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Tag: Business

  • Record number of new firms seen in eight months

    Record number of new firms seen in eight months

    A record number of 103,658 new firms were established in the first eight months of this year, a rise of 2.3% year on year, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) reported.

    In August alone, the country saw more than 14,000 newly established businesses, up 17.9% year on year. However, the number of firms returning to the market in the month dropped 3.1% year on year and 10.9% month on month.

    In the January-August period, 149,400 enterprises newly joined and returned to the market, a slight drop of 0.03% year on year, but 1.2 times higher than the average figure recorded in the period from 2018-2022, the ministry said.

    The education sector saw the highest rise in the number of new firms at 35%, followed by the healthcare sector at 18.9%, and employment services, tourism, machinery and equipment rental and other supporting services 16.3%.

    However, the total registered capital of the newly established firms fell 14.7% year on year to VND969.61 trillion (over $40.2 billion).

    Meanwhile, in the reviewed period, 124,684 businesses withdrew from the market, up 19.5% year on year, including 71,833 businesses halting operations, 41,064 logging dissolving requests and 11,787 others dissolved.

    In order to support business development, Deputy Minister of MPI Tran Quoc Phuong said that along with applying flexible, active and effective monetary and fiscal policies and measures to remove difficulties for business and production activities, the ministry will propose adjustments and supplementations to some relevant mechanisms and policies.

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  • Bamboo Airways appoints new chairman to drive international expansion

    Bamboo Airways appoints new chairman to drive international expansion

    Bamboo Airways on Saturday appointed Nguyen Ngoc Trong who has worked for the airline since the early days of establishment as its new chairman.

    Trong, 65, took the new position after his predecessor Dang Tat Thang resigned as chairman and general director.

    Trong served as the first deputy general director of Bamboo Airways from 2018.

    In April this year, he was appointed vice chairman after a series of senior leaders were arrested for allegedly manipulating the stock market.

    He has more than 40 years of working experience in the aviation industry and has held many senior management positions at major firms like Vietnam Airlines, Vietnam Airlines Engineering Company, Vietnam Air Petrol Company Limited and Noi Bai Airport Services JSC.

    Bamboo Airways currently operates nearly 170 flights a day on 40 domestic and 12 international routes.

    The carrier plans to continue launching new international services to tourism markets in Asia, Europe and Australia.

    It also plans to increase its fleet to 35 by the end of this year and triple its fleet size to 100 aircraft by 2028.

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  • The Relevance Of Customer Sentiment Analysis In Business

    The Relevance Of Customer Sentiment Analysis In Business

    Perception often becomes a reality in the business world. Perception has a habit of spreading like a forest fire through word of mouth. Therefore, it becomes essential to ensure that the perception of the customers and even non-customers towards your business is good. It has a direct impact on the credibility and reputation of the business. Even though perception is important, the real question is how can a business analyse customers’ perception of a business? The answer lies in customer sentiment analysis. 

    Just like we know, if someone has uploaded a Sad Status on their WhatsApp Status, the user is sad. Customer sentiment analysis allows the business to analyse how the customers feel about the business. With the analysis, a business can find whether the customer feels positively or negatively about the brand. 

    The Importance Of Customer Sentiment Analysis

    Customers are king for a reason. Their happiness and satisfaction matter for the growth of a business and there is no doubt about it. Research has indicated that a customer who has experienced a positive feeling while purchasing will tell an average of nine people about the experience. On the other hand, a customer who had a negative experience with a brand will tell 16 people about it. 

    In addition, customers with a positive experience will stay loyal to the business for more than five years compared to those with a negative experience. Further, the cost to serve a customer reduces by 33% when the customer experiences a positive feeling. It is why it is important to keep customer sentiment in check. 

    Customer sentiment analysis also throws light on customer loyalty and the customer lifetime value, which is essential to growing the business. 

    How To Do Customer Sentiment Analysis?

    If you are running a huge business, it is manually not possible to engage in customer sentiment analysis. Thankfully, there are software and tools that can automatically detect the customers’ sentiments through Natural Language Processing. 

    With the help of Natural Language Processing, it is possible to detect whether the customer’s sentiment is positive, negative or neutral. 

    The Benefits Of Customer Sentiment Analysis 

    The ultimate aim of any process involved in a business is to increase the profit for business. The same truth goes for customer sentiment analysis too. Here are a few benefits of customer sentiment analysis. 

    1. Better customer service 

    After experiencing bad service, most of the customers complained about it. There is a high probability that they will stop associating with the brand after the negative experience. However, it can be taken care of through customer sentiment analysis. After identifying the customers who have had negative experiences, the businesses can go ahead and provide them with better customer service by solving their business. Through this method, you can eliminate the negative experience of the customer. 

    2. Brand reputation management 

    Brand monitoring is essential, especially on social media platforms where everyone can view the comments. Through customer sentiment analysis, it is possible to monitor the mentions that a brand receives and is associated with negative emotions. Quick action towards it can help the brand to maintain its reputation. 

    3. Provides room for improvement 

    Customer sentiment analysis on the features of the product or services that require improvement. A sudden rise of negative mentions indicates a sudden need to fix an issue. Further, it helps the business better understand the customer’s requirements. 

    4. Hyper-personalized experience for the customer 

    Customer sentiment analysis can also be used to segment customers of your business based on their emotions towards the brand. It allows businesses to create hyper-personalized experiences and allows them to bring more sales. 

    5. Improved marketing and sales plan 

    With a new launch in the market, through customer sentiment analysis, it is possible to check whether the customers are experiencing any issues or not. Further, the reaction of the target audience can be measured. It gives the necessary data to the business for making any adjustment in the marketing or sales plan for the good. 

    Customer sentiment analysis is invaluable for any company. Every customer interaction provides room for growth for the business. The valuable information it provides makes it possible to improve the business and maximise profit. It is always wise to analyse customer sentiments and keep the brand’s image positive. 

     

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  • How Can Your Business Reach A Larger Audience?

    How Can Your Business Reach A Larger Audience?

    Every business out there wants to reach a larger audience as it adds value to a company and helps to maximize profits. It is one of the ways by which businesses can increase their profits easily. Reaching a larger audience isn’t easy because you not only have to keep in touch with your already existing customers and provide them value but also provide value to potential customers. 

    Reaching a larger audience is all about playing your cards right and employing different techniques and strategies that will help you in achieving this goal. Mentioned below are some of the ways that can help your business reach a larger audience:

    Analyze Your Target Audience

    The first thing that you have to do in order to reach a larger audience is to analyze your audience first. This includes analyzing the age, occupation, and interests of your audience. After you have made an analysis of your audience, you would have to come up with different marketing tactics.

    After analysis, it is important to understand how you can attract your customers. If your audience involves both young and older people then you would have to come up with different marketing strategies because what might work for younger customers might not work for older customers. 

    Remember that while analyzing your target audience, you should never target everyone because not everyone will become your customer but you should reach out to as many people as possible to gather more data as it will help to get a better analysis report.

    Come Up With Unique Marketing Tactics

    The next way by which you can reach a larger audience is by adopting new marketing techniques and tactics that your competitors haven’t yet adopted. Every year new marketing tactics and techniques are developed due to new social media platforms. We are seeing new marketing techniques that are employed on different social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Omegle, etc. If your target audience consists mostly of the younger generation then social media is a great way to target them as you would find them more on social media platforms.

    But social media marketing has become so popular that everyone is using it. So how can you beat your competitors? Well, you can come up with unique strategies such as creating unique content for your social media handles that your competitors aren’t doing and coming up with a unique way that increases the user engagement with your social media handles. 

    Social media marketing is just one of the various ways to reach a larger audience. You can do your research and come up with unique ways of marketing that are not being used in your industry as it will help you to beat your competitors.

    Work With Social Media Influencers

    Another way of reaching a larger audience is working with social media influencers. Social media has actually become a very big deal and you can utilize the power of social media influencers to easily reach out to a larger audience. It is a widely used digital marketing technique where businesses pair up with influencers and ask them to promote their products or brand. It is an effective way of creating brand awareness, generating qualified leads, and converting those leads into sales.

    Although it is considered a bit expensive method of marketing, it has proven to be highly impactful. Keep in mind that before pairing up with an influencer, it is suggested that you determine the ROI of the influencer which can be hard to find but is not impossible. You can execute and manage your influencer marketing campaign on different social platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Ometv, etc to reach a wider and larger audience.

    Run Giveaways And Organize Competitions

    Running giveaways and hosting competitions is also a way to reach a larger audience. Mostly online giveaways and competitions are known to be effective in creating brand awareness and boosting brand visibility, although a giveaway or competition doesn’t just have to be online, you can run offline fun competitions and giveaways too.

    Online giveaways will help create brand awareness for your business on the internet while offline competitions will help you to create a name for your brand in the local community where your business is based. Organizing giveaways and competitions give a huge boost to the visibility of your brand as it is exposed to more and more people.

     

  • Ecommerce Business Lifecycle Technology Requirements

    Ecommerce Business Lifecycle Technology Requirements

    Every business is different. From its launch to its maturity or failure, businesses go through many stages. There are ups and downs, barriers and successes, all that mark the uniqueness of a business and the strategies used in it.

    Just like that, there are many differentiations for the business life cycle of ecommerce stores these days. According to Gartner’s Identify Small Business Opportunities by Understanding Business Life Stage Requirements, there are four key stages that influence the technology requirements of businesses. His differentiation is between startup, expansion, establishment, and business maturity.

    That’s just one point of view, really. The Corporate Finance Institute differentiates between launch, growth, shake-out, maturity, and decline.

    Before we get too far in the differentiations of life cycle events, it’s important to understand that your business strategy is different from that of anyone else. Reality is, the different phases demonstrate your start, your ups and downs, as well as your successes.

    While we cannot tell you what exactly will happen to your business, there are some things that we can help with. In this article, you will learn about the technology requirements that come with the three most commonly defined stages of your ecommerce store life cycle.

    The first is your launch and your business’ growth.

    The second is the period of slowing growth.

    The third is the renewed growth that leads to your business’ maturity.

    Whether you find yourself in all these stages or not, this article will help you determine what technology you need to keep your business afloat.

    1.  Launch of New eCommerce Businesses and Their Initial Growth

    This stage would be your early period, the moment when your ecommerce business is considered ‘a startup’. In most cases, new businesses are subject to an early, sometimes very rapid growth. Everything is better than zero, so whatever you succeed at the start is a growth for your new business.

    At this point, you need technology to get your business up and running and get your products to your customers. For that purpose, you’ll need to decide what platforms you’ll use. Whether you’ll use WordPress or a different platform, pick between Shopify and WooCommerce, and choose between traditional or headless commerce.

    This particular phase is full of experimentation and comes with big costs unless you take wise and well-thought actions. At this stage, we can recommend to make your choices tactfully and take your time while considering what you’ll invest in.

    Keep in mind that, the big choices you make now such as what platform you’ll use for your site, what you’ll use for hosting, or what type of ecommerce you’ll opt for – will determine a lot in the future.

    For starters, we’d like you to think about whether you’ll go for headless commerce or traditional commerce. The first is a big buzzword in this business world because of the flexibility it offers, while the latter is used by most of the older stores and comes with ready templates and fewer customization options.

    Next, we’d like you to consider your hosting options. Will you go for the hosting that your web builder offers or another one that integrates with it?

    Of course, at this point you should also consider things like the SSL certificate and how you’ll protect your customers, data, as well as plugins and tools you’ll use to present your products to your audience. You’ll also need to consider things such as payment methods you’ll offer to customers, delivery options, etc.

    While you can adjust most of this later on, the technology you use now can help you jump into the ecommerce world with full power and get to that growth stage faster.

    2.  Slowing Growth of Your Business

    As we mentioned, businesses have their ups and downs. If you survive the first stages and start making sales and creating customers, chances are you’ll get to this stage sooner or later. It happens to everyone. This is the stage that will challenge your business and determine whether it will keep existing or not.

    Many businesses panic and start searching for some quick-fix technology solutions when this point comes. They invest in things that aren’t effective or long-term, which soon leads to the end of their business.

    It is important to understand that the growth of a business will slow down at some point. It is your job to figure out why and find a way to stop declining.

    At this point, the technologies that can help you with your decisions and actions are mostly research-based. You are looking at research and analytics tools, fierce marketing and retention programs, and many surveys and customer insights.

    3.  Renewed Growth and Business Maturity

    Every phase of slowing or staggering growth makes your business more mature. Successful businesses overcome many such stages, after which this particular period comes – renewed growth.

    This happens when the stagnant phase ends and you start getting new or returning customers i.e. when your business’ success starts growing again. If you overcame the second stage we listed here, this is what comes next.

    However, this doesn’t mean that your job ends here or you don’t need technology to keep going. You can easily get back to the ‘slowing growth’ stage again if you don’t tread carefully.

    That being said, some technologies that are good for this stage include research tools, which you’ll need to use on a regular basis. It is important to keep track of how your business is progressing and which of your strategies are showing good or bad results.

    Research will steer your strategy in this stage, too, which means more customer experience and user testing, optimization of your mechanics for conversions, etc.

    And, of course, getting to this stage means that you’ll have more revenue. At this point, you should re-evaluate your investments and, if possible, invest in more versatile, feature-rich tools to replace the simpler ones you had to use before.

    Wrapping Up

    Strategic planning is vital for the success and survival of an ecommerce business, but so is technology. Since these businesses operate online, they need a variety of technology tools to achieve their goals. If you use the right tools and strategies at different stages that your business is in, you can get it to a more mature state and keep it successful.

     

     

    @kateryna.luchenko@boosta.co Approved, aside from one comment below

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  • Fuel price hikes a great burden on transport businesses

    Fuel price hikes a great burden on transport businesses

    It is among many businesses that are suffering due to the surge in fuel prices, which threatens to cause inflation and eventually slow down the recovery of the economy hit by two years of Covid-19.

    RON95 gasoline saw its price increased by another 2.5 percent to a new peak of VND32,370 ($1.39) on June 13.

    This means it has risen by nearly 39 percent since the beginning of this year. For Tuan Duyen bus company, which operates on the Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City route, this means diesel costs have doubled since before the pandemic to VND30 million for a round trip.

    But the number of passengers has fallen by 40 percent in the two years, Dao Ngoc Tuan, the owner of the company, said.

    He said he is considering selling the buses but it is difficult to get reasonable prices as there are few buyers amid the rising gasoline prices.

    Raising prices is an option, but business owners are concerned about its effect on sales.

    Some companies have however decided they cannot sustain losses any more.

    Viet Tan Phat bus company this week raised fares on routes between HCMC and Central Highlands provinces by 29 percent to VND400,000.

    Another transport company, Vintrans, sold some of its buses that require a lot of fuel and bought 20 new fuel-efficient ones.

    The company is also increasing the number of deliveries per trip to lower costs though this means speed is reduced.

    Airlines are set to face continued difficulties with rising fuel prices.

    Dang Anh Tuan, Vietnam Airlines’ communications head, said at a recent event in Thailand that oil prices have surged to $120-160 per barrel as against $80 the company had budgeted for.

    This means expenses could be VND8 trillion higher than estimated, and fares have been hiked as a result, he said.

    Companies are doing all they can to ensure smooth operations amid inflationary pressures.

    Ride-hailing firm Gojek, which has seen its drivers’ operating costs rise by 10-15 percent, is offering new bonuses to the most productive drivers to offset their increasing expenses.

    It has been seeking to increase recruitment of drivers to ensure demand is met during peak hours.

    Between April and May, its number of car drivers increased by 20 percent in HCMC and doubled in Hanoi.

    Transport industry insiders are seeking further tax cuts to help reduce their costs.

    Bui Danh Lien, deputy chairman of the Hanoi Transport Association, said fuel costs used to account for 40 percent of expenses, but have now risen to 50 percent for many companies.

    They could hike prices but end up losing passengers, he said.

    The government should further cut taxes such as the special consumption tax to bring down fuel prices, he said.

    Nguyen Duc Nghia, deputy director of the HCMC Business Association’s small and medium enterprises support center, proposed a tax break on gasoline for three to six months.

    Meanwhile, the government has been saying the increase in gasoline prices in Vietnam is lower than in other countries, only rising by 24-62 percent since the beginning of this year, while in Singapore, which Vietnam often uses as a benchmark, they have risen by 41-84 percent.

    This is because Vietnam has used its fuel stabilization fund and cut environmental tax on gasoline by half to VND2,000, Le Viet Nga, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s domestic market department, said recently.

    The ministry has proposed scrapping the tax altogether to bring prices down further.

    For now companies are caught between a rock and a hard place as continued operations means accepting low profits or even losses while increasing prices could mean losing customers.

    Tu of Nhat Tin Logistics said his company is doing all it can to ensure prices are not raised, but if inflation continues, it would have no choice but to make further adjustments to prices.

     

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  • How Twitter can be used to grow your retail business

    How Twitter can be used to grow your retail business

    Is your retail business struggling with growth and in need of some attention? Do you want to know how you can use Twitter to grow your business?

    Growing a business can be incredibly demanding and very difficult. Many business owners are not even sure what to do when it comes to marketing or how to market correctly. Marketing a business can be very expensive and time-consuming, especially if you don’t know what you are doing, however, the internet and social media have changed this.

    These days you will find many big brands using social media for marketing purposes and Twitter is a popular choice. Some of them invest in different growth services and buy Twitter followers to speed up the process and raise awareness about their brand quickly. Others turn to companies like Media Mister which claim to help with all kinds of different social media growth features. Whatever option you go for, if you are looking to grow your business, Twitter is a great place to start, and here’s why.

    Always Use Hashtags

    In recent years more and more businesses have started making use of the very popular social media platform Twitter because it can be incredibly helpful when it comes to growing your business and creating more brand awareness. Twitter is one of the best ways to market your business to a much larger audience and a great way to do this is through the use of hashtags.

    Hashtags are a very underrated tool that Twitter and most social media platforms have to offer, and many people don’t know how to use them correctly. When using Twitter to grow your business hashtags crucial and something that you shouldn’t miss out on. They are a great way to extend the reach of your content to a much larger part of your target audience.

    Hashtags allow you to extend your reach within a niche and gain the attention of more users. You could also use hashtags that are personalized to your account or your campaigns and this is also a great way to keep track of analytics and know how well your content is doing.

    Engage With Followers

    The next way that Twitter can be used to help to grow your business is the fact that you can actively engage with your followers and your customers, and this is something that people enjoy. Twitter is a social media platform that requires you to be social. Unlike other advertising methods which are directed at someone, this kind of advertising allows for your content to be directed to someone and allows for them to engage back with you.

    Engagement is one of the key elements of social media marketing and is something that makes social media marketing one of a kind. Twitter offers many ways for you to engage with your followers from liking to sharing to commenting and so much more and there are so many benefits that come along with doing this.

    More visuals

    When Twitter first launched it was a very simple platform where you could only post tweets that had words in them, and you were limited to a certain number of characters however as the years have gone by and Twitter has noticed that more and more businesses are making use of the platform a way for them to cater to both businesses and individuals was to introduce the use of visuals.

    As a business, you should take advantage of this ability and include visuals in your content at every chance you get. There are so many tweets on everyone’s timeline that you need to find a way to capture their attention and posting captivating content means using visuals like videos, pictures, or even GIFs.

    Tweet Often

    Twitter is an incredibly fast-paced platform where the lifespan of a tweet is typically between 12 to 14 minutes. After this time your content will not receive much engagement and therefore is non-existent.

    A great way to move past this and solve this problem is to tweet as often as possible to ensure that you always have content flowing out and always have something for people to see. Tweeting on the hour may seem like a lot but it is a great way to get noticed and for your business to succeed on the platform.

    Timing Your Posts

    Last but not least you need to pay attention to the timing of your tweets. Following on from the previous point where your tweets have a time frame in which they are relevant, timing your posts is incredibly important so that you can reach your target audience when they are most active.

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  • Pandora names new China GM

    Pandora names new China GM

    Pandora has named former FMCG and beauty industry executive Irving Holmes Wong as general manager for China to lead the Danish jewelry brand’s growth in a “key market”.

    Irving Holmes Wong, who previously held senior management positions at Avon, Bacardi-Martini, Revlon, and L’Oreal, will join Pandora as senior vice president and general manager of the Greater China cluster, reporting to chief commercial officer, Martino Pessina.

    He will be responsible for Pandora’s business in the Greater China region, which employs more than 2,000 people and covers 250 concept stores across mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

    China is the world’s largest jewelry market, and Pandora states the region has “significant growth opportunities”. As part of its Phoenix strategy, Pandora has set a long-term target to triple the Chinese business versus 2019 and laid out a two-phase plan to achieve the growth. In the first phase, Pandora will solidify the brand by establishing the core proposition of collectability, affordability and self-expression, while the second phase will focus on growing Pandora’s store network.

    In 2021, Pandora generated 1.1 billion Danish Krone revenue in mainland China, accounting for approximately 5 percent of the company’s total revenue.

    Commenting on the appointment, Pessina said in a statement: “Irving is a senior executive who has successfully transformed and grown businesses in China and neighbouring markets. He is a strategic brand-builder and brings valuable turnaround and growth-acceleration experience that will help us strengthen our position in Greater China and reach our Phoenix targets.”

    Wong, who will join Pandora on April 7, added: “I feel passionate about reviving the brand in China and leading our coming growth chapter. Pandora’s ambition and strong commitment to the region is very motivating. I find Pandora to be a legacy brand with a clear purpose and story and look very much forward to joining.”

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  • Swiss Re, Baidu Team Up In Autonomous Driving Business

    Swiss Re, Baidu Team Up In Autonomous Driving Business

    Swiss Re and Chinese tech group Baidu are teaming up to help advance autonomous driving, the Swiss reinsurer said on Friday.

    Swiss Re will provide risk management expertise and insurance products for Baidu’s autonomous driving business, it said without giving any financial terms.

    “This partnership will advance risk management research and insurance protection for autonomous vehicles, representing an important step forward in building a comprehensive ecosystem of mobility services,” Swiss Re said in a statement.

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  • Billion-dollar projects stir hope of economic recovery

    Billion-dollar projects stir hope of economic recovery

    A number of billion-dollar projects are in the works, signaling a robust economic recovery. Last week Danish toy company Lego received a license for a $1-billion factory in the southern province of Binh Duong. The company’s second-largest factory in Asia and sixth largest in the world is among the fastest to be approved in Vietnam with all procedures being completed within six months.

    Local companies have also been launching billion-dollar projects.

    Steel giant Hoa Phat Group this month secured credit from eight banks for its Hoa Phat Dung Quat 2 plant, its biggest to date with a total investment of VND85 trillion.

    Diversified group T&T began work on a VND35-trillion resort and golf project in the northern province of Phu Tho at the end of last month, hoping to take advantage of the expected recovery in tourism in the next few years.

    Nguyen Van Toan, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Association of Financial Investors, said the country has the potential to attract $40 billion in FDI this year, a 27 percent increase from last year.

    It has shown resilience amid Covid-19 and focused on digital transformation during social distancing, and the government continues to prioritize FDI, he added.

    Nguyen Mai, chairman of the association, said the resumption of international travel on March 15 would allow more foreign investors to enter Vietnam without difficulty and therefore make business decisions quickly.

    American, European, and Japanese companies are looking to restructure supply chains and Vietnam could take this opportunity to attract their investments, he said.

    The key advantages for foreign companies here are the availability of land and human resources, he said.

    The government wants to make 2022 the year of recovery from Covid, and has set a GDP growth target of 6-6.5 percent compared to 2.58 percent last year.

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  • Reliance joins calls for India to tighten marketplace rules

    Reliance joins calls for India to tighten marketplace rules

    Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal on Tuesday said India is on the path of encouraging ease of doing business and stressed that the government is production-minded and not revenue-minded.

    In a tweet, Agarwal said trust, talent, and technology are the cornerstones of development.

    ”We fully agree with PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji at #DavosAgenda that it’s the best time to invest in India. It is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to identify partners and investors to collaborate with them, as general consciousness is that they’d like to work with local entrepreneurs,” he tweeted.

    He also tweeted, ”#India is definitely on the path of encouraging ease of doing business. Govt. is production minded and not revenue minded.” Citing India’s commitment to deep economic reforms and the ease of doing business, Modi on Monday asserted that this is the best time to invest in the country as policy-making is focused on the needs for the next 25 years for a ‘clean and green’ as well as ‘sustainable and reliable’ growth period.

    In his special address to the World Economic Forum’s online Davos Agenda 2022 summit, Modi underlined a host of reform measures undertaken by his government to stress that it has worked to reduce the administration’s interference in business by deregulating many sectors and to clear the way for free trade agreements with different countries.

    India was once associated with ‘License Raj’, he had noted highlighting the measures, including the reduction of corporate tax to boost business and doing away with over 25,000 compliance requirements.

    He also mentioned new challenges, including cryptocurrencies, facing the world and said they call for countries to respond together as measures by any one country may be inadequate.

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  • Facebook has a new corporate name and vision

    Facebook has a new corporate name and vision

    As expected, Facebook today announced a new corporate name. Earlier today during the Facebook Connect event, the company said that it will now be known as Meta. Keep in mind that the website and the app will not have a new name and will still be known as Facebook.

    CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the Facebook name isn’t a valid reflection of what the company does now and said that Facebook is only one of its products. “We are a company that builds technology to connect. Together, we can finally put people at the center of our technology. And together, we can unlock a massively bigger creator economy.”

    The executive added that “But over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company.” A metaverse is “a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.”

    In a blog post disseminated today, Zuckerberg wrote, “The next platform will be even more immersive — an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.”

    Zuckerberg added, “The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence — like you are right there with another person or in another place. Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. That is why we are focused on building this. In the metaverse, you’ll be able to do almost anything you can imagine — get together with friends and family, work, learn, play, shop, create — as well as completely new experiences that don’t really fit how we think about computers or phones today.”

    In the blog, the beleaguered executive writes about a future where you can teleport as a hologram and arrive at your office without a commute. Or attend a concert, or even visit your parents without losing the time it takes to travel and deal with traffic. Many of the things that are part of the physical world right now could end up being holograms in the future such as “your TV, your perfect work setup with multiple monitors, your board games and more — instead of physical things assembled in factories, they’ll be holograms designed by creators around the world.”

    According to the Facebook co-founder, “You’ll move across these experiences on different devices — augmented reality glasses to stay present in the physical world, virtual reality to be fully immersed, and phones and computers to jump in from existing platforms. This isn’t about spending more time on screens; it’s about making the time we already spend better.” He repeated a comment made in his original founder’s letter: “We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”

    That last comment may not be sincere. Recently, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said that the company would rather make money than change its algorithm and make the world a safer place. Haugen stated, “Facebook makes more money when you consume more content. People enjoy engaging with things that elicit an emotional reaction. And the more anger that they get exposed to, the more they interact and the more they consume.”

    Zuckerberg appears to realize the need for change, and not just changing the company’s name. He says that privacy and safety need to be built into the metaverse from the beginning. And from now on, the company will be metaverse first instead of Facebook first. Eventually, you won’t need to have a Facebook account to use the company’s other services. He says, “As our new brand starts showing up in our products, I hope people around the world come to know the Meta brand and the future we stand for.”

    By the way, for you Facebook stock traders, the company’s stock symbol will change from FB to MVRS.

  • Hong Kong retail sales rise again as consumption vouchers kick in Hong Kong

    Hong Kong retail sales rise again as consumption vouchers kick in Hong Kong

    Hong Kong’s retail sales climbed for the seventh straight month in August, helped by a stabilising Covid-19 situation, an improved labour market and economic recovery and thanks to a boost from a consumption voucher scheme (CVS).

    Retail sales in August rose 11.9 per cent from a year earlier to HK$28.6 billion (US$3.67 billion), government data showed on Thursday. August’s increase compared with a revised 2.8 per cent growth in July.

    “The CVS should continue to bode well for local consumption sentiment in the rest of the year,” a government spokesman said, referring to electronic vouchers given to certain consumers to spend in shops.

    In volume terms, retail sales in August grew 10.6 per cent from a year earlier compared with a revised 0.7 per cent surge the previous month.

    For the first eight months of 2021, total retail sales increased 8.1% in value terms and rose 6.8 per cent in volume.

    Online retail sales in August jumped 16.5 per cent in value year-on-year compared with a revised growth of 28.8 per cent in July.

    Sales of jewellery, watches, clocks and valuable gifts, which before the pandemic relied heavily on tourists from the mainland, climbed 28% in August versus a revised 26.3 per cent surge in July, the data showed.

    Clothing, footwear and allied products rose 40.1 per cent in August against a revised 30.9 per cent growth in July.

    Tourist arrivals in August soared 143 per cent from a year earlier to 10,811 after three straight months of decline. That compared with a 57.9 per cent drop in July.

    “Keeping the epidemic under control remains pivotal to a full-fledged recovery of the retail sector and the overall economy,” the spokesman said, adding it was essential to strive towards more widespread coronavirus vaccinations.

    The city’s economy grew 7.6 per cent in the second quarter from a Covid-induced slump a year earlier and the government upgraded its growth forecast for 2021 to 5.5 per cent-6.5 per cent from 3.5 per cent-5.5 per cent.

    Seasonally adjusted unemployment rate slipped to 4.7 per cent in the June-August quarter, the lowest since January-March period in 2020.

  • Covid impact sees Vietnam retail sales drop

    Covid impact sees Vietnam retail sales drop

    Vietnam retail sales plunged 33.7 percent year-on-year in August as the country faced stricter restrictions due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

    According to the General Statistics Office, August’s retail sales plunged 10.5 percent compared to July. In the first eight months of this year, revenue from retail trade and service declined 4.7 percent year on year, reaching US$133.43 billion.

    The Covid-19 situation in the country has seen varying degrees of lockdown in Vietnam’s major cities including Hanoi and HCMC since June.

    In HCMC, retail revenue is estimated to reach US$1.5 billion, falling 15.9 percent month on month. The e-commerce sector, which had been expected to flourish as demand soared, recorded negative growth due to the restriction of delivery services under the Prime Minister’s Directive No.16.

    Restaurants – including online ordering with delivery or pickup – have been banned from trading for nearly two months in Ho Chi Minh City.

  • Singapore Reconsiders Economic Reopening

    Singapore Reconsiders Economic Reopening

    A growing cluster of infections threatens to derail Singapore’s economic reopening, while expats in the country are growing restless from being cooped up on the island with no end in sight.

    Singapore’s Multi-Ministry Task Force is closely monitoring the growing number of community cases, particularly the expanding cluster of cases that now number 56, which originated from a neighborhood market.

    Day by day, we are seeing the number of unlinked cases – the cryptic cases in the community – is likely to be rising too. Given these developments, we are evaluating the timing and scope of the next stage of reopening, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said in a video recording posted on Facebook and Instagram on Wednesday.

    The country is set for further relaxation of heightened alert restrictions from Monday, following a month of heightened Covid-19 related restrictions, during which community cases fell sharply, and a week-long first stage of reopening.

    Singapore’s borders have been effectively shut for more than a year now, and many expats are getting restless, particularly as the U.S. and Europe return to normalcy.

    According to a report on Thursday, many feel the country is too slow in reopening its borders and may depart in the next six months if vaccinations and travel re-opening do not go as planned. Currently, returning residents face three weeks of quarantine – if they are allowed back into the country.

    Singapore said any ease in travel curbs will depend on the pace of vaccinations, which it has targeted for half of its population by the end of August and 75 percent by October. Currently, about 35 percent of the population is vaccinated, according to «Bloomberg» estimates.