The reality is the plan and all it promises seems a distant dream for some residents.
Ho Chi Minh City has started implementing a masterplan to transform the southern metopolis into a ‘smart city’ by 2020, but local residents don’t seem to be too enthusiastic about the news.
The move follows Vietnamese legislators’ decision on Friday to give the city more decision-making power to boost its development, including authority over land management, investment and public spending.
The goal of this ambitious ‘smart city’ plan is to solve the problems the city is facing, including rapid population growth, unstainable economic growth, inadequate forecasting, planning and management, poor health, education and transport, pollution and weak public administration.
It will focus on creating a better living environment for the city’s residents.
According to the plan, HCMC’s residents will gain access to low-cost power, convenient public transport, good healthcare services and schools, fresh air, clean water and diverse recreational activities, while being guaranteed a low crime rate.
Workers will be offered basic services in terms of infrastructure to ensure a competitive edge in the global market, such as broadband internet, clean, stable and cheap energy, opportunities to study and affordable living space.
The “smart city” plan will also allow the city’s government to make the best use of its resources, thereby improving the quality of services for its people and future generations.
Locals and businesses will be able to complete administrative procedures online instead of wasting time in government offices waiting for the final seal of approval.
The plan also promises “advanced tools” for better management that will prevent state officials from causing problems for residents and businesses.
The same solution will be applied in public hospitals, allowing patients to book appointments and services online.
In order to make the plan work, the city will have to spend time building a database that covers infrastructure, the population and public and private investment.
Although the plan seems to be painting Saigon as some kind of utopia, its residents are skeptical.
VnExpress readers’ reactions to the plan when it was first announced last month were cycnical, saying it was macroscopic and unfeasible.
“If the plan can save the city from floods, it’s already halfway to success,” read a comment from Truong Luong.
Lan Nguyen said the plan is putting forward “millennial goals” for HCMC, while Nguyen Thanh said citizens could only “dream” about what the plan promises to achieve.
Flappy Bird father Nguyen Ha Dong has provoked curiosity and speculation from his Facebook followers with leaks showing that he is working to bring the smash-hit mobile game back with a new design.
The Vietnamese app developer wowed some 5,600 followers on his Facebook on November 18 by posting a photo, apparently a screen grab of a mobile game, showing four characters, including Faby, the hero of Flappy Bird.
“I’ve done a lot of attempts to make pixel art characters look good and mordern in today world. And I finally stick with this [sic],” Dong captioned the photo in English.
The background of the game features a row of houses and two utility poles with electrical wires, something typical of streets across Vietnam.
One commenter asked below the photo whether the new game would see four players compete against one another, but Dong, apparently jokingly, responded in Vietnamese that he “has no idea.”
On Monday, the Hanoi-based app developer continued to ‘leak’ another screenshot of the game, showing a flying cow against the same background as in the previous photo. Dong only captioned the screen grab #mycowsoft.
Again, the app developer did not reply to any of the curious comments below the photo.
But the leaks have sown hope among diehard fans of Flappy Bird that they will soon be able to play the next generation of the addictive game.
Dong Nguyen, who turned 32 earlier this month, originally released Flappy Bird in May 2013 but only shot to fame in January 2014, when his game topped the Free Apps chart in the U.S. and Chinese App Store. The mobile game, featuring 2D retro style graphics with pixilated characters, ended January as the most downloaded app on the App Store.
In early 2014, Dong said in an interview with The Verge that the game was earning around US$50,000 a day in revenue through in-game advertising.
When the game became a global phenomenon, Dong abruptly pulled it from both the iOS and Android app stores, dismaying fans around the world.
Flappy Bird has since remained being played as a legacy game by those who were lucky enough to install it on their devices before the discontinuation.
However, on September 20, Dong told his Facebook followers that the original Flappy Bird app was no longer playable on newer iOS versions, from iOS 11 onward.
“Thank you very much for your playing and supports in the last 4 years [sic],” he wrote.
In the post-Flappy Bird era, Dong continues to make mobile games through the game studio .GEARS, which he founded in 2012, but none of them have been able to attract as much fame as Flappy Bird.
Vietnam shares jumped 0.6 percent to their highest since 2008.
Most Southeast Asian stock markets firmed on Thursday, with Indonesia climbing about 1 percent after a six-session losing streak and Vietnam scaling a fresh peak in nearly a decade, as upbeat U.S. and regional economic data boosted sentiment.
Broader Asian equities gained after data showed that underlying U.S. consumer prices increased in October and retail sales grew more than expected, highlighting strong economic growth.
The data is seen as setting the stage for a December rate hike by the Federal Reserve, an event largely factored in already by investors, and as raising the prospects for further monetary policy tightening.
“US PPI (Producer Price Index) was a big beat. Economists had expected an increase in October of 0.1 percent but instead, the print showed a bounce of 0.4 percent which lifted the year-on-year PPI to 2.8 percent from 2.6 percent and against expectations of a 2.4 percent,” Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at CFD and FX provider AxiTrader, wrote in a note.
Regionally, the Philippine economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace of 6.9 percent in the third quarter, supported by strong industrial output and services, the statistics agency said.
Philippine shares climbed 0.1 percent, with real estate stocks leading the gains.
The Philippine government is optimistic about meeting its economic growth target of 6.5-7.5 percent for the year, the Economic Planning Secretary said in a statement.
The Indonesian index rose as much as 1.1 percent, marking its biggest intraday gain in two weeks, with the telecom sector accounting for most of the gains.
Indonesia’s central bank is expected to keep its key interest rate unchanged in its policy decision on Thursday, despite sluggish economic growth.
Perusahaan Perseroan (Persero) PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk inched 1.9 percent higher, and was the biggest boost on the index.
Vietnam shares jumped 0.6 percent to their highest since January 2008.
After signing two agreements in last week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to buy gas at home and from Indonesia, Vietnam could receive a significant boost to its natural gas supplies as soon as 2023, aiding expansion in its power and petrochemical sectors.
The deals could give gas field development across Southeast Asia a much-needed push after a slump in oil and gas prices in 2014 slowed investments.
Meanwhile, Malaysian shares declined 0.1 percent to an eight-month low, with health care and telecom stocks leading the losses.
IHH Healthcare Berhad was down 0.7 percent, while banker CIMB Group Holdings Berhad fell 0.2 percent.
Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank) is holding an initial public offering (IPO) to foreign investors this month for up to 20 percent of the company that could raise up to $300 million, a bank official said on Wednesday.
HDBank, as the lender is commonly known, is a retail bank whose vice chairwoman is Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, the billionaire founder and chairwoman of Vietjet Aviation , Vietnam’s largest private airline.
The bank would offer each foreign investor a less than 5 percent stake through the IPO and plans to list on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in early 2018, Le Thanh Trung, HDBank’s deputy general director, said in a written note to Reuters.
“HDBank expects to sell 20 percent shares to raise around $300 million and later list on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange in early 2018,” Trung said in the note.
“We want to be a leading retail digital bank in Vietnam in the next five years,” he said.
Under Vietnam’s financial regulations, a stock exchange listing and initial public offering are separate steps and a listing may come months after an IPO.
The bank has been focusing on individuals and small and medium enterprises to help grow its profits by an average of 35 percent a year in the past five years, while profits are expected to grow about 25 percent annually in the coming years, Trung told Reuters in a separate, face-to-face interview on Nov. 9.
HDBank has 4.5 million individual customers and around 25,000 small- and medium-enterprise clients, Trung said. He added the bank has access to a pool of 20 million people that are clients from Vietjet Aviation and HD Saison, its customer finance joint venture with Japan’s Credit Saison Co .
HDBank expects its net profit before tax at 2.4 trillion dong ($105.66 million) this year, Trung said, or a jump of nearly 110 percent from 2016.
Following the publication of the “Paradise Papers,” a trove of leaked documents detailing offshore investments, Vietnam’s tax authority plans to begin its review of implicated Vietnamese entities and individuals to identify those with any tax responsibilities at home.
The Paradise Papers is a special investigation initiated by The Guardian and 95 media partners worldwide into a leak of 13.4 million files from two offshore service providers and 19 tax havens’ company registries.
Close to 25,000 entities connected to the Paradise Papers investigation have been added to the Offshore Leaks Database, a platform run by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that also includes data from the similar Panama Papers leak in 2015.
As the Offshore Leaks Database is searchable, countries are easily able to search if any citizens or registered businesses are linked to the Paradise Papers.
A keyword search of “Vietnam” on the database by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper showed 13 entities and 25 individuals, registered at 20 addresses.
One company, Vietnam Capital Discovery Limited, and five officers are found to be registered under the same address on the list. The registered officers are Quang-Luu, Quang Hien-Vu, Khanh-Luu, Cong Giang-Bui and Nguyen-Louis T.
Nguyen-Louis T is the chairman and CEO of the Saigon Asset Management, whereas Cong Giang-Bui, Quang-Luu and Khanh-Luu are the company’s officials.
Other familiar names on the list include Don Lam, CEO of VinaCapital and Dominic Scriven, CEO of Dragon Capital.
Another VinaCapital officer, Colin Taylor Brook, and Dragon Capital officer John Shrimpton, as well as Indochina Capital officers Brian Quan Pham and Peter Raymond Ryder also appear in the search results.
Reviewing process
On Wednesday, Nguyen Dai Tri, deputy head of Vietnam’s General Department of Taxation, said his agency has been briefed on the information that several names linked to Vietnam appear in the Paradise Papers and his agency plans to review information relevant to those entities and individuals.
Tax authorities will compare their data with the Offshore Leaks Database to see if these ‘leaked’ names are responsible for paying taxes in Vietnam, Tri said.
A DragonCapital representative told Tuoi Tre that being named in the Paradise Papers does not necessarily imply wrongdoing by an entity or individual.
“Funds under our management follow the tax regulations of the jurisdictions where they are established,” the representative said.
The ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database also stated in a ‘disclaimer’ on its website that there are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts.
“We do not intend to suggest or imply that any people, companies or other entities included [here] have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly,” it said.
As many people and entities have the same or similar names, the ICIJ suggests confirmation based on addresses or other identifiable information be made with regard to the identities of any individuals or entities appearing in the database.
Hundreds of people in the southern Vietnamese province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau are at risk of losing large investments they made into a local company.
The upset investors have held gatherings at the Sao Vang Investment Consulting JSC headquarters in Vung Tau City over the past few days to demand their money back.
According to the investors, despite their holding signed investment cooperation agreements with the firm, the company has neither paid agreed-upon interest payouts since April nor allowed the withdrawal of original deposits since that month.
Angry investors at the gatherings have even turned to waving banners calling on Huynh Thi Ngan Trang, chairwoman of the management board of Sao Vang Company, to return the money.
According to their investment agreements, investors were promised a monthly interest payment of 1.5 to three percent. The company has failed to make those payments since April this year.
On June 14, Chairwoman Trang issued a notice declaring that the company would begin paying the interest owed from April and May on the following day. The payments never came.
Trang issued another statement on October 24 stating that the original deposits would be paid.
The deposits totaled over VND744 billion (US$32.7 million), the notice wrote, adding that the money would be returned over a period of two years starting from October 2, 2017.
The owed interest payouts will be paid from January 2020 to the end of 2021.
According to Nguyen Thi C., one of the disgruntled investors, Sao Vang Company has channeled the investment into 10 other companies to carry out projects related to online education, agriculture, movies, real estate, and others.
The firm also introduced a series of major projects when signing deals with clients, C. continued.
However, after investing money in the company, clients were never updated on how their money was actually being distributed, she elaborated.
The probe revealed that investors of Sao Vang come from all walks of life, including those who even mortgaged their houses to raise the capital needed to invest in Sao Vang in the hope of earning profits.
An official of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Department of Police told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that over 600 residents have submitted denunciation forms.
The case is being investigated by the appropriate police division, the police official added.
During a phone interview on Wednesday, Chairwoman Trang said her company has established a plan to pay its debts, simply attributing the delay to “difficulties.”
Vietnam’s domestic coffee prices fell due to new harvest supplies, while the market in Indonesia remained lacklustre, traders said on Thursday.
Vietnam, the world’s second biggest coffee producer, is in its peak harvest season, supported by sunny and dry weather in the Central Highlands, the country’s coffee belt, traders said.
Vietnam’s national centre for weather forecasting said the coffee belt regions would mostly be sunny for at least another week, which could help farmers to pick and dry beans faster and keep the coffee in good condition.
Both the quality and volume of the 2017/2018 crop year, which started in October, are expected to surpass the year before, traders said, adding the ratio of mouldy coffee would be significantly lower.
Earlier this week, Rabobank forecast Vietnam would have a record crop this year of 28.7 million bags, up sharply from the International Coffee Organization’s estimate for the prior season of 25.5 million.
Traders said farmers in Daklak were offering coffee beans at 37,300-37,500 dong ($1.64-$1.65) per kg, falling from 38,800-39,400 dong a week earlier and tracking a drop in London prices.
January robusta coffee settled down $44, or 2.4 percent, on Wednesday at $1,757 per tonne, the weakest for the second position since July 2016, with dealers saying coffee was flowing from Vietnam.
Vietnam’s 5-percent black and broken grade 2 robusta was traded at a discount of $40 per tonne to the ICE March futures contract or up to a $100 discount to the January contract , traders said.
In Indonesia, the grade 4 defect 80 robusta beans traded at a premium of $50 a tonne to the January contract, tightening slightly from a $60-$70 premium a week earlier, a trader said.
“Prices are really bad today,” one trader told Reuters, adding volumes were also low.
Vietnam on Wednesday announced changes to rules to speed up the privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), adding book building to a program that has been weighed down by the extent of state control and concerns about vested interests.
Privatizations up to now have been handled only by public auction, direct negotiation and underwriting.
Book building has proved a success for private share sales of firms such as Vietjet Aviation , Vietnam’s biggest private airline, and Vincom Retail at its initial public offering, Vietnam’s biggest ever. Both were oversubscribed.
Book building allows companies to identify a range of prices and estimated demand from interested investors to give them a better indication of what IPO price to offer.
“We believe that the regulation … will be a positive catalyst to spearhead the next wave of SOEs’ IPOs in the 2018-2019 period,” top brokerage Saigon Securities Incorp (SSI) said in a note to clients.
State-owned enterprises have so far mostly adopted the public auction method, which together with other restrictions have reduced appetite in even some of the more attractive state assets including dairy firm Vinamilk , Vietnam’s biggest firm by market value.
A public auction of a 9 percent sale in Vinamilk last December was under-subscribed.
Book building is subject to the approval of the prime minister, pending guidance by the finance ministry, and will not be used in a stake sale of Vietnam’s top brewer, Sabeco , expected later this year.
The government also eased restrictions on strategic partners, requiring them to have profitability in two years prior to acquisition, rather than three years, and reduced the lock-in period to three years from five years previously.
The decree, which will be effective from Jan. 1, 2018, also introduces changes to the valuation process and listing requirements.
South Korean-Vietnamese Lee Chang Kun, who traces his bloodline to 11th-century Vietnamese Emperor Ly Thai To, has been appointed Vietnam’s tourism ambassador for the 2017-20 tenure.
The appointment was made by Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Tuesday, after considering Lee’s self-nomination for the vacant post.
Born in Seoul, 59-year-old Lee Chang Kun is a 31st-generation descendant of Emperor Ly Thai To, founder of the Ly dynasty and ruler of Vietnam between 1009 and 1028, according to historical records.
During an uprising in 1226 that eventually led to the overthrow of the Ly dynasty, Prince Ly Long Tuong – known in Korea as Lee Yong-sang – fled Vietnam and became a general famous for his role helping Korea defeat Mongolian invaders.
The exiled prince is believed to be the ancestor of a branch of the Lee family today in both South and North Korea.
Today, some 1,500 households in North Korea and 600 in South Korea can trace a connection to Ly Long Tuong, according to David Steinberg’s 2010 book ‘Korea’s Changing Role in Southeast Asia: Expanding Influence and Relations.’
Lee Chang Kun began making numerous visits to his ancestors’ hometown in Vietnam in 1992, and has since been deeply involved in the strengthening of ties between the two countries and peoples.
In 2010, Lee and his family were granted Vietnamese citizenship in recognition of his roots and contributions to Vietnam. He has since resettled in the Southeast Asian country.
In September, Lee nominated himself for the title of Vietnam’s tourism ambassador, citing his pride to be “a child of the Vietnam motherland” and his wish to do everything in his effort to advance the development of the country and further develop prosperous relations between Vietnam and South Korea.
“I want to be a part in Vietnam’s journey to become a world-renowned tourist hub,” Lee wrote in his open letter to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
The Vingroup owner’s value has rocketed following a recent IPO of its retail unit that raised $709 million.
Pham Nhat Vuong, Vietnam’s first billionaire and owner of giant conglomerate Vingroup, has leapt 97 positions to become the 543rd richest person in the world, according to updates from Forbes released on Tuesday.
The magazine’s real-time list of the world’s billionaires showed that Vuong’s assets had expanded by more than 14 percent to $4 billion in just 13 days.
He’d already marked a milestone on November 8 by climbing 227 places in eight months to 640th on the list, with his net worth growing by more than $1 billion.
His rise came following the IPO of Vingroup’s retail unit Vincom early this month, which was hailed as the biggest IPO debut ever in the country after raising nearly $709 million and valuing the mall operator at around $3.4 billion.
Vingroup’s shares have also gained nearly 100 percent since mid-2017, closing at VND77,000 ($3.40) on Tuesday. Vuong, 49, owned more than a 27 percent stake in Vingroup as of June this year.
Vingroup is one of Vietnam’s largest real estate conglomerates, and has been expanding rapidly into retail, logistics, agriculture, education and healthcare. As of the end of September, its subsidiary Vincom Retail was managing, operating and renting 41 shopping malls with a total area of over 1.1 million square meters (272 acres). It also has 22 projects under construction and another 50 in early development.
Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, the only other Vietnamese billionaire and owner of budget carrier Vietjet, now ranks 1,177th on the Forbes list with assets worth around $2 billion.
At the top of the list are Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $94.9 billion, followed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with $89 billion and Warren Buffet with $77.9 billion.
Most other markets in Southeast Asia were subdued ahead of rate-hike news from the US Fed.
Vietnam’s stock market rose by 2.5 percent on Tuesday to a near-decade high.
Dairy giant Vinamilk and brewery firm Sabeco jumped 4.7 percent and 6.6 percent respectively to record heights.
Singapore stocks alo soared Tuesday on expectations that the economy grew at a faster pace than initially estimated in the third quarter, while most other Southeast Asian markets were subdued ahead of the release of U.S. Federal Reserve minutes.
The Fed minutes, closely watched for indications of a rate hike in December, could also provide clues on further U.S. monetary policy tightening.
Interest rate futures traders are pricing in a 92 percent chance of a December rate hike, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. The minutes are due on Wednesday.
Singapore shares surged more than 1 percent, on track for their third straight winning session, underpinned by hopes that an uptick in global demand was boosting exports.
A Reuters poll on Friday predicted quarter-on-quarter growth in Singapore at 7.4 percent in July-September, on a seasonally adjusted and annualized basis, the fastest pace since the fourth quarter of 2016. The GDP data is scheduled to be released on Thursday.
Financials climbed, with DBS Group Holdings and OCBC gaining 2.2 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
Philippine stocks inched down 0.3 percent, dragged by industrials and telecom.
Market heavyweight SM Investment fell nearly 1 percent, while PLDT Inc shed 1.2 percent.
Indonesian shares also slipped 0.3 percent, snapping a three-session gaining run, weighed by consumer discretionary and consumer staples.
Indonesia’s index of its 45 most liquid stocks fell 0.3 percent.
Blue-chip Gudang Garam shed 2 percent after having gained 3.1 percent in the previous session. Mining contractor United Tractors was down 2.7 percent.
The Malaysian share market was marginally higher, while Thai shares held steady.
Fake goods ranging from eyewear to handbags are openly available at high-end shopping malls and street-side markets across the country.
Le Thu Trang recently switched from a Gucci bag to a Prada design for a fresh look, but the decision did not put a massive dent in her bank account.
Both of her bags are counterfeits and cost 20 times less than the originals that can be found in the stores of luxury Italian brands.
“I like to carry Gucci and Prada bags, but buying luxury goods is not easy because they’re expensive and fashion trends change quickly,” Trang said. “In that respect, fake bags are very appealing. They’re nice and quite cheap.”
Trang’s case illustrates a trend among consumers, especially young people in Vietnam, who like buying fake products ranging from eyewear and shoes to garments and handbags. Their desire for cheap luxury has helped counterfeiters thrive in the country.
On the streets of Hanoi and in some of its glistening air-conditioned malls, countless fake Hermes and Louis Vuitton handbags, Rolex watches and Gucci fashion accessories are openly on sale.
Consumers who want an expensive logo or style can pick up goods for surprisingly cheap prices, even though they know the goods are illegal and might be confiscated by international customs agents who can impose heavy fines.
Wealthy businessmen, savvy importers and even enthusiastic housewives are looking to make a profit from selling fakes from bricks and mortar stores or online, despite efforts to stop intellectual property right infringements.
Retailers are also unconcerned about selling fake goods. “This is a knock-off, but no problem,” a woman said, pointing to a white polo shirt emblazoned with a Louis Vuitton logo.
“Why should I have to worry about the police? I don’t sell drugs. I didn’t steal this shirt,” she said in a store on Hanoi’s Hang Ngang Street. “Lots of people here sell fake goods like me.”
In a nearby handbag store, fake products with Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton logos on them are on sale for $20-50.
“The originals cost thousands of U.S. dollars,” the dealer said, convincing customers that her handbags look like the genuine article. “Same design. Same material. This one is made in China.”
Fake products such as garments, footwear, eyewear, shampoo, body lotions and pharmaceuticals can be found all over Vietnam, from high-end shopping malls to street-side markets.
Most of the knock-offs are smuggled in from China, Phan Hoan Kiem, head of the Market Surveillance Agency in Ho Chi Minh City, said at a recent meeting.
However, some counterfeit products are made in Vietnam. Many households in Lich Dong Village, Thai Binh Province produce glasses and label them with famous international brands such as Ray-Ban, Gucci and Chanel, while Thao Noi Village in Hanoi is notorious for producing fake Chanel, Hermes and Louis Vuitton handbags.
Without drastic measures to combat fake products, Vietnam could become a major counterfeiting center in the future, an official from the Department of the Intellectual Property under the Ministry of Science and Technology warned.
Many handicraft villages that specialize in counterfeit goods have sprung up as farmland disappears as a result of the industrialization and urbanization process, he said.
Fake products such as garments, footwear, glasses, shampoo, body lotions and cosmetics can found all over Vietnam. Photo by VnExpress
Lack of enforcement
Vietnam has detected over 44,500 cases related to counterfeiting and piracy since 2014, said Truong Van Ba, a member of National Steering Committee 389, the government’s anti-smuggling body.
Experts say Vietnam is not doing enough to stop the trend. Current laws do not impose fines on people who use counterfeit goods, but in many other countries buying and using these products is considered a crime.
Hoang Van Truc, deputy director of the Investigation Bureau of Economic Crimes, said that only one in seven cases related to fake goods is prosecuted, while the rest receive administrative fines.
Truc added that there’s a lack of cooperation between authorities, especially in border provinces, to prevent fake products from entering the local market. Many laws on counterfeiting and piracy overlap, while the current penalties aren’t enough of a deterrent.
In addition, the fight against fake goods is made more difficult by the fact that some products are imported into the local market in the form of spare parts rather than finished products, making it almost impossible for authorities to identify them.
Many enterprises also offer fake items that are 90 percent genuine, posing another problem for law enforcement officers.
Even anti-counterfeiting stamps, which are used to protect trademarks, are being faked.
The growing taste among local consumers for fake products has contributed to the market’s development in Vietnam, said Phan Thi Viet Thu, vice chairwoman of the Consumer Protection Association in Ho Chi Minh City.
Her association rarely receives complaints about counterfeit products. “If consumers don’t say “no” to counterfeit goods, the trade will continue expanding.”
Despite the warning, Trang is still happy with her fake bags. “I’ll buy genuine goods when I’m rich. For now, the cheap ones are still my best option.”
People in Vietnam eat on average more packs of the fast food than any other country in the world.
Vietnamese people consumed more than 4.9 billion packs of instant noodles last year, behind China, Indonesia and Japan, new data shows.
Vienam has held fourth spot since 2012 in the rankings compiled annually by the World Instant Noodle Associations (WINA).
On a per capita level with a population of over 93 million, the average Vietnamese person gobbled 53 packs of instant noodles in 2016, higher than Indonesians at 49, Japanese at 44 and Chinese people at 38.
WINA said Vietnam’s instant noodle market recovered last year thanks to more diverse products that offer a wider range of choices for customers.
Kajiwara Junichi, CEO of noodle producer Acecook Vietnam, told VnExpress that the company’s revenue from instant noodles rose 5-20 percent during the second half of this year.
Meanwhile, Masan Consumer and Asia Foods have been suffering from falling revenue.
The three firms are the three biggest instant noodle producers in Vietnam and make up 70 percent of the domestic market share.
Last year, The Washington Post cited a South Korean study that pointed out how harmful instant noodles can be for the health.
“Although instant noodles are a convenient and delicious food, there could be an increased risk for metabolic syndrome given [the food’s] high sodium, unhealthy saturated fat and glycemic loads,” said Hyun Shin, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard School of Public Health and a co-author of the study.
Doctor Dang Huy Quoc from the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital told Tuoi Tre newspaper that no studies have concluded that instant noodles can cause cancer, but high consumption of fat and salt can cause cancer and other heart diseases.
Other experts suggest that people should only eat one or two packs of instant noodles per week.
Many Vietnamese people are well aware of the harmful effects of instant noodles, but it’s common in Vietnam for people to snack on a pack of instant noodles between breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The noodles are popular among college students, who often live far from home and lack the facilities to cook themselves a proper meal.
Aviation agencies want more money for new terminals and runways near top tourist destinations.
Vietnam’s aviation agency has proposed a plan to upgrade three international airports near popular tourist destinations Ha Long, Hoi An and Hue over the next three years.
The project is expected to cost VND23.3 trillion (more than $1 billion) and includes new passenger and cargo terminals, buildings and runway upgrades, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) said in its proposal to the transport ministry.
It said the money would be spent at Cat Bi Airport, which is 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Ha Long Bay, Phu Bai Airport just outside the former royal capital Hue, and Chu Lai Airport, 77 kilometers south of Hoi An.
The CAAV said Phu Bai and Chu Lai were operating far above capacity last year, while Cat Bi, which offers the shortest route to Hai Phong, is likely to be overloaded next year.
Vietnam’s aviation market is growing at the third fastest pace in Asia-Pacific and the country is grappling with an acute dearth of airport capacity.
Aviation authorities estimated that the number of passengers on domestic flights soared 35 percent to 28 million in 2016, accounting for more than half of the total air travel in the country.
Airports across the country served more than 55 million passengers during the first seven months of this year, according to the CAAV. The number in July alone reached 9.1 million, up 12.2 percent against the same month last year.
In March, the Airports Corporation of Vietnam asked for VND32 trillion ($1.4 billion) from the state budget to upgrade large airports across the country.
He knocked out his Indonesian opponent in just 45 seconds to become the first Vietnamese boxer to hold a WBC title.
Vietnamese boxer Tran Van Thao won the country’s first World Boxing Council (WBC) title on Thursday in the WBC Asia Interim Super Flyweight Championship.
Thao, who is also the first Vietnamese boxer to fight for a WBC title, won the belt in stunning style against Indonesia’s George Lumoly in Bangkok.
Thao floored his opponent with a flurry of punches early in the first round, and despite getting back to his feet, Lumoly was back on the canvas and knocked out in just 45 seconds.
Thao, 25, started boxing at the age of 16. He became Vietnam’s number 1 boxer in the super flyweight class (51-52 kilograms, or 112-114 lbs) by winning the National Boxing Championship last year. Before the fight with Lumoly, Thao boasted a professional record of 6 wins, including 4 by knockout, and no losses.
Lumoly, 26, has been a professional boxer since 2013, and entered the ring on Tuesday with a record of 8 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss.
