Day: August 10, 2021

Vietnam’s overseas investment totalled 570.1 million USD in the first seven months of 2021, a 2.3-fold increase from the same period last year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) showed, reflecting Vietnamese firms’ efforts to expand foreign markets.

In March, multi-sectoral giant Vingroup registered to invest in four new projects in France, the Netherlands, Canada and Singapore, and inject additional investment into projects in the US and Germany. The total mount of registered and added investment is estimated at 450 million USD.

It forms part of the conglomerate’s plan to go global, following the footsteps of military-run telecom group Viettel and dairy producers Vinamilk and TH. The group is also aiming to turn its subsidy VinFast into one of the world’s leading electric and smart vehicle makers.

According to the Ministry of Finance, Vietnamese firms earned more than 7.02 billion USD in revenue from their overseas projects in 2019, up 27 percent from the previous year. They brought back over 3 billion USD in profits while overseas retained earnings reached 400 million USD.

Major Vietnamese investors posted positive business results overseas in the first half of this year. Viettel Global generated nearly 5.26 trillion VND (about 230 million USD) in gross revenue in the second half of the year, up 22 percent year on year.

Vinamilk said its foreign branches’ gross revenue rose by 12.8 percent year on year to 859 billion VND from April to June.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Despite complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam is still chosen by many foreign investors as a destination to build production bases, especially in the electronics industry, according to Fitch Solutions.

As many as 65 percent of foreign electronics enterprises set up their production bases in northern localities of Vietnam, while about 30 percent of them built facilities in the southern region, and a few in the central region.

Notably, Samsung Group of the Republic of Korea has so far invested over 17.5 billion USD in Vietnam, and regularly accounts for more than 20 percent of Vietnam’s total export turnover through its main products of high-end mobile phones and electronic components.

Samsung has attracted more than 170,000 employees working in its production plants in industrial parks in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen provinces. Samsung plans to further expand its investment in the coming time.

Recently, Panasonic has moved its refrigerator and washing machine factory from Thailand to Vietnam. This move showed that Vietnam has become the main electronics manufacturing hub in the region.

Meir Tlebalde, Deputy Director of KPMG Tax and Advisory Limited, said northern localities stand out with their strategic locations adjacent to China, convenient transport systems, and lower industrial land rent.

The North will soon become a main production centre, attracting more and more multinational corporations to Vietnam, she noted.

According to Vo Sy Nhan, Managing Director of GNP Yen Binh Industrial Centre in Thai Nguyen province, the recent entry of large electronics manufacturers into the Vietnamese market will inevitably lead to the participation of supporting producers.

Economic experts said that the important factor attracting multinational electronics corporations is industrial parks (IP), noting that most IPs have favourable geographical locations that are easily accessible to transport and logistics systems.

Giant electronics companies are looking for IPs with an area of more than 1,000 hectares and synchronous infrastructure systems in Vietnam, they said.

The Vietnamese Government has approved the expansion of more IPs to meet investment needs in the short and medium terms.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Canned pure fresh coconut water Cocoxim of Ben Tre Import-Export Joint Stock Company (Betrimex) has become popular among consumers in Belgium for several years. This product is imported directly from Vietnam by the Belgian start-up company South Export Alliance and distributed in Belgium, France and the Czech Republic.

François Colonval, manager of South Export Alliance, said that he founded the company in 2016 with a hope to introduce Vietnam’s fresh coconut water to Belgium consumers.

South Export Alliance now becomes the exclusive distributor of Cocoxim coconut water for all Asian restaurants and some supermarkets in Belgium, and also exports this kind of product to France and the Czech Republic. Every few months, the company imports from Betrimex a container weighing 25 tonnes of products.

Since the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) officially took effect with preferential tariffs offered for Vietnamese agricultural products imported into the European market, South Export Alliance has conditions to expand business opportunities in importing goods from Vietnam. Along with coconut water, François has also imported other products such as rice paper and dried vermicelli.

He sees many advantages when looking for partners in Vietnam to import goods with incentives from the EVFTA. Currently, François is working with large Belgian customers to import other Vietnamese food and beverage products such as Hanoi beer and Saigon beer because he wants Belgian customers to enjoy the taste of Vietnamese beer even though Belgium is the kingdom of beer.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnamese athletes with disabilities will compete in three sports, namely weightlifting, swimming and athletics, at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

The Vietnamese delegation consists of 15 members, including seven athletes, three coaches as well as officials, doctors and translators.

It is led by Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Sports Administration Nguyen Hong Minh.

The athletes are Chau Hoang Tuyet Loan, Le Van Cong (weightlifting); Vo Thanh Tung, Trinh Thi Bich Nhu, Do Thanh Hai (swimming); Cao Ngoc Hung and Nguyen Thi Hai (athletics).

As planned, the delegation will leave for Tokyo on August 19 and will arrive in Japan on August 20 morning.

Five years ago, Vietnamese athletes with disabilities made their mark at the Rio 2016 Paralympics when they won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

The opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games will take place at 8pm on August 24 and the closing ceremony at 8pm on September 5.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A website on the upcoming 2021 Army Games in three languages of Vietnamese, Russian and English is set to be launched later this month.

This year, Vietnam will host the sniper and rescue categories of the Games for the first time.

The official website will provide timely information on the organisation of the Army Games in Vietnam, the two categories hosted by the country along with updated news from Russia and co-host nations of the Games.

In addition, it will brief on previous Games from 2015, the journey of delegations of the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) at the event, together with information on the VPA, the 2019 National Defence White Paper and defence external affairs.

Vietnam’s participation in the United Nations’ peacekeeping missions, efforts in overcoming consequences of Agent Orange/dioxin and other toxic substances, as well as Vietnam’s people, culture, cuisine and heritage will also be featured at the website.

The website https://armygames.vn will be officially launched from 9am on August 18.

Source: Vietnam News Agency