iPhone X brought to Vietnam across border gates are being offered at record-high prices.
iPhone X officially hit the market on November 3 with the retail price of $999 for 64GB version. However, Vietnamese users cannot buy genuine iPhone X from Apple Authorized Resellers at this moment. They can only buy iPhone X from private shops which are carried to Vietnam via different ways.
The private shops began taking orders many days ago. Vietnamese dealers will fly to regional countries, especially Singapore, and buy iPhone X from authorized resellers there, and then carry products to Vietnam to sell for profit.
In Singapore, the 64GB version has the selling price of 1,648 SGD, or VND27.5 million, while the 256GB is sold at 1,888 SGD, or VND31.5 million.
In Hong Kong, the prices are higher. A 64GB iPhone X is priced at 17,700 HKD, or VND51 million, while a 256GB is 22,200 HKD, or VND64.6 million.
In Vietnam, private shops have different retail price levels. The 30-40 million price levels have been set for 64GB and VND35-50 million for 256GB versions in Vietnam. The same price has been set for Space Grey and Silver.
The owner of a mobile phone shop in Hanoi said the iPhone X price is influenced by many factors.
The first is the launch time. The first iPhone X to be available in Vietnam will be very expensive. He predicted that private shop owners will have to pay a lot to bring iPhone X to Vietnam, because they have to hire people to queue up at AAR to buy products and pay for tickets to fly to Singapore. Sources say individuals can buy only two products each.
The shops’ prestige and post-sale services will also affect iPhone X prices. Petty traders will refuse to provide post-sale services and deny responsibility if products have problems.
As the iPhone X supply has a shortage, the shop owner predicted that only dozens of products would be available in Hanoi on the first day, and the price would be up to VND70 million. Later, when the number of iPhone X brought to Vietnam from the US increases, the prices will go down.
The Gioi Di Dong, the largest mobile phone distribution chain in Vietnam, has decided to pay back deposits to clients because it is not sure if the iPhone X will be available in Vietnam in 2017.
Zing.vn estimates that in the US, some users spend money equal to one-week salary to own an iPhone, while some Vietnamese spend 6-month salary.
Bon Café on Nguyen Cong Tru Street in District 1, HCMC is growing crowded as local youths and foreign expatriates come to the coffee shop every Thursday night for a language exchange event.
At Bon, guests can meet and talk with those from different cultures around the world while sipping a cup of coffee or tea on a Thursday night from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The café is divided into several corners, with each table having with a national flag representing a foreign language, such as English, French, German, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish or Vietnamese. Customers can feel free to sit down at any table for a conservation with people there.
Speaking to The Saigon Times Daily, Phan Binh Tu Anh, a 24-year-old girl who is a member of the event management board, says the activity was launched more than a year ago by a French teacher to create a venue for local and foreign guests to improve their foreign language skills, get a better understanding of foreign cultures, and find new friends.
“As an alumnus of the International University under the Vietnam National University in HCMC, I have grappled with a slew of difficulties in communicating in English and looking for opportunities to practice my spoken English with native speakers. I hope the event would help connect students of foreign languages with foreigners,” Anh says.
Charles, a 28-year-old Frenchman and a frequent guest of the event, says he is filled with joy to partake in the event where he can share stories about his daily life in HCMC with young Vietnamese people and is proud of introducing French culture and lifestyles to other participants.
Due to limited seats, those interested should drop by the café early to secure a seat. Guests pay no entrance fee for the event.
Bon Café is located at 152 Nguyen Cong Tru Street, Nguyen Thai Binh Ward, District 1, HCMC.
Charles (L), a 28-year-old Frenchman, talks with young Vietnamese people at a language exchange event last Thursday night
Each table has a national flag representing a foreign language. In this photo, young people are seen at a table with the Union Jack, the national flag of the UK
The event captures the attention of local and foreign guests
Kaoru (C), a 39-year-old Japanese who works in HCMC, says he always comes to the café every Thursday night to enjoy the bustling atmosphere
Truong Gia Binh, chairman of Vietnam’s leading technology firm FPT, talks with Jack Ma about his experience of building his Chinese e-ecommerce giant Alibaba at the Vietnam E-Payment Forum 2017.
The dialogue focuses on e-ecommerce and mobile payment, and how lessons from China can be applied in Vietnam.
On fintech
“We need banks to develop but the banks need us even more,” said Ma. “You like it or you don’t like it, the world is moving to a non cash payment era.”
Ma explained that when banks and fintech work together, customers, government, all of us “are happy” and e-payment will be successful.
“Security is the most important thing that an internet financial institution must have,” Ma added.
The billionaire went on to explain how, unlike popular myth, cash is not a safe means of transaction when corruption is rampant.
“When society is cashless society, everything is digitalized, everything is transparent,” he said. “No one can run away.”
On startup
“The first thing is not the money. It’s the idea, the thing that others can’t do. You have good idea, money will come, good result will come.”
Ma said one shouldn’t expect banks to lend them money when they have just started a business, suggesting to turn to parents and friends first.
“Don’t think too big, start with something small, and you love it,” said Ma, reassuring that during the digital age “eletronic money will help you.”
Alibaba chairman’s final piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is “when you want to become an entreprenuer think about what you will sacrifice.”
***
Now in its third year, the annual Vietnam E-Payment Forum (VEPF), co-hosted by VnExpress and the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam, provides an opportunity for the government, experts and businesses to sit down together and discuss the latest trends in e-payment services and the best ways to apply them in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese government aims for cash to account for just 10 percent of total payments made in 2020, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said at the opening of the forum.
“I believe mobile payment will soon boom and become common in Vietnam, just like we’ve achieved with mobile phones over a decade ago,” said Hue.
At a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc this morning, Jack Ma said he will consider establishing a store for Vietnam on Alibaba’s e-commerce app.
Later today, Jack Ma, the world’s most inspirational billionaire according to Fortune’s 2017 “World’s Greatest Leaders” index, will speak with 3,000 students to inspire entrepreneurship among young people.
The following day, he will will join world leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Da Nang.
The six-day summit opened this morning in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang, with world leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin expected to attend.
Do Tran Khanh Ngan has been crowned Miss Globe 2017 in Tirana, the capital of Albania, becoming the first-ever Vietnamese to win an international beauty pageant.
“I burst into happiness when the host declared that the crown went to Miss Viet Nam. I would like to send my thanks to the local media and audience, who have followed my journey and supported me,” said Ngan on Saturday.
Other winners were Miss Philippines, Nelda Ibe, 1st runner-up; Miss Serbia, Elena Latypova, 2nd runner-up; Miss Albania, Alessia Coku, 3rd runner-up; and Miss Cape Verde, Simone Heijligers, the 4th runner-up.
Ngan will have the opportunity to visit famous destinations in Albania and appear on Albania’s national television programmes with the four runners up.
Khanh Ngan will have the opportunity to visit famous destinations in Albania and appear on Albania’s national television programs with the four runners up before she returns to Viet Nam on November 8th.— Photo kenh14.vn
After being crowned Miss Tourism Viet Nam 2017 in March, the 23-year-old Ngân spent seven months practising her catwalk, make up, English and performance skills with international and local experts, to prepare for the beauty pageant in Albania.
Although this was the first time Ngan attended an international beauty pageant, she impressed the judges with her catwalk and communication skills. During the competition, she was among the top 3 most voted participants.
After the Miss Globe 2017 pageant, Ngan will compete in the Miss Tourism World 2018. — Photo kenh14.vn
Born in 1994 in the southern province of Dong Nai, Ngan was named among the top 20 in the Miss Viet Nam 2014, and entered the final round of the Miss Universe Viet Nam 2015 pageant. She was also one of four finalists in last year’s The Face Vietnam season 1, a popular modeling-themed reality television series and part of the international The Face franchise.
Miss Globe 2017 attracted 53 contestants from throughout the world. The pageant was first held in 1974, and regarded as one of the eight largest beauty pageants in the world.
The world’s leading food service retailer, McDonald’s, is set to open its first restaurant in Hanoi.
The information was revealed by an officer of Good Day Hospitality Joint Stock Company, McDonald’s developmental licensee for Vietnam.
However, the date for the opening of this first restaurant in Hanoi was not disclosed.
Launched in Vietnam in February 2014, McDonald’s Vietnam currently has 16 restaurants, all in Ho Chi Minh City.
The plan to expand its operation to Hanoi was prepared by Good Day Hospitality in early 2016, after its annual growth rate was doubled from 2014. However, till date, there are no McDonald’s restaurants in Hanoi or northern provinces.
At a recent human resources conference, Good Day Hospitality’s general director Nguyen Bao Hoang reiterated that his company is recruiting many talented young people to realise the expansion plan. Hoàng also confirmed that McDonald’s Vietnam will expand to the capital city and the northern markets in the future.
The building on No 2 Hang Bai Street, Hoan Kiem district, expected to be the location of the first McDonald’s restaurant in Hanoi, has an area of 697sq.m and is located in the centre of the city, near Returned Sword Lake.
McDonald’s offers unique experiences for Vietnamese consumers, such as drive-thru parking, 24-hour operation and a McCafé professional coffee shop located right inside the restaurant.
Daniel Neale, animal welfare director at Animals Asia, has penned an open letter to authorities in a northern Vietnamese city to call for the abolishment of buffalo fights held yearly in one of its districts as part of a long-standing tradition.
The decades-old Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival is an annual spectacle, held on the ninth day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar, where thousands of locals in Hai Phong City’s Do Son District gather around a giant ring to cheer water buffalo as they are made to fight one another until a single contender is crowned the year’s champion.
In his letter addressed to Hai Phong chairman Nguyen Van Tung, Neale expressed his concerns over the welfare of buffalo pitched against each other during the festival, as well as the community’s safety at the event.
In July, a man was gored to death by his own buffalo that he had brought to the 28th edition of the festival.
During the 2007 festival, a 73-year-old referee was seriously injured from a slam by one of the participating buffalo, Neale recounted in his letter.
A man is thrown into the air by his own buffalo during the qualifying round of the 2017 Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival in Hai Phong City, July 1, 2017. Photo: Tuoi Tre
In his letter, Neale cited how fighter buffalo are fed bagasse, beer, vitamin supplements, bear bile, ginseng and python fat to increase their aggressiveness and stamina for the festival.
The animals are also trained in harsh conditions for long periods of time prior to the event without regard for their suffering, he added.
According to the animal rights activist, all aspects of the festival, from the method of training the buffalo to fight to the way they are slaughtered for meat after the event, are no longer compatible with Vietnam’s vision of developing a civilized and modern culture.
This vision, he wrote, seeks to promote humanity and good traditional cultural values, while eliminating evil and outdated customs.
Neale called for the administration of Hai Phong to work with Animals Asia to put an end to the festival out of concern for the safety of the community and respect for the law.
Two buffalo engage in a fight at the 2017 Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival in Hai Phong City, July 1, 2017. Photo: Tuoi Tre
In related news, Animals Asia on Saturday held a debate in Hanoi on maintaining ceremonial sacrifices in festivals as a way of conserving traditions.
Most youths and animal welfare workers who attended the event agreed that fests involving the abuse of animals should be terminated to fit with the development of a modern and civilized society.
Buffalo are slaughtered for meat after a fighting festival in Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre
Philippine shares retreated from a record high scaled earlier on Friday to close 1.6 percent lower as investors locked in profits from three straight sessions of gains, while Vietnam reversed earlier losses to close higher.
Industrials and financial stocks led the losses on the Philippine index, reducing its weekly gain to nearly 1 percent.
Conglomerate JG Summit dropped 3.8 percent while Bank of the Philippine Islands lost 4.2 percent.
“During the biggest part of the trading session investors were quite optimistic anticipating better-than-expected third-quarter results for some of the big companies,” said Lexter Azurin, an analyst with Manila-based AB Capital Securities.
Companies such as Ayala Corp, SM Investments and JG Summit are scheduled to report quarterly results later this month.
“But I guess some investors were seeing mixed reactions given that current valuations (of the index movers) are quite rich at this point so we’re seeing a lot of investors starting to take profits,” said Azurin.
Vietnamese shares pared earlier losses to close 1.3 percent higher.
Industrials and financial stocks accounted for the gains on the index, with builder FLC Faros Construction and Vietcombank rising 6.9 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
Singapore ended marginally higher, with gains in telecom stocks offsetting losses in consumer stocks.
“Traders are being more cautious today, heading into the weekend… the STI may turn range-bound these few days,” said Liu Jinshu, director of research at NRA Capital.
Telco Singtel was the top gainer on the city-state’s index while Thai Beverage lost 1 percent and led the decliners.
The index has dropped 0.1 percent this week, its first weekly loss in five.
Indonesian shares also closed marginally higher, with the index gaining 1.1 percent on the week, its best in twelve.
Malaysian shares ended flat, resulting in the index’s fifth weekly drop in seven.
In fact, most Vietnamese college students have a tight weekly schedule at school, so the need for a good rest prevails
A large proportion of young people in Vietnam are living a sedentary lifestyle as they spend more time surfing the internet, playing online games, working on computers, or simply just sitting down doing nothing.
After class, Nguyen Hoang Ha, an undergrad at Bach Khoa University in Ho Chi Minh City, would simply go back home for dinner, lesson revision, movies, and sleep.
He does not do sports even in his spare hours.
“I once signed up at a gym, but after working out several times, I lost my motivation. The thing is I also had to get up too early in the morning for class, so I quit.”
In fact, most Vietnamese college students have a tight weekly schedule at school, so the need for a good rest prevails: they would love to put up their feet at home, in the dorm, or at a bubble tea house.
Few take time to do exercise as they attribute little importance to this habit.
Vovinam is a popular sport in Vietnam. Photo: Vovinam Club, Ho Chi Minh City University of Law
In her idle time, Nguyen Thi Huynh Nhu, a student from the University of Science in Ho Chi Minh City, tends to review her lessons, surf her Facebook newsfeed, or enjoy herself over movies or books.
She has, however, recently realized the adversity such a lifestyle is inflicting upon her: she finds it hard to think straight and stay focused on work, and her health is suffering.
She is considering taking up badminton as a way to boost her general constitution.
There are many reasons for such a passive way of life.
A large number of college students living far away from home are under pressure from school and work: they have to fare well academically while striving hard to earn a living.
Therefore, they have no time left for sports activities.
Others recoil at the thought of jogging, swimming or volleyball, saying they would rather save energy and thus go for passive forms of entertainment.
For better academic performance
A third-year student at the University of Social Sciences and Humanity in Ho Chi Minh City, Huynh Thanh Doan still seeks time for jogging despite his busy school work.
Ho Chi Minh City offers varied sports activities for young people. Photo: TERRY FOX RUN 2016
He spends merely 30 minutes a day for the activity, but this is enough for him to clearly sense a boost in stamina.
“I used to feel a wreck after school, but now my health has improved a lot,” he said. “I also feel mentally refreshed and better ready for productive learning sessions.”
Insufficient physical activities lead to common problems like stress, shoulder, neck, or joint pains, which both depletes health and breeds laziness.
To university students living far from home, their daily food intakes are already lacking in nutrition. Therefore, doing exercise and having balanced diets are essential if they are to study effectively.
Kungfu master Vo Nhat Son, who has a B.A. in educational management and a specialist in Vovinam, a traditional form of Vietnamese martial arts, notices the distraction caused by technology in young people’s lives. He says they prefer computer games to sports.
“Internet and game bars are packed like sardines all day and night,” he said. “Young people basically do not have an adequate awareness of good health.”
The Vovinam master also notices how lots of young people fail in their attempts to work out physically, saying poor health prevents efficiency at work.
“I hope the students will spend time for sports, martial arts, and physical activities in general,” he further commented. “I look forward to a day when the younger generations can tell for themselves what is vital for their future.”
Sports activities available at the present time are not appealing enough, but students are totally capable of taking it out on their own by balancing their schedules and work.
Mai Toan Thinh, a lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Sports, advises that students opt for suitable sports, considering their own hobbies, abilities, budget, and time.
“There are easy sports to do, such as jogging, cycling, swimming, and soccer. There is simple, home-based exercise for shoulders, chests, backs, bellies, and legs as well. Making a habit out of sports will get you in shape,” he added.
“A healthy mind in a healthy body is definitely the best policy,” the lecturer concluded.
U.S. President Donald Trump will arrive on Friday and deliver a speech at the CEO Summit, according to the White House.
Leaders from the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) nations are gathering in Vietnam’s central city of Da Nang for the start of a key regional summit, with speeches expected from Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
APEC Leaders’ Week opened on Monday and is scheduled to welcome between 12,000-14,000 delegates. Thousands of businesspeople will be attending, including Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg, UPS’s CEO David Abney, and Chairman and CEO of J.P. Morgan Asia Pacific Nicolas Aguzin.
Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang will host the opening of the APEC CEO Summit on Wednesday and the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting on Saturday.
U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to Da Nang on Friday and will deliver a speech at the CEO Summit, presenting the United States’ vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region and underscoring the important role the region plays in advancing America’s economic prosperity, the White House said in a statement last week.
Japan’s President Shinzo Abe and China’s Xi Jinping will also deliver speeches on Friday while the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte will speak on Thursday, according to the schedule.
The remaining 11 members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement are also expected to make a final announcement on the fate of the trade deal this week. The deal had been viewed as the world’s largest until Trump nixed it soon after his inauguration in January, using the argument of job protection for people in the U.S.
This year’s APEC, themed “Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future”, is discussing sustainable growth, deepening economic ties, increasing competitiveness of small businesses and enhancing food security in times of climate change.
Around 2,000 journalists from Vietnam and overseas have registered for the high-profile event, which is being hosted by Vietnam for the second time.
Da Nang has stationed nearly 3,000 crime, fire and traffic police to ensure security at the event.
There’s a wealth of expats and overseas Vietnamese interested in the real estate market, but red tape is putting them off.
“Only a few expats are able to buy houses in Vietnam because there are still so many legal barriers,” said real estate manager Nguyen Chien Thang, counting on his fingers the number of potential foreign buyers who had visited the housing developments he’s in charge of in Hanoi over the past two years.
Thang said there is foreign interest in Vietnam’s housing market, but it often fades due to the complicated rules and excessive paperwork.
“Expats do not have a clear understanding of the legal procedures here, while some administrative agencies are not used to dealing with foreign buyers,” he said.
Official estimates vary greatly. The Ministry of Construction was widely quoted by local media last August as saying that 750 foreigners had bought houses in Vietnam since a new housing law came into effect two years before. That’s six times more than before, the ministry said in a statement, claiming that the new procedures were “really clear and open.”
The 2015 Housing Law allows foreign investment funds, foreigners with valid visas and international firms operating in Vietnam and overseas to buy unlimited residential properties with leaseholds of 50 years.
Before that they had been only eligible to buy one apartment providing they were either married to a Vietnamese national, held a managerial position or had contributed to the country.
However, earlier this week, Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Construction said only 15 foreigners had bought houses in Vietnam since the new law came into effect.
While the data remains strikingly conflicting, industry insiders have taken the ministry’s statement with a grain of salt.
Sitting in his office overlooking Hanoi’s skyscraper-dotted West Lake, Thang’s own estimate stands in the hundreds, and that’s counting since 2009 when Vietnam first opened its real estate market to foreigners. With 80,000 expats and more than four million overseas Vietnamese, that’s virtually an untapped gold mine.
“The expat community living and working in Vietnam is large, while the number of overseas Vietnamese is huge,” he said. “Many of them have money and want to own houses in the country, but only a small number are able to do it.”
The shortage of publicized projects that foreigners are eligible to buy is one of the biggest obstacles, according to industry insiders.
According to the Housing Law, developers can sell a maximum of 30 percent of units in an apartment building to foreigners, and a maximum of 250 houses in a ward. Areas considered sensitive to national defense and security are off-limits to foreign buyers.
Given the restrictions, authorities are required to publicize housing projects eligible for sale to foreigners, but in practice they don’t.
Another barrier facing foreigners and overseas Vietnamese is the lack of property title insurance, a standard document issued in many countries, said economist Nguyen Tri Hieu, who is an overseas Vietnamese.
Because of this, Hieu, who returned home eight years ago after living in the U.S. for 30 years, has been unable to buy a house.
“Unlike Vietnamese people who buy houses with their savings, expats often need bank loans,” he said. “However, foreign banks will only offer a mortgage if their customers can provide property title insurance, which is unavailable in Vietnam, so they are unable to access credit.”
Hieu said many overseas Vietnamese want to buy houses in their home country. “Many old people buy houses so they can spend the rest of their lives in their homeland, while young people want to invest in the lucrative property sector.”
Hot market
In a move aimed at attracting more foreign buyers, the Ministry of Planning and Investment tabled a draft law in August suggesting that foreigners should be offered leaseholds of 99 years in special economic zones.
Vietnam has 18 special economic zones and is developing more in Quang Ninh Province near the Chinese border, the central province of Khanh Hoa, and Phu Quoc Island in the southern province of Kien Giang.
Industry insiders believe that removing more barriers would create more interest in the local housing market.
Vietnam is becoming one of the region’s hottest property markets for Hong Kong and mainland Chinese investors, as prices continue to go through the roof at home, according to the South China Morning Post.
More than 300 potential individual investors recently attended a two-day Vietnam property investment seminar in Hong Kong .
Encouraged by fast economic growth, supportive government policies and low entry costs, housing prices in the country’s two largest cities, Saigon and Hanoi, have seen considerable growth in recent years.
In Saigon, new apartment prices grew 6.9 percent in the first quarter of 2017, and 7.3 percent in Hanoi, data from real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle shows.
It now forecasts 8 to 10 percent annual growth in residential value in the country’s major cities this year.
“On the back of its economic improvement and with a GDP target of 6.7 percent in 2017, market sentiment is very positive,” said Stephen Wyatt, the country head of JLL Vietnam.
“Foreign buyers typically like the new urban districts such as Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2 and District 7,” he said. “And many investors from mainland China are hoping to see these cities replicate the same growth as Beijing and Shanghai.”
There is also a trend to buy second homes in coastal areas such as Da Nang, he added.
Neil Jensen, a financial industrial worker from Malaysia, said Vietnam would be an ideal property market for investors if legal procedures are improved.
He is looking to buy a condominium in Saigon to lease to overseas workers there.
“I will do it only when legal procedures are clearer and opener,” Jensen, 34, said. “I don’t want to take risks.”
Some parts of Vietnam’s popular ancient tourist town are under 1.5 meters (5 feet) of water.
The spouses of some APEC leaders are scheduled to pay a visit to Hoi An next week. However, since Sunday morning, the atmospheric port town and popular stop on Vietnam’s tourist circuit has been submerged in water.
Boats have become the only means of transport from flood-affected areas to higher places.
“Living in Hoi An we are accustomed to floods,” said Hoai Nam, whose sourvenir shop has been submerged. “However, this time the water rose so fast that I could not clean up my goods in time. Some of them got soaked in water.”
Many other shops and restaurants are under water too. Traffic has been paralyzed as floodwater continues to rise.
Hoi An residents are moving quickly out of the flooded areas.
… or simply to higher ground.
“The water rose quickly from midnight. Our house is submerged in the water so we’ve had to move to my relative’s house. This is some food I prepared earlier for the flood,” said Sa, a local resident.
Foreign tourists were being transferred by boats to hotels in higher areas.
By Sunday afternoon, floodwater had reached 1.5 meters (5 feet) in some parts of town.
The Japanese Pagoda under water.
Weather forecasters said that water levels will continue to rise over the next six hours.
Many reservoirs are nearly full now and could burst at any time after Storm Damrey leaves a trail of destruction in the region.
The death toll rose to at least 44 on Sunday from the typhoon that pummeled central and southern Vietnam just days before the region is due to host the APEC summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.
Typhoon Damrey, the 12th major storm to hit Vietnam this year, made landfall on Saturday with winds of up to 135 km/h (84 mph) that damaged more than 40,000 homes, knocked down electricity poles and uprooted trees.
The Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention said 29 people were now counted dead and 19 were missing. It said over 600 houses had collapsed entirely and 4,000 hectares (9,884 acres) of rice were damaged. More than 30,000 people have been evacuated.
With heavy rains expected to continue pounding the region on Monday, Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, warned at a meeting Sunday that many rivers and reservoirs were nearly full now, implying they could burst at any time.
“We are facing possibly the worst-ever peril,” Cuong said at the meeting.
Heavy rain and high winds lashed the coastal strip on Sunday. Flooding led to a 30 km (19 miles) tailback on Vietnam’s main north-south highway in Thua Thien Hue Province.
Flooding has held up traffic on the north-south highway in Thua Thien Hue Province. Photo by VnExpress/Phuoc Tuan
The heaviest impact of the typhoon was near the popular resort town of Nha Trang, which is around 500 km (310 miles) south of the coastal city of Da Nang, where the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is taking place this week.
Nha Trang has been among the hardest hit by the typhoon. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Ngoc
Danang itself also suffered. A gateway proclaiming “Welcome to Da Nang” collapsed in the storm, state media said. Authorities in the area called on citizens to volunteer to help clean up.
A gateway proclaiming “Welcome to Da Nang” collapsed in the storm. Photo by VnExpress
Da Nang will host U.S. President Donald Trump from Nov. 10, as well as China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and counterparts from other APEC members.
The storm moved from the coastal area into a key coffee-growing area of the world’s biggest producer of robusta coffee beans. Traders had expected the storm to delay harvesting, but were not sure whether it would damage the crop.
The government said on Saturday more than 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) of crops had been damaged, including sugar cane, rice fields and rubber plantations.
Floods killed more than 80 people in northern Vietnam last month, while a typhoon wreaked havoc in central provinces in September. The country of more than 90 million people is prone to destructive storms and flooding due to its long coastline.
Damrey touched down in Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa provinces early Saturday with wind speed of 135 kilometers (83.9 miles) per hour. In this photo, metal roofs are swept to National Highway 1 in Khanh Hoa.
The storm knocks down a gas station in Khanh Hoa…
… and floods many streets of Nha Trang, a popular resort town in the province.
A car is buried under metal roofs in Nha Trang.
A restaurant on Tran Phu Street of Nha Trang totters in the strong wind. Locals said strong winds and heavy rains have started since midnight on Friday. As the storm came closer the situation kept getting worse until morning.
An electric pole in Khanh Hoa. Many areas in Khanh Hoa have lost power.
This is how the coach station in Nha Trang looks like now.
A tree is uprooted in Tuy Hoa Town of Phu Yen Province. Hoi, a 40-year-old local in Tay Hoa District, said he has never seen such a big storm in Phu Yen since 1993.
GBS – The Oakwood State Bank is a small bank with a single branch in Oakwood, Texas formerly operated by Roddy R. Wiley, Jr. (born c. 1923 – August 6, 2010).
It is called the smallest bank in the United States. It serves some six hundred accounts in the same manner that it did in the 1950s—without new banking conveniences of recent decades. Even account numbers are ignored, for the bank focuses on the customers’ names. Wiley’s unique bank, which was founded when Theodore Roosevelt was U.S. President, was featured on Bob Phillips’ Texas Country Reporter television series on March 29, 2008,[1] as well as on the CBS Evening News on April 25, 2008.
On May 15, 2017, Plano Texas-based Oakwood Bancshares announced that it had raised $38 million and had acquired Oakwood State Bank.
– Wikipedia
Since 2016, the bank Oakwood State Bank has been acquired by a Vietnamese company and changed the name to TIN THANH OAKWOOD BANK CORP.
Through investment consulting practice, Global Business Services (GBS) Company helps its clients to capture investment and business opportunities that exist in today’s rapidly increasing business climate in Vietnam.
To increase the chance of success for clients, GBS offers unique, complex, innovative and cost-effective consulting solutions to clients, by bringing them better understanding of investment and business opportunities and risks, linking commercial issues to their business objective and assisting them in carrying out their business strategies.
With GBS’s comprehensive legal understanding of the international business environment in Vietnam, the team can supply clients with fundamentally beneficial legal advice in areas of foreign investments.
Whether it is setting up a 100% foreign invested or joint venture enterprise, joint stock company, representative office, or finding partnerships, settling negotiations and Review and drafting of legal documents, GBS’s strength’s lies in the attention to the specific demands of the client, as well as, in the support of our client’s business activities and developments in Vietnam.
Bankers Ngo Chi Dung, Duong Cong Minh and Dang Khac Vy frequently appeared in local media in 2017.
Ngo Chi Dung is a veteran banker. From 1996-2004, he was the founding shareholder of VIB Bank. Later, he became vice president of Techcombank and since 2010, has been VPBank’s chair of the board of directors.
2017 was the most prosperous year for VPBank, with Ngo Chi Dung’s name mentioned more frequently.
In 2016 and the first half of 2017, VPBank led joint stock banks in profitability. The bank has been so successful that analysts have compared it with Vietcombank, one of the best banks in Vietnam, though VPBank is just equal to half of Vietcombank in scale.
VPBank has been the only bank so far this year and the first bank since 2014 that has listed shares on the bourse. VPBank shares made their debut on August 17 with the starting price of VND39,000 per share, double the price early this year.
Soon after VPBank entered the bourse, Dung added his name on the list of the 15 richest businessmen in the stock market with total stock assets of VND2.8 trillion by October 13.
Duong Cong Minh is now president of Sacombank (STB), but has been well known for many years, since he took the post of president of LienViePost Bank. When Minh took post of president of Sacombank, he had to divest LienVietPost Bank’s shares and earned VND1.2 trillion in mid-June.
Minh is now in the 69th position on the list of the Vietnamese richest stock billionaires with VND689 billion worth of STB shares. However, Minh’s total assets are much higher.
His Him Lam Company, a real estate developer, is developing large projects throughout the country, from golf courses and resorts to housing projects, capitalized at billions of dollars.
Minh became even more famous recently after he took the ‘hot seat’ at Sacombank, which has gone downhill after many years in its golden age. He has changed the key personnel of the bank, applied a new pay mechanism, and cooperated with VAMC to settle bad debts. He has vowed to bring Sacombank back to its heyday within 3-5 years.
2017 was a ‘year to remember’ for Dang Khac Vy, president of VIBBank, who is in the 67th position on the list of richest stock billionaires.
VIB Bank has medium scale of operation, but it is respected for its business performance and asset quality. It is one of the ‘cleanest’ of the banks in the banking system.
