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BUSINESS IN BRIEF 7/10
The
To implement the project, the city will need over 19
trillion VND (835.9 million USD) for the 2017-2020 period, 13 trillion VND
(571.9 million USD) for 2021-2025 and 17 trillion VND (747.9 million USD) for
2026-2030.
The city targets tourism growth of 13-14 percent during
2016-2025 and 13 percent during 2026-2030, while the output of processed
aquatic products for exports would increase by 12-13 percent per year by 2025
and 8-10 percent per year by 2030. Local ports will raise their annual
throughput to 12-13 million tonnes of commodities.
Along with branching out new tourism products, yacht
industry and coastal tourism infrastructure, the city will focus resources on
developing maritime transport.
Accordingly, Tien Sa port will be reserved to serve
cruise ships and Lien Chieu is set to become the major cargo port in the
city. More inland container ports (ICDs) will be built to facilitate
import-export activities as well as commodity transportation through the
East-West Economic Corridor that links
The city has formed policy to support training for
logistic human resources and arranged experts to research marine economic
development policies. Project on container transportation between Tien Sa and
Lien Chieu has been set up to improve speed of the boats.
Regarding seafood exploitation, the city will upgrade
Tho Quang fishing port to the top-grade national standard one, aiming to
become one of the five fishery hubs in the country. A fleet of high-capacity
composite and steel fishing vessels will be developed while equipment,
machines and fishing nets will be modernised to improve product quality.
Connections among fishermen, cooperatives and logistics
and distribution businesses will be set up as well.
The Da Nang College of Food Industry will be upgraded
to university level to train high-quality human resource in seafood
cultivation and processing.
The city will pay due attention to enhancing management
capacity for fisheries surveillance force, investing in information
management system for fishing grounds and communication equipment for fishing
vessels to ensure safety for fishermen.
It also works to build a project on tuna exploitation
and exports and ask
State-of-the art waste water treatment will be built in
Tho Quang boat shelter. The city encourages businesses to use green
production technology to reduce waste and sewage, save energy and materials
as well as effectively handle pollution.
Vietnam, Algeria promote trade,
investment in Biskra workshop
Over 50 local enterprises in tourism, and palm, rice,
beverage, building materials and machinery production and business attended a
workshop for Vietnam-Algeria trade and investment promotion in Biskra
province on October 5.
The event was jointly held by the Trade Office of
Vietnam in
In his remarks at the conference, Vietnamese Trade
Counsellor Hoang Duc Nhuan gave the attendees an overview of
He invited the local companies to join upcoming expos
in
According to Nhuan, in addition to their interest in
Vietnamese Ambassador Pham Quoc Tru highly spoke of
potential for cooperation between
Tru later had meetings with head of Biskra province
Ahmed Kerroun and mayor of Biskra city Slimani Azzecdine and paid visits to
local date palm producers and exporters.
SME transparency a must for loans:
experts
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must improve
their transparency to enable them to access banking credits, experts said at
a conference on Thursday.
The conference was jointly held by the Viet Nam Chamber
of Commerce and Industry and the State Bank of
According to banking and financial expert Can Van Luc,
most SMEs have low management capacity and outdated technology, they lack
transparency in information and feasible business plans, and do not have adequate
assets for mortgages, making them ineligible for banking loans.
Credit institutions are hesitant to lend SMEs money for
the same reasons. Luc noted that these problems were compounded by complex
banking procedures and a shortage of appropriate loan packages for SMEs.
Mac Quoc Anh, vice chairman of the Ha Noi SME Association,
said the efficiency of SMEs is low. “Given the increasingly harsh
international competition, points which are often regarded as advantages of
SMEs, such as flexibility and low operation costs, are no longer advantages,”
Quoc Anh said.
Hoang Thi Hong, director of SME Development Fund under
the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said improving transparency of SME
information was an important solution to enable SMEs to access credit.
“It is necessary to develop a database about SMEs for
credit institutions to use in evaluating lending decisions,” Hong said,
adding that the database should include information about total assets,
equity capital, revenue, profit and operations.
Also needed is a credit market for SMEs, with
appropriate lending packages based on demand, Hong said. She added that
lending should be provided for a group of SMEs which join with each other in
a production chain.
In addition, capital raising channels should be
diversified, rather than largely dependent on banks, for instance raising
capital from the securities market, Hong said.
According to Nguyen Quoc Hung, director of the central
bank’s Credit Department, SMEs are a driver of the national economy and are
among the priorities for banking credits.
Lam Van Chieu, deputy director of Cuong Tan Company
which produces rice variety, said that banks should increase trust-based
lending, based on the efficiency of firms.
Tran Quoc Toan from the Toan Xuan Company said that
reasonable interest rates should be provided for SMEs to encourage their
investments and expansions.
Closing the conference, Dao Minh Tu, deputy governor of
the State Bank of
SMEs account for 97 per cent of the total number of
firms in
Japanese car chair factory launched
The factory specialises in manufacturing, producing and
assembling seat pads and seat trim covers for cars. The plant is expected to
manufacture six million products per year and to provide some 200 jobs.
Otsuka Keiichiro, president of Ohtsuka Sangyo Material
Japan Company Limited, said the company has a history of operating over 30
years in the automotive auxiliary field and currently holds 70 per cent of the
market share in
Nguyen Xuan Dong, chairman of the Provincial People’s
Committee, asked the firm to comply with Viet Nam’s laws and to ensure its
workers well being.
Dong Van III Industrial Park has a favorable location,
with preferential policies and technical infrastructure to attract Japanese
investors. The new factory is the second Japanese investment in the
park.
Can Tho to begin exporting rice to
Iran
Can Tho City expects to export its first batches of
rice to Iran in the last quarter of 2017, Huynh Trung Tru, deputy director of
the city’s Department of Industry and Trade, said.
At a meeting to review import-export activities
organised by the city’s People’s Committee on Wednesday, Tru said a company
in
“Previously, Can Tho did not export rice to this
market,” the official said.
According to Tru, if rice shipment to
Tru said demand for rice imports has increased in many
markets such as
For the
"Particularly, in October 2017, they demand for
250,000-300,000 tonnes,” Tru said, adding that local firms have probably
registered with the Viet Nam Food Association (VFA) to participate in bidding
for the shipment of rice.
In the first nine months of 2017, the city’s total rice
export volume reached over 638,000 tonnes, bringing turnover of US$262
million, up 22 and 20 per cent year-on-year, respectively.
According to reports of the city’s Department of
Industry and Trade, the locality’s export revenue from January to September
reached over $1 billion, a surge of 16.9 per cent compared with the same
period last year.
The city also imported goods worth $321 million, up
47.6 per cent from the same period last year, driven by the increased
purchase of equipment and machines for production.
According to VFA, in the first nine months of the year,
the country exported 4.57 million tonnes of rice, reaping a turnover of $2.02
billion, rising by 20.8 per cent in volume and 18.6 per cent in value against
the figures of the corresponding period last year.
The association forecasts that in 2017, the country’s
rice exports will reach some 5.7 million tons, including 1.8 million tonnes
in the last quarter, and 800,000 tonnes higher than 2016.
Private sector invests in APEC
infrastructure
Several private companies have invested in building
infrastructure for the 2017 APEC forum.
The Ariyana Da Nang Convention and Exhibition Centre
has got investment of VND35 billion (US$1.5 million), mobilised from the
socialised fund. The three-story building has a main convention hall which
can accomodate more than 2000 people. It is just one of the many event venues
to hold events under the framework of the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week.
Matthias Wiesmann, director-general of Furama Resort Da
Nang which is the main investor of this project, said construction would be
completed prior to the start of the 2017 APEC Economic Leaders’ Week.
“A momentous event like APEC is a tremendous
opportunity for Furama as well as the Ariyana Da Nang Convention and
Exhibition Centre to create a new image. Ariyana considers itself the event
venue of
Answering the call for private funding for
The project of
According to Ho The Anh, vice director of AHT, the
international terminal is not only the first destination of visitors to Da
Nang City, but is also a key construction project of the city.
“We fully guarantee the project’s schedule, quality and
aesthetics. The project has enjoyed generous support from the city’s
authority as well as the Ministry of Transport,” Anh said.
The APEC Economic Leaders’ Week will take place in
November with the participation of leaders from 21 member-economies. The main
construction facilities serving this event have been completed.
Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, deputy head of Da Nang City People’s
Committee, highly appreciated the contribution of the private sector to the
APEC Economic Leaders’ Week.
“The reception has to be both professional and
economical. On the one hand, the city has mobilised capital from the State
budget. On the other hand, it has raised funds from the society. This is
Can Tho hosts events to attract
Japanese investors
Two important events will be held in the southern city
of
This was announced by Trương Quang Hoai
Accordingly, the committee will cooperate with the Viet
Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (VCCI) Can Tho branch to organise the
Viet Nam-Japan Trade and Cultural Exchange Programme and the fifth annual
conference on investment promotion in the Mekong Delta region.
Nam said that the 5th investment conference in the
Mekong Delta and the third Vietnam-Japan Trade and Cultural Exchange
Programme have been taking place in Can Tho City in the past few years and
have achieved results.
These are just two events in a series of activities
aimed at enhancing the understanding, exchanging, promoting of cooperation
between Viet Nam and Japan, and attracting investment in trade and tourism
from Japanese enterprises in Can Tho City, in particular, and the Cuu Long
(Mekong Delta), in general.
Nguyen Phuong Lam, deputy director of VCCI’s Can Tho
branch, the third Viet Nam-Japan Trade and Cultural Exchange Programme will
take place from November 3-5. This year, the programme has a larger scale,
with 120 booths, 30 booths more, as compared to the last time, with an area
reserved to introduce
The technology centre will have 10 Japanese companies
participating in introducing smart technologies, automation and artificial
intelligence.
This year’s programme, for the first time, will see the
participation of the Japanese national tourism promotion centre, which will
introduce
There are about 40 art and cultural performances that
will be staged during the programme, with famous Japanese singers
participating in the show.
Within the framework of the programme will be a
conference calling for investment in agriculture, and another specialising in
Asian culture and trade. These two meetings will attract around 40 Japanese
businesses.
Relating to the fifth investment conference in the
Mekong Delta region to be held on October 25, the theme of this year’s
conference is "Attracting Infrastructure Investment - Mekong Tourism
Development Platform", with an aim to call for investment in
infrastructure development, commercial services, hotels restaurants and
entertainment areas to help tourism development.
At this conference, 13 provinces and cities in the
Mekong Delta region will introduce and call for investment in 24 tourism
development projects, with a total capital of VND7.8 trillion (US$346
million) and 33 real estate projects, with a total capital of VND176
trillion.
In the first six months of 2017, tourism in the Mekong
Delta attracted nearly 21 million visitors, increasing 17 per cent, bringing
a revenue of VND6.5 trillion, up 22 per cent over the same period last year.
According to Lam, by the end of August 2017, the Mekong
Delta region attracted 1,398 FDI projects with a total capital of $19.85
billion.
Regional hub for German investors
With
German-backed lighting supplier Osram
“Aside from Sala City, Osram is supporting many key
projects in Vietnam such as the Saigon Seaport, the Tan Hoang Minh building,
Gold Plaza, the InterContinental resort on Phu Quoc, and many factories in
Vietnam,” the firm’s CEO Do Huu Hau told VIR.
Osram
Osram considers
According to
The growth potential for exporting companies is
particularly great in the fields of machinery, chemical products and
pharmaceuticals, motor vehicles, and electrical engineering.
Bosch
In 2017, Bosch is investing $47 million in our plant in
the southern
“We look forward to joining hands with the local
government and businesses to develop tailor-made solutions for smart homes
and buildings, smart cities, connected mobility, and Industry 4.0 to improve
the quality of life for city-dwellers,” he said.
Siemens Vietnam president and CEO Pham Thai Lai said
that, as one of the fastest-growing markets in the region,
In September, Vingroup and Siemens signed a memorandum
of understanding (MoU) to promote technological co-operation, with both
parties agreeing to consider feasible business models for co-operation in
order to develop sustainable infrastructure and industries in
In early July, during Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s
visit to
Vietnam’s FPT Group, for instance, inked strategic
co-operation deals with Siemens and BPCE International. FPT will co-operate
with Siemens to utilise MindSphere, an open Internet of Things (IoT) platform
based on cloud computing. The two will train some 1,000 workers in Vietnam. FPT
will work with BPCE International in developing solutions for digital
banking.
Phuc met with leading German firms including Siemens,
BMW, Deutsche Bank, Talanx, Schaeffler, Philips Lighting, and BPCE
International.
The German firms expressed their wishes to co-operate
with Vietnam in the areas of healthcare, high-tech agriculture, renewable
energy, education and training, and smart power-saving solutions.
According to these firms, Vietnam has many advantages,
such as a workforce very keen on knowledge and development. Additionally,
Vietnam’s urbanisation and industrialisation are taking off strongly and the
country is envisaging a smart economy.
These trends offer great opportunities for companies to
widen their product offerings, especially in the areas of connected solutions
for smart cities and Industry 4.0.
Bayer Healthcare Pharma chief financial officer Julio
Triana said the firm has been operating in Vietnam for 20 years and hopes to
make a stronger investment in healthcare and agriculture.
Philips Lighting DACH’s CEO Karsten Vierke affirmed his
company’s wish to invest in human resources training and developing smart
cities using its latest technology, which can reduce electricity usage by up
to 65 per cent.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank expressed its wish to expand
investment in the finance and stock sectors in Vietnam.
In July, many German packaging and printing firms came
to Vietnam in search of investment and business opportunities, especially
amid the country’s rising demand for consumer goods and in the pharmaceutical
and food sectors. The firms include CGS, Heidelberg, HP, KBA, Kurz, and One
Vision.
In May, executives from 20 firms in Germany came to
Vietnam seeking investment opportunities in the sectors of high-tech
wastewater treatment, air treatment, and environmental pollution reduction
technology.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment reported
that, as of August 20, Germany had 288 valid investment projects in Vietnam,
registered at nearly $1.7 billion. German investments in Vietnam can be found
in many sectors, including automobile production, energy, and machinery.
Do Huu Hau from Osram Vietnam said that his firm “has
great expectations for Vietnam’s economic prospects and investment climate,
which are significantly improving”.
“Next year, Osram will continue implementing many key
lighting projects in Vietnam, such as the VietinBank tower in Hanoi, and Tam
Truc Temple – the biggest one in Asia – in the northern province of Ha Nam,”
Hau said.
Meanwhile, according to Bosch Vietnam, Vietnam is
experiencing a robust urbanisation and industrialisation, with a positive
outlook towards a smart economy. “This will help us offer our customers and
partners connected cross-domain solutions from a single source. And we are
willing to work closely with them,” said Bosch Vietnam’s Guru Mallikarjuna.
In a bid to facilitate German investment and trade flow
into Vietnam, Germany’s Baden-Württemberg state, the GDP of which hit $552
billion in 2015, established a representative office in Vietnam in July.
Located in Ho Chi Minh City, the office provides advice to firms about the
market, business, and investment environment in Vietnam. It also assists
Baden-Württemberg businesses in finding partners and exploring Vietnam’s
investment environment.
According to the AHK World Business Outlook survey
released last year by German Industry and Commerce in Vietnam (GIC/AHK
Vietnam), more than half of the German firms surveyed are upbeat about
Vietnam’s economic prospects. About 60 per cent expect a good business
performance this year, while 58 per cent perceive their business outlook as
“positive”. Some 54 per cent are considering an increase in their investment
in Vietnam.
“German enterprises are now seeking investment
opportunities and further investment in Vietnam, because they see Vietnam as
an attractive destination in terms of encouragement by the country’s
government and other location advantages,” said GIC/AHK Vietnam’s chief
representative Marko Walde.
EVFTA to bring in Hungarian meats
Hungarian firms are seeking to intensify their
agri-food presence in Vietnam, in response to growing demand and upcoming
slashed tariffs under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.
Executives of 60 Hungarian firms, including nearly 20
agri-food ones, came to Vietnam last week to hunt for investment and business
opportunities in the country, which is expected to sign the EU-Vietnam Free
Trade Agreement (EVFTA) with the EU next year.
These agri-food firms want to take advantage of EVFTA’s
tariff cuts (see box for details) and Vietnam’s growing demand for safe
agri-food products, which is rising by 15-20 per cent per year. They met with
hundreds of Vietnamese partners at a Vietnam-Hungary business forum last week
in Hanoi.
Sándor Horváth, president and CEO of Integrál Zrt, said
Vietnam is a very important market to his firm, which produces and exports
goose and duck liver, leg, and breast meat. “We see that Vietnam’s people
like these products very much, and that’s our opportunity to export products
to Vietnam. First we want to establish a firm network of distributors here,
and then we may think about establishing a joint venture or even building a
factory in Vietnam,” Horváth said.
In its business plan, Integrál Zrt will expand its
market share in Vietnam by taking advantage of tariff cuts under the EVFTA,
which Hungary’s government is pushing other EU nations to ratify as soon as
possible.
In another case, Kometa Co., Ltd. – Hungary’s
preeminent pork processor – is seeking Vietnamese partners to distribute its
pork products in Vietnam, where the firm sees a huge demand for pork
consumption.
“Under our new business plan, Vietnam is a key market
in Southeast Asia. We want to establish long-term partnerships with
Vietnamese firms. EVFTA will be a very good tool for us to do this,” said the
firm’s export director, Larissza Barakka.
Kometa has a slaughtering capacity of 800,000 pigs
annually and a processing capacity of more than 20,000 tonnes of pork over a
wide range of cooked and matured meat products.
Master Good Kft, a producer of feed, breeds, hatched
chicken, broilers, and meat products, is also exploring opportunities in
Vietnam.
“Master Good Group is the largest broiler company in
Hungary, accounting for more than one-third of Hungary’s production. In
Vietnam we see many supermarkets selling broilers, and we want our products
to be consumed in the country,” said the firm’s managing director, Lászlo
Bárány.
According to the Hungarian National Trading House,
Vietnam’s rising demand for agri-food products and EVFTA’s tariff reductions
are drawing not only Hungarian firms into the country, but also those from
other EU markets.
A representative from the EU Delegation to Vietnam said
that many EU firms stand ready to invest in Vietnam’s agri-food sector once
EVFTA takes effect in 2018.
“EVFTA is expected to help Vietnam attract more EU
agri-food investment and products thanks to tariff elimination by Vietnam for
EU agri-food products,” the representative said.
The average tariff on agricultural items will drop from
the current 67.7 per cent to 31.3 per cent in the third year of EVFTA’s entry
into force, then to 17.9 per cent in the fifth year, 4.7 per cent in the
seventh year, and down to 2.6-4.6 per cent by the 10th year.
Meanwhile, the average tariff on fishery items will
drop from the current 86.7 per cent to 0.4 per cent in the third year, and 0
per cent in the 10th year.
Forty-two EU agri-food firms came to Vietnam recently
in search of investment and business opportunities. These firms have a total
revenue of €170 billion ($188.8 billion) per year, and sought to ink
multi-million-euro deals to either establish joint ventures or distribution
channels with Vietnamese enterprises. Last year, firms in Vietnam spent
nearly $11.4 billion importing goods from the EU, more than $1 billion of
which was for buying agri-food items, while the rest was for importing
machinery, equipment, services, and other industrial products.
Putting an end to long-delayed
thermal power and port projects
Tan Tao Investment and Industry Corporation (ITACO)’s
$2-billion Kien Luong 1 thermal power plant and $800-million Nam Du deep
water seaport projects located in Kien Giang province, will have their
investment certificates revoked due to the long delay in construction.
Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has assigned the
Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to collaborate with relevant ministries
and the Kien Giang People’s Committee to complete the procedures to revoke
the two projects, according to newswire Dantri.
Licensed in January 2008, ITACO planned to develop Kien
Luong power and port complex under the build-own-operate (BOO) format on an
area of 555.9 hectares. The project includes an industrial park, an urban
area, a deep water seaport, and a power plant with a total generation
capacity of 4,400 megawatts.
According to plan, the construction of ITACO’s Kien
Luong complex was expected to start in 2009 and be completed in 2018.
However, ITACO could not keep the plan on track for the deadline to launch
commercial operations in 2018 due to the group’s troubles in mobilising funds
for the project.
In 2013, to address the investor’s problem and get the
project back up and running again, the Vietnamese government allowed ITACO to
modify its investment model from BOO to build-operate-transfer (BOT), so that
it could receive government guarantees to realise the project.
In 2014, ITACO sought partners to establish a
consortium to implement the project. Leading French energy company EDF and
Korean Samsung and Hyundai groups have expressed to join. Previously, the
Kien Luong 1 thermal power project was also considered by UK investor Graham
Bell & Associates Limited. However, ITACO declined to disclose the
official partner.
It was not until December 2015 that the silence was finally
broken, when ITACO and MoIT signed a memorandum of understanding on
developing the BOT project, paving the way for its resurgence, following six
years of financing trouble.
Under the latest MoU, Kien Luong 1 was scheduled to
start generating power by February 2025. The plant would have two generators
with the combined capacity of 1,200MW, representing a total investment
capital of more than $2.4 billion. However, the project has yet to take a
single step forward.
The Kien Giang People’s Committee has proposed the PM
to withdraw the license of the project for numerous reasons. Notably, the
investor had delayed starting the construction, thus it was withdrawn from
the government’s adjusted master plan on electricity development in the
2011-2020 period with orientations to 2030.
Besides, the province is concerned about the
environmental pollution caused by using coal for its operations, hampering
the development of tourism in the province.
In addition, local residents heavily protested handing
over agricultural fields to the investor due to the long delays. They were
hoping that they would be provided with jobs once the plant comes into
operation. However, the project has yet to be implemented, leaving locals
hanging.
Regarding Nam Du deep water seaport, in July 2010,
ITACO and Royal Haskoning Vietnam Co., Ltd. signed an engineering consultancy
agreement for the project. Accordingly, the construction of the project with
the total investment capital of $800 million would be divided into two
phases.
The first phase was expected to be implemented in
2010-2013, allowing the port to accommodate vessels of up to 80,000DWT. In
the second phasebetween 2014-2022, the port could deal with
150,000-200,000DWT vessels.
However, to date, the port project is still immobile.
NPL regulations are not enough
Although Vietnam is struggling under the weight of its
bad debts, before others can help, the country must further improve its legal
framework and develop its distressed securities market to support the debt
trading process.
When Resolution No.42/2017/ QH14 came into force last
month, some mechanisms were put in place to improve the handling of
non-performing loans (NPLs) in the system. NPLs can now be traded at market
price and the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) can sell bad debts to
entities including those without a debt trading licence. The transfer of land
use rights and ownership of assets to the buyer is also allowed in the new
regulation. Shortened court procedures in dealing with collateral should also
speed up the process of seizing collateral for NPL holders.
The new regulation is supportive, but not enough
for Vietnam to deal with its NPLs on its own, or be attractive enough
to entice foreign investors or the private sector to become involved with the
NPL trading process.
As the transfer of the title or ownership of collateral
– which often involves real estate – is not allowed in Vietnam for foreign
investors, the challenge for them to enter Vietnam’s debt market still
remains, according to Alwaleed Fareed Alatabani, lead financial sector
specialist for Finance and Markets at the World Bank Group (WB).
“That’s what kept many foreign investors away, in
addition to the issue of the insolvency regime that is incomplete in the case
of Vietnam,” he said on the sidelines of a NPL workshop held last week in
Hanoi by the State Bank of Vietnam, WB, and IFC. “Domestically, if you look
at the track record, most of the loans actually go back to the banks, and
these banks are pursuing these loans because they have the relationship with
the existing clients that took out these loans in the first place.”
“And we’re not seeing a significant amount of private
asset management companies (AMCs) flourishing to try to tap into this type of
business yet, since banks own AMCs and bank staff is to get collection on
some of these debts.”
According to Dao Thi Thien Huong, partner in Deals and
Business Restructuring Services at PwC, in more developed markets, the debt
trading platform has been put up and accompanied by the diversification of
products and the participation of NPLs on both the buy and sell sides. In
Vietnam, VAMC and bank-owned AMCs mainly trade debts or collateral assets
related to the debts as individual loans themselves.
“In a developed distressed asset market, NPLs can be
sold in batches, in portfolios, or as securitised debt products. Why is it
important to have a wide range of products on offer? It’s because the
diversification of products will attract a diversified range of investors,”
Huong said.
Selling NPLs in batches can attract large-scale NPL
buyers as each transaction, either small or large, often incurs high costs in
terms of valuation and administration. And conversely, these buyers are
mainly looking to buy in a batch format.
Jakub Zalio, country manager of APS Vietnam, a wholly
foreign-owned subsidiary of Czech-based debt recovery and investment
specialist APS Group, noted that the key enablers for effective NPL treatment
in Vietnam include no or limited barriers for investors to enter the market,
simple and understandable legislation in terms of collateral seizure, and
working legal and bailiff procedures.
To draw investors’s attention, especially international
ones, to Vietnam’s debt market, it comes down to a sound legal framework that
can do the job of drawing in NPL investors, according to Sumant Batra,
managing partner of India-based corporate and commercial law firm Kesar Dass
B & Associates.
“This is a chicken or egg situation,” Batra told VIR.
“For foreign investors to come in and invest in distressed asset markets,
what you need is a really reliable insolvency system.
“Because if you don’t have a good insolvency system,
you will not be able to resolve NPLs efficiently and quickly, and therefore
no investors would want to come to invest in the economy, in the NPL, if the
insolvency law doesn’t enable them to dissolve and turn around those
non-performing assets quickly.”
NPL investors, as he noted, want to make money in the
short term of three to five years, and they put in a lot of effort and money
to turn around the distressed assets that they bought. “But for that you
would need a legal framework. Without that the challenge will always be that
you will never attract enough players in the market. So you need a whole
ecosystem, you just can’t have one law come up and the others left behind.”
First Code Academy seeking
franchisees in Vietnam
First Code Academy (FCA), one of Asia’s largest coding
schools, is searching for franchisees in Vietnam with the VF Franchise
Consulting Company, to provide young Vietnamese learners with digital
literacy and computational thinking skills and empowering them to become
creators with technology to enter the world’s digital era.
Founded in Hong Kong in 2013, FCA now has over 5,000
students taking regular semester classes and holiday camps in learning
centers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. Using proprietary curriculum
adapted from Silicon Valley high schools, FCA’s after-school learning
programs are designed to stimulate inquiry-based learning, logical thinking,
and creative problem-solving.
The ideal partner must share its vision and mission to
educate the next generation to be creators with technology. “We are looking
for partners with a passion for education and an entrepreneurial spirit, who
are eager to drive the next wave of education and technological change in
Vietnam,” Ms. Michelle Sun, FCA’s CEO and Founder, told VET. “We see a lot of
potential in Vietnam for coding education, and are looking for a partner who
is committed long-term to grow and expand the business locally.”
There is a need to understand the market differences as
parents are at different stages of prioritizing coding education and have
different perspectives on integrating coding into their children’s
development. “That is a major criterion in our selection of a local partner
in Vietnam,” Ms. Sun said. “Our ideal partner is someone who has a good
understanding and long experience in Vietnam, who will be able to identify
needs and concerns unique to parents and education here, so that we can
tailor our services to the market.”
Vietnam has always been education-focused, with rapid
growth from education providers offering courses in English and math,
according to FCA. With rapid development, economic growth, and a young and
growing population, the education sector is set for exponential growth as
more young families look to invest in their children’s education.
“We see this trend as well in other countries in Asia,
where after-school programs and academic and non-academic classes are in high
demand and continue to grow each year,” Ms. Sun added. “With relatively few
market leaders and education subjects, there is a lot of room for more
education providers in a range of services, from academic to non-academic
subjects in broad and niche areas.”
Coding education in Vietnam is a relatively new
service, with schools only just starting to look into incorporating
technology-related education into their programs. In its experience in Hong
Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, FCA found that in the initial stages, educating
the public about the importance of coding literacy is an important first
step.
At the same time, demand for STEM (science, technology,
engineering, and math) and coding education often grows in parallel with
various factors such as economic growth and technological improvements and it
can be seen that there is rising demand for engineering talent to drive
growth in the technology sector. With development in all these areas locally
and a global focus on STEM education, demand for coding education is poised
to grow rapidly in the next few years as parents and students in Vietnam
increasingly prioritize coding literacy as an important skill for the 21st
century.
MekongInvest 2017 on horizon
The 5th Annual Mekong Delta Investment Forum 2017
(MekongInvest 2017) will be held at the end of this month and the 3rd
Vietnam-Japan Cultural and Business Exchange Program will be held in
November, both in the Mekong Delta’s Can Tho city.
MekongInvest is an annual regional investment promotion
forum organized by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Can
Tho, in cooperation with the Trade, Investment and Tourism Promotion Centers
of the 13 cities and provinces in the Mekong Delta.
With the theme “Attracting Investment in Infrastructure
- A Platform for Mekong Delta Tourism Development”, the forum will see 200
participants, including leaders of the Southwest Steering Committee, the
People’s Committees of cities and provinces in the region, representatives
from the Foreign Investment Agency at the Ministry of Planning and
Investment, diplomatic missions, international promotion organizations and enterprises,
and domestic and foreign investors.
Cities and provinces will invite investment in 24
tourism development projects with total capital of VND7.8 trillion ($343.2
million) and 33 real estate and infrastructure projects with total investment
of VND176 trillion ($7.74 billion).
Mr. Nguyen Phuong Lam, Deputy Director of VCCI Can Tho,
said that open mechanisms and policies to attract investors will also be
discussed at the forum, with detailed information provided on the projects
calling for investment, and domestic and foreign investors will be connected
with local authorities.
Within the framework of calling for investment in the
Mekong Delta, the 3rd Vietnam-Japan Cultural and Business Exchange Program
will take place in Can Tho from November 3 to 5.
The event will gather leaders of cities and provinces
in the region, the Consulate General of Japan in Ho Chi Minh City, the Japan
Trade Promotion Agency (JETRO) in Ho Chi Minh City, the Japan Tourism
Promotion Organization (JNTO) in Vietnam, and a Japanese business delegation.
The event features 15 booths introducing Japanese
culture and products, 15 introducing Vietnamese culture and products, and 90
for Vietnamese and Japanese businesses to exhibit products and services,
including in agriculture, industry, tourism, logistics, education,
pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods.
The Mekong Delta has 159 investment projects with total
registered capital of $2.1 billion, mainly focusing on processing,
manufacturing, mining, and wastewater treatment. While agriculture is a
strength of the region, current investment from Japan in the field is low.
The event is therefore expected to be a good opportunity to attract more
agriculture investors from the country.
Hanoi & HCMC retail see no new
supply in Q3
No new shopping centers were completed in Hanoi’s
retail market during the third quarter of this year, according to the latest
report from JLL.
Total stock remained unchanged, at nearly 970,000 sq m
in 24 projects. In terms of location, Thanh Xuan, Hai Ba Trung and Long Bien
districts accounted for 70.9 per cent of the total.
More than 16,700 sq m of retail space was taken up in
the third quarter. The overall occupancy rate continued to increase, from
80.3 per cent in the second quarter to 82 per cent in the third quarter,
thanks to promotional programs in new shopping centers and lower rentals in
older malls.
In terms of pricing, the overall gross rental was $28.7
per sq m per month as at the end of the third quarter, a marginal decline of
0.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter, as many promotions and attractive rentals
were offered to attract tenants.
Trang Tien Plaza still achieves the highest rentals,
due to its prime location.
Convenience stores continued to boom in Hanoi’s retail
market, with an increasing presence by both international and local brands.
The average size of these stores was approximately 40 to 50 sq m in the
non-CBD sub-market.
Total supply in Hanoi’s retail market is likely to
increase significantly in 2018, with 322,000 sq m to enter the market. Until
the end of 2017, only 2,000 sq m of premium retail space is expected to be
put into operation.
Some international brands will enter the market. In
particular, Zara Vietnam will open its first Hanoi store later this year, and
two huge projects - AEON Mall Ha Dong and Ciputra Mall Hanoi - expected to
enter the market in 2019 and 2020.
The expected lower-than-average rents in new projects
and the abundant supply are likely to result in downward pressure on market
rentals in the future.
Similarly, in the third quarter of 2017, retail supply
in Ho Chi Minh City was relatively constant, as there were also no new
completions.
The occupancy rate was down slightly, by around 35
basis points quarter-on-quarter. Occupancy levels at CBD shopping centers
were flat, at 87 per cent, while in non-CBD projects they reached 92.8 per
cent, down just 0.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
Overall, the gross rental of city malls averaged around
$47 per sq m per month, up 2.4 per cent compared to the previous quarter. In
the CBD sub-market, rents in prime shopping centers grew notably thanks to
the presence of experienced brands such as Zara, H&M, and Old Navy,
helping to boost foot traffic.
Premium retail supply is expected to welcome more than
75,000 sq m, mostly from the non-CBD sub-market, over the remainder of the
year. F&B, entertainment, and experience-oriented retailers will be the
main drivers of leasing demand.
Rents will likely move upwards until the end of the
year, especially in the CBD, with major advantages from healthy foot traffic
driven by anchor tenants.
The occupancy rate in new suburban projects is
projected to face challenges in achieving expected performance, due to the
weight of new supply against demand.
VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri/VNEVET
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Thứ Bảy, 7 tháng 10, 2017
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