Ho Chi Minh City has joined hands with military-run mobile network operator Viettel to turn the southern metropolis into a ‘smart city.’
The municipal People’s Committee on Friday evening signed a cooperative agreement with the telecoms group regarding the establishment of a smart city in 2017-20, with a vision toward 2025.
Viettel executives underlined several obstacles the southern hub has been facing in its development, including traffic congestion, environmental pollution, and limited infrastructural development resources.
The military-run firm asserted the necessity of creating a centralized monitoring center to resolve the issues.
The center will consist of several units in charge of different tasks, namely supervising traffic and fighting crime, receiving and analyzing emergency information such as firefighting and search and rescue missions, monitoring and ensuring information safety, managing media information, and answering citizens’ inquiries regarding public services.
The centralized facility will access data from local camera systems to manage traffic situations and ensure order and security.
Regarding emergency requests, a unit will operate in a manner similar to the 911 service in the United States, with the ability to locate callers, access surveillance camera footage, and send rescue teams in a prompt manner.
Press and media information will also be monitored closely to prevent an information crisis.
According to Tong Viet Trung, deputy general director of Viettel, the centralized monitoring center will be helpful for local authorities thanks to its sufficient and accurate database.
All information kept at the center will be protected with maximum security measures, Trung added.
Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City administration Nguyen Thanh Phong stated that the smart city project had been approved by the municipal Party Committee and People’s Council.
A meeting will be convened on November 25 to discuss a detailed plan, Chairman Phong continued.
The official considered the handshake between the city and Viettel a significant millstone, which will play an important part in achieving sustainable development.
Authorities have asked social media retailers to pay up, but enforcement remains a challenge in a cash-driven country.
Dinh Thu Huyen’s broadcasts of everyday life, including feeding chickens and working in allotments, have helped her attract nearly 50,000 Facebook followers in Vietnam.
The web broadcasts have also earned her hundreds of millions dong a year from selling the products she cultivates online. However, she has never paid any tax.
Vietnam levies a 0.5 percent income tax and a 1 percent value added tax on sales of more than VND100 million ($4,400) per year. But the government is failing to collect taxes from many online traders as they mainly use cash transactions that are difficult to track.
However, local tax authorities have recently stepped up efforts to collect taxes from online businesses that use Facebook and other social media sites such as Instagram and YouTube.
District tax departments in Ho Chi Minh City have sent out tax demands to nearly 13,500 Facebook retailers in a move to target tax avoidance by online businesses.
In a similar move, the Hanoi Department of Taxation has sent text messages to 13,422 Facebook accounts that use the social media network as a retail platform.
The retailers have been urged to go to the department’s website to register their businesses and declare tax, Vien Viet Hung, the department’s deputy director, said.
To minimize tax losses, the Ministry of Finance is considering a plan to impose value added tax and income tax on sales with a value of VND1 million ($44) upwards, or multiple sales of a lesser value.
But the plan has not worried Huyen. “Tax authorities have not contacted me. Most of my customers pay in cash, so I don’t think they will be able to evaluate my sales and tax them.”
Many other online retailers on Facebook have the same attitude as Huyen. They don’t think tax authorities will be able to control their sales because they only promote fashion products via Facebook. The items bought usually change hands offline and payments are usually made in cash. Even goods shipped to the recipients can be sent either through the postal system or by private courier.
“I post photos and clips of my products on Facebook, but all transactions are conducted outside the platform,” said Nguyen Huy Dung, who has been selling watches online for several years. “How can tax authorities claim that my sales are large enough to be taxed?”
Many online retailers do not even register their businesses with local authorities.
Nguyen Thi Cuc, chairwoman of the Vietnam Tax Consultant Association, said Vietnam’s tax policy for online businesses is incomplete and therefore not compulsory. This poses a challenge for tax authorities when most transactions are still in cash.
Some experts have raised concerns that many online retailers use anonymous accounts for transactions, making it hard for tax authorities to regulate activities.
Many online retailers have said they would pay tax, but want a reasonable policy in place first.
Nguyen Thi Nhung, who sells cosmetics online, said: “It’s not fair if online retailers do not pay tax when brick and mortar businesses have to pay a raft of taxes and fees.”
“However, authorities should consider specific policies for retailers like me who conduct our business online,” she said.
Stressing the necessity of collecting taxes from online retailers, economist Nguyen Minh Phong said the state should complete tax and business regulations, facilitating tax collection to increase state budget revenues and ensure justice for all kinds of businesses.
Lucrative market
Vietnam’s young population – almost 60 percent are under 35 – is drawn to Facebook and the country has become one of the leaders globally in terms of penetration of social networks, Bloomberg quoted Monica Peart, senior forecasting director at EMarketer Inc, as saying.
The Vietnamese spend more time on the social network than users in most other Southeast Asian countries and are much more apt to use it as a platform to start a business, said Joe Nguyen, ComScore Inc.’s senior vice president of Asia Pacific.
“We haven’t seen this scale in other places,” he said. “Vietnamese are very entrepreneurial. Everyone wants to try to sell something.”
Online sales in Vietnam have expanded rapidly in recent years, currently accounting for 3.39 percent of the country’s retail market. The total retail market grew 10.2 percent last year to $118 billion, mainly fuelled by a growing middle-class with expanding disposable incomes and an increasing number of internet users.
The World Bank forecasts that Vietnam’s $200 billion economy is likely to grow to a trillion dollars by 2035. More than half of its population, compared with only 11 percent today, is expected to join the ranks of the global middle class with consumption of $15 a day or more by that time.
According to one estimate, about 30 percent of the population will be buying goods and services over the internet in 2020, with each shopper spending an average of $350 per year.
Just three years ago, Vietnam was ranked the smallest e-commerce market in Southeast Asia in terms of sales. Now its online retail is gaining momentum, with more than half of the country’s 95 million people increasingly turning to online shopping.
According to Internet World Stats, Vietnam is currently ranked 14th in the world in terms of number of internet users.
The move came about five years after the start of a banking crisis that Vietnamese authorities still have not fully resolved.
The National Assembly, Vietnam’s legislature, on Monday gave authorities the ability to declare troubled banks bankrupt, through an amendment to a law on the operation of credit organizations, the government website said.
Approval of a bill establishing the right to declare bankruptcies came about five years after the start of a banking crisis that Vietnamese authorities still have not fully resolved.
State Bank of Vietnam Governor Le Minh Hung said recently that bad debts and potential bad debts amounted to 8.61 percent of total credit at the end of September. The level of non-performing loans in September 2012 was 17.21 percent.
Under the law’s new provision, which takes effect on January 15, the first step for dealing with a troubled bank would be to put it under the “special control” of the central bank.
The government could then consider a merger, transfer of the bank to other investors or a break-up before the financial institution would be allowed to file for bankruptcy as a last resort.
Any bankruptcy declaration would have to be approved by the government.
Nguyen Minh Phong, an economist at Hanoi Institute for Socio-Economic Development Studies, said the option of allowing a bank to declare bankruptcy was useful for the central bank.
But bankruptcy would unlikely to be declared in practice, Phong said, as authorities would only take this step as the last resort when banks fail to improve.
On October 31, Moody’s Investors Service changed its outlook for Vietnam’s banking sector for the next 12-18 months to positive, from stable.
Statistics show the trend is being driven by the popularity of K-Pop and Korean soap operas in Southeast Asia.
Vietnamese women now account for more foreign brides in South Korea than any other country for the first time, according to new data on multicultural marriages.
Statistics Korea said in a report last week that Vietnamese women accounted for 28 percent of foreign brides in the country last year, followed by 27 percent from China and 4.3 percent from the Philippines. The report recorded 21,709 multicultural marriages in 2016, down 3.4 percent from 2015.
According to the report, in the past Chinese women always ranked first in terms of the number of foreign brides in South Korea, but their number dropped to 5,838 last year while the number of Vietnamese brides grew to 6,054.
Vietnamese women, many from poor rural families, have been marrying South Korean men for years hoping for better lives in the more developed nation. However, it hasn’t been a fairytale ending for all of them, despite the fact that reports of suicides and fatal beatings have fallen.
Statistics Korea said the marriage trend has been driven by the popularity of K-Pop and Korean soap operas in Southeast Asia.
“Favorable impressions of Korea lead to Vietnamese women applying for jobs in Korean companies and coming to study in Korea,” it said, as cited by the Chosun Ilbo.
The newspaper interviewed employees of Lotte Mart and Samsung in Vietnam who said that the Korean businesses had painted a positive image of their country.
“A lot of our Vietnamese staff want to learn Korean and experience Korean culture,” a Samsung worker told the newspaper.
The electronics giant currently has six factories in Vietnam and employs 136,700 workers. Products from its factories are exported to 52 countries around the world.
South Korea is currently Vietnam’s biggest foreign investor.
According to the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency, South Korean firms invested more than $50 billion in Vietnam between 1988 and 2016, making up more than 30 percent of total foreign investment with over 6,000 projects.
The strong inflow of investment has coincided with a cultural wave that has seen local fans fainting at the sight of Korean stars. K-Pop fever hit Vietnam in the early 2000s when Korean TV shows and pop songs achieved an unusually high level of popularity, long before Psy’s “Gangnam Style” took the world by storm.
Although there have been signs of waning interest, South Korea’s largest multiplex cinema chain CGV is dominating the movie industry in Vietnam and is unlikely to let that happen quickly.
Vietnam is the third largest market in Southeast Asia and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Low costs and regulations that encourage foreign investment are only some of the key elements that attract foreign entrepreneurs. In this article, we present you the top 11 reasons why you should invest in Vietnam.
#1 Strategic location
Located in the center of ASEAN, Vietnam has a strategic location. It is close to other major markets in Asia, the most notable neighbor of them being China.
Its long coastline, direct access to the South China Sea and proximity to the world’s main shipping routes give perfect conditions for trading.
Two major cities in Vietnam are Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi, the capital, is located in the north and has extremely convenient trading opportunities. Ho Chi Minh City, the largest by population, is situated in the south and is the industrial mecca of Vietnam.
For more information about the advantages of different regions in the country, read our previous article on how to choose your business location in Vietnam.
#2 Doing business is getting easier every year
Vietnam has made numerous amendments to their regulations to make investing in Vietnam more transparent.
In terms of ease of doing business, Vietnam ranked 82 out of 190 countries in 2016. Compared to the previous year, the ranking improved by 9 positions.
This rise was the result of improvements in some processes of doing business. For example, the government made the procedures of getting electricity and paying taxes easier, according to the World Bank report.
Based on their economic models, Trading Economics predicts Vietnam to rank 60 by 2020. Hence, the future prospects of ease of doing business in Vietnam are very promising.
#3 Trade agreements
Another indication of openness to the global economy are the numerous trade agreements Vietnam has signed to make the market more liberal.
Some of the memberships and agreements:
Member of ASEAN and ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)
Member of World Trade Organisation (WTO)
Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the US
Free Trade Agreement with the European Union (comes into effect in 2018)
All these treaties show that Vietnam is eager to promote the country’s economic growth and will continue its commitment towards trading with other countries.
#4 Stable GDP growth
Over the last few decades, Vietnam’s economic growth has been one of the fastest in the world. This rapid development started due to economic reforms launched in 1986 and the rise has been continuous ever since.
According to the World Bank, the GDP rate in Vietnam has experienced a stable growth, averaging 6.46 % a year since 2000.
#5 Openness to foreign investment
Geographical advantages and growing economy are not the only attractive features for investors. Vietnam has always been welcoming to foreign direct investment (FDI) and encourages it by constantly renewing regulations and providing FDI incentives.
The government of Vietnam offers several incentives to foreign investors who invest in certain geographical areas or sectors of special interest. For example, in high-tech or healthcare businesses. These tax benefits include:
Lower corporate income tax rate or exemption from the tax
Exemption from import duty, e.g on raw materials
Reduction of or exemption from land rental or land use tax
In July 2015, Vietnam also implemented Decree 60/2015 which allows foreign investors to invest in more areas than before.
Vietnam recorded $24.4 billion as foreign direct investment in 2016, according to the government. Giants like Samsung, Nestle, and LG are among the largest investors contributing to this number.
#6 Vietnam is the next China?
According to the World Bank, the economic growth of Vietnam has raised the country from one of the world’s poorest into a lower middle-income country over the past three decades. If the economic rise of nearly 7% a year will continue, Vietnam’s economic development could be compared to what Chinese economy experienced a decade ago, as predicted by economic analysts.
Rising labor costs in China increase the prices of products as well, giving Vietnam a good opportunity to become the next hub for producing labor-intensive goods. Industries that used to flourish in China are now moving to Vietnam.
For example, Vietnam is becoming the hotspot of manufacturing instead of China. In addition to top manufacturing sectors such as textile and clothing, Vietnam’s manufacturing is also taking a more high-tech direction.
#7 Growing population
With over 95 million residents, Vietnam ranks as the 14th largest population in the world. By 2030, the population will grow to 105 million, as forecasted by Worldometers.
Together with a growing population, the middle class of Vietnam is increasing faster than of any other Southeast Asian nation.
Steadily increasing economy means bigger income which, in turn, will result in growing middle class. A market research firm Nielsen estimates the middle class in Vietnam to grow to 44 million residents by 2020 and to 95 million by 2030. This will support consumerism making Vietnam a profitable target for foreign investors.
Source: Vietnam Grocery Report 2013 – Nielsen
#8 Young demographics
Unlike in China where the population is aging rapidly, the demographics of Vietnam is young.
According to Worldometers, the median age in Vietnam is 30.8 years in contrast to 37.3 years in China. Nielsen has also estimated that 60% of Vietnamese are under the age of 35.
The workforce is young and large and shows no sign of decrease. In addition, the country also invests more money in education than other developing countries. Thus, besides being vigorous, the labor force in Vietnam is skilled as well.
#9 Relatively low setup costs
In contrast to many other countries, there are no minimum capital requirements for most business lines in Vietnam. You can start a business without having a great amount of charter capital in your back pocket. Just make sure you have enough funds to cover the planned expenses of your company set up and you are good to go.
However, note that the amount of capital you stated must be fully paid in within 90 days of the date of your company registration.
If you would like to know more about capital stipulations, see our article about minimum capital requirements in Vietnam.
#10 Competitive labor costs
Despite the yearly increase of minimum wage, Vietnam is still a country with low labor costs. Wages in Vietnam remain less than half of what the wages are in China.
The rise of wages in China has forced manufacturers to look for a market with lower labor costs. Vietnam with its low minimum wage and growing economy is a great low-cost alternative to China.
#11 Vietnam is much bigger than people realize
There are more people living in Vietnam than in most of the large countries in Europe. Vietnam’s population has already surpassed the following European countries:
Country
Population
Vietnam
95,311,829
Germany
80,636,124
U.K
65,511,098
France
64,938,716
Italy
59,797,978
Source: Worldometers
Growing solvent population together with a booming economy hide bigger investment opportunities in Vietnam than most people would realize at first.
Conclusion
These were the 11 main reasons why to invest in Vietnam. In addition to the upsides, there can also be risks, as when investing in any other country. However, as you can see from this article, the tremendous growth potential of Vietnam certainly outweighs these risks.
This article was originally published on www.emerhub.com
Author: Kerli Pärnapuu
To many people in Ho Chi Minh City, ‘ca phe sua da’ (milky iced coffee) is simply a way of life.
Driving along the street as early as 6:00 am, one can easily spot people young and old sitting by the roadside with a ca phe sua da glass in hand.
The famous and classic drink has long been part of the daily routine of the people of Saigon, the old name of Ho Chi Minh City many still prefer now.
Be they college undergrads, office workers or blue-collar employees, young people in the vibrant city love kicking off their day with a glass of milky iced coffee.
Taste it and one will never forget it. Photo: Tam Bui – Trung Nguyen
The drink has the power to ignite the brain, wake up neurons key to mental activity, relax stiff muscles after a long night’s sleep and dripping fresh energy into a new work day.
The best place for ca phe sua da should not be a fancy restaurant but a streetside (often makeshift) coffee corner with low tables and tiny plastic or folding wooden stools.
Warm air and the echoing noise of traffic intensify the taste, like the special effects of a Hollywood blockbuster.
With prices anywhere from 50 cents to less than a dollar, one can buy a ca phe sua da from any coffee vendor, mobile cart, roadside table-and-chair, or takeaway stall on just about any corner of the bustling city.
A man reads a newspaper next to a glass of ca phe sua da in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tam Bui – Trung Nguyen
What sets it apart, though, is its taste and recipe.
Ca phe sua da has a sweet taste unlike that of a hot chocolate, and definitely is not so strong as black coffee.
Some have compared the Saigonese specialty to the world-renowned Baileys Irish Cream, an Irish whiskey and cream-based liquor.
But the aromatic flavor actually varies based on the proportion of milk and coffee.
Try making it and enjoy the taste. Photo: Tam Bui – Trung Nguyen
It takes only one coffee filter, pronounced ‘fin’ in the local language, which costs as little as US$1.5-3, freshly ground roast coffee at $8-15 per kg, sweetened condensed milk at $0.88/can, and boiling water (jeez, DIY!).
To make it, fill ¼ of a small cup with sweetened condensed milk, then place the filter over that cup.
Put three tablespoons of ground coffee into the filter, then pour boiling water in for brewing. Be sure to adjust the filter so that coffee can actually drip out. The recommended time for a drip is 3-5 minutes.
Once the coffee has completely covered the milk, stir the mixture well with a long spoon. Then, pour the brew into a longer glass filled with cubed, chipped or shaved ice before serving.
Young people chat while enjoying ca phe sua da in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tam Bui – Trung Nguyen
There is another term popular amongst locals, especially sweet-toothed fellows. It is bac siu da.
This refers to a somewhat upside down ca phe sua da, where the sweet condensed milk outweighs the actual coffee. It is often referred to as iced coffee milk.
Whatever the level of sweetness, the drink has successfully ‘dripped’ into the daily appetite and life of a large proportion of the Ho Chi Minh City population, now hovering around 8.5 million.
For ca phe sua da lovers, a sit-down by themselves or with companions is a daily norm.
Two men play chess at a roadside coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tam Bui – Trung Nguyen
A roadside coffee cart is the ideal place for gatherings amongst college students discussing school work, the elderly gathering to tell ‘tales of the old days’ or simply some good old-fashioned people-watching.
Businesspeople even take their work there considering the low cost, easy parking and laid-back atmosphere of most outlets.
They might focus on their own work, carry out simple transactions or meet up with partners and do customer service.
The morning is not the only time when people order their iced milky coffee, however. To recharge their batteries after a tense morning shift, many also turn to the drink in the afternoon.
They may stroll out of their workplaces for a ca phe sua da under shades or in air-con, where their minds will be put to rest while the powerful sugary liquid penetrates their every fiber.
Some may not even really need the caffeine boost, but continue to drink the famous drink out of habit. For them it is ‘mission impossible’ trying to work without a fresh ca phe sua da sitting next to the mouse.
Truth be told, many people di ca phe (go for a coffee) whenever the moment calls.
A 7th grader suddenly moves to a Vietnamese school in Hanoi, but she doesn’t know how to read or write the language.
I first got a taste of Vietnamese education in 7th grade and was totally unprepared.
Before then I was a happily set, high-achieving student in Warsaw, Poland. A daughter of Vietnamese immigrants who called Polish her first language, English her second and the ‘mother tongue’ her third.
As a teenager back then I could just about keep up with a simple conversation in Vietnamese, sometimes with the aid of a dictionary. Reading and writing were out of the question.
But I didn’t know how limited my vocabulary was until that one winter day in Hanoi when I picked up a textbook for first graders in attempt to learn all those confusing accents. I knew maybe half of the words in that book.
After two months of learning my a, á, à, â, ă, ạ, ã… with a primary school tutor, I hit the second term of 7th grade at a local school. My mother didn’t want to send me to an international school. Living in Vietnam meant having to adapt.
I wasn’t (yet) an official student because the bureaucrats said I had all the required subjects for entry under my belt except for, well, Vietnamese. As ridiculous as it sounds, our neighbor was the school principal, so I just enrolled anyway.
The paperwork was the adults’ job. The teenage me had other things to worry about, such as Vietnamese literature, grammar, history, biology, geography, physics, civic education and math. Only English was easy.
I remember the shock on my teacher’s face when I told her I had never studied Vietnamese history as an excuse for not sitting a surprise test she threw on the first day of school after the Lunar New Year holiday.
During my 11 years in the land of Chopin’s mazurki, I took pride in going to a school named after Maria Sklodowska-Curie and rooting for Polish diva Edyta Gorniak at the Eurovision Song Contest.
My idea of Vietnam, on the other hand, didn’t go beyond the Vietnam War and the French occupation. My parents rarely spoke of it. When they did, it was mostly about their academic achievements despite the bombings and evacuations.
So it was hard, and not just because I didn’t know the words. Four years later in high school another history teacher chose to cut short the lesson on Chinese history because “everybody already knew it” from TV series I had never watched before.
Sometimes I asked or wrote something that would be so outright dumb for a native speaker to say that the teachers who didn’t know my background would scold or make fun of me in front of the class.
I didn’t hold a grudge against them. I mean, how likely is it for the average Vietnamese teacher to have ever taught an overseas Vietnamese student? Now I know that nobody deserves that kind of public humiliation; it took its toll on my self confidence. But that was pretty much the norm back then – a method believed to set an example for other students and compel the strugglers to try harder.
If anything, these incidents taught me that teachers are not some kind of deities who are always right, and neither are textbooks, especially after I noticed differences in how the Protestant Reformation had been interpreted in Vietnamese and Polish.
But on the other hand, it was also easy because understanding the meaning of all the words wasn’t actually that necessary to get decent grades. All I had to do was memorize key structures and ideas presented in example essays. As much as I hated it, the idealist me came to the conclusion that Vietnam didn’t teach literature at all, and I had to learn to be pragmatic. The same approach worked for virtually every subject.
Still, without help from teachers during my first year in Vietnam, I wouldn’t have ended up getting hoc sinh gioi (excellent student) status. The school’s best literature teacher agreed to tutor me extra hours and knew how to laugh off my silly mistakes.
I use the story about one of my mistakes now as an ice-breaker with new acquaintances. But another, lesser known story deserves more attention.
It was a typically hot and humid afternoon at the start of summer in Hanoi. I was writing yet another literature essay in my teacher’s tiny house where you couldn’t even fit a car. By some miracle, that essay turned out to be surprisingly good. It was a huge confidence boost as the year-end exams were approaching.
When exam day arrived, I was caught by surprise as the essay question was exactly the same one I had answered for my teacher. I was given a 7 out of 10 for my essay, the highest grade I’d ever got for a literature exam in Vietnam.
A week later, I was asked to recite a poem in class. I knew if off by heart and scored a perfect 10, which brought my overall average up to 6.5 – the minimum required to achieve ‘excellent student’ status.
I was happy. I knew I had worked really hard to go from being illiterate to a good student within six months. But whether I truly deserved that grade was another question that lingered on.
Now, as I write this essay, I realize what I had received back in 7th grade was akin to personalized learning – what is considered by today’s reformists as the future of education. Students under this system are taught according to their individual needs rather than based on a pre-defined curriculum.
Within the traditional grading system, where a student’s performance is represented by a single number, any “preferential treatment” tends to be demonized as being unfair, without due consideration of other chronic inequalities linked to privilege and other matters out of a student’s control.
Looking back, I see that it never mattered whether the actual quality of my work warranted that grade. What mattered was that my teachers made sure I could see I was progressing, for which I am forever grateful.
With its landmark registration made and international recognition given in 1994, Vietnam’s national domain .vn has seen remarkable growth over the past several years.
In 1993, Tran Ba Thai, one of the pioneers of the Internet in Vietnam, along with his group at NetNam, which became the country’s first Internet services provider, worked closely with Professor Rob Hurle and his associates from the Australian National University, a national research university in Canberra, to conduct experiments to connect computers in Vietnam and Australia through landline phone lines.
The experiments were a success, delivering the earliest experiences of the Internet to Vietnamese users, who could then use their own email boxes, though with the Australian domain .au. as Vietnam’s domain .vn had not yet been registered.
While working with agencies in the Philippines, Prof. Hurle learned that the .ph domain had been registered by an individual user, who wanted the government to buy it from him for a huge sum.
Foreseeing a similar predicament in Vietnam, he advised Thai to register for the .vn domain.
Without a direct communication channel to register for the domain at the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC), an organization that manages the assignment of Internet number recourses in Asia, Thai and Professor Tran Van Dac, then head of the Technology Development Department under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, collectively approved the application and authorized Prof. Hurle to work with APNIC.
The approval was said to be a ‘courageous act,’ as the introduction of the Internet remained disputed and was even considered illegal at that time.
With the Australian professor’s assistance, the registration was a milestone.
“After securing the national domain, we established the first email server with the .vn domain now directly connected to the global grid, officially adopting it on the country’s pilot network,” Thai, the former NetNam director, recalled.
Despite the Internet not being officially recognized and licensed in Vietnam until late 1997, the Southeast Asian country had enjoyed the ownership and international recognition of the .vn domain since 1994.
The new domain came after the Australian .au domain had been ‘borrowed’ for a short time thanks to the scientists’ dedication.
The acquisition of the new domain is to this day considered a national resource by experts and leaders of government agencies.
Between 1994 and 1995, Internet users in the country could all switch to or register for second-level domains under the national .vn domain.
The Institute of Information Technology, under the current Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, was initially in charge of the .vn domain.
NetNam, a group of scientists from the institute, was tasked with overseeing the domain until 1997.
Following the official launch of the Internet in Vietnam in 1997, the domain’s management was handed over to the National Administration of Posts (now the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group).
The national Internet address is currently under the supervision of the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC), founded in 2000 under the Ministry of Information and Communications.
The National Server Center stationed in the central city of Da Nang. Courtesy of VNNIC
.vn subdomains
According to the latest update published on VNNIC, 418,534 .vn subdomains are currently maintained on the Internet.
More than 100 new registrations for subdomains in the Vietnamese language are now recorded each month, compared to merely a few dozen back in 1997.
Since 2000, the VNNIC has been tasked with establishing, overseeing and exploiting two key infrastructures of the country’s Internet, namely the National Domain Name System (DNS) and Vietnam National Internet eXchange (VNIX).
In the event of technical glitches that shut down the DNS for just a few seconds, access to Internet services adopting the .vn domain such as websites and emails will disappear without warning.
Nguyen Hong Thang, VNNIC deputy director, revealed that Vietnam’s server system carrying the national domain currently comprises seven server clusters.
Five of them are installed in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.
The remaining two are placed abroad with over 70 spots in major cities across five continents which see the highest density of Vietnamese expats and the most frequent access to the .vn domain.
According to the VNNIC, the .vn domain encountered difficulties competing with its foreign counterparts between 2000 and 2005.
The percentage of websites adopting the .vn domain out of the entire .vn domain space accounts for over 50 percent, with the most common ones including gov.vn (81.31 percent), edu.vn (74.48 percent) and org.vn (68.92 percent).
The ratio of the .vn domain against foreign domains in Vietnam is currently 50-50.
For years since 2011, the .vn domain has always had the highest number of registrations across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and been listed among Asia’s Top 10.
Inside the National Server Center located in Hanoi. Courtesy of VNNIC
The national domain
.vn is the top level domain for Vietnam. Second-level domains are of equal value and meant to identify Internet addresses for servers registered in Vietnam.
The second-level domain, beneath the .vn, consists of those that are categorized and those that are not categorized into sectors, as follows:
– com.vn and – biz.vn: intended for commercial organizations and individuals
– edu.vn: for organizations and individuals operating in the education and training sector
– gov.vn: for state organizations and agencies at central and local levels
– net.vn: for organizations and individuals operating in the Internet-related sector
– org.vn: for organizations and agencies functioning in politics, culture and social issues
– int.vn: for international organizations operating in Vietnam
– ac.vn: research fields
– pro.vn: highly specialized areas
– info.vn: production, distribution and provision of information
– health.vn: medical, pharmaceutical fields
– name.vn: meant for individual Internet users
Other domain names are stipulated by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
A tropical depression that formed near the Philippines’s Palawan Island on Thursday night has developed into a storm early on Saturday and is heading toward Vietnam’s south-central coast.
As of 5:00 am on Saturday, the storm’s eye was recorded on the east side of Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago in the East Vietnam Sea, packing winds of 60-75 kilometers per hour, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.
This is the 14th storm to hit Vietnam this year, following the devastating typhoon Damrey, the deadliest so far in 2017, earlier this month and the lesser intense storm Haikui last weekend.
Within the next 24 hours, the storm will travel west and/or northwest at an anticipated speed of 25kph, gathering strength along its way.
By 4:00 am on Sunday, the storm is expected to reach an area some 150km east of the coast of south-central Khanh Hoa and Binh Thuan Provinces, packing winds as strong as 60-90ph.
During the next 24 to 48 hours from that point, the storm will continue to travel west and/or northwest at an average speed of 20 to 25kph.
It is forecast that the storm will gradually weaken into a tropical depression, and later a low-pressure zone, upon reaching the mainland in south-central Vietnam.
By 4:00 am on Monday, the center of the low-pressure zone is predicted to be located in southern Cambodia.
Rains and thunderstorms are forecast for the central and southern areas of the East Vietnam Sea, whereas waters off the coast from Binh Dinh to Ba Ria – Vung Tau Provinces will experience rough seas from Sunday morning.
Typhoon Damrey, the 12th storm to hit Vietnam this year, killed at least 106 people while leaving 25 missing and 197 injured.
Google has been more cooperative on the matter as Vietnam holds on to plans for a home grown social network.
“Google and YouTube have been more cooperative with the Ministry of Information and Communications than Facebook,” said Minister Truong Minh Tuan at a parliamentary Q&A session on Friday.
Tuan has also complained about Facebook to U.S. diplomatic officials in a recent meeting.
The ministry in January issued a circular asking Facebook and similar sites with more than one million Vietnam-based users to collaborate with authorities to block “toxic” content, ranging from ads for banned products to anti-state propaganda.
While Google complied by removing from YouTube over 5,000 videos which slandered and defamed Vietnamese leaders, Facebook has been less cooperative, said Tuan without elaborating further.
The ministry is going to intensify its crackdown of violations on social media and has called on victims of online harassment to come forward as authorities simply cannot monitor all 53 million users.
While the government encourages development of social media, “it has to go hand in hand with political stability, and not distort, defame, divide or disseminate content that goes against the policies of the Party, the State and Vietnamese culture,” deputy prime minister Vu Duc Dam told the legislative National Assembly.
“Countries with the right legal tools have tried to establish their own providers to prevent monopolies, or they resort to technical measures to block, filter, slow down [toxic content] and educate [users],” he said.
The information ministry is currently reviewing legislation on social media, learning from the likes of China, who has “its own internet”, as well as Russia, Japan and South Korea where Facebook is only the fifth, sixth and seventh most popular social network respectively.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s internet market is dominated by foreign providers like Google, Facebook and Yahoo, which account for 80 percent of the market share, according to the deputy prime minister.
Vietnam’s attempts to develop an alternative platform to Facebook and Google have, however, consistently failed, analysts say, because the country lacks the financial wherewithal and leverage over the tech giants to simply block them.
Additionally, Facebook’s popularity stems partly from why the government wants to go after it in the first place: content that is sensationalistic, inflammatory or outright untrue.
So if Vietnam seeks to curb such elements by creating a new social network, “people will simply not use it,” said Tri Phuong, a researcher at Yale University who is studying new media technologies, urban youth cultures, and digital communities in Vietnam.
But minister Tuan believes home grown social media would be able to compete with Facebook and Google in the next five to seven years if local firms are supported by preferential policies, including lower taxes and levies, and a strong enough digital ecosystem.
To succeed, Tuan argues, telecoms companies, social networks, advertisers and content creators have to work together.
Earlier this year, he also called on all companies doing business in the country to stop advertising on YouTube, Facebook and other social media until they find a way to halt the publication of “toxic” anti-government information.
Facebook and Google earned more than $100 million from advertisements of businesses in Vietnam last year, but did not pay taxes, he said.
Around 60 percent of the country’s population of nearly 92 million is online. Vietnam is in the top 10 countries for Facebook users by numbers and Google’s YouTube is also a popular platform.
Strong winds have uprooted trees while heavy rain has submerged many streets under 12 inches of water.
Heavy rain and strong winds struck Saigon and the neighboring provinces of Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau on Saturday afternoon and evening as Storm Kirogi is expected to make landfall in the nearby south-central coast on Sunday morning.
In Saigon, many streets across the city such as Huynh Tan Phat, Ho Hoc Lam, Go Dau, Cay Tram, Le Van Tho and Duong Van Cam were under 30 centimeters (12 inches) of water, killing many motorbike engines. Strong winds also uprooted trees around Phu Dinh Wharf and along Road 20 in Go Vap District.
“I heard a storm will be entering the south-central region soon so Saigon will probably be affected. As for flooding, it’s as frequent as having meals now, especially on this street,” Thanh, 45, said while walking her motorbike on Huynh Tan Phat Street.
Ho Chi Minh City Urban Drainage Company reported that a total of 20 streets across the city have suffered from light to moderate flooding following the rains, which were measured to be up to 60-80 millimeters.
In Ba Ria-Vung Tau, strong wind also uprooted a nearly 40-year-old African mahogany tree on National Highway 56. The large tree crashed onto a passing car but there was no casualty, and caused a 2-hour traffic jam.
Storm Kirogi is forecast to make landfall in the south-central coast on Sunday morning with wind speeds of up to 90 kilometers (56 miles) per hour, and would indirectly affect Ho Chi Minh City. The city’s authorities have issued a ban on floating restaurants, ferries, tourist boats and hydrofoils which would take effect from 1 a.m. on Sunday.
The new storm is expected to make landfall in south-central coast and affect Saigon on Sunday.
A tropical depression has strengthened into the 14th storm of the year after entering the East Sea, internationally known as the South China Sea, on Saturday morning.
Storm Kirogi is forecast to hit the south-central provinces, from Khanh Hoa, which is still recovering from Typhoon Damrey, to Binh Thuan, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.
At 5 a.m. on Saturday, the storm was east of the Spratly Islands with wind speeds of up to 75 kilometers (47 miles) per hour.
Over the next 24 hours, the storm will move move west-northwest at 25 kph as is expected to continue to gain strength.
By 4 a.m. on Sunday, the storm would be 150 km east of Khanh Hoa-Binh Thuan coast with wind speeds of up to 90 kph.
After making landfall in the south-cetral coast, the storm will weaken into a tropical depression. By the time in crosses over to southern Cambodia on Monday morning, its maximum speeds will be under 40 kph.
While forecasters say the storm is unlikely to directly hit Ho Chi Minh City, strong winds and rains of 15-20 millimeters are expected.
The city’s authorities on Friday held an emergency meeting to discuss the incoming storm. At the meeting, its top leaders instructed local officials to be on high alert and be ready to evacuate residents on Thanh An Island and those living in temporary shelters.
Vietnam has been suffering from destructive stormy weather once again this year. Typhoon Damrey, which made landfall in the central region two weeks ago, killed more than 100 people and damaged or destroyed over 100,000 houses. Deadly floods last month also killed more than 80 people and washed away hundreds of homes.
Last year, tropical storms and flooding killed 264 people in Vietnam and caused damage worth VND40 trillion ($1.75 billion), nearly five times more than in 2015.
Captain Sidewalk has garnered widespread support for his no nonsense cleanup campaign, but a city leader has called it ‘inhumane’.
In February this year, Doan Ngoc Hai, vice chairman of Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1, did something unprecedented: he personally took to the streets to take back the sidewalks for their original purpose, pledging to turn the district into a “Little Singapore”.
But city chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong, who praised the cleanup in its early days, said on Wednesday it needs better execution.
“Some people sell their goods on the sidewalk to feed their families. An unsubtle approach can really affect their lives, especially poor people. It’s inhumane to push them away,” Phong said.
As part of the campaign, Hai’s team has put up barriers and deployed police to stop motorbikes from driving on the sidewalks. They have also been towing vehicles, including government and foreign diplomatic cars, and destroying any invasive constructions that spill out onto the street, some of which belong to five-star hotels.
The campaign hit a four-month hiatus before resuming in August, when the de facto frontman Hai asked for “carte blanche to punish anyone that breaks the rules, even officials”. One of his recent “victims” was his mother-in-law as Hai ordered environment officials to inspect her restaurant for dumping waste illegally.
As a result, sidewalks in downtown Saigon have indeed become more pedestrian friendly while two designated areas for street vendors who’d been kicked off the sidewalk opened in August.
However, Hai has largely remained a lone man in his quest. He’s been told by city leaders to tread carefully around diplomatic cars, and also received death threats that warranted police protection.
City leaders eventually stepped in to set up a new task force that will only react when complaints are made, essentially undercutting Captain Sidewalk’s authority.
The move was welcomed by street vendors who have been left devastated, with many seen crying and yelling when police or soldiers seize their food stands.
“The person who gave this order is just heartless,” Nguyen Thi Xuyen, a District 1 resident said at a meeting with the authorities.
But some officials have their doubts.
“This decision will more or less obstruct the mission of restoring District 1’s urban order,” a district official said on the condition of anonymity.
The official said Hai could only expose sidewalk violations by launching surprise inspections. But “with the new decision, his hands are tied.”
Hai’s efforts have so far received overwhelming support from VnExpress International readers, who applaud him for finally enforcing the law in a country where people are all too used to getting things done using money under the table.
“Hai is a real leader and understands the importance of safe and accessible sidewalks for the overall community.” – Tom Stein
“No double standard please!!! Let this man do his job, duty and public services. Diplomats or prime ministers should follow the laws just like anyone else. Please give us hope that corruption fighting is still on. We make one exception, and the next thing we find that everyone is driving around with a diplomatic cars. Find out who’s at the top of the chain of command that requested him to be lenient, please journalists!!!” – Thanh Nguyen
“Mr. Doan Ngoc Hai often lacks tact when speaking but it seems he is the only one that has the will to do his job without fear and favour. There are already laws, bylaws, rules and regulations in place but without enforcing them, they are just mere rhetoric.” – Zosimo Jimeno
Are you “Team Captain Sidewalk” or “Team “New Task Force? Do you think Hai’s “no nonsense” approach is necessary to restore order on the sidewalks? Or should the city be more considerate to people who depend on the sidewalks to make a living?
The city’s chairman thinks a more subtle approach is necessary rather than kicking poor vendors off the sidewalks.
Saigon’s sidewalk cleanup has been met with both accolades and raised eyebrows since it took to the streets at the start of the year, but in an unusual twist, the city’s government leader has expressed his concerns for the way the campaign is being implemented.
“Some people sell their goods on the sidewalk to feed their families. An unsubtle approach can really affect their lives, especially poor people. It’s inhumane to push them away,” Nguyen Thanh Phong, chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, said at a meeting with constituents in District 1 on Wednesday night.
Phong, who praised the sidewalk cleanup in the central district during its early days, now says it needs to be better executed.
Doan Ngoc Hai, vice chairman of District 1, started the campaign in early February to take back the sidewalks for their original purpose. He has pledged to turn the district into a “Little Singapore”.
His team has put up barriers and deployed police to stop motorbikes from driving on the sidewalks. They have also been towing vehicles, including government and foreign diplomatic cars, and destroying any invasive constructions that spill out onto the street, some of which belong to five-star hotels.
However, street vendors across the district have been left devastated, with many seen crying and yelling when police or soldiers seize their food stands.
People in the district said that the actions taken against street vendors are not always necessary.
Resident Nguyen Thi Xuyen said at the meeting with Phong that many people in her neighborhood are angry about an instruction to remove all roof canvases from street stalls in the area.
“The canvases protect the vendors from the sun and rain, and they do not bother pedestrians at all,” she said. “The person who gave this order is just heartless.”
Phong said he would look into the matter.
He said the city is going to officially review the district’s sidewalk campaign in the near future.
The campaign hit a four-month hiatus before resuming in August, when the de facto frontman Hai asked for “carte blanche to punish anyone that breaks the rules, even officials”.
But last month, the district made a move to tone down the campaign.
District chairman Tran The Thuan established an inspection team made up of traffic and public order officers that will only respond when grassroots officials, local people or the media report a problem.
The team is required to submit a specific action plan for Thuan to sign off before it acts, according to the new rule.
The decision is in sharp contrast to Hai’s methods, which involved leading a team of police and security agents through the district day and night to uncompromisingly punish any sidewalk encroachments they found.
This video shows how the district was reclaiming its public walking space three months into the campaign.
Coach Park Hang Seo has led Vietnam to secure a berth at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in his debut with the team this week, but the South Korean did not have time to delight in his mission accomplished.
Park, who was appointed the Vietnam coach in October, has in fact been criticized for his lackluster leadership in the first official game with the team, a goalless draw against Afghanistan on home soil in the 2019 Asian Cup qualifying game on Tuesday.
Vietnam have booked a place in the finals, to take place in the United Arab Emirates in January-February 2019, one match before the qualifiers finish, but the South Korean coach could not take much credit for this achievement.
“In their first match under new Korean coach Park Hang-seo, Vietnam was a shadow of the side that we’ve seen evolve over the past couple of years,” Scott McIntyre wrote on Fox Sports.
Park only began to start leading the team one week before the Afghanistan match.
Vietnam have played the Asian Cup qualifiers under the leadership of three different coaches, and Park happened to take the helm in the decisive game.
The Golden Stars started their journey to secure a ticket to the United Arab Emirates championship with coach Nguyen Huu Thang in charge.
However, Thang stepped down in August, following Vietnam’s failure to advance to the semifinals at the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.
The Vietnam Football Federation, the country’s football governing body, was quickly to invite the 58-year-old South Korean coach to fill in the vacancy without much consideration.
During a short window when paperwork was processed for the official appointment of Park, Mai Duc Chung, a seasoned coach who has won titles with the Vietnamese women’s team, was selected as an interim manager for the Golden Stars.
Chung coached Vietnam to beat Cambodia, both at home and away, in the Asian Cup qualification, making it an easy task for Park when he only needed one point in the remaining two games of the qualifiers.
Park used the same formation and players with which Chung had earned two victories over Cambodia in the Afghanistan clash, and the goalless draw was just enough for the South Korean.
Vietnamese coach Hoang Anh Tuan, who headed Vietnam at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, seemed more sympathetic to Park, saying one week with the team was too short for him to make any significant changes.
“It is too early to give any comment on the strengths and weaknesses of Vietnam under the leadership of Park Hang Seo,” Tuan said in a piece to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
“A coach needs time to apply his playing strategy to the players and what Park had was merely one week.”
Tuan said what is most important is that Vietnam have booked a ticket to the Asian Cup regardless of the last qualifying game.
“So we should congratulate Park and his players instead of making comments,” he concluded.
The Asian Cup is the quadrennial international men’s football championship of Asia organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
After five qualifying matches, 20 teams have secured a berth at the championship.
The remaining four finalists will be decided in the last qualifying round in March 2018.
