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.”
Grab has explained why the company decided to increase the percentage it took from the fares of GrabBike and GrabExpress services since the beginning of this year.
The company started collecting a share of 23.6 per cent of GrabBike and GrabExpress fares from January 1, an increase of 3.6 percentage points, which was opposed by drivers.
Nguyen Trung Thanh, manager of GrabBike and GrabExpress, said the increase was not a revenue-sharing policy of Grab to raise the fee the company collected from its partner drivers. Instead, the increased share was the tax amount the company declared and contributed to the State budget on behalf of the drivers following a guidance from the tax authority.
Accordingly, Grab Viet Nam helped collect three per cent of value-added tax and 1.5 per cent of individual income tax on its partner drivers’ share of 80 per cent of the total fare, which was equivalent to 3.6 per cent of the total revenue.
The tax collection was only applicable to drivers who earned a revenue of VND100 million (US$4,380) a year, Thanh said.
In 2016-17, Grab Viet Nam used its budget to pay taxes for drivers to support its partner motorbike drivers.
Grab entered Viet Nam in February 2014 with a legal capital of VND20 billion, but posted an aggregated loss of more than VND938 billion.
Its total revenue in 2014-16 was VND1.755 trillion, and the company paid more than VND142 billion in taxes to the State budget during the period.
In August last year, Grab increased the percentage it took from fares from 15 per cent to 20 per cent.
With the increase in the share Grab collected, together with reductions in support policies of the company and harsh competition as the number of drivers grew, the income of Grab drivers has significantly decreased.
Tran Ngoc Tuan, a 28-year-old driver, said the increase was unreasonable, adding drivers wanted to pay tax themselves.
Earlier today, Facebook announced the end of the Facebook News Feed as we know it.
In a Facebook post, Mark Zuckerberg today wrote: “recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments [from friends and family] that lead us to connect more with each other.”
Explaining however, that recently “video and other public content have exploded on Facebook … [and] since there’s more public content than posts from your friends and family, the balance of what’s in News Feed has shifted away from the most important thing Facebook can do — help us connect with each other.”
Zuckerberg even acknowledged mental health issues associated with the news feed stating: “We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being…the research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being. We can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long term measures of happiness and health. On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos — even if they’re entertaining or informative — may not be as good.”
He then describes upcoming changes to the Facebook news feed designed to “[change] the news feed algorithm to surface relevant content that facilitates meaningful social interactions among your friends and family.”
This will likely involve removing all publisher page posts out of the news feed into a separate “Explore” tab as reported late last year.
As for the future of the Facebook news feed, Zuckerberg states users will see “less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media” and that he expects “the time people spend on Facebook … will go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable.”
What do you think about the changes to the news feed pretty much everyone uses every day?
People in northern and central Vietnam tend to take the practice of ‘saving face’ much more seriously than their southern counterparts, leading to food waste.
Editor’s note:Nguyen Van Cong explains how a fear of ‘losing face’ by people in northern and central Vietnam leads them to buy more food than needed, only to throw away leftovers – a stark contrast to their southern peers.
As in several Asian countries, the importance of ‘saving face’ – behaving in a way that projects a certain reputation – is paramount in Vietnam.
Cong, who lives and works in the south, introduces himself as being born to a northern Vietnamese mother and a central Vietnamese father, an upbringing which allowed him to closely observe and experience the culture of ‘saving face’ in all three regions.
He says that people in northern and central Vietnam “pay too much attention to etiquette and sometimes make things overcomplicated” when inviting guests to a meal at their houses, especially when compared to those in the southern region.
1. People in the south: simple eating, no showing-off
The menu for a party in the south, particularly in Saigon or the Mekong Delta, usually consists of fewer dishes compared to that for a bash in the north and central regions. The party hosts will make it simple and quick, large ceremonial parties excluded.
Whenever guests drop by for a meal, southerners prepare quick, simple dishes while still focusing on creating a cozy, respectful welcoming atmosphere. For instance, a hotpot, which can be cooked with little preparation, is considered an appropriate meal for visiting guests.
The food may be simple but what matters is the taste – there is no need for complicated and costly preparation.
A table full of different Vietnamese dishes is seen in this photo illustration. Photo: Tuoi Tre
However, this is not what I observe in the northern and central regions, where people tend to get over-serious about preparing for visitors.
In these regions, you’re expected to alert your host at least a day in advance if you plan to drop by so that they have enough time to meticulously prepare a feast.
Even when only one or two guests are expected, hosts make it their mission to prepare a menu of at least five to six different courses.
To avoid losing face, people in northern and central Vietnam will try to ensure that they treat their guests to ‘sufficient food.’ From the host’s perspective, a meal with too few dishes or an insufficient amount of food indicates a lack of hospitality.
The problem is that such a large meal is rarely finished. To complicate the matter, the host looks at the wasted food with pleasure, considering it a sign that their guest was treated with great hospitality.
The flip side? Leftovers, if inappropriately preserved, go bad and wind up in the trash bin.
Why should people be so wasteful just because they fear losing face?
2. Southern hosts and guests often say no to ceremonious behaviors
One cultural value of the southerners is that they respect relations but seldom treat one another with ceremonious behavior or unnecessary formality. People act toward each other with kindness and openness and rarely displease one another.
This is also true when someone wants to invite guests to their house for a meal. Even wedding invitations are sometimes made via phone call.
Guests also show great respect for their hosts. If they know that the family inviting them for a meal is cash-strapped, they happily exclaim that simple dishes are more than enough.
In other cases, visitors bring their own food and drinks to avoid putting the host in an embarrassing situation. At bigger parties, every participant contributes their share of food. A party needs not to be held at a table and people often sit on the floor.
People in southern Vietnam throw a party by sitting on the floor. Photo: Khang Cao/Tuoi Tre News
At meals, southern visitors don’t pretend to be full. Instead, they eat as much as their stomach can fit.
By contrast, those in the northern and central regions maintain formal behavior. Even a host without much money will prepare a feast.
The meal must take place on the dining table and some families even ‘assign’ members to receive the guests and act as an ‘emcee.’
And few guests will eat to the point that they feel really full, even though they’re truly hungry.
3. Southerners love partying, but never waste anything
When it comes to eating and partying, the southerners are careful to prepare the menu so all food will be consumed with no leftovers.
For instance, in northern or central Vietnam, at a party with five people, if a cake is split into six pieces, no one will take the extra share. This won’t happen in the south, where people will eat that extra piece, or put it back to the fridge.
In the northern and central regions, leftover food after parties or wedding ceremonies used to be thrown away as few wanted to share and take home the redundant food.
Overcoming various obstacles and difficulties in 2017, Eximbank went out of their way to achieve certain proudly positive results. In particular, the pre-tax profit reached over VND 1000 billion, more than 2.5 times that of 2016 and increased 69% comparing to initial plan. The bad debt ratio dropped sharply to 2,23% (comparing to 2,95% at the beginning of the year)
According to Le Van Quyet, Eximbank’s General Director, with the optimistic financial results in 2017, Eximbank also completed the adjustment of capital structure and credit structure to ensure following strictly the capital adequacy –related regulations of The State Bank of Vietnam. In addition, the cumulative loss and the warning of The Stock Exchange imposing on the EIB stock for two years will be removed soon.
In 2018, following the overwhelming success of solid operating results in 2017, Eximbank will emphasis on addressing the unsolved problems in the restructuring process to attain the stable and sustainable growth. In specific, Eximbank will concentrate on 3 key objectives:
– Firstly, put priorities on dealing with bad debts and non-performing assets.
– Secondly, expand operation network in high potential areas and gradually narrow the gap between Eximbank and competitors.
– Thirdly, implement the New Eximbank project to enhance the quality of management, operation, efficiency and productivity in the whole system.
Good news releases: SMBC shows strong commitment to supporting Eximbank
Yutaka Moriwaki, Member of the Board of Direactor at Vietnam’s Eximbank
Yutaka Moriwaki, member of Board of Directors of Eximbank cum Head of The Restructuring Project On the behalf of SMBC, shared some key activities deployed in 2017:
– Wholesales customers: Established the Wholesale Customer Department and FDI, strengthened the capacity of commercial financing solutions.
– Retail customers: Established the Retail Business Development Department and Treasury Department, launched Daimler auto loan center.
– Internal management: Completed the well-developed KPI and the performance evaluation process (PEP), hired consultants to advance the compensation policy, reorganized and reduced the number of deputy general manager, hired the consulting firm to reform the credit process.
It is worthwhile to note that SMBC intends to increase the shareholding percentage to reflect clearly their commitment to Eximbank in particular and the Vietnamese economy in general.
Shinhan Bank Vietnam (Shinhan Bank) – one of the leading banks of South Korea, has officially took over the retail banking segment of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Vietnam (ANZ Vietnam) to expand its payment services by utilising ANZ’s resources. Shin Dong Min, CEO of Shinhan Bank, addressed the acquisition of ANZ, the possible impacts of the transfer on ANZ’s existing customers, and personal opinion on the Vietnamese banking industry in 2017 and the time to come.
In April 2017, Shinhan Bank announced the acquisition of ANZ’s retail banking arm in Vietnam. Could you share further details on the acquisition process?
During the eight-month process, we placed our greatest efforts in the preparation of personnel, network and operation procedures, while awaiting the approval of the State Bank of Vietnam. On December 18, Shinhan Bank officially took over the human resources of ANZ’s retail banking services, eight branches and transaction offices, as well as over 125,000 individual customers, many of whom are high-income individuals with premium shopping habits.
What potential impacts might the acquisition have on existing ANZ customers?
Certainly, customers might be worried, however, with our strong capital funds, advanced banking technology, and Korean-standard services, we made a commitment to both individual customers from ANZ and current Shinhan customers to maximize their financial benefits.
In order to strengthen the safety and security of the transition, Shinhan Bank and ANZ Vietnam made the transfer process as convenient as possible. Basically, customers from ANZ can retain their personal information at ANZ, such as account number as well as credit and debit cards and Internet Banking-related information. What we required our customers to do was to simply sign the consent form, agreeing to transfer their information to Shinhan Bank, all of which would be updated automatically into our system. They can use all the information and cards as usual, without doing any paperwork at Shinhan branches or transaction offices.
However, customers transferred from ANZ gain access to a wider range of products and services offered at favourable charges, rapid transaction processing, and a Korean-standard security system.
After the acquisition of ANZ, what is your development strategy in the retail banking segment?
Over the last half decade, one of our bank’s major development strategies was to widen the retail banking segment and focus on improving service quality to offer better services to individual customers. We hope the acquisition will support us in balancing the product profiles of personal and corporate customers, putting the bank on a higher rank in the credit card market in Vietnam.
Specifically, we planned to leverage the strengths of ANZ’s existing customers and products, offer exclusive and multiple-benefit products as well as digitalise the majority of our products. Additionally, we partnered up with online payment platform providers to enhance the customer experience with electronic wallets (e-wallets), online transaction platforms, and payment applications on smart-phones.
What do you think of the Vietnamese retail banking industry in 2017? How does Ho Chi Minh City measure against the rest of the country in this area?
In 2017, the banking industry saw outstanding growth alongside the steady recovery of the economy, following a remarkable influx of investment streaming into the field of banking technology. The very reason behind our choosing Vietnam as an investment destination was the fresh and dynamic features of the overall market, which offered us plenty of opportunities to satisfy customer demand.
For instance, in 2017, we launched three high-tech application services, including Digital Branch Service, card payment services via mobile phone applications, and the biometric verification service for mobile banking, all of which are pioneering services in the banking industry of Vietnam.
From the standpoint of a foreign entrepreneur in the Vietnamese banking industry, Ho Chi Minh City cannot be ignored with its young and eager-to-learn population with a critical preference for cutting-edge technological applications. Thanks to the rising popularity of Internet and mobile devices, the advancement of several banking divisions, such as digital banking, mobile banking, online payment, and retail banking, saw little to no hindrances. Nonetheless, the payment demand in Ho Chi Minh City was not as high as in neighbouring cities. For example, the insignificant number of banking service subscribers could potentially benefit the personal finance market of the city in the long run.
What changes will come to the Vietnamese retail banking segment in the next five years?
Having a young population with a preference for technology applications, Vietnam has great potential for digital retail banking services. In my view, in the short run, online distribution channels are bound to grow immensely due to their flexibility and convenience. Besides, thanks to the government’s promotion of non-cash payments, Vietnam-based banks put forth digital banking services as one of the main services specifically catering to young clients.
Various agencies are tasked with protecting children in Vietnam but, as the saying goes, too many cooks only spoil the broth.How many more heart-breaking cases of child abuse make headlines in Vietnam before sufficient and efficient measures are in place to tackle the country’s chronic domestic problems?
With no plausible solutions in sight, the growing number of media stories detailing shocking cases of children being physically, sexually, and psychologically abused by parents, caretakers, teachers and people of acquaintance continues to pull at Vietnam’s heartstrings.
In early December 2017, Tran Hoai Nam, a Hanoi resident, was arrested by police for spending a year physically abusing his ten-year-old son, resulting in scaring and injuries across the young boy’s body.
An initial police investigation found that Nam regularly kicked his son in the ribs and beat the child with clothes hangers and spoons.
The father also admitted to beating his child though he chose to put the blame on the boy’s “mischievous” behavior.
As if the story was not already a disgusting tale of underreported domestic violence in the country, it only got worse when police discovered that the other adult responsible for the child, the boy’s stepmother, also took part in the beatings. She was not home at the time of Nam’s arrest.
Photos released showing the child’s body peppered with wounds, scars, and fractured ribs sent a wave of anger through the public.
The boy lost 20kg after a year of continuous beatings at the hands of his father. Photo: Supplied
Yet this is not an isolated case.
Only one day after Nam’s arrest, police in Dong Anh, a district on the outskirts of Hanoi, told local media they were investigating a case involving another father abusing his nine-year-old son.
The father later told police that he only beat his son once, claiming the other wounds were just boils and abscesses.
Wounds spread across the nine-year-old’s body. Photo: Supplied
The two cases wrapped up 2017, a year full of tear-jerking headlines exposing heinous acts carried out by those whom children are meant to depend upon, trust, and love.
Considering those two cases came hot on the heels of four equally shameful situations in November, it does not look as if the problem is set to subside.
The ‘history’ of child abuse in Vietnam, particularly at daycares and kindergartens, in recent years is equally shocking.
A UNICEF report in 2014 showed that nearly 75 percent of children aged 2-14 in Vietnam have been violently abused by parents, caretakers, or other family members at least once.
According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs, more than 2,000 children in Vietnam are abused every year.
Data gathered by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper shows that over 1,000 children are raped and 100 are murdered annually.
Local lawmaker Dang Thi Phuong Thao believes that these statistics are only the tip of the ice berg, citing an uncountable number of cases that go unreported or unprosecuted due to a lack of evidence.
Children are at risk of being sexually, physically, and psychologically abused at home by family members, parents, and caretakers.
It is not uncommon to hear reports of drunken fathers violently beating their sons and daughters, or parents scolding their children with rude and offensive words, hampering their psychological development.
At school, children can fall victim to bullying by friends, or physical and sexual abuse by teachers or school guards.
In April 2016, a teacher at an elementary school in Sa Pa in northern Vietnam was taken into police custody for allegedly conducting lewd acts with a fifth grader at his school.
In December last year, police in the southern province of An Giang also launched legal proceedings against a P.E. teacher, who was denounced by parents as having sexually abused at least ten fourth and fifth graders at his school.
Earlier in October 2017, Lang Thanh Duan, a school guard in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak was prosecuted for raping five 11-year-old schoolgirls and one nine-year-old student between 2015 and 2017.
Dang Hoa Nam, head of the Children Department under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, says that the severity of child abuse cases in Vietnam is getting more and more complicated and worrying every year.
“Children of all ages are being physically and sexually abused at home and school by different actors, most of whom, sadly, are family members, teachers, and friends,” he said at an event in December.
In June 2014, after statistics that 75 percent of Vietnamese children are victims of child abuse were published, Hanoi-based Dan Viet (Vietnamese People) newspaper polled local parents and found out that most of them supported a ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ method of parenting.
The respondents believed that beating unruly children does not necessarily equate to violence.
The most common excuse given by many Vietnamese parents is, “I have the right to beat my own child.”
Nguyen Huy Tung, a Hanoi resident, told Dan Viet that he beats his son to “educate him to behave better.”
“This is for his own sake and should never be called violence,” he asserted.
Parents who make these excuses should be aware of the fact that abused children may suffer from mental health problems or prolonged psychological issues, according to doctor Nguyen Van Dung, deputy head of the mental health department at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi.
“Victims of child abuse tend to become less confident, uncommunicative, and constantly anxious,” the doctor said.
“In the longer term, these symptoms may lead to negative consequences such as short-tempered, rude and violent characteristics.”
Children who fall victim to or witness acts of physical abuse tend to grow up without a sense of mental well-being which may affect their behavior later in life.
“There are studies showing that many criminals had a tough and lonely childhood during which they were physically abused or mistreated,” Nguyen Cong Hieu, deputy director of a children service consulting center under the Children Department, said.
According to the Law on Children which took effect in June 2017, Vietnam now has as many as 17 entities tasked with protecting, caring for, and supporting children, from the People’s Court and People’s Procuracy at central and local levels to the lawmaking National Assembly, ministries, and various centers and organizations.
In December, the Committee for Children Protection was established, with Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam serving as chairman and top leaders within the ministerial ranks among its officials.
111 is the hotline for children protection in Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre
However, whenever a case of child abuse is brought to light by the public or the media, most of these entities respond solely by expressing anger rather than implementing practical solutions.
Nguyen Van Anh, director of the Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender, Family, Women and Adolescents, has called on responsible agencies to stop talking and start doing.
“It’s high time we stopped talking and started protecting children for real,” she said.
Sharing her view, lawmaker Dang Thi Phuong Thao also called for real, practical action to be taken to end child abuse in Vietnam.
“Abusing innocent children, who have no power to protect themselves, deserves to be condemned a thousand times more than other victims as it makes a lifelong impact on them,” she said.
Several solutions have been proposed in the wake of a series of child maltreatment cases in late 2017, but whether or not they work remains to be seen.
Tran Ngoc Long, headmaster of a high school in the southern province of Dong Nai, proposed at a meeting held by the education ministry on December 12 that Vietnam should make all kindergartens tuition-free to curb the problem.
Long said many recently reported cases of child abuse occurred at privately-run daycares or schools, so free-of-charge public schools could potentially keep children safer.
On December 17, the administration of Binh Hung Hoa Ward in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City held a dialogue on child maltreatment, attracting more than 400 teachers, daycare owners and workers, and staff from three public schools, 11 private institutions, and 53 daycares in the locale.
The event sought to raise awareness of child abuse and solicit solutions to stop the phenomenon from insiders.
The Ho Chi Minh City education department has advised the municipal administration to encourage local kindergartens to install CCTV cameras to give parents better oversight of their children.
Hyundai Motor Co said on Thursday (Jan 11) it had invested in Singapore-based ride-hailing firm Grab, in the South Korean automaker’s first foray into the rapidly growing sector as it tries to diversify following a sales slump in China.
Grab has expanded to eight Southeast Asian countries and has said it is the biggest operator in the region’s third-party taxi hailing and private-vehicle hailing sector.
The companies will jointly develop services in Southeast Asia, including one utilising Hyundai’s eco-friendly models such as the IONIQ Electric, the two firms said in a statement.
They did not disclose the value of Hyundai’s investment and a spokeswoman for the automaker declined to comment further.
Grab’s latest fundraising round, which Hyundai has joined, already includes investors such as China’s Didi Chuxing, Japan’s SoftBank and Toyota Tsusho, the firms added.
Hyundai said on Wednesday it is considering building a car plant in Southeast Asia, possibly in Indonesia or Vietnam.
The company’s interest in the region has grown since a diplomatic row between Beijing and Seoul last year hurt South Korean firms that are highly reliant on the Chinese market.
The automaker also announced for the first time a self-driving technology partnership with Silicon Valley start-up Aurora earlier this month, a shift from its usual preference for developing technology itself.
Traditional taxi firms have for long been complaining about Uber, Grab cars being allowed on roads off-limits to their drivers.
Hanoi on Wednesday started putting up traffic signs banning contract cars under 9 seats from operating along roads off-limits to traditional taxis.
The new signs on Giang Vo, Cat Linh, Phu Doan and Truong Chinh streets are installed next to or under existing “no taxis” signs as the transport ministry moves to regalize ride-hailing apps Uber and Grab.
A sign banning contract cars under 9 seats on Phu Doan Street. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Tu.
Many Uber and Grab drivers frequenting these streets were surprised and worried by the new signs. Minh Duc, who has been working as an Uber driver for two years, said the ban might lower drivers’ incomes.
“Uber, Grab both have predetermined fares calculated using the journey’s shortest route. If this route includes roads that we’re banned from, I’ll have to take longer routes and lose more money,” Duc said.
“If a customer chooses the pick-up point on one of these roads, we would be unable to go there so we’ll have to cancel the trip. We would lose customers and have our stars, bonus points deducted.”
Meanwhile, many drivers expressed confusion at how the authorities are going to differentiate between contract cars and private cars. “If I drive my passengers to a restricted road and claim they’re my relatives then will I be fined?” a driver questioned.
An official from the Hanoi Department of Transport confirmed the city is putting up signs banning contract cars under 9 seats on roads already off-limits to traditional taxis.
“We have not finished putting up the signs so the authorities are not issuing fines yet,” the official said.
Additionally, the city would implement a labeling system for app-based taxis so traffic police could identify them and issue fines if they enter restricted roads. However, details about this labeling system would be announced at a later date.
A sign banning contract cars under 9 seats beneath a sign banning taxis on a street in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Tu.
Hanoi bans traditional taxis from entering a number of main roads such as Giang Vo, Le Van Luong, Lang Ha and Truong Chinh during peak hours to curb traffic congestion. Meanwhile, sections of Phu Doan, Cau Giay-Xuan Thuy and Giang Vo streets are always off-limits to taxis.
As this restriction currently does not apply to Uber and Grab cars, taxi associations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have been asking for it to be extended to app-based taxis as well to ensure fair competition. This prompted Hanoi’s transport department to propose putting up new signs banning contract cars under 9 seats last September.
Hanoi currently has more than 15,000 app-based taxis running on a pilot scheme, including 11,400 Grab cars and 2,400 Uber cars.
Grab and Uber arrived in 2014 and operate both car and motorbike taxi services. The two services have been running on a trial basis since early 2016, but have been caught up in a war with traditional taxi drivers.
Many taxi firms have accused Grab and Uber of “unfair competition” that has hindered their businesses and caused thousands of drivers to quit.
Vietnamese people consume unhealthy and unhygienic food on a daily basis, grown and supplied by their fellow countrymen.There is a perfect meal to describe Vietnam’s food safety: a cup of fake coffee, engine oil-doused vegetables with pork from sedative-injected pigs, and a side of chemically ripened durian.
This scary three-course meal, once a popular joke among Vietnamese social media users, is becoming increasingly less tongue-in-cheek given the almost daily food safety scares reported by the local media.
The situation is so alarming that Tran Ngoc Vinh, a former delegate of the lawmaking National Assembly, once said that “the path from the stomach to the graveyard has never been as short and easy as it is today.”
‘Vietnamese killing Vietnamese’
China’s reputation for flooding Vietnam with low-quality goods has made them the historical scapegoat for fake and unsafe products on the Vietnamese market.
However, the facts show that Vietnam can blame no one but itself for many of the food-related issues plaguing the country.
The local media is rife with reports of Vietnamese growing vegetables with chemicals, injecting pigs with sedatives before slaughter, dousing bananas and other fruits with artificial ripening substances, making alcohol with industrial alcohol and plain water, and collecting rotten animal organs to sell to restaurants and eateries.
To say ‘the Vietnamese are killing the Vietnamese’ is no exaggeration.
Many would not dare to eat the food in Vietnam if they knew what went on “behind the scenes.”
Hardly does a week pass without an exposé on the prevalence of dirty food in the Southeast Asian country.
Even more terrifying is the fact that this same food has made it a popular attraction for unsuspecting tourists.
Those in the dirty food industry have proven their willingness to do whatever it takes to turn a profit, regardless of the dangers they bring upon those unlucky enough to purchase their products.
It is difficult to fathom the thought process behind selling rotten and decomposing animal organs to restaurants who plan to transform the inedible filthy items into ‘delicious’ dishes to serve their countrymen. Unfortunately, this ‘business’ is not uncommon in Vietnam.
On June 10, for example, a truck en route from the central city of Hue to the northern province of Lang Son was caught carrying 4.5 metric tons of rotten offal.
Less than two weeks earlier, on May 29, traffic police in the north-central province of Ha Tinh found nearly three metric tons of inedible organs of dubious origin after stopping a tractor trailer for a routine check.
One of the biggest discoveries of rotten food ever detected in Vietnam occurred in November 2015, when more than six metric tons of foul-smelling animal organs were found on a truck bound for Hanoi from Ho Chi Minh City.
It’s an evil
Nguyen Phuoc Trung, director of the Ho Chi Minh City agriculture department, said the act of injecting pigs with sedatives before slaughter must be considered illegal.
“We should have zero tolerance for anyone who abets this crime,” Trung said at a meeting on October 3.
Trung was referring to a scandal involving Xuyen A, the biggest pig slaughterhouse in Ho Chi Minh City and a supplier of pork to nearby provinces, injecting its livestock with sedatives to achieve a better taste and color.
Sharing Trung’s view, Pham Trong Nhan, a representative to the lawmaking National Assembly from Binh Duong Province, agreed that the production and sale of dirty food must be considered a crime.
Speaking at a meeting with other lawmakers in June, Nhan called for swift and tough action against those who sell dirty food, declaring that “seeing a crime but neither stopping nor denouncing it is equal to abetting the evil.”
Nhan also called on those involved in the ‘dirty food industry’ to follow their conscience and ethics and stop poisoning their compatriots.
“Please live up to your responsibility to this country and stop your dishonest and fraudulent businesses,” he said.
At the same National Assembly meeting, Nhan shared that every year over 70,000 people die from cancer, a significant proportion of which is due to unsafe food.
“Is it an overstatement to say that we are poisoning ourselves [with dirty food]?” he questioned.
Nhan said “patience has run out” for those who make and distribute dirty food in Vietnam, and it is time they “received the strictest penalty from the law.”
In fact, crackdowns on dirty food in Vietnam have not been as effective as expected.
