The draft strategy on attracting FDI in 2018-2023 is being compiled by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) with support from the World Bank.
After 30 years of foreign investment, 24,000 projects with total investment capital of $313 billion have been implemented in Vietnam. FDI accounts for 25 percent of total investment capital and makes up 20 percent of GDP.
Vietnam, in an effort to attract FDI, has pursued an open policy, offering many incentives to investors.
Analysts say the policy has problems and is no longer suited to the new circumstances. Vietnam needs a new strategy for the next development period.
Most foreign investors told the World Bank that Vietnam has offered big investment incentives and has a cheap labor force.
However, after a six-month study, Wim Douw, a senior expert on investment, trade and competition from the World Bank, found that Vietnam’s advantage of a cheap labor force is disappearing.
In the context of global integration, Vietnam has to develop its economy on the basis of labor skills, technology and production chains.
Commenting about the current investment situation, David Brown, WB’s senior advisor on investment policy, said Vietnam relies on incentives to attract investors.
Brown suggested that Vietnam needs to change its policy on attracting FDI based on low labor costs and preferential treatment, while local authorities need to stop running a race of offering incentives to lure investors. State management agencies need to remove the barriers to businesses to join the market.
Nguyen Anh Tuan, former deputy director of FIA, also thinks that in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, Vietnam needs to have an FDI attraction policy which does not aim to get FDI at any cost.
Meanwhile, Truong Thi Chi Binh, director of SIDEC, stressed that the next-generation FDI policy needs to set up policies that encourage foreign investors to build production networks in Vietnam.
“Large multinational conglomerates such as Samsung and Intel have their factories in Vietnam, but the factories only do simple assembling,” Binh said.
“We need to think of solutions which can help retain them, encourage them to expand production chains in Vietnam and transfer technology,” she said.
Simon Bell from the World Bank noted that experts have emphasized the need to attract investment in projects which create high added value, but they do not show how to do it and which business fields should be the focus.
Experts believe Vietnam should focus on high-tech/ICT, processing and manufacturing, supporting industries, tourism, and high-tech agriculture.
Vietnam offers the most attractive office yield in the world, according to the latest Savills’ World Office Yield Spectrum 2H 2017 report.
The report, which compared 54 major office markets across, Asia, Europe, the United States and Australia, confirmed that Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City posted the highest yields at 8.65 and 7.86 percent.
Savills Vietnam’s Managing Director Neil MacGregor said that Vietnam’s office market had shown excellent performance, with occupancy rates exceeding 95 percent in central business districts in the two cities.
In contrast, Taipei and Hong Kong were placed at the bottom of the ranking with about 2 and 2.4 percent yields.
According to Savills, for three years running, optimism has dominated the Asian office sector as cheap money has continued to flood local markets and rents and capital values have continued to rise.
The increasing capital inflows have resulted in cap rate compression to decade lows but buoyant demand has led to more new prime office completions and vacancy rates are beginning to creep up.
Investors have generally adopted a positive outlook for local office markets, their confidence bolstered by strong economic growth expectations. The most active markets have been China, followed by Japan and Hong Kong.
However, limited stock for sale in prime areas has meant investors have increasingly turned their attention to development projects in secondary locations.
Lack of supervision, increased stress at work and low salaries have been blamed for recent shocking reports.
Three-year-old Ha Van Thang sat quietly in a shabby room while the popular Disney movie “Frozen” was playing on the television.
When the movie ended and the song “Let It Go” began, Thang looked around at his mother, and seemed to want to say something.
But he didn’t. He speaks very little, and almost never completes his sentences.
His mother wants to send him to a kindergarten so that he can develop the social skills needed to one day become a functioning adult. However, she has hesitated in recent months following a series of child abuse scandals at private kindergartens.
Late last month, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper published a video showing shocking footage of infants being beaten in a private day care center.
The video shows the owner of the Ho Chi Minh City-based Mam Xanh (Green Buds) Daycare Center slapping a little boy repeatedly in the face to force him to say hello to her, and hitting a small girl on the head with a big plastic can because she had crawled out of her place.
She and two babysitters can be seen slapping, kicking and punching the children, caning the soles of their feet and shoving their heads against a wall.
They beat the children with anything close to hand: a slipper, a comb, a broom, a spoon, a pan lid and even a knife. One of the women is seen swinging a knife at the children to browbeat them into eating, and tapping it on one of their heads.
“This is terrifying,” Thang’s mother said, sharing the video on her Facebook page to inform more people of the problem. “I’m worried about sending my son to kindergarten. I’m not sure he’ll be safe there.”
The incident is not the first in Vietnam, but one of a growing number of cases to hit the country’s booming preschool education industry. This spate of scandals was serious enough for President Tran Dai Quang to in late November call for swift action to put an end to the problem.
Earlier this year, a private nursery school in Hanoi fired two teachers after an online video showed them hitting children in the head with various objects, including a slipper.
The two-minute video showed the teachers screaming at the children to stop crying, and one was seen kneeing a child in the stomach.
Footage from an online video shows two teachers hitting their students at a nursery in Hanoi.
Many Vietnamese parents now say they are worried about potential lapses in supervision at private preschools.
Le Hong Van, the mother of a 4-year-old girl in Hanoi, said child abuse has become alarming because it’s getting more and more common.
According to government data, more than 2,000 children in Vietnam suffer serious abuse that requires special help and intervention every year.
“Parents are feeling they have no sense of security anymore. It can happen to their children,” Van said. “Many of my friends have been asking their children if they’ve ever been beaten at nursery school.”
Stressful job
Most cases of child abuse are reported at private nursery schools due to insufficient supervision.
In Vietnam, children often attend kindergarten for three years before starting school at six. But the demand for nursery schools far outstrips supply, so private businesses have stepped in to take advantage of the market.
In Ho Chi Minh City, nearly 52 percent of preschoolers attended private day care centers in the 2015-2016 school year. The percentage slightly increased to nearly 53 percent in 2016-2017, according to the city’s Department of Education and Training.
“Insufficient government supervision of private kindergartens has contributed to the problem,” Nguyen Tung Lam, chairman of the Hanoi Association of Education Psychology, said. “Many of them hire unqualified teachers to cut costs. This has worsened the problem.”
Low incomes are another reason. A kindergarten teacher who has worked in the sector for 1-5 years earns VND2.5-8 million ($113.6-363) per month, while those who have worked for 10-15 years can earn VND5-11 million. (Vietnam’s average annual income was around $2,200 last year.)
Due to the low income, many people don’t want to work in the sector, and Vietnam now faces a dearth of over 32,000 preschool teachers, according to the Ministry of Education and Training.
Nguyen Thanh Loan, a teacher at a public kindergarten in Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung District, said every kindergarten class of 50 children has 2-3 teachers who have to do everything from feeding children and coaxing them to sleep, to teaching them and cleaning the classrooms.
“It can be tiring caring for just one or two preschool children, while we have to deal with 50 children every day. The stress is unavoidable,” she said. “Parents should sympathize with us.”
Nguyen Ngoc Quynh Dao, head of the Preschool Department at Saigon University, said some teachers can experience psychological problems due to long term stress, which is another cause of child abuse.
To minimize child abuse, the government is looking at ways to increase wages for kindergarten teachers, and improve resources and standards in nursery schools.
Experts say in the short term, more surveillance in kindergartens, especially private centers, is needed.
But Thang’s mother isn’t convinced.
“The authorities keep saying they will step in to address these issues, but these scandals are happening over and over again in Vietnam,” she said. “I still don’t have a solution for my son.”
Free factory visits that offer an insight into how tea and silk are produced in Vietnam’s Central Highlands will be available as part of the 2017 Da Lat Flower Festival.
Running from December 23 to 27, the event is Vietnam’s biggest flower festival, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to Da Lat City in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.
This year, the festival includes a cultural week featuring the craft of making tea and silk by Vietnamese highlanders that will be held in Da Lat’s neighbor, Bao Loc City.
Tourists who are in Bao Loc during the flower festival can register with organizers to be taken on a complimentary trip to one of the major tea and silk factories in the city.
The experience will include witnessing the entire process of producing a finished product and learning about what makes Lam Dong silk and tea unique.
The year 2017 marks the seventh edition of the biennial flower festival, which is themed ‘Da Lat Flowers – The Crystallization of Earth’s Marvels.’
Fifteen main events and 14 complimentary programs will be organized over the five-day period, including a wine festival, flower displays, and a greens market.
The opening ceremony will be held at 8:00 pm on December 23 at Da Lat’s lakeside Lam Vien Square.
Ho Chi Minh City authorities are planning to establish separate areas for street food vendors along some 159 routes following the successful operation of its ‘food streets’ in the past months.
Leaders of district-level administrations across the southern hub have proposed reserving specific zones for local street food sellers.
Surveys are being carried out on 159 streets in the city to prepare for the potential establishment of such food hubs.
The proposal is aimed at providing a legitimate place for vendors and ensuring order along city sidewalks.
It follows the opening of the first ‘food streets’ on Nguyen Van Chiem Street and at Bach Tung Diep Park in District 1.
The Nguyen Van Chiem ‘food street’ was opened on August 28. A total of 40 businesses take turns to operate on two shifts: between 6:00 am and 9:00 am in the morning, and 11:00 am to 1:00 pm in the afternoon.
The second food hub was introduced at Bach Tung Diep Park in early October. It is home to up to 30 catering businesses run by former street vendors, who also take turns to occupy the stalls on two shifts: from 6:00 am and 9:00 am, and from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.
L., a vendor on Nguyen Van Chiem Street, said the new venue has helped her sell more food compared to when she was operating along local sidewalks.
Officials at seven out of 10 wards in District 1 have already submitted their proposals on similar models.
In Binh Thanh District, an examination is being carried out to prepare for the trial of a food hub on the promenade of Dien Bien Phu Street, in front of HUTECH University.
About 20 stalls will be established for local residents to sell their dishes, said Duong Hong Thang, vice-chairman of the Binh Thanh People’s Committee.
More ‘food streets’ will be opened in the neighborhood following the test run, Thang added.
According to Tran Thanh Binh, vice-chairman of the People’s Committee in District 3, the administration is mulling over several food corners at the Turtle Lake and nearby streets, namely Vo Van Tan, Tran Cao Van, and Pham Ngoc Thach.
The plan is to provide favorable conditions for street vendors to earn a living, Binh elaborated.
Careful consideration
The city’s Urban Traffic Management Zone No. 3 has recently suggested the establishment of a food hub at Gia Dinh Park, Go Vap District.
According to Deputy Chairman Nguyen Huu Nghia, authorities are weighing whether the size of the park is sufficient given the large number of vendors in the district.
If there is not enough space, the plan will go sideways, resulting in more regular occupation of sidewalks and roadways, Nghia explained.
The Urban Traffic Management Zone No. 3 is expected to pool statistics from the operation of the Nguyen Van Chiem ‘food street’ before coordinating with the Go Vap administration to realize the scheme.
It is necessary to open more food centers to provide business opportunities for poorer residents, Nguyen Van Dung, deputy head of the Urban Traffic Management Zone No. 1 said, adding that order, hygiene, and esthetics should be taken into account.
Dung listed some potential streets for the plan, including Pham Ngu Lao in District 1 and Nguyen Trai in District 5.
“This is an effective measure to ensure livelihoods for citizens and preserve urban and traffic order,” said Vu Viet Ha, deputy chief inspector of the municipal Department of Transport.
While online shopping platforms extend themselves to ensure they have adequate infrastructure to meet rising demand by Vietnamese consumers, they are still failing to satisfy when it comes to shipping, which is mostly done by third parties.
More and more Vietnamese consumers are turning to e-commerce instead of jostling with crowds during shopping events like Black Friday.
In previous years, online shopping websites became overloaded with orders, many of whom eventually failed to receive their purchased goods.
This year, such technical problems were widely resolved and most online platforms have run smoothly, especially during the Black Friday season from November 24 to 26.
However, customers have still filed complaints with e-commerce sites after their goods were delivered much later than scheduled.
In some cases, deliveries were not made until two weeks after the time of purchase.
Late delivery
Luu Huynh, who works for a food company in Ho Chi Minh City, bought a Wi-Fi modem on Lazada in November and was told that delivery would take five to seven days.
However, after two weeks of waiting, Huynh contacted the Lazada hotline and received an auto-reply that told him to “go to the website and check the order status.”
The problem is, Huynh said, that the order status simply stated that his purchase had been transferred to a third-party shipping service.
Alexandre Dardy, CEO of Lazada Vietnam, officially responded to Huynh’s complaint, admitting that the shipping service was poor during the promotional campaign as the system had become overwhelmed with orders.
During the November 24-26 campaign, Lazada managed to sell 1.5 million products, a threefold increase on last year, according to Dardy.
The executive did, however, admit that multiple orders placed during the Black Friday shopping spree remained undelivered two weeks after the campaign, with the shipping service to blame.
Many online shoppers have moaned that they received notifications of delayed delivery from the e-commerce websites as there were “too many orders to process.”
The overloaded systems also resulted in the delivery of goods different from what some customers had ordered, according to other complaints.
Rapid growth but immature infrastructure
Most major online shopping websites utilize a third party to handle shipping and delivery, which ensures their service quality remains a headache.
A representative of Lotte Vietnam, which has recently joined the e-commerce market, said more than 80 percent of its orders are being delivered by the company’s partners, so “a certain proportion of deliveries are made behind schedule.”
Minh Bui, an online shopping expert, said the overloading of online retailers proves that Vietnam’s e-commerce infrastructure remains immature compared to the growth of the industry.
Thomas Harris, managing director of DHL eCommerce Vietnam, cited a company research as saying that most online shoppers in Vietnam are not satisfied by the shipping services of local retailers.
Sixty-six percent of online shoppers in Vietnam have demanded their goods be delivered by a trustworthy company, Harris added.
While e-commerce currently only makes up one percent of Vietnam’s total retail market, the online shopping industry is growing steadily in the Southeast Asian country.
David Anjoubault, general manager of Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam, says that the Vietnamese e-commerce market still has strong potential, even though its size is small when compared to others.
Online sales of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) reached 0.5 percent of the total market in Vietnam in the 12 months to March 2017, representing a significant lift of 69 percent in comparison to last year, Anjoubault said, citing the “Future of E-commerce in FMCG” report by Kantar Worldpanel, which they published on November 21.
“[This] makes Vietnam one of the countries with the highest e-commerce growth in the world,” he said.
An express boat plying between Ho Chi Minh City and the southern city of Vung Tau is expected to open later this month.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has carried out a technical examination of the express boat route linking Ho Chi Minh City, outlying Can Gio District, and Vung Tau, a popular beach city in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.
The waterway route has been developed by the Ho Chi Minh City-based GreenlinesDP Company.
According to Bui Xuan Cuong, director of the transport department, the express boat service will officially open to the public on December 23.
The GreenlinesDP K6 vessels are specifically designed to operate on this journey, and are equipped with four air-conditioners, a big-screen TV, a security camera system, Wi-Fi, fire alarms and life jackets.
Each boat also includes a ten-passenger capacity VIP corner, which comes with its own mini-bar.
The boats will launch from Bach Dang Wharf in District 1 before traveling to Thach An Station in Can Gio District, and then stop at Ho May in Vung Tau.
Four trips will be provided daily for the Ho Chi Minh City-Can Gio route and eight for the Ho Chi Minh City-Vung Tau journey.
The VIP corner on one boat. Photo: Tuoi Tre
Extra trips are expected be added on weekends.
Each trip will cost VND200,000 (US$9) per person. Passengers who are residents of Can Gio as well as public servants who regularly travel the route will be entitled to a 50 percent discount.
Disabled people will be allowed to travel free-of-charge.
Three types of boat with capacities of 50, 96, and 136 seats will be made available.
This is the first express boat route connecting Ho Chi Minh City, Can Gio, and Vung Tau, said Pham Cong Bang, head of the waterway management division under the transport department.
More routes will be added in the future according to demand, to promote waterway tourism, and help relieve traffic pressure on city streets.
“Given its network of rivers and canals stretching a total of 1,000 kilometers, this and similar projects make use of the potential for water transport in the southern metropolis,” Bang elaborated.
Vietnam and Brunei were the only two auto markets among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to have turnover plunge this year, according to a report by the ASEAN Automotive Federation.
Specifically, Vietnam sold 4.2 percent fewer cars as of November this year compared to the same period last year, a drop from nearly 193,000 cars to just under 185,000.
The fall was only behind Brunei, which saw a plunge of seven percent year-on-year, from over 9,400 cars to around 8,700 in 2017.
Meanwhile, the markets like Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia reported growth rates of 1-1.5 percent over the same period.
Myanmar’s recent opening of its market has resulted in car sales rocketing by 80 percent between 2016 and 2017, from 2,900 to 5,300 vehicles.
Overall, the ASEAN automotive market saw a collective expansion of 5.6 percent, with growth rates forecast to remain slow in December despite the beginning of end-of-season sales.
Experts attribute dropping car sales in Vietnam to the fact that consumers are waiting for cheaper cars to become available next year as the country is set to reduce tax on imported auto parts within the ASEAN bloc to 0 percent starting January 1, 2018, which has been made official via a government decree earlier this week.
ASEAN is a political and economic organization whose current members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
In 2009, its members signed the ASEAN Trade In Goods Agreement (ATIGA), which set the timeline for the gradual reduction of import tariffs among the member countries until 2018, including the lowering of taxes on imported motorized vehicles to zero by that year.
An official has been fined over US$24,000 for violations in the construction of his villa complex in northern Vietnam and failure to pay tax on time.
The People’s Committee in Yen Bai Province on Saturday submitted a document to the prime minister and government inspectorate to report on a decision regarding the villa complex of Pham Sy Quy, former director of the province’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
Quy was fined VND507 million ($22,336) for multiple offenses, including going against the building permit and carrying out some constructions without formal permission from competent agencies, Ta Van Long, vice-chairman of the Yen Bai administration, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
He was also required to pay an additional VND50 million ($2,202) for late tax payment, Long added.
Quy is, however, allowed to keep the status quo of his imposing residence, the vice-chairman noted.
“In order to reach the decision, the administration had consulted the Ministry of Transport and some other agencies. Based on their feedback and current regulations, the administrative fines were given appropriately,” Long elaborated.
In late October, Quy was stripped of his post as head of the provincial environment department as a punishment over his failure to fully declare his assets.
He was then transferred to the position of a deputy head of the Yen Bai People’s Council Office.
The official made headlines in June after his family was found owning a 1.3 hectare villa complex in Yen Bai City, which is the provincial capital.
The official claimed that he had borrowed about VND20 billion ($887,000) in bank loans, another sum from friends, worked side jobs, and saved since he was young in order to build the property.
According to the results of a four-month investigation by the Government Inspectorate, Quy had not declared several portions of his assets since 2014, in violation of Directive No. 33 of the Politburo.
In Vietnam, officials are required to write down a list of assets they own in their profiles.
The inspection also revealed several violations regarding the construction of the villa complex.
Alongside the penalty for Quy, the Yen Bai People’s Committee also mentioned the punishment for 14 other individuals, namely officials and public servants at the tax department and other offices in Yen Bai City, for being involved in the violations.
Tran Xuan Thuy, chairman of the Yen Bai City People’s Committee and his deputy, Nguyen Yen Hien, were previously reprimanded for allowing the wrongful construction to continue at Quy’s villa complex.
The base salary of a public servant in Vietnam now sits at VND1.3 million ($57) a month.
Allowances for duty, ranking, seniority, positions, and others will be added when a civil servant’s pay is calculated on the basis of their salary bracket, governed by the government.
Many working in the public sector say they make ends meet with such salaries.
The fast food industry in Vietnam has seen double-digit growth annually for the past five years.
Global burger behemoth McDonald’s opened its first branch on Saturday in the historic heart of Hanoi, a conservative city renowned for its traditional — and cheap — Vietnamese staples beloved by food-obsessed locals.
Hungry customers lined up for Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets at the Vietnamese capital’s first location overlooking the tree-lined Hoan Kiem Lake, which draws millions of tourists annually to see French-era colonial buildings and sample street-food favorites like pho noodle soup and banh mi sandwiches.
The restaurant is the first outside of the southern commercial hub Ho Chi Minh City, where 16 branches have opened since McDonald’s first came to Vietnam in 2014 to much fanfare, especially among the rapidly-growing middle class and American-obsessed youth.
The global fast food chain received a similarly warm welcome in Hanoi on Saturday, as hungry diners crammed into the two-storey eatery for a first taste of the Golden Arches.
For 84-year-old Tran Dinh Luyen, who fought against the U.S. in the Vietnam War, the restaurant was a sign of warming ties with a former enemy.
“I am happy that McDonald’s has opened a restaurant in Hanoi. It’s a very famous American brand, so it shows how far U.S.-Vietnam relations have come,” he told AFP after mowing down on a Big Mac with his daughter and granddaughter.
But not everyone agreed.
“It’s a rip-off … this fast food is for kids only, it’s not good at all,” 90-year-old Ta Xuan Huong said, espousing his love for traditional cuisine.
Some curious tourists stopped to see what all the fuss was about, perplexed that a brand ubiquitous in the West would draw so much attention.
“It’s kind of random to see McDonald’s opening… it’s an interesting cultural experience to see how important it is that the store is opening here,” American Dan Moore told AFP, after his wife remarked she might not have expected to find one of the most salient symbols of capitalism in the country.
Vietnam has seen dizzying economic growth in recent years as it has opened its doors to foreign investment — which has included an influx of western chains like Starbucks, KFC and Burger King.
Growth in the fast food sector has been buoyed by rapidly rising incomes — annual per capita income has more than doubled in the past decade to about $2,200 today — especially among under-30s, who make up half of Vietnam’s population of 93 million people.
The fast food industry in Vietnam has seen double-digit growth annually for the past five years, and the country has the highest 2017 growth in Asia-Pacific for fast food chains, according to market research firm Euromonitor International.
Though meals can cost as much as three times the local fare, customers are still showing strong appetite.
“Young people like to hang out in fast food restaurants as they are seen as a cool and nice place … and these customers also like the taste of the food,” Euromonitor analyst Samuel Huynh told AFP.
The capital’s residents find the loudspeakers obsolete in the digital age and, well, too loud.
Hanoi’s government has kickstarted a plan to switch its public communication methods from loudspeakers to modern internet devices.
The switch will be tried first in three districts Ba Dinh, Hoan Kiem and Cau Giay, where around 250 selected families will be given access to communication devices connected to the internet, the city government said in a statement issued on Friday.
Digital information screens at apartment buildings or cell phone messages will be among the alternatives.
Feedback obtained from the trial will decide if the program should be expanded or adjusted.
The loudspeakers in Hanoi date back to the 1960s and 1970s when they delivered air raid warnings during the U.S. – Vietnam War. But they have become unpopular in the digital age, when people consider them too noisy and redundant.
Hanoi government has expressed its intentions to completely phase out its loudspeakers, but a specific timeframe has not been set.
In August, the city’s chairman Nguyen Duc Chung approved a plan to restructure the broadcasting system, silencing the loudspeakers in four downtown districts Ba Dinh, Dong Da, Hai Ba Trung and Hoan Kiem, except only when the city has to deal with emergencies such as natural disasters or outbreaks of disease.
Speakers in the rest of the capital have continued to broadcast extra information about military enrollment, vaccinations and pension payments, but the city has cut off those standing near schools, hospitals, diplomatic agencies and neighborhoods inhabited by old people or foreigners.
Their broadcasts now only take place on weekdays, and last for 30-90 minutes per day.
Many residents had to move to higher grounds as some areas were under 2 feet of water.
On October 23 Street, a key road connecting downtown Nha Trang with Dien Khanh District and National Highway 1A, traffic police had to put up warning signs as most vehicles attempting to pass through would find their wheels completely underwater. “This morning I went to deliver goods to a client in Cam Lam District. The road was still normal back then but when I go back in the afternoon it’s already flooded. My car managed to drive for a short distance but then the engine died,” driver Nguyen Van Phuong said.
Some locals had to travel around by boat.
After seeing many motorbike engines die from flood water, Nguyen Van Chien decided to block his motorbike’s exhaust pipe. “This way water won’t be able to get in. I just need to walk it through the flooded section then I can ride it as normal,” he said.
Thuy, 34, was picking her son up from school when her motorbike’s engine died. Unable to walk the motorbike all the way home with her son on it, she eventually had to let the boy wade through the flood water on foot.
Many people hired freight tuk tuks to transport their motorbikes through flooded areas for VND50,000 ($2.2).
With the sidewalk flooded, customers at this noodle stall had to eat while standing or sitting in uncomfortable positions. “I already cooked a lot of fish noodle in the morning so I’m trying to sell them all to break even,” the vendor said.
Since his rented house in Vinh Hiep Commune had been flooded, this foreign man had to pack up and move to a higher area.
Khanh Hoa Provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, Search and Rescue said reservoirs in the province have been filling up after days of heavy rain, forcing some to discharge water. Cai River’s water level is therefore expected to reach level 3, the highest level of emergency.
Heavy rain also caused a landslide on Cu Hin Pass, according to Ngo Khac Thinh, deputy head of Nha Trang’s Urban Management Division. Traffic between Nha Trang and Cam Ranh Airport has therefore been jammed.
Another landslide also occured on National Highway 27C connecting Nha Trang and the Central Highlands’ resort town of Da Lat. Noone was injured by the landslides.
Khanh Hoa Province was among the hardest hit by Typhoon Damrey last month, which killed 45 people, destroyed 3,000 houses, damaged 12,000 houses and destroyed thousands of fish farms in the province. Local statistics estimated that the typhoon had caused nearly VND15 trillion ($661.5 million) in damages to the province.
The city’s Party chief says a shake-up is needed to make the most of its greater autonomy.
Ho Chi Minh City has punished 15 officials for sub-par performances as it takes steps to clean up its political system and embrace the new power it has been granted as the country’s top economic driver.
The city’s Party unit, its most powerful agency, announced the list of senior members that have received reprimands and warnings for violations that caused losses to the Party on Friday. Vietnam’s Party has four levels of punishment, and repeated or serious offenses are subject to demotion or expulsion.
Most prominent on the list was Tran Trung Dung, deputy head of the Party unit’s Organizing Commission, an advisory body mainly tasked with nominating and approving the appointment of officials in the city.
Dung, together with Le Trong Sang, the head of the city’s business innovation board and Huynh Tan Dung and Luong Thi Toi from the city’s labor department were criticized for the method in which they had nominated and appointed officials.
Their poor leadership had allowed their subordinates to commit “serious” financial violations, it said, without specifying further.
Five current and former members of the Party Committee of the Central Business Sector in HCMC and three key members of the Ministry of Construciton’s Party unit in the city were also punished for improper use of funds and assets.
In District 7, where a new urban area has been rising in recent years, a group of officials were criticized for poor land and construction management, and failing to stop illegal encroachment at two major projects that caused public anger.
Nguyen Thien Nhan, the city’s Party Secretary, addressed the decision at a meeting on Saturday, saying it was a “painful but fair” thing to do.
Nhan said the city will continue its restructing efforts to become more effective and make the most of the new privileges it has been granted.
Vietnamese legislators last month agreed to give Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s economic center, more autonomy to boost its development.
The decision will allow the city to make its own decisions on areas such as land management, investment and public spending from mid-January for at least five years.
The city will be able to raise special consumption and environmental protection taxes on certain products, though it will still have to consult the central government. It will also be able to set special salaries for industry experts and scientists, and raise salaries in the public sector as it sees fit.
Nhan said that the new power also means new challenges and demands.
The city will carry out a series of “personnel reshuffles in certain offices” by the end of the year to make sure it is ready for the bigger role, he said.
Ho Chi Minh City is among just 20 percent of cities and provinces in Vietnam that can cover their own expenditures and contribute to the national coffers. It was the country’s largest moneymaker last year, earning more than VND306 trillion ($13.48 billion), up 12 percent from 2015. It also accounted for 28 percent of all state budget contributions, according to its finance department.
Pan-fried squares of sizzling fish with dill, onion, turmeric and galangal: What are you waiting for?
There’s a no-frills diner in Hanoi that’s been serving just one special dish for nearly 150 years: catfish.
It is possibly the finest and tastiest catfish in Vietnam and has amazed scores of local diners and tourists, as well as now it seems, Bloomberg writers.
The U.S. news site recently published a list of 12 restaurants “worth traveling across the world to experience”, and “Cha Ca La Vong” in Hanoi was among them.
Pan-fried squares of sizzling catfish made vibrant with the flavors of dill, onion, turmeric and galangal await diners from both near and far.
When the restaurant opened in 1871 as a rebel hideout during French colonial times, the owners decided to name it after Jiang Ziya (La Vong in Vietnamese), a Chinese noble who fished with a bare hook and helped King Wen of Zhou overthrow the Shang Dynasty.
The restaurant sits at 14 Cha Ca, the street subsequently named after the popular dish, in Hoan Kiem District.
Bloomberg said notable chefs such as James Beard Award winner Chris Shepherd from Houston have traveled to sample the fish there.
“It’s a very DIY experience,” the site added.
Diners sit at a communal table with a skillet set up over a burner. Turmeric-marinated fish is added to sizzling garlic oil, and then dill and shrimp paste is tossed in.
The diners’ job is to add herbs, marinated hot chilis, peanuts and vermicelli, which are all laid out on the table.
Catfish is pan-fried with dill and other herbs at Cha Ca La Vong in Hanoi. Photo by Quynh Trang
There are now around 15 restaurants specializing in the dish in Hanoi. The original Cha Ca La Vong has also opened a bigger outlet at 107 Nguyen Truong To in Ba Dinh District, where diners should expect to pay around $8 per head.
Hanoi’s “cha ca” shares the must-try collection with another restaurant famous for a legendary fish dish in Spain, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Norway, a “farm to table” restaurant in California, a restaurant with “an impossibly scenic setting” in Maine, a throwback dining room serving local and home-made seafood in Canada, a renowned sushi restaurant in Japan, and other remarkable dining rooms in Austria, Bolivia, France, New York and Sri Lanka.
Bloomberg said that a restaurant bucket list sounds like a clichéd concept, but there are places “that were so good we want to shout about them.”
If you’re already in Hanoi, don’t bother globetrotting and indulge in a steaming skillet now.
Vietnam has picked a record high price for Saigon Beer’s share sale this month – at VND320,000 ($14) apiece – which has made it one of the most unpredictable share disposals.
The brewer, also known as Sabeco, will sell a 53.6 per cent stake on December 18, hoping to raise almost $5 billion for the state. This is the country’s biggest and most anticipated stake sale, nine years after Sabeco was privatised. The company currently enjoys a $9 billion valuation, making it Vietnam’s second largest listed company after Vinamilk.
The company went public late in 2016, and its rocketing stock price has become a debate since then. Sebaco’s shares have jumped 65% for the year to date, and market analysts are of the opinion that high prices are due the fact that only a limited number of its shares are currently available for trading.
After the government announced the starting price of VND320,000 for the public auction of Sabeco’s shares, the stock has continued to grow, and was at VND330,000 as of Friday.
While the increase in price is beneficial to individual and financial investors, many experts have asserted that it does not truly reflect the business.
The success of this divestment appears to be unpredictable because the price is 73 per cent higher than that suggested by advisors for the deal – besides, it has has raised questions as to who would buy such a huge amount of shares.
“If the state really wants to open up Sabeco to private, overseas investors, it should have selected a more realistic price,” said an analyst who requested anonymity. Sabeco is currently the most expensive stock on the local market. Its P/E ratio is around 45x compared to the average of industry peers at 22x. It is also more expensive than Vinamilk, Vietnam’s biggest listed business, which is traded at some 32x, according to Kevin Snowball, CEO of PXP Asset Management.
In a note last week, Bernstein’s Trevor Stirling reportedly pointed out that the high price that translates to an EBITDA multiple of 30-fold could “inhibit interest… from the more economically rational”.
“Unless a foreign acquirer can achieve effective majority control by partnering with a local investor, which could be tricky to structure, we expect synergies will be minimal,” Bernstein was quoted as stating by portal Just-Drinks. The portal also said that in comparison, Japan’s Asahi last year paid around 15x EBITDA multiple for SABMiller’s European brands Grolsch and Peroni. Just last year, Vinamilk failed to sell the entire lot of its 9 per cent offer, seeing only Fraser & Neave purchasing 5.4 per cent. The was attributed to the tiny fraction of shares rather than an unrealistic price. Yet, it shows that past transactions have recorded undersubscribed sale.
This time, even as the 53.6 per cent stake of Sabeco is substantial, overseas investors will not be able to get a controlling interest in the brewer as foreign ownership limit is still capped at 49 per cent, and the government has said there are no immediate or future plans plans to raise this limit.
Currently, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade owns 89.6% of the shares in the company. Even as it plans to sell 53.6% stake in the company, this implies that international investors can buy a maximum of 38.59% in Sabeco, as Heineken and other foreign players already hold around 9%.
Meanwhile, potential buyers for this deal are deep-pocketed strategic investors who want to solidify their presence in the industry.
However, some are believers of a successful auction, which will attract aggressive investors who would accept any price to acquire a meaningful stake at Sabeco, given the market perspective of over 90 million population with increasing consumption, and a dominant market share owned by the firm.
The biggest Vietnamese brewer currently has more than 40 per cent market share, followed by Heineken (28 per cent), which is also Sabeco’s 5 per cent shareholder.
Filipino beverage firm San Miguel has said that it would join the Sabeco auction, according to a Reuters said. In addition to the existing shareholder Heineken, several other prospective bidders include Belgium’s AB InBev and Japan’s Asahi and Kirin are also reportedly interested in the deal.
