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Tag: asia

  • Festival tourism market now being tapped

    Festival tourism market now being tapped

    Festivals take place throughout the year in different localities, but they are not organized in a professional way to achieve international stature. Meanwhile, tourism sites do not pay appropriate attention to festival tourism, though they can see the number of tourists increases in festival seasons.

    Da Nang, with one of the most beautiful beaches on the planet, is a rendezvous for travelers thanks to the Da Nang International Firework Competition (DIFC).

    However, as Huynh Van Hung, director of the Da Nang City Culture & Sports Department, said, since DIFC is a competition, letting off fireworks is the only activity of the event, while there was no extra activity on the occasion.

    DIFC only lasted two days and is organized once every two years. According to Ngo Quang Vinh, director of the Da Nang Tourism Department, a survey in 2015 found that after a firework competition, the Han Market’s management board reported a twofold increase in revenue.

    Da Nang has changed its approach. Having realized the great potential of festival tourism, the city’s authorities decided to turn DIFC into DIFF (Da Nang International Firework Festival) this year, which lasts from April 30 to June 24.

    As such, Vietnam, for the first time has a festival lasting throughout the summer.

    This is the biggest firework festival in SE Asia with five places for firework performances and a series of associated events, which all have made Da Nang busy throughout the summer.

    Da Nang hopes it would become an attractive destination point for about 2 million travelers in summer thanks to the ‘firework city’ brand.

    Among tourism complexes, Sun World Ba Na Hills can best exploit the potential of festivals to attract travelers. Visitors to the leading resort in Vietnam in any season can enjoy the festive atmosphere.

    In spring, Ba Na is brilliant with the colors of hundreds of flowers in Spring Flower Festival. In summer, the Wine Festival and beer- B’Festival are held. In autumn and winter, visitors will be able to enjoy the Halloween Festival and Christmas season.

    In 2016, the resort received 2 million visitors.

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  • Online grocery shopping on the rise in Korea

    Online grocery shopping on the rise in Korea

    Grocery shopping via online and mobile channels in Korea rose sharply in the first quarter from a year earlier, backed by robust demand for delivery services of fresh food amid a rise in the number of one-person households.

    The amount of transactions made for fresh produce through online shopping malls reached 2.18 trillion won (US$1.92 billion), up 35.6 percent from the first three months of 2016. Of the total, purchases made via mobile devices soared 56.7 percent on-year to 1.55 trillion won over the cited quarter.

    In March alone, grocery shopping accounted for 11.7 percent of all online purchases tallied, trailing behind travel and booking by just 3 percentage points. In terms of mobile purchases, food shopping took up the biggest portion at 14.5 percent. Analysts attributed the brisk growth to an aggressive expansion of online-based fresh food delivery services by key e-commerce companies and related start-ups.

    The diversification of fresh food supplies and shortened delivery periods due to heated market competition has led to the overall increase of the transactions and improvement of online shopping services for consumers. The growing number of single-person households is another factor that has fueled the demand for online grocery shopping.

    Along with many double-income families that have little time to shop at a supermarket, those who live and eat alone have shown a tendency to spend generously if they can have groceries delivered with a simple click. One-person households in Korea account for some 35 percent of the total population as of September 2016. The trend has prompted local retailers and e-commerce companies to scramble to launch fresh food delivery services.

    SK Planet, the operator of leading online shopping mall 11st, is running a wholly-owned subsidiary, Hello Nature, which offers compact package deliveries of groceries. Baemin Fresh is another player, run by mobile delivery app provider Woowa Brothers, which has been actively expanding its foothold in the mobile grocery shopping business. In a recent media release, it said the number of Baemin Fresh users has surpassed 240,000 since it launched its mobile app last February. Other e-commerce sites, including Ticket Monster and WeMakePrice, have also joined the bandwagon with their own delivery services of fresh food supplied by its partners based in provincial regions. Industry watchers said the popularity of online grocery shopping will likely continue for some time, given strong consumer demand and the country’s fast-growing mobile sector.

    South Korea’s online shopping transaction reached 18.2 trillion won in the first quarter, up 19.4 percent from a year ago, with the mobile shopping accounting for 58.6 percent of the total payments, according to government statistics.

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  • Softbank Q4 profit surges on Sprint turnaround

    Softbank Q4 profit surges on Sprint turnaround

    Japan’s Softbank has reported a twelvefold increase in net profit for the March quarter as a result of a recovery at US mobile unit Sprint.

    Profit increased to 580.5 billion yen ($5.08 billion), on the back of a nearly 2% increase in revenue to 2.32 trillion yen.

    For the full year, profit grew to a record 1.4 trillion yen, up from 474 billion in the prior financial year, as the result of the divestment of part of the operator’s stake in Alibaba and cost reductions at Sprint.

    Total revenue increased from 8.88 trillion yen to 8.9 trillion yen over the same period, partly due to the addition of revenue from recent acquisition ARM.

    Sprint’s operating income increased to $1.8 billion for the year, from just $300 million in the prior year, while total costs were reduced to $15.9 billion, representing a $3.4 billion reduction over the past two years.

    Revenue from domestic telco operations meanwhile grew to 3.19 trillion yen from 3.14 trillion yen a year earlier. The company added 360,000 mobile subs during the year to take its total to 32.4 million, with FTTH subscribers roughly doubling to 3.59 million.

    SoftBank separately announced plans to collaborate with Qualcomm and Sprint to jointly develop technologies for 5G in the 2.5-GHz band, including developing the 3GPP new radio standard for the band.

    The companies plan to provide commercial services and devices based on the development activities in late 2019.

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  • Malaysia Airlines Extends Cooperation With AFI KLM E&M

    Malaysia Airlines Extends Cooperation With AFI KLM E&M

    Malaysia Airlines has decided to extend its long-running component support contract with AFI KLM E&M covering its fleet of Boeing Next-Generation 737-800 aircraft. The initial agreement was intended to cover 35 aircraft. The support provided by AFI KLM E&M today covers 54 aircraft and will involve a wider range of Part Numbers (P/N). The Malaysian Carrier has also extended the contract duration for the coming years.

    The component support solutions supplied to Malaysia Airlines are implemented via the Component Services Program (CSP) operated jointly by AFI KLM E&M and Boeing. Services include component repair and access to the local and main AFI KLM E&M spares pools located respectively in Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam.
    The high quality of CSP, which combines the complementary expertise of an Airline MRO and the Airframer, along with the component availability solutions deployed in close proximity to the Malaysia Airlines facilities, have hitherto given the airline complete satisfaction.

    Paul Kear, Technical Director Malaysia Airlines, said: “The support implemented by AFI KLM E&M for our fleet of 737-800s stands out both for its service quality and its responsiveness. The Group has deployed tailored solutions, guaranteeing our operational continuity, so it was a logical decision to extend our cooperation.”

    Ton Dortmans, Executive Vice President KLM E&M, added: “We are delighted to see that Malaysia Airlines has maintained and even extended its trust in AFI KLM E&M services. This testifies to the quality of our services and foregrounds our ability to provide services backed by a global logistics network built around local facilities on our clients’ doorsteps.”

  • Amazon provides ideal channel for Vietnam’s apparel sale in EU

    Amazon provides ideal channel for Vietnam’s apparel sale in EU

    At the event, held by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, Vietnamese businesses were provided with advice about e-commerce trends via Amazon by experts from Germany’s Vorwarts GmbH company.

    Vorwarts GmbH CEO André M. Åslund cited statistics that up to 76 percent of consumers use mobile phones to shop online, and 50 percent of mobile phone users shop via Amazon.

    He said the quality of Vietnam’s garment products completely satisfies EU consumers. Many enterprises in Vietnam and Asia often sell their products to the EU via intermediaries or outlets. However, they can cut down this intermediary step if products are sold on Amazon, thereby reducing cost and improving Vietnamese apparel’s competitiveness in EU markets.

    Consumers’ behaviours have changed much, he noted, elaborating that instead of being solely based on the prestige, their trust in a product is now based on many other tools such as the product review and description, or other consumers’ assessment.

    Therefore, businesses should pay more attention to quality information provision and product quality so as to increase good assessments. Those evaluations will in turn encourage EU consumers to buy Vietnamese products, Åslund said.

    He also noted some challenges facing businesses when they want to sell goods via Amazon. He asked them to comply with regulations of EU markets and improve product design to meet consumers’ taste.

    Once consumers are satisfied, they will introduce products they bought to others, making Vietnamese goods known more widely, the German expert added.

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  • Galaxy S8 to use Gemalto Secure Element in some markets

    Galaxy S8 to use Gemalto Secure Element in some markets

    Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone will be equipped with Gemalto’s embedded Secure Element, a smart chip with a secure OS and applications, in selected markets.

    The smart chip can secure various application types including Samsung Pay (Samsung’s contactless payment solution), couponing, transport, access control, ticketing, corporate, cloud computing and e-government.

    This integration is expected to help Samsung deploy its services worldwide, due to Gemalto’s connections with multiple service providers via its Trusted Services Hub (TSH).

    The chip has already been integrated into other Samsung smartphones including the Galaxy A series globally and the Galaxy C series in China.

    “Gemalto is thrilled to be selected as one of Samsung’s providers for the new Galaxy S8 and other smartphones. We are delighted to provide them with an end-to-end solution, which proves that our strategy based on our state-of-the-art embedded secure elements is successful,” Gemalto SVP of Greater China and Korea for mobiles services and IoT and China country head Suzanne Tong-Li said.

    “[The element] supports a unique combination of features, and our TSH offering delivers a single entry point to link device manufacturers and service providers.”

  • Video ads a menace to brand safety in Vietnam

    Video ads a menace to brand safety in Vietnam

    Regional rankings place Vietnam as the second-most at risk country from harmful content in Southeast Asia. Video advertisements in Vietnam, mostly on YouTube, are a serious threat to brand safety, and the second most dangerous in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, according to global technology and data company Integral Ad Science (IAS).

    Indonesia’s video ads were at the highest risk, with 15.3 percent of ad impressions flagged for appearing alongside content deemed unsafe, while its display ad risk was second highest in the region at 5 percent after Malaysia, citing IAS data on brand risk in the online environment during the second half of 2016.

    Following closely behind Indonesia for video brand safety risks was Vietnam, with 13.2 percent of video ads dubbed as a risk to brand safety, while its display ad risk was relatively low at 4.2 percent, the report said.

    Malaysia’s brand safety risk was the highest for display ads at 6.7 percent, while its brand safety risk for video ads was also relatively high at 7.1 percent.

    Thailand’s online environment posed the lowest threat to brand safety in Southeast Asia, with only 1.6 percent of display and 2.2 percent of video ads appearing on unsafe websites.

    Singapore had the second safest online environment after Thailand, with only 2.7 percent of its display ads and 4.6 percent of its video ads featuring in unsafe environments.

    In February, Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications found more than 8,000 videos containing distorted historical facts about the country on YouTube. These videos featured advertisements for several major Vietnamese brands but the companies in question said they did not control where there ads appeared.

    The government subsequently called on all companies doing business in the country to stop advertising on YouTube, Facebook and other social media until they find a way to halt the publication of “toxic” anti-government information.

    “We withdrew our ads from YouTube as soon as we were being warned by the authorities. We do not want our brands to appear alongside toxic content,” Nguyen Tran Hung Long, senior media manager at Masan Group Corporation, told VnExpress.

    These warnings have reminded businesses to pay more attention to brand safety on the internet, said Vinamilk marketing manager Pham Minh Tien.

    Nearly 49 million people in Vietnam, or more than half of the country’s population, are online. A Nielsen survey released last September found that 92 percent of them watch online videos at least once a week, and 64 percent are daily viewers.

    YouTube and Facebook account for two-thirds of the digital media market share in Vietnam, according to Nguyen Khoa Hong Thanh, operations director at digital marketing agency Isobar Vietnam.

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  • Airtel to invest $2.5b in India this year

    Airtel to invest $2.5b in India this year

    Bharti Airtel has revealed plans to invest $2.5 billion in India during the current financial year as the company seeks to build out its 4G network to improve its dominant market position.

    During an earnings call for the company’s recent financial results, Airtel revealed it doesn’t plan to let its 71.7% decline in Q4 profit hamper its growth ambitions.

    Airtel plans to continue to focus on acquiring market share despite the impact on ARPU in the short term, Airtel’s CEO for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal said.

    The company’s ARPU shrank to 158 rupees ($2.45) during the fourth quarter from 194 rupees a year earlier, largely as a result of the price war triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm to the market.

    Airtel has been strongly opposed to what it called Jio’s “predatory pricing” practices of offering free services as promotions to rapidly attract new users.

    Goppal said India’s smartphone penetration is expected to double in the next three years to up to 700 million, which is set to significantly impact data growth and validate the operator’s decision to focus on market share in the near term.

    Airtel also plans to invest around $500 million this financial year to develop its African operations, the report adds.

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  • Paul & Shark opens stores in Singapore and takes control of Asian business

    Paul & Shark opens stores in Singapore and takes control of Asian business

    Italian sportswear label Paul & Shark, produced and distributed by Dama Ltd, has opened two new monobrand stores: one in London, its first in the UK, and another in Singapore.

    The 200 m2 London store is located inside St. James’s Market, a newly re-developed business and retail complex in the West End featuring starred restaurants and a luxury shopping parade. The Paul&Shark store overlooks Regent St. and showcases the label’s men’s, women’s and children’s collections.

    The Singapore store, also extending over 200 m2, is instead located inside the Marina Bay Sands shopping mall, one of the city’s most popular retail destinations. “This is more than just a new opening, it is where we will directly manage our Asia business,” said Andrea Dini, CEO and owner of Paul & Shark, at the store’s inauguration, which marked the operational debut of the Paul & Shark Asia Pacific company.

    From January 2017, the newly created company manages the label’s Asian operations, having taken over the franchised stores opened by Paul&Shark’s former local partner, the ImagineX Group, a satellite of the Lane Crawford Joyce Group.

    The Italian label celebrated its new Typhoon 20000 technology, with three performances staged at the Singapore Wine Vault, inside refrigerated cells recreating different climactic conditions, and presenting a trailer of the ‘Typhoon Planet’ short film by director Wong Kar-wai.

    Paul&Shark is distributed in 73 countries via over 250 monobrand stores, featuring men’s, women’s and children’s total-look collections and several capsule collections inspired by the world of sailing and adventure.

  • Malaysia Airlines closes Kuala Lumpur lounges for upgrades

    Malaysia Airlines closes Kuala Lumpur lounges for upgrades

    Malaysia Airlines is temporarily closing two of its home hub lounges in Kuala Lumpur as it completes extensive refurbishment works to breathe new life into the spaces.

    MAS’ regional Golden Lounge in KLIA’s Main Terminal is up first – primarily used by passengers on shorter international flights such as to Singapore – closing its doors from May 12 until August 15 2017, with eligible passengers instead directed to the airport’s Satellite Terminal for lounge access.

    There, business class guests and Oneworld Sapphire/Emerald frequent flyers (including Qantas Gold and Platinum cardholders) can choose to visit either Malaysia Airlines’ international Golden Lounge (open 24 hours) or the Malaysia Airport CIP Lounge near gates 31-37 (open 6am-10am and then 6pm-10pm).

    Under Oneworld’s lounge access rules, a third option is also available in the Cathay Pacific First and Business Class Lounge: again found in the Satellite Terminal, which is accessible from the Main Terminal via Aerotrain.

    Malaysia Airlines’ domestic Golden Lounge will also be shuttered from June 2 until August 15 2017, but as these passengers cannot access the airport’s international departures area where the other lounges are located, a temporary lounge space will be created at gate B3.

    There, lounge-eligible travellers will find light refreshments available along with dedicated seating, wireless Internet, newspapers, magazines and flight information screens.

    Toilets, showers and prayer rooms won’t be offered within this temporary space, although the nearest restrooms can be found just outside the gate area, with the closest prayer room aside the Malaysia Airlines Gate A transfer desk.

    Refurbishments to these lounges were originally due for completion by “late 2016”, being approximately eight months behind schedule.

    Qantas partner Malaysia Airlines will reinvigorate its business class and first class airport lounges in Kuala Lumpur and at London’s Heathrow Airport over the coming year with an all-new design and premium amenities for business and high-end leisure travellers.

    Central to the Golden Lounge upgrades are new demonstration kitchens, where chefs will whip up Malaysian and international gourmet dishes while interacting with guests and customising meals to their personal tastes.

    Joining that is a “bistro service” in the business lounges and a revamped fine dining experience in the Kuala Lumpur first class lounge, with all locations also receiving faster wireless Internet and additional universal power sockets, allowing visitors to easily recharge their devices without an adaptor.

    Adopting a design created by internationally-renowned firm Duoz – the same company behind the Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur and the Marriott Sydney Harbour at Circular Quay – guests will notice patches of greenery for a touch of colour throughout.

    “Delivering a holistic experience for our guests which starts from the lounge lies at the heart of the redesign,” said Malaysia Airlines’ CCO Paul Simmons.

    “We want the space to encapsulate the richness of travel with the airline, a luxurious contemporary Malaysian style that our guests will be able to experience when they enter any Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge around the world,” Simmons added.

    Malaysia Airlines’ regional and domestic lounges at Kuala Lumpur will be first with the new design and amenities by late 2016, followed by the international business and first class lounges in the KLIA Satellite terminal and also the airline’s London Heathrow lounge in mid-2017.

    The carrier’s ambitious lounge overhaul follows the debut of all-new business class seats on Malaysia Airlines’ Airbus A330 flights between Australia and Kuala Lumpur, with the fully-flat seats fitted to all MH A330s by late September this year.

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  • Nvidia says Toyota will use its AI technology for self-driving cars

    Nvidia says Toyota will use its AI technology for self-driving cars

    Nvidia announced a partnership with Toyota Motor Corp on Wednesday, saying the Japanese car maker would use Nvidia’s artificial intelligence technology to develop self-driving vehicle systems planned for the next few years.

    Toyota will use Nvidia’s Drive PX artificial intelligence platform for its autonomous vehicles planned for market introduction, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said in his opening keynote at the company’s GPU Technology Conference in San Jose.

    Nvidia came to prominence in the gaming industry for designing graphics processing chips, but in recent years has been a key player in the automotive sector for providing the so-called “brain” of the autonomous vehicle.

    Nvidia, which also has partnerships with Audi and Mercedes, is among the more popular technology partners in the self-driving car race. Its partnership with Toyota is the latest in a string of alliances between tech companies, automakers and suppliers in the fast-growing sector.

    Nvidia’s Drive PX supercomputer fuses incoming data from the car’s hardware such as cameras and radar and uses artificial intelligence to help the car understand and react to its environment.

    “We’re talking about not just development now but the introduction of vehicles into the market,” said Danny Shapiro, Nvidia’s senior director of automotive. “Now we have the biggest (automaker) in Japan using our Drive PX platform.”

    In January, Nvidia and Audi (VOWG_p.DE) said the German automaker would use the Drive PX to help it put autonomous vehicle on the road starting in 2020. Nvidia is also co-developing with Mercedes a project to come to market within the next 12 months, both companies said in January.

    Toyota, which last year set up a U.S.-based Toyota Research Institute (TRI) to focus on AI and robotics, envisions a dual-track development of autonomous technology. It is simultaneously developing full self-driving cars while also working on what it calls “guardian angel” partially autonomous technology that may still require involvement from drivers.

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  • ZTE’s TECS passes OpenStack Interop Challenge

    ZTE’s TECS passes OpenStack Interop Challenge

    ZTE has announced that its OpenStack-based cloud management platform has passed the Interop Challenge at the OpenStack Summit 2017.

    The Tulip Elastic Cloud System (TECS) platform successfully passed the challenge by deploying a standard Kubernetes workload, indicating that it meets the OpenStack interoperability requirements for commercial releases.

    Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

    The TECS platform has previously been involved in three Interop Challenge pre-test scenarios, covering the LAMP model of web service stacks and the Dockerswarm software container engine configuration as well as Kubernetes.

    The Interop Challenge was started in the OpenStack community in July last year to act as a set of common workload standards to be executed across the cloud environments of multiple vendors. The aim is to demonstrate that vendors’ OpenStack-powered releases are consistent and interoperable.

    ZTE is actively involved in the challenge project as part of its involvement as a key member of the OpenStack community.

    The vendor announced it plans to further promote contributions of NFV interoperability application scenarios in the OpenStack community, and to continue to participate in the Interop Challenge.

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  • 2017 Mekong Beauty Show eyes four emerging markets

    2017 Mekong Beauty Show eyes four emerging markets

    Mekong Beauty Show, which will be held on an area of 10,000 square metres at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center (SECC) in District 7, will be an exclusive opportunity to gain exposure, find new partners and set up strategic global alliances in the four emerging Mekong countries: Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar.

    According to an IMF forecast, the four countries are expected to have a combined GDP of US$441 billion by 2020. The region is also an emerging market in the consumer beauty and personal care products, with average annual growth of 30 per cent in the last few years.

    The only international business-to-business beauty exhibition in Viet Nam will feature more than 200 exhibitors from Europe, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Viet Nam. The expo will be a comprehensive international business platform for industry players in the entire supply chain covering beauty and cosmetics, hair and nails, herbal and health, and OEM and packaging.

    The Korean beauty industry will be among the most important drivers of the event. South Korea is the leader in the Asian beauty market based on its reputation for quality and safe ingredients and trendsetting marketing and packaging.

    A delegation of 300 brands from South Korea will showcase K-beauty at the exhibition. There will be various interesting onsite activities to explore the international beauty world.

    The expo from June 15 to 17 is expected to attract more than 10,000 trade visitors and 120 VIP buyers.

    K-Beauty trend

    The Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) is going to launch its 2017 K-Beauty Global Empowerment Conference in Việt Nam at the Mekong Beauty Show.

    The annual event, which gathers Korean pop stars, top Korean cosmetics brands and others will hold forth on the latest K-beauty trends and analyse Korean beauty stars’ styling.

    “K-Beauty exhibitors have already achieved remarkable success at K-Beauty Expo’s first international foray in Bangkok,” Dominic OH, division director of KINTEX, said.

    “The Mekong Beauty Show will be the best opportunity to showcase the latest K-beauty and global beauty trends to the four Mekong countries.”

    Top South Korean models will perform at the show using the most popular K-beauty make-up styles and also hold onsite fitness sessions.

    Viet Nam Beauty Distributor & Retailer Club

    With support from Saigon Cosmetics Corporation, Medicare, Nielsen Vietnam, Beautystreams and Centdegrés, Mekong Beauty Show is aiming to gather top retailers and distributors and provide them with information and opportunities for co-operation.

    It is important to create a strong community of distributors and retail chains in Viet Nam. Consumers are changing every day and to catch their attention and build brand awareness, all products should focus on the marketing and branding strategy. So the expo plans to bring in Beautystreams, a leading international beauty consultancy and Centdegres, which has great expertise in design, to educate the market.

    The topics on the agenda will include building a collaborative relationship between beauty brands and conventional/online retailers, digital marketing as a key pillar of the marketing campaign, case studies from international beauty retail experience, and the Viet Nam retail market annual report and trends. www.mekongbeautyshow.com

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  • IMF warns Asia to act early on rapidly-aging population

    IMF warns Asia to act early on rapidly-aging population

    Asia has enjoyed substantial demographic dividends, but the growing number of elderly is set to create a ‘tax’ on growth. The International Monetary Fund called on Asian economies to learn from Japan’s experience and act early to cope with rapidly ageing populations, warning that parts of the region risk “getting old before becoming rich.”

    Asia has enjoyed substantial demographic dividends in the past decades, but the growing number of elderly is set to create a demographic “tax” on growth, the IMF said in its economic outlook report for the Asia-Pacific region on Tuesday.

    “Adapting to aging could be especially challenging for Asia, as populations living at relatively low per capita income levels in many parts of the region are rapidly becoming old,” the report said. “Some countries in Asia are getting old before becoming rich.”

    The population growth rate is projected to fall to zero for Asia by 2050 and the share of working-age people – now at its peak – will decline over the coming decades, the report said.

    The share of the population aged 65 and older will increase rapidly and reach close to two-and-a-half times the current level by 2050, it said.

    That means demographics could subtract 0.1 percentage point from annual global growth over the next three decades, it said.

    In Vietnam, people aged 60 or older currently represent about 10.5 percent of the country’s population of over 90 million, according to official data.

    Vietnam’s golden population is estimated to last about 30 years from 2010 to 2040. But due to a lower birthrate and longer life expectancy, Vietnam is aging rapidly and the working-age population is shrinking.

    Labor officials have warned that Vietnam’s working-age population will shrink so quickly that by 2030 one in six Vietnamese will be over 60 years old, and one in four of the population will be 60 or older by 2060.

    The challenges are particularly huge for Japan, which faces both an ageing and shrinking population. Its labor force shrank by more than 7 percent in the past two decades, the IMF said.

    The high percentage of its citizens living on pensions may be behind Japan’s excess savings and low investment, which are weighing on growth and blamed in part for keeping inflation below the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent target, the report said.

    “Japan’s experience highlights how demographic headwinds can adversely impact growth, inflation dynamics and the effectiveness of monetary policy,” it said.

    The IMF called on Asian nations to learn from Japan’s experience and deal with demographic headwinds early, such as by introducing credible fiscal consolidation plans, boosting female and elderly labor force participation, and revamping social safety nets.

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  • Toyota’s new SUV C-HR becomes best-selling model in Japan

    Toyota’s new SUV C-HR becomes best-selling model in Japan

    Toyota Motor’s newly launched C-HR crossover sports utility vehicle grabbed the top spot in monthly domestic sales in April, becoming the first SUV to top the list in Japan since at least 2007, data from industry bodies showed on Tuesday.

    The country’s largest carmaker by volume sold 13,168 units of the C-HR subcompact crossover in the reporting month. The Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association said the model rolled out last December is the first SUV to become the best-selling model since they began compiling data in 1968 and 2007 respectively.

    The C-HR, which uses the same platform as its popular gasoline-electric hybrid car Prius, attracts fuel-cost sensitive customers with its fuel-efficiency. Its hybrid model runs 30.2 kilometres per liter of gasoline, among the best in the segment. Toyota plans to market the model in over 100 countries on the back of growing demand for compact SUVs worldwide.

    Honda Motor’s minicar N-Box came in second with 12,265, up 4.9% from the same month last year, ceding the crown to the C-HR after maintaining the No. l position for four consecutive months through March. The Move minicar of Daihatsu Motor  — Toyota’s subsidiary — was third, as sales of the minicar model more than doubled to 12,004 units in the month.

    Five minivehicle models with engines no larger than 660 cc made it into the top 10 ranking, according to the two associations, as they continue to entice customers with a relatively low tax levied on them and their fuel-economy.

    Daihatsu’s Tanto minivehicle ranked fourth with 11,926 units, up 8.5%, followed by Toyota’s Prius hybrid, the best seller in 2016, with 9,920 units, down 52.2%.