Category: Business

Algiers: The Vietnam Trade Office in Algeria on December 22 coordinated with the Carrefour supermarket system in Algeria to organise an activity to introduce and promote Vietnamese products at the Carrefour Hypermarket in the City Center Mall in the capital of Algiers.

At the event, two of Vietnam’s key products – coffee and catfish (tra and basa fish) fillets – were introduced Algerian consumers. They had a chance to learn about information of Vietnamese products, how to cook them and try them.

Speaking to consumers, supermarket representatives, and local importers, Vietnamese Trade Counselor in Algeria Hoang Duc Nhuan said that Vietnam’s aquaculture output in 2023 is expected to reach more than 9.26 million tonnes and a total export turnover is estimated at 9.2 billion USD. Vietnam’s main export items include shrimp with an export turnover of 3.45 billion USD, catfish (1.9 billion USD), mollusks (0.8 billion USD), and tuna (0.9 billion USD).

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and P
roducers (VASEP), Vietnam’s tra fish has been exported to more than 140 countries and territories around the world, conquering both traditional and demanding markets like the US, the EU, and Japan.

Regarding coffee export, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam shipped abroad 1.36 million tonnes worth 3.5 billion USD. The figure is expected to be higher as the country is entering the 2023-2024 harvest season. Currently, Vietnamese coffee is present in more than 80 countries worldwide.

Algeria is considered a large market for coffee consumption as it imports 130,000 tonnes of coffee beans a year./.
Source: Vietnam News Agency

HCM City: Foreign investors are expected to plough large amounts of money into the Vietnamese property market in 2024-26.

Market research company Cushman and Wakefield said recently ‘Many transactions are in the negotiation process with a positive outlook. The expected investment goals still lie in finding clean, good-quality land funds with real value, as well as having legal ownership rights… and development potential.’

While there are still challenges, Cushman and Wakefield believe this is the right time for businesses to step up activities, especially those with deep pockets.

It attributed the optimistic forecast to falling bank interest rates and the passage of many new decrees that remove obstacles faced by the property sector.

Besides, the Government is implementing many other solutions to improve the quality of real estate projects, transparency, rule of law, and the business environment in general.

The property market, notably in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, has developed rapidly since the La
w on Real Estate took effect in 2003.

Since then, M and A activities have also increased significantly in both number and value, according to Cushman and Wakefield.

But data from RCA and Cushman and Wakefield shows a slump in 2023, with the figure for the first nine months falling by 33% year-on-year to 729 million USD due to the lack of high-value deals.

Asian investors from Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan (China), and the Republic of Korea (RoK) have led the way with advantages like geographical location, cultural similarities and understanding of local laws.

Overall, 2023 transaction data shows that foreign investors still account for most property transactions, purchases and investment activities, with the domestic sector accounting for less than 10% of transactions.

The company attributed the downturn to the fact that domestic businesses are still facing many unfavourable factors, such as the generally tricky situation of the economy, unresolved project legalities, corporate bond problems, and lack
of access to capital.

‘As the global economy is going through uncertainty, an emerging country like Vietnam has become quite a promising investment market,’ said Trang Bui, country head of Cushman and Wakefield Vietnam.

The attractive rate of return in Vietnam is an essential factor in the investment decisions made by foreign investors, Cushman and Wakefield said.

Since 2018, Vietnam has seen a total of 4.2 billion USD in property investment, of which housing and industrial assets accounted for 46% and 28%, according to RCA and Cushman and Wakefield data.

This shows foreign investors remain focused on traditional assets, mainly serving the needs of actual end users.

The high-end housing market remains the top choice of foreign investors. With increasing disposable income and rapid urbanisation, especially in Hanoi and HCM City, Vietnam has expanded its appeal to investors who want to target the housing sector.

Until 15 years ago, FDI flows were concentrated in the high-end housing segment.

Well-k
nown names in the market, such as Keppel Land and Capitaland, were among the first to offer high-end real estate projects, such as The Estella and The Vista.

The total supply of luxury apartments in HCM City then was around 1,700 units, of which about 1,000 were by foreign developers.

The market has since started seeing more foreign investors like Hong Kong Land, Frasers Property, Mapletree, Daiwa House, Nomura, Sumitomo, Lotte Group and GS.

This has increased the number of luxury apartments developed by foreign investors to 23,800 units as of Q3 2023.

Since 2018, the industrial and logistics real estate segment has outperformed most others thanks to growth in manufacturing, exports, e-commerce, transportation, and warehousing.

The manufacturing sector accounts for the majority of FDI as many businesses are interested in Vietnam as a new destination for expansion in Southeast Asia.

Foreign funds continue to look for investment opportunities in the form of well-located office real estate in Vietnam, espe
cially in HCM City.

In the last five years, rentals in office buildings have improved, especially grade A.

Since 2022, the market has been seeing some transactions, notably with the sale of hotels Ibis Saigon South and Capri by Fraser in HCM City.

In 2023, there was a significant transaction in the retail sector worth $52 million by Singapore’s Keppel Land Group./.
Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: Vietnamese logistics firms have been advised to work harder to enhance their productivity, service quality and competitiveness amid current difficulties due to global economic instability.

Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) said that this year, the logistics sector has seen great improvements, including the completion of a legal framework in the field.

At the same time, the system of ports, warehouses and delivery serving import-export activities has upgraded and expanded.

However, Hai said that domestic logistics firms have still faced limitation in both capital and human resources scale as well as experience in international operations, while their linkage has remained poor. But they still have many advantages compared to their foreign rivals thanks to the ownership of infrastructure and assets serving logistics activities as well as understanding of the business habits of local customers, Hai underlined.

He stressed the
need for Vietnamese logistics business to renovate themselves and change their business model towards the green direction, thus enhancing their competitiveness and ensuring their sustainable development.

This year, the World Bank (WB) has placed Vietnam in the 43rd position out of 139 economies in terms of Logistics Performance Index (LPI), up from the 53rd position in 2010. In the region, Vietnam is among five leading countries in the field together with the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Vietnam has also been ranked in the top 10 places in the 2023 Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index compiled by Agility, one of the world’s top freight forwarding and contract logistics providers. Particularly, Vietnam came fourth in the world in terms of international logistics opportunities, and was considered the country with highest potential for logistics development in Southeast Asia.

The Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Phan Thi Thang said that in the coming time, the ministry will continue
to coordinate with relevant ministries and sectors to collect requests and proposals from localities, associations and businesses in the logistics sector inside and outside the country and submit a report to the Government and the Prime Minister to ask for adjustments, supplementation and completion of relevant mechanisms, policies and regulations, thus creating a favourable legal corridor for the domestic logistics sector to renovate and develop in a fast and sustainable manner./.
Source: Vietnam News Agency

HCM City: Total loans outstanding as of November 30 at credit institutions in Ho Chi Minh City were worth over 3.4 quadrillion VND (140.15 billion USD), a 1.3% increase from the previous month, according to the central bank.

Nguyen Duc Lenh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s HCM City Branch, said the growth was among the highest in the year, and consolidated a rising trend.

He attributed the increase to three key factors — seasonal demand, impact and effectiveness of the credit and monetary policies and action programmes by the banking industry.

Demand for capital is usually high during year-end as enterprises need money for production and distribution of goods for the peak shopping season and the public for purchasing, according to Lenh.

Lending to businesses participating in the city’s market [price] stabilisation programme alone was worth 13 trillion VND (537.59 million USD), and it was given to 24 companies at preferential interest rates of 4-6%, greatly contributing to reducing co
sts for businesses and thus prevent prices of essential goods from spiking.

The SBV’s monetary, credit and interest rate policies continued to be effective, and the current low interest rate regime had encouraged borrowing for production, market expansion and consumption, he said.

The central bank’s allocation of credit limits appropriately and rationally also had a positive impact on credit growth, enabling banks to exploit the year-end season well, he said.

Action programmes by the banking industry to support enterprises, including one to connect themselves, also promoted credit growth, he said.

He said 32 meetings were organised in the city this year to link banks and businesses, enabling 162,000 companies, business households and co-operatives to obtain preferential loans and restructure their debts.

Notably, the disbursed amount was 120% of the credit packages lenders had registered at the beginning of the year, he said.

“If the year-end and the Lunar New Year are seasonal and short-term factors, f
actors related to monetary policies and implementation of solutions and action programmes are the fundamental and long-term bases that would promote credit and economic growth in 2024,” he said./.
Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: The Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the People’s Committee of Tay Ho district are hosting an event to introduce products under the One Commune One Product Programme (OCOP) from localities across the country.

Addressing the opening ceremony on December 21, Vice Director of the department Ta Van Truong said the event offers a good chance for businesses and producers to enhance trade connections, promote brands and products, as well as connect the consumption of OCOP products through networks and distribution channels.

The five-day event features more than 100 booths showcasing over 2,000 OCOP products and regional specialties from Hanoi, 19 central and Central Highlands localities, and 17 others nationwide.

Notably, businesses from Hanoi arrange 45 pavilions at the event to introduce over 1,000 products, including typical products of the Vietnamese and Japanese cultures.

In the framework of the event, a Vietnam – Japan culture exchange programme is organised as part of the a
ctivities to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of the diplomatic ties between the two countries. It features various activities imbued with Vietnamese and Japanese cultures, along with art performances joined by artists from both nations./.
Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: Hanoi’s supporting industry sector has proactively carried out innovation and technology investment to further improve competitiveness and participate in the global supply chain.

Nguyen Dinh Thang, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, said the city had determined that the development of the supporting industry would be an important solution to have sustainable economic development, increase the ability to attract foreign direct investment, promote technology transfer, and boost the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.

This would also be a motivation for domestic enterprises to participate further in the supply chain of foreign invested companies and the global value chain of multinational groups.

Among them, the production of components would be the key field to provide supporting industrial products for most key manufacturing industries, such as automobile and motorbike manufacturing, mechanical engineering, electricity and electronics.

In particular, enterp
rises in Vietnam, including Hanoi, had also taken all business opportunities, promoted digital transformation and linked with foreign partners to participate in the global supply chain.

Nam Phuong Company specialising in production of electric equipment located in Song Cung Industrial Park in Dan Phuong district of Hanoi, has cooperated with Intec GmbH, a group from Germany, to produce electrical cabinets and elevator controllers using leading technology from Intec, according to the company’s representative.

With this cooperation, the company has produced electrical cabinets and elevator controller products with quality recognised by Intec and much lower prices.

“This is a high-quality new technology elevator controller for all types of elevators, opening up opportunities for Vietnamese customers to use a modern, smart and safe elevator control system,” the representative said.

“The company’s goal is to become a leading enterprise in supplying controllers on the domestic market, and also to export to othe
r markets such as Malaysia and Singapore.”

Tran Thi Phuong Lan, Acting Director of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, said according to the orientation of developing supporting industries for the period 2021-2025 and a vision to 2030, Hanoi would deploy solutions to promote development of the supporting industry. That would help Hanoi become a city with a modern industrial sector, high technology and green industry.

The city enhanced promotion activities, online trade connection, and the application of virtual reality technology. It also had support for supporting industry enterprises to carry out advanced and modern technology transfer; and hire foreign experts for training human resources.

Hanoi built a website about its supporting industry to provide information and data relating to the supporting industry.

In the Hanoi Supporting Industry Development Programme until 2024, Hanoi set a goal for 2024 to have about 1,000 enterprises operating in the supporting industry, one year before the schedu
le. About 35-40% of supporting industry enterprises had production systems and products meeting international standards to supply to the global production network of multinational groups in Vietnam.

To achieve the set goals, the city would promote connection and support for supporting industry enterprises to become suppliers for domestic and foreign enterprises; and enhance attraction of foreign investment into this industry. In addition, the city would hire experts to help the supporting industry enterprises in Hanoi deploy smart factory models.

The city would organise two exhibitions on supporting industry in 2024 with the participation of foreign enterprises, including Japan, South Korea, China and Thailand. Those would create favourable conditions for the enterprises to seek opportunities and connect commercial transactions in manufacturing and supplying components.

At the same time, it would support them in the activities of research and development, and technology transfer and innovation in trial pro
duction of components, spare parts, raw materials and materials.

Up to now, Hanoi has more than 900 supporting industry enterprises, according to the department. Of which, about 320 enterprises have production systems and products meeting international standards, and entering the production and supply networks of multinational corporations.

However, the supporting industry’s products of Vietnam as well as Hanoi have medium and low technology. The localisation rate of those products is still low. The value of components imported into Vietnam for assembly and manufacturing of export goods annually reaches tens of billions of US dollars. Especially, the import value of components in the electronics and automobile industries stands at about $35-50 billion.

Besides that, according to the Hanoi Supporting Industries Business Association (HANSIBA), there are many difficulties in investment and development of the supporting industries in Hanoi due to increasing cost of production, labour and some other services./.
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ource: Vietnam News Agency