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.
A 19-year-old man in southern Vietnam is facing fines of up to US$44,000 and possible jail time for livestreaming a screening of a Vietnamese blockbuster through his Facebook page.
The man, identified as Nguyen V. Tr., was eventually asked by cinema employees n Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province to end the stream before being handed over to police officers for investigation.
According to his written account at the police station, Tr. used an iPhone 7 to film and broadcast the Vietnamese blockbuster ‘Co Ba Sai Gon’ (The Tailor) on his Facebook page using the platform’s ‘livestream’ feature.
Tr. broadcast the stream while on a date with his girlfriend on Monday afternoon.
The livestream attracted thousands of viewers at one point, with many – including the film’s producer and lead actress Ngo Thanh Van – using the comment section to criticize Tr. for his crime.
“You are killing Vietnam’s film industry with your actions,” the female producer writes in her comment after discovering the livestream, which lasted about 30 minutes before an employee escorted Tr. to the cinema’s manager.
He was later handed over to Ba Ria-Vung Tau police officers where he confessed to having livestreamed the movie without permission.
In a Facebook status update posted shortly after the livestream ended, Ngo Thanh Van expressed her disappointment and “powerlessness” by the lack of conscience of young moviegoers.
“I’m crying for the efforts of my crew. I’m truly disheartened. This is like a slap to the face,” Van wrote. “This could be the last film I ever produce. Totally disappointed.”
‘The Tailor’ hit Vietnamese cinemas last Friday, and tells the story of a pre-1975 tailor in Saigon – the former name of Ho Chi Minh City – specializing in traditional Vietnamese ‘ao dai.’
The film’s production house has filed a formal request to Ba Ria-Vung Tau police officers for the handling of Tr.’s violations in accordance with the law.
According to legal experts, Tr. could face fines of up to VND1 billion ($44,000) and three years behind bars if found guilty of violating copyright laws.
Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City are set to perform comprehensive inspections of parking lots operating without licenses and overcharging customers.
Tran Vinh Tuyen, vice-chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, has ordered the examination of local parking facilities in order to deal with these violations.
According to the observation of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters on Thursday, some parking venues near the city’s immigration office on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, District 3 are overcharging customers.
The facilities at 190 and 200 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai charged VND10,000 (US$0.44) per motorbike, double the rate promulgated by local authorities.
Nguyen Binh An, a commuter who had parked his motorcycle in one of the lots, recounted an exchange with one of the attendants.
“The attendant aggressively told me to find another parking lot if I wanted a lower rate,” An said.
Located just 100 meters away a licensed parking venue was charging only VND4,000 ($0.18) per bike.
However, the lot was filled by 2:00 pm.
A representative from the municipal Department of Finance stated that the upcoming inspection will focus on ensure that parking lots near the Mien Dong (Eastern) and Mien Tay (Western) Bus Stations, Dam Sen Park, and other popular commuter destinations are charging appropriate rates.
According to the official, privately owned parking lots are allowed to charge rates higher than those of city funded lots. The rates for private lots, however, must be submitted to the financial department and approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee.
The administration has only agreed on the price list of the parking lot inside Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
This means other private parking venues will be penalized if they are caught charging higher than city regulations allow, as they have not submitted any listing to competent authorities.
An official from the administration in District 3 stated that officers had carried out patrols at several parking lots in the neighborhood, after which violations regarding licensing and prices were dealt with.
Further inspections and stern punishments will be applied to solve similar issues in the district, he added.
A plane filled with emergency assistance provided by the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) for the Vietnamese victims of Typhoon Damrey arrived in south-central Khanh Hoa Province on Thursday.
The Raya Airways plane departing from the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA) in Malaysia touched down at Khanh Hoa’s Cam Ranh airport around noon.
According to an AHA representative, the US$175,000 shipment included 600 family kits, 3,000 toilet sets, 1,000 home repair kits, and one aluminum canoe powered by a Yahama 40HP engine.
The emergency goods will be distributed to people in the storm-hit provinces of Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen, Quang Ngai, and Binh Dinh.
Typhoon Damrey is Vietnam’s deadliest storm so far this year, killing at least 106 and leaving hundreds more injured after hitting south-central Vietnam on November 4.
The heavy flooding that followed days of downpour cut off parts of the region, leading to a shortage of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene for affected residents.
Typhoon Damrey relief provided by ASEAN is unloaded from a Raya Airways plane that landed at Cam Ranh airport in Khanh Hoa Province on November 16, 2017. Photo: Tuoi Tre
Last Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi announced that over $1 million in emergency assistance and longer-term disaster risk reduction support to Vietnam would be provided to help the country respond to the impacts of Typhoon Damrey and future disasters.
South Korea has also pledged to provide a $1 million aid package to support those affected by the typhoon, its foreign ministry announced the same day.
Russian President Vladimir Putin provided Vietnam with $5 million in monetary support and 40 metric tons of goods to help the country in its relief efforts.
New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters pledged a government aid package of $500,000 for Damrey relief during a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh on November 9.
According to Tran Quang Hoai, director general of Vietnam’s Directorate for Disaster Prevention, this is the second time of the year ASEAN had provided aid to regions affected by natural disasters in Vietnam.
In early, the bloc sent relief to the mountainous areas of northern Vietnam that were hit with flash floods and landslides.
ASEAN is a social, economic and political organization whose members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Jinichi Kawakami–who claims to be the last living ninja in the world–is in Ho Chi Minh City to demonstrate his skills and talk to local youths about the life of the ancient Japanese mercenaries.
Kawakami is in Vietnam with professors from Japan’s Mie University to announce their latest research into the lost art of ninjutsu , the strategy and tactics of unconventional warfare and espionage practiced by ninjas.
The Japanese master, claiming to be the only heir to authentic ninjutsu , and Mie University professors were invited by the University of Pedagogy in Ho Chi Minh City to give a speech on “The Truth about Ninjas” as part of an exchange program between the universities.
Unsung heroes
According to Mie University professor Yamada Yuji, who has conducted studies on ninjas and ninjutsu with the help of Kawakami since 2011, the term ‘ninja’ has only been used in popular culture since the end of the Second World War.
“During the Edo period, ninjas were called shinobi and were used mainly for gathering intelligence, though their missions could vary depending on when they lived and who their lord was,” Professor Yuji spoke to students of the University of Pedagogy on Tuesday afternoon.
“When the Edo period ended, the need for shinobi also vanished.”
The professor added that that the true nature of ninjas had been twisted by their dramatized portrayal in movies and comic books.
Apart from assassination and infiltration techniques, ninjas had to have extraordinary memory skills to memorize critical intelligence information, he said, and their role proved useful even during times of peace.
“Ninjas are extremely loyal servants to their lords who were aware that their existence mattered to the survival of their land,” professor Yuji said. “But they also knew to always stay away from the spotlight.”
Sharing his colleague’s views, professor Yoshimaru Katsuya dismissed the misconception that anybody who is dressed in black attire and steals something is a ninja.
“In reality, ninjas are exceptional intelligence agents who had a special ability in evaluating a situation and had a certain impact on the political scene of the time,” Katsuya said.
According to the researchers, it was not until the publication of the 1913 book ‘Sarutobi Sasuke’ by Tamada Gyokushusai that the perception of ninjas in the Japanese society changed for the better.
While ninjas were seen as the representation of evil and mischief before 1913, they are now known to also be loyal servants with dignity and self-respect, they said.
“Ninjas are the incarnation of hope about those who have the power to protect the common people in the most difficult circumstances,” professor Katsuya said.
The makings of a ninja
According to Kawakami, martial arts are just a small part of ninjutsu. A true ninja places his heart before everything else, not only in combat but also in their way of life.
To demonstrate his skills, Kawakami dislocated his own shoulder joint and put it back in place in front of the crowd of hundreds.
The ninjutsu practitioner also gave an eye-popping performance with renowned ninja weapons like shuriken, swords and smoke bombs.
According to professor Yamada Yuji, experts at Mie University are now also looking into breathing techniques and the diet employed by ninjas to help them achieve such remarkable health and stamina.
“Learning to become a ninja is learning to harmonize with others, not to become stronger than the rest,” Kawakami said.
However, he said he didn’t want younger generations to learn to become ninjas, because there are many more things worth studying in the modern world that are actually useful for the society, such as science, literature and the arts.
“Even we didn’t expect the talk to be so captivating and academically informative,” said Dr. Cao Le Dung Chi, dean of the Faculty of Japanese Studies at the University of Pedagogy.
“When we organized it, we only hoped that it would provide some interesting insights about ninjas to inspire our students to study the Japanese language.”
Up to one billion U.S. dollars in venture capital awaits Vietnamese startups, Minister for Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh said on Tuesday at the launch of a government website for startups.
The website, http://www.startup.gov.vn, provides complete, accurate and timely updates regarding the startup and innovation scene in Vietnam and is at the disposal of aspiring entrepreneurs.
Information on venture capital funds and government policies are also available, while startup leaders can connect with others via a platform integrated with the government-run site.
The website was launched on Tuesday at the opening of Techfest Vietnam 2017, the third edition of an annual festival organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology to promote startup and innovations.
Running from November 14 to 15 in Hanoi, Techfest Vietnam 2017 is a meeting point for local startups and investors seeking opportunities for investment and networking.
According to Chu Ngoc Anh, venture capital funds have pledged to make up to US$1 billion available for worthy startups at the event.
The minister stressed that Vietnam’s startup scene had flourished in recent years, with around 3,000 registered startups nationwide.
As of 2017, over 900 startup ideas had been successfully realized and 300 startup companies had connected to investors and funds through events such as Techfest, he added.
The number of venture capital funds operating in Vietnam has increased by 30 percent on last year, with notable names including IDG Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, Captii Ventures, Gobi Partners, and 500 Startups.
The five most successful startups have attracted over $50 million in capital investments, including $28 million poured into Momo – a startup company specializing in digital wallets.
Recently, Vietnamese gourmet media platform Foody had 82 percent of its shares acquired by Singapore-based consumer Internet group SEA Limited for a price of over $64 million.
SEA is one of Southeast Asia’s first so-called unicorns – startup companies that are valued at over $1 billion. Last year, it was valued at about $3.75 billion after raising $170 million during a Series D round, according to Deal Street Asia.
“Vietnam has established cooperative programs with countries that have a developed strong startup ecosystem like Finland, Israel, the U.S. and Singapore,” Minister Anh said. “This enables them to learn from the valuable experience of other modern startup support models.”
This is the first reported case of researchers apparently being able to fool the Face ID software and Apple has still declined to comment.
A researcher in Vietnam has demonstrated how he apparently fooled Apple Inc’s face recognition ID software on its new iPhone X using a mask made with a 3D printer, silicone and paper tape.
An announcement on Friday by Bkav, a Vietnamese cybersecurity firm, that it had cracked Apple’s Face ID, and a subsequent video apparently showing an iPhone being unlocked when pointed at a mask, were greeted with some skepticism.
Ngo Tuan Anh, Bkav’s vice president, gave Reuters several demonstrations, first unlocking the phone with his face and then by using the mask. It appeared to work each time.
However, he declined to register a user ID and the mask on the phone from scratch because, he said, the iPhone and mask need to be placed at very specific angles, and the mask to be refined, a process he said could take up to nine hours.
Apple declined to comment, referring journalists to a page on its website that explains how Face ID works.
That page says the probability of a random person unlocking another user’s phone with their face was approximately 1-in-a-million, compared to 1-in-50,000 for the previously used fingerprint scanner. It also says Face ID allows only five unsuccessful match attempts before a passcode is required.
Anh acknowledged that preparing the mask wasn’t easy, but he said he believed the demonstration showed facial recognition as a way to authenticate users would be risky for some.
“It’s not easy for normal people to do what we do here, but it’s a concern for people in the security sector and important people like politicians or heads of corporations,” he said.
“(These) important people should absolutely not lend their iPhone X to anyone if they have activated the Face ID function.”
It’s the first reported case of researchers apparently being able to fool the Face ID software.
Cybersecurity experts said the issue was not so much whether Face ID could be hacked, but how much effort a hack required.
“Nothing is 100 percent secure,” wrote Terry Ray, chief technology officer at U.S.-based cybersecurity company Imperva, in a note. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. The questions are: How much trouble would someone go to, and how much would they spend, to get your data?”
Bkav’s Anh said the research took about a week, and included numerous failures. The mask frame was made of plastic, covered with paper tape to resemble skin, with a silicone nose and paper for eyes and mouth.
With more and more Chinese tourists arriving, why not encourage them to spend more?
Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba has signed an agreement with the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) that will allow Chinese tourists to use its online payment platform in Vietnam.
The agreement with Ant Financial, Alibaba’s financial services arm, will enable Chinese travelers to use the Alipay platform throughout Vietnam via NAPAS member banks and its intermediary payment service networks, according to business technology websites.
Under the agreement, people with cards issued by NAPAS member banks in Vietnam will be able to use Alipay to make purchases on Alibaba’s websites, such as AliExpress and Taobao.
NAPAS is the only intermediary payment service provider licensed by the central bank to provide electronic payment services in Vietnam. The corporation operates an inter-bank connection system with tens of thousands of ATMs run by 43 banks, including Vietnam’s top lenders Vietcombank, Vietinbank and BIDV.
“The collaboration with Alipay is part of our strategy to expand international cooperation and to explore new payment solutions,” NASPAS chairwoman Nguyen Tu Anh said, as cited by ZDNet.
Official figures showed that more than 3.2 million Chinese tourists visited Vietnam in the first 10 months this year, up 45.6 percent from a year ago and accounting for nearly a third of foreign arrivals.
A Bloomberg report last December, citing Credit Suisse figures, said a 30 percent increase in spending by Chinese tourists would boost Vietnam’s gross domestic product by nearly 1 percentage point.
Alipay, which has more than 520 million daily users globally, has been expanding its global presence along with China’s rising outbound travel.
The payment service entered the Australian market late last year under a similar agreement with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
News of the deal with NAPAS comes a week after Alibaba founder Jack Ma visited Hanoi and spoke at a prominent e-payment forum co-hosted by VnExpress and NAPAS.
At a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Ma said he would consider establishing a store for Vietnam on Alibaba’s e-commerce app.
Gambling laws have been relaxed and the race is on to corner the billion-dollar market.
Macau’s biggest junket operator Suncity Group plans to pour billions of dollars into building a resort in Vietnam’s popular resort town of Hoi An, Bloomberg reported.
The group has teamed up with Vietnam-based closed end fund VinaCapital and Hong Kong-based conglomerate Chow Tai Fook to build the $4 billion integrated resort and casino in the coastal town, which is scheduled to open in 2019.
Suncity owns 34 percent of the coastal project through its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary and has a management contract to operate the casino.
The group is one of a number of companies that have been eying Vietnam’s gaming business expansion, especially now the country has loosened regulations on gambling.
Singaporean resort developer Banyan Tree Holdings has also asked the government to license a casino at the Laguna Lang Co resort development.
The resort, located about an hour by road north of Da Nang International Airport, has more than 300 hotel rooms and villas plus a golf course, spas, residences and a conference center. The second phase of development at the complex will include more hotel rooms, residences and a casino, if permission is granted.
Vietnam’s decision to allow locals to roll the dice in casinos for the first time is one of the reasons for the surge in gaming investment. Before the law was changed only foreigners were allowed in casinos.
Earlier this year, the Vietnamese government announced that from mid-March and for a three-year trial period, citizens aged over 21 with a monthly income of at least VND10 million ($445) will be allowed to gamble in local casinos. Similar to rules governing gambling in Singapore, Vietnamese people are charged VND1 million per day or VND25 million per month as an entry fee.
The country’s average annual income was around $2,200 last year.
Vietnamese people are big fans of gambling, so the new regulation was expected to help casinos attract more customers.
A study by Augustine Ha Ton Vinh, an academic who has researched Vietnam’s gaming industry extensively, showed Vietnamese spend an estimated $800 million each year gambling abroad in places such as Macau, Singapore and just across the border in Cambodia.
Hoping to tap tourists and possibly domestic gamblers, local property conglomerate FLC Group has plans to build a casino resort in the Van Don Special Economic Zone in northern Vietnam. Quang Ninh Province’s People’s Committee has recently given the firm the go-ahead to build the 4,000-ha complex, including a casino, five-star hotel, convention center and golf course on the islands of Ngoc Vung and Van Canh at a cost of $2 billion.
Gaming companies are interested in the casino business in Vietnam because the industry is still new and there’s little competition, said Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, vice chairman of the Vietnam Property Association.
Those that arrive here first could easily dominate the market and maximize their profits, he added.
In addition, the Vietnamese government has recently reduced obstacles for would-be casino developers. Hanoi used to require a minimum investment threshold of $4 billion, but that figure has been revised down to $2 billion as part of a recent decree.
With about 30 gaming facilities, Vietnam could generate as much as $1.2 billion in gross gaming revenue each year, according to a Grant Govertsen, an analyst with Macau-based Union Gaming Securities Asia.
Vietnam’s eight recently-licensed casinos, mostly small, generate an estimated $300 million in gaming revenue, according to Forbes magazine.
Not a surefire bet
Despite investors’ eagerness to open casinos in Vietnam, it has not been that easy to attract gamblers, and many casinos have been performing below expectations.
The Grand Ho Tram Strip is an example.
In 2016, the Ba Ria-Vung Tau-based resort, which opened in July 2013 with 541 hotel rooms and a casino with 90 tables and about 500 gaming machines, was losing up to $3 million a month, Nikkei Asian Review quoted Ben Lee, who acted as a consultant for Ho Tram in its early stages, as saying.
Former head of the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment Phan Huu Thang said casino complexes have failed to attract gamblers because of poor services.
Most casino complexes in Vietnam are small-scale and only offer gaming. They do not provide entertainment or shopping services, he said.
Meanwhile, some casino managers have blamed their losses for a lack of Chinese gamblers, the main clientele for most casinos in Vietnam, citing the case of the Royal International Corporation.
The firm, which runs the only casino in Vietnam’s famous Ha Long Bay, said in a new financial report that its losses in the third quarter had jumped 23 times from a year ago to more than VND69 billion ($3.04 million).
That added to a VND100 billion ($4.4 million) loss in the first nine months, a fourfold increase from 2016, the company said.
Most of the losses were incurred by its casino operation, but its villa business also played a small part, it said.
Some experts have warned that Vietnam needs to carefully consider licensing more new casinos as they could saturate the market.
The country ranks sixth globally in terms of how many of its students were studying in the U.S. in the 2016-2017 school year.
The number of Vietnamese students in the U.S. has increased for the 16th year in a row with more than 22,400 Vietnamese students attending American colleges and universities in the 2016-2017 academic year, a 5 percent increase from the previous year, new data shows.
Of the total figure, 68 percent were undergraduates, 15.6 percent were graduate students, 9 percent enrolled in Optional Practical Training (OPT), and the remaining 7.4 percent were pursuing non-degree programs, according to the annual Open Doors report by the U.S.-based Institute of International Education, which focuses on international student exchange and aid, foreign affairs and international peace and security.
Vietnam remained the sixth leading economy of origin for all international students in the U.S.
China retained top spot, followed by India, while South Korea exchanged places with Saudi Arabia to stand in third and Canada came in fifth.
The rest of the top 10 was made up of Taiwan, Japan, Mexico and Brazil.
2016-2017 marked the second consecutive year that U.S. colleges and universities hosted more than one million international students, reaching a record high of 1.08 million, said the report.
Engineering, business and management, and math and computer science remained the top fields of study for international students in 2016-17. Math and computer science were the fastest growing fields of study with a rise of 18 percent from 2015-16.
The top 10 states for international students were California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.
The data also revealed that Vietnam is becoming a more popular destination for American students. In 2016-17, Vietnam welcomed 1,012 students from the U.S., up 9.8 percent on-year.
In his speech at the APEC CEO Summit in central Vietnam on November 10, U.S. President Donald Trump noted: “Vietnamese students rank among the best students in the world. And that is very impressive.”
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is providing Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) with a $185 million syndicated loan. The IFC-led financing package aims to address two key development challenges in Vietnam — the financing gap faced by micro, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and lack of affordable housing.
Of about 600,000 formal active SMEs, only 30 percent could access bank capital with the total loan amount accounting for just three percent of the banks’ portfolio. As Vietnam aims to emerge as a manufacturing and commercial hub in South East Asia, long-term funding for SMEs is becoming more critical. Also, the rapid urbanization is creating new demand for housing in major cities, with estimated needs of 374,000 additional units in cities annually.
Given the scenario, IFC’s long-term funding commitment would enable VIB to double its SME and affordable housing portfolios over the next five years, lending more than $1 billion in total. “The much-needed syndicated funding from IFC and participating banks will help grow VIB’s SME and affordable mortgage portfolios, positioning the bank to become one of the leaders in these segments,” said Han Ngoc Vu, VIB Chief Executive Officer.
Han Ngoc Vu, VIB Chief Executive Officer.
“The long-term financing is particularly relevant in Vietnam, where debt markets are still nascent, limiting the funding channels and options for financial institutions.”
The five-year financing package comprises $100 million from IFC’s own account and $85 million from three international lenders including Cathay United Bank Co. Ltd, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., Hong Kong Branch, and Thailand’s Kiatnakin Bank Public Company Ltd.
“This syndicated facility marks a milestone for VIB and other local privately owned banks in Vietnam to access long-term funding from foreign commercial lenders, enabling them to grow longer-term financial products such as residential mortgage lending,” said Kyle Kelhofer, IFC Country Manager for Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR.
“This project will support the country’s key development goals of creating jobs, developing SMEs, and strengthening industrialization and urbanization.”
VIB joined IFC’s Global Trade Finance Program in 2011 and the current trade line of $120 million has enabled it to help local companies increase their import and export activities and create jobs. IFC also advised the bank on SME banking to effectively and sustainably serve the SMEs, one of its strategic segments, going forward.
About IFC IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Working with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in the toughest areas of the world. In FY17, we delivered a record $19.3 billion in long-term financing for developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to help end poverty and boost shared prosperity.
About VIB Established in 1996, Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) has now become one of few local banks with the highest credit ranking rated by Moody’s. Currently, VIB owns 160 branches/ transaction offices nationwide and banks with more than 8,000 correspondent banks in 61 countries. The bank has over 4,000 employees serving 1.6 million personal customers and 34,000 corporate customers. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), VIB’s strategic shareholder, is one of the world’s 10 largest banks by market capitalization, with more than 100 years of history. CBA now owns a 20 percent stake at VIB. Through the capability transfer program, both parties have collaborated closely and efficiently to make VIB the most innovative and customer-centric bank of Vietnam.
