

Comparing the stout growth of tourist arrivals and that of accommodation facilities, we see a deficiency in the supply of accommodation establishments. What is more, not all accommodation facilities in use, even those in the three- to five-star bracket, can actually meet the standards and high utilisation requirements.

This, according to Savills Vietnam, boils down to the fact that many of the accommodation facilities do not have value-added utilities attached, resulting in shorter visitor stays than planned and a reluctance to return. This lack of utilities and tourism products also had an impact on tourist spending, as they merely pay for accommodation and dining and simply opt out of using value-added products and services.

As per the VNAT survey carried out in the past five years, overnight stay visitors spend 56-60 per cent of their budget on accommodation, meals, and drinks, while only 20-25 per cent on tourist attractions, sightseeing, entertainment, tourist guides, and souvenirs (the rest goes for transportation expenses). Breaking down the spending structure, sightseeing activities that include entertainment alone only account for 7-10 per cent of the total spending. Meanwhile, in Malaysia or Thailand, entertainment activities take up 40-50 per cent of the visitors’ holiday budget.

To encourage visitor spending throughout their journey, a thorough plan must be compiled beforehand. Take Thailand for instance: the country does not rely entirely on the natural landscape to develop its tourism industry. Apart from the natural advantages at hand, Thailand has hundreds of man-made tourist attractions, from facilities to a myriad of entertainment activities. Places like Nong Nooch Village in Pattaya, a 2.4-square kilometre man-made tropical garden and cultural village featuring daily cultural shows, restaurants, gardens, and shops.

Natural conditions are regarded purely as the basis for tourism development. Thai investors, in this case, have done very well in investing heavy bucks on man-made tourist attractions and tempting visitors to pay for the goods and services that they provide in a comfortable way.

In fact, the Thai tourism development model has already been employed in some local tourism complexes led by large-scale property developers in Vietnam, such as Vingroup, Sun Group, Empire Group or FLC Group, at their projects in Quang Ninh, Nha Trang, Quy Nhon or Phu Quoc and Danang. Nevertheless, the model still flies below the country’s potential and such destinations have yet to be connected with each other to develop into valuable vacation packages that are worth spending on.

Other projects, meanwhile, may be good in terms of the quality of the accommodation, but lack add-on utilities, subsequently becoming unappealing to visitors.

Resort property awakens to competition

Rivals of the Sleeping Beauty

It is not only the lack of a specific master plan for tourism development or the absence of utilities and services: many resort projects are confounded by changing tourism habits and are strangled by the rise of disruptive applications like the online accommodation rental platform Airbnb or homestays and motels.

Similar to the ride hailing services Uber or Grab, Airbnb connects those who need a room or a house for short-term stay with those who have spare accommodation around the world. Rental is reportedly cheaper than hotel booking, and as such, it has been a magnet for many tourists, particularly the younger ones and backpackers.

According to Dot Property Vietnam, Airbnb or full-serviced homestays provide visitors more privacy and better hospitality than hotels. Many tourists have even experienced exceptionally designed houses in unique locations up in trees, up the cliffs or in the middle of the prairie.

To draw in more tenants, many homeowners have come up with exclusive packages that include fishing, home-based cooking or guided tours for visitors who wish to have a taste of local activities and experiences. These packages have, in reality, been more appealing to both local and international visitors than tours organised by resorts or luxury hotels.

Data by Airbnb Vietnam showed that in 2015, the number of accounts registered for rental services in Vietnam was only 1,000, which grew 6.5-fold by the end of 2017.

Source: Ninh Việt

PetroVietnam requests financial assistance to help loss-making projects

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State-owned oil and gas group PetroVietnam (PVN) is intending to channel its money into assisting 12 failed projects in the industry and trade sector, whose debts total about VND20 trillion (US$879.8 million).

A meeting was organized in Hanoi on Monday to discuss solutions for delayed and loss-making projects of the industry and trade sector, which was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue.

Speaking at the gathering, PVN chairman Tran Sy Thanh asserted that money should be invested to save 12 of these projects.

“We have to treat these projects like patients in critical conditions, who are in need of emergency treatment. Special measures are very necessary,” Thanh remarked.

“In order to do that, we need money to pay up the debts, hire contract dispute lawyers, and solve other problems,” the chairman continued.

One of the biggest challenges for this effort is the current regulations, which do not allow the state budget to be exerted for dealing with loss-making projects, he stressed.

“PetroVietnam has the money to do so, but are not allowed to, as the group’s assets belong to the state,” Thanh said.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue remarks at the gathering.

He asked the central government to reconsider the regulations, asserting that the projects will soon develop if the correct investment is made.

Meanwhile, Deputy PM Hue affirmed that such rules must be strictly complied with, adding that the solutions to the loss-making projects should be made via specific plans, which are decided during their shareholder meetings.

According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong, five out of the 12 operations have resumed, including four fertilizer production plants and a steel factory.

Some of the projects have also begun to gain profit, Vuong added.

The industry ministry will focus on resolving problems at the remaining projects within this year, he continued.

As of the end of 2017, debts of the 12 loss-making projects were worth over VND20 trillion, of which bad debts accounted for VND8 trillion ($351.9 million), said Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy governor of the State Bank of Vietnam.

Local banks have also tried their best to provide favorable conditions for the projects to get back on their feet.

Source: Duy Khang

Vietnam to open two new airports by 2020

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Two new airports, in Van Don District in the northern province of Quang Ninh and in Phan Thiet City in the south-central province of Binh Thuan, will be inaugurated by the year 2020. The new airports are expected to raise Vietnam’s air transport capacity to 64 million people annually.

The new openings are part of a Vietnamese government plan for air transport development, with a vision to have 28 operational airports by 2030.

According to the plan, by 2020 Vietnam will have had a total of 13 domestic airports and ten international airdromes, including the four gateway airports of Noi Bai (Hanoi), Tan Son Nhat (Ho Chi Minh City), Da Nang and Cam Ranh.

By 2030, there will have been 15 domestic airports and 13 international airports in Vietnam, with the addition of Long Thanh International Airport, which is planned for construction in 2019 in the southern province of Dong Nai, as the country’s fifth gateway airport.

The government plan looks to put Vietnam in the leading four countries in Southeast Asia in terms of air transport volume by the year 2030, with a total fleet size of 400 modern aircraft.

Quang Ninh’s Van Don District is one of three special administrative and economic zones Vietnam plans to develop that will incorporate specific policies and mechanisms in order to attract international investors.

The special zones will function as a new model to stimulate growth and lure foreign investment, said Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung at a merger and acquisition forum last year.

Phan Thiet is a popular resort city on the south-central coast of Vietnam, which attracted nearly 600,000 foreign visits in 2017, mostly from Russia, China and South Korea, according to the online portal of Binh Thuan Province.

With the opening of the new airports, Vietnam’s air transport capacity is expected increase to around 64 million passengers and 570,000 metric tons of cargo yearly in 2020.

By 2030, up to 131 million passengers and 1.7 million tons of cargo will have been transported by air each year in Vietnam, according to the plan.

Source: Tuan Son

Air pollution is Vietnam’s silent killer

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Grave air pollution in Vietnam’s cities and towns, especially Hanoi, continues to cause severe health problems for Vietnam’s growing urban population. However, no effective measures have been taken to deal with the situation.

This week, Nguyen Van Chuc will undergo his second examination and treatment at the Central Hospital for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases in Hanoi. He went in two weeks ago for the first treatment spell, which lasts up to 15 days.

Chuc, 58, has worked as a builder in Hanoi for more than 30 years. He was told by the doctors that he suffers from tuberculosis, which will need at least five months’ treatment. His weight has been reduced to only 54 kilogrammes from the initial 70, within just one month.

“I have stopped my work for a month, right after I was found to have the disease. In my work, I frequently have direct contact with dust, sand, smoke, and cement,” Chuc said that: “The treatment has cost me several millions of dong [$1 is equal to VND22,000].”

The silent killer

Chuc is not alone in the hospital, which receives hundreds of new patients suffering from respiratory and lung-related diseases every day. The patients always wear masks, and suffer from churchyard coughs. Many of them said they had worked in dusty environments, and one of the major causes behind their diseases is air pollution.

Air pollution has become one of the most concerning health and environmental hazards not only in Hanoi, but throughout Vietnam. The issue covers political, social, economic, and environmental spheres. The effects of air pollution act on people’s health over the years and have reached alarming levels.

Nguy Thi Khanh, executive director and founder of the Green Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID) – a Vietnamese non-profit organisation promoting sustainable energy sector development – said that according to a newly-released GreenID survey of Hanoi’s air quality, Hanoi enjoyed only 38 days with good air quality a year, based on air monitoring data compiled at the US Embassy in Hanoi.

“Hanoi’s air pollution levels are rising to match China’s smog-prone capital, Beijing,” Khanh said. “The average level of air pollution in Hanoi last year was four times higher than what is deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) air quality guidelines. I would say that the city is on an air pollution red alert.”

The survey was conducted from December 25, 2017 to January 10, 2018 with more than 1,000 people in Hanoi participating, 95.4 per cent of whom were Vietnamese, with the rest being foreigners.

Up to 99 per cent of respondents said they were interested in air quality. Some 74.7 per cent of respondents believed that the air quality is worsening and badly affecting their health.

According to the latest analysis by GreenID based on air monitoring data from US embassies in some major cities in the world, Hanoi’s particulate pollution is now worse than the Indonesian capital Jakarta’s. Things are unlikely to improve as Vietnam plans to build more coal power plants, which are one of the key pollution creators. Exposure to high levels of air pollution, especially over the long term, can affect the human respiratory and immune systems, and can also lead to heart disease and cancer.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) reported that traffic activities are responsible for about 70 per cent of air pollution in Hanoi.

“Hanoi has more than four million vehicles and traffic activities are accounting for 85 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions, which are very harmful to human health,” MoNRE stated in a report on urban environment released a few months ago.

“According to a study recently released at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by US universities Yale and Columbia, Hanoi is among the cities in the world with the heaviest air pollution. Data used for this study is based on collection by satellites,” the MoNRE report said. “Hanoi has 3.5 million people living in the inner city. On average, each person spends more than VND1,500 ($0.07) on treating respiratory diseases caused by air pollution every day. In total, they spend nearly VND2 trillion ($90.9 million) on the treatments.”

WHO figures show that six out of the 10 diseases with the highest mortality rates in Vietnam are related to air pollution. – Do Manh Cuong Representative, Health Environment Management Agency

Do Manh Cuong, a representative from the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) Health Environment Management Agency, said that WHO considers air pollution “a silent killer”, one of the major causes behind a high rate of mortality in Vietnam. “WHO figures show that six out of the 10 diseases with the highest mortality rates in Vietnam are related to air pollution,” Cuong said.

Air pollution is mainly found in the Red River delta, the Ho Chi Minh City area, and the upper reaches of the Mekong Delta, where industrial production and construction activities are surging.

Le Viet Phu, an economic expert from Fulbright University Vietnam, also said that total economic losses due to early deaths caused by air pollution were 5-7 per cent of Vietnam’s GDP or $11.4-15.9 billion last year, when at least 40,000 people died of diseases related to air pollution.

“The number of deaths caused by air pollution is four times higher than of those caused by traffic accidents, which is about 11,000 per year. It is expected that the annual number of deaths due to air pollution will rise to over 100,000 by 2035,” Phu said.

In another report on Vietnam’s air quality, MoNRE stated that Vietnam’s urban areas have many different types of pollutants far exceeding permissible limits, causing health problems for people nationwide, especially in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Over 4,200 in every 100,000 people suffer from bronchitis, while 6,900 in every 100,000 complain of throat diseases, the report stated.

In Ho Chi Minh City, the percentage of people suffering from tuberculosis due to air pollution topped the country at 0.18 per cent, followed by the provinces of Bac Giang and Quang Ninh (nearly 0.15 per cent each), Ninh Thuan (0.14 per cent), Dong Nai (0.13 per cent), and Haiphong (over 0.12 per cent). MoH figures also show that every year, tens of thousands of people in Vietnam suffer from diseases related to air pollution. About 4 per cent (3.76 million people) suffer from respiratory diseases. Those living in big cities like Hanoi, Haiphong, Ho Chi Minh City, and Dong Nai are much more prone to suffering from these diseases than people living in other localities.

Lack of effective measures

Grave air pollution in urban areas, especially Hanoi, is due to many factors, including a rise in construction works; heavy industries including cement, steel, and coal; an increase in car and motorcycle use; and agriculture burning by farmers, GreenID said.

GreenID underlined that Vietnam lacks regulations on air quality as well as public awareness of the issue and of effective solutions to minimise the effects – such as home air purifiers.

The GreenID survey showed that despite the threat of pollution, many people remain unaware of basic air-related knowledge. Specifically, 43.1 per cent of respondents didn’t know about the air quality index (AQI), and only 12 per cent regularly monitor the AQI.

AQI is a standard value that translates the concentration of key air pollutants into many levels of health concerns. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of pollution and the resulting impacts on health.

But many patients like Chuc at the Central Hospital for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases feel unfamiliar to AQI.

“I don’t know about it [AQI]. No one instructed me to protect myself from air pollution. My sole measure to protect myself is using masks,” Chuc said. “What I need the most now is to be able to breathe easier and stop my cough.”

In June 2016, Vietnam’s government launched a national action plan on controlling air quality until 2020 with a vision to 2025, planning to monitor emissions and improve air quality. The plan assigns lots of duties for ministries and agencies, while setting out many solutions to curb air pollution, such as green production, investment into new technology, installation of air monitoring stations, and limitation of the use of obsolete technologies in production.

However, while waiting for this plan to have tangible effects, hundreds of thousands of air pollution victims like Chuc in Vietnam still have to suffer, which has a heavy cost on their families – financially as well as emotionally.

Source: Thanh Dat

Parkson closes fourth outlet in Vietnam

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Malaysian department store operator Parkson has closed another outlet in Ho Chi Minh City, making a total of four closed locations in Vietnam.

Parkson Flemington, located in District 11, ceased service in late January, Thuy Duong Co., which operates the brand in Vietnam, said in an announcement on Monday.

All business partners at the outlet had been notified of, and agreed upon, the shutdown, according to Thuy Duong Co.

The company asserted that its business remains normal at the six remaining Parkson stores in Vietnam, where customers can still enjoy benefits from their membership.

In January 2015, the Malaysian chain closed its first Vietnam location, Hanoi-based Parkson Keangnam.

This was followed by the shutdowns of Ho Chi Minh City’s Parkson Paragon in May 2016, and Parkson Thai Ha in Hanoi in December the same year.

According to its website, Parkson now has six open locations in the Southeast Asian country, with four in Ho Chi Minh City – Parkson Saigon Tourist Plaza, Parkson Cantavil, Parkson Hung Vuong Plaza and Parkson CT Plaza.

The others are Parkson TD in the northern city of Hai Phong, and Parkson Vinh Trung in the central city of Da Nang.

These venues are under tough competition from the modern, multifunctional shopping malls

Parkson enjoyed its heyday in Vietnam between 2005 and 2010 but began to lag behind newer shopping venues in 2011.

Parkson stores lack the entertainment and dining experiences offered by modern trade centers and fail to welcome a special type of customer in the social media era – those who visit malls only for window shopping, selfies and Facebook check-ins, according to analysts.

The boom of online commerce in Vietnam has also allowed people to easily purchase products from foreign merchants through the Internet, having an adverse impact on Parkson business, which targets mid-luxury customers.

Last year Parkson raked in nearly VND500 billion (US$22 million) worth of revenue from its Vietnam operations, but its accumulated losses rose to more than VND60 billion ($2.64 million), according to Parkson Retail Asia.

The loss in the fourth quarter of 2017 alone was more than VND10 billion ($440,000), compared to VND25 billion ($1.1 million) in the same period one year earlier.

As of 2017, Parkson Holdings Berhad had an extensive network of 131 stores, spanning approximately 2.1 million square meters of retail space across cities in Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar.

Source: Tuoi Tre News

5G, the cornerstone of the digital revolution

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5G will make it easier to download and upload Ultra HD and 3D video and allow smartphones to run more complex mobile internet apps.

Blazing fast 5G wireless networks promise to unlock the potential of internet connected devices, or the Internet of Things – making driverless cars and talking fridges a reality.

With most European operators targeting 2020 for its rollout, 5G is the term on everyone’s lips at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

How does 5G work?

Like the 4G networks currently widely available, 5G is based on radio frequencies, the same used for television broadcasts, walkie-talkies, wi-fi signals or a garage door remote control.

It will use a higher radio frequency which are not in use and can move data at a much faster speed.

But since higher radio frequencies don’t travel as far as lower frequencies, it will rely on denser arrays of small antennas and artificial intelligence to offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks.

What can it do?

5G will allow people to send texts, make calls, and browse the web as always – but will dramatically increase the speed at which data is transferred across the network.

This will make it easier to download and upload Ultra HD and 3D video and allow smartphones to run more complex mobile internet apps.

5G will also make room for the thousands of internet-connected devices entering our everyday world.

The combination of speed and quicker response times could unlock the full capabilities of other hot trends in technology, offering a boost to self-driving cars, drones, virtual reality and the wider Internet of Things.

Beyond speed, the biggest benefit of 5G is its low latency, or the short lag time between a device pinging the network and getting a response.

A 5G network virtually eliminates it, meaning a surgeon may not need to be in the same room as a patient in the future for example.

Why is 5G seen as essential?

The tech industry is counting on 5G to trigger a wave of growth in equipment sales and mobile services.

For years telecom operators and device makers have debated common standards, which will make it possible to have a similar network everywhere and develop products that could be targeted to it.

What are the obstacles to its adoption?

The industry is still fighting over the nitty-gritty details of the technology itself and a lack of common standards could slow its adoption.

5G compatible phones are still not on the market and in many countries 4G deployment is not yet complete. In a number of African countries it is only just starting.

Telecoms operators must make a massive investment to deploy 5G.

Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Hoettges has estimated the cost of providing 5G networks in Europe alone at €300 billion to €500 billion ($370 billion to $615 billion).

5G also faces competition from other technologies that may be better suited for the connected devices, such as French firm Sigfox’s non-cellular IoT network or LoRa, a rival non-standardised low power wide area (LPWA) offering backed by France-based Orange amongst others.

Source: AFP

Vietnamese man jailed in Singapore for smuggling rhino horn

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The rhino horn pieces were cut from three horns from at least two black rhinos.

A Vietnamese man was sentenced to 15 months in jail in Singapore on Monday for smuggling rhino horn from Angola, the Strait Times reported.

Nguyen Vinh Hai, 29, was transiting at Changi Airport last August when eight pieces of rhino horn weighing three kilos were found in his luggage, the report said. He was waiting to fly to Laos, which borders Vietnam.

Customs officers, who acted on a tip-off, found the horn wrapped in translucent plastic and aluminum foil.

The pieces were cut from three horns from at least two black rhinos, the indictment said.

Animal conservationists say rhinos are being poached in Africa every day to meet demand, mostly from China and Vietnam. In 2014, a record 1,215 rhinos were poached in South Africa, said the country’s Environmental Ministry.

Authorities in Vietnam seized more than 150kg of rhino horn in eight seizures in the first seven months of last year, the U.K. wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said in a report.

Vietnam has strict laws that ban the sale and purchase of rhino horn, but they have failed to protect the critically endangered animal. Their horns are considered a status symbol and are used for decorations and in medicine.

The country developed an appetite for rhino horn about a decade ago in the belief it could cure cancer, a myth conservation groups have bristled at.

Vietnam’s last Javan rhino, a rare Southeast Asian species, was found dead in 2010 with its horn hacked off.

Backed by the government, public awareness campaigns have helped discourage the trade, and prices have fallen from their peak of $70,000 per kilogram several years ago.

Source: VnExpress

Bui Tien Dung: The safe pair of hands behind Vietnam’s footballing success story

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‘No one knew or cared about who I was before, but now, wherever I go, people recognize me.’

Vietnam’s national football team set the country on fire at the Asian Football Confederation U23 Championship in January by defying all the odds, and in doing so catapulted goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung to stardom.

Vietnam became the first Southeast Asian team to make it to the quarterfinals, and then shocked everyone by making it to the final.

Despite losing to Uzbekistan in the last minute of extra time in the final, Vietnam’s players and Dung in particular won over pundits and fans for their astonishing perfomances, with many people saying it was the best they had ever seen a Vietnamese team play.

And Dung was one of the main reasons for Vietnam’s progression to the latter stages of the tournament.

Dung stood firm in penalty shootouts in the quarterfinal against Iraq and then the semifinal against Qatar, and he produced some brilliant displays during normal time to get his team that far.

For the 20-year-old and his team, things have changed since they returned from the AFC U23 Cup.

In a recent interview with VnExpress, Dung shared how his life has changed since all that drama.

How has your life changed since the U23 Asian Cup?

No one knew or cared about who I was before, but now, wherever I go, people recognize me. Sometimes people even follow me to have a chat when I go out for breakfast. I’m happy but it feels a bit awkward. That sudden change has surprised me, but I always tell myself to keep my feet on the ground and stay focused, because after all, this is just the beginning. I’m still a young player, not a star or a monument; what I have achieved so far is still very little.

What have you done to try and keep your life in balance?

I write in a diary to keep a clear head. I write every day and always end with the sentence: “Don’t be self-satisfied.” I know there is still a long road ahead and many targets to achieve. At the U23 Asian Cup, I could have done better in some situations but I failed because I wasn’t able to communicate with my team or made the wrong decisions. I know my weaknesses and if I want a bright future I need to train hard to fix them.

You’ve been hailed as a hero, but back at Thanh Hoa Club you’re still third choice behind two senior goalkeepers. How do you feel about that?

Competition for a position on the field is normal in football. Coach Mihail Marian Cucchiaroni has had a successful career, and that explains why his decisions are professional and fair. The skills we show will decide if we play or not; not our ages or achievements. We all have a chance, and that’s why we all need to try our best.

What are your goals for 2018?

To try my hardest in training and improve so I can play as many games for my club as possible. As for the national team, Vietnam will play at the Asian Games (Asiad) and ASEAN Football Championship this year, so I really want to be part of the national team and get Vietnamese football fans excited again.

Source: VnExpress

Restaurant in Da Nang overcharges diner with Chinese-language bill

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A restaurant in Da Nang City has received complaints from a Vietnamese customer after it presented to the diner a bill written in Chinese in which the required payment far exceeded the correct cost.

A patron eating at the HD restaurant, located on Vo Nguyen Giap Street in Son Tra District, published her displeasure at its service on a Facebook page which has a membership of more than 58,000 on Friday.

The diner felt dissatisfied since the restaurant gave a Chinese-language bill showing the total cost of VND10 million (US$400), which was in actuality merely VND8 million ($320) upon recalculation.

The restaurant agreed to charge the latter amount only after the customer’s angry reaction.

Local authorities worked with the place’s manager on February 23, said Nguyen Thanh Nam, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee in Son Tra District on Saturday morning.

The restaurant admitted to issuing the foreign-language bill related to the case.

The official said the restaurateur will be asked to solve the problem early next week.

Printing a bill in Chinese for a Vietnamese customer is a sign of insufficient transparency and runs afoul of relevant regulations, according to Nguyen Nho Hau, vice director of the Da Nang market management department.

Source: Tuoi Tre News