Local firms have to pay a variety of fees in Vietnam, explaining the high cost of their services.
Vietnamese logistics companies are growing in number thanks to strong imports and exports, but that does not mean the services they provide are becoming more affordable.
In fact, they are still more expensive than services provided by foreign firms, making them less competitive, according to experts, Nhan Dan (People) newspaper reported.
Data from the Vietnam Logistics Business Association (VLA) shows that the country’s logistics sector has been growing strongly at an annual rate of 15-16 percent.
Around 1,300-1,500 logistics firms are performing well in Vietnam, accounting for 80 percent of the total companies in the sector.
With the import-export industry developing positively, securing a total revenue of more than $400 billion in 2017, the highest since 2006, the logistics sector has considerable room for expansion.
In 2014, the World Bank ranked Vietnam’s logistics performance index at 53rd out of 160 markets. Two years later, the country dropped to 64th and stood fourth in Southeast Asia after Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
The cost of logistics services in Vietnam currently accounts for 25 percent of the country’s GDP, while the rate stands at only 9.5 percent in the U.S., 11 percent in Japan, 16 percent in South Korea, and 21.6 percent in China, said the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).
The cost of transporting a container from Hai Phong 120 kilometers (75 miles) to Hanoi using a local company is three times higher than what foreign firms charge to ship a container from China or South Korea to Vietnam, according to the VCCI.
Le Duy Hiep, chairman of the VLA, was quoted by Nhan Dan as saying that limited scale, capital, experience, management, high-tech application and staff are to blame for the high costs of Vietnamese logistics services.
Nguyen Thi Thuy Duong, director of Minh Nhat Co Ltd, a logistics company in northern Vietnam, said local firms have to pay a variety of fees not applicable to foreign companies in Vietnam, explaining the higher costs of their services.
The quality of staff in the domestic logistics sector is low, which makes it less attractive than foreign rivals, she said.
To increase the competitiveness of Vietnam’s logistics sector, she said the government should focus on staff training, increasing cooperation between different means of transportation and simplifying administrative procedures.
As a fan of stand-up comedy, I was curious when I found out that there was a burgeoning scene here in Saigon.
I had already been living in the city for a few months after having previously spent time in Hue and a year in the Mekong Delta city of My Tho. I was curious to see what angles and takes on life comics in the southern metropolis would have. To me, stand-up comedians have always been some of the smartest, most well-attuned people, giving us original reflections on society and helping us to swallow the most unpalatable of truths through the gift of laughter.
Upon arriving in Saigon, it was hard not to notice the cultural divide that sometimes exists between expats and locals. I was braced to enter the stand-up comedy community and find another insular expat scene with comics making cheap gags about local customs and culture – I could almost hear Jerry Seinfeld’s voice in my head, “WHAT is the DEAL with TRAFFIC here? I mean, WHO eats NOODLES for BREAKFAST? WHO are these PEOPLE?”
Phuc, a 19-year-old law student, does stand-up as a reprieve from university life. Photo courtesy of Phuc.
Although I was a bit reticent at first, I had to find out what the scene was like for myself, and was pleased to discover a thriving community where both local and foreign comics from around the world are welcomed. The idea that stand-up comedy is not a tradition and is a relatively new phenomenon in Vietnam drew my attention to the local comics that make up the homegrown portion of the community. I wanted to find out more about them, what drives them and how their Vietnamese identities informed their comedy.
Phuc, who wishes only to go by his first name, is the youngest of the comics, and a bit of an anomaly. He’s a 19-year-old law student who has grown up in the city and works “blue,” meaning he covers adult subjects, which is a bit surprising for this self-proclaimed virgin.
He recently won third place in the Saigon International Comedy Competition and has the accent of a native English speaker, a Boston accent like that of Bill Burr, one of his main comedic influences.
“There’s nothing in university that clicks with me,” he shares with Saigoneer. “I don’t like the people in there. I don’t like what I learn there. People in law school think I’m weird, and I do agree with them. I’m very eccentric basically. I just do my own thing. I read articles and come up with jokes. I walk around the house doing my bits. It’s crazy. I just talk to myself. I have interests and hobbies that nobody else likes.”
When asked if comedy is a form of relief from tedium and the restraints of society, Phuc says, “Kind of! Although I also use comedy as a really good network, I’ve made very little money out of it. I don’t do it for monetary reasons. It’s an escape.”
I was reminded of something Bill Hicks, the iconic American dark comic who died in 1994, famously said about the cathartic nature of comedy: “It’s supposed to be a fucking catharsis, man. It’s supposed to be a release from the fucking daily grind. I wish it worked for me!”
Tu, a Hanoian who uses comedy as an outlet for the negativity in her life. Photo courtesy of Tu.
Tu, a young woman from Hanoi who also competed in the Saigon International Comedy Competition and shared first place, finds that this practice of purging negativity through stage performance is beneficial.
“I think it’s working!” she claims. “I have a healthy outlet to vent about what I’m thinking, or what I’m unhappy about, so I would say it’s working!”
Comedy and Family
A common thread among these comedians is that many seem to perform under the radar from their families. Uy Le, another local comic who shared first place with Tu at the aforementioned competition, says his family doesn’t know what is in his act.
“They don’t understand English,” he explains. “They’ve told me that they want to come, but I don’t really want them to, even if they understood what I was saying.”
Tu shared similar sentiments. “My father doesn’t know what I do. I sort of want to tell him. He doesn’t understand what this is. If I say that I dance or sing, it’s easy to understand. In Vietnam this kind of thing doesn’t really exist,” she says.
Meanwhile, Phuc’s family is a little less supportive: “My mom doesn’t think I’m funny. My mom doesn’t know any English. My dad knows a little bit.” Since his jokes lean towards the raunchy side, it should come as no surprise that he doesn’t tell his parents the same jokes he uses on stage.
In a way, participating both in the world of stand-up comedy and traditional Vietnamese culture seems to be a sort of balancing act that forces these comics to straddle multiple worlds and identities.
Comedy and the Vietnamese Language
The consensus among these three performers is that culturally, Vietnamese humor presented as entertainment differs from such humor in the west. Phuc elaborates: “In Vietnam, swearing and [talking] about sex is very taboo, and the language is designed in such a way that if you talk about it, it’s very awkward. When you swear it’s different. When you talk about sex, it’s very weird.”
Uy, for his part, has found that performing in his native tongue is a challenge. “I tried doing stand-up comedy in Vietnamese, but I see myself censoring myself and telling jokes in a way that is less impactful because I feel like that’s more appropriate,” he says.
Of the Vietnamese sense of humor and the language, Uy explains: “The language is a bit indirect. Every joke that I have done in English, when I try to translate it in Vietnamese it sounds very crude. Also, the darkness, a lot of people don’t get. It’s kind of strange, the concept of going to a show and watching someone perform stand-up because [the audience] takes every word seriously.”
Comedy and Identity
Cher, a Viet Kieu comic from California, offers another perspective. She is a mainstay of the stand-up comedy scene in Saigon, exploring the Vietnamese identity onstage through her character Xam Khang Da Ho, a fictional Vietnamese local.
Cher is currently performing in Northern California, but she shared her thoughts on the local scene. “It’s a budding field [in] which we find ourselves with a distinct voice and point of view and narrative that is built in the context of how the country is developing, and the traditional historical views that have been relayed to us as Vietnamese, whether we are a part of a diaspora or we are native,” she explains.
The comic added that she feels a strong responsibility towards identity, while her on-stage persona helps her to explain this for audiences.
“In Vietnam these experiences aren’t heard very much, so my aspirations are not only that they are affirmed to foreigners so that they can understand a point of view that they may not have already seen, but so that they can connect in the ways that I’m able to with the local population,” Cher says. “I really feel [a] connectedness with many aspects of people who have not grown up alongside as Vietnamese, and it’s that love that is blood deep.”
Cher, a Viet Kieu from California, thinks that Vietnam’s stand-up comedy scene has so much potential to grow. Photo courtesy of Cher.
Although there’s a growing scene in Saigon and a strong contingent of Vietnamese comedians, most of the comics who spoke to Saigoneer said that they want to see more opportunities to perform, as well as more local representation on stage. Tu, the Hanoian, said: “I’d like to see more open mics, more opportunities to increase the number of our audience.”
Cher added: “Not to toot our own horn as an ethnicity or culture, but Vietnamese are some of the most funny fucking people I’ve ever met, and they’re not on stage! My hope is that whatever challenges they face that I understand and identify with, whether it’s poverty, education, or generational values and cultural pressure, that they have the courage with seeing these open mics, and saying I can do better than that idiot up there!”
Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) has ended its “12-year marriage” with Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), offloading its entire holding of more than 154 million shares in the Vietnamese bank.
The transaction was completed on January 9 for an undisclosed sum.
According to the Viet Nam Depository Securities Centre’s announcement, Standard Chartered APR Limited transferred 89.9 million, equivalent to 8.75 per cent of ACB’s capital, to Estes Investment Ltd and Sather Gate Investment Ltd.
Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Ltd sold 64.2 million shares, or 6.25 per cent of ACB’s capital, to three investment companies, including Boardwalk South Ltd, Whistler Investment Ltd and Estes Investment Ltd.
ACB’s shares are trading at some VND40,000 (US$1.75) a share on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, which valued the sale at about VND6 trillion ($263.2 million).
In mid-2005, Standard Chartered spent $22 million to acquire 8.56 per cent of ACB’s capital and upstake holding to 15 per cent in July 2008 for an additional $135 million (excluding the money to purchase ACB’s convertible bonds).
At that time, ACB’s shares were valued at VND68,000 a share.
In the bank’s annual shareholders’ meeting in April 2017, Standard Chartered officially confirmed its plan of divestment. Earlier in March 2016, it withdrew two representatives from ACB’s management board.
The foreign bank had explained it was under pressure to cut costs after suffering losses from emerging markets.
There seems to be a trend that foreign banks are withdrawing investment from local banks.
In the early days of 2018, BNP Paribas offloaded its entire stake of 18.68 per cent in Orient Commercial Bank (OCB), ending the 10-year alliance between the two banks.
Unlike OCB, ACB demonstrated strong performance, with consolidated profit of more than VND2 trillion by the end of September 2017, up 60 per cent year-on-year. Its share price climbed 76 per cent in 2017.
Vietnam is set to partner with Mitsubishi Motors on research and development of electric vehicles.
The country is looking for help nurturing its auto industry, while the Japanese company hopes to gain a slice of the nation’s market for environmentally friendly vehicles, one that is expected to grow in the future.
Mitsubishi appears to be considering local production.
Vietnam’s appetite for cars is growing as its middle class class expands. But the increase in air pollution from cars and coal-fired thermal power stations is forcing the government to pin its hopes on electric vehicles, which cause less environmental damage.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and Mitsubishi Motors will sign a memorandum of understanding on Monday afternoon. The two will jointly study electric vehicles deemed suitable for Vietnamese roads, traffic conditions and available charging infrastructure.
Prior to the study, Mitsubishi will supply Vietnam with the Outlander plug-in hybrid vehicle.
In Vietnam, electric and hybrid vehicles are rare. But since the country has a 200-plus-volt system, it is easy to charge the vehicles at home, according to both the government and Mitsubishi. Because of Vietnam’s narrow roads, the government thinks Mitsubishi Motors’ compact electric vehicles, such as the i-MiEV, are a good choice.
Vietnam Electricity recently opened the first charging station in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang. Vingroup JSC, the country’s leading real estate company, which has been working to produce the first national vehicle, is also developing an electric vehicle.
Vietnam aims to become a leading industrial nation by 2020, with the auto industry slated to be one of its main pillars. New auto sales fell by 10% year-on-year to 272,750 units in 2017 from a record 300,000 units in 2016.
The sharp drop was attributed to the abolition of import tariffs in January 2018.
But the wealthy and the middle class are buying more cars. The Ministry of Industry and Trade expects new auto sales to more than double to 600,000 units annually in 2025.
Vietnam beat Australia 1-0 in their second group stage game at the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship in China on Sunday.
The Vietnamese thus pocketed the first three points after a loss in the opening game earlier this week.
The Golden Stars were considered the underdogs in the clash with the Olyroos, who defeated Syria 3-1 in their opener on Thursday.
Vietnam lost 1-2 to South Korea after a 17th-minute lead the same day.
Sunday’s Group D match saw the Australians dominate and hit the woodwork while having a goal disallowed.
Vietnam striker Cong Phuong narrowly missed a chance in the 33rd minute following a short pass back by Alex Gersbach.
George Blackwood netted in the 64th minute, only to see the goal disallowed as he had been offside.
The winner goal was scored by striker Quang Hai amid a sea of defenders in the 71st minute, stunning the Olyroos and analysts. Hai has scored twice at the tournament.
Blackwood failed to equalize ten minutes later with his header hitting the bar.
Trent Buhagiar slipped to miss the last opportunity in the 90th minute.
South Korea will take on Syria in the other group game later on Sunday.
In the last group stage games, Vietnam are scheduled to play the Syrians on January 17 while the Koreans and the Australians will also battle it out the same day.
The AFC Under-23 Championship, running from January 9 to 27, is a biennial competition that features 16 of Asia’s top teams in that age group.
Japan beat South Korea to win the championship at the 2016 event in Qatar.
While foreign banking institutions had branches and representative offices in Vietnam starting in the late ‘80s, much of the landscape consisted of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), which originally operated as both a private and commercial bank.
In 1990, the SBV produced four offshoot state-owned commercial banks (SOCBs), each focusing on particular sectors of business: Vietinbank took care of the industrial business, Agribank focused on the agricultural money, international trade was taken on by Vietcombank and infrastructure development was handled by BIDV.
If only it were still so simple!
The World’s Banks Beckon
When Vietnam joined the WTO in 2007, foreign credit unions could begin to apply for 100 percent ownership in Vietnam, an attractive prospect for countries like South Korea, which was (and still is) investing billions of dollars in Vietnam every year. As Maxfield Brown, Editorial and Research Specialist at Dezan Shira & Associates told us,
“The big foreign banks that are in the country, they’re primarily focused on the commercial perspective on the biggest investors. They want to make sure that they’re targeting Nike when it comes into the country.”
Right now there are seven foreign banks operating independently in Vietnam:
HSBC (Hong Kong)
ANZ (Australia)
Standard Chartered (UK)
Shinhan (Korea)
Hong Leong (Korea)
Woori Bank (Korea)
CIMB (Malaysia)
As more multinational companies enter the market, more foreign banks are vying to be the eighth, Citibank in particular.
However, there are many more foreign banks that operate as representative branches – 49, according to the SBV’s website – and they offer most of the same services, depending on your needs.
Foreign banks are definitely a cause for worry for domestic banks, but not as much as you might think. For one thing, local banks know the market better than any foreign bank could, and name recognition goes a long way in Vietnam.
This has prompted some foreign banks to become strategic investors instead of direct competitors. This option is becoming ever more attractive as the investment cap has been increased from 15 percent to 20 percent thanks to the recent adoption of Decree 01. Japan, which has no independent bank in Vietnam but is the second-largest foreign direct investment (FDI) presence, is the best example of this. Brown considers this a long-term plan, and a good one at that:
“Over time the threshold for investments is going to go up, and maybe 10 or 15 years down the line they might own those banks outright.”
But What About You?
So, say you’re opening a business and you’re trying to find the right bank that suits your fledgling company’s needs. You might think that a foreign-owned bank, which has more capital, a better reputation and international experience than a Vietnamese bank, is the way to go. Well, you’re probably wrong.
It all depends on the needs of your business. If you control a large company with sales overseas, sure, a foreign bank is probably your best bet. They’ll offer you more international coverage and provide easier ways to ship money back to your home base, if it happens to be abroad.
However, if you’re looking to open a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) in Vietnam, a domestic bank is probably a better choice. As Brown reasons,
“If you don’t need to send your money out of the country all the time, and if you’re perfectly happy growing your business domestically, then Vietnamese banks are going to be much more interested in retaining your business.”
You might receive more attention than you would at a larger, international bank, since these banks are often subject to reporting requirements in their home markets that can slow the delivery of key services in Vietnam. Here are Asiamoney’s Cash Management Poll 2016 winners for the top banks for small businesses, both foreign and domestic.
People are going head over, well, tails, for the lucky charms.
Bitcoin has been making people fortunes in recent times, and a more tangible version of the cryptocurrency is also poised to bring some Lunar New Year cheer to Vietnamese children next month.
Metallic coins with Bitcoin logos are joining the popular chocolate coins as alternatives to cash given away in red envelopes known as li xi, or lucky money, to children during Tet, the biggest festival of the year in Vietnam, which will fall in mid-February.
For the past few months, online shops in Vietnam have been importing coins bearing the Bitcoin logo to sell for VND80,000 ($3.5) to serve the rising demand for the currency that has helped many miners strike it rich following its boom in recent months.
Bitcoin, the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, rose around twentyfold last year, climbing from less than $1,000 to nearly $20,000, a record level which has been attributed to surging demand in China, where authorities say it is being used to channel money out of the country.
A seller named Long in Ho Chi Minh City said he has been selling the physical Bitcoins for two months via Facebook.
The current demand is still low, around 10 coins per week, with each of his customers buying two coins on average, but it will rise as Tet nears, he said.
Each gold-plated Bitcoin that Long sells is 3 millimeters thick, weighs 28 grams, has a 40-millimeter diameter and is covered in a protective acrylic case.
Long said more online shops have started to sell the coins on Facebook, making it a more competitive market.
When the coins first appeared on the market, they were originally sold to real Bitcoin investors who wanted to keep them as souvenirs.
Though not as volatile, the price of these “souvenirs” also fluctuates more or less on the price of the crypto.
Hai, who also sells physical Bitcoins online in the city, said people have become less interested in the metallic coins over the past few weeks following a drop in the actual price of Bitcoin.
But if the value of the crypto bounces back on the global market by the end of this month, it is possible that the physical coins will gain more attraction, Hai added.
The coins are also easy to find on Amazon, Ebayand AliExpress, with prices ranging from $1.1 to $2.8.
Khanh, another seller in Binh Duong Province in southern Vietnam, said the government’s recent move to forbid the use of Bitcoin has also lessened interest in the physical coins.
Vietnam’s central bank said last October that the act of issuing, supplying or using illegal means of payment starting from 2018 may be subject to prosecution for violating regulations concerning the operation of credit organizations, a crime that carries up to 20 years in jail under Vietnam’s Penal Code.
But several restaurants and coffee shops in Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s commercial hub, have started accepting Bitcoin payments.
A staff member at one restaurant said that customers only needed a Bitcoin code to pay for their meals and that this method was more beneficial for the restaurant because Bitcoin payments did not appear on tax declarations.
The threat of jail does not seem to have scared some businesses that consider it the new age of currency, so the central bank is now working on a legal framework to control Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that are not currently recognized by Vietnamese law.
The virtual currency was created in 2009 by an unknown computer whizz using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Individual Bitcoins are created by computer code.
The total value of all Bitcoins in existence is now around $152 billion.
Viet Nam Sugarcane and Sugar Corporation II (Vinasugar II) will auction 63.59 million shares to the public on February 13, according to the HCM Stock Exchange (HoSE).
The stake of Vinasugar II is held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Currently, the company has a chartered capital of VND685 billion (US$30.14 million). The number of shares to be auctioned is over 63.69 million, accounting for 93 per cent of the corporation’s chartered capital.
With a starting price of VND10,420 per share, it is estimated that MARD will collect about VND664 billion through the auction.
Information about the auction, filing and deposit is scheduled to be made public on January 15.
Vinasugar II specialises in manufacturing sugar, starch and packaging; technical services for sugarcane; consulting services and financial investment; commercial and real estate business with its member units, such as La Nga Sugar Joint Stock Company and Binh Duong Sugar Joint Stock Company, in association with Vinasugar I, Hiep Hoa Sugar Cane and Sugar Joint Stock Company.
In 2016, Vinasugar II posted VND448.7 billion in revenues, VND29.9 billion in after-tax profits, and produced 1.55 million liters of refined alcohol, as well as 183 tonnes of CO2. The company traded 22,871 tonnes of sugar.
The company targeted to reach VND462 billion in revenues and nearly VND16.5 billion in after-tax profits in 2017.
GrabTaxi Vietnam will have to stop implementing its ride-hailing services in the three provinces of Thua Thien-Hue, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and Lam Dong.
This was the order of Le Dinh Tho, Deputy Minister of Transport, after finding that GrabTaxi implemented the ride-hailing services in the provinces without a government permit for such contracts, based on Decision No.24/QD-BGTVT on the pilot scheme for ride-hailing services issued by the Ministry of Transport (MoT).
Besides, according to MoT, GrabTaxi is only permitted to directly work with taxi drivers to supply this service after receiving the approval of the transport business firms and the departments of Transport at the cities and provinces.
Earlier in December 2017, MoT reported to the prime minister about the implementation of the two-year pilot programme of ride-hailing services via technology applications. Accordingly, the authorities identified numerous violations in GrabTaxi and Uber’s operations. Notably, in a number of areas, GrabTaxi and Uber are implementing ride-hailing services without reporting on their operations to local authorities or maintaining a representative office or legal representation.
Thus, in order to tightly supervise the operation of transport firms supplying technology applications of electronic matching, such as Uber and GrabTaxi, in early January 2018, MoT submitted the draft of a new circular that includes regulations for passenger transport (by car) through software.
Accordingly, technology application providers must meet ten conditions. Notably, technology application providers will have to have business licenses or enterprise registration certificates to do electronic business and have a certificate from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) confirming that applicants have completed registration.
Besides, before launching operations, technology application providers must register information related to their main offices and brands in Vietnam, their legal representative, transaction phone numbers, bank accounts, and websites, among others, with MoT.
Importantly, these firms must sign contracts to provide software services for transportation companies that hold transport licenses instead of providing them for individuals or transport business households.
These firms must display their logos with the minimum size of 90 x 80 mm in both the front and rear car windows.
Regarding tax payments, the circular clearly states that software providers and transport companies must provide all information related to trips and electronic bills to both the passengers’ accounts and the General Department of Taxation (GDT), under the regulation of the Ministry of Finance.
For enterprises who would like to use electronic bills, the circular stipulates 11 conditions. Important requirements include that enterprises must use software which has already been certified by MoIT, send electronic bills to GDT, and provide telephone numbers to customers for emergencies.
Cars under nine seats, which are used for electronically-billed transportation, must not be more than 12 years old, same as the regulation for traditional taxis.
According to the latest developments, Hanoi has put up traffic signs banning under nine-seat transportation cars using technology applications to match with customers from operating on roads that are off-limits to traditional taxis.
Accordingly, the ban is applied to streets like Giang Vo, Cat Linh, Phu Doan, and Truong Trinh.
Numerous Uber and Grab drivers expressed their concerns about the impact of this ban on their jobs. Son, an Uber taxi driver, said that he was surprised to see the ban signs in front of Viet Duc Hospital at Phu Doan Street, where he often drives passengers through.
Besides, Minh Duc, another Uber taxi driver with two years of experience in the job said that the ban will reduce the number of technology taxi drivers as Uber and Grabtaxi currently determine the shortest route for customers. Thus, if there is banned road along the predetermined route, drivers will have to choose another route without being paid for the added mileage in case the alternative route is longer.
“If a customer chooses the pick-up point on one of these roads, we would be unable to go there so we will have to cancel the trip. We would lose customers and have our stars and bonus points deducted,” Duc stated.
Meanwhile, other technology taxi drivers wonder about the way management authorities determine the definition of technology taxi. They also wonder whether they would be fined if they drive their relatives through restricted roads.
A representative of the Hanoi Department of Transport told Vnexpress that the local authorities will issue plaques or other visible signs to distinguish technology taxies from individual cars. These signs will be published soon.
On January 7, 2016, MoT issued Decision No.24/QD-BGTVT on the pilot scheme for ride-hailing services. The pilot duration was two years, lasting from January 2016 to January 2018.
According to the decision, the pilot programme of ride-hailing services will be implemented in five cities and provinces, namely Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Danang, Khanh Hoa, and Ho Chi Minh City.
However, after two years, only four cities and provinces have joined the programme, while Danang remained exempt.
Of the 36,800 registered vehicles, there are 21,600 in Ho Chi Minh City, 15,000 in Hanoi, 62 in Quang Ninh, and 100 in Khanh Hoa.
In Ho Chi Minh City alone, GrabTaxi has more than 18,100 vehicles and Uber over 3,600 vehicles. The respective numbers in Hanoi are some 11,400 and nearly 2,400.
Despite his stable job, Hoai Phuong, a.k.a. Khoai Lang Thang (Wandering Potato), suddenly had a change of heart and started publishing videos on travel and foods.
Currently, the owner of the Facebook fan page entitled Khoai Lang Thang – Food and Travel, with more than 85,000 followers, and a YouTube channel with 126,000 subscribers, Dinh Vo Hoai Phuong might surprise his fans with his academic background.
In fact, he graduated magna cum laude from Ton Duc Thang University, a growing public college in Ho Chi Minh City, where he majored in construction engineering.
The journey to journeys
“I got itchy feet just thinking about new journeys, new people, and new foods,” Phuong said.
His first experience of travel came at the age of 15 when he got to Da Lat, a famed city in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, located around 300km to the northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.
Then, the young man made it to Da Nang City in central Vietnam, Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta, and Con Dao Islands, a magnificent island chain off the southeast coast of the country, all before his graduation.
Talking about his financial resources, he said he was burning the candle at both ends.
“I took a part-time job during college,” he recounted.
“I would always set aside some of my monthly salary for my trips.”
After graduation, he worked as a design consultant at a large company.
When people questioned his motive for quitting such well-earned job, he said he was simply “following his heart.”
Hoai Phuong tries local foods in Thailand in this supplied photo.
“Slowly traveling seeped into my blood and became such a burning passion,” Khoai Lang Thang said.
Making vlogs has become his way of life. A vlog, or video blog, is a trending term which refers to a kind of self-made videos telling about one’s experiences, like traveling.
“I had to think twice. Quitting a job means losses and gains, and I had to figure what those would be,” he added.
“I had to make sure I would be up for it if I happened to lose without gains. But it is not important whether the job is good or not. It matters more whether it suits me.”
Go and gain
Normally vloggers use their original footage of places where they go, with or without themselves in the frame.
Then they will process the raw files, adding subtitles and any special effects, before publishing their refined products on the Internet.
Telling of his first experiences filming himself on the go, he said people eyed him like an alien, for he was self-conversing.
But he soon got over his timidity.
“I could learn so many new things and got to meet bunches of interesting people,” he said.
The trips in turn added to his maturity and boosted his open-mindedness.
Once he was in the Mekong Delta. He got a chance to literally dabble his feet in the muddy water and harvest lotus plants, which was part of the local way of life.
The best thing about this one experience was the warm welcome the locals gave him. Phuong felt at home even when surrounded by absolute strangers.
“Life may be hard, but the people here made me feel just so optimistic about whatever it is to come,” he said.
The vlogger experiences harvesting lotus plants in the Mekong Delta in this supplied photo.
Commenting on his vlogging, he revealed that he drafts a clear plan for each and every shot. He will then make proper modifications based on any faults.
At first, he had to keep his family in the dark about this career move, as to the Vietnamese people, having a stable job is highly sought after.
His friends indeed strongly objected to his decision.
Now, however, most seem to be supportive.
His vlog site on Facebook and YouTube now piques widespread interest.
Talking about his future plan, he said he wants to cover all areas of Vietnam and make in-depth videos about the cultures therein.
“I will also add overseas journeys and boost video quality. I hope the channel can grow to an international level.”
Local residents have already agreed to the proposal, so it’s just a matter of waiting for the nod from the city.
Plans are afoot to expand a weekend pedestrian area in Ho Chi Minh City’s backpacker precinct and keep it open for an extra day during the week.
As proposed by the city’s District 1, the current walking zone on a section Bui Vien Street will be expanded to cover the entire street and part of Nguyen Quang Dau Street.
An extra day has also been suggested for the walking zone, which is currently open from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
In a letter sent to Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Committee, District 1 said it would like to open the expanded zone by February 10 to provide a bigger venue for the Lunar New Year celebrations in mid-February as the current walking zone is already overcrowded.
The plan has already been approved by local residents who agree with the idea of making more streets in the backpacker area pedestrian-friendly.
By expanding the walking zone, the district hopes to boost tourism and help the city earn more from taxing local businesses that are expected to grow in parallel with the zone, it added.
The backpacker area pulls in around 2,000 tourists on its best days and earns more than VND37 billion ($1.63 million) a year.
In August last year, the city spent VND13 billion ($572,300) on granite paving, music stages, surveillance cameras, security guards, free wifi and public toilets to turn Bui Vien into a weekend walking zone.
Under the latest plan, District 1 it also seeking permission to call on private funding to make the walking zone more attractive to tourists.
Nguyen Hue, the first walking street to open in the crowded city in 2015, has become a regular hang-out for both locals and foreigners.
Saigon, Vietnam’s biggest commercial center, is one of the most popular destinations in the country.
Official data showed the city welcomed 6.38 million foreign tourists and 25 million local visitors last year, up 22.8 percent and 14.6 percent against 2016.
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said that international economic integration would be the focus of economic restructuring in 2018, requiring breakthroughs in negotiation, signing of free trade deals and improving the legal framework.
Hue was speaking at the 2018 first meeting of the Inter-sectoral Steering Committee for International Economic Integration on Thursday.
“It is necessary to enhance free trade agreements (FTAs) and national competitiveness as well as competitiveness of different industries,” Hue said. “Preparations must be taken to actively adapt to integration, especially in fields expected to be the most vulnerable, such as husbandry, cultivation and sugar industries.”
He said that integration would bring benefits from tariff cuts and/or removal, but this would also mean a drop in budget revenue. “The adjustments of domestic taxes are needed, but must be implemented with appropriate roadmaps.”
International integration would also require the flawless co-operation between member countries in implementing procedures and creating favourable conditions for businesses, he said.
As some major partners of Viet Nam are considering changes in their trade policies, Hue asked the steering committee to enhance the analysis of co-operation trends and forecasts about new-generation FTAs.
Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said that Viet Nam was also hastening integration in the domestic market through the implementation of international integration commitments, institutional reforms and growth model renovation.
FTAs positively contributed to boosting economic development, expanding export markets and helping Viet Nam engage more deeply into the global value chain.
“FTAs provide significant opportunities for Viet Nam if they are enforced effectively,” Tuan Anh said.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh told the meeting that EU-Viet Nam FTA (EVFTA) would be split into two separate deals – a free trade agreement and an investment-protection agreement.
The former would include all the contents of the current EVFTA, but investment would only include the liberalisation of foreign-direct investment. The agreement would be under the authority of the European Commision and the approval of the European Parliament.
The latter, consisting of contents about investment protection and investment-dispute resolution, would have to be approved by the European Parliament and the member countries.
The slicing of EVFTA into two agreements was planned to be completed this month to prepare for the official signing, Khanh said.
To date, Viet Nam has passed 10 bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, including ASEAN Free Trade Area, five ASEAN+1 FTAs, and FTAs with Japan, South Korea, Chile and the Eurasia Economic Union.
Viet Nam has also concluded FTA negotiations with the EU and was negotiating Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
About 60 countries had already negotiated or were negotiating FTAs with Viet Nam, which accounts for 90 per cent of Viet Nam’s trade.
Founded in 2011, the Vietnamese budget airline has captured 40% of the domestic market.
Vietjet Air has achieved brand recognition with one of the crudest marketing ploys in business: using scantily clad women to attract attention. Its stewardesses have worn bikinis on some flights, and the airline publishes calendars of models wearing lingerie in the company’s colors, red and yellow. The criticism that inevitably follows only helps to promote the brand even more.
But behind the gimmicks is a fast-growing and savvy young airline. Since its first commercial flight in December 2011, Vietjet has become Vietnam’s second-largest airline, accounting for more than 40% of the domestic market share, and it has carried some 50 million passengers. This rapid growth has made founder Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, 47, Vietnam’s first female billionaire.
It helps that Vietnam’s rising middle class is traveling more — the number of domestic passengers grew at a rate of 17.2% between 2011 and 2016, among the highest in the region. But Thao also runs a tight ship. Vietjet is a classic budget carrier, emphasizing high seat density, clever aircraft utilization, labor productivity and low maintenance costs. It is a formula that has enabled Vietjet to surpass its peers in the hypercompetitive Southeast Asian market, according to an aviation report from VinaCapital. Vietjet’s group revenue for 2017 is expected to reach 42 trillion dong ($1.84 billion), up 53% on the year, and net profit is seen reaching 3.8 trillion dong, up 56%.
The airline plans to expand its network across the Asia-Pacific region over the next five years, and it has signed agreements with leading global aircraft manufacturers to purchase more new aircraft to fulfill its goals. Already, Vietjet has a modern fleet with an average age of just 3.3 years, among the youngest in the world.
Vietjet “is a rising star in the industry, and the airline will still enjoy the incentives of the Vietnamese government in the next few years,” Andy Ho, managing director and chief investment officer at VinaCapital, told NAR.
Thao is not the only powerful woman at Vietjet, however. Nguyen Thanh Ha, 67, a veteran of Vietnam’s aviation authority, is the company’s chairwoman. Her long experience may explain how Vietjet managed to become such a successful competitor to Vietnam Airlines as others went bankrupt (Indochina Airlines), were acquired (Pacific Airlines) or suspended (Air Mekong) during the last decade.
Back in the USSR
Thao was born in Hanoi and attended university in the Soviet Union, studying finance, banking and economics when she was 17 years old. She met her husband and established Sovico Holdings in Russia in the 1990s. After receiving a doctorate in economics at 27, Thao began investing in four sectors in Vietnam: finance, aviation, real estate and industry.
For most of that time, she kept a low public profile, but she has become more prominent in the media after Vietjet’s listing on the stock market in February 2017. She appeared at the APEC 2017 Summit in November, where the majority of the events were held at one of her assets in the central city of Danang.
Even as she has attracted criticism for her airline’s portrayal of women in ads, Thao has pledged to take “real action” to support women in business in Vietnam.
Founded in 2011, the Vietnamese budget airline has captured 40% of the domestic market
“In any company or office, when they are searching for a leader, they think of a man first, and tend to search for a man before a woman,” she told NAR in 2016. “So in order to change that, we have to set a target — for example, in Vietjet, we set up a certain percent for women in managing positions.” She added that Vietjet has set targets for placing women in engineering and pilot jobs.
“We encourage women to be confident to step into the pilot training program,” she said.
Housework and social media are also driving a rift between couples.
Vietnam has lost its crown as the country with the most satisfied lovers in the region according to a new survey that asked people how much their primary relationships fulfilled them.
Its score dropped 4 percentage points from 2016 to 79 percent last year, as shown in the relationship scores for partners in the second edition of the Prudential Relationship Index (PRI).
In 2017, Cambodia had the highest relationship scores for partners out of the nine markets surveyed with 82 percent, followed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. The average score for the region in 2017 was 67.
The reasons why love left the air in Vietnam last year can be found with a closer look of the survey conducted by the Hong Kong-based Prudential Corporation Asia, which specializes in life insurance and asset management in 14 Asian markets.
Nearly half, or 46 percent, of Vietnamese said drinking or smoking were a common source of arguments between partners.
When asked who does most of the housework, only 14 percent of men said they did but up to 93 percent of women said it was them. The average ratios in the region were 78 percent for women and 34 percent for men.
Housework is one of the top causes of argument between partners in Asia aside from money, lack of attention, children, drinking and smoking, and spending too much time on the phone or computer, not least on social media.
When asked if they were often upset by their partners’ posts on social media, Vietnamese scored the highest with up to 40 percent compared to the average proportion of 29 percent in the region.
Overall, 85 percent of couples in the region said their relationships were better than when they first met their partners.
Indonesia scores the highest on that ranking with 94 percent, while Vietnam finished at the bottom of the pile with 75 percent.
When asked to make predictions for the year 2050, more than three-quarters of respondents thought that divorce would be socially acceptable by that year. The highest proportion of those people was found in Vietnam with 87 percent.
However, most Vietnamese said they’d prefer to stick with their current partners as only 2 percent seriously considered breaking up at least once a week compared to the average rate of 18 percent in the region and the highest rate of 28 percent in Thailand.
The survey interviewed 4,600 adults from nine regional countries. Most, 71 percent, of surveyed individuals were married, a further 15 percent had a boyfriend or girlfriend and 14 percent were single and unattached.
The sky is bright for Vietnam’s economy but the country urgently needs to work on underlying issues like low productivity and poor infrastructure.
Vietnam’s economy has the potential to thrive this year with more foreign direct investment (FDI) and export revenue, but low productivity remains a concern, economists said.
Last month, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) lifted its economic growth forecast for Vietnam to 6.7 percent in 2018 from its previous projections of 6.3 to 6.5 percent. The World Bank gave a more conservative forecast of 6.5 percent.
After a 10-year high GDP growth of 6.81 percent in 2017, the government expects the economy to expand 6.5-6.7 percent this year.
Being an export oriented economy, Vietnam’s somewhat surprisingly fast growth last year owed a lot to the recovering global economy, which expanded 3 percent in 2017, the highest rate since 2011.
This trend will continue, said economist Vo Tri Thanh.
Vietnam’s export revenue expanded by 21 percent last year against 2016 to $213.7 billion, the highest in the past five years. Following what Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called a “year of records”, the country is targeting export growth of 7-8 percent this year.
Favorable investment climate
Investors are positive too, and the sentiment is forecast to continue in 2018 stemmed from confidence in Vietnam’s economic prospects, economist Nguyen Tri Hieu told VnExpress International.
The favorable investment climate will be aided by projected stable foreign currency, inflation and interest rates in 2018, Hieu said.
Following 10-year highs in the third quarter of 2017, the VN-Index, a capitalization-weighted index of all the companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, surpassed 1,000 points on January 3 for the first time since the global financial crisis in 2007.
RongViet Securities Corporation in Saigon said in a report that the VN-Index will increase at least 17 percent this year or even 67 percent in its best scenario, meaning it could end the year somewhere between 1,170 and 1,640.
The market will be boosted by interests from the foreign sector, said Nguyen The Minh, a senior analyst at Saigon Securities Incorporation. Foreign investors made more than $1 billion of net purchases last year, the highest amount in five years, and they will continue to stick around for more privatization of public giants.
Foreign direct investment inflow in 2017 also fared well by reaching $35.88 billion, up 44 percent against 2016, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment – another 10 year high.
“The FDI scene in the economy continues to thrive,” Forbes quoted Dustin Daugherty, senior associate in business intelligence with consultancy firm Dezan Shira & Associates in Ho Chi Minh City, as saying. “While a lot of attention is paid to big name deals, the number of small to medium-sized enterprises and smaller multinational company investors continues to tick up, and enthusiasm is very high.”
Foreign investors in the likes of electronics and polyester yarn factories still love Vietnam for its low costs, abundance of labor and matter-of-fact permitting process, analysts on the ground said.
“I think next year will be as good or better than this,” Daugherty said. “We are not yet at peak for the growth rate.”
A recent report by auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) echoed the enthusiasm, saying: “Vietnam is at a tipping point in its economic development led by free trade agreements (FTAs) such as the EU-Viet Nam FTA and an increasingly deregulated business environment.”
Vietnam’s Greenfield FDI Performance Index has also topped emerging economies, surpassing Malaysia and Thailand on attracting foreign capital, the report found.
Structural challenges
However, Vietnam still faces many challenges in boosting economic growth, as the economy still depends on low-cost labor force, outdated technology, and exhausting natural resources, said Hoang Quang Phong, vice chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Most local enterprises remain small and uncompetitive, he added. Vietnam now houses some 700,000 operational firms, but 60 percent of them are not profitable.
There may also be a slow-down in structural reforms as the government is trying to cut down on spending and investment for a leaner budget deficit and to contain public debt, the World Bank has warned.
Public investment fell to 16 percent of total spending in the first nine months of 2017, compared with an average of 25 percent in recent years.
“Structural reform remains a central priority in view of tepid productivity growth” said Sebastian Eckardt, the World Bank Lead Economist for Vietnam, “Building on progress already made, Vietnam can further lift productivity growth through investments in needed infrastructure and skills as well as deeper reforms of the business environment, SOE [state owned enterprise] and banking sector.”
