How To Find a Job in Vietnam as a Foreigner

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Vietnam is a country located in Southeast Asia. The official language is Vietnamese.

Below is a selection of resources for searching for employment opportunities as a foreigner in Vietnam.

General Job Search Engines and Classifieds

With the sites below, you can expect to get a 0.5 to 1.0% response rate (people who will respond back to you to whom you sent your application/CV.) Nevertheless, I encourage you to give these sites a try as you never know what you will come up with or what connections you can make from a simple e-mail or application.

  • Vietnam Works: Vietnam Works is the best job site in Vietnam. Start your search here and then proceed to the sites below.
  • Job Street: These guys have been around since 1995 and are one of the leading internet recruitment websites in the Asia-Pacific region.
  • Career Link: Lots of job opportunities here.
  • Lao Dong: The classifieds of Lao Dong.
  • Career Jet: I’m sure you’ve heard of Career Jet. They have job search options for Vietnam.
  • Learn4Good: Learn4Good has a good portal for jobs on a number of levels.

Teaching English

Teaching English is an option (if you are a native English speaker that is). All of the sites below are pretty similar and have a massive amount of teaching English job options. Browse through each of the sites for any English job opportunities in Vietnam. Also, be sure to check out this cool table from the International TEFL academy that shows how much money teachers can expect to make in various countries around the world.

  • ESL Employment: Not the most beautiful interface, but who needs a pretty website when you have so many English teaching job options to choose from.
  • Total ESL: Also an overly busy interface but a wealth of job postings for teaching jobs abroad.
  • ESL Cafe: Dave does a great job in compiling some of the best job openings from around the world.
  • Tesall: Big teaching jobs aggregator.
  • Footprints Recruiting: Take a look at this big teacher recruitment website to see if they have anything.

Other Websites and Blogs

Overseas and Expat Job Portals

  • Overseas Jobs:  I find that there is often significant overlap between the postings on this site and that of other sites. Nevertheless this site has been around for a while.
  • Go Abroad: I’ve always been a fan of GoAbroad. In fact, on the visa information portion of my website, you will find where I have linked to their global embassies directory. They have a good job portal too.
  • Linkedin: Last but not least, this huge professional social network is a resource for building contacts in the field and location of your interest.

There you have it. The best places to find jobs in Vietnam as a foreigner. For information on visas for Vietnam, be sure to check out my Vietnam visa page.

Source: Addison Sears-Collins

Bitcoin To Drop As Low As $1000 This Year, Wall Street CIO Predicts

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Peter Boockvar, the Chief Investment Officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, sees the potential for Bitcoin (BTC) to be around for a long time, but with a significant price drop coming when the Bitcoin bubble bursts, according to CNBC.

Boockvar sees a possible 70 to 90 percent price drop for Bitcoin this year, saying:“Over the next year I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s [BTC] down to $1,000 to $3,000.”

When asked if the stock market would crash in the event of a significant fall in Bitcoin’s price, Boockvar said that any corresponding drop would just be psychological, because Bitcoin is “not something that really is that relevant in a 19 trillion dollar economy.”

However, he adds that people in South Korea, Japan and the US who have been taking on credit card debt in order to invest in cryptocurrency will be hit hard.

Boockvar told CNBC that the boom in crypto markets can be attributed to easy-money policies of central banks and money printing. These moves make some cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, more attractive to investors, due to the fact that they are both finite and safe from debasement and inflation.

People have long questioned whether Bitcoin fits the mold of a traditional “bubble”. Yale economist Robert Shiller, who won a Nobel prize for his work on financial bubbles, used Bitcoin as an example of a bubble in September 2017. However, in January 2018, Shiller then said that he didn’t know what to make of Bitcoin, adding that it could be around for another 100 years.

BTC is trading at around $11.820 at press time, down about 1.52 percent over a 24 hour period.

 

Source: Molly Jane Zuckerman

Link: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-to-drop-as-low-as-1000-this-year-wall-street-cio-predicts

Upside-down building in Da Nang lures Vietnamese youth

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An upside-down building in one of the largest Vietnamese cities draws a great number of visitors who come to this place to experience awe and have surreal pictures.

Located at 44 Ho Xuan Huong Street, Khue My Ward, Ngu Hanh Son District, Da Nang City, Upside Down World is the first of its type in the city, which is the third-largest in Vietnam.

It opened to the public less than a month ago, and has, on a daily basis, attracted more than one thousand tourists, domestic and foreign alike, most of whom are young Vietnamese people.

Each visitor is supposed to pay VND130,000 (US$6) for admission.

The building includes a variety of pleasantly decorated rooms typically included in a modern upper-class house, such as a pink “Hello Kitty” style kitchen and an inviting bathroom.

It also has a supermarket, a restaurant and hairdressing salon, the last two designed to look as they are tilted by 90 degrees.

All the interior equipment is real and becomes firmly attached to the ceiling by plaster, said Duong Anh Khoa, manager of Upside Down World.

Young people flocking here felt amazed to see they were deceptively standing on the ceiling, and mesmerized by colorful smart decorative items in a space which is the reverse of normal world order.

One of their purposes is having the most bizarre photographs published on social media.

“Recognizing this is a new trend, I want to have a unique photo album to be posted on Facebook,” said Ho Thi Trang, 20.

Despite the relatively high fee for students, “[Trang] was willing to pay, as a way to follow the crowd.”

The strange pictures are taken with the camera flipped upside down to achieve the desired effect.

Khoa said that he intends to construct some such buildings in other major cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

An upside-down supermarket at the Upside Down World in Da Nang. Photo: Tuoi Tre
A reverse restaurant, with food ready at the Upside Down World in Da Nang. Photo: Tuoi Tre
An immaculate bathroom at the Upside Down World in Da Nang. Photo: Tuoi Tre

 

Source: Tuoitrenews

Vietnam’s Hoi An moves to end ‘hotel homestays’

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As homestays mushroom in the popular holiday spot of Hoi An, the local administration there is determined to tighten regulations and guarantee a satisfying experience for international tourists.

Hoi An, located in the central province of Quang Nam, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its ancient town and trading port dating back to the 15th century.

Homestay services have long been a highlight of Hoi An’s tourism offerwith visitors immersing themselves in the slow-paced lifestyle of the tranquil Vietnamese town while exploring its charming quarters with local hosts.

Homestay is a form of accommodation whereby tourists stay in the home of a local and join their hosts during their daily activities as a way of experiencing local culture, according to Le Van Binh, head of Hoi An’s trade and tourism authority.

However, the homestay concept’s mushrooming popularity in Hoi An has resulted in some operators treating guests like any other hotel would, Binh said.

“Some homestay facilities offer virtually no connection between the hosts and their guests,” he added.

‘Serial’ homestays

 

Walk down any street near Hoi An Ancient Town these days and one is sure to find homestay facilities that advertise themselves using colorful billboards and neon signs.

According to the owners of one homestay on Nguyen Tri Phuong Street, their house is home to a family of multiple generations of Vietnamese, but they have only recently decided to open their residence after seeing their neighbors do so well in the same business.

“There are only the two of us who are regularly present in the home. We hire some helpers to take care of room service, cooking and collecting rent from the guests,” an elderly couple who owns the homestay told.

At another homestay in downtown Hoi An, the atmosphere is one of a professional hotel service, despite the home being the residence of a local family.

 

“My children are in college and my husband works as a state official, so none of them are home during the day. I run the homestay myself to earn some extra income during my free time,” the female homeowner said.

According to statistics from Quang Nam’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, there are 270 licensed homestay facilities in Hoi An, with over 90 percent in the city’s ancient town.

“Some of these facilities are owned by non-residents who live in other provinces and even overseas,” said Nguyen Minh Ly, chief of office for the People’s Committee of Hoi An City.

In 2017, the trade and tourism authority of Hoi An was forced to reject 13 applications to open new homestays and recalled several licenses they had already issued due to the facilities’ failure to provide what they considered to be adequate homestay services.

Since November 2017, households wishing to open homestays are required to be owned by Hoi An residents who are not married to a foreigner.

The house itself must not be more than two floors high, and must be furnished with a worshipping space as per Vietnamese tradition.

Inspections will be carried out to review all current homestays in Hoi An to ensure all of them conform to the new requirements, according to Binh, the head of Hoi An’s trade and tourism authority.

 

Source: Tuan Son

Vietnam – destination for foreign startups

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The government is supporting more activities to create a dynamic ecosystem

Vietnam has become an ideal location to start a business, not only for young Vietnamese people returning from overseas but also for expatriates, thanks to the country’s strong economic growth in recent years.

Vietnam has had many programmes that have helped create a dynamic startup ecosystem by facilitating a wide range of supporting activities, such as training, mentorship and business incubation and acceleration.

Nguyen Xuan Bang, one of the founders of Gcalls in Singapore who came back to Vietnam in 2016 to start the business here with an aim of developing the company’s product in the Vietnamese market, said that startups get benefits from these programmes.

“Startup Vietnam Foundation, for instance, helps Gcalls connect with mentors, investors and customers. We also have been guided in how to develop our business,” Bang said, adding that Gcalls has joined business incubators and startup centres under Vietnam National University-HCM to get more assistance from their experts.

Gcalls develops infrastructure and software for a web-based call centre. The startup’s software breaks down communication barriers between buyers and sellers. It allows anyone to buy on any e-commerce site regardless of connection speed.

In December 2017, the company received a promised investment of US$1mil (RM3.94mil) from Vina Capital through Shark Tank Vietnam, a reality television show designed to help startups locate funds.

Loic Gautier, who works with Pierre-Antoine Brun from France to set up Leflair in 2015, a shopping destination for premium brands in Vietnam, said: “Over the past few years, Vietnam’s government has been putting a lot of efforts into supporting startups.”

“I have seen a lot of communities gathering entrepreneurs and sharing practices on how to build a company, which reflects the strong entrepreneurship of the Vietnamese,” Gautier said.

Moreover, the country has had financing programmes to support the growth of new companies. Vietnam’s government is also committed to building a fair and competitive business environment.

Gautier, Leflairs chief executive officer, said that Vietnam’s government has also made efforts to promote online shopping.

“We chose Vietnam because e-commerce here was under the radar and only nascent. The demographics and Internet penetration numbers were a perfect fit for fast adoption of a service like ours, and coupled with a large amount of consumers frustrated with the lack of shopping options and product offerings when it comes to brands, it looked like the perfect base on which to build Leflair,” Gautier added.

Following the flash-sales model that has proven to be successful in Europe and China, such as Vente-privee.com and Vip.com, Leflair provides its customers with limited-time only deals of premium brands discounted up to 70% off the retail price.

After two years in operation, the website now has over one million in monthly traffic, 700,000 members and partners with 1,100 local and international premium brands. To date, Leflair has successfully closed three rounds of funding and attracted top foreign investors, including Google’s vice-president for India and South-East Asia Rajan Anandan.

Most of them are first-time investors into Vietnam, he said, adding that more and more investors are eager to invest in Vietnamese startups.

However, the legal and administrative environment, for example, lags behind the specific needs of fast growing companies who often find themselves trying to move fast in a rigid system still dominated by slow procedures, Gautier said.

A simplification and digitalisation of financial, tax, legal and administrative procedures, as in a country like Singapore, would be greatly beneficial to startup companies and entrepreneurs, he added.

“Our difficulties mostly revolve around attracting enough talent in a very scarce market. To build a large business, especially in a new field such as e-commerce, we need a large number of people with a level of technical knowledge and skills that are still relatively new in Vietnam,” he added.

Nguyen Xuan Phu, chairman of Sunhouse Groups management board, which is an investor in the Shark Tank Vietnam programme, said that as Vietnam develops, it should be easy for startups to earn profits. However, they should be careful.

Due to economic cycles which are the natural fluctuations of the economy between periods of expansion (growth) and contraction (recession), they may not have a lot of experience and it would be difficult for these companies to manage during a downturn.

Pham Thanh Hung, vice chairman at CEN Group, which is also one of the investors in the programme of Shark Tank Vietnam, said that the foreign startups and those who study abroad and start up businesses overseas have many strengths, including more practical ideas for businesses and better ways to develop these ideas into reality professionally.

Source: Vietnam News

Vietnam gears up to develop a digital economy

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The vigorous growth of the internet and technology in Vietnam is expected to provide a platform to support the development of a digital economy.

CMC Corporation’s chair Nguyen Trung Chinh said that a digital economy involves all sectors of the economy based on the internet and internet protocol platforms.

Chinh said the implementation of a policy on a digital economy can help ASEAN countries increase their GDP by $1 trillion in the next 10 years.

Thus, regional countries all have taken steps to boost digital use. Malaysia hopes the digital economy will account for 17 percent of value of its economy.

With a population of nearly 100 million, Vietnam is among the countries in ASEAN with relatively high growth rates in the digital economy.

The trend can be seen in many fields, including trade, payments, transport, education and healthcare.

The e-commerce and online ad markets in Vietnam have been developing strongly.
It is estimated that tens of millions of Vietnamese access the internet via smartphones and Vietnamese are listed among the groups of people who are fond of technology.

Le Hong Minh, CEO of VNG, said the impact of the internet on the economy is estimated at 2-3 percent of GDP, while the figure is expected to rise to 40-50 percent in the future.

To develop a digital economy, experts said Vietnam needs to create a strategy on applying information technology (IT).

On that basis, standards for exchanging information between agencies will be promulgated to create linkages in investment and development of infrastructure.

Experts have also proposed stepping up the e-government development program in all fields, including transport and tourism.

It is necessary to build an e-payment infrastructure with solutions to restrict cash payments, and support the development of e-commerce, e-contracts and digital signatures.

The shortage of an IT labor force is a great challenge for digital economy development in Vietnam. Vietnamworks reported that 15,000 IT workers were recruited in 2016 and that the industry will lack 70,000 workers by the end of 2018.

Thieu Phuong Nam from Qualcomm urged the government and businesses to think of solutions to prepare for the deployment of 5G services to catch up with the global trend.

It is expected that 5G smartphones will be available globally in the first half of 2019.

Experts and businesses all agree that the development of Vietnam’s digital economy depends on an internet management policy.

If the policy is unreasonable, the national economy and Vietnamese businesses will be at a disadvantage in the competition with foreign businesses and other economies.

Source: Mai Thanh

Hanoi, Saigon among Southeast Asia’s cheapest cities

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The cost of living in Vietnam’s commercial center Ho Chi Minh City is a bit more expensive than in the capital city of Hanoi.

Good news for those who are planning a trip to Vietnam as the country’s two biggest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, just cracked into the top 10 cheapest cities in Southeast Asia for this year.

HCMC, the southern metropolis, took the 9th position when Hanoi secured the 7th spot, as shown in the Cost of Living Index 2018 conducted by Numbeo, the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide.

Valenzuela in the Philippines is the city with lowest cost of living in the region.

Aside from the two Vietnamese cities, the rest in the top ten are in the Philippines (PHL) and Indonesia (IDN).

Numbeo measures the cost of restaurants, house renting, groceries and the purchasing power to come up with the average index for the cost of living in each country.

The top five most expensive cities in Southeast Asia are Singapore, Bangkok of Thailand, Makati of the Philippines, Phuket of Thailand and Johor Bahru of Malaysia.

In February last year, Vietnam was ranked as one of the cheapest destinations by Forbes after the magazine interviewed 14 travel experts who made it their business to keep track of the best bargains around the world to make a list of the most affordable destinations to visit in 2017.

The country stood out as a low-cost travel destination in South Asia for affordable luxury resorts, healthy food at cheap prices and beautiful sights.

Three months later in May 2017, HCMC was named one of the most affordable cities for a couple’s night out by Expatistan.com, a database that compiles the global cost of living.

For a night out with a potential life-long love in HCMC, love birds have to shell out around $35, while in Singapore a date may cost them at least $80.

Source: Minh Nga

90 pct of stores in Vietnam use an online outlet to reach customers

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Facebook looks like the most effective form of all online sales channels.

Local stores in Vietnam are increasingly turning to online sales to reach the two-thirds of the population that is online, a new survey has found.

Data collected by Vietnam’s sales management software firm Sapo shows that as many as 90 percent of stores across the country are going online to connect with customers.

Of the 1,000 stores surveyed, 35 percent said online sales accounted for more than half of their total revenue in 2017.

Cosmetics and jewelry vendors earned the most from online sales, which made up 48 percent of their total revenue last year, while pharmacies earned the least with just 12 percent.

Direct sales are still the most most effective means of trade, followed by Facebook, company websites, Instagram, homegrown messaging app Zalo, and authorized dealers, the survey found, after talking to firms with at least three outlets with a minimum of seven employees working at each.

E-commerce in Vietnam is expected to expand from a 0.5 percent share in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market to 2.2 percent in 2025, coupled with the rise of digitization, according to a report released in November last year by market research firm Kantar Worldpanel.

The gap between online and offline sales is gradually falling because they are supporting each other to make businesses more effective, a representative from Sapo was quoted as saying in a Sunday report by the Vietnam News Agency.

This idea was shared by Kantar Worldpanel last year. “We know that e-commerce is still cannibalizing offline purchases. However, there is growing evidence that online formats, in isolation, are no longer the best option for winning market share.”

“It´s about how online and offline work together to create a better shopper experience,” it said.

Vietnam’s e-commerce market climbed to about $4 billion in 2016 as one of the fastest-growing markets in the world.

Revenue from online retail in Vietnam is forecast to hit $10 billion by 2020, accounting for 5 percent of the country’s retail market, according to Kantar Worldpanel.

Around 60 percent of the country’s population of nearly 92 million is online.

Source: Minh Nga

Vietnam Wants Foreign Money to Overhaul Its Economy

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Vietnam is dramatically accelerating sales of stakes in state-owned companies to boost revenue and ease a strained budget, while seeking to exceed its economic growth target this year.

The government plans to sell 6.5 times more shares than it offered last year, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The state raised 135.6 trillion dong ($6 billion) from these sales in 2017.

“We need more foreign investment but also want to lure good investors who can help our companies improve corporate governance,” Hue said in his office in Hanoi on Jan. 19. The assets the government plans to sell “will include leading companies in energy, power and petroleum,” he said.

Vietnam, which had one of the world’s fastest-growing economies last year at 6.8 percent, is saddled with high public debt levels that constrain the government’s ability to boost spending. The state could come close to breaching its 65 percent constitutional debt limit next year, HSBC Holdings Plc said in a report this month, singling out Vietnam as the nation facing the greatest need for fiscal consolidation in Southeast Asia.

Strengthening Growth

Vietnam’s economy grew at the fastest pace since at least 2010.

State-owned enterprises in the Communist Party-controlled nation were once the biggest employers, the largest revenue earners and the main growth drivers. But the government is now pressing for greater support for private-sector businesses, decades after the “Doi Moi” reforms of 1986 brought market-oriented change to Vietnam.

245 Companies

The government is banking on an expanding middle class and its youthful population to attract investors. Stakes in 245 state companies are up for grabs in 2018, including four scheduled in the first quarter — Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co., which operates the only oil refinery in the country, as well as PetroVietnam Oil Corp., PetroVietnam Power Corp. and Hanoi Beer Alcohol & Beverage JSC.

Among the assets disposed last year was a majority stake in the nation’s top brewer Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp., or Sabeco, to Thai Beverage Pcl and its partner in December, which sold for $4.8 billion.

Vietnam has struggled to privatize state companies with many of them finding it difficult to value their shares. The government is working on plans to allow more foreign ownership in sectors include banks, the deputy premier said.

Public debt and publicly-guaranteed debt will increase to 64.2 percent of gross domestic product by 2019 from an estimated 62.6 percent last year, the World Bank estimated. The government plans to cap the budget deficit at 3.7 percent of GDP in 2018 from 3.5 percent in 2017.

Stellar Growth

Economic growth this year may match 2017’s pace of 6.8 percent — slightly higher than the 6.7 percent target set by the government — despite risks of rising trade protectionism around the world, Hue said.

“There are some risks and challenges remaining in the Vietnamese economy but the biggest challenge will be that we want to grow faster but also in a sustainable manner at a time when there are unpredictable movements in the world economies,” Hue said.

The economy, which posted a total trade value last year that was 1.93 times bigger than its GDP, is susceptible to global turbulence that can “quickly have a direct impact on Vietnam in terms of trade, investment, currency,” he added.

Source: Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen and John Boudreau

 

Xiaomi’s dreams of becoming the number one smart phone brand in Vietnam

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Xiaomi’s leader announced the corporation’s ambition to become the number one smart phone brand in Vietnam. The target is considered out of Xiaomi’s reach in light of the dominance of big guns and the heated competition in the low-cost segment.

Massive difficulties waiting for Xiaomi

The smart phone market in Vietnam has been saturated by leading smart phone brands, including Samsung and Apple, putting smaller fish on the withdrawal with little to no profit.

Notably, almost all of the high-end market is dominated by Samsung, Apple, and Oppo, that make up 80 per cent of smart phone sales and 90 per cent of the revenue. In the low-cost segment, the market is held by Mobiitstart, Huawei, Vivo, Asus, Lenovo, and HTC, among others.

Both the high-end and low-cost segments are ripe with underground wars between competitors.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi has numerous disadvantages in the war for market share, putting the top spot far out of reach. Notably, although Xiaomi appeared in Vietnam in 2014, it has yet to fight its way among the top 10 smart phone brands in Vietnam. At present, Xiaomi only contributed 0.78 per cent to smart phone sales and 0.54 per cent to the market’s total revenue.

Furthermore, Xiaomi is a newcomer from China, struggling with Vietnamese customers’ deep-rooted preconceptions against low-cost “Made in China” products.

All in all, Xiaomi’s low-cost strategy to gain the top spot is considered too little.

Distribution system is the key

Doan Hong Viet, general director of Digiworld, the distributor of Xiaomi in Vietnam, issued the plan to popularise Xiaomi’s products in 15 cities and provinces this year and to build 1,000 Xiaomi stores across the nation by 2020.

In reality, building a secure retail distribution system across the country is considered a core factor in the success of a smart phone brand.

Oppo, which is the direct competitor of Xiaomi, ranks in the top three smart phone brands in Vietnam after only six years of entering Vietnam. In order to reach this success, along with meeting customers’ taste, Oppo focused on developing its retail distribution network. As a result, within a short three years, Oppo’s products were present on the shelves of almost all retail electronic stores.

Meanwhile, other smart phone brands like LG, Microsoft, Nokia, Sony, HTC, and Asus either had to withdraw from the market or maintain operations with low profit due to a failure in building out a nationwide retail distribution system.

 

Source: Huu Tuan

TPBank share auction due next month postponed

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The auction of more than 5.5 million TPBank shares, owned by Mobifone, due on February 7 will be postponed, the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) announced.

According to HNX, Mobifone asked the exchange to postpone the auction to clarify the foreign ownership ratio at TPBank to protect legal interests of investors taking part in the auction.

The move was made after TPBank sent a document to HNX, announcing that the foreign ownership ratio at the bank reached 30 per cent of its charter capital so that foreign investors will not be allowed to buy TPBank shares at the auction according to the current law.

HNX has asked auction agents to refund the investors, who registered and deposited to take part in the auction.

Last week, Mobifone announced that it will auction more than 5.55 million TPBank shares, or 1 per cent of the bank’s charter capital, on February 7. At a starting price of VNĐ12,800 (56 US cents) per share, Mobifone is expected to gain at least VNĐ70 billion (US$3.1 million) and cut its stake in the bank to 4.76 per cent.

On the same day, Mobifone will also auction more than 33.4 million SeABank shares, equal to 6.11 per cent of the bank’s charter capital. With a starting price of VNĐ9,600 (42 US cents) per share, if successfully auctioned, Mobifone will gain more than VNĐ320 billion and no longer be a shareholder of SeABank.

The divestment from the two banks is in line with Mobifone’s policy of divesting from its non-core business lines.

Source: VNS

Japanese insurer records strong growth in Vietnam

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Life insurer Dai-ichi Life Vietnam collected $350 million in premiums in 2017, securing its foothold in one of Asia’s fastest-growing insurance markets.

Dai-chi Life Vietnam has just released its 2017 business results, which states that the insurer now takes up 12 per cent of the market share in the Vietnamese life insurance segment. The total premium gained in 2017 amounted to VND8 trillion ($350 million).

With these positive results, Dai-ichi Life is now Vietnam’s third biggest life insurer in terms of total premiums. The firm now serves two million Vietnamese customers via a network of 1,200 employees and 70,500 professional advisors.

Throughout 11 years of operations in Vietnam, Dai-ichi Life has built the third largest distribution network among all life insurers, running 260 offices in all provinces across the country.

The firm also received the Third Class Labour Medal today in Ho Chi Minh City. At the ceremony, managing director Takashi Fujii noted that Dai-ichi Life Vietnam would continue its strategy as a socially responsible insurer.

“We would like to blend our growth with social responsibilities. This is the core mission of Dai-ichi Life Vietnam,” said Fujii.

According to the General Statistics Office, the Vietnamese life insurance market grew by 29 per cent in terms of new premiums in 2017, reaching VND65 trillion ($2.8 billion). The country is now one of Asia’s fastest-growing markets thanks to a young population, a burgeoning middle class, and the low penetration rate of insurance products.

 

Source: Nam Phuong

Vietnam plans 500 hi-tech agricultural cooperatives by 2020

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Viet Nam has planned to have 500 hi-tech agricultural cooperatives and to increase the high-tech farming production value by five times by 2020.

This was revealed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which said that 60 per cent of the cooperatives would be located in the country’s major agricultural production hubs such as Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta, Hong (Red) River Delta, the northern mountainous region and Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) region.

The ministry planned that each province and city would have at least three hi-tech agricultural cooperatives.

Of note, the production value of hi-tech agricultural products was expected to be five times higher. The average income from hi-tech farming products was expected to be three times higher than products which did not apply technologies during cultivation, from the current 1.5 times.

In addition, the percentage of cooperatives using automation technology models and biotechnology would be increased from the current 17 per cent to 30-40 per cent.

The ministry said it was important to develop a production value chain of high-added value farming products and to promote the linkage of cooperatives with enterprises, as well as to encourage technology transfer and provide preferential loans to agricultural cooperatives.

At the same time, training would be provided to cooperatives’ members. The agriculture ministry targeted that this year, 100 people would be sent to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Israel to learn hi-tech farming experiences, and by 2020, the number would reach 500.

According to the ministry’s statistics, there are now 193 hi-tech agricultural cooperatives in Viet Nam, more than 85 per cent of which are operating in plantation and forestry, 9 per cent in animal husbandry and the rest in aquaculture.

They are mainly in Lam Dong Province, which has 36 cooperatives, while Long An has 14, Ha Noi 13 and HCM City 11 cooperatives.

 

Source: VNA

New tourism project launched in Phu Yen

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The construction on a resort and eco-tourism complex was launched in the central coastal province of Phu Yen on Thursday.

The HCM City-based Tan Viet An House Trading and Investment Joint Stock Company has total investment of VND560 billion (US$24 million) in the complex.

Covering an area of 9.2 hectares in Tuy Hoa City, the Viet Beach project includes an eight-floor hotel, 27 villas, 106 bungalows and some entertainment facilities such as a gymnasium and club, swimming pool, children’s playground and restaurants.

Tran Duy Dung, general director of the company, said that the project is scheduled to be completed in two years.

It is expected to create jobs for about 450 local workers.

Source: VNS

Vietnam Snapshot: Southeast Asia’s fastest growing mobile games market

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With a population of more than 95 million and the world’s fastest growing mobile games market, Vietnam is worth a serious look from any mobile developer.

To that end, we took a look at the recent rankings to provide a snapshot of the important trends in Vietnam’s mobile games market.*

Chinese RPG, strategy and card battle games dominate

Vietnam’s mobile games market is currently dominated by titles in the RPG, strategy and card battle genres.

Chinese developers have been able to do well in these genres due to Vietnamese gamers having a preference for Chinese style influence over graphics and UI. This goes back to Chinese PC games performing well in Vietnam and this has given Chinese developers an advantage in this market.

The highest grossing game in Vietnam is Lords Mobile from IGG, a real-time strategy title that allows players to build up an empire and take on opponents.

Chinese developer IGG has focused on localisation and strong promotion in Vietnam to become more popular than similar games like Supercell’s Clash of Clans. Clash of Kings from Elex Wireless, a Chinese developer, is another game in this genre that has done well in Vietnam.

It can be challenging for overseas companies to find success in Vietnam. Niko Partners’ recent 2017 Southeast Asia Mobile Games Market Report and Forecast states that taking the time to learn what works in Vietnam is essential.

Localisation into Vietnamese, implementing Chinese influences such as graphic style and user interface, as well as adding social and multiplayer elements to games, can go a long way.

The MOBA genre continues to grow

While traditional genres such as MMO, RPG and strategy still dominate the charts, it’s important to note that the market continues to evolve and grow as smartphone adoption increases and new younger gamers enter the ecosystem looking for more social and competitive games.

The MOBA genre, which was popularised on PC by games like League of Legends, has now found its way onto mobile and is becoming a strong growth driver.

Arena of Valor, known as Honor of Kings in China, is co-developed by Tencent Games and Garena, and published by Garena in Southeast Asia.

Honor of Kings is a smash hit in China, where more than 50 million users play every day, and Garena has been able to localise and successfully publish the game in Vietnam.

The game encourages users to spend more than titles in other genres, which has allowed it to be the second highest grossing game in the country.

Arena of Valor’s main competition in Vietnam is Mobile Legends from Chinese developer Moonton. Mobile Legends is extremely similar to Arena of Valor and draws a lot of experience from both it and League of Legends.

One other successful game in this genre is War Robots which is a MOBA shooter. All three games are driving the genre in this market and we expect to see the MOBA genre continue to grow over the next few years.

The battle royale craze takes hold

NetEase has developed a mobile battle royale game called Rules of Survival. The game is very similar to Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) on PC, but is optimised for mobile devices.

With less than a month on the market, the game was the number three most downloaded mobile title in November, which shows just how much demand there Is for a mobile battle royale experience.

Elex has also created a standalone battle royale game called Last Battleground: Survival. Both NetEase and Elex have focused on building a large user base before monetising, though Elex recently added a store to its game that allows users to buy cosmetic items.

Casual games top the download chart

Vietnam has one of the lowest ARPU in the region due to low spending habits and a preference for genres that don’t encourage high spend.

A large majority of gamers simply do not spend on mobile games and this is why the download chart is dominated by casual games like My Talking Tom and My Talking Angela, alongside games like Subway Surfers and Zombie Tsunami.

One casual title that has found success in Vietnam on the grossing charts is Roblox, a sandbox that allows players to create their own worlds and games using bricks.

The title is primarily aimed at a younger audience and with more and more younger gamers coming online, it’s no surprise that Roblox has seen strong growth this year, especially with its global success too.

Local publishers find a larger presence

Vietnam’s mobile market was first thrust into the spotlight back in 2013 when Dong Nguyen developed and released Flappy Bird for mobile devices.

Roblox is a hugely popular mobile title in Vietnam

Since then, a number of Vietnamese game studios such as VNG, VTC, Funtap, Gamota and more have made a name for themselves. VNG is currently the most successful Vietnamese publisher with three games across the top 10 download and revenue charts.

360mobi Ngôi Sao Bộ Lạc is a casual mobile game with a competitive element. Three sides compete to defeat each other and collect as many items to eat in a six minute match.

Gunny Mobi meanwhile is an artiliary game similar to the Worms series of games, which also has a social and competitive element. ICá – Ban Ca Online is a casual title that simulates a fishing coin game.

These type of games, which have gambling elements, are popular in Asia.

Source: This report is by Daniel Ahmad, Analyst, Niko Partners in conjunction with Sensor Tower.

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