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Tag: Vietnam

  • Inflation rate lowest in five years

    Inflation rate lowest in five years

    Vietnam’s inflation rate in the first 10 months was 1.81 percent, the lowest since 2016.

    In October alone, inflation fell 0.2 percent from September, as lifted restrictions in localities help boost goods transport and reduce stockpiling demand, General Statistics Office reported.

    Demand for electricity and water also fell as the country transitioned from summer to fall while decreasing rents also contributed to lower inflation, it added.

    Gold prices fell 0.21 percent from September as global rates dropped.

    Vietnam targets to keep inflation rise under 4 percent this year.

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  • Vietnamese carrier announces first Vietnam-UK direct flights

    Vietnamese carrier announces first Vietnam-UK direct flights

    Bamboo Airways announced the launch of the first Vietnam-U.K. direct flight routes Sunday in the presence of PM Pham Minh Chinh, in the U.K. for the COP26 meet.

    The airline also confirmed that local firm APG UK will be its representative in the U.K.

    Bamboo Airways chairman Trinh Van Quyet said that the direct flights could commence as early as this year when the resumption of commercial flights between the two countries is allowed.

    The airline said it expects to operate six round trips a week between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and London; and increase frequency based on demand.

    Bamboo Airways’s direct flights would help cut travel time between Vietnam and the U.K. to around 12 hours, seven hours quicker than flights that require transit.

    The flights are expected to drop off and take passengers at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 2, connecting Vietnam’s Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat airports with the U.K.’s largest airport. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner will be used for flights on the Vietnam-U.K. routes, the airline said.

    Nguyen Hoang Long, Vietnamese ambassador to the U.K., said opening direct flights between the two countries would boost commerce and people-to-people exchanges and would be particularly beneficial for the Vietnamese community in the U.K.

    APG UK, a passenger and cargo representation company, will support the airline with sales, marketing, and customer support as also issues related to aviation policies and procedures.

    There are currently over 100,000 Vietnamese studying and living in the U.K., and around 60 percent of them are in London. In 2019 alone, the number of tourists from the U.K. traveling to Vietnam reached 315,000, a 105 percent increase from the same period in 2018, according to the General Statistics Office. Among European countries, the U.K. has the second-highest number of visitors to Vietnam, the office added.

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  • Vietjet, Rolls Royce ink $400-mln engine deal

    Vietjet, Rolls Royce ink $400-mln engine deal

    Budget airline Vietjet has signed a $400-million agreement with British company Rolls Royce for aircraft engines for its wide-body fleet and engine servicing.

    The signing ceremony on Sunday was witnessed by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, who is in the U.K. for the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, according to a statement from the airline.

    Rolls Royce Civil Aerospace’s chief customer officer, Ewen McDonald, said the company’s Trent 700 engine has the lowest lifetime fuel burn on its aircraft type, and has logged more than 60 million hours in service since its launch in 1995.

    It is the only engine specifically designed for Vietjet’s wide-body aircraft, he said without naming the model.

    The carrier’s managing director, Dinh Viet Phuong, said the new engines would improve flight range and quality and boost Vietjet aircraft’s technical reliability and operational efficiency.

    Vietjet has a fleet of 90 single-aisle aircraft.

    Rolls-Royce has more than 400 airline and leasing customers and 160 armed forces and navies.

    Vietjet, which began flying in 2011, also signed a $20-million reinsurance agreement with brokers Gallagher Co. and Willis Towers Watson Co. for its entire fleet, according to a separate statement it put out.

  • Vietnamese proptech startup raises $1.3 mln

    Vietnamese proptech startup raises $1.3 mln

    Citics, a Vietnamese property technology (proptech) startup, said it mobilized $1.3 million in its latest round of funding, to expand its existing business and invest in new technologies.

    In a recent Series A bridge round, Citics secured $1.3 million from Ho Chi Minh City-based Vietnam Investments Group, Singapore-based Vulpes Investment Management and Hanoi-based BHS Group. Before this round, it mobilized a total $1.7 million from local and foreign investors.

    Citics founder and CEO Tran Minh Long said the proptech startup would in December launch a new version of Citics Valuation to better valuate property and real estate projects.

    Citics has so far this year signed eight cooperative deals with banks, lifting the total number of banking customers to 17. Bankers can check the details and preliminary value of property on Citics’ platform.

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  • HCMC restaurants reopen with caution

    HCMC restaurants reopen with caution

    HCMC restaurants and coffee shops are resuming on-site dining with caution due to concerns of staff contracting Covid-19 and post-social-distancing tightened spending. Starting Thursday, over 20 outlets of bubble tea chain Gong Cha started resuming on-site services after five months of suspension.

    As the city allows food and beverage facilities to serve 50 percent of their capacity and close before 9 p.m., the Cong Coffee chain is also testing the waters with five outlets reopening.

    aCoffee-Bike also reopened five stores on the same day. On Friday, Japanese-style hotpot chain Kichi Kichi will resume dining for customers who have made reservations.

    Some companies, however, choose to delay their reopening to be better prepared.

    Dau Homemade, which sells traditional Vietnamese food, needs another two or three days to get ready.

    Lagom Cafe won’t open for another two weeks, as its CEO Do Thi Ly Na said the store needs more time to observe market reactions and to complete a new look.

    The cautious decisions of food and beverage facilities in Ho Chi Minh City came as shop owners are concerned their staff might be infected with Covid-19 as the city still recorded over 1,000 new cases in the last seven days.

    It would be dangerous to immediately bring back business to pre-pandemic status as the coronavirus is still spreading, said Hoang Tien, founder of Coffee Bike.

    Dau Homemade, which is offering take-aways and deliveries, is still testing its employees once every three days even though the city does not require it.

    A spokesperson for the company said another concern is tightened spending as consumers have grown used to five months of staying mostly home.

    Sales are not likely to cover costs as the company will have to spend big on marketing to urge customers to return.

    Deliveries will continue to be the life source of the company, the spokesperson said.

    Tran Ngoc An, a spokesperson for Gong Cha, expressed optimism as the city has decided to live with Covid-19 and authorities vocalized not imposing another citywide social distancing campaign.

    This will give food and beverage businesses confidence to offer services amid the remaining months of the year.

    “We really want to see the city become vibrant again in the upcoming holidays.”

  • Global hike pushes Vietnam fuel price to 7-year high

    Global hike pushes Vietnam fuel price to 7-year high

    Fuel prices in Vietnam have surged by over 52 percent to a seven-year high, with global rates shooting up as demand rises in economies reopening.

    The government has hiked fuel prices up by 40.23–52.59 percent this year with the latest increase Tuesday bringing the popular fuel RON 95 to VND24,330 ($1.07) per liter, the highest since September 2014.

    Global prices have also been rising. Brent futures rose 0.5 percent, to settle at $86.40 a barrel Tuesday, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude ended 1.1 percent higher at $84.65.

    Those were the highest closing prices for both global benchmarks since October 2014.

    A global supply shortage and strong demand in the U.S., the world’s biggest consumer, is said to be the reason behind the increase.

    Gasoline and distillate consumption in the U.S. is back in line with five-year averages after more than a year of depressed demand.

    While China’s red-hot power and coal markets have cooled somewhat after government intervention, energy prices remain elevated worldwide as temperatures fall with the onset of the northern winter.

    Since last month, Vietnam has pushed up fuel prices four times, but the combined increase this year is still lower than that of global rates thanks to the fuel price stabilization fund, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance said in a joint statement Tuesday.

    They noted that global rates have increased 59.08–76.03 percent this year.

    However, the price stabilization fund, set up to offset fluctuations in global fuel prices, is seeing shortages.

    As of Tuesday, state-owned fuel distributor Petrolimex had a negative VND262 billion balance in its stabilization fund. At state-owned PVOil, the negative balance was VND697 billion as of Oct. 11.

    By the end of August, 15 of 35 fuel companies in the country reported a combined negative balance of VND1.47 trillion.

    Together with the remaining sum from the other 20 companies, the total balance of the fund stands at VND600 billion now.

    Experts have said further price hikes in the future can deplete the balance. The fund’s balance had fallen to a negative VND620 billion in mid-2019.

    The high fuel prices have raised concerns of rising inflation.

    Ngo Bich Lam, former head of the General Statistics Office, said that a 10 percent increase in fuel prices will lower GDP by around 0.5 percent and pump up the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation, by 0.36 percentage points.

    This shows the strong impact of fuel price fluctuations on the economy, he said.

    Some people have mentioned the possibility of lowering fuel tax to offset the increase. Tax and fees account for over 60 percent of fuel prices.

    At VND4,000 per liter or 16.4 percent of the current price, environmental tax is one of the biggest boosters of fuel prices.

    The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance are considering lowering fuel taxes, including environmental tax, to keep domestic prices stabile, Le Viet Nga, deputy head of the domestic markets under the trade ministry, had said at a press briefing last month.

    A fuel distributor in Hanoi who did not want to be named said that the government could lower taxes for biofuel E5 RON 92 by VND1,000 per liter from the current VND3,800.

    This 26 percent discount will reduce the impacts of the price hike on businesses and citizens at a time the economy is only beginning to recover, he said, adding that it would also boost consumption of biofuel, which is cheaper than RON 95.

    Vietnam imported $2.93 billion worth of fuel in the first nine months, up 15.3 percent year-on-year, according to Vietnam Customs.

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  • Auto registration fee to be halved again

    Auto registration fee to be halved again

    The Ministry of Finance has said the registration fee for locally manufactured automobiles will be halved for six months until May 15 next year.

    If the government issues the decree for the purpose after Nov. 15, the fee cut would apply from Dec. 1 to May 31, it said, explaining the reduction is meant to stimulate demand and help boost investment and revive supply chains in the auto industry.

    When the fee was similarly cut in the second half of last year, it helped increase auto sales and tax collection increased by VND14.11 trillion ($613.48 million).

    Over 102,900 automobiles produced in the country were registered in the first half of last year, and the number doubled in the second half when the fee was halved.

    Some neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia have also offered preferential treatment to their domestic automobile industry amid the Covid outbreaks, it added.

    Eleven foreign automobile firms that do not manufacture in Vietnam, including Audi, Volkswagen, Subaru, Volvo, Jeep, and Porsche, recently called on the government to apply the registration fee cut also to imported vehicles.

    The Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association had also called on the ministry for similar cuts for both local products and imports, but the ministry rejected it as not appropriate.

    The association said its members sold 170,073 vehicles in the first nine months of this year, a year-on-year decrease of 1 percent. The numbers do not include sales of Audi, Jaguar-Land Rover, Subaru, Volkswagen, Volvo and some others who did not reveal their numbers.

    According to the General Statistics Office, Vietnam imported 112,000 complete built-up vehicles in the nine-month period, up 67.9 percent.

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  • Vietnam Airlines stock trading restricted to afternoon session

    Vietnam Airlines stock trading restricted to afternoon session

    Trading in Vietnam Airlines’ stock will be restricted to the afternoon session from Nov. 3 aftermarket regulators deemed the carrier’s financial situation “risky”.

    The main bourse Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange will consider lifting the restriction depending on its evolving financial situation.

    The airline reported a loss of VND8.46 trillion for the first half of this year.

    Its accumulated losses as of Jun. 30 were VND17.81 trillion, or more than its charter capital then.

    In reviewing the company’s half-yearly financial statement, auditors Deloitte Vietnam said it has doubts about the airline’s ability to “continue as a going concern.”

    The company’s recovery is dependent on financial support from the government, rolling over of loans by banks and the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.

    Last month Vietnam Airlines said it had issued nearly 800 million shares to increase its charter capital by VND8 trillion to VND22.14 trillion.

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  • Airbus names new general director for Vietnam

    Airbus names new general director for Vietnam

    Aircraft maker Airbus has appointed Hoang Tri Mai as its new general director for Vietnam.

    Mai will oversee all Airbus operations in Vietnam, including supporting business activities and managing relationships of the firm with the Vietnamese government, the group announced Monday.

    Mai, a Hanoian, was earlier the country director for Rolls Royce in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines.

    She will work at the Hanoi office, replacing Jean-Michel Caldagues who will retire at the end of this year after 21 years of service for Airbus.

    Anand Stanley, president of Airbus Asia-Pacific, said Vietnam is a key market for Airbus across all business sectors and has important industry partnerships in the country.

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  • Seafood exports edges up to 2,4Bln

    Seafood exports edges up to 2,4Bln

    Seafood exports rose by 2.8 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of the year to US$2.4 billion, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers.

    Tuna, squid and octopus accounted for the highest proportion of the exports.

    Bivalve mollusk exports soared 39 percent to $99.6 million.

    The five biggest markets for squid and octopus were Korea (accounting for 41 percent), 11 member countries of the CPTPP (24 percent), Thailand (11 percent), EU (10 percent), and China (7 percent).

    In September alone, exports fell by 24 percent year-on-year, after falling by 24 percent in August, due to social distancing restrictions.

    VASEP expects the figure to also decline in October.

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  • With no Apple shop, mono stores mushroom in Vietnam

    With no Apple shop, mono stores mushroom in Vietnam

    Vietnam has no Apple store, so resellers are opening mono store chains in the country for consumers to experience an “Apple-standard shopping space.”

    An Apple mono store is a shop that exclusively sells Apple products. There are two kinds of mono stores – the AAR (Apple Authorized Reseller) with a minimum area of 50 sq.m., and APR (Apple Premium Reseller) with an area of 180-220 sq.m.

    “Vietnam and many other Southeast Asian countries are yet to house Apple stores, while the number of Apple users in these countries is getting bigger and bigger. We have opened the TopZone chain (Apple mono stores) for consumers to experience Apple-standard shopping space,” said The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World) CEO Doan Hieu Em.

    The company will have a total of 50-60 TopZone stores by the first quarter of next year, he said.

    According to FPT Shop, another major electronics retailer that has established 15 Apple mono stores called F.Studio, sales of Apple products in Vietnam have posted two-digit growth rates in recent years. Authorized resellers will establish set up more Apple mono stores in the coming months.

    ShopDunk inaugurated five Apple mono stores on Oct. 22, the day iPhone 13 was launched in Vietnam. It plans to open another 50 stores in the next six months.

    Some other Apple authorized resellers in Vietnam, including CellphoneS and Minh Tuan Mobile, have also said they are planning to set up more Apple mono stores.

    In mid-2020, Apple had posted recruitment notices for many important positions in Vietnam, but it has made no further move since then. Experts have said that relatively small sales in Vietnam was the main factor in the absence of an official Apple store in the country.

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  • iPhone 13 sees record sales in Vietnam

    iPhone 13 sees record sales in Vietnam

    Tens of thousands of iPhone 13 phones have been sold in Vietnam within days of its launch, with numbers exceeding those of Apple’s previous offerings.

    FPT Shop sold nearly 5,000 phones for nearly VND200 billion ($8.79 million) on the first day of sales on Oct. 22, breaking previous iPhone records, Nguyen The Kha, director of the chain’s mobile telecommunications division, said.

    Last year it sold 4,500 iPhone 12s on the first day.

    CellphoneS sold nearly 3,000 iPhone 13s compared to around 1,000 last year.

    Minh Tuan Mobile, which began selling Apple products for the first time this year, sold 1,000 iPhone in two days.

    Industry insiders said the large number of incentives that Apple is offering users this year is causing more buyers to go to authorized stores instead of buying them from sellers who pick up the devices in other countries and sell them in Vietnam.

    “Apple almost did not seem to care about the Vietnam market before,” a seller in HCMC’s District 1 said. “But now it offers a lot of support and commission to distributors and incentives to buyers, which makes the unauthorized market less appealing.”

    Another factor is that the iPhone 13 arrived in Vietnam one month earlier than the iPhone 12 last year, which came on Nov. 26.

    ShopDunk, a distributor of Apple products, said it opened five new Mono Stores (exclusively selling Apple products) on the first day of iPhone 13 sales.

    It also saw the number of pre-orders triple to 15,000.

    A spokesperson for Minh Tuan Mobile said only 50 percent of orders could be met so far, and others have to wait.

    iPhone 13 mini, the smallest and cheapest in the iPhone 13 lineup, is being sold in Vietnam at around VND18.4 million.

    The remaining models cost VND21.5-VND31.9 million.

  • HCMC firms have difficulty resuming operations

    HCMC firms have difficulty resuming operations

    Enterprises in HCMC that have resumed business said they are still facing high production costs, difficulties in inter-provincial transport and labor shortages.

    A survey of 100 enterprises both inside and outside industrial parks by the Southern Institute of Social Sciences this month found that 44 percent plan to resume full production, 29 percent plan to operate at close to full capacity and the rest are adopting a wait-and-see policy.

    More than 46 percent said they are facing difficulties, especially high production costs since they still have to take anti-Covid measures and a shortage of workers.

    Some 35 percent said their biggest difficulty is being unable to repay debts.

    Around 35 percent said they have benefited from the electricity tariff reduction, 19 percent from the labor union fee waiver, 18 percent from loan rollover and interest reduction, and 9-15 percent from other forms of assistance.

    Many wanted authorities to announce detailed policies for economic recovery, clearly define criteria and conditions for resuming business activities and inter-provincial travel, and loosen pandemic-related restrictions.

    Nguyen Van Thu, general director of GC Food Company, said anti-Covid regulations should be loosened, especially for fully vaccinated people, so that workers could travel easily.

    Labor-intensive businesses said some new regulations such as one toilet for every 10 employees are not feasible.

    Dang Nguyen Anh, head of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, said HCMC’s safe production criteria are still inclined toward a ‘zero Covid’ approach, which make compliance with them impossible for businesses.

    Tran Van Khuyen, Party committee secretary of the city’s Hoc Mon District, said 480 local businesses have resumed operations since Oct. 1, and many are worried about the high cost of Covid testing and lack of resources.

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  • Vietnam Airlines to resume all domestic flights

    Vietnam Airlines to resume all domestic flights

    Vietnam Airlines is set to gradually resume flying on 40 routes, or nearly its entire domestic network, by next month, prioritizing Hanoi, HCMC and Da Nang.

    Several flights are set to be resumed to the southern archipelago Con Dao Island, the central highlands province of Buon Ma Thuot and the northern province of Dien Bien from Thursday to Nov. 30.

    The group, which comprises low-cost carrier Pacific Airlines and Vietnam Air Services Company (VASCO), will start conducting 90 routes a day from Thursday and will increase the figure to 120 from the end of this month.

    There will be three flights a day between Hanoi, HCMC and Da Nang City. For the other locations the group will try to have at least one route a day, which could rise to two depending on demand.

    Passengers can fly if they have been fully vaccinated for at least 14 days, or to have recovered from Covid-19, or to test negative within 72 hours.

    Vietnam Airlines Group started resuming its domestic flights from Oct. 10. As of Tuesday it had conducted around 150 flights carrying nearly 12,000 passengers on 16 flight routes.

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  • Taxi firm Vinasun revenue plunges 10 times

    Taxi firm Vinasun revenue plunges 10 times

    Taxi firm Vinasun saw its revenue in the third quarter plunge 10 times to VND23 billion ($991,000) as the fourth Covid-19 wave wrecked the transport industry.

    The company posted a loss of VND91 billion, its seventh losing quarter in a row, increasing the chances of being delisted from the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE).

    Months of strict social distancing in HCMC, where the company mostly operates, have caused revenue to plunge due to restrictions on public transport.

    In the first nine months, revenue fell by nearly half year-on-year to VND400 billion. It subsequently recorded a loss of VND188 billion.

    In the next 12 months, the company needs to pay nearly VND100 billion in loans.

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